Thursday, December 28, 2006

Christmas celebrations


Christmas Eve was wrought with expectation, and a lot of fun! Dad is off of work so there is plenty of time for play. I particularly like this picture since I can see more of the resemblance between father and son. Especially in the hairline.





Other fun things we did was drive down to Peoria to look at the Winter Wonderland lights display. It would have been fantastic had it really snowed! But the displays were amazing nonetheless. They even built the Star Trek Enterprise...!



Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Ethan's new trick

A friend of ours let us borrow their "jumperoo" (I think they call it that) since Ethan does not yet have an exersaucer. Actually, neither mom nor dad want to add any more to the baby gear in the livingroom! But this little nifty thing allows Ethan to exercise his legs by jumping. The first time we put him in it, he didn't know what to do. I nearly returned the thing to my friend, but we kept trying and soon enough, he got the hang of it.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Movin' About

Ethan is moving all over the living room floor very well now. He is not yet crawling, but he rolls and rolls till he gets to his desired object or destination. In this case, our Christmas tree. He has nearly unwrapped several of the gifts already, and loves to grab the ornaments off the trees. Time to start childproofing our house I guess!

Friday, December 01, 2006

Thanksgiving Travels

This past turkey day we took a road trip cross country! Well, from the Midwest to the East coast. It was a 14 hour trip that we broke up into two days, spending the night at a bed and breakfast at the halfway point, somewhere near the border of Southern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

We arrived at our B&B at night, driving down the winding roads along the rolling hills (we forgot that Ohio can be hilly at times). The house was set on top of a hill, and the road to it was hard to find! It was a cool log cabin type place, someone's retirement home transformed into a B&B. It was a wonderful place, but even more beautiful when we woke up the next morning! There was farmland all around, and the grounds also held their own little petting zoo, it seemed. They had buffalo, deer, a camel, a llama, several miniature ponies, longhorns and probably much more that we didn't see. Here is Ethan taking his first look at a miniature pony.





But after two days of travel, we were glad to arrive at our destination! It was great for Ethan to meet his older cousins Andrew and Elena. They were so anxious to meet him that the whole family came over to see us the minute we arrived (even though it was past their bedtime). Cousins Andrew and Elena even gave Ethan a welcome gift--a new toy for him to play with. Here are all three posing before sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner.