5 Little Monkeys

Water Park

A few days ago when my sister and here 4 kids were visiting at my parents house we headed over to the water park in our neighborhood. There's a part of the park where water comes out of the ground. Ethan was timid at first, but after being moved into the water a few times by Ken he liked it. He even stuck his hand into the stream of water. I think we'll be making a few more trips to the water park in the near future. The best part was that it really wore him out. He slept really well that night.

Gates coming down

About a week ago, Ken and I took down the long gate that separated the kitchen and the family room. I started letting Ethan into the kitchen about a month before so we figured that if he was going to be in the kitchen we should just take down the annoying gate. Plus, Ethan was playing with it and we were concerned that he might break it. He is definitely enjoying having a bigger space to roam in and it's nice to have him in the kitchen when I need to be in there so I can keep a better eye on him.

Also, new this month...we moved the highchair out of the house and into the garage. Ethan now sits with us at the big table. He seems to eat a little bit better when he's eating at our table and we now have more room in the kitchen. I love seeing all the baby stuff come out of the house and head into the garage. Only problem is now our garage is a big mess.

17 months!!!

Ethan is now 17 months old! I can't believe it. He's now been walking for about 2 months and getting closer to running. He talks ALL the time. He loves to sing "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" every chance he gets. He also loves the ABC song, Itsy Bitsy Spider & Elmo's song. Elmo's song is just a little bit more annoying but he loves it. Ethan reads aloud to himself and turns the pages as if he's really reading. He also has started saying "Bye bye" instead of "Dye Dye". He says "Moo" and barks when he sees dogs.

Ethan now can say about 15-20 words depending on who you're talking to. If I didn't hear it, it didn't happen in my book. I keep a calendar on the wall in the kitchen to track his health, but also milestones.

In the last month he has given up bottles completely. We went from 2 bottles and then to 1 in just a few days. He drinks out of a straw cup and does very well. We waited a few more months than we originally wanted because he wasn't drinking enough from the straw cup. Now he drinks about 16-20oz a day!!!

We went in for a weight check a couple weeks ago and Ethan weighed 23 lbs 11 oz. He was down 4 oz from his last weight check a month prior. This was the first time since he was brand new that he'd lost weight. We were discouraged. We've been trying to "fatten him up" for the past month or so. His growth has slowed down. He basically hasn't gained any weight since he turned 1. We're being told to get more higher fat foods down him and increase his calories in whatever ways we can. Meanwhile we're dealing with a picky eater. It's all very frustrating.

We go in for his 18 month checkup on August 2nd so we'll see then if he's managed to gain weight back. Gosh, I hope he doesn't lose anymore.

Ethan took his very 1st camping trip with Grammy & Grandpa (A.K.A. Ken's parents) to Bodega Bay over the weekend. He was gone for 48 hours without us for the first time. He had a blast and probably didn't miss us as much as we missed him. Well as much as I missed him at least ;) We enjoyed a nice mini 24 hour vacation there ourselves when we came to pick him up.

Ethan is doing so many new things that I forget to write all of them down. He's growing too fast! I wish he'd slow down.

Fourth of July

This year our street had the 2nd annual Fourth of July block party. The street was blocked off, we had badminton, games, food and probably 40-50 people in attendance.


Walking to Papa

Ethan playing with our neighbors dog, Molly.

Ethan & Daddy walking down the street.

Ethan & a neighbors little girls stroller. Ken didn't like that.


Ethan sitting with Papa during the fireworks. Ethan did fairly well with the loud noises and the fireworks didn't freak him out. An illegal firework went off right at the beginning of ours and that freaked him out.
Ethan took two naps that day and got up at 6pm to play, eat and have a bath before fireworks. He walked all around the block and loved being free to roam. He went to bed at 1015. The latest he's gone to bed since before he was 6 months old. I wish we had the photo of the whole party, but our friend hasn't posted it yet.

Water Fun

For Ethan's birthday in February he received a water table from his Grandpa & Grammy. It stayed in the garage until May when it started actually feeling hot enough to need it. Now that Ethan has been walking for about a month he loves it since he can walk around the patio and then back to his water table.


A couple weeks ago Ethan's friend, Sean came over to play. They loved playing together in the water table. Every time that Sean would splash Ethan they both would start laughing. It was fun to watch and the boys were soaking wet by the end.


Our hope is to get his pool out in the next couple weeks and see how he reacts to that. I'll post pictures when we do.

Avila Beach Day 5 - Los Osos/ Baywood Park

On Thursday, we spent some time in the pool. Ethan screamed so loud to get in the pool. I was embarrassed and couldn't get him to stop until we put him in the pool. I guess he remembered that he liked the pool from swimming earlier in the week. It was in the 60's the whole week but we still got in the pool. He loved swimming around in his floaty and with Ken.

Later that afternoon, Ken and I were ready to get out of the hotel and keep Ethan active so we headed to the Los Osos/ Baywood Park. I forgot my camera on this trip so I don't have photos of the sun setting. It was beautiful. We walked on the beach and Ken skipped rocks on the water. It was quite a drive from the freeway but worth it. Next time we go we'll have to spend more time there.

On Friday, we headed home about 11AM. My grandma was along for the ride, since we were taking her back to my uncle's house. Ethan enjoyed talking to her and playing games in the backseat. He also watched Finding Nemo. He played one of his favorite games. We say "UP" and he says "DOWN".

This vacation was so much fun! We were ready to come home though by the end of the week. Keeping a baby in a hotel room is hard. We were thankful that he slept incredibly well on this trip. He slept in until 9AM some mornings and took 2 naps most of the week totally about 4 hours of naps a day. I guess we wore him out.