Julie's Blog

It has been a ridiculously LONG time!

2011-03-01T22:24:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! It really has been entirely too long since I have updated our blog. I am so sorry to have gotten this far behind in recording our family's antics and adventures and sharing photos with our family and friends. I have decided that, from this point forward, I will be posting updates at a new blog url. It is a private blog, so I'll no longer need to be vague about names and locations in my posts. If you would like for me to email you an invitation to view our new blog, please email or call me, or leave a comment on this post. I am hoping to post a ton of updates at our new blog url in the very near future, but for now it just contains all of the posts that I had previously published at this url.

Who Knew Baby Wipes Could Be So Much Fun?

2010-05-11T23:13:00.053-05:00

Our boys are silly. They come by it honestly. Dan and I can be quite silly (actually, oftentimes we are ;). Tonight at dinner the boys were totally cracking up because one of them decided to put a baby wipe on their head, and the other joined in thinking this was complete hilarity. They laughed, and laughed, and laughed. It made me smile to see them having such a great time together.

Silly boys with baby wipes on their heads

Yes, this was simply hysterical to them (Ryan's fell off)

Silly Ethan

Silly Ryan

At least they are easily amused! ;)

Marble Tower Fun

2010-05-11T15:55:00.038-05:00

I love garage saleing and recently have found some really fun toys for Ethan and Ryan. I bought two marble tower sets, and Ethan has been enthralled with putting together all different types of towers for the marbles to roll down. Ryan (whose fine motor coordination at this age is much better than I remember with Ethan, who was all about gross motor skills), has been carefully observing his brother and figured out how to assemble some of the pieces himself. Since he loves to be doing whatever his big brother does, he has had fun "helping" build the towers.

Carefully stacking pieces of the tower

Mommy, this is fun!

Intent on building another stack

Checking out the tower that Ethan built

I think that this is the biggest tower that Ethan built (other than the track that he and Dan created that went all the way down the first set of our basement steps). I must say that Dan and I have been enjoying building with the marble tower sets too!

The Joy of Sharing Puffs, a Photo Essay ;)

2010-05-09T15:45:00.064-05:00

We visited Grandpa and Grandma G. and Uncle Mike today and had a great time. Ryan had SO much fun this evening sharing his puffs (puffed Gerber baby snacks) with his daddy. He and Dan took turns feeding each other puffs, and Ryan thought this was absolutely hysterical. You can tell from his big grins that he was really getting a kick out of this.

I thought that these expressions of Ryan's were cute also.

Grrrrrrr

Sweet and innocent munching on a snack

While Ryan was laughing hysterically about puffs, Ethan enjoyed some snuggle time with Grandma G.

This is a terrible photo of me, but I am nearly always behind the camera and (sadly) rarely have my photo taken with the boys, so I wanted to include this one on our blog.

Ryan's 15 Month Check-Up

2010-05-03T10:11:00.031-05:00

I took Ryan to the pediatrician for his 15 month check-up today. He is doing very well and has even moved up a little bit in weight percentile. He is so funny, even though he is petite, his belly looks enormous. Today he weighed 21 pounds 4oz and measured 32 inches long which places him at the 5-10th percentile for weight and 50-75th percentile for height. I really should start taking pictures of him the day of each of his well-baby appointments to show how he's grown... I'll post one back-dated from May 9th since I didn't take any today.

I love his sweet smile!

Julie's Lamplighter Weekend

2010-04-25T22:14:00.042-05:00

My friend, Lori, sponsored me to attend a Lamplighter retreat this weekend. Lamplighter is similar to the Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus, Via De Cristo, and Great Banquet retreats. The purpose of the Lamplighter weekend is to give guests the opportunity to grow in their Christian faith. Dan attended a men's Lamplighter weekend back in November and was excited for me to attend this women's weekend. Since the schedule includes some surprises, those who have attended in the past are very secretive about what happens and when during the weekend. So, I didn't really know what to expect, but knew that it had an uplifting impact on Dan and our other friends who had been guests at previous Lamplighter retreats. I am thankful that I got to see Ryan take several consecutive steps Friday evening just before I left for the retreat because he (quickly) became a much more confident walker in just the two days that I was gone from home. We were not permitted to have cell phones, watches, or computer access during the retreat, and it was nice to just "unplug" for awhile. I won't disclose too much since Dan and I plan to sponsor more friends to attend and want to keep the weekend's activities a surprise, but I can say that I really enjoyed it and learned a lot too. It was also evident that God had a hand in who was placed at which tables (the attendees were divided into small groups), as the members of the small groups bonded very well with one another. I really enjoyed meeting all of the ladies at my table and especially connected with one in particular who I am sure will be a life-long friend. And, a huge thank you goes out to everyone who supported and encouraged me during the weekend- I really appreciate you! I would encourage any of my friends and family to attend a retreat like Lamplighter.

Ryan is Walking!

2010-04-23T12:00:00.039-05:00

I'm cheating a little bit and backdating the photos in this post. They were actually taken on 5-11-10, but I wanted to post them here since 4-23-10 is when Ryan actually started to take consecutive steps on his own. I am disappointed that I didn't capture some of his first adventures in walking on "film" but am glad that I have these photos of his early walking to post. He had been cruising holding onto furniture and running behind his walking toys for awhile, but until this point didn't seem that interested in walking on his own. It's fun to see how excited he is about this new found independence.

Ryan is SO excited to be walking!

Oops!

And he's back up again...

Ethan's New Dentist

2010-04-23T10:15:00.022-05:00

Since our dental insurance changed when Dan and his friends started their own company, we now have a much larger pool of local pediatric dentists to choose from for Ethan and Ryan. Our old insurance only covered 3 pediatric dentists all of whom were at least a 25 minute drive from our house. Based on recommendations from friends, we decided to take Ethan to see Dr. H for his next appointment. He was so nice, energetic, and enthusiastic. I could tell that he is great at working with kids! Ethan has always loved going to the dentist (weird, I know), and he was not phased by going to a new office. Dr. H. was very happy with his exam and said that Ethan had the best mouth of teeth he'd seen that day (Ethan was so proud). Whenever Dr. H. sees a new patient, his staff takes a photo of them with Dr. H. and a giant toothbrush. Ethan thought that was really neat and gave them a big smile.

Sorry for the poor picture quality (it's a photo of a photo)

Woolly Wonders

2010-04-23T08:16:00.016-05:00

I took the boys to our local living history museum again today for a neat program about sheep shearing (and sheep in general) called Woolly Wonders. The first thing that we got to do was walk out to the barn where the sheep are kept and watch a sheep shearing demonstration. It was interesting to see how thick the sheep's coat was (and dirty!) as the shearer cut away the kind of rough outer woolly coat to reveal the soft, white, clean wool underneath. Ethan got the opportunity to pet the sheep before and after it was sheared.

Beginning to shear the sheep and pull away the wool

All the kids crowded around to feel the soft undercoat

There were also very young goats that were walking around in the barn that the kids could pet. Ethan just loved the baby goats!

He tried to get down eye-to-eye with them

Our next stop was to watch what it looked like for the wool to be spun into thread. It was neat to see people using authentic "olden days" spinning wheels to make thread.

Ryan enjoyed observing the Woolly Wonders activities

When we returned to the main building, Ethan got to make a lamb craft from real sheep's wool

He also got to try his hand at using these tools with some wool (these tools are used to clean the wool and prep it for the spinning wheel)

Train Layout Designer

2010-04-17T23:38:00.037-05:00

Lately Ethan's favorite playtime activity has been designing new train layouts and pushing his trains along them. We have a large area of laminate flooring in our basement and friends that gave us their son's huge collection of wooden track that together allow Ethan to make some pretty impressive layouts. Dan and I have been amazed at his creativity and ingenuity in building the layouts all by himself. Not all of his layouts are this intricate, but here are a few photos of two that he built recently.

He was very proud of this layout

When we saw this, Dan and I asked each other if we had helped him prop up the ramp and bridge with blocks and found out that Ethan had figured that out himself. I doubt that I would have come up with this idea to use 3 blocks to prop up the ramp and bridge.

Another one of Ethan's huge layouts

Moms' Spring Fling at Ethan's Preschool

2010-04-14T10:17:00.001-05:00

In the Fall, Ethan's preschool had a Daddy Date Night event that was a lot of fun for Dan to attend, and today was the Mommy Spring Fling. We had some playtime (Ethan got to show me his favorite toys at school), made a picture frame together, had a snack, and his teachers read "madlib"-style stories to us from our kids.

This racetrack was one of Ethan's favorite toys. The cars roll right-side up or upside-down through the twists and turns.

Working on our picture frame together

I thought that Ethan did a fantastic job signing "LOVE, ETHAN" on this little poem. His teachers made keychains with the kid's photos inside for each mom.

Just like for Daddy Date Night, the teachers read the kids a fill-in-the-blank story (about their mommies this time) and recorded their responses. It was interesting to see what Ethan said. Of all of his classmates' stories, Ethan's made the most sense (which was somewhat surprising!)

The kids also made floral placemats for their mommies

Getting ready to pray before our snack

Trying to sneak some M&Ms while smiling for my photo

The decorated tables were so cute

Since this was one of the first times that I used my new camera, I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it into video mode, so photos had to suffice. The kids sang several songs for us with hand motions.

We certainly are living in an age of technology. I thought it was funny that you could see two moms recording video using their phones :) I wish that my phone had video capability as I would have used it too since I couldn't figure out our new camera!

