It seems like a million years since my last update! So hold onto your hats. This is going to be a whopper!! Consider it a double issue - that's just what happens when I get TWO months worth of pictures and stuff to write about! Anywho, I had wonderful holidays and hope you did too. Ethan turned one on Dec 19th (can you believe it?!) and I had a little family party for him. He totally demolished his birthday dinner and cupcake and spent most of the present opening time sitting on top of the boxes they came in. It was great to get to celebrate him and I look forward to a lifetime's worth of these.

I spent New Year's Eve with my wild and crazy sisters. We were going to go swing dancing, but that turned out to be lame so we just went bar hopping instead. It's been a long time since I've done that and have never been with Alli and Sheila. We had fun being ourselves on the dance floor (read: total dorks doing the lawnmower and such) and the "people watching" was amazing. All I can say was that it was a good thing that most of those people were taking cabs home. The three of us got to go swing dancing later in January and it was so much fun! There were lots of people to dance with and no pressure for anything more than that. Plus Sheila got serenaded by the saxes! She blushed thirteen shades of red but laughed the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed the attention.

Things if my life are wonderful. The so & so's are starting up again next week (after a holiday hiatus) and I'm looking forward to doing a project on expanding and strengthening my community. I love spending time with Ethan am so blessed to have a job and family that support me in being the kind of mom I want to be to him. One thing I learned last year is that I do my very best if I have stuff to look forward to - both long term and short term. So I already have some good trips planned for this year. I've signed up for a woodshop class starting on the 24th of this month and CAN'T WAIT to get back to that. I'm on the list at Habitat for Humanity and will be getting a call as soon as they have a new site purchased. I've started going to plays with a friend and we're looking into making that a quarterly event. Plus there's game day and monthly visits with friends and play class. My life is full, but not overly busy. It's just busy enough. :)

Man oh MAN! Ethan's at such a fun age. It's the best ever!! I know, I know. I say that every time. And it is always true when I say it, I swear! This time is no exception. Ethan walked for about four weeks. Then he got bored and starting running and hasn't stopped since. It's now his preferred (and almost exclusive) method of transportation and I kid you not when I tell you that it's all I can do to keep up. Don't get me wrong. He doesn't really sprint - it's more like a power walk. Still, I don't get to sit down much anymore.

Ethan has nine words in his vocabulary now. His new "language" is a combination of words, animal sounds and hand gestures. I think he's very clear, but everyone else on the planet would really have to stretch to get most of what he says. He says "KEE" for keys, "KEE" for kitty, "KEE" for cheese, (convenient how that works - it's a three-fer), "GEE" for birds (because we have had a lot of geese landing in the back yard it now applies to all birds), "woof woof" for dogs, "BOO" for cow, does a little hand sign for "more", does a little hand sign for "book" (which I learned yesterday also applies to giant wing-flapping butterflies at the Rain forest cafe) and "Mama". What surprises me the most is the list of things he has picked words for. I'm just guessing, but I'd say they are the things in his world that he is most excited about and wants to be able to talk about. More and more he's his own little person with things he wants to express and subjects that interest him. I'm honored that mama is included on the same list as such beloved items as kitty and keys!

What stands out the most for me over the last two months is the leap that Ethan has made in understanding. Not too long ago, I was in the living room and said to Ethan "Okay, time to change your diaper" like I had a thousand times before. Only this time he got up, walked over to the place where we keep the diapers, picked one up and brought it to me. I was totally dumbfounded. I squealed like a high school girl. And I understood for the first time that he really GOT it! See, up until that point I had been babbling on and on about "now I'm peeling the potatoes" or "see, ice is water that's really cold" because they say it's good for kids to hear you talk. But I didn't think for a second that he was getting any of it. If he did, then how come he doesn't even look (let alone stop) when I say "no" for the three millionth time about opening the one cabinet in the kitchen we can't secure? I also somehow equated limited speech with lack of understanding - an assumption that turns out to be totally erroneous. It was a truly amazing moment and has totally changed the way I relate to him. I talk to him like I actually expect him to answer me. Or at least like he is storing every word I say for future use (or misuse as the case may be). My baby has turned into a little boy right under my nose. Funny how they do that.

I usually don't forward this kind of stuff on. But I read this in my Dilbert newsletter and laughed out loud to myself for a full ten minutes. I still chuckle just putting it in here. So here is a Scott Adam's list of quotes from real live people. Enjoy!

"Hearing something like that really raises the shackles on my neck."

"The design team will do everything necessary to exacerbate the situation."

"This guy is trying to pull the wool over the donkey's ass, and that is not where the wool goes."

"We've got to dig our way out of this puppy."

"Well, color me a moron!"

"Works like a baby."

"I found that the faster we worked, the more our productivity increased."

"I think we're on the same page here, just different parts of the page."

"Don't buy antique furniture - it never lasts."

"That guy's the sharpest grape on the bunch!"

"He talks like a man with a paper ass."

"They should be beaten at the stake."

I said to her, "You're crazy." She replied, "Yeah, crazy like a rock!"

"I'm so angry I could eat a horse."

"You've made your bed, now you have to eat it too!"

She said she would "go over it tooth and nail" looking for mistakes.