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.