We made it!

It is very hard to believe that Ethan is already 6 months old!! In the early days, I remember just focusing on this milestone and thinking that if I could just make it here I would be good. Well...we have made it!! :)

Ethan continues to be such a good baby and such a delight. I am cracking up at him all the time! Here are some highlights of his recent development:

• He is starting to sit up on his own for a bit at a time. He loves to roll around and is all over the place! When he is on his stomach he is starting to stick his butt in the air but hasn't yet figured anything else out.
• He loves to vibrate his lips, like all babies do. Sorry, I have no idea what to call that! ;)
• He continues to "talk" and giggle and make the most wonderful noises.
• He still puts everything in his mouth and especially loves anything he cannot have. He is super fast and so we have to keep a close eye on him! It is probably time to start baby proofing.
• He is a very tactile person and wants to touch and feel everything. He is constantly moving his fingers against things in order to feel them.
• He has started eating food! He is a champ at it and has had no problems with gas or constipation. So far he loves cereal, bananas and sweet potatoes. He is working on his love of green beans! I started him on jarred baby food and then tried to feed him homemade. He was not a fan of the homemade so we are going to ease into that one.
• He still has no teeth and there doesn't seem to be any progress on that anytime soon.
• He loves reading books and just stares at them. Of course, he also tries to put the pages in his mouth!
• He is starting to be better at naps and is getting a bit more predictable. I can usually count on a good morning nap but his afternoon naps are more hit and miss.
• His night sleeping comes and goes. He will have really good nights and then frustrating nights. I keep reminding myself that he will not be getting up at night the rest of his life! :) He continues to do well at falling asleep on his own so I am able to lay him down while he is still awake and he will fall asleep.
• He is excited for his first big trip! On Tuesday we are heading to Florida with my sister and brother-in-law and another couple. We are really looking forward to the vacation. We will be staying at a house in Naples with a pool and the beach nearby. I am excited to see how Ethan does in and around the water. We are also very ready for some warm weather!! We are flying so it will also be interesting to see how that goes.

We are continually blessed by him and I am constantly amazed at what a good baby he is! He rarely cries and when he does we know something is wrong. He is more and more fun and it is such fun to see his little personality start to emerge! We are VERY much looking forward to the next 6 months!

Sleeping and Playing

I meant to write about this in my last post but I forgot and was reminded this morning. :) We have been struggling a little with Ethan's sleeping. He is doing somewhat better with naps. He usually likes to only do a 30 minute nap but will sometimes go longer. He is a bit of a "cat napper". I am slowly being able to depend on a morning nap, afternoon nap and a couple evening rests. However, the night time has been a bit frustrating! He will technically sleep through the night and does not usually need to get up to eat. However, he has been waking up very often screaming! I thought originally that he was waking up because his pacifier had fallen out but I do not think that is the case because he can sleep fine without it at other times. It is still a bit of a mystery why he is waking up! The nice thing is that he will go right back to sleep once the pacifier is in so I am only awake for a minute or two.

All the frustrations of the night are usually forgotten in the mornings because of how cute Ethan is! :) He will wake up and just hang out in his crib for a while. He doesn't cry or anything but will simply play or talk to himself. It is the most adorable thing!! A few recent mornings I have gotten up and thought I would just check in on him and he is actually awake and hanging out in his crib. The smile I get when he first sees me is the best thing in the world! Sometimes I wonder how we got soo lucky!! :)

Time is flying by!

This past week Ethan turned 5 months old! It is hard to believe that we are already there. In a way it seems like just yesterday he was born. I remember at the very beginning focusing on getting to 6 months old and so I can hardly believe we are only a month away from that milestone. :) He is doing wonderful. He continues to be a super good baby and is very fun. He laughs and smiles a ton and does lots of "talking". If you put him on his back he will roll onto his stomach and is trying to figure out how to get back over. :) He loves to hang out in his Bumbo and his exersaucer. Ethan has an oral fixation and wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth! He is not teething yet (thankfully!) but loves chewing on things. We find him very entertaining and are having tons of fun with him!

We thankfully survived January and are glad to have the month behind us. Curt was extremely busy teaching his class and doing his normal work and so he wasn't home much to hang out with us. He really enjoyed teaching and was thankful to have the experience. We are looking forward to the start of the new semester and to establishing a routine. This weekend Curt had the opportunity to play in a pond hockey tournament on Reed's Lake so we had fun getting bundled up and watching him. Ethan could hardly move in his snow suit so I am not sure he had any idea what was going on! :)

I am doing well and staying busy. I truly love staying home with Ethan and am very thankful for the way God has blessed us so that I can stay home.

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!

Greatly Blessed!

