1st Birthday to Remember!

Ethan's birthday got off to a great start from the beginning, when our plan to keep him up a bit later on Friday (so he'd sleep in a bit later Saturday) worked! The party started at 3 and we were trying for one long nap after lunch, so he'd wake up happy for the guests.

He woke up around 6:45a.m. and Dave and I greeted him to several Happy Birthday wishes and kisses! He had a birthday morning banana muffin and we played around the house for a bit. Instead of going to My Gym in the morning, we decided to take him to a local park to swing. We hung out at the park for a half an hour or so and then headed to Costco to pick up his birthday cake and a few munchies for the party. When we got home, we had some lunch and played a bit and he was down by 12:15 and slept until 2:45!! I was glad he woke up before the whole party gang was there, so he could wake up a bit and not be bombarded with people in the house. :) He was just in a great mood all day and warmed up to everyone and everything went great for the whole party. Special thanks to the grandparents for helping pick up food, bring tables/chairs, take pictures, and many, many more tasks!!

Before I get to the pictures of the party...a few random things to mention about Ethan these days:

*He got his 6th tooth last week (top left lateral incisor they call it).
*This kid likes pickles!!! Specifically bread and butter flavor, but when I was eating one, he kept pointing, so I gave some to him and he loves them!!

*He's now starting to attempt to crawl up the stairs on his own

*He'll have his official 1 year appointment this Wednesday, so we'll see his stats. And, poor little boy will have to get shots this time...

Our playground adventure:
Good practice for my car driving later

Down the slide with Mom

Call me silly, but I hid all of Ethan's presents and decorations until he was napping. I wanted the day to be special and for him to wake up and notice "there's something different here". :) So, here's all the setup while he was catching some Z's.

All the Uncles were there to celebrate (thank you Uncle Adam for coming home from U of I to celebrate with us). Uncle Breck wasn't in a pic...sorry! Here are Uncle Patrick and Uncle Adam with the birthday boy.

Sporting his birthday hat (which didn't last long). Note the mountain of gifts...everyone was too generous!

A gift from Mommy and Daddy

Ethan with his BIG cake

His own personalized cake

He was very curious about his cake at first, but once Mommy showed him how "that stuff" on his finger tasted, he was all about the cake!
Finally, a nice family shot!

365 Days Ago...

365 days ago, I woke up to my same routine...got ready for work and came in to the same comments..."you're STILL here?!"...as if I wasn't antsy enough to have my baby! It was the 3rd day past my due date and I was VERY anxious to meet my son/daughter. But, there's no rushing these things. I went along with my work day knowing that in a matter of days either way, I would be a Mom! Later in the day while at work, I noticed I didn't feel the baby moving as much, so I called the doctor's office and they instructed me to do the 'kick count'. So, I left work early only to drink a pop and sit on the couch (laying on my left side) and counted the number of times I felt the baby move. After an hour, everything seemed to be within the range of movement, so I waited....

Dave got home shortly after I did, worried that maybe something was wrong and so we decided to do our regular nightly 1-2 mile walk with Sasha, figuring we'd walk this baby out of me. We ran into our neighbor that night, also walking his dogs and chatted a bit and then watched a little tv before going to bed.

Around 12:30 a.m. on October 11th, I woke up to what I thought were gas pains (TMI -too much information, I know), which went on for about 30 minutes before I finally woke Dave up to tell him, "I think it's time".....

That was my life 365 days ago from today - the start of a WHOLE new world for Dave and I, and I couldn't imagine it any differently! Tomorrow our little boy will be 1 at 10:48a.m. and I just don't know where the time has gone. All the struggles and heartbreak that Dave and I went through to get to this point in our lives are distant memories, when I think of all the joy that Ethan has brought to our lives in the last year. The little boy that we peek in at every night before we go to bed and just sit there and gaze at has captured our hearts FOREVER!!!

Tomorrow we'll celebrate his birthday with a little party and of course some cake and presents. I hope he enjoys the day as much as we do! :) We took him for his 1 year pics at JCP today and they honestly turned out GREAT...I can't wait to post the pics in a week or so when they're available online.

Old MacDonald

View the video and the title will make sense...Ethan's newest trick is saying "e-i-e-i" after we sing the song. Still no "o" but he gets the point. :-)

Here are a few pics of Ethan helping Daddy unpack his workout bag. A devious little grin he has!

On Saturday we went to my Dad's picnic for his karate school and had a nice time. Just a few pics from the event.

Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hickman's house for a very yummy home cooked breakfast and a little Bears game action.

This has to be one of my favorite little pics!!

Next Saturday marks Ethan's 1 year birthday! Such a great little milestone, but I can't believe it went by soooo fast!

