Christmas Party at Toddle-In (Methodist Church Playgroup)

Today, we brought along some home baked brownies and went to the methodist church in town for their Christmas party. I think Ethan has been dying to go out and play since he was ecstatic to be running about, screaming, running, playing in the toy kitchen and having an amazing time. Ethan even sat down for a game of Pass the Parcel in which you pass a present along to music and when it stops who ever has the presents gets to unwrap a layer of gift wrap and get a little chocolate. Even though the parcel came around 4 times, he just kept passing it along and didn't get anything from it but he was an incredibly good sport and afterwards just got up and went back to playing. He sat down for Christmas lunch and also got to visit "Saba"-(Santa!) who gave him a Miffy book. How great is that! Ethan has met Santa 3 times now and I try really hard to get a photo of him getting his present but he wants me to come up with him. He's a bit shy/scared? (Hahah) Here are the pictures of the Christmas Party. We ate so much. I'm stuffed.

Hey, look this fits me perfectly!!!

Mmm. Yummy!

Hey does Santa have 2 beards? (HeeeHEEE!)

Here is Ethan with his present from Santa!!

Wow! It's been too long since we posted

Apologies to family and friends.

Ethan has been learning words faster than Superman can fly and getting into more mischief. He is definately keeping Adam and I super busy ... EVERY SECOND!It's a miracle that we have even managed to write our Christmas cards and go shopping for gifts. The wrapping of gifts only happens when he is asleep or else there will be torn wrapping paper everyewhere as he has learned how to open presents.

Here are some vids and pics from the last couple of weeks.

The first snow. (Dec 3rd))

Ethan in the bathtub relaxing and goofing off. (Dec 4th)

The video is an effort.to get him dressed. Which of course he refused to do- quite hilarious. The photo means we succeed in the end to get his onsie on. (Dec. 5th- morning)

Ethan's playgroup Christmas party. (Dec 5th-afternoon)

Ethan reading . (Dec. 8th)

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Ethan dancing and then farting. (Dec. 8th) We learned to do this at Uncle Jeff's and Aunty Kelsey's house. Whenever someone farts, we point at someone else and say you did it. This time while Ethan was dancing, he let out a fart (but you can't hear it on the video) - so funny!

Ethan's bare bum time. (Dec. 13th)

Hattie lets her daughter Clem have bare bum time and so I thought I would get over my issues with cleaning pee/poop off the floor and let Ethan have some bare bum time. HE LOVES IT. We started 3 days ago and the first time, he was grabbing his shirt and lifting it up, then he climbed onto the sofa and starting bouncing up and down and rubbing his bum all over the cushions. Then he got down and ran back and forth the living and dining room dancing and screaming in happiness. He only peed a bit the first time and the last two times the drops of wetness on the floor are from his drooling- yup.. still teething...

The past couple of days, he's slowed down and hasn't been eating as much and is also sleeping much better. Fingers crossed as Adam and I have had 3 full nights sleep. Maybe it's the bare bum time. The last week and a half has been a bit of a nightmare with Ethan waking 3 times during the night and fussing and two very cranky parents.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS:

He has also definately had a grown spurt as he was eating a ton a day. His 12-18months clothing is getting a bit tight and is hard for him when he tries to put his arms through the sleeves and I think his head has gotten bigger as his shirts sure do seem hard to get over his noggin. Not to mention his feet have lengthened and he is wearing UK size 5 shoes. When we first got to England in June, his feet were a size 3!!You wouldn't know by looking at him how much food he can stuff into that little mouth of his...

Words Ethan can say now.. the list is LONG.

Words include:

Wow!, Yeah!, No, beer(beard), knee, baf(bath), bappo(apple), toes(toast), weh wigh(wet wipes),fee(Feet), Wa wa?(What's that?), Pi pi (his bum), bappy(nappy-diaper), chair, Roar(Lion), up, down, Mamee bao bao(Pick me up mom), bye bye daddy, bed, pah pah pah, pahcorn(pop pop, pop, Popcorn- a song we sing to), beans, mommy's(this belongs to mommy), Daddy's(this belongs to daddy), me, you, shoes, joosh(juice), cheeth(cheese), hot hot hot, cold cold cold, milk, fung geng do(somersault), cookie, nose, mouf(mouth), graysh(grace- we say grace before we eat), book, bobbee(the Bee Bee bird book, he makes us read to him at night) tar (guitar- Baby Brains book he also makes up read to him), moon, shuuu pa (sound of fire works) figh wa(fireworks), bubbo(bubble wand/bubble tub), baf (bath), da dao (dinosaur), bib, - those are the ones he's just said this month so far as Adam can remember off the top of our heads. You can usually get him to repeat anything you ask him to say but it doesn't always makes sense. I'm sure i'm missing a ton but there is something new every day.

