Time flies

It's been two months since Ethan and I arrived in the US. Amazing how much has happened since then. It feels like forever (in a good way). It's hard to imagine life without him (except of course when it's 6:00am and I'm exhausted and he's totally wired and awake).

The other day Ethan decided it should be his birthday, and started crying when I told him it wasn't. "Happy Birthday Ethan!" he insisted. I tried to explain it would be around 80 days before his birthday by saying "tomorrow" eighty times. At the end of this he just shook his head and said again "Happy Birthday Ethan!!" He kept doing this throughout the day, and I was trying to figure out what aspect of the "birthday" business he was so upset about not having. "Ethan wants presents?" I asked. That wasn't it. "Cake?" No, he'll eat sweets, but they're not something he cries over. "Crown?" (they wear a crown at school on birthdays.) Finally, later that evening Mark had the idea of singing "Happy Ethan to Ethan" to the birthday melody, changing the words so as not to confuse the issue. Ethan erupted into a giant grin. "More, more!" he said at the end. That was it. He just wanted the birthday song sung to him. Children can be so complicated and so simple at the same time.

The bounce house has been wonderful. It means I don't have to go driving around to find Ethan indoor places to play. It's also fun for playdates. This week Ethan had his first snow day from school when we got a huge storm on Valentines day. He played all afternoon with two neighbor girls, and I hung out with their mom. Later we all went sledding nearby -- the streets had so much snow in them that we could pull the sleds and kids through them.