Parenting 101

For the first time in a long time, I actually wrote a blog post that was more than the typical "here's what we've been up to" junk. Well, then I accidentally deleted it. I'm way too tired to retype it so here are the cliff notes:

Parenting is hard. We've made mistakes. Ethan can be bad, isn't potty trained, and still uses pacifiers, but we're doing the best we can. Oh yeah, and he's also pretty darn funny and cute. Eleanor continues to be perfect, which we know we will pay for in the future. The end.

Pizza for breakfast On the carousel with Uncle Billy at the zoo. Eleanor watching in the stroller. Today was the first day I had her upright in the stroller and not reclined. She's growing up!

This is Ethan singing the theme song from the original Spiderman cartoon series. We catch him singing it all the time and finally caught some on video. My favorite is when he says "radioactive blood." If you want to see the actual version, click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o29VoxtsFk

Life as usual to report around here. I'm shaking things up a bit, though, by attempting some potty training. Today, I put Ethan in underwear. He peed his pants twice and didn't go on the potty at all. I'm still considering today somewhat victorious, though, only because he didn't fight me on the underwear. The last few times I've tried to tell him he's going to wear underwear, he has not been happy. And, lately, when we promise M&Ms for going on the potty, he's told us that he does not want M&Ms. Today, when I said he could have some for going on the potty, he said, "Okay, I'll go in a few minutes." (He didn't.) It's not going to be easy, but I would like to get it done before the summer is over. Any advice is greatly appreciated. My son is very stubborn.

Here are the pictures from our trip to Indy, Eleanor's Christening, and a few others.

This was our first stop on the way to Indy. It was freezing, so while Will and Ethan had a "picnic" in the parking lot, Eleanor and I stayed in the van. She wanted to check out the passenger seat.
Ethan loves to have a picnic. We eat very few means in the house these days.

Here's a 4 generation pic at brunch on Mother's Day.

Hello world!

She's always so happy to see me in the morning. I love it.

I wanted to document the making of the gravy for Eleanor's party. There were over 50 homemade meatballs and even more sausage, so my mom brought over her biggest pot.

Guess who?

Brian: The Godfather

The Godparents

Of course, Eleanor was very good throughout the whole ceremony.

The illusion.

The reality.

Favorite part of this picture: Ethan sneaking through the bushes.

G-parents

Mom made the cake - hardest part seemed to be fitting Eleanor's long name.

Eleanor partied hard.

These are p.j.'s a good friend gave us. They're clearly for Christmas but won't fit then, so I've been putting Eleanor in them lately. I think they're so cute.

This isn't the best picture, but here is Eleanor's happy face in the morning.

Sus - Do Not Read

Instead, I suggest you read this post:

http://newmother-michelle.blogspot.com/2008/01/not-so-happy-post.html

Seriously, Sus, stop reading. Just read the post above.

Are you gone?

Okay.


We had a really great nap day today with Eleanor. She's currently on nap #5 in her crib (it's 7:30, so this will be her last). She woke up this morning around 7 and then went down for a nap at 8:30. A few times, I thought she was awake, but when I would go to get her, she was still asleep. When did she finally wake up? 10:30. Nice. Of course, I couldn't get much done around the house since Ethan was destroying everything, but it's nice to have some one on one time with him. Once she was up and fed, we went to Trader Joe's together. I put Eleanor in the Ergo carrier while Ethan pushed his own cart. Eleanor dosed a bit in the carrier but very little. I put her back down in her crib at 12:30, and she went right to sleep until 1:30. Then, she was back down around 3:15 for about a half hour. Her naps get shorter as the day goes on. At 5, she took another short nap and then she's down again now. For each of these naps, I've simply laid her down in her crib, given her her pacifier, and left the room. And then she just goes to sleep with very little fuss. This post is not meant to brag, but more just to remember and cherish because I know, all too well, how bad things can get later. I'm hoping that Eleanor will continue to be an angel baby, but I just don't know. Right now, it's pretty darn nice since her brother can be a bit, er, we'll say...challenging. But he's an angel, too, to me!

