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May 30, 2006

Birds

We've gotten very into bird feeders lately. I went with Molly to a Master Gardeners talk about beneficial insects (she's a Master Gardener, not me). On the way we stopped at the Backyard Bird Shop and I got a simple hummingbird feeder. We hung it from the eaves outside the kitchen window, which is nice for us but apparently a little hard for the hummingbirds to find. So we planted some hanging baskets with hummingbird-friendly flowers, which we made a special trip to the nursery to get. It took a while, but last night Ethan finally saw a hummingbird.

We also got a feeder to put seeds in, and we made bird treats at preschool last week, though we haven't put ours up yet.

This just in: we have a niece! Dave just called and told us the news. We're very excited.

Posted by ktingey at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

Please note...

...I've just added Jeff as an author for the Ethan and Linna blogs. Turns out he sometimes furtively reads my blogs. OK, not so furtively, since he laughed out loud and then had to tell me what he was laughing at. Anyway, we both thought he should be able to post too. So look for the "Posted by" at the bottom of each post to know if it's a mama or a dada post.

Posted by ktingey at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2006

Robbie the Robot

I can't recall if I've mentioned the Robbie stories. About a year ago Jeff started telling Ethan bedtime stories about Robbie the robot. For a long time this was a regular part of the bedtime routine. Now it's only occasional, since now we've cut out naps Ethan falls asleep much more quickly.

The stories always start the same way: "Once upon a time there was a little house, and inside the house lived a little boy. His name was Ethan Paul Tingey Hopper. [Jeff draws on Ethan's back during this whole intro.] Ethan had a very special friend named Robbie the Robot. Robbie had a square head, a little neck, a square body, two squiggly arms, two big feet, two little hands, an antenna - boink! - and a little orange button that when you pressed it, he could do amazing things."

Then Ethan wakes up. While he's asleep, Robbie's been building sandcastles, because Robbie doesn't need to sleep. Various adventures happen, ranging from adventurous (Robbie and Ethan discover a slide down into the middle of the earth, where they discover dinosaurs) to biblical (it rains for so long that Ethan's house becomes a boat, and they have to save all the animals) to... whatever. Sometimes the story involves Bob the Builder or Thomas. Often there are cousins from Katamari Damacy who come help. Sometimes the core issue is something like a bird that lost his voice, and Ethan and Robbie have to help find it. There are also some mice living in Ethan's house - Mickey Mouse, Mousie Mouse, and Linna Mouse. Last week they were trying to find their old house, which was on Sesame Street. That kind of thing. Ethan sometimes gets quite insistent about how the story should go.

One funny thing about these stories is that although they're supposed to help Ethan fall asleep - and they mostly do help - he at least stays awake through the whole thing. But I always drift off near the beginning, so I miss the whole thing. It's funny because in general, I often have a hard time falling asleep. Unfortunately, I often wake up when it's over, so I have to get myself back to sleep again.

Posted by ktingey at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2006

Ooey-gooey

This is Ethan's favorite phrase right now, I suppose just because it sounds funny. He says it to Linna to make her smile. Sometimes it seems to mean icky, but other times it's less clear. For example, yesterday at preschool he built a funny flower lady out of Ello, and then he was making it say, "HELP! I'm ooey-gooey!" It's a popular activity for him and Will. When they're together they get a little bit obnoxious sometimes - they run around and want to wrestle (boys!), or start smashing things in a way I don't think either of them normally does. It's like they're showing off for each other, I guess. They just feed off each other's craziness.

A few weeks ago we played with Will, Anna, and Leland outside Karla and Jay's house. Karla had this huge beach ball that they played with, which Ethan thought was like a katamari, so of course he loved it. What, you don't know what a katamari is? Ethan will happily tell you all about it...

Posted by ktingey at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

The joy of silent movies

A few days ago we got a collection of Buster Keaton movies from Netflix. We watched "The Cameraman" with Ethan, after explaining the concept of silent movies to him. We weren't sure he could read the words fast enough, so Jeff read a few aloud, and after that he started reading them aloud each time, which was fun. It was interesting - he couldn't usually read the whole thing aloud while it was showing, but he had clearly read it in and stored it, as he could still say it after the words had gone.

Anyway, he liked the movie. He giggled a lot, especially when Buster Keaton lost his swimming suit in the public pool. Pretty funny stuff.

Posted by ktingey at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2006

Sweet guy

Ethan is so good with Linna. When she's in her bouncy chair, he gets down and plays with her, bouncing her and singing to her to make her smile. It's cute. He talks to her the same way we do, "It's OK, Linna, it's OK... Ethan's right here!"

The other day he said to me, "Mama, Teddy's scampering." It's true, Teddy was scampering.

On Saturday, we visited Russell and Sebideh and Sormeh, who live out beyond Hillsboro, in the country. It was very beautiful out there. They have a flock of sheep, with lambs, one of whom had to be bottle-fed. Ethan liked the sheep, and so did Teddy. Yep, Teddy came with us, and met his first sheep (as far as we know). Then we took Teddy into an adjacent field and let him run, run, run. We'll have pictures up soon of Ethan and Sormeh holding hands (she's almost two).

Posted by ktingey at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2006

Ethan's garden

I have deeded one of the 6' x 6' boxes in the back to Ethan this year, and he decided what to plant: cucumbers, potatoes, basil, cilantro, carrots, and arugula. All the vegetables he likes, except for peas, which I planted 2 months ago, and corn, which will go in the front. Arugula is a new one - I planted some by the peas, and he tried it and liked it. So now we give him tiny salads of a few arugula leaves.

Sunday after Jeff left Ethan and Linna and I went to the nursery and bought plants and seeds for his garden (and a few for me, too). He also chose a big orange marigold, some yellow dwarf marigolds. Monday we planted it all, with the marigolds in the middle. He was very excited. Then this morning we went to look at it, and he wanted to plant some more things, so we planted the corn in the front, the orange zinnia he'd chosen in the back, and the red verbena around the holly-stump-with-gnome in the front.

Posted by ktingey at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)