Ethan - 4 Months

Ethan and Mary Grace - not my best work taking pictures but they look so cute checking each other out!

Ethan is four months old...yikes! He is showing so much personality these days. I've decided that this is a pretty fun age because Ethan does stuff and is pretty interactive but he isn't mobile yet (which makes my life a little easier!) The big news is that Ethan rolled over for the first time this past week. The tragic part of this is that I missed it. Yep - he rolled over for Daddy when I wasn't there. I have been the one with him all day, every day, for his entire life and he decides roll for the first time for Daddy. Go figure! I have been trying (in vain) to get him to roll again, but he is content to flip from side to side and not make the complete turn onto his belly again. Maybe one day...

Everything is going in his mouth these days. And I do mean everything! I have to be really careful when we are out running errands because if his rattle or toy end up on the ground I have to keep them until I can disinfect them and then give them back to Ethan. (Yes, I am a germaphobe!) I usually travel with a bag full of toy options so this hasn't been a problem (yet) but I dread the day that I keep a toy he really wants. His favorite toy (by far!) is still Mo the rattle but a close second is his Baby Einstein take along tunes toy. He loves staring at the colorful lights and listening to the music.

Ethan and his BFF, Mo the rattle

Ethan had his four month check up at the pediatrician's office this morning and he did really well. He has slowed down a lot on the weight gain (only 50th percentile for weight this time around) but he is still pretty long (75th percentile for length.) His official 4 month measurements are 15 pounds, 4 ounces and and 25 3/4 inches. He's still my big guy! He also got two shots and an oral vaccination so I am betting that we have a fussy 24 - 48 hours ahead of us. Fingers crossed he does okay, but we'll see.

The standard picture with Daddy before going into the pediatrician's office
I love this expression - you are taking my picture in the parking lot because, why???? Cuddling with Daddy in Dr. Wiese's office

Pulling my hair right before he had to get his shot (I guess I had it coming!)

Ethan and I went and met my friend Sarah (who was in town visiting her in-laws) and her daughter Mary Grace for breakfast a few mornings ago. Sarah was my big sister from my Sigma Kappa days and it was great to be able to hang out and catch up in person. One day Ethan and Mary Grace will be good friends (and if you look back at older posts on here there is a picture of a very pregnant me holding a tiny newborn Mary Grace!) but for now they were each in their own little world. Both of the tiny diners behaved and allowed Sarah and I to have a great visit.

That's going to have to do it for today...I hear my little vaccine baby calling for me and considering all that he has been through in the past two weeks (two trips out of town, company coming to stay, and a trip to the pediatrician's office) I think he deserves a few days of cuddling and spoiling.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this past week! On Sunday Patrick's sister, Jeannie, flew in to spend a few days in Charlotte with us and we had such a good time. Jeannie is great with Ethan and I know he loved having his aunt in town. She gives Ethan cuddles all day long so he was in heaven! Jeannie and I left Ethan at home one afternoon to go shopping, and it was so nice to be able to relax and shop (without a stroller in tow. I love having Ethan with me, but I forgot how easy it is when I don't have to worry about a carrier, diaper bag, stroller, etc. etc.)

On Wednesday we all drove to Greensboro together to celebrate the holiday at the Strain family home. It was wonderful getting the whole family together. My family is so small that sometimes it is easy to forget what a large family get together is like. I loved it!

The cutest part of the visit was when my nephew, Ben, told me that he wanted to marry me. Melt. My. Heart. He's only 5 so obviously does not quite understand what he was saying. I told him that I was already married to Patrick and showed him Patrick's wedding ring. He proceeded to put a napkin ring on and said that now I could marry him too. Awww! I did promise him that when the day came for him to get married that I would be there to help him celebrate. Too cute!

The funniest part of our visit was when a group of us were upstairs watching football. My nephew Bailey (10) got really into the games this year and it was awesome watching him enjoy football with us. (He passed up the kiddie movie that was on downstairs...impressive!) Bradley came up during halftime and when the commentators showed up on the screen he proceeded to loudly say, "Ewww - old people!" I tried so hard not to give a reaction but I couldn't help cracking up just a little bit. Kids really do say the darndest things :)

Ethan did okay with all the travel, commotion and excitement, but by the time dinner was ready he was absolutely exhausted. We left shortly after dinner and he slept the entire way home. He did not stir when we transferred him from his car seat to his crib and he managed to take a marathon nap the following day as well. This child was worn out!

