Ethan has something to say

Yes those are pictures from an ultrasound that Meredith had yesterday. So we have an announcement. Meredith is pregnant. She is 10 weeks along. We are very excited about it. The due date is Feb 9th. Here is the up close picture of Baby Fish.

In this picture the baby is facing us. The head is on the left side as you look at it. You can see the arms as you move to the right and down, then the body and the legs. It is to bad you can't do a little video of an ultrasound because its little legs and arms were moving as we watched. You could also see its little heart pounding away. So cool.

Summer Fun

We have been lucky to get to spend the last week with some of Abe's family. His parents and sister, Michelle, came into town for the week and we have had a wonderful time. Ethan adores his "papa" and "gran gran". He was a little confused when we talked about grandma and grandpa coming since he expected it to be my parents but it didn't take him long to warm up to everyone and he LOVED the attention. From the moment he woke up to the moment he went to bed he had to know where "Shell", "papa", and "gran gran" were. We did our best to show everyone a good time. I think Michelle has gotten more than her fill of the outdoors but the weather has been very nice and it was a good time to be outdoors.

We hiked up the Cascades during the week. It was a beautiful, cool day so it was a great time for a hike. Ethan was good on the hike and especially liked the dead deer that was floating in the pool under the falls. Needless to say no one wanted to get into the water.Ethan was not a fan of having me hold onto him while we walked on the rocks. He seemed to think he was big enough to do it by himself.

We got up close and personal with the animals at the zoo. Ethan had a great time seeing all the animals. (And no the alligator is not real, but Ethan was still a little hesitant.)

Ethan liked the animals he could touch. They had some goats wandering around that he followed.
His favorites were the chickens. We probably should have just saved our money and taken him to someone's farm where he could chase the chickens for free. Grandpa taught him to say "dinner" as he chased them. Lucky for the chickens he is still a little slow.


We also took a tour of Tech and wandered by the Duck Pond. Once again Ethan was greatly amused by chasing the baby ducks and telling them "hi".

The Ballad of the Green Beret

I have a great story to tell about Ethan and his night time routine. But first a little background information. Meredith is in Atlanta this week doing some training for work. I am in my final week of class for school this year so in order to make both of our lives easier her mom agreed to watch Ethan for the week. In order to stay consistent Judy (Meredith's mom) asked what his normal night time routine is. We normally read one story, say a prayer, and then as I am putting him down and turning out the lights I sing him the Ballad of the Green Beret. Judy of course didn't know this song. So they looked it up on the web. It played the song and had an animated soldier throwing hand grenades and shooting a rifle. http://www.brownielocks.com/balladofthegreenberetsWAVE.html Ethan heard the song playing and came into the room saying "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy". So cute. Then he saw the animation and pointed at it and said the same thing again. Finally when the song finished he said "night, night". If that wasn't the cutest story ever Meredith called on Monday to find out how Ethan was doing. Judy told her that Ethan has been taking her by the hand and walking her to the computer and saying "Daddy, Daddy" to get her to play the song again. This happened at least twenty times. He is the cutest little boy.

We love messes.

The other night we let Ethan feed himself and it became a real mess. So when he started putting the bowl on his head we decided rather than stopping him we would just get the camera. All the damage was already done by that point in time.

Here are some more of the pictures of Ethan helping Dad wash the car. Though in the midst of it all he managed to eat the soap bubbles and dump the bucket out, it was still fun to watch him want to help. His pants were a little big though so he was sporting a little crack most of the time. Good thing the diaper stayed up.

And for those that didn't know three weeks ago the weather started to get a little warm here so we decided to kick on the a.c. (it was 98 one day and I know that many of you live in warmer climates) only to find out that it wasn't working. So we thought that it was lucky that this happened before our home insurance had lapsed. We called them they set us up with a contractor who came out and told us that our heat pump needed replaced. Apparently the insurance company gave that contractor such a hard in the next two weeks that they refused to work with the insurance company. So after many hours on hold and countless frustrations we will finally are having our a.c. unit fixed on Friday. Luckily some friends let us borrow a window unit that they weren't using so we have been able to survive. The whole family has been sleeping in the basement. I forgot to mention that during this time Ethan also got an ear infection, and had a 103 degree fever. Not fun when the house is almost unbearable. With this ear infection we found that Ethan is not only allergic to penicillin but also third generation cephalosporins (the two main antibiotics for ear infections). One last story to go along with this and then the marathon post will be done. Monday we decided to go to Moes for dinner, they have 5 dollar meal deal on Mondays. We had just sat down with our food and given Ethan a corn chip (Ethan was still taking the antibiotics at this time before we found out his allergy) when he starts to cough and then the cough turns into throwing up. So fun. Countless napkins later we are walking out the door with a child in a diaper and the food in to go boxes. Good times.

Helping Dad

This weekend we got to spend lots of time together and outside. It was so funny to see how much Ethan loves to be like his dad and help out. He didn't want to be left out of anything. He was a big help with washing the car. Though I think he ate more soap then actually made it to the car. And in the second picture you can see that he managed to dump a large amount of soap down the front of his pants.
He had his lawnmower out when it was time to cut the grass. He walked around saying "mow, mow, mow" the whole time.
And he even managed to give dad a few pointers on his form. He's been known to put a few books on Abe's back to give him a little extra weight. What a sweetheart!

Our Little Ladies Man

I know we have told you about Ethan and all the girls he adores but I finally have some pictures to back it up. The other night one of our friends brought their daughter over so we could babysit her for the evening. They are only two weeks apart in age and play together all the time. Ethan decided when I told him to share the lion that Emma was riding on that I meant he should get on too. He was totally content to hold on to her and ride too. She was not a fan of this and gave him a push off pretty soon after. They made up later when he gave her a sweet little hug.

So as you all know yesterday was my birthday, my 25th birthday for the 5th time. thanks for the well wishes. Abe was very excited to give me my presents so we had decided that I would open them before work on my birthday. So the night before I was awoken to Abe jumping out of the bed. I looked at the clock and it was 12:05AM. I thought maybe he was just that excited to give me my presents. I asked him what was wrong and he said very clearly "Quick, get out of bed, its not stable!" So I was totally confused. I asked him again and he told me the same thing. Since he has been known to mutter things in his sleep I asked him if he was awake. He was totally annoyed with the question and said "Yes I'm awake. You have to get out of the bed." So I finally did. Abe was looking at the bed and I asked him what he was going to do about it. He told me to get back in bed to test it out. I didn't think it was very chivalrious for making me see if it was going to fall. Then he just got back into bed and didn't say a thing. Of course I laid awake for a while because I started to convince myself that maybe it did feel a little shaky. In the morning I asked Abe why he had thought the bed was unstable. He just looked at me and said he had no idea what I was talking about. So I guess he was asleep after all. All he remembers is that he was having some dream about something being unstable. So I guess I'll have to come up with a better way to decide if Abe is awake or asleep when he says strange things in his sleep.

I want to wish Meredith a very happy birthday. She is turning 25 again this year. Isn't it amazing how when we got married she was the same age. That is one great thing about her she never gets any older :). So everyone wish Meredith a happy birthday. Love you baby