Ethan - 3 Months

Ethan is three months old! I cannot believe that my baby is so old already. I'm such a sap that at exactly 4:29 pm on his 3 month birthday I teared up as I told Ethan exactly what was happening at that exact time just three short months ago. He continued to happily grab at the toys on his gym, but it was a special moment for me in any event. He has really started to grasp objects this week, and has learned that if you pull on the center toy of his rocking chair, music (kind of annoying music, I might add) is played. He loves when he can get the music to turn on and so I encourage him with lots of clapping and excitement.

He also has his first official "friend" - an elephant rattle from our friends the Tenney family. We named the rattle Mo (in honor of Ethan's godsister, Morgan) and Ethan cannot get enough of Mo! He holds onto it, puts the ears and trunk in his mouth all the time, and stares at Mo during playtime. He hasn't shown any interest in any of his other rattles, keys, or small toys yet, but hopefully that will be coming soon. Until such time, as long as we don't lose Mo we are in good shape!

Earlier today Ethan noticed his feet for the first time. He was sitting on Patrick's lap and they were having some fun making silly faces at one another when all of a sudden Ethan started staring at his toes and then proceeded to try to get his feet into his mouth. It was pretty funny! He hasn't paid a bit of attention to his feet the rest of the day so we'll see if he remembers them tomorrow or if it will be a little while before this is a permanent discovery. He always has his hands in his mouth these days, and it's hard to get him to pose for pictures without his hands in his mouth or on his face. Hopefully we will not have that same problem with his feet one day :)

This past weekend I got to go help my friend Erin (I use the word "help" loosely - I pretty much got to watch her take pictures and read some of my book) who is a photographer during her holiday mini session shoot. It was so much fun to get out of the house (sans Ethan) for an afternoon! Erin had her clients booked in half hour increments at a beautiful outdoor location and I got to watch her take pics of all the families. My "work" consisted of taking money and getting contact information and in exchange for this Erin is going to do a mini session for Ethan's three month professional pictures. I totally feel like I am taking advantage of her since I really didn't do much, but I have to say that I am really looking forward to having some decent shots of Ethan. When I add pictures to each blog post I am constantly reminded of how lacking I am in the photography department and how much I need to learn. It was so great getting to spend some time with Erin in between her sessions too - we've been friends since she moved to Charlotte several years ago and is always so much fun to be around.

Since I was "working" on Sunday my mom came to town to watch Ethan. It was fun having my mom here and on Saturday afternoon we ran some errands and went shopping. I found some awesome clothes for Ethan at one of my favorite children's consignment shops. In looking through Ethan's clothes for the fall/winter I realized that we have a decent number of shirts but very few pants. Let me just tell you what I was able to get for him (for under $20...total!) - Janie & Jack jeans (so my favorite store!), Pottery Barn Kids overalls, 2 pairs of Children's Place courderoy pants, and a Polo long pants onesie. Everything looks like it has never been worn too! Finding deals like this makes my heart happy :)

For pictures this week, I went ahead and tried to get a few shots of Ethan in his Halloween costume. He is going as a pumpkin this year and the outfit (courtesy of the Tenney family...they have spoiled Ethan rotten!) is absolutely adorable. I will take a few pictures of Ethan on Halloween as well (he has a Frankenstein tee shirt and matching socks to wear during the day and Halloween jammies to wear to bed so he is going to be decked out all day long!) but here's a sneak preview of our little pumpkin:

Fall Clothes

With fall finally upon us here in NC, I decided to try putting Ethan into some of his fall clothes. As big as this child is for his age, you would think that most of the 3-6 month clothes we have for him would fit, right? Wrong! He is swimming in most items so he has very few cute outfits to wear right now. He has outgrown the newborn clothes, it's a little too chilly for the summery 0-3 month clothes, and the 3-6 month clothes are huge. Whatever am I to do?!?! I will say that Carter's makes clothes that are size 3 months (not the typical 3-6) and these fit great. Unfortunately I only have a few Carter's outfits for him. I don't want to go shopping and buy too much since he's growing so quickly and will (hopefully) be fitting into his 3-6 month ensembles soon, but I may have to in order to prevent this poor child from wearing pajamas all day every day. As I was putting Ethan into a lot of his clothes to see how they were fitting, I decided to snap a few pictures. Poor kid...he just wants to hang out and I insist on playing dress up with him. Here are a few of my favorites:

These jeans are Gymboree size 0-3 months and fit pretty well (their size 3-6 months pants are HUGE on him...even though according to their height and weight requirements he is right in the middle and should be wearing the 3-6 month stuff)The Baby Gap shirt is size 3-6 months and is a little big but since it is technically a onesie I think it might work now

This sweater is Carter's and although it looks a little big in the picture it fits pretty well (size 3 months)

And since I was taking pictures of Ethan in various outfits, I decided to go ahead and take some pics of Ethan in his baptismal outfit (since with all the chaos going on the actual day of his baptism I never got around to taking pictures of just him):



I so need lessons on how to take good pictures. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to researching what makes for a good photography session and poor Ethan will be subjected to photo shoots with me each day. Poor little guy...I hope this doesn't humiliate him one day!

Like Father, Like Son

So yesterday I came in from planting my pansies in our flower beds to find this:

They were both sound asleep with their hands up by their heads. (Ethan moved his slightly before I was able to ge the camera though.) What makes this even funnier is that our cat Rocky (the only male cat) was passed out on the couch right by Patrick and Ethan. What is up with the men in this house?! I thought this was too cute not to share!

Ethan - Week 12

Our little boy is almost 3 months old...yikes! On the sleep front (since that seems to be my favorite topic to write about these days - haha!) Ethan is getting closer and closer to that magical day that I'll be able to celebrate him officially sleeping through the night. For two nights this week he slept for 6 hour stretches and then the past two nights he slept from 8:00 pm (there is just no waking him to eat again before I went to bed for the night - he is generally out like a light!) until 4:15 am. He slept for a little over 8 hours two nights in a row!!!! We're making progress which is encouraging and one day soon (I hope, I hope, I hope!) we'll get his sleep organized enough that I'll be able to sleep through the night too. When that happens, I'll probably throw a party I'll be so excited. He naps really well during the day and is starting to transition into fewer but longer naps instead of taking catnaps all day long. He usually sleeps for about a 2 hour stretch every morning but his afternoon naps (yes, he takes a couple!) aren't quite as predictable. As soon as I figure out his new patterns though, he'll probably be ready to set new ones. It would just be too easy if we always knew what was going on, right?!



With Patrick home for the afternoon yesterday, I decided that it was the perfect time to try to take some fall pictures in the natural area of the backyard. If only I knew how to take decent pictures though! I totally want to take a photography class, but most classes require that you have a really nice camera and I need to make do with my point and shoot camera for the time being. I could use some tips and tricks though, so if you have any feel free to send them my way. In any event, here are a few of the pictures that Patrick and I took:

This past week has been fun since we've had some visitors stop by and keep me company (which came at the perfect time since Patrick was working crazy hours with member guest. I am so glad that tournament is finally over because having your husband leave at 6:00 am and get home at 10:30 pm makes for very long days for both of us!) My sister Carolyn was driving down to visit her best friend in SC and stopped by to see her nephew for a few hours on Friday. Ethan was asleep for the majority of her visit (surprise, surprise) since she arrived around 6:00 pm but he did wake up towards the end of her visit and he showed her his new tricks. I make silly faces at Ethan all day long (which before you think I'm crazy, this results in Ethan smiling and looking like he is enjoying himself!) and when I stick out my tongue he has made attempts to stick his back out at me. It is so funny! He also folds his hands like he's praying when Patrick and I say bedtime prayers with him. I've been telling Carolyn about these two things he's been trying to mimic, and Ethan gave a little performance while she was here and stuck his tongue out (well, he gets just a little bit of it out of his mouth...we have a little work to do on this one!) and folded his hands in prayer for her. Carolyn reminded me that Ethan is not a puppy and shouldn't be trained to do tricks on command...too funny!

Awww...cuddling with Aunt Carolyn

Our friends John & Nikki moved up to Virginia a few weeks ago and this past weekend Nikki came back for a visit and brought a special visitor along with her...Ethan's girlfriend, Faith! (Ethan and Faith were due on the same day, born 2 days apart, and were the exact same size at birth and their one month checkups. Ethan has since outgrown Faith though, and probably every other baby his age too since he's so big!) We all got together for a cookout with a few of our other neighbors and the babies were both awake together for a few minutes. Ethan was more interested in going to sleep than paying attention to his beautiful buddy, but Nikki brought us some pictures of Faith so we are putting them up in his room and maybe the next time they get together Ethan will pay attention. He's way too young to be playing games with the ladies like this ;)

Faith & Ethan on their date (and yes, Ethan wore pajamas since he was out past his bedtime!)

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and I got my flu vaccination for the year. Last year while I was pregnant was the first time I've ever gotten a flu shot. (I'm generally, knock on wood, a pretty healthy person so I never really saw the need to do it.) Our pediatrician told Patrick and I that since Ethan is too young to get the shot this year himself it is extra important that we both get the shot at least this year so I went in today and Patrick will go and get his on Thursday. I'm not a huge fan of going to the doctor, but she combined my appointment with a routine physical so I guess it was a worthwhile use of time.

There's not too much else going on around here right now. The Panthers were off this week (finally, a week without a loss!) and my fantasy football team had a bye week as well so there's no news there to report either. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens this week, but so far it is shaping up to be a fairly uneventful week at our house.

Ethan - Week 11

This has been a fairly quiet week in the Strain household. On Sunday Ethan and I went to dinner at my friend Tracy and her husband Andy's house. They have two adorable little girls, Eve and Hayden, and it was great to get to spend time with them again. (Patrick had a softball game so he missed out!) Patrick and I went to meet Hayden in the hospital when she was born and now she is almost two...it's crazy how fast time has flown by. These are two of the sweetest young ladies ever and it was nice to be able to bring Ethan to meet my little buddies. Eve showed off her princess tiara and Hayden is a girl after my own heart - she loves shoes and purses. It is so nice to have friends with little girls so I can do girly things (like play dress up, watch dance recitals, etc.) I am so in love with my little boy, but it is nice to be a girl sometimes. Tracy is a wonderful friend from my old bible study group and for the longest time we were the only two working outside the home so we could totally relate. I am so glad to have a friend like Tracy and even though we can't meet for lunch as frequently these days (she took a new job uptown which makes it a little more difficult to meet) we still try to get together as much as possible. Ethan has already been uptown for lunch once to meet my friend Alli, so he is ready to join the ranks of the young business professionals and grab lunch with Tracy admist the hustle and bustle of the crowds.

Hayden kept wanting to hold Ethan...it was so cute! She carried two of her babies around all evening so I think she is getting in lots of practice to be a superstar babysitter one day!

Ethan has learned a new trick this week...he now knows how to arch his back and get stiff as a board when he doesn't want to do something. Wow, at 2 months he is already learning how to be defiant (haha!) He is particularly fond of using his new trick while nursing. He used to be so easy, but now after about 5-7 minutes he is done (even though I'm not!) I guess this means he is full and I'm not going to force him to eat if he's not hungry (and he is definitely a healthy, growing boy so I figure if he's hungry he'll let me know!) but it is going to take a few days for me to adjust to his new feeding routine. He is down to 6 feedings a day which takes up much less time than feeding him during the first month (when he consistently ate 9 times a day!) but I'm still trying to figure out his new routine. I had it down to a science, but I've heard that as soon as you have your baby figured out they go and change it up again. He is keeping me on my toes, for sure!

Hanging out at home with his mommy who insists on taking millions of pictures all the time!

Ethan has officially discovered his hands. He has always loved his hands and even in the hospital right after he was born he would put them on his face to soothe himself but this week brought a whole new fascination with his hands. He will stare at them, move them all around, and then of course put them in his mouth. It is pretty cute to watch. Could you imagine being so completely fascinated by something as simple as your own hands?!

Ethan's sleep patterns continue to be pretty erratic at night. There are some nights where he will go 6 hours in between feedings, but then the next night he'll return to every 3 hours. I'm hoping that he'll settle into a predictable pattern sometime soon, but for the time being I just kind of have to respond as necessary to his middle of the night demands. On the bright side he wakes up happy as can be and doesn't cry much. I've tried giving him a pacifier to see if he'll just go back to sleep, but he gives me definite hunger cues so I guess he's just not ready to sleep through the night yet. Sigh! His pediatrician doesn't see anything abnormal with his current patterns though, so I'm going to try to be patient and just hope that one day soon he will want to enjoy full nights of uniterrupted sleep. It does get tiring though, and when I think about the fact that it's been at least 5 months since I slept through the night (with one beautiful night that was an exception while I was still pregnant...it was so wonderful I think I even wrote about it here!) I wonder if it will ever happen again. I have to keep reminding myself that he is only 2 months old, but I am surrounded by super babies who all seem to have figured this one out so I am anxious for Ethan to do it too!!

