Ethan's First Christmas

Todd and I were so excited to be with Ethan on his first Christmas. There is something so much more magical when you have a baby involved.  It started the first weekend in December when we started putting up Christmas decorations. This is actually late for us because we usually start decorating in November. However, spending time with Ethan was a little more important to us this year instead of spending hours on decorating. So, we decided to still decorate of course but just scale it back a bit.  We still put up our outside lights (just not as many) and we put our Christmas village up over the fireplace. We still put up our two trees - one in the formal living room and one in the family room. This is our favorite time of year.  Putting that Christmas music on and getting out the decorations just puts the biggest smile on your face. Todd and I will banter back and forth about who is going to put the village pieces up first and who is going to put the favorite ornaments on the tree  We are like kids ourselves.  Just thinking about how Ethan will know what is going on next year since he will be over 1 years old and how he can be involved with the decorations just warms our heart already.  My mother in law Jacki was able to come down from Jacksonville to be involved with the Christmas decorations. I think she laughed to herself a lot hearing Todd and I banter back and forth about who gets to put the favorite ornaments up. Let me explain a little more. As I mentioned before we have two Christmas trees. The one in the formal living room is a themed tree and the theme is basically the colors of blue and silver with lots of crystal ornaments. It is gorgeous. Our family room tree is the tree the represents all the memories of our life. Todd and I will get ornaments that mark every occasion or special event. Whether it is the puchase of our new home, bridal/baby shower, trips to France, Italy and Switzerland, trips to all of the islands we have been to, ski trips, and even funny purchases. For example - when Todd got his new grill when we moved into our new home my mom got him an ornament of a grill. Every Christmas we relive these memories and feel blessed beyond measure for the life we have. See the thing is that life has its ups and downs and we know that we are currently in a very special up in our life (having a baby makes you want to sing from the rooftops with happiness)  and when a down comes around in our life we can always smile when we decorate our family tree. Todd was funny this year. We got this beautiful set of baby's first Christmas ornaments from Jacki's friend Evelyn. When I noticed them towards the bottom of the tree I asked Todd why they were down there? I wanted them in the middle of the tree! He said that he put them in order of our life. So the top of the tree was the bridal shower and the wedding and honeymoon. Then the middle of the tree was the purchases of our old townhome and some of our island vacations. So on and so forth.  Let's just say I can see why Todd is an engineer. Very analytical.

Christmas Eve we went to my grandma's house and Ethan got to be with both grandma's and both great grandmas. What a treat! This was very special as well because Todd's grandma came down from Pensacola and met Ethan for the first time. We had just a lovely visit and to see the smile on great grandma's face was so wonderful. Christmas day was filled with more love and lots of cooking since we were having nine people over that day which consisted of my mom, my dad, my mother in law, Todd's grandma, Aunt Caren, Uncle Frank, Jamie my cousin, and Todd and I.  We made lasagna and it came out so delicious! We also made baked ziti, garlic bread, salad, and for dessert my mom brought over an assortment of muffins and my aunt and uncle brought over a pumpkin pie. We opened all of Ethan's gifts on Christmas from Santa and of course he didn't know what was going on but he told me later that he felt lots of love. :)

Tis the season!! See pictures below...

Newborn Photos

Ethan had his newborn photos taken a while back. He was 11 days old when we took these pictures. It was a hard decision on which photographer to go with  - we had narrowed it down to two amazing people but we are very happy with our decision. Real Life Photography (Sandy) did a wonderful job and came highly recommended. We are so very thrilled with the photos. When we got there he was awake even though we fed him before we left. The goal is to get him to be sleepy so the photographer can manipulate him into any position she needs for him to be in. So, in order to get him to that sleepy state, we fed him again and that did the trick. He slept for the 3 hours that it took to get all the pictures. See below for some of our favorites...