Things Ethan can understand: No, foot, hand, head, arm, toes, fingers, eyes, nose, What do you want to wear? (He will go and get his own socks, shirt and pants), Hwuan Pi pi (means to change his nappy which he will then run away and hide), almost anything you ask him, he will respond "no" or "ya" to or repeat the name of the object. Ex. Do you want to go for a walk? and Ethan will say "Wa! or Doguh ?(Which means walk or he wants to go for a walk to look for a dog). He retty much understands everything and if he doesn't he will ask you to explain. We really think it's important to give him good reasons for doing or not doing something.He often gets frustrated with us since he wants to tell us something but we have no idea what he wants. Adam and I usually look at each other to see if one of us can guess what he wants. Sometimes we do and often times we don't.If you say someone or something is sleeping, he will say "Shh!" he also says "Ssh" when I tell him daddy isn't home or working. He gets a bit confused about this.

Things he loves: (If you don't give it to him fast enough, he moves up and down in urgency like he is doing a pee pee dance)

Garlic bread, herb and garlic cream cheese on toast, juice, bananas, pretzels, chicken, yogurt, cake, cookies, chocolate, candy(You wouldn't know by looking at him how much food he can stuff into that little mouth of his... there are times Adam and I have caught him gagging because he tries to swallow without chewing it first).He enjoys the freedom of going for walks, walking or running or exploring the supermarket, shopping centre and car park... sometimes off the sidewalk into the road. (Aside:Adam and I laugh now how we used to say while I was pregnant with Ethan that we would never put a harness on him... boy are we sure glad we changed our minds...)

Naughty things:

• Sometimes he will get possessive of toys and not share or throw toys because he can't communicate what he wants.
• Sometimes, I make faces and he tries to wipe them away with his hands, swiping at me like a cat with a ball. He doesn't mean harm- its fun for him, a game- but can get painful as he's pretty strong. (He knows it's a no no)
• Unraveling the paper towel or toilet paper roll.
• Throwing bath toys- like a soaking wet sponge out of the bath.
• Running away when he needs a nappy change.
• Pulling my hair- highly entertaining to see a pained expression. (He know's its a no no)
• tries to bite my chin

Cute things he does:

• He will randomly come up to you while you are sitting down and give you a huge hug around your legs.
• He will dance by bouncing and pushing his tummy outand sticking his bum out and turning around.
• He will wake up and pounce on you repeatedly.
• He will all of sudden while you are holding him , put his head down and wrap his arms around you in a hug.
• The way he says WUH OW!!! (Wow) or bye bye (softly)
• He will grab his stuffy monkey, turtle, lion or dog and hug it close moving side to side.
• During bathtime as the water is let out, he will lie down on his tummy when the water is really low and swim.
• Entertaining himself in his high chair by shouting, and singing while eating.
• Putting my glasses over his eyes.

Well so far this is what Adam and I can remember. This weekend, we will be going to mama and papazee's to decorate the christmas tree. It will be interesting to see what trouble Ethan gets into.

Take care!

Happy 19 months Ethan!

Ethan is 19 months old! We have an Advent calendar (for me actually) but daddy and Ethan opened the first flap today and Ethan promptly shoved my chocolate, the whole thing into his mouth!!! This past week while my laptop was being fixed, Ethan has had many new developments. Ethan has gotten some portrait photos taken, seen Santa Claus twice and has started saying more words as well as definately conveying his wants, whether he wants to be picked up, put down, food , drink , or anything else for that matter. He is also getting more adventurous when it comes to climbing things or pushing around a chair to whereever he wants and thus reaches the multitude of stuff piled onto tables, dressers or counters.

We have all been trying to keep as warm as possible as the nights have dipped down to - 3 degrees and the days +3 degrees . BRRR. There is frost all over the grass and outside and some of the small ponds have a thin layer of ice over them.

