TV

I'm sorry, American Academy of Pediatrics. I know that you recommend that kids under the age of two don't watch any television, but we've disobeyed your recommendations on a daily basis for quite awhile. I am now on my third round of antibiotics for strep throat (ick!) and Ethan just tested positive, too! (Brian's escaped it somehow - whew!) So we've been contagious, cooped up, and coping by watching a little Baby Einstein almost every day.

I don't expect that these videos will make Ethan smarter, but I have to say, they're so CUTE! And a really good excuse to snuggle on the couch with the little boy - he's so active these days that he'll get worn out and fussy, and a little quiet time is kind of nice. And we've been challenged to find productive things to do - I'm not nearly as imaginative as I need to be to keep this little boy busy! Today we:

1. Made a tent out of the kitchen table and a sheet
2. Walked around our backyard and grabbed the little flags that the power company put in
3. Learned how to stick our finger up our nose (Brian and I sat that one out)
4. Took all of the laundry out of the dryer, then took the folded laundry out of the basket and threw it all over the floor
5. Chased cats repeatedly

(That all took about 20 minutes.)

Neither one of us is contagious anymore, thank goodness, so we'll be able to get out and about tomorrow without issue!

Where have we been? To the park, to playgroup, to the beauty salon....

Where have we been all these weeks - good question! Things have been a little hectic around here lately, but I think we may have our heads on straight again. Whew! In the meantime, Ethan is still being his healthy, rambunctious, toddler self!
Until this weekend arrived, it's been Spring around these parts, and Ethan and I have been in the park every chance we get! There is a little park right near our house (perfect!) so we head there often. Ethan hasn't decided whether or not he likes he swings yet, but the fire engine and slide are a huge hit.

Our latest favorite activity is our Saturday playgroup. The U of I has students enrolled in a class where they get course credit to run this amazing playgroup - each week, we focus on a new topic, such as motor skills, exploration, choices...and there are little centers set up for the kids to move around. So far, we are having the best time. Today, Ethan got to play in a soapy truck-filled water table, climb up and down an obstacle course, get swung in a blanket, and slide down the indoor slide about a million times. The students kept commenting, "Wow, he's really vocal today!" (Polite student code for, "Wow, he's really loud!" :) He was a happy happy guy. And then took a super long nap when we got home. Yea for playgroup!)
But a necessary step today was also the beauty salon - Ethan's hair (as you may be able to tell) was out of control. We're very lucky to have a kid with a nice head of hair (luckily for him he ended up with the thick, curly Jewett hair rather than the thin, wispy Jones hair - no offense, Mom and Dad), but this is actually the third haircut he's needed since he turned one. And since he rubs his hair with whatever breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack residue is on his hands, we wanted to take care of some of the length before he was wearing a ponytail. I have tons of pictures of the experience, but they're pretty darn blurry. Here's the result. Not bad, huh? :)

NOW He's a Toddler

The title of our blog post when Ethan started walking was, "Officially a Toddler." I'd like to revise that one - Ethan is just now showing his toddlerhood, and it has nothing to do with walking.

Oh, look at how sweet I am! I am especially adorable and smiley in front of my grandparents and cute babysitters!

There had better be another cupcake soon or there's going to be trouble.

I want something! No, not that! No, not that either! Why can't you read my mind, Mommy?!

I'm going to tell myself that this is Ethan's age, and not my incompetent parenting. It's his little toddler brain that makes him fuss every day I pick him up from daycare and give him lots of kisses, that makes him throw every food he happily ate yesterday on the floor, and that causes him to want to run out in the street now that the weather is nicer and we go walking around our neighborhood. (Followed by more fussing when I don't let him fling himself in front of cars.) Toddler boy! Lucky he's so darn cute...

Blah Blah Blah

For awhile now, Ethan has been hooked on phones. Especially our old cell phones, which open and close (we're still big on open and close), but really any phone that has buttons and lights up. Apparently he's also been watching Brian and me talk on the phone, and thinks that this is what we sound like:



You will also notice that he is big on bowls. That particular bowl is a favorite; when the pre-op people told us the other day that we could bring a stuffed animal or blanket that Ethan was particularly attached to, we really couldn't lay our hands on anything nice and baby-like to bring for Ethan's post-surgery anxiety.....we brought the bowl. :)

"That was nasty!"

