Happy Halloween!

This year, we celebrated Halloween with the Pumpkin and the Princess.

Below is the Pumpkin at home before trick or treating.

The pumpkin on the move.

The princess and her daddy, trick or treating at the mall. Since we don't live close to any family, we take the kids to the local mall where the stores hand out candy. It was packed this year!

Princess Emily, resplendent in her (itchy) gold dress and sparkly gold shoes, with Disney princess candy pail. She had planned on being Jasmine for weeks, but literally 5 minutes before we left the house for her school party, she decided the costume was too itchy. The only other thing we had was this dress-up princess dress, so thankfully she agreed to that. Of course, tonight all I heard was, "This dress is too itchy!"

The little Ethan pumpkin spent the whole time asleep in his stroller. What a life!

Emily's Pre-K Halloween Party

Emily's Pre-K class had their Halloween party on Thursday. All the kids wore their costumes and they were a bit...wild.

This was Emily sitting for show and tell.

Snack time...and a quick smile for the camera.

Having cookies and pumpkin-shaped jello with her classmates.

Mr. Ethan, along for the ride (again), dressed in his giraffe costume and quite pleased about it!

A Day at the Children's Museum

We've been out of town for a few days. Not far...just a trip to Indianapolis, but still, an ambitious feat with a five year old and a 3 month old. What we didn't realize is that Indy was also hosting about 55,000 Future Farmers of America at the same time. That was an...adventure.

On Saturday, we drove to the Children's Museum, which was Emily's belated birthday gift from us. She thoroughly enjoyed herself over a 4-5 hour period of time, playing and looking around.

Meanwhile, Ethan either rode in his wearable carrier (dad got the honors for the first time) or in his stroller. The picture below is of him playing with mom while waiting on Emily. Life is pretty good for the E-man.

This is what Emily was up to.

More waiting around for big sister.

Tired of waiting on Emily...better get used to it, little guy! (Note the old man pants hiked up over his knees. He insists on pulling them up, now that he can grab them.)

Emily, posing next to an underwater exhibit. What a ham!

Field Trip #3: Pumpkin Patch

This is Emily's class (minus one or two). There are 4 girls in a sea of boys.

Emily, driving the train on the playground.

Swinging with a friend.

Getting ready to go on a hayride.

The prized pumpkin...hand-picked by mom, after Emily searched for just the right one.

And of course, little brother, along for the ride in his baby carrier. After walking around for an hour and a half and licking the inside of the carrier for a while, he finally drifted off to sleep.

Ethan is Three Months Old!

Ethan:

Today you are 3 months old. Technically, you are no longer a newborn anymore. Today, you officially became an infant. (Who knew?)

The pictures this month aren't great; they're a little fuzzy, but then again, that's because you can't sit still. You love to kick and move and try to sit up. I have a feeling you will keep us on our toes.

You usually only wake up once a night to eat. I put you to bed around 10:30 and you wake up one time between then and around 7:30 am. A few times, you've even slept all the way through, which is a miracle in momma's mind, considering that your big sister still sometimes struggles with this concept. You don't nap much during the day though, but that's okay. I'd rather sleep at night too!

You enjoy sitting up in the corner of the couch. It almost always gets a smile. Although you still need to be propped up, you pull yourself forward and try to sit up more on your own. In the last week or so, you have discovered your feet and you think they're pretty interesting. You also adore your big sister. You find her fascinating...as we all do.



This month, you've really discovered your hands and you're pretty good with using them. You want very little to do with a pacifier, but you love to chew/suck on your hands and fingers. You love clasping your hands together or just waving them around and staring at them.



Speaking of using your hands, you've learned to hold on to small toys and wave them around. This week, you are particularly enamored with a little toy lion from your activity mat (which you still dearly love). It's funny to watch you focus on one toy for a few days and then watch as a new toy catches your undivided attention. You not only can hold a toy if we put it in your hand, but you can grab it yourself sometimes. Mommy's pretty impressed that you're already able to do that. You love to coo and "talk", you love it when we sing to you, you adore being naked (with a diaper of course...mommy doesn't need a shower) and you love your activity mat. The dog and cats have captured your attention, but the jury's still out on them.

