More Christmas

We thought you'd like this one too. Ethan had a nice day, he even took a few naps. We'll do more postings next week with the events of the past week. Hope you all had a great holiday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I will catch up on posting a few other things next week, but we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!! Ethan is having a good day so far. He opened presents and tired himself out. Now he's napping. He says thanks to Grandma and Pa for the things they sent up and to the Alexanders for the presents they sent too. He also wanted me to give a shout out to those of you he doesn't get to see on his first Christmas, but at least you all get to see him here. Hope you enjoy!

My birthday

Here's a picture of Ethan and I on my birthday. We won't talk about what kind of day we had or the type of presents he gave me. We'll pretend it was as happy as this picture makes it seem. I think this is the last birthday I'm acknowledging. I mean why do we celebrate birthdays anyway- why can't we celebrate a happy day that wasn't full of excruciating pain and torture for someone? There was a highlight- a shirt I got from Barbara that says "Sarcasm: Just another service I offer" wrapped with an apron- I'm supposed to wear them together for James. :) And I did get flowers today from Ma and Pa that I'm pretending came yesterday so that was nice.

Feet

Ethan has discovered his feet. He found them in the bathtub last week and now can't stop looking at them. It was hard to get a picture though because he kept looking up when the flash strated to go off.

Pillows

Here's Ethan lounging on the new pillows his grandma made him to go with his curtains. He enjoys them and thinks they taste good too.

Photo Shoot

This morning I took some photos of Ethan while I was getting him from his jammies to his clothes. He's really enjoying Stretch the Giraffe, and likes to eat the rings around his neck. He also likes the foot that squeaks. I couldn't resist showing you all his rolls. Of course once dressed, the best thing to chew on is the bib. As much of the bib and fist as can possibly fit in the mouth. Mmmmm.....

Bath Time

We were going to give Ethan a bath tonight, but he had other plans. Last night while he was eating, he had a massive bottomside explosion. I finished feeding him because he was still eating, and it didn't seem to bother him. That was the wrong move. He proceeded to spit up all over himself and me. Then when James went to change him, he discovered the explosion was of the leaky- all up the back variety. So we changed our course of action and decided do the bath last night instead. I had him somewhat cleaned up for the hose down, and he spit up again all down the front of himself. We got him in the bath and almost all washed when he decided he wasn't having any of this cleanliness nonsense and went on to raise the water level in the tub. You can see he wasn't bothered by it, but we decided to cut our losses and get him out of there. We'll probably try again tonight.

Toys

I think I promised one of Ethan playing with his toys- as you can see he's starting to hold on to things. Now I just have to hope he doesn't whack himself (or me) in the head with the rattles!

I think I may have neglected to mention something everyone asks me about. Ethan is (usually) an awesome baby at night. He's gotten over the 11pm-2am screaming, and once he goes to sleep, though still too late- between 10:30-11:30, he doesn't wake up till we do. Well, he woke up at 5:30 today, but when I changed him he went back to sleep. So I guess what I'm saying is that while there are some exceptions, it could be A LOT worse.

Ethan's First Christmas Disaster

Yes folks, a few ornaments were injured during the making of this post. As you can see, our Christmas tree fell over. And after everyone (mostly Metzner) spent all that time placing the ornaments. I did tell you I'd redo them, but this isn't what I had in mind....
Luckily most of what broke were just plain old glass bulbs that I got on clearance one year. We did lose a few of the ornaments Candace made and one of the pottery balls we got in NC one year.

We had quite a mess of needles and glass to clean up but it's standing again. Hopefully it stays that way. I'll give it a few days before I put the glass stuff back on. I told Ethan it saves him the trouble of having to break them next year :) And for those of you who are wondering, he was no where near the tree. He is mostly unscathed, though I can't testify to the psychological effects of watching ones first Christmas tree topple over- he did see it happen.

Why we don't let Derek hold the camera

So we wanted a picture of James and I helping Ethan put the star on the tree. Well, we got Ethan...
And we wanted one of the three of us with the tree... yeah, I know you can see half a branch ;)

Ethan's First Christmas Party

Ethan enjoyed his first Christmas party on Saturday. We did not take as many pictures as we should have, but he enjoyed hanging out with everyone, especially his Uncle Teddy.
Believe it or not, Crazy Uncle Derek even held him Sunday. Until he cried.

