Happy Birthday Ethan!!

5 years ago today at 5 in the morning we were heading to the hospital in labor 10 weeks early. At 10:02pm a beautiful little boy named Ethan arrived into this world weighing 3lbs 9oz. Now that tiny little baby is turning 5. In the fall he will start a new journey in life as he starts kindergarten. I can't believe that 5 years has gone by already. He has grown up so fast! In honor of him turning 5 I made a video that covers the last 5 years. I tried my best to keep it under 15 minutes but it was impossible too many cute pictures. So when you've got 27 minutes to kill take time to watch.

Watch Ethan's Journey in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Ethan's birthday party was Saturday and he had a great day. A couple of his friends from school were there and he was absolutely thrilled to see them. Ever since school let out he has just been missing his friends and teachers like crazy! It's been a rough adjustment for him. It was a total blast he had no problems going to sleep last night. Thank you to everyone who came out and made his party a great time! I will post pictures from it later.

A Preschool Graduate!

It's official! Ethan is a preschool graduate! He finished pre-k on May 15, 2013. He is officially a kindergardener! We got him registered for kindergarden a couple weeks ago. It's hard to believe that he is entering kindergarden already. It was a very bittersweet feeling when I took him to preschool for the last time. It kind of felt like it did the day I dropped him off for his first day. Only this time I didn't cry LOL.

In less than 2 weeks Ethan will be turning 5. This year he is having a construction themed birthday party. Which is funny because his preschool graduation was a construction theme. A perfect fit for him. He is very excited because he invited his friends from preschool. At this point I know of 2 who will be coming but I'm sure more will be there. He will be so excited to see his friends again!

Ethan has had a hard time with accepting that school is over and that he will not be going back to that school. We will be playing outside and he will just suddenly get very sad. I will ask him what is wrong and he tells me that he doesn't want to leave Miss Tiffany and how he just wants to play with his friends. It quite heartbreaking really. He made some good friends this year and he just adored his teacher. I'm hoping that I can get phone numbers and addresses from the friends that come to his party so that I can get him together with them over the summer. One of the girls that he played with actually lives just about 5 minutes away from us so I will definitely be making sure to get him together with her. I try to give him things to do to take his mind off what he is missing but it doesn't help much. It's just not the same. He will make new friends in kindergarden next year but they won't replace the ones he made this year.

I was working on a little movie for him for his birthday and was hoping to have it done by his party but unfortunately my computer died. The hard drive finally went bad. All my pictures and videos were on it. We took it to Best Buy and they are going to attempt to retrieve my stuff. It's going to take some time though. Hopefully they can succeed and I can get it finished up. I was going to post a ton of pics on Finlay's blog as well as I've been horrible about it (my bad) but I will have to wait. So cross your fingers that Best Buy succeeds.

I did however video tape Ethan's graduation program on my phone and that was never put onto the computer so I have fixed it up a little bit and uploaded it to YouTube. I will post it at the end of this post. My videographing was pretty bad due to a Finlay trying to climb on me LOL. So forgive the horrible moving about.

Ethan is still doing gymnastics he's got a couple more weeks until they let out for a couple weeks for summer break. He loves his classes so we will continue him with summer classes. They start at the end of June. They haven't opened up registration yet for summer classes but they should be doing that soon. So I don't know what day he will be going. He will be moving into the 5/6 year old class and they usually have a slightly smaller class. He will still be in the preschool gym though until he is in first grade then he will move to the other gym. He's come a long way since his first day in gymnastics. He used to need help on the bar to flip forwards and now he can do that without any assistance. Last week they were working on flipping backwards and he was able to get halfway over before needing a little assistance. A month ago he couldn't even get his feet folded over the bar. Gymnastics is the perfect place for him to be because he is such a monkey at home. He has taken to climbing the doorways and can get to the top. It took him 2 weeks to figure out how to do it. Miss Heather, one of his preschool teachers, was telling me that when they take the kids out onto the playground that he is impressive on the swingset rings. He does things that most kids his age can't do. She asked me if I had him in any kind of sports so I told her about his gymnastics class and she thought it's a good place for him to be. As long as he continues to enjoy gymnastics we are going to keep him in it.

Here is the link to view the video of Ethan's Preschool Program.

