Very Good News

Some of you may not know about the worries we've been dealing with about Ethan's hearing. When a baby is born, the hospital screens the new infant's hearing. Unfortunately, Ethan has repeatedly failed in his left ear. We had to take him in for further testing to an audiologist. Last weekend, we had a test called an ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) done at the hospital. Fortunately, we found out that Ethan's hearing loss is very minimal. His right ear is perfect. He won't need a hearing aid but may have difficulty hearing softer sounds of speech like th, k, and p out of his left ear. Kyle sarcastically asked if Ethan will think his name is Ian because of the difficulty of hearing the th sound, but the audiologist said that he won't because of his perfect right ear. We will have to watch that things don't get worse over time, but we were very relieved to get this prognosis. (On a side note, Ethan doesn't seem to be behind developmentally at all, on the contrary, he has been a little a head in many ways, so we didn't worry too much before this test.)
Here is picture just for fun. Ethan has been teething for a while and we recently found out that he likes to chew on his rubber ducky. It makes for some funny photos!

Big Boy Haircut

The time that we all feared has finally come. We broke down last weekend and took Ethan to get his hair cut. We've done a little bit of trimming in the past, but he really needed a thorough one. Over the last few months, Ethan has been losing much of his long brown hair on the sides of his head, and the baby comb-over just wasn't going to cut it any longer. The sides now have short blonde hair that has replaced it.

Here is his before picture. His bangs were really getting into his eyes. Now that we've gotten used to his short 'do, it is hard to believe that it was ever this long.

The hairdresser first wet his hair.

Although he was really good, despite a bit of squirming, we managed to capture his true feelings about the new experience.



Here, Ethan looks like he's had enough of this and is ready to make a break for it.



All finished, whew!!

Ethan (5 months) and Jackson (9 months) had fun playing together this weekend.

Here, Ethan is showing a little compassion while Jackson is sad. No, this isn't a picture of Ethan hitting Jackson.

Ethan also had a good time playing with bubbles for the first time at Grandma Taylor's. (We also learned that if Ethan's hair isn't combed now it looks like he has a mohawk. Ethan's uncle thinks he looks like Mr T--"I pitty the foo'!")

Yet Another Garage Sale Treasure

Yesterday, we found this piano-like toy at a garage sale just around the corner. It only cost a few dollars and has been a hit, especially that it is something Ethan can play with while practicing sitting up. He has gotten a lot better at sitting up this week. He still tips over now and then, but is almost there. He loves to sit outside in the grass and dig his feet into it. When he is picked up again he has dirty feet and leaves two small bare spots in the grass. It seems he's going to be the type of boy who likes to play in the dirt!

Ethan wanted to help mama make dinner tonight. Here is a picture of him helping make our salad. Ethan was really cute today at church. He sat on the floor during Priestood and Sunday School playing with his shoelaces. We couldn't keep his shoes tied for very long. It was quite funny. He seems to be very interested in feeling different textures of things around him. He started saying "mama" a few weeks ago, and now is getting really good at saying it. It is so fun to hear his little voice!