Tate Farms

I probably should have posted this a while ago. Nick, Ethan, and I went to Tate Farms back in October. We really had a good time!! Ethan is so funny, when we go someplace new that has a lot of activity, he just stands there and observes everything. It takes him a while to loosen up, but when he does, he has a blast! Here are some of our favorite pictures from Tate Farms:

Its been a while since we have posted. We have actually had a lot going on. Let's see if I can remember everything that has happened...

*Lincoln has found a new home. Boy, did Nick find him a fabulous home! We received some help from a local rescue shelter who was able to post Linc on the web for adoption. The shelter said that pure bred dogs go fast...and they do! It only took about two weeks and Nick received the call. The owner of Atco Plantation, in Atkinson and Coffee county GA, met Nick halfway for the handoff. Lincoln is doing great at this new home. His new home is perfect for him! This place is a quail hunting plantation and they are traning Linc to be a real bird dog. The best part is that we get to track how he is doing. This guy has a blog that he keeps up. If you are interested its www.atcoplantation.com, scroll down to the bottom and click on blog. Lincoln is surely missed!

*We are now working on introducing Avery (the yellow lab) to Ethan. Not much work to be done. Avery follows Ethan around either sniffing on his face or trying to eat the leftovers on Ethan's shirt. When Ethan get annoyed, he simply 'shoos' Avery away. Ethan does get excited at times and pets Avery and chases his tail. I don't think that pair is going to be a problem!

*Ethan is really talking now! He loves to look at the airplanes. When he hears one, or a motorcycle, he points to the sky and says something...not necessarily airplane...but talks in his own language about the airplane. He says Avery, diaper, daddy, mama, hi, vroom (for truck), he barks, does monkey sounds, says moo, and is overall a happy baby most of the time!

*We are for sure getting a taste of the terrible twos! He had a fit in the Outback parking lot last weekend. We are working on parking lot rules (he has to hold our hands) and he didn't want to follow them, so he layed out in the parking lot. Recently he has hated his car seat too. He just arches his back and rolls over as he is screaming and crying. We aren't too happy about this, but that is part of it!

Our little man is such a joy! He makes us laugh more and more each day!

Our first visit to the Peds ER

We have had a pretty eventful weekend. We spent Friday night in the Pediatric ER. It was pretty scary! Ethan began wheezing Thursday night. When I took him to daycare on Friday, I told not only his teacher, but the director too, to watch him closely and to let me know if it gets bad. Nick went to go pick him up at the end of the day and immediately noticed his breathing. He asked the teacher if Ethan had been breathing like that all day and she said "Yea, what's wrong with him?" Well, Nick brought him home, fed him and was getting him ready for bed and called me a few times in between worried about his breathing. When I got home it was plain to see why Nick was so worried! Ethan sounded like a rattle/baby seal. He couldn't get a good breath and was breathing really fast b/c of it. We immediately loaded him up and took him in.

We had a pretty good experience for the Peds ER. From all the bad stuff I hear, it wasn't too shabby. They got us in and back there within about 10 minutes, saw the MD within 30 minutes and then the respiratory therapist within the next 30 minutes. From then on we were getting treatment. After his first breathing treatment, he went to sleep. Nick and I were just staring at him making sure he was breathing! It was so hard for him to breath. His couldn't get any air and his saturation's went down into the 70s/80s. When he started to retract, Nick immediately called the RN back in there, then the MD came back. That was very scary! He was breathing so hard his chest was forming an indention; a cup shape. He was struggling so hard! Then came the continuous breathing treatment, which really helped! His saturation's went back up to the upper 90s/100. A feeling of relief!!!

