Girls Clothes are so dang cute!

I went out shopping today by myself for the first time in a long time. I considered it quite a treat. I got a few final things for the baby, which included a few new clothes - nothing extravagant - just some Wal-mart and Target deals, but it is just so fun to buy pink . . .

My shopping today had a duel purpose. I thought that perhaps all the walking around might trigger labor, now that I am full term. However, it just made me exhausted and made my feet hurt. We'll see what happens . . . can't believe I only have 20 days until my due date! We are so excited to meet baby girl :)

2 year check-up

We took Ethan for his 2 year check-up this morning. It's always fun to visit Dr. Plewa - he's such a nice guy. The big news, as usual, is Ethan's size - he is off the charts in weight (37 lbs 11 oz) and in the 97th percentile for weight (36 and 3/4 pounds). The Dr. was impressed at his ability to get both feet off the ground when he jumps!

We are still a bit concerned about his language development, so will have him re-evaluated by birth-three soon. The Dr. is pretty sure he will qualify since he is not putting 2 words together yet. Although we have been frustrated with the language, we still get such a kick out of the things he does say . . . lately he has been into saying "ssshhh" and putting his finger up to his mouth, and then whispering everything he says. He is also doing lots of signing and seems to know enough words to communicate with us so he does not get too frustrated. We know that the language will come eventually, and like to think he is just really practicing his listening skills for now . . . :)

Big Pregnant Mama

Here's what I look like at 36 1/2 pregnant! Enjoy :)

Happy Birthday, Great Grandpa Glenn!

Ethan and Grandpa Glenn share the same birthday, so we went out visiting today to wish him a happy birthday! We also visited Great Grandma at the nursing home. They were so happy to see Mr. Ethan! Ethan is so lucky to still have 4 of his great grandparents around!!!!
Here is Ethan eating supper last night - he is doing his favorite sign - "candy." He usually does it at the end of every meal (including breakfast) and is usually awarded with 1 skittle (except at breakfast :)

Take note of the truck on the tray. We were "forced" let him eat supper last night with his new birthday truck from Grandma and Grandpa . . . he also had to nap with it, and he takes it everywhere he goes . . . When is the last time you got a gift you loved so much?

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Here's the big 2 year old! Happy Birthday! Ethan is super excited for his Barney Party!
Mom made cupcakes for the big shin dig.

Wow! All this, for ME??
Ethan LOVED every gift he got!
Here's his special cupcake, which he also loved. He spent the entire morning anticipating the eating of the cupcakes, and trying to sneak them from the kitchen - good thing he's still a little too short to reach up on the counter!
Mommy loved the cupcakes and ice cream too!
Ethan had some very special guests at his party! Here are aunt Michelle and cousin Victor . . .
and Isaac and Kyra . . .
and Lily . . .
and here's his baby sitter Candace and her two girls, Gracie and Jordan. They love to give Ethan kisses every morning when he comes to daycare!
Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of all of our guests - thank you everyone so much for coming - (Theresa, Bryan, Lauren, Grandma and Grandpa!)

It was a wonderful party! We can't believe our baby is 2 already!

Ethan insisted we finger paint right after daycare today. Then it was immediately up to the bath tub. What a little stinker :)

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

The family had lots of fun celebrating daddy's birthday this weekend! On Saturday, we took a road trip to La Crosse, to daddy's favorite guitar shop. He had some old guitars to trade in, and got this new one! Ethan had a blast exploring the shop (a little stressful for mommy! - those are some expensive guitars!) and daddy was giddy about his new purchase.
Next, we decided to visit the La Crosse Children's Museum and we even got in free with our E.C. family pass. The museum was perfect for Ethan.

They had a big fire truck where he could pretend to be a firefighter.

And a small scale Kwik Trip store. I think Ethan is trying to make a fast getaway with this apple . . .
Ethan had such a great day, and he was a really good boy! He does really well in the car if we play his CDs for him. Here, mommy is tickling his feet . . .
He fell asleep literally 5 minutes from our house - he's just not a big car sleeper. Unfortunately when we got home, he didn't take a nap either - I guess he was just to excited by the events of the day.
Last night, mom and dad got a sitter and went out for a nice steak dinner. We went to Sweetwaters which is a nice local restaurant, but we are always the youngest customers there! The food was delicious and we even got dessert with our meal, which we never do - YUM!

Today we visited Trav's mom in the nursing home, and Grandma Lue too. They are both doing well!

Tomorrow is back to the old routine. I promised myself that I wouldn't get down about going to work after a nice 4 day weekend, so I am staying positive! It will be good to get back in the swing of things.

