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