Another month has flown by..

Feb 8th was daddy's birthday and Ethan helped mommy make daddy's birthday cake and draw on a card. We went to Mama and Papa Zee's to celebrate. Yum! Feb 14th, we all went to Manchester for Chinese New Year and saw dancing dragons, dancing lions, lanterns and had a fabulous lunch. February also included a trip to the Lakeland Wildlife Oasis and Sizergh Barn. The first place, was amazing. Full of bugs, lizards, snakes, turtles, meerkats, birds of all sort and the highlight were ginormous fruit bats. Wow! The Second place, we stopped at for a lovely lunch and watched the cows being milk by machines. What can I say that was quite an amazing February. Then before we could blink and eye, it was March. Ethan is now around 95 cm and has suddenly increased in weight. I think his bones have become more dense as I can no longer just grab him and pick him up and after less than 5 minutes my arms are about to give out. He doesn't look any fatter so i'm blaming the bones. LOL. Daddy has just weighed him on the Wii Fit and it says he is 2 stone 2 lbs which is 13.6 kgs. That doesn't seem heavy.. I think he was 12 kg before. We are still using the wrap now and again but the biggest achievement this month has been POTTY TRAINING!!! It took only a week or so and "Kazaam!" He only wears night time nappies although has been waking dry in the mornings. He poops using his trainer seat on the toilet and will wee in his potty downstairs or stands on his step and we help him aim for the toilet. Obviously Daddy does this better as I do not have many experiences in aiming wee...LOL. He has walked 2.5 miles to see lambs, explored underground tunnels, and has developed his upper body strength climbing on playground equipment at school. On Mother's day- March 14th Ethan made me a lovely card from preschool and him and daddy got me a grow house which is like a greenhouse but not with glass. It has a clear vinyl covering. Ethan is helping me to grow carrots, cherry tomay-toes, sweet pea flowers, spring onion and pak choi. We also be growing zucchini/courgette french beans and other vegetables once the BBC send em to us! At home, we have been working on number recognition as he can count objects but doesn't yet know the symbols. He now knows the number 1 and we are working up to number 5. As I got a Wii for daddy's birthday in Feb, Ethan has just started to develop his skills in swordfighting, bowling and kayaking. Vey impressive. His favorite DVD's are still Backyardigans and Lazytown. He also quite likes puzzles and does them alot at school so we got a Gruffalo one to do together at home. Ama has sent over bats of every kind. Ping Pong paddles, mini badminton raquets, water raquets and a baseball bat. Needless to say, Ethan has show quick skill in this area and we are constantly on guard for flying balls. He can drop and back hand the racquet while actually hitting the ball. He can travel with a football/soccer ball too, kick it and roll it around in one place with his foot. Mamazee has bought a duplo pirate ship which he loves and Ethan continues to adore his train set over at their place. However, now that the weather is getting slightly warmer, these are being left behind for the sand table. He has finally start to realize that 'messy hands' can be quite fun and enjoys painting, squishing play doh, and sand..lots of sand... Bath time has become quite exciting too as he likes bubble bath now where before the bubbles kind of scared him. He gets some in his hands and claps and they splatter EVERYWHERE! Three nights ago, we also took away the single mattress that was in his room. We would lay on it to tell him bedtime stories and then wait till he fell asleep. Well, this would often result in me spending the night in his bedroom and not sleeping well so we put it away. Daddy had great success the first night and Ethan went straight to bed. He must have been very tired as the last two nights haven't been that peaceful. The next night, I tried to follow daddy's example and had to put a screaming, horribly upset, crying Ethan back into his bed 4 times and him getting out and between cries of " Mommy i miss you, I love you mommy, don't go, stay with me!!!" So no more Super Nanny Tactics- WAYY too traumatic..for the both of us. We have decided to use Uncle Jeff''s method and sit in a chair with Ethan after the lights are out. Then we are gradually inching the chair closer to the door every 15-30 minutes. Last night, I got halfway to the door and it seems to be working and it isn't traumatic for me nor him...so this is good. The aim is to get the chair to the door and then to get it in the doorway and then outside the door and finally not in the hall and he will be able to go to bed himself. Keep your fingers crossed for us! Will post more vids and pics soon. We plan to see the Gruffalo show at Kendal Leisure centre in April. For those of you wondering what the heck a Gruffalo is click here