Do you know what today is?

If any of you have closely monitored your calendars you will know that today is September 15 but also the day we found out the sex of Baby Fish #2. So would anyone like to take a guess? Though the baby did not want to cooperate for most of the ultrasound in the end it let us have a little peek. And we are having a girl! We are happy to say that we have not broken any traditions in either of our families by having more than one boy in a row. We are very excited and nervous at the same time. Just when you get comfortable with raising a boy you get handed a little girl.

Sorry we have no adorable pictures or creative announcements. I had to leave town after the ultrasound for a work related trip so there was no time for anything fancy. So feel free to send some good advice to Abe on raising a girl 'cause I think he is more worried about this than me.

love,
Meredith

Everyone is getting potty trained

So we have been working with Ethan on potty training and he has been doing great. He is such a funny kid. He told me the other day that monkey needed to go potty so he put monkey on the potty. I think he is just the cutest thing in his little underwear. He has figured out that claiming he has to go to the bathroom will get him out of places he doesn't want to be, i.e. his carseat, church, or his high chair. We will let him watch some tv while he sits on the toilet so if he wants to watch a show and we say no then he will say "potty" and sit down. So manipulative but just adorable.

In other news we now know that September 15th we should find out the sex of Baby Fish if all goes as planned. So stay tuned for the blog announcement around then.

~Meredith

He's a Dancin' Machine

We finally got a clip of Ethan dancing while visiting our friends this past weekend. He loves to get down to any type of music. For the last several months his dancing was always one foot tapping on the floor. We finally figured out why he thought that was how you dance. He has watched a tv show with a tap dancing horse. So Ethan has been "tap" dancing. So now if we sing the theme song to the show he will do his tap dancing. It is so funny.

I can't believe summer is over. Abe started classes again today. We are very glad to have him back home but I know he isn't happy about starting back.

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.