our little man

About 4 pm when I start thinking about cooking dinner is usually when Ethan watches his favorite video. For a long time it was Baby Mozart (from the Baby Einstein series), but now that he's older he can watch some bigger boy videos. Right now his favorite is this Baby Genius (hmm...sounds like a knock off to me) video with nursery rhymes. It never amazes me how music and images makes kids stop dead in their tracks no matter what they're doing! The trouble is making sure they don't watch TOO MUCH of the TV!

Ethan's Birthday Video

Happy 1st Birthday Ethan!

It is hard to believe that a whole year has passed already since Ethan's birth. I find myself a bit nostalgic and weepy these days, but at the same time I am full of joy at seeing how quickly he is growing and learning new things. This past weekend the party was a lot of fun, and a bit crazy! David and I have never thrown a party like this before, so we weren't quite sure what to expect (Did we make enough food? Will we have enough room? Where are we going to put the kids?!). Everything turned out great (and yes, we had enough food) and I think everyone had a good time. On the menu: bbq pork sandwiches, pasta salad, coleslaw, chips, fruit salsa and pizza dip. And for dessert, birthday cake of course! You can go to http://ethansnyder.shutterfly.com to see more pictures of the party.

Latest Developments

Ethan has been getting really good at crawling, standing and feeding himself over the past month. He can reach really high, so once again we've had to rearrange our living room, block off certain areas by keeping doors closed and keeping an ever-vigilant eye on our curious boy. He can reach most anything that is on our coffee table, and he can even reach the tv to turn it on and off!



The fun part of taking care of him is watching him eat. He can eat lots of different table food now since he's learned to chew pretty well with the 8 teeth that he has. Turkey cuts from the deli is one of his favorites.

Blizzard of 2007

Here it is folks...10 inches of snow and 3 - 4 foot drifts! We were snowed in last Tuesday and half of Wednesday due to the unending snow! It snowed for a full day before all was said and done. During the course of Tuesday David and I looked out our window and realized that our garage was being piled up with snow. We decided to get a head start on digging so that we wouldn't have to do much work the next day. We ended up shoveling the garage and driveway THREE times!

Crawling Critters

It's official: Ethan has begun crawling! He's also kneeling and pulling himself up! Just last week after a visit from grandma and grandpa Cuesta, Ethan took his first two "knee steps" towards our cat, Eddie. Ever since then, it's been a never ending game with those two!

Other adjustments: more baby proofing of our living room, and we've removed the mobile from his crib. I went to put him down for a nap, and as I turned behind me to look at him before closing the door, he sat up, lunged forward and began reaching up into the air for those dangling things. Yep, it was time for that piece of baby gear to go! No strangling accidents here, please!
Here's Grandpa egging Ethan on to crawl...

Baby Dedication

January was a big month for Ethan. We've seen his first wobbly attempts at crawling and standing, we've seen him nearly choke on his first few bites of table food (I don't think he's quite ready for it yet, to be honest!). And we've finally dedicated him to the Lord. A few weeks ago we had a small baby dedication ceremony at our church with about 20 of our closest friends in attendance, and the pastor who married David and me.

I don't know why it took us so long to do so. We knew we wanted to do this, because if there is anything we can pass on to our son, it is knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ. But the months wore on, and then the holidays rolled in, and before we knew it, Ethan was soon going to be one year old and we hadn't done a very important and symbolic thing. I am glad we finally got our act together!

Christmas video

Here it is, hot off the presses. Well, we finished a couple of weeks ago. Here we are on Christmas morning...

Arlington, Texas

The holidays would not be complete without a trip to visit family...this year we went to Arlington, Texas to visit David's side of the family. It was also our first time to fly with a baby, and perhaps we chose the wrong time of day to fly because Ethan had just a bit of a rough time. He doesn't like to be held for very long, and 2 hours on a plane was definitely too long! But we're thankful for bottles and formula, and we're thankful that the flight was not delayed! We were also blessed that David's mom and sister were able to borrow a lot of the baby gear we needed, so all we brought with us was a stroller. Highlights of the trip...Dad Snyder's birthday and a trip to Whataburger...

Happy 2007!

