Holy cow!! I was just looking and since my last e-mail update we have: celebrated Thanksgiving, Ethan's birthday, Christmas, New Year's Eve. We have seen the circus, met Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales and experienced Monsters Inc on Ice. I visited Albuquerque for our Users Conference and Portland to meet Jeri and Jason Stein's new baby. I've been playing racquetball, using the babysitting coop, playing games every other Thursday night, Ethan has started school and we made a gingerbread house. That will teach me not to write for a while! :) Obviously I'm not going to cover all of that. But I will hit the highlights...

Ethan's birthday was really fun for me. I threw him a little party and it went as well as a two year old's party can be expected to go. Ethan had tantrums, pushed his guest down, and was, well, TWO! But it was really fun all the same. Cake and presents and toys and people laughing and talking. I loved being able to celebrate him with my friends and family and was really glad that I decided to do it. And REALLY glad when it was all over!!

People have asked if Ethan "gets" Christmas yet. I have to say yes and no. He really likes opening presents, but doesn't understand the concept of Santa. However, if asked, he will say that Santa says "Ho Ho Ho" which I think is hilarious. He was fairly sick for all of Christmas week (especially Christmas day) and then gave his cold to me. All in all, it was a fairly laid back holiday and I enjoyed myself despite the abundance of bodily fluids.

In the last three months I've gotten to spend time with most of my favorite people in the world. Joan and I had a sleep over when I was in Albuquerque for the user's conference. We stayed up late talking and hot tubing and it was great to see her and connect again. While in ALB, I also got to spend some time with the Whitmore's and made it to game night. I get to game a fair amount here in Chicago now, but "Tuesday night gamers" will always be my home group. :) I spent about a week in Portland with Jeri and her wonderful new daughter Sierra. Sierra was about 8 weeks old when I was there and Jeri was totally in love with that baby and so exhausted that she could barely see straight. I was glad to get to see them together so early in their relationship and to help out when I could. And also glad that I can come home and get a full night's sleep! I finally finished the baby blanket I've been cross stitching for Jeri since the day I found out she was pregnant so that frees up a bunch of time at night for me as well. Whew. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it.

All in all, life is filling up with wonderful things and wonderful people and I am feeling more and more settled in the area. And it only took three years! HAHAHA! I guess I'll make a note of that for the next time I move so I won't think there is something wrong when I'm still flailing at a year.

Ethan seems to be two people these days. A sort of Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde phenomenon...

There is Ethan: the wonderful little boy!! He has SO much energy and loves to laugh. He loves to dance (which looks a lot like jumping around and throwing himself to the ground) and is starting to sing along to songs we know. He has a particular love for Diana Krall - maybe it's her location on the CD rack? But we pop something of hers in about once a week and cut a rug. He giggles the whole time and you know that just eggs me on. He talks all the time and sometimes you can even understand it. He calls himself Baby and thinks his Aunts are a unit that can be referred to as either Alli or Sheila and they should respond to both. He is learning to say please and thank you and has the cutest little "sorry" you can imagine. How can someone stay mad after that and a big smoochie kiss? He can sit for long stretches of time taking things out of one container and putting them in another. Then relocating the containers to another room and starting the whole process again. He is interested in Buzz Lightyear, Sharks, Sully (from Monsters Inc) and Bears. He goes to sleep by himself and pretty much stays there. Hooray! And nothing in the world beats showing up at preschool (which he just started in January and already loves) and seeing him literally start jumping up and down because he is so excited to see me. :)

Then there is Ethan: Napoleon reborn - ruthless dictator and master of everything the light touches. I think the most commonly uttered phrase this month is a tie between "Baby do it!" and "NO!". We've hit the terrible twos head on. While fairly cliché, I was completely unprepared for how life was going to change. Everything in the world is his. Everything is about him. And if he doesn't feel like it, he just decides he's not going to do it (whatever it is). I've had arms full of bags on the way out of a store when Ethan just decides he doesn't feel like walking anymore and collapses in the parking lot. What do you DO with that?!?!? You can't just leave him there (as much as I've been tempted to) and reasoning just doesn't seem to do the trick. AHH!! We spend a bunch of time in time-out and he already knows where "the chair" is. I have actually heard my own mouth uttering the long dormant but not forgotten phrase "crabby boys need a nap" dredged up from my own childhood. I have to admit that a lot of my reaction to Ethan depends on my own state of mind, but there are days he would drive even the saintliest mother out of her mind. And while I occasionally feel guilty about putting "Finding Nemo" in for the second time in a day, I figure it's much better than some of the other options that come to mind - death usually being at the top of my list. It helps me to know that this is a normal part of his growing up and that it is a phase like everything else. Or, as someone else put it, this TWO shall pass.

Ethan continues to be my greatest challenge, but more my greatest blessing.

Ethan and I have started working on a characteristic every other week as planned. It has been a great project for me and one I look forward to the rest of the year. Thanks to all of you that sent me your top five lists!! And for those of you who really wanted to send me your list but just didn't get around to it, it isn't too late! I'll be working on it all year. For those of you that are interested, integrity was the most commonly given answer. It was also in my top five so that is the one we did first. It has been a good excercise for me to sit down and really come up with a definition that works for me. And one that I can explain to a two year old! We started with "always telling the truth". However, for me it's more than just telling the truth and keeping my word although that is a huge piece. It is also acting in private as I would in public. It has been a huge and confronting topic for me. I fall short daily like most of us do. But it is something I value and will continue to strive for.

As if to test my newfound resolve, I was set up on my first date in months during my period of "integrity soul searching". After only a short conversation with this gentleman, I realized that I had a different understanding of what it means to have integrity than he did. I struggled over whether this was going to be a big deal for me in a possible relationship with him. I mean COME ON! Give a girl a break! I haven't had a date for a year!! But, after much sage advice and someone asking me if I wanted to spend the rest of my life jumping from failed relationship to failed relationship when I KNEW it wasn't going to work from the beginning I called him back and said I wasn't interested. Boy, did that suck. But I have to admit it was much easier than the last time when I had to call the REALLY HOT GUY who I REALLY CLICKED with and who was still REALLY MARRIED but said he wasn't. I have hope that it will get easier over time - like a muscle that gets strengthen - and even more hope that I'll eventually meet a really great someone with all the important things I'm looking for. Until that day, I'll just use it all as update fodder. :)

Next update due out in early April! Until then!