Ethan - 11 Months

My baby is growing up...FAST! Patrick and I were just talking the other night about how in the course of just a week Ethan seemed to grow up. He is less and less like a baby and more and more like a toddler each day. While I am loving this stage (he is so interactive and has such a funny little personality) it is extremely bittersweet because I just want to hang on to these last bits of his babydom for as long as possible. Please can't I just keep him just like this forever?!

He has finally mastered the art of real crawling (in addition to his love affair with the army crawl.) I was starting to think that he was never going to do the real crawl (since evidently I was content to just army crawl until I walked) but this past week Ethan decided that real crawling was a pretty good way to get around. He'll switch between real and army crawling, but I have to say that the real crawl is a lot cuter than the army crawl. That one looks painful at times (and he has gotten the bruises on his forearms to prove it!)

Ethan insists on standing whenever possible. He will pull up on anything! That being said, he doesn't like to practice walking with us holding his hands. He is just not at all interested. He'll cruise all around the furniture and can crawl at a pretty fast pace, but walking with mommy or daddy is evidently just not cool. When I hold his little hands he will either try to get me to let go or he'll go limp so he can sit down and then he's off again. If he didn't cruise all the time I would be worried about this, but he "walks" all the time holding onto furniture so I'm not going to push it. Alas, he has already started trying to be independent. Doesn't he realize that he will be my baby forever?!

His favorite game right now is to pull everything off a shelf, out of a drawer, out of a basket, etc. and then start giving the items to Patrick or I. He will hand us an item and then get this huge smile on his face and start clapping and yelling excitedly...he is so proud of himself! Of course, we induldge him and clap and give him lots of "great job!" and "thank yous!" to encourage him. I wasn't paying attention one time and he handed me a stuffed animal and when I didn't immediately join in the excitement poor little guy looked confused. I made up for it with a big reaction and all was forgiven. If only it could stay this easy forever...ha!

Ethan still insists on trying to get into the crawl position while on his changing table. I keep waiting for him to grow out of this, but unfortunately, this is one bad habit that is still around. Trying to get a diaper back on him is nearly impossible at times! I was starting to think it was the actual process of changing the diaper (which he has never minded, even as an infant) so I laid him up there fully clothed to see what happened. You guessed it, he tried to flip over immediately and was so upset when I wouldn't let him try crawling around up there. Mercy! I can distract him with a toy (momentarily) or funny faces (for a second) but he will go right back to it the second I don't have him fully engaged. The only thing that seems to give me any sort of reprieve is our clothes game. When I take off his shorts I'll hold them up and look through the leg hole at his face...he thinks this game is hilarious! After I do this a few times I will change his diaper at breakneck speed while he is busy holding the shorts over his face and peeking through the leg hole to find me.

He is so active...I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep up as he gets older! Just today he emptied the contents of the bottom shelf of the pantry (primarily canned goods), scattered the entire tupperware drawer over the kitchen, dumped the cats water bowl all over himself, in addition to all of our regular playtime activities.

We've been keeping busy this past week, and here are a few pictures from Ethan's first time at the lake:

Aunt Carolyn (he loves her so much!)
Warming up with Daddy

Uncle Brian holding Ethan (poor Uncle Brian still hasn't quite figured out how to hold a baby...but he has gotten a lot better since Ethan's baptism if you want to revisit that post for comparison!) Ethan loves Uncle Brian, but he wasn't too thrilled to be held by him.

The Strain family - we have so few pics of the three of us together!

This past Thursday Patrick, Ethan and I drove to his dad's house to spend the day. Ethan's cousins were in town too, so we FINALLY got a picture of all four boys together:

Bailey (the oldest) was so attentive to Ethan and made sure that he was well taken care of. Bradley gave Ethan a high five but was otherwise pretty content to watch his Disney channel show and play with his Nintendo (well, some sort of handheld electronic device...I am not up on what is hip in the gaming world) and Ben (the youngest) was very sweet trying to play with Ethan. He even put away all his cars so Ethan wouldn't try to eat them and choke. Patrick gave the older boys a golf lesson with his dad while Chris, Ethan, Ben and I went to the pool. Here are a few pics from the day:

Cuddling with Daddy once the boys made it down to the pool after their golf lesson

Ethan showing off his tummy!

Hanging out with Grandpa

It was impossible to get him to smile at this point...he was so ready for a nap!

Ethan has really enjoyed the pool and loves playing in his float. His favorite activity (surprise, surprise) is splashing like crazy and kicking himself around. I'm so glad he loves the water, because I've really enjoyed being able to walk over to our neighborhood pool during the week with him. We'll take him to the beach for the first time in about a month, and I cannot wait!

