First full week of work

I managed to go through a first full week of work (which is only from Tuesday to Thursday). I do enjoy working and having my own time and career, but I do miss having Ethan by my side all day long. But I did miss facing tax returns and tax regulations. When I came home after the first day back, I thought "oh boy, I hadn't used my brain much for the past three months!" It's a nice change of pace to think hard again :-)

Ethan did well at Grandma's, as far as I know. It is getting better every day, and he started to take naps for her. I hope it'll keep getting better for them as they establish a routine together. He continues to go to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until we wake him up around 7:15. It is great that he sleeps well at night, but it also means that I only get to see him for a little over 3 hours on the days I work :-( So I appreciate my days off much more now. Today (Friday), he has been doing great so far; took one 1.5 hour nap in the morning and is now on a nap that's going to be at least 1.5 hour, possibly 2. Today he has been napping in his crib, which is also a development for him. He used to hate taking naps anywhere but in my arms. I enjoy my free time at home, but at the same time it's a little bitter sweet to see him becoming independent.

We set up a jumperoo for him the other day. I think he likes being in it. He still is a little short for this, so we put two pizza boxes underneath. (He grew a lot this week and now he only needs one pizza box.) I'm sure he'll really love it in a few weeks, once he can touch the floor and his legs get a little more strength.

Chris, Jeff's cousin, is coming to Goshen tonight. He'll be attending Goshen College starting this fall. We are very excited to have more family around here :-)

Anniversary Trip

We had a great time in Chicago on our anniversary trip. First of all, I can't believe that it's already been 5 years since we got married. I have been in the states for 10 years now, so half of that I've been married. Wow.

We went up to Chicago on Friday, checked in at the hotel on Michigan Avenue by the river, walked to the Millennium Park, picked up Giordano's pizza for supper and ate in the hotel room. Ethan had a little hard time falling asleep, but did ok for the most part.

On Saturday, we walked along the river in the morning, then went up on the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) and enjoyed the glass floor and looked down the 103 floors below. It was cool! Ethan was asleep on the way up, but cried a little bit coming down in the elevator. My ears were hurting too, so I'm sure he was confused why his ears were hurting!

Then we went out to IKEA, then Mitsuwa, Japanese supermarket, which is our usual stops when we come to Chicago. I was a little nervous taking Ethan, but he did amazing. Seems like he was exhausted after the trip, and he took good naps both on Sunday and today!

A week until I go back to work

So I only have a week left until I go back to work. I think now I'm more excited than sad. This week has been a little rough for me, which may be why I'm more excited to go back to work. Ethan was crying a lot more a few days ago, and yesterday and today he's been on a growth spurt (which may be why he was crying more? I don't know...) He was eating every 3.5 to 4 hours before, but now it's back to every 2.5 -3 hours between feedings. However he continues to sleep until we wake him up every morning (which means 10-11 hours of sleep for him), so I still can't complain.

Yesterday we went to Jen and Lamont's house for a cook out. We hadn't seen Jen for a while, and Lamont forever, so it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so we don't have any pictures (unless Allison sees this and send me some pics). Ethan did well until 8 or so, which is his usual bed time. It's good that he goes to bed early, but it sure makes outing a little difficult!

He started smiling a lot more often, and every time he gives us a smile, he drools like a fountain! We have to keep a bib on him now. But his huge smiles make everything easier and it's so rewarding!

Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary :-) I'm excited for our little trip! I hope his growth spurt wouldn't make it too difficult, but we are prepared to be flexible.

Counting down to the end of the maternity leave...

I have only one full week left of maternity leave. I go back to work on August 20 for a day, then back three days a week starting the following week. I am excited to have some adult interaction again, but also sad that I have to leave Ethan. He smiles more and more every week, and it's been fun to play with him. I'm thinking that going back to work part time would be a good balance of my career and my family. I hope I'll find it that way once it actually starts.

Next Friday is Jeff and my fifth anniversary. Three of us are going to Chicago to celebrate! We'll see how Ethan'll do in a big city. We'd like to go up on the old Sears Tower (I can never remember what it's called now) and stroll around the Millenium park, but I don't know how much walking Ethan can take, and the weather has to co-operate, too. We'll see. We are also passing on eating at my favorite restaurant, Maggiano's, as it's not so kids friendly :-( I'm sure IKEA's food court would be just fine...

Ethan continues to be a great sleepe at night, but hates his naps! He sleeps 10-12 hours at night, which is great, but he doesn't fall asleep during the day even though he is so tired and needs nap so bad! My mom says I wasn't much of a napper either, but I hope he'll learn to take a few naps soon. It's not fun to deal with a crancky baby!

Happy 2 months birthday!

