Hair Too Short

Making his cake for his last day before becoming a robin. Surprise, surprise... he has no pants.


Riding his scooter. Sans pants with an added twist of no shirt as well. At least he has his helmet. The neighbors must be so impressed



Mowing

Driving his new truck.

Roasting marshmallows

Sherrif Ethan. Intimidating... (notice the too short hair)

Future nerd.

Winterset Water Park




Slip N Slide


Same



Altoona Water Park

Adventureland

Well, big breaks between posts seems to be my thing now. But, here is another update on Ethan's summer. As you may have noticed he got his haircut and I'm not happy with the length. The lady cutting his hair did her best to look like Elvira (which is cool in October and incredibly out of place in July) while channeling her Edward Scissorhands skills to chop off all his hair. Thanks. Anyway... I keep telling Ethan his hair is too short. I might end up giving him a complex about it. I figure I'm just toughening him up. It's a cruel world... deal with it. Though, he did argue back today when I told him that. So, hopefully he doesn't let people push him around.

Let's get to it then, shall we?

The biggest news is that Ethan is now officially a Robin at daycare! He waited a long time for that and was really, really excited when the day finally came. He made a cake for his last day as a busy bee and shared with all his friends. He was very excited to show everyone. I feel like the new room has already started paying dividends. He is singing new songs all the time and starting to write out letters and numbers. He's also learning to use scissors. That's pretty exciting. Right up until he destroys something I don't want him to destroy with them. It's so much fun to watch him progress. I guess the one downside now that he's a Robin is I can't use that as a threat so he behaves. I'll just have to get more creative.

A couple weeks back Ethan got the new black truck you saw in the pictures above. He loves driving that thing around and putting stuff in the truck bed and moving. He's pretty proficient with it as well. I think it stems from all the time he spends on my lap driving around the neighborhood. Yeah, I'm taking credit for it. Wait until he starts winning sports/academic (not figure skating, marching band or debate either those of you who think you're funny) accolades... they'll all be the result of my genes and assistance as well. We do drive around quite a bit. He really enjoys it. I let him run the blinkers and he has started helping me actually turn the wheel and now that he's actually doing it right and I'm not battling with him to avoid crashing into the curb/parked car it's fun.

Ethan loves singing. He sings non-stop. Tonight in the car he sang 'London Bridge' for at least 6 minutes straight. Over and over and over and over again... It was special. But, he sings when he's by himself, he sings to us, he sings in public. He just really seems to enjoy it. The other night he was singing 'If you're Happy and You Know It' and he was adamant that whatever he was saying was acted out. His version had 'If you're happy and you know, crawl around.' I don't remember that from when I was a kid. But, god help you if you didn't get down on all fours and crawl around like Ethan asked.

Now that we have YouTube on our phones he really enjoys watching videos to 'Wheels on the Bus' and "Itsy Bitsy Spider.' It's become part of the nightly bedtime routine now. He still really enjoys reading books as well. However, he has now started reading to us. And, he's actually using the right words. He read the entire 'Brown Bear' book the other night. And, he also has a book on trucks that he knows most of the words to as well. Obviously, he's not reading and instead doing it all from memory but that's pretty impressive as well. You all know who to give credit to for those skills.

Speaking of who to give credit to and who's corrupting Ethan's mind... The other night Ethan was singing 'Mary had a little lamb' over and over like he tends to do... I changed it up a little and then Kari chimed in with 'Mary had an STD'... So, for all of you out there who think all the bad habits he picks up are because of me I just ask that you remember that and know that I'm not the only one to blame.

Ethan spent the 4th of July at the farm in Winterset. He had a lot of fun playing with his papa and grandma. They spent time in town, went to the water park, watched some fireworks, drove the tractor and he also helped Jim with his work by running the 10 key calculator for him. The nerd genes that made him enjoy that do not belong to me. Only the coolest people (such as Linda and myself) go into IT. Ethan and Jim did get ice cream and at first they were not going to share with the grills(girls), but eventually they relented. However, Ethan made several trips upstairs from the basement to taunt before giving in. That must come from Kari as well.

We got season passes to Adventureland this year and we've already gone 4 times. Ethan loves it. He has a blast on all the little kid rides and he's not afraid to try any of them. If only this lack of fear applied to trying new foods. Tried to get him to try a cheese quesadilla the other night. He did the tooth scrape I'm taking a bite routine. I almost lost it. When I look back and think about how I was such a good eater growing up and generally just such a please to raise with my easy going, fun loving, obedient personality I can't believe I would be 'blessed' with a child who has the ignoring skills of a man who has been married 50 years and when he does hear you only listens maybe half the time and barely eats any food. Lucky me...

I think that's about it for now. Not a whole lot of excitement going on. Just enjoying the summer and the nice weather that allows us to play outside. Though, tomorrow's heat index is supposed to be 110. And, it won't be a dry heat either. Stupendous. I'm moving to Phoenix for the cooler weather...