Ready, Set, Play!

Today was Ethan's first day at 'Ready, Set, Play'. It started at 9:00 am (which I think I regret signing up for such an early program). But I guess it is good to get up and out of the house early. When we got there a few other little guys were there. The class is for toddlers aged 16-30 months. We were in the gym and there were lots of toys, slides and hula hoops set up. Of course there were about 20 balls all around, so Ethan was in heaven. As soon as he saw all the balls he immediately started running towards them screaming "Ball Ball Ball" and pointing at them. So far things are going well. Then the instructor asks us to sit around the middle circle. Ethan sat and sang a few songs very well, then it was back to free play. The next sitting session didn't go as well. Ethan didn't want to sit in the circle, so I just let him run around, finally I said "sit" so he say about 20 feet away from the rest of group. He was very shy, which is quite uncharacteristic of Ethan. This makes me happy that I signed up for these programs, get up and out with oither kids. Hopefully he will feel more comfortable next week! Although I must say when she turned the dancing music on Ethan was very excited to start dancing.
We went and got our car appraised today (oh yes I may have forgotten to mention before that I drove over a large wood stake and ruined the bumper of the car). Anyways, they said it would be about $2100. So that seemed a little steep for Kelly, so while Ethan I napped he came up with some sort of shoelace contraption to keep the bumper from rubbing on the tire.
Now back to Ethan's nap. I was exhausted, and I thought Ethan would be darn tierd after being up early and out to play. So he went to bed at 12:15. Fell right asleep. Thought this was a good sign so I layed down on the couch and fell right asleep. 12:45, I hear "mom, mom, mom" from the bedroom. I decided to ignore him in hopes he would fall back to sleep. Then the 'mom's' turned into screams. I guess I have to get up. Is that all i'm going to get today for a nap? Yes, that was it. BRUTAL.
Ethan and I went grocery shopping this afternoon, had dinner, gave Ethan a bath then it was bed. I felt bad putting Ethan to sleep so early so he stayed up for half an hour and played for awhile. When he did go to bed he fell asleep instantly.
Tonight I watched the final four acts compete in America's Got Talet. Now i'm watching a new show on TLC about a lady who has sextuplets that are 21 months old. I look at her life and can't quite figure out how she doesn't go crazy. I think one is tough, Oh my gosh he house is outta control. She seems to have things under control. She make a point on going to the gym everyday for an hour and she puts all the babies in their cribs at 1 everyday. She said sometimes the sleep and sometimes they don't but either way they are in there for an hour. I must say I'm not sure i could do it.....

She just gave a tip to mom's. She said she goes into the bathroom and cries 10 times a day, washes her face and comes back to it. Phew, ok that makes me feel better.

Ethan's Blue New Room

Ethan's room is now complete (well aside from a few little knick knacks here and there). It was a tough decision to paint. I was worried paint would get everywhere and it would turn into a three week job. But Kelly worked for about two days and finished this afternoon while Ethan was napping in the baby's room. We used a really good, quick drying (pregnant and baby safe) paint from Benjamin Moore. This proved to be a mistake. The paint dried so fast that if you messed up everything showed. So in the end Kelly ended up getting the regular paint and painting over the quick dry stuff. I think the room looks much more fun. I'm glad we decided to paint.

Ethan is finally into books, so it was really annoying having all of his books in the garage in a box. So we found a book shelf that matched his crib pretty much perfectly and finally all of his books will be in his room. I has already attempted to rip them all of the shelf. We will have to work on that :)

Ethan checking out his new book shelf in his bright new room!

I have a growth chart to go on the wall in the corner. I'm hoping I can find a few things Ikea just to 'finish' the room!

Before we moved Aunty Claire's airplane into the room!

A Day in Pictures

Well the pictures were in order, but apparently have now gone out of order. This is from our hike earlier!

First coat done!

Kelly working hard painting Ethan's room. Definately took a lot longer than we both anticipated. We are doing the baby's room a green colour.

Our new 'upstairs' couch. I haven't taken a photo of the ones downstairs yet. This one is quite comfortable. Just need some new pillows, and a TV stand and TV of course!

Tough Life Fabian.

Ethan is going to be such a handsome big brother.

Mid-point rest stop.

Ethan needed a drink after such a long walk. He drank the whole thing in one gulp!

Black and White, 32 and a bit weeks.

32 and a bit weeks.

Kelly and his boy.

Stopped for a quick photo shoot against the fence.

Walking along in the sunshine. There were some VERY big hills, (which I expected). I didn't expect to be quite so out of shape. I was really huffing and puffing at the top of them.

Just passed two big horses, Ethan was chasing them. He loved all the dogs and there were tons of horses.

Wasn't always interested in the walking thing, but also didn't like the stroller. Much prefered Dad's shoulders.

Running down the trail. It was a beautiful sunny day this morning. We got home just as the rain clouds were moving in.

