Fantastic Garage Sale Finds

My friend (Emily) and I met for lunch today, and since the restaurant that we wanted to eat at didn't open until a half hour after we had arranged to meet, we decided to drive around and do a little garage saleing before lunch. We ended up happening upon an awesome garage sale. The family was very nice, and all of their items were extremely well-cared for with super reasonable prices. I ended up buying a really nice gender neutral wooden dollhouse with tons of accessories ($35, ~$250 retail) and a like-new Maclaren Quest stroller with carrying/storage bag ($15, ~$220 retail) from them along with a puzzle and lots of books. They had a ton of learn-to-read type books for a quarter each that we are excited about reading with Ethan to encourage his word recognition. Emily also found some great push-toys for her daughter as well as some books.
I took the boys garage saleing for a little while yesterday too and found a really nice wooden art easel (dry erase on one side and chalkboard on the other) for $10. It needed a little TLC as there was marker on the wood and also the chalkboard, but after trying various cleaning solutions, I found that fingernail polish remover did the trick. It looks pretty good now! It also has a rod for an art paper roll, so I've been researching where to buy a spool of paper for the easel. I have not been able to clean all of the dry erase marker off of the whiteboard yet, so if anyone has a suggestion of a cleaner that might help, please let me know.
What a great weekend for garage saleing!

Ethan's Crafts from Church

As I've mentioned many times before, Ethan LOVES the childcare at our church, especially their music/worship time and craft time. The last few weeks at church Ethan has enjoyed making a crown and a horn, and tonight he made a stick puppet of Goliath. It's interesting to find out what he gleans from the Bible stories that he hears at church. We weren't sure at first who the puppet was, but Ethan kept saying "He was hit in the face with a rock", so we were quickly clued in to the answer. Guess he really was listening as the volunteers in his childcare room shared the story of David and Goliath!

Ryan's First Highchair Adventure

At Ryan's 4 month check-up our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to start solids with Ryan anytime. We haven't started him with cereal quite yet, but we plan to very soon. We put him in his high chair for the first time tonight so that he could get accustomed to it (before he would hang out in his bouncy seat, swing, or on his activity mat while we ate). He seemed to really like his new perspective, and Ethan was so excited that he and Ryan were side-by-side in matching highchairs for the meal.

Grasping Objects

In the last two weeks or so, Ryan has really improved his ability to focus on, reach for, and grasp objects. He loves his activity mat and constantly grabs the animals that dangle above him. It kind of cracked me up today when I noticed that he had a really strong, white-knuckled grip on the tray of his swing- Almost as if he were holding on for dear life!

Looking fearful with his tight grip on the tray

All better! Not so scary after all

Almost Rolling from Back to Tummy

Ryan is so, so close to being able to fully roll from his back to his tummy. If it weren't for that pesky arm getting stuck under him, he'd be there! We thought for sure that he would make it all the way over today, so I grabbed my camera and starting taking pictures, but after a couple of unsuccessful attempts Ryan lost his patience with the whole thing and started crying. I'm sure that he'll reach this milestone any day now!

Hey mom, how do I get this arm out from under me?!?

Almost there

Ryan's 4 Month Check-Up

I can hardly believe that Ryan is already almost 4 months old! The time seems to have flown by despite being somewhat house-ridden during his first several months to protect him from respiratory viruses. I took him to our pediatrician for his 4 month check-up today, and he did really well! At his 2 month check-up there were a few developmental milestones that he should have been able to do, but he had not yet begun to (due to his prematurity). I am happy to report that he has "caught up" and has met all of the expected developmental milestones and then some for his 4 month visit. The doctor was really impressed with his muscle tone and head/neck control. He weighed 12lbs 13oz (10th percentile) and is 25 inches long (~50th percentile). He dropped from the 25th to the 10th percentile in weight, but our pediatrician said that he is not really concerned about that at this point. We were given the okay to start solid foods, so we'll try rice cereal with him in the next few days. Unfortunately something that he has in common with is brother is partially clogged tear ducts (Ethan had one, but both of Ryan's eyes are affected). We're hoping that the issue resolves itself as he grows. If goopy eyes are still a problem at 6 months of age, then the clogged ducts are not likely to resolve on their own and will require placement of tubes under anesthesia after he is a year old like Ethan had done. Ryan has been a lot more vocal than Ethan was at this age, and we enjoy listening to him make all sorts of fun little sounds. He says "hi, goo, gaa, ooo" and is very interactive. He loves it when you echo the sound that he has just made. His smile just melts my heart.

Ethan's "Grassy Guy" and Playing with Ryan

The last project that the kids did during my Mom's group at church was to plant some grass seed in a styrofoam smiley cup. Ethan has really enjoyed the responsibility of watering the grass seed, and we've discussed how the grass needs water and sunlight to grow. Ethan's little "grassy guy" has grown very well!
Dan insisted that Ethan's grassy guy needed a haircut since his blades were getting to be very long and unruly, so after this photo was taken, he and Ethan gave him a haircut. Here's his new 'do:
We have been thrilled with how accepting and loving Ethan has been toward his little brother, and he is really looking forward to the time when Ryan is big enough to truly play with him. He always says "When Ryan gets bigger, we'll play together". He is anxious to interact with him and enjoys "playing" with Ryan on his activity mat by making the animals that dangle above Ryan talk to him. It is so cute to see Ethan move the giraffes and elephant so that they face Ryan and then he has them say "Hello baby Ryan!"

