Happy New Year!!

We had a wonderful first Christmas with our little guy. We celebrated with Charlie's family on Christmas Eve and then left to visit my family on Christmas Day. Our trip to Maryland was great and Ethan is such a good little traveler!!

How about a picture story from Ethan's view!?!?!

I know I'm only 5 1/2 months old but I think I might be able to steal Uncle Kevin's beer!


I got a new piano from Aunt Nonnie!



and helped Alisa open her new KitchenAid mixer.


Daddy's new video game is nummy!!


Hanging out at the airport with Daddy - waiting for our flight to Baltimore!


I slept for most of the plane ride



but when I woke up I was such a good boy and played with my toys! I even got a compliment from the man sitting behind me!



We looked like a circus act in the airport! Can you even believe how much I require when traveling!?!?



Meeting some of Mommy's family for the first time!


Cousin Abby wasn't quite sure what to do with me! So she gave me a kiss!


Abby got a fun jumping zebra!


I needed a quick nap before Aunt Nonnie, Uncle Henry, Steven, and Sarah arrived. Uncle Henry picked out this outfit when I was first born - and now it fits! Notice I had to sleep on butterfly sheets!! Oh the nightmares.........


We went to see the National Christmas tree. I was all bundled for the stroller ride from our parking spot to the tree.



The tree was very pretty!


We took a family photo in front of the Kansas tree!



and in front of the big tree!


My cousins Sarah and Michelle loved all over me!!


Then we went to Pennsylvania to visit Mommy's friend Heidi and her kids. Mommy remembered to bring the camera but forgot to ANY pictures. :o( BAD BAD MOMMY!!

But I did get my very first Tonka truck from Heidi (and family!!) and I love it!!


I slept in Abby's crib and tried to escape every night! Daddy took these pictures in the dark so they are a little fuzzy!




I LOVED visiting everyone but I was very happy to be back home with my own toys, and in my own living room.



I tried to help Mommy with the blog, but she kept telling me NoNo!


This new piano is SUPER fun!!!! Thanks Aunt Nonnie, Uncle Henry, Steven, and Sarah!!!

Merry (almost!!) Christmas!!

Not a good chance of me blogging tomorrow or Christmas day........so here I am today!

We are getting very excited about visiting family in Maryland ~ but nervous about the flight!! We hope our little guy is a good traveler!

I have not had a chance to share our new tree skirt! Charlie's Mom made it for us. The trim, stars, and snowmen are made out of pieces of my wedding dress.



This year for Christmas, Ethan is getting a new carseat. Here is Daddy trying to figure out the finer details........



Ethan and I were watching!



Ethan is not so sure about this new seat.........



or maybe it was just because he is a little fussy today. A few silly faces and some noises and this is what you get..........



Next step ~ install the seat in the car! Wish us luck!!

And finally, Ethan's new ornaments for this year. The first is a series of "sugar cookie" number ornaments! We can't wait to buy him a new one each year.



and this one is from Ethan's Great-Uncle Tom. He brought it to us in the hospital when Ethan was born!



So that's it. Merry Christmas. I'm sure there will be plenty of fun blogs and LOTS of pictures when we return from Maryland.

Love to everyone!
Charlie, Beth, and Ethan

A visit to Santa......and more!!

Today we went to see Santa at the mall. Ethan was less than thrilled, but not really scared either. It's a funny picture, and one we can laugh at for years and years to come. That's what these Santa pictures are all about right?!?



We also wrapped him up in some Christmas lights today!! I had seen a bunch of these pictures on the internet and thought they were so stinkin' cute! I dont have a super fancy camera, but we had a great time watching him so amazed by the lights!!











Thursday, December 11th ~ Ethan was officially 5 months old. He is growing so fast!




He is sleeping in his crib now.........



and already trying to escape!



And we FINALLY caught him laughing on video!!!!! He has been laughing for weeks now, but everytime we get him laughing and then turn on the video camera - he turns and stares at the camera in awe! So we had to get sneaky!! He gets a bunch of good laughs in before he notices the Christmas lights off in another direction ~ and that's when I lost the battle!!

Our old friend........

......reflux!

Poor Ethan has had a cold for almost a month. After a two day hunger strike (Sunday and Monday) I called the nurse line at our pedi's office and they said we needed to come in and get checked out. So I took the day off Tuesday - sidenote: I am starting to feel like the substitute in my own class - and off we go to visit Dr. M!

The good: the hunger strike has not caused my chunky baby any issues at all. He has gained 1.5lbs since his 4 month appt. He is now tipping the scales at 16lbs 3oz! No wonder my back hurts.

The better: his lungs sound great, everything (major) checks out just fine. he just has a nasty nasty upper respiratory virus that wont let go. Being in daycare doesn't help matters, but we are very lucky that he is at an in-home daycare with less kids than a center, and we have a very diligent provider (armed with Lysol!!) Being a first-grade teacher also doesn't help him. I very likely bring home tons of germs on my clothes that don't bother us one bit but end up on him. So we can prepare for a long winter full of colds, but so far so good with no infections.

The ugly: the return of the reflux :o( Poor kid. we had been very hopeful at his 4 month check-up that he had outgrown the reflux. But over the past month he has been doing a TON more spitting up and is just all around more fussy in the evenings than usual. We also learned that the reflux can cause congestion AND a cough...so there is a chance that what we thought was just a cold - could have been the reflux all along. So we are back on the meds again, at least through cold season. It isn't anywhere NEAR as bad as it was when he was a newborn, but it has to be horribly uncomfortable to have acid reflux when you are so tiny and you can't even curse about it.

And now..........a picture!

Hey look! There's a baby in there!

Santa Baby!

We got Ethan's Christmas pictures done last week at Portrait Innovations. This is the same place we had his newborn pictures done. We are very happy with them.

Enjoy!!