Ethan Singing at Mom's Group and Ryan's a Smiley Guy

I probably went overboard with the number of photos that I'm posting here, but seeing Ethan "sing" and do the motions along with the song up front at church for our Mom's group for the first time was just so cute! He really got into the motions and seemed to be having a great time. I knew that Ethan's childcare class involved worship time, but I hadn't heard any of their songs before. I ask Ethan about it, and he says that he has fun singing "Jesus songs", but we haven't been able to coax him to sing any for us at home yet.

Random sidenote: I thought it was funny that the little boy next to Ethan has the same shoes on. I love these shoes and bought them in 4 sizes when I found them at Kohls!Ethan spotted where I was in the audience here :)

Recently Ryan has become quite the smiley little guy. He really is a baby of extremes- he is either extremely happy (cooing, making cute sounds, smiling a lot- My Dad says that he smiles with his whole body) or very upset (crying so hard that he literally changes color to red and gets so upset that you can't even hear his cry- Hard to explain, but he screams so vigorously that no sound comes out). I much prefer the smiley mood :) I tried to get a video of him smiling, and this is the best I could do. He is usually responding to my facial expressions when he is really smiley, and having the camera in front of my face was an obstacle to being able to encourage his true huge smiles.

Overheard During Lunchtime

I really need to keep better track of the cute and hilarious things that Ethan has been saying lately. Seems that each day brings some new comment that has me in stitches. Recently Ethan was in the kitchen eating lunch while I was cleaning in our adjacent great room. Ethan had a bunch of crackers on his tray that he was using for pretend play (what he usually does with his leftovers when he is full). The most popular theme of his pretend play lately revolves around trains, specifically Thomas the Train and his friends (often Percy and Gordon). The other day I overheard:
"I have three Percys and two Thomases. Where did Gordon go? Oh, yeah, I ate him."
Maybe you had to be there, but that totally cracked me up!

A (Too Brief) Visit with Friends

Our dear friends Ben and Nicole were in town for a very short visit this weekend to do some maintenance at their house. They moved out of state in the Fall, and their house here is still on the market, so they needed to check on the house, do routine maintenance, and care for the yard. We were so glad to get to visit with them briefly (we had dinner together tonight), but I wish that we had more time! They are expecting a little boy in mid-June, and we are excited that not only are their daughter Kara and Ethan great friends, but pretty soon Ryan will have a new little buddy too. We are hoping to meet up with them halfway between our homes sometime this summer for more of an extended (weekend-long) visit.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Tonight I went to pre-shop yet another MOPS consignment sale, and while I was gone Grandma Q. and Dan laid Ryan on his playmat for awhile (he just recently has expressed an interest in it). While on the playmat, Ryan rolled from tummy to back twice! We were surprised that he rolled this early as it took Ethan quite a bit longer (though Ethan rolled the more difficult way first- back to tummy). I wish that I had been home to witness his first successful roll! He is also close to rolling from back to tummy but can't quite figure out how to get his arm out from underneath him (it gets "stuck" under him when he rolls).

Celebrating Dad's Birthday

During Gail's visit we spent some time with my parents to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We enjoyed chatting, eating a delicious lasagna dinner and yummy cake, and wishing my Dad a happy birthday. Poor Dad, somehow we managed not to get a single photo of him taken from that evening!

Grandma G. and Grandma Q. having fun with Ryan

Sound asleep and cute as can be :)

Cuddling with Grandma G.

Visit from Grandma Q. and More Consignment Sale Deals

This week Grandma Q. came to visit and to meet Ryan. Ethan and Ryan had a lot of fun with grandma, and I really appreciated all of her help with the boys and around the house. Thank you so much Gail!! We were able to get out of the house a bit more (since Ryan is no longer "quarantined" due to the risk of contracting RSV) which was really nice. We went to our local library's toddler story hour, did some shopping, and took Ryan on his first outing to a restaurant (Penn Station). I LOVE that place! He did really well, just looking around quietly for awhile taking in the new sights and then drifted off to sleep. He slept through most of our yummy meal, but it won't be long before he'll be scarfing down Penn Station along with us!

Grandma and Ryan

I woke up early this morning to check out a MOPS consignment sale with my friend Lori. There wasn't a whole lot of merchandise, but I was able to find quite a few great deals (particularly on denim). Since I'm so behind on my blogging, I don't actually recall what my total spent was *gasp*, but I was excited about the bargains. One of my favorite finds was a brand new with tags pair of Children's Place jeans in Ethan's size which is just what he needed! Oh, and if you're wondering what on earth is in the big ziploc baggie, it's a whole bunch of small toy duckies. Lori bought a bag of them for her girls, and I bought the other bag for my boys. We thought they would be great pool/splash park toys that wouldn't be a big deal if they got lost since they were so inexpensive (and plentiful!)

