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!!

Milestones Galore

Were heading up to Ethan's first birthday next week--and boy has he been growing up in preparation for his birthday!

1. He's starting to walk. He has been a great cruiser for months, but only recently has he gotten up the courage to take steps alone. We still have to bribe him with crackers, but he's getting better. Check out this video (I hope it works, sorry it is sideways I don't know how to flip it)!




2. He now has 8 teeth! That's 6 new teeth since Christmas.

3. He has developed attachments. Not too long ago, he wouldn't look twice at any of his stuffed animals. Now he loves them--and in particular a blue monkey which he kisses all the time.


4. No more bottle. We phased it out over the past month or so, and he's doing great without it.

5. Cow's milk. Whole milk, yum!

6. A forward facing carseat. Now mom can finally have some legroom. (With the rear facing seat in our small car, the front seat had to be up pretty close to the dashboard!)

Ethan Loves Skiing!

On Monday, we both had the day off for the Martin Luther King holiday. We got a lot of snow on Sunday night, so we decided to head to New Hampshire to cross-counrty ski. The day was perfect--fresh snow, sunny and not too cold.

Ethan came along with us--in a pulk. It is basically a sled contraption that you wear around your waist and pull.



Jason did all the pulling--and it was tough on some of the hills.




Ethan did pretty well--napped a good potion of the time. I can't wait till he's old enough to try skiing on his own.

Battling the Winter Doldrums

We're in the thick of winter here in Boston, and it is getting kind of depressing. We can't take Ethan outside much-it has been too cold and gloomy. And with the sun setting by 4:30 pm, we leave in the dark for work and get home in the dark.


One thing that has helped is the museum pass program at our library. The cambridge public library has purchased memberships to many of the local museums. As patrons, we can check them out and go to the museums for free (or at a reduced rate). There are plenty of museums on the list, and we're trying to hit them all before we leave. It is a pretty cool program.


Last week, we hit the Museum of Fine Arts. This museum is Boston's main art museum, with a large American and European art collection. They also currently have an pretty interesting Egyptian exhibit, called the secrets of Tomb 10A, which is about an archeological excavation done by the museum and Harvard University in 1915. On display, they have the largest burial collection of the middle kingdom. Everyone in the room seemed to be really enjoying it--even Ethan who babbled loudly and let out a few squeals!

Our Master Mess-maker

These days, Ethan's specialty is making messes.


Now that he is getting bigger, he wants to feed himself. I am not sure if he is actually eating, though...it seems like he's mostly just spreading the food all over himself and his clothes and the high chair, and the floor. He hasn't quite figured out which end of the spoon is supposed to go in his mouth--but he sure wants to hold that spoon come mealtime! This is (if you can imagine) destroying our beige carpeting. Note to self--never have beige carpeting in the area where your baby eats. I think we are going to have to have it deep cleaned before the landlords return.


But that is not his only area of messy-expertise. His new favorite non-mealtime activity is taking things out of their places. He doesn't really seem to play with his toys too much, but he sure loves to take them out of their bins and scatter them all over the floor. This extends to non-toys as well--every drawer within his reach gets completely emptied several times a day. During nap time, I get things straightened up again...just in time for him to wake up!