Here are a few pictures from Ethan's first Thanksgiving:

Meeting Uncle Brian for the first time

My sister-in-law, Stacy, mother-in-law, Chris, and sister-in-law, Jeannie

Ben decided to take a picture of Bailey and I (not too bad for a 5 year old!)

Patrick and his sister, Jeannie
My nephews, Ben & Bailey
Ethan chatting with Uncle Michael

Ethan hanging out with his Aunt Brooke & Uncle Michael

Bailey playing on Ethan's travel activity gym

Ben got in on the action too!

Bradley hanging out with Ethan

Me with my boys - Ethan & Ben

Ethan's first Christmas present from his cousins

Bailey showing off the gift he, Bradley and Ben got for Ethan's first Christmas

Patrick, his sister, Jeannie, and Ethan snoozing

Ethan was worn out after two days of celebrating

Our adorable nephew Ben in his jammies

Aunt Jeannie playing the whistle game with Ben

My sister-in-law, Brooke, and brother-in-law, Michael (aren't they cute?!)

The Coolest Christmas Party Invite Ever

This past week we received the best party invitation I have ever seen. Patrick called me out to our front porch where a small Christmas tree (a live one, ahhh I love real Christmas trees!) was waiting. There was fake snow sprinkled around the base of the tree, a bow tie at the top, and four cards. The first three were a "12" "11" and "10" and then the last card went, "Let the countdown begin to the Christmas party....black tie or attached bow tie optional." How cool is this?! One of the members at the club where Patrick works is hosting the party and I am so excited (yet intimidated as well) to attend the party. The poor delivery guy probably thought he was in the wrong neighborhood when he pulled up to our house!

Ethan - Week 17

Let me start this post by saying something that I have known for a long time but became glaringly obvious this past week - my child is huge. Ginormous. A hulk, if you will. Now I've known that he is big for his age for quite awhile (being in the 95th percentile was a pretty big clue!) but Ethan got to see his BFF, Graham, a few days ago (who is SEVEN weeks older than Ethan) and we think that Ethan was the bigger baby. Graham has almost 2 months on him, and the last time they got together you could see that Graham was the older child. Now Ethan looks older (although he doesn't do all the things Graham can do yet, so it's almost comical putting them together.) This child may have a one way ticket to the NFL if he doesn't slow down on the growing soon. I am fearing the day that he is a teenager, eating me out of house and home. We'll have to take out a second mortgage just to feed this child!


We went to Raleigh this past weekend to help celebrate my brother-in-law's 30th birthday and it was a lot of fun. This was Ethan's first trip out of town and so I was really curious to see how he would do with it all. Overall he did pretty well, but I've discovered that when he is in a new place he does not want to sleep. At all. The car ride to Raleigh was fairly uneventful and we got to my mom's house around 10 am or so on Saturday. I fed Ethan and he was super alert, taking in all the new sights, sounds and smells. We went out for lunch and he took a brief (10 minutes or so) snooze in his carrier and then he was up for pretty much the rest of the day. We were back at my mom's house for a little bit and then we went to meet our friends Lindsay and Casey for ice cream. Fortunately he wasn't really fussy considering that he was running on almost no sleep, and he finally fell asleep in my mom's arms while we were getting ice cream (this child usually naps around 4 hours a day) so she just held him while the rest of us visited. He totally missed out on visiting with his BFF though!

