You be the judge...

Ever since Ethan was born, people have been asking, and speculating, about who he looks like: me or Will? Since neither Will nor I have any major prominent features (as far as I know) that stick out to us on Ethan, it's always been hard for me to tell. Plus, I think difficult to discern who he resembles when I see him every day. But, the other day, I stumbled upon my six month photo, and the question everybody has been asking was finally answered. If you looked at the picture on the left above and wondered why I was dressing Ethan up in drag, you must agree with me: the kid looks just like me as a baby! Pretty cool.

There is still hope for the Will genes, though, since Ethan already has Will's eyes. At first glance they look brown, like mine, but on close examination they are Will's exact eye color: brown with green sprinkles. With any hope, Ethan's eyes will stay exactly like Will's, not just in color but also strength since Will has 20/20 vision and I, well, I certainly do not. It will be interesting to see how his looks change as he grows older.

Happy Easter Part II

If there's one thing I've learned from being a parent it's that as soon as you think you have something worked out, a wrench is thrown in to your routine. Both Will and I feel like a wrench was thrown at our heads this morning, though, as Ethan was up in the night for the second time in a row last night. And I was just telling my mother in law that I couldn't remember the last time he was up in the middle of the night. Even as I said it, I thought I was probably jinxing myself. Apparently I was. With only a few mild setbacks, Ethan has been a phenomenal sleeper for about 3 months. He sleeps around 12 hours straight at night and takes two, hour long naps every day. It was not easy to get him this way, and I feel like I've worked diligently to get him to this point. I am so careful to not go out for long during the day so he can take his naps on time and get to bed when he's tired. He goes to sleep for naps and bed completely awake and can put himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. When I think back of all the rocking and coaxing and praying I used to do, and how I would dread bedtime, I am so grateful to have finally figured it out. At least I thought I had. The wrench we're dealing with now is that Ethan has discovered how to stand up in his crib. If you watched the video in the previous post, you saw how adorable this is - or shall I say was? The problem now is that when I put him down for a nap, instead of rolling over and going to sleep, he's getting up on his knees, pulling himself up, and standing along the edge of the crib. For a while he's happy and throws his pacifiers with glee. But, eventually, he realizes he's tired and wants to sleep but can't get down because he hasn't quite mastered the landing yet. Thus, it's been a rough couple of days trying to get him to lay down. And this seems to be effecting his night sleep now, as well, so we are frustrated. For this morning's nap, he stood up crying for twenty minutes before dropping - with a sad thud - and going to sleep. We both hate listening to him cry, but we also know that us going in there only delays him going to sleep, making himself even more overtired and resulting in short, non-restorative naps. He's now been asleep for over 40 minutes, so we're hoping we will have a better day today.

Now that that's out of my system, I'll tell you about the rest of Easter. We had a very nice day. It started early with Mass at 8am. Most of you know we don't attend Mass very often and we have become Creasters (people who attend church on Christmas and Easter) to a certain extent. We have been a bit more than that, though, so we're not quite there yet. I do really like our church, but it's difficult to find a time to go with Ethan since his morning nap falls over two of the service times. Luckily, 8 am worked out perfectly. But, since Ethan needs to stand these days, it was interesting trying to keep him happy. Will did a lot of leaning over while Ethan stood against the pew, trying to walk. I spent the rest of the morning washing my wood blinds (they were filthy) and cleaning the wood floors. Not your typical Easter activities but those of you who know me know that I was very happy to cross two major cleaning activities off my list.

We left for my mom's around 2:30 and had a delicious dinner of lamb with all the trimmings. My mom is a very good cook, and it really was fantastic. Lamb is a once a year treat, just like the calzone. And, since one of my sisters was sick with the flu, and the other was with her husband's family, our dinner guests fit around one table, which is rare in my family. It was just my family of three, my parents, and my Coma (Godmother) Diane and her husband, Renee. Ethan was the star guest, of course, and behaved like a champ, eating his dinner along with us and feasting on a dessert of peach puffs, his new favorite food. They're like dog treats, but for babies.