Final diagnosis: Influenza A (Swine Flu) and the Croup

10 hours, 4 breathing treatments, 2 medications, 1 IV, and kicking and screaming later; they admitted us for observation. Ethan did pretty good. We finally got some rest...and food. About lunch time on Saturday Ethan began moving around. Jumping all over the 19 chairs they had in that tiny room, talking laughing. My mom was able to come up from AU and relieve us for some time. We all took another nap and waited for AL vs. AK game to be over. Once it was, we were just pacing waiting on the MD to come back through. The covering MD is an AK fan so we knew what he was doing while we were pacing! Finally, the MD came back and discharged us home about 8 Saturday night.

Ethan is doing good today (Sunday). Breathing pretty good, excellent compared to Friday! Playing a bit more, even went outside to play for a short time. Fought a low grade fever. Now he's in bed. Hopefully he will continue to get better day by day!

A big thanks to the Man upstairs for watching out for our little man!!!

Well Baby Check-up

We had our latest well baby check-up on Monday. E-man weighs in at 32.5 lbs and is 34.7 inches tall! He come in at 99% in height, weight, and head circumference. What a big boy! Our doctor said he is looking great! Its a darn good thing that Ethan can walk and run with excellence or else y'all would need to come visit me in the hospital after back surgery. ;) We didn't really have any areas of concern to discuss. She started in on 'time-out' tips. She witnessed Ethan pitch a fit and that is what initiated it. I think our terrible twos have just begun! Don't worry, I'm sure you will be able to witness a fit or two at some point in the near future! :D

Holy Cow...it's been two months since I have posted. Sorry for the lack of posting.

Ethan is now 14 months old. He is walking with complete balance (and has been doing that since he was about 12 months old). We have three molars that have totally entered into his mouth. He has definitely had a growth spurt. I would say about 32 lbs. He is basically eating whatever me and Nick eat, and he loves to eat. Go figure, our big boy Ethan loves to eat. Beware all of you visitors...if you are snacking around E-man you better have enough for him!

We're really working on vocabulary right now. Ethan is pointing at everything, but not so many words. We have the normal mama, dada, uh-oh, and there has been the occasional dog, woof, shoe, hi, hello, but nothing steady. Ethan does know where his nose is. He points right to it and laughs. Its the cutest thing in the world! Although he doesn't say many words, he "talks" up a storm; in the store, car, in the front yard! He just jabbers away!

Funny stories:
Ethan and I were walking to school one morning. We were walking down the hall and he stopped and looked at me. I turned around and he pointed at his foot. He said "shoe". I looked down and Nick had put his sandal on too tight and his poor little fat foot was sticking out the holes. When we got into his classroom, we took his shoes off and he got to spend the rest of the day barefoot. Poor little man. To say the least we went and bought him new shoes the next weekend (and yes, he is in a size 6 shoe).

Family trip to Wal-mart this past weekend. Walking up and down the aisles and Ethan was pointing and talking to everyone and everything he saw. We finally made it to the checkout line and Ethan was sitting in the buggy. The cashier was trying to get him to say hi to her and wave! After much encouragement, he did it! We were so excited that he did it over and over again. When we went to unload the groceries into the trunk there was this little college girl a couple cars down unloading her groceries too. All of the sudden we hear Ethan yell "HI" and wave frantically. We look up and he is screaming at this little girl. Of course she starts talking back to him and playing with him and he just talks and talks to her. It was so funny! I can just imagine him when he gets older... Ladies, look out! ;)

We love this little man so much! Every day is a new story for us and we can't wait to see what the next day brings! He's so much fun!!! I'll try to do better about posting, once again...I promise!

A fungus among us...

So, I'm at work on Tuesday and I get a phone call from the daycare..."uh, Caroline, during the summer we have this fungus that grows through the bark on the floor of the playground. We've had it tested and it isn't poisonous. Ethan was running around the playground and when we turned around he had a wad of it in his mouth and in his hand. I don't know how much he ate, but it was in his mouth." So, immediately, I called the md office and, surprise, surprise, the office staff that answered the phone was rude. Then I had my first run-in with poison control. They run a pretty good program. Ethan is fine. I doubt he even swallowed but a bit of it. His poos are weird colored, but no other symptoms or anything. Also, we had a well-baby check up that day too, so it kinda worked out well. His check up went well too! He is weighing in at 29 lbs and 33.3 inches tall. He falls into the 99% in height, 98% in weight, and 97% in head circumference. His body has finally caught up with his head...bless him! He screamed with his shots, but he did really good other than that.

