My Sweet Little Boy...

Ethan is really becoming a "Momma's Boy" lately. He really knows how to melt my heart too! Just recently, he started waking up early and crying for me. When I get in his room, he says "Ni-night Mommy bed", asking to come to bed with me. I've only brought him to bed with me like twice EVER and that's when he was really sick and I didn't know what else to do. He'd only stay with us until he'd fall asleep and then I'd put him back to bed, but that hasn't been for months!! So, I really have no idea where this is coming from! Part of me really thinks that he KNOWS his life is about to change and he's taking advantage of just being the "only one" right now, but can he sense that?? Am I just crazy for thinking he has some sixth sense? Probably! I think what it really is, is that he just misses me. The past couple times he's asked to come to bed with me has been after I've worked a few days. This morning, I was so excited NOT have to set my alarm and get to sleep in a little from when I have been getting up for work....so much for that! Ethan was up around 6am, I tried to get him to go back to sleep in his own bed, no go - he wanted "mommy's ni-night"! So, I brought him to bed with me, be he lays almost on top of me and fidgets for at least an hour before falling back to sleep! Oh, well. I do enjoy having him there, it's only a couple hrs and I need to remember that these times of just us lying in bed in the mornings are numbered! This morning when he woke up he sat up and said "all done ni-night mommy". Then "get-up, get up!". I was rubbing my belly a little b/c the baby was kicking and he was watching me. I asked him if he wanted to feel mommy's belly and maybe the baby would kick him. So, he started rubbing my belly and saying "hi-hi baby, hi-hi baby". IT WAS SOOOOOOOO SWEET!!!! I totally melted!

Mother's Day

I had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day today! This morning I woke to the sweet sounds of Ethan talking, talking, talking! These days he talks about whatever he sees, we say or do, or what he wants to do! Honestly, I love listening to him put things together, lately he's been putting 2 and 3 words together and it's so fun! I usually hear all about what he's looking at in his room before I even walk in there! After breakfast, he played in the bathroom while I took a shower, or "mommy tubby" as he calls it. I had a really nice card from Ethan and Daddy waiting for me when I got out of the shower too! Then, we had a wonderful brunch with Derek's parents, brother and sister in law at Macatawa Legend's. We got Gana Twinkle a new bird feeder with 2 gift certs inside (one for Younker's, her fav and one for a mani/pedi). Ethan made her a stepping stone a few days ago with his foot print in it, she loved that too! After we had full bellies, we were off to get my mom some hanging baskets (my Mother's Day tradition)! I go to the same place every year, they have a great selection, great prices and are sooooo friendly and helpful! I even got 2 for myself! Yay, now my porch isn't naked anymore! We dropped them off, along with her cards and stepping stone too! Ethan loves to play with those ugly plastic flowers that spin. My mom has a bunch of them and now he runs around collecting them all and spins them. We've even inhereted a few at our house to avoid melt-downs from leaving his flowers! Derek's less then thrilled that his SON is obsessed with flowers lately, but there could be worse things right! He even wakes up talking about "go see flower, go outside". It's so hard to get him in the house now!

Anyway, after we left my mom's, Derek headed out fishing for the afternoon, I had every intention of taking a huge nap since it had turned cold and rainy, but instead I got a bug and decided to go through my closet! I recently inherited some summer maternity clothes from some friends of mine (since I was pregnant in the winter with Ethan!), and had this huge pile on my dresser for the past 2wks. I couldn't take looking at one more day! So I brought a bunch of winter stuff down stairs, but before I hung it up, I pulled out what I thought I wouldn't wear again....or that stuff I've been holding onto thinking I was going to loose enough weight to fit into again! So now I have more then enough room for all my fun, cute maternity clothes! The best part is that I can see my dresser and the floor around it now!!!! After that I had to do a little Facebooking of course. I actually got to lay down for about 20mins, which was perfect really.

Ethan woke as happy as ever and best of all he was quite snuggly. Ethan really hasn't been a very affectionate child, so when he's snuggly or clingy (which is really rare, even if he's sick) I eat it up! Daddy was still fishing "bishin" as Ethan says, so we decided to order pizza. It's my day and I'm NOT cooking! So, we had a little late dinner just the 2 of us, while he was finishing up, I was reading the paper. After he got done, he wanted to sit on my lap (again, very rare!), so we looked at the paper and flyers together. It was really quite fun! I decided it was a little late for a bath, so I just put his jammies on. This is something he normally fights me for and tonight, was just as content as ever, talk, talk, talking away about things as I changed him. He was being such a honey that I really didn't want to put him to bed so I just played in his room with him for a while. I got lots and lots of hugs and kisses. It was the ABSOLUTE BEST ending to my Mother's Day! It must be my hormones, but as he's sitting on my lap giving me butterfly kisses, Eskimo kisses and regular kisses, tears just ran like water! He even said "mommy water eyes" and touched them. I know this is really long and probably super boring, but I'm writing more for me then you. I just don't want to forget what a wonderful day I had with my wonderful little boy.


