Sleeping and Walking

I've mentioned how obsessed Ethan is with being swaddled - he'll usually wake up when he gets his arms out. But occasionally we'll walk into his room and seem him sound asleep like this - just chillin' in his crib!

We had beautiful weather tonight so we decided to go for a walk. This was Ethan's first experience in his stroller without the car seat. He's still a little small for it, but we knew he would enjoy looking around, so we thought we'd give it a try. I was a paranoid mom, afraid he'd slip out of the straps. But he did great and really enjoyed it!

Another one for Parker

Well, Parker, we need your help again! We found this lovely little creature in our house yesterday morning. We've seen several others like it before, but this was definitely the biggest one so far. So what can you tell us about it, Parker?

Happy Memorial Day!

We were able to have a bunch of our friends over on Memorial Day for a BBQ/Pool Party. Although it rained most of the morning, the sun finally came out and it turned out being perfect swimming weather! Ethan took an exceptionally long nap and slept through all the swimming. I was looking forward to Ethan's first swimming experience, but I guess we'll save that for another day.

A cool breeze came by and good 'ol Uncle Curt was VERY EAGER to share his Michigan shirt with Ethan (while Lonnie was in the house changing). How generous!
Of course, once Lonnie saw it, he thought maybe Curt's shirt wasn't warm enough, so he went back inside and got one he thought would work better. Ha! (I think Ethan is going to one confused little boy with these guys around! He won't know which team to root for!)

Ethan had fun hanging out with his newest friend Peyton!...and of course, snuggling with Daddy!

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend!

A Rough Day

We had a very rough day, but still managed to get great pictures! We've been up since 3am - Ethan's had a couple of cat naps (20 min.) throughout the day, but has been awake pretty much the rest of the day. We think he may be teething. Even though it's a little early, he's been WAY drooly, gnawing on his hands like crazy, and just generally cranky, which is completely unlike him. But I'll save that for another post (where I ask moms for some advice on teething!).

So here we are at bath time tonight. Couldn't resist...


And on our way out to celebrate Melissa's birthday at Shoguns. Doesn't he look handsome???? And grown up?????

Going, going, gone!!!

I set Ethan down on his butterfly this evening. Here's what he looked like...

I look away for a minute and here's what I see...
A minute later...
We've got a scooter on our hands!!! He especially likes to scoot on the changing table, but he always hits his head on the bars. It doesn't seem to bother him, though. He never fusses and he keeps doing it!

Not too much longer and he'll be crawling around!!!!! Hard to believe...

Professional Pictures

We went to get Ethan's official three months picture taken on Sunday. He was a stinker!!! He absolutely refused to smile. It was so frustrating since he smiles at us all the time. But we were able to get two good pictures. Sorry they're not great - it's hard to take a picture of a picture, but here they are anyway...



Other random pics...

**Thanks Aunt Rachel for the cute new outfit!!

Ethan was just enthralled with Lonnie's face after his bath a few nights ago. He was grabbing at his nose, skin, anthing he could get his little hands on!

Three months old

Wow! Ethan is a fourth of a year old! He keeps getting to be more and more fun every day. The cute cooing has turned into squeals of delight. The simple smile of recognition has turned into his whole face lighting up when he sees us. He is fun, fun, fun. And it's great knowing that each month I'll keep saying the same thing.

Ethan is such an easy baby. He continues to sleep through the night. Occasionally we have to get up to put his pacifier back in, but he never eats in the middle of the night anymore. When he wakes up he's as happy as can be and stays that way most of the day! He'll start to fuss when he gets tired, but as soon as we swaddle him and put his pacifier in, he's conked out!

The past week Ethan hasn't shown much interest in eating. He would take FOREVER to finish a bottle and would just play with it most of the time. So we switched him from a 3-hour schedule to a 4-hour schedule, and he's doing a lot better now. I guess that's just part of growing up!

Here are his stats:
12.8 pounds
25 1/4 inches - WOW!!!!
100% sweet!


Here are his monthly football shots:

Three months:
Two months:
One month:
One day:

As they say...

My how time flies!!!!

The King of Spit

There's a new sound in the Lamp house lately - the sound of Ethan blowing spit bubbles. It's hilarious! It's so fun to watch him experiment with his mouth and find out new tricks he can learn all by himself (we sure didn't teach it to him - it's a mess!).



