Dear Etrain

Dear Etrain,

Sick. This is the sick month. You and I have literally been sick for about a month. I'm better, but this past Sunday you started up with another cold. Full snots all over again. You weren't as upset about it this round, so I'm hoping this is a lighter cold and will clear up soon. So, this past month has been a little boring...at least I feel that way. We've been inside doing a lot of things like this.


And this...


And because I haven't wanted to get other kids (or adults) sick (and there was about a 2 week period where I was just drained and had no energy to go out), we hadn't gone to many of your swim and My Gym classes. Just last week when both of us were feeling better we hit up My Gym 3 times...and now you're sick again, so I'm discouraged on going. Not that we won't go, but still it's frustrating that I can't keep you healthy. I feel bad for my poor little boy. But you've still had energy so we've tried to do other things like parks (when you're not a snotty mess), walks around our apartment complex with or without choo choo, or the beach.

Homemade rollercoaster.

A photo posted by Alex North (@alexnorth) on Sep 15, 2016 at 5:13pm PDT

When I won't let you go to the playground portion of the park, we just walk the grass and walkways nearby. The park right by our apartment complex has a huge hill you love to run down. Now if we're on that hill or even just an inclined ramp, you love to say "hill" a bunch, go to the top, and run down.



In the apartment, we've been going a little stir crazy and therefore getting pretty silly. I was making dinner and you now like to hide when I tell you it's time to eat. You had buried your head in the pillows on the couch and when I pulled you out you looked like this. So, I went with it.


Speaking of eating, you're getting really good with the spoon. If it's sticky, you can get it to your mouth really well. Same with forks. You love asking for a fork and feeding yourself. I almost don't have to help sometimes.


But then we get back to silly. You were quite entertaining at this meal, so of course I took the opportunity to take video and a bunch of photos.


Your dad had been out of town that week, and was headed home that night. I sent him this photo and this is what I got back in reply. Gotta love that Dada.


We drug you to Home Depot because we wanted to check out some stuff for the house...which, by the way, currently looks like the below. But as we drove up, we realized they had a fun kids workshop going on out front. Kids could do crafts (which will be fun for you when you're older...no nails and hammers right now), and there was a police motorcycle and fire truck for everyone to check out. You LOVED it. Motorcycles and trucks are your thing. You can't say motorcycle, but I probably hear the word "truck" as much as I hear "mama" these days...which we'll talk more about in a second. Anyway, you loved sitting on the motorcycle and climbing into the fire truck. Made Home Depot way more exciting.



Dada and I also wanted to go to a barbecue event happening one weekend. We had some adult beverages and delicious BBQ. You enjoyed some of the food too, but the servings were sample sized so you had most of your lunch later at home. What you really liked was the over-sized golf cart the police had parked nearby. You climbed right up and took the wheel.


And as if that wasn't enough, you got to sit on a cement roller (or whatever that thing is) too...for you it was a "tractor". Oh man, you got so excited with that one too. We were dropping you off to spend the day with Nana and Papa Vigil and the tractor was out in front of their house (the road was being repaved). The driver saw your excitement, stopped, and let you climb up. Lucky little boy.


So back to you and the word "truck". Every since you got your new toys last month the most popular words coming out of your mouth are truck and tractor. Every truck that passes us on the road or on walks, you have to call them out. You wake up from naps and say "truck" before anything else. This month you also really got into "mama". I hate to say it, but it's sort of to the point of annoying. I love you, but you will say "mama" oh, every 10 seconds. And I have to respond every time. If I don't you up the mamas, up the volume, and may even break into a tantrum if I don't answer you. Oh my child.

I will say, it's so fun talking to you. I can tell you things, or ask you to do things, and you really understand. You'll open the fridge door and pull out what you want to eat. Each day it seems like you're picking up new words. Just the other day you stopped calling the packets you like to eat "pack" instead of "two"...there's a 2 on the front and you used to call them that because that's the only word you could say. Now you try out new words all the time. We can sit with the picture books and you'll name a ton...well over 50% of the book. And when I show you new things, the next time you remember them. It's so exciting.

Oh! Guess what. With the exception of #7, you counted to ten today on your own. I couldn't believe it. I showed you once with the counting beads on the side of one of your toys. After your nap we were playing with it again and you just counted by yourself. It's crazy. You know pretty much all your letters (upper case) and now you can count to ten. You're still struggling with colors, but we're working on it. You're such a smart boy, Ethan. And I love that you love to learn. We don't force this on you. You're the one picking up books or pointing out letters and numbers anywhere we are. It's so awesome.



You're just the coolest little human. I can't believe we are two months away from you becoming two years old. Where did my baby go? Speaking of my baby, this was you one year ago. 10 months old!


Some things never change.




Wow you were adorable. You are adorable. I love you so much my baby boy.

Love,
Mama