A few days later Ethan's teachers gave me a photo of us together in the frame that Ethan had made :)

Air Conditioning FAIL

2010-04-06T22:19:00.058-05:00

We have had unbelievably bad luck with appliances at our house even though none of them are very old. :P We have had furnace issues a few times already and discovered that something is not quite right about the way that it was installed, but it still functioned fairly well. Now our air conditioner stopped working. When the repairman came out, he diagnosed the issue as a coil inside the house that would cost around $1700 to replace. Our A/C system is 7 years old, the repair would be expensive, we have known issues with our existing furnace, and there are several federal, state, and local utility rebates currently available for installing high efficiency HVAC systems, so we decided to replace everything now even though it would cost a lot. We bought a new high efficiency heat pump, furnace, and humidifer (we did not previously have a humidifer tied in with our HVAC system) and will qualify for $1500 in rebates/tax credits. What was really interesting (and worked out hugely in our favor) is that the sales representatives from two of the companies we got quotes from know each other from working together in the past and were insanely competitive with one other for our business. Trying to win our business clearly became a personal rather than a business battle. One of the sales reps would decrease their estimate and throw something new into the quote (extended maintenance agreement, upgraded filter, humidifer, duct cleaning), then we'd get a call from the other who would one up their competitor, and this went on...and on....and on. Really to the point that it was getting ridiculous. In the end, we purchased the system for somewhere around $1300 less than the original estimate and also received: 5 year maintenance agreement (twice a year), free whole house duct cleaning, a 15 year warranty, and a humidifier tied in with the furnace. Even though we didn't really initiate these "negotiations", the sales rep that we ended up deciding to use said that the next time he's planning to make a major purchase, he's going to hire me to negotiate a deal for him!

New Camera and Ryan Running with his Car

2010-04-06T17:51:00.038-05:00

It's absolutely ridiculous that it took me this long, but I purchased a digital SLR camera (Nikon D5000) many months ago and FINALLY took it out of the box, charged the battery, skimmed through the manual, and started using it! Now I wish that I had gotten started using it a long time ago! I am excited to learn more about it and its capabilities and hope that it helps me capture special moments in Ethan and Ryan's lives (they move very quickly, and I love that the shutter speed is way better than our old point and shoot ;) These are some of the first photos that I took with the new camera. Ryan went from a cautious and slow walker while pushing his car to running around with it, turning it on a dime, and confidently tearing around the house with it. I think that these shots captured his glee while running around with his car!

Celebrating Grandma G's Birthday and Easter

2010-04-04T10:21:00.064-05:00

Ethan and Ryan were really excited to spend the day at Grandpa and Grandma G's house to celebrate Grandma's birthday and Easter. Unfortunately we didn't take very many photos of our visit that day and don't even have any of Grandma on her birthday :(

The boys received Easter "buckets", each with a cute stuffed animal chick, and Ethan's also included a Leapster game and some Thomas the Train stickers.

This is the first year that we dyed and decorated Easter eggs with Ethan. He loved it! He wore Grandma's apron to protect his clothes and had a great time selecting colors for the eggs and then decorating them with Cars stickers.

Colorful Cars eggs

Ethan eagerly awaiting the "Go!" for hunting eggs at Grandpa and Grandma's house

Ryan did a good job of crawling around to find eggs

Ethan filled his bucket to the brim with eggs-What fun! Thank you Grandpa and Grandma G. and Uncle Mike for the Easter gifts and egg hunt!

Easter Party at Preschool

2010-03-31T14:30:00.061-05:00

Ethan had a blast at his preschool's Easter party. The kids started out with an adorable "bird in a nest" snack (yes, I did just use the word adorable to describe a food ;). The bird was a marshmallow Peep, and it was sitting in a rice krispie treat nest with chocolate eggs beside it. Too cute!

As always, Ryan watched patiently from his stroller!

Ethan and his classmates each got to search for 5 eggs out in the church's yard. Ethan found his 5 eggs very quickly and was anxious to check out the candy inside. He was thrilled with the new Lightning McQueen Easter bucket that I gave him this morning.

The poor kids were looking directly into the sun, but the parents did manage to get some photos of the whole class together.

Ethan is left-most in the top row.

After the egg hunt the kids went inside to do a bunny craft.

Ethan carefully added stickers to his two bunnies.

Showing off his completed bunnies

The party finished up with some relay races. Here Ethan is trying to walk quickly while balancing an egg on a spoon.

More Puppet Show Fun at the Nature Center

2010-03-30T14:15:00.029-05:00

I took the boys to another puppet show at the nature center this morning. Since the weather is nicer now, it was MUCH more crowded than the Valentine's Day puppet show that we saw back in February. We sat way in the back of the room so that Ryan could stay in his stroller. This one was about the story of Peter Cottontail.

It was crowded, but fun!

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-27T23:37:00.066-05:00

This is the first year that Ethan has been able to participate in our neighborhood's annual Easter egg hunt. Last year he was sick and missed it, so he was especially looking forward to it this year. He has been kind of obsessed with the Easter bunny recently and has some interesting ideas about him. Ethan is convinced that the Easter bunny comes to help you find Easter eggs (the concept that he hides them has escaped Ethan at this point!) On our way to the egg hunt, he kept talking about the Easter bunny: Where does he live? Will he come with us back to our house? What color is he? And he said several times that the Easter bunny was going to help him find the hidden eggs.
The Easter bunny is the spouse of our neighbor who organizes the egg hunt. They rent a costume for this event every year. It was cute that Ethan was more interested in hugging the Easter bunny than finding eggs. Fortunately our neighbor was a good sport, allowing Ethan to hug him several times and even helping him find an Easter egg.

Waiting with our neighbors for the hunt to officially begin. Ethan made a beeline for the Easter bunny (he's standing right in front of the bunny)

Different yards were labeled according to age so that kids were hunting with others of similar age. That worked out really nicely so that everyone had a chance to find plenty of eggs. This neighbor's yard was for 3-4 year olds.

Ethan was beyond ecstatic when the Easter bunny helped him get an egg! Too bad my camera focused on the branch that was in the way rather than on Ethan and the bunny.

Ethan LOVES the Easter bunny! Bet you didn't know the Easter bunny wears tennis shoes ;)

Ethan's basket was filled with a bunch of eggs, and he enjoyed opening them to find out what candy was inside

What a fun morning!

Ryan and Mia

2010-03-12T10:21:00.026-05:00

Ryan had a second "date" with his girlfriend Mia today ;) I babysat for Mia this morning and enjoyed watching her and Ryan play together so well. They spent a lot of time crawling from room to room following one another and checking out various toys along the way.

Heading for the groceries

Playing guitar

Ryan and His Truck

2010-03-09T23:08:00.017-05:00

Ryan received this toy as a birthday gift from us, and he is just now getting interested in playing with it and riding on it.

Katie's 4th Birthday Party

2010-03-08T10:25:00.033-05:00

Ethan had a fantastic time helping celebrate Katie's 4th birthday today! She had a really fun party at a bounce place with lots of inflatables and games. Here is the birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles.

Ethan enjoyed the delicious pizza, cake, and ice cream- YUM!

The kids each received a cup of tokens to use to play the video games which were a bit hit. Ethan loved the games that involved steering something (like this speedboat game). Only after I uploaded this photo did I notice the fire and apparent carnage in the background of this speedboat scene. Maybe next time we'll stick with a "friendlier" racing game!

Ethan's friend, Caelyn, played a game that awarded tickets at the end. She hit a major jackpot when the machine apparently malfunctioned and kept spewing out tickets, and more tickets, and more tickets. She was ecstatic! It only stopped dispensing tickets when another child entered tokens to play the game.

St. Patrick's Day Celebration and Ryan's Fun with Art

2010-03-05T10:27:00.004-05:00

Today Ethan and his friend, Quinn, had fun at a St. Patrick's Day party at our local living history museum. They enjoyed learning about St. Patrick's Day through listening to a book and singing songs. Each child was given a leprechaun finger puppet, and in this song they were supposed to "hide" the leprechaun different places (here it is on their backs).

Ryan did a great job being content to sit in his stroller, watch, and listen

The kids were preparing to participate in a parade, so they made drums to carry and play. Here Ethan is decorating his with a leprechaun and clover stickers.

Ethan showing off his finished product! The boys also made kazoos.

The kids got to listen to several lesser known instruments being played. Here they are singing along to a dulcimer song.

This guy cracks me up. He is one of the employees who isn't afraid to dress up and be silly with the kids and their parents. He dressed up like a leprechaun and performed a little song and dance. Wish I would have caught the dance on video-it was cute!

On a completely unrelated note, Ryan has shown an increasing interest in playing with the art easel that we have in the basement. He is finally tall enough to reach the chalk and use it on the blackboard. He thinks drawing with chalk is so much fun.

He was having such a great time, he decided to draw double-fisted!

Ryan's 2nd Top Tooth

2010-03-04T16:56:00.010-05:00

Ryan's second top tooth was not far behind the first. Today we noticed that (as you are looking at him) his left front tooth has come through the gumline. I'm hoping he'll be able to chew a wider variety of foods soon!

Ryan Walking with His Car

2010-03-03T01:10:00.006-05:00

Recently Ryan has been enjoying pushing his car toy around. I think that he'll be walking independently in the near future!

Two Firsts for Ryan: Top Tooth and Girlfriend ;)

2010-03-02T01:10:00.037-05:00

Today is the first day that we noticed one of Ryan's top teeth poking through the gumline (as you are looking at him, the right front tooth has appeared).
Ryan also had a playdate today with his first girlfriend, Mia :) Aren't they adorable together? Mia's mom, Emily, and I are in the same mom's group at church, and Ryan and Mia got to spend a lot of time together in the church nursery while our group met over the last year. They play so nicely together!

I almost caught both of them looking!

Playing together at the train table

Ethan's Special Day at Preschool

2010-03-01T23:31:00.089-05:00

At Ethan's preschool, the kids who have a summer birthday get to celebrate their half birthday with the class on their designated "special day". I appreciated the teachers' thoughtfulness in remembering those with summer birthdays! The "birthday" child's parents bring in a snack and drink on their child's special day. Today was Ethan's special day, so I made penguin (confetti cake) cupcakes and brought milk for the kids' snack time.
Ethan was so excited to celebrate his special day and to dig into his cupcake! Here he is wearing his birthday crown getting ready to pray before snack time.

