Another Christmas Program

Ethan had a second Christmas program this year, this time at his old school (daycare). At the daycare Christmas program, you can only watch your child sing because there just isn't room for everybody to be in the LMR (large muscle room) at the same time.

Anyway, after Ethan's portion of the program was done, we joined him, his classmates, and their parents in his room, the 4 1/2 year old room for cookies and punch. Ethan was sitting next to Jenna Weinfurt, who we've heard in the past, was his "girl." Jenny and I got to talking to Jenna's mom, who claimed that Jenna had told her that Ethan was her boyfriend. As those two were sitting next to each other, Jenna's mom decided it would make a cute picture, so she positioned herself across from the two of them and focused her camera and tried to get their attention. Jenna looked right away, ready to have her picture taken, but Ethan was interested in something else (what, I do not know, but it must have been on the floor because that was where he was looking). After several unsuccessful attempts at getting his attention, Jenna looked at him and said, sternly, "Ethan!" Immediately his head popped up and he smiled for the camera, for what I assume was an adorable picture. I guess this behavior either is instinctual, or it starts very, very early.

Christmas Concert

Last night was Ethan's unnofficial first Christmas concert as a "grade schooler." He's had a concert every year in daycare, but this is the first time he had an "audience." Both sets of grandparents braved the 200 mile trek to see their grandson dance and "sing" Christmas songs with his classmates. It was a nice concert, held in the church with all the other kids in St. Bruno's school, which includes kids through 8th grade. It was obvious that he didn't really know Silent Night or We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but he made up for not knowing the words by doing a little dance while the rest sang. It was pretty cute.

Last night Ethan and I had a somewhat awkward conversation. First he wanted to know how babies got into their mommies tummies. He was convinced before that the mommies didn't eat the babies, but he was wondering how in the world they got in there. I'm not sure how I got around that one, I think I might have said that they are made in there or something. Anyway, satisfied with my answer, he proceeded to ask how babies got out of their mommies tummies. I told him that the doctor had to do an operation on mommy to get him out because he didn't want to come out. I was pretty proud of myself for avoiding that whole uncomfortable situation, until he asked how Tim and Laura's new baby, Ava, got out of her mommies tummy. That was when I had to try to explain something I called the "birth hole" to him. He asked where it was, and I told him I didn't know (I couldn't take it anymore) and that he'd have to ask his mommy sometime. Hopefully he'll forget until he's 10...

A Treasured Christmas Memory

Life should be filled with more days like today. It was one of the most relaxing, yet fulfulling days I've had in quite awhile, and will not be soon forgotten.

It started out last night, really. The whole family went to Kohls to do a little "midnight" Christmas shopping. OK, it was actually about 7:30 when we went, but for all intents and purposes (from Ethan's standpoint) it was close to midnight. After fulfilling many of our gift purchasing obligations we went back home and watched the first 20 minutes of Sky High, a movie about pubescent super heroes. It's a great movie, and I had a hard time making Ethan turn it off at 11:00 to get him to bed...

This morning, Ethan woke me up around 8:00 (my how things have changed since he was a baby) and we watched the rest of the movie. Jenny had to go to work this morning since she is in the midst of open enrollment for her company and they haven't yet discovered the benefits of the Internet for doing things like this... Before she left, though, she brought some breakfast up for Ethan and I which we ate while watching our movie. When the movie finally got done around 9:15, we put on our snow clothes and went outside where we spent about an hour shovelling the snow that has been accumulating for the last three days. Well, I was removing the snow, Ethan was playing in it and throwing it at me. After a quick snack, we got in the car and travelled about 10 miles to a tree farm south of Dousman where we went Christmas tree hunting. Ethan made several comments like "we look like hunters, don't we, dad?" We walked all over that tree farm before finding a tree that both of us agreed on. It's amazing what an opinion he has already at 4 and a half years old (never say that he's four!). We cut down the tree, dragged it out to the road, and got into the car to warm up. With our trophy safely tucked away in the van, we headed home to brag and display it to mommy, who was very impressed.

