Ethan's a big boy

I took Ethan to the ped today and he is getting so stinking big! He is 39 inches tall and weighs 34lbs. When the heck did that happen? Wasn't he just 3lbs 9oz yesterday? How did 3 years go by so fast? His Dr was happy with his physical development. She had him tell her the colors of the blocks which he did beautifully on (he knows his colors). She asked him what his favorite animal is. Ethan decided that was the right time to talk through his teeth. He told her Pooh Bear for his favorite animal. I then asked him not to talk through his teeth so she could understand what he was saying so then he starts jumping up and down and tells her again. She still couldn't understand him so I had him tell her one more time and this time he stood still for it. She had no idea what a Pooh Bear was so I told her he was referring to Whinnie the Pooh. She asked him what he had for breakfast and he told her toast and fruit. She asked what kind of fruit and he told her oranges through his teeth. So I corrected him again and he answered properly. Then she asked what he liked to do for fun at home and he rapidly has to tell her that he watches the garbage men pick up dada's garbage. He said it faster than his little mouth can talk so I had him slow down and repeat it at a normal speed LOL. So after she was done checking him out she tells me that she doesn't feel that he is easy to understand when he talks and that she was strongly recommending we get an eval from a Speech Therapist. We got a few opinions from Papa Paul, Grammy B, and Grammy Judy and they all agree that he talks fine but yes at times can be hard to understand. Matt & I know that he has a problem with words like "Please" "Blue" "Cloud" "Black" ect. We also know that his V's and F's sound like B's. We both correct him all the time but these are common issues in toddlers. I think that it will work itself out by the time he starts school next year. So we have decided not to take him into Speech Therapy. We don't feel an eval will hurt but since it's not really a necessity we don't want to bother with it. I would rather see where he is at by the age of 4.

Tues Ethan had an appt with Dr Horner. His phe levels came back this week at 4.1 so he is still right in the target range of under 10. There have been no changes to his diet he is still at  40g of protein a day which right now works for him. In June they want to order a complete nutritional blood panel and then depending on the results of that they might order a Dexascan or they might wait until he is 5. Realistically with all the things he has crashed into and not gotten a broken bone from it I'd like to think he has pretty strong bones LOL. He is one tough little dude.

Busy Ethan!!

Ethan has had a busy 2 days this weekend. Yesterday we took him (& Finlay too) to Frankenmuth. We had a blast at Bronner's where I was in Christmas decoration heaven. We spent 3 hrs walking around and didn't begin to see the entire store. Poor Ethan was on Christmas overload. He didn't know where to begin. It took him 10 minutes and he broke an ornament. He spent the rest of the time strapped into the stroller where he could do less damage. He was pretty cute when Finlay started to fuss from his carrier. Ethan turned around and was giving his little brother hugs and kisses and then kept patting him on the head and holding his hands. That was getting him a lot of attention from some of the workers who were milling around. It is always nice to see him love all over his brother like that. He can be such a good big brother (when he wants to LOL)

Today I took him to see Happy Feet 2 while Finlay was stuck with his daddy. I treated Ethan to popcorn and a small drink (yea I know I spoiled him LOL). He was pretty good for the most part although in the middle of the movie he decided he wanted to crawl around on the nasty floor and try to eat the popcorn he dropped. I think the movie may have been a little long for his attention or they showed way too many previews. I'm going to go with way too many previews. There had to be at least 7 or 8 previews and IMO that is just way too many for a child's movie. Kids are not going to have the patience to sit through that many previews. Towards the end he calmed down a bit and sat and watched the rest of the movie. He liked all the singing and dancing. It was a nice little outing for the 2 of us. Before we left he wanted to bring Finlay with us. He wanted to watch the movie with his brother. Too cute. When we left the theaters he wanted to save the rest of the popcorn for his daddy so we took it home. I don't think Matt really wanted the popcorn but he ate some anyways b/c Ethan wanted him to have it. Ethan spent a little bit of the afternoon outside helping his daddy finish putting up the lights. Every time we try to get the outside lights up it rains. Go figure. Mother Nature must not want our house to look pretty for Christmas this year.

As I write this Ethan is wrestling with daddy. I hope Matt is able to wear that child out b/c he has more energy than he knows what to do with. I'm sure Matt will get worn out before Ethan does. Amongst all the noise Finlay is sleeping through it all. Fin is going to be a good sleeper since he has big brother Ethan to sleep through.

I got Ethan's mobigo ordered. I found a decent deal on amazon.com. Every one is selling it for $60 but I got it for $50. Santa is working on finding a decent DVD player for Ethan's playroom. We don't want to end up with one like we had a while back where it played the DVD's but half the time it wouldn't eject them or it scratched them up. Ethan is going to have a electronic Christmas this year LOL. I am really excited to be getting him the mobigo. It's pretty cool, his friend Killian has it and he learned his alphabet in a couple days and now is already adding and subtracting (he's only 4) so it's going to be a great thing for Ethan. As much as Ethan loves the ABC game on Matt's Ipod he will love this.