5th Tooth

So, I had been paying attention to the top teeth that are ready to burst thru Ethan's gums, not even realizing a bottom one was sneaking in also!! The bottom right tooth next to the center one poked thru the gums yesterday! Yipee...before we know it, he'll have 8 front teeth - oh, the food that he can eat then! ha ha.

Random little story, but Ethan has discovered his little boy part recently. Everytime he takes a bath, he now has to find it. When he does, I explain that's his "pe pe". Tonight, I actually asked him where it was and he grabbed for it...oh my word, he's definitely learning quickly!!

Here's a picture from breakfast with the Rochford grandparents this morning!

Poor Little Boy with a Cold!

Ethan has officially gotten his first full-blown cold! He woke up Thursday morning hacking and it continued to get worse thru the day with sneezing, coughing and just being miserable. Thursday night he could only stay asleep for an hour at a time (at most) without waking up, upset from not being able to breathe. So helpless Dave and I feel to have him be miserable and not be able to understand or communicate with us on what's wrong. But, Dave and I alternated going into work today and he seems to be doing a bit better with some TLC from Mommy and Daddy.

Speaking of "Mommy and Daddy"...Ethan has now graduated to those titles vs. Ma ma and Da da! He still says both, but actually saying the two-syllable words was impressive to me!! He's also acquired "yeah" in his vocabulary. He doesn't know what it means, but he definitely says it a lot now (and you have to hear him say it, because it's more like "yeeaaa" in an exaggerated manner). I think he hears the word a lot because he is always pointing his finger and chattering and I usually say "yeah, is that right?" or something like that. So, "yeah" is now on the list of first words I guess. I also swear he's trying to say "cheese", "tractor" and "truck" some of his favorite toys, books and food (again, hearing the words repeated a lot).

As far as his mobility goes. His favorite game is to play "chase" around the coffeetable while crawling. He just cracks up when he comes around the corner and you're there. He also LOVES walking around with help. This kid scales our staircases at least 20 times per day!! Sometimes his legs go faster than you can keep up with, and he's in an almost horizontal walking position trying to take stair after stair with the helpful adult (whomever it may be at the time) trailing behind! Once we reach the top of one staircase, I'm trying to teach him to go feet first down the other set to be safer.

Here are a few pictures from staying home today. Not too exciting..he was again trying to crawl all over me!

Coming to get you Mommy!

I've got you in my grasp!

Can I touch the camera with my little paws?

Short video of chase around the coffee table...he goes so fast it was hard for me to change to video mode on the camera before he came around the corner...

Officially Crawling!!

I haven't posted in 2 weeks, so hopefully I can do an overall wrap up of the new events in our life..

First and foremost...by the title...Ethan is officially crawling like a big boy! He's been army crawling/scooching for a long while now, but he finally got it on Friday! It's an all new world now!! He'll crawl for a while, but then he really likes you to walk him around. So, I wonder how far down the road walking is? All I know is, now is the time that I wish I were about 6-8 inches shorter so bending over to walk him around didn't hurt my back so much!!

And...he's off!

I promise not to cause TOO much trouble Mama!

Don't mind if I use you as a prop to help me stand up

Oh...did I mention he likes his diaper box?? :)
Other random things to mention:
*Ethan likes broccoli and he loves cheddar cheese chunks!
*He's getting a 5th tooth (upper left next to the middle tooth)
*He's starting to say "Sha" or "Sa" for Sasha and something that sounds like "Gigi" for Lauren's Daughter Gianna
*He really, really seems to want to talk. He's always "talking" and pointing his index finger at something as if he's telling you a story.
*He points out the tractor (and sometimes blabs what sounds like he's trying to mimic the word tractor) and the Bear in 2 of his favorite books
*I can't remember if I mentioned part of his bedtime routine is now turning off his bedroom light himself? He also gets to push the garage door button once we get back from our evening walk. The minute we get into the garage his little index finger is up in the air - then we wave "bye-bye" until the door shuts - a very exciting game!


Here are two pics from last week that I never had the chance to post. (Note he's wearing the same outfit - we thought his Bears outfit would bring good luck...we're starting to doubt that!

Helping Mama make some yummy applesauce & raisin muffins!

Pampers "Cruiser" Videos

If we could pick two "toys" in the whole world for Ethan to have right now, they would definitely be an empty diapers box and a swing. Here are a few videos of his favorite indoor toy - the diaper 'cruiser' box that Mom and Dad (and Grandma and Grandpa) have plenty of exercise pulling him around in. Oh yes and Ethan officially knows how to throw temper tantrums now....I mentioned a swing is his other favorite toy. Whenever we put him in the swing and then take him out, he just has a fit! He LOVES to swing - maybe a good investment down the road to have in the backyard!

If you haven't lately...do it NOW!

