Laura’s Life

Ethan is a year and a half old!  I can’t even wrap my mind around the idea of him being closer to 2 than 1.  Though he is looking more and more like a little boy every day and doesn’t resemble a baby at all!

Ethan has added one more food to his menu this month: bacon.  We let him try whatever food he wants off our plates and recently he has really enjoyed bacon.  Not exactly the next food I would have picked for him, but I’m glad he is trying new things.  He has also added one more tooth to his mouth bringing the grand total to 5.  We can see #6 ready to come in any time.

Ethan did great at his 18 month appointment.  He weighs 25 lbs and 14 oz (51%) and is 31.5 inches long (28%).  He did well for his exam but did not care for his shot and finger stick.  He had to get his hemoglobin checked again since he doesn’t eat any meat (and it was fine).  He let everyone know for a long time that he was not happy.  After his appointment I told him we could go get a donut and he said “dona, dona, dona” the whole way to the bakery.

Ethan has started saying two word phrases which is quite cute.  He frequently says “bye bye daddy” and “thank you mommy.”  Sometimes he will say “help please mommy.”  He is learning more words to figure out how to eat what he wants.  His new favorite words include up,  ice cream (which he says for anything sweet) an juice.  After a few visits to Traders Point Creamery Ethan is now obsessed with cows and wants to go see them all the time.  He stands in front of the cows and moos at them.  And when we are home he will say “moo? moo?” and head for the door.

Ethan sure loves his mommy and daddy and wants to let everyone know it.  When we are around people he doesn’t know he will point to us and say “mommy” or “daddy” as if to tell everyone around that he belongs to us.  Lately he has also wanted to be held more and will hold on with all his might when I try to put him down.  When he sees Jason and I hugging he gets very jealous and wants in on it and will say “huh, huh (hug).”

Ethan has got in trouble at school a few times this week for being aggressive and mean to his school friends.  We are hoping this is a phase and will go away when he moves up to his new classroom next week.  He is always very sweet and gentle around most kids and usually reserves his aggressiveness for mommy and daddy!

Ethan loves playing outside, especially on slides.  He loves when he came walk up the stairs of the slide by himself while holding onto the hand rail.  And he has mastered going down slides by himself too!  I love seeing the look on his face as he slides down!

Playing with his favorite toy, a room thermometer that he broke.

“Hi, hello, hi”

Handsome man hanging out in his jammies.

Our family had a wonderful weekend celebrating Easter.  We kept ourselves busy all weekend and Ethan had a great time.  It sure is fun to do more things as he gets older!

We started at the Zionsville Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning.  We got there just as the 1-2 year old hunt started and it sure was crazy!  We now know to get there early next year.  Ethan got a total of 2 eggs and was thrilled.  He loved opening and closing the eggs and would have been happy if they were empty.

After Ethan’s turn we watched the 5-6 year old hunt.  It was pretty hilarious to watch all the kids take off!

After the egg hunt we went to one of our favorite places: Trader’s Point Creamery to pick up some flour.  Nothing like having someone freshly mill wheat for you!  Ethan loves looking at the cows.

Saturday night Ethan got to play with his gift from Papa and Gigi, Jason’s parents.  He was also quite pleased because I used the front facing camera on my phone and he loved being able to see himself.

On Sunday morning I told Ethan to go find his basket.  He could tell something exciting was going to happen!  He was pretty excited when he saw it.

Checking out his loot.

We amazingly made it to the 8am service at church on time and enjoyed the awesome service.  I wish I would have taken a picture – the place was packed, even at 8am!

After church went to visit Grammy and Grampy.  Ethan had lots of fun playing on the new toy Grammy and Grampy got for him.  He loved that he could climb up to the slide all by himself.

After playing we went to see Oma and have lunch with my family.  Ethan was the star of the show, of course.  This was the closest we could get to a picture of Oma and Ethan with bunny ears on.