It is probably difficult to see in this photo, but there are 3 1/2 candles on Ethan's pretend birthday cake.

Getting ready to blow out the candles

After blowing out the candles, they gave off a ridiculous amount of smoke!

Hooray, time to eat!

A messy, but delicious, snack!

Photo Shoot- Ryan (1 year old), Ethan (3 years old)

2010-02-28T01:10:00.100-05:00

We took the boys to Portrait Innovations today to have Ryan's 1 year and Ethan's 3 year photos done and to also get some photos of the boys together. Overall I was pretty pleased with the outcome, though we learned that it is very difficult to get a great shot of both boys at the same time. Ethan did a spectacular job listening to the photographer and following direction, but Ryan was all over the place! ;) It was interesting how the difference in the boys' complexions was so evident in these photos. Ethan favors me in his extreme paleness, and Ryan favors Dan with more of an orangey tone to his skin. Here are the best shots of the boys together:

Some of Ryan's 1 year photos:

BIG blue eyes :)

Ethan's 3 year photos:

I absolutely love this last one!

Dan's New Employer

2010-02-27T10:34:00.001-05:00

The company Dan has worked for since he graduated from college has had significant financial problems, just recently emerging from an over 3 year period of bankruptcy. During this time of difficulty for their company, Dan and several co-workers envisioned being able to make their own business and financial decisions so they decided to seriously pursue starting up their own company. They invested many months learning the ins and outs of small business development. They recently secured a substantial contract that allowed all four of these entrepreneurs to resign from their previous employer and set out on their own. To celebrate, our friends Lori and Doug invited the founders of the new company to a wonderful dinner party. We had great food, great conversation, and great fun! The guys who comprise the new company are (from left to right): Doug, Neil, Dan, and Todd. We are so very proud of all that they have already accomplished and pray that their new business venture is a huge success!

Tinker Toy Antics

2010-02-22T23:51:00.024-05:00

Ryan is such a character. He loves to do anything and everything that his big brother does. I was a little nervous about allowing him to play with Ethan's tinker toys (lots of small pieces), but this silly boy ended up playing primarily with the box!

Playdate with Ian and Reid

2010-02-16T02:52:00.057-05:00

We had a great time getting together with our friends Sonia, Ian, and Reid today. Ian is 2 months younger than Ethan, and Reid is 2 weeks older than Ryan, so the boys are extremely close in age and have a lot of fun playing together. This is one of the first times that I've seen Ryan really interact with his playmate. He and Reid had fun throwing balls, playing with cars, and exploring other toys.

Ethan and Ian had a blast playing with lots of different toys. Here they are working on a Thomas the Train puzzle.

Uh oh!

2010-02-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

It is a lot of fun to hear Ryan start saying various words or at least trying to mimic our speech. Recently we've heard him saying "uh oh" very distinctly (and in appropriate circumstances).

Valentine's Day with Grandpa and Grandma G. and Uncle Mike

2010-02-15T02:23:00.046-05:00

Luck runs in our family. For whatever reason, we tend to win quite a few of the things that we sign up for (drawings, contests, etc.) This Valentine's Day was no exception as Grandma G. won an entire meal from Kroger including a ham, several sides, sparkling grape juice, and also a $20 gift card to Olive Garden. We enjoyed helping Grandma, Grandpa, and Mike eat up the winnings! :)

Ethan cuddling with Grandpa
Ryan cuddling with Grandma

Grandma bought a neat Valentine's Day storybook at Hallmark (one where you can record your voice reading each page) for Ethan and Ryan. The boys love it! How neat that Grandma can "read" them a story any time they'd like.

Valentine's Party at a Local Living History Museum

2010-02-12T02:14:00.156-05:00

Ethan and his friends, Caelyn and Elise, really enjoyed a Valentine's Day Party today at a local living history museum. They listened to a Valentine's Day story, discussed colors and each had a turn to stick different colored hearts on a special board, and enjoyed decorating (and eating, of course) a heart-shaped cookie with icing and candy.
At the end of the party, the kids learned a really fun dance to a catchy song and danced their hearts out (no pun intended). They also snuck in a game of limbo.

All three of the kids had a blast! (And, no, their mom and I did not coordinate their outfits intentionally!)

Valentine's Day Puppet Show

2010-02-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Ethan and Ryan really enjoyed watching their first puppet show today with their friends Caelyn and Elise. Since the puppet show was at a nature center, all of the characters were animals, and the puppeteer discussed facts about some of the animals prior to the show. The "plot" of the show was really cute, and Ethan was mesmerized the entire time. The really snowy and icy weather deterred a lot of people from coming, so it was nice that the show was not very crowded at all.

The puppet show stage with the main characters: polar bear, snowy owl, and wolf

The show really kept Ethan and Caelyn's attention The kids got the opportunity to "meet" and hug the puppets after the show. Ethan was thrilled that he got to hug the owl and polar bear.

Watching the Superbowl and More Snow!

2010-02-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed watching the Superbowl with friends today, and the boys sported clothing supporting their favorite team :) Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures of all of our friends' kiddos together in their Colts gear, but I took a few photos of Ryan when we got home. He is quite fascinated with the electric guitar that Ethan received as a birthday present.

I mooched a photo of all of the kids playing together as we watched the Superbowl from my friend (Angela's) Facebook page. Don't they look cute in their sea of blue and white? (Ryan is in the lower left and Ethan the upper right)

We have continued to experience massive amounts of snowfall this winter. Here is a photo of the big pile of snow that was plowed into our front yard.

Unfortunately, in addition to scraping up the snow, the city's snow plow also scraped off a big chunk of our grass. Hopefully the yard fills out alright come springtime!

Big Snowfall Fun

2010-02-05T01:58:00.003-05:00

There was a huge winter storm that blew through our area today, and we had a lot of snow accumulation in our yard and driveway. Ethan absolutely loves playing in the snow and helping Daddy clear off the driveway. This was his first opportunity to wear new Crocs boots that I bought online (they were a fantastic deal). They worked really well to keep his feet warm and dry (Ethan definitely tested them)! He enjoyed laying down in the snow to make "Snow Ethans" and then using the shovel to help clear the "Snow Ethan" away.
I was impressed with how hard he worked at moving the snow and that he could maneuver a huge, heavy snow shovel. He did a better job at it than I would have been able to do!

He would have stayed out in the snow all night long if we'd have let him

Ryan is One Year Old!

2010-01-30T01:11:00.015-05:00

I can hardly believe that it is already Ryan's 1st birthday! Where did the time go? His first year has been wonderful, and it has flown by. He is such a sweet, adorable little guy and we love him to pieces. His personality has really begun to show, and he is a boy of extremes. Extremely happy and laid back (most of the time), but if he gets upset, boy is he angry. He is incredibly curious and loves being able to crawl around and explore everything in the house. He has a particular propensity toward anything electronic that is not a toy, including remote controls, cell phones, and cameras. He knows the difference between toy ones and the real ones, and he has his mind set on grabbing the real ones.
We had fun celebrating Ryan's birthday with family and a few close friends. Ryan experienced his first taste of frosting and cake, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are a few photos of our celebration:

Ryan's cake was chocolate with whipped icing

Our cutie had really rosy (chapped) cheeks and nose on the day of his party.
Happy First Birthday Ryan!
Ethan really dug in at his first birthday party, but Ryan was more laid back and calmly munched on his cake and frosting.
He devoured a decent-sized chunk of his cake.

Ethan is excitedly awaiting his slice of cake

Lauren holding squirmy Ryan on her lap

Playing around with his new toys

Celebrating completely wore Ryan out

This was maybe the second time ever that he fell asleep in his high chair

Shortly after Ryan tuckered out, Ethan did too

What a wonderful (and apparently tiring ;) day!

Wow! I'm SO far behind...

2010-01-29T23:59:00.002-05:00

Each time I get way behind on blogging I tell myself, I'm not going to let this happen again. This has turned into a pattern though, as I repeatedly find that I'm several months behind on posting and need to spend hours getting caught up! I'm sure that I'll miss documenting some of the boys' milestones since I've been such a slacker, but I'm going to attempt to get as caught up as possible over the next few days! (I'm back-dating this post, by the way, from April 15th).

Ethan's Valentines

2010-01-29T00:11:00.008-05:00

I was trying to think of a creative valentine that I could make for Ethan's preschool class and his other friends this year. At first I thought I'd make a photo card of him holding a heart...
but then I stumbled upon a really cute kid's craft blog that had a neat idea I decided to use instead...

It started with this photo

And ended up looking like this
I think that they turned out pretty well!

In between his Valentines photo shoots, Ethan decided to try to squeeze into his toy storage ottoman. Silly boy!

Vivian's Thoughtful Birthday Treat

2010-01-21T00:08:00.003-05:00

My dear friend, Vivian, is a very talented baker and can make desserts and pastries that are truly dazzling. She surprised me with a very thoughtful (and delicious) gift for my birthday this year, this beautiful miniature cake! I hesitated to cut into it (for many days) because I didn't want to damage her creation. When I finally did dig in, it was absolutely delicious. Thank you so much for the fantastic birthday surprise Vivian!

United States Puzzle "Ethanism"

2010-01-16T20:00:00.003-05:00

Ethan likes to put together a very old United States puzzle at my parent's house that Mike and I played with when we were little. Mom found a really neat U.S. puzzle to give Ethan for Christmas this year so that he had one to work on at home too. He has put it together over and over again and is really interested in learning the names of the states. He has some of them down, but others need more practice. He excitedly showed me a state today and said, "Mommy, this is New Hamster!" After recovering from trying to stifle my laughter, I let him know the correct pronunciation. He was on the right track though, he did have New Hampshire in his hand! :)

Family Christmas

2010-01-09T23:50:00.007-05:00

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with my dad's side of the family. The day was filled with lots of chatting, food, presents, and fun! I wish that we all (there were 22 of us this year!) could get together more often. We always have a blast.