On that note, here's a few pictures. The 1st couple are from the Tulip Time parade on Thur. Ethan had a great time with his friends Max, baby Leah and baby Ben!

As promised here's some belly pics. These are actually from today, so here's me at 20weeks! Half way there! We had our official ultrasound on Friday and so far everything looked good, I haven't heard the report yet (prob not until Mon), but I think the tech would have said something if she caught something unusual....I hope. Anyway, we didn't find out the sex. Even if we wanted to, I think we would have been disappointed b/c the baby was cooperating! Any guesses????

Random Pics

Here's a few pictures and a little video at the bottom of the past couple weeks. Derek's birthday was yesterday and he's been working so hard the past few months and we didn't take a vacation this year, so I'm taking him to one of his favorite places....Las Vegas!! We leave Friday night for a long weekend and we both need a little get-a-way! We can't wait, but then again, I hate leaving Ethan for any length of time. I know he'll be just fine, probably won't even miss us, but I miss him terribly! Anyway, that's what's new with us. If I have time to take a picture of my ever growing belly before we leave, I'll post a pic. Otherwise, look for one when we get back! I can't believe how big I am already!!

Ethan is now becoming interested in the "potty", he likes to sit on it, but nothing happens yet. He often tells me when he goes now, so I know he's starting to understand the "feeling", but we're certainly not "potty-training" yet, just getting the idea! He's about to go through so many changes in the next few months, that I'm certainly not going to push potty training on him too!

All he needs is a bucket of water and life is good!! ( I had to take him home in no pants after this though, he was soaked!)

I think someone is ready for finger paints! (This was chocolate pudding as I busy doing something else!)

Easter

Well, once again, I'm behind on my blog!! At least I'm posting these in the same month!! Anyway, we had a very nice Easter this year. We hid a few shiny eggs in the yard for Ethan to find b/c we weren't sure he'd get into it, but he really did so I wish we would have hid more! Oh, well. Then we went to Boatwerks for brunch with "Gana Twinkle-Twinkle" (Grandma Bonnie) and "Papa,Papa,Papa" (Grandpa Denny), Uncle Bri and Aunt Sara! It was nice, but then I had to go from there to work and it was a really busy day in the ER!

Here's Ethan checking out his Easter basket! He's holding up a lady bug in an egg!

Ooh, eggs!

Here's Ethan on his egg hunt.

Found one!

Looking for more.

Gana had a basket waiting for him too and it was of course and Elmo basket! (which he's still carries around!)

Here's Ethan's spiky hair!

Enjoying the sun...

I couldn't wait get outside with Ethan today! He LOVES to be outside, I think he's got cabin fever like the rest of us! I wanted to do something fun for him, but I also wanted to check out Carter's big sale today. So, we compromised with a little a both. Unfortunately, Ethan wanted nothing to do with the shopping first and let it be known the ENTIRE time we were in the Carter's warehouse (which is at the other end of the outlet from their store)! Since we had to walk by the ducks and the "water" to get there, that's all he wanted to do! Fortunately, I brought my stroller so that I could keep him in the store, but he screamed the entire time we were in there! I was so embarrassed and normally I would have just left, but I was putting my foot down today! This was something I really wanted to check out, it was all parents in there anyway - if they haven't been through their own children throwing tantrums, they would someday! So, I just let him scream and went about my business, I could feel eyes on me the hole time though! I'm not a terrible mom am I? Well, I wasn't in there very long. I would have spent more time if I wasn't so "distracted" Once I got back to the front of the store, Ethan was happily chatting about the water. I was so mad, I could have just parked him in front of the window so that he could see the pond while I shopped real quick and he would have been fine!! UHH! Anyway, we had still had one more challenge, we had to go to the main store to pay for the goods, so we had to walk by the pond again! He didn't do much better while we were in line to pay, but at least it wasn't constant screaming, just occasional outbursts! I kept telling him we were going to see the ducks, we were going to see the ducks..... Finally, we were outside and down by the pond and he was so excited to see the ducks! I actually remembered to bring some bread too!! Unfortunately, so did every other parent there and the ducks weren't really interested in eating. There was bread all over the lawn that wasn't even eaten! Oh well, he had fun throwing the bread anyway!