After lunch, all three of us now spent the afternoon making cut-out cookies. Ethan enjoyed rolling out the dough, but especially putting his hands in the flour. Once the cookies were safely out of the oven, Ethan and I went back outside for some more snow fighting and to bring the tree into the house where we could mount it the trophy room.

Like I said, it was one of those simple days, not particularly taxing physically, and we didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but it is a day that I will not soon forget.

First Birthday Party

Ethan had his first non-family birthday party on Sunday. It was for Robert Dent, a boy from his daycare, who was turning five. They had the party at M&M Gymnastics in New Berlin and it involved doing some tumbling and eating pizza. Looked like fun. Mostly, though, it reminded me how old Ethan was getting.

Ethan also got to spend the day with our friends Micky and Tim on Saturday as Jenny and I had to go to a wedding. Apparently he was a very good boy, and even helped Micky setup her Christmas village. We were happy to hear that he was a good boy since it is always difficult to leave your child with friends and have them remain your friends for too long. He was very excited to go to their house, but for a strange reason. Jenny bought Ethan a shirt and tie for his upcoming Christmas concert. The shirt came with a tie, and she also bought him another, more Christmas-looking tie to go with it, so he had two ties. He was really excited to have a tie, but one of them was quite a bit too small for him. So he decided that Jacob, Micky and Tim's 2 year old son, would like to have a tie as well. Ethan wore his tie over there, on a t-shirt, and apparently spent the better part of the first hour over there trying to convince Jacob that he should wear the other tie. Jacob did not agree, so Tim ended up having to wear the tie...

The Ghost with One Black Eye

Ethan told me a story today. He asked me, "Daddy, do you want to hear a scary story?" I of course said I did. After which I was delighted to hear the story of the ghost with one black eye. What impressed me the most was his sense of theatrics while telling the story. He had different voices that he would use for the different characters, and whenever he was getting to a "scary" part, he would whisper very quietly. It was one of the best stories I've ever heard, though I'm not sure I could ever retell it as well as I heard it.

Ethan Skating 

Mission Accomplished

I’m sure I’ve been more proud of Ethan, but I can’t remember when.  Tonight Ethan showed me that he can snap his fingers.  About a week ago he showed me that he could whistle…  I think it was a couple of weeks ago that he had asked me on separate occasions how to whistle and how to snap your fingers.  I showed him what I knew, but ultimately, it is hard to teach somebody how to do something like that.  I told him to keep practicing, and he did.  He practiced, and practiced, and practice.  The payoff started about a week ago with whistling, when he finally figured out the right aperture for his mouth to make a sound.  Now, a week later, he is whistling tunes.  Then tonight, he finally figured out to snap his fingers.  I think he may have gotten some encouragement from his Grandma Grady, but he did it.  He said he wanted to do it, he couldn’t at first, but he kept at it until he finally did it!
This weekend was Thanksgiving.  Ethan is starting to get along better and better with his new cousin, Jessica, Tony and Michelle’s daughter who is closer in age to Ethan than any of this other cousins.  He is also starting to get better and better at sounding out his words to decipher the first letter of most words.  Of course, most of the time he just identifies the sound and adds the “ee” sound to the end of it.  Like I will ask him what “friend” starts with and he will say, “fff-riend – fee!”  There must be some kind of logic in that, and I’m sure he will solve it eventually as there are a finite number of letters to figure out.

Physical Achievements

In the past couple of days, Ethan has started doing a couple of remarkable things (in my opinion). He has a pair of roller blades that he got from our friends Maylee and Jason last Christmas. A couple of days ago he decided he was going to put them on, and now he's skating all over the house. It's really fun to watch him skate from wall to table to stairs all over the first floor.

The other thing he started doing lately was whisting. For some reason, he thinks that whistling and snapping your fingers are very cool. He hasn't quite cracked the snapping your fingers thing yet, but he is pretty close on the whistling.

He's been such a good boy lately. I wonder if it has anything to do with Santa Clause coming to town in a little over a month...

First Snow

Yesterday marked the first snow of the season. Unlike most years when it snows for the first time, this snow stayed on the ground. Ethan was so excited this morning to see snow. His eyes lit up and he exclaimed that "it's almost Christmas!"