My cousins: Barbi, Beth, and Becky

Beth and Alex
We are so excited that Barbi was able to join us this year. She was unable to come the last several years. We loved getting to introduce her to Ethan and Ryan.

Uncle Jim, Uncle Leonard, and Alex chattingThe kids had a lot of fun opening their gifts
Ryan was hilarious. He absolutely loved the Dora the Explorer doll that we gave Katelyn. He was fascinated with her hair and large eyes and crawled over to the doll repeatedly.

Here he is lunging for the doll once again. Katelyn was so gracious to share Dora with him all day!

The kids were anxious to play with their new toys.

Cindy had a great idea to play Bingo with white elephant gifts this year. Each time someone got a Bingo, they could either select a wrapped white elephant gift or "steal" someone else's gift that had already been opened.
Cameron did a great job calling out the letter/number combos
Barbi opened a Chia Pet Christmas tree...which Dan later stole.

Dad opened a kitchen towel. Mom was thrilled (she loves kitchen towels)!Uncle Leonard opened the funniest gift of the evening...

a talking Barack Obama Christmas ornament. (Uncle Leonard is very conservative)
Aunt Barb and Aunt Joanne posed with the Obama ornament
Ethan thought it was neat to get to play Bingo too (the kids played for gifts but did not take part in the "stealing")

It was a wonderful day of family-filled fun! Thanks so much for hosting everyone and for such a great time John and Cindy!

Ryan Playing Around

2010-01-08T23:48:00.003-05:00

The last couple of months I haven't been as on the ball about taking photos as I would have liked. Ryan is growing up and changing in leaps and bounds, and I don't want to miss capturing him at each stage of his babyhood! I took a few photos today and thought I'd share this one of Ryan playing around in his sleep sack. He's such a precious little guy :)

Winter Fun

2010-01-07T16:40:00.009-05:00

Despite the looming winter storm that began dumping lots of snow in our area mid-morning, Ethan's buddies Caelyn and Elise were able to join us for a playdate. They had a great time! The three of them worked together to assemble Ethan's United States puzzle, and they did a fantastic job. They all also enjoyed pretending to be doctors with Ethan's new doctor kit that he received for Christmas. Ever since Ethan got a flu shot at our pediatrician's office, he likes to pretend that he is administering shots. Dr. Ethan told me that I needed to get fifteen flu shots today! Fortunately the Fisher-Price kind don't hurt.

Ryan and I hung out inside this evening,

while Dan and Ethan enjoyed playing in and shoveling the snow from today's winter storm

Family Ornament for Christmas 2009

2010-01-07T00:35:00.009-05:00

We started a family tradition last year that each year we would add a unique, dated ornament to our Christmas tree. This year we were a bit late selecting and ordering our's, so it did not arrive until after Christmas (though our tree was still up, so we added it as soon as it arrived!) I thought this glass etched, personalized ornament was really neat. We ordered it online from personalizationmall.com. I've ordered several items from that website since and have been really impressed with the quality of their merchandise. I blacked out part of our last name for privacy reasons.

New Year's Day with Friends

2010-01-01T11:56:00.009-05:00

We had a fantastic New Year's Day spending time with dear friends. We watched football, got to catch up, ate a TON, played games, and the kids had a great time running around together. Ethan got to try ping pong for the first time on Logan's new ping pong table, which he thought was so neat. Surprisingly both boys were energetic and happy late into the night, so we were all able to play several games together after Ethan and Ryan's normal bedtime. Ryan cracked us up keeping amused with a large plastic spoon that Jackie gave him when he began to fuss a little. That spoon kept him happily occupied for over an hour! Who needs toys when you can simply use a spoon? ;) This was an adorable photo that Jackie took of Ethan and Lauren. They had such a blast playing together.

Ethan Helps Ryan Use a Sippy Cup

2009-12-30T16:36:00.006-05:00

Although all of their interactions are not lovingly motivated, overall Ethan and Ryan get along really well. Ethan jumps at the chance to help Ryan with various things. Tonight that included helping him drink from a sippy cup! Ryan can drink easily from a sippy if you tip it back for him, but he is still learning that the cup needs to be tilted back to drink from it. Ethan wanted us to scoot him right next to Ryan so that he could help out. They both thought that this cooperative effort was great fun.

Milestones for Ryan

2009-12-30T09:38:00.005-05:00

It seems like Ryan has been growing and reaching milestones especially rapidly the last few weeks! Today Ryan achieved the milestone of pulling himself to standing for the first time. He was very excited about it! His second tooth also popped through his gumline (he now has two middle lower teeth).

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T18:14:00.010-05:00

Ryan opened a gift from Grandma Q. on Christmas Day. He was excited to try out his new TAG Jr.

Our family does a puzzle together every Christmas. This year we completed two. One was a 3-D puzzle that Mom found on clearance, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Dan put nearly all of it together by himself.

Ethan, Daddy, and Grandpa worked together on Ethan's new United States puzzle

We all worked together on Dad's new photo puzzle with Ethan and Sasha

We attempted to get a photo of the boys together in their matching pajamas, but they weren't being very cooperative. Here are our best shots.

It is funny to see how different Ethan and Ryan's complexions are. Ethan is super pale like me, and Ryan has more orange-toned skin (his coloring favors Dan)Ryan hanging out in his pack n' playEthan received some new Leapster games and was glued to his video game system for quite awhile

Ryan enjoyed playing with his new toys too

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T14:57:00.018-05:00

WARNING: This post contains a ridiculous amount of photos :)
So I am finally getting around to posting our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day photos. I probably should have put them in a slideshow format instead of including so many in one post, but I'm determined to get caught up on our blog and this was the quickest way to add photos!
Sometime through the years our family went from each of us selecting one gift to open on Christmas Eve to everyone opening everything on Christmas Eve. So, tonight the boys were allowed to open all of their gifts. Ryan napped briefly on Dan's lap before the festivities of gift-opening began.

Ryan enjoyed playing with his Taggie football while he waited for us to pass out the presents to everyone.
A ride on Daddy's shoulders is always fun!

One of the first gifts that Ethan opened was for our Christmas tree at home...A Thomas the Train ornament with Thomas, James, and Percy
Mom likes her Bath and Body Works soaps
Since his (second) hospital stay, Ethan has been fascinated with the tools that doctors use to do their job
A gift for Grandpa G. was a puzzle of him with Ethan and Sasha
Dan received a Christian music CD (apparently Ryan was quite interested in it)
Ryan did a great job helping open his gifts
His giraffe toy has been a ton of fun
Dad opening gifts
Ethan was very excited about a crayon holder that a family friend made
Ryan was anxious to open his retro chatter telephone
Ethan opening gifts
Ethan opened a set of 4 Cars puzzles!
Uncle Mike enjoying the festivitiesEthan and Ryan received matching Christmas jammies. Here Ethan is modeling his new jammies along with a santa hat.

A Better Video of Ryan Crawling

2009-12-24T01:37:00.003-05:00

On Christmas Eve I was able to capture a better video of Ryan crawling. He loves that crawling enables him to see where he's going while in motion (as opposed to when he rolled everywhere). It also allows him to have a better view of Ethan's toys that he can't wait to get his hands on!

Christmas Gifts from Grandpa and Grandma A.

2009-12-23T09:22:00.008-05:00

The boys received a package from Grandpa and Grandma A. in the mail today and were very excited to open their first Christmas gifts.

Ethan eagerly awaiting our permission to open his gifts

Ethan loves doing puzzles

He was anxious to open the box and get started on itPlaydoh!Ready to use his Playdoh and accessories Ethan tried to instruct Ryan how to open his giftsA Taggies football!

Ryan is fascinated with tags and is now in tag heaven ;) He also really likes his new lullaby CD.Thank you so much (and for the yummy Chick-Fil-A too) Grandpa and Grandma A.!!

Ethan Learned to Write His Name

2009-12-20T05:38:00.004-05:00

Recently at preschool Ethan has been working on learning how to write his name. He is doing a great job and was very proud to be able to sign his own name to the Christmas cards for our family this year!

It Finally Appeared!

2009-12-19T13:15:00.003-05:00

Ryan's first tooth finally broke through his gumline today. He has been showing signs of teething for awhile now (primarily irritability and waking during the night), and the culprit finally made an appearance. I think that the tooth just beside it will break through very soon too.

We Have a Crawler!!

2009-12-18T13:15:00.005-05:00

Ryan has been rolling to get from Point A to Point B for quite some time now (with a little army crawling mixed in there), and tonight he actually started crawling. The first snippet of video that we captured of him crawling didn't turn out very well, but you can kind of tell that he is crawling. This was our first video attempt:

New Christmas Ornaments and Nativity

2009-12-16T17:39:00.003-05:00

Now that we have kids, Dan and my Christmas tree has shifted from boring standard ornaments to having fun, sentimental, and handmade ornaments. Ethan contributed several neat ones to the tree this year. He made two of them during craft time at his preschool Christmas party, a stocking and a reindeer:
Another was a special Christmas gift for me and Dan that his teachers helped him make:
An addition under our tree this year is a nativity set that my cousin, John's, family gave us last year.
If you are familiar with Resurrection Eggs as a way to teach children the story of Easter, this nativity set was created by the makers of Resurrection Eggs. It is kind of a combination advent calendar/nativity. Each nativity piece comes in a numbered box, and there is a corresponding section of a book that you read each time you prepare to open a box. Each section of the book explains a little more about the Christmas story. Ethan was SO excited about this nativity that he wanted to read the whole book and open all of the boxes right away. It took a lot of patience for him to wait a little while between opening boxes. In the end I gave in to his pleading to open more, and we did the last 3 boxes on the same day. If you are interested in learning more about it, it's called What God Wants for Christmas and is described on the packaging as an interactive, kid-friendly nativity set.

