Ethan 3 month pictures

Jeff took these pictures of Ethan about a month ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting them. Better late than never!

Below is a picture of Kaitlyn at the same age and in (mostly) the same pose. Two bald babies!

A Busy Weekend

I guess I'm making up for lost time with three posts in a week! The weather this weekend was beautiful and we couldn't bear to stay inside. So here's a little recap of our fun-filled weekend.

On Friday, Jeff was playing at a local restaurant. His gigs usually start pretty late, well past the kids' bedtimes. But this one started at 6 pm, so I was able to take Kaitlyn and Ethan to watch their daddy play guitar. That's all Kaitlyn could talk about during the car ride over there. We sat right in front of the stage. Lest anyone worry about potential hearing loss, it was a restaurant and people were eating, so it wasn't too loud...and it was more of an acoustic set, not his usual rocking out. Anyway, Kaitlyn was fascinated and kept pointing to Jeff on the stage and saying "Hi Daddy." Her face lit up when he gave her a shout out from the stage :) Here's a sweet picture of Kaitlyn and her hero.

On Saturday, we took advantage of a free event at the nearby local agricultural center. They had farm animals available for the kids to pet. Normally Kaitlyn is a little reserved in new situations and has to be coaxed to try something new. But she marched right up to the horses and started petting them. She even put her hand right up to their mouths and fed them. She's still talking about the "big horsie" and the "little horsie." Guess she's not shy around animals.

Then we moved on to sheep. It wasn't long before she was instructing the sheep to "come over here and eat!"

After going back home for naps (all four of us managed to nap at the same time! A miracle!), we headed downtown for more outdoor adventure. Kaitlyn has a particular passion for "downtown." She usually asks several times a day to "go downtown and see tall buildings." She even likes to replicate downtown with her building blocks and pretend that her toys are going downtown. So we went to the fountains at Bicentennial Mall. She loved splashing in the runoff stream from the fountains, but didn't care for the fountains themselves. Somehow she managed to stay mostly dry amid the shooting streams of water.

And she got a special treat when a train went by. Here's a picture of her standing in front of the tracks. She loves trains.

The only way she would run through the fountains is if Daddy ran with her. I think Jeff got wetter than she did!

Ethan was hanging out in his stroller for most of the time, but he did get to enjoy some views too. Here he is checking out the fountains.

Ethan and Mommy in front of the state capitol.

Ethan at 4 months...

Ethan had his 4 month check-up this morning. He weighs a whopping 19 pounds and 2 ounces. No wonder my arm feels like it's about to fall off when I carry him in his car seat! For comparison, Kaitlyn was 17 pounds at 4 months, and everyone thought she was a big baby. He is 27.25 inches long and is 97th percentile in everything. He has started rolling over from back to front and loves to kick his arms and legs wildly when in his bouncy seat or on the floor. He's not sitting on his own yet, but he loves to sit up when supported. (The picture above was taken about 3 seconds before he started slowly tipping over.) And he will be starting on some yummy rice cereal soon.

And just for fun...the other three months as well!

Catching Up...

The past two months have been a whirlwind of activity for me. I taught a course at Lipscomb in May, two courses in June and a teacher's workshop last week. I was working very long hours each day, so the blog had to fall by the wayside for a time. But now all of my summer activities are over and I finally get to be at home during the day! So here's what we've been up to lately...

Kasha has been inside more since it's been hot. And Kaitlyn loves it. Here is a picture of Kaitlyn "hugging" Kasha. I'm sure Kasha would rather be anywhere else, but she's a patient dog. Sometimes I take pity on her (Kasha) and put her in her crate during the day so that she can have some peace and quiet.

Since our neighborhood doesn't have a pool, we have to improvise. She loves "Hermie" the water caterpillar. Actually, I should say she loves the idea of him. When his arms are flailing and shooting water everywhere, she runs away. It takes lots of coaxing to get her close enough to get wet. But she's laughing the whole time whether she's getting wet or not, so I guess she's having fun.

We had our annual trip to downtown to watch the sunset on the longest day of the year. It's so much more fun now that Kaitlyn can explore. She loves "downtown" and talks about it frequently. Actually anything with tall buildings is "downtown" to her. From the Capitol, she was able to see the trains and explore lots of interesting statues and flowers. Ethan slept most of the time :)

Daddy explaining things to her as she listens intently.

For the 4th of July weekend Jess, Adam and Noah came to visit. Since all of the kids/grandkids were going to be in one place, Mimi and Papa paid us a surprise visit too. Unfortunately rain ruined our plans to see the downtown fireworks, but we caught the tail end of the Brentwood show. For some reason, Ethan (our happy-smiley baby) was in a bad mood most of the day...probably too many people around and getting off schedule. So the attempt to get a picture of all three grandkids did not go well. Noah and Kaitlyn are trying to figure out what's going on with Ethan! Noah, get used to babies crying!!!

Kaitlyn finally had someone to sit on the other side of her glider.

Kaitlyn's one request every single day is to go outside and "Swing high!" Papa was all too happy to oblige. Notice the absolute glee on her face.

We also got to spend some time at a friend's pool during that weekend. There was a kiddie pool that was perfect to get used to water again. She hasn't been swimming since last summer.

I was a little nervous that she would need some time to warm up to the idea of the big pool, but when I took her in, she loved it immediately. So we put on her swim vest and started giving her some informal "lessons." By the end of the afternoon, she was putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles, and she was jumping off the side of the pool into our arms. And she didn't seem bothered at all when her head went under water. Maybe swim lessons are in our future next summer.

