December 14, 2010

Today, Ethan is 11 months old! He was wearing this super cute outfit so I just had to get his picture with the lion and zebra. He is such a snuggle bug!



Today was also Kaitlin's preschool Christmas program. It was very cute and quite funny! She got sick last year and wasn't able to be in the program, so we were very excited to see it! Her class sang "Baby Jesus, We Love You" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." She did well, but seemed pretty grumpy. Here is a picture of her with her class where she is actually smiling a little. She is in the back row, 4th from the left.



Here is the video (part 1):


Here is part 2:


Here is video while they were taking pictures (the many faces of Kaitlin):

Ethan's 9-month Checkup

Ethan had his 9-month checkup this morning and the doctor said he looks great! He weighed in at 18 lbs, 7 oz and is 26 ½ inches long. I was very anxious about this appointment because 9-months is when Kaitlin's weight started to drop off and we had to get a bunch of tests done. Ethan did drop from the 50th percentile in weight to the 25th percentile and from the 25th percentile in length to the 10th, but the doctor didn't seem concerned since his thighs are so chunky! Here are a couple pictures of Ethan from today. I tried to get one that would show off his thighs! He's not pulling himself up or cruising yet, but he will slide himself off a chair, couch, etc. and stand up while holding on (like in the second picture). I keep telling him that he's not allowed to start cruising before he crawls!

War Eagle!

We took Kaitlin and Ethan to the football game yesterday. It was Ethan's first game and he was clearly unimpressed! He slept for about 5 minutes and then the band started to play and woke him up. At that point, he was ready to eat so I left the stands and found a shady place to feed him. Kaitlin was ready to leave before the game started, but she did enjoy seeing Nova, the golden eagle, fly, and singing "Glory, glory to ole Auburn" with the band (we've been practicing at home). Most of the games have been late, so it was nice to be able to take the kids. I doubt that we will take them to another game this season since Kaitlin doesn't like the noise, but it was fun to share these traditions with Kaitlin.

 

 

 

Kaitlin's 3-year Checkup

We just got back from Kaitlin's 3-year checkup and she is doing great! She weighs 26.6 pounds and is 36 1/4 inches tall which puts her around the 25th percentile for both. She hasn't even been close to 25th percentile since she was 6 months old so that is wonderful news! We are very lucky to have two healthy kiddos! Here is Kaitlin in her new dance outfit from Mrs. Christy.

Peek-A-Boo!

I was in our bedroom putting away laundry yesterday, when I heard lots of giggles from the great room. I went out to see what was going on and this is what I found:

First Day of School

Kaitlin moved up to the three-year-old class at school today. She looked so grown up carrying her backpack!

Seven Months

With all our travels, I never got around to taking 6-month pictures of Ethan. I'm really glad that I started taking these great pictures of him with the zebra and the lion when he was a baby since we won't be able to continue the "Harley/baby" series. So, here is Ethan at 7-months. As usual, I couldn't just pick one picture, so here are a few of my favorites.




This one cracks me up! Ethan is looking at Kaitlin like "What are you doing in my picture?


Ethan adores Kaitlin! Can't you tell?

Harley Yost 6/13/03 - 8/5/10

Today we lost a member of our family. Shortly after moving to Auburn, we got Harley. He was defective when we got him; he had a little spot on his nose that the breeders vet hadn't diagnosed. We decided to take a chance on the little guy and we are so glad we did! Harley has been the best dog. He just loved everyone and was the official greeter at the Yost house. As soon as the doorbell rang, he would run to the door to greet our visitors. We always joked that if someone tried to break in, he would lick them to death! Harley loved to take walks! We started calling them "things" because he knew what walk meant and would get all excited as soon as someone said the word. Harley didn't get nearly as much attention after Kaitlin was born and even less after Ethan was born, but he still loved us and he loved our kids (especially when Kaitlin would drop food for him)! He let us do a lot of silly things to him and he put up with a lot of stuff that Kaitlin did to him. He was very gentle with her. We couldn't have asked for a better dog. We miss you already, Harley!

Here are a few pictures of Harley through the years.






To see more pictures of Harley, click here.

