Ethan turned 2!!

On Sunday my baby boy turned 2 years old! I cannot believe how fast time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the doctors office and she was telling me I was showing all the signs for pre-eclampsia and I needed to have the baby that week and to pick a day. I was so sick the entire time I was pregnant with him, but the minute I saw him he melted my heart and made all the suffering so worth it. He was the sweetest thing I've ever seen and I couldn't believe that he was mine. My little 7 lb 11 oz bundle had arrived and the empty spot I never knew existed in my heart was instantly filled.

He is such a joy in our lives and I honestly can't picture my life without him. It's hard to look back and try and remember life without him, it's just like he's always been here.

My baby boy, 1 day old and so perfect:



To my sweet Ethan on your 2nd birthday:
I love you so much. I hope you always know that. You bring so much love, laughter (and of course a little stress) into our home. I love to watch how much you love your dad and how much he loves you. I love to watch the two of you play and to see your face light up when you see him. I love to see how much your daddy loves you and races home from work to see you and how he just wants to play with you. He loves to take you to Lowe's to build things and to the park to play. He loves that you snuggle with him on the couch (and I know he secretly loves that you adore him way more than me. I don't mind too much, he's pretty special you know). You are so smart and I love watching you learn new things. Some of my favorites at the moment are how you mimic the cat when he meows and you walk around going "meow! meow!" in this little high pitched squeaky voice. I also love, Love, LOVE when you start laughing as hard as you can. It's so contagious and the cutest thing I've ever heard! I love that you love the dogs. I like watching you play with them and seeing the joy in your eyes when they play with you too. I love how much you love your Aunt Kacean and how much she loves you back. She gave up so much to spend every morning with you so I could go to school, and because of it you two are so close. I love when you give me little kisses and wrap your tiny little arms around my neck. I will always remember the first time you told me you loved me when we tucked you in for bed. (Your dad is still super bitter you haven't said it to him yet ...) you don't say it very often, so it made it all that much more special. I love to go into your room while you are sleeping and just watch you. You are so precious and I love you. You are the light in my life. I love you baby boy, happy 2nd birthday! Love, your mama

Last year for Ethan's birthday we were in Disneyland and couldn't do too much for his actual birthday. We ended up having a small family party about a week after we got home. This year we were able to celebrate on his actual birthday.

We had a small family spaghetti party (one of Ethan's favorite foods) at my mom's house.
Ever since my mom showed Ethan the ducks floating in her canal in the backyard, he has had a crazy obsession with ducks. Everything with wings is a duck. He loves them! Kacean and I decided he should probably have some form of a duck birthday cake, so she got to work trying to find something we both liked.

Kacean showing off the birthday cake she made for Ethan:


The first thing Ethan saw when he came downstairs after his nap was the duck cake and he went crazy! He loved it!


After dinner we had him open some presents. He still had the hang of it from Christmas and tore in.


Mart and I got him a play kitchen, some pots and pans, play food and a shopping cart full of play food. He loved it!

After he finished opening some presents we decided to let him have a go at blowing out some candles. After a couple tries he caught on and that was his all time favorite part! We had to keep lighting the candles over and over again. We eventually had to get him a new one and he just kept going.

Blowing out his second round of candles:


He thought it was great that the fire would go out and he would get all sorts of happy and excited and start clapping!




Here's a video showing you how much he loved blowing out the candles! What a funny boy

When we got back home, Ethan played with his kitchen set, pots and pans and food for probably a good hour until we finally made him go to bed. He thought it was so much fun.

Happy birthday baby! I love you!

The "Fun" Park

Ethan's birthday was on Sunday the 24th and he turned 2! Because he's such a wild little man who loves to run, run, run and play all day long we thought that he would LOVE to go play and run around at the fun park. We were all sorts of excited to take him and just have a fun day with him. It was fun, but it had some not so fun parts as well . . .

Well we got to the fun park and he was a little nervous at first, but after Mart dragged him up to the top and went down the slide with him he thought it was a blast! He would run all over the place and then to the arcade games and push the buttons and then back to the soft play area.

Ethan and his daddy playing:


Mart was the one chasing Ethan around the soft play and was starting to get worn out so I told him I'd go play with Ethan for a while. I was all excited to go run around and play with him so I grabbed his hand and we headed in. Well the soft play area is kind of dark and it's super full of squishy padding to help protect the little kiddos. We got in and around the first corner and Ethan bolted for the opening to a slide. There were a zillion kids running around and I didn't want him to get pegged so I lunged to grab him. As I did so, I fell off a step and onto the 6"-10" thick foam padding. Because it was padded and not hard ground I wasn't able catch myself and my feet just crumpled below me. I heard 4-5 pops in both feet and went dizzy and sort of blacked out for about 5 seconds.

When I came to, I first looked to see where Ethan was and he was just standing there watching me. After a minute or two I realized that I was able to stand and took Ethan's hand and started walking up the ramp in front of me. As I rounded the corner I called for Mart to come and help me. He came up to get me and saw the tears running down my cheeks and knew something was wrong. We got back down and to a bench and within minutes my feet were crazy swollen, but I was still able to walk.

I still had to go to walmart to pick up a few things for Ethan's birthday so I had to rely heavily on the cart to keep walking. I refused to use the wheelchairs, they would make me feel like an idiot. After walmart, we headed to find something to eat. My baby boy was so hungry and was getting antsy. We decided to go try the new fox's pizza place. They were so good to us. Ethan has been super picky and only eats select things ... like soup. They don't sell soup but had a sample batch in the back that they were testing out so they could start selling it. They pulled it out and warmed it up so he could eat it. After we were finished there, he was running all over the room and was being really pretty good. Mart told him to go wait by the door so he did. After a second, he figured out how to open the door and ran outside. Just as he was about to hit the parking area he stopped and turned around to see if we were chasing him. He thought it was a fun game. Just as he turned around to look at us a car drove by. If he hadn't stopped to turn around he would have been hit by that car. There was no way they would have seen him coming either, two cars were blocking him from their vision. Just after the car passed, he turned and bolted toward the lee's parking lot. That kid is fast too! He's probably one of the fastest little kids I've ever seen.

I started screaming "OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!" and everyone turned to look at me and Mart took off after him. In that second my adrenaline kicked in and I totally forgot my foot was in crazy pain and I started running after him too. I'm so thankful that he paused for that one brief second to turn around to look for us, I can't even imagine my 2 year old getting hit by a car like that. Martin and I about had a heart attack and are hearts were racing the entire way home.

It was definitely an eventful birthday celebration, and one I will probably never forget.

After getting home and checking out my feet, I was able to assess the damage. I'm pretty sure the left ankle is just sprained. It's huge and purple, but not so bad. I'm also pretty sure my left foot probably has 1 if not more than 1 fracture in my toe bones on the top of my foot. My toes are turning dark purple and both of my ankles are purple and bruised. Most people if they hurt their ankle only hurt one so they have one to fall back on. Sadly that was not my case.

Anyway, they are still huge and sore but I'm doing alright. Here are some pictures, they are not all the way up to date showing just how purple everything is. As soon as I can upload those pictures I will post them.


Left foot (sprained):

Right foot before my toes turned super purple:


The next day after my toes turned purple:

Little Artist

Sometimes I think that Kacean just gives my little caveman free reign of ... well, whatever he wants. She's really good at keeping him happy! And she probably has just as much fun as he does.

He loves to color and she though it would be fun to color with dry erase markers.

Coloring her bathroom mirror:


Kacean coloring ... Ethan:



My babies first mustache!


Showing off their war paint:


Thanks Kace for all you do for us. We really appreciate you and your willingness to watch Ethan every day. We love you (even if you do color on Ethan's face! =D )

Snow Baby

For Christmas Ethan got some new snow clothes! Now he doesn't have to be cooped up as much, he'll actually get to go outside and run around.

We decided to break them in and go play outside with the dogs.

Ethan showing off his new snow pants and boots, and his not so new coat.


Happy baby! He was having so much fun finally being able to play outside.




Ethan sliding down the roof again. He loved it!

"Duck!"

Ethan has a slight obsession with ducks ... did I say slight? I meant a MAJOR obsession. He absolutely loves ducks! Everything with wings is a duck .... anything from a penguin, to a pterodactyl, an owl, bird, an actual duck of course and anything else we might stumble upon with wings.

Anyway, he has a stuffed puppet duck that sings when you push it's wing and he thinks it's pretty fun


We were playing with the duck and with Ethan and Mart made the ducks bill close on Ethan's hand suddenly and Ethan jumped big time. It was pretty funny, and Mart especially got a kick out of it.

Little helper

Ethan has major cabin fever. He's a huge outdoors kid and is getting tired of being cooped up in the house. A little while back after a snow storm, we let him go outside with us and help to get him outside for a minute. He thought it was great!


His hat was a little small making his big cheeks even bigger!





He sure had a good time. What a good little helper!

Buzz Lightyear

Ethan loves Buzz Light year! He must have been a good boy because he got .... not just one buzz light year ....

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Not even two buzz light years ....

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But THREE different buzz light years!!


What a lucky boy!

Christmas 2009

I know I'm way behind the times, but here's my Christmas update. I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to sit down and get caught up until now. There are lots of pictures, and I'll try not to chat too much about them.

Ethan's bath towel got torn up, so for Christmas I made him 4 new towels, 2 of which were custom monster towels!


My tree with the lights on


Christmas morning


Ethan starting in on his stocking, just figuring out what he's supposed to do




Aunt Ber got him some foam swords. He loves them!!


I also made him a new quilt for his bed.


Aunt Kace and Aunt Ber joined us in the morning. He liked having them there.


Daddy made Ethan 4 puzzles! Ethan's favorite piece is the octopus.


Trying out his new bath towel


Ber


Ethan made his daddy a new hat for this year


Ethan got some blocks and got right to work building a tower.


And he got his Buzz!



Mart made me a jewelry box for Christmas! I love it!



My sweet little goofball. I think he had a fun day!

Catch up

I'm so behind on blogging, so I'm getting ready to blog a months worth of stuff. Stay tuned!