Ethan's Milestones

I have made a list of all of Ethan's milestones to take to his appointments with us as I know questions about his development are going to be asked and I didn't want to forget something that they might think is quite important. 

I must admit I have been putting off doing this partly because I have been avoiding looking at the old videos and photos of Ethan for a while now as I feel like I am picking him to pieces and partly because it makes me feel like I'm a bad mother. 

Why do I feel like a bad mother? I'm angry at myself for not asking the doctors more questions about why Ethan sat up so late and why didn't he put anything in his mouth etc. Hindsight is is a marvellous thing and I know now that Ethan was showing some red flags at his one year check and I'm angry that the health visitor never spotted them and they should have been spotted by her for a referral at least. I also know that they couldn't have started Ethan's observations until now and ignorance is bliss so I suppose everything does happen for a reason. 

I actually feel a lot better after looking at the photos and videos of Ethan as a baby, they show him happy and healthy and he has an amazing laugh that can brighten any ones day. 

Feeding The Ducks With Daddy!

Last Sunday we had friends over for a catch up and whilst us girlie's sat on the sofa drinking tea and discussing all the important things in life the boys decided they would brave the wet weather and take Ethan to feed the ducks.

Now I must admit that I am yet to do this with Ethan and considering how close we live to the river and the ducks that is a terrible fact to admit and something I must put down on my list of things to do on my Ethan days. Well we did try to feed the ducks once but we wasn't really in the best location to do this and only two ducks appeared but Darren has since found the prime duck feeding spot. 

So off they set taking pictures for us to see on their return...

... I am quite shocked about how close the swans came for the bread and I don't think I would have been that brave to have Ethan so close and I know what my mum will be saying after she reads this post, so it was probably quite a good thing I wasn't there! 

According to the boys Ethan did in-fact throw some bread for the ducks which is fantastic being as this is only the second time he has ever fed the ducks. 

So more duck feeding days will be planned in the future...

Walt Disney World - Day 4 - EPCOT - The Seas With Nemo!

After saying hello to Mickey and the gang we headed over to The Seas With Nemo and Friends. I love this ride, I could quite happily go on this over and over again but sadly we only got to go on it once during our stay.  

We tried to have some photos taken with the Nemo characters before going on this ride but Ethan was too busy and didn't want to pose for any photos so we quickly made our way onto the ride as there were only a few people headed in this direction. 

I think Ethan enjoyed this ride as he sat really well in the middle of us on our clam shell journey. 

When we came out the seas section was nice and quiet and we finally got to have our photo taken in the shark, another first for us, and a kind man took a photo of all three of us. 

We then thought we would attempt Turtle Talk, there was a fifteen minute wait for the next show but Ethan was kept busy watching all the fish in the waiting area. 

Getting Ethan to sit down to watch the show was a challenge as he just wanted to keep walking and the children are meant to sit in a certain area. Thankfully the cast members said if he wants to move around then it is fine, we didn't really like this idea and were able to grab a front row seat and somehow Darren kept Ethan near us by locking his legs round him. So we survived Turtle Talk but agreed that Ethan just wasn't ready for this type of attraction!

When we came out we took Ethan to see the other big tanks of fish, I also wanted to point out the dolphins that they normally have there as we decided against trying to get to Sea World but we couldn't see them. I'm not sure if they had been removed or we just couldn't see them for looking! 

I have no idea how long we stayed in this area but we were in there for quite a while as Ethan loves watching all the fish and we didn't want to rush him but when we thought we were ready we left to make our way to see Figment...

Christmas 2012 - Ethan's Third Christmas

Well Christmas has been and gone and I have just finished going through the photos that we took on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. As normal I didn't get that many good photos of us as a family or at the dinner table etc. but there are lots of Ethan opening gifts, I do always say this every year but I must remember to try to take some posed photos of the family, preferably with me in some of them! 

So the main question everyone asks is "Did we have a good Christmas?" and to be honest I don't know how to answer that question because I feel like I'm treading water until our January appointments and I feel like that is what consumes my every thought at the moment but I do know that Ethan enjoyed himself and we spent the holidays with family and friends and that it what is important.

My main wish this year was that we spent Christmas day in our own home as it was our first official Christmas here which is what we did and my second wish was for Ethan to have some understanding of what was going on. I don't think he did really understand the concept of the gifts from Santa under the tree and didn't get excited because of that fact but as my parents keep saying he is only two and a half. He did love all of his new toys, some more than we expected him too so that was fantastic, now we just need to find space to put all of his new things! 

