Summer Lovin'

As summer is coming to an end, here is a picture recap of all the fun we've had!

 Ethan spent lots of time riding his bike around the block at Gabby & Peepaw's house (he does wear a helmet!)

 We had several play dates with our friend/neighbor, Bennett

 Enjoyed lots of lazy days at home with these two cuties!

 Ethan enjoyed lots of tree climbing this summer!  He liked to enjoy his drinks/snacks up in the tree like monkeys :)

 We had a few play dates with Olivia.  These two pick up right where they leave off even if it has been months since they were together.  Sweet friends! <3

 Grandma & Grandpa Matus, Aunt Darlene and Dominik & Anthony came for a fun day trip

 At Inner Space Cavern with Dominik & Anthony

 He has so much fun playing with his cousins!  Rolling down the "hills" at Hat Creek Burger

 80s day at school!  We had lots of themed days including PJ day and splash day!  Look at that hair :)

 Ms. Rhonda (his hairdresser) asked if he wanted a warm towel and massage since he got his first "big boy" haircut and he said SURE!  Ha!

Summer cut!  He looked so BIG!  (He's now overdue for another cut and he wants it spikey like this again)

 Emily spent a lot of her summer snoozing in her car seat while we went here and there and everywhere with Ethan

 We enjoyed Food Truck Fridays at the pool in our neighborhood almost every weekend

 Ethan learned to swim!  Kind of :)

(Visit website to see video!)

 Such a happy girl!  Emily loves to be outside too!

 We spent lots of time digging in the sandbox and sometimes we had trouble keeping the sand inside the box

 

We always have fun when we meet up with the Callas' for wings!  These two love to play together too!

 We spent lots of time at Gabby & Peepaw's and Ethan was a good office assistant to Gabby!

 More play dates with our friend Bennett!

 And last but not least, Ethan and Daddy had lots of fun catching lizards

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had a super fun and laid back day today celebrating Troy.  This morning Ethan woke up at his usual hour of 6:45 and was so excited that it was Daddy's birthday today.  He wanted to wake Daddy up immediately and take him his card and present.  Somehow I managed to buy Dad a whole hour plus 15 minutes of extra sleep even without the TV working.  That was nothing short of miraculous!  Every time lil buddy heard a tiny noise he would say "shhh, I think I hear Daddy!" and then he would scurry off to grab his present... only to be disappointed when Daddy did not appear.  So after we worked a few puzzles, played with his tool box, swung outside, baked a birthday cake, and got dressed it was time to wake up Daddy!

With Daddy up and our cake cooling, we headed out the door for breakfast at Einstein's bagels.  After enjoying a birthday breakfast of bagels, we got our swimsuits on and went to the pool.  Ethan's friend Bennett met us there and we all lounged around in the cool water on this hot day!  When Ethan got up from his nap we frosted and decorated Daddy's cake then went to dinner at Pluckers.  And finally, after dinner we got to put candles in the cake and sing happy birthday.  Ethan had been waiting for that moment all.day.long!

Emily: 155 Days Old Today

That's right, our sweet princess is 155 days old today!

 
She turned 5 months old on Saturday and we celebrated with her very first play date!  My friend Kate came over with her kids, Olivia and Oren.  While Ethan and Olivia played outside with Troy, Emily and Oren "played" inside with Kate and I.  It is so much fun having friends with kids the same ages to do things with!

Not the best pic of the babies, but its the only one we got :/

This has been a big month for us!  Emily started daycare and I went back to work on August 10th.  Her teachers adore her and just ogle over how beautiful she is every morning when we drop her off.  As they pile on the compliments, our sweet girl grins from ear to ear!  She is doing well there and taking two full 5 oz bottles!  Unfortunately she isn't sleeping much though so she's a bit cranky when we pick her up in the afternoon.

Before our first day at school/work

The not sleeping part isn't much different than at home...  We had been working with a sleep consultant before starting school and Emily was doing so much better in her crib.  Around the same time we also stopped swaddling her and she did surprisingly well with that. We think she is going to be a side sleeper! She takes two 1.5-2 hour naps and then a shorter nap in the afternoon.  We lay her down awake and she drifts off to sleep all by herself.  She was even doing this at night and gave us a few 5-6 hour stretches of sleep earlier in the month.  She still naps well at home, but over the last couple of weeks she has been waking up every hour or so at night.  We took her to the doctor last week (she weighed 14 lbs, 6 oz) because her voice has been hoarse off and on for a couple of weeks and she is spitting up a lot suddenly when she didn't at all before.  Unfortunately it looks like she is suffering from reflux as well.  We started her on probiotics last Monday and saw a minor improvement but are hoping for more.  If we don't see a noticeable improvement she may have to start medication like Ethan took.  I'm praying it doesn't come to that!

