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.