Ethan's new bed

At the beginning of October we saw a great deal on a twin mattress for Ethan. Although we hadn't intended to move Ethan out of his crib until he was actually climbing out we jumped at the deal. Ethan did very well with the transition for the 1st week. He didn't get out and would sing to himself until we'd come get him in the morning or after nap. After that he started becoming more difficult to get to stay in the bed. For the most part he stays, but nap times have been difficult lately.

We're happy we moved him. I think it's better that we're dealing with him getting out of the bed now than when Lila comes. Once he's asleep he doesn't get up at all and he still mostly stays there until we get him.

Here's some photos of the day we got his mattress delivered:

 Helping daddy take the plastic off.

 Testing it out.

 "I love my bed!"

 Making the bed for the 1st time.

 He wanted to go to bed for the night at 530pm just so he didn't have to leave the bed. We somehow convinced him to come downstairs for dinner.

He now calls the crib "baby's bed" and we've moved the mattress up and added Lila's bedding so he no longer has the option of sleeping in there. I think he's started to realize something is happening soon as Lila's stuff begins to creep into his room. I'll try to take photos of their room once we get the frames and shelves on the wall today.

Halloween

 This year Ethan was Spiderman. He didn't really know who Spiderman was so Ken started playing old videos on YouTube for Ethan to get familiar with the character. I don't know that it really helped. Half the time he hated putting the costume on, but sometimes he'd put it on long enough for us to get some photos of him.

This year we went to a pumpkin carving party at my friend Melissa's house with five other families from our playgroup. It was a blast and we even got photos of the kids all in their Halloween costumes

 Ethan & his buddy Grant.

 8 toddlers between the ages of 15 months and just over 3 years old. It was a crazy night! There were also 3 babies between the ages of 3 months and 7 months.

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This year was a lot of fun because Ethan was able to say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". He seemed really into for the first 15 minutes then I could tell he got tired. We trick or treated for an hour around our neighborhood with some of his friends and ended up at Nana & Papa's house last. It's become a tradition at our house that my parents and Ken's parents come over for pizza from Papa Murphy's and then we go trick or treating and Ken's parents hand out candy.

 Ethan & Nana.

 Waiting patiently for his buddies to be done getting candy from a house he'd already been to.

 Ethan, Emily & Addy trick or treating.

 There was a special spider pumpkin so we had to grab a photo of him with it.

 Trick or treating buddies.

Enjoying a piece of candy before bed after all that tiresome trick or treating. No that soda is not his.

It was a great Halloween season this year. We didn't make it up to Apple Hill because I couldn't do that much walking, but we headed over to Goblin Gardens with our playgroup and Fog Willow as a family for the 2nd year in a row. We can't wait for Halloween 2013 when we'll have two trick or treaters :)

Baking with Ethan

A couple weeks ago Ethan and I attempted to make sugar cookies. When I saw make, I mean we bought the already made sugar cookie dough and rolled it out and then decorated our cookies. We had a blast and Ethan made a huge mess which I guess is a good sign that he had a great time! Here are the photos from our adventure.

Ethan was very good at finding just enough spots on the rolled out cookie dough for his airplane, car and other cookie cutters. When Ken got home that night they decorated the cookie with orange vanilla frosting and Halloween sprinkles. He did very well and didn't lick very much of anything while doing it.

2 1/2 year old photos

I took Ethan into JcPenney for some late 2 1/2 year old photos at the beginning of October. Mostly because I had a coupon for 3 free sheets from when they forgot to order my photos last year and because I had another October coupon for 3 sheets for $11. Plus Ethan has such an obsession with helicopters and airplanes right now I wanted to capture it.

He did very well with the photographer...unlike when I took him in February for his 2 year old photos and he just ran everywhere but where they were taking the photos.

 Trying to jump.

 Daddy was so proud that he threw the ball right at the photographer (who asked him to)

 Ethan's love for helicopters captured on film.

What's new?

So what's new with us? I guess a lot has been going on and I've been so horrible about keeping up with my blog. You would think I'd have more time to update since I haven't been working since February but for some reason I just haven't.

Anyways, Ethan is now 2 years and 8 months old! He talks and sings everywhere he goes. You can understand about 75% of what he says now and he's starting to say phrases that we say and saying sentences that make me wonder "Where'd you hear that?" For example: when we were at the pumpkin patch on Sunday I asked him if he needed help opening his sandwich bag and his reply was "You don't have to" OK...

He is so much fun and also such a challenge most days. He's headstrong, opinionated and very independent. He reminds me a lot of myself in general. We're in for it :)

I am now 33 weeks and some change pregnant with Lila. At her 30 weeks ultrasound she was already 3 lbs 9 oz and that was almost 4 weeks ago. She most likely almost 4 1/2 lbs by now. She's growing just as expected and we'll find out in a few weeks whether I'll need a c-section because she's breech or not. I started pulling blankets and newborn clothes into the house this week to begin washing, folding and finding a home for everything. There is lot of stuff to find a place for!

I went through Ethan's dresser drawers and moved practically everything out of his 6 drawer dresser into his closet. We're using an IKEA 3 plastic drawer organizer and a nifty 2 poll hanging system for Ethan's clothes. Ethan helped with this project and was a very big help!

At this point we're just waiting for Lila to arrive and hoping to get everything prepared before she does. I can't believe we are just 6 weeks away from meeting our little girl and starting a new chapter of our lives. Just thinking about managing two kids makes me nervous, but lots of people do it, so we'll figure it out as we go.

My sister, mom and mother-in-law threw me a beautiful lavendar baby shower last Saturday. I'll post photos and write about that once I get a copy of the photos from my sister. Life is good!