After a brief snooze while we were getting ice cream, we went back to my mom's house and Ethan was so sleepy looking that I went ahead and put him in pajamas (instead of his super cute party outfit) and as soon as I fed him he FINALLY fell into a sound sleep. He slept through the entire party! We had him in his carrier in the middle of the living room and he was oblivious to everything. There were a few toddlers running around (who were so sweet with him - Natalie loved to pat his head!) but he just slept through it all. There were other babies there who cried right next to him and he slept through all of that too. There were 40-50 people moving around and this child slept. It makes no sense to me, but he slept for a solid 5 hours. Of course, as soon as we were getting ready to leave he woke up and gave the remaining guests some smiles and stayed awake for the car ride back to my mom's house. We set up the pack n' play for Ethan to sleep in, but he was having none of it. He discovered that the mesh sides of the pack n' play make noise when you scratch them and so for the remainder of the evening (it was already after midnight at this point) all I heard was "scratch, scratch, scratch." He loved his new game, even if all I wanted to do was sleep! I guess I can take comfort in the fact that he wasn't crying or upset, but it was a restless night for me. I miss my dear friend, sleep, so very much!

Ethan's been a little out of sorts the past couple of days, but since we are going to head to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and he has his 4 month pediatrician's appointment on Monday I figure it will be several days before I get him settled back down again. I have so many pictures to share right now, but I think I'm going to wait until his 4 month post to get them loaded onto here. Sorry this is kind of a rambling post...I'll try to get myself organized again here sometime soon!

Ethan - Week 16

There is happy news from the Strain household this week...Ethan is officially laughing out loud and it is so much fun! He laughs all the time, and in case you couldn't tell, I am loving every minute of it. Seriously, this little boy is happy the vast majority of the time (but don't let me fool you, he does have his moments where I say that he is cussing me in baby!) and now that he is laughing we are having even more fun together during our days. One of his favorite things in the world right now is to "stand." I have to hold him up under his arms, but he will put his weight down on his legs and he grins the whole time. Another favorite to really get him laughing is to tickle him (yes, he seems to already be ticklish - is that even possible?!) or to lay him on the bed and gently bounce him. I think that might get the biggest laughs out of him right now. The sound of my little guy laughing might be the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Of course, on the flip side there is that pesky crying that occurs when I've waited too long to feed him or to put him down for a nap! (Fortunately the crying only lasts a minute or two, but during those times he can get loud and that's when I say that he is cussing me in baby!!)

Ethan is FINALLY starting to organize his sleep patterns. For the past two weeks or so he has been taking one long nap in the morning and one long nap in the afternoon. (The morning nap is consistently two hours and the afternoon nap is usually an hour and a half to two hours.) He is going to bed at a consistent time and waking up at a consistent time too. He's slept through the night several times, but I wouldn't say that he's totally consistent with that one yet. There are still far too many nights where he wakes up at 2 for a middle of the night feeding for me to say we're there, but there is a light at the end of this very long and sleep deprived tunnel. Knowing when he is going to nap during the day has made it much easier for me to schedule meeting friends for lunches, running errands, etc. Of course, we're heading to Raleigh this weekend and to Greensboro next week for Thanksgiving so we'll see how much of his routine remains intact when we're through with our traveling. Fingers crossed we won't be back at square one! Ethan is down to eating 5 times a day now too. (Or 6 on the days that he decides that he needs to eat in the middle of the night.) He is hungry at the same times throughout the day so there's a pattern to his feeding schedule again now. (And it's funny because he goes longer between meals earlier in the day and then likes to eat closer together in the latter part of the day.)

We went and met my friend Erin on Monday and she took a ton of pictures of Ethan. I thought we were only going to do a couple, but she kept taking pictures and Ethan seemed to enjoy spending time with her. Her little boy Connor joined us when we went outside and I can't wait until this time next year when our boys are able to play together (he's only a year older than Ethan. Unfortunately Ethan currently has no interest in other kids. Go figure!)

Ethan has been watching his kitties very intently these past couple of days and this week he reached out and patted Caddy for the first time. Caddy seemed okay with it (she sits right by Ethan all the time) but I want to make sure that the kitties always feel loved and protected because our poor little Rocky is terrified of Ethan. Hopefully one day they will be good friends, but in the interim I make sure to give each of the kitties special one on one time each day so that they know that I haven't forgotten about them.

