An Unexpectedly Pleasant Experience at the BMV

Our car registrations are due for renewal in the middle of February. I decided to make a trek to the BMV today with Ethan to renew them and to get the "In God We Trust" license plates before they are no longer offered. I didn't research very well ahead of time, but since they are closed on Monday, Tuesday is one of their busiest days (espeically during lunch). So, Ethan and I ended up going out in the yucky rain during lunchtime on a typically very busy day for the BMV. However, we only waited in line for a short time at what I call the "triage" desk (where they determine whether you have the correct documentation needed for your transaction and funnel your name to the appropriate associate's line). Anyhow, I had come prepared with Ethan in his stroller and a book and snacks in his stroller basket. We waited briefly, and Ethan stayed entertained by waving and saying "hi" to everyone. One guy in the waiting area got a huge kick out of him and said that Ethan should be a politician because he was waving and saying hi to every person he saw. I am really not fond of politics, so let's hope that's not the career path that he decides to pursue! After just a couple of minutes, we were called up for our transaction. I have usually encountered what I would term "surly" employees at the BMV during previous visits, but the lady who helped us today was very friendly. She had us all set with our new plates in about 5 minutes, and we were out the door in about 10 minutes total. I am very impressed that things went that smoothly at the BMV!

I LOVE Library Sales...

Yesterday we went to my parent's house to stay with Mike so that Mom and Dad could go out to dinner to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Mom mentioned at about 3pm that she had seen an ad in the newspaper for a book sale at their local library. She had gone to one several months ago and purchased about 15 books for Ethan for just 10 cents a piece. Some were in great condition and others we did not end up keeping because they were too damaged. The ad said that the sale was from 9am to 4pm, and my parents were supposed to leave at 4pm for dinner (and their library is about a 15 minute drive from their house). I convinced Mom that we should at least run in and see if they weren't already picked over, so we zoomed over to take a look. I am SO glad that we did! We got there at about 3:30pm and it was crowded, but not many people were looking at the board books. I started loading some up into plastic bags and ended up purchasing 40 board books for only $2.00!! I couldn't believe they were just charging a nickel for each. All but 2 I would consider to be in very good to excellent condition, and most are current titles including Baby Einstein, Usborne books, Maisy books, Sesame Street, I Spy, and DK Books. I am wiping each of them down with Lysol sanitizing wipes today, and some covers that seemed dingy before look great after they've been cleaned. The retail value of these books would be around $300.00- What a deal!! Ethan loves to flip through books and "read" or be read to. Dan and I are glad to have some "new" books around to read with him as we had many of his others memorized from reading them so much!

Fun with a Baseball Cap

Today was one of those "running around to get things done, didn't have time for a shower" type of days. Fortunately, as Ethan has gotten older, those days have become much more few and far between, but today was one of those days. Anyhow, I threw a baseball cap on my head to be presentable in public (we went to Panera for lunch with some friends). Ethan thought it was very interesting to see me in a baseball cap as this has been a rare occurrence. He looked at me the same way he does when he sees me with a towel wrapped around my head when my hair is wet. He was fascinated with the ball cap and wanted to take it off my head and put it back on, take it off, put it back on, etc. I put it on his head, and he thought that was just great. Here are a few cute pics of him running around with my hat somewhat on his head! I just love the pic of he and Waggles looking out the window!

Birthday Celebration

Today we went to my parent's house to celebrate my birthday with my family. We had a great time visiting, Mom and I went to Kohl's to take advantage of the 30% off coupon that I had received in the mail (a very nice surprise that happened to coincide with my birthday), we ordered Outback for dinner (I had a very yummy filet mignon), and some close family friends came over for cake and ice cream. It was a very fun day!
Ethan loves my parents little dog, Sasha, even though she is not very fond of children. He enjoyed holding onto her leash and trying to walk her around the house during our visit. It was so cold out when we were there that my Dad put Sasha's cute little coat on her... isn't she fashionable?

