Summer 2010

What a busy, fun summer we're having here in Phoenix! I take most of our pictures, and lately, have been doing most of my blogging from my phone. I need to get better about downloading the pictures to my computer and creating full blog posts. I also need to take more pictures on my camera instead of counting on other people to.

Anyway, I'm about to start a summary of our summer to this point. We have been to LA three times, Utah twice, and Ethan and I will be off to NY for much of September. But first, let's start with the fun we've been having in good ol' AZ.

One of the highlights of the summer was having my brother and sister come into town with their families! I have shamefully few pictures, so, for a more complete accounting check out the pictures my much more diligent siblings took here, here, here, here, here, here, and here (wow, Lisa is super blogger).

Hanging out at our house.

Exhausted after one of many fun outings in the heat.

At a fun pool in Chandler. I was trying to take pictures to send Lisa while she was in Utah and her kids stayed with us. I should have taken on of all of us there...

James

Playing on Nana and Papa's porch.
Ruth






We love baby time at our local library.


Ethan is trying to help this boy put on his shoes.

Train books!

Any summer in AZ will be filled with splash pads! This one is only 5 minutes away. We've also made it to a few others, especially the ones at the zoo. We have a pass to the zoo and have been quite a few times, but remarkably, have no pictures to prove it.

Enjoying Cat in the Hat:

Swim lessons! Ethan took swim lessons again this summer and did great! We were only able to do one session, but Ethan can go under the water and hold his breath, float by himself (only for a few seconds without arm floaties), blow bubbles, pick things up from under the water, wear goggles, etc. Thanks Erin, we love swim lessons! Oh, and to explain this picture, there is this playground right next to the pool, and Ethan LOVED playing on it.

And of course, we love the Children's Museum! The new climber is finished, so that's been lots of fun.






Lisa and kids came with us once.







And I've also gotten to go with a few friends. I tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but Ethan was too anxious to go up the stairs again to the slide.

The McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park! When Ethan started this train fetish, we took him up to this park to ride and see the trains.

Going through a tunnel and signing train.


They also have a carousel.


Mike and Gary have been building a shed in the side yard, with the help of Ethan, of course.






Wearing Papa's hat.

Papa also built Ethan his own playhouse!

Ethan went through a phase this summer of putting his bowl on his head when he was almost done with any meal.

On the way home from buying our new TV at Costco (thank you credit card rewards and tax return!), eating Costco pizza-yum!


Enjoying lots of fruit when it is too hot to eat much else.

Checking out the new Baby Signing Time DVDs from Nana. Notice the sweat on the car seat. Have I mentioned Phoenix is hot?

Neighborhood playground. We've rarely seen this because it doesn't spray water (too hot).

Hair cut!

Finding new ways to play inside. He keeps putting a box in this car and then climbing in and out to sit on it.

Patiently entertaining himself at a Primary Presidency meeting.

Ethan's been laying down a lot as he plays lately. I think he looks a lot like his cousin James in this shot.

Whew! That's what's been happening lately in AZ. Stay tuned for stories of our travels (coming later this week).

The Book Thief

When my sister-in-law, Kris, recommended The Book Thief to me I knew it had been recommended before, so I put the audio version on hold at the library. Yesterday I was able to download it, and today I began listening to it. Turns out, I've read it before. I remember liking it quite a bit, but I very very rarely read a book more than once, so I won't be adding this one to my tally this year.

Audio Books

In addition to the one nonfiction/month that I am reading, I have also started listening to audio books much more this year. I can download them from my library's website to my iPod, no late fees, no shortened hours, and no riding my bike to the library in the Phoenix heat just to not be allowed in because it was 5 minutes before closing-grrr! I was thinking I should report those books as well, but mostly for my own record, so I won't be doing lengthy reviews. Whenever I need a new book to listen to, I check out Everyday Reading because Janssen's reviews haven't steered me wrong yet and I can click on "Audiobooks" on the sidebar and know that I'll probably be able to check it out online-thanks Janssen!

The Brothers K by David James Duncan: I listened to this one during my Ragnar training and race, but I stopped running for awhile, and then got an iPod, and didn't care enough to transfer it. So that gives you an idea of how much I liked it. Also, about halfway through the swearing got pretty frequent, which I didn't appreciate.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt: LOVED this book. I loved the commentary on teachers from a child's perspective, and I literally laughed out while running.

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L Swanson: I really enjoyed this nonfiction, as I've said before. But if history doesn't interest you much, I'm not sure if you'd like it. When I told Mike I was going to listen to it he said, "that sounds boring."

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer: I wasn't too excited about listening to this one, and at first the accent used by the reader bothered me, but I actually really enjoyed it. In looking up the exact title and author for this post, I was reminded that there is a sequel, so I'll definitely be looking that up at my library.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: I'd heard a lot about this one, waited forever on the hold list, and can't wait for the second one to be available for check out!

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer: I'm currently listening to this one and I look forward to listening to it whenever I can. This is part of a series as well, but I'm not as anxious to hear the rest as I have been with other series.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell: I love the BBC miniseries/movie of this book. I didn't love the book as much.

Heat Wave: This is the book written to go along with ABC's TV show Castle. LOVE the show, the book was pretty good, but had a sex scene that seemed excessive, maybe because I was listening to it over the car speakers with the family.

Next up: Book Thief by Markus Zusak recommended by my sister in law.

Toe Skills

Mike likes to try to pinch me with his toes. Now, I know if I didn't freak out, even worse than when I am tickled, that he wouldn't do it, but I can't help myself; it's just too weird. Anyway, as I was holding Ethan tonight, and he started waving his blanket around with his toes, I got a little worried that Mike might pass his toe skills along to Ethan...yikes!

P.S. Ethan's adorable chubby feet look really weird in this picture! But, as I said before, toe pinching is so weird!
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Uh-oh

It's never a good feeling when you get a short one-paged letter in response to an application.

But sometime it works out-hooray!

(In AZ you can take the PE exam before proving that you meet the other licensing qualifications. This letter means Mike has met those qualifications and will be a PE on August 24th!)
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Bedtime

He must have all the trains AND his bottle as I put his jammies on! At least all I have to do is give him a ten second warning and count down and he will happily say "bye bye" to his trains and go to bed.
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Ethan's Perspective

Ethan has been having so much fun in Utah. He gets to see Daddy everyday! He also gets to play with lots of cousins! Ricky, Riley, and Josh have been especially great buds this trip! Ethan also loves his grandma. His words are currently very repetitive, so Daddy is: dad-dad-daddy and mom is: mom-mom-mommy (which he now calls when he wakes up instead of crying-adorable!). One night he even said "bye bye gra-mamama.". But mostly he just signs grandma.

Surprisingly, Ethan hasn't gotten in the way of all our work. He has been sleeping well at night and taking two long naps everyday. When he is awake he plays with Daddy's old train set and/or watches his train cartoon. Today while we were loading the truck he spent hours playing with his trucks and trains in one flower bed; it was awesome.

All this playing hasn't kept him from learning how to move though. Mike was moving drawers yesterday so Ethan went over and started moving them a few feet over. He'd pick each one up, grunt, and line it up with the others. Then Mike assembled a box, and while it was still empty, Ethan pulled it to the door and said "bye bye" as he tried to open the front door.

3 more days of beautiful weather and scenery (great for my half marathon training) and fun times with family and friends, and we'll be on our way back to AZ...

Since I'm posting from my phone, I couldn't rearrange the photos, sorry.
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Non-fiction

We have been in Utah since Friday packing, packing, and packing! Mike's mom is moving out of the house their family of 10 has been in for 35 years. After at least 7 tons of garbage, who knows how many truck loads to DI, the claims of all 8 children, one 26 ft. Uhaul, and a pick up bed full of stuff, I am laying in a pretty much empty, close to 4000 sq ft house all by myself. After all the recent chaos of moving, I'm trying to soak in the quiet.

I think rather than clean late into the night, I'm going to read. This makes me realize that I am behind on reporting my non fiction. I wanted to read a book about Al Capone, but the one I wanted wasn't at the library. I quickly chose another and placed it on hold not realizing it was a Juvenile book. So, it was short and not terribly detailed. So, it probably shouldn't count toward my one/month non fiction goal.

I think I will still call July a success though because I listened to a non fiction audio book. That is kind of cheating in my mind because I didn't actually read it, but two "if-y" books will combine to meet the goal of one I guess. Anyway, the book I listened to was called Man Hunt (I believe) and was about the 12 day manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. I love history, especially American history, so I really enjoyed it. It was told as a narrative and had quotes from a variety of original sources. Some of the most interesting things I learned were: the assassination of Lincoln was actually one part of a big scheme including the attempted/planned assassination of the Vice President and Secretary of State; originally Booth just wanted to kidnap Lincoln (he had been conspiring for quite some time); and Booth's escape was slowed quite a bit because the first time he finally reached the river that would take him to the South, he rowed the wrong way, back towards DC-smooth!

This month I will be making up for my shortcomings in July by reading The Great Bridge, a 562 page book about the Brooklyn Bridge. I've been looking forward to this one for months! I need to get reading now that I have some quiet time if I hope to get this done in a month.
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Soaking it In

We are having a great time packing and being with family in Utah this week. At the moment I am soaking in the cuddle time I am getting with Ethan. He is actually laying with me to watch a movie. I know cuddling time with him will continue decrease as he gets older, so I'm enjoying every minute of it.
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Photo Shoot

My sister has started her own photography business, so while she was out, Ethan had his first professional pictures taken! They were taken at the park at the base of South Mountain, so they will always be very reminiscent of our Arizona home. Check them out here, they're adorable! I think a change to my header is on its way once I get these files on CD!

3 Days

Ethan hasn't seen Mike in 3 days. I try not to say "daddy" because it makes him too sad, well excited and then disappointed. He's changed a lot in those three days already. He said "night night" Friday night, says "bye bye" instead of "dye dye" and will now answer questions with "no" instead of always "mmm-hmmm". He also has started using more than one word/sign together to say things like "bye bye Nana Papa" or "more milk". Lately we have been singing a song about opposites, so he signs "opposite" frequently to request it. Today I sang the chorus and then sang, "when I say hot, you say..." and he signed cold. I sang, "when I say happy..." And he signed sad. What a smarty!

We have so much to show Daddy when we all get home tomorrow!
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The Stars Aligned

Last Sunday I decided to come out to LA with my mom for my grandpa's memorial service (thanks to Lisa, Wendy, Jessica, and Careign for covering for me in Primary). Then I noticed my step mom's Facebook posts about being in CA, so I crossed my fingers and asked if they were going to be in LA. And somehow, we found a few hour window of availability when we would only be 40 minutes away! So Ethan and I got to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson and Great Grandparents Ruth and Dave! These pictures are of Ethan playing with Dad and Dianne in the hotel lobby. Ethan climbed up and sat next to his Grandpa all by himself and really enjoyed some games of chase and peekaboo with Grandpa outside. I wish we could have made it tomorrow to see my cousin perform in a play and meet up with my aunt and uncle, but I am so excited I at least got to see Dad and Dianne. Thanks again for taking the time to hang out with me and crazy sleep-deprived Ethan!
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Turtle

We are at the Children's Museum with a few friends today. This backpack is awesome for such outings because (1) it's adorable-we get so many comments about it (2) he loves wearing it (3) he can carry his own diapers and snacks and (4) it has a leash if I feel the need to use it.

Thanks Joe and Lauren!
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In Memory of Grandpa Jack

Here's the slide show I put together this week for Grandpa's memorial service this weekend.

June

I think I may have missed blogging about quite a few things, so here are a few random pictures from June.

While my siblings were in town we drove out to LA to see my Grandpa who lost his fight with cancer about a week later.

This just might be my new favorite picture of Ethan, thanks Lisa!


Local splashpad:



Over Memorial Day we drove to St. George to look at houses with Mike's mom. We had a really fun time and are excited for her to live closer!

On the drive:



At the St. George temple:

This bridge is AMAZING! We waited for 2 hours to get by the dam, so it will be nice when the bridge is completed.

Equation for an Obsession

Learning to sign "train" from Baby Signing Time
+
Playing with a toy train at our friends' 4th of July BBQ
+
Learning to say "choo choo"
+
Finding the Geotrax dvd that came with one of his toys (during all that organizing)
=
Ethan is now in love with trains.

