Ethan funnies with a tad of court anxiety

Ethan has got to be the funniest kid on the planet. Mom bias, maybe, but you might think it too if you witnessed some of this material he comes up with.

Ethan is really into singing lately. In fact, I can hear him up in his room singing "Row your boat" right now. "Row row down the stream, merly, merly, merly, merly, life is up a tree" Every once in awhile, he throws in "life is but an elephant" just for kicks. Where does he come up with that? If you taught him that, please let me know, because you are hilarious also!

I can't keep socks on this kid in the house. My feet are always cold, so naturally I think that his must be also. But maybe he's like his dad, who doesn't wear jackets in sub-zero MN weather because downtown has a skyway system....don't get me started. I digress. Ethan is always pulling his socks off. As I was feeding Dylan tonight, I watched Ethan examine his toes and say "The little one doesn't have a nipple"....huh? I kept it together and told them they were called "nails", like his fingernails. And he said "We will cut my feetnails!" After two plus years of wrestling him to trim his nails (daddy won't do it, he's scared), he is suddenly all about manicures and pedicures.

Due to an unfortunate diaper incident, Ethan was running around in just a diaper and shirt this evening. He apparently felt quite liberated in this state because he was running around, dancing on his tippy-toes, and all I could think of was the scene in Tommy Boy when Chris Farley dances around singing "I'm a maniac, maniac on the floor! And I'm dancin' like I've never danced before"...it was just like that, except without the gasoline and cow poo.

Dylan and Owen have been cooing quite a bit. They really get going when we get right in their face and act like idiots, making faces and such...Ethan loves to do this. When they start "talking" a lot to him, I ask Ethan what they are trying to say and he says, "Ahhhhh, poop!"...such a boy, this one.

Andy has been the primary parent at Ethan's bedtime for quite some time due to my pregnancy, surgery recovery, involvement with babies at all times. But recently, I've had the chance to get back in the swing of things during his bedtime. Things were a changin' while I was away...they stopped drinking milk during books, Ethan started brushing his own teeth (with supervision), and they started saying prayers. Ethan says "Now I lay me down to sleep..." every night after books. He pretty much knows it all by memory, but he prefers to repeat after us. I know the prayer, but I didn't know how they typically ended it. Ethan showed me the way. "....I pray the Lord my soul to take...Amen...Peace on Earth" Then he said "Say the last part!" and I asked him what the last part was because I thought prayers were over after "Amen", and he said "I love you very much"...ahhh, Daddy. Tear.

I think Ethan will be an early reader. His vocabulary is amazing...truly. I really don't think I'm being mom-biased there. He is very interested in what all the words say when we are reading books. He can't read yet, but he'll point to words and ask "What's that say?"...Tonight he was asking that about the book we were reading at bedtime but he didn't let me answer, he just said, "Mommy and daddy love you"...it didn't actually say that, but I'm glad there's no question about him knowing that!

*****

My stomach gets in knots every time I think about April 6th. It is coming up so fast on us. I finished writing my victim statement last week. I think I might throw up if I try to read it. I have to do it...and I will, for Ethan. But I really don't want to. We haven't been contacted by the probation officer that was supposed to contact us prior to the sentencing and make a recommendation to the Judge. I'm not sure why...it makes me think that maybe this isn't really the end of the criminal portion of this saga, since there was another time during this process where we were supposed to be contacted by a probation officer, but that was before the guilty plea. Today I found some pictures of Ethan in the hospital and shortly before and thereafter. The victim's advocate thought it might be a good idea to bring a face into the equation...this is, after all, a crime against a real person that we are all talking about. I plan to put together a poster-board sometime this weekend or next. I also need to confirm that I don't have to be in the courtroom if Crazy chooses to address us, which she will have the option to do. I've seen her have no remorse over the past 2 years, and I don't want to see that again, or worse yet, see her try to pretend like she does have remorse...to me, it would only be for show, in attempt to lighten her sentence.