OH, and on top of that, he came home with a bruised eye today. Some kid and him were fighting over a toy and apparently the other kid hit him in the eye with the toy. He has a scratch on it.

And he isn't even two yet....we have our work cut out for us!!!

Just some updates on him:

• Walking all by himself, has been doing so for weeks now!
• Running around the house
• Talking up a storm! Nothing that makes sense, but just a jabbering!!!
• Laughing a ton! Nothing beats that either!
• No new teeth, but is teething with his molars
• All table foods
• When he wakes up in the morning, he pushes his new Glow Worm and sings along with it. That is what we wake up to through the intercom. :)

Birthday Weekend

Holy Cow! Ethan's one year old! Here are some pics from the wonderful weekend!

These, of course, are Ethan digging into his cupcake. It took him a minute, but then he dove right in!

Now, we open one present, get up and play with it and then let mommy open the rest. ;) Heck, I enjoyed it and he did too! Whenever he turned back around there was something new to play with.

He also received a little water mat. We got into it on Sunday afternoon. It was nice! He had fun trying to figure out what exactly what it was and trying to catch the water. What a chunky little man!

Ethan trying to escape. Little stinker....

This was dinner time on Sunday. He fell asleep in the high chair before he finished dinner. Bless him....

This one is just too cute not to include. We have had issues with our air conditioning unit. Nick was looking into it and Ethan wanted to help. How cute!

I came to the realization that my last post was way back in April...its time to post again!

I'll hit the high points, then post some pics. That's the most fun anyway!!

• We are now walking! Not like "I'll hold your hands and walk as long as you are next to me" kinda walking, like "put me down so I can follow dada to the bedroom" kinda walking. Ethan's really good at it too! He falls not as often as he used to, and all he does is pout for a minutes and gets right back up! He sure is head strong!


• We are teething again. We have the 8 front teeth so I am wondering if this isn't his vampire teeth or maybe even a molar. Holy Cow!!!
  
• We are basically on all table food.
  
• One morning we were having company come over for lunch and Ethan got food in his hair during breakfast. So, I decided to give him a bath to clean him up. I got him naked in his room and went to the bathroom to start the bath water. When I came back into his room his little naked self was playing with one of his "stand and go no where" toys. He had pulled himself up and was straddling one of the legs. He looked right at me smiling. After I thought "aww, my baby is so sweet" I looked down and he was going potty on the floor. As soon as he was finished, he danced a jig and laughed at me. What a stinker!!!!


• We had a family trip to the beach. Some friends of ours got married. Ethan had a ton of fun! He did good on the beach...until he got hungry. He didn't mind the sand on his feet, but couldn't figure out the sand on his hands. He danced the night away at the wedding. We all had a great time!

The first picture is from the wedding. The second one is my friend, Anna Catherine, teaching Ethan to say 'CHEESE'. This last picture is about 7 minutes into the ride home from the beach. Ethan was chewing on one of his toys and passed out! I had to take a picture of it!

Well, this time last year we were all starting to make plans for Ethan's arrival. I am getting emotional about the first year birthday and remembering where we were last year. It's hard to believe that Ethan was as big as he was! I know we were expecting a big boy, but a 10lbr. Here are a few pics from last year

Who needs to crawl???

Check out what we stumbled across tonight! We are so excited! (as you will be able to tell by my squeal) I don't know what happened, but we were just playing on the floor and Ethan wanted to go over to his dada who was eating dinner. I guess I just stood him up and let go. When I did, he just took off! The video is of the last time we tried. The best video is on our other camera. But here is a sneak peak!!! Oh, please excuse the mess in the background....

