Phin's Birthday party!

A mexican fiesta was Ethan's birthday. Fajitas are the official family party food...
I was surprised that he did such a good job eating "different" foods. In reality, he only at the refried beans and cheese - but that was still something "new" for him.




Then it was time for CAKE! We don't keep a lot of sweets in the house so it was certainly a special occasion for Phin. Daddy helped Phin keep his fingers out of the fire as he blows out his candle. Then, we start with a little taste and then go for the whole cake!

Ethan's quote of the day...

While eating breakfast in his high chair, he said:
"The dog is drinking water from bowl."
(she was drinking water from her bowl).

Ethan is 1 year, 11 months, 3 weeks and 1 day old.

It's also in use

in his favorite juice, and the JELLY he puts on his toast. (quote from one of Phin's favorite books. I thought it was appropriate for this early morning.)

No, really - he's there

You just have to look close, to my left at about the height of the chair beside me. Do you see his little blond head behind the umbrella pole? Well, he's there, I promise! This was a big date for Phin. He was out with four other women (besides mom) AND during his naptime. Lots of fun stuff happened. See below!


Lunch for Phin was pretty uneventful. He ate "creamy mushroom soup" (I thought I had ordered broccoli soup which he LOVES. Mushrooms aren't his most favorite thing ever...) and listened to chatter between women. There was a lot of talk about shoes and purses. :) Later, a cookie cake came to the table and Phin was IN BUSINESS! Since he was sitting by me, I was not really watching his cookie love until the women across the table gave me the heads up. At that point, I couldn't help but get a picture or two!



After the group picture OUTside, Phin found the flowers on the side of the wall. This picture is significant for a couple of reasons. The first is because of Phin's dad. When Dan and I were still just dating, I went on a treck with him to see his family in Iowa. At his grandmother's house, Dan's mom pointed out a picture of a small child smelling a red geranium. I asked who the little girl was - to find out it was my Dan...
The other reason is that Phin loves to "smell the flowers." Earlier in the spring, all of my peonies bloomed along our driveway. As every year, they were dark and light pink. The difference was that this year, there was a little boy who noticed. Every single time we were outside, he would want to touch the flowers and smell the flowers. One day, we even crossed the street to one of the neighbors houses (they were at work) to "smell" the tiger lillies. Even now in July - with the flowers long gone, Phin still grabs the left-over stems and smells... where the flower used to be? Every single morning.
He tries in the back yard with the marigolds too - though, they usually get plucked from their containers.
So, on this day, Phin got to stop and smell his flowers and I got to grab up the boyhood picture.




As always, he was not ready to leave but was still asleep just one mile from the restaurant.
Naptime came late, but his sleep was HARD.

Daddy goes swimming.

I know that Dan can't come along and do every single thing that I do with Phin. He has to work, right? But, I have to say I was OVER JOYED when Dan was able to come along with Phin and me to the pool today. That way, Dan has a reference when I tell him stories - and being just 6.5 weeks away from Isaac joining us, I am a little slow - if Phin tries to make a break for it and run over to the big people pool. So, off we went to the pool and Ethan started asking for his friend "KATE?" as soon as we made our way to the parking lot. Dan joined Phin on the big toys while I stayed back in the shade, being kicked around by Isaac. It was a great hour of swimming and while Phin doesn't believe his grown enough to make it up all of the steps to go down the big slide (which we are completely okay with) he did make a run for the grown up pool a few times. Each time, his daddy caught up to him before he got too far away.




It was also GREAT to have someone around to help me get a picture with my little man!!!

He thinks he's all grown...

So, it's no secret that Phin loves books. He loves to have them read to him and sometimes he likes to try his hand at reading his own. However, this one floored me. He sat down with a lovely novel (with no pictures) and tried to go to town. Read Phin read!

Instant message between mommy and daddy:

So, there was a distressful cry in the bedrooma nd I went to check on Phin. When I opened the door, I found that the room was trashed - even the leaf was laying in the middle of the room. Phin was trying to climb up where his stepstool used to be (a bed drawer was pulled out but wasn't working so well - so I put the step back.
While cleaning up the room, I turned around to find EP sitting IN his toybox, trying to put his jungle animal puzzle together.
funny, huh

Phin's room...

It took a family village to put this room together. Auntie MaryAnn and Grandma Susie picked up a lot of the decor in Dallas for me and brought it back to Missouri. Dan did all of the painting (which is not one of his strong areas) and furniture assembly. Dan even put the window in along with the trim. I picked the theme, wall colors, decor and room setup. Certainly, everyone played their part and I thank you all!

