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?!