Holiday Celebrations

Happy New Year! It is hard to believe that Christmas is over and we are into 2011 already! I figured it was time to update on our celebrations and how our little man is doing.

We had a WONDERFUL first Christmas season with Ethan. I ended almost every night thanking God for such a great baby and such an amazing family. We had a number of family celebrations and he did great at them all! He is a spoiled, blessed little guy! :) We spent Christmas Eve with Curt's parents and had a very nice day of relaxing and playing games. Then we were with my family on Christmas day. It was such fun to incorporate Ethan into our traditions. He received lots of books and clothes and a fun activity center that he will be able to use at Grandpa and Grandma Norton's house.

Curt was a bit amazed at how many pictures my sister and I could take of

Ethan! :)

Curt's brother and his fiancée flew home from California on Christmas day so Ethan was finally able to meet Uncle Ty and Aunt Erin the day after Christmas. He loved them! He smiled and smiled for Uncle Ty and seemed to love hanging out with him! We were able to spend lots of time with them while they were home, which was wonderful. We are super excited for their wedding this summer!

We had our last Christmas celebration on Sunday and are looking forward to getting back into our routine. I am also looking forward to "normal" eating after all the goodies of the season!

We also had a great New Years Eve. Our dear friends, Zach and Rachel, moved back to Michigan from Hawaii and so we were able to hang out with them and our other great friends, John and Laura, for the night. We went to Curt's grandparents' cottage. Ethan loved it and I cannot wait to go up there this summer to swim and play. John and Laura brought their son, Judah, who is 2 along and it was great fun playing with him. The boys slept great and I was excited to know that Ethan will do fine sleeping there this summer!

January is going to be a very busy and stressful month for us! Curt has the opportunity to teach an interim class here at Calvin. For those of you that don't know, it is a class that lasts for 3 weeks and that he will teach every day for 3 hours. He is co-teaching it with another person and has about 30 students. It is called "Life Hacking" and will take a look at the self-help movement within the light of Scripture. I think he is really looking forward to it and to the opportunity to try something new and see what he thinks of teaching. It will mean very busy days as he will continue to do his RD work. January is usually a busy month for that as well since students have more free time than usual, which can sometimes mean they are creative in their use of that time. :) So, Ethan and I are going to be seeing a bit less of Daddy than we are used to this month.

Ethan is doing fantastic! He is 4 months old now, which is crazy. He is doing a great job of holding up his head and will sit while being held. He rolls onto his stomach a lot and loves hanging out in his exersaucer. He smiles and laughs a lot and is a very happy baby. He is still quite the talker and I often wish I knew what he is thinking and saying! We had been having some trouble with his sleeping and needing to put his pacifier in his mouth a lot at night (sometimes every 15 minutes!). I had been told by other mothers that once they started sleeping their babies on their stomachs they slept a lot better, so I decided to give it a try. It was a bit scary to lay him on his stomach at first and I would often check to make sure he was still breathing! However, it seems true and he has been sleeping much better! I hesitate to say this because it seems that every time I talk about how great he is sleeping he reverts backwards so hopefully that won't happen this time. :) He has consistently been getting up only once a night around 4:30 am. Over the last few nights he has been going longer and longer and last night he didn't wake up until he was ready to get up at 7:30. I can handle that!! He has also been taking better naps and is starting to get a bit more predictable. It is nice to have time to get things done.

We have loved our holiday season and really enjoyed the quiet around campus! I am sitting here looking at the beautiful trees with the new snow and somewhat dreading the return of students today! :) I am super excited about the months ahead and absolutely love witnessing Ethan's new discoveries!