Ethan's First Tattoo

Ethan had a blast this Saturday celebrating at a friend's birthday party. The theme was based on the movie "Finding Nemo". The kids had a treasure hunt, and at the end they found the treasure: Nemo tattoos and kazoos. Ethan thought that his Nemo tattoo was really neat. He was very sad when it was washed away during bathtime (yes, fortunately this tattoo is quite easily removeable! ;) Here is a photo of Ethan's tattoo taken while he was cuddling with his stuffed bunny.

Fun in Oklahoma City!

We visited Dan's family in Oklahoma City from the 22nd to the 28th. We were interested to see how Ethan would do on the drive this time, seeing as he has been down to a 1-nap day since December, and the last time we made this long trip he took 2 naps in the car. Thankfully Ethan did really well! We made the trip there (partially due to my lead foot) in 11 1/2 hours with only one stop for lunch. The roominess of the van and borrowing my parent's portable DVD player helped Ethan stay comfy and entertained. He watched lots of Veggietales DVDs, and each time the credits came on, he would say "New Vee" (translation "new movie"). He was mesmerized by the talking and singing vegetables ;)
We had a wonderful week visiting with Dan's family, and we took Ethan to the zoo for the second time (the first was in Sept.) He really enjoyed it, especially now that he knows the names of lots of the animals and the sounds they make. He particularly loved seeing the zebras, elephants, and bears.
A few random tidbits:
-We drove past a McDonalds in OKC, and Ethan looked over and simply said "burger". Cracked me up! He has only had McD's a handful of times, yet he recognized the golden arches.
-We ended up having to run a toll on a tollway because we did not have exact change. The toll was a dollar, we had 65 cents in change and dollar bills, but there was no bill changer. So, we threw in the change and Dan drove on to the sound of an alarm ringing. Fortunately a police car did not chase us down, but we were concerned about getting a violation because cameras take a photo of your license plate when a toll is not paid. Apparently the violation fine is quite high, and we did not want to have to pay that, so Dan called the tollway phone # right away. Since it was a Sunday the office was closed, and Monday was a holiday, so we had to wait to address the issue unti Tuesday. Fortunately we were able to visit a "Pike Pass" office and pay the 35 cents that we owed to avoid a fine.
-Ethan LOVED being outside and walking around in the beautiful OKC weather. When we left home, it was 43 degrees, by the time we arrived, it was in the upper 80's/lower 90's! Fortunately we packed for the hot weather. Ethan wanted to go on walks constantly, and he repeatedly brought each of us our shoes trying to encourage us to go for a walk with him. The last day we were there he walked nearly a mile with us without complaint (until we tried to get him to come inside ;)

Ethan with Grandma Q.

"Helping" Grandma Q. with Skip-Bo

Going for a walk with Gino, Daddy, and Grandma Q.Ready for naptime! (at least Daddy is ;)Grandpa A. with Ethan

Visit to the Museum

We visited a local museum for kids today with our friends Nan and Will. Ethan had a great time splashing in the water area (he ended up completely soaking himself), playing with the Thomas the Train table (totally mesmerized for an hour, and I had to practically drag him away), crawling through a long tunnel, and riding the carousel. Ethan was a little unsure of the carousel at first during this visit, but quickly warmed up to it and rode it twice.

Splashing

Will and Ethan

This is lots of fun!I could play with this all day long...Crawling through the long tunnel
I'm not so sure about this carousel thing

Once the carousel started moving, I enjoyed it!

Mike's Best Friend's Wedding

This weekend we went to Stephen's (my brother's best friend's) wedding. Mike was the Best Man, and I consider Stephen to be my "extra brother" since we grew up together, Stephen has spent a lot of time at our house, and we treat each other like siblings. Stephen's family lives right down the street from my parents and are very close friends of ours. Ethan did a wonderful job (thanks most in part to our borrowing of my parent's portable DVD player) traveling the 4 1/2 hrs there and 4 1/2 hrs back in one day. We just briefly had him in the sanctuary before the wedding started but quickly realized that it would be too difficult to have him stay with us during the service. Dan played with Ethan in the foyer while Mom, Dad, and I got to see the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, and it was wonderful to see how excited and happy Stephen and Becky are! Their reception was fun, and to our amazement, Ethan played well in his portable feeding chair for 2 1/2 hours! I brought a coloring book and crayons, some books that he hadn't seen before, and 2 matchbox cars. He pushed the cars around on his tray for about an hour and a half, completely content to be playing with them. From now on, whenever we travel anywhere, I will be sure to pack these matchbox cars!

