CROCS

A couple of weeks ago my mom came down and we did a little shopping. We had a fantastic time getting her some new clothes and also getting Ethan some new shoes. Ethan had grown to the end of his little Reef sandals, and since we are just now getting to August, and we live in So. Cal, we still a lot of summer shoe wearing left.


I am NOT a fan of crocs. Since the day they came out I thought "yes they look comfy, but man are they ugly." And I just could not get over the look of them. No offense to those readers who have them, love them and wear them; I just think they look like Minnie Mouse shoes. I just can't do it, however I do not pass judgement on those who do choose to wear them. I happen to have lots of adult friends who do wear them.


Crocs seem to be a pretty popular shoe for kids. Chris has told me on more than one occasion to not buy them for Ethan (he does not like them either). Personally, although I do not like them for myself, I do think they are cute for kids. I think it is a size thing. Have you ever been shopping and you see that cute top and the x-small is hanging in the front and when you go and grab your size and pull it out, it just doesn't seem to be as cute as it is in the x-small? It seems to me there is just something that gets lost in the translation of different sizes.

Recently I was out shopping with my youngest sister who happens to be about 6 inches shorter and 20-30 pounds lighter (depending on how much I want to say I weigh). She is just a much more petite person. Her and I found these cute little GAP sweatshirts. She found one in her size and I picked one up in my size. Just holding them up (not even trying them on) we both quickly agreed that in my size it was not as cute. The sweatshirt was wider but not longer when it came to my size, so it looked misproportioned. The attractiveness of the sweatshirt was lost in the translation of the sizes. All that digression to say that I think they are cute for little kids, I just don't like them in my size.

While out shopping with mom that day we happened upon the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and found our way to shoes. My mom pointed out the crocs and as the sales clerk was fitting Ethan for some cute winter tennis shoes I explained that I can not buy Crocs, because I have never really liked them and because Chris would not be happy if I bought Ethan crocs. As I was explaining that this lady happened to walk by and then approached me saying her husband used to be the same way, but now her son LOVES them and it is her husband who insist they buy him new ones when his wear-out. So I gave in and bought the crocs.

Posing with his new shoes!


This is Ethan's new face. He makes it all the time, we call it the ducky face.


Ethan loves them! And I must say he walks so well in them. We have had a few falls that have sent us to the ER lately (before he owned crocs) so I have been very concerned that he have good shoes and that they not be the cause of his uneasiness when walking. When I came home Chris even noticed how well he walked in them and now likes them. However since we both have a weird, passionate, dislike towards them, we have vowed to not have him wear them when he is older. Unless he really really wants to. :)

And again I apologize if I have offended any blog readers who may wear Crocs. I am slowly coming around though. :)

Beach Trippin

Now that Ethan has learned the water we have taken him to the beach twice in the last two weeks. He loved it. The first time he was not real sure what to think of the sand. He stood on the blanket and would not step foot on the sand. He sat on the edge playing with sand toys. Finally I put his little water shoes on him that I bought pretty impulsively. Glad I bought them. Once they were on his little feet he was off and had a great time.

The second time we took him he had no problem walking on the sand bare foot. Yeah. He had so much fun; he ran after his friend J. The two of the ran up and down the beach. It was so cute. The daddies even helped to build a sand castle with a moat. The boys like that, although Ethan did not want to get in the moat, instead he threw sea shells in the moat. Overall we had a great time on both trips. You can tell by the look on my face (Ethan's friend J took the picture of me, he really wanted to use the camera, he did a great job).

Look no water shoes. Yeah E!
Look at poor E's head and eyes. They look way better than they did last week (read down a few blogs ago to here the story of the his face).All three boys, Ethan, J and B in the moat the daddies made.

Ethan and J ran up and down the beach forever. It was so tiring following them. They have an amazing amount of energy.
Helping daddy build the moat.

Resting in his little beach chair at the end of the day, fully enjoying the sand; it is everywhere, his whole face was covered.

Music

When we went to my parents when our niece Madison was born Ethan found grandpa's guitar. Ethan has always liked music. Maybe it was all the Guitar Hero Chris played while I was on bedrest. When ever we go to first services at church we take Ethan into the service for the worship portion. He holds his his two little index fingers and taps them to the beat and will just stare at the guys playing their instruments. He is too funny with music.
Once he found grandpa's guitar he just kept going back to it. One morning my mom found him with one hand on the fret, the other hand strumming and loudly singing baby babbles. He makes me smile. I love my little guy so much.

A Working Mom's Vacation

So what, might you ask, does a full time working mom do when she is off for a few weeks...bake cookies of course (that is just one of the many things I have been doing). I really want to make a cake, because I have also spent some time watching cake shows on TV, however I just don't think Chris, Ethan and I need a whole cake and I don't have the self control. Although my sister-in-law and her husband are coming into town after living in South Korea for a year so maybe I can make one for that event. Hum...I should work on that recipe now.

I made peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips. I took the peanut butter cookie recipe that was my grandma mamie's and added chocolate chips. Is there a better food combination than peanut butter and chocolate? I think not.


The finished product! However I must confess...I only made 12 cookies. Years ago a couple of great roommates showed me how wonderful a spoonful of frozen cookie dough can be. So the rest of the dough is in my freezer. But they were so good and the three of us ate them while hanging out at the beach today with some friends.

