t 'n t luoma

1) Ethan loves Paige from Trading Spades. He'll actually ask for "Paige" when we are sifting through the Tivo. He also loves to dance to the theme song.... of course they have changed the theme and it is not nearly as danceable.

2) He gives Grampa a big hug and snuggle before bed each night.

3) He's been giving kisses for awhile now. Very cute.

4) Awhile ago he was waking up every night and screaming/crying for an hour or more and we'd finally give up and bring him into bed with us. My sister suggested that we change our bedtime routine and how we respond when he cried. There were one or two nights when he cried very hard, but since then he has slept through the entire night.

His bedtime ritual is adorable, so I'm going to describe it for you (and for me, so when he's 16 and has a ring through his eyebrow I'll be able to remember the simpler days).

First we say goodnight to Grampa. This used to be just waving goodnight, but now most nights it involves him running up to Grampa, climbing into his lap and sitting with him for a few minutes.

Then we go into his room, get jammies on and get him to eat as much Toaster Pastry as possible (raspberry). There are two reasons for this: 1) to make sure that he doesn't wake up hungry and 2) to put some weight on his skinny little bod. (In the colder months we had to put two pairs of jammies on him, but we're down to one now.)

After that I sit in the rocking chair and read "Baby' First Bible Stories" (Jesus loves the little children, All things Bright and Beautiful, Away in a Manger, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, Kum-ba-yah, and This Little Light of Mine.) He knows all the animals and can point to them, although sometimes he has trouble telling the difference between the Hippos and the Elephants.

The last song is always "This Little Light of Mine" at which point Tracey turns off the main light (leaving the small moon light) and we all sing together. Everyone uses their index fingers to point back and forth in tune. It's very cute.

Then we all lay down on the floor together. We have a pillow that Ethan and I use, and Tracey uses several blankets as temporary pillow. Ethan goes over to the pillow and pounces on it on all fours before laying down on it.

We take a few minutes altogether, say goodnight, etc and then Tracey will ask "Ready for the light?" at which point Ethan will say no, turn to face the light, and say "Yeah" which is my cue to turn the light off. We wait until he falls asleep at which point Tracey scoops him up and puts him in the crib and we all leave for the night.

A few weeks ago we went out to the symphony and Miss Lindsay was Ethan's babysitter. At 10pm Ethan decided that he could wait no longer, and he put himself to bed... so when we came home at 10:20 he was already asleep and slept through the night. It was somewhat traumatic to think he could go to bed without us, but of course we were pleased.

5) He likes to conduct. We have gone to several events at Rio Grande and Ethan will dance (often in the aisles) and conduct the band/choir/etc.

6) Last week Tracey was the worship leader (while I was out of town) and Ethan apparently went up to the front of the sanctuary and helped lead as well. Wish I could have seen it.

7) He went to a speech therapist recently who confirmed what we already knew; his speech is delayed. He has a wide vocabulary, but all the words sound alike and we have to guess what he means by context and guessing. However, his language skills are very high, meaning that he understands and can indentify a large variety of items. So he'll be getting some speech therapy to help him get back on track. We're not too terribly concerned about this, long term I'm sure he'll be fine, but I'm glad he's getting early help.

8) He's still just a jewel and about the easiest kid anyone has ever had.