Tubes are in! And the surgeon who did it today reassured us that it was a good decision, saying afterwards, "That was nasty! This was a good thing to do."
I know I keep repeating this, but Ethan might be the cutest boy in the world in his little gown. I expected that he would be starving with no breakfast (I tried to give him a bottle in the middle of the night, but he wasn't having it....), but he was really great! Mostly he was just tired since his mother tried to force feed him at midnight and then he couldn't get back to sleep. (Nice going, huh?)
It really was as quick as everyone said. They wheeled him back in sleeping, and then when he woke up, he was possibly the floppiest, unhappiest little guy ever. But the nurse assured us that as soon as we headed out of the room and down the hall he would be right back to normal, and she was right!

And after we got home, he played just like he usually does, though Brian and I did a few little experiments on our child to see if he noticed the difference in his hearing. (His hearing was in the normal range, but the doctors thought it might be muffled with all of the fluid in there.) Actually, me slamming the car door set off a fresh bout of crying, so that's one thing that he's hearing more clearly. (Again, NICE GOING, Alexis!) He still won't always respond when I call his name, but that's when he's playing and I'm pretty sure he's ignoring me. :)

Well (fed) Baby

Today was Ethan's official 15 month Well Baby appointment. (I hate to say it, but I really look forward to these! I get to find out how much he weighs, how long he is, and I get to show off my good-looking son to all of the nurses and our favorite pediatrician.) He's grinning at himself in the office mirror here, so he apparently agrees with me that he's the cutest boy ever:
Ethan is, as we already knew, HUGE. 34.5 inches long (97th percentile) and 29.1 pounds (94th percentile). His doctor made fun of me (again) for worrying about his weight when he was a little skinny guy at 6 months. (I know, I know...)

What we did spend a little time talking about was Ethan's ears. They're very cute, of course :), but he's been digging in them for several months and has had at least 2 ear infections since December (I say "at least" because we find out about them when we see the doctor for something completely unrelated - "Oh, and this ear is infected, too!"). We've had the ENTs check him out a few times, and there has been lots of fluid in there for awhile. So it's time for tubes for Mr. Ethan. While it's surgery, and I hate the thought, it will take about 5 minutes to do, and Ethan goes home with us as soon as he's all done. In his doctor's words, "You won't even have time for a cup of coffee." :)

PLOWS

This blog entry is devoted to the bigger boy in our house. :) An acronym for "Profiling of Winter Storms", PLOWS has come close to taking over Brian's life this winter. Whereas the normal person tries to avoid bad weather, Brian flies into it. (He doesn't actually do the flying, thank goodness...but he does get to ride in the cockpit - very exciting. :)
On Wednesday, there was "show and tell" day out at our local airport (they usually fly out of Peoria, but the plane was here for the day), and since Ethan and I were daycare-less, we headed out for the event! BIG plane. A revamped military cargo plane, this one is filled with just a few seats and much equipment. There are sensors on the wings to take readings as they fly through clouds, and we got to see the little hole in the plane where they shoot the dropsondes out. While this project is taking up just tons of Brian's time, he's kind of enjoying it. I enjoy it slightly less :), since we can't plan anything more than a day in advance - the meterologist-on-call has to be ready to fly any time. But I'm glad he's having fun, and this is a great project for him to be so involved with.

In the meantime, we're all having a good, though messy, winter! Ethan is a great cold weather boy (he did NOT get that from his mother) and doesn't mind at all being hauled outside to go every which way on the weekends. We've gotten into a nice Sunday breakfast routine, where we either go out with my folks or just the three of us. We're finding several restaurants in town that are very family friendly and don't mind when there is a 3 inch layer of pancake or muffin crumbs on the floor when we leave. (Brian is just so messy!) Or maybe they mind, but they don't say it to our faces. And we tip pretty well. :)
(By the way, this is just one of my favorite pictures - and was taken with an iPhone - but Ethan isn't really coloring with those crayons. We try, but they always seem to end up in his mouth. Sigh.)