2 weeks down . . .

I forgot to rotate this first picture . . . but this was her dress for her first day of church last Sunday. The bldg was freezing, so she was wrapped in a blanket the whole time. So no one really got to see her darling dress. And as you can see, she is quite upset that no one saw it. :) Chubby little cheeks and a cute bow . . . that only lasted about 10 minutes before Ethan ripped it off her head. I guess he doesn't like bows.

Ethan likes to climb up in the bouncer with her to kiss her head - and in this picture, he climbed up and layed next to her to cuddle. He is not a cuddler himself. His first "kiss" that he gave anyone was to Emeree. And he will only really cuddle with me when he's sick. So I secretly enjoy when he's sick because he will cuddle with me.

Santa Photos

Debbie and I went to the mall yesterday to get a Santa photo. The line was long, but it just seemed like adults and strollers were taking up all the space and we thought we would get through quite fast . . . boy were we wrong. Two and a half hours later, we were finally next in line. And when we pulled Ethan out of the stroller, he had wet his pants really bad! So we had him sit on Debbie's scarf so he didn't soil Santa's suit. Ethan and Emeree did really well waiting in line that long. We just had to take Ethan on a few walks around the food court in the stroller and I had to run out to the car to feed Emeree - but other than feeding and distracting them, they didn't seem to mind being in line that long.

Here's Ethan's picture from last year (2008) when he was 9 months old. He didn't like the experience that much.

*Our scanner is in storage at the moment, so I had to take a picture of the pictures. Here's the photo for this year. Ethan was acting a little scared and nervous. But that made for a cute picture where he is crossing his hands and ankles. Emeree just stared off to the side - oblivious to the fact that Santa was holding her. Her dress was adorable, but she blended in with Santa's suit too well.

Emeree Jane Gerke

Emeree was born at 12:07am on Dec. 2nd. She decided to come earlier than her scheduled c-section that was supposed to be around noon instead. So she made me go into labor and experience the "joy" of contractions.

Here she is with the hat that Becky knit for her. And it's fun to see her in normal clothes instead of the boring white shirt that the hospital has her in. So we had a photo shoot in cute clothes today.

Becky and Emma came up yesterday to see us in the hospital - it was fun to see her excited and holding her hand.

Ethan liked to pet her face and the hat. He also "honked" her nose, but we didn't catch that in the pictures. He's wearing his "big brother" shirt that I made for him since he's a proud big brother. And we didn't even have to tell him the be gentle with her. On his own he was softly petting her and smiling at her.

Here's our new little family of 4. I'm normally the tannest one in the family, but I look like a pale, white ghost. Ethan looks a lot bigger; he just seems so much older now that we have a newborn too.

Here she was as they were pulling her out. We have a similar picture of Ethan when he was born as well, so it's kinda fun to have these pictures.

Wearing her Christmas hat from the hospital instead of the standard blue and pink hat.

List of Words

Before I forget or become crazy busy with the baby on the way . . . I thought I would document Ethan's vocabulary so far.

1. Hi
2. No or uh-uh
3. Wow
4. Dad or Da
5. Mom
6. Go - I think he got this from me. When I'm trying to get him to leave a room with me, I say "let's go" and he runs out of the room. But now he says "go!" a lot. Today, he kept telling me to "go!!!" every time I stopped at a red light.
7. Shhhh - he actually puts his finger to his mouth to shhh us or the dog next door (he shh's the dog on his own, but he doesn't do it at home unless we do it first).
8. See ya - this one he used to only say when Michael was leaving for work in the mornings (followed by Ethan slamming the door shut on Daddy). Now he says it whenever he leaves the room - just to walk down the hall or going around the corner. He also waves while saying "see ya."
9. Shoe - he says this when he brings me one of his shoes or my shoes (right now it's my favorite one of his words) He says it about 4-5 times in a row and doesn't move his mouth from the pursed position so he stays frozen and says it several times.
10. Choo-choo - he says this when he's playing with his trains or if he sees a train on t.v.
11. Rrraaar - don't know how to spell that, but he growls when he sees a dinosaur or grabs one of his dino toys.
12. Quack - when he plays with his bath duck that's the temperature gauge thing.
13. Yeah - this one is rare, but we're trying to get him to say yeah when he wants something. He finally started shaking his head "yes" when I ask him questions like "do you want some milk." He used to always shake his head "no" for everything.
14. Cheese - he will only say this word if he is standing on the fireplace tiles because we took his picture there once and Michael said "cheese" right before he took the picture. Now Ethan runs to the fireplace, turns around, puts his hands behind his back and says "cheese," and he will keep saying it until I put my hands up like a fake camera and say "click, click" then he runs straight at me for a "hug" - Ethan's version of a hug is just leaning against us - he keeps his arms straight at his side.

Halloween

For Halloween, Ethan was Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Lorelai was Dorothy, so they were a cousin pair from the movie. My Mom made the costumes for Ethan and both my nieces Emma and Lorelai. I don't think she'll keep that tradition when there are more than 3 grandkids.

