Ethan 11 months and "Anna" 2yrs 10 mths

Happy 11 months Ethan! You're definitely a little man now. I feel like my baby is all grown up :). Well I know that isn't the case, but he has changed a lot in the last month.

Last month he was just pulling himself up to standing at the coffee table and now he is pulling up, sitting down and furniture cruising with ease. He's even started to walk with the toy walker across the playroom. I just know that he'll be off and running once he learns to walk. It feels like it's really just around the corner.

One development that I'm super excited about is that Ethan is eating the same thing as the rest of the family now. He's yet to have a few things like tomatoes, milk, strawberries and nuts, but it's definitely easier to come up with meals that he can eat too. I L.O.V.E. not having to cook different meals and my pureeing days are over. We even went out for dinner the other night and he and Maddy shared a plate of fried rice. I'm a very happy mama. I believe we have a very happy Ethan too. The look on his face was priceless the night we gave him some chicken pot pie. It was like we couldn't feed him fast enough and his eyes went super big as if to say, "I can't believe you've been holding out on me!"

Ethan has six teeth now. Four on top and two on the bottom. It feels like we are due for another round of teething again soon. The last two came up a little while ago. We're bracing for impact again! :)

I have to blog this next moment because it doesn't happen often, but I will definitely try to make it happen again. As you can probably tell by now, Ethan is not the 'sit still' kind of baby. He never has been. Even as an infant he would push up off your shoulder to look around the room. By 3 months, you would have to hold him and walk around. He hated to be held while sitting because he wanted to see everything. Even now with nursing, he is on, he is off and he is gone. The other day, I picked him up from a nap and he was just so cuddly. I think it helped that Maddy was still sleeping so the room was quiet. I sat down with him on the couch and he made no move to get off my lap. Then he rested his head on my chest and just let me rub his back for a long time. I savoured Every. Single. Moment. I'm looking forward to after nap time again tomorrow. :)



You might be wondering who "Anna" is. Anna is the park leader who runs the wading pool across the street from our house. Lately Maddy has been insisting that we call her Anna. When ever Josh or I address her as Maddy she replies, "No, I'm Anna". Sometimes she's "Tracy" (the lady who ran the play group at the community centre across the street), but mostly she is Anna. This is one of Maddy's favourite games to play now. She really loves to play make believe and pretend that she is other people. Tonight I was told I was "Sharon" and Ethan was "Travis". OK! We just roll with it and hope that we remember who she is at that given point. The funny thing is that when we are around other people, she forgets this game and "Maddy" is back.

I'm having a really fun time with the kids and a lot of it is because it's so much easier to get out and about now. Maddy can now go to the washroom, wash her hands and put her shoes on all by herself. That makes heading for a quick trip to the park, an actual quick trip. I'll blog more about the fun things we've been up to, but it's great that she is definitely becoming more and more independent.

With this independence comes some meltdowns at times as she wants to do everything by herself. One time we were getting ready to go to the Aquarium and I was reminding her that she needed to be good so that we could go. She said , "Mama, you have to stop saying that." "Saying what Maddy?" "You just have to stop saying that." O...K.... I don't know if I was actually getting a little bit of lip from her, but I was definitely shocked :) On the good side, I have noticed that Maddy's communication skills continue to improve. You can tell that she is now going into her 'background knowledge' to come up with content when we play make believe. Today we had a long conversation about what her doggy liked to do and things she had to do as his owner. It was a lot of fun to talk with her.

"11 months" and "2 years, 1o months" is proving to be a really fun time. The kids both nap at the same time in the afternoon and we have a good long chunk of time between Ethan's morning nap and the afternoon nap. We have been able to get out and do a lot of fun activities and with less than one month before I head back to work and Maddy starting preschool, I'm really making an effort to squeeze in as much fun as I can.

Again, pictures to follow! :)