Crawling

Ethan decided to army crawl for the first time on Sunday. This is exactly how Luke started getting around when he was eight months old -- about a month older than Ethan is right now. Just in time to get into all the Christmas decorations!

Da-da

I just love his sweet little voice!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween! I think it is Luke’s favorite holiday—well, until Christmas comes around.  He loves dressing up in his costume and he just loves everything about it.  There is a house in the cul-de-sac near our house that puts out about ten inflatable Halloween things in their yard.  Every night, Mark and Luke would walk to their house and look at all the “yucky guys.”  On Halloween night we went to a fall festival organized by our church and it was lots of fun.   Luke and one of his best buddies, Noah, had a blast riding the train, bouncing, sliding, getting their face painted and running around.  I never really saw the appeal of Halloween until I had kids—but now I love it!

Here are some pictures of all of the fun we had.

The next few pictures are of a HUGE slide that I still can’t believe Luke wanted to do.  I would never have done it.  It was really high.  Mark and Luke did it twice.  I love Luke’s face in the last picture—I think he was terrified but still having so much fun!

Teeth

Ethan’s first tooth came in last Wednesday (10/27).  Ammy noticed it.  I’m pretty sure it popped through that day though because I am always looking in his mouth.  Then he was SUPER fussy yesterday.  So I looked in his mouth that evening and noticed tooth number two making its appearance. 

Please excuse the dirty face.  It was right after dinner. Plus his eczema is super bad right now because of all the drooling.

And here’s a cute picture of him just for good measure:

6 Months

{This was actually taken on his five month birthday. I love his sweet little face.}

I truly cannot believe Ethan is already half a year old. It has gone by so fast. I missed his five month update so here are all the new things that have happened since his four month update.

--Ethan started eating food. We started with rice cereal and he was not a fan. He has been slow to like baby food but now seems to like it pretty well. He eats bananas, apples, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots. I just started feeding him yogurt and he loves it and we started giving him puffs and he loves those too.

{This is what he thought of his first time eating rice cereal}

--We stopped swaddling him sometime during his fourth month. We were worried it was going to be hard but he really adapted quickly. His sleep is okay. Sometimes he sleeps from 7:45 until 5:30 and then eats and sleeps until 8 and some days he wakes up at 3 and then wakes up around 7. His naps are all over the place. Some days he will take great naps and some days they are short naps. I am definitely ready for him to be on a “real” schedule so I can have a set nap time and plan our days around those. But I think part of the problem is that since we have Luke too we are always going and doing stuff so Ethan has to nap on the go. I think that is just reality when you have two kids. The days of planning all your days around nap time have to go out the window.

{Ready for bed}

--He is a rolling machine. He started rolling over from his back to his tummy a week after he turned five months old. Now when I lay him down he almost always rolls over to his tummy. There were a few nights when he was rolling over and crying and couldn't go back to sleep. But now he has decided to be a tummy sleeper, which I think is so cute. Now when I put him down at night on his back he immediately rolls over to his tummy and goes to sleep. Luke never did that.

--He enjoys being in his exersaucer and the jumperoo. He doesn’t stay too long in the Bumbo. It seems like Luke lived in that Bumbo but Ethan tries to get out so I don’t leave him in there too long.

--His eczema has gotten pretty bad. I think his face itches him so pretty much every day he wakes up with a new scratch on his face even though I try my hardest to keep his nails trimmed.

--He is still a happy guy. He watches Luke like a hawk and LOVES when Luke plays with him and talks to him. But usually Luke gets a little too enthusiastic and is too rough so it ends with crying. He loves to swing outside in the swing—especially if Luke is swinging next to him.

{I love this picture including the crazy hair and the baby-food-matted-eyebrow.}

Here are his stats from his six month check up:

Weight: 17 lbs. 12.8 ounces (56%)

Length: 26.5 inches (53 %)

And here are a few more favorite pictures of him over the last two months:

{I love his chunky legs!! }

{All dressed up for church}

{Attempting a brother photo shoot :)}