More colds, more doctors

Here's another shot of Ethan enjoying his play place. Today was not so fun. We woke up at 3:15, and were up until about 4:45. Then we got up again at 6:15. After changing Ethan, he went back to sleep while I got ready for work, and then I fed him and we left. He seemed happy enough for me, and yesterday he did really well, he finished all of four bottles and left only an ounce in the fifth. So I thought he was feeling better. I was in the middle of a really fun day at work- water leaks from the furnace, researchers, lots of visitors and just generally hectic, when the daycare called. They said Ethan was not himself, that he had been fussy all morning and he wouldn't eat well. They tried to have him take a nap but he cried if they laid him down. They thought it might be teething. I talked to the doctor's office about what we could do, and called the daycare back after the second bottle. He didn't finish that one either. He was finally taking a nap in the swing, but seemed congested. So I decided to be on the safe side, made an appointment, left early and took him to the doctor. She said he probably has a new cold and is teething at the same time. She told me it is likely he'll have about 10 colds before he's done, and that the congestion is all in his head, not in his lungs. So that was good news, but there's not much we could do besides give him saline drops in his nose and teething rings and Tylenol.
She did say that with the way his breathing sounded there was no way to tell if it was in his lungs other than listening with the stethoscope so it was definitely good to bring him in and have it checked. So now I'm a little tired and plan to spend the rest of the evening as a vegetable. We'll try again tomorrow. BTW he was an ANGEL at the doctors, giggled and laughed when she touched him with the stethoscope. He is laughing at James now as he tries to feed him, and he ate his whole bottle for me.

More Cousins

Yesterday Ethan got to visit with his cousins Amber and Jonathan. They both held him and played with him, and are looking forward to teaching him all kinds of fun things. Uncle Tom and Aunt Holly also played with him and Uncle Tom brought him some more camo. We'll have to get some pictures of him wearing that for Uncle Tom and Pa, it should fit him soon he's growing out of everything fast. Anyway he had a fun day. And Auntie Mandy, Ethan wants you to send pictures of last week because he did not get good pictures or any with his other cousins. James took too pictures and out of kindness to you and Whee, I won't post them- you both look like you did not want your picture taken and I can relate to that :)

After company left, Ethan was chillin' on the boppy keeping warm with the lovely new blanket Linda Loveday made for him. Ethan's a lucky baby to know so many talented people! I'm working on a video but I'm not making promises- he's being a little crank right now.

Tripp Trapp

Ethan had another busy weekend. On Saturday he had company all afternoon, his Hocking cousins and relatives were here for a visit. Then on Sunday we watched football and Crazy Uncle Derek came over. On Monday we went to an orthopedic surgeon because the pediatrician thought she heard Ethan's hip click and wanted us to have it checked out by a specialist- she said it was probably nothing, and that's what the orthopedic doctor thought- he didn't hear anything, and he moved around Ethan's legs and Ethan laughed at him. Of course the doctor said he has a great disposition- we already know that, we just can't figure out where he got it :)

James also put together Ethan's high chair this weekend. It's called the tripp trapp and it is very adjustable, eventually ending up as a regular chair. It's by the same company that made his crib. He will sit right at the table with us instead of having a high chair tray. We still have to get the cushion for him, and you can see here he's still a little wobbly on the sitting up thing, but we think he'll be using it soon. He sat in there today while we had breakfast and seemed happy to be able to see us.

Ethan also got his first cold, I think it started Friday. He got it his first week of daycare- makes sense huh? Well then he gave it to me. We stayed home sick yesterday. James was sneezing last night but hopefully he won't get it too bad.

Let's see, in other news he may be teething- there's A LOT of drool going on, and he always has to be chewing on something, his hand or my hand or whatever he can grab and get in his mouth. He also now consistently kicks the little bug in his baby play place with his feet to make it sing and light up. If you think that's no big accomplishment, you try laying flat on your back and raising your feet straight up. The kid must have a baby six-pack in his tummy. He also pushes the face of his octopus by himself to make it sing. And he really doesn't mind tummy time anymore as long as we put him on his tummy mat and he can get the toys in his mouth.

