Ethan Loves His Marquette Friends

Ethan has some great friends here in Marquette (as well as mom!!). We have play group every Tuesday and Ethan enjoys playing with all of his friends and mom enjoyed talking with hers:) We are going to miss everyone come May, so we are getting together as much as possible before we all go our separate ways!! Elise, Charlie, and Ethan having fun! Charlie and Ethan sharing pretzels:)Maren and Ethan playing together.

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Ethan LOVES when he gets to see his grandparents! This weekend Grandma & Grandpa Jastifer visited and Ethan enjoyed playing and showing them all of his new tricks! In fact, mom and dad went out to dinner just the two of them while grandma and grandpa watched Ethan. Thanks for visiting grandma and grandpa!

Silly Hat

The other day Ethan had this silly winter hat on and thought he was hot stuff....

Experimenting

Here I took the color out of the photo except for the the pumpkin and the hat.
You can fade out part of a picture so you can journal.

Here I turned a photo in a charcoal drawing.

I have been using this new photo software for my scrapbooking and I have had fun playing around with some of the things that you can do. Here are a few of the things I have learned...what do you think??

Little Presquile Hike

Beautiful Lake SuperiorLoving Marquette!

You can see how the waves washed up on shore were like glass.

Ethan and dad checking out the view.

Last weekend Jim and I took Ethan on a little hike along beautiful Lake Superior! The waves that were washed along shore had froze and then melted some due to the warm weather and then melted again, so they were like glass and felt as if you were walking on glass too! We had a great time and it is times like this that we are so happy to be living in Marquette.

"Monkey"

Jim and I had company over the other night and they brought Ethan a "monkey". It is really a gorilla, but somehow it was called monkey and it has stayed. Anyway, Ethan LOVES this monkey and especially loves giving it kisses!!

Ethan giving monkey some loving!

UP 200

Once a year Marquette hosts the "UP 200", which is a dog sled race that starts at 7pm on Friday and the dogs and their mushers head a total of 200 miles to Grand Marais and back and end back up in Marquette around noon the next day. It is a big event and everybody who could stand to be out in the cold weather headed to downtwon Marquette to see the start of the race. We headed down there with our good friends the Longs and had a great time. We put Ethan and their 2 year old daughter Elise in our jogging stroller to keep them out of the cold . They fell asleep and snuggled together for quite some time, it was so cute!The bright spots are the dogs eyes. There is about ten pulling one sled. Marquette brought snow in so that they could make a trail in the middle of the streets for the start of the race.

Elise and Ethan snuggling together....that is Andrea and myself behind the stroller.

We have a walker!!!!!

That is right.... at 9 months and 2 days old we have a walker on our hands. I was washing dishes in the kitchen today and Ethan was standing, holding onto a ledge by the window. I turned to see what he was doing and he was walking to me!! He just took right off all by himself and walked straight across the kitchen=:)

Here is some video that we took when dad got home...enjoy!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

Mommy's card from Ethan
Daddy's card from Ethan

We had a great Valentines Day yesterday. Ethan made some sweet cards for mom and dad:) All we asked is that Ethan give us kisses all day long when we asked for them...and he did:) You just say the word "kisses" and he will lay a big, wet, slobbery one on ya! The funny thing is that he will never just give you one at a time, it is always followed by another. It is so cute!

Ethan also went to the doctors yesterday for his 9 month check-up and he is doing great! He is right where he was three months ago in terms of percentiles:

95th percentile for height : 31 inches

50th percentile for weight: 20 pounds 7 ounces

50th percentile for head circumfrence

I am not going to tell you that he was a good boy at the doctors because that would be a complete lie. He cried more at this appointment then any other one and he didn't even get any shots! It took 5 tries to get his weight because he would not sit still, he would not let the doctor go near his ears, he twisted and turned into a complete circle so that the doctor could not take on or off his diaper, and to top it all off he would scream if anybody but mom would go near him! So neadless to say I, as well as the doctors office, could not wait to get out of there! It is good to know that he is growing and doing well though:) Gotta love our little monster!!!

Our Little Explorer...

The other day, once again, it was really quiet in the kitchen where Ethan was playing and I knew that he was up to something. I was doing the dishes and he was playing with all the tubberware on the floor. ..or so I thought. I caught him in the middle of doing this....One...

two...

Three.....got the pitcher in the back of the cupboard!! Piece of cake mom!!

Baby Steps....

Ethan is taking baby steps! If I set him away from me and steady him and then let go, he will take a few steps on his own to get to me! He is nowhere near full fledged walking yet, but in the next month, I think that we will have a walker!!

Sippy Cup Training

Sippy cup training is so much fun......

Pearly Whites!

Here is a great picture of Ethan and his new teeth! Grandma Helms has been asking for one and I finally captured a good picture that displayed them:)

My Newest Trick....Standing Up!

In the last couple of days Ethan has been interested in standing up all by himslef. It wasn't until today that I saw him do it for more then five seconds and with a toy in hand!! We are so proud of him and so is he!

Lets make a mess!!!!!

Ethan has had so much fun exploring his new home! He has especially had fun going through all the cupboards and baskets and anything that he can stand up on. He is starting to stand in his own for about 5 seconds at a time. He has taken no steps yet, but I am sure that will take place soon enough! With the standing milestone comes lots of bumps nad bruises, Ethan is taking them like a champ and is quickly learning what can and can't be stood up on! He has some "war wounds" as we call them. He is "roaring" all the time and is saying "ba" and "ma". Children are so much fun and he continues to amaze us everyday!

He is down and out with a cold right now, but is still his cheerful self most of the time. We are just taken it easy and hoping it will go away fast!

We had fun with our friends Jason and Carly Davis (med-school friends) and their adorable daugher Avery. Ethan and Avery ahd fun playing together:) Thanks for coming guys, we had a great time!

This is Ethan spot when he eats....he LOVES to look outside the window!

I found the cupboards!!

I help fold and eat the laundry!!

Grandma and Grandpa Jastifer came snowmobiling and hung out!

Dad and Ethan playing Peek-a-boo!

Ethan and Avery playing with their favorite toy...the booster seat:)

Spaghetti dinner......Ethan's face says it all!

This was my entertainment during the Super Bowl:)