It is in this holiday season that I reflect on how truly blessed we are! We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend and it was fun to share Ethan's first Thanksgiving with our families. We got our Christmas tree and Ethan loves to look at the lights. :)

Ethan had another well child visit to the doctor today and he is doing "fantastic" according to his doctor. It is always wonderful to go to the doctor and have him give such positive feedback! Ethan is up to 13 pounds and is 26 inches long. He seems to be growing really fast now and changes often. He slept through the night for the first time a few nights ago and that was awesome!! He has consistently been sleeping well at night and is up only once, if at all. He is also taking better naps during the day and has even slept in his crib for a couple naps. He eats every 4 hours during the day which makes me feel more independent and free to go places and do things. These are big deals around here! :) He is starting to learn to roll over and will get onto his side and is very close to going all the way on to his belly. He seems to enjoy just hanging out on his side. He is showing a very fun personality and is doing lots of "talking" and smiling. He is more and more entertaining! He is getting really good at holding up his head and spends time in his Bumbo, which he enjoys. He has spent some time in his exersaucer and also seems to enjoy that.

He had to get more immunizations today, which was not fun! He seemed to remember what was going to happen because before the nurse even had the shots ready, he stuck his bottom lip out in a pout and started screaming! He only cried for a few minutes and then settled right down.

We are really looking forward to the Christmas season and to experiencing everything with Ethan for the first time. Having a child of my own brings a new level of meaning to the gift of God sending his Son for us.

to sleep...or NOT to sleep!

About a month ago Ethan moved into his crib to sleep. He had been doing very well there and had been consistently going 5-6 hours before waking up. He even did 7 hours one night! I was thrilled and thought that we were on our way to finally sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, he seems to have gone backwards in the past few days! Previously, he would sleep soundly and I wouldn't hear a peep from him until he was ready to get up to eat. However, he has now started waking up between feedings. He will cry and I will go in and he seems to be partly awake. I will hold him a bit and put him back down but he will be up again in a very short time. He also is only going about 3 hours before wanting to eat, which is reverting back to when he was much smaller!

During the day he loves his pacifier and usually needs it to settle down and fall asleep. However, he has never needed it at night. He has always fallen asleep easily after nursing and stayed asleep until he was ready to eat. I am now wondering if he is needing it even in the night since he keeps waking up. However, I am very hesitant to start using it at night because I don't want to have to get up and put it back in when it falls out and he wakes up.

He is 11 1/2 weeks old and I was hoping that we were consistently moving in the other direction so this is making for some exhausting and frustrating nights! I must also say that I am very thankful for such a wonderful husband! While he hears nothing in the night and sleeps through everything, he has been wonderful at getting up with Ethan in the morning so that I can sleep a bit longer. I am once again thankful for his flexible work schedule and the close proximity of his work.

I am confused because he was previously doing so good. Does anyone have any advice/thoughts on this? Any similar experiences with your children? Are there things I can do to help him sleep more soundly and longer? Is this just a stage that we will hopefully soon pass through?

Recent Happenings

Ethan is now 2 months old! He is thriving and doing great! It is such fun to watch him grow and start to see more of his personality. He is such a mover! His arms and legs are almost always moving and he kicks like crazy when laying down. He is currently kicking me as he lays on the couch beside me. He has also learned to smile and that is such fun! He is soo cute and it makes us very happy to see his smiles and his responses to us. :) He is starting to be more alert and will look at people and things more. He is very vocal and makes all kinds of noises and sounds. I think he will be a talker and a mover! :) He recently transitioned to sleeping in his crib in the nursery. It was a scary first night for me! I had to resist the strong urge to go in and make sure he was breathing. He seems to like his crib and overall sleeps well in it. He is also doing better at falling asleep after eating in the middle of the night and staying asleep when I lay him down. He will generally do a 5-6 hour initial stretch at night followed by about 3 hour stretches. That usually means we are only up about twice in the night, which is great progress! The only thing we struggle with is a general fussy period at night. Ethan often gets fussy in the evenings and will cry if not in a specific position or doing specific movements. It can make for some long evenings but otherwise he is a great baby. We had our first overnight away from home this past weekend at our RA retreat. Overall, Ethan did great and the RAs had fun snuggling and playing with him. He had a rough time sleeping in a new place but we survived the night. We had a fun first Halloween and enjoyed showing Ethan off to our family in his giraffe costume. :)

He is such a fun little guy and I am incredibly thankful for the blessings that God has poured upon our family. It is a great blessing to have Curt work soo close to home and have such a flexible schedule. He is able to watch Ethan while I exercise and it is nice to have some time to myself. He is also able to come home periodically during the day to see us, which is always a nice break. We can't believe that it is already November and that the semester will be over before we know it!