Family bonding
What I learned in Australia...
More outside time.
The luggage we traveled with.
Mossman Gorge from the rainforest trip
Rainforest
Same
Same
Playing with Papa Smith
Well, this is long overdue. But as the wise man Kimbo Slice once said, ‘It is what it is.’ We of course made it back successfully from Australia… that or I’m performing quite a neat trick from the beyond. Though after that flight from Brazil to France disappeared the whole international flying took on kind of a scary overtone. Anyway, on that bit of happy news I will proceed on. Ethan did great on the trip home… mostly because he was unconscious for almost 2/3rds of it. Overall the travel didn’t seem all that bad and we had the Brett/Smith grandparents as well as the Wades waiting for us at the airport. Shortly after we got home the Wades were kind enough to return the 4th member of our family who had been camped out at their house during our stay. Homer was excited at first and then played hard to get for a couple days after. No worries though, we’re back to being BFFs at this point.
We all adjusted pretty well for the most part. The first two nights Ethan was up at 2:00 AM so that was a treat. I basically got up in a zombie like state and my parenting responsibilities consisted of just making sure Ethan didn’t hurt himself. The house looked like a bomb went off by the I tag-teamed Kari into the day but I didn’t care. Thankfully we had Grandma and Grandpa Brett around the first couple days to watch Ethan while we attempted to get our sleeping patterns back on track. Ethan did get to come back and sleep in his ‘big-boy’ bed. The Grandmas and my mom’s friend Cindy came over the weekend before we got home and swapped his crib for the bed and adorned it with Thomas the Train sheets and an Elmo comforter that he received for his birthday. He’s done really well with it and loves climbing over the side railing and throwing himself on to the bed.
It was really nice being back in the house and having a yard. After spending so long in a place the size of our kitchen/living room the house felt like a mansion. Its great being able to walk out the door and play in the yard as well. Ethan loves being outside… we spend a large majority of the time we’re home and not sleeping outdoors. It’s great having all of his toys again as well after having almost none for 4 months..
The first week we were back my mom actually stayed the entire week and watched Ethan while we worked. They had a great time and he was pretty sad when she had to leave. She was very impressed with his talking and how much he had changed since she last saw him. She sent us email updates throughout the day as if Ethan was writing them and they were pretty entertaining. Based on the spelling, grammar and punctuation they very well could have been confused for being authentic Ethan emails but we knew better… They baked several of the days she was here and now he is asking to make cookies on a pretty regular basis. This is going to do wonders for my waistline I can already tell since I have almost 0 control around desserts. Speaking of which, every time my parents come down they bring Oreo’s for dad to ‘only have 2’ each day but somehow the bag disappears each weekend. Last week I offered one to Ethan and he said ‘those papa’s cookies’. So, that little ‘fib’ dad is trying pass as truth isn’t even fooling a 2 year old at this point. Time to formulate a new strategy papa… Grandma also bought Ethan his very first big wheel. He’s still learning how to use it and is not real proficient with the pedaling yet but he’ll get there. Now, if only they made big wheels for big boys like me I could show him the ropes. My fat arse would definitely blow the wheels off his little one.
One new development that has not been so pleasant is Ethan’s new bedtime routine. In Sydney it was pretty easy… read a few books, sing a few songs, lights out, Ethan out. Here its more along the lines of read a few books, sing a few songs, sing a few more songs, lights out, Ethan cries, we come back, we leave, Ethan cries, we come back, we leave, Ethan cries… This can go on anywhere from 30-60 minutes. And his use of delay tactics has reached an incredibly skilled level for such a small person.
If you didn’t see Ethan when he first got back you did not get to witness the one sided rat-tail in his hair. I don’t know if his last haircut was uneven or if his hair just grows in funny but the rat-tail look was not something we were impressed with. Being a man of many talents I bravely took clippers to the hair and it surprisingly didn’t turn into a hack job and he thankfully looked better afterwards than before I started.
Last weekend I successfully ran my first Dam to Dam race here in Des Moines. It’s a 12.4328 (yeah, I’m taking credit for the .0328 miles)mile race from the Saylorville Dam to the Dam in downtown Des Moines. Surprisingly I didn’t want to shoot myself in the face halfway through and finished in 1 hour and 59 minutes. My goal was 2 hours so I was happy with that. Ethan, Kari, my mom and lots of free beer were waiting for me at the finish so that was nice. I think next up for me is a full triathlon in August.
This past week was Ethan’s first week back at daycare and he did really great. He jumped right back into everything with his friends and they said he’s had no problems adjusting. And, since he is now over the age of 2 he is $25 cheaper each week. Yay for that. This week Kari had a night out with friends and I had to work late so Ellen was nice enough to pick him up for us. They had a good time playing and at one point she was changing one of his messy diapers and he informed her that ‘I stink. I poop.’ Now every time he poops he says ‘I stink’ and he says the same thing when he sees Homer pooping. Wow, 3 uses of a form of the word poop in 2 sentences. I’m pretty sure that violates some kind of set limit.
In case you’re wondering, Ethan is just as ornery as he was in Australia. And people keep telling me that it’s not the ‘terrible twos’ it’s the ‘terrible threes’ and each time someone says that I want to throat punch them because I can’t take another year and half of this. I realize this is a perfect example of shooting the messenger but I don’t care… stop telling me that.
