"kicking" off Christmas...

We kicked off the Christmas Season with the Music City Rockettes!    It was a perfect way to start celebrating the season.  Ethan was all smiles~ and so were we watching his reaction.

I must say Christmas will be a little sweeter this year watching it through Ethan's eyes.  We spent our weekend shopping for our Christmas Tree and decking our halls.  Ethan now has replaced his lovie with soft Santa to sleep with and wears his Christmas hat around the house:)  Let the fun begin!

we picked our tree...

David trimming the tree  

Ethan's new attire...Santa shirt & hat minus the pants!

it's that time of year...

Cold and flu season that is!  It took me by surprise to say the least.  Ethan came home from school a happy boy and by 5 pm he was hot-hot-hot with a fever.  So take this nurse-mom's advice and do  yourself a favor and stock up ahead of time on a few things that make a miserable time easier...  Because you never expect your kiddo to be sick and when you do the last thing you wanna do is leave the house. 


I adore Boogie Wipes!  They are like a diper wipe moist with saline for your little one's nosie rosie.  Ethan likes the grape smell one.  I like it because they wipe the dried snot off the face and back of the toddler's hand.  They now come in big rolls like your clorox wipes. 

Always always have one bottle of Pedialyte in your pantry and the Pedialyte freezer pops in your freezer.  I can count on Ethan having a fever when he sick.  I was totally unprepared when Ethan's spiked, everyone's at work, and you are home with a sick boy who is snoozing. 

Thankfully, my friend Martha ran to walgreen and picked me up some freezer pops.  Remember, when you buy them they aren't frozen, so that is another reason why it is good to just keep in the freezer.  Ethan's temp would be 103 and I would stick him a tepid bath and give him a freezer pop to help cool him.  His fever's spike so quickly, I get nervous about febrile seizures which can happen. I love how the freezer pops hydrate the kiddos and cool at the same time.

 

Last winter I picked up this temporal scanner at Target and love it!  You can scan your kiddos head while sleeping to get a good reading without waking them up.  It does take a little practice because you have to scan above the eye and move to the temple.  If you don't scan correctly, the temp with be lower that it actually is.  Worth the $30 bucks! 

Also, I would stock up on the tylenol and motrin.  I go for the off brand dye free versions.   I have seen the brand names recalled to much lately and love the price of the off brands. 

Lastly, while shopping this holiday season, go ahead and pick up a $5 movie for your kiddo at Target.  Stash it away for a rainy or snowy sick day.  It is a nice little treat for them and possible a little relief for you! 

Thankful...

I am thankful for today....

 and my three {fever-free} boys (David, Ethan, and Baby Boy) and technology that allows me see Ethan watch the Macy's Day Parade on my phone while working to help sweet babies heal and grow... and much more than I have time to list...Happy Thanksgiving!  Posted from my iPad

the boys are back in town...

David recently took off for a 4 day hunting trip with his father and brother in South Dakota.  I think it was a much needed trip for David.  In the meantime I had some big things on my to-do list to tackle. 

David is 6th guy in from the left

First up:  get a jump start on my Christmas shopping.  This was big for me being I am usually a late shopper.  However, this year I am entering the holiday season in my third trimester.  I thought it might be nice to have most if not all of my shopping completed by December.  So maybe in December I can focus on other big items...such as moving Ethan into a big boy bed and redoing his bedroom not to mention a new nursery for our little peanut!  {and decorating a tree, wrapping gifts, holiday baking, parties, etc}.  I am so excited about experiencing Christmas again through Ethan's eyes this year!  I really want to be able to sit by the fireplace, sip cocoa, and enjoy it.

Second on my list was to start to potty training Ethan.  I had a five day stretch off from work so I thought I should at least give it a try.  I picked up a little potty at Target and after day school on Thursday off came diaper and on went the big boy undies.  Unlike my usual self, I winged it.  No books, no manuals, - just gave it a go.  And he did!!!  This mommy couldn't be any prouder.  I wasn't really expecting big results.  But by Friday he was asking to go and taking himself.  I don't think his body is ready to tackle naps and bedtime yet, but he is already waking up with either a dry pull up or barely wet pull up.  Did I mention how cute Ethan's little bum is in big boy undies? 

Ethan working on his potty, even his potty needed a few screws and hammer!

I did find time to have dinner with several family members and wrap a few Christmas/birthday gifts.  I gave it my all at learning to pipe icing and declared Publix the master baker over my skills and tossed my cupcakes!  Oh well...you can't do it all sometimes.  However, I still would like to try the class Michael's Craft Stores offer.

Did I mention how 11.11.11 just may be favorite day of 2011?  Not only did Ethan's potty training kick in, but I was offered a part time position at work, my FMLA was officially approved, and I got a Christmas trade I needed badly at work.  I am thrilled about going part time at work and being home with Ethan and the baby more!

