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Ethan Update

Well, for those of you who don't already know, Ethan is now 18mths old! About 3 days before his 18mth milestone Ethan went to his first kids' salon for his first official haircut. The salon and stylist were awesome! (It was Cloe's Carousel in the Carmel Mtn. Ranch area.) The whole place is decorated in the theme of an old fashioned carousel. The styling stations surround one center column and each chair looks like a carousel horse (but is actually a regular styling chair with a booster cushion for the little guys). The waiting area is actually a partially walled off play area with all kinds of toys and even a couple playhouses in addition to the usual chairs for grown ups. When they are ready for you, you get to pick out a video for your child to watch while they are getting their hair cut. There is a video at every styling station. They also allow certain toys to be brought to the styling station (they sanitize them afterward). Ethan's stylist was awesome! He was happy with the video and toys, but still moved almost constantly yet she didn't miss a beat. She just kept trimming the hair on that little moving target and to my amazement, it came out wonderfully! Only a couple times did she need him to look in a particular direction for a moment (for the bangs and around the ears) and she was super quick and patient about it. While I'm sitting there marveling that she isn't trying to get him to sit still at all, she seems to be taking it all in stride! She told us (Me and Nana) that she chose to work in the kids salon because she was looking for a challenge and figured a moving target would do that. I'd say she's conquered that challenge! When we first got there, I picked a simple, (but with a little flair) haircut from a book while Ethan played. When the cut was done, he looked about as close to the picture I'd chosen as possible! I still can't believe what an amazing job she did with him moving the entire time! Since it was his first official haircut, they collected a bunch of his hair and put it in a tiny baggy, printed him out a certificate, and took his picture with his stylist and printed it out right there for us to take it home! While we Nana waited for those things to be assembled (just a few minutes), Ethan beelined his way back to the play/waiting area. When it was time to go- he didn't want to. In fact, he was quite upset when we had to leave. It was such a great experience for Nana, Mama, and Ethan, that I'm looking forward to his next haircut there! :-D One thing, though. I walked in there with a baby. I walked out with a little man. I couldn't believe how much more grown up he looked with a real hair cut! I actually choked up and had tears in my eyes! Nana laughed at me.

After his haircut, Dada met Nana and Mama at the photographer's studio to get Ethan's 18mth photographs done. Once again we had talented help. The photographer was very friendly and quick with the trigger. After our session I wasn't sure how she could have gotten anything more than a decent shot with the total lack of patience Ethan was expressing by that point. We even got a shot of him in full fuss-mode (when we tried to get him to do a shot laying on his belly). I was pleasantly wrong however. We actually got a number of wonderful shots and a few more decent shots with only a couple not-so-good shots. That is entirely a testimony to the talents and experience of the photographer!

Ethan's favorite things these days are dogs, ducks, cats, and pretty much anything to do with transportation (cars, planes, trains, boats, trucks, motorcycles, etc). When we first received the Cars movie as a gift Ethan seemed a tad bored with it. Now he'd watch it every day if I let him! He'll flip open a book and start saying, "Ru, Ru, Ru, Ru" (sounds like "ruff" without the "ff"). I look at the page quickly and say, "I don't see any dogs, honey." Then I'll take another look and find a tiny dog chasing a tiny cat at the bottom of the page. It's like that outside too. I'll be watching where I'm walking and he'll see someone walking their dog a hundred feet away to our left, or I'll be driving and he'll see a dog in the back seat of the car next to us. He's also keen on the helium balloons at the grocery store. I points them out every time whereas I don't even consciously see them otherwise. He's also usually the first one to see a plane or helicopter in the sky. It's surprising how little they can appear and he'll still see them if the sun isn't in his face.

The biggest development lately is that Ethan has said his first "sentence"! This past Sunday morning he made that major milestone of linking two words together. He said "All done." with crystal clear pronunciation. He has said it many times since then too. This is exciting because it means his language abilities are probably about to explode. I'm eager to see how this develops!

Also, for those of you who don't know, we've been teaching Ethan sign language. So when he says "all done" he will often make the sign for it as well. He knows (and can do)the signs for Please, Thank You, More, Eat (num num), Milk, Drink, Play, Up, Down, Yes, Sorry (looks just like please when he does it, though) and of course, All Done. There are others that he will recognize but doesn't repeat, mostly because they aren't "necessary" to get what he wants, such as Plane and Music.

April 07

Well here are some things you might like to know about Ethan:

He says many words now including uh-oh, ball, down, and done.

He also makes other word-like sounds which somewhat effectively communicate his need or question.