After lunch and a failed nap attempt Ethan went egg hunting in Oma’s yard.  He got the hang of the egg hunting pretty quickly.

Of course Grammy would get cheetah print eggs.

After the egg hunt Ethan did a lot of walking with daddy and Grampy.  Right before I took this picture Ethan reached up to grab Grampy’s hand.

After our visit Ethan fell asleep almost as soon as we left.  He was very crabby when we got home but quickly snapped out of it.  it is now 10 and he is still laying in his crib refusing to sleep.  Apparently he had too much fun!

Happy Easter!

Jason and I have been making a lot of changes over the past few months.  It all started with my frustrations of feeling like we are caught in a cycle of consumerism.  Constantly spending money and getting more stuff, yet never feeling satisfied.  Throwing away more food than we eat some weeks.  Wasting time on things that are meaningless.  Feeling like the house is a constant disaster no matter how hard we work to keep it clean.  Lots of stress.  Of course with Jason working full time, me working part time, and a baby to tend to, there is a lot of work and busyness.  But I knew we could be doing things better.  Spending less, wasting less, stressing less.  Spending time and energy on things that are important and lasting.

Jen Hatmaker agreed, and happened to write a book called 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  In her book she discussed how she gave up food, clothes, spending, media, possessions, waste, and stress.  The book came out in January and I read it in about 10 days (a record for me, since I have sworn off reading since Pharmacy School).  It had an immediate impact on me, though it has taken some time for me to digest and apply to my (our) life.  I walked away from the book being reminded how blessed we are and it helped me truly understand how little some people have.  Living in the area that we do we see people who have bigger houses, nicer cars, better clothes, and more extravagant lifestyles than us.  And we want it too.  We tell ourselves we need it.  We rarely see homeless people who need a place to sleep (and when we do we question whether they are really homeless or just make more money standing on the side of the road).  We don’t see the mommas who need to feed their children.  And we surely don’t see any of the 147 million orphans worldwide who need love from parents.

Our goals are as follows:

1. Spend less money.

2. Have less stress in our lives.

3. Fill ourselves with what is important.

The changes we have made so far our (I will post about each one separately).

1. Cancel our cable.

2. Meal planning.

3. Simplifying our eating (no processed or canned food).

4. Limiting our eating out to once a week individually and once a week together.

5. Having a very strict budget (for me at least, I am the spender of the family!).

6. Be very organized (shopping lists, to do lists, cleaning schedules).

7. Be intentional about spending time with our friends and church family

I want to journal and share what changes we have made and how much better our life is because of it.  Though I probably won’t share a lot of specifics from the book, I highly recommend reading it!

Our sweet little 17 month old shows more of his personality every day.  He continues to talk and talk and talk.  We are rapidly approaching the stage of “what is he trying to say?”  He still repeats a lot of words that we say and will pick up on a word and say it over and over even though he doesn’t really know what it is.  For example, lately he loves the word “day.”  If he hears it he says it over and over.  It’s hard to even keep track of all his new words because there are so many!  My favorite new word of his is cereal which he says “ah wee ah wee ah wee.”  He loves to sing along to one of his favorite songs and says “who who – ah bah (all aboard).”

Ethan has added no new foods to his menu.  We will have to talk to the doctor next month to see what we can do to get him to eat a wider variety of foods.  Luckily he is still super chunky so we don’t have to worry about him gaining weight.  His favorite foods are cookies, ice cream, and chocolate, and he would eat them all day if we would let him.

We have been beginning to work on discipline with Ethan.  He has always been a bit strong willed but lately it is apparent that he needs to be told “no” more often and needs to be corrected when he does something wrong.  The biggest thing for me is to not let him have whatever he wants whenever he wants it.  It is amazing how quickly he learns what is right and wrong!  When we have corrected him several times and he still will not listen, he gets a “time out” which is anything that takes our attention away from him.  We will usually just set him in another room and that is enough for him to understand to stop what he is doing.  Now he is learning what is right and wrong and if I say “Ethan, do you want a time out?” he will say “no!” and stop the bad behavior.  That being said, there are still times he gets mad.  He is bad about hitting us when he gets mad.  In fact, yesterday he got mad at me because I was holding him and he pulled on my necklace and broke it!