I took Ethan with me to the mall earlier today to run a couple of errands, and since he was in such a happy mood I decided I probably had a few minutes to go and drool over the shoes in Nordstrom. (No, I didn't buy any!) There was a super sweet older lady who was working by the perfumes and she and Ethan bonded instantly. He was seriously giving this lady the flirtiest smiles and was putting on a show for her. She offered to get him a balloon (evidently they have them for all the kids in the children's department) and I told her he was probably too little but she said she didn't mind going to get it for him and she came right back with a bright yellow balloon. Ethan was in heaven!!!! Nordstrom puts a plastic weight on the end of the balloon so it can't fly away and Ethan stared intently at his balloon for the remainder of our errands. You would think that he would have lost interest in it by the time we made it home, but he played with it a bit more (under my very watchful eye) and then when Patrick came home he spent another 30 minutes or so with his balloon and Daddy. Who knew that a balloon would be so exciting?!

Ethan - Week 15

This past weekend Ethan and I went to go help my friend Erin during her photography sessions. It was a pretty chilly morning, so I had Ethan bundled up in his teddy bear snuggly (even though it is still a little big on him.) He looked like a giant stuffed animal! He was warm and cozy throughout the photo sessions and even decided to fall asleep on the job. Of course I was holding him at the time (he loves to be held for a nap, so he got spoiled!) and therefore once again I didn't really do much in the way of helping Erin. It was lots of fun getting to watch her in action though, and the kids she got to photograph this week were absolutely adorable. I can't wait to see the pictures! On Monday we'll have Ethan's pictures taken and I cannot wait! Here are a few I took of Ethan in his bear suit once we got home:

Now I'm going to rant for just a minute...I HATE my stupid car! Over the course of just 6 weeks it has had three separate issues. Two of them were relatively minor, but I digress. On the day of Ethan's baptism my car decided to die on the side of the highway leaving my cousin Anna and I temporarily stranded. (Fortunately we were only 10 minutes from home and there was tons of family around to come and rescue us.) Two weeks after that I went out to the garage to start my car and it was dead. It was able to start with a jump and just needed a new battery but was frustrating in any event. And THEN when I was leaving Erin's photo shoots last Saturday I heard a loud rumbling as I was driving away. In my car ignorance I thought I just had a lot of gravel under my hood or something, but turns out it was a flat tire. Erin was nice enough to have her husband come and put the spare on for me, and Ethan and I drove home at a brisk 40 mph down the highway. (It was a new experience driving that slowly for 20+ miles on the highway...I noticed things I have never seen before!) Fortunately there was just a nail in the tire and it was an easy fix, but after all of these things I am totally over my car.

Ethan's grandparents came for a visit on Wednesday and we had a nice time together. Of course I was totally jealous during lunch because they brought barbecue (which I cannot eat since for some reason it gives Ethan terrible gas) so I just watched everybody else eat the yummy goodness. This was my second lunch watching them all enjoy barbecue without me though, so I'm getting a little better at watching everybody else eat one of my favorites without me. This is the only food that seems to give Ethan problems, so fortunately I haven't had to give up anything else.

Ethan is really starting to show his little personality these days. He LOVES his Mo rattle and given the choice between Mo and any other toy he will choose Mo every time. He is also really into his plastic keys. I need to get a picture of Ethan with Mo because this elephant rattle is going in the baby book as his first official "friend." He gets a little frustrated with his plastic rattles because he loves to put everything in his mouth and I guess it's just not the same as his plush rattles. His activity gym continues to be a daily activity and he still loves the plastic mirror (so that he can admire that baby staring back at him!) During his baths he has started kicking his feet and splashing which is adorable (since there really isn't enough water for it to soak me...yet.) I haven't given him any toys in the bath yet, and I think I'm going to wait until he's ready for me to take the newborn insert out of his tub before I do. Here's a picture from a few weeks ago of Ethan with his keys:

I have a bunch of pictures to upload, so I'm sure I'll have more with his week 16 update. (And since I am so behind in posting his week 15 update I'll probably be doing that one here in the next day or two!)