My next door neighbor had the tumor in his brain removed this past Tuesday and he is already home from the hospital. That is such a huge praise!!!! He did not have stroke while the doctors were operating which they were prepared for. The doctors were also able to remove more of the tumor than they had anticipated. Again, a huge praise! The tumor is being analyzed now and that will determine the next steps. Please keep praying. If the tumor is benign that would be the best news possible. I am so thankful that everything is going so well right now, and pray that this family continues to receive good news...they need it!

An awful week...

This past week has brought such a mix of emotions. It seems that every time I turn around there is more bad news being delivered.

My next door neighbors need to be lifted up in prayer right now. In the course of a week this family has faced more hardship than most do over the course of several years. The husband has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, the wife's grandmother suffered two heart attacks, and her mother passed away. All in one week. They have four children and how they are managing to keep it together is beyond me. I know that God blesses us with strength and provides us with the comfort and grace we need to face any situation, and I am so thankful that they have a strong faith and support system right now. Today is the visitation at the funeral home for her mother, tomorrow the doctors are operating on her husband's brain tumor and Thursday is her mother's funeral. Please pray for this family. Pray that the surgery goes well, that the doctors are able to remove the tumor, that there is a good prognosis and that the children are doing okay as well. We started a meal sign up for them and the response has been overwhelming. They have meals coming every single day for the next several weeks. Every. Single. Day. I get emails when people sign up and it has brought me to tears to see the responses. Please just pray for this family...they were such a blessing to us when Ethan was born and did so much to help make that period of transition easier on us. We had no family in town at all that first week we were home from the hospital and our neighbors took care of us as though we were family. Our cul-de-sac is full of so many special people and I am so grateful that we are all so close. This family needs everybody praying right now.

These issues seem like nothing compared to what this family is facing, but our air conditioning unit broke down this past weekend and $800 later the leak is fixed. Bah humbug! My other neighbor lost his job this past week and the situation sounds pretty ugly. Please pray for them to find some resolution and a new job quickly. They are wonderful people (again, good friends who are like family to us) and it's scary when you are facing such uncertainty. I have two other friends who are both having a very difficult time right now and need our prayers. I don't want to go into any specifics, but if you could just pray for them they are both facing difficult situations right now and are in need of comfort.

In light of all the struggles that those around me are facing right now, I want to take a moment to really reflect on all the blessings that I have in my life. I have a loving husband who for better or for worse, is truly my partner in life. We have our ups and downs (let's keep it real) but I truly love him more today than I did in those early lovey-dovey days and our relationship continues to grow and strengthen. We have been blessed with a wonderful son who is the light of our lives. Ethan is such a gift and I sometimes find myself looking at him, in awe of the fact that I get to be his mommy. Despite all of my flaws and shortcomings, this little boy loves me unconditionally. We have an entourage of kitties that make us laugh and smile on a daily basis. The things that these cats do...they're nuts and I love every minute of it. I love our home. While there are times that I wish it was bigger, fancier, had this or that, etc. we have a roof over our heads, fantastic neighbors, and our home is truly a place of comfort for us. I didn't grow up in a peaceful home and I remember wishing from a very young age that I could hurry up and be old enough to move out because it was so miserable. I am blessed that now home is where I am happiest. I could keep going for all the things in my life for which I am thankful (and I might have to continue this at a later date, because putting it all in perspective like this is really helpful) but for now I'm going to run. I hope that this week brings some good news to those around me because last week was one for the record books.

Random Month 10 Fun

Here are some random pictures from the past two weeks...there are lots of Ethan in pajamas because I'm realizing that I take the most pictures in the morning before I get him ready for the day. I'll have to work on that ;)

It makes a Mommy's heart proud...he was looking at books!!

Check out his teeth...he's had three for several months and four more just broke through
Pulling toys off his shelves

Getting ready to take apart the box of wipes (he was not successful...wonder why?!)

Yes, he decided to take apart his changing table (several times this day, I might add)

Dumping out all of his toys (a daily ritual) Notice Caddy keeping an eye on him (she loves him so much!)

He's so happy first thing in the morning!

This was probably the messiest meal he's ever had...gracious!

Playing with his cookie jar

He climbed onto the table to get to his toy baskets...yikes!

Playing with his cookie jar toy (a current favorite)

Picking out a new toy to play with

He found Daddy's toolbox upstairs and thought it was the best toy ever! (He could not open it, he just banged on the lid)

A favorite activity - playing with the cat bowls

On the move

How grown up is Ethan these days?! Tear

Playing with his stacking cups

Just laying around

Some 10 Month Pictures

I am still having a few technical difficulties with my camera, but in the interim, here are a few pics of Ethan this month. These aren't all that great, but hopefully I'll have more to share here in the not too distant future!