Ethan did ask me to give a shout out to his cousin Travis and wish him a speedy recovery, so Travis we all hope you're feeling as well as is possible and that you'll be at home soon.

Flashback

These are a few pictures that Julie took when Ethan went to visit Litchfield while I was on leave. Obviously the first two are from Halloween. On a later trip, Ethan hung out with Nonna Barbacci while I went to see a daycare. He was a big help, advising her on all kinds of mail merge issues.

Today Ethan had another good day at daycare with his friends. He got to play in the swing, and reportedly loved it. He hadn't been in a swing before that. The teachers all tell me what a great baby he is and how happy he is. All the older kids like to go visit him and he likes to watch them play. He even took a nap this afternoon. He's doing like his Pa right now and resting up to get ready for bed, checking his eyelids for holes and the like. Hopefully he won't be too rested up to sleep.

Just Hangin' Out

Here's Ethan hanging out w/ his Dad doing chores in the kitchen. He had a good first day at daycare. He met a little girl named Sophie and all of the bigger kids said hi to him and ooohed and ahhhed on his way in (as did all the other adults). They said he had a very good time, he did not put up a fuss. I went to visit him at lunch time and he was sound asleep when I got there. He eventually woke up before I left, but just for a minute. He smiled at me.

I did not mention in the last post that when we found Ethan on his stomach yesterday, he had his head where his feet had been when he went to sleep. So, while I can't really proove it, I would bet he did a somersault to get there :)

Big Day

This is how we found Ethan this morning. He went back to sleep after eating as usual, and then we heard him a while later, went upstairs, and discovered that he had turned himself over. He wasn't happy to be that way. As you can see, he lifts his head up pretty good now. He also had to go to the doctor. It was delayed a few hours because of the snow, but they managed to fit him in. He got four shots and an oral vaccine. He cried a little when the shots went in, but calmed down after we got him dressed. He took a long nap this afternoon, they must have tired him out. Tomorrow is his first day at daycare, I imagine it will be more traumatic for me than him.
Almost forgot the thing everyone asks about. He now weighs 13lbs 13ozs and is 25" long.

Grandma Jean

Saturday Ethan went to New Rochelle to visit his Grandma Jean. Don't they look like they had fun together?

Ethan's Octopus

Ethan got this octopus for Christmas from Grandma and Pa. If you touch his face, he plays music. If you touch his tentacles, they each say a color. And, if you flip a switch, it will say the colors in Spanish or French. He enjoys drooling on it. The little outfit was from Grandma and Pa too. It has pengins and says "I'm cool." It's a size 6 months but Ethan's a long baby and it fits him now. I do not understand these sizes. When he was newborn the same brand's newborn size swam on him but now their bigger sizes seem to run smaller.

I did try to get a video of him giggling, but as soon as I turned on the camera he stopped. We will keep trying.

Tummy Time

I promised more pictures of Ethan with his Christmas gifts. This tummy time play mat was from the Alexanders. It almost makes him like being on his stomach. Well, at least we can say he doesn't start to scream until he's been there for 5 minutes or so, which is a considerable improvement. He's looking at the toys, but hasn't quite figured out how to reach or play with them yet.

Ethan turned four months old yesterday, but he doesn't have his checkup until next week. Then he'll get more shots. He's going to make some new friends next week when I go back to work and he starts daycare. He went and visited a few times, and all the other kids seem really excited about babies. The next youngest is a 6 month old, so he'll be the darling of the place, at least until someone younger comes along.

I'll try to get a few new videos soon, he's starting to get more interesting. He babbles a lot and he giggles a lot now too, especially when he's being changed and getting tickled. He may be the only kid in the world with ticklish armpits.

