Summer has Begun!!

Ethan and his friend Mia

Our bedtime routine includes Duck, Bear, and a book

Ethan has learned to smile for the camera- here he's "helping" Pete put together our new deck furniture- helping meaning crawling in and out of the various pieces!

Last week we put the high chair away and Ethan is officially sitting at the table with us.  You can't see it very well, but my mom got him a bee towel that goes over his head and he insists on wearing it for every meal.

Ethan was very excited to wake up and find the deck chairs all put together.  He asked that one of the chairs be brought into the T.V room so that he could use it to watch his morning Sesame Street.

Summer has officially begun for us!  We have visited our local beach most days since we returned from our stay in CT.  Ethan is definitely a beach baby.  He is completely unphased by the frigid water temperatures and runs right into the water.  His favorite thing to do at the beach is push his dump truck into the water, fill it up, and dump it out on the sand.  We do this over and over again.  The other thing that he likes to do is check out (and by "check out" I mean knock over) other kids sand creations- hills, castles, holes, whatever it is, he likes to run over and destroy!  I know that he's just a little guy and that this so normal, but I spend a lot of our beach time steering him away from sand creations.  I am certain that by next year he'll be the one building and there will be plenty of little ones knocking down his castles! 

My other favorite thing that Ethan is doing these days is singing along with music.  He doesn't really sing the words.  He either hums, which is too adorable for words, or he sings, "do, do, do" along with the music.  The other night Pete, Ethan, and I were hanging out getting ready for dinner and we had The Beatles playing.  The song Good Day Sunshine came on and clear as anything Ethan sang, "Day, Sunshine!!"  Pete and I looked at each other and smiled.  If we do nothing else right as parents, at least we know our kid can sing The Beatles!

Ethan is still talking up a storm.  His language is so clear and he knows SO many words.  I'm impressed every time I ask what something is and he knows the answer.  I'm so thankful that he has such great language skills because I think it really cuts down on temper tantrums.  He can ask for help when he's having trouble, he kisses his own boo boos when he gets "pinched" (his word, not mine!) and he tells us when he wants to go "night night."  I know that I say I have loved every age and stage, but this one is so cool.  It's amazing to hear what he is thinking and what he knows, and it's only going to get better!

I promise to get some beach pictures up next week.  Hopefully we'll have some good beach weather this weekend and I'll have an extra set of hands (Pete) to help out with Ethan so I can snap a few pics.  After an hour of running around the beach with Ethan alone I am exhausted and have realized that there is no hope of me actually taking my eyes off of him to grab my camera- he's a busy little guy!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the 4th of July weekend!