We've been getting a lot of inquires of what Ethan needs or wants for Christmas. He really doesn't need anything. He's getting the mobigo from us and a DVD player and I've already suggested the games for the mobigo to someone else. He has become picky about his clothes so I don't need anymore clothes for him that are just going to hang in his closet and never get worn. He is more than good on jammies and I am going to be buying him snow boots in the next couple weeks. Board games were already suggested to someone and I don't need any more toys to add to the already overflowing toybox. He is specific on what toys he wants to play with the rest just get thrown out of the way and just make a big mess for me to have to clean up. I don't have a lot of storage space and the living room is being cluttered with Finlay's things. He's really into trucks. Lately he has taken an obsession to excavators. He has a book that he loves that is all about bulldozers, excavators, and dump trucks. He loves to sit and look at that book. He will sit and teach Finlay all about them (because Finlay cares oh so much about them LOL). There isn't much to suggest for him (or Finlay) They both have everything that they need and want. Ethan has a piggy bank and loves to put money in it. When it gets full we make a trip to the bank and he get's to deposit it to his college fund. Otherwise I don't have much to suggest.

Prematurity Awareness Month

Just to make you aware, November is Prematurity Awareness Month. Each year 1 in 8 babies will be born prematurely. Both Ethan and Finlay were born prematurely. Ethan was 30 weeks 1 day and he weighed 3lbs 9oz. Finlay was 35 weeks 4 days and he weighed 5lbs 12oz. Please help the March of Dimes raise money. If you would like to make a donation you can do so at the following link:
https://www.marchofdimes.com/giving/support_general.html?src=mod11_EDDpamFT_111101
It all goes for a good cause. The March of Dimes is also selling special Awareness products as well to raise money. You can go to the following link to purchase those products if you are interested:
http://www.awarenessproductsonline.com/mod_individual

Now that I got my sales pitch (LOL) out of the way onto other things.

Ethan is loving being a big brother. Finlay is very lucky to have Ethan for his big brother. Ethan likes to hold his little brother, help feed him, and is very loving. He likes to give him kisses and hugs all the time. Ethan is always talking about "When Finlay gets bigger....." and then tells us what they are going to do together. Last night it was "When Finlay gets bigger he is going to go trick or treating with me!" It was very cute that he is looking forward to going trick or treating with Finny.

Speaking of trick or treating, Ethan had a blast last night. Matt took him this year (although I really wanted to do it b/c I wanted the time with Ethan) and they went with Aunt Robin, Uncle Seamus, and kids. Ethan dressed as Spiderman (like every other toddler in the neighborhood LOL). They were gone for about an hour and when he got back he was having fun passing out candy to all the little spooks who came up our driveway. He was very generous giving out handfuls of candy to the little spooks. A few times the groups were just too large for Ethan to handle on his own so Matt had to help. If Ethan didn't get to give candy to some of the kids he would get very upset and throw the candy that was in his hands onto the ground and then put his hands over his face before picking the candy up. He just really wanted to give out the candy. It was pretty cute. He was telling me all about the houses he went to and the people he saw. He was so excited. We had a pretty good turn out of kids last night. I'd say we probably had 100-120 kids come to the door. Unfortunately I bought a ton of candy this year so we wouldn't run out (the last few years we have run out by like 7 at night and that's only giving 1-2 pieces of candy to each kid!). Unfortunately I bought a few bags too many and now we have a ton of left over candy LOL. We'll go through it all and Matt can take some to the vultures at work :-) Today Ethan doesn't want to take off his Spiderman costume. He has been running around all day with it on. I guess he isn't ready for Halloween to be over with.

Ethan is officially a big brother!!!

Ethan became a big brother to Finlay Matthew on 10/8/11. He has made an amazing big brother so far. It's been 2 weeks and he has adjusted very well to all the changes. We came home as a family Monday the 10th and since then Ethan has been nothing but helpful when it comes to his little brother. Tues last week Ethan unfortunately came down with a very nasty stomach bug. He started running a low grade fever Tues night and Weds he was sick to his tummy. He was miserable and it broke my heart. If you know Ethan well then you know he is perpetual motion. He never stops moving, not even when he is sleeping. Yet he was down for the count. He laid in my dish chair and watched the Lion King over and over never moving from his position. He was even sleeping in the chair instead of letting us lay him in bed. I hated seeing him that sick. He was down for the count Weds night but he was starting to feel slightly better Thurs night and every time he heard Finlay cry for his bottle he had to come in and check. He did that for several nights but it has now gotten better. Because he wasn't allowing himself to get much sleep at night it was leading to a very cranky toddler all day long. For the last 2 nights he has slept in his own bed all night and his mood has been much better. Him being sick though last week really screwed with his appetite and he hasn't been wanting to each much but I think he might be starting to get his desire to eat again back.


He loves to snuggle with his little brother. He wants to help feed him, help change diapers, he likes to hold him. He is always wanting to give him little kisses on the head or hold his hand. The other day Finlay was being a bit fussy and I was trying to calm him down. Ethan comes over and just starts patting him on the butt and tells him that it's OK, don't cry, what's wrong, ect. He was being very protective. It's great to see him being such a great big brother. If we ask him to get something for us he runs off right away to go get it (as long as it's for Finlay LOL). He is very gentle most of the time and very loving.


Last night we had a small incident where Matt got Ethan a little too wound up playing and Ethan threw a pillow accidentally hitting the swing Finlay was laying in. Finlay startled and started crying and then Ethan got really upset and he started crying. He was very upset at the thought that he had hurt his baby brother. He wanted to give him snuggles and kisses to make it better.


He's still adjusting and he doesn't always realize that there are just certain things that he can't do. He doesn't fully realize his own strength yet. That will come with time. He has just loved having his dada home for the last 2 weeks. I was told by Matt though that Sunday morning the day after Finlay arrived Ethan came into our room to wake us up and he got very upset that I wasn't there. Apparently there were tears. In a way that made me feel loved b/c I always figure he sees me all the time and he's always all about his dada that he wouldn't care if I wasn't there. When he got to the hospital he came running straight to me for hugs. So he was one very happy little boy when I was finally home.


