Leaves, leaves, leaves.....

Ethan loves to play in the leaves! Last week we went for a walk and found this huge pile of leaves, so of course Ethan had to play in them. I am sure the person who made this nice pile didn't appreciate Ethan rolling around and spreading the leaves out again, but Ethan had a blast. The leaves were so deep that Ethan could hardly walk through them. He looked like he was swimming!

Back to the Zoo

We loved the Reston Zoo so much we took Eric, Brooke and Sidney there while they were visiting. It was a little colder this time around, but we still had a lot of fun. The higlight of the trip had to be when Eric decided it would be a good idea to dip Sidney wool glove covered hand into the animal feed and see if the ducks would eat the food off of her hand. Luckily it didn't work as he had planned! Here are a few pictures from our outing. And yes that is a camel trying to eat our son while Jay and I smile for the camera.

Ethan and Sidney

Eric, Brooke and Sidney came to DC to spend Thanksgiving with us this year. Ethan and his cousin Sidney had so much fun playing together and they got along great! Sidney asserted herself early on so Ethan knew he couldn't push her around. Sidney followed Ethan around much of the time and Sidney taught Ethan some fun new tricks - like how to kick the bottom of the stair gate down. The visit was way too short and we all wish they could have stayed longer!

This year we discovered the Pumpkin Festival in a nearby town and I have to say it was actually a lot of fun. And yes that is a real pumpkin that Ethan and I are leaning on! I never knew pumpkins could get so big! The weekend after Halloween this farm has come up with a creative way to get rid of the pumpkins they didn't sell. Basically they have come up with all kinds of way to destroy pumpkins. They drop them from cranes, launch them into a lake from a catapult, smash them with a tractor, throw them at metal stakes. Tons of fun. They also have fun slides to go down and yummy kettle corn and apple cider. It was a great time. Our friends Steve and Katrina accompanied us on this outing and since my mom was here she came too. It was great!

And the winner is....

THE SKUNK! In the end, we just couldn't resist the cute lil skunk. And we also came to the same conclusion as Tanya did in her comment. This is probably the last year for cutesy costumes because starting next year he will want to be pirates and soccer players and superman. So we decided on the skunk. Here are a few pictures from the Halloween party and his friend's birthday/costume party. Ethan had so much fun at the Halloween party. There was even a moon bounce and they cleared out the big kids for long enough for some of the little guys to get in and bounce around. I love Halloween!

Here is a quick video of Ethan and Aunty Court playing! It was so fun to see Court and RJ and Ethan had alot of fun running all over the mall with them.

Which costume should we go with?!?

Last Halloween I had Ethan's Halloween costume picked out far in advance. I suppose as a reflection of how busy life has been recently, here I am, the night before the big church Halloween party, going store to store to find the perfect costume. So, typical of me, I now have 4 costumes at home, debating which to go with. I have narrowed it down to 2. I just thought I would get some feedback on what you all think. Pirate or skunk? I'll let you know tomorrow what we went with!

Park Time!

One of our favorite places to go with Ethan is this amazing park that is only about 15 minutes away from our house called Clemyjontri Park. As you can see from the picture, it is basically a kid's dream! Ethan can run all over and finds a new thing to do every time we go. One day we were at the park and Ethan runs around the corner of this tunnel and runs smack into another little boy who is about the same age. So they both fall back and land on their bottoms. Well, this other little boy just starts bawling! Ethan just looks around and gets up and takes off running again. A few minutes later I look over and see this poor little boy still sitting on his mom's lap crying (poor little guy). My conclusion: wow I have a tough son! I am so proud!

What a mess!

It's amazing how no matter what kind of mess Ethan manages to make around the house it is just so funny! I love watching him learn all about the world around him - even when that means he pulls out every single wipe from the box while I am in the other room! What a trouble maker!

Just Like Daddy

Ethan has definitely inherited more than one thing from his daddy, but one of my favorites is how much he (already) loves to kick the soccer ball. He will try to kick almost anything - sippy cups, stuffed animals, rocks, apples at the grocery store.... It is so adorable. Here is a little video of our future soccer player in action.

Petting Zoo

In our unending quest to find fun new things to do in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area, this weekend we stumbled upon one of our most successful outings yet - the Reston Zoo. The Reston Zoo is a petting zoo with mostly domesticated animals, but also a close-up look at a surprising variety of exotic animals. We are always trying to find fun new places to take Ethan and this was perfect. Ethan's favorite "word" right now is "Ruff, Ruff", which he uses to address any animal that has fur of any kind (and occasionally some children). So we thought it would be great for him to see and hear the other sounds that different animals make. So we get to the zoo with perfect 80 degree weather. We see the monkeys, which Ethan loved. We make our way to the barn- chalk full of goats, sheep, pigs, llamas and some animals that appeared to be somewhere in between the mix of all the above. Most were in pens, but some had cunningly found a way out. As Jay and I fed the animals, we slowly tried to get Ethan comfortable enough to pet them. But, understandably he was a little hesitant when it came to petting these flocks of animals that were several times his size and all looking hungrily at his little fingers in the hopes that he would also have handfuls of the pellet food Jay and I had. The breakthrough came when a little black goat broke free of the pen and a little boy slightly older than Ethan toddled over and bravely pet the goat. So Ethan took this as his sign that he could do it too. So he gained confidence and pet not only that goat, but got brave enough to start petting lots of the animals like a pro. So our next stop was to the chickens. With his newfound confidence, Ethan walks right up to the coop and before we could do anything about it, pokes his little fingers through the fence and....promptly gets his little finger pecked by a chicken, effectively undoing all of our hard work in the petting barn. So needless to say we spent the rest of the trip trying to get Ethan to pet the animals again. Much of theAll in all though, we all had a fabulous time and can't wait for our return visit to the Reston Zoo!