Here's Ethan with Michael at our Ward's Trunk-or-Treat party the day before Halloween. Ethan never acted scared at the spooky trunks. But he never smiled either. He just sat in Michael's arms lifeless the whole time. But I guess that's better than fussy the whole time.
Here's Ethan eating his first apple whole. He decided to take a single bite about every 2 inches around the top . . .

I was surprised Ethan kept the hood and hat on the whole time without trying to rip them off, but I think the model train set that was at the activity helped. He kept staring at the trains and saying "choo choo". When we tried the costume on him at home the day before, he hated it and cried the whole time and kept waving his hands around. He mostly hated the fringe around the wrists. But he didn't seem to even notice it at the Halloween Party.

For Halloween, we had a get together at my Grandma's house. Here is Ethan and Lorelai (Scarecrow and Dorothy)

We couldn't get better pictures since Ethan kept trying to run away and wouldn't stay put for a single picture. Below is Charlie (my cousin's son) and Emma (my other niece) as characters from a cartoon called Avatar. I think their character names were Ang and Kitara (I've never seen the show, but that's what I remember them calling eachother all night.)

Nap Time Mischief

Ethan has been fighting his nap the last couple days, and I heard a strange noise a few minutes ago, so I peeked in his room. This is what I found . . .

He threw his mattress and blankets out of the crib and was stomping on the wood base. His poor penguin was also a casualty.

Now I'm worried he'll figure out that he can bunch the mattress up in the crib and use it as a stool to get out. Maybe there's a way to tie the mattress down to the crib - there are holes in the base board, so that might work if he keeps doing this.

Walking in Daddy's Shoes

Michael was getting dressed to go to a Priesthood Leadership Meeting tonight, and he sat his shoes on the chair while he put his socks on. Ethan ran up and put the shoes on his hands and then ran down the hall. It was cute, but . . .

then he put them down and put his feet in them. They are heavy, heavy shoes, so Ethan couldn't walk in them, but he looked adorable wearing them.

Pumpkin Carving

I carved Ethan's pumpkin, and then I handed it to him to try and get pictures . . . he thought he was funny sticking the carving knife in the stem of the pumpkin. Don't worry - these knives are duller than a spoon.

After looking inside the pumpkin, Ethan tried to re-carve the areas I had already carved. It made for cute pictures.

Michael found an idea online that he was eager to try. But I don't think his mom will appreciate it. She bought us a tiny pumpkin for the "baby-to-be" . . . and this is what Michael did to it.

And that wasn't the end. After he drilled the eye holes and cut a frown, it's final resting place was inside the mouth of his giant pumpkin. Sorry Debbie. He's your son, so you're probably not surprised.
Mine was a white pumpkin with the bat. I carved the same face in Ethan's pumpkin as I did last year . . . I think it's cute, and it's fast - since I had to carve 2 pumpkins.

Next year, I may try something different for Ethan's. I found an idea online where someone spraypainted their kid's pumpkin with chalkboard paint so the kid could draw different faces on it and wipe it off and keep going. I think as a 2 year old (almost 3 year old), he may enjoy that.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Spooner Farms this year to pick our pumpkins. It was raining all day, but luckily it stopped right when we pulled in the parking lot. So we didn't get rained on. But the ground was super muddy. The car almost got stuck trying to pull in and out of the parking spot, and there was mud everywhere.

Luckily, Becky and her family were just leaving when we were starting, so we switched shoes (she had rain boots on) we don't wear the same size, but it was close enough.

There are so many to choose from . . . which one should I get?
I was off looking for my perfect white pumpkin, and Ethan apparently picked out this pumpkin that looks like a bum - but I suspect that Michael had some influence in that pumpkin choice. But I had already found a good one that I was going to carve for Ethan, so I put the bum back.

Pushing the wheelbarrow

Holding the mini-pumpkin that is for the baby on the way . . .

Early start at gaming

Last night, Michael was playing XBox online with my brothers, dad, and cousin. He usually starts after Ethan is in bed, but this time they started the game early. Of course, Ethan wanted the headphones. So I grabbed the camera quickly . . .

He's not normally "without shirt" (especially in this chilly weather we've been having), but I was in the middle of putting his pajamas on when he ran for the headphones. And since I'm monstrously pregnant, he can out run me . . . and he knows it too. He runs from me whenever I try to grab something from him that he shouldn't have or when I'm trying to get his jacket on to go out.

Trains, Trains and more Trains

Ethan loves anything with wheels, but trains are definately his vehicle/toy of choice. We were over at the Gerke's house yesterday and came home with a wooden train set that was Michael's when he was a baby. They look like they are handmade and the person who made them wrote his name and "1978" on the bottom. They have dowels on the ends that connect them together, so Ethan is actually able to connect them on his own.
For some reason, this week he keeps laying on the floor to play with his toys, but he keeps putting his feet under the couch each time. It's a tight fit, so he has to squeeze his little ankles in there, but for some reason, he likes it.

Green Rocker

We picked up Lorelai from school last week, so she got to play with Ethan for a while. They both kept climbing on this green rocker together - it was so cute!And then Ethan doesn't like it when someone goes in a room and closes the door without him in there too. My mom was in the bathroom and Ethan kept knocking and then when she didn't open the door, he decided to peep under the door to see what was going on.