Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers
Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Saturday, April 10, 2010

New Friends, New Experiences, and a New Voice


Last week, we had a few days of REALLY nice weather. One of the days we even hit 83 degrees! We took full advantage of the warmth and Ethan loved it! We went out on a walk all the way to my grandma's house (Ethan got to wear his super cool sunglasses and even got to put on some shorts). As you can see, Ethan's great-grandpa thinks he's pretty great too!
Over the weekend, when the weather wasn't so great, we made a family trip to New Berlin, WI to catch up with some college friends, Lindsey and Andy. They were just married in November (a week before Ethan was born) and we hadn't seen them since they moved into their own place. It was really nice to see them again and it was great for Ethan to be able to meet them..maybe someday soon they will have one of their own :)

After making the Saturday trip to New Berlin, on Sunday we kept a little closer to home. It was, afterall, Easter! We went to the morning service at church then spent the rest of the afternoon at Mike's mom's house for Easter dinner and a little Trivial Pursuit. Ethan did have on a really cute sweater vest outfit from his grandma, but true to Ethan's style, it didn't take long to ruin it with a round of spitting up :)Then just today, we had another baby extravaganza. There are 5 of us from work with babies born within a few months of each other and then Tiana who is just over one year old. We have a lot of fun getting them together and oohing and aahing over how cute they all are together! Three of them even napped together - Ethan, his girlfriend Emelia, and his friend Aviana.
Finally..we have another GREAT video. Ethan has really discovered his voice recently. He has learned that he gets much more attention if he gets really loud! Although the volume of this screeching doesn't quite come across in the video, you will get the feel for his pterodactyl voice :)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Four Months Old!!!



Can you believe it? Ethan is already four months old! It feels like it wasn't all too long ago that Mike and I were sitting in labor and delivery waiting for his arrival.

To mark his four month birthday, he had a trip to see Dr. Roe. He says Ethan is right on for his milestones. He can track things pretty easily now across the room, smile, talk, and can reach for and hang onto his toys. One of his favorite activities, however, is chewing on his fingers! Here are a couple of pics of his achievements:
He is still working on the whole rolling over thing. He has successfully rolled from front to back lots of times, but only once from back to front so far! Like you can see in the pic below, his attempts sometimes resemble break dancing :)
Here are his stats from the appointment, it appears we may have a tall one!
Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz - 42nd percentile
Length: 26 1/2 inches - 94th percentile!!!
Head Circumference: 43.8 cm - 88th percentile

At his next appointment, we will be talking about starting him out on some cereal and veggies..yum yum!

Then just for some humor, here are a couple of pics of his crazy cousins. The first is of Kileigh who insisted I take a pic of her "big butt" as she likes to call it. The second is of Lainey after taking a nap - she must have been sleeping on her hand..can you tell?

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sweet Dreams


Our schedule now goes a little something like this. He wakes up every morning around 7am and either hangs out with me in the bed or heads off to one of the grandparent's house. Either way, he is definitely turning into more of a morning person than a night owl. He wakes up smiling, giggling and happy as you can see in the picture above. After about an hour and a half of awake time, and a meal, he goes back down for about an hour to sleep. After he gets up from his nap, we have play time. Whether that means just the two of us hanging out, or going to a friend's house, we have a good time. Here is a picture from last week of our play date with all of the babies from Mercy OB. In order of birth is Ethan, Emelia (his girlfriend - isn't she growing up fast too?!), Aviana (Melissa's baby), and Jontel (Cari's baby). It was lots of fun..although we all realized we wouldn't be up for quadruplets!Ethan then goes down for another nap. He wakes up happy once again and eats, plays, and hangs out with his dad. Don't mind the sheets in the pic above, it was taken on Aviana's bed, but I thought the pic was too sweet to not post. After a couple of hours of awake time, he takes his third, and final, nap.
After being up for another couple of hours playing with Mike and I, he gets sleepy around 7:30 or so and goes down for the night - no matter where he is. Above are a couple of pics of his sleeping places - in dad's arms and on the couch after a filling meal with mom.

And for our latest news..he is sleeping through the night at only 3 months old! For the past few weeks Mike and I were talking about how he was getting up in the night around 2 or 3 am to "eat" when in fact he would barely eat and would instead spend the time smiling and messing around. After some chatting and research, we decided it was time to try to make him sleep through the night, as nice as that smiling is in the middle of the night. While I was working, Mike got up at his usual 2:30 and went in his room and instead of feeding him, rocked him back to sleep. It took a couple of times the first night. The second night, he only woke once at 4:50 am, Mike once again rocked him back to sleep. On the third night, I put him down at 9pm and we didn't hear a peep until 8am!!! (We of course had to go check on him a few times to make sure all was well) I have to admit, it is quite nice getting a solid 8 hours of sleep again, I forgot how much I missed it! My mom had to remind me the other day to not expect our next baby to be this easy...we truly are blessed!!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Valentine's Day and Ethan's Newest Achievement


We started off Valentine's Day by being lazy and spending the morning as a family laying around in bed. Mike also gave Ethan this really cute teddy bear as a valentine.Then, after we got ready for the day - Ethan in his super cute Valentine's Day onesie - my mom came over to watch Ethan, while Mike and I went to church to help the Sunday school kids write a letter to a penpal in Africa.Finally, Ethan went to Mike's mom's house for a few hours, while Mike and I went out to dinner at JMK Nippon - a hibachi grill in Rockford - with our good friends Casey and Benny. They are the parents of Ethan's girlfriend, Emelia. Ethan was a good little boy for both grandparents and made me feel much better about leaving him while I am working and sleeping - starting tonight, YIKES.Just to end the posting on a cute note, here is yet another pic of Ethan smiling!! It is quickly becoming his favorite thing to do, and it is getting easier and easier to catch on camera!

Now what you have all been waiting for, as promised, here is a video of Ethan's great progress on becoming a big boy (note his reaction after he is done :) )

Friday, February 12, 2010

Ethan likes to smile....

at his elephant,
at Mommy when he's playing with his girlfriend,

at his elephant again,

at Mommy in his cool dude outfit,

and apparently like a pirate :) AARGGH
I posted twice today so be sure to scroll down to the next entry!!!

This week, Ethan liked....

learning how to use his fingers to grab at the links on his play mat. He is even learning how to bring them up to his mouth. It won't be long before everything is full of slobber.


hanging out, in just diapers, with his cousin, Alaina.

warming up after a fun bath!

having a play date with his girlfriend, Emelia.

Even though she likes to try to bite him!

AND FINALLY.....LEARNING HOW TO LAUGH!!! (AS OF WEDNESDAY) Check out his new skill in the video below.


P.S. He is also starting to learn how to roll. He can now get himself over to one side. It won't be long before there is a video of his progress.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Ethan's Baptism

Yesterday was a very special day for our family. Ethan was baptized! He was a very good boy and didn't even cry. He even gave the pastor a few of his special smiles. We would have posted a picture of us with Ethan's Godparents, Courtney and Kelly, but Mike decided he didn't like the picture of himself - his eyes were closed. Doesn't he look just so handsome in his white tux from grandma?

Then just to warm your hearts, here is a picture of Ethan's wonderful SMILE! That is probably my favorite part about the age he is at right now. He definitely recognizes who his mommy and daddy are, and greet us with huge smiles when we talk to him!