Busy season, cousins' visit and exams

April 15 came and went. Now I am back to 3 times a week. At the end I was putting 55 hours a week, which was getting too much. I kept the Mondays off just until the final week (although I worked at home for a few hours). And I saw Ethan every day!

Even though the busy season is over, I still had two exams to take this week so I couldn't really relax yet. And I had to go into work on Monday this week as I had a lot of things I needed to finish at work before we leave to Japan. So I took one exam Tuesday morning and another one this morning. Now I can relax and enjoy the time with Ethan! I highly doubt that I passed those exams (it's kind of hard to work 55 hrs a week and study enough for exams...) but at least they are done for now!

Now it's time to pack for Japan. I really wonder if we can fit everything we need for two weeks in four luggages plus carry ons. We are hoping to buy some food and diaper there, which would help, but we have to take more than a can of formula since he still is allergic to milk (and also under 1 year old). And how many set of clothes to pack in our carry on? Too much to think about. On top of that I'm starting to worry about him transitioning to Japan time (and back at the Eastern Standard Time). And he is working on his top tooth now, so I really hope that he doesn't get another ear infection! But he has been wearing the bibs again, which we were so happy to get rid of for the past few months :-( Now that he army crawls everywhere, the bibs get in his way so he takes them off very quickly. And amazing thing is that the bibs usually get super soaked within 10 minutes that it's time to change to a new one anyways!

Last weekend Jeff's cousins, Rachel and Beth, and Uncle Ron came from Buffalo. They have two 1-week spring breaks, and it happened to be their second spring break. They got in early Sunday morning and left Monday mid day to go upto Michigan, so it was a short visit but was a lot of fun. Ethan loved the girls and Ron, too! He could not smiling and giggling at them. They had last seen Ethan at Thanksgiving, so it was good to show how cool of a baby we have again :-)

Tonight we are meeting a few of our Sunday School friends at Mad Anthony's. I love their salads! I'm sure their beers are great too but I really can't like the taste of them. So I'm sure I'll stick to their food. Since it's walking distance from my office, I've gone there for lunches many times but it's my first time for dinner. It is an adult's night out, so Ethan will be at Grandpa and Grandma Yoder's. I'm sure he'll have fun too :-)

We let Ethan feed himself some Japanese noodles...

But he kept "feeding" Oreo so I said no, and this is what I got

Believe it or not, he loves bananas

His friend, Landon, giving him a kiss

He's loving cruising holding on to the sectional couch

Ethan with Rachel and Beth

Still loves his bath time!

Not crawling yet (according to me)

Ethan's army crawling is getting faster every day. But he is not on his four (even though his butt is somewhat up) so I don't think he is crawling yet :-) He has been getting better at standing too, and sometimes he cruise just a little bit (more like rotating standing up holding on to something). I can't believe that he will be one in less than two months!

A few days after his first tooth he got his second one, but none at the top yet. It feels different feeding him now! I can feel something hard against spoons or fingers now. His smiles are still cute even though it's not gummy anymore.

He continues to be a good eater. We started feeding him bigger chunks of vegetables and some cut up Japanese noodles, and it seems like he has no problem eating chunks instead of ground up smooth food like stage 2 jars of baby food. We do a mix of home cooked baby food and jars of baby food. So far he hasn't rejected either one and has no problem switching one to the other. I would be ready to feed him off of our plates except that I feel like many nights we have food with cheese or other dairy in it. About a month ago Ethan was playing with a spoon Jeff had eaten yogurt with (Jeff had licked off clean), and a few minutes later he had a spot or two of red bumps. So I am waiting for a few more months to try dairy again on him.

He opens his mouth and waits for food like a little bird

Yes, broccoli + daddy feeding = messy

I started working more like 50-53 the past few weeks, and it's tiring. I still want to see Ethan every day, so I try to go in earlier if I know I will have to get done a lot. So that means I go in somewhere between 5:30 to 6:30 usually. I still have been able to leave between 6-6:30 though. But I sure get tired pretty quickly unless I go to bed at 9. I've been trying to study for my exams too, which isn't too much fun. I still do get Mondays off, but I also bring a lot of work home for the weekend... I sure am ready for this to be over! Less than 2 weeks to go!

Jeff, Ethan and I are looking forward to going to Japan in three weeks. We'll be there for two weeks, one week in a weekly apartment and a week at my mom's. With Ethan being somewhat mobile, we thought it may be ok for us to stay at a weekly apartment for a week. My mom's taking a week off the second week, so we'll stay there. We are planning to visit my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, my mom's students and friends. It sounds like everyone is looking forward to meeting Ethan, and I can not wait to show Ethan where I grew up. He would not remember any of it, but hopefully it'll still be a good experience for him.

Oreo and Ethan with matching pose

He was playing with the cars, took socks off, and took off...

My three boys

Cheerios and puffs are his two favorite snacks