Lovin' My CVS

This was a great week for deals at CVS (as most weeks are), so I was happily able to have CVS "pay" me $1 for these items. (My out of pocket cost was less than a dollar and I ended up with $2 more in Extra Care Bucks than I started out with). I began CVSing in May of last year and can't believe that I have not paid for any toiletries (including baby wipes) for our family for almost a year! Couponing is SO definitely worthwhile.
Later in the week I used a buy one get one free coupon for Purex laundry detergent with CVS's buy one get one free sale to get two containers of detergent for 49 cents. The 49 cents and out of pocket cost that I mentioned above weren't even truly out of pocket because I paid for them using a $25 gift card that I received because I filled Ryan's prescription for Prilosec at CVS.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter with my parents, brother, and some dear family friends (Gene and Joyce). Ethan had a great time searching for Easter eggs at my parent's house (mom "hid" most of them pretty obviously, so it didn't take long!) We look forward to explaining Easter to Ethan using Resurrection eggs, but decided that he would better understand what we were talking about next year.

My parents got 2 new puzzles for Ethan, and he loved putting them together. He has been doing a really great job at assembling pretty complex puzzles all by himself and enjoys them a lot.
Ryan's favorite activity of the day was hanging out on his play mat. He was content and cooing there for a really long time (quite possibly the longest time he has been awake and happy since we brought him home from the NICU!) Notice both the bib and burpcloth to help with his massive spit-up episodes.

Silly big brother wanted to get in on the action too!

Ryan also got his first experience riding in the Baby Bjorn. He seemed to enjoy that too, even facing in toward Dan. Ethan loved it when he was little, but would only ride facing out (he hated facing in because he couldn't see much of what was going on around him).

Ryan is Growing Up Too Quickly!

How sad *sigh*. Tonight I packed away some newborn sleepers that Ryan can no longer fit in. I am so glad that he is gaining weight and doing well but seriously cannot believe that he is old enough to already be outgrowing clothing. Where is the time going?

Proud Big Brother and a Visitor for Ryan

Ethan loves spending time with his baby brother and likes to sit beside him on the floor when we put Ryan in his bouncy seat. Ethan has decided that it is his responsibility to make sure that the music and bubbles on Ryan's bouncy seat are on whenever Ryan is in his seat. If the music and bubbles time out, he notices right away and restarts them for Ryan. I took this photo of the boys "hanging out" together this afternoon.
My friend Kim came by today to meet Ryan and visit with us. Ryan had been irritable all afternoon, but he loved being held by Kim and calmed down right away for her! I may have to give Kim a call for some help when he is up all night fussing ;)

Ryan's NICU Room 2/10/09

In case you were wondering what a private NICU room looks like, here it is! I took a short video of Ryan's NICU room on Feb. 10th so that we'd remember it and could show it to him when he gets older. I was SO thankful that the medical center where he was born had individual NICU rooms as it was incredibly nice to be able to stay overnight in the room (on a decent-sized "couch"), keep food and drinks there, and most importantly to have privacy (for sleeping, pumping, nursing, talking with visitors, etc.) When Ryan was limited to very minimal stimulation, it was nice to be able to close the door and keep noise/disruptions to a minimum. During both Ethan and Ryan's NICU stays I could not have imagined having to leave them every night and not to even have an option of staying with them.

Ryan- The "Lost" Files from 2/9/09

Just a few more photos of him all swaddled and comfy taken Feb. 9th. He loves having his hands close to his face. He also showed that preference in the womb as his hands were in front of his face during each ultrasound.

Ryan- The "Lost" Files from 2/8/09

Here are a few more photos from Ryan's "lost" files taken on Feb. 8th.

Ryan is cuddled in my mom's arms. He still had the nasal-gastric tube at this point. He continually tried to pull it out, so the nurse had to use a ton of tape to keep it in place. Notice his furrowed brows again since the camera flashed!

Ryan's hearing test was administered on the 8th. The earpieces that were used cracked me up. Thankfully he passed!

