It's been a while

Since my last post we have:

• Celebrated our 8th year of marriage by going on two dates (thanks to the youth at our church for one and Nanny Sara and Parrain Curt for the other)
• Celebrated Mother's Day (by going to Dairy Queen and having Ethan in his cute sweater vest)
• Flew (Ethan and I) to Louisiana to celebrate Auntie's graduation at LSU

We had a lot of fun in Louisiana. We went to breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe the morning of Danielle's graduation. It was awesome! Dad and I had omelets with lump crab meat on top and the middles were stuffed with cream cheese. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. According to the website there will be one in TN soon, I just hope it is Knoxville or Chattanooga and not Memphis!

Ethan did well at graduation. It was scheduled right during his nap time so we took turns pushing him around the auditorium in his stroller until he fell asleep. I actually had a classmate of mine recognize me, but she was busy with her own son at the time. If it wasn't for Facebook I would have never known that she saw us.

You can't visit Lafayette, LA and not go to Southside Bakery for beignets! Mysteriously Ethan got powdered sugar on his mouth and shirt while I was up refilling my coffee. My dad claimed nothing happened, but since Mimi's face turned red and she choked on her beignet laughing so hard, I have my suspicions. Here is Ethan loving on his new friend Flounder at Southside.


We also went to the park while we were in Lafayette. Good old Girard Park! Philip and I's old stomping ground. We saw lots of momma and baby ducks. Ethan even went down the slide with Auntie!
Poor snooks ran fever the WHOLE time we were there. I was up with him the first night we were there from 3:30 - 5 am. We got to watch some really bad storms come through town while we were up. He didn't really have any other symptoms until early Saturday morning (4ish) when his nose started leaking bright green "crud". Here is a pic of him snuggling with my dad at midnight the night that I was packing. He did not feel good! It was sad to see him not feeling well the entire time we were there. He ran his last fever the Sunday we flew back, but then Monday afternoon he was pulling on one of his ears. Even though he woke up happy on Tuesday I brought him to the doctor, and viola: double ear infections! I think that fluid from the cold got pushed back into his ears on the plane and then caused the ear infection about 24 hours later! We are on day 7 (of 10) for his antibiotics and he hasn't had Tylenol in a few days, so that is good.

While Ethan and I were in Louisiana Philip was busy making our new end table. This table has come about so that Philip and I can have flat surface area that is safe from the little one!
It has a finished bottom now too and seven coats of tongue oil! I'll post a finished picture on flickr soon.

This weekend we built a gazebo on our back deck. Here is a picture of Ethan watching Daddy assemble the outer frame.

I haven't taken a "finished" picture, but I'm sure I will soon. We also got a rug and a table and we are waiting on chairs to be in stock at Home Depot.

I've got one week of work left and then glorious summer (at least for one week before more work)!

One last thing! While in Lafayette Mrs. Cindy (Ethan's Mawmaw) bought Ethan a little stuffed Elmo. I just thought it would be fun for him to have a little Elmo since I want to have an Elmo themed first birthday party. He was immediately attached to it! He even cried when I had to hand Elmo to the cashier for her to scan it. Well, since then I have bought him and Elmo "straw" cups and an Elmo video.
He watched this video for about 7 minutes which is huge for an 11 month old. I don't ever encourage him to watch TV, but for those 7 minutes when Elmo was on TV, he was entranced.

I don't know if you can tell the difference between this picture and the one on top of it, but Ethan got a make over! Philip helped me use the shears to cut Ethan's hair. It is short now in the back and now he looks like a little boy! It looks so good, I'm excited that it came out so well.

Is "Uh-oh" a word?

So this week Ethan has not only just repeated the noise "Uh-oh" but used it as an actual expression. On Wednesday he threw a toy out of the tub and then said, "Uh-oh!" and then today while he was eating lunch he dropped his cup and said it again. Then, just to prove he knew what he was doing (and saying) he held his cup out over the side of his tray, said "Uh-oh!" and then dropped it. Usually this infuriates me, but this time he was too cute for me to be mad at him.

Anyway, what are your thoughts does "Uh-oh" count as a first word? Feel free to cast your vote on the right.

Auntie asked for some videos...and new things that Ethan can do!

Ethan does have several new things that he can do. One of his more spectacular new tricks is climbing stairs! This afternoon, after a particularly long silence, I found him on the third step from the top. YIKES! Disaster averted, although when I did catch him he smiled at me and tried to turn around and that was a bit scary. I guess we have now become a "gated community" as my friend Allison would put it.

He was actually higher than this when I found him this afternoon!

This is a video of him climbing up to bed and he cries a little because he is SO tired. I apologize for the landscape videoing. I forget that you can't rotate videos like you can pictures.

Climbing stairs is just one of his many vertical talents. He has also tried to climb up onto the fireplace and he can scale a 35 pound bag of dog food!

Ethan also has a new favorite toy. It is an old "pick-up" truck from his first cousins (once removed). He pushes it to....

and fro:

He gets so mad when it gets stuck on something or when he runs out of room. He has only figured out one or two times that he can just go around and push the truck from the front.

On Monday when Philip was at BSF Ethan decided to practice up on his guitar hero. I think he looks just like Philip (or Craig) in this picture!


Last, but not least, I wanted to share this recipe for "breakfast croutons" because Ethan is in love with them and I think they are super tasty also!


Note to Auntie: I tried to get a video of him clacking his tongue and or saying "uh-oh" and I have 4 unsuccessful videos to prove my effort!

"Milk please!" Our first sign!

This morning Ethan actually requested milk on his own without anyone prompting him. At first I thought there was no way that he could be hungry (he just ate an 8 ounce bottle 1.5 hours before). But after crying in his bed for awhile I decided to bring up a bottle to him. Sure enough he ate vigorously all while making the sign for milk.