The week after Christmas - time in Western KS

After Christmas my mom, dad, Ethan and I headed out to Western KS for a few days.  We had a great time seeing family again.  Ethan did great traveling again - we are so blessed!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve brought a dinner of soup for the three of us, Momma Morai, Granny, and Grandpa Bolen.  We then went to church, headed home to open up Christmas PJ's, then Ethan was off to bed.

Christmas morning we all woke up and started opening presents.  Ethan got overwhelmed, so we stopped part way through to have breakfast, then we ended up finishing them that night.  I made breakfast, Jed smoked a turkey and a ham for lunch, and we all had a great day!  Ethan seemed to enjoy himself and loved all his new toys. 

Everyone takes a spin on their car on Christmas morning, right!

Christmas morning

A boy and his grill!

The Christmas clan!

Visit to Santa

We took Ethan to see Santa three times this year - once at the mall, at WRHS, and at HyVee.  At the mall he really had no interest, and I did not want to pay a ton for pictures, so we didn't buy any.  He still did not really show that much interest at the high school either, but at least he didn't cry!  At HyVee we actually got him to smile, so that was nice!

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving 2013 took us out to Western KS.  We had to wait to make sure that Jed wasn't working, so we didn't leave until Friday morning.  We headed out bright and early and Ethan did a great job traveling.  We spent Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Lois' house with my mom's side of the family.  We had a great time and Ethan loved playing with "new" toys!  The next day we got to see our friends' twin boys.  Ethan is still not at an age where he really enjoys playing with other kids, but he does great parallel play!  He had a great time riding around with Grandpa  in the wagon that was mine and Uncle Lester's.  We went out to my grandparent's house on Saturday to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary (they were married 60 years this past June).  We had a great time with my dad's side of the family.

Attempting to get most of the great grandkids!

15 month appointment

Stats: At his appointment today, Ethan weighed 22 lbs 3 oz.  This is down to the 17th percentile, so we are supposed to be making sure we feed him a high calorie diet.  He loves fruits and veggies, which is good, but he needs more calories.  It doesn't help that the kid never sits still!  He as 31 inches tall (50th percentile), and had a head circumference of     (80th percentile).  She said he looked great.  Unfortunately today's dr appointment diagnosed another ear infection...grrr...

Clothes:  Size 4 diapers and mostly 12-18 month clothes, a few 24 month, a few 2T, and a few 9-12 month here and there. 

Sleep: He sleeps around 11 hours without waking at night.  He goes to bed shortly after 7 then gets up at 6:45.  He usually "talks" himself to sleep.  At daycare he takes one nap from 1-3 pm, and at home he was taking two 2 hour naps (10:30-12:30 and 3:00-5:00), but the last two weekends, he has not wanted to fall asleep for his second nap on Sunday. 

Eating:  Breastmilk in the morning, then whole milk, and lots of other solids for the rest of the day.  He loves fruits and veggies, tolerates meat, loves beans, and loves cheese and cottage cheese!

Milestones:  Since the middle of September all four of his first set of molars have come in.  These have made him quite cranky unfortunately.  Ethan is getting very good at listening to our instructions, and usually does what we ask.  He is really good at doing puzzles, which is great for his age. He is not talking a lot yet, but loves to babble.  Everything is "dat" (that).  He also says "dun" (done), uh-oh, mama (not very often), and dada (all the time).  He signs milk, eat, and more. 

Firsts:  First time carving a pumpkin, first trip to the pumpkin paradise, first trip to the discovery center, first hot air balloon festival, and first time playing at the mall play place.

What we are looking forward to: the upcoming holidays.

What we are dreading: more temper tantrums that come with the age he is!

Miscellaneous: Ethan absolutely loves playing outside.  He loves riding his trike, and walking around in the yard.  I am very nervous for what we will do when it is winter and too cold to go outside!

Halloween - trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving

We trick-or-treated multiple times - which meant more use from the costume.

We went to CVS two weekends before Halloween for a free picture and Ethan wore his peanut costume.  Then we went trick-or-treating in downtown Topeka the week before Halloween and at the mall the weekend before Halloween.  He wore his baseball costume to both of these events.  Then, the day before Halloween we went to Momma Morai's house since she was going to be gone on Halloween.  He wore his peanut costume again.  On Halloween we stopped by our neighbor's house as well as a few friends - he was a baseball again this time.  He had a great time and really enjoyed his buckets! 

On Halloween we also carved a pumpkin.  I'm usually not that into Halloween, but it was fun this year.

Even peanuts need to play!