Ethan had his Dr. appointment today with Dr. Horner for his hyperphe. The nutritionist said that she doesn't want us to give Ethan more than 40g of protein. Matt & I have decided that we don't want to give him more than 30g at this time since Ethan had between 35g-40g & his levels went up. She did give me a chart for phe levels in different food. For instance there is 50g of phe for every 1g of protein in meats dairy, & grains. But there are 26g of phe for every 1g of protein in fruits. There are 33g of phe for every 1g of protein in vegetables. But she did not give us a limit on the amount of phe that Ethan can have. To make the calculation easier we have set the limit to 30g of protein. The Dr. gave us a script for Zolfran. With the cold & flu season coming up he wants to be on the safe side. If Ethan were to get sick like he did back around Easter we are to give him this med to stop the vomiting. In the event that Ethan were to get some kid of stomach bug we need to get the vomiting to stop quickly. In people who have PKU & hyperphe when they aren't getting the nutrition that they need their body will start to break down their muscles which will cause the phe levels to rise. I will not be getting the script filled until that time comes.

In other news, Matt was giving Ethan a bath tonight. While he was draining the tub Ethan decided it was the perfect time to take care of some bizness. He pooped in the tub. Matt grabbed him & put him on the potty where he finished his bizness. We gave him credit where credit is due. We gave him a gold star on his potty chart. Hopefully this is a sign that he is going to be ready to poo on the potty every day soon. That would be awesome!

Ethan was such a busy boy today. This morning he decided he didn't want to get up till 10:30 which has been happening lately since his molars started breaking through. It's not uncommon for him to sleep a little extra when he has new teeth coming in. I got his breakfast all fixed & right as I sat down to feed him Grandpa Frank came over completely unexpectedly. It was a nice surprise. Ethan got to show off his skills of climbing, running, & just being plain cute. We went out for lunch where Ethan showed off how well he doesn't sit. He was not happy to sit at the table he wanted to run all over the place. I took Ethan out after his nap this afternoon to Toys R Us to get a few more things to finish baby proofing the house. All we needed was a bath mat for the tub & a cover for the fawcett. I also couldn't resist getting this really cute stuffed blue polar bear. He is starting to get into the "security blanket" stage except his isn't a blanket it's a stuffed lamb named Lambie. The polar bear is just like the lamb. Today Ethan was all about his Lambie. He wouldn't leave the house this afternoon w/o it, then we had to take it into the store. When I gave him the polar bear he refused to give it to the cashier. He has been carrying it all over the house since we got home. There are pictures to come soon.

The results of Ethan's PKU tests have come back. Unfortunately his levels have gone up to 6.9. He had eaten 35-40g of protein 3 days prior to the test. The last test he was getting 25-32g & his levels came back in the 4 range. This means that most likely Ethan will not be allowed more than 30g of protein but as of right now nothing has been confirmed by the dr. He sees Dr. Horner next week on Monday so we will have more to say about it then. For now I think we will most likely be limiting his intake to no more than 30g just to be on the safe side.

Tough as nails

Ethan had his eye dr appt yesterday. It went great. She said that he is exactly where he should be vision wise. He has excellent depth perception, he follows very well, & there is no need for any kind of perscription. He was also very well behaved. I was expecting to have to wrestle him down to allow her to check him but he sat like he does it every day. I was impressed.

Today Ethan managed to have a little accident with the kitchen stairs. I was in the kitchen, he was with me, making some lunch. As I was setting the microwave to heat I heard this loud thud & right as I spun around he started screaming. Ethan was laying on the platform right infront of the back door. I picked him up quickly. Once I got him calmed down I checked him over. He had a large red spot on his arm & a goose egg forming on his forehead. He was playing with the zipper on the OSU cooler. Next to the cooler is the counter top to the stove. The counter top had fallen hit him on the arm causing him to stumble & he went down the stairs hitting his forehead on the way. We tried to put ice on it but he wouldn't let us. Matt called Aunt Robin & she gave us some ideas none of which worked. He wasn't going to let us ice his forehead for anything. We now have special top of the stairs gates up to prevent it from happening again.

