"I'm feeling much better now, thank you very much."

This has been a rough patch for Ethan.

It all began a few weeks ago, when we went to his pediatrician for his one-year check up. I pointed out a brown spot that I had seen for a few weeks below his lower front tooth on his gum. Our pediatrician, said "hmmm" (which is never good) and referred us to an oral surgeon, who said it had to come out.

Now in an adult, this would be a nothing little procedure, but for a one-year old, this required a general anesthetic! Needless to say, we (being both anesthesiologists) were really nervous about the anesthesia. But we decided, the sooner the better, and had him booked for surgery last Wednesday.

Besides having a total melt-down in pre-operative area, the surgery went fine. We still have to wait for the pathology results, but the surgeon was cautiously optimistic that it was just a freckle on his gum. (Which, is apparently quite rare in 12-month old caucasian babies...)


Here's a picture of him in the recovery room:



Anyhow, we thought we were out of the woods, until Friday, when I came home and found Ethan napping. Lilia said, "he was kind of fussy today, and didnt eat too well, I think his jaw is bothering him." Hmmm....

When he got up form his nap, something was clearly wrong--he was sizzing hot--a quick temperature revealed a fever of 104.8. He looked terrible--I have never seen him so listless. The surgical site looked good though, no signs of inflammation or infection. After calling the surgeon, and the pediatrician, we decided not to traipse to the ER and wait until Saturday morning when we could be seen in the pediatrician's office. We gave Ethan some tylenol...and worried all night long. In the morning, the pediatrician gave us the answer--Ethan had an ear infection! We are so thankful that it wasn't a surgical complication. Already today, Ethan is much more himself, and his fever is down. Whew!! It's stressful being a parent.

Ethan's Second Valentine's Day

Well, it's here, Ethan's first-second holiday. Last Valentine's day he was only 2 weeks old.
Here's Daddy and him taking a nap last year:




This year, we had another low-key Valentine's Day. Ethan played with his best friend, our neighbor Talia, and we cooked a nice meal at home.

Talia brought over a special Valentine's treat--a clif bar for kids. It was kind of like a sugar free fruit roll up. Ethan loved his--check out this pic of them chowing down:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Party Time

We celebrated Ethan's first birthday again on Saturday, with a party. We invited our co-fellows, and some of our neighbors. We weren't sure how many people would come, but it turned out to be quite a little fiesta, we think we had almost 50 people!

We had the party in the "common room" in our condo building. It actually worked out great--we were just down the hall from our apartment, but we didn't have a ton of people in our small place. Here's the room before the guests arrived:



And after:



Lilia helped us so much, by making great food--homemade salsa, guacamole, spanish rice, and empenadas. She is such a great cook.



Here's Ethan, heading to his party (He is walking pretty well now!):



We decided on a dinosaur cake from Costco--

Ethan's second taste of cake was just as good as his first....

Overall, a great way to celebrate one year.

Happy First Birthday, Ethan!!!

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since Ethan joined our family. And what a year it has been-so many changes for us and for him. We are very excited to celebrate his first birthday.

Ethan was born at 7:43 am on Superbowl Sunday. For those of you who didn't know his birth story:
The day before Ethan was born, I was feeling a little bit like he was never going to be born and I was going to be pregnant forever. That Saturday, Jason and I took a long walk (nearly 5 miles!) to the beach and back--and that long walk might have been what induced labor. We went to dinner at a local favorite restaurant for an early bird special. The whole dinner, I didn't feel too well--I thought I overdid it on the hike. We went home to watch a movie, but now I was feeling worse--my stomach was crampy--did I eat a bad dinner?
By 10 pm, I realized that actually I was having contractions...and actually they were pretty regular. I was hesitant to go to the hospital (I did not want to get sent home...), but Jason was insistent that we went. And I am glad we did, because by the time we got there, the contractions were painful! Turns out I was in labor, and I was admitted. First things first, got my epidural, and then tried to rest the rest of the night (although I couldn't stop listening to the fetal heartbeat on the monitor and thinking about how our lives were going to change). It was apparently a busy night on the ward, so I didn't see much of the nurse..she came in to check me around 6:30 am and I was completely dilated and ready for delivery! We called our parents, and waited for the OB. She arrived around 7:15, and it didn't take long for Ethan to be born--a half an hour later we were parents!


Here's one of our first looks at the little guy:


Needless to say, we didnt catch too much of the Superbowl last year.


We are having birthday party on Saturday with a few local friends. For party decorations, I have made 8x10 pictures of Ethan by month. I tried to pick pics from the beginning of each month, so you can see how he grows. Since none of the followers of this blog are going to make it to the party, I've included them here. I think his biggest changes are between 1-2 months and 6-7 months..

1 Month

2 Months



3 Months



4 Months



5 Months



6 Months



7 Months



8 Months



9 Months



10 Months



11 Months

We celebrated at home tonight, just the three of us. Ethan had his first taste of cake--and he LOVED it!!

Wow, what a lot of change in one year. We are so lucky to have such an amazing little boy. Happy Birthday, Ethan!!