I sometimes wonder if 28 years ago (yesterday) my mother in-law and father in-law knew what they had brought into this world...
Our blizzard turned out to be not that bad. Traffic for the day was terrible and everything started about 2 hours late the next day. Mike and I had brought some work home with us on Thursday and took a snow day on Friday.
Mike and Ethan built a fort Thursday
I'm sure there were "manly" things happening in there but I caught a very tender moment
On Friday afternoon, I bundled Ethan up to head outside
He was helping Mike with his repairs in the garage. Mittens are no good for holding hammers
Then we went over to the park, he had a much better time in the garage.
This is the "Mom quit taking pictures and help me up already" face
My post with our new spring daffodils is being followed by, WE'RE HAVING A BLIZZARD!! Come on, winter is over, we have spring fever! Just days ago we were in short sleeves basking in the sun at the park and today we turned the heat back on and came home from work early! Ah life in Colorado, ever changing weather day by day. Thankfully I have a pretty awesome boss that sent me home early and let me bring work home in case I can't make it in tomorrow, isn't he thoughtful?
This post actually has double meaning, not only are we under the weather (stuck in the house due to blizzard) but Ethan and I have been under the weather (sick). The past two nights Ethan has had a pretty a high fever and a lack of appetite (plus teeth still coming through). I've had a cold that went from body aches to congestion and exhaustion. Fortunately, I believe we are both on the mend today.
The night before last was really hard, from about 1am on, E was up every hour needing some comfort . Last night he only got up once but that was after a dreadful afternoon.
Once we got home from my mom's I gave him a pedialyte pop and some yogurt and we vegged upstairs in bed watching Hannah Montana(don't say a word). He eventually fell asleep until my phone went off. Once he was up he wouldn't stop crying so we got up to see if I could lull him with walking or rocking and I guess the motion was too much for his poor little tummy, he threw up all over me. To the shower we went, Mike wasn't home yet so I left the mess to tend to Ethan. He cried all the way through the shower (it scares him I think), until I was getting him dressed singing his Ethan song. He seemed a little better after throwing up but no signs of sleep. Mike got home soon after and hung out with him while I fixed dinner. Ethan really wanted some of the macaroni and cheese that we were eating and, yep you guessed it, threw up on me again! After that we finally got him to bed and I took a much needed shower.
Mike's birthday is quickly approaching, this year he asked me if he could buy (himself) the materials and build (himself) a workbench in the garage, including making shelving and cleaning out the garage. Without hesitation, I said "yes", I know I got off really easy this year. We went to Home Depot this weekend to start the birthday project.
Buying the supplies
Building the bench
Spring is officially here! These are our first flowers of the season, now how to get Ethan not to pick them or step on them, hmmm...
This sequence of pictures are of Ethan looking at a picture that we took at my dad's birthday celebration. It is of the family and the extended family (Papa, Grandma, Dada, Mama, Ethan, Auntie, Chuck and Diane to be exact). Ethan is fascinated with this picture, he gets so exctied to look at it and point to all the different people. Last night I just handed him the frame and he looked at it for about 20 minutes!
Today was Ethan's 15 month well baby check up. We took this video right before we left, a later post will explain why we had to change clothes, and it is not for reasons of vanity.
The doctor says Ethan is doing great! He is putting everything into vertical growth.
Height: 34 inches, 95th percentile
Weight: 22 pounds, 8 ounces, 30th percentile
He has put on about 2 pounds and 2 inches! He DID NOT enjoy the visit with the doc, this is most likely due to his naps being off and he was very tired. He cried a lot when the doctor was checking him out and then even more when he got his shot. He usually doesn't cry until after the shot. We got him home, gave him some Tylenol and put him in bed, he is currently sleeping.
You can't see it too well, it's on the rock. We were out watering plants and I saw it crawling on Ethan's shoulder.
We are trying to teach Ethan manners, it is a very long and tedious process considering he doesn't understand very well. But we're starting at the beginning, please and thank you. We just say please whenever he's grunting for something, give it to him and then say thank you. Occasionally he'll repeat "p." One of his favorite things to do is play in the garage with his daddy. Tonight, after Daddy got home later than usual (adding to the fact that Ethan didn't nap too well and was very tired), Ethan goes squealing to the garage door. I told him not tonight, it's late, cold and time for a bath. He starts crying and going "p" "p" like he was trying to say "please." So sweet, Daddy had to take him in the garage for a few minutes.