More pictures of Ethan coming soon...

5 years

Yesterday, Jeff and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage. Our lives are full of so much joy!

Bridges

This weekend, we headed out to East Nashville to check out the recently constructed pedestrian bridge across the Cumberland River near the Opry Mills area. We had lots of fun exploring the bridge, watching stuff float down the river and walking through some tunnels to get there. Ethan was asleep the whole time so I didn't get any pictures of him. But here are some pictures of Kaitlyn in her cute little seersucker outfit.

Growing Children...

We took both Kaitlyn and Ethan to the doctor today for routine well-visits: Kaitlyn for her 2 year appt. and Ethan for his 2 month appt. Kaitlyn kept up her 97th percentile rankings with a weight of 34 pounds and a height of 36 inches--such a tall little girl! Ethan is 25 inches long and weighs 15 pounds already! That's three and a half pounds in the last month--yikes! But like his sister, he's very proportional--97th percentile in everything. At least my kids are consistent :)

Happy Baby

Here are some recent pictures of our precious Ethan. He's such a happy baby and he loves to smile, especially at his Mommy :) I can't believe he'll be two months old tomorrow!! Where has the time gone?? He gets more alert every day, and he has slept through the night several times...he's just not consistent yet. He'll sleep for 7 - 8 hours for a few nights, and just when I'm getting used to the extra sleep, he'll wake up after 5 or 6 hours for the next few nights. Guess he wants to keep us on our toes! Now if I could just figure out how to make him nap longer than 30 minutes at a time...

Kaitlyn's Birthday Party

We celebrated Kaitlyn's birthday today so that the grandparents could join in the fun. She has discovered Dora the Explorer in recent weeks, so I knew she would enjoy a Dora-themed party. We decorated during her nap, so she came out to a room of colorful streamers, balloons and Dora decorations. She was a little speechless, but had this huge smile plastered on her face.

We sang Happy Birthday to her and I helped her blow out her candles. In the picture below, she's excitedly pointing out all the characters on her cake: Dora ("do-WAH"), Diego ("dee-go") and Boots ("boo").

She tested the icing before actually digging in. Unlike last year, this time she ate the cake and icing.

A family shot with goofy Dora hats on. Even little Ethan got in on the fun.

Kaitlyn was the star of the show, but Ethan only had eyes and smiles for Mommy :)

And then the gifts started. In the days leading up to her party, every time we told her that she would be getting presents, she would shout ho-ho! (her name for Santa). I guess she thought that he was the only one who could bring her presents. Well, apparently Christmas came again in May because she got more gifts today than she did at Christmas! Below, she's opening one of several Dora presents from Mimi.

And she got her very first tricycle, complete with a bell and handlebar streamers, a present from Gran.

We saved the biggest present for last. We took her outside and she got her first glimpse of her very own swing set. She couldn't wait to go down the slide. Many tears were shed when we finally told her that she had to come inside.

But there was one present that Dora dolls, tricycles and swing sets just couldn't compete with--Play-Doh. This child loves Play-Doh. She doesn't like to squish it and mold it in any way..she just likes to open the containers, get the play-doh out, line them up on the table, put them back into the containers and close the lids, all the while announcing which particular color she's holding at the time. This game of sorting and organizing apparently never gets old for her. The play-doh was the second present she opened today, and she kind of got annoyed when we kept interrupting her fun to make her open the rest of her presents. Lesson learned: save the play-doh for last!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Kaitlyn!

As hard as it is to believe, my baby girl is turning two today! It seems like only a few short months ago that we were celebrating her first birthday! I'm sure the years will seem to get shorter and shorter as she gets older. We're having her birthday party on Saturday so that most of the grandparents can be here. So today, our "celebration" consisted of going to Chick-fil-A for lunch, playing on the indoor playground (since it's monsoon season here!) and eating ice cream. I'm even going to let her watch a little extra TV today :)

So in honor of her 2nd birthday, here are some updates about Kaitlyn's activities and interests lately.

• She's really loves Dora the Explorer, so she's going to be in for a treat when she sees the Dora plates, napkins, cake and party hats at her birthday party :)
• She still treasures her beloved Doggie. Every day, she feeds Doggie a bottle, lets him nap in the Pack-n-Play, puts him in Ethan's swing and bouncy seat and generally carts him around everywhere she goes. If he's out of sight for a while, she walks around the house calling for him. I shudder to think what would happen if we ever lost Doggie.
  
• Her vocabulary has exploded in the past month or so. She picks up new words everyday! And she's getting more complex in her language by stringing together sentences and using all kinds of adjectives. "Mommy get Baby Ethan in the Pack-n-Play." "Mommy's big blue towel." "Kaitlyn go home and Mommy go home too!" Her enunciation isn't the best yet, but Jeff and I can usually translate for her.
  
• She talks up a storm and is a very outgoing child at home, but in public, she's very quiet and wary of people she doesn't know well. In fact, if a stranger tries to talk to her, she starts crying loudly and clings to me. A very good thing if a stranger is trying to kidnap her, but not so good when the "stranger" is one of my friends and we're in the middle of Target! I won't even go into the trauma of the church nursery lately!!
  
• She can identify and say almost all of her letters and colors.
• Her favorite color is yellow. Yellow shirts, yellow Play-Doh, yellow cars. I usually have to allow for extra time when we're getting in the car because she loves to pick all the yellow dandelions in our yard...and sadly, we have a lot.
  

Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn!