So cute!

I have said before that some of our favorite times with Ethan is snuggling in bed together before he goes to sleep. Tonight I decided to talk to him about baby brother coming. Here is a bit of the conversation that took place, and it is up there as one of my favorites so far:

ME: "Ethan, when mommy has baby brother, she is going to have to be in the hospital. I'm ok, and baby brother is ok, but I have to stay there for a few days."

ETHAN: "uh huh."

ME: "When I go to the hospital to have baby brother, do you want to come see me?"

ETHAN: "Yes, and I take baby brother, wrap him in cloth and lay him in a manger!"

You have to read this article

Lately I have been very sensitive to stories about pregnant women and babies. Of course because I am expecting my own little one in a little over a month stories just hit home. Some don't have happy outcomes and some do. I was amazed to read this story about a mother and baby. You have to read it!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581444,00.html

Mom's Christmas poem

This is a cute poem my mom wrote. Check out her blog to read it: http://grammysblog-grammy.blogspot.com/2009/12/2-days-after-christmas.html

Reason 1,345,390,998 I love my husband

http://becominglast.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/christmas-challenge/

Baby things

Today I started pulling out baby clothes and things to prepare for this new wee one's arrival! I only have 8 weeks to go (or less!)! I was so blessed with Ethan by other's that I didn't need to buy hardly anything! But I am also realizing that some things I borrowed, I have had to give back and now I need some things again! My list of "needs" is growing longer and longer. Although really, so many gadgets and gizmos have been created and most moms think they need a lot...but we really don't. So I would say that my list is made up of a few needs, but mostly wants. I am having to trust in God that the baby things we need will be provided in some way. I am realizing a trend already developing that I want to nip in the bud. Whenever something comes up, financial or not, I immediately start stressing instead of trusting in a God who has met EVERY SINGLE need we have ever had! So I am going to lay these baby things, both big and small, at His feet and trust that he cares and knows about them and our needs will be met!
I do want some mom's opinions out there... so you moms that have had more than one baby please speak up. Tell me your preference of a "carrier" for your second child. Do you prefer a baby sling, baby bjorn, etc. What is your method of carrying your infant, while being hands free to run after your toddler or older child?! Thanks!!!

Mr. Charmer

Ethan is at that age where almost everything out of his mouth makes us laugh. Toddler hood is a rough age, but I believe God gives them a little sense of humor and makes them say the CUTEST things to make up for all the time-outs, ha ha! Lately my husband has told me, "you're beautiful"! He is going out of his way to make me feel attractive during these very unattractive last months of pregnancy. Hee hee! Well apparently Ethan has picked up on this. The past two days when Ethan has gotten in trouble and we've been sitting together talking about behavior, he has paused... looked up into my eyes and said, "you're beautiful"! What a little stink bug! It has made me laugh, melted my heart, and made me realize that we have a little charmer on our hands. I adore my boys and can't wait to meet our next one in 8 weeks!

Mr. Manners

After we ate lunch, Matt got up from the table and walked into the living room:

Matt: (burp)

Ethan: "Daddy, say excuse me!"

Matt: "Excuse me."

Ethan: "Good boy, daddy!"

The schedule c-section will be...

...Friday, February 19th! The dr. office just called me with the planned date. The doctor that delivered Ethan will be the one to perform this c-section as well. The funny thing is that Ethan was scheduled nearly 3 years ago on that very same date. He decided to come 3 days early though. I also don't think this baby is going to wait until then, but you never know! So it looks like my boys will be 3 years and 3 days apart! We are planning an early birthday party for Ethan just in case little brother decides to come earlier. I know it will be here before I know it! It makes me more excited to have a perspective date! I don't know why they tell you that you can pick the date because with both of my boys now they have called with a date and time already established. That makes for deciding a birthday a little easier on us though. It is out of our hands and truly in our God's hands. Please be praying for a safe and healthy delivery and adjustment as we go from a family of 3 to a family of 4! I'm excited and ready!! (Please remind me that I said that when I question my sanity after he is born... ha ha!!!)

Santa baby

Ethan sat on Santa's lap the other night for our apartments' Christmas party. I was shocked! Of course Santa bribed him with some candy, but hey... got a cute picture out of it!

180 degrees (second post of the day)

And I am not talking about temperature. Ethan did a 180 from this afternoon to this evening. As much as I lose my patience with him, become frustrated, doubt my parenting, etc. we have the moments where he acts like a perfect child. Tonight was one of them. He was glorious. I cooked an early dinner and Matt and I decided to take a trip to Lifeway Christian Bookstores. While there Ethan listened extremely well. He was delightful.... thoroughly enjoying the trip as much as we were. Then as we were walking out we told the clerk "Thank You" and when Ethan heard us he turned to the guy and said, "Thank You, Merry Christmas"! It just made Matt and I beam with pride and adoration for our sweet little guy. Then on our venture make home we decided to look at Christmas lights on various houses that we could come across. We had a blast. Ethan enjoyed it too. To top off the evening Matt picked us up 2 small chocolate frosty's from Wendy's... I hopped into the back seat and shared mine with Ethan. Ethan and Matt were being silly in the car and bantering back and forth. It was just one of those fun nights where everything went right. So Matt encouraged me to post about it as well. Not just remembering the "bad" times in parenting, but reflecting and recalling the good times. We love Ethan so much and we know he is human and will mess up. But we also know that he really is a good boy. Stubborn and strong willed, but good. He is sweet, has great manners and tender hearted. My goal is to remember THESE times when he acts out. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that he's not even 3 yet. But because he is a big boy and talks well we sometimes treat him like he's a 5 year old. I love my sweet boy... and I love these times of 180 degrees!!

Confession time

I just completely lost my patience with Ethan. He isn't napping well. It goes in cycles which I know is leading to a dropped nap. I just went in there to tell him to settle down and I don't even know what really happened, I just know it ended up with both of us in tears. He tried to hit me repeatedly and was screaming at the top of his lungs. I disciplined him firmly yet walked out of the room enraged because I lost my temper and I hate this screaming that he's been doing. I love being a mom and would not trade it for the world... but sometimes I just wish he was perfect. HA. The neighbors must think we beat our child. For the record: WE DO NOT BEAT OUR CHILD. He has learned to scream real loud when he is upset or angry. Which makes for some fun times at school, church, the grocery store, etc. He has never been one to throw temper tantrums and lay out on the ground. But this screaming thing has to be the worse. Because everyone looks at you (the adult) and assumes your the one doing something wrong. Not that I care what people think, but it's frustrating. I know i'm far from perfect, he is far from perfect, yet why do I expect perfection?! Life is messy, we all throw fits about stuff... even adults. Bottom line: I love him so much and I wish I never lost my patience with him or anyone. It stinks to feel guilty about the way you handled a situation. But all you can do is say you're sorry, you love them, and try not to do it again.
Thankfully I think he just fell asleep and I am praying he wakes up a happy child.

If my dad even notices....

Today my dad mentioned that he noticed people haven't commented on my blog in a long time. I know people are reading because I have a hidden site tracker (insert evil laugh here, ha ha). So it is sad to me that my dad, who doesn't have a blog- just reads mine, notices that people aren't commenting. You don't want to make a pregnant woman cry, so stop being shy and leave me some love!

Christmas tree lighting

As I mentioned in a post before we went to our town's Christmas tree lighting. Ethan had a wonderful night of eating cookies, watching the tree light up, a firetruck bringing Santa, and running around playing with other kids. I was shocked that Ethan wanted to go up and see Santa. He had no fear and went up and said, "Hi Santa, Hi!" and gave him a high-five and fist bumps. We had a great time as a family and Ethan was so well behaved the whole night. I have to admit I was a bit nervous because there were so many people and it was dark out. But he stayed near us and obeyed and had a blast. Anyhow, here are a few pictures.

The firetruck that brought Santa, and the "Christmas" tree lit up behind it!

Ethan with Santa

"It's toothpaste!"

Funny story. This morning Matt and I got ready to go eat lunch with the church staff for our Christmas lunch at Mimi's Cafe. In the car on the way there, Matt had his hand on my stomach and was talking to his baby boy. (So sweet!) I glance down and notice something white on his finger. I say, "hey honey, what's that?" Matt looks at his finger and says, "oh, it's toothpaste" and quickly licks it off. The moment his face made an awful that-is-disgusting grimace, we both realized it wasn't toothpaste. He then yelled, "UGH, that's my deodorant!" Matt put down the window and was spitting and sputtering the next 5 minutes. I was cracking up so hard that I started contracting. It was SO hilarious. Poor guy. We had to stop at McDonalds and grab a coke so he could get the taste out of his mouth. We laughed the whole way to lunch and kept reliving the moment.
It reminded me of a story in college. My roommate and I went to the beach with her family and we were laying out at the pool. I got up to get something and noticed some white stuff on my arm. I thought, "oh, I must not have rubbed my sunscreen in good". Well as soon as I rubbed the "sunscreen" in I realized from an awful smell, that it wasn't sunscreen. It was seagull poop. It smelled so bad I had to go wash off and my roommate and I just laughed and laughed. We experienced a fly-by pooping.
Moral of these stories: If you see some unknown substance on you, don't assume: just wash it off!

Ethan's Santa Story

Tonight as I was putting Ethan into bed, he just started talking and telling me this whole elaborate story about Santa. It was cute to see his little mind go. I interjected every now and then, but for most part it was a steady conversation between him and himself. Ha! Here is some of what I recall him saying.

Ethan: Santa's at home going night night. He put his jammies on and brush his teeth. I help him get the back ones.

Me: Oh, you want to help him brush his back teeth?

Ethan: Yeah. Where's his brother? His daddy lives really far long ago. Really far. Where's Santa's mouth? He has a boo boo. It hurts. It's not all better.

Me: Should we make him a card or write a letter to make it feel better?

Ethan: No, it's not all better. It hurts. Maybe we send him Bert and Ernie stickers.

What a goober. This all stemmed from seeing Santa tonight at our town's Christmas tree lighting. I am going to write a separate post about it with some pictures probably tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Ethan's first ornament

I picked Ethan up from his class at "school" and he had made this ornament. Of course I think the teacher did most of the work, but it was so stinkin' cute! In case you can't see, it is a white bell that is a snowman head with ear muffs. He was so proud of it and I was so proud of him! I know I won't keep every single thing he ever makes, but I cherish what he does and I love that he is at the age where he enjoys making things. Melted my heart.

Please pray

Please pray for this young family that has been attending our church. Their 4 month old daughter, Madison has 2 tumors along her spine and possibly one on her brainstem. Check out their website and feel free to leave encouraging words, pray for them, and consider giving financially! Thank you!

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/madisonjoychirino