Sitting on the counter

It seems like a silly thing to make a blog post about, but it is the kind of thing I want to be reminded of when I forget.  Often when Ethan is sick, he wants to be held, what child doesn't.  But, when I need to cook or do the dishes he wants to stay up at my eye level so he often asks to be set on the counter while I work.  Its just one of those sweet things...

Little Chemist

Ethan's love of mixing things began long ago with pouring water from one glass to another.  When we discovered color mixing at the Montshire Museum of Science, we reached the next level.  Then, not to long ago when I decided to show him what happens when you mix and acid and a base (vinegar and baking soda), we reached yet another level of mixing fun.  Until today, we had been doing our mixing and what not with makeshift equipment -- but no longer.  Thanks to Uncle Dan (and Fischer Scientific) we have an assortment of pipettes, bottles, and test tubes.  Below are some pictures of Ethan using the new equipment. Thanks Uncle Dan!

Getting the hang of using the new pipettes...

Mixing up some good quality red water...

Mixing up...

...some blue water.

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I was going for a mad scientist kinda of picture... I kinda got it...

Holidays with the Holidays

Making Stockings
This family activity turned into alot of grumpy mama telling Ethan to stop messing with the sewing machine. Soon I will either learn to sew only at night or Ethan will gain a little more sewing machine safety awareness. Or maybe I'll just chill out. Ha, fat chance!
Also, note preggo belly.

Jeremy and Ethan Get a Tree

Night Train

Advent: 25 Days of Fun
Some highlights include cookie cutters, tickets to Nutcracker ballet, real nutcracker, candy cane, making a wreath, watching a Christmas movies, Hannukah candles, sledding, making clay ornaments, and much more. It was such a rare treat to have a few nights of good old fashioned craftiness making the envelopes and little hidden surprises.

Christmas Morning: Lots of Loot
Amazing gifts from Nana, Pappy and Santa include construction worker outfit, harmonica holder and drum (read: one man band), electric train and Leap Pad tag reader. Stuffed Woody toy (which Ethan refers to as "my Woody teddy!"), Chutes and Ladders, build-your-own wooden windmill and tractor, and tiny ornaments are also popular.

Festival of Lights: Fire, Friends and Hot Chocolate

The Polar Express

Thanks to the DMS Partner's Group, we rode the Polar Express this Sunday. We are thankful that Ethan was not as terrified of Santa this time as the last time we tried to meet the jolly old fellow (that encounter ended in tears and screaming pleas to "leave now! leave now!). We are also glad that the trip was breif and we made it back home in time for nap. Once we got home, Ethan shoveled his lunch and then fell asleep immediately. Clearly wearing jammies outside, riding a real train, eating sugar cookies and meeting Mr. Claus is enough excitement for one morning.

Ok, I'll be Aragorn and you... what's that... Oh, you're making soup... cool.

I had intended to write about the following on the day that it happened, but time got away from me... Anyway, here is the scene:

So, we live by some pretty awesome woods... Jody walks to school/work through them most mornings when she is at DHMC... I have jogged in them many times... and Jody and I have taken several hikes through them. The several times I have tired to take Ethan into the forest, he is reluctant and gives up when we hit the first difficult walking. I had made a vow at the beginning of the summer to spend lots of time in the forest. It was not to be, however. I had grand plans, though... we were gonna fix up a little bridge, build a little house, and create a whole little world... The few times the weather and the fickle muses of timing and motivation saw fit to shine on us, Ethan would make it as far the medium brush and just cry "Daddy I need help," which would quite quickly turn into "I wanna go home" ... and shortly thereafter we would go home.

So, it's middle to late Fall and I just decide one afternoon that Ethan and I are going to have a forest adventure. The weather was good and Ethan was itching for a new adventure (other parents might call this being bored). We put on our jackets and headed out to the woods. It took us a little bit to find the right place to cross the stream and enter the edge of the forest, but we eventually did. We spent some time picking up various sticks and testing them for quality by smacking them against trees. Ethan was into this, which boded well for the rest of the trip.