Badger/Hawkeye Game

Yesterday we went to the Badger/Hawkeye game, a thing we intend to do each year. Todd and Theresa, my uncle and aunt who live near Madison, offerred to watch Ethan for the day. He had a fine time, and the Hawkeyes won the game much to many a Madisonion's chagrin. Ethan has always gotten along very well with Julia, the older of Todd's two children, but lately he has been doing more and getting along very well with John, Julia's younger brother. John, who is a year younger, is taller and bigger than Ethan. They really have started getting along very well together.

This morning Ethan came downstairs all dressed, he had dressed himself. He was bragging to his mom that his clothes matched and everything, even his shoes and the shirt he put on under his sweater. This is obviously a trait that he is picking up from Jenny's side, as I have absolutely no talent in that area. He was so proud of himself, and I was as well.

We've been working on our letters lately. He's doing pretty well, though they aren't quite as interesting as super-heroes. Maybe I'll try picking a superhero for each letter to help him learn that way. Oddly, he knows S and E almost anywhere, for Superman and Ethan (his other favorite super-hero).

Packer's won today over the heavily favored Falcons. I hope they don't blow their chance at a high draft pick...

Funny Things

Ethan has been saying some funny things, lately. First, since it's been Halloween season, he has seen the Grim Reaper walking around on TV and on the streets. He has been calling him the "Grim Reefer" however.

The other funny thing he has done lately is to sing the song Tootsie Roll. There's just something funny about a 4 year old singing "Let me see your tootsie role" to me...

Kalahari in the Dells

We went to Wisconsin Dells with the Abholds on Thursday afternoon. My parents obtained a free night stay since they were treated badly at the Kalahari. They gave us the free night stay, so we traded it in for $129 off of a suite. Not a bad deal.

If you’re not familiar with the Kalahari, it is a huge hotel and conference center with a large indoor and outdoor water park attached. We’ve taken Ethan to this water park in the past when my parents were staying there, but this is the first time we’ve stayed there ourselves. The first thing we did when we got there, then, was to put our swimsuits on and head over to the water park.

Ethan’s first order of business was to run around like a crazy person in the wave pool. This kept him occupied for a half an hour or so, but soon he decided we had to explore the other regions of the water park. After a minimal amount of searching, we found the kid’s area with an immense rain structure surrounded by fiberglass animals and water slides. Now this was fun. Ethan started out going down the smaller slides and playing around the fiberglass animals. After awhile he discovered a slightly bigger slide that he was happy to go down for quite awhile. All the while Ethan was vaguely aware of some bigger slides on the other side of the structure.

After about 15 minutes going down the smaller slides, Ethan walked over and discovered the “lizard” slide. He checked it out on several occasions. He would walk over, look at the slide, check out some of the people getting off, then leave and go down the smaller slide again. He did this about 4 times before he came over and found me and asked me to help him find the lizard slide. Half way up to get to the lizard slide he changed his mind and decided to go on the smaller slide again. After another 5 minutes, he did the whole thing over again from the start. This time we made it all the way to the top of the slide. He got in line, sat down on the slide, then decided he didn’t want to do it again, so he got off. After a couple of words of encouragement, he sat down at the head of the slide again, and this time he went down. Jenny was waiting at the bottom for him. I don’t know what he looked like getting off the slide, but when I met him at the top again he was smiling from ear to ear. He told me “I didn’t cry at all!”

Tomorrow we’re going to try to get him to go down the bigger slides that Jenny and I can go down.

Happy Halloween

I'm going to call this year Ethan's first Halloween. Sure he has had four other Halloweens, but this one was special. It was the first time that he actively participated and enjoyed himself. He is growing so fast it is unbelievable, and I don't mean he is getting tall. Instead of being afraid to go to any of the houses, he actively pointed out the houses that he wanted to go to based on what kind of candy he thought they would have. In fact, he had been scouting the houses out for the week leading up to the day.

After we were done trick-or-treating, he said to me, "mission accomplished." After that, he insisted on handing out candy to all of the trick-or-treaters that came up to our house after we were done. All in all it was a very good night.