Overly Generous Brother and Visit to the Park

Ethan is a fantastic big brother, and he is always looking out for Ryan. He is quick to help him and to share toys with him. In fact, instead of having issues of him not wanting to share with Ryan, we have problems with him being overly generous with him. Case in point, Ethan wanted to share the soft blocks with Ryan today. Instead of placing two or three on the tray of his swing, he basically covered Ryan in them ;) Fortunately it doesn't bother Ryan in the slightest as you can see from his huge grin.


Dan was off of work today and stayed home with Ryan while Ethan and I explored a new park with our friends Will and Nan. The park itself is not new, but it is new to us. Thanks Beth for letting me know about it! This local park has a wonderful, enormous set of playground equipment just right for toddlers.
Ethan had SO much fun which, unfortunately, resulted in a complete meltdown when it was time to leave. We'll definitely visit this park many more times this summer and fall!

Will and Ethan

Ethan went down some big spiral slides

What a fun morning!

A Day Out With Thomas

We took Ethan to the Day Out With Thomas event last year, and he loved it. We were sure that he would have even more fun this year, as his knowledge and enjoyment of Thomas the Train and his engine friends has grown so much since then. He knows all of the engines' names, colors, and numbers, and has a lot of Thomas trivia memorized. He was thrilled to see the engine decked out like Thomas again. He got to meet Sir Topham Hatt (last year he was really skeptical of him, but this year he eagerly high-fived and hugged him).
Instead of riding in a passenger car pulled by Thomas, this year we decided to ride the caboose train consisting of 6 authentic cabooses. The caboose train provides a longer ride than the Thomas train, and we got to stop twice, stand just outside the caboose, and wave as the Thomas train passed by. Since we took the earliest caboose train ride on a Sunday, we practically had the train to ourselves. There were only 2 other families onboard the entire train. Inside the caboose, you could climb up to the top and look out the windows. Ethan thought that was really neat.
After the train ride we visited the petting zoo, Ethan got to ride a pony, we played with various train sets, rode the barrel train twice, and then grabbed some lunch. It was a fun-filled day!

Ethan was thrilled to ride a pony

Belated Father's Day Celebration

Since on Father's Day Dan was recovering from jet-lag after his long car/train/plane trip, we decided to delay our Father's Day celebration until the following weekend. We spent the day at my parent's house and enjoyed relaxing, eating dinner, and some quality family time. Here are a couple of photos of our boys with Dan and Grandpa G.

Just a Funny Naptime Photo

I went into Ethan's room to wake him from his nap this afternoon, and I found him like this:

Roly Poly- My Little Boy is Mobile!

Ryan has been rolling back-to-tummy and tummy-to-back for awhile now, but today he rolled 3 times in a row completely off of his activity mat. This is the first time that either of our boys have rolled consecutively. Ethan started crawling shortly after he rolled, so he never learned to move around by rolling. Now I have to be careful where I lay Ryan down, because he doesn't stay there for long!

He finally stopped rolling in front of our coffee table (the weird angle of this photo makes his head look enormous. Don't worry, it isn't really that large!)

Ryan just heard the news that Michael Jackson passed away. Just kidding, but doesn't he look surprised/upset? (I'm writing this in retrospect, so that explains why this entry pre-dates MJ's death)

Just hanging out, watchin' some TV :)

Yay! Dan is Home :)

As I mentioned in the previous post, Dan was in the Netherlands on a business trip from last Saturday until today. We missed him a lot and were very excited to go to the airport to greet him when his flight came in this evening. Thankfully he had safe travels, and his flight even arrived early. Ethan and I made a "Welcome Home Daddy" sign for Dan that Ethan proudly held up at the airport. Ethan is really into stickers right now, so his sign wouldn't be complete without a random array of Thomas the Train and Disney stickers :) It is now displayed on our refrigerator:
We are thankful to have Dan home, and just in time for Father's Day too!

We had a couple of funny miscommunications with Ethan while we were at the airport. We rode the elevator to get down to the baggage claim area, and even though he's been in many before, I was telling him again what they were called. When Dan arrived, Ethan kept asking him to look at the "alligators". I thought that he had seen them on a sign or something, but after his repeated pointing, we realized that he was actually calling the elevators alligators. I also asked Dan how the airline's food had been and what he ate. He said that he had teriyaki chicken, and Ethan said, "Very yucky chicken?" which probably isn't too far off-the-mark for most airline food!

