Ethan and his plastic soldiers

Ethan is one of those Army brats that never got into the wanting to be an Army man stages, he was always too busy with his trains- I have never seen an other kids who has carried trough the love for trains ever since he was 2 years old. Other toys have come and gone, but his trains have been there for a very long time, starting with Thomas the Train and continuing into documentaries about trains and playing with Lionel’s die cast ones.

So to my surprise he  has not put down his plastic soldiers for days now! Every free minute he has, he is setting them up in two groups and using some strategic layouts making them fight each other, of course the good guys always win!

Not even rain can stop him for taking his soldiers outside, his explanation was, that for real soldiers it doesn’t matter if it’s raining, they still have to go and fight the war to stop the bed guys. The tarps are obstacles and the glass tank is the jail, by the way, in case you wondered. 

Mr. Jack is 8 months

Wow, we have a 8 months old now! I can not believe how fast the time is flying and how fast my little monkey boy is growing up. He has 5 teeth now, his favorite activity is to yell, he still wakes up around 2 a.m. every night, he is not crawling yet, but loves to pull up. When he pulls up on me, I get the biggest hugs, kisses and cuddles and occasional sneaky bite that is followed by the hugest grin and little laugh. He has mastered the whole “I’ll pretend to love on you and then bite you” thing to perfection and thinks that it is soooo funny!

Jack is still a pretty serious baby, you can make all the silly faces and funny sounds at him all you want, but that still does not mean that he will be laughing, you might just get a look with a  tint of criticism that says”What are you doing? I do not have time for this.”

He would not smile long enough for his little picture session, he was ready for a nap after helping me put away his laundry, what was more like mommy folding one piece while Jack destroyed 2, ha-ha!

Ethan the reader

Ethan is such a great reader, he has mastered reading at 3rd grade level! Tonight as I was taking the video he kept getting distracted, because his back was oh so itchy, but he still did good. This is such an amazing blessing to us, because before he started actually reading we were waiting to see if he has inherited Aaron's mild dyslexia and what a sight of realief it was to see that he did not show any sign of it!

He has also been acepted in the Discovery program for the second year. It is just a fun extra class they get to do.The Discovery program is for kids who demonstarte gifted potential- the kids get to do some more challenging activities than in normal classroom. So other great school year is on it's way. We are so excited for our little man to be in the 2nd grade already and doing so great!

The drama of bug bites

Jack is officially the victim of targeted mosquito attacks! And they only go after him, it seems like they seek him out in some evil plot to hurt him! It really breaks our hearts. So far we have put a mosquito net on his crib, he has one for his stroller and we try to limit his outside time, what is so hard , because little Mr. Jack just loves being outside.  And if it was just a little bug bite those evil bugs left behind, but it just so happens that he is extremely sensitive to any kind of bug bite.

His latest bite occurred while I was playing with him on the floor and literally turned away for a minute to gather some more toys, he ended up having a new bite! After Benadryl and Hydrocortisone were not cutting it, we tried out AftreBite that we just bought today and it worked miracles, the bites were lef as small two little dots, we are hoping and praying that they will stay that way, because those blisters really do hurt him so much. Some of the times they are not as much as blisters but just very hot, huge, hard spots(at least the size of a quarter) , but they do take just about a month to completely heal up and disappear. So let’s hope for the best with this new stuff we got, since bug nets and our constant watching over him are not saving him….

For the love of the toad!

Ethan found a toad this weekend and fell in love with it! He carried it around and had full blow conversations with it for 3 hours!!!! And he was so upset when Aaron finally made him let go of it. We were terrified that any given moment he would just love it to death and then there would be heartbreak and guilt for rest of his life (I’m speaking of my personal experience) . But we did get some great shots of Ethan and his toad buddy and I have a feeling that there will be a new photo on his wall once I get these pictures printed out.

We got ourselves a football player!

Fall sports season is here, so Ethan was presented with dilemma whether to play soccer or football and he opted for football, what is surprising, because he usually is not too eager to step out of his comfort zone and try something new.  But he was all excited to begin this new sport.

He is the smallest kid on the team and also the only white kid on the team. He also the slowest on the team- one step for the big kids is three of Ethan’s short legged steps, but he  does have the determination to just keep trying. There have been few times when he finishes only few from last, because other kids fall out of the run, but my little man just keeps on pushing with his hurdy side and all. After 3 practices I wouldn’t put my bet on him as a future football player, but you never know. So far so good, he is loving it- just being part of a team and getting some extra energy out and the most important part- socializing with people is all that you need to keep Ethan going. Let’s see where this season takes us….

While Ethan’s at school….

…Jack had no choice but be my photo model, heheh! So here is what came out of it--->