When is Ethan's 9 months birthday?

So, February having only 28 days and Ethan's birthday being on 30th, we don't quite know when Ethan's 9 month birthday falls... Well, funny thing is that Jeff mentioned about it last week being some what concerned. So I reminded him that his birthday is on the 31st so he missed more monthly birthdays than Ethan would.

Olympics has been keeping me up a lot later than usual. It has been a lot of fun though! Sadly Japan did not get any gold medal, but I am proud of all their performances. I have to proudly point out the fact that many short track speed skaters and womens' figure skaters are Asians, even Americans :-) I was really looking forward to the womens' figure skates, and they sure didn't let me down! I knew Mao, Japanese silver medalist, was good, but I had never seen Kim, Korean gold medalist, so it was great that I could finally see her perform. She really was the best! I was sad that Mao didn't win gold, but Kim sure was awesome. And the American skater, Mirai Nagasu, was such a cutie and I am looking forward to see her grow (she is only 16).

Ethan still has no teeth, but doing really well. He had his 9 month check up last Monday, and he still is a small guy but very healthy. I have to say that we are quite happy that our household hasn't had any major sickness yet. He has had a few runny noses but never had real cold or ear infections. It helps when he only goes to Grandma's for a daycare.

Ethan experienced his first day care visit last Thursday. Mel and Lorna are in Florida until this Wednesday, so Ethan goes to Audrey Oosland's, a friend from our church. It sounds like he did great. I was excited to hear that he interacted with other kids well and still stuck with his routine.

My work has gotten busier, and now I am really feeling that I made a right choice by going part time. My hours are capped around 45 hours a week (it's been more like 46-47, but I also didn't have 45 hours a week in January for a few weeks). I still love what I do, and every year I get more responsibilities and I really enjoy the feeling that they are "my clients".

Lately his favorite thing to do is standing up and drinking milk on his belly. He can't quite pull up to stand on his own yet, but we'll see how long that lasts. He can pull up to his knees already, so it shouldn't be too long before he gets up by himself. Him drinking milk while he is on his belly is a little tricky because then he doesn't get much milk. He gets 2 sippy cups a day now, so he loves drinking sitting up also. He also started army crawling backwards occasionally. He still doesn't like being on his belly too much, but I think he enjoys being able to look around better when he is doing it. So he is rolly-polly most of the time.

I am attaching a few pictures from the past 2 weeks. We just got a new camera (Canon S90) so we have been taking a lot more pictures now!

Happy Valentine's!

My work has picked up some as it is mid February. Only 2 more months to go! Since Ethan was born, I became part time at work, so even during the busy season I work 45 hours a week. So far it has been manageable. I take Mondays off, work 7 am - 6pm for four days, and work 5-6 hours on Saturday. I sometimes bring work home so I can put an hour or two on Monday, so I can leave before 6pm a few times a week. It is nice that I could go part time as some work would not give the flexibility. I do feel like I don't get enough time with Ethan Tuesday to Friday, but now I make sure to have some quality time when I am home instead.

For Valentine's, Paul and Anita kindly watched Ethan in the evening on Saturday so Jeff and I could go watch a movie and out for a dinner... except the movie was sold out! I wanted to watch the Valentine's Day, but I guess so did every other ladies in town. So we decided to go out for a nice dinner instead. We walked in to Kelly Jae's, a Tapas restaurant in downtown, and it looked pretty empty as it was only a few minutes passed 5. But apparently they were all full with reservations and the earliest we could get in was at 7:45. We said no thank you and walked over to Il Forno, a pizza place. I think their pizza is the best one in the world, so even though it was not as romantic as I hoped, it worked out fine. Then we went to Target, Meijer and Wal-Mart, and went back to pick Ethan up. It was nice to be able to walk around the store without a child trying to reach for something, or run into stores without carrying a huge baby carrier. Oh, I forgot to mention that Jeff sent me flowers at work on Thursday, too! I don't know exactly what they are, but I think they are some kind of lilies.

Ethan just last week started to reach for things farther and put one foot behind him. So it looks like he's trying to go on his four but his arms aren't the strongest so he ends up on his face. But it is exciting to see him trying, finally! He continues to hate being on his tumy, but at least now he rolls over onto his tummy for a second or two. He still doesn't have his teeth yet though. A few weeks ago he kind of stopped drooling for a week or two, but now his drool is back again. We bought a few more bibs last night in hope of the drooling to stop just in time for some new bibs. (You know, kind of like not raining if you have an umbrella...)

So, no medals yet for Japan... hoping for one for the women's figure skate!