Birthday Banner!

I knew I was leaving something out when writing my last post, but Rebecca was bugging me to blog (she sadly did not make it up for the party) and I forgot all about the banner.  I found a tutorial online because I am definitely not creative enough to come up with it on my own.  Now that its made, I'll just have to change the number each year!

Party Time!

On Saturday we had Ethan's birthday party!  My awesome brother Matthew made the lasagna and the cake, Ryan made the focaccia bread and 7 layer dip, my mom brought the salad, punch and ham, my grandma, Ita brought empanadas and flan and several other great people brought goodies as well.  Needless to say there was plenty of food, I didn't have to cook any of it!

Ethan was loving every minute of it.  He ate up all the attention given to him. The best part was right before we were going to cut the cake, he had been walking around the Grandma Fisher when all of the sudden he took off on his own! He probably did 5 or 6 laps around the house on his own with a huge smile as everyone clapped and cheered. It was like the parting of the sea as he made his way through the crowds that had been gathering for the cake.  He wasn't thrilled when we put him in his seat to sing happy birthday.  He didn't really like the cake but still managed to make a mess.

We had a great time and are glad our friends and family could celebrate with us. Here are a few pictures from the grand event.  I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted.  I plan on dressing him up in his cute birthday outfit and taking some more later this week, he won't know the difference! Sheesh, what am I going to do next year when I have to remember to take pictures and cook the meal?

 Matthew came over the night before to start cooking!

Here's the cake. It wasn't quite finished, but still looked great. It wasn't Matthew's fault though, I was supposed to help him with the fondant but couldn't because the guests had already arrived!

He was very hesitant at first, but then dug right in. 

playing with his new toys

Our baby is one!

I can't believe our baby is already one! I know everyone says they grow up so fast, but I still can't believe its been a year.  He's gone from 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long to 21 lb 4 oz and 30 inches long.  Its amazing how much he has grown and what he can do now. Here are a few things that we love about him:

*He can sign "more" He does it all the time including at the grocery store when I put the box of cheerios in the cart and whenever he sees someone eating.
*He says both mama and dada though he says both to each of us (and to just about anyone else).  We love hearing it anyways.
*He takes a few steps when there is something he wants out of reach.  He will stand without holding anything to make the sign for more.
*He is a great sleeper and goes down for naps and bedtime without a fuss. Its so cute to see him sleeping with his arms tucked under his chest and his knees curled up under his belly with his little butt sticking straight up in the air.  Only rarely do we catch him sleeping on his back.
*He has 4 teeth with 2 more almost there.  His first tooth came in the Sunday after Christmas, and the other 3 all popped out this past Saturday.  He is intrigued by them.  Often when he is relaxing in my lap, he will pluck them with his fingernails so that you hear a clicking noise.
*He loves to climb the stairs.  If we are in the another room, he will crawl to the stairs while laughing and then look for us. He won't go up the stairs until we get there.  I hope this one lasts!
*He loves to eat just about anything. Daddy is always trying to sneak foods to him, the other day he gave him Malta.  Another one I hope never changes!
*He loves to snuggle.  He will also grab your neck with his little hands and then press his forehead to your face.
*He waves bye-bye backwards.
*He has no problem leaving his binky in the crib. We are down to only using it for sleeping.
*He is quite the talker. It seems like there is meaning behind all his babbling by the way he moves his hands and looks at you. If only we could understand! He loves to talk to himself in the mirror in the car.
*He gets so excited when Daddy takes him on a tour of all the photographs in the house.  He really likes looking at all the ones of himself.
*He loves bath time.
*He "reads" his books in his crib before sleeping.
*If he sees a tower, he will crawl over and knock it down.  He can't stand to see something stacked up.
*He loves to be chased around the house.
*He is such a happy boy and is always smiling.

We love being his parents and our grateful he is our son. We can't wait to see the next year will bring for him.

He escaped!

Yesterday as I was putting away the groceries, I turned around to see this:

He has figured out how to open the back door! At least he still had his coat on, its still freezing here in CT. I try to always keep the door locked since he likes to pull on the handle, but we had just walked in the house and still had more groceries to get.

He's fast. The other day Ryan was fixing the draft on the front door while Ethan was playing with his toys by the couch.  Ryan turned around to see where he was, and Ethan was gone.  Ryan found him on the top of the staircase. He'd make a great spy since Ryan didn't notice him crawling right behind him-there is only 3 feet between the front door and bottom of the stairs!

My handy husband

Not only was I treated to getting to sleep in and breakfasts made by Ryan during his Christmas break, Ryan also finished several projects around the house that I had wanted done.  I helped while he fixed a leaky faucet, installed a towel rack, put up the window treatments in Ethan's room and hung up more pictures.  His most time consuming task was cleaning the baseboard heaters.  They probably hadn't been cleaned ever by the looks of them.  First, he went through each one and straightened out each fin. That alone took hours.  Then he used a brush and vacuum to get rid of the accumulated dust and items (like legos, melted army figures, and other recognizable stuff) He couldn't get everything out so he then used an air compressor to blow it out.  Ryan was crazy enough to use the compressor and vacuum while Ethan was sleeping upstairs, he's very lucky that he didn't wake him from his nap!

My favorite project he completed was my spice cabinet! In the kitchen there was a little cabinet with an ironing board the folded out.  I have no desire to ever iron (at least not in the kitchen) so I wanted it out.  Here is a picture I took with my cell phone. (I wish I had taken a before picture, but oh well)

I'm am so lucky to have such a great husband.  I love you Ryan!

Christmas 2009

 Wow! I can't believe Christmas was almost two weeks ago. Time is flying! We had a great Christmas and enjoyed the time Ryan had off.  I really enjoyed being to sleep in every morning while Ryan took Ethan downstairs and fed him breakfast.
Christmas eve was spent at my grandparents house (Ita and Ito) with their great Cuban cooking.  Christmas morning we both got to sleep in since Ethan slept until 8am.  We had a fabulous pancake breakfast made by Ryan and then opened some gifts. Ethan then took a 2.5 hour nap. The little guy was all tuckered out from the partying the night before.  We then made a quick stop at my parents house to open more gifts before heading over to my Dad's cousin's house for a wonderful Italian Christmas dinner.  I took lots of pictures, so get ready for a picture overload.

Everyone wanted to play with Ethan including Abby

Ita(in the red) and her sister

Ethan saw the gingerbread cookies and had to have one while he was with Ito.

Good thing we found out he liked them, we bribed him with a cookie later on when we couldn't find his binky.

Christmas morning Ethan was more interested with the ornaments on the tree than his presents. He loves his toys now, especially the noisy ones.

My Dad and my Grandma. Granny turned 92 on Christmas!

We're lucky there is always someone willing to hold him, he's getting heavy!

My Dad and his brother George did the dishes. Its a tradition that the men do the dishes on the holidays. I think its definitely a tradition we should keep!

Lynell, Rebecca and my mom with Ethan

The men

Us!

Everyone together on Christmas

We enjoyed our first Christmas with Ethan, hope you had a great Christmas too!