Ethan and Mommy's day out

Ethan and mommy had a great afternoon out of the house today! We've been cooped up for the past couple days with -25 degrees air temps. and colder with wind chill. (School was cancelled again today!) So, I checked the weather at 1:30 today and it was 0 degrees. Good enough for us!

First, we went to visit Ethan's hair stylist, Carol, and get his hair cut. She was really good with him as always, although he really does not dig having his hair cut. Therefore, mom shamelessly brought along an endless supply of skittles, juice, and teddy grahams.
Here are the final results, and as you can see he is just ticked, despite having a mouth full of goodies. Even the cool duck he gets to sit on does not amuse him.

Next, we took a trip to the car wash where mom's car got a thorough cleaning inside and out. I LOVE the feeling of driving a clean car! Ethan was really being good, so I decided to venture to the mall with him - something I usually do not do, especially alone - but we really needed to get a birthday gift for daddy (his b-day is Sunday).

Ethan was so good at the mall, I could not believe it! It took a little hunting to find the right gifts for daddy and E. was pretty patient. Then we went to the play area but after only about 10-15 min. Mommy smelled something not pleasant coming from his diaper, so we had to leave and he didn't even whine.

A successful outing!

Tomorrow the whole family is heading to LaCrosse for a special outing to daddy's favorite guitar store. Then, mom and dad got a sitter and have a date planned for tomorrow night!

NO SCHOOL!

Ethan and mom will have the entire day together tomorrow!!! Mom's school got called off due to super cold weather! Yay! Lots of finger painting, play doh, Barney movies, books, puzzles, and trucks!

Bath time

Here is our squeaky clean little puppy dog after his bath!

Baby Evan's Baptism

Mom and Ethan got all dressed up for Baby Evan's baptism. We tried numerous attempts to get a good picture of us together, but unfortunately the one above is the best we could do . . . Ethan is obviously enjoying pulling my hair! Whatever makes him smile . . .

Here is the baptism. It was a beautiful service!
This is the best shot of Ethan in his new dress up blazer that I could get!
Mom and baby Evan. . . He was sooo good throughout the day! I couldn't believe how quiet he was during the church service!
Kyra, mom and Theresa . . . It was so fun to spend the morning with good friends!

Just Living Life . ..

I feel like I need to post something, but there's really nothing exciting going on - and I haven't taken any pics lately. We're just back in the swing of the regular routine of daycare, school, work. Ethan is loving being back with all of his little girl friends at daycare. However, he comes home absolutely exhausted. We know he is exhausted when he is being unreasonable, which is how he's been in the evenings. For instance, he'll point to the police car in his book and then throw his head back in temper-tantrum mode like he's mad at it. So, when that happens, it's off to bed. Tonight it was 6:10 when we put him down. He loves going to bed which is such a blessing.

Baby girl is totally moving and kicking a lot! It is fun to feel and I am getting very excited to meet her! So curious to see what she looks like/ get to know her personality. I think we've gone from freaking out about having 2 kids to being excited to meet the challenge.

Back to School

Mom's day at school went well! I felt well rested and ready to go this morning. The kids were great, and seemed ready to get back into a routine as well. My pregnancy woes seemed to subside for the day, so it was all good.

Ethan had a blast hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house. His cousins from CO are still there visiting, and he and Oliver are only 6 months apart in age, so they had fun playing together (from what I hear . . . ) He even got to go sledding, which is great, because we haven't taken him outside to play at all over Christmas break.

We also got all of our Christmas stuff taken down, so our house is back to normal. It feels good to have a clean (well, mostly) and clutter-free house (again, mostly clutter-free - there's always that little bit of clutter that never seems to go away . . . )

Life is good

Children's Museum

Ethan and mom met Aunt Jenny, Aunt Michelle, Oliver and Victor at the Children's museum yesterday. Ethan had a blast, but it was hard for mom to visit with her sisters since he was running around like a crazy man the whole time. If I took my eyes off of him for a minute he was off and running . . . however it was a great way to spend a cold Friday morning!

I am NOT looking forward to going back to school on Monday. Not that I don't love school, or the kids in my class, or my coworkers, but I have just been feeling really run down and lazy. I have been feeling very uncomfortable with my pregnancy and have had a nagging cough for about 6 weeks or longer now. I have no idea how I will get up at 6 am and be a productive member of society again . . . .Only time will tell I guess. Today I got to sleep in until 10 am which was wonderful. If only I could sleep that late and then go in to work - I think I could handle that.

We had to miss out on our big family Christmas on my mom's side of the family today. Mom convinced me to stay home due to the possibility of bad weather, and my ailments. Unfortunately I am now stuck with a ton of veggies and dip that I was going to bring, and a really funny "gag" gift which is what we exchange with that part of the family . . .Plus, I will really miss hanging out with everyone. (sniff, sniff)