So the bed is finished, but the dresser is still in the furniture ER. I wish you could see how big the leaf really is. It hangs over half of the bed... We will post more views in the future when we finish fixing the dresser. I would offer, never buy furniture online - you don't really know what you are getting and from this experience, they can make pretty flimsy stuff look good in a picture. Hey, look, I did it right here! :)



Note the frog clothes hamper in the corner of the room. Sometimes, Phin drops stuff inside the frog and then works to get said stuff out. When they happens, it looks like the frog is eating him. If you scroll down, you can see an example of that. He also has his own book stand and chair to read in his bedroom. The little blanket in the chair, he throws it out of the chair every single chance he gets. I am unsure why - so I keep putting it back. It's a little game we play.



Ultimately, it didn't take more than one week to transition him from his crib to his bed. We offered him the choice between the two for each night and nap and after a few days, he realized that he falls asleep in the bed instead of on the floor. He still carries TONS of toys into the bed each night to play before he actually falls asleep, but I am okay with that.

So, now I have to get to work on Isaac's room! Wish me luck as I am running out of time... :)

Last year, he got the ocean...

This year, he gets the Kiddie Pool.
I didn't know how he would feel about the water, but he "warmed up" to it quickly.
It was an hour swim, and he cried when it was time to go. I actually had to carry him - as he refused to walk away.







But, it was nap-time, so we had to go home.
Post Pool After Party

Ethan is 23 months old -

as of the 7th actually.

Since turning 23 months old, he has banged his head - at a high speed into the frame of his swing outside. He has gone running at the OB office and fallen - not to fully catch his head on the way down and instead he got a forehead full of carpeted concrete. The good news is that it was the opposite side of his forehead from the original goose egg. The bad news is that the carpet caused skin abrasions - so he just looks beat up.

Some of his "positive" type behaviors have been - saying "w.a. wal-mart" yesterday when we pulled up to the store.
Today, it was "e.t. ethan (sounds like ethan of ethanol)." I have got to admit. It's been freaking me out just a little bit.
We also have some video to upload of him interacting with his kids "computer" - ( that we got him - just so he would hopefully leave OUR computers alone.) The computer asks "find the uppercase 'L'" and he pushes the button, etc.

He waffles between wanting to be called "Phin" "Ethan" and "Bubba." Often I am corrected for the appropriate name in each situation. He knows that the baby in mama's belly says "waaa, waaa, waaa." According to him, Daddy says "okay" and Mama says "oh my!" Phin does not have an answer for "what does Phin say?"
He has his own tiny boy baby doll to get him used to the idea of a new addition to the family. He calls that baby "Boy". Yesterday, he tried to feed "Boy" his (Phin's) waffle (a piece of wheat bread.) I thought it was very nice that he was sharing so kindly with "Boy". :)

Phin has started a slow transition out of the nursery to his big boy bedroom. While the room is not completely finished yet, we are getting there. The decor is mostly FROGS (Phin's favorite). He has a twin bed with a huge leaf over it - in his new room along with his old crib from the nursery. Each day, we ask him "do you want to sleep in your bed or crib?" While he usually says "crib" - he has started climbing the steps to his bed and hunkering down there with his blankets. It's really quite cute. Often, we have to go back and pick him up off of the floor where he had gotten down and fallen asleep playing.

The other thing that really cracks me up lately is that Phin likes to order Maggie (the boxer) around like he's the boss. If she whines from the kitchen, he says "Maggie, hush!" If he wants her to lick him, he says "Maggie, KISSES!" He also tells her to do things like "Maggie, SIT!." I have a feeling he'll be quite the little dog trainer in his future! Since Maggie mostly ignores Phin, I have started giving Phin treats to give to Maggie - knowing that will give him clout in her doggie head. It's going okay, except that I say to Phin "say Maggie sit." and while Phin says it, he too sits down on his bottom on the floor. Certainly, Maggie is still happily taking the treats, but I don't think Phin is showing her who is boss - as he is sitting lower on the floor than her. All in time, right? :)

There were three

Dan and I discussed our need for one more family picture of the "three" of us. Phin looks at the family pictures we have in the house each day. He counts off "Dada, Mama, Bubba." Since we will be soon adding a new "bubba" to the pictures, we thought - what a better time - to get that last picture of the three of us - than out the farm this weekend.

The Day After

a party, it's always a good idea to look at your camera and see how much fun you had the night before.
This was Phin's first "party." He stayed up waaaay past his usual bedtime (between 6-7pm) until after 10p.
P-A-R-T-Y A-N-I-M-A-L-!!!
Check out some of his new moves and the ladies he met!