2 Months Old

Dear Ethan,

     Hi there son! You are now 2 months old.  You weigh 11 lbs 2 oz and you are 22.5 inches long. Dr. Robbins is so impressed on how fast you are catching up to full term babies. They give babies under 37 weeks gestation up to 2 years to catch up and you are getting close already at 2 months! You still have dark brown hair and your blue eyes seem to have lightened up a bit. We are very curious to see what your eye color will be since Mommy and Daddy both have green eyes. However, there are a lot of blue eyes on daddy's side of the family and lots of brown eyes on mommy's side of the family. You are the light of our lives and we just adore you. Being a mother is the best job in the world and we just savor every moment. You are definitely more active this month and are doing a lot more things on your play mat. You are actually swatting at all the animals above you and you were even able to grab one which is a big developmental milestone. We are so proud of you. You really kick your legs and move your arms as if you have a very serious goal. :) I do catch you smiling at the animals above you. It is a joy to watch you discover and your eyes are open in amazement. You are really gaining strength in your head and neck. You move it back and forth all the time now. You also are able to lift your upper back and your legs too! You are a strong boy and growing so well.  You are now giving mommy and daddy about 7 hours of straight nighttime sleep! You are thriving on your routine and you really like the consistency. Your current schedule is feed at 7:30, 11:00, 2:00, 5:00, 7:30, and 9:30 pm.  I will never forget the day when I put you to bed at 10 pm and when you woke up at 5:00 am, I looked at the clock expecting it to say 2 am. It was the neatest feeling to know that you are making strides with your sleep. Mommy and Daddy are very serious with your sleep because we know that it is important for brain development. We have gotten into a little routine and all of those sleep books that mommy has been reading have been paying off. The routine is that you eat, play, and then sleep. This way you are learning to self soothe youself instead of always falling asleep after a feeding. You have really adapted well to playing after feeding time and I can put you down for a nap quite easily. I feel very blessed that you can do that already. You are a good napper and your naps are usually 1.5 to 2 hours long.  There can be a little variation but mommy likes to keep it within 30 minutes of those increments so you can have a consistent schedule. You are a bit fussy between 7 and 8:30 pm and mommy knows that is because you need an earlier bedtime so that will be the next stride we work on with you. Mommy and Daddy are firm believers on how important sleep is for you and will do our very best to make sure we are educated on what the best next steps will be as we approach your 3rd month.

      You are really enjoying your night time baths and we have starting giving you infant massages (there are a lot of benefits of infant massage and that can be a whole other post) after your bath with your lotion. At first you were really enjoying them.  However, most recently, you have started crying when we take you out of the bath. I guess you really don't like the cold weather. So, mommy throws the towel in the dryer while daddy is washing you and you now have a warm towel ready for when it is time to dry off.  Since you have been upset about the cold weather we have stopped the massages until you seem ready for them. Currently today was 78 degrees so I am not sure we can really use the cold weather as an excuse. :)

     It seems like your most favorite time of day is after the 7:30 am feeding and after the 11:00 am feeding.  Mommy really enjoys reading to you every day. At first I thought that reading a book would be our  night time ritual but it has now become an all day thing. After every feeding we read a book. Mommy really enjoys the mornings with her son. There is something special about this time of day. It is hard to put it into words. Perhaps it is the solitude of just mother and son with no other noise. No TV, bright morning sun, and the conversations we have with each other. We talk about how much daddy loves you and misses you while he is at work. We talk about your diaper and you tell me if it is clean or dirty. We talk about what outfit you are going to wear. We talk about what books we are going to read that day. We talk about how you are feeling after your naps. You talk to me with your eyes and I am really enjoying getting to know you. Daddy and Mommy are really starting to decode all your cries and wants/needs. One of the most precious moments I caught was Daddy telling you  that he hopes that you grow up to find someone as loving as your mommy. I actually felt tears coming down my eyes when I overheard him telling you that. I know I am probably embarrassing you Ethan. :)

      It is truly amazing the difference I have noticed from week 6 to week 9. When you turned 6 weeks old, it was a very hard week. You seemed much more fussy and gassy and cried a lot. (almost to the point that I thought you were colic)  Now, here we are 3 weeks later, and you are a happier baby. I read up on week 6 and it does say the week 6 is the peak of fussiness for babies.

You also got your shots this month and you did extremely well! You cried for about 10 seconds and then that was it. I was ready for a good 5 minute cry. I thought you might be really fussy the next day or even up all night. Nope. You handled it like a good strong boy.

Happy 2 month birthday Ethan! We love you with all our hearts.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

 

 