The very beginning of our hike at Chickakoo. Ethan had his mud boots on, He loved walking through the mud, unfortunately his walking skills were not the greatest in the boots. I brought extra shoes just incase, they came in very handy.

This is from yesterday, Ethan LOVED Daddy's Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Poker fun!

Well i'm not the poker champion but I think I did alright!

This morning we got up and headed to the paint store. We decided to go to Benjamin Moore, we had been given lots of advice to buy the good stuff the first time. SO we decided to take the advice. We found a few colours and headed home to check them on the walls. We stopped at Safeway on the way home in hopes that they would have sweet potatoes. Thankfully they did. When we got home Kelly took Ethan for a walk while I made lentil, sweet potato and Gouda soup. So yummy~!
Once Ethan went for a nap Kel was off to pick up the paint. We decided to go Blue in Ethan's room and Green in the new baby's room. Kelly worked hard and did all the edges while I cleaned the house, did some laundry and started dinner.
I made a spaghetti bake for dinner (wonderful recipe from Michelle). Michelle, Atti, Mike, Maureen and Nolan came for dinner! It was fun to have everyone over, we chit chatted, did lots of eating and well it was just plain fun! Ethan went to sleep (not happily) around 7, Mike and Maureen took Nolan home to bed. After we sat on the couch for awhile, (i was feeling quite ill from the delicous cheesecake Maureen brought) Atti brought out the poker. I hadn't played in awhile, I forgot how fun it is (and kind of addicting). So we played that for a couple hours and then we sent Michelle and Atti with very warm Labour wishes :)
Fall has definately arrived here, the mornings and evenings are quite chilly.... I think the first frost is right around the corner! We are trying to decide right now if we should paint or go to bed. I kind of want this whole painting thing done before Tuesday.

Rainy Day

Wake up call.... 6 am. I made Kelly rush to get the phone just incase it was Michelle going into labour.... I should have known that it was only the Telus fax number that calls us 24/7.
We go back to sleep for two hours and at 8am Ethan is up and ready for the day. He seems much happier today, unfortunately when we woke up it was pouring rain out. This ruins our plan to head out to Chicacoo for a hike. Plan B? We don't know. We both sit and grumble for awhile on the couch trying to decide what to do, i spent an hour last night looking on the internet for fun ideas but didn't think Ethan would really enjoy the museum or art gallery. Kelly is next to me rambling on about all of the things we could be doing in BC if it was raining. Thanks for the Tip Kelly, we live in Alberta and aren't moving back for awhile.
Anyways, Virginia calls and says she is taking Caleb to the Tri play gym. We decided we would join her so we pack up and head on out. We get there and it is only open to childcare kids. I thought about just paying the childcare fee and leaving the kids and going for lunch, buuuuuut that probably wouldn't have been right. So we packed them up and decided to head to the Perc. When we got to the perc the doors were locked but their hours said they were opened. So we called and I guess the doors had just accidenlty shut. SO the kids had a good play and the perc is convienently located right next to a great lunch spot. So we had lunch too.
Ethan fell asleep in the car on they way home, we tried hard to keep him awake, but again felt too mean doing it. Thankfully this afternoon he went right back to sleep. Kelly and I decided this would be a good time to hang some art on the wall. Well this proved to be quite the task, as we went through all of our art and pictures we decided we didn't like many of them any more, we hung a few to make our house feel homey but everything eles is heading to the basement.
When Ethan woke up Virginia and Caleb came for a visit, the kids played then we had dinner.
After dinner we had to go to Superstore to return the Jumbo sized box of size 4 diapers we bough the other day, Ethan has now moved into size five. Anyways I brought Ethan in to go look for Sweet Potatoes. Of course they didn't have any, this is the thrid time i've gone and they didnt 'have any. SUper frusterating. I chose to not bring a stroller in so I just walked with Ethan. He ran straight for the bakery, went all the way in to get a cookie. There was a guy there but he totally pretended to ignore us (and Ethan is hard to ignore). Anyways I decided we didn't really need a cookie. Back to the car. And just one small rant again about the parking lot. All four 'expectant mother only' spots were taken. One lady, i'd say fifty was sitting in her car, smoking and drinking a coke, then got out and headed into the store.(CLearly not pregnant). I mean really it isn't the biggest deal in the world. We found a spot just as close. But really it is the principle of the matter. We both glared at her when we drove by and headed to Wally World.
Got a few things there and made it home just before the down pour.
When we got home, we put Ethan to bed and Kelly began his obsessive rampage of cleaning the house. He is infact angry that I have a few things sitting on the counter downstairs and won't move. Anyways while he was cleaning he must have been thinking about ways to make money (which he does often). HAHA his new idea: Making cat scratch posts and selling them on Kijiji. HAHAHA Sorry it is just quite humerous to me. Anyways after that brilliant idea passed he decided at 9:30 at night he was going to make cookies. So he got everything out and realized that the recipe book he usually follows (THe Nestle one) was still packed in a box in the garage. He went through every box, coudln't find it. I suggested he just use the recipe on the back of the pacakge, but apparently it is not the same. So I dragged myself into the garage and went through every box, only to discover that the book is infact missing. So what is Kelly doing? Using the recipe on the back of the package. Oh well at least in half an hour I can enjoy a good cookie or two!!

