EthanEthanStill not getting the updates out regularly, I know... What can I do??? Anyway, Ethan continues to be a very good boy, and there is a lot to talk about, so I'll get right to it.
First of all, Ethan has two teeth now. He has had them since late in November, but you are just now starting to be able to see them when he smiles and opens his mouth otherwise. They are sharp little buggers, and he is not quite used to them yet. Before he had teeth Ethan liked to take people's fingers and put them in his mouth while gumming them very hard. Well, he still likes to do that, but now he has two sharp little knives in there to slice up your flesh.
Ethan
has also been sitting up by himself for a couple of weeks now. The daycare
workers say that he has been infinitely happier since he has mastered this
ability, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that, for the first time
in four months, he isn't sick and coughing all the time. At any rate, he
loves to sit around and play with toys. He doesn't yet realize his limits
in that position as he always reaches for things that are out of his reach and
ends up on his face. That doesn't bother him much most of the time,
though, as he is getting much more comfortable on his stomach. In fact, he
isn't crawling yet, but he scoots around backwards all over the place. He
hasn't quite mastered getting to where he wants to go yet, but you can tell that
he wants to go somewhere and the only way he can coordinate is backwards.
Ethan and Barley continue to get along very well. Barley especially loves Ethan at dinner time. One of their more disgusting tricks is when Ethan gets a mouth full of food then bends over the side of the high chair and lets Barley lick it out. Ethan loves to watch Barley run around and be naughty, and occasionally barks at her (yes, Ethan barks at Barley). If Barley gets too close to Ethan and isn't fast enough, Ethan will grab a handful of hair or a foot and put it right into his mouth. Barley is a very good sport, though. Last night Ethan grabbed her ear and started pulling on it really hard. Barley just looked up at us and gave us a little whimper until we stopped the big mean boy. It was precious!
Ethan loves to play peek-a-boo, and has even figured out how to do it himself in the past weeks. He also likes to play airplane, but luckily hasn't quite figured that one out for himself.
Jenny and I are finally starting to get a sense of normalcy back into our lives as we recently broke Ethan of his "wake up a couple times a night" habit that has formed in the last couple of months. Once he turned 6 months old, we decided that it was time he started sleeping on his own, so we let him cry it out one night. He woke up around 3:00, as he had grown accustomed to, and started to cry. After making sure that he wasn't dying, we left him to wail it out, and wail he did, for about 45 minutes. When he was finished, we went into the room where we found him laying exhausted in a pile of his blankets and crib bumper. Since then, he has slept through the night each night. In fact, most mornings we have to wake him up to go to school. I never realized the true value of a full night of uninterrupted sleep!!!
That's about it for now. Next up is Christmas, where I'm sure we'll have a big update. Until then, thanks for reading.