Swimming lessons

In a previous post I stated that there has been lots going on and that I would back track some things. So here it goes. Earlier this summer Ethan had swim lessons. They were mommy and me swim lessons so we got to do this together. Also my good friend S and her son N, who is only a month older than Ethan took swim lessons with us. I thought Ethan would really enjoy the lessons as he loves bath time. For our first lesson Chris came along to capture this fabulous mother son bonding moment.
As you can see the photo below, Ethan did not enjoy swimming lessons as much as I had hoped. He did not think the large body of water was as fun as the bath. But we plugged along anyway.

This is us with our friends S and N swimming around. N loved the swimming lessons!



Apparently it is frowned upon at the YMCA to take photos. See this lady in the back of the photo, she is yelling at Chris from the water right here telling him to stop. Oops. Just trying to capture this quality bonding moment.

Now we were not allowed to take anymore photos during our sessions, so you maybe wondering if things looked better for Ethan and the swimming lessons. I am happy to report that in fact they did. The next session he really warmed up to the idea and each lesson he was more and more into it. By the end he was even sticking his own head under water and laughing about it when he came up. And you may also be thinking that I am making that up, since all the photos show Ethan hating this experiences. So for you who doubt me...
The above photo was taken last weekend at the pool here in our complex. He had a good old time with his daddy playing in the pool. I am looking forward to more opportunities for Ethan to hang out in the pool with us this summer. We had a great time with our swim lessons.

Eventful night

Tonight was eventful, and not at all how I had planned it out to be. I try to be tough, I have always tried to be the one who has it all together (even though I really do not), I try to handle emotional things with little emotion and drama (although my husband and others close to me know that is a HUGE front). Tonight we spent some time in Children's Hopsital ER. It never gets easier to be there. I thought maybe one day it would. Ethan fell and hit his head tonight. The bruise on his forhead began to develop immediately and started to swell. The sucky part...Ethan fell last Sunday and hit the same spot. We chose not to go to the hospital that day; the bruise was very slow growing and when we realized that he probably needed factor for his hemophilia for this fall, his blood had already clotted so doctors said to let it ride this time. We are still trying to figure it all; when he needs factor, when it is just a minor bump that needs no attention. It makes it harder that he is overly tough and active. He just keeps on going as if nothing is wrong. Tonight he was trying to run around the ER all the while looking like he got hit in the head with a hockey puck.
Although I can sit in the ER room and help the nurses give Ethan the shot he needs and I can do it with little emotion at the moment, I still get home, and it is still hard to know your baby is hurt, it is still hard to see your baby's forhead all bruised up, even when he is acting like nothing happened. Ethan is one tough cookie with a great personality and although I cry he continues to run around playing without missing a beat (well he cried for about two minutes and then went back to playing). I thank God he made Ethan that way, it makes it easier to deal with this all. I also thank God we live near a fantastic Children's Hopsital who are absolutely amazing when dealing with Ethan. I guess I am just emotional about it right now because, well, it is hard to deal with, but it has been a long weekend, with little sleep from for us all. Ethan is now sleeping soundly and we managed to get out of the ER within an hour and a half (that is really good). His head injury was not intercranial, and Doctors did not feel we needed a CAT scan tonight (thank God, Ethan would have to be sedated for that procedure). Ethan only needed his shot of factor to help with the swelling and bruising on his forhead. God definatly looks after this kid; I just wish Ethan's forhead would stop finding sharp corners.

Monday Night Dinner

Today was a pretty quiet day. I could get used to this whole not working thing. Well I still miss my job (love what I do), so maybe one day I will be able to work part time. Anyway, Today we hung around the house, cleaning (it feels good to get some deep cleaning done that I usually don't get to do). We ran a few errands and then when Chris came home we all made dinner together. It was nice to be able to think about what to make for dinner before 6pm. In fact we were eating by 5:45. I love this being home thing. Usually I don't even get to think about what we will do or make for dinner until 6pm and then I am so over it all that we do something quick with little to no work or thought. But today around 11am I decided we would have Teriyaki Chicken, so I started marinating it then. I must say it was delicious. We had some rice and ceaser salad with it. The best part, Ethan loved all three things and ate a ton for dinner. I had the TV on after dinner and Cake Boss was on, it inspired me to do some baking, so I made some Snickerdoodle cookies from scratch. Today was a nice relaxing day. What did you all have for dinner?

Little Madi

There has been a lot of things going on recently that I feel are blog worthy, however I have not had much time to sit down and blog. I will go back and blog certain events, but I must skip ahead and talk about the latest blog worthy event.

My little niece Madison was born this week, finally. I say finally because although Madison arrived 3 weeks early according to the original due date and 2 weeks early according to her adjusted due date she took just shy of two full days of labor for Madison to meet us all. And as it turns out, the doctors feel, after looking her over she was actually full term!

The whole family is so excited that Madison is here and so happy for Emili and Walt. Isn't Madison too cute, look at those cheeks.


The happy new family on there way to head home from the hospital!
I just love this picture. Sam took this picture (well most the photos on today's blog).
Grandma and Grandpa are so excited to have their first granddaughter.
Auntie Sam, Emili and Madison. We let Sam take a break from working behind the camera so we could document that she was there also. :)
We are so excited to be an Aunt and Uncle for the first time. I think I may end up spoiling Madison (little girls clothes are too cute and there is way more choice for them than boys clothes).
The cousins got to meet for the first time and Grandma and Grandpa's house. Ethan was not too sure what to think about her.
He couldn't figure out why she just sat there and did not play with all his toys with him. They are going to have so much fun together when they get older.
Ethan eventually warmed up and decided to try and touch her and see what would happen. He loves her already!
We are all so greatful that God has blessed our family with this new little bundle of joy and pray for the new family and that Madison grows up to be a strong woman in Christ. We love you Madison!