The Days of Our Lives

A conversation with Emma...

Emma: Mommy, my mermaid knows all of her Days of Our Lives.

Mommy: She does?

Emma: Yup, she does!

NINE MONTHS!

Ethan turned nine months on 1/24/2009Sadly this is the best picture I could get with Manny this month

The other 20 I took looked something like this:

Poor Manny

Emma's head popping up

If you haven't noticed 9 months is a pretty active age. This little man has been keeping us on our toes. I find myself saying, "Boys are different" quite often. Ethan does things like crawl with his head down and goes until he bumps into something and then pulls himself up on it, dives out of high chairs, yanks every plug out of the wall, eats Polly Pockets like its his job, and other random bad boy things.

We did take him for his check up today and he is perfect! I know we are at the parenting age now because at one point we knew all 3 of the other moms in the waiting room. Anyway his stats are:

Weight: 20 lbs 11 ozs (50%)
Height: 28 1/8 inches (50%)
Head: HUGE (off the chart)

I knew his head was still huge because I always have to buy a size up in hats. It is growing at a consistent rate though so he is fine. With all of his tumbles it is probably better that he has such a large melon on there.

Here is Ethan's top 10 trick list:
1. Eats everything! As long as it is small and/or mushy he is all over it
2. Has the pincher grasp down
3. Can say "Dada" "MA!" "Em-ma" "Yeah"
4. Waves hi and bye
5. Crawls like a crazy man
6. Pulls himself up and surfs along furniture
7. Has 7 teeth, will the 8th ever show up, ugh!?
8. Knows exactly how to push Emma's buttons
9. Takes great naps
10. He can stand all by himself (we call it, Like a big boy) for a long time and actually took a step yesterday.

He is quite amazing and hard not to love (even when he is naughty). Emma is wonderful with him still, well most of the time anyway. She gets really excited for all of his milestones as we do. We are proud parents for sure!

Snow day fun!

Emma trying out her new snow shoes

Emma and Josh's fort

I think they are done!

Poor Ethan had to stay in with Mama.

Bad Blogger, I know.

You would think since I am barely working (yes, I am laid off once again) that I could keep up with this but I am just a bad blogger.

I will try really hard to update in the next few days. The news for the day is that Emma and I discovered a new tooth in Ethan's mouth this morning. It happened in Stop N Shop when Ethan bit his lip and started screaming. As I comforted him, in the first isle no less, and he screamed we had a clear view of a new tooth on the bottom. That make 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom. Another one can't be that far off.

More to come soon! Promise!

Another Playdate

Ethan showing Eve his new toys.

Sam

Teacher in training, Emma.

Dress up and Popsicles, what could be better?

Sam, Eve, and Emma

Thanks for looking!

Organizing Toys

I find it pretty hard to find a home for all of our toys right now. This is what my living room looks like on most days right now. I'll share how I organize some of our toys and maybe you can share some of your tips with me.


One big problem right now is this cottage in my living room. Emma loves it and plays with it every day. Once it is warmer in the playroom it will make its way down there too.


If you look close here you can see Ethan's little butt crawling away. We also need to get this train table down in the basement. It is HUGE!

I hide a lot of toys in the cabinet under the TV. It is good because it is low enough for Ethan to get to his stuff and deep enough for Emma bins of Barbies and Polly Pockets.

We have a TON of movies. They are all in the cabinet to the right of the toy one. I also keep all the cards that my kids receive in their first year. I don't know what I will do with them but for some reason I keep them. They are in there too.

The Playroom

We are lucky enough to have an almost finished playroom downstairs. Emma is at the age that she can go down there by herself which is nice. It is good for her to escape from the little man once in a while. We just need to put in a drop ceiling and it will be done.

Ethan's baby toys are in one area

That drawer thing next to the TV holds some of Emma's art supplies, video games/movies, and some small random toys.

I like these shelves a lot. I would like to pick up a few more. They are only about 2 and a half feet high so Emma can reach everything which means she can also put things away. I have that little Dora couch in front of the door because that is our storage room and we don't have to go in there a ton.


This is our additional toy storage in the back closet. Josh spent last summer installing these shelves in the small closet down there and some more in the storage room. I rotate toys in and out of here and on the white shelves. It is great because Emma doesn't have time to get bored of anything and we don't have to have all the toys out all the time.


Now I showed you mine so show me yours ;)

Our New Years and Beyond

We spent our New Years Eve at home with just the four of us. It was snowy and Emma was sick to her stomach a few days before so we just laid low. It was kind of nice to have the kiddos in bed by 9 and us just after midnight...ahh I'm such a grown up. I did miss my friends though, next year we will hang out again.

On 1/4/09 Jill hosted another playdate at her house. It was a little people gift exchange and it was really cute. I think Sam and Emma appreciated it the most. Emma us still talking about it.

Sam

Sam and Emma

Eve and Ethan

Emma, Sam and Ethan

Just because Emma is such a weirdo, I had to share this. She has really taken to decorating our house. She tells me all the time how we need to make things look pretty. The following is a picture of her decorating. She took the mat from her Biddy Baby changing table and turned it into a table runner and then accessorized. Could this child BE any more girly?