Tonight he's running around like nothing happened hence the title "Tough as nails". He's wearing his Steelers warmup outfit & watching the Browns/Lions exhibition game. The Steelers are playing on another channel. We will watch that game later.

Playing with his mower

GOAL!!!

Chewing daddy's phone

Just being cute

Baby Proofing

Oh the baby proofing never seems to end! Just when we think we have the house totally baby proofed (minus the basement that is still under construction) Ethan finds more things that we need to Ethan Proof. Last night it was the bottom 2 drawers on the entertainment center. He opened the drawers last night & got into the DVD's. We got them picked up but he went right back to the drawers. We told him no & he smashed his fingers closing the drawer. Then after we got him calmed down from that he went right back & before we could move he smashed his finger a second time. You would think that he would learn from the 1st time but nope. So to prevent it from happening again we put duct tape on the drawers to keep them closed just until I could get something for them. We do have special locks but they won't work on those drawers. I found some straps that adhere to the outside & those are now in place. Although Ethan has already figured a way to remove them. Use them as a foot hold to climb. I don't think he realizes that they pop off if he does that. They aren't designed to support weight. We also have locks on all the drawers & lower cabinets in the kitchen. Next it will probably be locks for the lazy susan & the sliding door to the pantry. I don't want to get comfortable in thinking we now have everything Ethan Proofed b/c he will always find a way to prove us wrong.

We took Ethan today to get his blood drawn for his hyperphe. He has a appt on the 31st for Dr Horner. It will be a week before we get the results. Tomorrow Ethan has an appt with his eye dr. The appt was made like a year ago. I totally forgot about it. Good thing I didn't have anything planned & that I got the reminder call as well yesterday. I hate making appts that far in advance it's just too hard to remember.

Ethan's bottom molar is really coming in now. Apparently even though he has been in a pretty good mood it's bothering him. This morning he was having oatmeal & he threw up just a little of it towards finishing it. Then he did it again while he was eating dinner. It's not a common thing with him but it has happened in the past with other teeth. Certain ones just cause his tummy to get a bit upset at times. He's been his usual Mr. Activity self today so it must not be too bad.

His potty training is going fairly well. We always have success before bed & most of the time after breakfast. I think that once we get him to poo in the potty we will be off to the races on it. But trying to figure out his schedule is hard. Just when we think we got it he throws it up on us. It's just a matter of having him on the potty at the right time. I may just have to start doing it with every diaper change, before his meals & after his meals. But I don't think he is quite ready for that much yet. I'm in no hurry to have it happen over night. When it happens it happens.

Another new look for Ethan

As Ethan's personality changes so does his blog. So it's time for a new look. Ethan has become quite a character. He's a very active little boy with a lot of energy. He reminds me of the Energizer Bunny "He keeps going & going & going...." Ethan has really been full of it this week that's for sure. On Monday he was Mr. Out-of-control. He was all about getting into the no-no's. He was obsessed about climbing onto his toy box then onto the top of the couch & trying to stand. He'd get removed from the couch but he would just go right back to the toy box. All evening he was all about unplugging the night light by the fireplace. He was all about helping me fold his laundry. I would fold it he would throw it all over the living room. He didn't take much of a nap so I was only able to get half his laundry folded. He spent time in his play yard but all he did there was scream. When 9:00 came around we were a bit relieved. But at 10 on the button he woke right up. We calmed him down got him back to sleep but again he was up at 11:45. He was finally down for the night by 12.

Yesterday he was a lot better. He was just happy to run around & play with his toys. He can sure cover a lot of territory on those little legs of his. He went out to dinner with us & then went to grandpa Pauls for a short visit. Fortunately Ethan was down for the night with no problems last night.

