Nate at 10 Months, Ethan 3 and 1/2- Winter Activities.

Big guy standing up in his crib

"What do you mean I'm not allowed in the dishwasher?!"

tubby time X's 2!

What do you do on a snow day?  Build a fort and fill it with stuffed animals and trucks of course!

Nate thinks he can jump on the trampoline just like his big brother!

Ethan played in the beans for an hour straight!  I loved beans before, but now  I really love them!

This is my favorite- butt in the air and legs tucked- so stinking cute!

Ethan's first "real" haircut- he spent the whole time talking about  how Grandma does it, and making this stylist feel totally insignificant!!

He cleans up after his cut- what a guy!

This is Ethan's first actual picture that "looks" like something.  He told me it's an elephant-see the legs and trunk?

Nate- favorite game, peek a boo

baking cookies

typical morning, snuggling in bed

Ethan and his balloon

Our first winter class at the Stamford Nature Center- we made groundhogs

10 months old and standing!

Looking back at these pictures puts a smile on my face.  I had a lovely time in Maine with my boys during the month of January.  Believe me, it came with it's challenges to do an extended stay at home, mostly on my own with these guys, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Being stuck inside because of cold, ice, and snow sounds a little daunting until you get creative.  We had so much fun building forts, popping popcorn, baking cookies, doing crafts and rolling around on the floor being silly.  I feel so lucky that I get to have this intense,  quality time with my guys.  I'm aware of how quickly this time goes- Ethan has become this huge kid, and I'm still wondering how that happened.  This life that we've chosen has come with lots of challenges- some we expected, some we never dreamed of.  But I know this- years from now when I look back on this time, I won't remember the things we weren't able to do, or the inconveniences that we've come up against.  I will remember that I got to see every smile, every tear, every step, and that I am so lucky to have had this time.

Nate is ten months old!  This is crazy to me! I'm not sure how this happened, but he is huge!  He is pulling himself up on everything, and is beginning to "cruise".  The other day he let go and balanced for a second without realizing what he'd done.  My prediction is that he'll be walking by his first birthday.  He is starting to use a few recognizable words- mama, dada, "ma" for more, and for a while I thought he was saying "nana" for banana but I haven't heard this one in a while. Now when he sees a banana he screams and grunts until he gets it.  I don't know if this is typical of all babies, but it was true of Ethan and definitely of Nate- he LOVES to eat!  We haven't really found anything that he doesn't like- he loves salmon, kale, pasta, fruit, miso soup, yogurt- just about anything we put in front of him.  Hope this continues into toddlerhood!  He continues to be a happy little guy.  He is very easy going.  He loves to crawl around explore and can entertain himself really well.  And he adores Ethan.  He watches his every move.  They love crawling around together.  Ethan is mostly patient with him and really enjoys having Nate around.  He refers to him as, "the little one" or "little fella."  "Uh oh Mama, the little one is climbing the stairs"  (Oh yeah, did I mention that Nate does stairs now?  And fast!!)

Ethan is still amazing.  He surprises us every day with some little fact about trucks(the other day he was talking about hydraulics leaking and I had to ask him what that meant-- I swear he will be smarter than me by age 8!!), or with a huge word, or with reasoning that is appropriate for a kid much older than he is.  At 3 and 1/2 his favorites are still construction vehicles, followed closely by trains.  A new development is coloring.  I think that before he was intimidated by drawing and coloring, feeling like if he couldn't do it perfectly then he didn't want to bother.  But recently he started drawing, and he began cranking out pictures that even I could identify- an elephant, a whale (explaining to me where the blow hole and fins were), a monster with big teeth- and the pictures actually looked like what he was describing- pretty cool transition.  I found a coloring book with trucks in it and it has become a favorite activity as of late.  The other thing that we've begun, and that surprisingly for me, I love, is playing board games.  Ethan is really great at staying focused, and understanding the concepts and objectives of the games we've played.  Some of our favorites are Toy Story Yahtzee, Uno Moo, and Busy Town Mysteries games.  Really so much fun!!  All of our game playing and crafting has made this winter a lot of fun so far!

Don't get me wrong- I will certainly welcome spring with open arms.  Hopefully along with warmer weather, we are hoping to get some stability back in our life.  This will be a challenging time no doubt, but the idea of all of us living in the same state, all of the time seems crazily like a novelty.  I'm all for positive changes ahead!  We'll keep you posted!!