Daddy wanted to try on the Bjorn at least once before Ethan outgrew it!

Opening a present from his grandparents

He wanted down!

Being silly with Nana
He used to be such a ham for the camera...now it is impossible to get him to stay still long enough to take even one picture!

A morning ritual...banging on all of the furniture

Me with my little 10 month old...he's not going to be a baby much longer :(

Still in his jammies in the morning, banging away on the couch (his FAVORITE activity is to bang on things!)

Ethan - 10 Months, Week 3

Ethan has really started to show his little personality here lately...I love it! He definitely has a mind of his own and when he has it set on something that he wants to do there is really no distracting him from the task at hand.

His new favorite activity (oh my!) is to flip over on his changing table (while I am attempting to change his diaper no less) so that he is up on all fours in the crawling position. I am always right there with a hand on him so he's never come close to falling off of the table, but this this new favorite activity still worries me. I usually am holding his ankles with one hand so his little legs are pointing up towards the ceiling, but he manages to twist at the waist and his torso is facing the changing table. I call him my little rotisserie, because he seriously reminds me of a chicken turning around. I even tried using the strap that comes with the table (perhaps I am a terrible mother, but I've never used it before) but he was still able to twist around. If he wasn't un-diapered this would be a pretty funny scenario, but I still have a fear of being peed on and so Ethan twisting and shaking all about half naked is just not my idea of a good time. Okay, okay, it is a little funny, but I will be glad when his interest in doing this passes because in the interim trying to get a diaper back on him has become quite a challenge for me.

Ethan is officially into EVERYTHING! Earlier today we were playing downstairs in the living room and he decided that he wanted to play with the fireplace tools. Of course I could not let him do this and when I took them away (and by took them away, I mean I set them up on the loveseat temporarily - what is happening to my house?!) he burst into tears. He has this one face he makes when I take away something he wants that just about breaks my heart. It is so sad looking!

He continues to army crawl everywhere that he wants to go. He'll get up into true crawl position and rock back and forth but when he sees something that he wants he immediately drops down and army crawls. I did not realize this, but my mom said that I only ever army crawled too. He may look just like Patrick, but at least there is a little bit of me in him after all!

His favorite toy right now is his counting cookie jar. He loves to dump out the plastic shapes and put them back in. He hasn't quite figured out the shapes yet (there's a circle shaped hole for the circle cookie, a star shaped hole for the star cookie, etc.) but I'll get it started for him and he loves to finish pushing the cookie into the jar. Any of his car toys with wheels are still a big hit as well. He really enjoys spinning the wheels! He got some stacking cups this week and if I hide a little cup under a bigger cup he gets so excited when he picks up the big cup and finds a little one underneath it.

Another of Ethan's favorite activities is banging on anything and everything. Most every morning now after I hear him moving around in his crib for a little bit I'll hear a loud banging on the walls. Yes, he is standing in his crib and banging his pacifier against the wall. He still enjoys banging on the upstairs window (mercy) and any of his toy baskets, table tops or toys in general are fair game.

His sleep patterns have settled into a very predictable rhythm now which is nice. He usually goes to bed around 7:00 and wakes up somewhere around 5:30ish (maybe a little later on days that he takes pity on his exhausted parents.) This morning he slept until 6:15 and I was ecstatic...how sad is that?! The only positive of his early wake up call is that Patrick is up for work that early so I can usually stay in bed while Ethan spends some time with daddy as he gets ready for work and then I take over for the rest of the day. He naps from 9-11 almost like clockwork in the mornings, and his afternoon naps range from 45 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes (usually a little over an hour.) I use my three hours during the day to work, and then usually spend another hour or two at night when Ethan is in bed to finish up work for the day. This schedule is working out really well and I think I'm starting to regain some of my sanity.

Ethan waves bye bye all the time now and loves to wave at his reflection in the mirror too. Oh, I almost forgot...he said his first word! "Baby" is the first official word (outside of mama and dada, that is.) We think it comes from the fact that since Ethan is in love with looking at pictures of himself (I'm hoping he doesn't actually realize that he's looking at himself, otherwise we might have a tiny egomaniac on our hands!) and we will always ask him, "Where's the baby?" He just smiles and grins and giggles with this game, so we do it all the time. We've been doing this for months, so fast forward to now and his first word is baby. He still says mama the most though. He's totally backwards because he said mama first and I've heard that every child always says dada first. Ethan likes to do things his own way, that's for sure!