My fantasy football team won again last week, but according to the projections I'm going to lose this week so we'll see how it goes. I have 2 players, my kicker, and my defense on a bye this week so I had to do some major adjustments in order to be able to field a complete team. We'll see how it goes. The Panthers continue to be TERRIBLE this year. Poor Ethan - his first year as a fan and his team stinks. Hopefully we will not have this problem with the Blue Devils now that basketball season is upon us as well.

Attempting the 3 Month Pic...

I just realized that I never posted Ethan's "official" 3 month picture. (I try to take a picture every month of Ethan next to his Winnie the Pooh in the chair in his room so that it will be easy to really see his growth from month to month.) Months 1 and 2 were so simple...this month, not so much. Below is the best that I could get, and below that you'll see all the fun that Ethan was having as I attempted to record his third month. Good grief - what I am in for when I attempt to take his 4 month picture?!?!

Ethan is 3 months old!

Ethan talking to Pooh and trying to put Pooh on his lap

Again with the trying to hug Pooh
You get the idea... :)

Now he decided that eating his sign is a good plan

Or waving it in front of his face

I think he was trying to put the sign in his mouth again here

Not the best picture, but at least Ethan, Pooh, and the sign are all still

I'm scared to think what kind of shenanigans he'll try to pull next month. All in all we had a lot of fun (he cracks me up) but alas, the finished product just isn't all that spectacular. Oh well!

Ethan - Week 14

This might be a relatively short post since I have a couple of work projects to complete. Yes, you read that correctly - I'm (sort of) working again. This is such an answered prayer and I really hope that it works out for the long term because this job allows me to have the best of both worlds - I get to be a full time stay at home mommy with Ethan while still having some job responsibilities and keeping one foot in the corporate world. One of the principals at my old company and his business partner have started a new company together and he recommended me for a freelance position where I get to write and edit profiles of business executives. I had to go through an audition process and submit some samples, and fortunately it all worked out. I love researching, writing, and editing so this is like a dream position for me. The best part is that I get to do it from home, there are no set hours so I can work around Ethan's nap/bedtime schedule and I get to keep my full time job of taking care of my little guy. The downside is that since I'm freelance the pay is based on the number of profiles completed so if there are no profiles to write or edit for the week then I have no work to do. I've really been enjoying it so far and I've been able to balance my writing with taking care of Ethan so hopefully this will keep up. Cross your fingers for me because I really want this to work out long term!

Ethan has been so funny this past week. I know he will think that I am crazy for having done this when he gets older, but one of his favorite things right now is for me to help him do the macarena. Yes, that awful group interaction dance, the macarena. He loves it! Every time I get his little arms moving he breaks into the biggest grin and even gives the beginnings of a laugh. And in keeping with the humiliating poor Ethan trend, Patrick sings the Village People's "Macho Man" song to Ethan and I think that might be his favorite thing to do with his daddy. They dance around the house singing "Macho Man" together. I'm not sure what either of these activities say about our qualifications as parents, but Ethan loves it so we're going with it (for now at least.)

Ethan is officially in size 2 diapers and it blows my mind when I look at how tiny the newborn diapers are to think that there was a time where those newborn diapers were big on him. It's crazy how quickly he has grown! He is also officially sleeping in the crib full time now. He looks much more comfortable in it than the pack n play and I had to just get over my fear of it and trust that he would be okay. This doesn't stop me from checking on him (regularly!) and I kind of wish now that we had decided on a video monitor instead of an audio monitor so I could just turn on the screen and see what he was up to versus going down the hallway to check on him. His room is not far from our room (or the living room for that matter) so I didn't think we would need a vido monitor, but now I wish that we had done that instead. Oh well, live and learn! We're fine with what we have and there have been several times where I've actually heard him moving around before the noise even registers on the monitor. Will I ever be totally relaxed again?!

Ethan still loves Mo the rattle best, but he has discovered that he has several toys and we can now give him different ones and he is interested in all of them. He has a couple of soft rattles and a shake-a-tune toy that will hold his interest for a few minutes. More than anything he really like to just put his toys in his mouth, so I'm not sure if that qualifies as true interest but he will grab onto them and stare at them (before putting them in his mouth) so I'm going to say that he has a small interest in his first toys. I continue to read to him each day, but he hasn't shown much interest in the books in front of him yet. Some days I'll do the really basic books with bright pictures designed for babies, some days I'll read his preschool books to him, and then other days I'll just read something like one of my Grisham books out loud to him. I hope that he will love reading one day, but I guess that will be up to him. I'm trying to build a good foundation though!

