Kickball Kickoff

Ethan had his first kickball practice last week. What a hoot! There is nothing that will bring a smile to face (or just make you laugh out loud) than 5 five year olds running around a baseball diamond (haphazardly mind you), kicking up more dirt than the actual kickball. His first game was canceled due to Huricane Rita, so the season opener will be this Saturday (during Annelise's baby shower of course). His team is called the Flaming Tigers - a compromise of two suggested names. I asked Ethan what he wanted the team to be called and he said "the red, blue, and green fighting lightsabers". Work that into a chant if you dare :)

When you least expect it

Today I was the first one awake in our house (unusual in and of itself, I know) . Thirty minutes later when Ethan came downstairs he had a surprise for me. He had made his own bed. Now, you probably think "not such a big deal", but he made his bed with absolutely no prompting from either of us. Ethan has a bunk bed, and to be honest it is a pain for me to make his bed because it is up high and now it is also in the corner, so usually I just don't (so high up there nobody can really see it anyway). Last night I put on his "favorite dinosaur" sheets and made the bed up nice. I guess that he really liked it that way, because he did his very best to get it back to that condition. He even placed his bears nicely. I really didn't expect this for a good long while and I don't know if it will happen again (though he says that he wants to make the bed everyday) I guess what I have learned is that miracles happen when you least expect them :) To reward his effort I took a picture of him in his freshly made bed. Go Ethan!

Ethan and Emily

This weekend we had the opportunity to meet the Prahl's, a family from Frisco who will be traveling with us to get Annelise and their new daughter Mia. They have a 2 and a half year old daughter Emily from the same province - Hunan (but a different orphanage) - as Annelise and Mia. Ethan enjoyed meeting Emily and playing with the chopsticks at P.F. Chang's. I asked what he thought about Emily and he said "she's cute" and a little while later he said "but I'm bigger." No doubt about that :) It is nice to think that as Emily and Ethan played together that Mia and Annelise may be playing side by side half the world away.

True Artist

So far, one of Ethan's favorite things about kindergarten has been art. He just loves to paint (always has really). The other day he came home from school telling me that he was going to be a "true artist" and that his artwork would be hung all over the world. So, he was painting a bunch of cardboard (outside on the grass where the clean-up is minimal) when he decides that he is going to sell these paintings. I asked if I could buy them (thinking that then I would be able to throw them away - afterall, they would be mine). Nooooo, he wanted to sell them to the neighbors. So far no takers, but if you find yourself in need of painted cardboard, now you know where to come :)

Just Fiddlin' Around

Ethan had a Nursery Rhyme Parade today. He was the Cat and the Fiddle (of "Hey Diddle Diddle" fame). That there is a real genuine fiddle that my mother used when she was a girl. Ethan said that it was "old, old, old, old." GranE figured he could lose a couple of those olds :) If he has a future in music, I don't think it will be the violin - not sure that James and I could take the practicing :)