Rough Month

Poor Ethan has had a rough few weeks! A couple weeks ago he was all excited about the "P" party they were going to be having at the school that is his school's pen pals. He had been talking about which pajammas he was going to wear (it was a pajamma party). Then he woke up around 5 in the morning saying that his head was hurting and he was running a fever. He was given some Tylenol and put back to bed. I let him sleep in as late as possible and checked his temp. It was normal. I checked 3 times. He woke up wanting to go to the party so bad. I let him go against my better judgement. I figured since the fever was gone and all he was complaining about was a headache he'd be OK but I was expecting a call from the school, I never got that call. When I picked him up and got him in the car he was saying that his head hurt but he had a good time at the party other than not getting a chance to hit the piñata. I picked up some Sprite on the way home and checked his temp again, normal. Not even 15 minutes after getting home he was sick to his stomach. That lasted 12 hrs then the next day he was just a lump on the couch. I let him lay in the toy room watching Netflix (Finlay couldn't get in there to bug him) all day. By the next day he was acting like himself. Later that night he was complaining that his ear hurt but said nothing more that Saturday. But Sunday the fever was back and his ears were bugging him so Matt took him to Urgent Care and he had an ear infection. He was put on antibiotics for 10 days. He finished that last Tuesday. Then this Weds while having lunch with Matt he was practically crying that his ear was really bothering him. We took him down to audiology and they took a peek and his right ear was angry red. So called his Dr and they were able to get him in right away. I was told that the previous antibiotic helped but wasn't strong enough to completely clear it up so he was put on something stronger for another 10 days. He hasn't been complaining the last few days and he is acting like his normal self so hopefully this round will knock it out.

He's loving school. Getting him out of bed in the morning to get around is a chore but once I got him dressed he is looking forward to getting to school. He told me that today they were putting acorns on a scale to see how much they weighed. Monday they will be doing paper airplanes and measuring how far they go when thrown. That was supposed to be done today but I guess they didn't get to it. From the conversations I have with his teacher when I pick him up he's doing very well and is ahead in class. He's a smart one!

Ethan has been a awesome big brother. He has been helping Fin learn to walk (see Fin's blog) and he has so much fun playing with his little brother. He is always asking me when I pick him up from school  if Finlay missed him while he was gone. When I drop him off he always has to give Finlay hugs and kisses and before I can buckle him into the car the first thing he does is hug and kiss Finlay and tell him that he missed him. It's just so cute and I love it! At home they have fun having lunch together and after lunch playing with the cars. It's fun to just sit and watch them play sometimes.

Doing Well

We had a conference today with Ethan's teacher, Miss Tiffany. She had nothing but praise for him. She showed us how he was writing his name in the beginning and it was pretty much nothing but scribbles and now only 2 months later he is writing his name with very little to no help at all. She said he has a tendency to make his T's gigantic or to add an extra line to his E's but overall he is doing very well with it. They are working on getting him to count to 20 and at this time he is able to count to 15 so he's almost there. She does an activity with him where she will have him pick 10 blocks from the bin. After he picks out 3 she will stop him and ask him how many does he have and he doesn't recount he tells her 3 and continues and then at 5 she will ask how many does he have now and he will instantly tell her 5 and give her a look like "Why are you stopping me?" The point of the game is so they don't just straight count it distracts them a bit and makes them think a little. He knows all his colors and shapes and does matching very well. His cutting is well he is capable of following the lines. When it comes to his letters he gets confused on the lower case letters and only seems to recognize 9 of the 26 lower case letters but he knows his upper case well. She said that over all he is excelling quickly, he is moving quicker than most of the kids. He should do very well in kindergarden as long as he has a teacher who will continue to push him. Socially he is doing well. He has his days where he is a little shy or stand offish but he warms up once they do news time where the kids get to share their news. It's his favorite part of the morning. So it was a good meeting. We will have another conference around April when the schools will be getting ready to do the kindergarden readiness test.

On Tues the 20th the school will be doing their Thanksgiving feast. They will be dressing as the Indians, the preschool class will be dressed as Turkey's, and their pen pals from Happiness Is (right here in the point) will continue the tradition of coming as the Pilgrims. The kids will be doing a little parade and they each will bring their favorite food to share with everyone. They are making their costumes during class time. It will be interesting to see if Ethan actually wears it. He's having fun making the costume but he wants to go as Captain America LOL. He isn't getting that this isn't the same thing as Halloween. They are learning all about the Pilgrims and how the Indians taught them how to live off the land. They even have a teepee in the classroom for the kids to play in.

Don't forget his fudge sale ends on the 26th. If you are interested in buying fudge from him refer to the post I made about it. I need to have the money in hand by the 25th for him to turn in on the 26th.

Fundraiser

Ethan's school is selling Toledo Zoo fudge for a fundraiser now through Nov 26. If you are interested in buying some fudge please let me know what you want and I will put you down for it. I must have money in hand to be turned in by Nov 25 so he can turn it in on the 26th.

Here is a list of what they are selling and a price list.

