"Weer- ah"

This morning I had the chance to watch Vera whom Ethan calls "weer-ah" for my sweet friend Lynn. Ethan and Vera love each other! It was a true toddler date, complete with strolling in the mall, sharing a warm pretzel and snack, then ending with a lunch date. Sometimes Ethan can be a bit much for Vera's quiet personality but they get so excited when they see each other. They even see each other on Skype sometimes. Ha ha! (Skype is a free internet service where you can teleconference friends and family) Ethan tries to grab her by the hand saying, "come on!" and pulls her all around trying to play with her. He is going to be a great big brother someday! Here's a picture of the kiddos playing together!

Dollar Tree

So i've written before about a new found love. The Dollar Tree. Where everything is a dollar...or cheaper. I used to be a Dollar store snob, but when you get married, have a child, and try to stay home... you realize that finding deals is better than focusing on certain brands. This afternoon I took a trip to my beloved dollar store. I could walk those isles for hours...well not really hours, but it is fun! Here are some steals at the dollar store that you might not know...

1. You can get Super Glue- it actually comes with 3 in the package.

2. They have a generic 'Magic Eraser' that works- I got pen off my table just a few minutes ago!

3. They always have gift bags for all occasions and party supplies that are cute too

4. You can buy light bulbs, even night light bulbs like 4 or 5 to a pack

5. They have candy in bags...stuff you would normally buy for around $3.00- name brand candy too

6. They have ketchup and other great deals on food, although I am a little hesitant on some things there (definitely check expiration dates)

7. You can buy the nice balloons for birthdays and other occasions that are inflated

8. Sharpies

9. Great flash cards, work books, word finds, other educational supplies

10. boxes of envelopes and mailing packages

11. CLEANERS- great cleaners that work!

12. Seasonal toys and such for Easter, Valentines, Christmas, etc. that make great gifts

13. Bubbles

14. Generic Muccinex! Great for colds- i've used it

15. Pregnancy test- a girlfriend of mine found out she was pregnant on one of these, so don't buy expensive ones!

16. Greeting cards- 2 for $1.00

I'm sure there are plenty other great buys, but this is all I can think of for now. Why spend more on some of the same stuff??? Visit your local Dollar Tree today. Ha!!!

Urgent Care

This is our 3rd visit to the dr. in one week. One of which was a well visit for his 2 year check up. However, I have to say I am getting sick of that place. I am going to change my blog name to "An Urgent Care Story" as a play off of "A Wedding Story, A Baby Story, or even A Makeover Story". For those of you that know us, we are pretty much VIP at the ER between the 3 of us. Ugh. Although I do share these stories and joke around, I know that we are truly blessed to have our lives and i'm thankful that these stories are not life threatening. Now, on to our "Urgent Care Story".
We took Ethan to the dr. again today because they told us if his eye was not better by Saturday then he needed to be seen. Well not only is his eye not better, he has been running a high fever for 3 days, not sleeping at night, breathing funny, and other various symptoms. So we get to the Urgent Care place and they look at his ears. They're fine. Look at his throat, eyes, nose, etc. They are fine. Listen to his chest and lungs. Seems fine. He has a 102.8 fever in the dr. office. They decide to do chest x-rays to check for pneumonia. They are fine. They put a dye in his eye, shine a purple light to see if his eye is scratched. It's fine. They decide to do blood work. Not-so-fine. So remember my post a few days back where at his pediatrician I told them he was strong and they kind of shrugged me off. Well today is the same story, but not quite as bad. They checked his veins, he has good veins in both arms. So this should be easy. Well they lay him down on the table. I tell them that he is strong and I give a short story about the shot incident that happened Wednesday. So she asks Matt to hold his arm that they are going to draw blood from. I hold his other arm, head and legs. The nurse is holding down the arm plus trying to draw blood. In goes the needle. Here comes The Incredible Hulk. Ethan tenses up, starts thrashing, the needle slips out, a little blood goes on the table, the nurse is like, "Oh baby, you are strong...wow" and proceeds to try to get the blood but we have him so pinned down that we are actually cutting of circulation which is making the blood come out at snail speed. She has to stop. She tells us, "wow you weren't kidding! I didn't believe you when you said he was strong, but I do now. Wow. He's a strong boy. Wow. If no one else believes you, tell them to call me over here and i'll tell them that you got a strong boy. WOW!"
(COME ON PEOPLE, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU?!?! I am not making this up. I am not telling you that he's strong to brag, make myself look good, or whatever.)
So anyhow, she has to go get another nurse. With 4 of us pinning him down we manage to get the blood needed to do the test. Results. Negative, everything that the dr. is checking out for isn't there. Which I guess is a good thing. The doctor says that he is what they call, "having a fever with an unknown source". It could be the eye. It could be bacterial. It could be viral. Basically they don't know. And unless it gets worse or his fever doesn't go away then it just needs to play out. So they put him on an antibiotic. Shipped his blood off to run some more test and we got to come home. Exhausting.
Bonus story: To top it off when we were leaving the dr. Matt notices a funny sound coming from the car in which he inspects and finds that our tire thread is showing on the tire. So he is currently out with his dad getting it fixed. Fun day. I am hoping for some rest and that Ethan gets better. I keep telling myself that I could not even imagine having 2 kids. We are exhausted with just 1. I do want more kids one day, but i'm thinking more and more "why rush!?!".
My thoughts at the end of the day still remain. God is good. His grace is sufficient for us each day. We are blessed. I love that we have friends and family around to support us. It could always be worse. Off to take a much needed nap...