Next week, especially Monday, is going to be interesting. Matt goes back to work and I think Ethan is going to go through Daddy withdrawl. He is not going to know what to do without his daddy around all day. I don't plan on going to lunch with Matt next week but if Ethan really needs the outing I will take the boys. Hopefully though I will be able to entertain him enough to distract him from missing his daddy too much.


This weekend we are hoping that the weather will be nice so that we can finally get Ethan on that hayride in Oregon that Aunt Robin got us tickets to. We were going to do it 2 weeks ago but his baby brother had other plans. We had a lot of fun activities planned for this week that ended up getting foiled by all the rain. We were going to go for the hayride, Zoo It, go to the butterfly house to do the Harry Potter Corn Maze, and hit up the pumpkin patch too. Let's cross our fingers that we can at least do the hay ride and pumpkin patch. Ethan has been bugging to do those things all week. If it's going to be cold and rainy we won't go. We don't want to take him into the damp weather and run the risk of him getting sick again.


We still need to get Ethan a Halloween costume too this weekend. I don't know what he is going to be. I'm just going to take him to the store and let him pick from whatever they have in stock. It's been a crazy busy month and I just haven't had a chance to get him out to pick out his costume. He will be going trick or treating with his daddy this year. I really enjoyed taking him last year and wanted to do it again but originally I was going to be 38 weeks pregnant and now I need to stay home and pass out candy with the baby. I would love the time with Ethan though it'd be fun but Matt is insisting he take him b/c I got to do it last year. I guess we are alternating years LOL. That's OK it means I get to see all the little cuties in their scary costumes come to my door and I get to give them candy and make them smile. Matt get's none of that ha ha ha! He gets all the leg work and Ethan gets all the candy (how does that seem right?).

Fair Day

Ethan has had a busy weekend this week. Yesterday we took him to Papa P's to watch the OSU/Akron game and then a few hrs later he went to see Grammy B at the St Joe's festival. He had so much fun there. He got to go on a camel ride, he rode the swings, the ferris wheel, and a pony. Then today we took him to the Fulton County Fair. He had a blast! He got to see sheep getting sheared, petted some cows, petted some pigs, and got to ride on some rides. He went on the crazy bus, the big swing, the motorcycles, took a pony ride, and the rockets. He rode them all by himself too. What a big boy!! Everytime he got off a ride he came running up to us with a big smile on his face and gave us hugs. We also let him play a couple games. He threw a dart and actually broke a balloon so he won a penguine. Then he played a game where you test your strength (you know smash the mallet to the pad and hit the bell). He didn't hit the bell but he got it half way up. The guy gave him a prize anyways b/c kids always win. Ethan picked out a Spiderman balloon bat. Go figure. Matt tried to win him a stuffed Elmo by throwing some baseballs at the bottles but he failed. I told him he lost his touch that he was throwing weak like a girl LOL. We hit the horse stables before we left. He loves the horses. Weather was super nice all day. It was over caste but it stayed in the mid 70's and there was a nice breeze so it made for comfortable temps. As we were walking out it began to thunder and then poured as we loaded the car up. So we were leaving at just the right time. Ethan crashed as soon as we got the car started and slept most of the way home. This evening he is full of energy. We on the other hand are exhausted LOL. It's amazing how much energy that child has!! I had a hard time watching him ride the rides all by himself b/c I don't want to believe that he is that old yet. He is still my sweet baby!! He can't possibly be ready to ride the fair rides by himself! But yet he did and he loved it. Tomorrow daddy is on call but we are going to try to get some things done in the nursery. He will enjoy having his daddy home for another day though. Ethan is such a daddy's boy.

Video Share

I came across this segment today when I turned the tv on to watch General Hospital and thought it was interesting. Since Ethan was born premature I thought I would share the link to the video. This was actually aired in Sept 2010 it was just a rebroadcast that I saw today.


http://www.thedoctorstv.com/videolib/init/2053

Day out with mom

Ethan and I went to the movies today. I took him to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie. I got him a small popcorn (which by the way they give free refills on popcorn) and a small drink (I brought my own drink). Sadly Mommy does not know how to tell time. I thought the movie started at 11:05 so I got us there about 10:45 and got our snack. Then I saw on the ticket stub it said 11:50 and first thought "Crap they gave me the wrong showing" and then learned that I just can't read. So Ethan and I had an hour to kill. We sat on a bench eating popcorn and watching this mother/teacher try to control some very rambunctious kids. Ethan kept saying "Let's just go watch the movie" and I kept saying "I would love to do that buddy but unfortunately mommy is not very smart and can't tell time so we have to wait a while" and he responded with "It's OK that happens, don't get upset. We'll just go watch the movie." Needless to say it was a long hour of explaining why we can't just go watch the movie. Although he pottied 2 times before we went into the auditorium and again 5 mins after we got our seat. That was interesting. I left our popcorn, drinks, and set Moose (yes Moose had to come too) on top of my seat as a way to save our spot. I was hoping someone would get that a very tattered stuffed animal wasn't just left there on accident. Then he pottied again right before the previews. When we got back I reminded him that we were not going to go to the potty every 20 minutes that mommy did not spend $14.25 on tickets to spend a good majority of the time in the bathroom. He made it 45 minutes into the movie  before needing to go and that was the only time during the movie he had to potty so I'm pretty impressed with that. I did have to repeatedly remind him to stop rocking his chair that it was vibrating the whole row and there were other people sitting in our row. Then I had to remind him to stop kicking the railing in front of us b/c it was loud and distracting. Other than that he was pretty good. He loved the movie. Every time something happened he would shout out "That silly old bear!" Or "What is he doing! He's being silly!" Good thing he was not the only 3 yr old in the room LOL. It was mostly 5 and under in the theater and there were not very many people so hopefully he wasn't too distracting. When the credits rolled he started crying and screaming how he wanted to watch the movie. I tried to explain that it was just over but he thought he was being punished and kept telling me how he was being good and listening. I told him we could watch the credits and that made him happy. Unfortunately we were the only ones watching the credits. He was just so sad that the movie was over. I told him that I will try to bring him to see it again another day when we can afford it. So now he is all excited that we are going to go back and see it again. After that it was hit the potty and then we walked the mall. I took him into the Disney store and let him pick out a stuffed Pooh Bear for being so good. Then I got him a fruit smoothie and we got in the car to head to my OB appt (See the other blog for info).

