Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan turned two last Saturday (July 25th). What a fun day. I love this age. Everything is so exciting. The main thing we got for Ethan was a kitchen that we had found at DI. It was in pretty rough shape, but Jason really gave it an extreme makeover. I'll have to post some close ups of it another time--and I really should have taken before and after pictures of it. The stickers were coming off or scratched up, the plastic window on the oven was broken. It was a real mess. But now, not only are there new stickers, knobs, and windows, but it is even wired to light up when the dishwasher, oven, or stove is on, and the oven will beep if it is done. I tell ya, it definitely comes in handy to have an electrical engineer around.

We decided to eat breakfast before Ethan saw the kitchen--so we could actually get it down. Then as we were cleaning up, Ethan thought it sounded like fun to help do dishes, vacuum, and he even asked if we could get the Windex out so he could help spray it. So it was actually getting closer to lunch time before we got it out. I took Ethan upstairs to get dressed and Jason set it up downstairs. When Ethan came down and saw it he stopped, then yelled "Kitchen!!!" He would explore it all, and pause every once in a while to yell "kitchen" again and again. It was the best reaction we could have asked for. For several weeks now, he has been pretending to play with a kitchen--making bread, soups, smoothies, you name it. And now he actually has a place to put those pots and pans and whatever else he imagines.


This was his birthday cake. Apart from kitchens, I think airplanes are his greatest love. Whenever we get markers out to draw, he always tells me his scribbles are airplanes or trucks (Grandpa's Truck in particular).


We had my whole family over for dinner and dessert that night. Since he had all day to get used to the kitchen, he could appreciate other gifts too. Grandma and Grandpa Burton got him this motorcycle big wheel. It is so cool with sounds and blinkers and everything. The next morning when Ethan got up, the first thing he said in his crib was "kitchen." We went downstairs and he also saw his motorcycle (mocytohtoh) and he was so excited he couldn't choose which one he wanted to play with. He would look from one to the other...kitchen, mocytohto, kitchen...