So much to do ...... So little time

Ethan was so busy today. First he went and had lunch with his Dada. He loves to have lunch with his Dada, then he went with me to gas up the car, then we made a stop to visit Grammy Judy just for a few minutes at work. Then we ran home so MomMom could hunt for her IPod by getting rid of all the receipts in the kitchen. Then we headed over to Uncle Brian's to swim. Ethan had a ball swimming. Dada had his life vest so MomMom made do with the swimmers. He did great. He refused to let me hold him & he kept himself upright. He was peddling himself all over the pool just kicking his legs. He also loved jumping off the steps of the ladder. He didn't want me to catch him either. He wouldn't jump unless I backed up a few steps. He is like a little fish. Just a month ago he could barely keep himself upright & now he's actually swimming. I'm so impressed with my little man. Once he was done swimming he had dinner with Granpa Frank, Macey & her friend, Dada & MomMom, & Uncle Brian. He had so much fun running around playing. Whew he had an exhausting day!

Tomorrow is Macey & Kaitlin's b-days. Macey is going to be 15 & Kaitlin is going to be 8. Happy Birthday to both of them. Ethan is going out with us all for a b-day lunch for Macey & will hopefully get in some more swimming. Sunday we are taking him to Music Under the Stars. He really had a great time last week there so we decided to take him again this week.

Future Musician?

We took Ethan to the zoo last night for Music Under the Stars. It's a free evening of music on a Sunday night. Ethan had a blast!! He loved sitting listening to the band play. A few times he was up jumping around to some of the songs. After the intermission he was sitting & conducting the band. He was adorable. When the band would stop playing so the announcer could introduce the next piece Ethan got all upset & started telling the band to sing. Could he be the next Motzart? Or maybe he will be a future Phantom or Mark Cohen. Either way Ethan loves music, he gets that from his MomMom. I was always listening to Phantom of the Opera while I was pregnant with him. I remember when we went to NY just before he was born we went to see Rent one more time. He had been quiet all through dinner & was quiet while we waited in line to enter the theater. But as soon as the show started he was dancing around in my belly. Sometimes it felt like he was in time to the music.

Saturday we took him to Uncle Brian's to visit & swim. Ethan impressed us all when he swam (with his life vest on) across the pool. He was kicking his legs like a mad man!! He also was having a blast jumping off the ladder into the pool. The kid has no fear. He thinks it's hilarious when he will log roll in the water. The life vest causes him to do that occasionally when he loses his balance keeping himself upright. He just laughs & kicks his legs. By the end of this summer he is going to be swimming like a pro!!

Obsessed!!

I have never heard of a child being obsessed with as many things as Ethan is! Right now his main obsession seems to be garbage. Yes folks that's right I said garbage. He walks around all day telling me garbage. He likes to throw things in the garbage. Too bad not everything he throws in the garbage is really garbage. He throws his shoes in the garbage, once he threw my phone in the garbage (good thing I saw him & was able to rescue it), toys, books, you name it. He likes to scream "Garbage" as we drive down the street pointing at the garbage cans. He seems to think that garbage is something special. Maybe he will be a garbage man when he grows up.

He second obsession is bikes. Everywhere we go he has to point out people riding their bikes, motercycles, or bikes parked in front of a building. We took him to the park one day & a family rode their bikes in. He is so obsessed with bikes that he did not want to leave their bikes alone. We had to keep chasing him away from the bikes. He loves to ride his tricycle around. He got 2 for his b-day so we keep one in the basement & another outside. He doesn't pedal yet he scoots it around with his feet. He goes around telling us "BiRi" He also likes to look at our bikes & tell us who's bike is who's.

Finally his third obsession is shoes. When we go out he is constantly pointing out to us that people are wearing shoes. One day we were over at his Grammy Marcia's & Aunt Kate put on Matt's shoes so Ethan got upset demanding to her "Dada Shoes". He wanted her to take his dada's shoes off. It was quite funny. He will be running around the house in nothing more than a diaper but he insists that we put his shoes on.

Ethan has other obsessions too, he love Curious George, fish, & bubbles. Well at least those are normal childhood obsessions. Who would have thought that a child could be obsessed with things like garbage or shoes. Bike riding is fairly normal too. He just really loves his bike rides. I just don't get the obsession with garbage. It came out of no where. Garbage is so disgusting I really hope this is a temporary obsession. LOL!! Oh well his cuteness makes up for his weird obsessions. It's a good thing he's cute.

Did anyone catch NICU on Discovery Health last night? I thought it was pretty good. The first episode was about 2 different babies one born @ 36 wks the other born @35 wks. Each baby had it's own struggle. The 2nd episode was about 2 babies one was born to a diabetic mother, the other was born to a morbidly obese mother. Here is a link to one of the babies stories. Baby Ariah went home after 11 days in the NICU. Baby Trey went home after 13 days. I do not have a video on Trey unfortunately. If you can tune in next week it's in Thursday nights at 10 on Discovery Health.


 Baby Ariah

Updates

There have been a few minor changes to Ethan's blog. For one thing Google Adsense is gone if you haven't already noticed. They closed my acct accusing me of clicking on my own ads (I did not). There are new additions in the sidebar that I have added, please check out the picasa slideshow. It's just a slideshow of pictures that I have recently added to Ethan's blog. I'm always hearing about how everyone loves to look at the pictures & would like an easier way to view them. In the past I have not been able to do it b/c it was only an option with Flikr & when I upload pictures on Blogger they automatically go to Picasa. The Picasa was a new addition Blogger has added in the last 6 mons (it's been a while since I have looked at the sidebar gadgets). I have turned off the autoplay on Ethan's playlist. If you want to listen to the music just scroll down to it & click the play button.

