Another Ethan first: He helped make the bed.

Beth was topping off the perfectly aligned sheets, blankets, and sleeping pillows with a few decorative pillows, of which two are large and one is Ethan sized. Ethan has played up on the bed plenty of times during the day, so he knows what the final arrangement looks like. As Mommy was taking the two large pillows and arranging them, Ethan helped out by finding the small pillow and tossing it up over head his head and onto the bed.

Another Ethan first: He held boo bun on an owy.

When Ethan gets a bump that needs ice, our favorite remedy is boo bun. It’s a small, cloth bunny band that wraps a jell-pack cube. The bun insulates the fingers from the frozen cube while it does its work. Ethan thinks boo bun is a great toy, which can make holding it on him difficult. Today, however, as I had held boo bun on Ethan’s head in response to a bump at the front door, Ethan reached up and held boo bun in place all by himself himself.

Another Ethan first: He sniffed a peony.

I was holding Ethan as he saw me take a whiff of a peony that Beth had brought home from a friend’s yard. He too was close to the peony and so did as I did. We were both most pleased with the fragrance.

Another Ethan first: He stepped down.

As fun as belly sliding is, there’s nothing quite like doing things the way that Mommy and Daddy do. Ethan was coming down the stairs with me today, when he decided to walk down facing forward. Holding onto spindles on the left side, he made it down one step and then another. The banister he was using was for the upstairs hallway, though, not the stairway. After his two steps, he had run out of spindles. No problem—he now had a perfect excuse to turn around and belly slide the rest of the way.

Another Ethan first: He pulled a bunny out of his crib.

Like many young children, Ethan has a security blanket, only his has a bunny attached to it and is called Big Blanky Bun (see photo of Ethan and bun). Big Blanky Bun sleeps with Ethan every night and sometimes starts the day in the crib. Ethan wanted him, so we went to the crib, and pulled him out. The blanket part was easy, but it took a bit of pulling to squeeze the poor bun’s head through the slats.

Another Ethan first: He belly slid down the stairs.