Ethan's honorary godmother, his Aunt Jen, brought us the most wonderful gift when the Tenney family came to visit...it's a shirt that says "Mommy's answered prayers." When I opened this gift it brought tears to my eyes because Jen knows just how long and how much I have wanted to be a mother and she knows the struggles and obstacles that we have overcome in order to finally have this precious little boy in our lives. I thought that a shirt this meaningful deserved a mini photo shoot so here are a few of my favorites. (And I am including some of these in my next picture order for Jennifer...I am woefully behind in sending her pictures of Ethan and my house is full of fabulous pics she has sent to us of Morgan so I am working this week on catching up on ordering pictures for friends and family members.)

Ethan - Week 10

This has been a busy week for me and so I'm sorry that I'm so behind in updating everything on here. I had a work project to complete (it was just a one week assignment) and so every free minute I've had has been spent attempting to remember what it is like to use my brain and be slightly academic again. Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I've been working. I've had some freelance assignments here and there, but when I think about the fact that I stopped working full time in December of last year it kind of blows my mind. I absolutely love being a stay at home mom, but there are times that I miss going to an office, sitting in rush hour traffic, having deadlines and sitting through mindless meetings, and being forced to dress nicely each day. Am I absolutely crazy?! Anyway, I got the project submitted so now I can work on my fun projects like updating this blog, updating Ethan's baby book, photo albums, and calendar, and running some errands. Hopefully I'll get myself caught up on everything this weekend (fingers crossed!)

Ethan continues to reward me with beautiful smiles each day. Sometimes I wonder how he is actually my child - he is so happy most of the time and I am such a stress case that I don't know how I haven't ruined him yet. His sleeping patterns are totally erratic these days. The day after he slept for 8 hours he went back to waking up every 3 hours again. Ugh! Then the following night he slept for 6 hours, 4 the next night, and then back to 6. There is no telling how long he will sleep these days! I've started ensuring that he eats around 10:00 each night so that if he does decide to go 8 hours again it will be a full night's rest for me, but he hasn't gone 8 hours again yet. He goes back to sleep pretty easily after eating in the middle of the night which makes life a little easier, but I think that I would pay some serious money to have just one night of solid sleep. It is really starting to wear me out. I've noticed that Ethan has dropped another feeding during each 24 hour period and is consistently eating only 6 times a day now (which is much easier than the 9 he was doing initially) and is right on track with what Dr. Wiese said would happen sometime around the 3 month mark. Here are some pictures of Ethan at 10 weeks:

Posing for pictures wearing his new shoes from his Aunt Jen & Uncle Patrick...they are still a little big but so adorable that we could not resist!

Just hanging out

So from my last post you were able to see some pictures of the fun that we had with the arrival of our friends, the Tenney family. Jennifer and I met in ballet class in the fifth grade and have been friends ever since. I still remember clearly the moment that we first spoke. Our ballet teacher had asked us all to do some move that required us to balance on one foot and me being me, I propped my hands up on the wall. Mrs. Wingate walked by and praised me for finding my balance so quickly (ha!) and Jennifer happened to be next to me, saw that I was totally cheating, and we both laughed. It is amazing to me that we have remained close for so many years - we both moved after middle school (I only went as far as Cary but she went overseas) and this was in the days before email (if you can believe it!) I think we only actually saw each other once during high school and kept in touch through written letters. College came (and email made keeping in touch much easier!) and we were both Mountaineers, although she was at West Virginia University and I was at Appalachian State. We both met guys named Patrick that we would eventually marry and through it all I always knew that no matter what was going on Jen would always listen, always be there, and always have my back. To find a friend like her in life is rare, and I am forever grateful to have her in my life.

Jennifer's husband Patrick is a wonderful guy and my Patrick gets along with him really well. I could totally see our Patricks hanging out together if we lived closer to one another. It is fun to see them together when we do get to visit though. Four years ago when their daughter Morgan was born I was honored to be asked to be her godmother. Morgan has to be the sweetest little girl ever. She is full of energy, sweet, well mannered, and so much fun to have around. She is so imaginative and made me laugh all weekend.

