May 2012 - A-MAY-ZING Weather :)

During the first few days of May, I ran into some complications with my pregnancy.  I was cramping/contracting a lot after work and ended up heading to labor and delivery.  They said I was having frequent, mini contractions which they called uterine irritability.  I saw my doctor the next day and we decided to start the fetal fibronectin tests (which predict the likelihood of labor in the next 2 weeks) and schedule a perinatology consult.  So, until I could be seen in Madison, I laid low and tried to calm my uterus down.

Over that first weekend in May, we had plans to go to the Kalahari waterpark in the Dells.  Ethan was super pumped to get to go play at the water park!  Here he is the morning we left.

We weren't quite sure how he was going to act at the park but he ended up LOVING it, especially the wave pool.  He went down a bunch of slides all by himself, played with the various water fountains and waterfalls, and even rode in the lazy river with us.  He lasted about 2.5 hours and was ready to be done.  He said his fingers and toes were "like raisins."

Early the next week, we got to celebrate my 27th birthday!  The night before my birthday, we went out for dinner with my dad and Pam to Fuji steakhouse and had an awesome dinner. We also celebrated hitting 26 weeks pregnant! On my actual birthday, Mike made my mom and I steak on the grill, baked potatoes, veggies, and bread for dinner, yum!

Here is my birthday/26 week photo!

After dinner, we blew out the candles on our cheesecake and enjoyed some dessert!  I also got a very sweet present that Ethan picked out all by himself.  It was a snow globe with an angel that said "Trust Everything to Faith."  I love you my little Ethan man!

My birthday also happened to be the day we had the consult with the perinatologist in Madison.  They said that as long as everything looked okay at 24 weeks gestation, the chances of having a preterm delivery were rather low.  They advised to treat it as a normal pregnancy but with any onset of contractions to stop activity, put my feet up, drink some water and be seen in triage if they continued. After meeting a few days later with my normal doctor, we decided this sounded like a good plan but would both feel better if we continued to do the fetal fibronectin test every 2 weeks.  So far, so good in May!  All the tests have been negative :)

The weekend following my birthday, we spent our time in Appleton, WI participating in the Sole Burner walk/run.  Although I didn't participate in the walk this year, Andrew and I had a nice, relaxing time at the local coffee shop.  Mike and Chad ran the race and Kel and Mike's mom walked with the other two kids.  They had a great time!  Thanks Kel for the two pictures below!

After the race, the whole family went to the park and played for awhile.  The kids had lots of fun playing on all of the equipment.  Ethan is getting pretty adventurous these days with his climbing.

The rest of the weekend, we had a ton of fun playing, mostly in the pool!  Although it was a little chilly at first, with a bit of bribing with playing ball, Ethan was in the water with Mike in no time!  At first they were just walking around the pool playing with the balls...

But after awhile, he was dunking Mike...

Flying up in the air...

splashing with Lainey and Jillian,

 

And apparently making friends with some older boys.  A group of about six boys were amazing with Ethan!  They followed his every move and included him in on their games.  Ethan thought he was pretty cool!  At the end of the day, the boys even gave him his very own chocolate chip cookie!

 

The day we returned home was Mother's Day.  We celebrated it by having a nice dinner with my mom and Kileigh.  Ethan and Kileigh thought it was even more special because we got more cake!  My boys were very good to me this past year.  I even got a maternity spa package to use on June 8th!  It will include a private whirlpool, 1 hour massage, body exfoliation, and pedicure.  I can't wait!  Here are the kiddos blowing out the candles on our Mother's Day cake.

Just another picture of one of Ethan's many car lines!

The month of May as been amazing for weather.  Ethan and I pulled out the pool from last year and had quite a few days lounging poolside.  He is loving this crocodile chair my mom got for him.  He can pull it up and soak his feet in the water just like me!

Snuggle time by the pool :)

Just to prove that a naughty side of Ethan does exist, I thought I would throw in some pictures this month of some of our many melt downs and temper tantrums :)

Yelling at Mike...

I know only two weeks passed but my belly is growing at a very fast rate!  Here is our 28 week picture.  I am measuring about 30 weeks right now so at our next appointment (on June 4th) we are going to get measured again.  If I am still measuring just as far ahead, we will have an ultrasound just to be sure all is well!

Say cheese!  Ethan in his new Buzz Lightyear sunglasses on our way to have coffee with Kim and my mom.

Another kind of fun discovery this month was a little nest under our deck that we have been watching finally has some eggs!  Now we just have to wait for some baby birds :)

Along with Ethan's growing curiosity, he has become really interested in cooking with me.  He helps me measure, stir, and pour.  Here we are making some pancakes for dinner, one of his favorites!

This past week, Janesville held the yearly Airfest at the airport.  On Friday night Mike, Ethan, and I headed out to watch the show.  We got to see some really fast and loud jets and even a race between a couple of biplanes.  This was especially fun because Ethan has been working on learning all the names of different plances lately in his books and was able to pick out a couple of them during the show (biplane, helicopter, fighter jet to name a few)!  Every time a really loud jet flew by he would laugh hysterically!  I think Mike and I enjoyed watching and listening to him giggle as much as we enjoyed the show.