I will be taking him to see some other movies this year. The Lion King is coming back to theaters in 3D in Sept and I think he will love that, Alvin and the Chipmunks have a movie coming out in Dec and he might like that too. There is a muppets movie coming out I think in Aug that he will probably like. He seems to like being able to go to the movies. Hopefully it's something we will be able to do with him often enough.

Article

I was perusing aol news and came across this article. It is about the effects of prematurity affecting a child through adulthood. I found it interesting and thought I would post a link to it.


http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/30/premature-birth/?icid=maing-grid7|netscape|dl10|sec3_lnk2|74840

Ethan's first movie

We took Ethan on Saturday to see Cars 2 in the theaters. It was his very first trip to the movies. He did better than I thought he would but not as good as I would have liked him to be.

The movie was at 11 in the morning so that we wouldn't have to deal with large crowds and that way if he was a little restless or loud he wouldn't bother too many people. We sat in the very top row right by the stairs so that he would have more room to move. I wanted him to have a great time to I bought him a small drink and we shared a medium popcorn. We had him use the potty before we left the house but we also had him use the potty before the movie. He loved the popcorn. He pottied during the previews and yet again right at the beginning of the movie. Then he wanted to use the potty every 20 minutes so he didn't see much of the movie. Matt and I took turns taking him. Every time I took him he didn't use the potty he just wanted to run in the hall or play in the bathroom. However he did potty every time for Matt (go figure). He did get restless which I was totally anticipating him to do (hence why we sat in the back and by the stairs). He had room to walk the row or stand on the stairs by our row. Unfortunately he didn't want to do that, not my child, my child kept trying to climb the wall and then screamed when we wouldn't let him. He wanted to be Spiderman I guess. We kept bribing him with more popcorn (parents of the year LOL). He also wanted to slam the seat next to me up and down which of course shakes the whole row. There were a few people sitting in our row but they were at the other end. Either way I was afraid that it would bother them so I made him stop. Then he wanted to sit on the stairs which we were like whatever about but he was not happy that we wouldn't let him go halfway down the stairs and sit. Oh well. He still did better than I thought he would. He laughed at Tow Mater, he loves Tow Mater.

As far as the movie went I personally did not feel it was as cute as the first one. This one had a lot of political innuendos that were just going to go right over a child's head really. I felt that they really could have left the political crap out. I also just don't feel like the story like was easy to follow either. Some if it just didn't make sense.

Next month there is a new Whinnie the Pooh movie coming out (July 15 same day as Harry Potter) and I have already told Ethan that I will take him if he wants to see it. He has been talking about it pretty much non-stop that he wants to go see Pooh Bear. I am hoping that the theaters still does $6 Tuesdays b/c I couldn't believe how freaking much it cost the 3 of us just to see Cars 2. It was $7 for Ethan's ticket (keep in mind the show started before noon!) our tickets were $7.25 a piece so that was $21.50 for the tickets. Then we got 1 small lemonaded for Ethan, 2 Med pops for us, and a med popcorn. Total cost for that was $19. So for a family of 3 $40 to go to the movies. Next time I will sneak food in with us when I take him to see Pooh Bear. I just have to make sure that he doesn't see me put it in my purse or he will be screaming for his snacks LOL.

In Dec there is a third Chipmunks coming out and I think Ethan will love that too. I think that he will be better behaved each time we take him to see a movie.

What is Ethan up to now....

Well, right now he is running around the house naked, what's new there. Saturday though Matt and Uncle Jordan got his new swingset up so he has been having fun playing on that. He had fun watching them put it up and "helping" them too. We had a small incident where the A frame fell on Jordan's leg and it happened in front of Ethan and so since then Ethan has been asking if Jordan is OK (and yes Jordan is fine). Monday Killian came over and the boys had fun playing on the swing set together. They are always cute together though. Ethan has not been able to splash in his pool it just hasn't been warm enough which is probably just as well b/c we are still battling algae. It looks like we might just have to put Algae Free in the pool every evening to help keep it from growing. I went to clean the filter the other day and the water was just green. So we scrubbed the floor of the pool, treated and then cleaned the filter. I will clean the filter again today when I treat the pool. We are having to taking to shocking the pool ever other day for now to get the water to balance out and I have been putting clearifier in it too every day to help. Hopefully by the time it warms up again we will have the situation under control and Ethan won't have to wait to use his pool. He has asked a few times to go in but the water is just too cold anyways.

Ethan has a new favorite show now. Woody Wood Pecker. I never thought that he would get into the shows we grew up on. He loves Gen 1 Transformers, GI Joe, Fraggle Rock, and now Woody Wood Pecker. Although the woodpecker he is watching is new adventures from 2007 so it's not the original we used to love but still he loves it. We don't find it as funny as the originals but hey if it amuses Ethan bonus for us right?