Ethan has been extremely ‘helpful’ since we got home. He wants to get involved in EVERY single thing we’re doing. Its nice that he’s willing to lend a helping hand, but it can get frustrating cause his ‘assistance’ exponentially adds time to the task we are trying to complete. Though, today he wanted to help me with the trimmer after I was done mowing but one pull on the starter rope and he was off running into the back yard to hang out with mommy.
I think that’s it for now. These will of course be far shorter/more irregular now that are lives are boring again. But, I’ll do my best to keep you all in the loop. On that note…
Cheers,
Joel
We all adjusted pretty well for the most part. The first two nights Ethan was up at 2:00 AM so that was a treat. I basically got up in a zombie like state and my parenting responsibilities consisted of just making sure Ethan didn’t hurt himself. The house looked like a bomb went off by the I tag-teamed Kari into the day but I didn’t care. Thankfully we had Grandma and Grandpa Brett around the first couple days to watch Ethan while we attempted to get our sleeping patterns back on track. Ethan did get to come back and sleep in his ‘big-boy’ bed. The Grandmas and my mom’s friend Cindy came over the weekend before we got home and swapped his crib for the bed and adorned it with Thomas the Train sheets and an Elmo comforter that he received for his birthday. He’s done really well with it and loves climbing over the side railing and throwing himself on to the bed.
It was really nice being back in the house and having a yard. After spending so long in a place the size of our kitchen/living room the house felt like a mansion. Its great being able to walk out the door and play in the yard as well. Ethan loves being outside… we spend a large majority of the time we’re home and not sleeping outdoors. It’s great having all of his toys again as well after having almost none for 4 months..
The first week we were back my mom actually stayed the entire week and watched Ethan while we worked. They had a great time and he was pretty sad when she had to leave. She was very impressed with his talking and how much he had changed since she last saw him. She sent us email updates throughout the day as if Ethan was writing them and they were pretty entertaining. Based on the spelling, grammar and punctuation they very well could have been confused for being authentic Ethan emails but we knew better… They baked several of the days she was here and now he is asking to make cookies on a pretty regular basis. This is going to do wonders for my waistline I can already tell since I have almost 0 control around desserts. Speaking of which, every time my parents come down they bring Oreo’s for dad to ‘only have 2’ each day but somehow the bag disappears each weekend. Last week I offered one to Ethan and he said ‘those papa’s cookies’. So, that little ‘fib’ dad is trying pass as truth isn’t even fooling a 2 year old at this point. Time to formulate a new strategy papa… Grandma also bought Ethan his very first big wheel. He’s still learning how to use it and is not real proficient with the pedaling yet but he’ll get there. Now, if only they made big wheels for big boys like me I could show him the ropes. My fat arse would definitely blow the wheels off his little one.
One new development that has not been so pleasant is Ethan’s new bedtime routine. In Sydney it was pretty easy… read a few books, sing a few songs, lights out, Ethan out. Here its more along the lines of read a few books, sing a few songs, sing a few more songs, lights out, Ethan cries, we come back, we leave, Ethan cries, we come back, we leave, Ethan cries… This can go on anywhere from 30-60 minutes. And his use of delay tactics has reached an incredibly skilled level for such a small person.
If you didn’t see Ethan when he first got back you did not get to witness the one sided rat-tail in his hair. I don’t know if his last haircut was uneven or if his hair just grows in funny but the rat-tail look was not something we were impressed with. Being a man of many talents I bravely took clippers to the hair and it surprisingly didn’t turn into a hack job and he thankfully looked better afterwards than before I started.
Last weekend I successfully ran my first Dam to Dam race here in Des Moines. It’s a 12.4328 (yeah, I’m taking credit for the .0328 miles)mile race from the Saylorville Dam to the Dam in downtown Des Moines. Surprisingly I didn’t want to shoot myself in the face halfway through and finished in 1 hour and 59 minutes. My goal was 2 hours so I was happy with that. Ethan, Kari, my mom and lots of free beer were waiting for me at the finish so that was nice. I think next up for me is a full triathlon in August.
This past week was Ethan’s first week back at daycare and he did really great. He jumped right back into everything with his friends and they said he’s had no problems adjusting. And, since he is now over the age of 2 he is $25 cheaper each week. Yay for that. This week Kari had a night out with friends and I had to work late so Ellen was nice enough to pick him up for us. They had a good time playing and at one point she was changing one of his messy diapers and he informed her that ‘I stink. I poop.’ Now every time he poops he says ‘I stink’ and he says the same thing when he sees Homer pooping. Wow, 3 uses of a form of the word poop in 2 sentences. I’m pretty sure that violates some kind of set limit.
In case you’re wondering, Ethan is just as ornery as he was in Australia. And people keep telling me that it’s not the ‘terrible twos’ it’s the ‘terrible threes’ and each time someone says that I want to throat punch them because I can’t take another year and half of this. I realize this is a perfect example of shooting the messenger but I don’t care… stop telling me that.
Ethan has been extremely ‘helpful’ since we got home. He wants to get involved in EVERY single thing we’re doing. Its nice that he’s willing to lend a helping hand, but it can get frustrating cause his ‘assistance’ exponentially adds time to the task we are trying to complete. Though, today he wanted to help me with the trimmer after I was done mowing but one pull on the starter rope and he was off running into the back yard to hang out with mommy.
I think that’s it for now. These will of course be far shorter/more irregular now that are lives are boring again. But, I’ll do my best to keep you all in the loop. On that note…
Cheers,
Joel
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