Exploratorium

Since the weather is just so awesome here in Chicago, I decided to hit the road and go to Skokie's Exploratorium with some members of my entourage, Habie and Racheli.

My lexicon grows every day; I pretty much understand everything you say to me and am beginning to try and talk in more than two word bursts! Gibberish is fun, though.

Animal Noises

I have been up to a lot of things lately. As Napoleon Dynamite likes to say, girls only want guys with great skills. So I've been practicing my animal noise skills, nunchuk skills, dancing skills etc. I also know every letter of the alphabet now - I can't say them all but, I can totally recognize every letter and point to them when asked.

Hope ya'll have a happy Chanukah.

Thanksgiving in Mahwah

My third trip on a plane was awesome. Slept pretty much both ways. I had a great time with Mommy's side of the family in New Jersey, especially with cousins Olin & Julie and Aunt Meira and Uncle Jonas! They even slipped me some beer, as you can see....

Free roaming

As promised...some footage exploring the house. This is pre-emergency room, of course.

Catching our breath

Ethan has taken a hiatus from writing on the blog. Allow me, the humble father, to give a quick update.

As you may or may not know, Ethan has had a remarkably rough week. Last week he was diagnosed with what the doctors thought was "atypical chicken pox," with large and red raised splotches all over his body. It turns out that the diagnosis was incorrect, as he turned out to have an allergic reaction to an antibiotic he was taking for an ear infection.

Long story short...he was in absolute agony. His whole body was inflammed and swollen close to three times his normal size. He could not walk from the swelling, nor could he be himself as he was constantly itching. It looked as though he was a burn victim of a severe fire. Things came to a head on Wednesday of last week as it escalated terribly and we brought him to the emergency room. We were essentially in the hospital until Saturday night, but that period of time was excruciatingly difficult for Shaina and I (let alone Ethan!!), as we had to see him repeatedly tortured with IV sticks, catheterization, forced medication and repeated wakings by hospital staff.

In the end we want to thank everyone who called/visited to lend their support.

We are indeed home now and the symptoms have lessened considerably, but every 5-6 hours they come back and we have to be dilligent about his medication. The doctors say this may last for up to a month.

I am confident Ethan will physically rebound from this in a short while. Emotionally is a different story. He is 15 months old, so hopefully his memory is very short....but for the time being he seems to have a hard time trusting anyone other than Shaina and myself now. He has regressed in terms of his attitude and his sleeping habits and is simply much more needy now. I don't blame the poor kid.

Ethan will soon be posting a video of him exploring the new house, so keep posted.

Moving on to bigger and better things (to destroy)

So they finally did it. Mommy and Abba have been threatening me with moving from the apartment to a larger house that I can ruin in a matter of seconds - and they made good on their promise. We moved last Wednesday and have been busy ever since. They repainted all of the walls in the house (which I promptly ruined by scratching, licking, and punching)and cleaned the carpets (I'll pee on the floor one of these days) and some other fun stuff too.

Here's some video of me before and after the move.

Mommy's little helper

I got a haircut today, and if you thought my cheeks were big before....you ain't seen nothin yet. Here are some "Pre" pictures, the "post" pictures are on their way tomorrow.

My first masterpiece and my new best friend

I got these cool bathtub crayons! As you can see, I am trying to draw Elmo, my new best friend (isn't it obvious?).

Running

I like shoes. I like running. Here's a video.



Also, we've compiled a list of the words I know....here they are:

Mama (or simply Ma)
Abba
Dog
Ball
Door
Shoe
Neh-Neh (pacifier)
Bye Bye
Uh Oh
No (the biggest one of all)

What a difference a year makes

This time last year, abba was telling me how miserable it was to be a Chicago Cubs fan. "God knows how long it will be before you see the Cubs win anything,
he told me. Well, I guess I'm good luck, because....





the Cubs are the NL Central Champs! I must be a good luck charm!

Go Cubbies

I'll take a tall, venti mocha choca latte yada nada and hold the poo poo, please

I love it when Nana comes to babysit, because she always brings me coffee. Well, not actual coffee, but the cup. And I look so cool drinking it.


See, my abba is kind of a technology geek. So, I really want to take after him: I try and make important calls on his cell phone, I play Wii, I turn on the TV and the VCR, I turn off our answering machine all the time (sorry to everyone that tries to leave messages here, I just think it's funny)...and of course I like the computer. So I'm taking some small "baby steps" if you will by learning how to use the keyboard with Elmo. Take a look.

The beauty of gibberish

I figured that since I have this walking thing down, I might as well start to learn how to talk. I mean, I don't really know many words other than "Mama," "Banana," "Nana," and Neh-Neh (my pacifier) - but I'm workin' on it. Check me out with this awesome gibberish.

You can't eat at a Labor Day barbeque if you don't have teeth....

So I went swimming instead!

Thank God I'm a Jewish Boy

It's been about a week since we last spoke (hi everyone, by the way) but it's been an eventful one. Walking is now my primary mode of transportation, because crawling is for sissies. And babies. I walk absolutely everywhere, got a sweet pair of walking shoes, and am ready to take on the world.

Of course, as Spiderman says, with great power comes great responsibility : I should use my newfound powers for good. But, it's fun to break stuff, run around like a maniac, get into things I'm not supposed to be getting into, etc - so I don't.

Here's some video of me checkin' out what's in the cupboard.

"But vere are his teets?"

I love my Bubbie Rose. But let's be honest, they didn't give the best English lessons in Romania.

Anyway, she asked me a couple of weeks ago "vere my teets" were. I assured her while I won't be getting "teets" anytime soon, I would probably get some teeth. So hopefully the fact that I sprouted my first tooth last week (took it long enough) should make her happy. I don't leave my mouth open long enough for mommy and abba to get a shot of it, but instead here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Also, my walking is pretty sweet now. I can mosey on down the entire hallway and take about 20-25 steps before I fall down.

Hey, get back here

I've got the moves

Thankfully, I have not been the recipient of either of my parent's genes when it comes to dancing. I got moves, man! Check me out!

Also, some footage at the end of me walking, but I've gotten much more proficient since these videos...

Narcissism, part two

You may recall my self-infatuation when I played in the bathtub in front of a mirror.

It seems I still love myself, even in cyberspace.

I say goodbye, you say hello

Edit : Comment of the year goes to Margo,

"Ethan kind of reminds me of a wind up toy."

One Year Old (and one week) pictures