Growing, growing, growing....

We sure are growing up fast. Ethan's 7th, yes 7th, tooth is coming in. He has four on the bottom and his two front upper teeth. The newest tooth is his upper right one, right next to the front one. It just started to cut, so the tip is out. He is handling it like a champ. No rash, fever, tons of drooling and a little bit of fussiness. Nothing we can't handle though!

He is pulling up on everything! These days when I go pick him up in the mornings, he is standing at the end of the crib, holding onto the rail and jumping up and down. Most of the time he is whining for me to GET HIM OUT and as soon as I pick him up he starts talking and smiling. Its so funny!

He is getting good at walking. We are holding just one hand now while he walks. Its hard for him to catch his balance at times, but he is improving day by day. He can walk from side to side while holding on to something. I think they call that cruising the furniture?!

I think I start to plan what to do for his birthday. What do you think? Can you believe that he turns one year old in less than two months. HOLY COW!!!!

Aunt Polly and Uncle B playing with Ethan :D

Oranges

I just think that this is so funny...

Tonight we went to go eat at a friends restaurant. Since Ethan is basically on all table foods, he got a little bit of creamed corn, green beans, crackers, and sweet potatoes. I thought he would be somewhat full, so when I got home I wanted to fill the rest of his little belly with some fruit. I had a can of mandarin oranges. Yall have heard me say how much he likes those things. Prime example was tonight. I couldn't keep those suckers on his tray. As soon as I would put them down he would grab one slice and suck it into his mouth, eat, swallow, repeat. It probably took about 7-10 minutes for the ENTIRE can. He ate all of it! What a hefty eater!!!!

I just thought it was so funny he ate the entire can so fast....hehe.

Words of Wisdom...

No, not really...but I did want to tell you what words we are using:

Mama-not really knowing that I am mama, but says it when he is pitching a fit/crying or on his tummy.

bye bye/hello-not really saying it, but he has started to wave bye bye and hello

doggie-LOVES the dogs, he will make a bee line to the window to watch the dogs. He'll point and say "Duh" then beat on the window

Last, but not least....Dada-and yes, he now knows who dada is, loves him dearly, and when you say "wheres dada?" He'll look around for nick.

Oh, he also can give me and Nick kisses. Well, not really kisses but open mouth slobbers on the cheek. He'll do it about three times and laughs after each one.

OH, and we are now almost all on table foods. He loves chewing and continues to spit out baby foods, except cereal for some reason. He ate a whole can of Mandarin oranges the other day. Loves those, bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, sweet peas, and green beans. I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember right now. :)

Last week was a crazy! We started out with a well-baby check up on Monday. It was actually a well baby/sick baby check up little did the MD know. Nick and Ethan had been sick for the week prior so when Ethan and I walked into the MD office, Ethan let out a huge juicy cough. Poor baby had been coughing so bad his face was turning a nice shade of red. So, during the well baby check up the MD also gave us a script for the cough/cold but told us to hold off on filling it to see where the cold goes. The good part is that Ethan is still way big for his age. (Ya don't say) He was actually 9 months and about 2 weeks. He weighed 26 lbs and 14 oz and he was 31 1/2 inches long. This put him in the 99% for everything. What a big boy! He also had his anemia test, Ethan is not anemic, and his last hep B shot. We're good to go now! The cough comes and go still, but he seems to be feeling better.

Then, later on in the week Nick's illness got worse. He was having coughing fits which woke him and me up and I am sure he was running a fever at some point. He sounded terrible and felt terrible. So he went to the MD and Yep, he had walking pneumonia. It was bad! Immediately he got on his meds and took it easy and I called Ethan's MD. I told her RN what nick was diagnosed with they put Ethan on a much stronger med. Thankfully he only gets it once a day. Me, now that's another story. I don't feel good now, but I am thinking its the weather, no infection or anything.

