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!

 

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!”

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!

 

Better late than never, here is the rest of our Denver trip.

Sunday morning Ethan woke up early again and we walked around the hotel again and ate breakfast.  We went over to John and Mary’s to have our own “church service” which was lovely (Ethan napped the whole time).  Stephen provided a message and Mike played the piano.  After we went to lunch at Casa Bonita.  Jason described this place to me as a Mexican restaurant where someone would dive off a cliff, but it was so much more than that!  They did several skits, puppet shows, and had lots of places to play.  Ethan was a bit too young to really enjoy it.  After lunch we went on a short drive through the mountains.  Since Ethan isn’t a huge fan of the car we decided to keep it short (which worked out well since he didn’t nap very long in the car and was ready to get out when we were done!).  After some playing we went out to dinner and then headed back to our hotel.

After another early morning wakeup, Jason got up with Ethan so I could sleep in a bit (the man at the front desk asked Jason if he was giving me a break!).  We met Jason’s parents, Stephen, Allison, Julianne, Lorelei, and Ryan for a last breakfast together before we left.  We went to drop off our rental car and since we had a baby, they drove us (still in our rental car) to the airport instead of dropping it off and taking a shuttle to the aiport.  It was so nice!  We got through security easily.  There were several babies on our returning flight so we didn’t get quite as much help from the staff, but managed to get us and all our stuff on the plane.  Ethan was sleepy by this point, and luckily he fell asleep in his carseat on take off and slept over half the way home.  When he woke up he ate and played until we landed.  He was quite exhausted from the whole trip and slept 12 solid hours that night!  Overall we had a great trip and Ethan was such a darling.  It was so nice to see everyone!

He loved playing with all the new toys!

Checking out the shenanigans at Casa Bonita.

Asleep on the plane.

Playing with Daddy on the plane.

Last weekend, Jason, Ethan and I had a great trip to Denver.  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but it wasn’t nearly as stressful as I imagined!  I had the flu the day before we left and was terrified Ethan or Jason would get it too.  Luckily we all made it through healthy.  Here is a recap of the first 2 days.

Friday: Ethan had not been sleeping well the past few days, and he was in bed with us when Jason’s alarm went off at 3:45am.  He decided he was wide awake and ready to start his day then.  We quickly got ready and headed out the door for our 6:45am flight.  Ethan fell asleep on the way there and woke up when we arrived.  We parked and headed to check in, since we couldn’t check in online (apparently you can’t when you have an infant).  We also got to cut in front of the security line!  I brought quite a bit of baby food with us (we didn’t check any bags) and I was a little nervous about getting it through security.  They had to open two of the containers to check for explosives, but other than that (and our million bags) it was pretty easy.  We barely had enough time to get to our gate and grab breakfast and two VERY large coffees before we boarded.  Ethan did great on the flight.  We bought him his own seat so he could sit in his carseat.  He slept for about 45 minutes and spent the rest of the 2.5 hour flight snacking, reading, and playing.  We landed and were off to get our rental car and head to the hotel.

The rest of the day Friday was quite relaxed.  We had some breakfast with Jason’s parents, Mike and Karen and his younger brother, Ryan.  We then headed over to pick up Jason’s brother and sister in law (Stephen and Allison) and our nieces (Julianne and Lorelei).  We headed over to Jason’s Aunt and Uncle’s house (John and Mary).  We spent some time with his family and went to get some lunch (I was VERY hungry, as it was 2:30 Indiana time).  After our lovely lunch at Chipotle (where they have brown rice!), we went back to the house where Stephen and Allison were staying to spend some time talking while the kids napped.  Ethan took a monster nap while we spent time talking.  Later in the evening we went back to John and Mary’s house for dinner.  After we checked into our hotel (which was fantastic!) and crashed.

Ready to start the day at 4am.

Snackin on a mum.

His favorite sleeping position – he was tired!

Trying out a slide with Daddy.

Saturday: 4:15am Ethan was wide awake (6:15 Indiana time, so his normal wake up time).  I assumed this would happen!  I gave him a bath and got him ready for the day, then we went in the stroller to walk around the hotel.  Luckily, the hotel was huge and there were lots of places to walk around.  We got some banana bread and coffee from the coffee shop, ate, and walked some more.  I discovered there that Ethan LOVES banana bread.  I had to pick the nuts out of it, but he thought it was the greatest thing ever.  We eventually went back to the room and got Jason up so we could get ready for the day.  Of course Ethan was ready for his first nap when we were getting ready to leave, which worked out well  so he could fall asleep on the way to our breakfast destination, The Original Pancake House.  We put him in his stroller when we got there and he ended up sleeping for about an hour and a half.  We had a great breakfast – I highly recommend the Banana Praline Crepes!  After breakfast we headed to the Denver Zoo – by we I mean me, Jason, Ethan, Mike, Karen, Stephen, Allison, Julianne, Lorelei, Ryan, and Ryan’s girlfriend Liz, who joined us on Saturday.

