Thanksgiving

After a series of changed plans, we ended up spending Thanksgiving here in Birmingham without any extended family. I still ended up cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and we had a very nice time together. We started a few family traditions for our little family, and actually enjoyed a very peaceful and relaxed holiday together. We raked and played in the leaves all morning. After baths and naps, Daddy took the boys on a bike ride so I could cook. Then we all sat down and feasted together. We carried on a tradition that Marcus loves of sharing five things that we are particularly thankful for from this year. Caleb was old enough to get in on it this year, and during his turns he was thankful for "bread," "Tabitha," "the party place," "cake" and "my big house." Marcus and I shared thanks for Ethan's birth, Marcus matching in radiation oncology, selling our house, finding such a great house here, 2-day weekends, a good commute for Marcus, God's gift of stamina for Ethan's sleeping, and for growing in love and understanding in our marriage. After dinner, we all went together to get our Christmas tree. We decorated in spurts through the rest of the weekend. Caleb is VERY excited that "Chis-mas is coming!"

Family Visits

Aunt Wendi did a P.A. rotation about 4 hours south of us, so she came up to visit us for a weekend in early November. We went hiking together and had a lot of fun. She and Marcus cooked up a plan for her to shadow him the following week. So she drove back to Florida on Monday morning and came back here Wednesday night to shadow Marcus Thursday and Friday. We had another fun weekend together, which included more hiking and even discovering a neat outdoor festival. I can't get over how gorgeous this place is in the fall. The trees, the colorful leaves, the air, the temperature...just everything! We can't get enough of being outside!

Then Uncle Josh and Aunt Traci and Mimi all decided they were coming to visit the following weekend, so Wendi laughed and agreed to make the drive one more time. It has sort of been a month of family visiting (a big part of my long lag in blog posts :)

Halloween

Sorry for the long lag...its such a busy time of year, and Ethan crawling makes sure that I have very little down time. Anyway, here are some Halloween pics, very, very late :) We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with several families from Marc's work, and then went to a Halloween party in our neighborhood afterwards. (Aunt Wendi was in town and she stayed at home with sleeping Ethan after the trick-or-treating.) Enjoy the pics!

Caleb Quotes

I have to say that I am LOVING so many things about Caleb at this age. He is starting to express his feelings, and he is coming to the funniest conclusions about things. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the last couple of weeks.

Quote #1
(while urinating and staring at the stream between his legs)
"Woah, dat a lot of pee pee, Momma!"

Quote #2
(after falling and scraping his knee)
Mommy: "Oh Caleb did that hurt? Do you feel sad?"
Caleb: (crying) "I feel sa-ad, but ice cream [would] make me hap-py!"

Quote #3
Mommy: "Caleb, can I have some of those raisins?"
Caleb: "No."
Mommy: "I thought that you liked to share!"
Caleb: "I do like to share. I like to share with ME."

Quote #4
(after impulsively knocking down a tower that we had spent 10 minutes building together)
Mommy: "Caleb, when you grow up, do you want to be a man who builds things or a man who breaks things?"
Caleb: "I wanna be a man who breaks things!"
Mommy: "Well, I hope you are a man who builds things."
Caleb: "Well, I want to break things, Mama, and DAT'S MY CHOICE." (emphasis his)

Ethan Update

I am painfully aware that Ethan updates are much fewer and farther between than Caleb updates were, but I'm sure you all understand (I just hope Ethan does...) Anyway, here it is.

Ethan was sitting up well at 5-months. I measure sitting up well by when I can take the boppy pillow away and walk out of the room for a minute or two without being concerned that he will topple. He could still only sit for about 20 minutes at 5-months, but it was still a welcome relief from wanting to be held all the time. I could put toys in front of him and go to the bathroom or unload the dishwasher without him fussing. Although the toys were usually unnecessary if Caleb was up and about. (Caleb is a mobile entertainment system for Ethan.)

About a week ago, just shy of 6 1/2 months, Ethan achieved his own mobility. Now he is content for long periods of time on the floor, exploring the play room. He's not actually crawling, but he has mastered a fast army crawl that leaves no area safe. The first day he could move, I caught him with Marcus's cell phone charger in his hand, on the way to his mouth, and it was plugged in! That sent me into a baby-proofing frenzy. Now the play room is mainly secure, but I still don't dare walk out for more than a moment because he is constantly getting himself stuck somewhere or ending up on his back on top of some pointy toys and wailing for help. Today he figured out how to get to a sitting position from his army crawl stance, and he is loving that. Now he doesn't have to play with the toy he crawled to on his belly; he can simply arrive at the toy, get to a sitting position, and play away. And when he's done, he awkwardly lunges in another direction until he is belly-down again. All-in-all, we are all enjoying the mobility, as it makes him even happier and more independent.

Ethan is eating solids twice a day, mostly Earth's Best Organic baby food, as well as a lot of tidbits from our meals. He loves to eat whatever anyone else is eating. He twists and strains and reaches and grunts until we give him a little taste of what is on our plates. As a result, he has tasted a LOT more foods than Caleb had at this age, but he mainly eats fruits and vegetables from a jar, as well as 6-8 breastfeedings a day. He is a very well-fed baby :)

I can't remember his weight and height from the pediatric visit last week (I know that's horrible), but I do remember that he was around 75% for weight and in the upper 90's for height, which is exactly where Caleb at 6-months.

Ethan's disposition is very happy. He loves attention, and he is often very patient about obtaining someone's attention. He will stare at the side of someone's face in church for a minute or two without stopping, until they turn toward him, and then his face erupts into a huge smile. He LOVES it when we babble to him, though he is not babbling back yet. He also still loves us to sing, and he often chimes in with a monotone "Aaaaaaahhhhhh" of his own throughout our whole song. He is what many would describe as a "Mama's boy" in that wants me within sight most of the time, and will vocally protest if he sees me walk out of the room without taking him along. He also always wants Mama when he is tired, hungry or just wants some cuddling. Caleb was easier to distract from his "Mama" cries, but Ethan is very hard to deter once he's decided that only Mama will do. I've still only made it through church one time without being paged, and the story is always the same: "He was perfectly happy and then he just looked around and started screaming." And he is always still screaming when I arrive to get him. One book I read described this "Mommy radar" as a thermometer, he can take the separation until his meter reaches a certain temperature, and then the alarm goes off and he has to make sure that I'm still available. Caleb wasn't like that, so this is new territory for me.

For the sake of ending this blog post, I think I will pass on addressing the sleeping thing...other than to say that things have improved some. He has given us 3 nights this week with only 1-2 wakings, which is WONDERFUL. He is still not napping well during the day, but Caleb didn't nap well until he was consistenly sleeping well at night, so maybe that is still coming.

That is 6-month-old Ethan in a nutshell!