Swimming on Saturday

We spent the first part of our time swimming with his arm floaties on then he wanted to be like his big brother without, so we went where he could reach and had a blast.

Brandon does a great job swimming underwater, but not quite as good on top, we're still working on that part.

Half boy, half fish

I found a pair of arm floaties for Ethan and boy does he have fun.

Swimming

Here is a little bit of Ethan at the pool after we'd been there for 2 1/2 hours. He was exhausted but still didn't want to leave.

Brandon doing some flips underwater.

Ethan started his therapeutic horseback riding again today. He has been talking about it for a couple of months. When we got there he was ready. They got out the steps and he didn't want their help, he climbed up there and got on himself! Karen, the main lady there was just amazed at how how much he has changed since last year. I think a lot of those changes have been just since this recent surgery. He is concentrating quite a bit in the pictures. But he did try to smile at me every time he went by because I told him I was going to take some pictures to share with Daddy.

Karate and playing possum

Ethan says that he he knows karate and kung fu from watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons. We just watched Scooby Doo and the Samurai sword so I guess he has been 'trained' by that as well. Here he is showing off his ninja skills. Notice that he's doing all this kicking and jumping without his braces on, and only falls once. He even squatted down a lot lower than he has in a very long time. After that he lays down to rest ie. playing possum, and I got some good tickling in. I love that laugh.

Swimming

We went to the pool yesterday afternoon for the first time. Ethan loved it. He would use his arms to walk himself along, then get up for breath and go again. We only got to swim for about 45 minutes then the thunder started and we had to leave. I think he can't wait for the next warm sunny day.

Awards Assembly

Ethan at his awards assembly at the last day of school.
Ethan got a Math Wizard award for learning his doubles up to 10!!! Great job Ethan!

Field trip to Runge

Brandon and one of his best buddies checking out a frog on the side of the path.

Good thing it was just the skin and not the stink.

Videos

Whistling

Ethan asked me the other day to find him a wife. He has brought it up many more times adding things to his list of what he wants in a wife. I asked him to tell me again, while I taped it so I wouldn't forget.

I have more videos to load, but I've been having trouble getting them loaded, so I'll go ahead and post these and try to get the rest up soon.

Health lesson

Horseback riding

There is one thing that Ethan has been talking about that he wants to do again this summer. Therapeutic horseback riding. When I first called they had just filled their last slot but I got a call today and they had a cancellation. He gets to ride!!!!

This was Ethan's first time riding last spring. He didn't like it at all.

By the end of the session he loved it and wanted to do it by himself without the sidewalkers holding onto him. Here was his award for most improved.

Out of the mouths . . . marriage

Ethan has been talking about marriage lately. First he wanted to marry me, after I explained that I was already married to Daddy and he'd have to find someone else he asked me to find him a good woman. First, I told him you have to graduate from high school and college first, might as well start those thoughts now. ;o) I asked him what kind of woman he wanted to marry. He listed that she's pretty, cook for him, help him play Wii, get the mail, drive him to school, take care of him. She could drive the van and she'd be the mommy and he'd be the daddy.

He wanted to know what her name is going to be, I tried to explain that we won't know that for a long time until he's an adult. He still wanted a name so he starting going through some names, first Miss Sheila his para, but decided he didn't want to marry her, then Miss Smith, another teacher at school, because she's pretty. After I explained that she's already engaged and planning to get married to someone else then he had to think a bit, then decided he'd marry Megan, a friend from his class last year, because she's pretty. He said that she could cook for him. I asked him if she cooked for him, what would he do for her. His response, whatever she tells me.

We might have to work on a few of the finer points of marriage over the next 20 years.

Brandon's sculpture of our first President. George Washington and the background he made to display it at the school art show.

One of two bunnies Daddy and Brandon found this afternoon while out mowing. This one was the medium sized one, but still really small that was at the base of the oak tree.

A different view of the medium sized bunny.

The little bunny that was in the middle of the front yard. You can see how small he is in comparison to the clovers.

Ethan talking about the bunnies.

Brandon found a new place to relax.

Yep, on top of the shed.

Here he is climbing up.

Out of the mouths . . . part 5

While watching a Superman cartoon when Superman was with his adoptive parents, Johnathan and Martha, Ethan was talking about being adopted. "Jesus help adopted me, my family."

He has a pretty good understanding of how God can form a family I think.

Blast from the past

I just ran across these videos that we had of Ethan at the orphanage just a couple of weeks before we brought him home. We had sent a disposable video camera in a care package and they gave it back to us when we got Ethan. Here are a few of the videos that they took.

At then end they are having him say Baba (dad) and Mama (mom)

Here you can see the area around the orphanage as well as Ethan running and playing with his nannies.

Here we go Loopy Loo!

Sunday

Ethan and I went to church this morning to a small church with not very many people which was good. He made it through most of service then was getting achy and ready to move around. We went for a little walk around and that seemed to help. It was nice to get out with him a little bit, but I do see why they don't want him at school, it wore him out, and he also got bumped on his back and that made quite a grimace.

We start physical therapy on Monday morning and go back for a follow up with the neurosurgeon on Wednesday. I have feeling PT will be really hard for him right now, but it is definitely needed to help him get walking better and help strengthen his core muscles to help him sit up straighter. He had been leaning a lot to the side before surgery, and now after moving around all those muscles in his back, he's very weak around his stomach and back.

It seemed to take him quite a while to start moving again, but now that he has, he's been doing so much better each day.

On the move

I thought I had heard something coming from the other room. Guess who decided to practice walking on his own. Then he wanted me to take a picture(video) to show Daddy.

Here you go! It's so great to see him up and moving a bit. We start back to some PT on Monday to help get his strength back.

Thursday

This morning Ethan had fun playing a shapes game on the computer.

This afternoon . . .

Drum roll please . . .

Ethan walked from the van to a chair in the family room ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!

Yeah!!!! He was pretty worn out afterwards, but so much better than he's done so far.

Wii

Ethan's super cool teacher came over this afternoon to work with Ethan since he can't go back to school yet. After they were done he and Brandon wanted to play Wii.

He was pretty worn out so only a few minutes into the game he fell asleep, Wii remote in his hand.