Parent-Teacher Conferences

We had our second parent-teacher conference with Ethan's teacher, Mrs. Matyas yesterday. This conference went much better than the first conference. Apparently Ethan is progressing very well and doing a wonderful job in school. He still needs work on his fine motor skills, but he at least knows enough to raise his hand before he talks. I guess he still loves to tell stories. In fact, he tells everybody that he is going to have a baby sister. Unfortunately, Jenny is not pregnant, so that is just not true... I guess he is the only kid in class that is an only child, and that makes him feel left out sometimes.

Ethan's favorite expression lately is "Awesome." "Hey dad, look at this, isn't it awesome!?" He has such emotion when he says it that makes it very exciting. I think he truly thinks all these thing are "awesome."

Ethan Update

Nothing special today. I just wanted to jot some random thoughts down about Ethan so that they wouldn't be lost.

• The other day Ethan asked me, "Dad, is Jesus stronger than Superman?"
• Ethan has quite an affinity for his "booty." The other day, he pulled his pants down in the back, exposing his plumber crack, and asked me, straight-faced, "has anybody seen my underwear?"
• He is very interested in babies and how they are made. He is especially interested in how they get out of their mommy's stomachs. I told him I didn't know but that he should ask Micky, our friend who is pregnant. He told me that maybe the come out of their ears.
• Last night, Ethan told me that poop comes from your brain. Not sure how he came up with that one. Everybody knows that's where boogers come from, not poop.
  

Cowboy Ethan

 

Funny Sayings

I can't remember the exact context, but the other day Ethan was saying some pretty funny stuff. He was talking about liking something or not liking something (what, I can't remember), and a couple of minutes into it he said, "I changed my mind, I like it. I must be out of my mind."

Today we took Ethan to the Curious George movie. Jenny and I both liked it, although it doesn't have as much to enjoy for adults as do some other recent "children's" movies. Will Ferrel is just a funny, funny guy. I would laugh just watching him drink coffee. He stars as the voice of Ted, George's human friend. Very cute movie. I recommend it for any child over the age of 3 (and I think they were all there today).

Pajama Day

Ethan is so excited. Today he gets to wear his pajamas to school. When I told him, the first thing he asked me was, "is everybody going to wear them?" After I told him yes, it was full steam ahead. He picked out the pajamas he wanted, made us wash them, and picked out some slippers. This morning he told me that he didn't want any milk on his cereal so he didn't get his jammies wet...

We're also having interesting conversations regarding a new baby sister. Ethan wants one, and bad. We think the pressure is coming from school where they are discussing families in Spanish. Ethan may be the only single child in his class, and I think that sort of upsets him. Anyway, he has decided he's going to have a baby sister, and he's going to call her Paige Grady. He will feed her, put her to bed, and change her diapers when they are wet, but mom and I have to change them when they are poopy. Also, she is not allowed to use his bathtub because she might poop in there and that would make it smell... These discussions have also brought up the inevitable, "where do babies come from" discussions. He knows they grow in the mommy's belly, but he really wants to know how they get in there... I keep telling him that I will tell him when he's 10.

March of the Penguins and other movie reviews

One of Ethan's favorite things to do is to watch movies. He is probably one of the youngest movie "quoters" that I know. In the last few days, Ethan and I have seen a couple of new movies that are notworthy in that they have left an impression on Ethan.

The first movie we saw was during the Bears-Panthers game on Sunday, Hoodwinked. Hoodwinked is the story of Little Red Riding Hood told from perspective of those involved, Red, Grandma, the Big Bad Wolf, and the axe wielding Schnitzel truck driver. All in all it was a very funny movie and an interesting take on the fairy tale. One of Ethan's favorite parts was when one of the characters said something strange then bowed off the screen slowly, all the while smiling, while another character said "awkward..." What's funny to me is that I'm sure he has no idea what that scene, not to mention that word meant, but he thought it was so funny that he decided to quote it later to Jenny and I. Anyway, I give Hoodwinked 3 stars and caution parents with children that have no sense of humor to stay away from it.

The other movie we saw just last night was March of the Penguins. This is a movie documenting the annual travels of the Antarctic Empire Penguins from the sea, where they can get food, to their nesting grounds, some 70 miles from any open water and source of food. It was a very good show, much better than I expected, and pretty kid-friendly. It is rated G, but I would say it is perhaps less kid-friendly than the likes of Hoodwinked, which is rated PG. I say that because March has to deal with very difficult topics like death and starvation, which are somewhat alien concepts to a suburban American four year old. At one point in the movie, the mothers have to go back to the sea (now up to 80 miles away due to continued freezing in the winter) because they have spent 1/3 of their body weight to deliver their egg. When they finally make it and start gorging on the buffet of fish and crill, they are met by a hungry sea lion who, after some tense chases and close-up shots of his sharp-toothed open mouth, finally lands himself one of the mother penguins. This mortified Ethan. He would not (and has not) stop talking about it. He kept asking me, "what is going to happen to her baby," and, "why did the sea lion eat that penguin?" I tried to explain that sea lions have to eat, too, and if he didn't eat that penguin he might die. Ethan didn't care, he hates sea lions now. It got to the point that he started asking about other animals that might eat penguins. "Do sharks eat penguins?" Not really knowing, I said no, they eat sea lions. Without hesitation, he looked at me and said, "well good. I'm glad that somebody is protecting the penguins." I give this movie 3 1/2 stars and recommend it to parents that are itching for some stimulating conversation with their children.

Little snot...

Wow, has my son turned into a little snot all of a sudden. If this is what it's like to have teen-agers, I want no part of it. I know, I know, those are much worse! I'm not sure what happened, but since I picked him up from school today he has been quite a little snot. He started by informing me that I'm not the boss, and that he didn't like me anymore. I asked him why, and he told me that he didn't like the things I said to him...

"What things?" I asked.

"Those things with all the words," he responded.

"Like what words?" I implored.

"Things like 'go to bed,' and 'eat your food,' and stuff like that," he replied.

Right now he's up in bed because he didn't want to accept my authority and eat his food. Wait, maybe we do say those things too much. Isn't that what parents are supposed to do, though?

That aside, we had a very nice New Year's this year. Ethan came with us to a party at my friend Bert's house. He made it all the way until midnight and celebrated with us, then rewarded us by sleeping until after 9:00 the next morning, so we all got some sleep...

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.