What can Ethan do?

Ethan will be 18 months old in a few days, so I thought it'd be a good time to make a list of the things that he can do at this point. This is not an exhaustive list because I'm an exhausted Momma and am sick with a chest cold, which is NOT helping. Still, I'll add what I can remember and will update this if I remember anything particularly cool later.

Motor skills: He can...
walk, spin, clap, dance, give kisses, give high 5s, climb up and down things (including the stairs), tiptoe, tiptoe while walking, walk backwards, run very clumsily (but cutely!), feed himself with a spoon (though he still prefers his hands), throw lots of things (with distressingly accurate aim, unfortunately for Daisy), roll a ball, sometimes kick a ball, bounce on his bottom, and today he learned how to stomp. Many of these actions are accompanied by his narration: "I bounce!" "I stomp!" "Spinning, Spinning!" "Down stairs!" "Stomp!"

Other skills: Ethan knows (and says)...
the full capital letter alphabet (he points out letters every time we're out and about), a handful of lower-case letters, numbers 0-9, how to count to ten (and he can tell us how many fingers we're holding up for him to count), most basic shapes (star, oval, heart, circle, square, diamond, cross, etc.), names of people he sees often, his own name, most farm animals and their noises, lots of other animals, names of the foods he eats and many that he still won't touch, lots of verbs, nouns

Songs he sings (only partially, still):
Old Mac Donald
ABC song (he gets almost all of it right!)
My Bonnie
Itsy bitsy spider
Hello Song from music together class

Still working on:
Adjectives, colors, jumping, eating a variety of foods, patience. Ethan has a low tolerance for frustration right now, and he gets really upset when he wants to have/do something that he can't have/do. I know it's just a stage and that he'll learn how to deal, but it can be very trying sometimes. But he'll get there. :o)

Feedback

Ethan is getting really good at telling us what he's thinking.

Today, during a diaper change, he said "Brrr, cold!" and smiled when I used the wipes on him. They are a little chilly, but he'd never complained before! :o)

We also went to the outlet mall looking for little boy shoes. Ethan was a pretty good sport, but he eventually yawned and said "I tired!". Normally, he'd just yawn and I'd get it and we'd go home, but how cool is it that he can also acknowledge that his yawn means he needs his nap and it's time for us to head home?

He knows his name now, too. He's recognized his name for months, but now he finally says Ethan when we ask him what his name is. And when we ask him someone's name, he usually gets it right...assuming it's someone he sees pretty often.

Anytime we go anywhere, he chatters on at a mile a minute about everything he sees! There are some things that he is just REALLY into, so when we see/hear them, chances are good that he'll comment on them: Fans (anything that spins like one), the sun (circles with lines radiating out), stars, all things Nemo, water (especially fountains), wheeled vehicles (especially trucks and motorcycles...not so much plain old cars), airplanes, guitars, pianos, music of any kind, cats...and SO many other things. I think it's pretty cool that he's so curious and interactive now. When he sees something he likes, he tells us and gets so excited when we let him know we see it, too. Communicating with him is so much fun, and it's really neat that he can express himself to us and unveil more and more of his little personality every day!

Long overdue update

Ethan is quite the talker! He knows most common animals and their sounds as well as dozens and dozens of nouns and verbs. He knows basic shapes (circle, square, diamond, star) and he also recognizes all the capital letters and can count up to 9. We're working on colors right now. He likes the word blue, but I don't think he knows what it means yet.

He can parrot pretty much anything we say, which is pretty scary. :o) But he's actually retaining and building on what he's parroting, which is really cool. A couple of days ago, we were playing at a local fountain and he threw an acorn at it. Then he announced "I throwed it!". I'm *fairly* certain "throwed" isn't a word Jim or I have used recently, so apparently Ethan has learned basic grammar structures and has decided to add -ed to the end of a verb he knows to make it past-tense. Cool, huh?!?

He's also finishing song phrases. This started in the last week or so. I'll sing "Daisy Daisy" or "My Bonnie" and stop at the last word of a phrase, and he'll "sing" the missing word. Not necessarily with the correct rhythm or tune yet, but sometimes he does even get those right. Again, pretty sophisticated stuff for a 17 month old. Today, during bath-time, I started singing "Old MacDonald" and decided to see if he'd pick the animal. He LOVES cats, so I thought for sure he'd pick cat, but he chose sheep. So we baa-baaed and I was so proud of my son for choosing an animal for the very first time, all by his teeny self! He's also got a favorite non-kid song. Coldplay's "Don't Panic". He requests it during diaper changes and sings along while I'm changing him. Hey, whatever it takes to keep him still!!

Ethan is already starting to create basic sentences. Stuff like "I want it" and "I wanna go outside" and "I throwed it!" He's also pretty decent at saying please and thank you. He's not consistent with that yet, but he's getting there. He requests books by name and he can give me nose kisses and puppy kisses...very cute! Oh, and he's learning his friend's names! He knows Mommy, Daddy, Grammy and Daisy, of course. But he also knows Vivi and Jannah and Hamza. It's good that he's starting to care that the other kiddos have names...he's starting to acknowledge other kids as people, not obstacles. Yay!!