Ryan- The "Lost" Files from 2/7/09

I could have sworn that I took a lot more photos of Ryan during our NICU stay than I had been viewing on our computer, and just recently I discovered that indeed I had! For some reason our camera had not marked photos and videos from several days in February as "new", so they were not automatically uploaded to our computer. Thus, the blog entries for Ryan- The "Lost" Files. Here are a few photos of Ryan taken on Feb. 7th after he was promoted to a basinette from the isolette and we were permitted to bring clothes from home for him to wear. I tried to get a clear photo of his onesie because I thought it represented his first couple of weeks well. In case it is not clear enough to read, it says "Here comes trouble".
This video clip was too large to upload to Blogger, so I shortened it and split it in two. This is the first diaper change that Dan or I did for Ryan. Because of his delicate condition we were not able to participate in his basic care initially (including diaper changes). It amazes me now to look back at how tiny he was. At this point he was wearing a onesie from the NICU (sized 0-3 months), and he was swimming in it!

Ethan's Second Dentist Appointment and My Trip to CVS

Ethan did very well at his first dentist appointment back in September, but I wasn't sure how he would do the second time around. We talked up how much fun going to the dentist would be, watched the Elmo's World all about teeth and the dentist multiple times, and explained that the dentist would count and clean his teeth. Thankfully he was cooperative and did really well again! The only problem was that he is so talkative that he kept trying to talk while the dentist was trying to clean his teeth and apply the fluoride treatment. :) He was so excited to get to select his own toothbrush (he picked out a Diego one), and as a reward for behaving well during the appointment, the hygienist let him pick a prize from a tub of goodies. After carefully checking out each and every item in the tub, he selected a blue bouncy ball.

Ethan showing off his clean teeth and new Diego toothbrush
(If you were wondering, I took these pictures in the evening after his appointment. We do spend much more time in jammies lately than usual, but we don't go out in public with them on! ;)

Oh how I have missed my trips to CVS... I have been out of the loop regarding CVS sales since Ryan arrived and am just now getting back into the swing of things. There were some great $5 off Huggies internet coupons that were calling my name. I misplaced my receipt, and I don't recall for sure what the totals were, but I'm pretty sure that the pictured items cost me about $2. Included in this purchase was a 20 oz. Vitamin Water, but it had already been consumed before I took the photo. Yay for cheap diapers! Thank you SO MUCH for the extra coupons Lori!

Sesame Street Live

We decided (quite last minute) to take Ethan to Sesame Street Live today. A friend emailed me a promotion code to get 50% off tickets for a specific day/time that Sesame Street Live would be performed at a local theater, and we thought that Ethan would enjoy it even more this year than last because he would understand more of what was going on. We are very glad that we decided to go; Ethan was absolutely mesmerized and thrilled by the show!

All of Ethan's favorite characters were there

Ethan enjoys the Elmo's World portion of Sesame Street the best

There was even a train on stage!

Mesmerized

Our friends who emailed us the information about the promotion code also attended the discounted show, and we were able to spend some time with them during the intermission. Ethan and Annie had a blast running around and jumping together.

Ryan's Favorite Hang-Outs and Ethan's Crafts

Besides the swing,

Ryan's second-most favorite place to hang out is his bouncy seat.

In spite of our "quarantine", we have gotten out of the house a couple of times now to attend the mom's group at our church. Ethan and I had both been really missing our friends and social interaction, so we decided to go. I took Ryan with us to the group, and he stayed with me in his carseat (covered with a blanket) to protect him from as many germs as possible. Both of the times that we've been, Ryan has slept through the entire thing. Ethan LOVES the childcare during mom's group, and lots of his little buddies are in the same room as him (2-2 1/2 year olds). Each week they make a craft, and I have been trying to get most of them photographed before they fall apart from being played with too much. Below are a couple of photos of his most recent craft projects from church.

Ryan's First Time Using the Bumbo Chair

Ryan has been doing a great job at holding his head up (even in the NICU his neck strength was pretty remarkable), so we thought it would be a good time to pull the Bumbo chair out of storage. Ryan seemed to really enjoy sitting up "on his own". Please excuse the mess of toys in the background. I think that Ethan pulled out nearly every toy from the toy room and scattered them all over the place this evening...

Ethan has had fun playing with the baby doll that I bought to help prepare him for Ryan's arrival, and he thought it would be nice to share it with baby Ryan, so he set it down in Ryan's lap. When I uploaded and reviewed these photos online, it cracked me up to see the resemblance between Ethan's baby doll and the real thing- Ryan! See what you think- I think they look almost identical ;)

Ryan and his "twin"

I am so happy to see how Ethan has been such a wonderful and proud big brother and continues to dote on Ryan. While I was recording this video of Ryan in the Bumbo chair, Ethan (spur of the moment) said "I love baby Ryan"- How sweet!