Memorial Day Cookout

Thanks so much to Angela, Loren, and Jackson for hosting a fun Memorial Day weekend get together and cookout! It had been a little while since the families from our previous small group from church had been able to get together, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone and to see what a blast the kids had playing together. Sonia and Michael had welcomed an addition to their family just a week before Ryan was born. Reid and Ryan not only are just 1 week apart in age, but have matching carseats too ;) Tim captured some fun photos of the kids:

Ryan (with furrowed brows) and Reid

Jackson and Ethan had fun playing together on the steps

Ethan's buddy, Annie, taught the boys how to jump off the stairs.
Here Ethan is in mid-air

Spelling Ethan's Name, a Craft from Church, and Target Bargains

Pretty random array of topics to cover in today's blog entry, huh?
Ethan has a Thomas the Train alphabet floor puzzle made out of foam that has 8 large pieces each containing letters of the alphabet. The puzzle is basically twofold, putting the letters in the correct places in the 8 large pieces and then connecting the large pieces in the correct order. Ethan enjoys poking the letter pieces out and working on spelling words. Today (all by himself) he collected the letters in "Ethan" and spelled out his name on the floor. It was so cute to see his pride in his accomplishment! He did a great job. He has also learned how to spell outloud "Mommy", "Daddy", and almost "Ryan" (sometimes he leaves out the the letter Y).
Another craft that Ethan made at church while my Mom's group met is shown below. Jesus is in the center, and the wooden pieces represent children. When the flaps are closed, Jesus is "hugging" the children.

I am starting to get more into the habit of grocery (not just CVS) couponing, and recently Kraft foods came out with some high value coupons that, in conjunction with Target store coupons, made for some really great deals. For a little over $3 at Target, I purchased: 4 bottles of barbecue sauce, 4 Kraft salad dressings, 3 100-calorie pack snack boxes, 1 travel-sized deodorant, 4 travel-sized sunscreens, 2 boxes of Ritz crackers, 4 Bliss candy bars, and 2 large squeezeable containers of mayonnaise.

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a great time today celebrating Mother's Day with my family! My camera's memory card was full and it was low on battery, so I didn't get to capture as many photos as I would have liked. Sadly, I didn't even get a picture of me with my boys. I think that my Dad may have though, so hopefully I can update this post later with one of the photos that he took.

Mom and Ryan

Ryan was all smiles for Mother's Day

I had purchased a stepping stone craft kit for my mom last year to use to preserve Ethan's handprint. We had never gotten around to creating the stone, and we were determined to get it done today! I mixed the cement, Ethan had a lot of fun squishing his handprint in the center, and we decorated the stone. It has to harden/dry for 2 days before we can remove it from the mold. Mom is excited to see the final product! Here is a photo of it after we moved it to the garage to dry (it was messy business, so we made it on the back patio):

My Little Boy is Growing up: Preschool!

With Ryan's unexpected early arrival and the NICU rollercoaster that ensued, I totally missed the boat on preschool registration for Ethan. I had planned to research area preschools in the 4 weeks that I thought I had remaining in my pregnancy, but those plans were obviously derailed. Although I had planned to research preschools, I hadn't realized that registration actually occurred in January/early February.
After things settled down with Ryan, our household regained some semblance of order, and RSV was no longer a major threat for Ryan, I started looking into preschools for Ethan. Unfortunately several that have wonderful reputations already have extensive waitlists, but we were able to find some great ones that still have spots available. We visited 6 preschools in 2 weeks- phew! Thankfully Ryan slept through each visit so I was able to ask the directors all of my questions and Ethan could enjoy checking out the classrooms and activities. He is so excited about going to school, and I was really impressed with most of the schools that we visited. We decided on one that is located just 2 miles from our house and meets from 9 to 11:15am on Mondays and Wednesdays. Ethan can't wait to go! One major thing that we need to accomplish by the end of the summer though is potty training. All of the schools required that the kids be potty-trained. We have been working with Ethan the last few weeks and have seen some progress but still have a ways to go. At least we have until September!

Weighing In

I took Ethan to the pediatrician today because he has had a pesky nighttime cough for the last several days. It is bothersome enough that it has caused him to wake during the night, so I wanted to have it checked out and make sure that he didn't have an ear infection. Thankfully Ethan's exam showed that he is completely fine, and we were told that the cough would improve with just a little more time. While we were there, both of the boys were weighed for the first time in awhile. Ethan now weighs 31 pounds! I could hardly believe it. I looked it up in the growth chart for boys, and he is just above the 50th percentile. As a baby his weight was always on the very low end of normal. When he was little he was an extremely difficult baby to feed, but as a toddler he has developed a healthy appetite. He LOVES veggies, amongst his favorites are broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, peas, and corn. I find it funny that one of the few veggies he does not like is mashed potatoes as that is my favorite and one of the few veggies that I enjoy.
While we were there I decided to have Ryan's weight checked as well. He weighed 12 lbs. 3oz. and is tracking at the same percentile as previous visits which is great news.

Dinosaurs and Winking

For the past several months Ethan has been really into doing puzzles all by himself. I recently purchased many puzzles (all with at least 24 pieces) from a consignment sale, and he breezed through all of them except those with more than 65 pieces by himself. Grandma Q. gave him this puzzle, and it has really sparked his interest in dinosaurs. It has 40 pieces, and Ethan put it together completely by himself for the first time today.

Ethan also recently discovered that he can wink either eye.

Ryan's Photo Session

I can't believe that Ryan is already 3 months old! It's about time that I get on the ball and take some decent photos of him that I can use to create a birth announcement. I took a ton of photos today trying to capture a great smile, and it was hilarious to see all of the different facial expressions that I got during this little photo shoot. Here are some that I thought were funny or cute but were not selected for the birth announcement:

Stunned?

Cracking up

Surprised

Just chillin'

Sad

Mischievous

Smiley

Wide-eyed

Doing an old school New Kids on the Block dance move?

Concerned

What a sweet little guy!

By the way, yes, I later realized that I should have laid him on a solid-colored blanket or at least ensured that the clouds were oriented in the correct direction! :)