Ethan's Preschool Christmas Program

2009-12-16T13:16:00.013-05:00

Ethan had a great time this morning at his preschool class Christmas program and party. The kids started out in the sanctuary for their program (songs and poems).

Ethan is in the second row, second from the left

They had cute little props to go along with the songs and poems in each of their bags (a Rudolph nose on a popsicle stick, a candy cane, jingle bells, and a Santa beard on a popsicle stick)

Santa Claus is a jolly old elf,
He slides down the chimney in spite of himself.
Santa Claus is round and plump
He spreads joy, he's no grump.
When he laughs he Ho Ho Hos
And says "Merry Christmas" (wherever he goes)- This last part was cut off because Blogger limited the size of the video file that I could upload.

(Ethan's candy cane was broken, so he was a bit distracted during this poem)
I took a lick of my peppermint stick
And mmmmm it tasted yummy.
It looked so nice on my Christmas tree,
But I like it better in my tummy.

I have a friend named Candy Cane
We go dancing down Sugar Plum Lane
While we're doing the peppermint twist
We blow each other a peppermint kiss.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas (sounded more like it was in a round!)

After the program the kids had their Christmas party starting out with their snack which today consisted of sugar, sugar, and more sugar ;) They frosted upside-down ice cream cones with green icing and decorated their "Christmas tree" with M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, and sprinkles.
Ethan posed with Grandma G. and Ryan for a moment before heading to another room for games.The kids had a story read to them, played hot potato, Santa says, and did freeze dancing (everyone danced until the music stopped and then froze in place).

Story time

Santa says

Freeze dancing

After game time the kids did two Christmas crafts (which I'll blog about next).

My Favorite Amazon.com Delivery

2009-12-14T13:15:00.007-05:00

Look what Amazon.com sent me today!

Tonight Dan put Ryan in an Amazon.com box from a Christmas gift and dragged the box around our great room for awhile. Ryan had SO much fun! He had a huge grin on his face and couldn't stop giggling :)
It was an evening of being amused by simple things. Ryan played with a box and a slinky for a good chunk of the night. It cracked me up to watch Ryan play with a slinky toy for the first time. Below are a couple of video clips of his slinky fun.

Attempting a Photo of the Boys Together

2009-12-12T08:32:00.006-05:00

Sadly we have very few photos of the boys together. Mom and Dad really wanted to include a photo of Ethan and Ryan in their Christmas cards, so we attempted to get a decent picture of them together today. Unfortunately Ryan didn't nap well, so he was not in a very good mood for a photo session and was extremely difficult to coax a smile out of. Here are the best of the pictures:

Giving uncooperative Ryan a kiss :)Since Ethan was posing well, we took a couple of photos of him by himself too

Holy Walk

2009-12-11T13:39:00.003-05:00

The church where Ethan attends preschool puts on a really neat Christmas event, the Holy Walk Through Bethlehem. The description of the event from their flier sounded really interesting: Travel back in time 2000 years and experience an interactive journey to the little town of Bethlehem. Along the way, in the company of Roman guards, you will be greeted by shepherds tending their flocks, turned away by an innkeeper, questioned by wise men from distant kingdoms, and interact with store keepers in a bustling marketplace. All ages will enjoy experiencing a choir of angels before arriving at the manger to behold the newborn babe.
We decided to take the boys to see what it was like, and we're really glad that we did. The church did a fantastic job making the nativity story come to life, and Ethan loved it! We traveled along a path outside in a small group accompanied by three characters in costume who told us that we were part of a family returning to Bethlehem to be taxed and counted for the census as ordered by Caesar. We stopped at different points to hear trumpeting and an angel choir, to be taxed and each get our papers, to encounter Roman guards twice, to get our papers stamped, to talk with shepherds, to visit a marketplace complete with vendors of all sorts of wares, sheep, goats, and a rabbit, to talk with wisemen, to be shown to the manger by an innkeeper, and finally to see Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. We plan to make it a family tradition to go each year.
Flash photography was not permitted during our "journey", but we were able to take a couple of pictures inside while we waited our turn to go on the walk. There was a tent, people in costume, and instruments in the lobby that Ethan enjoyed.

Bouncing Fun

2009-12-10T13:16:00.005-05:00

Our moms' group met for a fun playdate today at a local bounce place. The kids had a blast on all of the inflatables, and this place was especially fun because parents were allowed on the inflatables too. Some friends graciously offered to watch Ryan for me for awhile so that I could play on the inflatables with Ethan. It was SO much fun and also a great workout. I think that we'll definitely be visiting this bounce place again!

This particular slide was a favorite of all of the kids

Ryan's Check-up

2009-12-01T13:18:00.005-05:00

We returned to the pediatrician today for Ryan to get his second seasonal flu shot, first H1N1 vaccine, and to have his hemoglobin checked again. Poor little guy was stuck three times during this visit. We also had him weighed again, and he was 17 pounds 13 ounces (I was excited that he had gained 10 ounces in the last week, but he is still below the 5th percentile). Unfortunately his hemoglobin was low again, 9.4, which was very concerning to our pediatrician. He said that if a serum draw confirmed that value we'd need to see a hematologist for further evaluation and testing. After reading online (health articles on the internet can be a blessing and a curse!) about what other conditions could cause a persistently low hemoglobin level, Dan and I were really worried about what was going on with Ryan's health. Our doctor ordered another serum draw along with a CBC, iron studies, and a reticulocyte count. I wanted to get the results asap, so we went directly to the hospital for his blood draw. Thankfully Ryan did really well again cooperating for the phlebotomist.
Our pediatrician called us in the evening (he really is a great doctor. He has called us multiple times at home regarding both Ethan and Ryan. There are very few doctors I hear of nowadays who will call you at home on their own time to discuss health issues/test results). We were so relieved to learn that Ryan's serum result differed dramatically from their in-office screen. His serum hemoglobin was 11.1 (definitely within normal range), and the other signs of anemia were almost completely resolved. We still need to continue his daily iron therapy until he is a year old, but thankfully we are no longer worried about his hemoglobin level.

Visit from Grandma Q.

2009-11-29T07:47:00.004-05:00

We were so glad that Grandma Q. could visit us for the week of Thanksgiving, and Ethan and Ryan absolutely loved playing with her! She probably needs a vacation from her vacation after running around with our two high-energy boys :) Thanks so much for coming to visit us!

Black Friday Deal on a Washer

2009-11-27T13:32:00.004-05:00

I have been looking through ads for many months now searching for a deal on a front-loading washer. Our washer still functions well, but the lid and part of the basin started to rust a long time ago and whenever the lid is jostled or if I don't close it super gently, bits of rust fall into the basin and we find rust stains on our clothing. It has been very aggravating to continually find rust stains on clothes that otherwise are in excellent condition. I tried all sorts of methods I read online to remove rust stains, but none of them worked. I was excited to see a front-loading washer deal in Best Buy's Black Friday ad for a unit made by Samsung (which is highly rated). It also has the steam cleaning feature which appealled to me for trying to get out the many stains created by two little boys. There was a lot of discussion about this 50% off deal on slickdeals.net, and it sounded like there were very few units that could be sold per store. I wasn't sure if it would be worth getting up super early to wait outside in the cold. We drove past Best Buy last night and saw about 25 people camped out in tents and sleeping bags (which I definitely wasn't willing to do), but thinking of all of the frustrating rust stains made me decide it would be worth a try. I got to Best Buy at about 4:15am (it opened at 5am) and there were already at least 100 people ahead of me in line. When the store opened I made a beeline for the appliance register and was the second person to check out (the person in front of me also bought one of the washers). I asked if the salesperson would give me free delivery and she said yes, so that saved another $30 (it's always worth asking!) I was SO excited to get in on this deal! I later read that Best Buy had very little stock of these washers for Black Friday and that I was *extremely* fortunate to have been able to purchase one. So far we LOVE it and are thrilled to no longer worry about rust stains ruining our clothes. Is it sad that I am this excited about a washing machine?? ;)

Furnace Issues

2009-11-27T13:31:00.003-05:00

When we arrived home from spending Thanksgiving Day at my parent's, the first thing that we noticed was how incredibly cold our house was. The furnace was circulating cold instead of warm air throughout our house. It had been acting a little quirky earlier in the week, so fortunately we had already scheduled a furnace check-up for Friday morning, so we layered on the clothing, turned a space heater on in Ryan's room, and awaited the furnace technician first thing in the morning. It's a long story, but we ended up having to pay a lot for the Trane store to be opened today so that the tech could get a part he needed to repair our furnace. After we paid for this expensive repair and the tech left our house, the furnace proceeded to continue to blow cold air (it hadn't actually been fixed). Dan figured out that if he switched the furnace off and then back on, it would run for a short time, so we spent the weekend switching it off and back on to keep the house heated until a tech could return on Monday. Two techs were at our house for 4 1/2 hours scouring our furnace, air returns, and ductwork trying to figure out the source of the problem, and the primary tech (who has 20 years of experience repairing furnaces) said that he had never encountered this particular issue and could not pinpoint the problem. He did find that the control board for the furnace had a burnout area, so he replaced that, but he thinks that was not the root cause of the problem and that the issue will recur, it's just a matter of when. We'll just have to wait and see what happens! We are very thankful though to have a warm house again, especially with this chilly weather.

