Buzzy Bee

There is a reason some toys are classics:

We caught Ethan having fun with his Buzzy Bee!  

More Birthday Pressies!

Last week, Ethan received a box full of birthday pressies from his New Zealand relatives.  This gift opening experience was good practice for Christmas!  He got a Buzzy Bee, lots of Animalz, a cool balloon ball, an awesome hand-knitted sweater and some other cute things.  He even got to talk with his "Marg" on Skype while opening the gifts.

Talking with Santa

We took Ethan to see Santa Claus today and Ethan LOVED it!  I was nervous he might not like being handed to a stranger (even a very friendly, Santa stranger) but he turned right to Santa and pointed at his beard, smiling and laughing.  He was so mesmerized by Santa that he didn't want to look at the camera for a photo.  When he finally did look at the camera, he seemed annoyed at being distracted so he stopped smiling.    As soon as Santa caught his attention again, he was all smiles.  This is much better than last year when he slept through the whole experience!  I'm sure he told Santa what a good little boy he has been...and how good his mommy and daddy have been too!

Dickens of a Christmas

In front of the Franklin Square

We took Ethan to downtown Franklin for the Dickens of A Christmas street festival today.  It was chilly (46 degrees) but still sunny and nice for strolling through downtown.  We saw a handbell choir, a harpist, clarinet player and other musicians as well as Scrooge (a reformed Scrooge saying "Merry Christmas"), the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and many other characters in Victorian costume.  The oddest sighting was Cayne's favorite -- it looked like a wedge of cheese in a Santa hat.  We never could figure out why it was there.

Ethan really enjoyed people-watching while we walked around and babbled to anyone who would listen.  He also got to try his first piece of a doughnut -- he loved it and kept trying to get more!

Munching on one of Ellie's Old Fashioned Donuts...YUM!

Watching the horse-drawn carriage go by.

Trains at Cheekwood

We took Ethan to Cheekwood to see the model trains at Trains! Tennessee In G.  The weather was perfect -- sunny and warm for December and we had a lot of fun strolling around the park.  Ethan really enjoyed seeing the moving trains that were decorated for Christmas and the Christmas tree decorations in the Frist Center were neat too.  You can see a You-Tube video describing the train exhibit here.  He even got to hear the Nashville Philharmonic Flute Ensemble...Ethan didn't know what to think of the live music but he was definitely mesmerized by it.

"Mom, I think there's a train coming!"

"I just want to watch the trains...forget about these photos!"

Ethan enjoyed the tall Bamboo

This was one of the best-decorated trees.
They were all neat but a little strange.  

There was a tepee as part of the
American West Exhibition too.  Fun! 

Perpetrating stereotypes with Mommy. 

Toddling

Ethan took his first real steps on November 27th (he had taken 1 or 2 before but those were more "controlled falling" than walking).  It was exciting and he has gotten so much better just in the past few days at toddling.  Now he can stand up by himself and walk across the room.  He holds his hands up and moves in a very Captain Jack Sparrow manner.  It's so cute to watch and he is so proud of himself too!

Here he is on one of his first nights of walking: 

And here he is on December 2nd:  

Trip to Illinois

Having fun with Great-Grandma Poteet

 Ethan finally got to meet his Great-Grandma Poteet last weekend.  On Saturday morning we left home and drove about 7 hours to Bloomington, Illinois.  Ethan did great on the drive -- sleeping, babbling, and playing almost the whole way.  He got fussy about the last 30 minutes, which made us happy that we had already decided to stop for the night in Bloomington instead of heading the extra 30 minutes to Morton, where his Great-Grandma lives.

Sunday morning we headed to his Great-Grandma's house in Morton.  It was a quick and easy drive and it was exciting for us to introduce Ethan to his first great-grandparent.  We visited with grandma and Ivon the whole day and had a good lasagna for lunch and apple dumpling pie for dessert.  Ethan had fun meeting them but especially loved playing with their cat.  He giggled and chased the cat everywhere he could; luckily, the cat was faster than Ethan.

Ethan also loved this puppy statue
(and it couldn't run away from him)!

After leaving Morton, we went back to our hotel for an afternoon nap before meeting The Arendells for a delicious dinner at Beningo's Restaurant.  It was fun to catch up with them and Ethan had tons of fun playing with them at the dinner table.  We came home on Monday so it was a short trip but it was great to catch up with everyone we saw in the short time we were there!  Plus, Ethan got to spend time in two new states:  Kentucky and Illinois!

Creamer packets are fun toys!

Dan showed Ethan how to use a pen and a fun hand-stacking game.