A Snowy Easter

The Easter Bunny visited us in Maine this year, where we were celebrating both Easter and Grandpa's 60th Birthday. It certainly didn't feel like Easter, with tons of snow, skiing, and hockey, but we had a great time. Ethan had fun dying eggs with Mom and Grandma, and getting his first Easter basket.

Ethan's favorite part of his Easter basket was this card that plays the "Bunny Hop" when you open it. He couldn't get enough of it (and Grandma dancing the Bunny Hop along with it).

Another highlight of the weekend was seeing this gorgeous doe right outside Grandma and Grandpa's living room. We adults had fun watching Ethan watch the deer.

Even though it felt like a winter weekend up there, Ethan got a taste of things to come, with his first bite of corn on the cob. Summer is just around the corner (we hope!)...

Favorite Things at Fourteen Months

Sneaking onto the computer... ... looking out the window at the cars, trucks, and people going by... ...cooking (or pretending to)......still drooling......and still with wild and crazy hair!

Griggs Park

It was almost spring-like in Boston yesterday, so Ethan and I headed to the park for the first time this season. It's amazing how different the park experience is with an almost 14-month old than with an 8-month old (which he was last time we were there). Ethan loved climbing all over the jungle gyms, picking up sticks and other treasures, and befriending other miniature park-goers.

Now that Ethan is a true walker, we had to get him some new walking shoes. Check out how cute these kicks are. I especially love the juxtaposition of the super macho pose/expression with the pink and baby blue Beetle in the background...

Genes

So it turns out Ethan takes after his Mom and is not at all picky when it comes to new and different foods. He tried beets on Saturday and could not get enough of them. The good news is he has some of his Dad's genes too - we were snowed in on Friday and spent quite a bit of the afternoon playing with Ramen packages and poker chips (seriously).

Speaking of poker, we celebrated Ben's 30th birthday this past weekend with a poker tournie. Jeremy forgot how hot our apartment is and decided to wear long-johns under his clothes - a bad idea that meant he was dressed in long underwear for most of the party...

4-Square

Random Trivia Question: Where are the World 4-Square Championships held?

Answer: Bridgton, Maine, of course! And the Stockwells were there to bear witness!

Grandpa Stockwell (aka Uncle Tommy) had the honor/challenge of defending his Senior World Champion title for the fourth year in a row. Uncle Tommy's 4-square prowess is world-renowned, and his reign continues after Saturday night's big match. Dad also demonstrated his unique Stockwellian hand-eye coordination skills by making it to the finals in the mens' competition, down from about 50 men to 8. Unfortunately, he missed out on the "crowd favorite" award he took home 2 years ago (thank god, as I don't know where we'd put another of these unnecessarily huge trophies).

We enjoyed lots of other fun Maine winter activities: hockey, sledding, x-country skiing, and building snow forts. They have an unreal amount of snow up there - take a look at the snow pile outside of Grandma and Grandpa's house (that's Ben on top)!

Ugh

It's been awhile since I posted, and the most recent post clearly needs to disappear so that if Dad checks out the blog it doesn't send him back into the deep depression he is slowly climbing out of. So I guess it's official - Ethan is NOT good luck for the Patriots. His first game ever was last year's heartbreaking loss to the Colts in the AFC Championship, and this year, well...

So enough about that. Some exciting things have happened since last I wrote. Most exciting of all is that Ethan took his first independent steps! I definitely wouldn't call it "walking" yet, but if he wants something badly enough (like one of our cell phones) and there isn't any furniture to help him cruise over, he'll take a few tentative steps to get to it. Once he realizes what's he's done it scares him, and he plops himself back down and resumes crawling. If we ever figure out how to upload video, we'll post footage.

Other events since the last posting: a.) more teeth (he now has two on top and two on the bottom), b.) cows milk (loved it), and c.) even crazier hairdos.

One of these days his parents will actually think about getting him a haircut.

Pats!

Ethan enjoyed seeing the Pats win the AFC championship yesterday. . . almost as much as he enjoyed his gametime snacks. What accompanies a football game better than ribs and Bud Light?
. . . and some ice cream for dessert (of course!).
Go Pats!!