An Explanation for the Nausea and Exhaustion- Baby Q :)

As Melinda pointed out :), I did not offer an explanation for my nausea and tiredness in any previous posts... so here goes! We are expecting baby #2 at the end of February, and I am nearing the end of the first trimester (thankfully!) I was spoiled with my pregnancy with Ethan in that I felt little to no nausea and did not notice an impact on my energy level until the very end of the pregnancy. This time around has been a totally different story, as I have felt underlying nausea all of the time and have been completely exhausted (sleeping well at night and still desperately needing a nap for at least a portion of Ethan's naptime). I'm looking forward to less nausea and renewed energy in the second trimester! We had our first OB appointment today with a new OB practice. Because our insurance changed when I went on leave from my previous employer, I had to change OB practices. We were very impressed with the new OB and how seriously she is taking her approach to prenatal care and monitoring based on all of the glucose issues that Ethan experienced shortly after birth. I'll have several glucose tolerance tests throughout the pregnancy to make sure that my blood sugar levels are completely normal up until delivery. Even though the neonatologists didn't think that I had any glucose issues with my pregnancy with Ethan (all of my test results had been normal), I will feel more comfortable closely monitoring this for the second pregnancy.

Now for an explanation of "Baby Q". Ethan has had lots of nicknames throughout his life of 2 years, and the one that has stuck started as "Mister Sweetpea". This was shortened to "Sweetpea", and then just "Pea". Although it probably sounds odd to others, we usually simply (and affectionately) refer to him as "Pea". When we were thinking of something to call Baby #2, we figured that Q comes after "Pea", so that is how we came up with Baby Q.

The OB practice that I go to does not routinely perform an early ultrasound, but my doctor ordered one anyway-yay! So we got to see the baby at 11 weeks. We had an ultrasound at 9 weeks with Ethan, and at that point he looked a lot like a jelly bean ;) We were amazed at how much development occurs in only 2 weeks, as we could see so much more of Baby Q. We saw the heart beating and arms and legs moving. We could see the baby's hands clearly. The ultrasound tech showed us several different neat views, and we got to take home several pics. We don't have a scanner (sad, I know), but I tried to take digital photos of two of the printed photos to post. Sorry for the fuzziness of the images- it was the best I could do photographing reflective film without a flash.

Baby Q! You can clearly see his or her head, arms, and legs/feet

This view is from the top of Baby Q looking down. His or her hands were close together and easy to see, so the ultrasound tech took a picture for us.

Touch-A-Truck

Today Ethan and I went to a truck event sponsored by a local city parks department. There are trucks and vehicles of all varieties available for kids to sit on, explore, and enjoy. Unfortunately it was very hot today, and the vehicles were all positioned on an asphalt parking lot with zero shade. There was a huge turnout of families to check out the event, so each vehicle had a long line to wait in. Ethan wasn't deterred by the weather or lines, so we stayed for 2 hours checking out all sorts of vehicles. Even after being there for 2 hours, we only actually explored maybe half of the vehicles that were on display. Ethan sat in a mule (golf cart-like vehicle), a tractor, several construction trucks, a police car, a police motorcycle, an old-fashioned firetruck (his favorite), an army hummer, a school bus, a cement mixer, an Indy racecar, and probably a few others that I'm forgetting. Our friends Staci, Eli, and Ava were able to join us for our trek around the parking lot, and it was so much fun to catch up with them and to let the boys explore the vehicles together.

"Shifting gears" on the tractor

Not quite sure what this is, but Ethan really liked it!

"Steering" the mule

Hopefully the only time Ethan will ever see the inside of a police car! He loved the computer.

Ethan on a police motorcycle. He got to turn on the siren by himself.

Ethan's favorite vehicle: the old-fashioned fire truck

The fire dept. handed out fun hats to the kids. Eli and Ethan were ready to respond to a fire!

The old-fashioned firetruck had a neat bell that could be rung by pulling on a rope. Ethan enjoyed trying to ring the bell. He did accomplish it once or twice, just not when I was recording!

