Going to Great-Grandpa's
Mom and I will be travelling with Ethan to visit my dad's parents this weekend. They haven't seen Ethan since last December so I'm sure they will be happy. We decided to stay with my Aunt Betty (we have 2 Aunt Bettys!!!) in Longview to avoid Octopus Ethan Fatigue at Grandma & Grandpa's house!
Back from our trip
Well, we made it up and back without any problems. Ethan was happy to be home with his toys. He just sat down and played with his activity table for a while. Next time I think I better take some familiar items with me.
We stayed with my Aunt Betty and visited my dad's parents on Friday and Saturday. We also visited my mom's aunt and uncle too (Aunt Betty's parents). Ethan had a good time at both houses I'm sure. He used cousin Mark's fan remote as a call, call (phone) and used grandpa's cane for I'm not sure what. There's a lot to get into there so we had to keep a close eye on him which was quite tiring. He was very interested in the heater at Aunt Mickey and Uncle Warren's house. Uncle Warren kept him occupied for a bit, but you have to watch Ethan...he is good at the 'fake out' move ;o)
I shopped for some presents on Friday evening at a few stores that are much easier to access in Longview during the holidays than in Humble. Got some things that I figure Ethan will enjoy now and some games for his birthday later. AND a gift for the Ornament exchange which is tonight! YEAH! This will be our 3rd annual exchange. I really enjoy that every year as I am sure many of the ladies that we worship with are. Speaking of that...I better get working on the punch! I am SO disorganized lately. Could have something to do with just 5 more days until vacation :o) WOOHOO!
One more day until vacation!
Woohoo!!! I told Ethan this morning was the last morning for a while of having to get up and rush out the house early - much too early for a sleepy baby boy. This has been a CRAZY week at work with the launch of a much anticipated phone for the company. Tomorrow I only have one training to attend.
This vacation is going to be more of a 'catch up on the housework' session. Starting with the garage this Saturday. Scott discovered a furry guest making his unwelcome presence known on a spare table stored in the garage! EEEK!!! Since the bifocals were still upstairs on the nightstand we're not sure if it's a baby possum or a rat/mouse. So far this makes the third unknown houseguest in the last 7 years...1st a baby possum, 2nd a dead snake and now the unidentified furry 'thing'.
Next is clearing out the former guest room turned storage room so we can move our bed into that area while we rip up carpet and put down the new laminate flooring. YEAH!!! Lots of work, but it will be worth it. This all needs to be done by Tuesday evening as I plan to spend the next week with Ethan doing fun things like going to the park and visiting with family coming to visit. For once I'm actually on vacation at the RIGHT time!
Lisa, Jim and the kids are planning to be down during Christmas so that will be fun. Kailey and the Sikes family (Jamie's in-law's) are planning to be down on the 26th to celebrate Christmas together so it'll be a week of visiting and fun.
1st Trip to the Barber
Saturday morning Ethan had his first Barber haircut. Missy at Travis Barber Shop in Porter did the honors. She did a great job of managing him with some help of two rolls of Smarties candy! Dad got his haircut in the next chair by Travis himself. Ethan laughed at his animated hat. It was quite funny. All the kids were running to him to say Hi...I guess they thought he looked like Santa Clause.
Happy New Year
Well, I'm finally updating the journal and adding Christmas pictures! Sorry if you visited already after the cards arrived to find nothing new posted.
We had a nice holiday this year spent with most of our immediate family. Lisa, Jim & the cousins made it down and we visited with them on Christmas day. Ethan was sick so they came over in the evening to visit and exchange presents.
Ethan is getting to be such a big boy. He has added "AJ" to his vocabulary as of last week. Of course you have to listen hard to know what he's saying most of the time. I think he says more than we realize, we just don't understand everything. He's very curious and wants to figure out how everything works. One thing we are working on now is his frustration fits when he can't get something to work or get something out of a box.
Scott is still working for the financial company through the local temp agency here in Kingwood. That has worked out pretty well so far, but is supposed to be over at the end of January. He starts his Technical Drafting class this coming Friday night & Saturday and seems to be looking forward to that.
I'm still at Sprint 10 years and counting. I train our business customers to use their PDA's, Blackberry's and other account management tools. It's a pretty cool job and a PLUS to be able to work from my home office the majority of the time.
Mom continues to keep Ethan for me and seems to enjoy doing so. I'm sure he loves going to Papa & Granna's...I think cookies and soft peppermints are involved somehow!! He LOVES going to get the paper and the mail with Papa.
Nothing special planned at this point in the year for vacation, but I hope we'll get to do something even if it's just San Antonio. Our flying days are pretty much over due to the charges for luggage AND Ethan turning 2 in May. I can't believe that! Only 5 months and Ethan will be 2 years old already! Time sure flies when you're having fun :o)
Trip to the Zoo
This has been a pretty busy month at work with 7:30 am training sessions so I'm a little behind here.
Monday was a holiday for us so my mom, dad and I decided to go to the Museum of Natural Science to see their beginnings of Christianity exihibit. Ethan went to, but somehow his pacifier didn't make it in with us and it was naptime so mommy didn't get to look as closely as she would have liked. It was interesting, I just wish I had had more time to look at the documents they had on display - portions of the books of Luke, Ephesians, and others which I cannot recall right now.
While mom and dad finished up the tour I strolled Ethan in to see the dinosaurs next door...which are really just casts of the originals. I laughed when he started making his Elephant noise when he saw the wooly mammoth. :o) Then we went to wait on a bench for a bit and have a little snack...but there was something drawing the attention of many little people across the way from us. They had a tank of Horseshoe Crabs so we went over to take a look. Ethan got so excited he kept saying "ohhhhhhhh...ohhhhhh" and trying to touch them through the glass. I guess I need to get my boy out around more living creatures more often. I'm thinking before the zoo he's really only seen Doggys and Kit Cats.
Monday was a free day at the zoo. Now we tried to go to one of these free days a while back and ended up driving all the way back home because there was NO parking whatsoever. No kidding! 10 cars waiting for 1 person backing out...we couldn't do that with a baby and nephew unfortunately. But this time, we kept our parking place close to the museum and mom and dad decided we could just walk to the zoo. It's not that far, but with their health issues I was a little concerned. Ethan is always making Elephant noises and we thought since it was free day just going to see the Elephants (or Eh-phants as Ethan says) would be fine.
We stopped in the aquarium building (I guess that's what it is) which had some fish, a tunnel the kids could crawl through inside one of the tanks, an exhibit of guinea fowl and chipmunks, and some baby rodent looking creatures. All were new and exciting for Ethan and he did NOT want to leave. So he cried and was consoled pretty quickly by the Cheetahs - they were not very sociable that day, Raffes as Ethan calls them - very pretty, and the Elephants. Ethan was banging on the fence trying to get them to come over. Somehow, I think if they had come closer he might not have liked them so much. :o) We went through the primate exhibit and then left the zoo. It was a pretty fun experience. Scott and I will probably take him back pretty soon...but not on a free day! It wasn't that bad, but it was pretty crowded.
All in all, it was a good day. We changed our lunch plans from the Aquarium restaurant downtown to the family favorite BBQ joint in Atascocita. I think the grandparents were tired out, but they did seem to really enjoy the outing.