We haven't done too much the rest of the week. Our highlights so far have been a meal at Wildfire with Hammond, Courtney, and Jake. So fun and soooooo tasty! We also were at Will's parent's house Tuesday night for dinner after Ethan had a head scan in Glenview (the results below). Ethan had a great time showing off his new moves for Gram and Grandpa, and we had a nice visit. And yesterday we went to the zoo. Some pictures are below. It was Ethan's second trip to the zoo but he was a bit more aware this time. Last time we went it was August and so hot I literally packed him in ice to keep him cool, placing ice packs around him in the stroller. Yesterday was really a beautiful day, cool but sunny, and while Ethan slept for a good part of our visit, we were thrilled to spend some time outside as a family. Today is rainy and cold, so it's a good thing we went. Will and I were talking about the last time he and I were at the zoo together, which was the winter after we first started dating. That was the tail end of 2002. Who would have thought 5+ years later we'd be walking our beautiful son around that same zoo?

Here's Ethan with his Easter basket. He got a farm animal puzzle, Mr. Mischief and Mr. Funny t-shirts, two canisters of banana puffs, two glow in the dark pacifiers (the better for him to throw out in the dark), and a pair of sunglasses.
Family photo at my parent's house.
I think we were more excited about putting Ethan on the carousel at the zoo than he was. I think he has his dad's stomach as he kind of looked like he was going to lose his lunch the whole time. Our favorite part was when he saw Will on the side and waved.
Here's the new baby camel, born less than a week ago.
The polar bears were very active yesterday, playing in the water for a large crowd.
So here's a picture of his latest scan. It's a cross-section of his scull, the top being the front of his head and the bottom being the back. What you want to look at is the bottom right of the scan, which shows where his flat spot is. The top line is his scan from over 3 months ago, and the one below it is from Tuesday. It may be hard to see, but basically it shows a lot of improvement. Our doctor said there is no need for him to have any more scans and at this point it's a matter of getting all the use out of the helmet as we can. He could still get a little growth to make his head even more perfect. He anticipates 6-8 more weeks of wearing the helmet, which means it should be off for hot weather. Honestly, with all the falls he's been taking lately, we'll be sad to see it go. Plus, it is such a part of him now. We really like it! But, of course, we're thrilled it's worked to reshape his head. Everyone can rest easy knowing we will not have to special order hats for him.

Happy Easter Part I

I haven't been blogging lately, I guess because we've been pretty busy. Plus, the weather this past week has been pretty horrible, so any blog entries would have been far too grumpy. Will and I have been faced with a lot of big questions about my employment next year, too, so it's been a bit stressful. But Will's on Spring Break now, and it's Easter weekend, so we're all in good spirits.

I've posted some recent pictures and two new videos. I'll label the not so obvious pictures. The videos feature Ethan's newest trick, getting to a standing position on his own. He is currently going through a phase where he LOVES to stand, meaning he really doesn't want to be in any other position. (This fact made church rather difficult this morning.) But since he is not too steady yet - and has taken more than a few spills - we need to stay near him when he is standing up against something. Hence, my days of leaving him down in the basement play area for a few minutes while I make my breakfast, brush my teeth, clean up some dishes, etc. are over. The other day, I went upstairs to use the facilities and came back down to him standing up against his table. He pulled himself up all on his own. I have never been in a hurry for Ethan to start walking, but now I'm kind of hoping it happens sooner rather than later because at least then I won't always have to lean over to make sure he's steady. My back is killing me. But I also know that walking comes with a whole new set of issues for us. Ah...development.

Enjoy the pics and videos. I'll post some more hopefully tomorrow so you can see him in his Easter best. Happy Easter everybody!

Just like daddy, Ethan loves to gnaw on a carrot. It feels great on his two teeth.
He's stolen daddy's carrot, too.

My mom made us this Chiwawa, er, I mean Lamb Cake. Will said he's saying, "Yo quiero Easter."
Probably my most favorite family tradition is that of Easter Pizza, or calzone, on Holy Saturday. I cannot remember one year of my life when we did not eat this homemade deliciousness on Holy Saturday. Mom and Grandma are up early, making the dough on Great Grandma Theresa's wooden pasta board. It's in the oven early enough to be ready at noon.


Here is a view of the inside of the calzone, not your typical one. The filling is ricotta, romano cheeses, crumbled Italian sausage, hard boiled eggs, mozzarella cheese, salt, pepper, and red pepper. Eventually, I'll start making my own family calzones on Holy Saturday, but, for now, I'm very happy for the small one my mom gives me every year.

You can't really see that these are dyed, but they are...sort of. Going along with my constant urge to be as green as can be, I tried to dye my eggs naturally. One set I boiled with orange peels, making for a very light yellow egg. The other set I boiled in cranberry juice. I got more color from those but some came off while they were still hot, giving them a speckled look. I have to work on my natural egg dye recipes!