To ring in the New Year we had an impromptu "soiree", complete with hors d'oeuvres. It really wasn't all that fancy, though!!! But we had a great time with friends as we munched on treats, listened to music, played games and watched our children play. It was a curious evening, looking around at all the kids and their parents. Just a year ago, our parties were very different. A lot of us were single, and there wasn't a baby in sight! But this evening, we had three babies sleeping in the upstairs bedrooms, two adolescent boys wrestling on the carpet, and a very sociable two year old girl trying to get into everyone's drinking cups! A lot can happen in one year... I wonder what 2007 will bring.

Here we are duking it out playing "Name that Tune: 80's Edition". It was the guys versus the girls.

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...!

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.

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!

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.

Ouch!

A couple of days ago, Ethan has a little bit of an accident! Apparently he toppled over and fell on some pesky toy cups and got a busted lip!



According to Dad (who witnessed the mishap) it didn't bother Ethan too much. It at least didn't get in the way of shooting his latest Super Ethan episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OzrPyHhmU8

Happy Halloween!

Last minute I found the perfect costume for Ethan...Enjoy! :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year

The scent of burning leaves, the crisp, cool, October air, the red, orange, yellow and browns of the landscape. Autumn is by far our favorite time of year. It was high time for a scenic drive, so we packed up in the car and spent last Saturday afternoon driving through parts of central Illinois along the Illinois River.

We stopped off at a local marina, whose inactivity lent itself to a quiet stroll through the brush and woods. It was a nice moment for all three of us to breathe the fresh air and share a good laugh.

On our way back home we passed by a farm with all sorts of fall fun for sale...pumpkins, gourds of all shapes and sizes, mums, apple butter and arts and crafts. The owner's shop was inside an old barn with lots of hay. Very rustic, very much in the season!

Here is Ethan's first pumpkin patch experience!

Where does the time go?

Nearly a month has passed since our last update! Since then, I (Vicky) have been very busy finishing up a play here in town. We had a one night only performance October 7th to a very responsive audience of a few hundred. At our last rehearsal we had our local paper stop by to photograph us and interview some of the cast. These past few months of rehearsal have been very challenging, especially because Ethan would refuse a bottle. Our son has a sense of humor though. Two days after the play, he FINALLY accepted a bottle! I was taking my mom to the airport early in the morning and Ethan woke up. David decided to just try a bottle until I got back. Ethan took it and gulped down its contents. Go figure. Perhaps it's more of God's sense of humor...

Yes, mom was in town to help out that last week before the play. What a Godsend! We also celebrated her birthday on Oct 5th :)

Other milestones...Ethan is now sitting up almost completely unaided for several minutes at a time. He's still a bit wobbly, though, so you can't leave him completely unattended. And the best part...he could sit up long enough to take this picture.

We had formal portraits taken of the family last week...Aren't they cute?

The family invasion

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Last week, my brother, Fred, came for a visit, followed by David's parents for a long weekend. For them, it was the first time they set eyes on Ethan in the flesh. What a great time! Fred got the chance to check out our town and hit some hobby shops, and Mom and Dad Snyder got to see the annual pumpkin festival, followed by David's performance with the symphony.

Thanks for such a lovely visit!!! I was actually a little sad to see Fred and Mom and Dad Snyder go. But all good things must come to an end, eh? See you next time!!!

Happy Birthday, Vicky!

Yes, Happy Birthday to me! This year, we thought throwing a talent show might be fun, so we dubbed this year's celebration "America's Got Talent Birthday Bash". Here was the lineup:

AD-The "weed wacker" bit
The Schmidtgall Girls- ABC song, Jesus Love's Me
Alex H- tumbling
Tammy D and Mr. Goodwrench- My Guy
Erika- comedy bit
Dave and Em'ly O- dueling banjos
David S- French Horn (Japanese style)
Vicky S/Julie M/Julie P- "For Good" from Wicked

Thank you to our judges, Jeff, Marla and Kevin whose impersonations of Hasselhoff, Brandy and Nigel were quite entertaining. Ok, so they didn't really do impersonations, but their comments throughout the "competition" kept us laughing! Here they are tallying their marks...

If you're wondering about the pizza boxes, well, that's all the paper we had to write on! I thought the judges were quite resourceful, don't you think?

Here's David playing his French horn "Japanese" style. (You'll have to ask him about his bit, it was quite funny)

At last but not least, the cake! I LOVE cake!