BOO! Saturday, Oct 31 2009

Happy Halloween!!

Today was such a fun day.  This morning we had a party with all the parents and kids from my mom’s group – 40 adults and around 20 kids…..yes, it was beautiful chaos.   The kids were so adorable.  Ethan sacked out about an hour into the party but enjoyed running (yes RUNNING!) when he woke up.  We went and trick or treated around our neighborhood and I’m pretty sure he stole the show with his precious frog costume.

 

 

This time last year we were moving into our new home and Ethan was just 3 months old.  He is such a different person just one year later.

This time of year is actually interesting to reflect on…..you see, on October 30 James and I were married…5 years ago.  FIVE years ago!?!?!  How did that happen??  Tonight we were talking and so much has happened in those five years, and yet it has sort of been a breeze.  I feel so lucky that the early part of our marriage has gone so smoothly.

But there have been some sad times.  This isn’t exactly a secret, but its not something I have necessarily widely told people before, but 2 years ago, on our anniversary, we also had a very early miscarriage.  And so October 30 turns out to be a very important day in our lives for many ways: the day we were married, the day we moved to NJ and our son turned 3 months, 15 months, and…yes…the day we officially lost our first pregnancy.  But – we have Ethan, and I can’t imagine our life without him.  And so I look back on all the amazing things that have occurred in the five years since I married the love of my life, and I can’t imagine things turning out any differently.  So…Happy Halloween and Happy Anniversary my sweetheart.  I love you James.

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SO many more signs!!! Friday, Oct 16 2009

As I said before, I was looking forward to teaching Ethan sign language from the beginning.  Now that he has finally caught on it is like a snowball rolling down a hill.  He is learning so fast and its so fun to communicate with him in this way.

I posted a video below of a few of his signs, but I captured MANY more on camera during the past week, so I have extended the video from before.  Enjoy!

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Lots of updates to come Friday, Oct 16 2009

I finally got my video camera back up and running today and uploaded all the videos from it going back through Labor Day.  I need to make some edits, but I’ll be doing some updates soon!

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14 months old Friday, Oct 9 2009

Ethan at 14 months

Well I have clearly been neglecting the “month” pictures, but that doesn’t mean that his monthly birthdays have been passing by without notice, by me anyway.  Ethan celebrated 14 months in Atlanta, right after his Atlanta birthday party and Christening (posts to come about those.)  This month has been very exciting, the biggest achievement was, of course, learning to walk!  This has truly transformed my little baby into a little boy!  The other really exciting thing has been his sign language, which continues to explode more and more every day.  Here are all of his 14 month pictures.

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Please help Camp Horizon!! Monday, Oct 5 2009

Pete Peterson

I am involved with a very special organization called Camp Horizon.  Our mission is to restore dignity and hope to children who have been abused and neglected – empowering them to make good decisions and lead healthy, productive lives. Richard “Pete” Peterson,one of our founders, has been chosen as one of five finalists in CITGO’s Fueling Good promotion.  Fondly known as “Uncle Pete,” he has been tirelessly volunteering his time to help children for more than 25 years. His story is featured on the CITGO website along with other community heroes.  The winner will be chosen by popular vote so please cast a ballot for “Uncle Pete” and Camp Horizon.  It’s easy to vote.  Just follow these two easy steps. Vote for him every day for the next 11 days. The voting period ends October 15, 2009. Each person is allowed one vote per day Help Us Get More Votes By Asking Your Friends and Family To Vote

Click here to vote For Camp Horizon and “Uncle Pete”

You can help Pete get more votes by asking your friends and family to vote.  You can vote every day for the next 11 days – voting is closed on October 15. Please spread the word to family and friends.  Please consider sending them this note and requesting their help in this effort.  If “Uncle Pete’s” story is chosen, he will win the $2,500 grand prize for Camp Horizon.  This will go a long way in fueling the buses and transportation to get the children to camp and the various outings throughout the year.

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Sign Language explosion!! Friday, Oct 2 2009

Some of you might remember a video I posted about 4 months ago of Ethan signing “fan.”  I was so excited because we started signing with him when he was about 4 months old, and at 10 months he finally signed something.  Turns out that was the one and only sign he did, and he really only did it that weekend.  We kind of got discouraged and stopped signing with him for awhile.  But over the past month he has started to imitate us a lot.  So I started signing with him again….what a difference 4 months makes.  All of a sudden I can teach him a sign in like 5 minutes!!!  He picks them up fast.  He doesn’t always do the correctly, or at the right time, but he is getting better and better.  Today I caught several of his signs on camera, and of course I made a video to show off.  So here is Ethan doing about 5 of his approximately 20 word sign language vocabulary.  To compare, he currently SAYS 4 words: Mama, dada, cat and cracker.  His sign language vocabulary currently includes: dog, cat, airplane, more, milk, ball, bath, change, shampoo, tired, eat, light, fan, daddy, truck, bird, fish, hat, eat, please and a few more that I can’t think of this minute.

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