Here is Ethan going from kneeling to standing. And, yes, his toy shelf is anchored to the fence so it won't fall on top of him. He does flip the toy bins out and bonk himself on the head. Thank goodness for his helmet! We love it now!

How he was able to get up while wearing his sleepsack we'll never know.

Why I Shop at Borders

Beginning March 3rd, 2008, Barnes and Noble will be changing our return policy to reflect the following:

All returns must be made within 14 days of purchase and accompanied with an original sales receipt. After 14 days or without an original sales receipt, returns will not be permitted (nor permitted to exchange).

The above is the new "Barnes and Noble Refund Policy Change." I was confronted with it today when I went to return a book. Since we do not have a B & N very close to us, I rarely go. But I had something to return as well as a gift card, so I decided to go there on an outting today. That is when I was told about their new return policy. Now, the book I was returning was given to me in August, so I realize that it was a bit late to be returning it. But I had the receipt still, so I assumed it would be no problem. I assumed wrong.

OK, now, actually, I have to be honest and admit that the woman behind the counter did allow me to return the book since the policy has only been in effect for a week and I was genuinely uninformed. This woman's kindness is the only reason I did not show my anger at the ridiculous policy. I did ask, though, if it meant you could only get a store credit after 14 days, and she replied, "No, no returns at all after 14 days, even with a reciept." Are you serious??? The more I thought about it as I went through the store, the angrier I got. Here's a scenario: I'm out at B & N and see a book that I think my mother would just love. Her birthday is coming up the next month, so I buy it. Her birthday comes around and the family is watching my mother open her presents. It's a lovely scene. But imagine my horror when my mother opens my present only to tell me that she already owns the book. I quickly recover, though, and simply say, "No problem. Here's the reciept. Get yourself something else." But, no, that's just not going to cut it. Instead, my mom will have to keep the repeat book because the snobby store refuses to take it back. What an outrage!

So here are all the reasons why Borders is much more preferrable than Barnes and Noble and why you should all boycott the latter:

1. B & N is much more stuffy and snobby. I always feel like everyone who works there feels like they are smarter than me (uh, or is it smarter than I?). The personnel at Borders are always very helpful and friendly.

2. I could be wrong, but I don't think B & N has a discount for teachers. Borders gives 20% off materials for the classroom, which, as an English teacher, means basically anything in the store. I buy books, cds, and dvds and always use my teacher discount.

3. As my friend Joseph complained about in a recent blog post of his, Barnes and Noble employees are always pressuring you to pay for a membership. Uh, why would I pay for a membership there when I can be a rewards member at Borders for free?

4. Finally, the stickers on the books at B & N do not come off easily. The book I bought there today (and I bought it only because I had a store credit to use up) had a sticker on the top corner. 20% off - or 30% off for members because they like to rub it in. When I got home and went to peel it off, the sticker was still sticking to the cover, so now I have a book cover with a big sticky mess on it. The stickers from Border always peel right off.

And by the way, I looked up Borders return policy to make sure that it was not the same as B & N. Oh, it's not. It was something like a 60 day policy without a receipt and then store credit with a receipt after that. Now, that's fair. I actually went to go to the Barnes and Noble website and emailed customer service to express my dissatisfaction with the new policy. That'll show 'em! If you're as fired up as I am, which I imagine most of you are not but you never know, you should do the same!

And, in the meantime, to squelch your frustration, here are some pics of Ethan and his cousin Jake:

Milestones

We have two videos from today. The first is of Ethan pulling himself up from a sitting position into a standing position by using his exersaucer. We often let him play on the outside of it, and today, while both Will and I were watching, he grabbed on to the side and just stood up. He's pretty strong. The second video is footage of him doing his absolute favorite thing: putting the balls back into his ball popper toy. He will do it all day. I just dump the balls out and he puts them all back, one by one. He clearly likes things tidy and I hope this habit stays with him! Unfortunately, later today Ethan stuffed a different round toy into his ball popper, and it is now stuck. I'm going to have to get it out or he will not be happy!

By the way, I'm not sure I've mentioned that Ethan has another tooth now. It arrived Saturday and is helping him to bite my fingers even harder. Super.

Get Ready to Laugh

So today, I had Ethan in his exersaucer while I moved his crib mattress down, a necessity now that he's starting to pull himself up more. He was just playing away, having a grand old time, when he started doing raspberries. Now, he has done them before, but not in a long time, and never this forcefully. I was literally crying, I was laughing so hard. Luckily, he performed for the camera and I captured some of it.