Yesterday, MamaZee took daddy, me and Ethan to the Trafford Centre, (A huge shopping mall), to do Christmas shopping and see Santa Claus. Ethan was over excited to see so many lights, trees, music, water fountains and of course we forgot to bring our camera!! Not to worry though since we will have a few more chances to see Santa (Father Christmas as they call him in the UK) at playgroups in the next couple of weeks. New Words and Sounds - "Nee Naw, Nee Naw" for fire truck , Ambulance - He can say car but also the sound for car = "Vrrrooomm" - When we say to be quiet, he will put his finger to his mouth and say "SHHH! SHHH!- he does -this as well when he puts his stuffed toys to sleep. - "Ahh.. Daddies" - just for fun. - "Ooh ooh ch..ch..chh"= train - "Eee eee" = dolphin - "Yao Yao, daddy"= daddy's medicine - "Me yaow"= cat - he can copy alot of words or try his best if you ask him which is great. - "baf"= bath - if he sees phone or cell phone, he will say "Hi" but as soon as you put it to his ear , he goes quiet or walks away. - "Joosth"=Juice "Wa Wa?= what's that? "Ta" for thank you but not often "Broo no" Bruno the dog at Mama and Papa Zee's Oh and daddy has been teaching Ethan to" take a bow" after doing something.Very cute. Daddy is also trying to teach Ethan colors: Purple ="pur po", green= "gree", Red= "ray", blue=bwoo, yellow= yay yo, orange= oray. Fun things to do He likes a bit of rough housing. Last night, I had the quilt over my knees on the bed and then laid him on his back on the quilt, then I would lift the nearest edges of the quilt sharply up and flip him over. Huge giggling ensued and we had to do this atleast 10 times. He has a very long box that he can now climb into himself and there is a pillow in it. He has his toy telephone in it and he throws his blanket before climbing in' It is kinda like his chill out space, which can turn into a recling chair or a bed or miniature fort. He looks very cute and will even sing to himself to amuse himself "Ah da da da" or "Ah ga ga ga" Whenever he hears music of any kind, he will bend his knees and move up and down or if we are holding him , he will bounce up and down. He will also clap his hands together and say "YAYYYY!!!" If he hears clapping on the tv , he will clap too and say "Yayyyy!" He also will choose his books before nap and bed time and one of his favorites is the Bee BeeBird which he will say "ba bee bee " since the book is full of the word of BEEBEE BOBBI BOBBI. He also likes to pretend to cook and eat with spoons and if you give him a flipper, he will put it on the frying pan, swirl it around and make the "shhh" sound as if he is cooking something. If there is a plate nearby, he will take a spoon and stir it, then when he is done, give you the plate and you are allowed to eat what he has cooked for you. More later, bye!

Ethan's One and Half Birthday:Nov.8th

Ethan's birthday started out with a visit in the morning to Hattie and Clemency's place to help out while they packed for a trip to her parents out South. As you can see, Hattie and Ethan were quick to make an escape into the garden and play with freezing water in a watering can. HAHA!

Then around noonish, Daddy came to pick us up, with the car loaded with Ethan's high chair, bibs, nappies, wetwipes, clothes, cakes and some food. When we got there, it was a bit of a whirlwind getting everything set up with blowing balloons and prepping the table with food.

Mama Zee and Papa Zee gave Ethan his first of 3 birthday presents to open! It was a motorcycle with a side car and a daddy, mommy with baby, suitcase and dog to put in it. Very Cool! Later on, the second gift was a wooden moveable snake from their trip to Tunisia.

This was Papa and Mama Zee making silly faces.

Afterwards, we had oodles of food to eat!

Here is everyone chowing down.

And then there was jello for dessert...

And soon after that... it was ice cream ... (of course we sang Happy Birthday and everyone enjoyed the two cakes but that is on the video and unfortunatley my laptop has a bug and won't start up so i'm using Adam's and haven't uploaded the videos so bear with me)

Then Ethan got down to the business of opening presents.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful gifts. Grannie and Gramps- we love the" bubboes" and he can't get enough of them during bath time. We hear "Bubboes" repeatedly through out our day nowand the ball and velcro mitts are super fun too. Thanks to Uncle Josh and Dan for the awesome doggie which he hugs around the house and must take with him in the car and to Uncle Rob and Anna who came and played and took part in his special day.