In a couple weeks we are going to take him to see his first movie in the movie theaters. We are taking him to see Cars 2. We'll take him to like a noon show so it won't be busy. That way if he doesn't want to sit still he won't disturb a bunch of people. I'm looking forward to it. Tomorrow I am thinking of taking him to the Library for the first time. I think I will start taking him once a week on Thursdays to get books to read. Before he wasn't able to be quiet but now I think he is at an age where he will have a little more control of himself. What did I just say? Ethan have control of himself? Is that possible? I must be joking!

This morning I thought I had totally secured the kitchen so I went for a quick shower. Nope he got into the spice cupboard. He dumped cinnamon, nutmeg, and Mrs Dash on the carpet. Smells good and he smells like cinnamon LOL. Well at least it was an easy clean up compared to the nail polish last week. He is something that's for sure.

Ethan's other new thing that he started doing just yesterday is he takes his little stool for his keyboard and stands on it to pee in his little potty we keep in the living room. We don't know why he does it but it's funny. I always wonder where he gets some of these ideas. It would be interesting to get inside his head sometimes.

Now that Ethan is 3.....

Ethan had an appt today for his Hyperphe and they are bumping up his protein intake to 40g which is good. His last levels were 4.05 which is good they want to keep him between 2 and 6 so he is falling right in the middle. He is 31 lbs and about 34/35" inches tall so he is in the 50% for both height and weight. They want us to get his blood tested again in Sept since he is being bumped up and he doesn't have to go back to see the specialist until Dec.

Ethan enjoyed his party last weekend and he has been enjoying all his nice gifts. Tomorrow we are going to get his swing set put up. Daddy will be needing help so Papa Jim is coming over to help. He hasn't been able to use his pool since his party unfortunately. The filter got clogged and the water started to grow algae. We have all that taken care of now and of course the weather got cooler so the water is too cold to get into it. Gotta love the crazy Ohio weather.

This has not been a good week for Ethan apparently. His mischievousness has gotten him into quite a bit of trouble. He has this thing about getting into things. He has been getting into cabinets and pulling out whatever he can pull out. Yesterday he got into the bag of nail polish I had put up. He's resourceful. He uses chairs to get things that we have put up out of his reach and he waits until we have turned our back for a minute to get into things. He painted his feet and legs with nail polish and he also painted the carped and screen door. Then he climbed into my lap and got nail polish on my brand new pants. Oh joy and what a mess that was to clean up. I sat for almost 2 hrs using cotton balls and nail polish remover to get all the polish up. That stained the carpet so then I used peroxide to help pull the stains up. For the most part that worked but the bright orange he spilled did not come up as easy. The carpet is nice and crusty now even though I did go over it with the Bissell Little Green. Hopefully that will change after a few steam cleanings.

This morning Ethan and I got up and as I was heading to the kitchen to get his breakfast going he tells me that Carmel pooped. I look and yep, the stupid cat backed his butt to the wall and left me a fresh pile. So I groaned about and headed to the kitchen to get stuff to clean it up. The smell was so bad I about couldn't hold back my stomach. While I was fighting the urge to hurl Ethan is telling me "It's OK MomMom, that happens." I told him it's not OK that Carmel isn't using his litter box yet again (It's only been a week since he last pulled this stunt) so he then tells me "It'll be OK MomMom, don't get upset." He was also just waving his hands in front of himself in a way that sais "Calm down" LOL. It's so hard not to laugh when he does this. Of course I had to explain to him that what Carmel is doing is not OK. So of course when Dada got home he reported to Dada that Carmel had pooped and MomMom got upset. Nice.

Right now Ethan is running from window to window watching his dada mow the lawn (I hope Matt gets it done before it rains b/c the sky is very dark right now). He wants to go outside but I am chosing to keep him in so he is out of the way and dada can just get done quickly. Ethan has also been learning about Mayflies. I plucked one off the back door and we tried to put it on his arm but he freaked out about it. He thinks they will hurt him LOL. We keep explaining that Mayflies don't have mouths or butts so they can't hurt him but he is still freaked by them. I personally don't mind them when there are a few it's when they are in hoards that it's just freaking disgusting. You drive the car down the street and you can literally hear them crunching under the car. They crunch under your feet when walking down the sidewalk. Let's not forget the dead fish smell they leave behind. Until they are done for the season we are going to have to make sure that the pool cover is on so they don't get in the water and stink it up or the filter and clog it up. Gotta love Mayfly season!!

That's all I really have to report on the Ethan front. I'm sorry I have not gotten pictures of the March for Babies posted or from his b-day. I have just been lazy and haven't even gotten them loaded on the computer yet. I promise I will try to get it done soon though.

Ethan is officially 3!!!

Happy Birthday Ethan!!!

Yesterday was actually Ethan's birthday and Matt and I made it as special for him as we could. Matt managed to get off work early and so he was home for most of the day. We took Ethan to lunch at Applebees where he got a free kids meal, free b-day sunday, and some balloons. After that we came home and gave him his gift from us, a Spiderman bike. Of course he loves it. He had it mastered in a matter of hours. Although he hasn't totally figured out how to turn around yet but he is pedaling and steering it like a pro!!

Today we had his party. We kept it small. Just with grandparent and his aunts and uncles. Ethan had so much fun splashing in the pool with his cousins and little friend. It was 96 out today so the pool was a hit with the kids. He had a Spiderman cake that was made by a friend of ours. He received a lot of nice clothes and some books and of course the Curious George DVD's which he
couldn't wait to watch LOL.

