Cooking with Mommy and Digging with Daddy

Last week Friday I was making pizza for dinner. I was inspired by a post on another blog that I read, to let Ethan "help" me more when I am cooking. Dinner time usually ends up being the crabbiest part of the day for him ( like most kids I think) so I usually have that be his movie time, but last Friday he wasn't going for that either, so I pulled a chair up to the counter and let him help me. He did a super job helping me put the cheese on the pizza and even helped with the meat, after he took a bite out of the ham first:) I was surprised how well it went and how fun it was to have him help me.

We continue to work on our backyard, so we bought an orange tree this past weekend. Kevin went out in the yard to dig a hole and see how our drainage is out there. I wasn't aware that he was going to do this, so I was quite surprised when I looked out the window and saw Ethan covered in mud. He was in heaven just throwing dirt clods into the water in the hole.

One more picture. I remember reading that toddlers get really into dipping their food. Ethan started this new habit a couple weeks ago when he insisted that he have some sour cream to dip his chips in. He now loves ketchup with his nuggets and fries, syrup (sugar free, thanks to a suggestion from a friend) for his waffles and, just discovered last weekend, salsa for his quesadillas and chips. Eating is so much fun!

Monterey with Opa and Oma

Kevin's Dad and Mom came to visit this past weekend. It was so great to see them, it had been since November that we saw them last. Friday night we watched Kevin's last game. They won pretty easily. It was also senior night where they recognize the parents of seniors and they recognize the coaches wives for enduring, I mean enjoying 6 months of basketball. I recieved a nice bouquet that I added to my valentine's bouquet from Kev.

My parents weren't using their house in Monterey, so we decided to head there for the weekend. We left Saturday morning and got there in time to enjoy the only sunshine we would get all weekend. Ethan loved playing by the ocean with Opa and Oma. If he had his way he would have been down at the beach the whole time!

Watching the waves with Oma.

Stopping to pose for us.

Checking out the tide pools with Opa.

We found a star fish in a tide pool that was missing one of his arms.

On Sunday night we went to Spanish Bay to watch the bag piper play. We were able to get some seats by the fire this time!

We had a great time with Opa and Oma. Ethan loved the extra attention and keeps talking about Opa and Oma. Thanks for visiting!

"BACKETAH"

One of Ethan's favorite words right now is "backetah"...translation: basketball. Kevin has been coaching the JV team since October. Ethan and I usually make it to his home games. Ethan loves to visit daddy before the game starts and play with the basketballs. He would love even more to throw the ball on the court and play with the guys. He usually does pretty good during the game if he can run around during half time.

Kevin has a great team this year. He had these guys last year when they were freshmen as well. They are a great group of guys so Kevin was excited to move up with them. They only have 7 guys on their team but they have a lot of energy and spirit. It has been a great season. So far their record is 18-7. They have their last game on Friday against the crosstown rivals.

Mail Truck

Ethan, like any little boy, LOVES trucks. We have a truck book and he can point to all the different trucks, excavators, backhoes, firetrucks....you name it, he can usually find it. We have to make sure that if we are home around 12:30 on Thursdays that we make it outside to wave to the garbage man and around 8:00 am on Mondays the recycling guy gets a wave. It is all very exciting to an 18 month old, better than Disneyland. A bonus for Ethan is that our neighbor and friend Rex is a mailman. Everyday he drives his truck home and has lunch. If we're outside playing we definitely have to walk down the street to check out the mail truck. When he sees a mail truck in his books he says "Reca" which, translated, means "Rex's truck." Yesterday, Ethan had the priviledge of sitting in the mail truck to have his picture taken, by himself and with Rex. Thanks Rex for making a little boy's day!

Stockton Thunder

I wanted to have a post that is Ethan free, to prove that we do, every once in a while, get out and have some fun without our little guy. Kevin received tickets to the Stockton Thunder for Christmas from one of his students. The Stockton Thunder is the Junior hockey team in Stockton. They are actually a farm team for the Edmonton Oilers, Kevin's favorite team. So last Saturday my parents watched Ethan and we went out to dinner, to a fabulous Chinese restaurant and then headed over to the game. Our friends Keith and Karrie also got tickets, Keith teaches 6th grade with Kevin. We were in the fifth row, between the blue line and the goal, they were great seats! It was also nice to have Karrie there to talk some non-hockey every now and then:) It was tons of fun though and made me remember all the Sharks games we got to go to when we lived in San Jose.

I forgot my camera, but I wanted some pictures of the evening so we took a couple with Kevin's camera phone. Not the best quality, but you get the idea.

It was teddy bear night, so when the Thunder finally scored their first goal the fans threw hundreds of teddy bears on the ice and they collected them and will give them away to a children's foundation, I can't remember what it is called. Since we were near the front we had a lot of bears fall by us so we got to throw them onto the ice. They had 4 or 5 pickup trucks on the ice and the beds were completely filled with bears. It was a success!

bathtub and afro

I just wanted to post a few pictures of Ethan. He has a great time in the bathtub each night.




Ethan being an elephant....

...and playing peek-a-boo. Whenever we say, "Where's Ethan?" he covers up his eyes to play peek-a-boo.

I had a lady at church ask me on Sunday if I've ever combed Ethan's hair into an afro just for fun. I can't say that we have done that before, so last night after dinner we decided to try it out. He is always such a good sport about me combing his hair (and putting gel in it, which we have to do daily now as his hair gets longer and longer) and last night was no exeption. Here is Ethan and his 'fro.

Monterey

I'm finally getting around to posting my pictures of Monterey. We got a new camera for Christmas and I had lots of fun playing around with it while we were in Monterey. I think we took about 300 pictures....I only chose a few to post here.

Kara, Eric, Ethan and I got to Monterey on Friday afternoon. We took a nice walk along the ocean and then Ethan attempted a nap, he wasn't successful, so I got him up and the 4 of us went to Spanish Bay Golf Resort. Every night at sunset there is a bagpiper who walks up one of the back fairways playing his bagpipe and then he stops and plays for about 20 minutes. They have huge fire pits and tables outside and it was packed with people waiting for the player to arrive and enjoying appetizers and cocktails. We were too late to get a seat by the fire, but we sat near some grass that Ethan loved running around on. It was such a fun atmosphere and a really cool thing to see. We liked it so much that we went back on Sunday night, but this time my parents and Kevin joined us.

A silhouette of the bagpiper.

On Saturday, Eric and Kara and my parents went golfing. Ethan and I hung out at the house and then went on a nice walk. I had lots of fun taking pictures of him. This is one of my favorites.


That night we had ribs for dinner. Ethan really wanted to try a bite, I was surprised, but he actually got the hang of it and got some meat off the bone!


Kevin arrived late Saturday night, after his team played in the championship in their holiday tournament. Sunday afternoon, after the guys played Poppy Hills, Ethan, Kevin and I went on a walk. Again we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery.




Ethan even attempted to climb the rocks by the water.


That night the kids were in charge of dinner, it was part of our gift to my dad for his 60th birthday, the other half was a round of golf at Poppy. It was a delicious dinner and the company was even better.


On Monday morning before we left Eric, Kara, Kevin, Ethan and I went on one more walk down to the beach. It is just so beautiful it's hard to leave!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is Ethan enjoying a snack at his new table he got for Christmas from Papa and Nana. He's still working on getting on the chairs himself, but I know he will have years of fun at that table.