Eliana, Nov '08

Ethan with Francie, Grandma's and Grandpa's dog

Eliana playing at the mall, Nov 08

Halloween 2008

apple picking on Ethan's birthday

The fam in MA, Oct 2008

Ethan turns four! October, 2008

Best of Friends

Ethan and Eliana, August 2008, NH

August 2008, Kent, CT

Eliana is 10.5 months old now and is really getting around. I am really enjoying them at these ages right now. I always get a bit sad looking at pictures of when Eliana was really tiny because I still can't believe how fast they grow. It's already been almost a year! Her personality is so different from Ethan's. I think she is more like what I was like as a baby and my mother tells me that I outgrew my shyness by age three or four. Eliana is very cautious and it is really hard for someone she does not know to get a smile out of her. It's hard for Moi and me to even get her to laugh or smile, forget about a stranger. At church, people will just talk and smile at her trying to get her to crack a smile, but she just stares at them, dead-panned. It's funny. But then when she sees Nora or Grandma or Grandpa, she smiles right away so she clearly is happy around family. And I have also noticed that when we are here at home, when we walk in the door, she is just happier. I guess she is a homebody.

Ethan is her favorite person in the world right now. He makes her laugh just by looking at her or making a funny face. In the morning, she can't wait to see him and if he is not here, she looks for him and then is so happy when he returns. She adores him even though he sometimes is not so careful around her. She can't get enough of him. And usually she is happy to roll around and play with him unless it's too rough. Right now, the problems happen because she is all over the place and touching all of his stuff, like his train set, she will just rip it apart. So I have to try to keep her away from that but then she just wants to play in that room with him. I'll just have to keep helping them share and hope that the concept eventually sticks.
Ethan turned 4 in October which was a lot of fun. He is a real big boy now and very sweet and funny. He makes me laugh on a regular basis. He loves to read and a lot of the time likes to take all the books and read them himself. He is learning to write his name. He can spell it out loud and he can copy the letters when I write them so he is on his way.

He loves to play with his train sets and lately he has been enjoying folding laundry and vacuuming! It's great that he loves to help. He really is very helpful and kind. He is extremely energetic so sometimes it is hard to get all that energy out, especially now that it is getting much colder and we don't go outside as much. He has a lot of pent up energy and he can get wild. But we have been going to the library on Mondays, another day we'll go to the mall and ride the coin-operated rides, the carousel and walk around. Wednesdays and Saturdays we go down to my parents' house and on Thursdays we try to do something together if we can when Moi is home.