On the other hand, you still hate tummy time, you still struggle with the pacifier and you will not take any brand of bottle that we've tried. You're also starting to get very upset at sudden loud noises. (You'd better get used to those soon, buddy, because big sister is one tall mess of loudness!)

All in all, you're a pretty laid-back, easy-going fellow and we can't wait to see more and more of your personality shine through.

We love you, little guy!

A Life Too Short

A little over five years ago, I blogged about a little boy from our church named Kayden. He was born on September 12, 2004, just 3 days before Emily. He left the hospital on Sept. 14th and was back on the 15th, a very critically ill little baby. His grandma, who plays the piano with me at church, came to visit me while I was in the hospital with brand-new baby Emily. She freely cried as she told me about little Kayden, who at three days old was so ill.

Kayden has been in and out of hospitals, had more tests and procedures than most people will ever have in an entire lifetime and could not talk, walk or even hold his own head up. He has required 24 hour care for his entire life. Last month, we went to a big 5th birthday party for him at church, and it was bittersweet, knowing that the whole reason for the huge celebration was because he might not have another.

Today Kayden is with Jesus, running and laughing and playing and doing all the things he could never do here on earth. Today his family is heartbroken and yet they know that he is now whole. Today, I will hug my children a little bit longer and thank God for their lives and remember this family whose arms are suddenly empty.

If you will, please say a prayer for Kayden's family. They will see him again some day, but until then, their hearts are grieving.

Fear Itself

There's an awful lot of reporting about the H1N1 flu and vaccine, and just as much debate. Everyone has an opinion, and their reason for it; even people I hold in high regard are weighing in on the vaccine debate and to be honest, I'm just plain torn.

I normally think that people like Rush Limbaugh are pretty level-headed when talking about media-wrought panics and I typically agree with their assessments, but this time, I just don't know what to think.

For example, I've heard many generally intelligent people say that they absolutely will not get the H1N1 vaccine...no way, no how, it's too new, it's untested, it may cause more harm than good. I probably would not be inclined to get the vaccine either, especially since I'm not (by myself) in a high-risk group.

However, I don't live in a bubble. Because I have an infant, I am in a very high-risk group and it is strongly recommended that I vaccinate myself and my family...everyone but Ethan because he is too young. We know for sure that Emily has already been exposed to H1N1 at her preschool and today marks seven days since the confirmed cases started exhibiting symptoms. Emily has been hacking up a lung since Sunday and has had a low-grade fever (99-100.2) every day as well. She "seems" okay otherwise, but I find myself checking her fever several times a day because I know that our area has been having a bit of an outbreak of flu cases, and this includes one very fast death of an other-wise healthy 11 year old girl. I don't panic easily, but quite frankly, that scares me.

I don't want to give in to the panic, but I don't know what to think about this vaccine and all the media hoopla isn't really helping. As a parent, I can't imagine making the choice NOT to
vaccinate and then having one of my kids get sick and heaven-forbid something worse, but on the other hand, I generally try to err on the side of caution with new vaccines/medicines. It feels like a darned if you do/darned if you don't kind of choice.

Add to this that even if I wanted the H1N1 vaccine, it's not available, and when it is, Emily will require two shots, spaced some amount of time apart, and then full immunity is not achieved for about another 3 weeks. What happens if she contracts H1N1 somewhere between those doses? I have so many questions, but so few answers and I don't like living in a constant state of worry.

Can we just skip straight to spring/summer and bypass this flu season altogether?

Emily and Ethan Make a Video

This is the first video of Emily and Ethan "talking" to us...and the Grandpeople.

Enjoy!

Two of a Kind

I'm thinking that Ethan looks a lot like his big sister.

