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.