Party Weekend!

It has been a busy weekend! Yesterday we had a party for about 15 kids and 30 adults to celebrate Ethan's birthday. We got super-lucky with the weather and were able to have it outside--the high yesterday was 65!

A few of our balloons got away, if you look really closely, you can seem them floating above Mt. Tam.

We held the party at a park by our house, and even rented a jumpy house--which was a huge hit with the 3-year-old crowd. Jason actually went in it too and said it was so tiring! Needless to say, Ethan took a great nap afterwards.

In the evening, we went down to the city to celebrate great-grandpa's 87th birthday! Had a yummy dinner, and a second round of cake. Talk about sugar overload. But we are very thankful that we got to celebrate with him!

And today, we are having some friends over for a superbowl party....

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ethan!

Today, we are celebrating Ethan's 3rd birthday! Amazing, I cannot believe he is 3!!!

A list of his favorites on his third birthday:

Favorite color: pink
Favorite shape: triangle
Favorite friend: Shelby
Favorite dinner: french toast (we made it tonight!) or chicken tikka masala, depending when you ask.
Favorite toy: Pepito, his stuffed monkey
Favorite TV show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Favorite song: wheels on the bus


We realized tonight as we were celebrating that this is the fourth different home that we have celebrated in since he was born--I cant believe how transient we have been. The next birthday will be a new home too, but hopefully that will be the last new place for a long time!

This is the first birthday that he seems to understand. He told all his school friends that it was his birthday, and was so excited all day long. For a present, we gave him a little piano, which so far has been a big hit.

Happy Birthday, Ethan. We love you!

Ethan the Hiker

Well, we have been fortunate to have a lot of free weekends recently, and also lucky to have had some nice weather. Since we still don't have possession of our house (hopefully our "renters' will move out in a month or so), and we dont have to spend the weekends looking at new houses, we have found a new way to fill up the free time: hiking.

Ethan has actually done pretty well with this, all things considered.
Today we headed out to cascade canyon waterfall. I stumbled across this hike on the internet. It is only about 5 miles from where we live! A quick 0.6 mile takes you to this beautiful waterfall. Ethan made it out and back all by himself.

A few weekends ago, we headed to Point Reyes, a national recreation area that is also nearby (about 45 min or so). We hiked out to the lighthouse, and Ethan made it both down and UP the 400+ stairs. I was impressed, having thoughts that we'd have to carry him back up!
But a promise of a special treat seemed to be motivation enough, and he made it.

At the bottom, Jason even caught glimpse of a grey whale. It is whale watching season here. Ethan and I were inside the lighthouse and missed it :(. Jason snapped a good picture though:

So, Ethan really is becoming the little hiker. We are, I think, done with the stroller for good!

Completely unrelated, check out the fawn that was eating breakfast on our patio this morning:

Funny to see in such an urban area, but Marin has a big deer population due to the large amount of nearby open space preserve.

Vocabulary

Ethan's vocabulary is growing each day, and I am constantly amazed by the new words he learns. Sometimes, he even makes them up!

On Thursday, we were driving home after school. We were getting some much needed rain, so we were discussing the weather...how it was foggy and rainy, not sunny etc. Then Ethan asks me: "mommy is it mooney?" I was like "huh"? He repeated himself,"yeah, mooney, like when the moon is out." !!
No bad reasoning skills huh?
So trying to supress my laughs I told him that it was not mooney out, since the clouds were covering up the sky!
funny how a almost 3-year-old brain works!

Time-sense

I remember when I was a little girl how time went by...so slowly. A lunch hour at school seemed to stretch on for a long time, a six hour car trip was pure agony, and a weekend could last forever. Now as I am older, time ticks by so much faster. My lunchtime is done before I start eating, and a weekend flies by so fast I am left at the end of it wondering where it went.

Lately I have had some insight into Ethan's perception of time--it is equally slowed. Every once in awhile before he goes for a nap, he demands pajamas and a bath, and other days when he wakes up from his nap he demands breakfast. To him, I think, each of our days is like 2 days. Which would explain why it seems to him that this last three day weekend was never ending, while I cannot believe it is over! It also makes me wonder if he thinks that when he goes to school he spends two days there while we are at work.

We have tried to help him understand that the afternoon is not a new day, by teaching him the phrases "it's morning time, and the sun is rising" or "good afternoon". He will repeat them happily, but they seems to still be just phrases, and he doesn't really concretely understand "a day" in the same way we do.

Its funny to think of how one's sense of time changes as we age, and also how as we get busier and busier, time seems to go by faster and faster. Too bad we don't appreciate it when we are young!

California

Well, our state has some benefits....today is Jan 8 and we spent the day at the beach! Stinson beach, to be exact. It is about a 30 min drive from where we live. Ethan had a blast jumping in the sand.

By lunch time, it was even warm enough to take our jackets off (low 60s).

We took a picinic and ate on the sand. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday!

Christmastime

Ethan and I just got back from Christmas in Chicago. We were lucky to have good weather (although somewhat disappointed there was not a white Christmas) and smooth flights. Dad stayed in San Francisco, stuck working :(

While in Chicago, we celebrated with grandma and grandpa, as well as Uncle Jeff and his fiancee Janice. We also had the chance to visit great-grandma in Milwaukee.

Also visited with some of Mom's friends, Janet and Matt (and their 3 kids) as well as Meredith, Valerie and Karen (college friends). Ethan especially loved playing with Meredith's twin boys, Andrew and Nicholas. They hit it off immediately and had so much fun together.

One day we checked out the Christmas train exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. They build replicas of Chicago's famous landmarks out of plant material (branches, leaves, etc) and have trains running through them. Ethan enjoyed it!

Favorite Christmas presents included a tool workbench and tools from Uncle Jeff and a bike from Grandma and Grandpa. Ethan is getting really good at the bike (video coming soon!)

Another favorite was a pair of drinking straw glasses:

Also, grandpa bought Ethan a new winter jacket--which matches his! How cute are they!

Now that we live north of the city, the weather is colder, so he'll get good use out of it! Overall, a very Merry Christmas.