The Terrible Twos....

I'm pretty sure the 'Terrible Twos' should be renamed the 'Terrible 17 months'. Ethan was, to put it nicely, a handful today. I thought having two of us would help keep his attention on other things than crying, but today just seemed like one of those days. Ethan slept in until 9 this morning, which was great! We all had a great sleep in and a very relaxing morning. We ate breakfast together and made all of the phone calls we had to made.

We didn't leave the house until 11:30. First stop was the Home Depot in the West End. We bought a book shelf for Ethan's room that matches his crib. Ethan is TOTALLY into books now and I want him to be able to have all of his books out (rather than just a few, the rest are in boxes). Anyways, then we headed to Once Upon a Child to check out the snowsuits. I was very successful at OUAC I must say. We bought Ethan a really nice Columbia snowsuit, he was walking all around the store in it. Looks great, I just gave it a wash and it looks brand new. I also found two newborn Halloween sleepers. I'm sure they will still be far too big for my little two day old but he will wear them and he will look cute :)

Ethan slept on the car ride home, I thought about trying to talk to him to keep him awake until we got home, but I just felt too mean doing it. So he fell asleep and I thought forsure he would go back to sleep when we got home. No such luck. We maybe got 20 minutes of peace. We hung around the house for about an hour trying to get a few things done, but Ethan was having NONE of this, finally we both stopped what we were doing and headed out on a very long walk, no stroller or anything. Ethan ran the whole time and once he got tierd he went on Kel's shoulder's. If we could keep Ethan outside all day I think he'd be happy. Anyways back at the house, i'm trying to make dinner, Ethan was in an out of all the cupboards, just not happy about life. After dinner was the same so finally it was bath and bed. It is so quiet around here right now....

Tomorrow we decided we needed to be more prepared. I told Kelly Ethan needs to either get up and go and come home for a nap or we just need to hang out inside until nap time and go out after. So tomorrow we plan to get up and go, hopefully it is nice because we are planning a small hike. Ethan will love being outside, so hopefully it will keep his spirits up. Another possible trigger to his mood today could be the four teeth that are all coming in at the same time. Poor little guy.

Anyways until tomorrow ....

What happened to Quality craftsmanship?

Ethan after his bath, Kelly is incharge of baths. Cute monkey towel!

Me at 32 weeks. Completely freaking huge...

Found Fabian in Baby #2's crib. Anywhere to get away from Ethan.

One of the disadvantages of purchasing at Ikea. You have to set it up yourself. This picture is taken after Kelly discovers the couch is again broken :)

The cat woke me up this morning, after a not-so-great sleep. Kelly and I get so used to sleeping by ourselves, I have a pillow system, and he takes up the whole bed and all the blankets. Anyways, I made butter milk pancakes (that is 1 and 3/4 cups of butter milk gone). I loved them, they were quite delicious!

I had a doctors appointment this morning so Kelly was in charge of the boy. We had a 2 month review scheduled for 10 am, Kelly didn't like the fact that I wasn't taking the baby to the doctors with me. How EVER was he going to make it throught he walk-through with Ethan? ha ha.... Anyways he made it. I took my time at the doctors, went and bought some stamps after.

We needed groceries in the worst way so we packed up and headed off. Ethan was not too enthusiastic in the grocery store, but he remembered that the lady in the bakery would give him a cookie so that quieted him down, for a little while. One thing I love about this age, Ethan thought it was SO funny when I took a bite out of his cookie. I don't think it will be too long before sharing his cookie with his mom will be a thing of the past.

I gave Ethan rice for lunch, I sat the furthest away from him and put Kelly right beside him. Ethan made the biggest mess, Kelly was just shaking his head, and I couldn't help but snicker to myself. Ah ha, now he can have a taste of my everyday routine.

We put Ethan down for a nap, Kelly decided he was going to attempt to move the couch upstairs on his own. Well this was hilarious to watch, he had a good sliding system and he actaully did it. I hung out downstairs for awhile while he unpackaged it, when I got upstairs Kelly informed me that our FIFTH couch was broken (this one was from a different place). I told him 'who cares'. it was a spring that had come undone, Kelly managed to semi-repair it, but we weren't really interested in starting the entire couch saga again. So couch set up. Liking it!

We had burritos for dinner, I put the meat, veggies and rice again for Ethan, and again stayed far away from, he made a huge mess, speading rice all of the floor, we had crisp for dessert, all over him. Kelly decided we would head straight for the bath. Well he got him in the bath and was taking his diaper off. Poop! haha, Oh it has just been quite funny.

Tnoight hopefully Kelly and I can sit and enjoy our new couch and rent a movie.