Ethan officially has three teeth now. I complained about teething a couple of weeks ago (he was up multiple times throughout the night for a couple of days about a week or so before his first two teeth popped through) but fortunately that chaos seems to have subsided. And compared to some of the horror stories I've been hearing, so far we've had it pretty good. The third tooth came in without much disturbance, so I'm hoping that our luck will hold out now. Right before those first teeth actually appeared was not fun, and I do not want a repeat performance. I think the top two teeth are going to be showing up soon. I'm so glad that he seems to have settled into his teething rhythm now, because in talking to some of my friends with babies the same age I see just how bad it can get. Cross your fingers that Ethan decides not to participate in these crazy shenanigans!
One of Ethan's favorite "toys" these days is a 12 ounce soda bottle filled halfway with water. When his girlfriend Faith was here for a visit, she was playing with a Dr. Pepper bottle and Ethan was so interested in it that I filled one up partially with water and he loves to shake the bottle and carry it around with him. Why waste money on toys when my child is so easily entertained by the most random things?! He still likes to carry his bowl around, although not as much as a few weeks ago. Ethan also has what I like to refer to as a "paci addiction." He always sleeps with a pacifier in, and now insists on holding a pacifier in each hand (in addition to the one in his mouth) before he will settle in to sleep. Maybe it's because I still don't keep any toys or anything in the crib when he's going to sleep, but he is seriously attached to his pacifiers. Maybe it will subside some once I put a blankie, stuffed animal or lovie in the crib with him to sleep, but so far I'm still keeping everything out of there when I'm trying to put him down for a nap or to bed. I do put a few toys in for him to play with when he wakes up, but otherwise it's still pretty empty in there.
Most mornings Ethan now wakes up babbling to himself which is the funniest way to wake up. I'll be sound asleep and then hear him having a conversation with himself through the monitor. I'll usually leave him in there for awhile and so far he's pretty content to babble to himself while I do a few morning things like brush my teeth and put in my contacts. If I wait too long he will cry to get out, but I usually get at least 20 minutes. He wakes up most mornings around 6 and goes to bed around 6:30 at night. He is still an early to bed baby and there is no keeping him up any later...I've tried! He is trying to shorten his morning nap right now which has been hard on both of us. It's hard on me because when he naps I get a chance to work on projects for work, and the less time he naps during the day, the later I have to stay up at night to finish everything up. It's hard on Ethan because I can tell he's still tired and needs a little more sleep to feel rested, but 45 minutes is about all he'll give me for the morning nap. I hope he doesn't drop it altogether anytime soon! His afternoon nap is usually about an hour and a half or so. Every now and then he'll push it to two hours (heaven!) but for the most part he's pretty consistently napping for about 90 minutes.
Ethan still isn't crawling, but he is definitely on the move. He does his inchworm/army crawl all the time now (I wonder if he'll ever figure out the real thing!) and he also rolls anywhere and everywhere with reckless abandon. His new trick is that he loves to stand holding onto the furniture. He's made a couple tentative steps while holding on to the couch, but not enough for me to say that he's cruising yet. Part of me worries that he isn't crawling yet, and the other part is grateful that as much as he's getting into already that there's one less thing I have to be watching out for all day. Does that make me a lazy parent?! He will also take a few steps while holding onto our hands, but more than anything he likes to stand and just bounce. Ethan is a nut, that's for sure!
There was a huge (and I mean HUGE) storm in the middle of the night last week, and since it woke both Patrick and I up we went to check in on Ethan to see how he was doing. He was sound asleep, so I now see where the expression "sleeping like a baby" comes from. This storm launched our grill across our yard (not sure yet if it is broken or not since we had to let it dry out completley before we're ready to test it - I do not want a huge gas explosion in our backyard!) and toppled patio furniture, trash cans, etc. Our poor cats were taking refuge under our bed and I could not believe that Ethan was so totally unaffected by the booming thunder, pouring rain and pounding hail. I wish I was able to sleep that soundly! I don't think I've been a sound sleeper since the day we brought Ethan home from the hospital. Will that kind of sleep ever return to me? Oh how I miss it!