The Tenneys arrived in time for dinner on Friday night and we pretty much spent the evening hanging out and catching up. On Saturday morning Jen and I walked Morgan over to the playground in my neighborhood and she decided that while we were on the play equipment we were driving to the beach. She is so creative! We got to swing on the swings and I couldn't help but smile when she kept asking me to push her higher. After a lunch of Chick-fil-A the girls headed to Discovery Place while the guys stayed home to watch golf and football.

I've never been to Discovery Place before, and it was fun getting to watch Morgan run from activity to activity. I think her favorite part of the place was the water table. She looked like she was having a ball using all the different things they had at that table! We also used a giant light bright, played the drums on kitchen equipment, and saw a movie about sharks in 3D. Morgan kept reaching out to touch the different fish as they swam towards us - it was too cute!

On Sunday morning Jennifer and I went to church while the guys and Morgan stayed home. It was so nice having a friend to attend church with and it made me wish (for about the millionth time) that we lived closer together. We had talked about going to the Lazy 5 Ranch in the afternoon but I think we were all tired and we instead stayed home and watched the Panthers once again stink up the NFL...sigh. The whole weekend went by way too quickly and I am so glad that we'll see the Tenneys again in December when they make their trip down to Florida.

Morgan was so good with Ethan and she even took care of his stuffed elephant for him all weekend. At night she used his Twilight Turtle to light up her room with colorful stars (since she doesn't read this blog yet I can say that I have a strong hunch she is going to get her own Twilight Ladybug as part of her Christmas present this year) and we had pajama parties and played with her toys each evening. She kept giving all of us her Disney princess stickers and I am still finding them throughout the house. I loved it! Morgan asked me if I had any games and unfortunately I don't have too many that are good for kids (four might be a little young for Monopoly!) so I brought out UNO. I helped Morgan with the rules and after a few hands she was beating me...she is so smart! I loved having her here and felt so special when she wanted me to be her buddy. While I was spending time with Morgan Jen and Patrick were taking care of Ethan for me. They are both such naturals with him and Jen had some fantastic advice for me. (I feel like an idiot for not thinking of some of these things sooner!)

On Thursday Ethan and I ventured uptown to meet my friend Alli for lunch. I felt so out of place pushing my stroller through the crowd of young business professionals of which I am no longer a part. It was great getting to see her at her new job and I can't wait until our next uptown girls lunch!

Getting ready to go meet my friend Alli for lunch uptown

Tenney Family Visit - Pictures

This past weekend was so wonderful because our dear friends, the Tenney family, drove down from West Virginia to spend a long weekend with us. I have so much to write about everything we did this weekend, but since it is getting late and I am beyond exhausted (I have so much to add about Ethan's sleeping patterns in his week 10 post that I am planning to do tomorrow as well!) I thought that I would start with some pictures and then attempt to actually write out a real post tomorrow. Until then, enjoy some pics of my oldest friend (we met when we were 10 years old and still in elementary school!), her charming husband Patrick and their precious daughter Morgan.

I think it might be love!

Ethan relaxing with his Aunt Jen

Ethan with his super cute godsister (and yes, they both seem to have an affinity for their middle finger...fortunately neither of them know what it means just yet!)

Hanging around on the playground

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend...she looks as scared as I was about some of the bugs in this room (but she is far braver than I am and she checked out everything!)

What kind of bugs are growing in there?!

Getting ready to watch a 3D movie about sharks; Morgan kept reaching out to "touch" the fish when they swam toward us and it was adorable!

Playing at the water table...I think it was her favorite part of Discovery Place

Morgan breaking it down on a drum set

Do you see the WV Jen made in honor of her beloved WVU?!

Deep in thought working on the block puzzle

Literally running circles around Jennifer :)

Morgan got so excited when she found Nemo

Morgan gave all of us Disney princess stickers to wear...check out all the stickers she shared with Ethan

Playing UNO with Morgan (she beat me quite a few times!)

Can a Panthers fan and a Steelers fan really be friends? Ethan loves his Uncle Patrick, despite the fact that he roots for the wrong team

Learning about Fantasy Football with Uncle Patrick...it may be a few years before she is ready to field her own team though

Morgan indulged the adults just long enough to pose for a few pictures with Ethan. He doesn't know it yet, but his job one day will be to protect his godsister from her many suitors!

Don't you just love the expression on Morgan's face?! She is such a happy little girl!