Children's Museum...so much fun!!!

Today we met Hunter and Peyton at the Children's Museum. It was the first time we had been there and all three boys had a BLAST running and playing with so many things. There was a Bob-The-Builder room, a water room, a tree house, a construction room, a grocery store, a baby room, a bus stop, a music room, a theater dressing room, and so many more...we will definitely be making another trip.






Play in the water....I LOVE the water.

Climb the treehouse with Mommy.

Grocery shopping with Hunter

Gotta brush the Alligator's teeth.

and give the babies a bath...

play some tunes..
riding and driving the bus with my buddies...


And he loved the construction site.

We're off to see the monkeys...and the "terrible 2's" have arrived.

Today we took advantage of the dry, almost sunny day and went to the zoo. We met Mommy's friends Jen & her daughter Rubie and Lisa & her son Brennen. Everything went great until Mommy let Ethan out of his stroller to see the Monkeys and he was NOT going to get back in the stroller. Thankfully Brennen was a great help and let Ethan hold his hand and walk with him. He did really good staying with us most of the time, but figured out that he could run away so Mommy put him back in the stroller kicking and screaming. The "terrible 2's" have arrived. I absolutely refuse to put a leash on my child. He will either learn to stay with me and hold my hand or he will be strapped into his stroller and crying.

I find it amusing as well as annoying at the staggering number of people that stare at you when your child is having a tantrum as if it is something foreign and that their child or grandchild never did that. I can understand the stares from people who don't have children as I was once there myself, but seriously we were at the zoo where there are many many children and I'm sure I wasn't the only Mother there whose child was having a crying fit and getting looks from other adults as if I was beating my child. Oh well, I am sure with the "terrible 2's" in full swing there will be many more to come. For a positive note...he did take a 2 1/2 hour nap after we got home.



Rubie Smith - 5 1/5 months old.

Brennen (9) walking with Ethan. What a great helper.



I am sure both of his Grandma's are sure that his cute little face couldn't be so unhappy, however, before this past Saturday his tantrums weren't too bad. Saturday evening Jeff was changing the oil in our cars with Ethan's help. He was very good at carrying around a wrench for Daddy. Soon bedtime was drawing near and he was filthy from playing in the dirt and climbing under the car to help Daddy with the oil so I told him we needed to go inside and have a bath and get on our pj's. Now normally Ethan loves bath time and if I say it at all he is running to the bathroom door and trying to get his clothes off, but on Saturday evening he was NOT interested in going inside or having a bath. He was screaming and crying so loud I thought our neighbors were going to come see what was wrong. After I finally got him in the house it took me another 20-30 minutes to get him undressed, still screaming and crying of course, and in the tub for which he spent the entire time in the tub trying to climb out. He was screaming and crying so hard that he bit either his lip or tongue and then we had blood everywhere as well.

He likes to cuddle with Copper and Riley.

Daddy was home to play today...

Daddy stayed home to play with Ethan today so we went out to breakfast at the Tippy Canoe. They have the BEST breakfast potatoes and pancakes. We then headed to Wal-Mart, as Mommy needed a new headlight bulb for her car. While we were there we check out tricycles for Ethan. He really liked them, so Daddy thought he needed one. It is raining today, what is new here, so we rode it for a few minutes outside with his helmet on and then took it inside. He has had a lot of fun riding it around the living room & kitchen with Daddy's help.




Ethan stopped to smell the daffodils along the way.


Daddy crashed while playing on Ethan's tricycle.

Video's of Ethan - The first one is of Daddy pushing Ethan on his tricycle. The second is of Ethan dancing to the credits of his favorite movie, Madagascar.

My wish list...

I stole this idea from my great friend, Amy. I have always been a "bargain" shopper and I love to find a deal. I look for anyway to save a little money with sales, coupons, whatever I can find. I will check out many different stores, online, etc., before buying something, other than basic needs, to make sure I am getting the best deal but I don't buy much for myself unless it is absolutely necessary and even then I put it off as long as possible, as there is always something more pressing that we need the money for. So I decided to make a wish list, no in any particular order....

-Time....to finish the book I have been reading for 4 months, to work on Ethan's scrapbook, to wash and style my hair...this could go on and on...
-A second pair of custom orthotics to go in my new shoes so that I don't have to switch them constantly.
-New pots & pans - After 12 years they need a facelift.
-H20 mop - what can I say, I like to clean
-A Dyson vacuum - again, what can I say.
-New Pampered Chef oven glove and mitt.
-A tan.
-A Tupperware mat for rolling out dough.
-New comfortable couches, without tears in them from a dog.
-New wardrobe, my mommy status currently doesn't require much more than Jeans and t-shirts but my closet could definitely use an upgrade from the 5 t-shirts and 1 pair of jeans I do own.
-A vacation - not that our vacations to Hurricane aren't great, but I would like to go somewhere else on occasion.
-My long hair back - why did I cut my hair in the first place?? well, I was a new mom with no time to wash my hair let alone style it, however, now it is just shorter and I do the same thing.
-And finally, to sell our house, and when we do eventually get a new house, to have a wonderful large kitchen that is very organized with lots of gadgets.

Fitday

My sister-in-law, Jenn, wrote a note on our family website regarding fitday.com, so I decided to give it a try. I have been using it since Saturday and so far I am really impressed. You can enter in your food intake for each day as well as create custom foods and it totals everything for you and shows you all the nutritional information including the daily values of vitamin intake so you know if and what you are lacking. You can also add in your exercise/activities for each day and keep track of your weight/measurements and goals. You have to do a little work up front if you add customs foods that you eat regularly, but it really helps you pay attention to what you are eating.

Lazy wet days!!

Spring in Oregon is a real downer at times. It rains constantly with an occasional dry, almost warm day, for which you mostly spend catching up on yard work. Sunday Jeff and I took Ethan to Clackamas Town Center Mall while Carol, our realtor, had an open house at our house. We took Ethan to the Build-A-Bear store and he got to pick out an animal. Of course, he picked the Monkey, although he did think about the frog for a minute. He really wanted to take the display Monkey home and was very distraught about the unstuffed Monkey while we waited in line for it to get its heart and stuffing. He finally gave it a great big hug after it looked like the display Monkey. His name is Phil, after the Monkey on Madagascar, Ethan's favorite movie.



Here are some pictures from earlier this week.



Ethan likes to cuddle up under the blankets.


**Yes, this is an Elmo toilet seat on Ethan's head. Don't worry, I had just taken it out of the package so it was clean. He felt it should be worn as a hat instead of sitting on it. We are having him sit on the potty before he has a bath at night.

Wanna go climbing?

Our little monkey is amazing with his climbing skills, thankfully he hasn't climbed out of his crib yet. With our 20% off coupon and dividend from REI, we bought Ethan his first climbing harness for only $10. Now Mommy and Daddy have to get back in shape to join him.


"Milk does a body good" so Ethan needed to tank up before trying out his harness.






Look at that smile, he is really going to like this!!!

20 months old...

Ethan turned 20 months yesterday and looking forward to turning 2 in four months. He has grown quite a bit in the last month and mommy had to get out the bigger clothes so he wasn't wearing half sleeve shirts and highwater pants. We are looking forward to warmer weather so that we can pull out the shorts.


Ethan helping Daddy make some juice.

Ethan scratched his nose but still a cute picture.