CVS Thanksgiving Bargains

2009-11-27T07:45:00.005-05:00

The Thanksgiving Day deals at CVS were not as abundant this year as last year, but were still worth getting up a little early for. Accounting for out of pocket cost and increase in total Extra Care Bucks, CVS essentially paid me $13.50 for these items: 5 Cokes, 1 Degree deodorant, 1 Schick Quattro Titanium shaver, 1 St. Ives body wash, 1 Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion, 1 Herbal Essences shampoo, 1 Herbal Essences hairspray, 1 Twix, 1 Reeses, 1 Philips universal remote, 1 Philips earbuds, 1 Colgate toothbrush, 2 Bic Soleil razors (one with 4 extra replacement blades), and 1 Colgate toothpaste. I heart CVS! :)

Thanksgiving Day

2009-11-26T13:31:00.005-05:00

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day shared with family and close friends at my parent's house. Mom, Dad, and Mike hosted our family, Grandma Q., my Aunt Joanne and Uncle Leonard, and our family friends Gene and Joyce for a delicious Thanksgiving meal. After lunch (during naptime) we enjoyed playing Tripoley and eating some yummy sweets. It was a fun, food-filled day!

Dan and Ryan

Joanne and Leonard brought Mike a hat and shirt of his favorite NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon.

Ryan and Grandma Q.

Gene and Joyce

Joanne and Leonard

Dan and the boys (Ryan was almost asleep)

Mom and Ryan (mid-blink) ready for bed in his jammies

Thank you so much Mom for your hard work preparing the food and hosting us all!

Ethan's Thanksgiving Program

2009-11-25T13:16:00.014-05:00

Ethan had a fun time celebrating Thanksgiving this year.

Here is a turkey craft that he made at preschool

Ethan participated in his first preschool program this morning. His teachers asked parents to bring in white t-shirts for the kids a couple of weeks ago. The kids dyed the shirts brown, stamped various shapes on them, made fringe on the bottom, and the teachers sent beads home with the kids for parents to help thread through the fringe. Ethan and I had fun picking which colors of beads to thread and tie on the bottom of his shirt. Here he is in full costume (headband with feather, necklace, and shirt).

Ethan's class singing during the program (Ethan is all the way on the left)

I think that Ethan had a lot of fun singing

A turkey is a funny bird, his head goes wobble, wobble, wobble.
All he knows is just one word, gobble, gobble, gobble.

I'm a little Indian on the go,

Here is my arrow, here is my bow,
When I go out hunting, hear me shout,
Bear and buffalo better watch out!

Ethan's class made cornbread before the program and ate the cornbread they had made, carrots, cheese, turkey, and popcorn as part of their Thanksgiving feast.

Mommy and Ethan

Grandma Q. and Grandpa G. with Ethan. Ethan was excited that Grandma, Grandpa, Daddy, Mommy, and baby Ryan were all able to attend his program.

Ryan slept through most of Ethan's program, but was wide awake and ready to hang out with Grandpa when we got home

Another Visit to the Doctor

2009-11-23T00:28:00.004-05:00

Ryan has been a great sleeper since he was about 4 months old, and the last couple of nights he has been waking a few times. I suspected that he was either experiencing teething pain or had an ear infection. He has had 2 prior ear infections and I wanted him to be able to start on an antibiotic right away in case he did, indeed, have another one, so I took him to our pediatrician today. Thankfully he did not have an ear infection, and we chalked his nighttime waking up to a little congestion/cold or teething. Since we were already in the office, I requested to have Ryan weighed and also his hemoglobin checked (it has been nearly a month since it was first checked). Ryan weighed 17 pounds 3 ounces, and his hemoglobin was 9.5. He is still below the 5th percentile for weight, and his hemoglobin has not risen very much since it was initially checked at his 9 month visit. We already had an appointment scheduled for Dec. 1st to check his hemoglobin, so I will bring him back in to have it re-checked in a week.

Ryan's Bathtime

2009-11-20T07:09:00.004-05:00

Since Ryan was in the NICU when he had his first real bath (I was not in the room, and Dan did not take any photos), I recently realized that we have absolutely no bathtime photos of Ryan. So, we remedied that this evening and took a few of him during his bath. He loves bathtime and enjoys playing with all of the toys that Ethan has amassed.

Ethan's Matching Playdate

2009-11-17T13:16:00.006-05:00

One of Ethan's friends, Kaden, came over to play this morning, and his mom and I were cracking up when we saw that the boys were dressed in identical sweatshirts (completely unplanned, of course). Kaden shares Ethan's love of all things Thomas the Train, and the two of them had fun playing trains in the basement and doing Ethan's Thomas puzzle in their matching outfits ;)

Ryan's First Time Clapping His Hands

2009-11-14T21:05:00.004-05:00

Today Ryan clapped his hands for the first time at my parent's house. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on-hand at the time to capture it on video. So, instead I'm posting a video clip of him clapping back dated from 12-24-09.

Weekend Retreat

2009-11-13T13:29:00.003-05:00

Dan participated in a Christian retreat this weekend that he was sponsored to attend by our friend Doug. He really enjoyed his time there and felt rejuvenated and reconnected in his spiritual walk. As part of the retreat many friends and family members were ask to write letters of encouragement to Dan, and he wanted me to let everyone who wrote to him know how very much he appreciated your letters. Thank you!

Daddy Date Night Photo

2009-11-09T06:58:00.006-05:00

Ethan's preschool teachers printed photos of each of the kids with their dads and mounted them in the frames that the kids and their dads created together on Daddy Date Night. His teachers handed them out to parents today, and I think that Ethan and Dan's turned out really well! A cute memento from that evening.

Belated Pumpkin Carving

2009-11-07T06:40:00.004-05:00

In addition to decorating the pumpkin at the hospital, Ethan made a couple of cute Halloween crafts at preschool. We displayed his bat, pumpkin, and spider on our mantle.

This is the first year that we've carved pumpkins with Ethan. We had planned to do our carving on the 30th, but ended up postponing it after Ethan's hospitalization until we had a day with nice weather. Ethan was so excited to carve the pumpkins that we had picked out at the pumpkin patch.Ethan thought that scooping the seeds and goo out of the pumpkin was kind of yucky, but he jumped right in to help.Ethan held the trash bag so that Daddy could scoop the goo into itFor the smaller (Ryan's) pumpkin, Ethan told us what shapes to use for its facial features and how many teeth it should haveFor the larger (Ethan's) pumpkin, he selected a pattern from a book of pumpkin carving patterns that we had. He picked out a spooky house.The finished pumpkins!

A Live Theater Production for Kids

2009-11-06T13:17:00.007-05:00

This morning we took the boys to a live theater production geared toward kids from preschool age to middle school. We saw Jack and the Beanstalk at a theater that is usually a dinner theater for long-running productions. The price of the show included a juice box and rice krispie treat for each person (Ethan loved that). We were not permitted to take photos during the show, so we just took a few before the show began. Dan and I thought that the play was a little scary for the younger kids in the audience (Ethan startled several times, but otherwise didn't seem phased). The giant's voice was really loud, and he and the giant's wife were pretty intimidating. We enjoyed the fact that the narration was sung, and the characters did several cute little dances. I think that Ethan really liked it, and we'll look forward to taking Ethan and Ryan to future (hopefully less scary) productions.

Ryan did pretty well sitting on Dan's lap during the show

Ryan Bounces in His Exersaucer on His Tippy Toes

2009-11-06T06:29:00.004-05:00

Ryan loves his exersaucer/activity center. He can keep himself amused there for over a half hour at a time and enjoys the fact that he can bounce and explore the toys all around him at the same time. A funny observation that Dan and I have made is that Ryan always bounces on his toes (think en-pointe like ballet). Looks like it would hurt to me, but he bounces with his feet pointed and toes curled in. I tried to capture his bouncing method on this video, but it doesn't really show very well since you can't see his feet through the sleeper!

Ethan's Belated Halloween and Ryan Standing Up

2009-11-04T13:17:00.005-05:00

Since Ethan missed out on trick-or-treating on Halloween, we asked a few friends if it would be alright to bring Ethan by their houses in costume for some belated trick-or-treating. Thank you to Kim, Jacob, Elizabeth, Doug, Chris, Brad, and Sam for letting us stop by and for sharing your candy! Ethan thought it was a lot of fun and didn't seem bothered at all not to have been able to participate in the "real" event.

Ethan with Jacob and Elizabeth

Posing as a lion with DaddyEthan (mid-blink) and his buddy Sam

Tonight Ryan started "practicing" standing up by holding onto one of our baby gates. He was so excited to be able to keep himself up in a standing position. This is the same baby gate where Ethan stood for the first time :)

Halloween in the Hospital

2009-10-31T06:10:00.004-05:00

We certainly did not anticipate spending Halloween this year in the hospital, but Ethan's unexpected scare with ketotic hypoglycemia resulted in him being hospitalized for 2 days. Thankfully his condition had stabilized by this time and he was just being observed and having his blood sugar checked regularly. He was well enough that his IV was disconnected around noon and he was allowed to wear a wrap on the IV site, dress in his clothes, and attend a Halloween party for patients in the pediatric ward. The party was really nice with crafts, pumpkins to decorate with stickers, and they even gave each child his or her own costume to wear (and keep) from the Disney store. Ethan picked Stitch from Lilo and Stitch and had fun running around their party room in costume. He passed the rest of the time that evening playing his Leapster and reading with Daddy. He was discharged pretty late in the evening (just as trick-or-treating was ending in our city).