Today he's been just as busy. He had lunch with his daddy, then he saw grandma Judy for a moment at her work. While he was having lunch with his daddy he ran into one of the NICU nurses who was there for his birth. She was shocked to see how big he has gotten since she last saw him when he was 3lbs 9oz. He's been a good boy all day but tonight he's a bit of a terror. He's been just running around screaming, climbing onto the couch, pulling poor Carmel's fur. He is just full of energy tonight. Good thing he's loved & so darn cute too. His cuteness is a big help for him when he's being ornery.

What to do with Ethan...

Ethan has been into some mischief this weekend. First on Friday he & I went out first to Target to get some shelves for the dining room. The floor "S" shaped shelf that we have in the dining room needs to be put away for a while. Ethan loves to take the things from the bottom shelf so we moved them up out of his reach. Unfortunately he is getting to the point where he will be trying to climb the shelf soon so it's time for it to disappear. Next we went to the grocery store then we went home. I took everything off the "S" shelf & wrapped all the fragile's up that we are just going to put away for now. Those are mostly just decorative mugs & glasses. There are a few things that were going up to our bedroom onto a shelf that I have had since I was a little girl. It belonged to my great-aunt back in the late 40's early 50's. The things that went on that are some glass jewelery dishes. I had them set aside to take to our bedroom. While we were in the middle of getting the new shelves up & moving things to the bedroom, Ethan managed to get ahold of one of the bags that was going upstairs. He dropped it & 2 of my dishes broke. One of them was given to me when I was 10 by my grandfather. The other belonged to my grandmother. Pa (my grandfather) had given me the dish just after Vi (my grandmother) died. Both dishes were priceless to me. I got very upset (not at Ethan) & cried over my 2 dishes. I can't replace them. Vi passed around my 4th grade year & Pa passed my 6th grade. These things were really all I had of them. The dish that I was given when I was 10 shattered no chance of repair. The dish that belonged to Vi the lid broke in 2 the dish itself is fine. Fortunately my mom knows a few people who work with glass & thinks that they might be able to fix the lid. I sure hope so that dish is valuable in my heart.

Then yesterday my mom dropped off her Bissell Little Green so we could clean a few spots on the floor & the couch. Turned out it was ours to keep she bought us one. So I got the couch cleaned up & the spots on the floor taken care of. A few hours later Ethan spilled some pop on the floor. So out came the Little Green again & we got that taken care of. Thankfully we had no more instances yesterday. Then comes today. I was sitting on the couch drinking a cup of hawaiian punch. We were watching an old Paulie Shore movie & Ethan became fixated on the cup. I had it between my legs & was holding it with my hand. He came up to me not once, not twice, but three frigging times. On the 3rd time he yanked it hard enough to make the cup slip from my hand. Hawaiian punch spilled all over the couch. So out comes the Little Green again to clean the couch for the 2nd time. I think my mom just got her money's worth on that machine in just 2 days. There is still 3 hrs left before Ethan goes to bed who knows he might spill something else. Let's just hope that he is done spilling things at least for the weekend.

Earlier today we were taking pictures of Ethan running around with Matt's EMPTY beer bottle. We rinsed it out & let him play with it. We got a few pictures of him thinking he was drinking from it. I won't post those on here for obvious reasons. Just take my word they are cute.

Ethan w/Matt's I'm 30 button on

Back to normal

Tomorrow Ethan's days will back to normal. Matt goes back to work after being off for the last 11 days. What will Ethan do w/o his daddy? He's been so clingy to Matt over the last week 'n a half. He's not used to having his daddy home all day every day. I told Ethan that I've got to get back into working out. We've been busy doing things while Matt was on vacation & weather has not always been permitting that I have gotten out of sync. Depending on weather we might go biking tomorrow.

This morning proved to be interesting. The power went off a little after 11 this morning. We called Edison to report it but the line was constantly busy. So Matt said he was going to go to church & would give them a call when he got back. About a min later he walked back in said he couldn't go anywhere the garage door wasn't going to open due to no power. There is a key hole in the door but we were never given a key so we were kinda stuck. The power came on about 12:30 this afternoon. Ethan had to pick the time of the outage to be on the crabby side. We were trying to figure out how to get into the garage & he was all about being held right at that moment. Go figure right? That's ok he's still loved. We can't put him back now huh?