Forts, airplanes and pointing, these three things have struck up a new found fascination around our house.
Personally, I have always been a fan of a good fort, somewhere to hide or a club house. Ethan currently has two forts in our house. The first is in the coat closet under the stairs, there is extra storage behind the coats, its like a little room. We have some stuff back there but there's just enough room for Ethan and either Mommy or Daddy. Plus, this is where we keep the basketball and football and he goes nuts over either of those. The other fort is the bottom bunk of the bunk beds we have set up in the guest room. We put the dust ruffle thing on the upper bed so it is quite sheltered, add a bunch of pillows and its a perfect hiding place. Yesterday he learned how to get himself in there, now we just have to work on not standing up while in there and then getting out.
Airplanes, oh airplanes, how we love you when you fly so close to our house. Ethan goes CRAZY for airplanes!! He wants to chase them, he even says airplane, it sounds like up but I'm a mom, I know the difference. Although this picture looks like it belongs in the pointing chapter of this blog, he is actually pointing to the passing airplane.
Now comes pointing, instead of just grunting to show that he wants something, Ethan now grunts and points (most the time we have no idea what he's pointing at but hey it's a step in the right direction). He points very frequently, as we've learned with most new skills, he likes to test them out. Here's some good pointing pictures:
Anyone that knows my dad will probably not be surprised to hear that he has been having some trouble with his knee. For those of you that do not know my dad, he has run across the country several times (in mileage), bikes frequently to work, swims over 100 lengths of the pool every weekend and basically is never sitting down. Last Thursday he went in and had some work done on his left knee and is stuck on crutches for A MONTH!!! But that won't keep him down, oh no, he was up and playing on Friday and Saturday when Ethan went over. He even went outside with him. Ethan "helps" his Papa by holding his crutch and walking with him. Grandpa has a follow up appointment on Thursday, I wouldn't be surprised if the crutches were gone sooner than a month.
When we purchased our house, we had a small marsh in our backyard, the grading was off and the water didn't drain correctly to the street. Thankfully, Mike has a good friend that is a landscaper, that he also worked for for a summer, that helped us draw up some plans that would take care of the water. We dug a trench to the street, put in some pvc pipe and created a dry creek bed, we also planted a few trees for privacy. The part we never finished was the patio, we planned a flagstone patio and it just never got done. Last summer was out of the question considering we had a small baby. This year we finally have some motivation and are going to get it done!!
After Ethan's morning nap we went over to Pioneer to look at flagstone and get some estimates. I'm so glad we saved for this before I took a part time position. It just floors me to think about how much we're going to spend on rocks and dirt!!
Ethan liked walking on all the example patios they had set up, most the time he was carrying a rock or two.
Of course, after the excitement of talking with the rock people, Mike wanted to get started right away when we got home
Not too much progress on the patio so far n=but I'll keep you posted.
In other news, Ethan's fifth tooth has broken through!!!
Friday was my dad's ## birthday, for the convenience of all involved we celebrated last night. Since Ethan has his grandfather wrapped around his finger, and Ethan loves trains, we went to Giuseppe's, a restaurant that was an old train depot. Per the request of my father, it was a small gathering, the family and Chuck and Diane, an extension to the family.
Ethan did a very good job at the restaurant, he was very loud but just excited loud, not cranky.
The birthday man watching his grandson
No one but mom and I were taking pictures so this is our self portrait
This was the excited face of a train going by, and when anyone looked away he'd grunt at you and point to the train, like "You're missing it!!"
Since we were asked not to throw a big hoopla for his birthday, and it is a special birthday, we made him this:
We wrote down ## things that we thought of when we think of him, memories, qualities, etc. and put them together for him to read.
This is Ethan making a bee line for the presents when he thought no one was watching
Memories
I got two pictures of my dad with Mike is laughing in the background, at different times, we have good times
Happy birthday Dad/Papa/Sir/Steve!!
