Ethan - 13 Months

Wow, my boy is now officially a toddler! It seems so surreal to me watching Ethan play and interact these days, because he seems so very grown up. Here's a quick recap of what's been going on around here the past couple of weeks:

Ethan has learned how to climb stairs (with us right behind him, that is!) and insists on doing this multiple times a day (when we have the door to the upstairs open.) He is proud of himself when he reaches the playroom, but then wants to do it all over again. He has no idea or interest in trying to go down the stairs, but going up the stairs is absolutely fascinating to him.

Ethan has finally mastered the art of true clapping. He has been "clapping" for months now, but that always consisted of slapping his hands to his legs or wrists and never quite hands together. He figured out how to clap his hands together last week, and he has been a clapping fool ever since. (Perhaps I should be worried that it took this long....oh well!) His favorite game with this trick is to clap along with his Bingo dog from his Aunt Jen. His Bingo dog is a stuffed animal that sings the B-I-N-G-O song and claps its paws. Ethan will clap in time to the music, and the cutest part is that the end the dog barks and Ethan has started making a barking sound at the end along with the dog. So cute!

Ethan is still not walking, but he has started standing independently. It's so strange to look over and see him standing there, not holding onto anything. He doesn't go straight to standing on his own, but once he has pulled up to standing he will let go for awhile. Does this mean that walking is coming soon?! Part of me is looking forward to him reaching this milestone, but another part of me wants to hang onto his crawling and last little bit of babydom for as long as possible. I am in no rush for him to grow up!

Ethan had a playdate with Faith last week, and it was so cute watching the kids play together. They had the most fun in Ethan's new Mickey Mouse clubhouse (which resembles a small bounce house, but my 4 year old neighbor informed me that it was not a bounce house since it was too small and even though it was inflatable it wasn't bouncy.) Faith would run through it, and Ethan would crawl after her in quick pursuit. They played with all the balls in the clubhouse for awhile too, and it was the first time I've seen Ethan really playing with a friend. (Usually he'll play beside his little friends and they might trade toys, but there's generally not a ton of interaction and playing going on.)

The biggest news around here right now might be that we bought a new car! I am so excited about this...both Patrick and I have been driving cars that are over 10 years old with over 160,000 miles (we literally drive our cars until they are ready to die, but a big positive of this is that we have not had one single car payment since we've been married.) We kind of figured that we were taking a serious chance having two cars that were that old (and we didn't want to start sinking money into either car, knowing that they would need replaced in the not too distant future) so awhile back we began the process of researching, test driving, negotiating with different dealerships once we finally decided what we wanted, and I have to say that it was all worth it because it has now been over a week since our new car came home and I LOVE it!! We bought a 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe and I will have pictures to share soon, I'm sure. I've always wanted an SUV, and now feel as though I have officially joined the mommy ranks since I now drive around in my mommy-mobile. We traded in Patrick's Honda, so he now has my Nissan (until we replace that car in the next year and a half to two years, and then hopefully we won't have to worry about cars again for a long time!)

Since work is pretty slow right now, I'm going to try to do a much better job of updating this site at least once a week but we'll see how that goes. Wish me luck!