Ethan at 12 weeks (above)

Emily at probably closer to 4 months (below). Sorry about the size. I had to scan Em's picture in and I've never done that before with this printer. I guess I'll have to actually read the instructions to get it the right size!

The Munchkin

Mr. Ethan is a little over 12 weeks old now. He's pretty happy except when he's not. I think he may have a bit of a short fuse.

He likes to be naked. He likes it a lot.

He also likes to lay on his back and kick his feet and wave his arms. He gets a little wild.

Here's the view from tummy time. I had to take this picture quick. This doesn't look quite right....

Oh yes, this more like it. Mr. E hates tummy time. This picture barely scratches the surface.

Ah...no more tummy time. Much better, but still resenting Mom a little.

The Tall Drink of Water

We had Emily's 5 year pictures taken on Friday. It was rainy and cold and gloomy outside, but Miss Em made it bright and sunshiney on the inside. (Pictures were taken at Portrait Innovations)

This is one tall 5 year old. At her five year check up, she was 45 lbs. and 46.5 inches tall. She's still above the 97th percentile in height. She's almost 4 feet tall. I have a feeling I will be looking up to her by the time she's a teenager (Heaven help us all then!).

Changing Seasons

Emily had a field trip to the local county park. While she went on a nature hike with her class, Ethan and I went on a little photo adventure of our own. (We weren't invited on the hike...no siblings allowed!)

The blue barn in the background is part of on old dairy farm that is now park property. I really liked the fall colors against the blue barn and their reflection in the water.

Looking across the river, the trees are starting to turn beautiful colors.

I don't know why, I just liked this picture.

More fall colors and reflections

A bit blurred (I was holding Mr. E) but kind of peaceful, don't you think?

Innocence Lost

Yesterday was the first field trip for Emily's pre-school. They were supposed to go to an apple orchard and pick apples, then have their snack, picnic style, on blankets on the grass.

Yesterday's weather...absolutely lousy. It was windy, barely 50 degrees and drizzling very steadily. I had Ethan with me and really, really didn't want to have to take him out in that kind of weather, but didn't really have much choice until Emily's teacher stepped up and offered to take Emily with her so that Ethan didn't have to get wet and cold. Bless her heart. She has a young grandson and said that she wouldn't take him out in that, so she understood. Thankfully, Emily really likes her new teacher, so she went willingly.

Since the weather was so bad, the apple picking didn't last long at all. What took well over an hour last year took barely 20 minutes this year, with no picnic snack. All in all, they should have rescheduled. When Em got back to the van, her jeans were absolutely soaked up to the knee, as were her socks and tennis shoes. I stripped her down to her sweatshirt and underwear, covered her in one of Ethan's blankets and we headed home.

Since the filed trip was so lousy (and she had so been looking forward to it), I offered to take her home to get dry clothes and then to let her go play at the mall. She thought that sounded good and so off we went.

Things went fine until we headed back home. As we were standing at the van in the Sear's parking lot, trying to load the stroller/car seat and Emily in the van, I heard someone yelling and then saw a large black woman running (and I use the term very loosely) in an erratic fashion not too far from where we were. She was being pursued by a mall security guard. It would have been funny if it had just been me there, because it was like watching everything in slow motion, the woman was running so slowly. She was zig-zagging all around, trying to get away, but anyone could see that there was no way she was going to out-run the security guard. There was also a plainclothes female officer trying to catch her. I assume that the woman was trying to shoplift, but I guess I'm not 100% sure.

Anyhow, the yelling, aside from the guards telling her to stop, was the woman yelling to whomever was supposed to be manning the "getaway" vehicle. She kept yelling to "Jamal" or something like that, who apparently was supposed to be picking her up, but by this time, the guards had caught up to the woman and a patrolling security vehicle had cornered the getaway car.

Meanwhile, I'm desperately trying to get Emily buckled in her carseat and trying to get the heck out of there because it's all happening way to close for comfort (especially since you just never know what a desperate criminal will try in order to get away). In retrospect, I should have broken my "always buckle up" rule and just driven somewhere else in the parking lot, but it all happened so fast.

