Sweet Sound of Silence

Exhale.

For the first time in over four and a half months I'm in our house ALONE. Sweet sweet blissful silence. If our bird Molly dares a cheep she might be banished for ruining this moment.

I'm scrambling to do some tasks before a trip but who cares, Chris took the boys out and I have no bums to wipe or mouths to feed or tears to dry. Sweet sweet silence.

Swinging Towards Spring!

It is finally warming up and looking more and more like spring is upon us.  What better way to celebrate than introduce Ethan to the swingset! 

 

Here's a video of his first few pushes!

We chose our house, in part, because of the multi-acre park adjacent to the backyard with a full playground. 

 

I think Ethan approves of our decision!

And the race to babyproof begins!

Ethan is flying around the house on all fours, and as of this weekend, is pulling himself up to stand.  Luckily, we had gotten the gate up in front of the kitchen in time!

 

"Ha-ha! You guys were just one step ahead of me!"

  

"Daddy, I can help with the dishes!"

  

"Just because you're a police officer doesn't mean I have to be behind bars!"

  

To this I just smile and tsk, tsk.  He's growing far to fast for his Mommy. 

Putting the "date" in "playdate"!

Ethan had his first real playdate this weekend, and all the moms noticed who had the best moves with the ladies! 

 

"So ladies, come here often?"

  

"I bet your boyfriend can't crawl like this!"

  

"Oh, don't be mad about me talking to your friend!  There's enough of Ethan to go around!"

 

Then, taking his cue from Lady & the Tramp... 

Ethan coyly shared a rattle (spaghetti isn't on their 7 month old menu yet!).

 

Ethan finally found his play date. 

Family "Staycation" Travel Journal, Day 2

The first thing on our day's agenda was Ethan's first swim in a pool!  Chris had ensured he booked a hotel with an indoor heated pool, and while the snow was frozen outside, we got to take him for his first swim inside!

 

Ethan sported his bathing suit for the first time.  Our good friend Laura had given Ethan that suit during my baby shower... did she know ahead of time it would match his hair?

 

Oh, he knew he looked good, and wanted to show off his big muscles!

 

Modeling from the pool table...

 

 

to pool side!

 

"Let's do this Mommy!"

 

He looked puzzled at the vast body of water below.

 

Here's a video of his first dip!

 

Confident now, he got ready to do his favorite activity all morning...

 

SPLASH!

Looking like prunes, we finished our morning swim and continued on to explore the National Harbor some more.

 

Brrrr!  The view was beautiful, but it was much colder than the warm indoor pool. 

 

And during our visit to the Gaylord Conference Center ...

 

Ethan wanted to go back to swimming too!

  

"Is this art sculpture (The Awakening) coming to tickle me?"

 

"Thanks Daddy for planning such an awesome trip!"

Staycation over, now back to the real world...

First crawling, now standing (supported)? We didn't give permission for this!

Ethan decided to celebrate his 7 month birthday by standing!

"Does my butt look big from this angle?"

"Sigh... the view from sitting down isn't as exciting anymore."

Ethan's Crawling!

Watch out world, our little man is on the move! We call this his "Ricky Bobby" outfit, and it was fitting for him to wear the racing outfit his Aunt Tina got him for the occasion!

Afterwards, he was very pleased with his performance!

You can see below what he was doing one week before building up to this big feat!  He had finally accomplished getting on his hands and knees, but couldn't quite figure out where to go from there. 

He would spend 20 minutes at a time rocking back and forth, stuck in one spot!

But that's no more, little man is officially on the move!  Let the babyproofing commence!

A special bonus was the fact that his mommy was working from home this past week and was unusually there for another first.  I've lucked out seeing his first roll and first crawl!

We made it through Snowmageddon!

fter about 20 inches of snow, it was time for this family to dig our way out.

The adventure began with bundling Ethan.  You can see how excited he was about wearing this many layers.  "A Christmas Story" anyone?

Ethan and Chris looked at the level of snow from inside our porch door.  

"Daddy, I'm glad both my parents aren't from Florida!  Your Pennsylvania experience is going to come in handy today!"

Ethan wasn't so sure about this whole winter thing as the snowflakes hit his face.

We wondered if it was too cold for our little tot...

...he thought about it...

... and decided "This is fun!"

This is Ethan acting as our little ruler.  He's standing in a section shoveled by his Daddy, that's the top of the snow meeting the back of his head!

There's a car under there!  The Floridian in the family never would have known to put the windshield wipers up before the storm.  

And our toasty home buried next to it.

Corinne (and Ethan strapped on) shoveled once for an obligatory photo op.

And Chris...

... plowed through the rest!

We went back inside to enjoy the rest of the weekend at home together.