Chocolate
Chocolate Nut
Vanilla Nut
Peanut Butter
Snowman
Cashews
Saltwater Taffy


Prices are as follows
$7.50/8oz Fudge
$11.00/12 oz Fudge
$14.00/16 oz Fudge
$17.00/ 1 lb Gift Tin of Fudge
$7.50/8oz Snowman (Chocolate or Peanut Butter only)
$10.00/8 oz of Cashews
$18.00/16 oz Cashews
$21.00/1 lb tin of Cashews
$4.00/8 oz Salt Water Taffy
$7.00/1 lb Salt Water Taffy


Please make checks out to: Precious People Preschool

Again I must have the money in hand by the 25th so he can turn it in on the 26th. Orders will be delivered on Monday Dec 17. If you are interested please let Matt or I know.

Loving School

This is Ethan's 2nd full week of school and he is having a blast. Last week they were working on finger paintings and when he came out today he handed me his painting and told me that he had made it especially for me. I of course hung it on the fridge the moment we got home. His teacher, Miss Tiffany, told me when she brought him to the car today that they were doing a project on the light table that involved shaving cream. Ethan went hog wild. She had fun cleaning him up but she warned me that I might find shaving cream on him LOL. I told her if it involved being allowed to make a massive mess Ethan will be the first one in line. He definitely had fun and he smells like shaving cream LMAO.

Last week Ethan started feeling sick and he ended up not being able to go to school on Friday because he was running a fever. He was very upset that he couldn't go. He just loves his class so much that not being there made him sad. I am so glad that he is having fun.

PreK

It's official! Ethan is in PreK. His first day of school was yesterday. I walked him in and helped him find his cubby and empty his book bag then I let the teacher take over. It was a quick hug and kiss and I walked away (crying). Ethan on the other hand barely noticed that I walked away. There was so much going on he was too distracted. When I picked him up and his teacher brought him to the car she said he did fantastic that there were no problems at all. She mentioned that as they were packing up to leave he told her that he was starting to get bored and wanted to go home. She told him that was good because they were packing up to leave. He was just bored because the teachers had stood them in line under their name tags in the hall and made sure that the right book bag was going home with the right kid so they weren't doing anything. I guess he asked her one time where his mom was and she just told him that his mom would be there to pick him up soon and then directed him to an activity and that was that. He had no tears when he realized I was not there he just accepted it. I tried to get him to tell me what he did in school but he said he couldn't remember LOL. The only thing he told me was that he played on the swings and that a boy hit him and Miss Tiffany put that boy in time out. I have no idea what was going on when the other kid hit him and we aren't making a big deal out of it. I have already told Ethan that Friday when I take him to school I am just going to go through the drop off line that his first day was the only day I was going to walk him in. The school is in a church and the hallway to the preschool part is narrow so they don't want much foot traffic going through it for good reason. The way the drop off line works is the parent pulls right up to the doors and one of the 3 teachers will come out and safely take the child into the building. At the end of the day they look at the number that parents were given at the parent/teacher meeting a few weeks back and match that number to the number attached to the childs book bag and bring the child out by the hand and put the child in their seat. The only thing they ask of the parents is if the kid needs help getting buckled just pull the car down the driveway and off to the curb so they can keep the line moving. They don't want the line to get too long and possibly block up the church parking lot. It works out very well especially if you have another child with you. That way you don't have to get them out and then back in. I liked it yesterday because Finlay was sleeping so I didn't have to disturb his little nap. It's a pretty efficient way of keeping the kids safe. Ethan will only be going 3 days a week (MWF) and class is from 9-11:30. There are 2 classes one for the 3/4 year olds and the other is PreK for the ones who will be going to kindergarden next year. They fill that 2.5 hours with a lot of activity at 9 they go outside to play to help burn some energy then at 9:15 they do hand washing and snacks. The rest of the time is filled with story time, song time, news time (where kids can share any interesting things they want), they do an experiment, play with a purpose, and finally clean up and pack up. Each segment lasts about 15 minutes because at the age of 4 that's about the length of their attention span. It helps keep them from getting bored. Also twice a week each kid will get one on one time with the teacher where they will work on skills they need to have for kindergarden. At the end of the year the teacher will do a mock kindergarden readiness test and if there is anything they are struggling with then she will work on those skills and make sure they can do everything proficiently. He is going to have a fun year.

Ethan started the Fall session of gymnastics last week. They had a week off between the Summer and Fall sessions so he was excited to be back in the class. His Fall class is huge. We counted 11 kids. Because there are so many kids there are 2 instructors for the class. One instructor runs the warm ups on the mat and then they split up the kids into 2 even numbered groups. Fortunately Ethan ended up with Rob who was his coach over the summer. When I signed Ethan up for the Fall I was very specific in making sure that Ethan stayed in Rob's class. We like the way he runs the class and Ethan responds very well to him. I am thinking that the office worker made a note of that to Rob so that when the class got split he took Ethan into his instruction. Ethan likes Rob, if Rob has to yell at him to get him to do something right Ethan gets upset because he doesn't like it when his coach is upset (too bad he can't have that attitude at home). Between gymnastics and school Ethan is going to have a fun filled year.