Standing Tall

Over the last couple days, Alex has started pulling himself up on anything and everything. He's pretty pleased with his newfound ability:



There's so much more he can reach now!




Unfortunately for Ethan, this means that putting his toys on the couch no longer means that they are "safe" from Alex. He's not real happy about that.

Trouble

Ethan never did this. He did lots of other things, but he left the toilet paper alone. Fortunately, the roll was almost empty. Notice Ethan's foot in the last picture; from the way he was laughing, Alex was pretty sure he'd done something really cool. After all, making his big brother laugh is a great accomplishment in Alex's world!

Spaghetti! Yummy!

Reading Accomplishment

After Ethan finished school, we started a reading incentive program to encourage him to continue reading over the summer. Here's his paper chain - one link per book - that he finished in about three weeks. I think I should have made the links smaller!




His reward for reaching the floor with his chain is an ice cream treat. Instead of going to Briq's, he chose to pick a whole box of ice cream treats out of the freezer aisle. He picked a box of mint chocolate crunch drumsticks. He obviously has good taste. :)

We're getting a baby for Christmas!

We're excited to announce that we'll be getting an early Christmas gift this year; sometime the week before Christmas, the newest member of our family will be arriving!

More details will follow after my first doctor's appointment. :)

I'm Crushed!

What does it say for Ethan that he's posing his own pictures with the express intention of asking me to put them on the blog? :)

When it gets too quiet ...

... you have to go look for the baby. And chances are good you'll find him someplace he really shouldn't be - like heading into the bathroom. But doesn't he look pleased with himself?

Springtime Flowers

Sunday, Ethan brought me his first flower of spring - a lovely yellow dandelion. He was very disappointed when it died a day or so later, even though I put it in water. I explained to him how a flower uses its roots to take in the nutrients from the soil that it needs to live, and that when you pick a flower, it is cut off from its roots. So today he brought me another flower, roots and all:


I explained that it still needed the dirt, and gave him a flowerpot to take out to the garden to fill with some dirt. I have a feeling our transplant isn't going to make it, though.




Do you suppose he could have the yard cleared of dandelions by the end of summer?

The Joy of a Good Mess

Ethan was building towers from his Wedgits today, and then knocking them down for Alex's entertainment. Alex, of course, thought this was great. He decided to join in by throwing the blocks once they were knocked down. Ethan, in turn, thought that was a great idea. Of course, he found a way to improve upon it - he got all of his pattern cards that go with the Wedgits, and threw those all over. They had a grand time:



I told Ethan that the two of them were mess makers. He laughed uproariously, and shouted, "We're friends! We're brothers! We're prothers!"

And laughed some more.

It was a good afternoon for my two "prothers".