Exciting times

There's a lot going on in and around our lives. My good friend Brooks just gave birth to her first baby, little Ellie. She was a few weeks early but is doing great! Poor Brooks labored for 25 hours and then had to have a c-section. I admire her strength and I know she will be an excellent mommy to that little girl.
Our friends Tim & Anna are in the adoption process. They are coming back from Russia today. While they were there they let out the secret that they are not only adopting a little girl (1.5 yr) but also her brother (2.5) as well. They have Ty who was adopted from Russia and is 3. How exciting! We all knew about the little girl, but they kept the boy a secret for a few days. But the joy couldn't be kept, so they let out the surprise!
We are just thrilled to see how children are a blessing. I pray that everyone is able to experience that feeling in some way. Whether through adoption, biological children, nannying, care taking or however. It is so neat that God designed ways for us all to be parents in some form! We are just in love with our son. I pray that we are able to add more children to our family some day.

Speaking of Ethan, his pink eye is not getting better. It is still oozing and he is supposed to finish his drops tomorrow. Unless it is dramatically better tomorrow morning we'll probably end up back at the doctor. He also has a fever and was up all night last night. I just don't know if there is something more going on with his little body. So if you think about it please pray for him. We postponed his birthday party that was planned for tomorrow until next weekend. Good thing too because my nieces in Charlotte that were supposed to come are sick throwing up and my mom is sick with a chest cold. So sounds like we all could use a nice relaxing weekend to recuperate.

p.s. I have washed my hands SO much in the past few days that they are cracking and bleeding in certain spots. Any ideas for ways to keep them clean, yet moisturized??
Always exciting times!

I wasn't joking about the needle...

Here is a blurry glimpse of Ethan's little thigh where the needle from the shot came out of the nurses hand. Believe me now that he's got strong legs??!

Dr.appointment gone bad

Wow. We just got home from Ethan's 2 year check up and we are exhausted. It was the worst appointment of his life. Granted in the grand scheme of things it wasn't bad, but when you're in the thick of it, it seems like the "fun" will never end. So we get called back into the examining room and the first thing they did was a finger prick. Starting at age 2 they prick their finger to test iron levels and whatnot. Well, you would have thought they chopped of his arm. He was SCREAMING! During the prick he moved and got blood on me and I am trying to keep him calm and hold him down while they milk his finger to get enough blood for the test. When it is over they wrapped his finger with a piece of gauze and a band aid over it. Well in his hysteria he pulls it off and blood starts running down his finger. At this point the nurse had left the room so Matt and I were on our own to rummage through their cabinet and find more gauze and band aids. We get it re-wrapped. I get my hands clean. (He's still screaming) So the dr. comes in and is just talking to us, not even trying to examine him and he's screaming and yelling "all done, all done!" Well he starts crying so much that his infected eye that has pink eye starts dripping blood. Talk about a moment I don't want to experience as a mom ever again. To see your child crying tears of blood is just awful. So we hold him down on the examining table to make sure that his eye is ok, which it was. He had just agitated it while screaming and crying. Meanwhile he's still screaming. We are trying to talk to the doctor and we are all shouting at this point because my son has the lungs of an opera singer. We finish the exam and she tells us, oh yeah, he is going to need one shot today. Are you kidding me?!! Hasn't the boy had enough trauma. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that during the "examination" she had to pull back the skin on his wee wee because his circumcision keeps fusing the skin back together. Fun times. So, now time for the shot. I have been told every single appointment that he's had to get shots, "wow, he is a strong boy... I wasn't expecting that kind of strength!" So I fore warn this nurse that in the past they have said he has really strong legs. So she apparently thinks she can take this 2 year old. Well, she was wrong. She had his legs pinned, I had his arms pinned and she injects the shot. He is so strong he rips his legs free and the shot comes out of her hands. She has to practically stab him with it to make all the medicine go into his leg. All the while saying, "wow, you're right he is strong!" Well DUH, didn't I tell you. It's like the nurses that don't believe me that my veins are hard to find when they have to take blood. They shrug me off saying yeah yeah, i've heard it before. But about the 4th time of trying to stick my arm to get blood they decide to take my word. Geesh. So, anyhow, we finish the shot and (still screaming) tell him, "yes, Ethan we are all done!" WHEW. I know things can always be worse, but boy was that an eventful dr. appointment. They are referring us to see a dermatologist about his skin. He has had red bumpy eczema like skin since birth on his arms and legs and after steroid creams, diet changes, and other methods they think it is about time to see a specialist. So, now onto the fun moments of the dr. appointment. His stats. Ethan is approx. 33 lbs which makes him in the 93% for his weight. He was 35 inches long which is about 75% for his height. He is a beast. It is kind of shocking not to see "above 97%" for all his stats which is the way it was the first year of life. But my boy has to level out his growth sometime or he'll be like an Amazon. (No offense to all you amazonians!)
Time to relax. I'm not just exaggerating the awfulness of this appointment. Matt in the car on the way home said, "wow, I have never had high blood pressure in my life, but I KNOW mine is high right now.... I feel like I need a pill to calm down my anxiousness!" Good thing we don't have to go again for a while. Good thing my sweet boy is now fast asleep for hopefully the next 3 hours.

