This and That

Well, I'm still not thinking in a very linear fashion so I thought a blog entry of odds and ends would be fun. :)

He is getting so long! Sleeping toddlers & babies are lovely. I love how he sleeps next to - or on - his blanket.

Ethan is learning to say "no," but hasn't yet learned the true meaning so we end up with fun little interactions like at the restaurant yesterday. I took the soy sauce away from him and moved it across the table while saying "no, no, no." He looked at me and grinned and said, "no, no, no" in a fun sing-songy voice!

"Look mom, I can take out my icky diaper can and strew the diapers all over my room!"

I'm having a terrible time keeping Ethan from hitting the cat with things. Whatever he finds to carry around also seems game to thwack the cat with. The cat though does not run away, so my sympathy for her is lessened.

Ethan is now our little climber. He can climb up and down his changing table now. Don't worry, he's only allowed to do these feats with parental supervision.

Life/culture here is different. It seems like it should be the same but it just isn't! There isn't any major difference but there are bunches of small ones. For instance, when I call somewhere here I'm often put on hold, and the hold "music" is two beeps. The first time I heard it I thought maybe another call was coming in or that I'd been cut off!

We miss Winco, Cash & Carry, and Costco. There is a Sam's Club here, but so far nothing like the other two.


Ethan LOVES helping me move things! Nothing is too small. Today it was a box, two days ago a large bookshelf. He is very angry if I stop for a break; somehow he senses that it's only a break, because once it's in the final spot he happily runs off to find something else to play with.

I have music playing in the background and Ethan will stop to do a little dance. It's more of a sway, but very cute.

This is a little video of a happy fellow dancing and playing. Can you see it?

Today Ethan figured out how to play the piano with his behind. It was a very loud performance!

One of my current challenges is finding things. We weren't expecting to still be living out of boxes three months into our time here and it is driving me a bit batty! For example, while Ethan is asleep I want to read some of my favorite books that I packed in the "open soon" pile of boxes...that I now can't find! Nor can we find our bathroom box with my makeup and TJ's clippers. It's warm here and swimming would be fun, but where are the swimsuits? And so we go! Half our things are in my parents garage and half are in storage and I think some that belong in the garage must have accidentally gone into storage.

Ethan seems to have thrown away my round brush, and between that and the humidity here my hair is pretty wild these days!

We visited the Smucker's headquarters near where TJ's family lives. Smuckers owns a LOT of brands!

Ethan does NOT like water. At all. Not even a little. We want to go swimming and yet if he gets near a pool he just screams his little head off. So I guess once we go swimming we'll have to take turns!

I am now 12 weeks pregnant. Based on the whole two weeks pregnant before you are really pregnant we can date this child to our trip to Ohio. God has funny timing.

Yesterday I got a call from our Oregon dentist asking if I wanted to keep my appointment on the 16th. Another loose end!

We have headphones to listen to the tv/computer and talk on Skype phone. Ethan thinks they are super!