All of that being said, Ethan is overall a very sweet little boy who loves to smile and give hugs and kisses.  His little imagination is developing.  I love just watching him play and seeing what his mind comes up with.  He constantly makes us laugh.  He is continuing to become more independent.  Today after Jason left he climbed down the stairs to his playroom and played by himself for a while!  He loves to dance, read, and sing.  He is always good in the car.  He is starting to learn some letters but still gets them all mixed up.  He is still loving daycare and is usually very mad when we have to leave.

Ethan loves to go outside and we have loved this warm weather.  We are starting to wish we had a yard but we are making the most of what we have.  Ethan has a sandbox on our balcony and we frequently go for walks and stroller rides.  Sometimes we go to the play ground but most of the equipment is too big for him.  Several times a day we hear “ouh si” (outside), “why” (ride), and “wah” (walk).  He will even hand me his shoes and jacket when he is ready.

We are so amazed by how much he resembles a little boy.  Our baby is growing up!

Happy boy.

Playing outside.

Playing with sand AND water.

Sampling some delicious sand water.

Ethan put his bunny ears on all by himself.

And took his vacuum outside.

Such a silly bunny!

Last week and most of this week have been very rough for our family.  I could tell Ethan was coming down with a cold last Monday.  Monday night Ethan woke up several times (which he does when he is sick).  I was starting to feel nauseous before I went to bed Monday and ended up with food poisoning.  So while I was sick all night Ethan was waking up constantly and ended up in bed with us.  Needless to say, it was a pretty bad night for all of us.

The next few days/nights weren’t much better.  Ethan and I shared our guest bed as he would not sleep in his crib.  I also had to hold him for all of his naps.  It was a flashback to his newborn days.  Ethan is pretty angry when he is sick.  He is not cuddly and pitiful.  He tries to keep playing but doesn’t feel good so he is very whiney and needy.  We watched a lot of Super Why and I tried to keep him sitting on the couch next to me, though it seems to impossible to keep him sitting still.  Thank goodness for Netflix streaming!

Wednesday Ethan was not any better and I was starting to get worried because he was not eating or drinking very much and had very few wet diapers.  I took him to the doctor and found out he had an ear infection and that his cough was bad enough that he needed breathing treatments.  He puked on me several times from coughing.  He continued to feel pretty terrible until around Saturday when he started to act like he felt better.

Over the weekend I develop his cold and understand why he was so whiney and rotten!  I have felt pretty miserable.  Luckily, Jason has managed to avoid both food poisoning and the cold, and he has taken awesome care of both of us.  We are very lucky to have such a wonderful hubby/daddy!

Sad, sickly baby

Ethan took his breathing treatments like a champ.  He would sit in his chair and watch tv without bothering his mask.

Feeling a little better.

Back to his normal silly self!

I can’t believe another month has went by and Ethan is a whole month older.

Ethan is still very talkative.  New words include “all clean, oh yeah!, hey! and no!”  He can also say several of his body parts including nose, hair, eyes and teeth.  He will also point to all of those body parts when asked.  Ethan loves singing songs and music will almost always put him in a good mood.  We sing lots of silly songs and have listened to his “The Music Class” CD from school about a hundred times in the car.

Ethan is starting to enjoying playing independently.  He especially loves his play kitchen, “ma man” (Little People Batman), legos, and anything that is under the sink or in the cabinet.  He likes to take everything out from under my sink and line it up on the bathtub.  He also enjoys pushing around his shopping cart, “dusting” and sweeping the floor.  He asks for the broom every day to “swee.”