To supplement his burgeoning vocabulary, we started teaching Ethan American Sign Language a couple of weeks ago and he took to it like a duck to water. He loves it! He has learned and employs an amazing number of signs including, yes, up, down, more, eat, thank you, please, sorry and some others.

We also continue to expose Ethan to French in the form of french videos, songs, and games.

He's quite the runner and has very little fear. Loud noises startle him easily, but we have to watch that he doesn't simply walk off the edge of steps without pausing (causing a fall), and he will walk quite a distance away from us now before looking back to see where we are or if we're following. He also will pick up just about anything- some he explores with his mouth, others he shows to me.

He's learning his body parts and can point to his hair, eyes, nose, ears, bellybutton, feet, hands, etc.

Yesterday he discovered photographs. Walking down the hall, he suddenly noticed the family photo that had been there forever and he spent the 5 straight minutes having me name off who everyone in the picture was as he pointed to them. After 5min I'd had enough of the game but he wanted more. "That's Grandpa Bob. That's Nana. That's Grandma Judi. That's Grandpa Mark. That's Aunt Wendy. That's Mama. That's Ethan. That's Dada. That's Uncle Mark. That's Nana. That's Mama. That's Ethan. That's Grandma Judi. That's Grandpa Mark. That's Aunt Wendy....." Had enough yet??? ;-P Me too!

Well, anyway, those are the highlights.

New Pictures!

For those of you who have pointed out my delay in posting pics, here you go! I have just loaded a bunch of pics from Christmas and our Winter Vacation in Utah onto our family pic blog. Enjoy! :-)
Click here to visit our family pic blog.

Good Times, Scary Times, & Laughing My Rear Off!

Well, since it is my nature to write things in chronological order, I shall begin with the Scary Times:

On Tuesday, December 19, 2006 I was busy with some holiday preparation or another when I noticed Ethan had laid himself down on the floor, bug-style. Having no other thought than to be a bit surprised that he appeared ready for his nap nearly an hour earlier than usual, I resolved to put him in his crib as soon as I'd finished with whatever I was in the middle of doing. However, in another 5-10min, just as I finished whatever I was doing, he was up and playing with his toys again. Fine. Back to work. Another half hour or so goes by and I notice him laying on the floor again. Okay, time for a nap. The second my hands hit his skin I know somethings wrong. I kiss his forehead and know immediately that he has a fever. A real fever. I take him with me to retrieve his thermometer and find confirmation in the reading it gives.
After that, my memory becomes a bit fuzzy so I may have some of the events out of order, but I do know that I rather quickly called Luke, Ethan's Pediatrician's office, and my mother. As an added blessing, my sister was staying with us while she took a preparation course for her RN exams. Her presence was very calming and I am SO grateful not to have been alone! Over the next few days Ethan's temperature ranged from 100.0 (about 2hrs after Infant Tylenol administered) to 104.9 (1hr after Tylenol had worn off). The temperature was his primary symptom. His only other symptoms were a lack of appetite (unheard of for Ethan) and a general listlessly. At the peak of his temperature spikes (which occured regularly in the last half hour before another dose of Tylenol could be almost without exception and which were the worst in the early evening & the wee hours of the morning) Ethan's eyes would glaze over, his face would be completely red, and he would give every impression of being a rag doll- almost not responding to anything or anyone. On day 2 or 3 (can't remember) Ethan went to see his doctor who, although unable to suggest anything new, did give me a lot of confidence boosting information and praised my methods of keeping Ethan's temperature down (Tylenol, lukewarm baths, cool cloths, light clothing & bedding). Oh, she did suggest that if we wanted to, we could "piggy back" Infant Motrin with the Tylenol so as to erase the spikes between doses. However, after purchasing the Motrin and discussing the option at length, Luke and I decided that introducing a new medicine (Ethan had not had it before) with the known side effects of Motrin (being hard on the stomach), combined with our suspicion that his illness was somehow related to his stomach, led us to the decision NOT to use the Motrin afterall. The doctor also noted that Ethan showed no signs of dehydration (always a concern with fever and poor appetites). Phew! ....Well, if memory serves it was Friday morning when Ethan's temperature finally returned to normal and stayed that way. This was a total surprise because the doctor had informed us that this year's fevers were tending to be higher and last longer (7-10days) than in years past. With this knowledge we had put our Christmas and Vacation plans on the "probably not going to happen" list. Thanks to Ethan's miraculously early recovery, we were able to proceed with our plans as originally hoped for. Another pleasant surprise was that Ethan did not develop the post-fever rash which the doctor said was also prevelent this year. Yeah! As suddenly as he had become ill, Ethan was well again! Praise the Lord!