Ethan's Six-Month Checkup

I took Little Man for his six-month checkup today. He weighed in at 16 pounds, 13 ounces and is 26 inches long. The doctor said he looks fantastic!! We are so thankful that God has given us two healthy children.

Ethan Sits Up!

While we were in Florida, Ethan really started to master his sitting skills. He still falls, and gets really mad when he falls backwards! I took several pictures within a few minutes and I just loved all the different expressions I caught. I just couldn't resist posting all of them!

Florida 2010

We had a super trip to Florida this summer. Kaitlin had lots of fun running around and being silly with her cousins, Kyler and Kohl, and I'm pretty sure she didn't want to come home! We visited the Broward Fire Academy where the kids got to climb on the firetrucks and Uncle Kenny turned on the lights. Kaitlin wanted to take a ride, but there was a class going on...maybe next time. Kaitlin also went fishing with PopPop and caught a fish. She seemed pretty excited about it at first, but you'll see how she really felt about that fish in the pictures! We also went to the beach for breakfast one morning, but I didn't get any pictures. Kaitlin and I had a blast "jumping" the waves just like I used to do with my Dad. The water was really rough that day so we had some big jumps to make!

Unfortunately, while we were in Florida, our beloved Harley got sick. He started out drinking a ton and going to the bathroom all the time, then he started throwing up and even stopped eating. We took him to the vet as soon as we could (and even made the drive in one day instead of breaking it up like we had planned). The vet can't find anything wrong with him. All of the tests and x-rays are normal. Our vet has even consulted with the vet school about his condition and they just can't seem to find anything. Harley is still at the vet on IV fluids and medication. After three days, we are missing him terribly and are really worried about him.

On a lighter note, here are the pictures from our trip.

Big Sister

Kaitlin is a great big sister! She loves to help feed Ethan his baby food (and Ethan looooves to eat it)!

 

Virginia July 2010

We went up to Virginia for Robbie's first birthday and the 4th of July. It was lots of fun! Ethan got to meet Aunt Kim, Uncle Rich and his cousins for the first time. Aunt Kim and I couldn't believe that he was almost 6 months old before she met him! Along the way, we stopped to visit Great Grandma ELois and Aunt Judy in Albemarle, NC. We were very surprised that "Welcome to Albemarle" sign didn't say anything about being the home of Kelly Pickler from American Idol! She does have a street named after her in Albemarle though. We had a lot of fun visiting with family and Kaitlin and Sarah just wore each other out! It will be fun to see how Ethan and Robbie play together when they get a little older. On the way home, we visited with Keven's friend/colleague from graduate school in Raleigh and with the Snyders outside Atlanta.

Wow!

I am constantly amazed at all the things that Kaitlin is learning and remembers. This morning we were driving over to church to drop off a casserole for a funeral and on the way Kaitlin saw a squirrel. She said something like this: "There's a squirrel. Squirrels eat acorns. But sometimes they don't. Sometimes they bury them and come back to get them later." Now, I know that Kaitlin learned that from one of her Wild Animal Baby videos, it just always amazes me to hear it come out of her mouth and to realize how much she really does pay attention and learn. I just felt like sharing that little tidbit. Hopefully I will have a chance to post some pictures from our trip to Virginia soon.

Tummy Time!

Kaitlin enjoys having "tummy time" with Ethan. Ethan adores his big sister.

Thumbs Up!

It looks like we're going to have another thumbsucker. I know some people try to avoid this, but I am all about some self-soothing. Maybe this is one step closer to sleeping through the night!


I love this one...it looks like he is trying to hold it in there!

Sometimes Ethan sucks his right thumb and sometimes he sucks two fingers on his left hand so we're not sure yet which it's going to be. I don't care as long as it helps him sleep!

Ethan's Four-Month Checkup

I almost forgot to post Ethan's 4-month stats! He had his checkup on Thursday, May 20 and weighed in at 14 pounds 12 ounces and is 24 1/4 inches long. He's in the 25 percentile for weight. The doctor said he looks great and gave us the OK to start some rice cereal. I was thinking I would wait a little while since he's growing so well on just breast milk, but I'm not sure how much longer I can wake up every 3 hours at night.

