Ethan (Monthly Update)

Today is Ethan's 26-month-old update! Now, Ethan has been a little charmer since he could walk, but he has really amped up the charm lately. He's got Wendi wrapped around his little finger because he is always noticing when she is wearing new shoes or jewelry or a pretty dress and complimenting her on them. He notices when I have lipstick on and tells me I have "vewy petty wips." At least once a day (and usually more often), Ethan dishes out a very sincere and appropriate compliment. Yesterday I was tickling him in my bed and he says, "Stop! Stop!" He puts his little hands on my cheeks, turns my face toward him and says, "Momma, Momma, wook at me!" He pauses while I look at him, then busts out with, "You have so petty eyes, Momma." If I even paint my toe nails a different color, he notices and tells me how "boo-tee-ful" they look. I'm not sure there is anything as sweet to the ears as a child's guileless admiration. Even though I know this will change soon, I'm soaking up the days in which he thinks I am the most beautiful woman in the world :)

Ethan has also gotten more and more into his brother's imaginative play this month. His little people/cars/animals get into longer conversations and go on more detailed adventures than ever before. He and Caleb are really into superheroes right now, particularly Batman, Superman and Spiderman (even though they've never seen a video of any of the three). Nanna bought them these three superhero figurines when we saw her last, and they have been the center of every imagination since then. Caleb leads the play, but Ethan fits right in and holds up his part of the dialogue, even throwing in a few ideas of his own once in a while.

Ethan recognizes about 75% of his capital letters now, and he knows the phonetic sound for almost all of the letters. (Thanks to http://www.starfall.com/, he learned the phonetic sound before learning the name of the letter.) He can also consistenly count to 10. When counting objects, he frequently makes it into the teens, but usually skips one or two numbers before giving up at 20. Ethan does not enjoy being read to as much as Caleb did at this age, but I think that has more to do with his higher activity level than his overall interest in books. It may also have something to do with the fact that he ends up listening to a lot of books that are geared toward older children (i.e. his brother), which Caleb was never expected to do at age two.

That's all I can think of in Ethan-land right now, so I guess I'll sign off until tomorrow :)