We are in so much trouble with Ethan… He is such a character. A couple of stories from the past couple of weeks really illustrate how far he’s come:
First, while Andrea and Ethan were in Iowa visiting her parents, he was hanging out with Grandma when she asked him to put away some of his toys. He looks at her and says, “Seriously?” All attitude.
Next, this past Thursday, we were all sitting in the living room after dinner when Andrea asks him, “Ethan, would you like some C-A-K-E?” He responds, “Cake! Cake! Cake!” and runs to the kitchen. The kid is 19 months old! He shouldn’t have the spelling trick figured out yet. He now has the spelling trick figured out for cake, ice cream, and cookies. He is way too smart for his own good.
After all of this, we were looking at the development guide that our pediatrician gave us, and that said that “normal” vocabulary is 15-20 words at this point with 50 being really advanced. We counted, and he has 21 words just to describe his own body parts at this point. And that doesn’t even count all of his different toys, all of the animals he knows, cars, snow, and the like. I’m pretty sure if we really stopped to count, he would be way over 100 words that he knows now and he’s already using phrases too. Like I said, way too smart for his own good.
Wednesday we went to Portrait Innovations for our first family portraits and for Ethan’s 18 month pictures. It was really good to get out and get pictures taken as a family. Ethan was great for the family pictures, but not so much for his individual pictures. He was pretty much done and just wanted to run around at that point.
Last night and today we got the first big snow of the season here. At the house we got probably 12-14 inches based on how much I shoveled. I shoveled 4-5 inches last night and another 8-9 today. It took me about an hour to clear the driveway and sidewalk this morning since the snowblower died a couple of weeks ago and has a carburetor problem of some sort. On the second pass this morning, Ethan and Andrea decided to come help shovel. He had a blast and it was far and away the most snow he’d ever seen. 
It’s been a good week working on preparing for Christmas. Last Thursday, Ethan helped Andrea and I put up the Christmas Tree in the living room. He was a really good helper. For every ornament mommy or daddy put on the tree, he took one off. Andrea came up with the idea this year of using the Advent calendar that she made to help us build on some repeating family traditions. Thus far we’ve put up the Christmas tree, had a candy cane pie from Village Inn, and made cookies. Ethan helped me in the process of making the biscochitos, a traditional New Mexican Christmas cookie. I’m pretty sure he ate half the dough before we baked it though. He just loved them. 
I’m also thankful to have found a job that challenges me to push my limits and learn new things every day. This is easily the most engaging job I’ve ever had and one that makes it so exciting to get up and go to the office every day.
I’m finally updating my site here and I can’t believe it’s really been more than 2 years since I did anything. And what a crazy 2 years it’s been! Just a sampling of what’s happened in the last 2 years:
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