And both my babies were good travelers this past weekend when we went to Indy for Will's cousin's wedding reception. (They were married in FL with a small ceremony in October.) We left Saturday morning and came back Sunday afternoon, so it was a quick trip. We stayed at The Stratford, which is a retirement community Will's Grandbob lives in. It's a beautiful place, and Ethan loves it there. He gets to run up and down the numerous hallways, go up and down the elevators, and swim in the pool. He slept in a pullout bed that was a tiny twin size and perfect for him. Will slept in the daybed in the room with him. Will says Ethan fell out of bed a couple of times (!) but didn't wake up. Even though he just had a car nap in the afternoon and another one after 9 pm, he went to sleep easily and slept all night. Those of you who know the kind of out of town sleeper Ethan can be know this to be a major accomplishment. (When we stayed at the Stratford in December, Ethan stayed up virtually all night long and we left a day early.) It gave us the confidence to look into a summer trip. On Sunday, when I tranformed Ethan's bed back to a chair, he said, "Where did you put my cozy bed?" He wanted to say there another night for sure. He kept saying, "I like this place." Eleanor wasn't thrown off from traveling at all, it seems and still slept from 10 - 7. She's a stud. But she did have a rough time on Sunday, having the worst gas she's ever had. She would not nurse before we wanted to leave. After an hour of trying, we finally left, only to stop about 15 minutes into our trip to try again. She would be fine, but every time I tried to get her to nurse, she would get all rigid and cry. We finally gave up and she fell asleep, as did Ethan. They both slept for almost 2 hours and then we made another stop. I finally got her to nurse after almost 7 hours since her last feeding. I was a bit worried she'd be up in the middle of the night, having skipped a feeding, but she must have been pretty tired from all of her crying that day because she still slept well at night.

I'll post some pictures of our trip soon. We didn't take many, but I know that Will's Aunt Marge took a ton of great ones, so I'll post them when I can. Hint hint, Marge. ;)

Ethan loves to mow the lawn with Will. He imitates him the whole time. Will said that the other day, cars were slowing down to watch them because it was so cute. I caught some of the cute fest on video today.

Ethan's latest obsession is with garbage. Everything in our house is "trash" and Ethan fills all his dump trucks with it and pushes it around the house to put it in the "landfill." What this means is that I find loads of stickers, toothpicks, underwear, etc., all over in piles. It's a fun phase.

His language continues to explode, and there are times that I listen to him tell a story and just smile because it's so darn cute. A few of his latest favorite phrases are, "That's the end of the story," "That's a good idea," and "Do you love _______" as in "Do you love this song I'm playing?" or "Do you love this dirt?"

On the not so cute side, I have to be very careful to not leave him alone with Eleanor, as I think he likes to experiment by laying on her, squeezing her feet, putting things on top of her (pillows), or just causing general havoc. He doesn't do so maliciously, I don't think, but there are definitely times I see him going to do something bad toward her when he's not getting attention. Really, though, he gets a lot more attention than Eleanor most of the time. Thankfully, Eleanor is such a great baby, she doesn't seem to notice.

She smiles more and more every day and is more alert, too. I am very, very grateful that she's sleeping well and is content during the day. I am also glad to have a husband that can be home to help with Ethan at a decent hour. It's so helpful and has really made the transition to 2 pretty seemless. I'm a lucky woman!

Ethan Sticks it to Costco

Ethan has some play money for his cash register. This morning, he asked me what it was. I said it was a play 20 dollar bill, but he corrected me and said it was a "Seven dollar Pop Pop." Apparently, he hears "bill" and thinks of Pop Pop Bill, so paper money is now Pop Pops. Good stuff.

We have had an interesting week, or at least an interesting end of the week. Thursday, after a particularly rough night with Ethan, I called the pediatrician because Ethan was complaining his ear hurt. He had a cold with a wet cough, so I figured he may have an ear infection. He was really lethargic all morning, but I decided to run to Costco quickly since we were out of diapers. His appointment was at noon. Well, he refused to get into a cart and made me carry him around the whole time. Nothing would coax him, not even a sucker or a cookie. Thankfully, my mom was there with my sister, so she pushed Eleanor in a cart while I carried my 30+ pound kid. Well, just as we were checking out, I put Ethan down to pay. He started wimpering a bit and then threw up all over himself. Twice. It was our first public barfing. Great mom that I am, my first thought was that I could not have him throwing up in our brand new van! Again, thank goodness my mom was there, who helped with him and walked us out to the car, where I changed his clothes, thanks to my emergency diaper bag. The people at Costco were really nice about everything. I was more than a little flustered, but they were very kind, so that was good. Ethan fell asleep on the way home (no more barfing!) while I drove like a bat out of hell to get home with a clean car. He stayed asleep until his appointment, where we confirmed his ear infection. We're guessing the vomit was due to a lot of extra mucous and possibly pain. He tends to throw up whenever he's sick, not just with a stomach bug. (Super.) I admit that the afternoon that day was sort of nice because Ethan was so tired/feverish, he slept on the couch all afternoon. The next day, he was back to his crazy self.

Below is a picture of our old car, but I have yet to take one of the new van. I LOVE it. It's fabulous for the kids, and I already feel at home in my minivan. Will said that he now feels like a parent. Apparently, two kids didn't do it for him, but a van does. Go figure. There are also pictures from a recent bathtime and from our trip to the children's garden at the Morton Arboretum. Ethan had a great time, as did I watching him.