The life of Ethan Robert...: I've got videooooosssss....

At the park tonight

Same

Again

Drinking some lemonade at dinner

Pizza!

Its been a busy couple days and with Linda, Ellen and Ben arriving tomorrow morning I thought I’d get a quick update in since I’m thinking its going to be a busy week and half or so while they’re here.

Wednesday Kari had some drinks with co-workers. There were all sorts of rumors of layoffs and such going around at work so her team was stressed and needed to blow off some steam. Ethan and I spent the night at the park. It was a lot of fun… despite Ethan’s penchant for naughty behavior. The grass we have spent time playing around in previous visits was roped off so we weren’t SUPPOSED to go out there. As we all know from previous events ‘supposed’ has never really been much of a deterrent to Ethan. He of course ran out there and seemed to know I couldn’t chase him. So, he’d stand just out of reach, turn and laugh at me. Then he’d come back and I’d turn to walk back towards the park and he’d do it all over again. To get to the grass there are stairs and there is a chain at the top of the stairs for decoration. Ethan was swinging the chain back and forth really fast and did it a little too hard and the chain picked him up and launched him down the stairs. Thankfully I was standing behind him and caught him or it would have been a painful trip down. While we were there we found acorn sized nuts that had fallen from a tree there and played some ‘catch.’ Though, catch was me tossing him the nut, it hitting him in the chest and falling, him picking it up and firing it back to me usually hitting about the spot where my feet were. He started with his right hand, but I corrected him and put it in his left and he threw with that for a while before going back to his right. He definitely has more momentum with his right hand. This is unfortunate… for him of course. This means I’ll have to tie his right hand to his side so his left becomes the dominant side. I’m sure it won’t take more than a couple of months. Though, when he colors he uses his left more than right. So, who knows…? Maybe I’ll give it a little more time before I intercede.

Thursday was kind of a bummer day. Turned out the rumors in the office during the previous couple days were true and 3 people were let go. It is a really small office so it hit them all pretty hard. Two people were from Kari’s team and one was an analyst for another team. So, Kari and her team again went out for a couple drinks after work and met up with one of their former co-workers. Thankfully she was taking it pretty well and had a pretty good outlook on it. Ethan and I spent our time playing football in Ethan’s room on his bed. He would stand on one side of his bed, I’d kneel on the other and I’d say ‘hut, hut, hike!’ and we’d both move towards the middle of the bed and I’d tackle him, he’d laugh, says ‘AGAIIIIIN’ and we’d get up and do it all over again. Eventually I showed him how to set up and tackle kangaroo and he had a great time doing that. Then he’d tell me it was my turn and I’d tackle kangaroo a couple times and then he’d do it… right up until he got a little over-aggressive and face planed into the wall. I thought there’d be tears but I tried to prevent them by laughing and he rolled over looked at me, thought about it for a second and then started laughing too.

Friday I had to come home from work early so they could inspect our balcony. Apparently they’re defective. I wasn’t pleased I had to leave work early cause since its not actually my place I really don’t care if the balcony falls off the building… as long as I’m not standing on it anyway. But, I ended up heading back downtown a little later and had a couple drinks with some co-workers. Well, a drink. I had just started my second when I realized what time it was and had to go pick up Ethan so Kari inherited that beer. He and I stopped at Macca’s and then went back to the bar to meet up with Kari. Ethan hammered through some fries and nuggets and then decided he wanted to run around. The bar was an outdoor seating area but I don’t think we were supposed to be there with him anyway so shortly after that we headed home. Not much else happened after that… Kari was in bed before 9:00 and I spent the night reading.

The laid back night was nice cause we got up early and headed to the beach this morning. Before that we got more good news on the employment front. On top of the terminations they are also cutting salaries across the board. Yippee!!! Anyway, Kari got up early to go to the grocery store cause she thought it opened at 7:00. Turns out it was 8:00 and we were trying to catch the 9:00 ferry to the beach. By the time she got home we had to sprint out the door and power walk to the wharf. At one point we were running and I was pushing Ethan and he was ordering me to ‘stop runneen, stop runnneeen!’ So, I slowed it down a little and we made it to the ferry with about a minute to spare. After a relaxing ferry ride we made it to the beach and the weather was gorgeous. Ethan and I spent some time playing in the surf. He loved it. He’d run into the waves, fall and laugh, then I’d pick him up and he’d run back to the beach with the waves chasing him. After a while Chris, Sam and their guests for the week showed up so we made our way back to the beach to visit. At that point I became water boy… I’d go to the ocean, fill Ethan’s bucket with water and bring it back to him. He’d wash the sand off his hands and then dump the water out, hand it back to me and say ‘more’. So, I’d do it all over again. Of course it was low tide so I had to walk farther than normal. Poor me. At one point I asked Kari to do it and she took Ethan with her down to the water and I sat and watched and just as Kari bent down to fill the bucket she let go of Ethan and a wave blasted him and knocked him flat on his back. He didn’t seem to mind though. After a while Ethan found his cheeseballs and hammered through those while we all chilled on the beach. Then a rain cloud moved in and we decided to get lunch and then head back home for naps.

After naps we decided to take a scenic walk into the Rocks area for some pizza. The walk is pretty nice… takes you by some old wharfs that are converted into incredibly expensive apartments and then under the Sydney Harbour bridge. Its pretty incredible to walk under it and see how massive it really is. Then, we had some pizza and decided to top the night off with some ice cream! After ice cream we spent some time playing in the park by the quay and Ethan had a blast. He was running all over and laughing and having a good time. It turned into a really enjoyable night. And the best part is we got some video and tonight I figured out how to compress so I can actually upload it. The picture quality isn’t the best but at least you can see them now. So, enjoy!

Ethan’s message to grandparents.