Ethan's least favorite birthday gift...

...PINK EYE! He woke up this morning and his eye was a little swollen and pink looking. He hasn't had any drainage out of it yet, but I wanted to take him to the dr. as soon as possible because he is supposed to have a birthday party this weekend. They prescribed him some drops to put in both eyes because the chances of it spreading to the other eye are very high. Can I tell you how fun it is to put drops in a toddler's eye?! It took Matt and I together to do it and I very easily could have used another pair of hands. Poor little guy! I hope he gets better soon and most of all I hope we don't get it! Off to sanitize the house...

Happy 2nd birthday, Ethan!

My baby turns 2 today!!! He has been singing "birthday to you, birthday to you!" all morning. I'm sad that my husband is gone all day for classes, it doesn't feel like much of a birthday, but his party is this weekend and i'm sure it will feel more festive. Ethan and I ventured out to Target this morning to get some groceries. He got his beloved free chocolate chip cookie from the bakery and I got a Starbucks. My sweet friend Erin sent him a birthday card and put in a Starbucks gift card for me! :) Maybe we should celebrate more often, ha ha! Anyhow, I don't have all his pictures on my laptop, but I managed to get some pictures of his birth, 1st birthday, and 2nd birthday portraits. So here's my birthday boy...

Here is a picture of my 9.5 lb baby in the hospital!
1st birthday portrait

2nd birthday portrait

We go to his 2 year check up on Wednesday, i'll be interested to hear all his stats. According to the bathroom scale at his Granddaddy's house and Papa's house he weighs 34lbs.

In honor of his birthday, here are 16 (Feb. 16th) things about my boy!

1. He LOVES sports, he was just twirling Matt's tennis racket singing "birthday to you".
2. He is very verbal for his age, although he is a bit shy in public
3. Ethan loves cookies, pizza, and avocado, sometimes he eats his avocado faster than a cookie!
4. Ethan is very tender hearted (takes after his daddy) he doesn't like it when other kids cry or are hurt
5. Ethan is very strong willed (like his mommy) this makes for quite a few time outs and pops- ahh, gotta love toddlerhood!
6. Ethan loves running, I relate him to Forrest Gump, "always running!"
7. Ethan loves singing ABC's and "Jesus loves me" as well as praying before he goes to sleep
8. Ethan sleeps 11 hours a night and takes 3 hour naps in the afternoons, I have to wake him up almost every afternoon
9. Ethan wakes up very happy (most of the time) he is clearly like his mama in that regard!
10. Ethan can count to 10, knows some colors, some shapes and sing most of his ABC's- he is a quick learner (like his daddy)
11. He loves taking a bath and spends most of it on his stomach laying down, "swimmin"
12. Ethan, like most kids, loves to be outside. He begs to go outside and feed the geese or go to the park
13. He has great manners, says please and thank you most of the time- we are very proud of his sweet thankful spirit
14. Ethan loves playing with cars and trucks and is in that phase where he points out every single one while in the car
15. Ethan has recently noticed the moon and looks for it in the car at night and if he doesn't see it he says "moon went night night".
16. Ethan loves Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Barney. One day at my parents house he wanted to watch Barney but mom couldn't find the right channel... he looked at her and said, "Papa find it Barney"! He LOVES his Papa, Grammy and extended family. We are blessed to have them around! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ETHAN!!
    
