Better late than never, right?

Ethan’s first tooth broke through the gums yesterday. Just one little spike – the rest is still pushing through, so he’s very unhappy. He won’t let me look at it, but I can feel it. Thank goodness we have lots of teething toys and things for him to chew on. I also bought the all-natural teething pellets to see if that helps him. I gave him a little about 30 minutes ago, then I nursed him, and now he’s napping. It could have been the food or the pellets, I don’t know, but one of those has made him relax and nap for a bit.

Ethan had his 6 month checkup and shots yesterday. When the nurse weighed him, I was very surprised to see that he only weighed 15 lbs 4 ounces. I made her weigh him again to make sure that was right, and it was. He only gained 2 ounces in 2 weeks. Then she measured him and I was even more surprised. He was 26 1/2 inches! He grew over 1 inch in 2 weeks! The doctor put him on the charts for his real age (6 1/2 months) and he was almost 50% for height. His weight was around 10%, so he’s tall and skinny.

He did really well for his shots. The regular nurse was out, so another nurse came in to give him his shots. She walked through the door and said “Oh, no! Not him!! I don’t want to hurt him”. She didn’t want cute, smiley Ethan to be mad at her. He cried when she gave him the shots, and I thought she was going to cry too. But then we talked to him and he stopped crying, and everything was fine.

This morning we participated in the MS Walk in Picayune. Ethan had a really good time and fell asleep towards the end of the 3 mile walk. Here’s a picture of the sleepy boy after we finished the walk.

When we got home, Ethan had some milk and finished his nap, then he had his first real lunch. He’s been eating a breakfast and dinner meal for a few weeks now, and the pediatrician said we should add a third meal of solids. She suggested that we try more finger foods, like some parboiled carrots sticks or crackers. Today I gave him a saltine with the salt brushed off, and he liked it. The parboiled carrots were a different story. I know he likes carrots because he ate carrot puree for dinner last night. Maybe it was the texture of the carrots stick. He did OK with feeding himself. If I put the food in his hand, he put it in his mouth. But he didn’t do so well picking it up on his own. Tomorrow we’re going to go grocery shopping and pick up some new foods for him to try.

Ethan and I went to Aaron’s softball game this afternoon. It was very nice to get out of the house. Ethan was in a terrible mood all day long. He cried most of the day – very unlike him. He really needs to cut those teeth soon and get over his bad mood.

Here are some shots from around lunch time. He couldn’t decide if he was enjoying himself or not and alternated between playing in his walker and screaming his head off.

And here are some shots from the softball game:

I haven’t posted a whole lot of information lately. It has been mostly pictures for some time now. I figure it is time to tell you some details about what Ethan has been up to lately.

He eats solid foods now, and he really enjoys it. I make all his veggies and fruits because the canned stuff really freaks me out. It tastes awful and it has a weird consistency. If I don’t like the way something tastes, I don’t bother giving it to him either. Ethan has tried many different foods now: rice cereal, oatmeal, apples, peaches, banana, green beans, avocado, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes, and sweet peas. His favorites are prunes, sweet potatoes, and peaches. If you feed him any of those, he will eat until there is none left. He can’t get enough. He has apples and oatmeal every morning for breakfast, but sometimes we will change it up and do peaches and oatmeal. For dinner, we will do green beans and rice then some sweet potatoes or carrots. He also likes squash mixed with rice cereal. He really doesn’t like the taste of banana, but he does like to chew on banana chunks. So far we’ve done mostly spoon fed purees and pastes, but we’re starting to do some soft chunks this week. Ethan isn’t ready to feed himself quite yet, but he tries. He just misses his mouth and smears the food all over his face. Or he grabs the spoon and flings food all over the place.

