update (with pictures!!)

Sheesh, just getting all the pictures off my camera and onto the computer takes forever (when I let it go for so long). Then I just procrastinate blogging even longer because it ends up taking me seventeen times longer than I think it will.

Let's see...Ethan news. His favorite (or only) number is 3. If I give him two crackers he looks at me and says "three!" and so I have to give him another one. When Ethan and Brett are practicing their drumming (we got Ethan junior sized drum sticks), Brett goes "one, two, three, four!" and starts drumming--Ethan goes "three, three, three, three!" If I ask him something with the word "too" at the end of the sentence, "Do you want to go, too?" He says, "Three!" (meaning "yes").

He's getting more and more independent and spontaneous. He knows more words than I think he does and he uses language in his own way, without me prompting him to say this or that. It's so fun that he is starting to really notice his world and to comment (constantly) on it.

What else. He's very interested in the new baby. He comes up to me frequently and lifts my shirt to poke my belly. He gets very excited when anyone says the word "girl" and shouts it over and over. He can say "Ellie" with a cute exaggerated L sound. I don't know what he's thinking about it all or if he understands what is going on, but I do think he understands much more than I would think for being 18 months.

This is back before we cut his hair. I can't believe it was so long!

Just before Ethan's very first haircut!
I think he felt a little like Samson.
We left the back long. Brett called it "Grandma in front, Daddy in back." I called it a mullet.
Ethan loves anything music. When he found out these little buds were making music, he carried them and the iPod around everywhere he went.
Beautiful baby.
Second haircut, made to match Daddy's.
We went up to Silver Lake to walk around the boardwalk. It was too much for me, he kept almost tripping into the water.
Yesterday, for Anabelle's birthday present, we took her to the Natural History Museum. We all had a lot of fun. Ethan ran through the whole museum, yelling all the labels he knew. "Dinosaur bone!" "Fish!" "Bug!" "Duck!"

we're having a baby girl!

We're naming her Rayen Elizabeth Kocherhans. She's due in February!

Cute profile

Little feet

Terminator face

Terminator arm and hand (There's just something about the way these ultrasound pictures turn out--reminds me of the Terminator!)

cute things

Ethan is getting so big! I'll post pictures soon, but here are a few stories:

Last night at dinner, he kept looking between Brett and me and his food and laughing, saying (and signing) "happy! happy!"

Today he came up to me and put his arm around my neck for a hug, saying "mma, mma, mma". I couldn't figure out what he was doing until he puckered his lips out for a kiss. Then I remembered that I had just given him a big hug and kisses all over his cheeks ("mwah! mwah! mwah!") He wanted more kisses!

He looked out his bedroom window recently and noticed our car was gone. So he said "Mama?" and Brett told him I was at work. So the rest of the afternoon he walked around saying "Mama" then he'd sign "work".

He's fascinated with keys and locks right now. I give him my car keys and a step stool and he'll stand at the door playing with the lock.

He's expanded our family since Jackie and Joel have moved back to Utah from Chicago. Now, when he walks around talking to himself, he'll say "Mama, Daddy, Joel, Blythe, Jackie, Mama, Daddy..." He's started talking in sentence form--still a lot of gibberish, but it flows like a sentence now.

We cleaned Brett's music space in our house, so he's started working on his guitars again. And so has Ethan, naturally. (He copies everything Brett does.) Brett sets a guitar out for Ethan to work on while Brett works on his. Brett got a great picture of this I'll have to post it.

Brett drove Ethan by the Ferrari shop recently. Ethan looked out his window and noticed the cars and turns to Brett, "Dada! Car! Car!" Good taste, baby.

Brett showed him how iPods and headphones work and Ethan walks around with a Nano tucked into his pocket, holding the earbuds into his ears and singing as he dances around the house.

As Brett says, everything Ethan does is super cute. Every day I am amazed at how smart and talented and fun he is. Every day I love him more and more!