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).