Today at the library he found a book with a train on the cover, but it was actually a book about toys, not trains. So, I found him this book about trains. He was very excited and didn't want to put it down. Instead of playing with toys at the end of story time, he wanted to read this book, and he listened intently to the whole thing. It makes me think we should go to the train park, and that I was right about how much he would have loved the train table I wanted to get him for Christmas. Oh well, he'll love it this year too.
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Satisfied

Even though I stay at home now, Sunday nights are still a bit of a downer as I lament the ending of the weekend. But last night I felt satisfied because we had taken full advantage of the weekend. I need to do that more often. Friday afternoon and late into the evening were spent with me cleaning and Mike working on the shed in the backyard (with the help of Gary). We got up at 5am on Saturday. I ran 8 miles before coming home to more cleaning and organizing and Mike and Gary got going on the shed. We worked until 10:30pm. I actually got every room of the house clean, including the piles of junk that had accumulated in various areas, aahh. I'm excited for the shed to be done so we can tackle the garage!

Sunday morning was busy, as usual, with Primary and Mike teaching our Gospel Doctrine class. After church the whole family got to nap. Ethan woke up at 5pm from his nap, right as we welcomed 3 families into our home for a fun night of eating and visiting. We are so blessed to live in a town full of young fun families. After last night, we're determined to start inviting people over more often. There are too many awesome people we could be hanging out with to just sit around on our own. And with paper plates and the awesome food/drinks everyone brought, it wasn't even a hassle to host.

Reminiscing on a great weekend makes Monday seem less painful. :)

To Summarize

This picture is a pretty good summary of Ethan's week. The only toy he's been wanting to play with is ball popper. This would mean a pretty clean house (only one toy out) except he also has spent the week taking cereal out of the pantry and pouring it on the carpet. Pictured here is a pile of rice krispies. Off to Ethan's left are the remains of the Shredded Wheat he dumped. At least he wasn't able to open the big bag of chocolate chips he pulled out of the pantry. I love his face as he is explaining to me what is going on, not that I can understand a "word" of what he is babbling.


In other news, after A LOT of experimenting, Ethan has found two toys that work in his ball popper! A foam Comtrans antenna tooper my boss have him, and his little plastic chicken.
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Founding Fathers

I have finally finished Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood. It took me 1.5-2 months to finish, but I actually really enjoyed this book. It took focus to read if I really wanted to learn from it, but I learned a ton about our Founding Fathers and the creation of our nation. So, in that way, it was very appropriate to stretch the reading of it through the beginning of July.

The premise of this book was to examine why we still so frequently say things like, "this wasn't what the Founding Fathers intended." It is very rare for a nation to care so much about what a handful of historical figures thought. Why do we still care? What made them so special that we would still look to them as individuals?

I thought it was fascinating to read about each of their ideas on how the country should be created and why they thought so. It was also interesting to see how popular images of some of these men are so wrong. For example, even thought Thomas Jefferson, was the "great minimal government president" he has been used to "support" the campaigns of presidents like FDR and Obama (because of how much he valued the individual).

I want to share two quotes from the book. They are both from the epliogue: The Founders and the Creation of Modern Public Opinion. The last few sentences of the book say:

It was not a world the founders wanted or expected; indeed, those who lived long enough into the nineteenth century to experience its full democratic force were deeply disillusioned by what they had wrought. Still, they had helped create this popular world, for it was rooted in the vital principle that none of them, Federalists included, ever could deny: the people. In the end nothing illustrates better the transforming power of the American Revolution than the way its intellectual and political leaders, that remarkable group of men, contributed to their own demise.

The Founding Fathers had so much faith in the people to create the country they (the Founding Fathers) had in mind, that they were shocked when the common people so quickly led the country away from what the Founding Fathers had intended. Fascinating. How many of those unintended outcomes are of great benefit to our nation? Would it be better if we really were the country they foresaw? But then again, the country which one foresaw--they all had such differing opinions.

Another quote discussing the spread of newspapers and the expanding group of people writing in them:

Others, however, dozens of writers and speakers, common, ordinary, obscure men, men without breeding, without learning, without character--in short, persons who were not gentlemen--were now presuming "without scruple, to undertake the high task of enlightening the public mind."

These new authors were like the bloggers of the 18th century. The so-called common, unqualified men who were having such a huge affect on the media and public opinion. I thought it was very interesting to see how this media/public opinion phenomenon is not a new issue at all.