About an hour or so into the show it started to get pretty chilly and even started to sprinkle a bit.  Ethan and I cuddled up to stay warm.

But, after our favorite show with the jet shown below, they cancelled the airfest due to lightning being spotted within three miles of the airport.  Although we were super bummed, they did give us tickets to come to the Saturday show for free!

So...the next morning we packed up our stuff again, added in a couple of special guests, and headed off to the airport for take #2 at the air fest!  These crazy cousins had an awesome time watching the planes, eating hotdogs, cheese curds, and caramel kettle corn, and just plain screwing around!

Saturday's weather was a bit breezy but super sunny.  The kids even had to borrow our sunglasses to see the parachuters floating down out of the plane.

Here they come!!

Family shot :)

Auntie and Kileigh

Daddy and Ethan watching the big jet, boy was he LOUD!!

Thanks Co and Ki for going to the air show with us, we had a great time!!  After the show, we headed up to Madison to go to a housewarming party for our friends Tom and Erin.  Congrats on the new house!!

To end our Memorial Day weekend we had a full day of playing outside.  Mike got Ethan this really cool remote control car.  Too bad he didn't want to share...sassy pants again returns in full force!

After a quick temper tantrum we decided it might be better to spend some time by the pool.

and out for a bike ride with dad.  This is Ethan saying, "Look at me mom, I pedaling!" After nap, we went over to Steve and Mary's house for a super fun cookout!  Thanks guys for the invite, Ethan had a great time playing and we had a great time relaxing.  Ethan even picked up some special pets at the cookout.  Our neighbor has a pond full of tadpoles.  Steve and Mary gave us a fish bowl and some fish food and we took some of them home.  Hopefully we will have some little frogs soon!

As a final surprise this month, we had one baby bird hatch out of its shell!!  Guess we have to stay tuned for the other two :)

Just a few favorite quotes/phrases from Ethan this month:

1. One minute Mom/Dad!

2. Uuuggghhh...Mom/Dad so mean!

3. Got it?

4. Your turn

5. Mama, please you nuggle (snuggle) me?

6. I love you too

7. Nice to meet you

8. Thank you and You're welcome come much easier now

9. When talking on the phone he many times starts a conversation with "So..."



April 2012

I know, I'm a bit tardy...again!  April just seemed to fly by and now we are already half of the way through May!  Ethan's language and play skills seem to be evolving by the day.  He has really started to get into pretend play.  He makes his animals do various things now and they even give each other hugs and kisses.  One of his usual activities is to put his animals, and sometimes mom and dad, night night.  He uses his washcloths as blankets, says "sweet dreams" and "sleep tight," turns out the light and then lays down himself. 

 

Another new fascination is cars.  My mom got him a bunch of different types of cars.  He likes to make them race or go over ramps; but most of all he likes to just line them up.

Ethan also had a really good time this year on Easter.  We got to go to K&W to meet the Easter bunny and also to a HUGE egg hunt in Milton. The night before we also had dinner with my mom. The day of Easter, we went to church and followed that up with lunch and cake at Mike's mom's house to celebrate Mike's birthday which was the next day.  Ethan LOVED the Easter bunny at K&W this year.

I'm not sure how well you can see all of the eggs, but there were a ton!  Ethan could hardly wait to take off running to get his eggs but once the race actually started he seemed just as content watching all of the other kids take off running to get them. In the end, we did scrounge up a few!

Easter morning - almost 22 weeks pregnant!  Our 20 week ultrasound showed everything is completely normal, including my cervix! 

Although the picture quality kinda stinks since I took a picture of the picture on my dad's phone, I thought it was still cute enough to make the blog!

Grandpa and Ethan on Easter

Grandma and Ethan snuggling

Attempt at a pic of the boys :)

Moms and babies at church :)  Had to get a pic of the two pregnant ladies.

Mike's birthday cake this year :)  We all got a bit of a chuckle.  Mike's mom had called to get him a birthday cake and asked if they had anything Bears, Cubs, or fishing related.  They had none of the above.  So, she asked if they could just make it Easter themed.  This is what he got...he especially liked the little pink bunnies!

The day after Easter was Mike's true birth date so Ethan and I picked out a chocolate cake and a few little gifts for him.  We sang Happy Birthday and Ethan helped blow out the candles.  He even picked out his daddy's present all by himself which turned out to be quite interesting :)

Although the weather wasn't quite as warm, Ethan and I still had lots of time outside.  We especially had fun blowing bubbles, finding bugs, throwing balls, and writing with chalk.  Here are a few pics from one of our outside days.

On April 24th we got to welcome a new member to the family, Andrew Richard Kliefoth!  We were very excited to go meet him and got some special cuddle time at the hospital.  Ethan was very nice to Andrew but was quite confused as to why he wasn't in his crib since he was sleeping. Ever since meeting Andrew, Ethan has thought I also have a baby Andrew in my belly :)

Congratulations Kel and Chad, he is a cutie!

At the end of April we had a play date with my sister and Kileigh.  The two kids had lots of fun together.  Since it was cold outside, we went to McDonald's play land and then to see The Lorax in the theater.  It was Ethan's first ever movie.  He loved the movie but I think most of all he loved all of the treats :)