ethan has spent a lot of time in the corner. i think this is the terrible twos. most of the time a time out is nothing to ethan. it's just another part of life. ethan, no hitting. go sit in time out. and ethan will skip on over to the corner, sit there for a couple minutes, turn around and ask "mama? time?" and then comes running out of the corner with a big grin on his face to say sorry to whoever he offended. i can't remember when time outs became truly effective with isaiah.

it's kind of hilarious when isaiah is counting and ethan interjects with annoying "butt butt!" and "nooooo!" and his own counting. i remember being sooooooo annoyed when my brother would do stuff just to make me mad and i totally see ethan doing that. it's funny, but isaiah is clearly bothered. i find it hard to discipline while stifling laughter.

ethan really enjoys hidden pictures (it's a workbook by highlights). i'm impressed by how quickly he can find some of the hidden objects. he's definitely memorized some of the puzzles, but i'm even impressed that he can remember.

he can count to about 11 by himself and knows his animals and associated sounds, colors (but not really orange), and his basic shapes. i think about what we strive to teach our children before they even see a classroom and wonder if it was the same for my parents with me and my siblings. did they feel pressured to send us to pre-preschool knowing to sing our abc's, count to 20, and identify shapes and colors? isn't that what school is for?

ethan is growing up so fast. being surrounded by older kids close to his age i feel has accelerated his learning and even how he plays. dinosaurs and cars were hardly on isaiah's radar at 2 and ethan plays with them just like the big boys. i hate to keep comparing him to isaiah, but it's what i have as a gauge. it's more of a temperature check for me than it is a pressure applied to my middle baby. i think he's really enjoying his time as big brother during the day when isaiah is at school.