Ethan with Grandpa and Grandma G. just before the wedding

Stephen and Becky's wedding

Helping Daddy Mow

Tonight Dan was mowing the lawn, and I thought it would be a good time to show Ethan the little mower that I bought for him at a consignment sale a few weeks ago. He was ecstatic to push his little mower around just like Daddy. I told him that he was helping Daddy work, and he would repeat "work" and keep pushing his mower. It was so cute! He was enthralled with his mower for about an hour, then we needed to go inside for dinner, and he was very upset to leave his mower behind. I think that this will be a favorite outside toy this summer.

Mowing just like Daddy!

Hilarious Whispers and Dancing with the Stars

Ethan is saying so many words now, it's hard to keep track of everything he's said! The other day I was tickling him, and he said "Tickle, tickle" very clearly. What's struck me and Dan as particularly funny is that certain words that he says he'll only whisper. Like "pull" and "paper". I'm not sure why he started doing this, but if you ask him to say a series of words (including pull and paper), he'll say each word at a normal volume except he'll whisper paper and pull :) This cracks us up, so he may just know that we think it's funny, so he's continued with the whispering.

Mom babysat for Ethan the other night so that I could attend a meeting at our church about Vacation Bible School, and they watched "Dancing with the Stars" together. When I got home, Ethan was as wired as I have ever seen him. He was running around, spinning, and dancing (lifting up his legs and kicking them). Mom said that he really enjoyed watching the dancing and was trying to dance along with the stars. I haven't been watching this season of Dancing with the Stars, but the next time it is on, I'll tune to it to see what Ethan does!

Mommy's Barber Shop

Ethan's hair grows incredibly fast. I cut quite a bit off just about 3 weeks ago, and he already started looking very shaggy this past week. I asked him to sit in one of his little chairs in front of an episode of Sesame Street this afternoon while I cut his hair, and he did so well! It takes me about 20-30 minutes to cut it because I'm paranoid of messing it up, and (amazingly) he was able to sit still that long. In the past I had buckled him in to his feeding chair/booster seat while I cut his hair, but now I won't need to anymore. Here are a few pics of him post-haircut.

Looking surprised

Silly smiley boy

Doesn't look like he's wound down enough for naptime, does it?

His smile just melts my heart

Prayer Request Updates

Here are some updates on the prayer requests for Scott and Kayla:

Scott's MRI of his spine showed that the tumor has infiltrated one of his vertebra to the point that it is unstable and may collapse. The tumor also wraps almost entirely around his spinal cord. Scott is currently in Ohio undergoing a series of chemo infusions. If his body tolerates the chemo well enough, the chemo seems to be impacting the lesions on his lungs and the spinal tumor, and his spine is stable enough, he will undergo a second series of chemo treatments. After chemo, he will undergo a series of major back surgeries. One to cut off blood flow to the tumor, one to remove his vertebra and as much of the tumor as possible from his back and to insert rods/pins to stabilize his spine, and a third going in from his side (removing ribs) to get as much of the tumor as possible from the front of his spinal cord. After these surgeries, he will have both radiation treatments to his spine and in-patient biotherapy (interleukin treatments). Please pray that his body responds well to each of these treatments and for endurance, strength, and comfort for Scott.
___________________________________________
I have very sad news to share regarding Kayla's condition. We received an email update last week from my cousin Venessa that just broke my heart:

She has fought a strong fight, made it through 5 embolizations, but the 5th one that blocked off 98% of her Vein of Galen Malfomation, caused so much pressure to the other veins in her head that were weaker since they did not get enough oxygen from all of her blood flow that was going to the big vein, that it caused a Cerebral Hemorrhage and damaged the brain.

