Thanksgiving: Outsourced.

Well, this Thanksgiving weekend, both Jason and I are working. I am on call from home for all four days, and Jason worked Thursday during the day, and for 24 hours on Friday. Ugh!!

This meant we couldn't head to Sonoma for Thanksgiving dinner at the Greenbergs. :( It also meant we needed childcare on Thursday and Friday when the daycare was closed.

Solution: send Ethan to Sonoma for Thanksgiving dinner with the family, while we work.
Thank goodness for family!


Jason and I even managed to go out on Thanksgiving for dinner when he was done at 6pm. Most restaurants were closed, other than the ethcnic ones, so we went out for Indian food!
I was actually surprised at how croweded the place was considering it was Thanksgiving night.....almost every table was taken.



Today, Ethan returned from his vacation in Sonoma. He said it was a good get-away. :)

Visit to Chicago

Last week, Ethan and Dad took a trip to Chicago to visit the Ferschl's.


Mom joined on Thursday.

Ethan did pretty well on the plane and had lots of fun at grandma and grandpa's house.



We visited great-grandma Ferschl, and saw the exteneded Ferschl clan for Friday fish fry.


Also got to celebrate and early Thanksgiving/belated birthday for grandma/early birthday for Jason.



A nice trip, and we beat the holiday travel rush!!

The terrible twos are coming!

Ethan isnt even 2 yet, but were getting a sense of why the phrase "terrible twos" was coined. Ever since his language has improved, he's become very demanding. The development of the word "mine" in the past few weeks hasn't helped either.

When we dont respond to him, he repeats the word louder and louder. He can go on FOREVER! And when we still dont respond they way he wants, he has a complete temper tantrum. Today's walk went something like this:
"Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, WAAAAAH"
The joys of parenting. Sigh.

Trick or Treat

Last weekend, Ethan went on his first trick or treat adventure. It started with a pizza party at a friends house. Ethan is the short one on the end!



Ethan was a bit younger than the other kids, but held his own. He was able to walk up to different houses by himself - grab candy out of the bucket, then come back to dad and mom! He lasted about six houses and of course mom and dad inspected the treats carefully (read: ate) after it was all over.

Halloween Parade

Friday was the school's Halloween parade. All the kids made their own costumes in class--the school's theme for the parade was "nature". Ethan's class dressed up as leaves.

Since Ethan and his classmates are really still a bit young to parade in any sort of an organized fashion (especially around the city streets), they got to sit in a buggy. Next year, he'll get to walk.


Grandma and Grandpa Greenberg, and Great-Aunt Marcy were able to come watch the parade too--Marcy even dressed up--as octomom!

Halloween Preview

This weekend, we took Ethan to a Halloween picnic that was put on by a local mom's group. We have had lots of rainy weather recently, but luckily the rain held of for a few hours on Saturday morning so we could go outside.

Ethan wore his costume--what we are calling a "mariachi musician" to make it slightly more PC. But really, we have him dressed as a Mexican--with a poncho and a sombrero. Uncle Jeff actually picked the costume up for Ethan last year when he was in Mexico--so it is authentic!

And I think, pretty darn cute. It was certainly original--most of the kids were monkeys or lions from old navy or target--Ethan was certainly the only Mexican!

Anyhow, he had fun. His favorite activity was jumping around in a bouncy house (his first time). Initially he did not want to go inside, but one he warmed up to the idea, we had trouble getting him out!

We plan to at least trying out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood next weekend...stay tuned!

School Days

Ethan has been in school for almost 2 months now. He seems to love it. Everyday he comes home completly dirty--evidence of a lot of fun!! Usually both of his shoes are filled with sand, and his outfit has been changed.



He seems to be bonding with his classmates--he can even say some of their names!


Speaking of which, his verbal skills are really advancing--everyday he seems to come home with a new word. Our favorite so far is "applesauce", which he says really fast--it sounds so funny!

Anyhow, enjoy these pictures that his teachers took of him at school!