We always said that Kaitlin spoiled us by sleeping through the night at 3 months and boy were we right! Occasionally Ethan will give us a 5 or 6 hour stretch, but he usually does it for two nights and then goes back to waking up every 3 hours. I'm exhausted and I have a pretty bad attitude by 5 or 5:30 when he's waking up again and I still feel like I haven't gotten any sleep. The doctor also said that most babies don't sleep through the night until they are 4-6 months old so I think we'll stick it out for another month or so and if he's not doing any better it might just be time for some cereal!

Vote Now!

We have entered Kaitlin and Ethan in a local photo contest. If you have a minute, please click here and vote. Scroll to the bottom to vote. Kaitlin is #11and Ethan is #26.

You can vote for one picture a day until 11:00AM on Monday, May 31, so vote as much as you can! Thank you!

Ethan Videos

I got some video of Ethan making his favorite noise the other day. If he's awake and not eating, he's probably making this noise! Such a boy! I was able to catch a little bit of a giggle as well.

My boy can make fart sounds:



My boy can giggle:

Ethan at 4-Months

Wow! Ethan turned 4-months old on Friday. It's hard to believe how fast he is growing. It seems like it is happening even faster than it did with Kaitlin. Probably because we don't spend as much one-on-one time with him. It's definitely a lot harder to balance everything with two kids and we are already seeing personality differences between Kaitlin and Ethan.

Kaitlin was a very easy baby and we knew we were being spoiled with such an agreeable first child. Ethan doesn't really like to lay down for very long. He will tolerate it for 15-20 minutes and then he wants to be up so that he can see what's going on. Unfortunately, he spends a lot of time crying on the floor while we attend to other things. Lately, Ethan has been showing his stubborn side and hasn't been wanting to take a bottle. It's very frustrating to me because there are times when I want to leave him with someone else to spend a little time with Kaitlin or Keven. He's also going to be starting "school" one day a week in June and will need to take a bottle while he's there. We've begun bottle shopping to try and find one that he will take more easily.

For the first month or so, Ethan was really quite grumpy! He has started to smile and giggle now though. He loves to be talked to and bounced around and is very ticklish! I bought him a lion doll that hangs on his car seat which he loves! We named him Leo and Ethan usually smiles when he sees him.

Overall Kaitlin is doing really well. She gets a little extra clingy sometimes, especially with me, but she is a great big sister! She likes to get right in Ethan's face and talk baby talk to him. He loves it! The other night, she was dancing for him and he just laughed and laughed; it was too cute! If you're still reading, thanks! I probably would have scrolled down to the pictures already :)

Friends

We spent the day in Birmingham yesterday with our dear friends the Gaddis'. We met Jenn and Matt in our church small group a few months before I became pregnant with Kaitlin. Besides family, this was the first group of people we shared our exciting news with. A week or two after we announced our news to the group, Jenn and Matt shared that they were also expecting! We grew very close over the next 9 months of pregnancy. Unfortunately, shortly after Kaitlin and Jake were born, Jenn and Matt moved to Birmingham. We get together occasionally and always have a great time! Here is a picture of Kaitlin and Jake. It's really difficult to get two tired 2-year-olds to look at the camera at the same time, but I thought this one cute. Jake is totally not interested in hugging Kaitlin (although a minute before, he was the one hugging her).














I wanted to post a picture of them as babies, but we just got a new computer and haven't moved the pictures to it yet so I can't get to them:(

Well, when I called Jenn to tell her that I was pregnant again, she said "Me too!" In December, their precious little girl, Emmie, was born. We are thrilled that Ethan also has a Gaddis play mate! Here are a couple pictures of Ethan and Emmie. I think we have pictures of Kaitlin and Jake on the same activity mat and in these same car seats! If only we could convince them to move back to Auburn!