Clean up

Yesterday we started cleaning up from Christmas. James gave me the day off. He was in charge of Ethan from about 9 till 4 so I got a lot done. He even made us breakfast and lunch. Ethan had a good day, he hung out in the bouncy seat for a while, and also in his baby playplace, and for a while in the baby bjorn. I finally got my clothes sorted through and all the maternity stuff out which made our room a lot neater. I did a lot of laundry, walked on my treadmill, did some work for a board I'm on and caught up on some e-mail. I wrote thank you cards and made dinner. James got the tree out of the house and I put away some ornaments. That reminded me that I was supposed to put up pictures of Ethan's first ornaments before and I totally forgot. So I got a few pictures of them before I put them away.

These are the ornaments that Ethan made for everyone. In case you can't tell, it's a popsicle stick reindeer and a pipe cleaner penguin. If you didn't get yours yet, he finished them a little late. They'll be coming soon.

The little sled was a present from Ethan's Aunt Phyllis and has his name on it. The snowman (see a better shot below) was made by Crazy Uncle Derek's mom. The center is wood and the outside is pine needles. It is colored w/ pencil- doesn't she do nice work? The pinnochio came all the way from Italy where Ethan's Uncle Jeff and Auntie Mandy found it for him. The little lennox snowman with his name on it came from NC where we found it. The Santa and the felted wool lamb came from a few craft shows we went to in Nov. and are actually the first ones he got.

Mini James

Here's what Ethan does while his Dad is at work- sits in his big leather chair and reads. Note the outfit, when James gets home a picture of them together is in order :). Today's reading selection was Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes. He enjoyed it thoroughly.

New Year's Eve and Day

Ok so we're kind of falling down on the picture thing. On New Year's Eve we usually go out to dinner w/ friends (the Metzners and Capellaro) in NJ. This year they offered to come to CT, and since we came back from NC on the 30th, that was great for us. We went to Carmen Anthony's in Waterbury for dinner while Ethan hung out with his Aunt Phyllis. They were laughing and having a grand time when we left, and he was asleep when we came back. He did not stay up to ring in the New Year, but the rest of us did. On New Year's day, Ethan cracked open one of his many fantastic Christmas gifts (thanks to everyone, there will be more pictures of him playing with other things in the future- I'm still working on washing some and setting some up). Metz and Amy got him his very own Baby Play Place. Somehow we did not get any shots of Ethan with other people.


When Ethan kicks the bug it lights up and plays music.

He just can't believe how awesome this gift is!

He's so overwhelmed he has to eat his hands.

Then he's so tired from all that playing that he totally crashes on the couch with his daddy.

If you want to see more holiday pictures or order prints let me know. I did upload them to a Picasa album so I can e-mail you the link.

North Carolina

If you are wondering why it took so long to get anything on here about Christmas, the day after we left for Ethan's first long car trip. We went to North Carolina to visit Grandma Jo Ann and Pa. Ethan was a superstar. He only cried in the car maybe 1/2 hour to an hour total each way, and that didn't start until 11 hours into the trip. It took about 13 with all the stops we had to make for feeding and changing, but fortunately we only had to stop at his scheduled feeding times. He was really very good about being scrunched up in that car seat for so long.


Ethan, James, and Linda
Ethan visited his first historic house museum, Blandwood Mansion in Greensboro, NC.

John, Jo Ann, and Ethan
Grandma left the tree up for him so he posed for some pictures.

John, Ethan, and Callie (the dog though she doesn't think so)
Pa was interested in holding him so long as he didn't start to cry or need to be changed- then it was ok to pass him off to Grandma.

John, Linda, Jo Ann, and Ethan

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Here are some more holiday photos. Ethan spent Christmas eve in Massachusetts where he played with his cousins. On Christmas day, he was at home and his Hocking relatives came over. I'm not sure how we missed getting a shot of Ethan w/ Auntie Mandy. We'll have to get one when he wears his cute little bear outfit.


Bowen, Aidan, and Ethan

James and Ethan

Pop pop Bryan and Ethan

James and Ethan

Ethan's Mouth

As you can tell, Ethan's new favorite toy is whatever he can shove in his mouth. That might be his fist, or my fist, or a gift bag, or the cardboard a toy came attached to. The way he's chewing, the kid is going to be a great eater.