Ethan at 4

Riding with no training wheels, more excited to play with friends than hang with mom, a determined sense of his own fashion choices, a brother who likes to pester his little sister, favorite pastimes of playing with legos, cars and riding his bike … this is Ethan at 4. This year I decided to tone things down with regards to a birthday party so instead of a large party Ethan was allowed to invite a few friends to Jump Planet and then we came home for hot dogs, burgers and cupcakes. So much less stress I don’t know why I didn’t do this last year when I was sleep deprived with a 1 month old. Happy birthday to Ethan, who, no matter how big and independent he gets, will always be my little boy and my bud!

Some of Ethan's regular play pals. Ethan looks so thrilled to be getting his picture taken.

Having a blast playing with his friends.

Ava had a blast with jumping, bouncing and sliding around as well. She's quite the daredevil for her age with a no fear tendency. I can already tell we'll need to keep our eyes on her.

New legos ... a treat for Ethan. He loves to build the original designs, with help from mom and dad of course, but then he loves to take them apart and create his own trucks, cars and space ships. Hopefully he got the creative gene that skipped me.

Aunt Stephanie came over for Ethan's party and while Ethan was happy to see her, you can see from the picture what he was most interested in. Where did this kid get his manner from?

Ava's always up for cupcakes!

Ethan's actual birthday fell on a preschool day so we were able to bring the treats to school. Ethan wanted to do something fun so we settle on these spooky Halloween bats thanks to creative folks from Our Best Bites. I'm a great copy cat, not an original. :)

No training wheels

Ethan had been asking me on several occasions to take the training wheels off his bike because none of the big kids on the street had training wheels. Well, there were a couple of reasons I tried to find excuses to keep the training wheels on.

1. Pure selfishness on my part. Ethan loves to ride his bike and usually wants to go riding anytime there is a break in the rain. With the training wheels this is fine because I can put Ava in the carrier or stroller and head out for a little exercise. Taking the training wheels off would require taking the time to teach him to ride which would not allow for the walks for a little while and I would need to find ways to entertain Ava while helping him. 2. Ethan has a distorted concept of age and while he believes he’s at the same age and ability level as the other kids, they are about 3-4 years older.

Since his requests fell on deaf ears with mom Ethan decided to take his idea to Dad who quickly obliged and took off his training wheels. I learned of this when I returned home from work one evening and to be honest I was a bit miffed. However, Jairo assured me that they spent the afternoon practicing and that Ethan had picked it up quite quickly. So, the next morning Ethan was eager to show me his new skill. As you can see from the pictures Ethan did great and had Jairo running after him in no time. Of course he had a few little spills, but took the falls in stride and kept going. It took him a bit more practicing to get starting and stopping on his own down, but he did great and now we're back to going on our runs and walks with him biking alongside without training wheels.

Biker Buddies

As I’ve mentioned before the sun does not shine its warm rays in our area of Washington often, so when it does Ethan has decided that the bright rays require shades. Of course, if Ethan requires sunglasses then so does Ava. The two were playing on our deck on an obviously casual afternoon (i.e. little miss no pants) where we were blessed with sunny warm fall weather.

Ethan showing us his tricycle tricks.

One year for Ava

Ava is one! Wow. I don’t know where the year went but in such a short time she has become little miss independent. …Walking around the house, climbing on the table, getting into EVERYTHING, and wanting to do everything her big brother is doing. She has such a funny yet cute little easygoing personality that keeps us laughing.

For those keeping track of growth stats Ava is now 27.9 inches tall and 18 pounds. She is definitely on the petite side, but her size doesn’t slow her down from trying to keep up with the big kids. Now that she can walk she gets herself into everything and has taken a few tumbles as witnessed by the bruises she continually has on her head.

So as a mom I made a bad move and scheduled myself to work on her birthday. Bad mom! When I scheduled myself I was just looking at days of the week that I was available not the date and by the time I realized what I had done it was too late to change. Not that she knew, but I felt bad and I’m sure I’ll hear about it when she’s 14. J On my workdays Ava is asleep when I leave for work and is usually in bed by the time I get home so Jairo was nice enough to bring the kids by so we could have a little treat on my break. So, please don’t judge my lovely outfit and hairdo in the pictures because I wore a disposable gown over my germ infested work clothes and I have to be to work at 6:30 am so I skimp on the primping!

A bruised head and playing with a lighter ... what kind of parents are we??

A more fitting birthday celebration occurred the next day. We met up with my cousin at Silver Lake Park and enjoyed a rare warm fall day playing at the playground and even getting in the lake. Jairo’s mom arrived later that evening and Ava got to enjoy her third birthday cupcake with grandma, aunt Stephanie and her boyfriend Michael.

Ava was done sporting the birthday hat but Ethan was glad to do so.

Ava was happy with her new doll.

What a fun day celebrating a year with our sweet little Ava. We’re so blessed to have her joyful and spunky spirit in our home.

Back to school conflictions

Ethan and his buddy Clara. They had a hard time getting a picture where they were both smiling, but this one was particularly cute because they seem a little apprehensive about back to school too.

Back to school is a funny time of year. I’m glad to get some sort of routine back to our life but at the same time feel limited on being able to go about and do what I want. Oh so conflicted! Well, how much do you really do what you want to do when you have kids anyway?? So … back to school … Ethan was excited to get back to preschool and is going three days a week this year. Unlike last year where he was a bit intimidated to go and cried a bit when we left, this year when our carpool buddy arrived to pick him up he ran out the door without even saying goodbye. Hey dude, you’re not even 4 years old … slow down! It’s always fun to hear about the new songs, activities, and things he’s exploring at school and hear the excitement in his voice when he talks about the new friends he has already made. While it’s exciting to see his independence, maturity and intelligence grow I see my little boy growing so quickly that I want to slow time down. Again, so conflicted!

Now they're happy to be back!