Let me tell you about Ethan's "things"...

To sleep he requires the following:

Pacifier
Two blankies
Sippy cup of water
His bear
and occasionally a toy or book

Upon leaving his room after a nap, he requires the following:

Blankies
Sippy Cup
Toy (if any) he brought to bed with him
Pacifier

He also immediately requires a snack of some kind.

While he has his morning and night time bottle he requires that the purple blanket be placed over him. He must also be the one to grab his bottle off the counter. Otherwise, its not drinkable.

When passing pictures in the hallway, he requires a run down of who the people are and to point out the birds, waterfalls, etc that are also in the picture.

If you hold him while in the kitchen, he must examine the contents of the cupboards, then open and close the cupboards himself (don't you think about helping!).

He must be given a peeled banana and he will break it into chunks. He likes to eat his chicken strips whole. He must have a fork.

This is just a small run down of the things that crack me up about this kid. He's becoming so independent. He likes things to always be done the same way, every single time.

Today we ventured outside into the rain. Our yard is just filled with poop right now, so Ethan got a great big shoe full of it. However, he really did enjoy himself. Here's a pic:




















I got some stunning pictures of the fall leaves in our backyard. They are just beautiful in color, and piled up in these lovely, colorful bunches. I'm thinking of blowing them up and hanging them in the living room.

Tonight we had a delicious Thai red beef curry over rice. SO simple, yet so good. I put a bit too much red curry paste though and wow, was it hot! It had thinly sliced flank steak, sliced red bell pepper, snap peas, lime juice, coconut milk and fish sauce. Yum.

Tomorrow I go to that cooking class. I'm so darned nervous about it. It seems that since having kids I've lost my confidence to socialize. I feel so awkward around strangers now. I just hope that it all goes smoothly and that perhaps there will be lots of other Moms there for me to meet. Since its from 12-2, I can't imagine that there would be many there besides Moms and retirees :)

Oh, last night was a bit worse, but not bad. Gwen woke up to nurse, and didn't seem to want to settle down. I tried laying her on my arm, laying her on my chest, but she just wasn't comfy. Finally I put her down in her bed and she just zonked out. Sheesh. Guess she didn't want to sleep with us... she likes her own bed now! :)