Ethan - 11 Month Catch Up

So it looks as though I've taken a bit of a blogging hiatus, huh? I have been slammed with projects with my job, so the second I've gotten Ethan settled in for a nap or put to bed in the evening I have been working away and I haven't had much time for anything else. Don't feel too sorry for me though, because when Ethan is awake I get plenty of time to play, take him to the pool, we run errands together, etc. But the second his little eyes close and I stop being full-time mommy is when I start working at a frantic pace to try to catch up on all the assignments that are piling up. I love the work that I do, but it has been crazy busy lately. There are definitely worse problems to have though, so I'm not complaining.

I'm going to have to do a separate post with all the pictures I've been taking this month because I don't have the camera up here with me right now and since I decided to take a break from my work edits for a few minutes I think I should use this time wisely.

Ethan is into everything these days! I'm trying to think of all the cute stories I want to write down before I forget them forever and I know I'm going to leave things out. (This is so why I need to make myself do updates at least once a week, regardless of how busy I am!) Ethan still loves pointing to the ceiling fan, any overhead lights and the big clock in our dining room. He gets so proud of himself when you ask him where the fan is and he can point up at it. When we clap for him, he grins from ear to ear and claps his little hands on his legs (but not together in a traditional clap...I'm starting to figure out that Ethan likes to do things his own way for awhile before doing them like everybody else!)

His favorite toy by far is his ball that Daddy got him when they took a man trip to Target one day. If you ask him where the ball is, he will crawl around and look for it, and will even dump out his toy baskets until he locates the ball. He has starting trying to say ball, but it comes out more like "baaa." I use the sign for ball as well, but this child (so far) has absolutely no interest in learning to sign. I got him the Baby Einstein first signs DVD, and (so far) he has absolutely no interest in it either. Sigh! After hearing my friends talk about how their child can communicate with them, I got kind of excited about starting this process up with Ethan (I wasn't too sure of it myself initially) but Ethan may just decide to wait until he can talk to tell me what's up. I'm not going to rush it though, because he is already growing up way too fast and if it was up to me I would keep him as a little baby forever!

The funniest thing happened the other night. Patrick was holding Ethan and he kept holding his arms out for me to hold him. I gave in and took him for a minute and when I handed him back to Patrick (alas, I had to go get some editing done) he looked up at me and said "help." Now I'm sure that he had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but Patrick and I both clearly heard "help" and have been laughing about it ever since.

Ethan has started showing an interest in his blankets and pretty much anything that is soft. If he's sitting down, he'll pull a blanket into his lap and collapse forward so that he is nuzzling the blanket. It is so cute! He is showing some mild interest in some of his lovies, but no serious attachments have been made yet. We'll see if this child is ever attached to anything besides his pacifiers! (He is only allowed his pacis in the crib or his car seat, but he sleeps with a pacifier in his mouth and one in each hand...we call him the paci king when he is asleep!)

I took Ethan to Raleigh last weekend to visit with my mom and sister, and head to a massive consignment sale with my good friend Lindsay. We hit the jack pot on good deals! For $100, I came away with a ride on bouncing turtle toy, a bouncing pony toy that hooks into the TV so he'll be able to play games as he gets older (I haven't given him that toy yet), a Pooh talking telephone, three Baby Einstein DVDs (alas, he has zero interest in them yet, so I'm going wait and try to introduce them again in a month or so to see if I have any better luck then), a winter coat, 5 sweaters and some jeans (all in great shape and good brands - I won't buy any junk!), a music table and a few other small items. I was going to get him the music table for his birthday, and in the store it was $45, so finding all this for $100 made it worth the time spent waiting in line!

On Monday we met with my friend Erin to do Ethan's one year photo shoot. I am in denial that my baby is almost one. He had a great time and even got to smash a cake at the very end. He was very deliberate about sticking his fingers in the icing and then licking them...there was no crazy smashing going on like I expected. He did manage to get his heel stuck in the cake as he was attempting to crawl away from it so that was pretty funny. I am so looking forward to seeing how the pics turned out...Ethan kept crawling all around instead of posing so I'm crossing my fingers that he gave Erin something to work with. He's a crazy man these days!

Last night Patrick and I installed Ethan's big boy carseat in the car. No more baby bucket! I had really been looking forward to switching the seats since I thought it would be a lot easier to get Ethan in and out of the car, but since we are following the recommendation to keep him rear facing until age 2 (he can face forward at 1, but since it is recommended to face backwards for another year I'm going to keep his seat facing the back of the car for the time being...we may not make it all the way to 2 though before we turn it around) there's not a whole lot of difference in the process of strapping Ethan into the seat. He is in heaven being able to look all around in his new seat though! If he loves it this much now, I can only imagine what he'll think when he is actually able to face forward like a normal person. Of course I was emotional about putting away his baby carseat...we brought him home from the hospital in that seat!

Well, like I said, I have tons of Ethan updates to add and I am out of time since I only allowed myself a small break right now to start catching up. I will have lots more to add, and I'm working on Ethan's one year post as well. I decided that each year on his birthday I want to write Ethan a letter. I'll probably share this year's here (since this is kind of like my journal anyway) but my plan is to keep all his letters together with his baby book so that one day he will have not only a record of his milestones and achievements, but words from his parents to know just how very loved he is each day of his life. I really want my son to grow up feeling safe, secure and confident in his parent's love for him. I think that is the best gift I can give him. So on that note, until Tuesday....(tears, tears!)