Oh Nana! What a trooper. She came for a whole week on her own volition. I halfway expected to come home to find her collapsed on the T-Ball diamond. Shame on me for doubting The Great Nana. I've spoken before of her magic dust she comes and sprinkles on our boy... she did it again. He was even potty trained for her... not so much luck for the regular old parents.


Nana showed up with her craft box. Ethan has little skill and no interest in stringing beads. He liked to stack them up and knock them over, but that was about it. She did get some reading and some Bingo playing in between innings.




Ethan now likes to "slide" when he plays baseball. Mom said it took him wallowing in the one pile of dirt he found in the backyard for quite a while to get dirty like the baseball guys. Note the tad of dirt on his shirt. Disclaimer: He picked his own uniform.




Ethan asked me where Nana was this morning. He said he missed her. I'll bet he does- as I won't wear a helmet, get in his pool, tackle him, play T-Ball in the noon sun, or bake in the sun as he practices his chip shot. They had a great week together and we had a fun time watching them together. Ethan NEVER lets me hug on him after his nap. No lap, no hug, no nothing. He would crawl right up on Nana's lap and snuggle in after every nap he took. Whatever.
Since Nana left, we've had to bribe Ethan to go to sleep. Shaun told him that if he would go get in his bed, he would get him a really special football shirt. He complied, so Shaun let him sleep in his LSU tshirt. It swallowed him up, and Ethan said "Oh Daddy! It's beautiful!"
Talk soon! E

BOYNASTICS! Maybe we're a little early for organized sport experiences. He followed his coaches' directions well for the first 10 minutes, then the lure of the wide open floor couldn't be contained. He ran laps in-between all his turns. It was an empty gym with 2 and 3 year olds, so he was safe, and I only became THAT MOM one time from the observation deck. So I used his whole name, and I snapped, and I told him to listen.... Shaun sat me back down. Mine wasn't the only kid not sitting where he was supposed to be.
It's funny. There's this study, that all kids really want is boundries, and they tested some preschoolers on a playground with a fence. The fence was up for a while, then they wanted to see what happened when the fence came down. All the kids were terrified, and wouldn't step foot outside their previous boundry. My segue- Ethan was running laps, but he confined himself to the tape line of the floor. His very patient coach would wrangle him in as best she could for a while, but then she realized that he was on a very planned course, inside the line, and wasn't going to deviate, so she let him make laps instead of playing in the castle while the other girl was going.
I won't say he was advanced, but my boy's got some skills. Luckily, Northwest Arkansas doesn't have any competitive boy's gymnstics programs. I looked into it before we started. I'm not going to gymnastics meets. Been there, done that.



He wanted to take his shirt off the whole time like the girls, and I'm waiting for a request for a leotard. I'm sure it's coming.
Ethan is staying home for Camp Nana next week. She asked for it! I'm sure we'll get good pics out of it.
E

Preggers!
Knocked up!
Bun in the oven!
We're excited!
Due Feb 2nd!
Ethan says we should name it "girl-baby when it pops."

This dang shirt. Is it just me that notices its frequency in pictures? He loves it. He really does have other clothes, but sticks to his three favorites, and does not deviate.


I love independence! Even when it means those yellow pants again.... independence!

Cooper came over while the parents went out for a date. Babysitters are commanding high dollar these days (worth it!), and we share whenever possible. We promise our friends that we don't just invite them to save money on Jenna.

Apparently, Ethan wanted to hold Cooper, but changed his mind once it all happened.
Jenna said that he was a big helper the whole night, but was ASTOUNDED at how many rules Cooper was breaking. She said the he told him "No whining Cooper!" " No screaming Cooper!" and "That's the rules!" Perhaps we are getting through to him...
This morning Ethan was telling us about someone at school, and how he pushed him. Shaun said "did it hurt?" Ethan said "Yeah, it hurt right here" and pointed right under his throat. Shaun asked him where it hurt? on your belly? on your chest? Ethan said "no, right here, it hurt my feelings."
My sweet sweet boy...

Garrett and Sarah came to town! We had a blast with the cousins- had a jam-packed 5 day weekend- and Ethan wishes that those two didn't have to go back home. They were pretty much 12-14 hours of daily entertainment.





We ended up with excellent seats for the July 4th baseball game. We were on the front row behind the dugout. During the 7th inning stretch, Ethan turned on his charm, atop the dugout, and scored NOT ONE, but TWO balls... one from a "baseball man on the field" and one from a promo guy. I counted them today while I was cleaning up, and we have NINE baseballs. They are all white, but each has a unique calling- old real baseball, new real baseball, squishy one, hot ball, soft ball, Naturals ball, play ball, other white ball, and white ball. Nice.

Ethan's going to have to adjust back to boring old Mom and Dad, and he can't wait to see Garrett and Sarah again.
Later, E