    

Big bed

Tomorrow Ethan turns 2 years old! Next weekend is our party that we are having with the whole family. Getting his bed together is his main birthday gift from the family! My mom and I have designed and made Ethan's quilt for his big boy bed! I told my mom what I had visioned, she helped with measurements, I did designing and she did all the sewing! It turned out great! She did a wonderful job. Thank you mama!! She just finished it today and e-mailed a picture, so I have yet to see it in person. You really miss the stitching detail with this picture, I will post more when the bed is complete.
Her sewing machine is awesome, we were able to do red stitching on the baseball that looks like the actual ball stitching. The football stitching looks like the grip on the actual ball and the basketball stitching looks awesome. I researched soccer prints to make the ball. Because a soccer ball is a sphere, when you flatten the design it actually resembles a kaleidoscope made up of hexagons and pentagons. I made it simple cutting out black pentagons that mom sewed on to give the visual appearance of a soccer ball. We were going to do cutsie letters for his name, but that was too difficult, plus cutsie doesn't really match the sports theme. I gave mom free reign with his name and she did great! The red framing around his name and sports balls is the actual part that will be on top of the twin bed like a birds eye view, the rest will hang off the side. Hope that makes sense. I love it and can't wait to see his big boy bed set up! He is growing up too fast!!!
Here is all the thanks and props to people that are making his big bed transition possible. (I feel like I am accepting a Oscar on his behalf or something!)
Brooks & Brad- mattress and box springs
My mom & dad- bed frame and amazing quilt
Eddie & Dee- mattress cover and bed rail to keep my wiggle worm from falling out
Matt & I- sheet set, pillow, and bed skirt

70 degree weather

Our state has been experiencing Spring like temperatures for a week now and I have loved every minute of it! Ethan and I have been out and about in the sunshine and breezy skies. Yesterday we ventured out to feed the geese as well as play at the park. I haven't taken a ton of pictures lately, so I brought the camera along to snap a few. He loved spinning in the tire swing at the park as well as feeding bread to all the geese. It is funny to hear him yell to the geese, "no fighting!" when they chase each other to get the bread. He is quite the character. I have a feeling this Summer will be a lot of fun with a 2 year old!
Fun events coming up: Saturday we are getting his 2 year old portraits done, He turns the big 2 on Monday, Next Saturday is our family birthday party for him, and that night my parents are watching the grand kids while Matt, me, my brother and his wife all enjoy a Valentines date at the MELTING POT! I am already drooling thinking about it. I will have to run extra far this week to merit eating so much! Now on to the pictures...

Gorgeous weather

Well I don't have any pictures to share, but the 70 degree sunny weather speaks for itself. I have LOVED the past 3 days. I thrive in this kind of weather. It makes me hungry for Spring. Ethan and I have been able to get out and enjoy some long walks. Saturday he and I went for a walk with my mom down these awesome trails in Courtney's neighborhood. These are the same trails I used to run with Brooks (and hope to run after Brooks' baby comes!). We walked for an hour and Ethan even got out and ran. He loves running and that was his favorite part. He jabbered about "runnin" the whole way home. Yesterday I was able to get out during Ethan's nap and walk with my mom again although we didn't go as far as the day before because she got a blister on her foot. We figured out one disadvantage to getting pedicures. They rub all the dead calloused skin off your feet which makes for sensitive tootsies when you're exercising. So anyhow, when I got home from walking with her I asked my downstairs neighbor to go out again so we walked about 3 miles around where we live. Then today Ethan and I went out again for a walk. It was neat because I was thinking of asking Anna to meet us for a walk but I didn't call her, I just took off. Well on our walk we ran into her and Ty going for a walk themselves. It was destiny, ha ha. So we walked with them and then went to their house and played outside for a bit. The next 2 days are supposed to be in the 70's again so you better believe we'll be out again!

Little Toot

He may look cute and innocent, but he definitely is not innocent. This little boy ripped the loudest toot in the bathtub the other night. It made the biggest bubbles and he and I just cracked up laughing. Then he proceeded to strain to get another one out... he is definitely a boy at heart!! I love this little boy more than I ever thought possible. He's my little toot!

Super Bowl

Well I don't have any pictures from the Super Bowl party we went to, but here is Ethan having a blast at Papa & Grammy's house during theirs! They are sharing some chips and guacamole! He is like his Aunt Courtney, LOVES guacamole!!