He is really becoming interested in his toys. Victoria gave him a soft book called “Clyde the Crab Can Count”. He really loves it because it is a plush book in the shape of a crab, and it plays music. He thinks the googly crab eyes and wiggly legs are really funny and fun to chew on. He also loves his Animal Train toy that Uncle John and Aunt Beverly got him for Christmas. He likes to attack it and make it play music over and over again. As long as the music is going, he is happy. Although today, the giraffe sat on his arm and pinned him down and he yelled at it for a while. He also loves his walker from Aunt Carol. He gets very excited about all the toys. He gets a very intense look of concentration on his face – he purses his lips and squints his eyes, and he becomes very focused on playing with all the toys. His feet finally reach the ground a bit, so he has started pushing himself backwards when he gets really excited.

Ethan finally figured out how to roll over both ways. It was bothering him for a few weeks that he was unable to roll onto his belly. He would try to roll onto his belly and get stuck on his arm. He’d grunt and groan and scream, but he just couldn’t figure out how to get over his arm. His hips would make it all the way over and he would plant his face on the ground, but the chest just wouldn’t cooperate. He would wake up in the middle of the night to practice. One night, I woke up to the sound of grunting coming from the pack n play. For 30 minutes he kept trying to roll over. Finally he got mad and started to cry, so I put him in the bed with me. Finally, last week, he figured out how to make it all the way over. When he finally rolled, he let out an accomplished squeal, then laid his head down and took a long nap. And he doesn’t nap very well. It was absolutely amazing that he put himself down for a nap, especially since the nap lasted more than 20 minutes. He must have felt very accomplished and exhausted.

He still doesn’t have any teeth, but I really think it won’t be long before they make an appearance. He is a serious drool machine these days, and he has to bite on everything. He’s been really crabby lately, too. really really really crabby… really…

hmmm… I’m getting tired so I’m having trouble thinking of what else I wanted to write about.

I brought Ethan in for a weight check last week. He was 15 lbs 2 ounces and 25 1/2 inches. He will see the pediatrician on Friday for his 6 month checkup and shots. More shots – Yay.

Ethan really loves the pets. Eris and Sister like him, but Maisie does not. But Maisie doesn’t really like anybody unless they can do something for her. When he is in his bouncy seat, Eris and Sister will come close and check him out. He’s just at the right height to reach out and let Eris lick his hands. He loves it! When he’s laying on a blanket, Sister will come close enough for him to grab her. And he does grab her – hand fulls of fur. He grabs and doesn’t let go. But, Sister is so sweet, she doesn’t mind that he rips out her fur. Eris will sit on the blanket with him, and she will even bring him her nasty pink bear. I can’t leave them unsupervised. not because I worry that they will hurt him, but because he would end up eating cat fur and chewing on slobbery dog toys.

Well, I guess its time for pictures. Here are some recent ones, including my new favorites that I took this weekend (pulled from my photography blog)

Fell asleep watching TV with Aaron

Naptime

Hanging out at Audubon Park

Screeching

Funny Faces

And my new favorites

And if you made it this far, make sure you look at the posts below this one. I posted a few others tonight and this monster post probably pushed them way out of view.

Victoria and Patrick participated in the March for Babies in Dallas on Saturday morning. Ethan and I have had such a busy weekend, I haven’t called her to get a report yet. Maybe she will read this and call me tomorrow!!! And I hope she took a picture of them wearing their fantastic Walk for Ethan Team T-shirts!

Allie snapped these for me today

Ethan got a couple of new onesies from Auntie Vicky today. They are super cool! I couldn’t wait for him to wear this one:

So that is what he’s wearing out to dinner tonight.

Here are the pictures of me and Ethan for Week 4 of the 52 Weeks, My Kids and I project. I was soooo sick all week, I barely got out of bed at all, so this is the best I could do this week. I’m finally feeling a lot better today and didn’t have to take any cold medicine. I guess 5 days of antibiotics certainly has something to do with it. My ears are still bothering me, but the sinuses are much better.

OK, on to the pictures…

I captured the insanity on video today. Ethan is able to entertain himself pretty well now, but he gets a little wild.