A Very Brady Work Trip

To those of you who are looking at the subject line and saying "what?" I was trying to make a play on words about "A Very Brady Christmas"... I forgot to mention several blog entries ago when I wrote that Dan had been to the Consumer Electronics Show for work that he had an encounter with a celebrity of sorts while he was there. The company that Dan works for is collaborating with another company on some new vehicle technologies, and an executive in the collaborating company happens to be good friends with Chris Knight aka Peter Brady. The executive brought Chris Knight to Dan's kiosk at the Consumer Electronics Show and introduced them. Dan said that they didn't mention the Brady Bunch, but the guy looked super familiar to him. It took a few moments to register that the person he was being introduced to was the middle Brady boy. I'm sure that it'd be a bit strange to meet someone in person who you watched on TV for years on The Brady Bunch! Anyhow, that was Dan's recent brush with "celebrity"!

Climbing, Climbing, and More Climbing

Ethan has recently started focusing on improving his climbing abilities. My parents gave us two toddler-sized wooden chairs that have been in our playroom for awhile now. At first Ethan would climb into them and sit to look at books, but recently I have caught him standing on them to reach items on top of our piano. He has also become quite adept at climbing onto other furniture, including our loveseat, sofa, and chair, although he doesn't always pay attention to the fact that he can fall off if he gets too close to the edge. I can see now why moms need to have "eyes in the back of their heads"!

Playdate with Nan and Will

Last Tuesday (15th), Ethan and I enjoyed a playdate with Nan and Will. Nan and I were sorority sisters in college and weren't aware that we lived close to one another, attended the same church (because our church has about 5,000 in attendance per weekend), or had little boys close in age until we reconnected at a moms group at our church this past Fall! We were assigned to be in the same small group in the ministry for moms at our church, and Ethan and I have been very blessed to get to spend time with them. Ethan and Will are great buddies, and I have such a wonderful time hanging out and visiting with Nan. Nan emailed these adorable photos to me today of the boys getting into mischief at her house (they were both very excited about going up their stairs, and Nan caught some pics of them on their way to explore the upstairs together!)

Fun with First Molars!

I took Ethan to the doctor this afternoon to get his ears and gums checked out. He has been much more irritable than usual for about 5 days now and has been acting similarly to when he had ear infections earlier in the Fall. I thought that we should get him looked over to see if his ears were fine and also to determine if he were teething. The pediatrician said that both of his ears looked great (thankfully!), and she found that at least one of his first molars is coming in. It also appears as though at least 2 other teeth are coming in at the same time. Poor little guy-I'd be super irritable too! We've been giving him some Tylenol off and on, and that seems to be helping for now. Soon he'll have a mouth full of teeth!

Visit with Leslie, Sophie, and Lucy

Today Ethan and I got to meet Paul and Leslie's sweet little girl Sophie! She is adorable, and such a great, easy-going baby :) Ethan loved her and enjoyed rocking her back and forth in her bouncy seat. Sophie is the first baby that Ethan has been around in awhile now, and it was fun to see how fascinated and gentle he was with her. He has loved to point and say "Baby" for the last several weeks when he sees babies in books, on TV, while shopping, etc. He was thrilled to get to "play" with baby Sophie. While Ethan was having a blast interacting with Sophie and trying to pet their VERY tolerant cat, Lucy, I had a great time catching up with Leslie. Thanks so much for having us over Leslie!
Ethan hanging out with baby Sophie:
Rocking Sophie in her bouncy seat:Running around with a cat toy, trying to entice Lucy to come and play:

Dermatologist Scare- Encouraging Skin Checks

A friend of mind blogged a few months ago that she had been prompted to get a skin check because of a scare that a friend of hers had. Her blog entry got me thinking that it would be a very good idea for me and Dan to schedule skin checks as well. I am definitely not a sunlover (in fact I generally avoid much sun exposure), I've never been in a tanning bed, and I've had very few sunburns in my life. The only ones I can remember are after jetskiing on our honeymoon and when I went to Nicaragua and El Salvador on two missions trips in college. Anyhow, I had been intending to schedule a skin check at some point and finally got around to getting an appointment for this Monday. The doctor noticed a spot on my arm that seemed suspicious to her, and she removed the spot (then patched me up with 3 stitches!) during the appointment. I got a call today that the spot was a dysplastic nevus (basically a mole containing precancerous cells). The nurse reassured me that the whole spot had been removed, but I am supposed to have skin checks every 6 months from now on. The biopsy results were surprising to me, as the doctor had even commented during the visit that she could tell I had avoided sun exposure and that overall my skin was in great shape. So, even with very little sun exposure, there CAN be areas of worry! I'd encourage any of you reading my blog to schedule a skin check for yourself. It's definitely worthwhile!!