Vacation Bible School

Phew! What a fun, busy, and wonderful week! Our church hosted their outdoors/camping-themed Vacation Bible School this week, and there were 995 kids in attendance. Amazing, huh? It's incredible to see the dedicated core team and hundreds upon hundreds of adult and student volunteers who make the week possible and successful. This year 160 of the kids were bussed in from an inner city program, and 50 kids joined us from another local church. My role was to work with my friends Lori and Chris on nametags for the kids and volunteers, labels, and mailings for the week as well as to assist at the Help Desk. Ethan had a great time in the childcare where he got to listen to Bible stories, play, have recreation time, make crafts, attend "big worship", and eat snacks. He made a lot of fun crafts and was thrilled to share them with me everyday. His favorite parts of VBS were attending worship in "big church" (sanctuary) and hugging the Children's Ministry Pastor who dressed up as Flower the Skunk. He learned the lyrics to a lot of the week's songs and sings along when we play the CD in our van. I wish I would have thought to bring my camera, but I had my hands full during the week as Dan was in the Netherlands for work all week, and it was the first time I had to get all 3 of us fed, dressed, ready, and out the door at a decent time 5 days in a row. I kept Ryan with me as I was hesitant to put him in the nursery when he's this little, especially for over 3 hours a day for 5 days in a row. He did very well! He slept most of the time, and when he was awake, he played happily in his stroller. He was only fussy briefly a couple of times when he was hungry. This morning I carried Ryan around in the Baby Bjorn for awhile, and he loved it! We spied on Ethan's class in "big church" worship, and it was fun to see him dancing and trying to do the hand motions for songs. Next year Ethan will be old enough to take part in the actual VBS programming which I'm sure he will be thrilled about.

Aren't Sleeping Babies Cute?

There's no real reason for this blog entry other than I took Ryan's picture today while he napped in his swing and just thought he looked so precious. It's funny how, even in his sleep, he's got a tight grip on his toy links. He loves playing with and gnawing on them (when he's awake, obviously!)

Future So You Think You Can Dance Finalist?

I really enjoy watching So You Think You Can Dance. Dan could take it or leave it, but I've found this season that I have another fan in the house, Ethan. He LOVES watching it and is constantly asking if I can play the dance show on DVR. During each dance he selects a partner (big Elmo, his Cabbage Patch doll, bunny, bear, etc.) and proceeds to dance along with the pair on TV. He usually pauses and says, "We look just like them on TV, don't we?" Dan and I agree, and then he continues his dancing. It's really cute to see him spin and toss his partners around to copy what he sees on the show. I tried to capture his dancing on video, but our camera's memory card was too full. There are still many episodes left in this season, so hopefully I'll have another opportunity to record and share Ethan's dance moves.

Finding Feet Photos

I finally got around to capturing a few photos of Ryan "finding" his feet. He especially likes to play with them when he's on his changing table (part of his pack n' play). I included the middle, somewhat blurry picture since I caught a little smile :)

Lunchtime Smiley Faces

I was cleaning up the kitchen while Ethan was eating his lunch today, and he called me over to show me his lunchtime "art project". He had used pieces of his Ritz crackers to create a smiley face on his tray- Too cute!

Ethan "Feeding" His Bear

Since *thankfully* nursing has worked out with Ryan (it didn't with Ethan), I invested in a nursing pillow that was recommended by several friends. I keep this one downstairs for daytime feedings and a Boppy upstairs. Recently Ethan has been really into playing with toy food and "feeding" his various stuffed animals and even Thomas the Train engines. He usually will bring them toy food on a plate or in a bowl. However, tonight when he announced that he was going to feed his stuffed bear, we were surprised that he grabbed my nursing pillow and proceeded to pretend to nurse his bear (from his belly button). Dan and I stifled our giggles and took his picture.

Bouncin' Around

Ethan and his buddy, Sam, had a BLAST today at a local bounce (inflatable slides, moonwalks, etc.) business. For awhile the boys enjoyed playing in the toddler room that houses smaller inflatables and is restricted to kids 4 years old and under, but they also braved the "big kids'" room that has some huge inflatables. They surprised me and Chris by scaling some of the gigantic "ladders" and going down really high slides without hesitation. It was fun to see them enjoying all of the inflatables and also a sign that they are getting to be so grown up! I've taken Ethan to this place twice before (when he was much younger), and it's amazing how much more he could do and explore this time. We'll definitely be making many more trips here in the future!

Ethan and Sam (It was difficult to get them to sit still and pose!)
Ethan going down a slide in the toddler room (holding a kickball)

Playing with soccer balls

and footballs

Thanks so much to Chris for taking the photos of the boys!