I also want to bring up to you about a new show on Discovery Health. It's called NICU & it starts this Thurs at 10PM. Here is a link to preview the show http://health.discovery.com/tv/nicu/. I already have our DVR set to record the series. It is only 10 episodes in the series. Hopefully you will be able to watch it. We are very excited about it.

Ethan hasn't been up to much since my last post. He's just been busy playing outside & running around being cute. Every day is an adventure for him. Yesterday we were playing out in the backyard when this black cat decided to join us. It was very friendly probably about a year old. It let Ethan pet it (I made sure it wasn't vicious first before letting him touch it). Peekaboo was not happy that we were paying attention to a stray cat (I think it's the neighbors cat). She wouldn't let us come anywhere near her when we came in the house. She got over it eventually. Last night Ethan had dinner with Grandpa Frank & us at Bob Evans. He had a good time mooching food off Dada's plate, he is such a little mooch you know. Anyways that's really all there is on the Ethan front for now. Who knows what this week is going to bring.

Once Upon A Time.....

Once Upon A Time there was this little boy named Ethan. Ethan was the cutest little thing. He was so anxious to meet his mommy & daddy that he couldn't wait 10 more weeks so he came early. Ethan was the sweetest little thing his mommy & daddy had ever met. He was full of smiles, filled their days with laughter & snuggles. He had a passion for reading & he loved a good chase. Ethan grew to be 1 & he was the handsomest 1 year old on the block. The ladies fawned over Ethan. Everywhere he went he got Ooo's & aaahh's and "Isn't he adorable's!" Then one day Ethan turned into this screaming, whining, tantrum throwing monster. What caused him to turn? Well my avid readers it's called the Terrible Two's. Yes, that's right. The Terrible Two's moved in. They overtook Ethan. His mommy & daddy didn't even recognize their little boy anymore. They would look at eachother & say "Who is this child? Certainly he doesn't belong to us! Our child is a sweet angel who is full of laughter & smiles. This child is full of tears, wailing, & screeching. This can't possibly be our child." Oh what little they knew it was their child. His mommy & daddy would do everything to make their angel happy but nothing ever worked. He didn't want to be hugged & loved, he didn't want to play with his toys, he didn't want to do anything. He refused to eat the food they would give him, instead he would sit & cry as they would make him sit at the table until he ate his food. His parents were always able to outlast him. He didn't play with his parents he hit them & ran around the house throwing things. When they took him outside all he did was whine. He wanted to ride his bike but he didn't want to ride his bike. He wanted to swim in his pool but he didn't want to swim in his pool. So in the end he would run from one thing to another whining & crying. He decided that he didn't want to take a nap when his mommy would put him down for one. She would read him a story but he didn't want to sit with her while she read he would jump on the bed. So she would abandon the story & lay him back down & sing to him. But he didn't want to listen to her sing he wanted to kick & flail his feet & see if he could hit his mommy. So his mommy would just say "Fine, be that way but you're not leaving this room." She would shut his door behind him hoping that he would eventually just fall asleep. Sometimes he did sleep other times he played with his toys or destroyed his room. His mommy refused to take him out she would just let him do what he wanted in there. His mommy had had enough & just needed a break. When his daddy came home she would tell him what kinds of things his little monster had been up to. So his daddy would go to get Ethan & he would tell him that he heard he hadn't been a good boy. He would try to explain to him that he needed to eat if he wanted to be strong enough to play & that he needed his naps so that he would feel energized to play. Ethan wouldn't hear it. The Terrible Two's had taken over & they were there to stay. To this day the Terrible Two's are still there. His parents have just learned to ignore his tantrums. He doesn't get to do what he wants unless he eatsor takes his naps. He is put in time out for hitting & throwing things. All they can do is hope that someday their sweet angel will be returned to them.

THE END

I hope everyone enjoyed my story. I hope everyone had a good July 4. Ethan had a fun day. We took him over to Uncle Brian's so he could play with his cousin Macey. He had been asking for her all week. He was so excited to see her. After we left there we ran home to pack up our cooler to take to the park with us for the fireworks. When we got there we set up camp close to a tank & cannons on display. Very cool. Unfortunately the owners of the tank & cannons shot them off shortly before the fireworks. We were sitting in an area where there were a lot of little kids & infants. There was no warning they just let 'em rip. Poor Ethan was crying from the noise of them. We managed to keep his ears covered with our hands until they were done. It was cool for us to see the tank but unfortunately he was terrified though. He did OK once we covered his ears. I was really surprised that he stayed awake for them but he did. I took video of the display but sadly it's too big of a file for me to be able to download onto the internet. I do have a few pictures to post at the end of this post

We got the results back from Ethan's last phe test & his levels were 3.4. That's based on a 35g protein diet. Whether he is actually eating a full 35g is debatable. We calculate his meals to 35g but he's become one of those kids who refuses to eat what he is given so he's probably only getting about half of what we give him. As far as I know the Dr wants to keep him on the 35g for now. I don't think we have been told otherwise.

I'm having issues with loading pictures onto here so I can't put captions with the pictures :( BOO!! I'm working on getting the issue fixed hopefully it will be fixed soon.