Warning: Do not watch this movie with liquid in your mouth for fear of spitting it out.

In the words of Etta James...

...AT LAST. It seems pretty anti-climactic now, but here is a video of Ethan doing his army crawl. He's interested in me filming, so he's a bit distracted. But you'll get the picture.

Just Say No

All non-parents make the best parents before they have kids. We watch other parents battling it out with rowdy toddlers or bratty teens and think, Ugh, why do those parents give in to their horribly behaved kids? Why don't they just say no and that's it. When I'm a parent, my kid will never act that way and will know that no means no. We are smug because we can be. Having not failed at anything parental, we are, by default, big winners in that department.
Now that I am a parent, it's easy to see that I will be eating my words from the past. I tried to say no to Ethan for the first time yesterday (sorry grandmas, it's true). Ethan's habit of throwing his pacifiers out of his crib has moved from cute to annoying to downright ridiculous, and I want it to stop. So yesterday I thought, maybe I just need to sternly say no to him and he'll get the picture.
Once he went down for his nap, it was business as usual: roll onto left side, pick up extra paci, play with it, throw it over the side of crib, roll onto tummy, scooch to front of crib, arch up like cobra and throw remaining paci through the rungs, lean over bumper and try to look at paci down below, start crying because crib is now paci-less. This is the scene I watch on our video monitor nearly every day lately. It's like the movie Groundhog Day over here at nap time.
I had had enough of it, though, so when Ethan played out his favorite act yesterday, I marched into the nursery right after he fired his last paci-bullet, leaned over him and said emphatically "NO!" (The exclamation point is for effect. I didn't actually yell it. I'm not that mean.) Ethan's reaction? He looked up at me from underneath his helmet and gave me a huge, one-toothed grin. Now, everything I know from my pre-parent parental handbook told me to keep up my strict face and not give that kid the satisfaction he was looking for. But that handbook wasn't looking at my adorable son. That's right. I not only smiled back at Ethan but I couldn't help myself and laughed out loud. Then I gave in, picked him up, and helped him settle down for his nap.
Later, when Ethan was performing his changing table Olympic routine, the one with flips and somersaults and feet in the mouth, I again tried my "NO!" trick. This time, Ethan stopped what he was doing long enough to laugh at me before flipping over once again, naked butt thrust upward at me in defiance. Again, I had to laugh at my own ridiculousness.
If it's bad now, I just can't wait to see myself a few months down the road, when Ethan can say a few words and melt my heart with a smile + silly phrases like my nephew's robotic favorite, "Sorry. Mommy."
Yeah...I'm doomed.

P.S. I gave the blog a facelift with a new color scheme/template. Hope you like it.

Video

I have tried 4 times to upload the crawl video but it just won't do it for some reason. I think it might be too long, but I will take a shorter video tomorrow if I can and do my best to get it on the blog. I know you're all waiting! I'd wake him up now to take care of it, but I don't think he'd like that very much.

To tide you over, here is a video taken tonight after bathtime with Ethan's Aunt Laura, who came for a visit.

I've Been Tagged

My best friend "tagged" me and I am to tell you seven things about myself. I have never heard of blog tag, but I am new to this game. Since my blog is private and only open to those who know me fairly well, most of this may not come as a surprise, but here goes:

1. Long Spandex + Eminem = Happiness
I love to run. I've been a runner probably since elementary school when I would always be the only girl who actually chose to run the mile a second time because I wanted to see if I could improve my time. My favorite running outfit consists of shorts and long sleeves, used in about 50-60 degree weather. But my second favorite thing to wear while running are spandex! I admit it: I love spandex! I feel like a superhero in them. This morning, I was able to go outside for a rare run and took our Ipod. The song I listened to at least four times on the run? That's right: Eminem's "Lose Yourself." Now, I do not really like Eminem as a person and don't have a whole lot of respect for his music's messages, but you really can't listen to that song and not want to move. When I started running, I ran along to the beat and felt so fantastic, I actually started smiling. I'm sure I looked like a big idiot to anyone who happened to be looking out the window at me. But I was so happy to be outside, doing something good for my health, and feeling great about it. About 10 minutes into the run, though, I remembered that I'm actually in pretty poor running shape right now, a thought that occurred to me about the time I realized I was hyperventillating and had a cramp eating away at my side. But I tried my best to maintain my good attitude even though I was forced to slow down quite a bit.