Since it has gotten cooler outside, Ethan and I aren't going on quite as many walks around the neighborhood together so I am going to have to start putting in some of my workout DVDs or I am going to turn into an enormous blob this winter. The extent of my exercise lately has been confined to pushing that stroller around the block, but at least I take comfort in the fact that I've been walking a couple of miles a day. I really miss my running, but between Patrick's work schedule, the weather, and now my schedule it just hasn't happened yet. My goal is to be back in running shape in time for my weekend runs with my friend Jennifer starting again in the spring. I have about 6 months to do it, so I'm crossing my fingers that it can be done. My motivation is definitely not where it should be to accomplish this goal though, so I'm putting this goal out there so that I can be held accountable for it.

Ethan is trying so hard to roll over. Part of me wants to see him do it, but the other part has no desire for him to start hitting these milestones and start growing up. I want him to stay my baby forever! When he's on his tummy during tummy time (during which he now does push ups like a champ - it's pretty funny!) he will roll onto his side and almost flip onto his back with the exception of his one arm that he can't quite figure out how to get out of the way. When he's on his back he'll roll onto his side, but again can't quite figure out how to flip all the way over onto his tummy. He's really close, and I'm not sure if I want to see it actually happen, but I'm sure that when it does it will be pretty cute to watch.

I won my game this past week in my fantasy football league (against the only undefeated player left in our league!) I was not expecting to win so it was a happy surprise. I am now 4-3 and have chance at my game this week so cross your fingers. I really want to have a winning record, especially considering what an AWFUL start I had to the season. (I scored a total of 39 points in my first game and my record was 1-3 for my first 4 games.) I love having my own team, and wish that I had done this a long time ago. It's lots of fun!

A few nights ago Ethan and I went to meet my friend Angie and her boys for dinner. It was a lot of fun, and Ethan behaved for the most part. He did decide to start crying once, but it was his dinnertime and so I was able to give him his bottle and he then promptly fell asleep in his carrier. Fortunately it was kids night at the restaurant and so you couldn't hear Ethan over all the chaos going on inside. I'll have to remember this when he gets older - lots of places have kids eat free nights. I love it!

On Saturday Ethan and I are going to go help my friend Erin with her photo sessions again and then on the 15th we'll have his pictures taken. I can't wait! I am going to have him bundled up since it's supposed to be pretty cold outside this weekend. He is going to look like a giant stuffed animal! I'll probably end up taking pictures of him while Erin is taking pictures of her clients. If only I was half as talented as she is :)

That's about it from the Strain household this week. I should have some pictures to post this weekend so I'll try to update the blog prior to my next real post (but I make no promises!)

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! Ethan enjoyed his first holiday and wore his Frankenstein tee shirt and socks all day. Before the trick or treaters started making their way to our house, we put Ethan in his costume and took him around our cul-de-sac. We has so many trick or treaters this year. We always have a bunch, but this year seemed to bring even more than in years past. We actually ran out of candy this year and we had a TON...I'm pretty sure we had at least 200 kids based on how much candy we gave out. (Of course, that depends on if Patrick stuck to our 1-2 piece per treater rule.) Some of my favorite costumes we saw included a preschooler in an absolutely adorable Nemo costume, a Thomas the Train, and our next door neighbors who went as a fireman and mail carrier. They were so cute! My goddaughter Morgan would be proud to know that we had 3 Jessie the cowgirls as well. Here are a few pics from Ethan's first holiday:

Modeling his Frankenstein shirt from the Tenneys

We made sure he used his Halloween bib for a few minutes
Our little Frankenstein

Getting ready to trick or treat with Daddy

Getting ready to trick or treat with Mommy

Ethan posing with our next door neighbor, who is such an angel :)

Our neighbor, Lisa, was surprised to see just Ethan at the door!