Ethan is still a picky little eater and we struggle to get him to eat.  Though he still has chubby cheeks and a big tummy, so you would never know!  Most days he doesn’t eat hardly anything at daycare since they serve “normal” table food.  He is very hungry when he gets home from school and eats a bunch!  He is finally working on tooth #4.  We are hoping that he will be able to eat better with teeth!

We feel very blessed to live so close to the Children’s Museum here in Indianapolis.  It tastes 20 minutes to get there from our house to the parking garage, and Ethan absolutely loves it.  We go at least every other week.  His favorite part is the carousel.  He loves watching it go around and claps to the music, and occasionally busts out some dance moves.  As soon as we get off he walks himself right back into the line and do it again.  I think he actually likes watching it more than he likes riding it, but he takes his riding very seriously.  He pets the horse, says “neigh” several times, and then claps when the music starts.

Ethan is such a happy, sweet little guy most of the time.  The two times he hates most in life are when mommy is either taking a shower or eating.  When I shower he sticks his head in and cries the entire time.  I have learned to strip him down to a diaper because he ends up sopping wet.  When I’m done he goes off and plays like nothing ever happened.  He also hates when I am eating dinner.  Every night he stands at my side and cries the whole time, unless he is also eating.  He in general is not a fan of anything without mommy.  He is quite the momma’s boy and cries hysterically when we leave him with a babysitter (though he doesn’t mind being dropped off at daycare).

Here are some pictures of our precious little man.

All smiles!

Riding his “neigh” at the Children’s Museum.

This is why we keep the bathroom door closed.

Our baby is turning into a little boy!  Ethan has changed so much this past month I can hardly keep up with it.  He checked out at his doctor’s appointment as “healthy and totally adorable.”  He weighs 22lbs and 14oz (27%) and is 30.5 inches long (31%).  He has a grand total of 2 teeth.

Ethan’s vocabulary has exploded over the past month.  He is constantly talking and repeating words.  He especially loves animals and animal sounds.  He loves saying kitty cat, meow.  He also knows baa, moo, and neigh when he sees the respective animals or is asked what the animals say.  He is starting to say thank you and please at appropriate times.  He will also say no when he is not supposed to do something.  For example, if he is starting to play with the cat’s food we will say “Ethan, should you play with the cat’s food?” he will say “no!”  He is learning words that help him communicate what he wants (snack, milk, water, banana (which he says nena), applesauce, binky (bee).  He still loves music and singing and is trying to sing songs with us.  He loves baa baa black sheep (he will just baa on and on and on) and lately he likes to sing the alphabet (a, b, b, b).  He also likes to say “Go Dogs, Go!” (Doh Da Doh!) which is one of his favorite books.

Physically, Ethan is starting to walk very well and also tries to run at times.  He can now go up and down the stairs by himself, but we still have to stay close by when he is doing this as he is quite clumsy.  Luckily, he isn’t much of a climber.  He can climb into his chair but does not try to climb up on the couch.  He also hasn’t attempted to climb out of his crib yet.  He still enjoys tasks that practice his fine motor skills.  He is getting good at putting two blocks together.  He also likes tasks that involve using a spoon to put something in another thing.  For example, last week he spent 30 minutes scooping sugar from the sugar bowl into a coffee mug with the coffee scoop.  We ended up with quite a mess, but I got the rest of the kitchen clean and he was happy as a clam!

Ethan is still a very picky eater.  He enjoys crackers, waffles, and cereal.  He still likes bananas but won’t eat any other fruit or vegetable.  His doctor thinks it’s ok since he is still gaining weight.  We keep trying new foods but he doesn’t seem very interested.

Here are some pictures of our little man in action.

Watching Super Why (why why) in his chair (chae)

This is what most meals look like

This is why we don’t have many pictures these days.  Everytime I get the camera out he steals it from me, holds it up to his face and says “chee, chee”

Handsome man!