Easter Fun

Well, our Easter weekend wasn't exactly what we pictured. We started the Easter festivities on Saturday by going to an Easter egg hunt put on by a local church. It was sort of random that we decided to go since we were planning to go to an Easter egg hunt at the golf club on Sunday, but we were glad we went. Kaitlin came into our room around 3am Sunday morning and started throwing up so all of our plans were thwarted! Kaitlin wasn't even very excited about her Easter basket. The Easter Bunny didn't hide any eggs, but he did leave a bag full of eggs for us to hide when Kaitlin was feeling better. Monday night, when it was clear that Kaitlin was over the stomach bug, we hid the eggs in the backyard. We were really surprised at how much Kaitlin got into it. She would spot an egg and run right to it. We just had a ball watching her. It was definitely more fun than the egg hunt on Saturday when they just threw the eggs on the ground. I was able to get a picture of Ethan in his Easter outfit with his basket. I could barely snap his little onesie! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Easter Fun

We also saw the Easter Bunny at Walgreens on Saturday, but we haven't picked up those pictures yet (also not something we planned on doing since the Easter Bunny was supposed to be at the golf club on Sunday).

Sweet

Kaitlin is a sweet big sister...

Spring Break Fun

We thought about taking a short trip somewhere over Keven's spring break, but we never pulled anything together. Since we didn't pull together a trip, we were planning to picnic and play at various parks each day and go to the Montgomery Zoo one day. Kaitlin and Keven both ended up getting sick at the beginning of the week and by the middle of the week, we were having crappy weather. So, we finally had OK picnic weather on Thursday and went to the zoo on Friday. Saturday, we went for another picnic and took Harley with us. He has really been neglected since Ethan was born and appreciated the trip. Here are some pictures from Friday and Saturday. We forgot to take the camera with us to the zoo, but we got a few pictures with Keven's phone. Kaitlin was really excited about the train ride and we thought it would be fun to sit up front, but the train whistle was really loud and scared both Kaitlin and Ethan. I ended up watching the conductor the whole time so that I could cover Kaitlin's ears and warn her before the whistle blew.




We've been having some problems with the slideshows, so please let me know if you can't see it either by commenting or sending me a message. Thanks!

Holy Cow!

I took Ethan for his 2-month checkup this morning and he is doing great! He weighed 11 lbs. 3 oz. which is just crazy since he was only 10 lbs. last Thursday! He is now 22 inches long and is in the 50th percentile for both weight and height. I don't think we're going to have the weight issues we had with Kaitlin! Poor little man had to have four shots and an oral vaccine today, but he took it like a champ (and so did Mommy)!

Stuffed Animals

After we finally got Ethan's room painted and the crib made up, I decided that it was pretty boring and we really needed some more animal stuff to jazz the place up a bit. When I saw these stuffed animals at Target, I knew they were perfect for Ethan's room! I couldn't resist taking his picture with them and posting them for comparison.






















































I forgot to mention that I've actually seen these stuffed animals in two different TV shows since I bought them. We're clearly trendsetters ;)

Ethan's Room

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of Ethan's room. Actually, that's because it just got finished recently - a result of what we call the "Second Child Syndrome." I have to thank my friends Courtney and Nicole for introducing me to vinyl lettering from Etsy. Ethan's name turned out great and was much easier to put on the wall than the wood letters that we had in Kaitlin's nursery. And due to a shipping mishap, the lady I ordered it from sent us the monkey over the changing table for free! It looks really cute; I just wish I had told her to make it in brown (she automatically makes everything from black if you don't specify a color).

See Ethan Grow

Ethan is two months old today! We decided to continue the tradition of taking pictures with Harley, so this is the first of the series of Ethan and Harley. In the first picture, he is 2 weeks old and in the second, he is 2 months old. We think that he is growing so much faster than Kaitlin did, but I compared their weights at this age the other day and Ethan actually weighs several ounces less than Kaitlin did at 2 months. There was a macro enabled on the camera today when we took pictures, so they are a little blurry, especially the one with Kaitlin :(

Poor Harley

Kaitlin's new favorite activities include tormenting Harley and Simba. She loves to wake Simba up from his naps, chase him around the house, make him sit, and has picked him up a few times. Simba is NOT a fan. She also enjoys dragging Harley around by his collar. Harley is a good sport and is desparate for attention, so he often complies. I was able to catch a few pictures. This particular day, he was protesting pretty strongly.









































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