There was a 6th surgery to try and drain the blood to relieve the pressure on her brain, but the damage was already done. The Dr's have done all they can do, Kayla was taken off all her medicine even the sedation and she is not waking up, her other organs are starting to fail also at least they are acting erratic, some days good, some days bad.
They have asked us to start thinking about taking her off the ventilator as well so that she can go peacefully. The vent is keeping her heart and breathing going.
Luckily they do not expect us to do that this weekend, we would like to wait until Wednesday when she is 1 month old exactly, but based on how she does this weekend, and since she is probably already in heaven, we may need to think about it happening Monday.

Please pray for peace and comfort for Venessa and Sean.

OCD (Obsessive CVS Disorder)

Now that I've learned the basics of couponing/CVS Extra Care Bucks, I just can't stop! I keep planning transaction after transaction (matching coupons I've clipped to sale ads) and bringing home bags of stuff. Due to some great coupons, I am currently about $7-8 dollars ahead for all of the CVS transactions I've done in the past week and a half. I tried my hand at Walgreens last week, but their deals just aren't as good, and I think that their job description must require them to be "surly". Both before and after I started couponing the majority of my interactions with cashiers and managers there have not been pleasant. So, I will stick with my addiction to CVS. I also had been skeptical of internet coupons before- Would retailers accept them? Would it be a hassle to find and print them? Would installing the coupon printer software cause additional unwanted software to be installed on my computer? So far I have had great success with internet coupons and bookmarked several sites that I will check regularly. Also, thanks to some money-saving blogs, I have recently rented 4 movies from Redbox for free. Woo hoo!

Between one trip to Walgreens and one trip to CVS, I got the following items for the equivalent of $1.50 (out of pocket cost-remaining Walgreens register rewards and CVS extra care bucks):
2 Crest Pro-Health toothpastes each with a Pro-Health mouthwash
1 package of Oreos
1 package of Nilla wafers
2 Cover Girl powder compacts
1 Cover Girl concealer
1 Cover Girl blush
1 package of Charmin freshmates
1 container of sidewalk chalk
1 toddler toothbrush
1 OraPik tooth cleaner
3 packages of CVS non-drowsy allergy medication (compared to Claritin)
2 Gillete 2-in-1 men's body washes
2 containers of Pampers babywipes
(Believe it or not) if I had planned a bit better and purchased two containers of Mr. Clean sanitizing wipes, I would have received 10 more dollars in register rewards at Walgreens and would have been "paid" about 6 dollars for all of these items (including the sanitizing wipes) instead of owing $1.50. I'm still getting the hang of all of this, but I'm lovin' it!

Mother's Day and Fun with Family Friends

Today we went to my parent's house to celebrate Mother's Day. We had a great time with my family and ate a yummy dinner from a local Italian restaurant. We also enjoyed a fun visit with some family friends. Tom and Julie (who live in Colorado) adopted two little girls from Guatemala (Olivia and GiGi), and their youngest daughter's name is Nora. This was the first time that my family had met GiGi and Nora, and all of the kids had a blast playing together while the adults chatted.

Tom and Olivia playing with the Thomas trainset and
my brother Mike in the background watching basketball

Ethan and Nora scanning groceries Joyce helping Ethan and GiGi with the record player

I mentioned to Dan that I hardly have any photos of me with Ethan because I am usually behind the camera taking the pictures. He offered to take some photos of me holding Ethan when we got home that evening. Unfortunately my hair looks really scary, but I am excited to have a recent pic of me with Ethan. I love that little guy more than words can express and am incredibly blessed to be his mom.

Bye Bye Phone

I am very reliant on my cell phone. I remember my first cell phone (a gigantic bag phone that I lugged all over the place in college and grad school). Cell phones have come a long way. I take my cell phone for granted. Last night was the first time that my cell phone battery had ever completely lost charge. I am usually good about getting it on the charger when it starts beeping at me, but I unknowingly had it set on "silent" and did not realize the charge had gotten so low. There is a software glitch in our phones that we were aware of relating to the charger, but we had never had a problem eventually getting the phones to charge. I plugged my phone into the charger this morning, and the phone displayed a screen that I had never seen before (a Motorola emblem and the words "bootloader usb init"). I realized that this probably wasn't a good thing, but I was hoping for the best. I called Verizon Wireless and talked to tech support (no help), and visited two Verizon Wireless stores desperate to get my phone working again. I had stored some very cute pics of Ethan from when he was tiny on the phone, and it was also the only place that had all of the contact info for my friends and family. I was disappointed to find that the technician at the second store was unable to revive my phone, so no data on the phone was retrievable. I was able to get a new phone for $20 but am struggling to update my contact info. When you read this entry, please email me your cell phone number so that I can enter it in my new phone! I was able to find most home numbers using the phone book or online, but I have very few cell phone numbers. Thank you!