This was our last stop. I loved the huge smile on Ethan's face as he turned the wheel of the Indy car. The man who was assisting the kids in and out of the vehicle said that Ethan must be pretty strong to turn the wheel as it was really heavy. Maybe he has a future as an Indycar driver? His uncle Mike and grandpa are big Indycar fans...

First Movie in a Theater

We are fortunate that several local movie theaters host family summer events ever year (free family-friendly movies each week of the summer). I looked at the list of free movies that would be shown at our local theater and noticed two that I thought Ethan would enjoy. He has a pretty decent attention span for a 2-year-old, especially when it comes to TV (Sesame Street or Thomas the Train). I know that I probably should limit TV more than I do, but I've been amazed at how much he has learned from some of his favorite educational shows (Sesame Street and Word World). We ventured to the theater for the first time today to see Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Ethan excitedly said over and over again "MOOvie, MOOvie". He sat on my lap for the first hour, mostly engaged in the movie, and spent the next 15 minutes enjoying his own seat. He cracked me up. When I transferred him from my lap to his own seat, I positioned him so that his weight was forward enough to keep the seat down. After a few minutes, he shifted himself back and the seat bottom bounced up and folded him in half. He looked shocked for a moment, and then decided that it was hilarious and started laughing. He pushed the seat down with his legs, and let it bounce up, and repeated this several times. Then he and his little friend Olivia decided to dance in front of their seats during the last song and the credits. I think, for his first theater experience, he did exceptionally well! Random sidenote: We were disappointed that Bob was not in this movie at all! Larry played a large role, but we (the adults) wondered, "What about Bob?"

Ethan's Buddy Kara Turns 2!

One of Ethan's best little buddies is Kara. She is exactly 4 weeks older than Ethan, and we had a great time joining her family to help celebrate her 2nd birthday. We had dinner at Kara's favorite pizza place and then took the kids back to Ben and Nicole's house for presents, playtime, and birthday cake.

Kara, Ethan, and the Daddies in hats
Kara tries on some new gardening gloves
Ben, Nicole, and Kara- anxious to play with her new toys
And, of course, the boxes are always the most fun to play with

Maybe we should get Ethan a box and a bunch of packing peanuts for his 2nd birthday?

Waking in the Middle of the Night to Screaming

We have been very blessed that Ethan has been an awesome sleeper nearly all of his life. He usually goes "night night" without any fussing and easily sleeps through the night. That was until the other evening when we were awakened by piercing screaming at 2am. I could tell immediately that it was an "I'm in pain" rather than just a "Come and get me mommy" type of sound. I rushed into Ethan's room and he was crying so hard, it was difficult to understand what he was saying. He managed to say "Li Li", which is his term for his favorite stuffed lion. I picked the lion up from his crib and quickly realized the problem. Ethan loves tags on stuffed animals and often slips a finger through tags that form a loop. The mane on his stuffed lion is very thick, and Ethan had wriggled his finger into the fur such that it had created a loop (like a tag) in the lion's mane. His lion had then gotten twisted around and around causing the loop to tighten on his finger, and his finger was swollen and slightly purple. I tried to get the lion off his finger and had to grab a pair of scissors to cut the loop and free his finger. Who knew that this innocent-looking stuffed lion could cause such trauma?

The Culprit

What struck us as somewhat funny and really cute was that, although he had been screaming and crying for several minutes, the moment that I cut his lion free, Ethan totally stopped crying and quietly said "All better". :)
Now whenever Ethan asks to take "Li Li" to bed with him, I remind him of the boo boo on his finger from the lion's mane, and he understands why lion isn't allowed in his crib anymore.

Sorry for the Lack of Posts Lately

Hello everyone! Things have been a bit hectic around here. That, along with 24/7 nausea and complete exhaustion, have resulted in blogging being put on the backburner for several weeks. I'm hoping to do a "marathon" blogging session this evening to get caught back up!

