Our First Trip to a U-Pick Orchard

We had the pleasure of Dan's mom (Gail) and her boyfriend (Gino) coming to visit us this week. We had a lot of fun and made our first ventures out of the house with Ethan in underwear instead of Pull-Ups. Most, but not all, of our away-from-home potty training ventures were successful (which I'll blog about later). On Monday we got to explore a really nice local U-Pick orchard where they also grow sweet corn. Yum! I love Honey Crisp apples and was hoping that they would be ready to pick. We were there a little bit early in the season for them, but a nice gentleman who worked at the orchard drove us out to the rows of Honey Crisp trees and helped us find several trees with more mature apples to pick. After picking a couple of bags of apples, we headed to the sweet corn field where Ethan helped Grandma Q. and Daddy pick some corn from the stalks.

Ethan thought that picking corn was neat

Grandma Q. and Ethan selecting some corn
Daddy showed Ethan how to pull and twist the corn from the stalk
Look what I have Mom!

The apples and sweet corn were delicious! We'll definitely be making some return trips to the orchard.

Our Sweet Little Boy

Just a sweet photo of Ryan cuddling with Daddy and his bear blankie this evening. The reflection of the flash off his tongue makes it appear as though he has one or more teeth, but none have come through yet.

Naptime? No, Not for Ethan

It makes me laugh that, although Ethan refuses to nap, he loves to play "pretend naptime" with his stuffed animals and dolls. This afternoon he laid out pillows on the floor and tucked his animals and dolls in with his treasured big comfy blankie for their "naptime". Even Waggles was in on the napping, but definitely not Ethan! ;)

Ethan's Three Year Check-Up

Ethan had his 3 year visit with our pediatrician today, and he is doing very well! He is now 31 lbs (50th percentile, which is the highest he's been since he was first born) and 38 inches tall (between the 50th and 75th percentiles). The doctor asked him a few questions to test his level of understanding of some basic things including colors, numbers, and gender (he listed several people and asked Ethan if each were a boy or a girl). The nurse said their office starts performing urinalyses at 3 years of age and asked if I could get a urine sample. Um... He had not even used a public potty yet, but we tried (unsuccessfully) to get a sample. I was surprised that they requested a urine sample from a 3 year old, but maybe that's typical?
While we were there, the doctor checked Ryan's ear again and said that it had cleared up for the second time. Hopefully it stays clear, and we don't have to try yet another antibiotic. We also did a weight check for Ryan while we were there, and he was 15 lbs 3 oz. fully clothed. I think he'll fit comfortably in his pumpkin seat for quite some time yet.

88 Cents at Target

Thanks to several money-saving blogs that I follow, I was clued in to some GREAT deals at Target this week. Using a stack of coupons, I was able to purchase the pictured items (retail almost $50) for just 88 cents!
10- Johnsons Buddies soaps
3- Reach floss
5- Colgate kid's toothpaste
2- Earth's Best Sesame Street crackers
2- Skittles
1- Glade candle
1- Gerber 3 pack forks
1- Gerber 2 pack spoon and fork
8- Single serving Cheerios
10- Single serving Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Our Little "Exersaucing" Boy

My parents bought this Baby Einstein exersaucer/activity center for Ethan when he was little. He liked it pretty well, but was never overly enthusiastic about it. He became mobile so early (crawling at 6 months) that spending time in the exersaucer didn't really appeal to him when he knew the excitement of exploring his world through crawling. Ryan, on the other hand, is thrilled to spend time in the exersaucer. He has amused himself for even up to an hour long stretch in it. He is constantly bouncing too. Tires me out just to watch him bobbing up and down all of the time! Here are a few photos of our smiley guy at 6 months and 3 weeks enjoying his exersaucer.
Just for fun, I found these pics of Ethan when he was 5 months 1 week in the exersaucer. He and Ryan share similar "spikey" hairdos :)

The Power Company Fixes All of Our Lights, Right?

Last week our power went out for several hours as the result of a storm. This is the first time that our power was out for an extended period of time when Ethan has been old enough to be aware of what was happening. He asked me to fix the lights a few times, but I explained to him that moms and dads cannot fix it when all of the power to the house goes out. I told him that we'd have to wait for people from the power company to fix it. When our power was restored he said, "The power company fixed it!"
This morning I opened the refrigerator door and found that the fridge light had gone out. Ethan noticed it too and said, "The power company people will fix it mommy". Struck me as funny. Wouldn't it be nice if they showed up at your door and replaced lightbulbs too?

Ethan is Three Years Old!

It's hard for me to believe that Ethan is now three years old! He had so much fun at his birthday party which was held at a local business that sells Rainbow playsets, playhouses, trampolines, and Thomas the Train items. Their retail floor has lots of fully assembled Rainbow playsets as well as 3 Thomas the Train tables and lots of Thomas vehicles to play with. My dad took some photos of all of the fun swingsets that Ethan and his friends played on during the party.

One of the Thomas tables was right outside of Ethan's party room, so he enjoyed playing with it while he waited for his friends to arrive.We had drinks, snacks, cake, and cupcakes set up in his party room.

Ethan's favorite flavor is chocolate, so he opted for a chocolate cake this year with whipped icing

We had two balloon bouquets, but sadly the huge mylar Thomas balloon popped just as we arrived to decorate. We figure it got too hot in the van on the drive over.

Ethan got a kick out of the Thomas centerpiece

Grandma G., Ethan, and Ryan before the party began

Uncle Mike, Grandpa G., and Daddy came to Ethan's party too, though since my dad and Dan were taking pictures, we somehow missed getting photos of them!

Getting ready for the cakeBirthday Boy!