2. I'm a good cook.
I considered writing, "I like to cook," but gosh darnit, I'm going to brag. I think I'm a pretty darn good cook. And I do LOVE to do it. I experiment a lot and don't always end up with gourmet meals, but I think I do pretty well. Few things excite me more than a really good meal. One of my most favorite things to do is put on some good music (something like Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra), pour myself a glass of wine, and cook a tasty meal. I love finding new recipes and making them my own somehow. Being home this year has allowed me to experiment more, which has been great. I'm not a big fan of baking because I always skip ingredients on accident, and do you know if you skip the baking powder, cakes don't turn out all that well? :) When you're cooking a meal, you can mix and match a little more.

3. I lost my fifth grade spelling bee when I misspelled sandal. You guessed it. I spelled it sandle. What an idiot! And now I'm an English teacher. I'll tell you, though, I've never misspelled it again.

4. I have an obsessive compulsive symetry disorder. Ask Will. If I get pinched on one arm, I will pinch my other arm in the same spot to even things out. I've been this way as long as I can remember and do not know where it came from. It's gotten to the point that I don't even notice and I will bang my one leg on the table or something and then Will will say, "Did you just bang your other leg on purpose?" Guilty. :(

5. Another embarrassing confession for an English teacher: I've never read a Jane Austen book.
My favorite movies include Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, yet I've never actually read any of the books. The one time I tried to read Sense and Sensibility, I couldn't help but think that I'd rather just watch Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet act it out. The fact of the matter is, it's stressful being an English teacher because everyone you tell your profession to acts as if you must have read every book on the planet. Have you ever been to Borders? There are a lot of books. And people keep writing more! I mean, how can we keep up?

6. I LOVE team sports.
I get irrationally excited when given the opportunity to play a team sport like volleyball, baseball, football, etc. Because the only sports I participated in in high school were cross country and track, which are ultimately individual sports, I love to play sports where everyone is forced to work together. In fact, I love team sports so much that I tried out for the basketball team 3 years in a row (7th, 8th, and 9th grade). I was cut three years in a row, too. If you ask me, I was robbed. Just ask my best friend, Sarah. While playing for her church basketball team one year, I scored 3 points out of the team's total of 7. That's close to 50% of the entire score, so you tell me I'm not good. Harumph.

7. I was on the first ever Crew team at Augustana College.
My friend, Justin List, decided that since Augie was situated along the mighty Mississippi river, it should surely have a Crew team. So he found us a coach, talked 8 of us into rowing, and the Augustana Crew team was born. These days, the team is huge and given a good amount of funding by the school. When we started the team back in 1999, we used a horribly old boat and got last place in almost all our races at our first regatta. We actually went to the Midwest Rowing Championships in Madison, WI, and my one big memory of that day was when the pace boat was yelling at us through their megaphone, "Augustana: Please return to your lane!" That was embarrassing. We probably figured it didn't matter since everyone was ahead of us anyway. Why did I continue to row, you ask? Well, because our uniforms were spandex, of course! How's that for coming full circle?

Hopefully, you learned something new about me or at least remembered something strange about me you had tried to forget. And those of you who only read this blog for Ethan stories and wonder why I just wasted a post on myself, here's the big news this week: Ethan got a tooth! It appeared on the 29th, a leap year tooth! I did my mother's "spoon test" of putting a metal spoon in his mouth and tapping to listen for the tap of a little tooth. I tried it in the morning and heard nothing. Then, around bath time, I thought I saw something poking through, so I tried the spoon test again. Sure enough, we heard the tap tap tap of a pearly white. Hooray. If I can ever get him to open his mouth for a picture, I will post one soon.

And the following is Ethan's Army Crawl video. It was actually filmed the day of the tooth appearance, though we did not know it at the time. I wanted to get video of his scooting before his scooting turned to crawling. It's terrible, but I always say he looks like a soldier, wounded in battle, trying to get himself to a safe place. He gets around pretty quickly these days. I've decided I can wait for him to crawl, and, consequently, walk, because when he does it means my days of being able to leave him alone in the basement for a few minutes are over. If Ethan is anything like I've heard his mischevious daddy was as a child, I am going to have to keep a close eye on him at all times.

(OK, so the video would not upload for some reason. So if you're reading this, you've come to the blog before I had a chance to try to upload the video again. Stay tuned...I'll get it going.)