Ethan's first word

I think, officially, Ethan's first is "ut-oh." Now at four months of age Ethan did the typical mama sounds, quickly followed by dada sounds. He still makes these sounds all the time, but he never really seems to tie those sounds Chris and I. So although he did say them, I do not necessarily consider them to be his first words (I know cynical, but I am school psychologist, I make a living out of working with developmental disabilities and the clinical side of my brain says "that is just babbling, not real talking." That side of my brain is hard to shut off at times). Well last night Ethan took a small tumble while walking, I said "Ut-Oh" (as I usually do to down play and not get him too worked up over it). He then proceded to look at me and repeat the words. I thought oh how cute, but then tonight he did it again. He dropped some toys out of the bath tub and said "ut-oh." This my friends is my childs first official word, where he understands and says it with intension. Interesting.
On another note, he has become so engaging in the last week. He tries to do all sorts of things to get our attention or to make us laugh. It is amazing to think that this time last year, he was this tiny little bundle, who was completely helpless and laid calmly in my arms. Now he is walking, almost running, all over and doing things intentionally to get our attention. It so amazing how God created us to learn so much in such little time. So fasinating.

SOOO Long Ago

I found this picture of Chris and I today when I was going through photos. This was self taken at a Padre's game when we were about 20 year old. So long ago. I think this is even before Petco Park was built!

The Vacation Ends

Well it is Sunday night which means my "ski week" vacation is over. I have been off for the last week. It was a fun week. Last weekend we took our youth group kids skiing for a winter retreat (we managed to sneak some God things in their for them), I got to take Ethan to a class at the Y (a mommy and me tumbling class), we had play dates, listened to the Sesame Street CD (I can now sing all the songs by heart, but so cute to watch doodle clap along in the back seat), moved daddy into his office, bought a dinning room table...basically it was an eventful week; I am sad to see it end. I love my job, but I will miss being with the doodle all day. Although since I work for a school district it makes it a little easier...I work 195 days a year (which means I have a day off or so every time I turn around) and I have pretty flexible hours. So it is not so bad. Plus I get to work with kids with special needs. Love that! Have a great week everyone.

Moved Out

So for those who don't know us well, that title may sound bad, but it is good. Back in August, Chris decided that it was time to quit his job at the Ad agency and open his own freelance graphic design business. It would allow Chris to be at home more, see Ethan more and be more involved at church. God was calling out to him! So he did, he quit and he started working for himself at home. God has blessed us; Chris business is doing well. But after a few short months of having Chris's office here in our condo (which I think is shrinking, or we are out growing this place way too fast), it felt crammed.
Chris's office was in our dinning room, so we have had no dinning room table. Needless to say it has been interesting feeding the Doodle. Well about a month ago Chris found an office space to rent close to home and today he moved the office out of the house. We are all so excited to be able to have a dinning room again, but also to have a daddy who can still make his own hours and be here for all of us. Now I get to shopping for a dinning room table. FUN!

Snowboarding

This weekend we had a great storm roll through Southern California. It just so happened that this was the same weekend we were taking our youth group on their winter retreat to go snowboarding. The weather could not have been more perfect. It snowed heavily on Friday; it stopped snowing a hour before we drove up the mountain (in a 15 passenger van and a jeep), was beautiful and sunny while snowboarding and then in the wee hours of the morning on Monday it started snowing again (We booked it out of there as soon as we woke up). We had great weather while we were there. The kids had a blast (no one got hurt this year, yeah!), and this time I got to go boarding. Last year I sat out with a 5 week old Ethan (he is more fun). This year we decided to leave Ethan with my parents for the weekend. It was my first time away from him. Chris and I missed him terribly, but he had a wonderful time with his grandpa and grandma and we got to focus on our junior high and high school kids. All around everyone had fun and now I am greatful that I have the week off and can try to rest. I thought a one year old was tiring, junior highers wear me out. Love 'em!

Big Steps

Ethan has been teasing us with the whole walking thing. He has been walking around the house holding on to thing or pushing things for support for over two months now. His favorite thing to push around and walk with is his learning table. He looks like a small old man walking with a walker. It is really quite funny looking. Today things took a turn, I was sitting in the chair and he was doing his regular laps around the coffee table, when all of the sudden he turned to me and walked about five steps to get to me. He was so excited and giggling the whole time. It was too cute. Isn't it amazing at how amused little kids can get with the smallest thing. They find such joy in everything. I need to try and be more like that.

The long road to today

Happy Birthday Ethan!
Today is a great day. I am remind of God's love and strength. Today Ethan turned one. It is a pretty emotional day for me...why because I am big baby sometimes. Every child is a miracle and every parent thinks their child is the biggest miracle, and of course Chris and I are no different. When we got pregnant with Ethan I thought everything would be prefect and would go smoothly. I had it all planned out, I would work until I was ready to deliver, take all my sick days and maternity leave which would get me into summer have all summer with E and go back to work in the fall of '08 when he would have been 6 months old. It was the perfect plan. Or so I thought. God had other ideas, as He always does and He is always trying to teach me. I went to work on a Tuesday when I was 21 weeks pregnant had a meeting with my boss about my maternity leave plans. All day I was experiencing complications and thought it would go away. By the end of the day I figured it's not stopping. I went to the hospital, they told me I would need to stop working today, would be on bedrest until I delivered and would be needing surgery in order to keep Ethan from "falling out." The catch...the surgery was no guarantee in fact it could push me into labor, but if I did not have the surgery I would have delivered anyday and Ethan probably would not survive. After prayer, and tearful phone calls home, we decided the best hope for Ethan was to have the surgery. I prayed the whole time (as coherently as I could while while having a spinal tap). The surgery went well, although I had to be on anti-contraction meds to keep the number of contractions I started having after surgery down. I went home a few days later to lay in bed or sit in the recliner (at a 45 degree angle) that Chris bought me for this occasion. I did that until week 35 when the doctors reversed my surgery and sent me on my way telling me he could come anytime now and be fine. He was born a week and a half later a month early and was perfect. Although the situation was traumatic while going through it, it was not until Ethan's first doctors appointment that we fully understood how close we came to losing Ethan. Apparently doctor's don't have much success in catching my condition on a first pregancy; it often takes one to two second term miscarriages to diagnosis it (it's an incompentent cervix by the way; very classy name). My condition usually does not have side effects, it just happens; God was definitely watching out for us all. We are so greatful for God's mercy and love. He is amazing. My plans definitely did not work out the way I planned. But God's plan has worked out pretty good. I ended up taking my sick leave while on bedrest allowing us to still pay our bills. I went back to work the end of last school year to wrap up the year and that worked out find too.
By the way Ethan's name means strong. Prior to the surgery it was the only name we both liked, but were not set on it. Since he made it through the surgery we felt this was a pretty strong baby and so Ethan stuck.
I want to thank those of you who already know this story and have helped Chris and I walk down this road that honestly was not always easy for me to cope with. But everytime I look at my little boy I think how amazing he is and how God has a great plan for his life and he is so worth everything. I have learned through this road how to be a better parent and how to give control over to God. Happy birthday Ethan, in your short life you have taught your mom more than you know.