Napping during breakfast – I got to eat in peace!

We had a great time at the zoo!  Ethan really enjoyed looking at the animals and also checking out all the other kids.  There was a little play area with a “splash creek” for kids to play in and he loved that.  He mainly loved it because it was covered in mulch and he tried his hardest to eat it.  He ended up taking a nap for a while in his stroller.  After the zoo we went to get lunch at Noodles and Company.  Jason and I both had pita sandwiches, not something we have on the menu in Indiana!  We were all pretty wore out at this point but decided to take a quick trip to Ikea.  Jason, Ethan, Allison, Lorelei and I headed over for a quick trip.  We both ended up with cinnamon rolls and a few other small things.  We then headed over to John and Mary’s for the family reunion.  It was great to spend time with Jason’s Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandma.  There were lots of of little ones!  After our dinner we headed back to our hotel with a very tired baby.

Playing in the splash creek with Julianne – they both ended up quite wet!

Mulch!

Cuddling with Uncle Ryan… so sweet!

Petting the lion cub.

Everyone at the family reunion!

Check out the rest of the zoo pictures here.

 

Last weekend Jason, Ethan and I went to Cincinnati for a long weekend.  We went for my friend, Rachel’s wedding, and decided to make a mini vacation out of it.  We headed to Cincinnati on Thursday.  Ethan went to daycare in the morning while Jason and I packed, then he slept the whole way there.  Thursday evening we went shopping and had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (Jason and Ethan enjoyed checking out the Lego Store!).  Friday we went to Ikea.  Ethan did not have much of a morning nap and was fussy most of the time, but we made it through.  We got him some toys for his birthday!  Friday evening Grammy and Grampy joined us so they could watch Ethan.  Saturday we enjoyed some time swimming in the hotel pool before getting ready for the wedding.  Ethan enjoyed spending Saturday evening with Grammy and Grampy while Jason and I attended the wedding (I was a bridesmaid).  Sunday we packed up and headed home.  Overall Ethan did great.  He did not sleep very well and would not fall asleep on his own.  The first night we put him in the pack n play and he just pressed his face against the mesh and looked at us like “this is fun, what are we going to do next?”  We had to take a walk every night to get him to fall asleep.  Overall it was a great trip and we had lots of fun!

Enjoying some asparagus (and his spoon) at Cheesecake Factory.  He was quite the darling!

Being silly with daddy – up way past his bedtime!

FINALLY napping – in our bed of course!

 

Snoozing on daddy.

Jason and I at the wedding.

On June 10, 2011, Jason and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary!  The day itself wasn’t all that exciting – as life is much different now with a baby!  I had to work that weekend, so we got to have our date night the next weekend, on the 18th.  My parents came up to watch Ethan so we could have the day to ourselves.  One of our favorite things to do together is eat good food, so we decided to try The Oceanaire.  Neither of us are huge seafood fans, but we wanted to try something different.  We went all out, of course, with cocktails, appetizers, entrees and sides.  I had shrimp scampi and Jason had fish, and all of our food was delicious!  It was well worth the money and we had a great time pretending we were Top Chef judges, as we normally do when we are eating good food.  They surprised us with a Baked Alaska for dessert!  We had planned to go to the Chocolate Cafe afterwards (for Almond Joy ice cream!) but it was raining and we were full, so we decided to head home.  We stopped by Garden Ridge (yes, we went to Garden Ridge on our 5 year anniversary celebration, we are lame!) to look for some patio furniture.  We decided to get some wooden patio furniture since the 5 year anniversary “gift” is wood, but we haven’t found any we like yet.

Of course we forgot to take pictures, so I will leave you with 5 years of memories.  Jason and I feel so blessed to have had such an amazing 5 years together, and we can’t wait to see what God has in store in the next 5 years!

Our engagement – June 26, 2005 (I think?  I always forget).  Yes I am wearing pajamas, and yes we do look like we’re 12!

Our wedding – June 10, 2006 at Eagle Pointe in Bloomington, IN.

Our honeymoon – Turks and Caicos.

In August we welcomed our first children, Ginger and Rufus.