So, you probably rely on your computer for storage of documents, pictures, files, etc. right?! Well, don't keep all your important pics and documents in one place - make a backup...NO, make multiple backups!!

Yesterday, our second computer crashed on us!! Can you imagine losing ALL your pictures you've ever taken in a split second??? Ethan's entire life of pictures - GONE! Honeymoon, vacations etc - GONE!! Honesly, the most important things to me are definitely Ethan's pictures - his entire life!!! The one positive is that I've saved some off to Walgreens.com and I know parents and our blog have some of the pictures, but I want them ALL!! We're now on a hunt for a good data recovery center and pulling out the checkbook to (hopefully) get everything recovered.

The crappy thing in all this, is that I bought a package of dvd's to start backing up all the pictures a few months back. My exact words to Dave were, "I don't want to lose those pictures" and then I went to buy the dvds for backup. Unfortunately life seemed a little too busy for us at the time and we just figured we'd do it "some day".

Enough complaining for me I guess - just a good reminder for all of us that computers aren't fail safe! I will be posting a few pics and maybe a video of Ethan sometime this week hopefully.

Grandparent's Day Lunch

Yesterday Ethan hosted his first Grandparent's Day lunch and it was a big success. Unfortunately only 2 sets of Grandparents were able to make it, but he'll get to see Grandma Hughes this week when she comes to watch him on Wednesday. Everyone was in charge of making their own pizzas and they all came out tasty!! Then, Ethan helped mommy make a strawberry-jello desert that was very yummy to close out the meal. Ethan is very grateful for all his grandparents and it's very apparent how they feel about him!! (Sorry, completely forgot to get pictures of the event).

Other random stories...
Ethan has started to give kisses it seems - in the last few days he'll just come at you with his mouth wide open and it's the sweetest thing!! I'm home with him today and when I took him up for his morning nap he gave me one on the way upstairs and then in the middle of me rocking him, he looked at me and gave me one - makes my heart melt!!

I think Ethan is going thru a growth spurt or something, because last night for dinner, I had to STOP him from eating, because he was cramming bite after bite into his mouth!! Same thing for breakfast this morning - keep the food coming Mama!! He's also become VERY antsy these days - he's about 90% there with crawling and making more progress every day. He likes to walk (with help obviously), knows how to get from a sitting to crawling position (we dropped his crib mattress this weekend), and he absolutely LOVES the Pampers box now - Daddy attached a string so now it's easy to be pulled around in. Dave was talking about decorating the box with racing stripes - silly Daddy!

Ethan is all about saying "Ma ma" and "Da da" these days. I can't believe he'll be 11 months this week and soon a year old! While he was sitting and playing yesterday, I just looked at him and can't believe what a little boy he is now!

My Gym

Today Dave and I took Ethan to try out a class at "My Gym" near the mall and I really liked it. We used to have swim classes on Saturday but the session ended and I wanted to try something new. I think Ethan was GREAT in his first class. We do 'circle time' and stretches, sing songs, free play, gymnastics and swing time. Here are a few pics and videos from our first class...

Checkin' the place out with Daddy

A little balance beam work

Some time in the ball pitFuture Olympic Gymnast on the rings!

Jumping on the trampoline!

Spaghetti!

I decided to let Ethan have a try at feeding himself with a spoon..He mostly just put it in his food and took it out and looked at it, but he's gotta start somewhere. He's since had some more practice sessions. One time he actually pulled the spoon out of the food and then opened his mouth, but the spoon never actually made it in his mouth.

Why I started this teaching process with a meal that is served with a red sauce, I have no idea...but that's why we have washing machines!!

Trip to Pittsburgh

Well, our 4 day vacation in Pittsburgh to visit family is over and we're starting to get back into our usual groove of the work week (although, I was "fortunate" enough to have to start my work week ON Labor Day - UGH!). Overall our trip was nice and after everything we put Ethan thru with car/plane traveling, pushing his nap schedule, sleeping in a new place, etc. - he was a VERY good boy!

Here's Ethan playing, while waiting to get on his first plane ride

Ethan and his cousin Rowan playing with toys..









Ethan has definite potential to be a piano player in the future! He had an interesting technique to play - notice pic #2 - a karate chop

Auntie Jamie doing her "aunt duties" of reading Rowan a book and helping her take a little nap to rest up for playing!

Riding on the carousel

Lego time!

Zoo pictures...Uncle Robin pulling Ethan in the wagon and a nice family shot (besides the kids who just couldn't wait to see in the water tank behind us)

Nice family dinner picture on our last night there. We went to a German Pub and sat outside on a beatiful night. At the end of our meal there was a blues band playing, so of course I had to dance with Ethan.

Finally, a nice warm bath to end the day...cute little kiddies playing!