The pumpkin Ethan decorated (not sure about the placement of the eyebrows? ;)

Ethan in his new Stitch costume

Passing time in the hospital

Ethan's Scare with Ketotic Hypoglycemia

2009-10-30T15:35:00.002-05:00

Ethan gave us a terrible scare today. He woke up acting really oddly (slurred speech, shaking, and vomiting). I called our pediatrician, and they thought it might be severe flu. He started being less responsive and unable to focus his eyes on us, so we rushed him to our pediatrician's office. Our doctor called paramedics to take him by ambulance to the hospital because Ethan was completely unresponsive and limp when we arrived at the office. The paramedics tested his blood sugar immediately upon arriving to evaluate Ethan's status and found that it was 21 (20=comatose). I have never been so terrified in my life. I rode in the front of the ambulance and knew from looking back at the paramedics that they were unable to get an IV started en route to the hospital. They tried giving him a shot of glucagon (which is supposed to release any glucose stores in the body), but his stores were already depleted so the shot only caused his blood sugar to go up to 29. By the time we arrived at the ER, it was back down to 23. As soon as we got to the ER there were 4 nurses each working on one of his arms or legs trying to get an IV started as soon as possible. Thankfully it only took a few minutes before they were able to give him a bolus of IV dextrose via an IV in his right arm. He slowly started coming around and responding after receiving IV dextrose. He was admitted with an overnight stay and had many tests run, but the only explanation the staff could provide was a severe episode of ketotic hypoglycemia. The pediatric endocrinologist told us that toddlers with a slender build are susceptible to low blood sugar in general, especially after a fast such as overnight or during an illness. If their blood sugar becomes dangerously low, they display neurological symtoms (because the brain is deprived of its fuel source), can become comatose, and it can be fatal if prolonged. In Ethan's case, his blood sugar was so low that it was really dangerous. We have to watch very carefully what he eats and when now and must give him a complex carbohydrate snack just before bed to keep his blood sugar up overnight. It was incredibly scary and came entirely out of the blue, but we are so thankful that God was protecting him and that he bounced back to his usual active self. We are also thankful that this is a propensity that he will outgrow at least by the age of 7 according to the endocrinologist.

Making Baby Food

2009-10-29T13:20:00.006-05:00

Purchasing baby food (especially for a little one with a growing appetite) can become really expensive really quickly. I had thought before Ethan was born that I might try making baby food for him, but when we encountered many feeding issues with him, I didn't have the drive or energy to get started making it. A friend of mine, Emily, has a daughter who is just a little bit younger than Ryan and had made her own baby food before. She generously offered to teach me how to make baby food for Ryan. We had a great time this evening working together to peel fruits, scoop veggies, and puree it all. We made pears, peaches, acorn squash, and sweet potatoes for Ryan and Mia, and I later made papaya and more pears and sweet potatoes on my own. The food was a huge hit with Ryan, and he has been gobbling it up! We've found it to be very convenient to grab however many frozen cubes of fruit or veggie Ryan is hungry for and to just need to microwave it a short time. Inexpensive and healthy! Thank you Emily!

Ryan's Blood Draw

2009-10-28T18:01:00.004-05:00

I wasn't sure how well Ryan would do with having his blood drawn at the hospital, but he surprised me and was a real trooper! The nurse used a cooling spray on his arm first (which served as a distraction), and even though she had to dig around a bit in order to get his rolly vein, he did not seem phased or even cry at all. Thankfully she was able to get his vein fairly quickly. Ryan was happy as could be when we got home. He wore a little green arm wrap for a short time to cover where his blood was drawn.
Unfortunately we got a call from our doctor this evening confirming that Ryan's hemoglobin was low and that his CBC results indicated signs of anemia. Since he is mildly anemic, we have to start him on daily iron therapy (a higher dose than Ethan received) and have him re-checked in one month to see if the iron therapy is working to get his hemoglobin up within normal range and to resolve the anemia.

Ryan's 9 Month Dr. Appointment

2009-10-28T13:17:00.004-05:00

Ryan had his 9 month appointment with our pediatrician today. He was 28 3/4 inches long and weighed 16 pounds 5 ounces. Even though he does not appear to be scrawny, his weight places him in about the third percentile of babies his age. Our doctor was not concerned about this though because Ryan has been on the low end of the weight distribution all along, and his growth is continuing to trend upward at an acceptable rate. He is just a tiny guy! His exam was going very well until the nurse read the result of his in-office hemoglobin screen. Ryan's hemoglobin was 9.0, and the normal range for his age is 10.5 to about 13. Our doctor ordered bloodwork to test his serum level of hemoglobin along with a CBC. Since our pediatrician's office does not offer phlebotomy services, I had to take Ryan to a hospital to have his labs drawn. I was not overly concerned at the time though because Ethan's 9 month hemoglobin screen had also been low, he'd had a serum level drawn, and we ended up just needing to give him vitamin drops containing iron as treatment for mild iron deficiency.

Visiting with Friends

2009-10-27T13:20:00.005-05:00

We had the pleasure of visiting with our friends Leslie, Sophie, and Greta today. Paul and Leslie recently moved to a different city and had their sweet little baby, Greta, in July. This visit was the first time that we met Greta and that Leslie and her girls met Ryan. Ethan had a blast playing with Sophie!
It had been quite awhile since they had gotten to "play" together. In fact, Sophie was still in her bouncy seat at the time :) Wow, how time flies!

Our Little Puff Monger

2009-10-26T06:00:00.004-05:00

I remember that when we introduced the first finger food to Ethan (Gerber puffs), it took him quite awhile to figure out the hand-eye coordination required to grasp the puffs and put them into his mouth. He would often get a puff in his fist and not be able to transfer it to his mouth. Ryan, on the other hand, is very adept at fine motor skills (whereas Ethan excelled at gross motor skills). Ryan has the ability to use his forefinger and thumb to create a precise pincher grip. It took Ryan a matter of seconds to figure out how to carefully pick up each puff and transfer it into his mouth. He, like Ethan, LOVES puffs and would eat an entire container at a sitting if we'd let him. We fondly refer to him as our little "puff monger" as he rapidly devours his puffs. This video was taken just a few days after we gave him puffs for the first time (his bib is a little wonky; it probably got between he and his puffs, so he threw it aside ;)

Christmas Gift Jar Class

2009-10-25T13:19:00.005-05:00

A friend of my friend, Megan, offered some neat craft classes this month to provide some creative handmade Christmas gift options. Megan, Summer, and I signed up for the gift jar class during which we assembled three sets of gift jars with matching tags and gift bags. It was a lot of fun to spend time with Megan and Summer and to decorate the jars and bags together. As part of the class fee we also received a CD containing 100 ideas of ways to fill the jars (food recipes, bath salts, etc). I think that they turned out really well and will enjoy giving them out this Christmas!

Birthdays and High Fives

2009-10-24T00:55:00.004-05:00

Today we visited with my parents and brother (Mike) to celebrate Dan and Mike's birthdays. Sadly (and ironically), I do not have any photos from this day of Mike or Dan! But I assure you that we all had a great time celebrating Mike and Dan's birthdays and enjoyed cake for each of them (chocolate for Dan and angel food for Mike).

Ethan cuddling with Grandpa G. and Sasha

Mom pulled out some of the toys that Mike and I played with as babies. Here's one of Ryan's favorites, the Fisher-Price ball:

We'd been needing to clean off our camera's memory card for a long time and finally did, so now we have enough room to capture some video clips on it. Sorry for the video clips galore (I was so excited to be able to record some digital video of Ryan!)

Ryan and Mom doing a high-five

Ryan rolling over

First time capturing Ryan's "Ba Ba Ba-ing" on video

Ryan playing with the "old school" toy

Daddy Date Night at Preschool

2009-10-14T00:27:00.004-05:00

Ethan's preschool had a Daddy Date Night event tonight that was really cute (as I gather from Dan and Ethan's descriptions! :) The kids' dads got to come to school in the evening and do a craft, play, listen to songs that the kids had learned, have a snack, and be presented with special Daddy Date Night items that the kids had made earlier in the week. The teachers took photos of each child with his or her dad, and the kids worked together with their dads to make cute frames for the photos. Here Ethan is modeling what he might look like in the frame:

Ethan and Dan made some Playdoh creations

During snack time the Daddy's used special placemats that the kids had created for them. They were also given a little rock craft. Dan was cracking up because the teachers told him that they had asked Ethan what color his daddy's hair was when they were making the craft, and Ethan said "white". They hadn't met Dan yet and weren't sure whether what Ethan was telling them was accurate or not, so they went ahead and used a white pipecleaner to represent his hair. ;) They were also presented with a paragraph about themselves as dictated by their kids. The teachers kind of did a Madlib-type activity where they had the kids fill in the blanks in a paragraph. Ethan's was hilarious. He did get Dan's hair color correct this time ;) The teacher said that he was very specific about Dan eating corn in a bowl as opposed to on the cob (we eat a lot of microwaved Steamfresh veggies).
The dads were also given a construction paper bowtie when they arrived that the kids had decorated for them. It was fun to see how much prep work the kids had done for their Daddy Date night and to hear how excited Ethan was to have been able to show Daddy around his school.

Ethan-isms

2009-10-12T16:29:00.002-05:00

The way that Ethan pronounces some words is really cute. Words that we have noticed lately:

paginning = beginning
chocolick = chocolate
He overly enunciates "basement" so it sounds like base-a-ment
eyelash = ashleye

The Boys' First Pumpkin Patch Adventure

2009-10-11T23:34:00.009-05:00

Dan and I wanted to take the boys to a pumpkin patch this year, and we were researching nearby locations when some friends posted photos on Facebook of a great family farm that they had visited. It turned out that the farm was only a 20 minute drive away and, in addition to their pumpkin patch, it had an animal/petting zoo area, pony rides, a stroller- accesible corn maze, a playground, and a hayride all included in their admission price of just $3/person. They also had really yummy concessions available- delicious pulled pork BBQ. The weather was a bit overcast and chilly, but we had a great time, and it was fun to see how excited Ethan was to experience everything that the farm had to offer. Ethan and Dan got to pet and feed some goats (we were given an ice cream cone full of goat feed).

This goat was timid, but very friendly

Dan poured some of the feed into Ethan's hand

The "nice goat" very gently ate out of Ethan's hand

Then a second, larger, more aggressive goat came over to eat and nearly swallowed the ice cream cone whole. That intimidated Ethan, so Daddy fed the rest of the food to the goats and we moved on to check out the other animals which included sheep, pigs, a bunny, chicks, a donkey, and I think ducks too.

