Catching Up

I've done a lot in the past 2 weeks. I'm now putting together 3 or 4 word sentences - even if they very rarely make sense - and having a lot of fun with talking. The weather is finally getting better here in Chicago, so now I can enjoy the new house's yard and the park across the street! We had a great time at Nana and Grandpa's for Pesach with Bubbie, Uncle Jonas (who I call "Unka Joe") and Aunt Mei (who I call "Ah Maman," or affectionately, "Aunt Monkey.") I can now identify some words on paper - especially my name - which is apparently "Eh-nan".

Enjoy the pictures. This is the best age!

Spelling Bee Champion

Numehnumehnumeh = money

In this video: fun with helicopters, super duper fun time, playtime with Habie, and the word I use for money: menumenumenumena!

L'chaim.

Had a blast at Aunt meiMei and Uncle Josh's lchayim in Milwaukee this past weekend. Take a look.

Florida video

My visit to Fla with Yaya

We just got back from a great vacation visiting Zayde (I call him Yaya, by the way) and Bubbe Judy in Florida. We were all primed to have a great time until...I got sick as a dog on the way there. Yup, I was "that kid" on the plane that everyone hates. I had a fever the whole time and a cough that could wake the dead, but that didn't stop me from having a great time when we got there. We WENT TO THE ZOO! Since I love animals so much, I think Mommy and Abba were expecting me to go bananas when I saw all the live animals. I was excited, but not so much. Here are some great pictures of the trip, a video will follow soon.

havin a blast at the zoo

Oooh look! A monkey!

Three generations of Sugardome

A great shot of me with the flamingos

Taking a ride on the Bert and Ernie firetruck

Look ma, no hands

testing out my new fireboots before bedtime (thanks Yaya)

fun in the pool

You lookin' at me?

Ethan 1, Abba 0

Abba should know better than to fight with me for my nehneh...

Dancing the night away

I had a blast at Lea Ackerman's first birthday party. Awesome pizza, cool tunes, and hula hoops!

Mazel Tov Aunt Mei Mei & Josh

I drew a sign in honor of your engagement!

Funderwear

Like mother like son

I got a kitchen! Now mommy can teach me all of her awesome recipes. Uncle Jonas came in to play with me and showed me around the kitchen before heading to Green Bay with Aunt Mei Mei to see the Packers fall to the Giants.

The cutest whisper

Number none

Now that I have the whole alphabet down, my parents are trying to get me familiar with numbers. I think I get the difference, but I can only seem to say one number, "none." They also started getting me into thinking about a potty by making me watch this godawful video about some little kid's private parts...c'mon mommy and abba, be careful - Chris Hansen's coming to getcha.

Enjoy some pictures of me playing with Mommy in my cave, chillin with my buddy Talia, stealing some food from the fridge, and nappin' on Aunt Mei Mei.

Somethin' funny goin' on here...

I guess I'm just real happy about Aunt Meira and (soon to be) uncle Josh. That's really the only way I can explain how loopy I was when I heard they were coming by to see me.

Also, check me out and my mad body part identification skillz.

Man in the Mirror

I just love it when Abba sings like an idiot. Don't you?

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.