Our Little Sponge

I have been completely amazed by Ethan lately. All the words, songs, music, books, EVERYTHING that we've been exposing him to since the day he was born, are finally starting to explode out of his mouth! It's like he's just been taking it all in, soaking it all up like a sponge, and now he's ready to start using language on his own. Sure, he's been talking for awhile, but nothing like he is now. He's putting words together to make sentences, singing songs, requesting us to sing specific songs, and just communicating in general like he's never been able to communicate before. Things I want to remember about this fun new stage:

Songs Ethan will sing with us (and what he says when he is requesting us to sing it):

• Ring Around the Rosie - "ashes, ashes"
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - "tee dar"
• Row, Row, Row, Your Boat - "row, row, row" (with the movements!)
• ABC's - "bee, dee" (or something jumbled like that)
• Itsy, Bitsy, Spider - "bider"
• Jesus Loves Me
• I Love You, Ethan - (something jumbled that includes "tee tee," which is still what he calls himself)

Sentences he's started putting together:

• "Where Daddy go?"
• "Moon in sky"
• "I got it!"

Counting and colors:

• Ethan can pretty much count to ten now. Sometimes he gets them confused, and sometimes he skips 1-3 and goes straight to four, but he's learning!
• I wouldn't say that he knows any colors yet, but he knows what colors ARE, and if you ask him what color something is, he'll at least answer with a color (usually blue or green). I figure that's at least a step in the right direction. He'll say the names of all the colors and sometimes gets them right when asked. I love the way he says the colors, since he can't really pronounce them perfectly. I need to get it on video.

Just an example of what I mean -

The perfect night with Ethan...

On Friday night Lonnie was at a football game so Ethan and I were having a night to ourselves. It was time for bed and I had just made warmed up his milk for him. Sometimes he wants to snuggle and drink it, sometimes he's still in play mode and will kind of roam the living room while he plays and drinks. I was waiting to see what kind of night this would be. After I handed him his milk, he immediately went straight for the rocking chair and waited for me to come rock him. From the moment I got him in my lap, I felt like I had my tiny little baby boy back in my arms. I sang to him and he stared in my eyes just like he did when he was a newborn and was studying my face. He just kept looking at me with his big brown eyes and it just melted my heart!!!!! Every now and then he'd take his sippy cup away from his mouth and give me the biggest grin ever, like he was just on top of the world at that moment in time. Then he started requesting songs. He asked me to sing "tee dar" and "tee tee" and "row, row, row." We just had the best night together and felt like we had a big mother/son bonding moment!

Love that boy to pieces!