We are shopping for his "big boy" (read - convertible) car seat now so on Patrick's last day off the three of us ventured over to Buy Buy Baby to take a look. I love this store! I think I equate Buy Buy Baby to Target and Babies R Us to Wal-Mart. (I hate going into Babies R Us and avoid it whenever possible!) Everybody here is so nice and helpful and they really know their stuff! Anyway, Ethan thought that this was the most fabulous place on earth, because we took him down some of the toy aisles. He was in heaven! Everything had lights and made sounds and I think he could have stayed in there forever. While we were in the car seat section the employee had us strap Ethan into the various seats that were on display to see how he liked them. He looked so grown up in the big car seats. Tear! Plus, it was pretty funny to see Ethan strapped into a car seat sitting on display.

Ethan's girlfriend Faith was in town for several days this past week and they had the best time playing together. Oh, and they gave each other kisses several times too. It's love! Ethan will give kisses anytime you ask for one (oh, if only he would do this forever and not outgrow this total sweetness!) We weren't sure if they would give each other kisses or not, but they did. They both loved the stereo in the playroom and changed the song and CD frequently. (We got maybe 15 seconds into any one song before they would change it again.) They both showed off their dance moves too. Their moves pretty much consist of bouncing up and down, but that's about as much rhythm as I have these days so I probably can't say too much :) We all went to our regular Tuesday trivia night together, which was a tradition until the babies arrived. We all went the week after Faith and Ethan were born and haven't been back since. It was really fun to be back again!

I've taken Ethan to our pool and he loves splashing around. I'm so glad he likes the water, because I plan on spending some serious time at the pool this summer.

I have so many pictures to share, but my camera has been giving me fits in trying to download pictures and I finally got the issue resolved tonight only to have the battery die on me. It is currently recharging and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get everything taken care of. I've spent all my free time working lately so things like catching up with friends who actually work and can't chat during the day, uploading pictures, updating the baby book and even this blog have gotten woefully behind. I'm catching up now though. (That seems to be a theme with me, huh?!) Cross your fingers that all technical difficulties are now behind me and that I can make some progress on my to do list tomorrow and this weekend. I have so much catching up to do....

Ethan - 10 Months

It's been an eventful couple of weeks! Let me start by apologizing for not updating sooner - two weeks ago I had mastitis, and let me tell you, it was AWFUL! The worst part was feeling like a had the flu, complete with fever of 102. I started feeling pretty miserable on a Monday afternoon, saw the doctor on Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday afternoon (once the meds starting kicking in and I was able to get some rest thanks to my in-laws coming to my rescue and spending the day helping out with Ethan) I was starting to feel much better. I had to take my medicine every 6 hours, and for those of you who don't know, I am TERRIBLE at swallowing pills. I try and try (and if you have a secret that works for you, I can bet that I've tried that too) and so I ended up opening up the capsule and mixing the powder with applesauce and sugar. Probably not the best method, but hey, I got down every one of those 28 pills within a week. Yes, I would count them out throughout the week to see how many were left. Being sick while caring for a baby full time is hard work. I remember when Patrick got the flu this past winter he went and spent several days hiding out in the guest room and sleeping the day away to recover. I have discovered that mothers do not have this luxury. Thank goodness the medicine kicked in pretty quickly though, so I wasn't out of the game for too long. It's been several years since I've felt that badly so I'm glad that is all behind us now.

Ethan and I went on a roadtrip together this past weekend. (Patrick was working - the downside of being married to a golf pro is that getting a full weekend off is a rare luxury.) We drove up to Blacksburg, VA to visit with my Aunt Susie and cousins, Anna and Suzanne. Anna is in grad school in NYC at Columbia (hopefully Ethan will have some of her smarts!) and was in town for the weekend so it was a great opportunity for us to all get together. My sister Carolyn drove up from Raleigh and she and I stayed at the hotel with Ethan. We had so much fun!

I left Charlotte about the time that Ethan usually goes down for his morning nap thinking that he would sleep the majority of the three hour drive there. Not so! He slept for about 40 minutes and was up for the remainder of the trip. I have to give him credit though, because he was a fantastic passenger. He did not cry at all! I planned ahead and had a bag full of toys on the passenger seat, and every time he threw the toy he was playing with, I would reach into the bag and pass him a new toy and he would stay occupied with that toy for awhile. Then he would repeat the above scenario - throw the toy across the backseat, I would pass him a new one, and he would be engrossed in the new toy for awhile, and then repeat again. When we finally arrived in Blacksburg the backseat was littered with toys, but he was happy and since I was traveling alone with him I was just relieved that we made it there without some sort of breakdown.

