Ethan... just checking in!

Well, it's been kind of slow with the kiddos the past few months, but our little Ethan sure is quite the wonderful little kid. His speech is improving tremendously, and he's learning how to be a helpful big brother! We are "slowly" attempting potty training, and he's slowly but surely getting to a point where he's starting to let us work with him, and having lots of successes. One step at a time! As much as we love watching him grow up, it's still hard to want him to stay young forever!
He's developed such amazing phrases, and really doesn't have too many impediments as far as letters. The other day we were talking about cartoons, and I had asked him, "Ethan, do you like Handy Manny?" to which he looked at me as serious as can be and said, "no, not really"... Can an almost 3 year old boy really understand that much? It appears to be so, but threw me through a loop to hear him say something so definitive.

He is also counting to 10, and can sing his ABC's, and can tell you what most shapes are just by looking at them. But what makes me the most amazed, is his ability to memorize songs. He learned "Twinkle, Twinkle" on his own, and can sing just about any theme song to the play house line up from 8:30 am to 10... but killer is that I don't let him watch that much TV. He loves to sing the Little Einstein's theme song. Of course he will always love The Mickey Mouse Club House theme song. And he loves and sings various songs from The Imagination Movers. I love how much he loves music. He's also a big fan of They Might Be Giants, here come the 123s... We're going to try to take him to more concerts as they come through town... but NO WIGGLES! haha

Ethan loves to spend time talking about video games with dad, and can tell you the name of the games Allan is playing as he plays them. Though I probably shouldn't be to encouraging of him sitting watching some of the games his dad plays, I'm just impressed with how much knowledge he obtains on a day to day basis.

Other than that, we're just up to taking lots of trips to the zoo, and will soon start cleaning up the backyard now that the sun is starting to show. Hopefully we'll have some more stories to share soon!

Another Obsession!

Well it is official, Ethan's second most favorite place in the world (of course right after Disneyland) is the zoo. You'll notice on here, that most of our posts take place after his trips to the zoo, to which he has been 4 times in the past two months (Thank goodness for that Zoo pass, best investment we ever made!)

He is in love with looking at all the animals, but mostly, he's in love with running around all over the place, while we yell for him to slow down and stay with us. But here's some pictures of our most recent trip.

Look how big he's gotten! What a fun family day!

We finally got a picture of him with the goat in the background.

He's almost as tall as that bear! I can't believe how tall he's gotten.

Running back and forth across the bridge. This kid as so much energy. I have no idea where he gets it from.

Having some fun in the log tunnel. What a great kid!


that is one big fish!

Ethan loves John Deere Tractors. Something he comes by honestly since his grandpa Doug also likes them too! The zoo was SO great because there was next to no one there, so all the pictures we're always wanting to take, but can't because the areas are so crowded, were finally accessible to us! It was awesome! A good day for the Porter Family!

My Baby Sister and Me!

Ethan has definitely taken quite the shine to his baby sister! He's enjoyed being as much of a help as he can possibly be, in addition to learning how to play games with her, and help her when she's upset. He likes to help dad make her bottles, he is our official "bottle shaker". And he loves playing "Peek a Boo" with her on a nightly basis. When she cries, he will, as quietly as he can say it of course, state, "It's okay baby Maddie, don't cry" - - which usually makes her cry even more because Ethan can't speak in a calming tone! But he has good intentions!

He also is quite fond of giving her kisses and hugs. He's just turned out to be an amazingly great big brother to his sister Maddie!

Big brother love after bath time! They look similar, but very different! But they are both SO cute and precious to me! Don't ask me what happened to the second picture. But it's so cute, I have to share it!

One afternoon, while Ethan was sporting his "I'm the Big Brother" t-shirt, he had told me he wanted to hold baby Maddie. So he sat down like a big boy in his chair, and let me put Maddie on top of him. What a cute bunch of kiddos I have!