De-decorating from Christmas

Ethan has loved having the Christmas tree up in our great room. One of the first things he does each morning is run over to the tree and get my attention so that I'll turn the lights on. Sadly, this weekend we had some time to start taking decorations down. I took a couple of pics of our fully decorated tree and nativity set on the fireplace mantle before we boxed everything up and stored it away until next December:

First Pizza- Yum!!

Our Bible study group got together this evening for some fun, food, and fellowship at Donatos Pizza. Thankfully they have a nice party room that can be reserved for free that is nice to "corral" the kiddos but also give them the freedom to run around a bit. It was great to see everyone and to catch up. This was also the very first time that Ethan has tasted pizza, and he loved it! Donatos is Dan and my absolute favorite pizza place, and I predict that it will be a favorite of Ethan's as well.

Another Visit to the Children's Museum

Today we visited the Children's Museum with Nicole and Kara. The kids had a great time exploring Playscape, the area designated for kids 5 years old and younger. Ethan played at the water table, went down a slide, climbed through some tunnels, pushed some Thomas the Train toys around, and also played at the sand table for the first time. Ethan loved Playscape and ran from area to area as excited as can be! He is a boy without fear, and I'm not sure how I feel about that! He is eager to explore and not hesitant about trying new things. I'd feel a little better if he'd at least look back now and then to know where I am before he takes off running to check out the next neat new thing. I got some good exercise chasing him around this afternoon! We also checked out a really neat dinosaur exhibit as well as one about robots. Here are the kids hanging out in their strollers.

Airport, Auntie Anne's, and Artwork- like my alliteration?

Dan had to go to the Consumer Electronics Show for work for this week, so Ethan and I spent some "Mommy and me" time as well as visited my parents and brother for a couple of days. We went to the airport to pick Daddy up tonight, and Ethan just loved watching all of the people there. For the last month or so he has really been into waving at people and saying "hi". No one is a stranger to him! His eyes light up and he grins from ear to ear when people respond back to him.
Since we arrived at the airport early, we just HAD to stop by Auntie Anne's and get a soft pretzel. I absolutely love their soft pretzels, especially with cheese sauce. So, while we waited for Dan's flight to land, Ethan had his first taste of an Auntie Anne's pretzel. He loved it too!
We waited by the escalator at the baggage claim for Dan to come down, and Ethan kept shouting "Daddy" about every 5 seconds (I had told him to watch the escalator for Daddy). Finally Daddy appeared, and Ethan was so excited. This afternoon we had opened some Crayola Beginnings Tadoodles for the first time (which are basically beginner crayons), and Ethan had colored a "welcome home Daddy" card for Dan, so we gave him the card at the airport. When I have a chance, I'll add a pic of Ethan's artwork from Dan's card. He colored pretty well at first, but then became interested in putting the crayons in his mouth (as mentioned in the previous post, his recent teething has prompted putting everything in his mouth again!)
Here are some pics of Ethan playing at my parent's house. The last pic is of Ethan toting around a spray bottle filled with water. He has caught on that we spray both our dog, Waggles, and my parent's dog, Sasha, when they misbehave. He had fun chasing both doggies around while brandishing the water bottle...

Finally another tooth emerges!

Ethan's teeth have been coming in pretty slowly. His first emerged at around 8 months, and several followed shortly thereafter, but he has been at 6 teeth since August. He has resumed drooling again here recently and keeps pushing up on his gums with his thumb. I felt in his mouth today, and sure enough, his seventh tooth has broken through the gumline! It's hard to say exactly which tooth it is though. It is on his top right, but seems to be spaced a good distance from the 4 teeth that he already has. I haven't written the date in his baby book yet because I don't know which tooth on the diagram in the baby book to write the date next to!

A Visit from Professor Sarah

Sarah, a great friend of ours from back when Dan was a co-op student at work and I was a summer intern, was able to visit us over the new year. She has now completed a PhD program in Industrial Engineering and is a professor at the University of Arkansas. She had not yet met Ethan, and it was fun to introduce them and to catch up with her.

Playdate with Jackie, Logan, and Lauren

We had a wonderful visit with our dear friends Jackie, Logan, and Lauren today. Ethan had a blast running around and playing with them. He enjoys watching older kids play and thought it was neat to see Logan working his new Geotrax Grand Central Station. It was really fun to get to catch up with them!