Swimming for the First Time and Getting a Blood Draw

Today was the first time that Ethan and I visited the pool in our neighborhood. It's hard to believe, but Dan and I have lived in our neighborhood for about 5 years now, and we had never used the pool before. Our neighborhood has a little baby pool (1 ft. deep) and a larger pool (3-5 ft. deep) that is even heated! (We didn't realize that until this summer.) Mom bought Ethan a fun pool floatie that he sits in the middle of and it also has a canopy to shield him from the sun. Lori, Caelyn, and Elise joined us for our first venture to the pool, and surprisingly we were the only ones there! Usually the pool is packed with lots of families and bigger kids. So we enjoyed the quiet and had the pool to ourselves. Ethan wasn't quite sure what to make of the pool, but he splashed a little in his floatie and had fun watching Caelyn try out her swimmies. I had intended to get a picture of him in his cute little swim trunks, but I forgot to get the camera out before I changed him.

I also took Ethan to get his blood drawn today per the pediatrician. I took him to a lab at the hospital where he was born. It was a bit strange to take him there, since it has been so long since we spent time there, and those certainly aren't our fondest memories. He has grown and changed so much since then; It's hard to believe that the last time he was there he looked like this:

I hoped to have a bit of time to take Ethan back to the NICU and see if his primary neonatologist was there to say "hello", but unfortunately the wait for the blood draw was nearly an hour, so by the time we were done, we needed to head back home. I was concerned about whether the phlebotomist would be able to get his blood drawn since he is very strong and probably has tiny rolly veins like the rest of my family. I was very impressed that one nurse was able to stabilize his arm, and another got the blood drawn on the first try. He was very upset (of course) during this process, but he calmed down quickly after they were done. Really, all in all, it went as well as I could have hoped! I'll call the pediatrician's office tomorrow to get the results.