Christmas pics 2010

Santa visits Ethan at Christmas party

Ethan's best friend Brendan & his family had a Christmas party last weekend. His parents are friends with Scott & I (plus about 1,000 other folks in Jericho that we know) so we went and had a fabulous time.

After the 125 or so parents & kids finished munching on delicious food we had a surprise visitor - Santa Claus himself! Luckily many parents had *told* Santa what to bring to the party so there was a gift for every child. Ethan got a Mario vs Donkey Kong dsi game which he's played almost non-stop since receiving it!

Ethan had a wonderful time and I did my best to take good photos but I was using the camera on my phone and it was a very crowded room. Sorry for the fuzziness!

Ethan is grateful

Ethan did some work at school learning about Thanksgiving. Each kid had to write on a Turkey what they were thankful for. Here's Ethan's:

If you can't read the letter here's what it says:

I love my Mom and I love when my mom help me with my homework. 

The turkey's feathers say:

Mom

Dad

Kevin

Will

Nick

Abby

Emma

Jarrett

Kris

Danny

I'm sure he would have added everyone in the entire family if the turkey had more feathers...

Basketball Game 11/20/10

Visitng Utah - June 2010

I came across this picture tonight and realized I hadn't uploaded it anywhere. This is from the last day that I came out to Utah this summer to visit. Mom and I took Ethan to visit Grandma & Grandpa Clark's graves. Ethan told Mom & me all about how he had met them in Heaven before he was born. It was precious.

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Old Fashioned Harvest Market 9-25-10

Today I took Ethan to the Old Fashioned Harvest Market in Underhill. It was fun. For about 15 minutes we stood watching kids climb a huge rock wall that the National Guard had put up. Finally he decided he wanted in.

Gettin strapped in...

Checkin out the climb

A little nervous

Gettin ready to shoot a real gun!

Learnin the rules

My baby shoots!

Check out his shots! He told me he wasn't even aiming and still got inside the bullsye ring!

Camping over Labor Day weekend 2010

We took the boys to Silver Lake yesterday for some quality camping. Ethan and Kevin rode bikes for at least 6 hours. They had a blast! Now we just gotta get Ethan off those training wheels.....

Another excellent dentist visit

Ethan went to the dentist yesterday. He had his 6 month checkup and everything went great. Xrays - check, no cavities - check, fun with Mr Thirsty - check.

This time there was a new way to get flouride - instead of the old tooth tray filled with goop the hygenist painted it on. I was happy. Ethan was not. The paint-on stuff doesn't taste like bubblegum. And it's not as fun for some reason.

But given my dental history I was happy with a "no cavity" visit regardless of how fun it was for Ethan.

He did get a new toothbrush. 

And a silly toy.

So all in all it worked out great for both of us.

Congrats on having great teeth Ethan.  Hope they stay that way forever!

Ethan has a new baby cousin!

Ethan got to hold his newest cousin, Raymond Lee Hunsaker. Congrats to Judy, Dave, Jarrett & Kris on the newest addition to your family!

Ethan's trip to Grandma's

So Ethan & Grandma left Vermont on Tuesday. Since then I've had 6 phone calls and 5 text messages (with pictures) giving me updates. I miss him terribly. It feels like a week has gone by, not just 2 days. But Ethan sounds very happy every time I talk to him and Mom says he's doing well. He also has Michelle Hubbs (and her daughter Rachel and son Steven) to keep him company so he's doing great.

Here's a pic Michelle sent me of Ethan with Rachel on an elephant at some random zoo in Virginia today. For some reason none of the programs on my Mac will rotate the photo so please forgive the sideways-ness of it.

Trophy Day

Today was Trophy Day for the Little League in Jericho. Ethan played a great game (notice the very serious "ready position" in picture #2) and had a fun time. Thanks Mary & the girls for coming and thank you Emma especially for taking lots of great pictures!

Baseball Star

Today Ethan had a fabulous game. He played catcher one inning and pitcher another. He went out there with such confidence and tried his hardest & really did a great job. While he was in the dugout he was the first one to get everyone cheering for their teammates and always congratulated kids for what they'd done. I'm so proud of my little guy!!!

And the results of the assessment are...

Image via Wikipedia

...Ethan has ADD. Or ADHD - depending on which resource you read. He also has a specific learning disability in reading. And since his scores were borderline clinical in some areas he's right on the border of being diagnosed with some kind of emotional disorder. Thank you genetics.

But the good news...I've started making a chore chart so that he can be more organized. I've also decided to cut out going to all the kids' practices and games so he can have a more structured schedule. And we meet with his pediatrician next week to discuss the whole shibang.

I'm desperately trying to find a family therapist who'll take on our case - but this is next to impossible for some reason. Either everyone in the state of Vermont is in counseling or the therapists are cutting back on their hours. Who knows?

My #1 priority has always been Ethan and will continue to be - even more so now that we know what is going on with him and can take action to get him the help he needs. I'm meeting with the team at his school to create an individualized education plan (IEP) - pretty much just for next year since there's only 17 1/2 days left of school. He qualifies for special education services and I'm happy for him to get whatever help they can give him.

Cross you fingers, pray, burn a candle and throw coins in a well that we will get through this. It's going to take a lot of work but I know we'll make it.

Ethan up to Bat

Ethan had his first baseball game of the season yesterday. Here's a video of him up at bat. Go Ethan!

Mom & Dad get iPhones

Yes it's true. They've officially surpassed me in cool techno crap. I'm jealous. Enough said.

Valentine's Day playdate

Today is Valentine's Day. It's also the day that Ethan's friend Brenna came over for a playdate. They played nerf basketball, went sledding outside and baked cookies. Brenna is in Ethan's class. She also plays basketball - every Saturday right before our games. These two love each other. Aren't they adorable?



Yesterday Ethan had another girl from his class over for a playdate. Her name is Emma. She is in love with Ethan (her words) but he is definitely NOT in love with her. He just wants to be friends. Here's a picture of them cutting shapes into the cookie dough.


According to Ethan these two girls both love him very much. The three of them eat lunch together, sitting with Ethan in the middle of course. The only time they don't sit together is in music class because they have assigned seats.

One day I'm sure I'll pull this blog post out to remind Ethan of how awesome he is. He's such a sweetie - it's no wonder the girls love him!

More Basketball 2010

Basketball 2010

Ethan played rec basketball this year - every Saturday morning...

He showed MAJOR improvement over the course of the season and even scored a few baskets. Here's a few shots from his games.

Ethan Plays B'Ball

Building Snowmen

I'm cleaning out the photos off my camera. This was a few weeks ago - probably early December. I bought a snowman kit and the boys decided to have some fun outside. The pics on the bottom row are from the boys rolling the snow into huge balls. Even though we've had some warm (above 30) days since then, those huge balls are still there...