Walking Man!

Ethan and his bear take a snooze

Ethan and Grandpa

Enjoying the Fall weather

Ethan is Barley's best friend... when it's meal time

Pushing the Cozy Coupe is hard work!

Peek-A-Boo!

Playing in the leaves

Wrestling with cousin Dylan

Ethan is very taken with things in the sky (notice the new kicks!!)

The big news this week is walking, walking, and more walking!!  Ethan took his first steps a few weeks ago and hasn't looked back!  He is a walking man!!  At times, he even tries to run, but his legs can't quite keep up with his brain... yet!  I had always heard that toddlers had exhausted Mamas - now I know why!  Ethan is a busy little boy and likes to explore everything, and now that he can walk, a whole new level has been opened up for him!

With these new walking abilities, we've been spending a lot of time outside, discovering new things in my parents' yard (we are staying here for a few weeks).  Ethan loves trying to climb up the hill in the side yard; he has pretty much mastered that.  Going back down the hill is a whole other story. He tumbles every time.  My parents dug out the old Cozy Coupe that my siblings and I played with years ago.  Ethan has enjoyed pushing it around the yard, sitting in it and beeping the horn.  He hasn't quite gotten the hang of pushing himself forward, but he's got going backwards down.

Because Ethan is now an official walker, we thought that getting "big boy shoes" was an important step!  My mom and I took him to the shoe store and had him fitted.  The second the saleswoman put the shoes on Ethan's feet, he squirmed out of my arms and proceeded to do laps around the store to try out his new kicks.  I think that he likes them because they make a stomping sound when he walks - such a big boy!

Ethan continues to try out new sounds and words.  They still seems to be on a rotating cycle. He'll use a word a lot for a few days and then we won't hear it again for weeks.  This week, he is loving to quack like a duck, and he likes to repeat me when I say, "Naaa", which is definitely my favorite.  He has uttered "Mama" a few times, but still infrequently.  It pretty much melts my heart when he does say it - maybe he knows this and is reserving it for when he really wants something!!

We've also noticed that Ethan is exhibiting some fear lately.  He never really expressed fear of any sort up until now.  We watch Baby Einstein videos in the morning when he wakes up and has his morning milk.  At one point, there is a Chinese Dragon puppet that pops up on the screen.  On two occasions, Ethan let out a yelp and jumped into my lap when it came on the screen.  We're not sure what it is about that dragon, but boy does he not like it!

 The other incident when Ethan showed that he was totally freaked out happened a few weeks ago.  We were in CT and visited our local dairy store, Stew Leonards.  They have lots of animatronic puppets and interactive farm animals for the kids who are walking through the store.  On the wall near the milk, there is a cow. and if you push a button, the cow moos.  Ethan took one look at that cow and grabbed on to me for dear life! And once that thing mooed... boy, did he scream!!  Then a few weeks later, my dad and I needed a few things at Stew's, and we took Ethan.  We were still in the parking lot when Ethan began whine and reach for me.  Amazingly, he already knew where we were just from being in the parking lot!  Needless to say, it was not a pleasant walk through Stew's, even though we tried to scurry past the cow on the wall - more screams and tears!  We will not be visiting Stew's again any time soon!

It continues to amaze me how much Ethan learns every day.  He remembers people and things that I would never imagine that he would or could.  Seeing the world through his eyes is incredible and we are so lucky that we get to experience each new adventure with him!