It has been an exciting birthday weekend for Ethan. It's hard to believe that he is 3 already. It doesn't seem like 3 years has gone by already. He has turned into an awesome little man over the years and it has been so much fun watching him grow up but he is getting too big too fast!! I'm not ready for him to be this old yet LOL.

Mommy and daddy love you so much buddy! Hope you had a great birthday!!

A lesson learned about death

So yesterday the inevitable finally happened to Ethan's lone betta, he died. The poor thing has been sick for a while but I could never figure out what was wrong with it. About a week ago I noticed it wasn't hardly coming to the surface for food and a few days ago I noticed that most of it's tail has disintegrated. So I knew it was eventually going to die and that happened yesterday. So Ethan saw me trying to get the betta out of the tank and asked "What happen to my fishy?" I explained that he has been sick and just couldn't fight it so unfortunately he died. Ethan watched curiously as I got the fish out then tells me "Oh, that happens. Fishy died" and then runs off to go catch up to his daddy to play outside. I thought it was so cute. It's amazing how he just accepted the answer and went off to do his own thing with daddy. I am purdy glad I didn't have to explain what death means. I know that day is coming but for now I'm happy I didn't have to try to explain it to him b/c he is not the best at paying attention to when things get explained to him yet LOL.

Ethan has been having a blast playing outside the last few days. Yesterday I plunked him in some swim shorts and let him run around outside like that. He's discovered bugs and is obsessed with them. There are bumblebees that hover around the corner of our garage right by the carport and he is freaked by them. That is where he sets up his little basket ball hoop and likes to play basketball. Now he won't go near that area b/c he doesn't want the bees to play with him. We have been trying to find the hive but we can't seem to find it. I just try to tell him that if he leaves the bees alone they will leave him alone. He is intrigued by ants. He likes to get down on the ground and watch them and he doesn't like it when Matt sprays them with bug spray. I had a couple that were on my toes yesterday and he went ballistic about it. I tried to tell him they aren't going to hurt me but he freaks out about them anyways. So I have been finding it hard to get him to go play b/c he is freaked by the bugs. He doesn't want them to play with him. It's funny, cute, and a little annoying at the same time. I hope he gets over it soon b/c bugs are part of nature and being outside.

I have started a blog for Ethan's little brother/sister so people can follow the baby through the pregnancy. I wish I had done that from the beginning with Ethan but I honestly never thought about doing a blog until it was reccommended to us while he was in the NICU to help us be able to keep people updated on how he was doing. It kept us from having to make a ton of phone calls a day. So if you want to follow the baby's blog you can do so at the following link:
www.ourlilturkey.blogspot.com
It will only be updated at times when I have been to see the OB and then once the baby is here of course.

Ethan's b-day is coming up soon! I can't believe he is going to be 3 already. He is getting to be such a big boy. We are not going to have much of a party this year. We are just going to do something small with grandparents and aunts/uncles, and Ethan's one friend Killian. Ethan is into Spiderman and loves basketball. So I think his cake will be Spiderman. I asked him yesterday if there was anything special he wanted for his birthday and he told me "Cakes with Spiderman" LOL I figured that is what he would say. He is such a little ham.

Ethan's Big News

It's been a while since I last updated. Ethan has been busy being his usual busy self. He is all about Spiderman right now. He has really gotten into watching the Spiderman movies and of course he is not happy unless he is wearing Spiderman. So guess he will be having a Spiderman b-day LOL. At the beginning of the month Ethan took part again in the March for Babies walk which was held on May 1 at 5/3 Field. Our team raised $475 for the March of Dimes and we did brunch afterwards at Spaghetti Warehouse. I do have a few pictures from the walk I just haven't gotten around to getting them loaded onto my computer. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted b/c it was drizzling outside and once the camera started to get wet I tossed it into Ethan's wagon which we had his canopy up to help keep him and all our stuff dry. Soon I will get the pictures loaded and posted.

Ethan however does have some big news of his own to share though. Even though everybody knows it by now Ethan is going to be a big brother in November. He of course is going to be an awesome big brother. Just think of all the things he will get to teach his little brother or sister. How to get under mom and dad's skin, the best spots to color on the walls so mom and dad don't find it right away, and when you do something that's a no-no give mom and dad a kiss, say you love them, and look as cute as possible so their hearts melt. He has been with us to the ultrasounds and has heard the heartbeat. He thinks it's cool for about 5 seconds then he wants to look out the windows or leave LOL. That's my Ethan.

Really Ethan hasn't been up to anything much lately. Hence why his blog hasn't been updated recently. He's just been mostly about getting into as much trouble as he can. I don't know when it happened but my sweet little preemie turned into a monkey. I always though I gave birth to a human but apparently it was a monkey in disguise. If he can't reach it he will climb to it. He stands on chairs to get into the cupboards in the kitchen or reach things on the mantle. We have had to put a lot of things into the cupboard up stairs by the bathroom but he has figured out how to get in there too. He goes in our room and empties the tall laundry basket and flips it over and stands on it to reach the latch. He has also figured out how to pop off the door knob covers and he won't stay out of the spare room that will be converted into a nursery. His other new favorite thing to climb is the window sills. I feel like a broken record telling him to get down off the windows. He doesn't think he will fall and get hurt and he has fallen from them. But apparently he hasn't learned his lesson yet. He is a whole lot of something that is for sure. I call him wild man. If there was a horse running the Kentucky Derby named Wild Man I would have had to pick that horse for the win just b/c it would have reminded me of Ethan.

