Julie and Jason: October Fun

October has been more busy and active since Ethan started walking. Ethan walks pretty much everywhere he goes now, but he is still pretty slow and careful about his walking. Ethan loves to try to carry things around with him from room to room and gets pretty frustrated when he can't hold all 5-6 things in his hands that he wants to take with him. Sometimes I'm amazed at how much I do see him carrying around! This week he's been carrying kitchen utensils, boxes, lotion bottles, and pumpkins. It seems like he's starting to learn certain things more quickly now. For example, he learned to click pens on and then draw all over the couch cover, and he learned to unscrew the hand sanitizer bottle and dump it all over the carpet before Jason could catch him.

Ethan is starting to learn more sign language as well. He knows 'milk', 'food/eat', 'please', 'toothbrush', 'up', 'more', and 'all done.' And whatever he doesn't know in sign language, he is pretty adept at communicating in finger pointing. He is also starting to recognize and point out a few body parts like ears, nose, mouth, and tummy. He can say 'mama' and 'dada,' but he doesn't really use them.

There are a few things about October that I just love, and General Conference is one of them. We enjoyed hanging out all weekend the first weekend in October eating cinnamon rolls and other good food and watching the Conference sessions online. We are really grateful to the Hymas family for doing some toy swapping with us so that Ethan could have some 'new' toys to explore and play with over Conference weekend...especially since it was cold and rainy for two weeks in a row afterwards.

Watching Conference with Dad

Listening to the Prophet

Great kitchen toy with a few utensils

After it quit raining, we were able to get out to the park again and do a few other fun things.

Testing out the new car seat

Walking around the playground at the park

Visiting the play area at the mall on a cold, rainy day

The Sister Missionaries dropped something by for us on Sunday, just as the apple crisp was coming out of the oven. Perfect timing! :) We enjoyed the apple crisp and ice cream, and then took a few pictures. We've had Sister Widdison working in our area for 9 months now and she's going home next week. She's seen Ethan grow from a baby to a toddler. Sister Corbridge has been here 6 months and I've enjoyed having them both over for dinner several times, helping them out with some of their appointments, and playing the piano for some of the baptisms.

Last night I went with our church youth group to see the new movie, "Meet the Mormons" in Milford, Ohio. It was a little bit of a drive, but totally worth it. I really enjoyed watching it! It was very uplifting and inspiring and made me feel so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Today Ethan and I went with Katie and Kerrigan to the Kinman Farms. It was a fun little farm and we enjoyed the tractor ride, the pumpkin patch, and the petting zoo. It was only in the low 50's so I was ready to warm up at home again once it over. :) Ethan loved all the little pumpkins in the patch and kept wanting to pick them up. Of course they were way too heavy for him and he kept falling over. :) He was also very interested in picking up the leaves.