Oh, and he's getting really good at narrating what he's doing. He'll spin and yell "Spinning!", run and yell "Running!", splash and yell "Splashing!" All with a big "whoa, check out what I can do!" grin on his face. Ahhh, that grin!! He is SO full of discovery and excitement and wonder at EVERY little thing! He'll examine, explore, or try something, then he'll look at me with this "Ah-Ha! Check this out, Mom!" grin, and I can't help but fall head-over-heels in love with him a million times a day! Ethan is absolutely exhausting, but I treasure every minute with him and am so grateful that I am able to stay home with him and show him all of these things that he gets so excited about all day long. He's a really cool little person, and I'm just so proud of how sweet and smart and yummy he is!! :o)

The latest...

We're sooo far behind on trying to maintain this blog! Ethan is just amazing right now, but he needs me to keep a very close eye on him! He's climbing on everything (including one of his baby gates) he likes to play with the stove knobs (which are no longer on the stove now...we took them off and moved them to higher ground to avoid gas leaks!), and he somehow manages to be everywhere at once. As I'm cleaning up one disaster area, he's busily creating a new one for Mommy to work on!

He's a handful, but he's SO MUCH fun! Kiddo is talking up a storm. He has dozens of nouns, and even a few verbs and adjectives. He's playing pretend. He's curious about everything...one of his favorite words is "what?" He's able to give me a breakfast or lunch order..." milk! Noodle! Cheerio!, Bana! (Banana in Ethan-speak)" He answers "yeah" and "no" to my inquiries. He recognizes a few letters and shapes. He's just so cool!

And Uncle Tom and Michele...he FINALLY started saying "three" the day after we got home!

We just got back from Seattle, and he was such a great little traveler! One guy on the plane home actually commented on his good behavior as we were getting off the plane. He slept well and was just generally good-natured during almost all of the trip. Yay!!

He's also finally started to give kisses. Before, he'd give us his forehead to kiss, but now he's smacking me with his little baby lips...so yummy!! :oD And he's calling me Mommy now. It's one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard!

He's growing up SO fast! Every day brings at least a few new words, and he's just becoming SO smart! And he can walk backwards now, which delights him to no end! He's constantly cracking himself up, silly boy! He is just so cute and so much fun...we're really having a good time playing and exploring and just learning all about the world eight now. :o)

Oh yeah!

Forgot to mention that Ethan knows body parts now. He started with Ear, and that was the only one he knew for a while. Then came Eye and Nose, and he's saying foot, hand, and he knows Cheek but isn't saying it yet.

What else? He can sort of count to 3. Sort of...he knows the words, but I'm not sure that he "gets" the actual concept yet. But we're working on it!

Especially in the last few weeks, every day brings new words and new discoveries...it's SO MUCH fun!! He is sooo cute, and hearing him name new things in his little baby voice is just sooo adorable. :o)

Update

It's amazing how much can happen in just one month. Ethan has SO MANY words now! He has a favorite shape (star), a favorite household item (clocks), a favorite line from a book ("down, down, down, plop!" from Are You My Mother), and so many other cool things like that. He's not signing much, but he is talking a lot and is definitely communicating with us. Oh, he just started pointing at stuff and asking "dat?" a few days ago. He's so curious about everything! :o)

Some of his names for things are a little off. He calls his toy cow "moo" and his lamb is "baa." But he definitely knows what they are...if I ask him to get his cow, he grabs it and says "moo!" Pretty neat!

Today, he tried to share his water with a Winnie the Poo puppet. He's beginning to pretend!! He laughed when I made the puppet make "drinking" noises.

And today, for the first time, he called me Mama. No doubt about it. He was with Jim and was looking for me and asked for Mama. When I came into view, he looked at me and said it, then pointed at me and said it again with a big goofy grin on his little face. It made my mommy heart soooo happy!!

Also, he nursed for the very last time on July 24th. He wasn't nursing unless it was naptime or bedtime, and I figured he was going to be able to deal with it well enough to stop, so we did it. I cried after the last time, and I still kind of miss nursing him, but he's doing very well. Still waking up a couple of times a night, but he's generally going back to sleep fairly easily unless his molars are bothering him.

Another big event...I left him with a non-familial sitter a few times. I joined the YMCA and left him with their child care center. He did okay with them. I cried the first time I left him, and the staff were all concerned. :oP When I explained why I was crying, they were all really sweet and sympathetic. They'd all been there, too. :o)

Bird!

Today, Ethan said something that sounded kind of like bird. I wasn't sure if that was what he was trying to say, but then he started doing the sign for bird and kept repeating the word! Yay!

So that's kind of his 2nd or 3rd sign, if you count waving Hi and an occasional "all done" when he's finished eating. He's really resisting using his hands to communicate...he'd MUCH rather try to talk. But if he can manage to do both, that'll really help us figure out exactly what he's trying to say.