Well, on a brighter note, Ethan loves to walk. He loves to hold onto your fingers and just walk around. He loves to be upright! He'll just walk in circles if you let him. We are trying to teach him his balance right now and that's a slow process. He's so funny...if he falls on his bottom or something he just look at us. If we react immediately he gets upset and starts to cry, but if we just look him and tell him its okay, he's like "okay, I'm cool, now pick me back up and lets go again". We have also seen Ethan starting to crawl!!! Yep, crawl! At this point, its more of an army crawl, just shuffling forward. He'll put his hands in front of him and pull himself forward. He is also pulling up on things. We spent some time yesterday working on pulling up and crawling. This is also funny b/c if he gets mad or something he'll scream and pout then look at us to see if we seem him pitching a fit (which we do) and if we aren't doing anything about it, he'll start playing with something else and forget all about it. He's so funny! Its really neat to watch him!

Ethan and Nana looking at pics

Ethan riding in his wagon that Big Ron bought for him after dinner. Walter and Tiger are enjoying the ride. :)

We bought Ethan this car for his one year old (holy cow) birthday. We got anxious and went ahead broke it out. Good thing we did b/c if we waited any longer he wouldn't fit into it!

Ethan watching me through his playpin wall. It was so funny b/c I turned around to look at him through the top and he wasn't there. I looked down and his face was plastered up against the side.

This was Ethan almost two weeks ago. You should see him now. Totally different! He is scootin more and pushing up on his hands and toes (who needs knees ;) ) as if he is doing push ups. He is developing so fast!

Once Again....

Once again I have managed to go weeks without blogging. Sorry!

Ethan is doing well. We now have 5 teeth, but I am seeing the 6th and 7th tooth under the gums. He has three on the bottom and his two knobby teeth have poked through on the tops. He's so funny looking, but just as cute as a button! When he is laughing all you can see is the bottom of his top teeth. He loves to blow spit bubbles and air through them. Its so funny!

As far as mobility, we are working on that. Ethan is rolling all over the place. When he is sitting up, he leans forward and moves one leg back but the other one gets stuck. He hasn't figured out how to get that other foot back yet. He does a nice split though! :) As far as walking, we aren't too far from that either. He can walk with his wagon and with someone propping him up, but for sure not by himself. I think his little chunky legs are strong enough to do so though. We have to work on balance..hehe

We had a visit to the MD office yesterday. Ethan's allergies were acting up. I thought we had pink eye again, but it was just some bacteria built up. We got some good meds and he is doing much better now. Still a bit snotty nosed and congested, but in good spirits. He now weighs 27lbs! We have a well baby check up next week, some shots and another weight check.

Slowly getting back to sleeping through the night. I think its a mixture of teething and separation anxiety. My book (and neighbor) tells me that this is the time when it gets really bad. Plus, I was still rocking him to sleep and my book tells me that's a big no no b/c he has to learn how to soothe himself and this is the age he needs to start to learn. SO, now we get him ready for bed, I read to him just enough to watch his eyelids shut and then put him in his crib. He'll kick and scream but for only 10 minutes or so. After that he sleeps. Its worked twice so we will continue to try this. We'll see how it goes. Oh, and we are doing the Motrin and orajel too (thanks Somer).

Okay, I think that is all. Here are some updated pics....

Ethan has a mean mommy....I went to go pick him up from school one day and this is the outfit he was in. No, I didn't send him to school in this outfit. Apparently he tee tee'd all over his other outfit and this was the emergency outfit in his bag. Obviously, I had not update his emergency clothes in a while. Poor Ethan...

Uncle Matt Matt and Ethan during Big Ron's B'day

Chillin...

This is after Ethan's second hair cut

One foot in front of the other....

So, I do realize that I haven't posted anything since the beginning of February. I will actually be shocked if anyone still looks at this. Y'all have probably given up on me. I'll try my best to be better about posting, I promise.