Now on to the Good Times:
On the evening before Christmas Eve, Ethan and I ventured out of the house for the first time in a week. Luke took us to a neighborhood in Clairemont where almost every house on the street was lavishly decorated for the holidays and a couple of the houses were selling hot chocolate and cookies. We splurged and bought some from a soccer? team who was set up in the driveway of one of the houses to raise funds for their upcoming season. Ethan and I shared the cookies while Luke enjoyed the hot chocolate. Ethan, warmly dressed and snuggled in a blanket in our arms, was awwed by the sights on the street and appeared to enjoy every minute of it! On our way back to the car we noticed a two foot tall plastic santa holding a tray full of small boxes standing in the headlight beam of a car parked lengthwise in a driveway and specially decked out for the occasion. The sign attached to the santa's tray read "Please take one per family". Closer inspection of the boxes revealed several small candy dishes and what looked (according to the outside picture) like small metal bell ornaments. Touched by the generosity of the homeowners, we accepted one of the bell boxes as a souvenier of our wonderful night out as a family. To our surprise, when we returned home, we opened the box and found not a small metal bell ornament, but a medium sized porcelain bell with beautiful poinsettias painted on the front! I immediately said to Luke, "Oh good now we have a bell to use when we're sick!" His only response was a sarcastic "Great." lol

This year we celebrated Christmas day with Luke's family at his parents' house. I made a new recipe I'd found for Cranberry Icecream Pie and it was such a hit that I've been requested to make it every Christmas from now on! Ethan had a wonderful time playing with his two aunts, grandparents and great grandparents.

About 3:30 that afternoon we left for our apartment where we unloaded our plunder from Luke's family and reloaded with our gifts for my family along with all the luggage and gear we would need for the following week's trip to Utah for skiing. Arriving at my parent's home sometime around 9pm we inhaled a couple pieces of pizza, fed Ethan, and enjoyed another round of gift giving and receiving. My parents' offered to keep Ethan in their room for the evening to allow Luke and I a good night's sleep to help repair the damages of Ethan's recent sickness. Unfortunately, my mom had to drive the next morning, so when Ethan was still not cooperating an hour later, I retrieved him and took him to the living room couch where we could theoretically sleep without disturbing Dada who had a pounding migraine. Instead, Ethan slept very fitfully on my chest and changed positions about every 10-20minutes throughout the entire night. He capped off the night by overflowing his diaper and peeing through my nightgown onto the only pair of underwear I had not (stupidly) packed in my suitcase which had been promptly burried in the rental trailer upon arrival the evening before. Although Luke kindly retrieved my suitcase while I showered, I think it goes without saying that I was not the perkiest member of the group that morning. It was to be another two days (and another very long night) before we finally discovered the reason for Ethan's general crankiness and restless sleep: His first molar! Merry Christmas! *rolling eyes*

Despite this auspicious start to our skiing vacation, the trip actually turned out pretty great. Luke enjoyed snowboarding- something he hadn't done in years. Ethan hated snow the first day, but changed his mind and loved it the last day. (In between he mostly reaked havoc around the spacious condo and thoroughly enjoyed crawling up and down the stairs to the loft- with a grown up trailing obediently behind.) As for me, my memory of skiing at age 6 proved deceiving. As a 6 year old I'd easily picked up the sport and scared the life out of my mother by flying at breakneck speed down my first real hill so that my father had to speed up to stay with me. I remember not one ounce of fear. Twenty years later with a healthy understanding of what a broken bone feels like and the slow painful recovery and expense it entails, I suddenly found myself completely terrified of going "too fast" - meaning anything more than a turtle's pace so that I could stop instantly without falling. For the full story of my skiing adventure, visit our family blog: www.keepingcurrent.blogspot.com ....trust me, it's worth it! :-D

Okay, now for the Laughing My Rear off Story:

Today, I was working on my laptop in my chair in the living room (gotta love wireless internet!) with Ethan playing with his toys near my feet in front of the entertainment center, when my nose detected something needing attention.
"Ethan come here."
Ethan obediently rises from his squatting position and toddles over to the side of my chair. I take another sniff. Oh yeah. No question.
"Ethan, diaper change." I say. "Let's go. Diaper Change." I motion for him to go around my ottoman and start toward his bedroom.
As I set my laptop down, I watch him obediently follow the route I'd indicated, and notice something VERY wrong!
"Ethan stop." I say firmly, but without any hint that he may be in trouble.
He stops and looks at me curiously as I quickly lean forward and lift him from the armpits, being careful to hold him a foot in front of me. I don't want the poop trailing down his right inner thigh and stuck on his ankle to get anywhere near my clothes.
I carry him down the hall in this fashion and set him on his changing pad. As I reach for a clean diaper I move his wandering right hand away from his diaper area and notice that it is speckled with traces of poo and so, therefore, is my hand. Goody. I look at his mouth and note two spots of poo stuck to his upper lip. Oh no. I quickly wipe as much of the poo from his mouth, hands, leg, and foot as I can with wipees, then strip his diaper off and remove a majority of the poo from that area too. Again holding his beneath his arms, I swiftly carry him across the hall and deposit him in the empty tub.
"Ethan, stay there. Sit. Mama be right back. Sit down. Stay there. Mama be right back." I say this a couple times to ensure that he's caught all my instructions and to watch his face for signs that he has any intent of disobeying. Not seeing any, I grab the phone which had been left in the bathroom and rapidly dial my nurse-on-call (aka mother's) phone number as I head back out into the living room to ascertain in exactly which spot on the carpet he may have been standing when he relieved himself, how many innocent bystanders (aka toys) were splattered/smeared along the way, and exactly how far he trailed his gooey, smelly mess. My mother checks with a coworker who worked in pediatrics and assures me Ethan will suffer no ill effects from eating his own poo and not being able to find more than a handful of dry flakes which must have fallen from his leg, I hang up the phone and return to the bathroom where Ethan grins at me from his still-seated position in the empty tub. (He hadn't moved an inch from where I'd sat him. GOOD BOY!) Now the humor hits me and as I fill the tub in preparation for his bath I grip the side of the tub and laugh hysterically. Ethan grins at me quizzically for a moment and then starts laughing too.

Things to know about Ethan

Ethan's age can now be counted in years... well, one year. ;-p
Ethan has now walked as far as 15feet without falling and can sometimes turn corners!

Some of Ethan's favorite activities include:
-placing small objects into and pulling them out of larger objects with lids (i.e. balls in & out of boxes, small toys in & out of his little backpack) (he squeals with delight to find the objects still there) (the other day he "helped" a friend of ours get the money out of her wallet when she was preparing to pay for her lunch!) LOL
-swinging his arms back and forth very quickly through a pile of mega blocks to send them flying across the floor (he wears an evil grin while exhibiting this destructive behavior) LOL
-taking apart mega blocks and trying to put them back together (occasionally succeeding!)
-making the music go on any of his noise making toys
-carrying his new giggle ball by the hair and plopping it into his little train, then pushing the smokestack to send it chugging across the room (he sits back and watches the results of his efforts with pride then turns to another toy, leaving the train wherever it ends)
-smacking anything onto his new drum to create a sound
-chasing/being chased by grown ups around the house (we say "I'm gonna get you" or "You can't get me" and he laughs and takes off at full speed crawling)
-saying "uh-oh" before/after deliberately dropping something
-turning pages in board books (only under supervision- otherwise he prefers to eat them)

Two nights ago Luke and I started a game to teach Ethan please and thank you. For example: Luke will have a toy. I will say "Please toy." Luke will give me the toy. I will smile and say "Thank you." Then Luke will say "Please toy." I will give Luke the toy. Luke will smile and say "Thank you." And so forth. Ethan watched in absolute fascination. After a few turns, we included Ethan in the game and tried to encourage him to say "Please" and "Thank you".

Well, last night ETHAN started the game! Okay, so he doesn't say "Please" and "Thank you". But he makes very polite sounding noises at the appropriate times and uses obvious body language that shows he is trying to play the game. He uses one syllable for "Please" and two syllables for "Thank you". They aren't always the same sounds, but they are always rythmically correct. Occasionally he forgets to make a sound at all, and we encourage him, but it's obvious to see that he's trying to catch on and his attitude is noticably improved. (He was getting very "mine" and "gimme now" in his behavior and sounds.) It's very exciting!

For those of you who haven't been around at meal times lately, you might be interested to know that Ethan now eats table foods almost exclusively. He is still eating infant fortified oatmeal at least once a day and uses the store bought pureed foods for when we're out and about, but at home and at restaurants he usually eats cut up veggies, fruits, breads, and meats. He also has cheese, eggs, & pasta, and now drinks nonfat/2% milk, straight water, or watered down juice. Ethan is also now having an infant's liquid multivitamin everyday. Ethan's favorite snacks are Cheerios and the thick sourdough pretzels we buy in a barrel from Costco. For his birthday at home (on his actual birthday) Ethan ate veggie fried rice and a mini cupcake. He didn't end up having any cake at his birthday party... it just didn't work out that way. He was having too much fun playing and visiting with all of his guests.

For those of you who were unable to attend, we had a bday party for Ethan at a local park where we set up a table under a shady tree, laid out a tarp on the grass for clean crawling space, and set up an easy-up for extra shade. I had also pre-painted some large boxes to look like number and alphabet blocks and to be used to crawl through and play in. They were a surprisingly big hit with all the kids who's ages ranged from 1 (Ethan) to 8. There was a playground immediately adjacent to our table area for additional play for the older kids, as well as a coloring book and crayons and a bubble machine. The adults played two games: One where everyone filled in the blanks for a story that covered Ethan's birth and first year of life. Another where everyone had 30sec to draw Ethan then passed their paper to the person on the left and then repeat for 4 turns. There were some very interesting results! Both games were well received and everyone seemed to have a great time. At the end Ethan opened his gifts with notable help from Mom, Dad, and 5yr old guest Lindsey Miller. ;-D He came away with a very nice balance of toys, books, and clothes. We could tell everyone had put a good deal of thought into their choices and we greatly appreciate it.

More things to know:

Ethan is afraid of stuffed animals which are bigger than him and will wake up crying at night if we forget to plug in his blue nightlight or turn on his sleeping music.

Ethan loves stuffed animals that are smaller than him and wants every one that he sees! He's just reached that age where he now makes a fuss when he sees a toy (or anything brightly colored and appealing) in a store. We're having to change parenting tactics as a result. Previously he would be satisfied to hold the toy for a few seconds and then didn't mind when we put it back. We can't do that any more. We have to either tell him "no" or just keep moving. If we let him touch it, he thinks he can keep it.

Ethan LOVES bathtime! He usually will play contentedly with his bathtoys, the faucet, the shiny drain on the side of the tub, and the plug at the bottom of the tub for up to an hour before he's ready to get out (although he rarely gets more than 20minutes). He's not too happy when we don't have any time for playing during bath. He is just now beginning to enjoy splashing. I don't mind so long as we have time to play and so long as I don't have to go out in whatever I'm wearing (I usually end up wet when he splashes). I never care if the bathroom gets splashed. It's just water. It'll dry. Besides, I love splashing myself! :-p

Okay, well that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed learning these amazing facts! ;-p

Addressing Concerns About Homeschooling

I've already been asked about whether it will be difficult for Ethan to get into college when the time comes if he has been homeschooled all his life. In answer, I usually point out that Luke was homeschooled K-12 and had no problems getting into a community college nor UCSD. However, this quote further explains the situation:

"This might have been a challenge at one point, but the situation now is that many colleges allow, or actively support, homeschoolers into their programs. This is because several studies have shown that homeschoolers tend to perform well above the average in college. And, many colleges recognize that homeschoolers tend to be more mature and have less potential for "getting into trouble."

For colleges that base acceptance primarily on standardized tests, such as the SAT, homeschooling is not a problem because homeschoolers can take such tests as easily as institutionally educated kids can. And, homeschoolers tend to perform better on these exams than the average.

Most colleges that also consider high-school performance, activities, and other elements of an institutional education, allow homeschoolers to present portfolios for consideration in the application process. This gives homeschoolers as much opportunity to be accepted as any other students." See full article.

I've also heard the concern- What about Sports and other Extracurricular Activities?

"Most activities that are available to kids in school are also available to homeschoolers. For example, any activities that aren't tied to a specific school, such as traveling sports leagues, are available to homeschoolers. There are also many sports that are available specifically to homeschoolers, for example, basketball leagues. These leagues offer the same opportunities as school-based sports, with cheerleaders, tournaments, and all that goes with school sports.

Because homeschoolers have more flexible schedules than institutionally educated kids, they actually have more opportunities to participate in activities (such as volunteering or attending arts programs during school hours).

The only activities that might be unavailable are those that are directly tied to a specific school, such as football or baseball teams. I wrote "might be" because some schools allow homeschoolers to participate in their team sports." For full article click here.

Last but not least- Is Homeschooling Legal? To put it simply: Yes!

Another Reason To Homeschool

Another quote from a good article at FamilyEducation.com:

"Be aware that most states define a minimum number of "instructional hours" for a school day. A typical number is three hours. This might seem odd to you because most schools have days that consist of more than three hours. But remember that days in traditional schools are filled with a lot more than just instructional hours. There is the time to get to and from school, the administrative activities (taking roll for example), the time between classes, recess and other breaks, lunch, and so on. The actual number of hours a student spends "learning" in a traditional school is usually quite a bit fewer than the total number of hours in a school day.

Homeschooling can be much more efficient than a traditional school because you can eliminate much of the time that is wasted in traditional schools. You may find that you can get a lot more accomplished in fewer hours than can be done in a traditional school."

For the full article click here.