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!