This was a great read for anyone interested in America's history; I'd definitely recommend it!

Grandpa Jack

My Grandpa Jack passed away last Wednesday. He had been fighting lung cancer for over a year. I'm just glad I got to see him a few more times before he passed away.

I am currently working on a slide show for his memorial; you can see the pictures by clicking on the portrait above. Of course the pile of pictures my mom brought back for me to scan included quite a few of me in my younger days so, please, try to stifle the laughs.

I miss you Grandpa, your smile, your voice, and your laugh; it's been fun looking back on so many fun memories with you!

No Haircut

Mike has been delaying getting a hair cut too...

It's actually been years since someone besides me or Mike has tamed this mop.
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Haircut

I've been putting off getting a haircut because the cheap places haven't been willing to give me layers in the past and I wasn't ready to spend $45 on a haircut. But when Mike found a coupon for an $8.99 haircut at our Great Clips, I decided to give them one more try.

I didn't end up with anything particularly stylish, but the stylist actually gave me some layers. It feels way shorter to me, but I like it and it feels much healthier!

I wish I had gotten this done before all our family came and out and all those pictures were taken!
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Catching Up

This week has been busy busy busy, especially with all the Primary catch up after two weeks of fun family time.

I took almost no pictures of all the festivities, but Lisa and Lauren did. Make sure you go all the way back to the June 22nd post on Lisa's blog.

I miss you guys already!

Counting Calories

3 weeks down and I've yet to miss a point on our fitness challenge!

This week our extra challenge is to count our calories. As a result of several recommendations, I am using livestrong.com to track my calories. It is a great tool and makes this challenge a little easier.

I find myself eating much less while having to count calories, but not for the reasons I thought. I've come in significantly below my allowed calories each day, no problem. Every time I think about eating a snack though, I think about the effort it will take to measure the food (for an accurate calorie count) and then come look it up and add it to the website. Even that little bit of extra work keeps me from those extra calories I would be eating. The no desserts allowed also makes the calorie limit easy to meet.

I'm hoping that, come this weekend, my scale agrees with livestrong.com's numbers after all this annoying counting!

Victory!

About two weeks ago I got a letter from my local newspaper saying that my account was about to be sent to collections. Of course I called in to debate this. I had signed up for one year of $1/week newspapers (for the coupons). What I didn't realize (although I should have assumed) was that they would continue my subscription at full price after that. I was no longer receiving papers and assumed it was because my year was up; really it was due to non-payment.

I conceded that I couldn't really expect them to forgive my "debt" just because I didn't read the fine print, but I should have received a notification of the change in rate, or at least a bill at some point before the collection letter. Even the supervisor I spoke with was unable to say I had been sent a bill. She told me my only recourse was to write to the accounting department who would make me pay if I had received the paper.

I don't give up that easily, so I wrote the accounting department explaining that because I was not sent a bill or notification of rate change, that my balance should be forgiven, or at least decreased to the $1/week rate I had agreed to pay.

Today I received a letter of apology stating that my account balance had been forgiven and that it was never sent to collections, etc.

$16 saved! Plus, now I can get the next year of coupons for $.75/week.

Victory!

Singing Time

Ethan loves to sing with us and do the actions. Now he can request his favorite songs in the following ways.

Old MacDonald: eieio

Itsy Bitsy Spider: hands together like a spider above his head

Beehive Song: hands up in a questioning position

If You're Happy: clapping

Wheels on the Bus: arms around and around like in the first verse

ABC: raising a fist and wiggling fingers because I sign the alphabet when I sing it. He'll also say something kind of sounding like ABC and holds out eeee at the end of each line.

And my favorite:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: up a ba, as in up above. This one took me awhile to figure out, but it cracks me up.

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes: hands on his head

Popcorn Popping: open and close fists like popcorn popping.


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Wrong pictures

The first four pictures on the last post were wrong, here are (hopefully) the right ones.
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Hello There

Busy week, but I'm sitting in a van riding back to Arizona, so I have time to update on what's been going on at my house.

On Tuesday, my twin sister Lisa came into town with her two kids-hooray!

On Wednesday we went to the Tempe splash park and dropped by my mom's office to say hi.

Thursday we went to the zoo and played in the splash pads there too.