On August 17, 2007 we became an Aunt and Uncle to Miss Julianne Grace.

Summer 2008 we built a house….

…and I graduate from Pharmacy School, took my boards, and started my job at St. Vincent.  Jason started his job at Interactive Intelligence shortly after.

In 2009 we needed a vacation and went to Ft. Lauderdale!

In 2010 we prepared for the birth of our first baby…

…and we welcomed Ethan Daniel into the world on October 18, 2010.

And now we are loving life as a family of 3!

 

This past weekend, the three of us headed to St. Louis.  Andy, Jason’s sister-in-law’s brother (and also a good friend of Jason) got married and we got to see Jason’s family.  We headed out on Friday, and of course our baby that doesn’t sleep decided to take a 3 hour nap right before we left!  So I had to sit in the back and keep him entertained since he was wide awake the whole time (he ended up napping for about 45 minutes).  On Friday evening we spent some time at a park where Ethan got to see lots of people (and stay up way past his bedtime!).  Saturday we went out to lunch and went to the wedding.  I wanted to go to Cotton Babies (a cloth diaper store in St Louis) but it didn’t quite work out.  Sunday we went to church, went to lunch and then headed home.  He was good and tired and slept about half the way home (2 hours) then had to be entertained the rest of the way home.  He was ready to get out of his carseat!  Overall he did great on the trip, even though his schedule was all messed up, he was up very late every night and didn’t always get naps when he needed them!

It was so fun to see Ethan, Julianne, and Lorelei play together.  Julianne really enjoyed loving on her little cousin.  She kept saying, “Oh Ethan, I love you!” and allowed him to give her a big slobbery kiss.  He also liked to grab her hair, though she didn’t seem to mind.  Another fun thing about having them together was we realized how much Ethan and Lorelei sound alike.  Their cry and laugh sounds so similar – sometimes I wasn’t sure who it was!  They also have very similar facial expressions.  It will be so fun to see if that continues as they get older.

Overall we had such a great time!  We were so proud of how well Ethan did and we always enjoy getting to spend time with Jason’s family.  We look forward to seeing them all again soon!

On our way – looking handsome in his big boy carseat!

Jason, Ethan, and Julianne enjoying the swing.

Slobbery kisses.

Precious.

Happy boy.

Our best attempt at a group photo.

GET ME OUT OF THIS CARSEAT!!

So happy to be home!

Thanks to Jason and Ethan, I had a wonderful first Mother’s day!  Jason got up with Ethan when he woke up in the morning and they made me french toast, eggs and bacon.  We ate together as a family.  Ethan even got to try some french toast (which he promptly gagged on and threw up).  We went to church then went to lunch at Chipotle.  Then we went to Costco and did some shopping.  Ethan loved sitting in the cart, looking around and smiling at everyone.  We came home and took a walk, which Ethan did not enjoy for some reason.  Then we got to Skype with Jason’s parents.  It was a wonderful, relaxing day!

I remember when I was little asking my mom on Mother’s day why there wasn’t a kid’s day – she told me every day was kid’s day!  I obviously didn’t understand that at the time, but I sure do now.  It’s amazing how much meaning this day had to me this year.  Ethan adds so much joy to my life and I love being his mom!

Rocking his sunglasses after church

Enjoying the view at Costco.

Mommy and Ethan

My gift from Ethan that he made at school

My gift to myself!

 

I have been diligently buying my cloth diaper stash over the past few months as I found good sales and coupons.  I am now completely done buying!  I’m sure I will buy more after the baby comes, but I have a good start.

There are so many different kinds of cloth diapers, it can be completely overwhelming.  I did a lot of research for a long time before I decided what I wanted.  The real test will actually having a baby to try them out on, then we can decide for sure what works best for us.  We are starting out with a mix of newborn diapers to see what we like, then can buy more bigger diapers for later (a lot of diapers come as “one size” which usually start fitting around 12 lbs and should fit until potty training).

I could try to explain the differences between all the diapers, the costs savings, etc, but this website does a much better job than I could ever do.  If you have kids or are pregnant, I highly recommend doing some research.  It is amazing how much money you can save (and they are so cute!)!

And now, the pictures:

All of my newborn diapers are in the basket (prefolds, fitteds, covers, pockets and all-in-ones).  I have extra inserts in the first drawer.

One size pocket diapers for when the baby is bigger.

LOTS of prefolds.  I hear these also work great as burp cloths, changing pads and lots of other things, can be used to stuff pocket diapers and they are cheap, so I bought a bunch!