Fall Update

Well, the rest of summer has passed and so has most of fall since my last update. I had to go back and look at the blog to even remember the last things I wrote about. Fail on my part. But, if you're wondering... he is now lying at a 5th grade level.

I guess the biggest piece of news to report is Ethan is no sans binky at all times. It was actually not that bad. The state of his last binky before he got rid of it was pretty disgusting. It was almost chewed in half and the latex part was not exactly sanitary anymore. I'm sure there were diseases on there that haven't been discovered in any part of the world. But, we chose a weekend and we explained to him that it was time for the binky fairy to come and take his binky but when she did she'd leave him a present. And, lo and behold she brought him a big garbage truck. Once it was gone he did do pretty well. He asked for it a few times but there were no major melt downs. I have to give all the credit to Kari for this. She did a great job with it. We also pumped the event up by telling him what a 'Big Boy' he was for doing giving it up. Afterwards you could ask Ethan what he was and he would respond, "I'm a big boy!"

This fall Ethan has attended a couple different football games with Kari. He really enjoys seeing all the people, dancing to the music, watching the band and of course looking out for Cy the mascot. Before the game he has gotten to play football with Papa Smith and tackle him. At one game they had a mini golf course and some jumpy toys to play on. He got a hole-in-one on the first try to Aunt Ellen thought maybe there was some talent there, but it really went down hill from there. It was still fun to watch him concentrate so hard to get the golf ball in the hole.

Also, Ethan is currently enrolled in gymnastics at his daycare. Each Tuesday they spend a couple hours learning something new. He's doing somersaults, table stands (front and back!) frog hops, bear crawls, crab walks, jumping on the trampoline and things like that. We'll let the gymnastics for a little while longer cause it helps develop motor skills that will someday help him with his NHL career. No pressure though.

In October Ethan and I headed to MN for a couple days. I ended up in Brainerd for a day of racing and Ethan stayed back with my mom. She had a blast with him. She took him to the Minnesota Zoo and they saw just about everything you can see there. And, he of course got to ride the monorail. Mom tried to tell me before they left that the monorail was probably not going to happen. I knew better. I've spent enough time around Ethan to know that more often than not Ethan gets what Ethan wants. Take for example when I took him to his first Des Moines Buccaneers hockey game the other week. We went to the concessions to get a snack which we had talked about and it was going to be popcorn. We got there and he spied the cotton candy and said he wanted that. I tried to argue with him to no avail... I handed over my $3 for $.10 worth of food and he proceeded to eat 3 bites. Son of a... I don't even like cotton candy! At least if it had been popcorn I would have finished it. Just another in the long line of sacrifices I've made... Ethan did enjoy the game though. For the first period he was far more interested in when the zambonis were going to come out but in the second and third periods he did sit and watch the game with me. I enjoyed sharing that with them. Hopefully he wants to go to more in the future. Seeing those games I'm sure will help him with his future NHL career.

Last weekend I took Ethan to the Science Center here in Des Moines. He loved it. We were there for over 3 hours. He didn't care so much about the animals of Iowa. He was more concerned with the space room and the toys room. In the toys room you could build race cars from Legos to race against other kids, try and stop an egg from breaking when dropped from 30 feet up, make and launch your own rocket, run a crane and play with the big ball wall. Ethan enjoyed the ball wall the most. You could put balls in a different places on the wall and watch them take different paths. I enjoyed the lego/rocket part myself. I may have gotten a little competitive with both. I'll be damned if some 6 year old is going to build a faster lego car or a rocket that can fly further.

Ethan also got to go to the two local Apple Orchards/Pumpkin patches this fall. He loved them. There were a ton of animals to see as well as large and toy tractors to ride, a giant corn pool to play in, an apple launcher, duck race, inflatable bounce pad and of course the pumpkins themselves. It was fun to watch him do each thing. However, whatever he was doing at the time was his entire world. Trying to get him to move to the next activity was like pulling teeth. However, as soon as he got to the next activity that became the most fun thing ever and he didn't want to leave. In the end he left with pumpkins, some apples and a lot of smiles.