Of course Ethan is also the biggest goof ball. A few days ago I was going through a bunch of my winter clothes to get them ready to pack away and he smooshed himself in the bottom of a tall basket. He kept popping up and laughing hysterically so I went to give him a kiss and he would smoosh himself in the bottom of the basket then pop up again. On the 3rd time I pretended to be be offended and hurt and got him begging me to give him a kiss and wouldn't you know it as soon as I leaned in to kiss him he smooshed himself in the bottom of the basket laughing at how he outwitted his Mama. What a little stinker. I still managed to steal a kiss from him though. Last week I tried to capture a picture of him running around with his shorts on his head but he took them off before I could get the pic taken. Today he was running around outside with a bucket on his head. I called him "Bucket head"

His potty training is coming along pretty well again. We had this period of time where he would not stop peeing on the carpet. We have no idea what started it but we tried everything to get him to stop and nothing was working. Then someone Matt knows at work suggested that we just ignore it. Clean up the mess and say nothing to him. So we figured well nothing else has worked why not. Low and behold it worked it took like 3 days and he stopped. The first day he peed on the floor and we just cleaned it up, the second day he peed in a shoe box (empty) and we just pitched it, the next day he peed in the cat's water dish so we just changed the water and that was the last of it and he went right back to going on the potty. We had put his little potty away b/c he was doing so well at going up to use the big potty but when this issue arose we brought out the little potty. Now we are just keeping it in the living room for now b/c he can not be trusted to go to the bathroom alone. He tends to get into things and well no one wants to spend their day going up and down stairs every 45 minutes just so he can pee on the potty. This way he can potty when ever he needs to and we just dump it about once a day. Makes things much easier. He is still wearing a Pull Up at night only though b/c he just doesn't stay dry at night. We tried night training by waking him at night but it just wasn't getting anywhere so we gave up and figured we'd try again after he turned 3. At least we don't have many accidents during the day. He has an issue with telling us he has to potty when he is with his little friend Killian or his cousins. At least if he is outside he knows to go up against the fence LOL (I did not teach him that talk to Matt).

I always tell Matt that he and Ethan are 2 peas in a pod. I swear Ethan is like a miniature version of his daddy. He is built like his daddy and he has his daddy's personality. Although I think Ethan might just be a bit more wild that his daddy was at this age. Ethan even likes all the same things as his daddy and they pretty much have the same sense of humor. Who would have though we'd manage to create another Matt. Let's hope this next one is more like me (sweet, innocent, and pure) LOL. I don't think I can handle a house full of Matt's lmao.

Oh the things we do for our children!

Ethan has had a pretty good weekend. Friday he was SUPPOSED to be sleeping by the time Grandpa Jim came over to "house sit" for us while we went out with some friends. When we got home we were informed that 10 minutes after we had left Mr. Ethan was sitting on the bottom step and he ended up not going to bed until about midnight. Since he hadn't been the best behaved this week we were intent on making sure he went to bed on time as part of his "punishment" for bad behavior. He had fun playing with his Grandpa though.

Saturday Ethan went to the mall with us to shop for some new jammies for him. Some of his jammies are getting tight or too short for him so it was time to move to the next size. After that he took a trip to visit his great-grandparents where of course he showed just how active he is. Sad part was that was him being only mildly active. Most days he is much more wild LOL. So after we left there we went home and he was digging through his clothes looking for his Spiderman jammies. I was going to let him wear them but as I was getting ready to pull the tags off I noticed that the top was 3T and the bottoms were 4T. Ethan was so upset that he couldn't wear his jammies. He was crying, screaming, very heartbroken. So after dinner (and some not so great behavior from Mr. Ethan) we decided that (against better judgment) to go back to the store and exchange his jammies so that he can wear them. Needless to say he was one happy camper.

Today he does not want to take those jammies off. He is all about wearing his Spiderman jammies. He has gone outside a few times to play with his daddy (mommy hates the cold!!) and we had to just put other clothes on top of the jammies b/c he does not want to take them off. He's having a fairly quiet Sunday today. He's played outside, played in the house, took a nap, and became desensitized to violence watching the tail end of the CSI episode we had been watching. Someday we won't be able to do that but for now he doesn't really pay much attention to it unless there are explosions.

In other news on the Ethan front (lol) he has been doing very well with wearing underwear. We are finally (YES!!) able to take him places in underwear AND he keeps them dry. He is yet to poop on the potty but at least we aren't having accidents in his underwear. He is no where near being ready to be night trained so he is still having to wear Pull-Ups at night and nap time. He wakes up in the middle of most nights needing to be changed b/c the Pull-Up is full. We figure that he will just stop wetting his pants at night when he's ready then we will put undies on him. He's becoming such a big boy now. It's hard to believe that he is going to be 3 in just 4 months.

Pictures!!

As promised here are the pictures I've taken of Ethan playing in the snow

Feb 3, 2011

Well Ethan survived the big snowfall. He was out playing in the snow yesterday (I have pictures but they are not yet loaded on the computer) and I had him out today playing in the snow. I got him all excited today because I told him we were going to build a snowman but when we got outside the snow was just too frozen to make a snowball. It was just pretty much ice. So here was poor Ethan standing there with his little Snowman making kit all ready to make a snowman and I couldn't get the snow to ball up. Boy was he disappointed. I felt bad. Hopefully we will get a little bit better snow conditions soon to make a snowman. He has not forgotten the snowman we built in the front lawn with the first snow of the season. He is always reminding me "No-man boken, fix it MomMom." It's very cute and pathetic LOL.