 She was breaking out of the swaddle every night

 Free arms!

 Side sleeper

She finally rolled over again... once! :)  And after about 3 weeks of not so much as a single coo, squeal or giggle she is back to her chatty old self.  She also figured out how to blow raspberries with her mouth!  I have been working with her to say "Mama" and she is studying my mouth intensely so I'm hopeful that will be her first word.  Either that or "Ethan!" since she hears that about every other minute :)

A couple of weeks ago we brought out the jumperoo which she likes to play in, but she doesn't really bounce yet.  Its funny to me though because she can touch the floor and when Ethan was her age we had to put a stack of books underneath so he had something to push against.  She really likes bath time and has started kicking and splashing A LOT so earlier this week we put her in the big tub with Ethan.  They both thought it was fun until Ethan started pouring water on her with his boat... she wasn't as sure about that! We also visited the pool a few times this month and she seems to really like that too!

We are starting to see more and more sibling affection which is incredibly heart warming.  When Emily drops a toy, often times Ethan will tell us not to get it so that he can run over and get it for her or he will tell us to tell her not to worry, Bubba will get it!  So sweet!  Of course the other 40% of the time he is the one stealing her toys (AND hiding them.)  I told him once she is mobile I am going to let her take his toys and when he comes to me whining that she took his toys or knocked down his tower, I am going to tell him too bad so sad ;)  That whole scenario is lost on him now, but he will understand soon enough.

Its heart wrenching to think we are working on 6 months now.  I need time to sloooow way down!!!

Family Fun

The weekend before last we made a day trip to Houston for Troy's uncle's 60th birthday celebration. Before the party Emily got to meet her Aunt Lynette for the very first time!

The party was at his grandmother's senior center, and lots of family showed up for the get together.  We were glad to be able to make it since Emily had never met her and Ethan had only seen her once.  As always, Ethan had a great time playing with his cousins!  So much so, that he gave us a bit of a fight when it was time to leave :/

She was so tickled that Emily was caressing her hand <3

 Noodle fight!

The whole gang!

(Yes, Ethan is picking his boogers... when will it stop?!?! One day he will be embarrassed by this!)

Star Spangled 4th

We had a busy weekend for the fourth!  National Instruments gives two paid holidays for the 4th of July, so Troy was home with us Thursday and Friday. 

On Thursday we took Ethan to the Children's Museum and he had a great time exploring.  After spending the morning there, we went across the street to the park and ate our picnic, then he and Daddy walked over to the pond to fish for some "gooey fish" (that's a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse thing.)

 Painting on the windows

 Making an airplane

 Flying his plane

 His favorite... Giant Light Bright!

Fishing with Daddy

Friday morning we went to Inner Space Cavern and did the cave tour.  Ethan was mildly impressed, but more so with the giant wooly mammoth in the gift shop area.  Emily did pretty good in the cave too.  She slept the entire time until about 20 min before the end of the tour at which point she quickly spiraled out of control :)

Then on Saturday (the 4th) we went with Gabby, Peepaw, Memaw and Aunt Cindy to the festival in Georgetown.  Ethan had a grand time!  He was obsessed with the bunnies at the petting zoo and the ponies.  He has asked to ride a pony several times before but then gets scared when its his turn, so we were shocked and proud that he actually rode these ponies twice.  Then he also rode the swings, the train, the ferris wheel and played in a bounce house.  He has asked us several times since then, to go back to the park with the bunnies and ponies.  Its difficult for him to understand that the animals do not live there all the time.

We let him stay up this year to watch the fireworks, but he didn't enjoy them as much as I'd hoped he would.  The whole time he was telling us that we should go inside.  We tried giving him ear plugs but they wouldn't stay in so we gave him some earmuffs but he didn't like those, so we settled on some headphones.  He seemed okay then sitting in Gabby's lap, but afterwards he told us that he doesn't want any more fireworks.  Maybe next year he will be more impressed and less scared.

On Sunday, we were SO tired but we had promised Ethan a baseball game for filling his sticker chart, so we packed up our stuff and headed out to the ballpark to round out the weekend.  Fortunately for Troy and I, Ethan was ready to go after 4th inning so we didn't have to stay out there too late.  We enjoyed some ballpark food, cotton candy, the playscape and a FEW minutes of baseball.

Whew... it was a jam packed weekend but we enjoyed all the family time and Ethan enjoyed being on the go constantly.  Every night he asks me, "Mom, where are we going tomorrow?"  He loves to go go go!