Okay, so I must admit, I couldn't resist buying a few girly outfits - you know, just in case! Derek really doesn't want to find out the sex of the baby and there's no way I could keep a secret from him that long so, I guess you'll all have to wait till Sept too!! Even if this one is another boy, the seasons will be off so I'll need some more clothes either way! I can't believe we're almost half way already! My official US (ultrasound) is May 8 and I'll be 20wks! It's going so fast! Anyway, will post again soon! Happy Easter!

Ethan's 2nd Birthday!

Well, if there's anyone out there that hasn't given up on me, here's a new blog post.....finally!! Ethan's birthday party was pretty similar to last year, just family mostly! We weren't sure he'd get the whole party thing and didn't want to overwhelm him anyway! We had everyone over around noon for pizza, then opened presents, and then had Elmo cake!! MMMM was it good!

Ethan surprised us all by not being interested in opening presents yet!! I thought by now he'd really be into tearing into them, but he really didn't want anything to with it! Brian and Sara's gift was in a bag with lots of tissue paper and he did get into taking all the paper of the bag though! But once all the paper was out, he didn't really care to see what was in it!! Silly kid! Anyway, here's a bunch of pictures from the day thanks to Dad Eade!!

Here's the Birthday Boy!

Here he is getting into Sara's gift right away!!

Who me? (Notice Sara putting all the paper back)

Ga-Na Sue Whispering to Ethan while he's eating his pizza

Animated talking!

Ethan's Elmo cake (sorry suzie homemakers, I didn't make it)

Showing Ethan his cake

Singing Happy Birthday!

Ethan loved his 1st present opened. A remote control car from Uncle Brian and Aunt Sara. He wasn't interested in opening anything else after that!

All the gifts!

Ethan, Daddy, Papa Len, Aunt Sara, Aunt Kiki (Karen) and Jen

Ethan LOVED his balloons and was carrying them all over the house!

Mommy and Daddy got Ethan some of his own garden tools (time to put that boy to work!!) He really loved helping me rake, well pushing the leaves out the pile I had just made, this year!

Opening presents!

All eyes on Ethan

Ethan loves to get into Daddy's tools so Daddy bought him his very own tools. Here he is with screwdriver. I have to try to record how he says screwdriver, it's sooooooo cute!

Ga-Na Sue pinned him down for a second to open another one!

Papa Rich recording the action

Big smiles from Uncle Bri, Ga-Na Bonnie (or Ga-Na Twinkle-Twinkle as Ethan calls her) and Papa Len

Well, I'll really try not leave you hanging forever again! We just really haven't been doing a whole lot lately to report about. Just waiting and waiting for the weather to get nice and STAY there! Derek and I have started doing some rearranging in the basement in order to move everything from the spare bedroom down there so we can move Ethan into the spare bedroom! Everything is sneaking up on us so fast! I feel like we're running out of time already! I have to get Derek crackin' on it now b/c once fishing starts up I'm in trouble!

Okay, I really must admit that most of the reason I haven't posted in the past several weeks is that I usually do it when Ethan's napping and I've been SO stinkin tired lately, that I've been napping too! I really don't remember being this tired with Ethan, but then again wasn't chasing and entertaining a 2 yr old either! At least the nausea has GREATLY improved in the past couple weeks! I can deal with the tired a lot better then the nausea!

Derek is doing FABULOUS in his new job and absolutely loving it! I love that he's so happy- FINALLY!!! He's finally being treated like he deserves and they love him and praise him all the time too! It's just such a wonderful blessing that he has been given this opportunity. We are so thankful and blessed!

Well, that's our story for now! Hope you enjoyed the pics!!

Writers Block

Sorry that I've been such a slacker lately....I think I have a little writers block - or just pregnancy brain!! I promise to post something really great soon! My baby turns 2 on Friday!!! I just can't believe he's going to be 2! Then again, I can, b/c he's starting to turn into a little terror! Not all the time of course, but he's recently started throwing tantrums and they're aweful! It's like they came out of nowhere! No one has told him he needs to be "terrible" when he turns 2 did they???? Anyway, we'll have lots of fun pictures and stuff to post after his big day! Stay tuned!!