In the past month Ethan started walking. Jeff and I had a bet going on when he would start walking, and I had mid June and he had July 4. Ethan started walking at the end of June. For the past few weeks it was more like taking a few steps and fall or dive into our arms, but the past weekend we realized that he suddenly started taking lots of steps without falling, picking up his toys on the floor and getting back up, and today I saw him turning around without holding onto a furniture. I think the only time he crawls now is to get to something to get back up. We will finally get our basement done (partially) so it will be nice to have a bigger space for him to practice walking/ running.
Oreo and Ethan are getting along better now also. Ethan plays fetch with Oreo (even though he can't slow the ball too far and Oreo does not think he needs to get the ball), pets him nicely, and cuddles up with him when Oreo is laying by me. I think Oreo likes the attention he gets from Ethan also. Oreo sure loves Ethan during a meal time because Ethan tends to throw food off of his plate/ tray if he does not like it. He used to do this whenever he was full, but we taught him "all done!" sign and he shows that he is done pretty well.
It has been fun teaching Ethan signs and seeing him communicating with us using signs. He can do milk, more, all done, and up so far. I'm trying to teach him thank you and please but we'll see how quickly he picks these up. Verbally he is still working on saying mommy and daddy. Some days he is good at it, but some days he calls everything daddy. He sure is a chatter box though. Only if we understand his language!
This weekend we will be headed to Buffalo, NY again for Jeff's cousins', Rachel and Brice's, graduation party. It will be fun to see everyone especially Maddie, Ethan's second cousin who is 3 weeks younger than Ethan. Last time they saw each other was at Thanksgiving when they were only 5 months old. Ethan started interacting with his church friends, so I'm excited to see him play with his second cousin!
Oh, and here are pictures of him playing with his buddies, Lacy and Carson. They are about 6 months older than Ethan. Now that Ethan can finally walk he was excited to follow them around (or try to follow but fall far behind).
Ethan's favorite toys right now are baseball caps. He wears an adult size Buffalo Bisons' cap and an infant size Nebraska Huskers' cap. He also loves drinking out of/ playing with a cup (not a sippy, cup!). I sure am glad that it's summer now so he could be without a shirt and drinking out of a cup without getting cold.
