Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Merry

Just a quick note for now.
I'm very slowly recuperating. We were able to celebrate Christmas Eve & Day with family, thank God. Both festivities were wonderful! Ethan loved all of the attention and presents. He also traveled and ate well. He truly is a dream.
Here are the photos that we included on our Christmas card this year (except the top left and bottom middle ones. They were contenders though):



We hope your Christmas was Merry!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Be back soon


This is what life looked like for most of the past two weeks. Thank God, Ethan is on the mend. I am, however, still sick and feel like this is never going to end. I'm praying that I feel at least functional for Ethan's first Christmas. I'm sad that we may miss Christmas Eve festivities with my family.
*Thinking healthy thoughts*

Monday, December 14, 2009

Bah Humbug!

Some outtakes from various "photo sessions" while trying to pull our Christmas card & Ethan's 1st birthday invitation together:





He was not a fan of the Santa hat. The part that hung down over his face annoyed him and he tore it off so many times that he put a hole in the seam!





What's that you say? Santa's coming?

Oh my goodness, he brings presents?!

I like presents!

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Big Cheese

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Ethan does his big, cheesy, smile on cue now. He thinks it's the funniest thing in the world, probably because we fell down laughing when he started doing it.

He starts off here fairly serious...

Smiles...

Starts cheesin it up...

Over the top cheese at it's finest!
(Sorry for the flash face)

Hope this passed on some smiles for Friday! 2 weeks until Christmas. I have a list of to do's still!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Waiting for snow


We saw this sled on sale at Target. We thought that we would put it away until we had enough snow to pull Ethan around in but once we got it home we decided to let him try it out inside first. Well, now it's his new favorite toy. He LOVES when we pull him around the house in it.



He also loves to sit in, play with the strap, play with his toys while he's sitting in it, and pull himself up on it.




I'm sitting here laughing as I post these pictures. This kid cracks me up!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Busy plans

Life has been busy. Ethan is all over the place. He is the fastest army crawler I've ever seen! We were preparing for Ethan's first Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, especially this year. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it was a huge success. It was like Ethan KNEW that it was a day to be thankful and enjoy a feast. He ate more than twice the amount of food that he normally consumes during one meal then took a very long nap.

{Ethan on his 1st Thanksgiving}

{This was the first year that Matt and I prepared the turkey by ourselves. Usually Matt's mother prepares it. It turned out very well...so I hear. I couldn't eat it but had my own turkey breast w/o butter.}

{Most of the feast.}

{Ethan and I cuddling after his long nap.}




{Trying to take a family self portrait. I love these. Ethan is starting to look more like a combo of us instead of a mini-Matt. In the last pic I think you can see where he gets his cowlick from. Aww, Ethan, I'm sorry.}

Now we're busy preparing for and enjoying the rest of the holiday season. Babies during the holidays make everything so much sweeter. I've jumped into 1st birthday plans too. I love to plan and planning to celebrate the past year is so much fun! I've also been spending time researching DSLR cameras. I loved my Canon Powershot S3is but now that I'm taking more photos (and important ones, Ethan will only be this little ONCE) I'd like better quality ones. I need something that works well with indoor, low light conditions.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Months 8-10

The past two months have been absolutely amazing. We've been blown away by Ethan's development. Watching him grow and change is so amazing. What has he happened during months 8-10?

-He went on his first outing without his mom & dad. He went to church one evening with his great aunt & uncle. We heard he behaved very well for them.

-He started eating green beans, peaches, mangos, oatmeal (which he may have reacted to), and buckwheat pancakes.

-He started working on his pincer grasp and within a week he attempted to feed himself. Less than two weeks later he fed himself chunks of sweet potato. On Thanksgiving he showed us that he has mastered this skill and LOVES to feed himself small chunks of food. I love the way he uses the back of his chubby, little hands to push in any food that didn't make it all the way into his mouth.

-He acquired 3 more teeth!! His Right Lower Lateral Incisor, Right Upper Lateral Incisor, and Lower Left Lateral Incisor (took forever to break through and just broke the surface last week so it's still an itty bitty tooth) have arrived. At 10 months old he has a total of 8 teeth.

-He started pulling himself up on us while we are sitting or laying down. A month later he is pulling up on low fixtures and loves to stand. I'm thankful for the dryer door so he is busy while I do laundry. Our leather bench/ottoman is also helpful. He stands next to it and I don't have to worry about him injuring his face if he falls down since there are no sharp corners. He loves to bang on both the dryer door and the ottoman. Throwing laundry off the dryer door and toys off the ottoman is another fun game.

-He signed for milk a couple of times. Before he nurses I say milk and show him the sign for it. Now he waves like he's signing for milk so most of the time I think it's waving vs. signing.

-Has really gotten into touch and feel books. He has always liked them but now he remembers where to touch in each book. He has also figured out how to put his fingers through the holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar book, which is still a favorite. He likes to turn the small pages to race ahead to Saturday. He also loves to lift flaps in books and does it on his own now.

-He babbled Ma-ma-ma for the first time. It was the greatest thing I've ever heard. He is now connecting Mama with me and Dada with Matt but sometimes looks at me and says Dada or looks at Matt and says Mama. Cute.

-We went trick-or-treating for the first time. He was in his first parade at daycare.

-We celebrated Ethan's first Thanksgiving. It was a great day!

-He has started to really play with other children. His interaction with them is advancing. We play a chase game with him at home where he crawls and we chase after him. He looks back, laughs, and then races off. We were excited to hear that he initiated playing the same game with another child at daycare. Ethan also had playdates with his friends. He played with friends at our mom & baby group too.

-He learned to throw balls and will throw or roll the ball back and forth with us. Of course, sometimes the ball still goes behind him, in the opposite direction of us, but he's working on it.

-He started doing "tricks" on cue. His tricks include waving, giving big, cheesy smiles, clapping, and dancing. Most recently he does all of them in a row and it's hysterical. He claps whenever he hears someone say "yay". Matt was watching a Pearl Jam concert on tv. Ethan heard the crowd clap after a song was finished so he started clapping too.

-He gives kisses when we ask for them. He's not consistent with it yet, but they're definitely kisses. Big, slobbery, open mouth, leaning into you kisses. Too cute!

-He learned to initiate playing peek-a-boo. He knows to hide around a corner, a book, a blanket, etc then peek out and smile.

-Ethan's weight has remained steady between 21 and 22 pounds but he grew in length. He is definitely still nursing and eating enough but is also very active so we are not concerned.

Some pics of Ethan over the past two months:




Ready to go outside and play



Reading and cuddling with Daddy before bed.

Playing ball with Momma.

He needed another haircut already!

So did his Momma.

Looks like he's asking you what you think of his hair. Really he's putting peas in his hair.

Another new fun thing to do...

He climbs into the shower after we get out just to splash around.

Still throwing baby tantrums, which are growing increasingly more intensive. Here he was mad at me for having him lie on his back for this photo.

Still easily distracted. I'll look back on these tantrums as easy to deal with.







Playing peek-a-boo

Enjoying the view of Fall in our neighborhood

Jammin'



Eating his pancakes!





Exploring the leaves