11 months and on the move!

A day in the life of Ethan:

Morning in bed with Mommy and Daddy, with much searching for and delight in the treasure of found belly buttons...fulfilling Daddy's request for a kiss with a big, opened mouth kiss full of drool...playing the metal bowl and spoon symphony while Daddy prepares his breakfast before work...going head before hands onto the tile floor resulting in bruise to the forehead..."helping" Mommy put away clean, folded laundry...crawling under his dresser to retrieve toys he tosses off from the changing table, only to get stuck trying to get out...exploring Mommy's sock drawer and pinching his fingers...pulling his own socks off and squealing with delight...turning off the light switch before we leave any room...playing under the barstools in the kitchen while Mommy cooks, pulling himself onto his knees and nearly flipping over the footrest on the stool...racing to crawl into the fridge every time the door is opened...bath time filled with splashing and laughing as Daddy launches foam sea animals off the side of the tub...pj's, brushing teeth, stories, and milk before sweet sleep.

Needless to say, Mommy and Daddy have been much busier lately! Ethan started crawling (after some persistent encouragement from Grandpa Urban) in mid-August and is now quite proficient. We have enjoyed (for the most part) seeing him get an idea and then be able to execute it. With his new found freedom, we are also working on learning to obey the word "no".

We had great visits this month with Betsy's parents and with Eric's sister, Krista, and her family. OK, so Eric had a fever of 102 for his sisters visit and the home of good friends burned that day, but Krista, Mark and the kids were very understanding. We also enjoyed our first vacation as a family to Cape Cod. See our separate post for videos of Ethan playing in the surf, going down the slide, and picking his first NY apple.

The video below captures a few of Ethan's most recent skills. We've had quite a few firsts this month: clapping, flipping a light switch off, eating mashed potatoes with a spoon (he really enjoys having silverware at the table despite not be able to use it proficiently yet), going to the beach, and crawling!


As for us, we are settling back into life after vacation. We have enjoyed a bountiful raspberry harvest for most of August, and are still getting a lot of tomatoes, chard, acorn squash, zucchini, and cucumbers from the garden. The first signs of fall are arriving in NY: trees are beginning to change color and cooler weather has arrived. We made homemade applesauce for our date tonight and enjoyed apple crisp, cider and cider donuts this week too!