ethan will not poop in the toilet. he got our hopes up for a minute there when he pooped in the toilet for about a week and then just went right back to having no interest in being fully potty trained at all. that boy cannot be motivated by any incentives. candy, toys, pats on the back...nothing works.

he starts pre-school in the fall. the goal is to have him potty trained before xavier gets here. that's a big challenge in the next five weeks.

ethan is becoming much more eloquent. full sentences and fairly long conversations.

"mama, i'm thirsty. there's one more capri sun roaring waters in the fridge?"

yes, ethan. there's just one more.

"can i have it???" he flashes his winning grin. i hate that he knows how to use it.

no, ethan, because there's only one and not enough for you, isaiah and owen.

"ummm...how about i have it???" *grin grin grin*

it's hard to reason with an almost 3-year-old. he's starting to get there, though. i'm looking forward to spending more quality time with him when i'm not working. he needs it.

he walked in his first wedding this past weekend. he was the bible bearer for j and jayvee's wedding. he did such a good job! at first he was a little timid starting off down the aisle, but made it down like a champ. he was promptly rewarded with his very own bag of candy for making it down the aisle. ethan and i sat together - just the two of us - during the wedding. it was nice to just have him and be able to pay attention to one baby boy. of course, he was all sugared up so he got a little restless and began singing "summer of '69" (semi-quietly) during the liturgy of the eucharist. there was no way to keep him quiet at that point. hopefully he didn't cause too much of a distraction.