It's Only Monday and Already a Rough Week- Prayers Needed

This week has been unusually wrought with sad news.

Jackie is a very close and dear friend of mine, and her husband Scott was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma earlier this week. Jackie and Scott have 2 wonderful children who are 3 and 5 years old. Scott had an MRI to determine the extent of the metastasis into his spine this morning, and I have not yet spoken with Jackie about the results. Please pray that God would miraculously heal Scott and for comfort and strength for their family.

Dan's dad called this evening to let us know the very sad news that Dan's grandmother passed away this evening. She had been in a nursing home for several months after having experienced some mini strokes and other health problems. I am so glad that our family was able to visit her for her 90th birthday in November, and we were able to introduce her to Ethan. Please pray for peace and comfort for Dan's family and for safe travels to attend her funeral.

My cousin Venessa and her husband Sean recently had a baby (Kayla) who was born with a congenital abnormality (an enlarged vein in her head). Kayla has already had at least 4 lengthy surgeries and recently experienced some hemorrhaging. Please pray that Kayla's surgeries would go smoothly and be successful. Please also pray for peace and comfort for Sean and Venessa as they care for Kayla and their 1 1/2 yr old son Garrett.

Addicted to CVS- Another Trip

I just can't pass up a great deal. After scoping out a few more money-saving blogs, I made another successful (bargain-induced-adrenaline-rush-causing) trip to CVS. This time I came away paying nothing out of pocket and increasing my ECBs by $2, so I have $15 in ECBs and $5.62 on a gift card to rollover to next week. CVS "paid" me $2 for a Freestyle Lite glucometer, Dawn dishsoap, two containers of Febreze, 1 Orapik Tooth Cleaner, 2 containers of Tums Quik-Paks, and a very nice Gillette Venus razor. CVS is my new favorite store :)

Ethan Update

I haven't kept up blogging Ethan's latest sayings very well...
*He has been saying "banana" for a few weeks now. It started off as "nana", and then he got the first syllable too :) We went to the grocery tonight, and he shouted "BANANA!" with excitement when we went through the produce area.
*He says "eat" when he is hungry. Whenever he is done eating or watching a TV show, he says "All done", "All gone".
*When his sippy is empty, he'll ask for "More BeBe" (BeBe=Sippy)
*He'll ask for specific books- "Grover book", "Elmo book", "Animal book"
*He loves a toy ball popper that I bought him recently at a consignment sale. He can say "ball popper". He has gotten in trouble frequently for chasing Waggles with the ball popper (who is terrified of it!) He grabs the ball popper and says "No No D-D, ball popper". D-D is for "doggy". He understands that he isn't supposed to chase doggy with the ball popper, but he just can't resist the urge!
*When we're at my parent's house, mom and dad will let Ethan walk their dog Sasha on a leash. He likes to say "Walk D-D".
*He enjoys eating "Ot gaws"- Translation "hot dogs"
*Whenever Ethan accomplishes something (builds a tower out of blocks, etc.), I shout "Neat!", "Cool!", or "Wow!" Ethan has started using these words appropriately too.
*He basically enjoys mimicking anything that we say- I love the toddler-ese!