Then Uncle Teddy took over again.

Ethan's First Tree

This is how Ethan looked through the entire tree cutting process-- asleep. He found this as interesting as picking pumpkins.
He didn't even wake up for the handoff.

Once it was decorated he thought it was more fun, he put the star on top. Well, sort of. He does really like looking at the lights.

Off to work

Today Ethan went on an adventure to Shelton (for those of you not in the know, yes this is THE Shelton CT, home of the Wiffle Ball- see why James loves CT, where is there a better place on earth that the home of the wiffle ball??). He got to meet a lot of his dad's co-workers and hang out in his office for a little while. We checked out the day care in the complex and he was a little charmer smiling at everyone. He even slept in the car, or I think he did. He was quiet anyway, and he is taking an afternoon nap right now. Guess he can't fight it EVERY day :)

Blocks

As I mentioned before, Ethan is starting to play with things more. Of course right when I went to take his picture holding his block, he threw it. Well, here's a shot of him playing anyway. I'll get some better ones up sometime soon.

Hands

You'll get pictures of this eventually but I haven't taken any yet. Ethan has been having fun discovering his hands in the past week. He's starting to grab things. He has some soft blocks that his Uncle Ted got for him and he likes those a lot. He also has a little green elephant thing I don't know what it's called really but it has a head attached to a piece of cloth so it's easy for him to grab and he likes to chew on it. He got that from Aunt Laura and Uncle John. He also is starting to grab our fingers more often and he likes to clasp his hands right in front of his mouth when it's time to eat so it's impossible to feed him. Oh, and I also witnessed him putting his pacifier back in his mouth all by himself. He had grabbed the ring and pulled it out and was waving it around and then he put it back in his mouth. He's actually starting to play with the animals on his bouncy chair too instead of just looking at them.

And in other fun news, I found out a kid at the parents club meeting I went to last week has croup. Now I'm paranoid Ethan will get it. I'm not sure I should go this week. Not that it's great for any of them, but he's a lot younger than most of the kids there.

The one you've been waiting for...

The first time I saw Ethan do this was last Friday. He would just do it for a few seconds and not very frequently. Last night he was in his bassinet and was giggling over and over again at his fish mobile, so I got the camera. Hope you enjoy it!

Sneeze

The pediatrician said Ethan has the cutest sneeze she's ever seen. She may say that to all the babies, but clearly Ethan has the cutest sneeze ANYONE has ever seen. :)

Smile

This takes forever to post, so don't expect them often. Enjoy!

A Message for Grandma and Pa

This is a special message from Ethan to wish his Grandma and Pa a happy 37th anniversary.

Ethan and Vivian

As promised Barbara sent me a few pictures of Ethan and Vivian playing together.
Vivian was trying to share her toys and pat him on the head. Her pats were a little overzealous, and Ethan looks a little frightened, but he came through it ok. Besides, he has to learn that girls are gonna do what they want and he might as well get used to it ;)

Ethan's Room

Ethan's room is still a work in progress, but we're getting there. This isn't a great picture, but it's hard to get one with the lighting in there. Hopefully you can see the new polka dot valances and organizer that his Grandma Jo Ann made for him.
Ethan has spent some time supervising the work over the past few days.You can see he was concerned about what was going on.
We're glad to know he actually enjoys hanging out there. The boppy pillow is a great place for him to hang out and be entertained by books and rattles.
James hung up the organizer that Grandma Jo Ann made. You can actually see what color it is in this picture. Now we have to spend some time organizing his things in it. It will be nice to get some of those things out of the dresser and have some more room for his clothes.

Here's Ethan playing on the bed. This is the picture he got from Aunt Linda & Uncle Louis hanging on the wall. Here's a close-up:

Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will get things shaping up. His second (and bigger) dresser is coming next Tuesday. We still need to paint the little table to go by the bed and the bookcase, and that's about it. I will add more pictures as we make more progress.