As we finally start driving away, about three spaces down from our car, Emily is able to look out her window and see the woman, lying face down on the ground, being handcuffed. The woman's pants were, quite literally hanging down below her naked rear end (I think they were falling off as she was running) and so this is the image left in my poor barely 5 year old's mind.

I spent the entire ride home (about 15 minutes) trying to explain what was happening because Emily was full of questions, and as usual, the simplest explanations weren't cutting it. She was curious and is inquisitive, but is also sometimes too sensitive and smart for her own good. It can make for a bad combination...and at bedtime, it proved to be just that. She spent the better part of an hour last night, crying and being upset because she was afraid to go back to the mall and afraid of what she had seen.

So thanks a lot, stupid selfish shoplifting criminal. Thanks for causing prices to go up for all of us. Thanks for making the world a lot less safe, but most of all, thanks for scaring my sweet, sensitive little girl and taking away a bit more of her childish innocence. I hope you spend a nice long time in a miserable jail cell. You deserve it.

A Day in the Life....

It's 4:15 pm. So far I've:

~taken a shower
~fed Ethan and made breakfast for Emily
~tried to dry my hair while Ethan screamed, only to have my hairdryer quit half-way through
~attempted to finish drying my hair in front of the fan, while Ethan continues screaming
~finished getting myself ready (this includes actually remembering to put on all my make-up this time)
~gotten Emily dressed
~gotten Ethan changed and dressed
~gotten both kids into their respective car seats and in the van
~taken Emily to pre-K
~chatted with my mother-in-law, who has been dealing with health issues
~gone to Meijer to replace my hairdryer and make a few pictures
~screwed up several pictures due to a too-complex computer program, but since Ethan was screaming (again) and I was running out of time, will have to fix later
~checked myself out at Meijer because I didn't have time to walk to the other end of the store where two of the 24 lanes were open
~picked up Emily from pre-K (which of course involves carrying Ethan in his car seat down a long sidewalk and waiting for her class to be the last one to let out, then walking back up the very long sidewalk to the van
~ran through the Wendy's drive-through for lunch for Emily and me

It's now 12:00pm, by the way.

~got home, unloaded both kids from the van
~ate lunch while feeding Ethan
~changed shirt after Ethan spit up his lunch on me
~turned on the computer and checked a few websites while Ethan played for about ten minutes on his play mat
~picked up Ethan from playmat when he started crying
~changed his poopy diaper
~sat down on the couch
~changed shirt #2 after Ethan spit up on me...left on shorts because they weren't too wet..yet
~tried to feed Ethan again because he was still fussy
~changed into shirt #3 and a new pair of pants because Ethan PROJECTILE vomited several meal's worth onto me (shirt #3 may or may not have a little (dried) pee on it from last night when he showered me during a diaper change, but I didn't have another available clean shirt )
~packed both kids up in the van to quickly go grocery shopping
~said "Come on Emily" at least 30 times while in Walmart
~got back home, unloaded kids and groceries from van, put cold stuff in fridge, left the rest for later
~fed Ethan
~played with Ethan
~got Ethan to sleep and put him in the swing
~read a book to Emily and helped her dress her dolls
~folded Ethan's clean laundry and put it away upstairs; collected adult dirty laundry
~went downstairs and into basement to start new laundry (thank you to Maytag and their Bravos high capacity washer!!)
~went back upstairs to put away clean kids' laundry that I took out of the dryer
~sat down to write this post

How can it only be 4:15?

Doctor Time

Well, with Ethan reaching the two-month milestone, came the two-month doctor's visit and the rotten shots.

The good news...he's healthy, developing perfectly (much faster than big sister, which I find interesting) and growing beautifully.

Ethan is now 11 lbs. 9 oz. (50th%) and is 23 1/4 " (50th%) He has gained 3 lbs and 11 oz. since birth and 3 1/4 in. It's interesting to compare his growth to Emily's because if I recall, at her two month appt. she was at least 12 lbs. and off the charts in terms of height.

