Inside

Here are some of the ways we've played inside this winter:

Dressing up in Daddy's rugby jersey.

Legos

Trucks, Loaders, Backhoes

Art

Music

Stuffing things into snowtires and lying on top.

Cooking

Feeding Nana's dog

Tools
(This file is only an emblem of the many tools that Jeremy and Ethan use. Ethan lives for the moment when the toolbox comes open.)

Run Jump

How Ethan unwinds before bed every night.

Ethan the Photographer

Great Bear Cabin

Jeremy and I took our first ever overnight away from Ethan last week, in the short 3-day break between semesters for me. Nana and Ethan had a slumber party while Jeremy and I camped out in a rustic cabin owned by the Dartmouth Outing Club. I remember hearing about cabins and woods owned by Dartmouth during my medical school interview and thinking that I would love to explore these outdoorsy gems - but medical school and toddlerhood have taken up my time and then hasn't been much roughing it lately. Until now!

After a most tearful goodbye with Ethan at daycare (he clearly understood that we were going away and this was something very different than usual), we drove about an hour to a little trailhead along the Appalachian Trail at the base of Mount Moosilauke. We snowshoed to Great Bear Cabin, dropped our stuff, ditched the snowshoes because the trail was so well packed and hiked the mountain in the most incredible 50 degree February weather I could have wished for. Clear skies, snow covered trees, steep ascents, quiet. It was lovely.

We slid a fair amount of the way back down on our haunches, for fun and speed (how we wished for sleds!), got back to the cabin at dusk, built a fire, read books, chowed down a dinner that we cooked on the wood-stove, and relished the chance to go to bed whenever we wanted, with no kiddo to worry about. This freedom inspired us to stay up to the late hour of 9 PM! The cumulative fatigue of school and parenting and climbing a mountain clearly caught up with us.

The next morning we lazed, played scrabble, read, ate, and drove home to find a perfectly happy two year old napping peacefully. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Video Montage! (3 of 3)

In this, our final installment of the Ethan toddler montage, we look at some of the quieter moments, the pauses in the chaos, the eyes of the storms.



This is a simple video of Ethan eating lunch at the Montshire Museum of Science, where we go at least 3 times a month. It is remarkable because Ethan almost never sits down, even to eat.




This is Ethan doing one of his absolute favorite things, painting with his mama. Sure, he loves painting, but he loves painting with his mama most of all.




Recently, my brother-in-law Dane, moved to Stowe, VT and one of his dog's Azlan, went to stay with Ethan's Nana. This is Ethan giving Azlan a treat. Incidentally, this video is Ethan's favorite to watch.




I have a feeling this video will be one I will keep looking at for years to come. This is Ethan helping me read he newest favorite book, Miss Bindergarten gets Ready for Kindergarten, He is even better at reading it now and can say, more or less, what each of the students do to get ready for Kindergarten.

Video Montage! (2 of 3)

In this installment of the video montage, we look at Ethan as a young filmmaker. I will say upfront that I did not coach or help him in anyway. This is his own work.



From his early period...


A return to the simplicity of his earlier work...



A short work on a subject all toddlers love, socks...

and some making of...

Video Montage! (1 of 3)

[Jeremy] Dan and Marcelle (my brother and sister-in-law) gave us a Flip camera from Christmas last year. Since then, we have all been making little videos from time to time. Yes, it is so easy to use, Ethan has been making videos as well (there are some sample below). I have not done a good job of posting them in a timely fashion, so here is a bunch of videos from the past few months.


Ethan loves equally music and working with his hands. Tuning my guitar seems to just about the perfect blend of both. (Yes, that's a real tuner in his hands.)


Ethan also loves working with anything technical or electronic. Here, he is alternating between listening to Bob Marley on the TV speakers and his headphones. (He does this quite often.)


On Mondays we go to the "Bouncy House" at a local senior center. It turns out this is the place to be for toddlers in this area (folks say "The Upper Valley" around here). One week we got there first and Ethan got to turn on the fan to inflate the bouncy house. He was exhilarated!



...bouncing in the bouncy house...