Ethan's First Thanksgiving, Christmas decorating, and Godparents!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year - a beautiful healthy baby boy, our own health, family, friends, financial prosperity, etc. I really love Thanksgiving because it allows some time for reflection to take the time and remember how lucky we are to have the life that we do. Through the years Todd and I have been able to take some of those lifetime vacations that you always dream about and then to have our son, the best journey of all, has been such a blessing. We know that we are blessed and I feel that life is so rushed that we don't take the time out to acknowledge it and before you know it another year has gone by. Todd's mom came into town and we went to my Aunt Caren and Uncle Frank's house for the feast. Ethan's feast this year was milk. :) We had a wonderful meal. The part that was really special was the prayer before we ate.  I offered to say the prayer and I thanked the Lord for the food on the table, for bringing family together, for Ethan, and for bringing us Ethan's godparents - Caren and Frank! Boy, where they surpised! I totally caught them off guard and that is not an easy task. My aunt catches on very quick and to catch her in surprise was really cool. Todd and I debated on how to ask them and we thought this was a neat way to do it since being godparents is a very spiritual thing and of course the prayer before Thanksgiving is also very spiritual. The emotion on their faces was so special and I can't think of two better people to guide Ethan on his relationship with God. They will grow up knowing their godparents (they live in Dr. Phillips) and they have been so involved in his life - from the moment they found out I was pregnant. Todd and I attend church at Corpus Christi in Celebration and we can't wait for his baptism. We used to attend St. Margaret Mary years ago when we lived on the other side of town. However, since we have moved, it is just too far. We considered going to Holy Family and it just felt like too big of a parish for us. We wanted a little more intimate feeling where we could really get to know people and not feel too lost in the shuffle. At St. Margaret Mary we became very close with our priest and we knew that at Holy Family it was just such a huge parish. Celebration is only about 15 minutes from us. We just go down 535 and hop on I4 and we get off within 2 exits.

 Todd's mom helped us out a lot on Thanksgiving week. We were able to go to dinner with a friend on Tuesday night. I got a pedicure on Wednesday (the first pedicure after having a baby is the best pedicure of your life! haha) and Friday she helped us with the Christmas directions. It was nice spending all of that quality time together with her. We got to play Christmas music while putting up the tree and our Christmas village over the fireplace. The day after Thanksgiving for us this year was not shopping but just really enjoying spending the day with our son and getting the house ready. This is our favorite time of year and a much better way to spend the Friday then getting in those crowds at Black Friday. We already have all the mercendise we could ever need and no sale was worth the precious memories we made.

 

                                            
                                          I love this picture of Ethan looking at his daddy...

                                                                       The godparents

 

 

 

Visits Galore

Ethan has been very busy this month meeting all of his family. He has had wonderful visits with grandma, nannie, pop, grandpa, great mamaw, aunt liz,  cousin Jamie, aunt caren, and great nannie. His pop flew down from Pennslyvania to meet him and we just had a wonderful time. His great mamaw and aunt Liz drove down from Jacksonville. It is so sweet to see everyone reactions when  they meet Ethan for the first time. Just precious.  See all the pictures below from the lovely visits.


See below for a picture with Nannie with Ethan. This is an older picture because I still have to get pictures from Nannie's camera from her recent visit with Ethan. She just loves her grandson! So sweet.

                                      Pop came from PA to meet his grandson. How precious!

 

 

 

                Great Mamaw meeting Ethan for the first time was also a very special moment.

                                                           Jill, Ethan, and Aunt Liz!

 

How cute is this picture? Cousin Jamie and Ethan are both with big smiles!

 

Babymoon

First of all you might be thinking - what is a babymoon? The term comes from the phrase honeymoon. A babymoon is the vacation a couple takes before they have a baby. Yes, it is a little corny but I think it is cute. I was planning on posting this before the baby came, but I didn't have a chance to do it since Ethan came early! We took our babymoon towards the latter half of this past September. I was 35 weeks pregnant and we wanted to stay close to the house. It was a no brainer where we would take our vacation - our home away from home - Sarasota/Lido Key! We absolutely love it there. From the white sandy beaches to St. Armands Circle to the great service at the Ritz Carlton. This hotel and location is special to us because many of the special occasions in Todd and I's life has been spent there so we have a lot of memories. The other thing that makes it so great is that it is only 1 hour 45 minutes from Orlando. I love the west coast of Florida so much better than the east coast. Shhh.....don't tell all the tourists that flock to the east coast! We don't want them spoiling our west coast.

The best part of the trip was not what we did, but the fact that we did nothing! haha. Now that I know the sleep deprivation that having an infant brings, I can look back at this vacation and remember the glorious sleep that was accomplished. :) Todd and I thought it was funny that we met a couple and their 2 kids while lounging at the club and they were from Lake Mary. Anyway, after talking for a bit, we find out his job is an OB and they were in room 801. Todd and I had a good laugh because we said that we felt safe with him there. haha. Pretty much every day we went to the beach club and spent our days there.  We also enjoyed watching the beautiful sunsets and seeing the dolphins play.  Another thing that we noticed is that we enjoyed taking a vacation in September rather than March. (March is our anniversay month) The hotel and beach club were less crowded and no reservations needed in St. Armands Circle.
Overall, it was just a relaxing and wonderful trip that I am so glad we took before the little peanut arrived.



                                                           View from our room

 

 

                                          Customer service is so good...love the welcome back dessert!

 

 

Todd makes a good photographer. See below with sunscreen on bump.  :)

                                                                      


                                                                             Dolphins!