Lets see what we have been doing for the past month. You might ask if Ethan is crawling and that answer is still no. I don't think he has any desire to crawl. On the flip side of that, he loves to walk! We will put him in his walker in the kitchen and he goes to town walking around and pulling open drawers and opening cabinets. Its a good thing Granny and Grandpa (Carlene and Ronnie) bought some cabinet closers and safety things. Once we get those put out, it will be a big help!

We have moved onto baby's 3rd foods and table foods. He kept gumming his 2nds and spitting it out, so I tried the 3rds and it works a bit better. Why can't I find anything green in the 3rds? Ethan totally doesn't like green beans with rice and I can't stand the smell of all that mixed food (ie, lasagna, or broccoli and carrots in cheese, totally smells like throw up imagine how it tastes). Therefore we have started some table foods, only the cool stuff though. We've eaten dinner rolls, sweet taters, ooh and Popsicles, he loved the Popsicles. I bought him some cubed peaches and he is so funny when he eats them. He'll put them in his mouth, squirt out all the juice and then the rest of the peach just kinda falls out of his mouth. I found three peach cubes stuck to his pants. I just laughed!

Teeth are popping out left and right! About a week and a half ago Ethan quit sleeping through the night. He would sleep upstairs for a few hours then wake up screaming. We would try to calm him down, but that didn't work. He began this pattern and ended up in bed with us. Yea, I know, I preach to others about letting their child sleep in bed with them and look at me. This seems to be the only way to calm him down! He'll come down here and snuggle up next to one of us and fall asleep. Throughout the night we'll wake up to him kicking us. Nice, I know, but you do what you got to. Anyway, I was feeding Ethan last night and discovered one cutting through on the bottom and was like "YES!!!! Sleep finally!" Boy was I wrong. He woke up screaming again. THEN, I was talking to his teacher at school today and she had concerns about him not eating as much and I said it was probably b/c of that tooth coming in. She said "oh yea, I see it up there on the top." I was like "What? I was talking about on the bottom!" And yep, we have two coming in right now. I can't wait to see what he looks like in a week!

Okay, enough blabbing. Hope you enjoy the updated pics!

Catching up on the lastest news before school

Playing in the sheets

Enjoying his first popsicle

Trying to get the doggies attention...he's so funny...we say 'doggie'...Ethan says 'Ugh', but on que

The little bit of snow that we did get.

February

We had a family trip to the park during one of our wonderful weekends! This was our first trip. I guess Ethan had a good time. As you can see he enjoyed the swings!

We have really had a lot of fun! Ethan us just a bundle of joy! His two bottom teeth are sticking out and are as sharp as a tack! He isn't crawling yet, but shows signs of walking and crawling. He loves to stand up and bounce around. He is waving his eyes in the air like he is going to fly away. We have taught him to give us kisses, although he doesn't do it every time, but when we ask for one he opens his mouth and open mouth slobbers on your cheek. Its so funny!

He is almost 26 pounds says the MD. We have had both flu shots and currently have a cold. But we are taking good care of him! His next well baby check up isn't until April. They say by the age of 1 year the baby should have tripled their birth weight. I don't think we have anything to worry about, we're a bit ahead of schedule.

Ethan had his first hair cut. He did great! He just stared around, soaking everything in. Most of you are familiar with the Myers scowl, Ethan had that look on his face for the first five minutes of so and then calmed down. Lasted about 10 minutes and no crying! He did great!!!

During his hair cut

After his hair cut

No other news really. We all have spring fever. Ethan went fishing for the first time the other day. He slept through most of it. No bites by fishies either. I bet where we went was just a puddle from some of the rain we have been getting. BOO!

That's about it! Here are some other fun pics! :)

Uncle B came by to visit

Riding on his horse

Bath time....yes, that is mommy squirting him with his bath toys. Notice how much it bothers him. :)