Friday was spent at the children's museum. We also got to go out to Mexican with my mom and Gary.

Saturday we spent all day poolside at Grammy and Art's house. My brother and his wife and baby were also there-I finally got to meet my adorable new nephew Joseph the 7th, otherwise known as Seven. My Uncle Rob and his son also got to be there. We had an awesome time hanging out with family all day long.

On Sunday morning Lisa did a photo shoot of Ethan at South Mountain before we went to church for Seven's blessing. Then we loaded 6 adults, 4 kids (3 and under), and a dog into a rented 12 passenger van and headed to LA. Over a year ago my grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he recently took a somewhat sudden turn for the worse. Since we were all already in Phoenix, we decided to drive out and let him see all the great grandkids, and us, at least this once more (he'd never met my niece and hasn't seen my sister in a long time). My Uncle Jimmy, who has always been very close to the kids in my family, was also able to come out from Indiana with his family, so we had a lot more quality family time. It was sad to see Grandpa so weak and sick, but fun to be together as a family.

On our way home today, Tuesday, we got stuck in a 3 hour delay caused by a semi tipping over and blocking the freeway. We let the kids out of their car seats as we essentially parked on the freeway. As the delay got longer, I got claustrophobic and realized I would be getting home too late to get my 30 min of exercise in for the fitness competition I am doing, so I went for a 40 minute walk on the shoulder. I tried jogging, but between 100 degree weather, street clothes, no hairtie, and borrowed tennis shoes with no socks, I mostly walked. I got back to the van and had stained the inside of my sister's shoe with my blood, oops.

Through all of this family hoopla, I still haven't missed a point on my fitness challenge, which means I haven't eaten any dessert or eaten past 7:30, among other things, except on Sundays. I've also been exercising at least 30 min/day. This has required a little resourcefulness like walking during a traffic jam and running stairs at the motel, but it feels great to not be going home with big fitness regrets.

And now you're caught up on the first half of my family's visit to Phoenix!

*posting from my phone means I don't know where the pictures are showing up, but here are a few glimpses of the fun. More pictures to come when people who actually carry their cameras send me some.
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More Improvised Fun

As I was moving the furniture we're not using from our guest room to the garage (Lisa is coming tomorrow-YEAH!!!) Ethan and I came up with the idea of turning the printer table Grammy and Art gave us into a little fort. Here is Ethan coming out to say peekaboo! Extra table+old pillow cases+string+hot glue=free fun!

(I didn't think of this all on my own; there are forts like these in the fort room at the Phoenix Children's Museum.)
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The Best of Both Worlds

Ethan's new game is to put as many balls as he can find into the dump truck and then dump them out, "uh no!" getting to play with a truck and balls at the same time-the best of both worlds for him.

Ethan is 20 months old today! This age is the best of both worlds for us too. He can fall asleep all by himself, but he still likes to be held and rocked before we put him down. He can communicate well, but his communication is still adorable and not yet defiant. He can stay awake long enough to go on fun outings, but he will also take two naps. He can understand directions now, but doesn't know to argue them. He knows where things belong and it's not yet a burden to put them there. He can feed himself, but isn't prejudiced against the healthy stuff.

Ethan is getting so big, and yet he's still our baby! The best of both worlds!
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Improvise

Ethan love love loves driving cars so I thought I'd make it a little more interesting for him and make a track...
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Pleasantly Surprised

I'm impressed with how Ethan can use the signs he sees on Baby Signing Time, or that I teach him, at the right time.

Today when he was shopping with my mom, they were in the toothbrush aisle, so he started signing "brush teeth".

When he saw cups in the center of an aisle he signed "water please".

Then at her house my mom got out a tricycle to try and have him ride, and he signed "bicycle".

Just a few minutes ago Ethan found out that his little toy chicken works in his ball popper, so he smiled really big and signed "laugh".

The signs for bicycle and laugh are both taught on Baby Signing Time and I have reinforced them, but both of these instances were the first time he used the sign and he did so without any prompting.

Happy!

This afternoon I got to go to the temple and I got an iPod Nano! So, I'm in a great mood!

When I was training for the Ragnar Relay, I started listening to books instead of music because it helped me block out the long runs better. So, when I decided to train for another long race, I started looking into iPods so that I could download books from the library and/or download Podcasts. I'm amazed that I was able to find a great deal on Craigslist and the person, who met me only 20 min away, actually responded and didn't back out!!!

More cool features that will help my training: a stopwatch, and the Nike pedometer thing that I don't know much about, but will be getting free of charge from my brother and sister (they've both upgraded to GPS watches, so the Nike thing will be passed to me).

As a side note, I felt really stupid sitting in the parking lot freaking out that I had been duped because I couldn't move the menu bar. Turns out, I have no idea how an iPod works. Between the flat screen TV and the iPod we bought this week, I'm feeling like I've joined the 21st century (and I'm very excited about the awesome deals we got)!

World cup

Hard to believe it was four years ago that I was sitting in classrooms in the Clyde Building at BYU watching the World Cup with a handful of other students who cared (mostly foreign of course). If I remember correctly, of all the games I watched, there was maybe 1 point scored in regulation time. That was my first experience watching soccer, and I was not impressed. Needless to say, I'm glad another guy in our ward has offered to host anyone who wants to watch the games this year so that I won't have to watch many with Mike. : )
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Late

I'm running late to go clean the church, but I have to tell this story before I forget.

We're getting ready to go and Ethan is wearing the outfit you see pictured here. He knows we're going to put shoes on to go so he brings in his red and blue plaid sneakers. I told him we weren't going to wear those because they didn't match, and then I went along with getting snacks ready for him. A few minutes later he is standing in the family room babbling at me and then he nods his head a few times very intently at me. I walk over and he has brought the green sandals you see in the picture. I asked him if he wanted to sit down and put on his shoes, "mmm hmm" and he sits down making sure he is situated to face me directly.

After I put his shoes on I went to get my shoes. He walked into the master bathroom and started babbling at me, but now he has added "umm" for the first time. Babble babble babble ummmm babble babble babble ummmmm babble babble mmm hmmm, dye! and he walks out backwards and closes the door. I love this "kind of talking" stage. As I'm typing this he is walking down the hall towards the office saying, "bow, bow, bow". It sounds like bow as in take a bow, but it means ball. Such a cutie!

Hard Words

It impresses me the words Ethan will say: bubble, elbow, flower, purple, apple, and all of these clearly. He has also started saying wow a lot. He says ball (ba) and blueberries (ba ba ba) now too. But the thing that cracks me up are those hard words he says so well.
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MmmHmmm

Ethan's new most common thing to say is "mmm hmm," always with a nod. He answers questions, like in this video, but he also encourages himself in my place. For example, this morning he was trying to walk around in my tennis shoes after I got back from running. He said, "a-shoes? mmm hmm" and nodded his head. He also uses this phrase a lot when talking on the phone. He holds the phone on his shoulder, always with the speaker facing away from his ear, and holds a conversation that goes something like this, "Daddy? Hewo? babble babble mmm hmm babble babble mmm hmm dye dye."

He woke up early this morning so he got to watch Baby Signing Time while I was running and Mike was getting ready. When the bubble song came on he saw the bubbles on the counter and started asking for them. If you watch carefully, you can see him subtly sign "bubbles" while he says it in this video. The sign for bubbles is making an "o" with each hand, raising them one at a time, and opening the "o" like bubbles floating up and popping.



New words: apple, bubble, elbow
New signs: hot, ice cream, grandma

Lisa: I wish I could capture the huge grins I was getting while he was playing with my shoes and the bubbles this morning--maybe you can help with that next week? Have you ever thought of using a bubble machine during a photo shoot? You have a bubble day coming up right? I bet you'd get some great smiles and cool shots of the bubbles!

Two for the Price of One

Two stories for you tonight:

Oh Geez
Ethan's had a rough few days probably due to teething, irregular naps (Utah trip last weekend), and the close to 11o degree temperatures! So, I've made a goal to try to get out somewhere reasonable cool every day so that he can still have fun this summer and be a bit happier.

Right after breakfast this morning (while the temperature was still in the double digits) he played on the back porch with his cars. Then we loaded up and headed to Walmart. I had to get a new broom because our old one had been used to sweep pieces of bird off our porch-thanks for that Kiwi-and was no longer suitable for indoor use. I also decided to get some new nail polish since I've been using the same two colors for the past year. There was one bottle of one color I liked in the less expensive quick-dry brand. I tried to pick it up in a way that would not interest Ethan, but was not successful. He was whining for it, so I gave in and told him to make sure he didn't drop it because it could break (that is what we call foreshadowing my friends). The next aisle over as I was looking at cat food (please stop eating animals Kiwi), Ethan drops the bottle, the neck breaks off, and nail polish starts pouring out. I quickly picked up the bottle, looked around for anything to wipe up the mess, and headed over to Customer Service to report the mishap. They thanked me for reporting the mess and refused to let me pay for the bottle. Meanwhile, Ethan wanted the nail polish glob that had gotten on my finger, and I didn't know what to do with it, so I stuck some on his finger. He promptly stuck it in his mouth (I'm sure you experienced moms out there are shaking your head at all the dumb things I've done in just one Walmart trip). Anyway, when we finally get out to the car to I notice that Ethan has a nice shiny purple lip. I sarcastically muttered, "oh geez" and then laughed a myself for getting into this whole situation. I didn't know how to get the polish off his lip, so he got to keep his pretty lip through baby time at the library. There's still a little left in this picture, see it?

I'm happy to say that after baby time Ethan took a great nap and woke up almost back to his happy self. I then put him down for a power nap at 4:30 and had to wake him up at his bedtime (7pm) to feed him dinner, silly kid.

Now That's Love
I told Mike my nail polish adventure and he responded by saying that he was doing an inspection near a Walmart and could stop to see if they had a better selection of nail polish (since Ethan broke the only bottle I liked at our store). So he did-what a thoughtful guy! He made a special trip and got me two bottles of nail polish. He said that at the cash register the person behind him put her items down without the divider, so the cashier wasn't sure what Mike was buying. The lady behind him chimed in and said, "it's the nail polish." The cashier held up the two bottles and said, "you're getting these?" Mike replied, "What, you don't think they're my color?" with a totally straight face. The cashier stammered a little and was left a bit speechless. Mike never broke and left her confused.

P.S. Speaking of love, tonight we had a family home evening lesson on temples and how our family gets to be together forever because Mike and I were married in the temple. This topic was on my mind because today my friends' three month old son passed away after complications during chemotherapy (he was diagnosed with brain cancer a few weeks ago). I've had trouble thinking of much else since I heard the news. His parents are great examples of relying on the Lord. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that Caden's family will get to be with him again. I'm grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves us and has a plan for each of us. I'm glad that Caden can now rest from all the pain he experienced in his short time here on Earth. Still, I hugged Ethan a little tighter today, and thanked the Lord for my family's health even more fervently. Please keep the Johnson family in your prayers as they cope with this tragedy.

12 Weeks

Today I started a 12 week fitness challenge/competition with some friends (exercise 6 days per week, no dessert 6 days per week, etc.) and a 12 week half marathon training program. 12 weeks from now I should be healthier, more athletic, and hopefully $440 richer (1st prize in the fitness challenge). Although I wish I had that money at the beginning of the challenge to finance an ipod for these long runs plus a haircut and nice sunglasses for the Phoenix summer! Oh well, patience is a virtue!
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Worn out

This was supposed to post yesterday:

Swim lessons=great naps for Ethan! This is him all tuckered out on the way home.

I can't tell who he looks like here. Me in the upper half of his face, but definitely Mike's chin/jaw I think.
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The end

To finish off the post-swim lesson series of posts, here is Ethan after a few minutes in the rocking chair. He must be dreaming of talking on the phone because this is how he signs phone.
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Learning Every Day

Today Ethan floated all by himself at swim lessons! I let go for several seconds and he stayed a float. Then, with arm floaties on, he stayed afloat for a whole verse of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

Also, Papa babysat Ethan while I was working yesterday. When I picked him up, Ethan showed me how he could sort all of the blocks in a toy at papa's house by color! And when Papa would ask him for a certain color, most of the time he would grab the right one. I've never gotten him to do that for me.
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Michael Abegg, PE

Mike passed the PE!!! I wish I weren't working in Tucson today so that Ethan and I could drive over to his office and celebrate right now!!!

For those of you who don't know, the pe is like the CPA or Bar exam but for civil engineers.
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