Gift opening in our house is done in stages and can quite easily take all day. There are two reasons for this 

1. Ethan doesn't understand wrapped gifts and we have to open the gifts for him, taking the time to grab his attention so that he looks at what is going on. 
2. When the gift in question is opened if it makes any kind of noise or has flashing lights or buttons we loose Ethan for a while whilst he works out what every button does and how to make every kind of possible noise. He normally does this in a few minutes but he will then want to play with this gift and won't be interested in anything else. If we know what is in his gifts we have actually started to work out tactics on what order they should be opened! 

I'm sure that other parents dream for their children to take their time to open the gifts on Christmas day so that it isn't all over in ten minutes flat so this isn't something I will complain about!

Below are Ethan's highlights in pictures for you all to enjoy, he wasn't sure of all the gifts under the tree when he woke up in the morning so it took a little while to coax him into the living room...  

We wasn't expecting Ethan to like this but it was a hit!

Ethan loved this box more than the game!

Ethan's last gift and he helped Daddy open it!

Ethan enjoying making lots of noise.

We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and had as much fun as Ethan did. 

Christmas Eve 2012 - Preparing For Santa...

Its Christmas Eve and Ethan is now in bed waiting for Santa to arrive or should I say we are now waiting for the morning to see what it will bring as we don't think that Ethan has any idea what awaits him!

Christmas Eve is all about preparing for the main man himself so that is what we did today. 

A very special person sent Ethan some reindeer food in our Christmas card so we followed the instructions and sprinkled it on the grass in the garden so that the reindeer can find their way to our house. 

After dinner Ethan got a very special call from Mickey Mouse to wish him a 'Happy Christmas'.

Before going to bed we read Ethan his letter from Santa...  

...and put milk and biscuits out.

So now we count down the hours until the morning, I hope I can get to sleep with all the excitement! 

Wishing everyone who reads this post a Happy Christmas, we hope you all have a great time.  

Happy Birthday To Our Home

This time last year we completed on our house and finally have a place that we can call our home and a garden for Ethan to play in. I wrote in his baby book promising him that we would get him a home with a garden and I still can't believe we did it. It was a lot of hard work and a lot of stress but we got there in the end.

We always felt that this house was brought for Ethan and after feeling unsettled for so long buying this house just fell into place and this wasn't the house we were originally going for! I felt then that someone was looking after us and fate was guiding us along a path and I do believe that this is where we are meant to be for Ethan. 

Our home has been good to us over the past year I hope it continues.

Ethan on completion day

Walt Disney World - Day 4 - EPCOT - Mickey And The Gang!

This was our first day at EPCOT, this is our favourite park but unfortunately we didn't get to spend as much time here as we would have liked on this trip because having a toddler in tow Magic Kingdom become the place to be!

We didn't have to get up so early this morning as EPCOT didn't open until 9am so we decided to get a counter service breakfast at The Mara food court in the Animal Kingdom lodge. Both me and Ethan had Mickey waffles and Darren got himself some cereal. We paid for this as it was more cost effective to save the meal plan credits for lunch and dinner. 

It wasn't long before we were headed to the Disney buses and we were waiting for the gates of EPCOT to open by 8.30am.
 

It was freezing this morning and we weren't prepared, it was that cold that we actually thought about buying a hot drink from the coffee shop they had there but decided against it. 

Whilst we queued the family behind us were making their plans on what rides to go on first and what fast passes to get. This made us laugh as this was a world away from what our plans for the day were, as soon as the gates opened I was headed as fast as I could to the character spot as I wanted to try to get the group shot with all the characters. 

The gates opened at 9am and we were off, everyone racing to get to their planned starting point, I did manage to take this photo as we walked quickly past!

We missed being the first family at the character spot by seconds, this is because the normal character spot was being renovated and I stopped to ask someone as the arrows pointing to the temporary character spot wasn't 100% clear. It didn't matter as no one else came in behind us so we had some quality time with the characters.

First of all Ethan met Mickey Mouse giving him a high five to say hello.    

Then he said hello to Pluto.

And lastly Minnie got to meet Ethan, she greeted him with a kiss, Ethan wasn't impressed!

After saying hello to the gang it was time to explore EPCOT...