Splish Splash!

Ethan discovered puddles this weekend and it was so cute to watch him! He not only LOVES water it more of an obsession! He talks about water CONSTANTLY while he's awake. He never fails to play in the dog water bowl if I forget to put it up and now he can lift the toilet lid and thinks that the toilet is big bowl of water for him to play is as well! YUCK! I have recently invested in the toilet locks, not for fear he'll hurt himself, just to keep him from playing in it!

Anyway, on Sat we had my brother's going away party at my mom's. I was over there most of the day to help her set up for everything. This was supposed to have been a bon-fire in the back yard type of party, but since it decided to rain all day, we had to clear out the garage and the half of the pole-barn as "plan-B". Ethan was so sick of being inside all day and after his nap, it had finally stopped raining (temporarily anyway) that we thought we'd see what he thought of the puddles! Of course, he loved stomping through them! He could have played out there all day I think! Here he is in action.

For those of you that may not know, my brother - Nate - has recently decided to join the Army. Several months ago my Nate's wife decided that she didn't want to be married anymore (a long story, but totally heart-breaking for my brother). He's also been struggling to get accepted into a P.T. program, much less pay for any more school as he's working for next to nothing as a tech at the hospital and hanging dry-wall for my uncle on the side just to "live" basically. Anyway, I think he felt he needed some purpose to his life and after many prayers felt this was the path he should take. He's going in the Reserves though (thankfully), and is applying to OTS (Officers Training School) and should he get accepted to OTS, then he'll be full-time in the Army with the Army paying for him to finish school. This has all come about in the past 3wks and he's leaving on Sept 25 so I had almost no time to plan anything for him. We didn't have near the turn-out that I hoped, but considering it was very last minute, with crappy weather, we did pretty good. We had a blast in the pole-barn! One of Nate's friends brought the game "Rock Band", what a riot! I know he had a great time too. I'm going to miss him so much, but I find comfort knowing that he'll be back home in about 7 months, after he completes Basic Training and Tech School. Anyway, thanks for reading. I'm sure I'll be sobbing about him when he actually leaves.....