A couple of weeks ago we all headed to St. Louis for our second Christmas celebration with Jason’s family.  Ethan did absolutely wonderful in the car on the way there.  He was awake (and happy) for over 2 hours before we stopped and ate, and he fell asleep for the rest of the way.  On Saturday morning we went to Cotton Babies (a cloth diaper and natural baby product store).  Saturday evening we celebrated Lorelei’s birthday and celebrated the New Year (at a respectable 10:30pm).  Sunday we went to church (where Jason’s brother Stephen preached) and opened presents after nap time.  Monday morning we headed home.  We had a relatively uneventful trip home until we reached the Indiana state line.  It had started to snow and there were slide offs everywhere.  There must have been a wreck on I-70 (in addition to contruction) as we moved less than a mile in over an hour.  We decided to take the first exit we could and detoured around Terre Haute and stopped at Starbucks (Ethan got chocolate milk for the first time for being such a darling).  It took us about 6 hours but we make it home safely!

We had such a great time at Jason’s parents new house.  It is always fun to get all of the kids together and watch them play.  Julianne enjoyed being around her little cousin and frequently asked me if I needed to change Ethan’s diaper and if she could help.  Ethan and Lorelei especially loved the drums and piano at Papa and Gigi’s house.  Everytime Ethan saw the piano he would start doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider hand motions because he wanted someone to play the song on the piano.

Here are some pictures of our trip.

Being silly with daddy.

Our New Years Eve celebration – complete with Bride and Groom wine glasses from Mike and Karen’s wedding!

Jason reading with Ethan and Julianne.

Ethan playing with his new recycling truck.

Having a blast being pushed around in a box.

Ethan, Karen and Mike

Ethan and Lorelei

Ethan and Julianne

All the kids!

Ethan didn’t even make it to lunch on our way home.  Poor Jason had to eat his lunch while holding Ethan.

“Don’t care, got chocolate milk!”

Ethan’s Christmas present from us this year was his playroom makeover.  This room had been used for nothing more than a furniture graveyard since we moved in, and we were excited to make good use of the space.  So far he is loving the change the environment and having all his toys in one place!  He also loves that he can push the buttons on the tv!

BEFORE: White walls and a whole lot of nothing.

AFTER: A playroom fit for a king!

Lots of storage for toys.

Best idea ever – I made a screen to block the room to the litter boxes so the cats get in but Ethan can’t!

New coat rack to hold lots of tiny coats.

Art wall for all of Ethan’s creations from school.

Train set, garage and cars, and a perch for the cats.

There is still room left to add new projects.  I’m looking forward to all the time I will be spending down here with my little man!

This past weekend Jason, Ethan and I went to Bedford to celebrate Christmas.  I had to work Saturday morning so we headed out in the afternoon.  Saturday night we spent Christmas Eve at my Oma’s with my mom’s side of the family.  Sunday morning we opened presents and ate yummy pecan praline french toast.  Ethan enjoyed opening and playing with his new presents.  He did not sleep very well Saturday night so he was a bit cranky half way through opening gifts and had to go down for an early nap.  Sunday afternoon my dad’s family came over to my parents (as well as some other friends) and we ate and played dirty Santa.  We came back home Sunday.  It was a quick trip but we had a great time!  We are looking forward to spending this coming weekend with Jason’s family in St. Louis.

Here are some pictures of our little elf.

The closest we got to a cute baby in front of the tree picture.

All the gifts ready!

Jason’s favorite stocking gift.

SANTA!

I couldn’t resist the Santa jammies.

Checking out his new toys.

Ethan loves drumming with Grampy!

Today we went to the Children’s Museum to check out Jolly Days one more time before it closes.  Ethan did a great job waiting for the Yule slide and even yelled out “yeaaaah!” when I told him to watch the other kids.  He had a great time on the slide but was quite disappointed when he turned around to climb back up the slide and got carried away.  This resulted in a complete meltdown.  He also had a great time playing in the Jolly Days exhibit and riding the carousel.  His favorite part (other than the slide) was the giant light switch that turned on and off the Christmas lights.

Checking out the Reindeer grooming tools.

Sleepy boy on the carousel!