Well-chosen sticks in hand, we headed into the medium brush and, as always, Ethan got stuck. He called out "Daddy, I need help." "Are you having a hard time getting through the brush?" I asked him. "Yes!" he whined. "Well, then just knock them down with your stick," I said, matter-of-factly. "That's the joy of coming out here to the woods, Ethan," I said, "hitting things with sticks." I then held my stout stick like I learned in Kendo class and went on a rampage slicing various dry weeds like a Samurai warrior fighting furiously through a host of enemies. "God I love this," I say to myself.

I look back at Ethan and is trying to fling weeds out of the way while holding his stick with one hand. I tell Ethan that he should use two hands and swing it as hard as he can. Then, I swear I saw a glint flash from the corner of his eye, and he raised his stick up in the air with two hands and started chopping innocent brush like the mad child that he is, like the human incarnation of entropy showing the world what's what.

I exaggerate of course, but once he started whacking those weeds as hard as he could, he never looked back. We spent 3 hours galavanting around the forest. We kept upgrading our sticks. I would find a good one, and Ethan would want it, so we would trade. Then I would find another one and we would trade back, and so on... It was SO much fun. After I had gathered some small sticks to use as throwing knives and was attacking a giant dead tree from a distance (to get it's attention before closing in for the kill)... it was a forest giant, by the way... I found Ethan with his excited face asking me to come and see. "Come look, daddy," he said. I followed him up the knoll a little ways and he showed me an old fallen pine tree that had gotten soft. Using a stick, he had hollowed out a little section and made a little bowl out of one end of the tree. He had then gathered some moss, little sticks, and tree bark to make soup. To top it off, he had also gotten some medium sized sticks to "build a small fire" beneath his tree-bowl to cook the soup. I just smiled and gave him a big hug.

For the better part of an hour, I adventured around the rocks and trees of our little knoll like Aragorn battling Uruk-hai and Ethan worked on improving his tree-bowl and finding new ingredients for his soup. I couldn't have been happier. I played like I hadn't since my parents died and I was forced to leave the lush, adventurous forest I had grown up with. And Ethan started to learn to love the forest and learn what joys can be had there. It was one of the few times when parenting Ethan felt perfect.

Skiing

After three years, I finally figured out how you can get functional ski gear without having to spend a fortune (at stores I would be in otherwise). Step one was to ask a friend of mine who had been skiing for a while to find out what I actually needed (and what all to look for in general). Step two (oh you crucial step two) was to go to a ski swap. I knew I was where it was at when I showed up 30 minutes early to the swap and was already 100th in line... It was like the member picnic at the Willy Street COOP (Madison, Woot!). Anyway, I was "focused like a lazer beam" (thanks again Mark Minett for the phrase) when the doors opened and I dodged some elbows to snag boots, skis and poles for Ethan to the tune of $24. More over, after some lengthy perseverating (the black pair or the gray pair... enh... the gray pair or the black pair) I finally got a pair of cross-country ski boots that work the the skis I took from the trash 2 winters ago.

I went cross country skiing for the first time last Saturday and I just loved it. Below are some pictures of Ethan on is 2nd or 3rd time out on his skis. I thought he did a really good job. He had fun, but he also got cold and few down a few times. I took him out later that week and we skied a little bit together.

Thanksgiving, 2011, big day for a little guy...

I had hoped to make a bigger post out of this, but time has gotten away from me and it is already 2012.

This past Thanksgiving Ethan past a big mile stone and had his first sleep over without his mama and papa.  We drove to nana's house in Center Barnstead for some of her famously good turkey and then Jody and I left and Ethan spent the night with nana and pappy.  

Jody and considered it a date and we went to see the 4th Twilight movie and had a great time.  We also had a WONDERFUL breakfast the next day and Lou's and then I drove out to pick Ethan up in Concord nana (in her new blue Honda CRV).

Everyone had a great time and I was happy that Ethan got to a more intimate part of the canvas of his nana's daily life.  I grew up 100 ft from my grandmother's house and I saw her almost everyday.  Being far from family is something tugs deeply on my heart and to see nana be such a big part of Ethan's life brings me great joy.