Picnic Get-Together and Catch Up with Friends

We had a wonderful time this Saturday catching up with friends from a Bible study that we were a part of for years and years. In fact, it was started back in the day when Dan was a co-op student, and being active in that Bible study is how I got to know Dan. We hadn't seen a couple of the families in many months. We used to meet regularly, but that became difficult as more and more kids were born- though it is neat and so much fun that the kids are all so close in age. They had a blast playing together at a local park. This park was perfect for the kids, as it had a preschool section that was fenced off with all sorts of playground equipment, as well as a much larger area for older kids. Many of the pieces of playground equipment were throw backs to our past: a merry-go-round (think spinning in circles so fast that you nearly fly off), lots of monkey bars, and an enormous barrel that rotated (like a hamster wheel for people). Instead of tearing down and replacing old playground equipment, it appears that this park just kept adding on.
A favorite of all of the kids was an area where you could play with gravel (sift it, push it down chutes that emptied out to the ground, etc.) Ethan enjoyed that area for a long time. He also loved the swings, giant hamster wheel, and a rotating tire swing (see video footage). We all enjoyed a picnic lunch together and were able to spend some time catching up on each other's lives. We'll definitely have to plan these events more often!

Kara and Ethan playing with gravel

The "playing with gravel" area was a popular place! Kara, Ethan, Elise, Danny, Caelyn, and Lori

Sending gravel down the chute

Doug and Dan
Melissa, Tiffany, Brenda, and LoriEthan crawling through tubes
Lori and Caelyn were powering the giant "hamster wheel" while

Elise and Ethan were along for the ride

Splashin' Around

Chris and I took Sam and Ethan to a local splash park today (with the heat and humidity, it was a perfect activity for them!) We went in the afternoon so that the sun wasn't as strong, but boy was it still toasty. Now I wish that I had also worn my bathing suit because the water looked so wonderful. I would have joined right in with the kids... Sam and Ethan had a blast playing in the water. There were levers in every area so that the kids could control the flow of water at each "station". There were also tiny fountains that sprung up every now and then from the ground that the boys enjoyed stepping on. Ethan approached the station with the largest flow of water first, and I wasn't sure what he was going to do. First he stepped in the puddles, then reached his hand out, and next ran right in. He was completely soaked from head to toe and loved every bit of it. I shot a cute video of the boys too, but may need to split it in two as it exceeds the download size limit for Blogger.

First checking out the puddles

Next sticking his hand in the water

Then "diving" right in!

Completely soaked little boy :)

Playing with another water feature

Sam and Ethan stepping on little fountains

Counting Trains and Macaroni

This weekend Ethan began to count items on his own. He began by lining up a bunch of his Thomas trains in a row and proceeded to count them from one to five. It was so cute! He touched each one with his finger as he counted them. Later, we had macaroni and cheese for lunch, and Ethan started counting the pieces of macaroni in his bowl. He (enunciating fairly clearly) counted them from one to nine. It's fun to see how excited he was to be counting by himself!

Polka Concert in the Park

The mom's group that I am part of at our church attended a fun event this Friday. It was a concert at a local park by a group called "Polka Boy". Six families came, and we picnicked, enjoyed the music, and the kids explored some fun activities in a designated kid's area (bounce house, caricature drawings, balloons, etc.) Ethan loved having his balloon tied to his wrist, but was very disappointed when it popped fairly easily. Daddy tried to get another one for him, but unfortunately the booth was all out of balloons. One of the concert sponsor's had a great booth where you could get a photo ID card of your child along with important descriptive/medical information on it. They provided you with the photo card and some safety information free of charge.
We brought a blanket along with our camp chairs and a little camp chair for Ethan that Gene and Joyce got for him. He loved having his very own chair too! Instead of packing a picnic, we went through the Steak N' Shake drive thru- Yum!

Unfortunately both Vivian and I got our cameras out after Kara and Lori and their families had left, so they are absent from this photo :(

Vivan, me, Heather, and Chris

Chris thought ahead and brought some books and toys along. Ethan and Sam were enjoying a Bob the Builder book.

Al and Katie

Excessive Use of the Word "We"

An observation I have made since becoming the mom of an ever curious and boundary-testing toddler is my overuse of the word "we". I have even begun to annoy myself at my constant use of this word. I find myself regularly saying things like "We don't pull on the doggy's fur", "We don't shriek like that, especially not in public", "We don't put peas there", etc. Don't get me wrong, Ethan does behave very well for an almost two year old, but these statements do keep coming up. "We" is utilized in daily conversation umpteen times...