Ethan was so cute yesterday. My mom & dad took me out to dinner for my b-day. We went back to their house for some dessert. We asked Ethan where his nose was & he would grab Macey or Brian's nose (or whoever he was playing with at the moment) He was all about running around the circle playing with Uncle Brian. He seems to think Brian is the one he can get in trouble with. He's always gotta be Mr. Social. Before we left for dinner we put him on the potty after his nap. He was a big boy & peed on the potty. He got up clapping for himself when he was done. I washed out his potty & right as I turned around to scoot him to his room he peed all over himself & the carpet. Little stinker wasn't done! We got a good laugh. He peed again on the potty before he went to bed. He's getting pretty good at peeing on the potty. Now if only we can get him to do both.

Our day in the African Safari

Today we went to the Wildlife African Safari in Port Clinton. It was a blast! We decided to do the drive through tour first. We brought Ethan into the front seat with us so he could get a better experience. When we got to the gate the attendant gave us our free food to feed to the animals. As soon as we passed through the gates the animals swarmed the car looking for the food. One moose pulled a young deer away by the ear preventing it from being able to get the food Matt was offering it. When I offered some of the food another moose drooled all over Ethan & me. He didn't just drool is was a geyser of drool. It was a good laugh. It was intimidating at first but once we saw how docile the animals were we relaxed. Ethan at first gave this WTH (what the heck) look but then got excited to touch the animals. As we went through we came across some Buffalo. Ethan decided to pick its nose. He didn't just pick it he stuck his hand up its nostril. As disgusting as it was we laughed. A giraffe put its head to our window but ignored us b/c we ran out of food. By the time we were done with the drive through part the car was a total mess but it was so worth it.

We went into the park after we drove through. We joined an education speech. Ethan got to touch a baby skunk & a hedgehog. He also got to have his picture taken with a 45lbs python. We did a family photo with the snake. Matt was holding the head, I got the middle & Ethan got the tail. The nake wrapped the tip of it's tail around Ethan's ankle. It was Ethan's first experience with a snake. It was awsome. I wouldn't mind doing that again.

It was a great trip that we plan on doing again. I have posted some pictures below of our day.

Matt meets Moose

Ethan & I meet moose

Deer

Herd of deer

Fawn

Matt meets Buffalo

Buffalo sticks head in window

Buffalo

Moose in road

Long Horned Steer

Matt meets the Long Horned Steer

Zebra

White Zebra

Giraffe sticks head in car window

Giraffe ignores us

Signs

Signs

Llamas play fighting

Female Peacock

Red Kangaroo

Male Peacock

Happy Birthday To My Daddy!!!

My daddy turned 30 yesterday. I got him up first thing in the morning just so we could play. I wanted to be alone. Then once mommy woke up a half hour later he opened his present from me. I signed the card my self, daddy was so pleased. We had a party for daddy later in the evening. I had a blast! I got to have cookie cake & ice cream. For his birthday daddy got some really cool toys. Something called transformers. He said it's something we can play together!! Daddy even let me stay up way past my bedtime just for his birthday. This morning we got up together & played with those transformer things. I don't really get the point of them but their really cool cause they got little parts for me to get into. Although daddy keeps taking the little parts away from me. Why does he have to ruin my fun? My daddy is on vacation all week so I can spend all day with him. How great is that?! Today I have been giving my daddy a run for his money. I have been a crab for him all day just to get him back for not being allowed to play with the small toy parts. What does he think I'm going to do with them, put them up my nose? I just want to chew them what's the harm in that? Daddy says I could choke, whatever that means.  I never get to have any fun! Daddy has promised me that he & mommy are going to take me to the African Safari in a place called Port Clinton sometime this week. Oh I can't wait. I love going places with my daddy. I just love my daddy oh so much. Even though he won't let me have any fun he's the greatest!!!