Sweep Away the Monsters

A couple of weeks ago after reading the book "Where the Wild Things Are" a few too many times, Ethan started having nightmares about monsters. He would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming, "the monsters are going to eat me all gone". Not fun, especially at 2am. Then it got to the point that he didn't want to go to bed either. He told me that the monsters were under his bed waiting for him. Where he got this idea from, I haven't a clue, but if there is one thing that I don't deal well with, it is bedtime battles. By the time I finish work, drive home, make dinner and clean up, the last thing I can handle is having a child that won't go to bed. So I set out to find a solution.

Luckily, one of my colleagues had a great one: the monster broom. I was armed with a new plan.

That night, I got a small broom out of the closet and shared my new knowledge with Ethan. "Ethan, mommy's friend at work told her that monsters are afraid of brooms. Right now we are going to sweep all of the monsters out of your room. Afterwards, we will leave the broom by your dresser so that they stay away. FOREVER."

I have to say, he looked a little skeptical when I swept the floor, but he did make sure I got underneath the whole bed. That night, when I tucked him in, I reminded him that the broom would keep the monsters away all night long. And voila, he went right to sleep, and didn't wake all night long. Amazing. Since then we have not had any issues. I am forever indebted my friend for the brilliant idea that allowed me to resume a peaceful night's sleep. Now lets hope he doesn't learn about witches!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

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!