We all went out to lunch together and Ethan enjoyed sitting right next to Suzanne. After lunch we went to some stores and Ethan finally fell asleep in his stroller in the book store. We decided that the elevator music and cool air conditioning must have done the trick. He snoozed away for the next 30 minutes or so, but that was it for naps for the day. I was a little worried that he was going to lose his marbles, but fortunately he was so interested in seeing everything that was going on around him that he did fairly well. Later that afternoon we headed over to the pool where Suzanne was lifeguarding and hung out for awhile. Aunt Susie came over a little later with a fabulous spread of food for dinner. It was soooo yummy! I think Carolyn and I decided that the food alone makes it worth the trip. After a couple hours at the pool I could tell that Ethan was getting pretty sleepy so I took him back to the hotel and got him all ready for bed and he went to sleep in his pack n play immediately. I got about an hour to chill by myself and once Suzanne's shift was over my aunt came to sit in the hotel room so I could go out with my aunt and cousin. It was so sweet of her because it is rare that I get to go out baby-free these days.

Carolyn, Anna and I went to a wine bar and got to just sit and visit on the patio for awhile. It was very relaxing. (Suzanne had to head back to Radford for the night, but we saw her again in the AM.) When we got back to the hotel I was relieved that Ethan had been asleep the entire time and therefore my aunt hadn't had a screaming child on her hands. This was Ethan's first time in a hotel and I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about how he would behave. Everything was going pretty well until about 2:30 am and I heard somebody out in the hall talking. Ethan must have heard him too, because all of a sudden I heard a loud wail coming from the pack n play. Yikes! I rushed to him and he quieted down the second I picked him up (I was not about to leave a crying child be with my sister in the room and other hotel guests who probably wouldn't appreciate a crying child in the middle of the night) but every time I tried to lay him back down he would cry. If he was in my arms he was sound asleep, but laying down again in the pack n play seemed to be out of the question. I couldn't let him cry for a minute and settle down because it was 2:30 am, so I propped myself up as comfortably as possible in bed and he slept on my chest. This lasted for about 30 minutes or so and then he started trying to fling himself off me. I let him roll onto the bed (onto my outstretched arm) where he looked so comfortable and was sleeping soundly. Ummmm....not so sure about letting a baby sleep in the bed (with me no less, I've heard horror stories about people who let their children sleep in the bed with them and tragic accidents occur so I've never let him in the bed with me at all) but he was asleep and exhaustion took over and I let him stay. I moved all the pillows off the bed and kicked off the covers (not so comfortable for me - the life of a mom, huh?!) He was laying on my outstretched arm so I could feel if he made a move to roll towards the side of the bed and we stayed like this until about 4:30 until I was so uncomfortable I just couldn't take it anymore and I scooped him up to lay him back down in his pack n play.

He woke up the second I layed him down, and when he woke up I guess he thought it was morning because all he wanted to do was play. I fed him and he went back to sleep (on me in the bed again - he was over the pack n play at this point) around 5:30. When Carolyn woke up at 7 she found Ethan in bed with me and I have to say, as worried as I was (and as little sleep as I ended up getting) it was pretty cute. I'm so relieved that Carolyn slept through most of the nightly chaos (she heard him at 4:30 when his genious mother woke up a sleeping baby) but that was it. We got ready for chuch and picked up my aunt and we were off again. Ethan did okay in church (sometimes he's great, and other times we have to make a hasty exit.) His shining moment was when we all bowed our heads for a moment of quiet reflection - Ethan chose that moment to LOUDLY babble in his baby voice. I think I turned bright red! He was occupied for the most part with Aunt Carolyn's purse of fun. He loves her purse - and all the lotion bottles she keeps in it. It was funny!

By the time we were ready to hit the road that afternoon, Ethan was exhausted and he slept the ENTIRE trip home. Yes, he slept for three hours straight. It's a good thing too, because when we got home Ethan's girlfriend was in town and he had a great time playing with her. The funniest part was when they each had their pacifiers and they wanted each other's. We all went out to dinner and Ethan and Faith ate their little crunchies and puffs together...they are so cute and sweet together!

I'll have pictures and videos to post soon!

Please Vote!

For those of you that are Facebook users, please go to Toyota 100 Cars for Good and vote for Cindy's Hope Chest today. (Voting is today only for this organization.) This is my neighbor's charity and winning this contest could really help her organization. Cindy has been honored by the Lifetime Network for the work that she's been doing and her girls are going to be babysitting Ethan in the coming years. It will only take a couple seconds of your time, but it can make a big difference. Please share with your friends - thanks!