Day 948 - "Pretty!"

I'm certain that many who read these words either have kids or have found themselves around them at one time or another. Therefore, it probably comes as no shocker to learn that kids sometimes repeat themselves. That's especially prevalent when they're extremely excited or when they are very young. In the case of Ethan, both are extremely applicable.

While I don't intend to shortchange Ethan's vocabulary seeing as how it expands by the day, the fact remains that he sometimes can turn into somewhat of a broken record. Case in point, the word "Pretty!". 

Now, everyone knows that "Pretty" can be used in a variety of ways. There's the most obvious form which refers to a person, normally a female. You can also describe a sunset or a nature landscape as being "Pretty". Inanimate objects like decorations can also be described as pretty. In fact, it's that last one that Ethan seems to be referring to when using "Pretty" in a sentence.

Ever since he first laid eyes on Christmas lights this holiday season, Ethan has been completely mesmerized by the sight of twinkling lights. The first thing he wants to do every morning upon getting out of bed is run to our Christmas tree and continually point to it while exclaiming some combination "Pretty", "Tree", "Lights", and "Please". Once we plug it in, he'll start making the rounds to the other Christmas lights in our house until everything is illuminated. 

It doesn't just stop there though. Ethan will make approximately 97 trips to the window each day and will sadly look outside at our landscaping and that of our neighbors while he patiently waits for nightfall so the outdoor Christmas lights can be fired up. You can hear and see the disappointment flowing throughout his little body as he eagerly awaits the lights turning on.

Keeping Ethan's total love of all things Christmas in mind, this evening we set out on a little adventure to check out each and every one of the houses participating in the Gladstone Christmas decorating contest. Now, I have to say that this adventure required us to do some serious traversing (in our Traverse, of course) of Gladstone. There were 24 homes spread out throughout the community in all different directions with nary a clear path to see all. So, with that being said, special props go out to Bethany for her mad Google Maps skills enabling us to get to each house as quickly as possible.

While Ellie was understandably excited to see all of the Christmas lights, Ethan took the excitement to another level. Each lighted home that we drove by would result in excited cries of "Pretty!" or "Oooh". My favorite had to be whenever the little man saw a house with any kind of bear on display. At that moment, Ethan would automatically begin yelling "Bear!" at the top of his lungs over and over until we finally acknowledged his findings.

For the record, after exploring the neighborhood to its fullest degree, we have decided that house #8 is our personal favorite when it comes to the Gladstone Christmas decorating contest. Congrats go out to you, whoever you are, if you won and happen to be reading this. If you're not reading this, then I guess my congratulatory wishes mean approximately diddly-squat. Oh well. #DaddyWrite