Ethan spent a fair amount of time in Winterset this fall as well at Jim and Linda's. He had a blast playing, riding the tractor, getting into silly string fights and just spending time with his papa and grandma. He also attended the annual Covered Bridge Festival where he got to ride in the parade with Papa Smith. He was so excited to ride in the golf cart with Papa at the back of the parade.

Also, this fall Ethan got to ride on Thomas the Train up in Boone. The weather was ultra crappy and down poured the entire time. But, Ethan really enjoyed it. Basically the train drove out 10 minutes, stopped and turned around. “Thomas” pushed us along though it was really just a big metal skeleton of a train and a real train did all the work. But, to Ethan it was Thomas and that’s all that matters. They had a bunch of other activities to do, but like I mentioned before the weather wasn’t exactly cooperative so we did the train ride and left.

This Halloween Ethan dressed up as Spiderman! It was actually a cool costume and he got a lot of use out of it. One of his friends had a birthday party just before Halloween and it was a costume party so he wore it then. He then wore it to the Halloween party at daycare as well as Beggars Night. That Beggars Night still makes no sense to me. I don't know why you just don't trick or treat on Halloween like normal people do. He once again pulled in quite the haul when it came to candy.

I think that's about it for major events. On to things specific to Ethan the little booger headed person himself.

1) He is hands down the WORST hide and go seek player I have ever experienced. I had to literally tell him exactly where I was before he'd find me. I said his name over and over prior to that point and he'd still walk into the room I was in and walk out. And, it wasn't like I was hiding in complicated places. I was just on the other side of the bed two of out of the four times.

2) Ethan genuinely seems to enjoy music. He constantly asks me to turn on the radio and he also enjoys dancing as well. The other night he informed me I was doing it wrong when I attempted to join him. They must be teaching him these moves at daycare cause he had one hand up in the air and was jumping around in a circle like you see at the bar when it's getting to be close to closing time. Good stuff. But, I think soon we're going to get him enrolled in piano lessons and see how he takes to those. I'd like to develop his enjoyment of music into something more if he's willing to do it.

3) Ethan now knows his left side and his right side. He also can tell you what the two main kinds of screwdrivers are and can tell them apart. Kari has been working with him on that and he's doing a great job with both.

4) He still doesn't eat. He has made 0 progress when it comes to trying things outside of his normal staple of chicken, crackers, cheese, fruit, donuts and every other unhealthy thing he can stuff in his face.

5) He still doesn't listen. It is BEYOND frustrating trying to get answers from him sometimes. It drives me insane when he flat out ignores me. I haven't turned into a raging lunatic like my mom did while raising Nick and me yet, but it's come close. Oh, and the lunatic was always a result of something Nick did. Or, the one time we accidentally put the pretzels on before the milk at the grocery store. But, I'm not here to dredge up the past...

6) Another 'fun' habit Ethan has developed is asking you for something but not even giving you the time to respond before he repeats his request. Good. God. Child. Give me one friggin' second to respond before you go all Rain Man on me. I kid you not... I was sitting 5 feet outside the bathroom the other night while he was in the bath and in the 5 seconds it took me to walk in there he asked for more hot water no less than 5 times. I couldn't even answer him before he'd start again and even if I did he wouldn't be able to hear me cause his jaws were flapping so fast. Thankfully I have beer. After a long day of work, trying to entertain him after work and then trying to relax while he takes a bath and instead encountering that is enough to drive any person to drink.

7) Ethan has great facial expressions. Sometimes I get far more enjoyment/amusement out of the look on his face as he's saying something than I do with what he's actually said. However, he continues to crack me up on a regular basis. Between that, and his ability to ignore figures of authority(that would be me), I'm quite certain he is going to have a Hall of Fame career in the detention room at school. They'll probably name if after him when he moves on from school to school.

8) Ethan is just now getting over another ear infection. But, it's the first trip to the doctor he's had to make in a long time. He barely even complained about it but when Kari took him in she said it was a massive ear infection and that it looked like a blister was developing on the ear drum. She said she hadn't seen one that bad in a long time. I was beyond impressed with him that he barely complained. Not much seems to really get to him. Unless of course he gets sand in his shoes at the playground. Then the entire world stops until that is rectified. I don't know how he can be such a nancy about sand and yet have an almost burst ear drum and barely flinch.