A Year Gone By

i forgot i had this thing and it disappeared from all thought. preocuppied with the daily grind has kept me busy and enmeshed in the lives of 2 very lively boys. cole and ethan are now 3 1/2 going on 4 and the changes in them are too numerous to mention. they are funny, thoughtful, observant and sweet mixed with some innate kind of curiosity that pays no attention to rationale.

we just celebrated christmas 2007 to finish out a whole year that i haven't updated this. as this year comes to a close, here are a couple funny stories about the boys:

Upon leaving STL last Weds (for Christmas break) with the boys as we passed the Arch I made sure to point it out to Cole and Ethan. They asked, “What is that?” And I just told them it was the St. Louis Arch, how we knew we were in St. Louis. Cole replied, “It’s like what Amy Lessendelft (our friend Amy Van Essendelft) has in her basement!” and I thought he was goofy, so I said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” He simply stated, “Amy Lessendelft has a picture of the Arch in her basement by her couch.” I was SHOCKED because she does! It’s a picture of the downtown area with the Arch in it, so I called her up immediately to tell her that funny story and she thought that was very observant of him! I guess he pays attention to a lot more than I think he does…

Ethan has a habit of not wanting to take turns sharing toys, but when he does share he wants to be sure he has enough time. So when most people say, “I would like to do it for 5 minutes and then you can have a turn,” Ethan says, “I want to do it 5, just 5 OK?”

Even though this isn’t really funny at all, it’s very cute: One day this Xmas my sister had to go (by ambulance) to the hospital again for another tachycardic episode. We got there, per Erin’s request, in time to see her taken on the bed into the ambulance; and then they waited another 5 minutes before leaving. During that time Ethan was very curious and said, “Is Aunt Erin in the ambulance?” “Yes,” Nate replied. “Is she on the bed?” Again Nate said, “Yes.” Then Ethan, according to his own understanding of ambulances and hospitals said, “And they will take her to the hospital and give her surgery to make her better?” It was very sweet!

While in NC for Christmas we were passing by Lilly’s school one day and I pointed it out to the boys saying, “...and she gets to ride the bus to school.” Cole looked and thought for a minute and then said, “Ohhh, we won’t get to go to school any more, now that we live at Grammy’s house.” I laughed really hard and told him that we don’t live at Grammy’s, we’re just visiting. Goes to show how kids view time…

both boys refer to paper money as "money paper" and insist on playing with it or having it. we have quickly taught them that mommy and daddy don't have "money paper" just floating around! they have learned to make do with little.

i suppose a lot happens in a year, especially in changing and growing boys. as you can see from the above excerpts, they have quite a vocabulary and are very conversational. sometimes too conversational. often when we are driving in the car we have to ask cole to be quiet because he not only talks all the time, he talks loudly! it's something to love about him.

ethan is trying to quit sucking his thumb, which he only does at night or naps. as a result he isn't falling to sleep as quickly, but he's being very valiant in his efforts, saying " I won't suck my thumb!" we think it's best he get that habit kicked before his permanent teeth come in and before it's even harder to quit.

i guess that's it for this year... on with a new one.