Ethan's New Trick

So Ethan learned a new trick today and its called climbing out of his crib and falling head first onto the floor... no seriously, that's just what my son did today. I put him in his crib for his nap and proceeded to the living room where the vacuum cleaner was going. After the vacuum shut off I heard Ethan screaming. I just thought he lost his binky or something so I went back into the room to give it to him. I opened the door not expecting anything to be in my way and accidently hit poor little Ethan in the back, who was rolling around crying on the floor. I quickly picked him up and held him confused as to why my son was rolling around on the floor and was not in his crib how I left him. He finally calmed down and fell back asleep, but I was still so confused how in the world Ethan 1) got out of his crib and 2) was not seriously injured. ( Because we live in a room in the garage, there is no carpet. Just cement with a rug pulled over it). Later today we noticed that a big red bump was starting to show up on the very top of his head, definitly indicating that that was where he landed. Its`a miracle that he didnt crack his head open...
So tonight I hid in the room after putting him down for the night just to make sure that he didn't crawl out again. Sure enough after about 10 minutes, he tried to get out of his crib by stepping on his bumper padding and pulling himself up and over the railings. He was almost out of his crib when I ran over and stopped him. Needless to say the bumper pads are now outta his crib!
Well, I most definitly did not think that crawling out of a crib would have been an issue for my 10 month old little boy, but knowing Ethan I am defnintly not surprised that he found a way to do it! I'm just glad that he was not seriously hurt by his big fall, we are so blessed!

Wow, a lot has happened these last few weeks so here are the main things that have been going on with us:

• We both graduated from BYU! I graduated in Early Childhood Education and Justin in International Relations with a Business minor. Both families came to see us graduate. Due to the lack of room for hospitality in our small apt, just my parents were able to stay with us. It was so nice to see everybody again.
  
• Shortly after graduation, we moved from cold Provo to sunny Mesa, Az. We are living with Justin's family here until the end of July, and then we will head down to Mexico. Despite what you may be thinking, we love living with the family! They have fixed up the spare bedroom in the garage and have given it to us to stay in while we are here. They have been so good to take us in and we have a lot of fun with them.
  
• As some of you know, we are living here for Justin to get trained with the company. They have already taken him out into the field to go to work. Last week he went to New Mexico and this week he is in northern Mexico. The tentative plans for his travels the rest of the summer are as follows : Taiwain, Korea, Mexico (many times), Guatemala, Costa Rica ( which I get to go!) and who knows where else. He really seems to be loving his job and is catching on quick.
  
• Ethan turned 10 months old! He caught some kinda virus plus an ear infection, so the past few weeks have not been fun. He's doing much better now.
  
• We are attending the Spanish branch here for church and I quickly realized how much Spanish I have lost our first Sunday. It's pretty frustrating. I am really trying though to help out the struggling branch as much as I can despite not being able to understand anything. Justin was called as first counselor in the Young Men's Presidency. He has his work cut out for him though with there only being 5 young men in the branch and all 5 are inactive.
  
• I am loving being a stay at home mom! It is still a little weird for me though to not have to live by my planner every second of every day. I just feel like I'm on vacation though.. it hasn't really set in that I'm home for good.
  

So basically that is what we have been up to for the past few weeks... and now here are some recent pictures:

The whole fam With my parents...darn those shadows!
We did it!

Hmm.. not sure why this pic is smaller but here is Ethan in his very own cap and gown!

Life

We bought Ethan this Froggy Pool for the warm (some may call it "scorching") hot days here in Mesa. He was obviously really excited about it and was even clapping his hands! So cute!
This is Ethan's newest face. This face is always accompanied by him saying "ooooo." He has now learned to say "Uh-Oh!"- but it never comes at the right times of course...
He loves the water!

Pretty sure Ethan was really excited about the stairs the first day we moved in and of course learned how to climb up them that day...I did not encourage this but I have found that when babies want to do something, they find a way to do it!At Justin's little sister's volleyball tournament.

So Close to....

Walking! Ethan is getting closer and closer to walking! Yesterday, at work he stood there all by himself, took two steps, stood there again, looked around, started clapping for himself, then fell down! Of course I didn't get it on camera either. He has been working hard at getting this whole waking thing down, but I still think he is a ways from being able to master it.

I was so happy that I was there for his first steps! This whole semester I was so scared that I would miss his first steps or some other developmental milestone because I was gone from home so much. In fact, this was a pretty common conversation in our home:
Me: "Justin! Come here and look at Ethan! He is doing ____!"
Justin: "Oh, yeah. You haven't seen him do___?"He's been doing ___ for about a week now."
Me: (With sadness)"Oh. Well, can we pretend like this is the first time??"

I guess Ethan knew that I probably would have been devastated to have missed this, so he waited until I had him all day yesterday. Thank you Ethan!

9 Months Appt

We went to the doctor yesterday for his 9 months appointment. Crazy that he is already that old! Here are his most recent stats:

Length- 28.3 in 43rd percentile
Weight- 18lb 12oz 18th percentile
Head Circumference- 46cm 63rd percentile

So he is still a small little guy, but growing steadily! Sorry I have no pics to post. I will try to put some up later :-)

Graduation!

You would think this post might be about Justin and I's graduation in a week according to the title, but no! This post is dedicated Ethan who has successfully graduated from physical therapy for his torticollis! Hooray! After 6 months of painful stretches, physical therapy sessions, and wearing of an annoying TOT collar, our little guy is doing so much better and no longer has to go back! The doctor said, however, that the torticollis is not completely gone and will come back every once in awhile, especially when he hits developmental milestones ( i.e. walking, running, etc.). He said this is normal and to just start up the stretches and collar until he remembers to not be lazy and hold his neck up straight again. Anyways, that is my good news moment for the week!

Just Some Recent Pics

After General Conference today we walked down to the duck pond up on BYU campus. It was nice to get out of the house and was surprisingly pretty weather. Ethan really enjoyed looking at the ducks and seemed to have fun! He is almost 9 months old and is just getting more fun everyday. We sure love our little buddy!

and some more...

Off we go to see the ducks!