Now, If I can just make a decision on bedding for Ethan's new room...

goodbye and thank you gift...

We were so sad to hear that Ethan's assistant teacher, Miss Aunie, would be moving and last Thursday was her last day.  I could tell from the very first day she was a cuddly, sweet type of teacher who is always so sweet to the kiddos.  This brought comfort to me especially with this being his first time at school.  Since we is moving across the coast to Colorado, I am assuming she has either a long plane ride or car ride so I made her this a good-bye and thank you.  

a stack of good magazines and a stash of chess squares

a little note from Ethan...

I guess Tuesday will be another 'first day' of sorts meeting his new assistant teacher.  Sigh...

label it...

The weather is cooler which means it is time to bundle up your little one.  Now that Ethan is in school, this means I had to find a way to put his name on everything:  hats, gloves, sippy cups, lunch boxes, school totes.  The southern girl in me is always eager to slap a monogram on anything.  But unless you own your own machine, it gets a little pricy putting your kiddos name on everything.  


So I wanted to share with you some products that I have found that have made my life easier, especially when sending your tot to school.

The first product I found are Inchbug's Orbit labels for sippy cups.  They were actually recommended to me by a friend at work.  They work on multiple types of sippy cups and are dishwasher friendly---aka---can survive at my house.

What I most recently found was Ethan's day school was asking that all coats, hats, gloves, etc be labeled.  I had already found that my sharpie marker would bleed on the labels of his lovies, etc.  My fingers then went to google and I found several products for clothes.  My favorite was Name Bubble's bitty bubble.  First of all they come in a huge variety of colors and styles.  They had a more mature monogram style, but I choose the preschool label with the train icon in the center.  I thought if you had two small kids who can't read {hello, Courtney!} they could simply identify the icon such a train or plane.  Within minutes, I had labeled all of Ethan's coats, jackets, mittens, hats, and even a lovie.   

Have fun labeling....I did!

last weekend...

We had an action packed weekend last weekend.  We kicked it off by meeting friends at the the Discovery Center on Friday.  This is a hand-on museum of sorts for kids which got an A+ from this mom.  Ethan loved it!  His favorite was using this 'digger' to pick up rocks. 



We then headed south to Atlanta for the weekend to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  We went to the Georgia Aquarium first thing on Saturday.  We watched their new dolphin show which was pretty amazing and theatrical. 

We were sitting by one of the huge tanks watching whale sharks and such swim around when a group of divers entered the water in scuba gear.  The last time Ethan saw divers was on a submarine in Maui in which he was terrified of the divers.  He overcame his fear as one of the women came right up next to the glass and waved hello and a variety of verbal signs and Ethan would "sign" right back!  She had paid a good fortune to experience swimming with sharks and fish of sorts and was more intrigued by Ethan.  Needless to say it gave us all a big laugh and he overcame his fear!

Ethan also touched several cownose sting rays and a sea urchin.  I definitely think he will be just like his daddy when it comes to marine biology.  We left the aquarium and ate at Legal Seafood.  After we enjoyed the fish, we decided to go eat some!  Well, everyone but me...I usually stick to chicken!  Ethan had the New England Clam Chowder.  Just what every other two year old eats, right? 

Ethan "planking" with Grandma

Ethan playing Grandpa's Drums

Ethan and Grandpa on a train ride at the mall, not every Grandpa would do this:)

Sunday we spend our morning at the Fernbank Natural History Museum.  Everyone was impressed with the enormity of the dinosaur skeletons.  I found it to be a perfect time to learn and see dinosaurs since Ethan just spent Halloween pretending to be one. 


 

 

Whew!  What a weekend we had!  Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for a such a great time! 

our halloween day...

This year Ethan and I kicked off our Halloween day with a walk on what I call, "The Best Halloween Street."  The homes are historical and the people go all out decorating.  The leaves were in big leaf piles along side the street and it was the perfect Fall morning for a walk.  The photos were taken with my iphone while walking so they aren't the best.


no telling how old this iron fence is...kind of spooky!








This home has every character of the Wizard of Oz on the front porch





grave yard created in someone's front lawn




spooky cob webs along the sidewalk
Then we headed home to start making our treats!  

Ethan help dip the pears to make....

"Ghost" pears!

Ethan's lunch:  Mummy Dog

Ethan help bake our pumpkin muffins for his class party

Ready to go trick or treating!  Someone was excited:)

Our little dinosaur

Our pumpkin this year

"Trick-or-Treat"

His favorite part was digging in the bowls!

He loved it!

Notice our cat?  I guess dinosaurs did choke holds?  We didn't realize during the photo!  Ha!

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