I took Ethan to Raleigh two weekends ago to visit my mom and sister. My mom was in a really bad car accident a couple of days before we got there and Ethan was fascinated with the large plastic neck brace she had to wear. She's doing much better now and got to switch to the soft neck brace which she said was much easier to wear. Her car was totaled and so a couple of days ago she went and got her new car. I am so jealous (not of the accident, but of having a new car.) My car is dying a slow and painful death, and it makes me nervous to drive it very far these days. It has developed some sort of shriek that I try to pretend isn't happening. We're looking at cars now, but haven't decided exactly what we want, and then what we're willing to pay for it. Say a prayer that my car holds on long enough for us to find a suitable replacement.
Anyway, back to Raleigh. Ethan and I left on a Friday right before his morning naptime. He slept for about two hours and then babbled to himself for the remainder of the trip there. He was such a good little passenger - I was shocked! My mom wasn't really able to pick him up since she was in the brace, but she did give Ethan lots of cuddles from his Nana. We went to a baby shower for one of Carolyn's friends on Saturday and Ethan was pretty much the only little boy there. There were lots of little girls, so he was the little player - ha! Let me stop and say that I had promised myself that I would never be that person bringing a baby to a party (so annoying when you are not anticipating children and somebody brings their rowdy child!) but this was a kid-friendly affair complete with pack n plays and exersaucers for the drooling crowd. After church on Sunday, I went to meet my friend Lindsay for some consignment sale shopping and Aunt Carolyn came over to my mom's house to babysit. Ethan LOVES his Aunt Carolyn. She may just be his favorite person on earth (and that is including mommy and daddy.) Ethan and I went out to lunch with Carolyn on Friday and during lunch she taught Ethan a bad habit that I am still trying to undo. She let him shred napkins all over the place (we cleaned up before we left, promise!) and now shredding items is a favorite activity as well. When Carolyn was watching Ethan on Sunday, she brought two of her friends with her and evidently when they were holding him he would reach his arms out to Carolyn. The only other person he's done that with is me, so I'm thinking that he looks at her like mommy, only lots more fun :)
Last weekend Patrick's sister Jeannie flew in from Boston for the weekend and so Ethan was spoiled rotten with Auntie time. She brought him two Red Sox outfits (sorry, Suzanne) and a baby baseball hat. I'll try to get a good picture of him in his hat - babies in hats are just too cute! Ethan did really well with Jeannie and even let her feed him. On Saturday, Ethan's dad and his wife came and spent the day here and Ethan was on overdrive with so many people paying so much attention to him. He didn't nap really well, and by evening he was DONE! Jeannie and I went to my friend Melissa's 31 party that evening, and it was great to see Melissa again. She and I were roommates in college (and friends from high school) and since she lives a couple of hours away I only get to see here every so often. It was actually Melissa that introduced Patrick and I - Melissa is a fantastic golfer and was on the golf team at App. When we were in grad school she had a job at Grandfather, where Patrick worked, and the rest is history!
It was so nice having Jeannie here and I'm going to have to keep selling NC to her to get her to move back from the snowy north. We have barbecue, sweet tea, mild winters - what's not to love?!?! And here is my ace in the hole - we have Ethan (who she loves just a little bit - ha!) I'm just saying... I wish the trip had been longer, but considering the distance I am grateful for what we're able to get. I know we'll get to see her again for our family beach week at the end of the summer, and hopefully we'll get one more visit in before then.
Ethan continues to show dominance with his left hand, although I still think it's way to early to tell which hand he is going to use. Everybody keeps saying that he's going to be a lefty though. We'll see! He bangs all his toys with his left and has started picking up his puffs to eat with his left hand as well. He tends to carry items with his right hand though, so there's no telling. I kind of hope he will be left handed, but I guess time will just have to tell on this one. His eyes are still blue, so I'm starting to think they are going to stay blue. I was unaware that babies are all born with blue grey eyes, and at the hospital they told me that they would probably change up until around 9 months or so. We're rapidly approaching that mark, so we'll see if he stays with the blue or decides to change it up on us at the last minute. I have more pictures to post, but I'm out of time for now so hopefully between the 7 month pics and this you're a little more caught up on life around here. I'm really trying hard to climb out from under all of the things I've been letting get behind, so cross your fingers that I get back on track again!
1 comment:
Thanks for the update. I feel like I haven't talked to you for AGES! Miss pictures of my guy....please post more.
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