Thankful Thursday

A blogger I follow started doing "Thankful Thursday" posts and I thought it was a lovely idea and good practice to be reminded of what we are blessed with.

I'm thankful for:
~A chance to see my dear friend, Jen, yesterday who just had a baby (pictures to follow). We hadn't been able to visit because of Ethan's cold and it was so good to see her. She makes a wonderful mom of two!
~Clean floors. Ethan and I cleaned the floors this morning and somehow it makes the whole house seem tidy.
~That musical laugh. I get a good dose of it when Ethan and I play the hat game. If you haven't played it, this is how it goes: I put a hat on E's head. He pulls it off and laughs. I put the hat on my head. He pulls it off and laughs even harder. Repeat. I highly recommend the game.
~"Hey Dad." Mike and I can verify that it's Ethan's new phrase. (We're practicing "Hey Mom")
~Jasmine Pearls tea from Trader Joes. It's in a cool bag and it's delightful during E's afternoon nap. Which is right now. :)
~Preparing for the Muddy Buddy Run this weekend with my husband and best friend. I love that he pushes me and that we get to do this together.
What are you thankful for today?

It's fall...kind of

Fortunately, Ethan was given some adorable sweaters that fit him perfectly right now. Unfortunately, at 96 degrees the weather felt more like mid-Aug and a sweater was the last thing you would want to wear. Fortunately, the mornings in SCV were cool and we had time to squeeze in a quick fall photo shoot. Apologies upfront for the number of pictures but you would understand if you saw how many there were.

Ethan doesn't know Sam well enough just yet...

Proud dog :)

Ok, last one.

To GG's house we go!

We packed the car and headed up to SCV last weekend to welcome my grandma (or GG, short for Great-Grandma) to her new home and visit with family. The renovations on her home turned out great and it's truly and inviting place to be. Welcome to SCV, Grandma, we are so glad you are here!!!

We helped her do a little unpacking and we came across some fun items.

I missed my Da Da

Mike worked late on Mon so Ethan didn't see him until Tue evening. It was the first time we could tell that he missed his play time with Da Da. You should have seen his face light up when Mike walked in the door. I'm sure my games loose a bit of their excitement when we play them day after day and Mike brings a fresh, new perspective.

Here is the ride on the footstool.

There's also the hit the paci and see where it lands:

Up and Down

We lowered the crib this weekend just in time for Ethan to pull himself up! Mike just so happened to catch it on the camera (which is especially good because I was in the other room).

Sitting

Knees

Reach for it

Pull up

Ta Da!

The weekend

Ethan came down with a cold on Friday but he's been in an amazingly good mood (except when he's trying to sleep and can't breathe through his little nose). That meant we stayed close to home and worked on some projects. We are doing a little furniture shuffle that ended in rearranging part of the garage. This of course led to a couple of games of darts and ping pong. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I might add. Ethan wasn't as big of a fan of mt biking.

I'm 8 1/2 months!

Ok, so we're late again on taking a picture. Ethan is not crawling yet but he loves standing. That's actually an understatement because I think it's his favorite thing to do right now. His top teeth are working on coming in but haven't poked through yet.

Mom and Kim, what do you think? Does this one remind you of some of my baby pictures?

Ok, last one to show you his two bottom teeth. They are amazingly hard to capture in a picture.

Friday

I haven't posted anything for a bit so here are a couple recent ones.

Ethan and Aunt Emily on the new front bench:

Doesn't he look like such a big boy?

Carlsbad

Grandma and Grandpa had a mini vacation down in Carlsbad last week so we spent the day with them a couple of times. The view from their balcony was breathtaking. You didn't need to go anywhere in order to drink in the calming effects of the ocean. You better believe that's exactly where I was during Ethan's naps. No big agenda and it was a great time!

Here's Ethan admiring the view.He likes reading with Grandma. :)Awww...he's sharing one of his favorite toys with Grandpa.

His shirt says "Mr. Happy" and Grandpa thinks that's always true.

7 and 1/2 months

Ok, so we didn't take the picture on time but better late than never. The biggest difference in his appearance between now and his 6 month picture is that he has 2 teeth. I'm afraid the teeth were a bit camera shy, and it was also a challenge to get the sign in the picture!

Bit of a Bully

Ethan and I hung out with Kelly and Emma Hartman last week. It was hilarious to watch Ethan and Emma (who is only 3 wks younger) interact. Emma was a lady and graciously shared all her toys. At this point Ethan only had eyes for her toys and at one point he even pulled he over trying to take the remote control away. My little bully enjoyed new toys and I enjoyed a lovely morning with the girls.

This is where Ethan just took it out of her hands.And this is where he was not willing to let it go.

Paperboy

Ethan LOVES paper (I suppose that's pretty common) and I occasionally use a magazine to entice him to practice crawling. No, he's not crawling yet but we're working on it. :)