Ethan's 1st Birthday!

September 9th, 2009, aka. 9.9.09, was a special day for our little man, Ethan Zachary. Ethan turned one today! His mother and I both had the day off from work to hang out with him. We sent Camden to daycare to give Ethan our undivided attention. We didn't have anything specific planned except that we wanted Ethan to get his first experience with pizza on his first birthday.

As with most mornings, Ethan started his day at about 445am. He must have been excited about his big day. For that matter, Camden must have been equally excited because he was up shortly after that. After we got Camden to daycare, we let Ethan nap in the van a little bit while I took care of a haircut. Judging by the pictures, you're probably wondering why we don't take care of Ethan's too. As soon as we cut Camden's hair the first time, he lost that "baby" feel. I guess we want to hold onto that as long as we can with E.

We took Ethan back home and hung out with him in the backyard before taking him to our neighborhood park. Which was amazingly busy for a Wednesday morning. As usual, Ethan monopolized the swing. He also spent quite a bit of time on the big kids play equipment. While not quite walking, E's very adept at pulling himself and walking along railings and posts.

Ethan has such a cute little voice too. It's got a deeper tone than Camden's and a little raspy at the same time. We haven't really classified his first official word yet, but he appears to say things like "pop!" and "baahble" (bubble). Perhaps we're a little harder on our 2nd child and have higher expectations for the clarity of what a first word should be. Not like when I thought I heard and gave credit to Camden saying "hamburger" when he was about 3 months old.

After E's playground adventures, we came home and had some lunch. E conked out for his afternoon nap shortly after that. When he awoke, we headed out to Punch Pizza. Some say Punch is the best pizza in town. I tend to agree, but I know there are those that prefer other places. I think E would agree with those that say it's the best in town. We could barely keep a piece of pizza on his plate before he scarfed it down. He smacked his lips between each bite, each piece. It was very funny.

The final cap to the day was a cupcake celebration. By this time, E was wearing down after a long day and wasn't quite sure what to think. We put a chocolate cupcake and a carrot cupcake in front of him and let him go to town. He certainly made a fine mess of everything. His big brother, Camden, joined in the fun too. Although Camden enjoyed blowing out Ethan's candle over and over again versus the cupcake mess that Ethan was enjoying.

All in all, a great day of celebration with Ethan. Kimberly and I couldn't be happier with having a happy, healthy one year old in our lives. Sure it's challenging at times to have two boys so close together, but looking back we wouldn't have it any other way. Camden is really at an age where he understands Ethan and his place in our family. Ethan's an amazing young man. We love you E!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY ETHAN ZACHARY!

Active little Ethan!

 Ethan is determined to be in the mix of everything.    He lets us know what he wants, where he wants to be and with whom.     He watches his big brother intently and has a new affinity for pushing trucks and other four-wheeled toys around just like Camden.   He’s especially thrilled with the new found freedom his walker gives him.   He takes off down the driveway as fast as his little feet will carry him…. Looking back with the biggest smile on his face to make sure we are watching him. 

 

He loves sharing and will hand (or almost hand) you items and wait for you to give them back.   His favorite noises are the “motor boat” noise.     He too loved the four wheeler and loved being at Grandma and Grandpa’s with all the wide open door ways and what not.

 

 

Ethan on the go!

Let chaos reign!    Ethan has mastered crawling with a vengeance and his newfound mobility is driving many changes in our household.   The many baby gates are going back up – one at the top of the upstairs stairwell, one at the top of the kitchen stairwell,   the boarder gate that spans the TV components and the fireplace.    Despite our Safety First mantra, Ethan’s already got a bit of shiner… he was playing at my feet at the refrigerator door yesterday while I was putting away groceries.    He toppled while trying to reach the dressing bottles on the next door shelf up and had a little bruise bust under his eyebrow.    Poor little guy!   He hollered for a bit but settled easily enough.   We tried to apply a the boo boo bunny but he just wanted to chew it.    

 

Ethan’s also obsessed with Camden’s sippy cups.    They  can each have their own sippie cups and the minute Ethan spots one of Camden’s he abandon’s his and bee lines for the much more appealing one.  

