one month old already!

I've wanted to blog and show off my beautiful baby, but it seems that 2 kids are twice as much as I can handle! It feels like I can barely take a breath. But actually now things are settling down. I'm getting used to it. It helps that Rayen has been sleeping 7 or 8 hours straight at night lately.

I was at my mom's house looking at old photos of me, since everyone says Ellie looks a lot like I did. And I agree, now that I've seen some pictures. She's more fair than I was; I had darker hair and skin.





Ethan has been really good with his new sister. He helps me throw diapers away and clean up toys. When she cries, he finds her pacifier and sticks it in her mouth. He cried for her to stay in his room and sleep last night when Rayen and I left for bed. When we go on family drives he tells her about everything he sees, "Look, Baby Ellie! There's a tunnel!" He's a good big brother.



Eeesh. This blog has taken much longer than it should have. I need to decrease my posting times. It's so easy to get distracted and look at photos for too long.

Rayen is here!

Check out my mom's blog for pictures.

update

My intelligent son counted to 9 spontaneously yesterday.

Rayen is still in my tummy.

the new boss

Ethan is as bossy as I am. I was going to say "is more bossy," but then I knew that Brett would give me that face like, "you're pretty damn bossy." Ha. Here are two beautiful and recent examples of Ethan's bossiness:

His food was too hot, so I told him he needed to wait for it to cool down. He said to his food, in a very commanding voice, "Cool down! Cool down!"

I said I needed to go to the bathroom so he stands up and runs in front of me, (same commanding voice) "Mama, go pee! Toilet!" And then proceeds to the bathroom and pats his hand on the toilet seat lid, "Mama, go bathroom!"

We spent a weekend in October down at Brett's parents' St George house. It was a lot of fun. (I do realize it's December now. I just haven't been taking pictures!)

We got Ethan some cute new jammies. He's so handsome! And big!
I asked him to smile for the camera and I got this. Funny boy. His camera smile has gotten more interesting over the past couple months. I'll have to post one of the latest ones.
They have cable at the house, including the Speed Channel, so we all watched the MotoGP races that weekend. If you look closely, you can see that they each have a little toy motorcycle clutched in their hands. Ethan is eating cereal, hence the funny face. But he sat there and watched the whole race!

bragging mother

Ethan can count!

Whenever I put a onesie on him, I always say "Ok, time for snaps! 1-2-3!" as I snap the bottom. Yesterday, he totally beat me to it. I said "Time for snaps!" And he said, "1-2-3!" He's a genius boy!

The real genius part is that he understands the concept. Brett found him counting 3 of his HotWheels cars after his nap today, "1-2-3!" over and over. And if I ask him to count, he'll say "1-2-3!"

I'm so proud.

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!

ethan baby

We were trying to figure out if Ethan is right or left-handed by checking which hand he threw the ball with. He threw with both hands every time. Ha. He's both-handed.



This video shows part of Ethan's bedtime routine. If you watch him, you can see him sign BATH in the beginning, then HELP a bit later. The first time he signs HELP, I don't acknowledge it, so he signs it again like "Duh, Mama!" So smart!



I love our laundry chute!!

birthday racing

Brett's birthday, Memorial weekend, and World Superbike all happened at the same time again this year. Ethan and I got to participate a bit more this time. Ethan was a little more interested in the parade (notice the miniature Ducati in his hands)...
...than he was last year. (So tiny and so cute!)
Friday night we went to the festivities at Gateway. Here is Max Biaggi (the racer that ended up winning the weekend) telling Brett to make sure Ethan has earplugs when we bring him to the track.



Brett was at the racetrack Saturday and Sunday, but Ethan and I only went out for race day on Monday. He's learned to love sitting on motorcycles this week. Can you see his race face? It's serious business.




We had tons of moto-fun! And although Brett and I got quite sunburned, I am proud to say Ethan didn't at all!

i hate thinking of blog post titles almost as much as i hate thinking of FB statuses.

how we rock

We had a super cool jam session while Jackie, Joel, and Blythe were here.



This one features the babies. Blythe has a little stage accident at the end, but don't mention it to her...she's still pretty embarrassed.



I love this one because Ethan totally gets into it with a rockin' vocal solo.

resolutions, schmesolutions

I just uploaded the past few months worth of pictures from my camera. 781 pictures, but only about 12 of them turned out well. The camera takes great pictures, but the composition of the pictures is not so good (meaning it's an operator issue). -sigh- But I'm not going to make any statements about how I'm going to do better--I'm not promising anything!

Ethan turned one year old in March. He is the most beautiful baby in the whole world.

He had to get used to being on the grass this spring; it was tough since he'd been inside all winter!
He is 14 months old and has only 3 teeth.
Ethan and Daddy have a sweet Hotwheels collection. For his birthday, Ethan got 12 new Ferraris! And a few other cars as well.
Snowing in April, bah.
Blythe (and Jackie and Joel) have been staying with us this week. We played outside when we could, although it's been raining most of the time.
Blythe watching on as Ethan has a temper tantrum. Aren't those supposed to start when he's 2? Seems a bit early to me!
Bubbles!!
Swinging!
About a month ago, we went to Miller Sportspark for the Ferrari Challenge races.


Ethan loves cars--really he loves anything that moves and has a loud motor. He has different sound effects for each type of vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, etc). The video exhibits his Ferrari sound effects.

a brief update

So much for blogging more, right? Oh, well. It'll come back.

Ethan started preferring walking to crawling on Friday. Brett said he saw Ethan standing and then he wanted to get somewhere, so he bent down to crawl. Brett said it was like something clicked in his brain, because he paused, stood back up, and started walking. He'd been doing a few steps here and there up to that point, but now he's walking everywhere!

He loves to read. I moved all his books down to a low shelf so that he has access to them. He sits down surrounded by his scattered books, reading to himself for 20 minutes at a time (or sometimes more). I just caught him reading a book to himself, babbling away, but when I watched him for a minute he was babble signing too! He was moving his hands all around while he pointed at the pictures and words. So cute!