We discussed Mr. E's continuing battle with reflux and are upping the dose of his medicine (we're on a second one of those, from Zantac to Axid) to see if it helps. If his all day fussiness and fussiness while eating doesn't get better, then we'll try a different type of medicine (Prevacid) to see if there is any difference.

The bad news today is that Ethan had some adhesions in a place where a little boy wouldn't want those (oops, momma didn't know to be on the lookout for those) and so the doctor fixed that, but Mr. E did NOT enjoy the process....OUCH! Poor little guy did not know what he was in for this morning. That, of course, made him cry and then 3 shots plus an oral medicine for Rotovirus (this was a new one for me, Em never had it) made Ethan one very mad little guy. I can't say that I blame him though.

All in all, we survived and now we just have to get through Emily's 5 year check-up on Friday. I'm dreading that one much more. After just one day of school, Emily came home with a sore throat, and ended up with a fever from Thursday afternoon through Saturday. When her fever spiked to 102+, we took her to the doctor. It wasn't her regular doctor, as the appt. was after hours, but they tested her for strep and the flu. Both were negative, but oh, the drama of those two tests was something to behold! We stayed home from church yesterday, just to try to get some extra rest and recover, yet when we woke up this morning, Andrew and I both had sore throats and my head feels achy (is that spelled right?). Emily is due to get at least 3 booster shots and either the flu shot or mist, whichever one we can get her to take (and by this I mean, whichever one requires less physically holding her down, which at her size, is a big job for me.)

You might start praying now...because a still sort of sick, highly dramatic 5 year old who is more the size of a 6-7 year old plus a probably fully sick momma with a 2 month old who may or may not be in the mood to cooperate should be fun.

Ethan at 2 Months

Ethan:

Today you are 2 months old.

I'm guessing that you weigh about 12 lbs, but we'll know for sure on Monday.

You are holding your head up pretty well, even though we still call you our little "bobble head" from time to time.

You love to smile, even if these pictures don't show it! You love hearing us sing "I'm a Little Teapot" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

You are really enjoying playing with your activity mat and you're starting to figure out how to move your arms to hit the different toys. You kick your legs and wave your arms all over, while smiling and cooing at the toys. You hate tummy time, however. We keep trying, but it really makes you mad. So mad, in fact, that you actually rolled yourself over twice, from tummy to back, just to be done with it. I don't know if it was a fluke, but I suspect you'll be rolling pretty soon either way.




You are generally laid back, but when you get mad, you get really mad. Currently, you get mad whenever I have to hand you off to Dad. He's thrilled...or maybe not.




You still love your swing and will nap in it for hours each day. It is still worth it's weight in gold. You like looking up at the mirrored globe and the mobile and cooing and smiling at yourself.

Your sleeping habits are all over the place at the moment.
You have slept through the night one time (after a very long, fussy day). You were sleeping about 5-6 hours at a stretch pretty regularly, then you switched to being up every 3 hours, or less. That wasn't so fun. But the last two nights you've slept around 7 hours at a time, so maybe we're headed back in the right direction. Either way, you sleep WAY better than your big sister ever did! For that, we are thankful.

All in all, I think we'll keep you!

Emily Turns Five!

The Five Year Old Birthday Girl






Emily opened lots of presents from us and from Grammy and Pop-pop and Aunt Kathy and Mom-mom. This weekend, we'll celebrate with Grandma and "Crapaw" and the gang.

She enjoyed opening each gift very slowly.

And little brother looked on...

She got books and videos and games...

Even a classic Etch-a-sketch

And little brother looked on....

Did you know they now make the Lite Brite in a flat screen version...very high tech!

Look at this little guy, not yet 2 months old and actually sitting up on dad's lap, holding his head and back steady for a few moments. He'll also be rolling soon. Something tells me he won't be content to "look on" for long.

Happy 5th Birthday, our sweet big girl! You're growing so fast and becoming a beautiful little girl with each passing day. We love you!