 

It’s definitely a little more chaotic with two on the move, but they really are bonding and enjoying each other so much, we cannot complain!

 

 

Exciting updates on Ethan: Waving!

Our amazing E continues to make tons of interactive progress!    This week he’s all about the waving and squealing hello.    He’s very communicative, laughing often as his big brother, expressing extreme displeasure when someone wrongs him, waving hello and mirroring our sounds.    He loves to motorboat, which often has all of us motor-boating back at him.  

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/camdennguyen/3699437529/" title="DSC_0107 by kimberlyknguyen, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3479/3699437529_3e380fe713_b.jpg" width="1024" height="681" alt="DSC_0107" /></a>

 

Kimberly Nguyen  | IT Business Analyst | Technology Services | Carlson Marketing
phone: 763.212.2856  |  mobile: 612.385.2775 |   fax: 763.212.3361  |  mail stop: 8280  |  skype id:  kimberlyknguyen 

Memorial Day Trip, Part II

The next leg of our Midwest tour took us on a 5 hour drive from Coloma, MI to Dayton, OH. We were scheduled to be there for 5-6 days. That's one of the nice things about driving is the flexibility it leaves for our schedule. We rolled in late in the afternoon of Memorial Day. The boys held up great in the van and slept most of the way. They woke up just before we got pulled in.

Ethan got a chance to get introduced to a lot of new people. People who were introduced to Camden only a year ago, or a little less. E got to meet Becky Lewis and her new son Jackson Carter Lewis. Jackson is only 4 weeks old. My friends Jenny and Jason Seifert were kind enough to host a little get together at their house. It was nice to see those guys again and introduce them to the boys. Mommy and Daddy again took advantage of having Grandma and Grandpa around to take advantage for themselves. We took an evening to ourselves and went to a Reds game. It was a blast. It was our first time in the new stadium and it didn't disappoint. We look forward to the day when we can take Camden and Ethan to their first ball game.

A hot, sunny, and relaxing week with Ong Noi and Ba Noi came to a close. We piled all our worldly possessions into the van and began our trek back to Minneapolis. We stopped in Chicago for an overnight stay to break up the trip. We met up with Uncle Tony and Aunt Lisa one last time and then finished our last leg of the tour. Overall, the trip was a great success. The boys handled the long stretches in the car extremely well. Oh and did I mention Oliver made the trip with us too? He did great too.

Memorial Day Trip, Part I

This year's Memorial Day weekend brought us on a 1700+ mile, 25 hour trek across the Midwest. Our roadtrip started out with 8 hour drive to the shores of Lake Michigan where Uncle Tony and Aunt Lisa have a beach house. Their condo sits atop a beautiful bluff overlooking mile and miles of beach. It's a great place to relax, get some sun, and let the boys play in a never ending sandbox.

We met Grandma and Grandpa Sindt at the resort. We arrived at about 1am (2am local time) and the grandparents were happy to sweep the boys into their arms. The weekend was also memorable as we were able to celebrate Mommy and Grandpa's birthdays (5/23 and 5/25, respectively). The Sindts love combining holidays, events, and any other made up occasion to celebrate into one big get together. With everyone spread out so far apart, it's the only way to do it. And we always manage to do it up right. Uncle Tony and Aunt Lisa were fantastic hosts, as always.

The lake water was cold, but the boys loved the beach. It was nice having some extra hands around so that mommy and daddy could get some R&R, too. All in all, it was a fantastic start to our week long vacation.



Check out Part II of the Memorial Day Trip as the Nguyen caravan heads south for a fun week with Ong Noi and Ba Noi in Dayton, OH.

Six Month Update

Ethan is the ripe old age of six months old now. Here are a few pictures from his photo shoot with the Easter Bunny. You may remember last year's Easter Bunny photo shoot with Camden. He had no issues with live animals at that time and neither did Ethan this year. However, this year, Camden didn't take to the bunny real well. He was very apprehensive and didn't want any part of the bunny this year.

Ethan on the other hand, was not shy about prodding, poking, and pulling on the bunny's ears. The family portion of the shoot was a bit challenging as well, but we managed.