Elbows

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this baby girl had 6 arms. All elbows this child! (And now she's elbowing me because I've been sitting to long and she needs to move. . . time to find another position.)

36 Weeks

We Have New Names

Well, we've already made the switch (mostly) from "Mommy" and "Daddy" to "Mom" and "Dad" (Ethan even called me "Mother" once--that was a trip!), but now Ethan has developed yet another way to describe us and I honestly don't know how to take it:

E: "You're a donut!"

and sometimes:

E: "You're a piece of pizza!"

These are interchangeable between Rick and I, and can even (apparently) be used at the same time. I have no idea where it comes from or what it means (is it a put down? a compliment? a "bad word" he uses when he's mad?). "Food" for thought I suppose. :-)

Healthy Snacks

Ethan before bed, "I need something from the kitchen."
Me: "What do you think you need?"
E: "Can you give me some choices?"
Me: "You can have an apple."
E: "I want something else healthy. Is a pear healthy?"

He got the pear. :-)

4 Year Checkup

Ethan had his 4-year-old checkup yesterday, and this time with a new pediatrician. His old one has retired, so we selected someone else in the group, and I think we're pretty happy after this first meeting anyway.

Ethan really doesn't like going to the doctor, but after talking about getting weighed and measured, and that they would listen to him with the stethoscope. He said, "Just like George?" (from a Curious George story), and he seemed to calm down a bit. He was actually great through the whole visit, talking with the nurses and doctor, having his hearing and vision checked, the whole deal. Then there were the shots. He had to get 4!!! One in each arm and one in each leg. He was a real trooper, but just couldn't help crying on the last two, and I don't blame him. Poor little guy. Rick and I decided that was worth a treat, so he got to go to the bookstore after school yesterday to get the "Troublesome Trucks" to go with his Thomas the Train set. He's also quite proud of all his band aids and is still wearing them today.

Here's the scoop on our 4 year old:
Height: 41.25 inches (around 75th percentile)
Weight: 34.5 pounds (around 50th percentile)

All in line with his patterns since birth. He passed his hearing and vision screenings, and named and drew some shapes for the doctor too (circle, square, triangle--apparently 3, 4, and 5 year old milestones she said).

Here's a picture of Ethan in the back yard with his paper airplane from a few days ago. Such a grown up boy!

35 weeks

1 month to delivery!!!

Crazy Hat Day

This is what Ethan wore to school for crazy hat day. Love it!

Unexpected

So, apparently while I was at yoga tonight, Rick was talking to Ethan a little bit about the baby coming and how she would get here. Because later, when I was putting Ethan to bed he looked at me and said, "The doctor is going to cut your tummy?"

I was a little stunned, but assumed they had been talking about it. So, I just said, "Yes, and then what?" and Ethan said, "Then Lucy will be here." So, he's got that part straight anyway. We'll see how much he likes it when it actually happens.

Pancakes and the Red Plate!

What does every boy need for breakfast on his 4th birthday? Cinnamon pancakes and the red, "You Are Special Today" plate! (He probably could have lived without the big mosquito bite over his eye though.)

Ethan's 4th Birthday Party

We had a really great time at Ethan's birthday party. Everyone came and enjoyed burgers and hot dogs, cake and ice cream, and a pinata for the kids. The kids really had a blast just playing inside and out and the grown ups enjoyed getting to catch up and see people we hadn't seen in a while. Ethan, when greeted with "Happy Birthday!" responded in kind with another "Happy Birthday!" and was thrilled to show everyone his big boy room and bed. We are so thankful to everyone that came and helped make it a really fun day.

Garage Sale

Last Saturday, before having Ethan's party on Sunday, we had a garage sale to clean out everything we haven't been using lately and make way for a new baby. I was lucky in that Rick's folks came up to help man the sale, so I didn't have to sit outside in the heat all day. I did get to have the fun of sorting and pricing though, and that went long into the night. Poor Rick ended up staying up all night--which was lucky since we had shoppers with flashlights showing up at 6:15 in the morning! Here's a couple of pictures of the preparation.

Highlights from Ethan's 4 year old photo shoot

Ethan is still not so sure about the big lights with "umbrellas" on them at professional photo places. So it took quite a while to get him in the room and comfortable sitting for his picture. The photographer was really sweet though, and was great with him, so eventually it all worked out. However, we still got quite a few pictures where he is looking very cautiously at the lights in the corners, waiting for them to flash. Here's a sampling of all the shots.

The Nursery

Here are some pictures of the not-yet-totally-completed nursery. Rick really did a great job on the polka dots! Basically, the painting is done and we put up the curtains and bedding just to see how it would all look together. Not sure yet what we're doing with the bed in the corner and a few other things. Also haven't hung her name tiles yet.

My Triumph over Texture (Or, Why I Will Be Blind by this Weekend)

So we painted a stripe in the baby's room. Really 3 stripes. Turns out this is pretty dang hard to do on textured walls; there's just no way to get the painters tape flush against the wall everywhere, so you get some seepage that you have to clean up. (Someone has since told me of a little trick with paintable caulk, but it's too late for that on this one.)

BEFORE



To clean up the edges, I've been sitting very close to the wall with a small, flat edged artist's brush to make the line straight. I'm actually pretty proud of how it is turning out, but there's still a lot to do (we're also adding polka dots to the stripe once it is done), so I may very well go blind before we're done.

AFTER