Crying it Out

After managing to function with severe sleep deprivation for several months, we decided to follow our pediatrician's advice and to let Ryan cry it out. He is very stubborn and persistent (wonder where he got that from? ;), so when our pediatrician said that it would take a week or less for him to sleep through the night, I was doubtful. We took the same approach that we had for Ethan (taking away the pacifier) so that Ryan could learn how to self-soothe back to sleep. Interestingly, both boys were exactly 4 mos. 3 days old when we started the "cry it out" method. The first night was really rough, and Ryan cried for hours and hours (literally) on end. We stuck with it though and saw gradual improvement each of the following nights until he was sleeping 8-9 hours. Our pediatrician was correct; It took about 6 days. We are now thoroughly enjoying solid nights of sleep, yay!

What is a Co-Sleeper?

Several people have asked me for further information when I told them that (before Ryan's birth) I purchased a co-sleeper for him to sleep in as a newborn. The main reason that I bought one is because we didn't have something like this for Ethan when we brought him home from the hospital and wish that we had. After having stopped breathing in the newborn nursery and all of the other medical issues that Ethan had in the NICU, when we were finally discharged from the hospital I initially did not sleep at all or was constantly waking at night and going to check on him in his crib (to ensure he was breathing and all was well). Even though we didn't anticipate any health issues with Ryan, I wanted to be able to see him easily during the night to assure me that he was fine. I saw an ad on Craigslist for an Arm's Reach co-sleeper that provides a newborn with his own, safe sleeping area viewable from our bed. It gave me peace of mind to know that when I woke up, I would be able to just glance over at him, be reassured that he was fine, and easily return to sleep. Little did I know that Ryan would also experience a NICU stay. So, this proved to be all the more valuable to me upon his discharge from the hospital. The co-sleeper is very similar to a pack and play, except there is a nylon strap that runs from the co-sleeper under your mattress to a metal plate on the other side to keep the co-sleeper firmly pushed against the mattress (this is important for safety because the side of the co-sleeper that is toward the bed is lower than the other 3 sides, about equal to the height of the mattress). The "bassinette" part of the co-sleeper is pretty firm, so it provides a safe sleeping environment. It was nice that, not only could we keep tabs on him easily without leaving our bed, he was within arm's reach when it was time to nurse him. Once the co-sleeper function is no longer needed (now Ryan is sleeping in his own crib), it converts to a pack and play that I'll keep upstairs as a place for Ryan to play in the morning while I shower. I am really glad that we bought this for Ryan; It was well worth the cost for the peace of mind and ease of nursing. The full-sized ones (like our's) retail for $250, and I paid $50. Yay for Craigslist!

The co-sleeper set up next to our bed

A closer-up view of the bassinette (we're using a sleep positioner that elevates Ryan's head to help with reflux)

Ryan's First Taste of Rice Cereal

Ethan loves having his picture taken with baby Ryan, so he wanted us to take another picture of the two of them in their high chairs this evening :) Ryan looks SO tiny next to Ethan.
Ryan had his first taste of "solid" foods tonight. I couldn't remember how dilute I had made Ethan's first try at rice cereal, so I followed the instructions on the Gerber box, and boy was it runny. I'm planning to make it quite a bit thicker next time, as it was dribbling all over the place even before I got the spoon to his mouth! He did a really good job for his first attempt. It was kind of funny because he was hungry so would begin to cry (AHHHHHHH!), and as soon as we got the spoon to his mouth, he would calm down and make a cute little "content" sound. We went back and forth between the AHHH! and content sounds most of the meal, but he began to figure out that we were going to keep refilling the spoon, and he settled down. He also kept crossing his eyes as he tried to watch the spoon approach his mouth.

Caught him in mid-blink. This is a good photo to show how long Ryan's fingers are. All of the nurses in the NICU remarked on his long fingers and said that he'll play piano when he grows up

Pinning, Poons, and Pit-Up

Ethan enunciates pretty well for a two-year-old, but one recurring speech quirk that we've noticed is that he doesn't really say the "s" in words that being with "sp". We first heard this when he would spin himself silly around in circles. He would tell us, "I'm pinning, I'm pinning". When he began using silverware, he would ask for a fork and a "poon". The cutest time I noticed this is just after Ethan learned what spit-up means (Ryan spat up profusely when we first brought him home from the hospital and still spits up frequently). Ryan was in his swing and Ethan was watching him when he began to spit up. Ethan ran over to Dan and me and alerted us, "He pit-up, he pit-up!"

I Have Feet!

Ryan "found" his feet this morning. He has been able to bring his hands together and suck on his fingers for awhile now, but he hadn't quite figured out that his feet belonged to him too :) I was changing his diaper this morning, and he grabbed one foot, smiled really big, and then grabbed the other. He was so excited about this new discovery that it was difficult to get him to let go so that I could finish fastening his diaper! I will take a picture of him demonstrating his new foot-holding ability soon and add it to this post.