First Birthday Celebrations!

Testing out the new tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa F- Ethan smiled the entire 2 miles that we walked!

Who is this huge kid??!!

Auntie Margo painted a special chair just for Ethan

Balloons!!

I guess he liked the cake...

He was thrilled to have everyone singing to him

Caterpillar cake made by cousin Dylan and Auntie Margo- thank you!!!

Playing with Uncle Ken

Family pic

More cake!

Farm cakes made by Grandma Fowler- delicious and adorable!

Party Animal!

Boy oh boy! We sure did celebrate Ethan's first birthday! He was lucky enough to have two parties- one in Connecticut hosted by Grandma and Grandpa Y. and one at home in Maine. We were so happy to have the chance to spend time with friends and family and are so thankful that we had so many great people around to help us mark this big event!

One seems to be such a fun age! Everyday Ethan does something different. Auntie Sarah was visiting this week, and she clapped her hands together. Ethan looked down at each of his own hands and put them together. For the remainder of the week, he would get a big smile on his face, look right at Sarah and clap, waiting for the praise that was sure to follow!

Ethan understands so much more too. If I tell him to get his pacifier from the cup holder in the car seat, he'll look down and grab it. If I tell him to "get Daddy" he'll crawl over to him and "attack." While we are reading, he'll turn the page when I ask him to. Whenever we say hello, goodbye, or night night, he waves. Ethan points at everything around him and we practice naming what we see. We are amazed at what he comprehends and how much he is soaking up. We are just having the most fun with this little guy!

We went for our 12 month check-up yesterday. As much as I hate the shots (I think I am more pained by them than Ethan is!) I love finding out how much Ethan has grown. His stats are as follows: he weighs 23.6 lbs. which puts him between the 50-75%, his height is 30 1/2 inches, 75%, and his head size is 18 inches, 25-50%. Dr. Power says that he looks great and that we can go ahead and try eggs again and peanut butter! We tried peanut butter banana this morning- definitely our kid- he LOVED it!

This week we did a lot of looking back and reminiscing about the past year. We watched movies of Ethan as a tiny guy, and marveled at how quickly he has changed and grown to be the little character that he is. We are so lucky that we get to spend each and everyday with Ethan, making us laugh, filling us with joy, and overwhelming us with love.

Lake House!

New beach toys

Ethan and Uncle Bob are buddies


One of my favorites...

Grandma and Grandpa at the lake


My Little Sailor

This past week was a fun one! Every year Ken and Melissa rent a house on Sebago Lake. In fact, just last year, we were swimming in the lake and riding on the boat the week before Ethan arrived! We spent lots of good quality time hanging out family, swimming, tubing off the boat, and digging in the sand. Ethan's cousins Marshall, Maddie, and Jack took every opportunity to interact and play with Ethan, and Ethan loved observing his big cousins. A great time was had by all!

We continue working on getting Ethan to sleep in his crib. He is doing pretty well, especially with naps. I'm sure being so exhausted from all of the activity at the lake helped, but he has been taking a two hour nap in the morning. Afternoon naps this week have either been on the boat or in the car, so once we are home more often with a regular schedule, we'll be working on this too. Nighttime has been better also. Ethan sleeps in the crib until 2 or 3 am and then comes into the bed. The difference this week is that he has been going right back to sleep once in bed- a great improvement from last week!

Ethan's little personality is developing daily. He'll do whatever it takes to get a laugh from us. He'll do goofy things like shake his head around, or make silly sounds. He has perfected the wave. And a few days ago while he was eating hummus with Aunty Margo she offered him a chip and he shook his head and said, "N-" We haven't seen or heard this since, but he was definitely getting his point across that he didn't want what she was offering. He loves anything with wheels including the vacuum cleaner. He thinks this is another toy just for him that I drag around the house so he can play. He follows the canister all around the house, turning it on and off while I clean. Needless to say, vacuuming takes a little bit longer these days.

Even though it's harder to get things done, we wouldn't have it any other way. We love our little guy to pieces- every day he is doing something new to amuse or make us adore him even more (if that's at all possible!)

Beach Baby!

Loving the sand

Who's that huge kid at the beach?


Ethan and Sam




Amazing that a year ago Drea and I were walking around this same beach 8 months pregnant wondering what our new babies would be like, and now, here they are!!
Playing with seaweed at Peak's Island


Family shot on the ferry


Playing at the community garden

Ethan in the cabbage patch


Checking out the fresh produce


The Farmers- Uncle Bob and Aunt Margo


Ethan at the Animal Park

We had a great week filled with fun times spent with family and friends. We visited a local animal park, spent time at Uncle Bob's community garden, took a ferry to Peak's Island, and met up with Sam and Andrea in Ogunquit. We had so much fun on all of our adventures!

We are so happy that Ethan loves the beach! He is so content to sit and play in the sand, crawl up and down the beach, and splash in the water. We are lucky to live so close to so many beautiful beaches- means finding entertainment for Ethan is pretty easy!

We met Sam and Andrea yesterday for a beach day. The boys are so cute together and while they have very different personalities, Andrea and I marveled at how similar the things that they do are! They have a lot of the same sounds and gestures- they had a great time checking each other out and crawling up and down the beach. One of Ethan's new beach tricks (as of yesterday) is doing a semi- head stand in the sand. He would crawl along, and suddenly stop, and plant his head in the sand and stand up- sort of a down dog using his head. He did this all day long in the sand, and in the shallow water too! Very funny- needless to say, a shampoo was needed when we got home as his entire head was covered in sand!

Our goal at home this week has been getting Ethan to spend more time sleeping in his crib. Up until now, most of his naps have been with me. He has been doing okay with the naps in his crib- naps are definitely shorter, so he is a bit crabbier during the day, but I'm hoping that if we are consistent with putting him down, he'll get used to it and will begin to stay asleep longer in the crib. We are doing the same thing at night. This has been more of a challenge. He goes to sleep without a problem (though the past few nights he's been fighting bedtime and we are questioning the arrival of more teeth) and will stay asleep in the crib until about 1 or 2 am- then he wakes and we bring him into bed. The challenge that we are facing is that after we bring him into bed, it takes him an hour or so to fall asleep again! Ugh! To add to our lack of sleep, Ethan has continued waking up around 5 am. We'll keep plugging away at working on sleep and hopefully at some point in the near future, everyone will get a nice full night's rest!

Even though we are all exhausted from our lack of sleep, Ethan doesn't slow down during the day. He is curious about everything! He loves climbing the stairs, playing in the cabinets, and chasing Barley. This little guy keeps us all on our toes!

I hope that next week I am writing about all of the blissful nights of sleep that we are all getting- a girl can dream, right?!