Bouncy, bouncy

Ethan's new "bounce house" arrived in the mail this week. It's wonderful. It's an air-filled 'trampoline' like the ones they have at fairs that is technically supposed to be used outside, but seems to work beautifully inside. Here's a picture showing Ethan with the desired effect it has on him (i.e. exhausted). Anyway, we're all very excited, as it gives us an outlet when it's really miserable or hard to do something outside. Plus it's rated to 250 pounds, so mama gets some exercise as well.

We also finally had enough snow here over the weekend to get a little sledding in. Ethan is really crazy about anything that involves speed: slides, jumping, sledding, biking, etc. Just like his papa. Ethan seems to be pretty fearless about it all, which is fine when things are safe, but a little disconcerting when he goes off the wrong hill towards a building at the bottom (woops!). Luckily Ethan wasn't hurt, but he got an earful from mama and papa, which he recounts to us later something like this: "Mama, papa: 'no Ethan! no Ethan!' Mama run. Ethan slide down. No ouchie")

We took Ethan into the International Adoption Clinic last week just to make sure everything was going ok, and they thought he was doing really well. The doctor jokingly kept saying that she was scared at how fast he was learning English. "Wow" she wrote on his sheet. At the end she said something like, "We don't need to see him again, but it would be nice if you had him come back and say hello when he gets into MIT". That was nice!

Ethan's language continues to progress. Now he has some verbs, sometimes used to advantage in 4-year old humor, such as: "Ethan eat poo-poo?". There are still some funny mix-ups, like when we were driving to school the other day and he said "bagel truck". He had just eaten bagels at school, and the truck had something round on the side, so I figured that was the source of the mixup. Turns out it was my mistake: he was trying to say "back-hoe truck", not bagel truck. Or, the other day we were driving after a rain and he said "pot holes". Since this wasn't anything we had taught him, I figured he learned it at school. "No!" he insisted, "Potholes" holding up his bag of pretzles. Oh, now I get it. He's also learning comparatives like bigger and smaller. Here's another taste of Ethan-style humor: he'll say, "Ethan bigger than papa?". We'll say "noooo". He'll say, "Ethan bigger than mama?". We'll say "nooooo", and on it goes.

Sometimes Ethan will ask the names of things that are pretty obscure. At first I hesitated to fill up his head with non-essentials, but then I just gave up realizing that if he's interested, I might as well tell him. So, Ethan knows the word "spoiler" on the back of race cars (and he knows that "Tom car yes spoiler, papa car no spoiler) {by the way, mama didn't know the word spoiler until a few years ago}. Ethan knows the difference between Stagasaurus (which has 'plates' on its back and 'spikes' on its tail) and Triceratops (which has 'three horns'). He proudly will tell you that one of his teachers drives a "black Jeep" (and he can now recognize Jeeps when he sees them), and that his other teacher drives a "silver Hundai", and that papa just bought a "red Audi" (although at first he'd say "Audi, Audi" thinking it was the same as "howdy, howdy" said by Woody in Toy Story). Then he blows me away when he recognizes other Subarus that aren't even the same model as mama's. He has trouble saying the word "stethascope" at least, but counterbalances that with knowing that the lion in his DVD is Alex, while his brother's name is Alec, with better disctinction than most people can manage. Oh, and when he says goodby, Ethan will often say, "See you later aligator", or maybe it might be, "See you tomorrow aligator", or even "See you later crocodile." Mark is convinced Ethan is going to be a comedian some day.

Ethan is also bonding to us more and more with time. He was always basically pleasant with us and affectionate, but he's showing signs of getting more attached to us specifically (the kids in orphanages are often taught, or learn, to treat any adult they can find like a parent, in hopes the person might actually take them up on it. When he was first home, he would often point to, or run up to other women and say, "mama?", or declare one of his teachers "mama!". It hurt a little, but I had to keep in mind where he was coming from, and trust that he'd get more clear. Now he mostly gets the concept, and only sometimes, mostly to tease, will call someone else mama. Or, when he doesn't want to go home from preschool, he pulls out another kid pointing them in my direction, and says, "your mama!" to them, but he's also smiling when he does it.)

Anyway, now he misses us when we leave the room, and he frequently asks where one of us is when we're not there. "Papa work?" he'll say repeatedly in the afternoon (meaning, 'is papa at work?'). I'm also feeling more attached to him with time. All his cute little hand motions (he waves his hand like royalty when he wants something) and ways he says things ( 'The Ethan?' meaning is this mine? or "Ethan lika-dem" meaning he likes something) are replayed in my head when he's not there. I figure, people are hard wired to fall in love, so with a little time, it's irresistable for all of us. That, plus getting a bounce house in the basement, a new train, and some chocolate now and then doesn't hurt the process.....