I tried three times (unsuccessfully) to light Ethan's candle. Fortunately my Dad was able to get it lit

After specifically asking for chocolate cake, Ethan ended up eating 3 funfetti cupcakes instead ;)

Ethan had so much fun celebrating with his friends!He received neat gifts that he's been enjoying a lot
Ethan's first golf set!Thank you very much to everyone who celebrated Ethan's birthday with us! You helped make his day special and memorable. He had a great time, and we hope that you did too!

KMart Double Coupon Week

I love coupons, especially when you can redeem them for double their value! I made two trips to KMart recently during their double coupon week (they will double coupons up to and including $2). You can get up to $4 off an item! Here are the results of my shopping trips. I took a photo of one, but not the other.
Trip #1: I purchased all of this for $4.14 and also earned a $5 KMart gift card for buying 4 boxes of Kelloggs cereal in one transaction. So KMart, in effect, paid me 86 cents for all of this. Yay!
4-Rice Krispies
2-packages of Ziploc bags
2-Starbucks frappuccinos (Dan already drank one)
1-Motts 6 pack applesauce
2-Clean and Clear face wash
1-Suddenly Salad
2-Dove deodorant
2-Coppertone spray sunscreen
2-Ajax dishsoap
1-Softsoap kitchen handsoap
2-boxes of Hartz dog biscuits
(a coupon should also have printed out at the register for a free box of Milkbone dog biscuits, but the coupon printer was jammed)

Trip #2 I don't remember the exact total, but it was around $5
2- Ajax dishsoap
2- Dove Ultimate Deodorant
2- Dura-Bibs (These are the BEST bibs, and I was excited to find them at KMart priced for $3.99 each)
1- Suddenly Salad
2- 72 count Huggies wipes
1- 40 count Sani-Hands antibacterial wipes
1- Softsoap kitchen handsoap
3- Visine
1- Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Gel
2- Hartz Dog Biscuits
1- Scotch mailer

No Nap Nonsense

Ethan has decided that he is done with napping. Even though he still really needs to, he simply will not. I have been requiring him to have a "quiet time" in his room in the hopes that he will settle down enough to fall asleep, but he is bound and determined that he will not nap. This often results in Ethan being extremely cranky in the evening which is no fun for anyone. We'll see if this pattern continues when he starts preschool in September. I am hopeful that he will be worn out from school enough that he'll nap at least a few times during the week. Starting in mid-September he'll be going to preschool on Monday and Wednesday from 9-11:15am and will also go to mom's group at church with me on Thursdays from 9-11:30am. Surely he'll nap again someday!?

Things Keep Getting More and More Puzzling...

Ethan's love of puzzles has continued to grow. It amazes me how well he can put together difficult puzzles by himself. He has been able to do the large dinosaur puzzle (below) by himself for awhile now, and he recently put together the VeggieTales Jonah one with over 60 pieces and a really challenging Toy Story puzzle with 70+ pieces. I've been looking for puzzles at garage sales lately so that he has some additional ones to try. I have always really enjoyed doing puzzles too, so I am excited to have a puzzling buddy.

If it looks as though Ethan doesn't have any pants on in this photo, that's because he doesn't ;) He's wearing his big boy underwear and vinyl training pants. It's just easier at this point to leave pants off while he's potty training and we're at home.

Ryan's Second Ear Infection

Ryan recently began waking and crying in the middle of the night (uncharacteristically) and was also fussy for naps, so I suspected that he might be beginning another ear infection even though he just got over his first infection. I couldn't get him in to see our pediatrician, but we saw a nurse practitioner today, and she confirmed that the same ear as before was again inflamed. She said what likely happened is that his ear was no longer pink at his 6 month visit, but his body had not yet fully absorbed the excess fluid in his ear which makes a perfect breeding ground if he were to pick up even a little cold or infection. Ryan had just gotten over a very mild and short-lived cold, but it was enough to cause another ear infection. Poor little guy. He was prescribed a different, stonger antibiotic, so hopefully his ear will clear up quickly and stay clear. While we were there I requested a weight check, and Ryan was 14lbs 14oz with all of his clothing on. He gained at least some weight since our last visit, but is still very low on the weight distribution.

Kissing Boo Boos

Whenever Ethan gets a bump or scratch (however minor), he runs to me or Dan and wants us to kiss his boo boo. Today I wasn't paying attention and walloped my head on the van as I was loading in the diaper bags. Ethan was already in his carseat and saw what happened. He said, "Don't worry Mommy, I'll kiss your boo boo". His sweet gesture did make it all better :)

Ryan's First Portraits (6 1/2 months)

I promised myself that I would be better about capturing some newborn/early babyhood pictures of Ryan since all of Ethan's complications delayed his first "professional" photos until he was 6 months old. Well, time has flown, and once again I did not have real photos taken of Ryan until he's almost 6 1/2 months old. I'm disappointed that since both boys were in the NICU for 12 days, we were not able to utilize the professional photographer at the hospital either time and do not have any great newborn photos of Ethan or Ryan.
Overall I was pretty pleased with Portrait Innovations for Ryan, but I hate that you have to make quick on the spot decisions regarding which poses you want to purchase. I bought enough sheets of photos to qualify for the low resolution CD of the images, and as I've been looking through them again, I wish I would have made some different decisions regarding which poses I selected. Anyhow, here is a sampling of Ryan's photos (don't worry, we didn't purchase all of these and spend a fortune!)

My absolute favorite pose!

Chillin' in the bathtub

I bought this one in black and white, and it turned out to be really cute. For everyone who knows how germophobic I am, this was a blanket that I brought from home, otherwise I would not have let him put it in his mouth. ;)

I wish I would have bought this pose

He's a very expressive little guy

I was surprised that he could sit up in a chair this well