Ethan, say "Mama!" .... PLEASE!!!

I have to say that I love the stage that Ethan is in right now. Although he can be quite clingy and gets rather set in his thoughts (Hmm, not sure where he gets that from!!) ..."No, I will not take a nap!" or "I am hungry NOW...feed me NOW!") I am very anxious for him to talk and learn to walk. He has started saying Dada...and he loves that he can say it. He loves it so much that when I try to get him to say Mama...all he says is Dada! (and he says it with alot of determination too!) The funny thing is that when my mom tries to get him to say Mama...he just smiles at her. But for me...no...he's not going to say Mama. He says Dada! My mom says not to worry...when he wants to say it, it will be the right time. (My brother said Dada for months, and then finally said Mama first on Valentines Day.) It's just one of those things, I guess. I'm here every day, all day...caring for him and playing with him...and he says dada first! Go figure! LOL

We went to see Santa today. For the record, when a child hits the stage of not wanting to be away from his Mom or Dad...do not wave a set of loud jingle bells in a child's face and make silly faces. I can guarantee it will not make them laugh! Ethan was actually ok with seeing Santa, until the idiot girl decided to "try to make him smile"...which really only made him cry. Needless to say, we didn't get a great picture, so we'll be making a few more trips to see Santa until we get a good picture.

Ethan had his 9 month check up the other day. (P.S. i can't believe he's already NINE MONTHS OLD!) He is 21.5 lbs, and is 29.5 inches long. He has 2 teeth on the bottom, and is working on 4 more... (which means that with 4 trying to come in, sleeping all night has become rare once again.) And he's officially starting to eat table food! It's so funny to see him grab a banana bite or a piece of green beans and try to cram it into his little mouth. : )

Well, enough for now. I should head to bed and enjoy some sleep while the little one is quiet.

We'll miss you Nana!

Please keep my family in your prayers. After five years, my Grandma's battle with Alzheimer's ended on Sunday morning. She has returned home to be with my Grandpa, and is also enjoying the delight of being a Great Grandma to our two little angels.

She is whole again...she feels no pain and is once again the Grandma that I remember!

Phyllis Swisher - November 11, 2007

Ethan

Finally...a new post with pictures!

Me and my Daddy
















A typical Sunday afternoon - sleepin' with Daddy




















Playin' with Aunt Andee before bed





















All smiles after waking up from his nap

Ok, so it took way too long to get an update with pictures, I know. But I finally got my pictures off the camera and ready to upload. It's been pretty hectic here. Now that band is over, I've been spending some time trying to catch up on stuff around the house.


What's new with Ethan: He has officially reached the phase of separation anxiety. While I love his hugs and kisses and constant closeness, it can be really hard to do anything around the house when you can't put him down. He cries and crawls up my leg when I put him down...and gives me the pathetic face: "please Mommy, don't leave me or I'm sure I'll die!!!" And for the past three weeks, he's been dead set on getting up at least 3 times during the night. Last night, he got up 3 hours after I put him down, and was just about to scream his little head off. So I laid down with him on the couch, gave him some juice, and ended up falling asleep there with him until 3:30am when he woke up again. So I finally got him back to sleep and took him to his bed...only to wake up again at 6:30am. I can't decide if it's new teeth coming in, or that he wakes up and is scared that he's alone...or what it is. But I'm ready for this phase to pass! :)

Halloween was another adventure! We had 5 stops to make: Grandma's and Grandpa's, Great Grandma's and Grandpa's, and Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Andee's houses. If you can imagine a hungry cow who can't stand to sit still, or be taken in and out of the carseat, and only wants to be held by Mom and Dad...but everyone else is wanting to hold him...then you can understand how our evening was. But when it was all over with, and we finally made it back home, it was a pretty fun night. I'm trying to add a video also, so we'll see how that goes.

Pictures of the Little Man!!

More pictures of Ethan coming...just as soon as I get them downloaded off my camera.


Another busy weekend, filled with band stuff. But it's is getting closer to being finished....just a few more weeks. As much as I like music and all, I just get tired of all the extra that goes into it. The extra nights away from Ethan and home each week/weekend, the extra drama added into my life, the extra headaches trying to make everything work just right. Ugh...I need a season off, I think. LOL Plus, I hate that Mat and I are gone all the time and have to have someone else watch Ethan. I feel like just when he figures out our bedtime routine, we switch it on him by having someone else do it, or having it at a different time. Blah...I guess I just have to be thankful that he's such an easy baby.

Happy Birthday Shawna!

Happy Birthday Shawna! I hope you have a great one tomorrow!!

Love ya!

Val

Another Monday!

After days like this, I can't believe how glad I am that I only work a couple days during the week!! Geez, everything at work turned out to be like 1000 times more time consuming than it should have been. I was so glad to finally get off work, head home to see Ethan, and enjoy the night. And even though we didn't actually get home until 10:00pm or so, it was nice to get out of the house and visit with Mat's mom for awhile.

It's funny to see how family interact with Ethan. Tonight, Grandma was feeding him bananas. (He has been eating real people food lately...cracker bites, cheerios, mashed up real bananas, mashed potatoes....that kind of stuff.) And when he eats it....boy, he wants to explore all ends of it. After his banana tonight, he ended up with it in between his toes, up his nose, and in between his fingers. LOL...I love that guy!! To say the least, I LOVE watching litle kids try new foods!!


But anyway, my long day is finally over, and I can hear my little one snoring peacefully through the monitor. (He has a runny nose since his teeth are coming in....so it makes for quite a nasty, drippy nose.) I should head to bed and enjoy as much sleep as I can.

First post....

After reading Shawna's blog, I decided I should make one of my own. So here's a short update of what's been going on in our life.

It's been a rough year and a half for our family. Shortly after moving to Kokomo and buying a house, we found out that we were expecting a baby. Coincidentally, we were also awaiting the arrival of another baby in the family, due about 3 weeks before our little one. However, due to developmental complications, we lost our nephew in September 2006. And to add to an already emotional situation, we also lost our niece in July 2007. With two miscarriages in less that one year, you can imagine the emotional stress that is put on a family. But during the whole situation, it was very evident that God is very much in control. It was a blessing in disguise that we moved back to Kokomo and became pregnant when we did. Although it can be very bitter-sweet to welcome a new baby into your family shortly after losing one, God brought us this baby to bring a sense of joy back into the family.

On February 8th, our family grew. We've begun the challenge and joy of being parents!!

Fast forward 7 months later..."how can it be September already??"

Ethan - 7 months, 3 weeks
































What's new with Ethan:
* Now that he's crawling, he's into everything!!
* He has some strange fascination with the door on the VCR.
* He loves splashing around in the bath.
* He's started giving hugs and kisses (If you consider an open mouth bite on the nose to be a kiss.)

He weighs about 21 lbs. - pretty big for his age. Luckily though, his weight gain has really tapered off over the past few months. And best of all, when I'm gone from him all day for work, he gets excited to see me and wants to go where ever I do.

Well, I've rambled on long enough. I should head to bed...I'll play around more with this later!