Happy 92nd!!

Ethan's great-grandpa Taylor celebrated his 92nd birthday on Saturday. His whole family got together in Logan to celebrate. It was so much fun to see everyone, especially since we hadn't been together since Christmas.

Lately Ethan likes to stick his tongue out in pictures (as you may notice below).

We puchased a new couch during the President's Day sales this week. Here it is!! It is quite cozy. Soon we hope to paint our walls a color that goes better, but we're still trying to pick a color and find the time to get things ready. We are thinking a light tan or khaki color or even one that is slightly green. Lately Jen has really wished she'd studied interior design so it wasn't so hard to know what to do.
We had a great time visiting family during our short trip to Logan this weekend. We were amazed at how much snow they still have, although it has melted quite a bit. We will be heading back there next weekend as well to celebrate Ethan's first birthday. We figured it would be easier if we took the party to our family instead of inviting everyone here (at least this year). We are so excited for his birthday. As some may know, Jen has some experience decorating cakes and has something fun planned for Ethan. Stay tuned. . .

Rug Rat

The big thing for us this week is that we got our new rug for our living room. Jen sent a few pictures of it to Grandma Morrey, and she said she thought it was nice, except it was missing something...Ethan. So, Grandma Morrey, here are a few of the rug with Ethan. He absolutely loves this rug. He loves to play on it and roll around. If you look closely, Ethan is holding one of his new favorite toys - a wooden spoon.


Also, we've had a few people asking what colors we're planning on painting our room. The answer is, we're not sure. Probably a neutral tan or something.

Ethan has been standing up on his own a lot lately. He can stand up all by himself, without holding on to anything. Sometimes he stands up and realizes he's stuck and can't go anywhere, and he'll just start crying. Other times he just stands there and is perfectly fine. He hasn't been taking any steps lately, though (hooray).

Baby Steps

The event that we have feared has finally come to pass. Ethan took his first steps on Thursday. For the last week or so he has started standing on his own without support. Jen was playing with him on Thursday afternoon when he attempted to walk to her. He only made it a step or two, but he immediately did it again. In the past, we encouraged Ethan to crawl and pull himself up, but didn't want him to walk early. We've heard that things get much harder once they start walking, especially when they are too young to understand the consequences of their actions. Despite our fears, it is so exciting to see him hit this milestone.

This week, the Morrey family went to the polls to vote in the primaries. We gave Ethan both of our stickers.

We tried to get pictures of Ethan standing on his own, or taking a step, but he wouldn't cooperate. He just wanted the camera.
There isn't much new with Kyle and Jen. Kyle has been busy with work and homework, and Jen has been plugging away at getting the walls ready to paint (which is a very slow process when progress is only made while Ethan is asleep). She did purchase a large area rug this week which has taken months to pick out. Next, we hope to find a couch to match. Hopefully it won't take months to find the right one.

Play Ball!!

Ethan has been learning how to play catch with Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, he won't do it when the camera is out -- he is more interested in playing with the camera than with the ball. But it's really cute, we promise.

Ethan loves to help out his mom. Here he is watching the laundry spin around and around in our washing machine.

One of Ethans favorite things besides Daddy's laptop and Mommy's cell phone is the remote control for the TV. The DVD, VCR, and other remotes aren't good enough - only the TV remote will do. When he sees it sitting on the LoveSac he climbs up and grabs it. It's amazing how much of a monkey this kid is. He's a smarty too. Sometimes he will push Mom's exercise step over to the LoveSac (or to anything else he wants to reach) so he can climb easier.

Ethan absolutely loves graham crackers. We use them to bribe him to stop doing things that we don't want him to be doing. All we have to do is flash a cracker, and he comes running (well, crawling in his case). He's also learned to share. He will offer his soggy, slobbery crackers to Mommy, and if she's not careful, they end up in her mouth.

This is the spot that we normally write a little about what we are doing, but we really aren't doing much out of the normal. Work and school for Kyle, and poopy diapers and tantrums for Jen (not from Jen...or Kyle).

The Mommy Survey

To celebrate Ethan turning 11 months today, I decided to fill out the mommy survey that a friend tagged me to do. Only one more month and our baby--sniff--will be 1!

1. Age(s)? 11 months today
2. Name(s)? Ethan Kyle
3. Birthdays? 03/01/2007
4. Time(s) of birth? 3:43 pm
5. How long did labor last? about 15 hours
6. Who was in the room when baby was born? Kyle and my mom, but it seemed a bit crowded with hospital people. Although they didn't want to alarm me, they were prepared for a worse outcome. They were a little concerned about Ethan because he had already pooped before my water broke (which isn't good if they breath it in), they had to put me on oxygen, and the cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times. They rushed him away to check him out, but returned him within a few minutes because he was just fine.
7. How long did you push? It only took about 20-30 minutes. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have it last longer. It is exhausting!!
8. Weight? 7 lbs. 3 oz.
9. Length? 20 1/2 inches
10. Any hair? Oh yeah. Not only was it thick, but it was dark too. Kyle jokingly asked me who the father was. Someone else comment that he looked Chinese.
11. Who does baby look like? It is almost unanimous that he looks like Kyle, though as he has been getting older we can see a little more of me in him.
12. Be honest...how much weight did you gain while pregnant? Surprising enough I only gained 10 pounds. I felt like I was eating all the time. I think I had little extra to start with though.
13. Was baby early or late? He was one day late. I was mad that he hadn't come yet because I was so anxious. The evening of the due date we closed on our house. Five hours later--12:30 am.--I woke up with terrible cramps. I was so tired and didn't realize that I was in labor until the cramps didn't stop. Kyle had to convince me that it was labor.
14. Who drove you home from the hospital? Kyle
15. How many baby showers did you have? 2
16. When did baby start sleeping through the night? Ethan has always been a good sleeper at night. Even from the beginning, he usually only woke me up once in the middle of the night. Now he sleeps from about 7 to 5, eats, then back down until about 7:30 or 8.
17. Did you breastfeed? Yep, and I'm still going, though I look forward to weaning him soon. Yet, it is hard thinking about stopping when it makes him so excited. I had a hard time when Ethan was first born to get him to latch right. It was really stressful and painful for the first week or two and had times I doubted I'd be able to do it.
18. Who takes care of your baby/kids the most? Me
19. When do you want to have another one? When the time is right.
20. How did you pick the name(s)? We liked it, then saw how popular it is and had doubts. However, we never found an alternate we were serious about and got tired of one of the nurses calling him "maybe Ethan" in the hospital.
21. How did you know when it was time to go to the hospital? I was told to call the hospital once my pains were 5 minutes apart for an hour. Once they began they were that far apart. When I called the hospital they told me to come whenever I wanted. We thought we'd watch an episode of the Simpsons to pass the time before we went, but we didn't get far into it before I wanted to go to the hospital because I was nervous and hurt so bad when the contractions came.
22. Anyone spend the night with you the first night home? just Kyle, though I called my mom
to come help a few days later since I was having trouble getting Ethan to nurse and recover
from everything.
23. Did you cry the first time you held your baby? I think I got a little teary. I was surprised I
didn't bawl though. I was was really excited to finally meet him and be finished
24. Where was the baby born? at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake
25. Did you video tape the birth? Kyle recorded some of the before and after, but not while I was pushing. We need to do a little editing though since Kyle didn't realize he caught a little too much of me while taping Ethan at one point.

Anyone who would like to fill out this survey should. It was fun!