A Day in the Park

With 3 kids in tow, we quickly learned "a day in the park" is really no day in the park! Jake and I along with Jake's brother, Seth, took the kids to Stephen F. Austin State Park on Saturday to enjoy the beautiful weather and hopefully to take some pictures in the bluebonnets. Sadly, we couldn't find any good patches along the way or at the park, but we managed to get some cute pics anyway. We had a little picnic and walked one of the nature trails. Ethan was determined to ingest something other than food! Everytime we turned around, he had a rock, stick, or flower in his mouth. Fun day, but hard to keep up with all the little ones!

Ethan got a lot of practice walking!

Sweet cousins! Ethan, Casey, and Ava

Hiking the trails with Daddy

Sweet Ava! Notice E in the background munching on a stick....

I'm ready to go!!

Walking!

After 12 1/2 months, E has finally graduated to walking!

Spring Break and Other News...

Yay for Spring Break! I am loving this time with Ethan - I could get used to this! Just a few more months until summer....I hope I can make it.

I have a long list of things on my to-do list this week, such as cleaning out my closet, updating Ethan's scrapbook, and most importantly cleaning out Ethan's closet and drawers. I still have some newborn clothes in there! I want to get a bunch of plastic tubs to store all his clothes by size and put them in the attic until we need them again one day.

I took Ethan for his 12-month check-up today. Good thing, because the Dr. said he has a double ear infection! I guess his first in over a year isn't too bad. Poor guy; it was causing a bad cough and congestion too.

His stats look ok - 21 pounds (25th%) and 30 inches tall (50th%). He got 4 shots and is now crashed out in his crib-note the pics below! The Dr. is concerned that his weight isn't increasing much so she put him on a high fat/high protein diet. Lately he hasn't wanted to eat much (I guess due to not feeling well). He's been throwing his food on the floor to signal being done, so we started doing sign language for "all done". Hopefully that will help. I also got the idea from my friend Alicia to turn his high-chair around for a "time-out" when he throws his food. I tried it last night at dinner and he hated it but once I turned him around again he ate better!

We have also been doing signs for "more", "please" and "thank-you". I feel like I'm in uncharted territory with this new "pre-toddler" stage he's in. I read so many books for babies' first year and felt very confident from 0-12 months, but now I'm not so sure. So I've been reading like crazy this week, trying to learn as much as I can about this pre-toddler and toddler phase, including development, eating, and discipline. Ethan was such a good baby and I want to make sure he's a good toddler too - no brats in this house!

We started him on whole milk, at first mixing it with formula gradually until 100% milk. He doesn't like the taste as much, but we'll keep working on it. We're also phasing out the bottle slowly. He does better with sippy cups that have a straw.

Enjoy these recent pics!

One tired boy!

Pushing my new lawn mower all around the house!

One of my favorite pastimes: pulling all the books off the bookshelf!

Sweet boy!

First Birthday Party

Ethan officially turns ONE on March 10th, but we celebrated with his party on Saturday. We had great weather and everything turned out great! We had a little jumpy in the backyard for the older kiddos which kept them occupied. Ethan got lots of great gifts and toys too!

New Toy and a New Haircut!

We got Ethan this tunnel system contraption for his birthday and we wanted to try it out, so we set it up and it takes up practically our whole gameroom! But he loves it!! :)

Jake buzzed his hair yesterday! He was just trying to take off the mullet he had going on in the back but it got too short so he had to buzz the rest to make it look even. It's a lot shorter but he's still cute!

Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day Weekend. Our friends Page and Reagan were in town and stayed with us. We went to dinner Friday night and hung out the rest of the weekend.

Jake surprised me Sunday morning with roses, a card, and my favorite Starbucks. What a great hubby! :)

Ethan got into the chocolates - oops! I wanted to take a few pics of him with the box but he figured out how to open them and before I could stop him, he had already stuffed a bunch in his mouth!

Caught red handed!!!

Just havin' some lunch...

Hanging out with Mr. Reagan

The roses from Jake
Me and my Sweet Valentine! Check out his hand in the cookie box - seriously?!

Little Gym!

Finally, here are some pics from Ethan's gym class!

Practicing on the balance beam...

After my forward roll - I thought it was funny!

Here I go!

Free exploration time....

On the air track with Daddy!