Ethan has been a busy little boy this winter. He is talking up a storm now saying sentences. Every day when we sit down for lunch he tells me "MomMom home." "Yep, buddy MomMom is home." "Moose is home." "Yep Moose is home." "Dada home?" "Sorry buddy dada is working." "Dada working? Dada be home soon." "Yea Dada will be home soon. As soon as he is done working." "Gramma home." "I don't know buddy she might be." "Uncle Bubba home" "Uncle Bubba is working buddy." "Go see Uncle Bubba." "Sorry buddy we can't go right now because he is working. Maybe this weekend." "Dada working, dada home soon." On and on the conversation will go. It is very cute. He also likes to sit and read to Moose. He will sit with Moose on his lap and point thing out in his little books to him. He is such a cutie when he does that.

Of course Ethan gets his procrastination habits from his daddy. We now have him trained to go to the potty by himself. So when he has to go potty he will tell me "Go potty." "OK go on go potty I'll be here if you need me." Then he heads up the stairs only to come back a second later "Got to have Moose." Then he heads back up the stairs and stops at the 4th or 5th step to look over the banister and call out "Hi MomMom, Hi Dada. I potty and take Moose." "OK Ethan go to the potty before you pee yourself." "I go potty." Then he finally goes to the potty. He does fairly well as long as he doesn't try to stand his aim is pretty bad LOL.

Bed time is always interesting too with Ethan. We start getting him ready for bed about 8:30 because it can take an hour to get him down. I tell him good night then he goes with Dada to brush his teeth and read a story. Then it's lights out. He will come down 5 minutes later with a stinky diaper. We change it and tuck him back in. Again 5 mins later he is sitting on the stairs or he comes straight to us and says "I watch this" referring to whatever we are watching on the t.v. We send him back to bed only to have to put him back another 3 or 4 times usually. Sometimes we only have to go a couple rounds. He does not like to have to go to bed he thinks that he is going to miss something big. He is something.

Once I get the pictures from yesterday loaded on my computer I will get the posted.

Exciting week for Ethan

Boy the last 9 days have been pretty exciting for Ethan. Last Tues we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Ethan really enjoyed that. Every time they took one of their comic breaks Ethan would get upset and scream "BASKETBALL!" because he wanted to continue to watch them play. He was fascinated with  Globie their mascot and Big G another of their mascots. After the game we went and bought him a shirt as a little souvenir.

Friday (New Years Eve) Ethan attended his first wedding since his infant days. He did OK but daddy ended up having to leave the room because Ethan was getting a little bored. It was my cousin Amanda who was getting married and the ceremony was beautiful. Later Ethan partied with us at the reception. He had fun playing with Grandpa & Pam, chasing his cousin Colin around, and goofing a bit with Uncle "Bubba" Brian. Ethan was quite the dancer with us out on the dance floor too LOL. He did not want to let us put him down because there were so many people on the floor it made him a little nervous. He left the party about 10:30 and was in bed by 11. Late for him but he had fun and that's what mattered.

Saturday (New Years Day) he just spent the day watching football with us and Survivor Africa. It was a fairly quiet day for all of us which was nice. We got to just hang out and enjoy the day.

Sunday Ethan was up about 8:30 and we headed to Cleveland for the Browns/Steelers game. That was Ethan's and my first game and it was a lot of fun. Ethan had fun high fiving the guys in front of us (even though there wasn't much for Browns fans to celebrate). He was looking cute wearing daddy's Browns hat (although I feel it was the wrong colors). Ethan will learn who the better team is. He would much rather be on the winning side than the side that doesn't really know what the endzone looks like LOL. Right now he doesn't have a choice because of his daddy. So we left the game with the Steelers winning 41-9. Ethan was asleep in the backseat before we even got out of the parking garage. About 45 minutes into the drive home Ethan woke up suddenly saying that his pee pee hurt. We ended up pulling off at the next exit to check him. It took time to calm him down but he made it home OK. We got back in town about 7ish and had dinner at Papa Pauls.

Monday Ethan started to come down with a bit of a cold, but never mentioned all day about anymore pain. But later in the evening he made one mention of it when he woke up at midnight with congestion. I called the Dr Tues and they were booked for the day so I got him in yesterday and they took a sample we'll know by tomorrow if he has an infection. The Dr said it's not normal for boys to get bladder infections so if he does have one they will have to do some more tests b/c it could be indicative so kidney problems. I'm not very concerned about it because he is going to the bathroom just fine, he doesn't complain when he pees, there is no fever, and his complaints are extremely intermittent. Yesterday he made one mention and that was it and today he hasn't said anything. I doubt that there is anything going on. The Dr recommended that we have him drink CranApple juice which is no issue since he loves it and we always have some at home.

So yep it's been a fun year already for Ethan and I'm sure that there is much more fun to come for him. If you're asking "Where are all the pictures?" I am posting them at the end of this post.

Harlem Globetrotters

Waiting for the game to start

Sitting with daddy

Enjoying a drink

Globie

Watching the game

Scooter hanging around

Scooter Posing for pictures

Watching more of the game

Big G

Big G head bounce

 Amanda's Wedding/New Years Eve

Sticking his hand in his water

The beautiful bride Amanda and new husband Joe

Ethan and Colin

Attention parents of the child rolling on the floor. Would you please collect you kid

Just being cute

Browns/Steelers Game

Daddy & Ethan

Coin Toss

Daddy

Hines Ward with the ball

Ready, Set, Hike!

One very tired Ethan

Looking out over the field