Ethan really enjoyed watching the tiny chicks. We envied the heat lamp in their enclosure ;)There was a 3-acre corn maze to explore, and at each T we asked Ethan whether we should go left or right. He got a kick out of deciding which way to go and finding out whether we were at a dead end or not. Unfortunately he got so caught up in the maze that...he had an accident that necessitated a change of clothes part of the way through (which is why his pants changed from jeans to red windpants). Thankfully we had a change of clothes with us and a discreet dead end where we could do a quick change.There were lots of neat activities for the kids including sand tables, a mini general store, a swing set, a tractor to climb on, a teeter totter, etc. Ethan was thrilled with the pony ride

The owners of the farm also sponsored a racecar that was on display for the kids to explore and sit inAnd last, but not least, we walked out to the pumpkin patch. Ethan loved scouring the patch for just the right pumpkin. I think that he was surprised at how heavy they were when he tried to pick them up. The patch was huge, and we easily found a large pumpkin for Ethan and a smaller one for Ryan Ethan worked hard to pull our pumpkin cart Ryan checking out our pumpkins. He was content to ride along in his giant, cozy, toddler-sized Bundle Me.Here is a rare photo of me (gasp!) Ethan and I were getting ready to pull the cart back to our van with the 2 pumpkins that we had settled on

We had a fantastic time, and we'll definitely be making a return trip to this farm next year.

Where Do I Begin?

2009-10-09T23:05:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Hopefully you haven't given up on me since it has been so long since I posted an update to our blog. We've been busy and a lot has happened over the last month, so please bear with me as I do my best to post updates on what our family has been up to. (I'm writing this on Nov. 18th, but posting it dated Oct 9th so that it will precede my slew of blog updates...)

Moses

2009-10-08T23:20:00.004-05:00

I have mentioned before how much I enjoy seeing what arts and crafts Ethan gets to do while he is at church. I thought that the project Ethan made in childcare during my mom's group at church this week was so cute. They talked about baby Moses and how he was put adrift in a basket. Here is a photo of the puppet the kids made of baby Moses in his basket:

Just Sittin' Around

2009-10-05T00:03:00.006-05:00

True to the ultrasound technician's prediction, Ryan has been "go go go" since he was born. The ultrasound tech told us at our 20 week scan that he was the most active baby she had scanned in her 10 years of doing ultrasounds. He is in constant motion, always rolling, army crawling, reaching, grabbing, and launching himself sideways out of his bouncy seat (we have to keep a very close eye on him if we put him in his bouncy seat). Tonight is the first time that I've seen Ryan actually sit up by himself. I think that he has been capable of it for quite awhile, but he was just so busy that he would rather reach for something and fall over than work on his balance. It's neat to see him reach this milestone! Poor little guy has been battling a nasty cold, as you can probably tell from his eyes and face in the photos, but he seemed to be pretty excited to be sitting up.

Our sickly little guy

What a ham, he was even winking while sitting up ;)

Ryan is growing up so fast!

Ba Ba Ba Bo Be Ba

2009-10-04T01:14:00.002-05:00

Ryan has recently started "talking" with us, and it is just so cute! I need to capture one of his conversations on video (I'll try to do that soon). He is particularly enjoying making sounds that start with "B" and has taken to rattling off lots of "Ba", "Bo", and "Be"s. His face completely lights up when Dan, Ethan, or I respond back to him with similar sounds.

CVS Bargains

2009-09-26T23:39:00.004-05:00

CVS had some great deals this week! I was excited (what a surprise that I get excited about bargains ;) that CVS essentially paid me about 35 cents for the above items: 2 Glade Sense and Spray starter kits, 2 bags of chocolate covered peanuts (yum!), 1 each Covergirl foundation and blush, 4 Bounce dryer bars, 1 Tide liquid, 1 Tide stain release, and a Hershey's bar with almonds. If you'd ever like to get started CVSing, please let me know! I am so appreciative that my friend Leslie introduced me to shopping and couponing at CVS almost a year and a half ago. It has saved our family literally thousands of dollars.

Build a Bear Workshop

2009-09-23T23:38:00.005-05:00

Ethan and I, along with our friends Chris and Sam, had a fun evening at the Build a Bear Workshop at our local mall. We had coupons for $5 off a $10 or more purchase which made the bears a really reasonable price ($5). The boys enjoyed picking out their bears, selecting a heart to put inside them before they were stuffed, and they got to push the pedal that controlled the flow of stuffing into their bears. Fortunately the boys were content to just look at the tons of outfits and play with the accessories that you could purchase for the bears (and not buy them). Ethan named his bear Cuddles and even received a birth certificate for his bear when we checked out. Cuddles is one of his favorite stuffed animals, and I think that it is neat that Ethan got to participate in "building" him!

Ethan cuddling with Cuddles just before bedtime

Ethan's First Video Game (at least it's educational)

2009-09-22T19:05:00.006-05:00

I am a huge fan of LeapFrog educational toys. I have been really impressed with how engaging they are and how much Ethan has learned from them. He has really enjoyed his LeapPad, and I recently got a great bargain on Craigslist of a Leapster with 3 games for $20. Leapster is a handheld educational video game system, and there is a wide variety of games available featuring different themes and characters (Dora, Thomas, Cars, etc). I bought the Leapster intending to give it to him some time in the future because most of the games are targeted for ages 4-8, but Ethan saw it on our kitchen table and begged to play with it. I was surprised at how quickly he picked up how to use the system, and though some of the activities are over his head at this point, he is still able to play many of them. He has become very engrossed in the Leapster, so we have been limiting the amount of time that he can play with it. Hard to believe that my little guy just turned 3 and is already glued to a video game. At least he is learning from it!

Catching Up with Friends

2009-09-19T23:54:00.010-05:00

Today we had a wonderful time catching up with "old" friends. Our friend Tiffany lives overseas now, and it is rare that we get the opportunity to see and catch up with her, so it was great to spend some time with her during this visit to the States. She and several other friends of our's who participated in a Bible study together for many years had a little reunion today at a local park. The weather was beautiful, all of the kids thoroughly enjoyed the huge playground, we picnicked, and the kids frolicked through the fields. Just kidding ;) I just wanted to the use the word "frolicked" because it struck me as funny. Can you tell that it's late as I'm writing this post, and I'm a bit slap-happy? In actuality, Tiffany's mom very thoughtfully provided Tiffany with beach balls and bubble toys to bring to the picnic for the kids. They had a blast creating bubbles, trying to catch them, and kicking/throwing the beach balls. Unfortunately, though I had a camera with me, I didn't remember to take any photos until just before we left.

Sara, Tiffany, and Ryan (the wind accentuated his spikey hairdo ;)

Ryan was getting a little fussy, so I tried to entertain him with the camera and took a few pics of him while he was in my lap. The resulting photos were hilarious.

The infamous furrowed brow look (he always furrows his brows when he sees the red-eye reduction light)

Fussy face. I'm going to be in trouble as he gets older. Who could tell this little guy "no" when he looks at you like this?

All tuckered out. We stopped at my parent's house after the picnic, and Ryan fell asleep on mom's lap (as did their dog Sasha).
What a fun Saturday!

Eleven Day Streak

2009-09-19T15:48:00.002-05:00

Potty training had been going incredibly well for quite awhile, in fact Ethan went 11 days with no accidents. Woo hoo! Unfortunately though our trip to Toys R Us today was just too much distraction for him. I really can't blame him with floor to ceiling toys surrounding him on all sides AND a Thomas the Train table. This time I actually did have spare shorts on hand, so we were back to shopping shortly. We are so proud of him for having done such a great job lately, and he figured it out just in time for preschool!

Halloween Preview

2009-09-16T23:39:00.006-05:00

I almost bought Ethan a Nemo costume from Craigslist for Halloween this year, but the person who listed it ended up selling it to someone else before I could finalize arrangements to purchase it. Since I had brought up being Nemo for Halloween, Ethan was then really excited about the idea, so I searched for a similar costume online. Unfortunately the Nemo costumes that I found on the Disney store's website and on ebay were significantly more than I wanted to spend on something that he'd wear to preschool for a very short time and then a few hours on Halloween. We loved the costumes that we got from Old Navy in the past (Ethan was a lion when he was 1 and a monkey when he was 2), so I started looking at Old Navy's costumes online. Ethan saw the lion costume online and decided that he'd rather be a lion than Nemo. Why not? I'm sure he doesn't remember that he had already been a lion when he was 1 year old. Just for fun, here's a Halloween preview along with a couple of photos from Halloween 2007. Ethan loved trying on his new costume and ran around the house roaring for quite awhile.

Halloween 2007

Ethan helped hand out candy but wasn't so sure at first about all these strangers in costume coming to our doorHalloween Preview 2009

Ethan's Second Day of Preschool

2009-09-14T22:56:00.005-05:00

Today was Ethan's second day of preschool and, again, he loved it! This was his very first time doing "show and tell". Each child was supposed to bring in their favorite toy, book, or stuffed animal to share with the class. Ethan took "little bear", one of his most treasured stuffed animals. Ethan received little bear from a nurse when he had a stent placed in his tear duct at a surgery center just after he turned one. When I picked him up, he had a superstar sticker on his shirt, and one of his teachers told me that he got to be the superstar for the day and lead the line of kids from room to room. Every day the child who gets to be the superstar changes, and Ethan got to be the first one of the school year (probably because they're going alphabetically :)
I asked him lots of questions about his day again, and this is what I learned: He had doggy bones (probably Scooby Doo graham crackers) and pretzels for a snack, he made a sandwich out of playdoh, his friend Ian brought a bunny and another little girl brought a duck and bear for show and tell, the tireswing went too fast and he got his hands dirty on the playground, he didn't go potty there, and they must have discussed days of the week because he had a newfound interest in the calendar on our fridge and what the days of the week are when we got home.
Oh, and don't worry, I am not planning to give a moment-by-moment daily rundown of Ethan's preschool adventures all year. Just the first couple of days ;)