Ethan turned 2 months old today. I had been feeling sick with a cold for the past few days but thankfully felt pretty good today so I was able to deal with him while he decided to celebrate his 2 month birthday by staying up almost all day. How do other moms take care of kids when they are sick? I was lucky that Jeff could come home a bit earlier one day and Grandma could watch Ethan for the afternoon another day. i just didn't have enough energy to bounce him up and down when he fussed to fall asleep. Oh, and he started sucking on his thumb recently instead of pacifier. I don't necessary know if this is a good habit to pick up, but it sure is nice that he can sooth without us sticking a pacifier back in his mouth. And he looks so cute with his thumb in his mouth!

Today we went out for lunch with Kate, went out to Target to pick up a borthday card for Jeff's birthday tomorrow (and shopped around some, too), and went to my "cousin", Rchelle's house for dinner. My dear friend Laura is back from Texas for a few days so her and her sister, Tina were there, too. It was good to see Laura!

We are planning our fourth annual reunion for my girl friends, and it will be in Goshen this year, since I can't travel without Ethan (or I don't want to). It amazes me that it's been four years since we are out of college, and also makes me happy that we are still getting together every year. All of us live pretty far away, I think 10 of us are spread in 7 states now. So it is very special that we make an effort every year to see each other for an extended weekend. First one was in Chicago, then Vegas, last year was in Phoenix so we could meet Gretchen's little boy, Owen. Vegas was definitely a lot of fun, but it was also nice when we were in Phoenix where Darla and Gretchen lived, so they could show us around the area. I miss all my girls, and now that I hardly see them, I realized how much fun it was to have all of them around all the time in college. I loved and miss my college life.

Anyways, tomorrow is Jeff's birthday. He said he doesn't want anything, so it'd be a low key, but good family time together :-) It'd be nice because Jeff didn't get to see too much of Ethan (or I) today.

2 months check up and Friday night activity

Ethan had his 2 months check up on Thursday, even though he's only 7 weeks old. He had 3 shots, during which he did amazing. He didn't even cry after the first shot, and he cried after the second one, but stopped crying as soon as I picked him up after all the shots. He's such an amazing baby!

He's still right on track on the growth. He is 55 percentile on height and 75 percentile on weight. He continues to sleep well, especially at night. It has been very nice to get good night's sleep :-) He started entertaining himself on the gym for a while, which makes my life a lot easier. Since he is so fascinated with the butterflies on his gym, we decided to buy a mobile for him too, which has been a big hit! He loves looking and giggling at it.

We had Will and Kate over tonight. It was nice to have some adult time while Ethan was nicely held by his "Auntie Kate". He did well most of the evening. He started fussing a little bit at the end but as soon as I put him in the moby wrap, he fell asleep :-) We played Acquire, which is a strategy game where you buy stocks of some companies and go through margers and what not, which was fun. Of course Jeff won, but we all put up a good fight.

Fun weekend!

We got back from New York early evening on Sunday. It was fun to show off our little one :-)

The driving part went surprisingly well. We were in the car for 25-26 hours total over the 4 days, and we think that he cried about half an hour of it. It was nice that I didn't have to drive and could take care of him whenever he needed me.

But there were two struggling things over the weekend. Because Ethan was in his car seat so long and we couldn't burp him much, he got gassy again. On top of that, it was a warm, humid weekend and many buildings in that part of New York (both Buffalo and Saratoga area) don't have ACs. So with tummy pain and being hot, he was a little fussier than usual. And too bad that I missed the ceremony because I had to go to the van and turned the air on for him to cool off... he started screaming when the bridal party was walking in! Luckily we planned well and sat at the very back so we could sneak out. But it was the reason why we went...

The reception situation wad not the most ideal either for our little guy. It was assigned seating, and our table was right by the one and only speaker. The DJ was nice enough to move the speaker to the other side of his table so we were not right by it, but a few of the songs hurt Ethan's ears a bit and we had to go outside. But the music was loud enough that no one else could hear him scream... But a little bit I got to see were very beautiful, and most important thing is that Caleb and Kim looked really happy together. Welcome to the family, Kim!

It was a short trip, but we got to spend some time with the family, which was a lot of fun! I got to hold little Madeline, Jeff's cousin, Miriam, and her husband, Abel,'s baby girl. She is about 3 weeks younger than Ethan and is so little! Ok, maybe Ethan is just bigger than normal, but she felt so little and light to me. It was nice that Ethan could meet his second cousin :-)

Ethan's schedule is getting back to normal. He is still sleeping more than usual (maybe he's still recovering from the overwhelming weekend), but looks rested more when he's awake. Now he started squealing and giggling, which is soooo cute! And I think he told me "no!" with an attitude once, when I tried to give him a pacifier and he didn't want it. We felt like he was depending on his paci more this weekend, but not as much since we've been home. I guess he felt insecure with all the traveling, meeting (and held by) new people and loud music. It's a good thing that we are back to our old, boring routines :-)