Other updates:
*Ethan loves to point out facial features- he'll point and say "hair", "eye", "nose", "mouth", "ear", and "eyebrow"
*We've instituted timeouts for mischievous behavior, and he is good about staying in one place when we tell him he's in a timeout. The first time I tried this, I had to place him back in the timeout spot about 10 times, the second time I placed him back 2 times, and after that he understood to stay put. It was much less difficult than I thought it would be for him to grasp the concept of a timeout.
*He recently ate his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich and loved it!
*He can build towers that are several tiers tall by himself
*He knows all of his uppercase letters and is beginning to learn the lowercase letters.
*He knows a few numbers- 3, 6, 8, and 9
*Ethan likes to pretend like he's eating things. Like his blocks or other toys. Or sometimes, when he is in his stroller, he pretends to scoop food out of his cupholder and makes munching sounds. He likes it when we "pretend eat" things too.
*He is finally getting more teeth on the bottom. One tooth has poked through beside the two center teeth, and the tooth on the other side is right at the gumline.
*Whenever he is around strangers, he repeatedly points at and reaches for me and Dan and says "Momma", "Daddy". He's going through a little more of an attachment phase than he has before, though he still takes off running for the toys in the church nursery. When we went to pick him up from the nursery this weekend he wavered between playing with the fun toolbench and coming to greet mommy and daddy.

Here's a (not so great) picture of Ethan playing inside a pop-up hamper that I bought to use as temporary toy storage. It's hilarious to see him walking around with this giant hamper on his head!

Couponmania and CVS deals

I generally do not shop at CVS as I have been shocked and amazed at how overpriced many of their items are (I feel the same way about Walgreens). That was until a friend of mine introduced me to the website: www.moneysavingmom.com Thanks Leslie! I "studied" entries on this website along with links to several other money-saving blogs and tried my hand at getting some great deals at CVS today. By comparing the amount of remaining Extra Care bucks to my out of pocket cost, CVS essentially paid me $3 for all of this merchandise! Yes, I actually came out $3 ahead after purchasing these items in 3 different transactions.

To give you the gist of CVS deal shopping... CVS has weekly and monthly deals with Extra Care bucks where you receive the full or partial purchase price of various different items back in Extra Care bucks. These bucks can be used (like cash) towards other CVS purchases. There are also store coupons for $3 off a $15 purchase or $4 off a $20 purchase along with manufacturers coupons that can be used. Since I was a CVS newbie, my initial out of pocket cost was $15.54, but I received more than that back. I'll explain by mapping out the transactions.

Transaction 1:
2 Colgate toothbrushes- $3.99/each, received $7.98 in Extra Care bucks (ECB)
2 Adidas deodorants- $4.99/each, received $9.98 ECB
Used 2 $1 off coupons for the toothbrushes
Used a $3 off $15 purchase CVS coupon
Paid $14.01, Received $17.96 in ECB

Transaction 2:
Bought 3 Aquafresh Advanced toothpaste- $2.99/each, received $8.97 ECB
Bought 3 Aquafresh Extreme toothpaste- $2.99/each, did not receive any ECB because I didn't realize that I had already met my quota of "free" Aquafresh toothpastes
Bought 1 Adidas deodorant- $4.99, received $4.99 ECB
Bought 1 Snickers (a filler purchase to get up to at least $20 total)- $1.49
Used 2 $1 off coupons for the toothpaste
Used $4 off $20 purchase CVS coupon
Used the $17.96 in ECB from Transaction #1
Paid $0.63, Received $13.96 in ECB

Since I didn't realize that the limit 3 quota for the Aquafresh toothpaste was not specific to each type, the manager allowed me to return 3 of the toothpastes for which I did not receive any ECBs, so I received that money back on a gift card.

Transaction #3
1 pk Venus razors- $5.99
1 Colgate toothbrush- $3.99, received $3.99 ECB
2 CVS babywipes- $2.79/each
1 Johnson's bath buddy- $0.99
Used $2 off coupon for the Venus razors
Used $1 off coupon for the bath buddy
Used $1 off coupon for the toothbrush
Used $3 off $15 purchase CVS coupon
Used $8.97 ECB from Transaction #2
Paid $0.90, received $3.99 ECB

So, my out of pocket total was $15.54, but between the gift card and unused ECBs that I'll carry over to next week, I am about $3 ahead. Pretty neat, huh?

Don't worry, I won't break down my shopping excursions by transaction on my blog in the future, I was just very excited to share the great deals that can be found at CVS! Oftentimes the monthly or weekly "free" items are toiletries (shower gel, toothpaste, toothbrushes) which are ideal to donate to shelters and other similar organizations. So, as I shop CVS more and stockpile these items, I will donate the overage.