Cute, cute, cute...

TOYS, TOYS, TOYS!!!

Ethan's finally getting to the age where he can begin to enjoy his toys. He's working on holding them all by himself and reaching for toys that are in front of him. He really loves staring intently and focusing on any toy around him. Ethan especially loves his butterfly activity center. He stares and stares at the toys that hang down, as well as bats and kicks at them.

Ethan's First Official TV Watching Session

We officially let Ethan watch TV this week. I'm really not a huge fan of videos for babies, but signing is something I'd really like to do with Ethan. We recorded Signing Time on TV the other day and sat down with Ethan to watch it. We learned all kinds of new signs! We learned all the question words (5W and H), along with other signs, such as frog, find, and guess. Although they say you can start as early as 3 months, Ethan wasn't really all that interested in it, and of course he doesn't understand anything the lady is saying, but I think the videos will be GREAT in the future. Regardless of how little Ethan was into it, Lonnie and I enjoyed it! We got a kick out of making up sentences with the few signs that we know. I've ordered the Baby Signing videos, and they should be here any day. They also have some really neat signing board books I'd like to get for Ethan, but I'm too much of a cheapskate. Maybe Santa will bring them this year! :)




As always, ignore the mess!!!!

Camden and Ethan

We had Carl, Crystal and Camden over last night for dinner. So, of course, we had to take pictures of the boys!

We tried Camden in the Bumbo seat for the first time, but we decided he's still a little too young for it. He lasted only a few seconds before showing his displeasure. :)



They loved playing in the butterfly together! Ethan started showing his mean side - he kept hitting Camden! Actually, he just gets so excited in that thing and flails his arms, and poor Camden just happened to be in his way.
So serious...
Don't worry Crystal, the drool spot is like the gold star of motherhood.



The men and their boys!

Thanks for hanging out, Kings!!! :)

The truth comes out...

Last Wednesday I had a high fever. Since then I've had a REALLY sore throat (worse than I can remember having before). A couple of weeks ago several of my students had Fifths Disease (along with a bunch of other first graders and kindergarteners at my school). Monday, another student of mine was out with it, and today, another one went home sick with it. Right after I sent her home, I looked down at my own arms and noticed a lovely little rash. Later, a teacher came in my room and told me my cheeks looked red.

FINALLY, I put two and two (and two and two) together and made a quick trip to the nurse's office. Sure enough, I have Fifths Disease!

Okay, I 'm sure most of you are saying, what in the world is Fifths Disease? In five years of teaching, this is my first time to hear of it. It is a highly contagious "disease" that causes a really red rash all over the arms and bright red cheeks. Other symptoms may vary, but usually you'll have congestion, fever, and sometimes a sore throat. It affects different people in different ways. I've heard that in adults it can cause you to be very, very achey. Unfortunately, you don't know you have it until it's too late. Once the rash appears, you're no longer contagious.

So, my first thought was, did I pass it on to Ethan? Our school nurse was wonderful and looked up some info for me, and it sounds like infants don't usually contract the disease. So he should be okay. He has been a little congested lately, but I doubt that it's related. Only time will tell.

Weird, huh?

For Parker

Parker, this blog's for you! We were cleaning out under the deck this evening (where we left all of our pool toys out all winter long). As we were moving things around we spotted this snake! It was pretty quick, so we didn't get a very good picture. We also found a whole bunch worms that we thought you might enjoy.

Lonnie would like a full report on what kind of snake it is and any important information you can gather. Happy researching! :)

Snoozin' by the toilet

We had a tornado warning here this evening, and unfortunately, the only room in our house without windows (besides closets) is the guest bathroom. So...our sleeping baby got moved from his nice, cozy crib to the hard, cold tile floor next to the lovely comode. Ha! We got a good chuckle out of it (and of course I had to take a picture). But don't worry, it missed us, and we're all fine!

Roly Poly Baby (and other misc.)

We've been working on getting pictures of Ethan's rolls. It's hilarious! Mostly his arms - even though it's fat/skin, he looks like a muscular little baby!

Lonnie says it looks like he's on the pot and saying "Leave me alone, I'm busy!" He wants me to photoshop a magazine into his hands. Ha!