First Birthday Party Recap

Anyone who has ever visited me when I'm not having a special event at my house, like a birthday party, knows that I do not keep a clean house.  The big problem is clutter - Steve & I are both pack rats so rather than actually throw stuff away, we let it pile up, on every surface so that things that should go on a shelf, end up in the floor because the shelf is full of crap.  For Ethan's birthday, we cleaned the house - downstairs - as it was summer and a lot of people stayed outside; we had had pool stuff for the kids and sprinkler and sort of made it an outside event.  The upstairs, however, remained very cluttered.   For Alex's birthday, it's November - outside is not an option.  So we had to clean a bit better to ensure the kids could play upstairs to give more space.  I won't say that the place was spotless because I'm sure by other people's standards, it wasn't.  By my standards - the place finally looked great.  Now, if we can keep it that way - and finally start throwing stuff away instead of accumulating, that is the goal.

House was fully clean by noon Sunday (party @ 2:30), we put the boys down for a nap and I took a shower so I could go get the cake.  Alex is interested in one thing (other than Ethan) and that is balls of any kind.  I think I've mentioned this before but I don't think I can say it enough to give you the full picture of his like for balls.  So his party theme?  Balls - sports - football, baseball, soccer, basketball.  We had seen a few months ago at Kroger a cake that had a huge dome in the center which we went in for a closer look at.  Turns out the dome was a basketball so we talked to them and they have several different kinds of balls and yes, they could put a big ball in the center and then smaller balls around and mix and match them.  I ordered his cake Friday night (I meant to go sooner but just didn't get there).  They had a big football (we have more footballs than any other ball so he carries them around frequently and maybe it's just because it's what we have most of, or maybe it's because I, myself, am partial to football, but I think footballs are his favorite) - perfect - but only had footballs & baseballs to put around the edge as they were out of stock of the rest.  No biggie - I ordered that combo with blue as the highlight icing...chocolate cake, of course; it wouldn't be a first birthday without chocolate cake.  I picked up the cake and honestly, it was the cutest thing ever - it was perfect!  Home with the cake to start fixing finger foods and get this show on the road. 

The Next Day...

Here's the follow-up to the events of yesterday's blog:

1)  Ethan woke up shortly after his daddy got home and came in to again ask to sleep in our bed.  I couldn't deny him again so let him climb in.  But he forgot his bottle (sippy cup that he still refers to as a bottle) and needed a drink.  I'm tired and not going to get it for him which makes the lip quiver.  For some reason his daddy thought I should go get it but was more awake than I was and wouldn't go get it himself...oh well, Ethan can get it.  So Ethan climbs down and then hovers at the end of the bed looking into the hall.  I had told Steve about the ghost conversation at this point.  Steve tells Ethan, "it's ok; nothing is out there, Ethan.  The light is still on in the bathroom so there's enough light and there's nothing to be afraid of."  Ethan quickly responds, "Ghostez are nice, Dad.  Dey are God's friends; dey help people."  OK so apparently our discussion sunk in a little and I have to say, this was super sweet to hear him say.  Steve replies that yes, Ghosts are nice.  I think Ethan then told him that they were outside, not in here and they help people (repeating that part).  So Steve told him to go ahead and get his cup and come back.  Ethan did and we all went to sleep.

The going to bed at 7:30 thing came back to haunt us this morning though.  While Ethan really didn't go to sleep till his normal time, he was still in "rest mode" by 7:30 if not fully asleep until a little after 8:00.  So this morning, my alarm goes off and I look over and Ethan is staring at me and says, "you phone, Mama." in his stage whisper (cause I use the alarm feature on my phone).  He's been awake already and saw the light on the phone come on before the sound even.  I turn it off and roll over for my 5 more minutes on snooze and Ethan continues to stare.  With someone, even my child, staring at me, it was hard to get my quality snooze sleep in so I got up as the phone went off the second time.  Ethan follows me to the bathroom and says, "Owix is awake, Mom."  Nice try kid, I can see Alex's bed and he's nowhere near awake.  Me: "No he isn't and you better not wake him up.  Be quiet."  E: "I want to take a shower with you, Mom."  (way to change the subject; smart boy because he knows just the talking will wake Alex at this point anyway).  I close the door and he continues to talk....I was too tired to really notice last night, but I bet he even talks in his sleep.  We take a shower and then head back to the bedroom, me telling him to whisper the whole time.  Turn on the light in our room cause Steve is going to have to get up now anyway since Ethan's awake.  Steve dutiful deals with Ethan while I get dressed and then I head downstairs and take Ethan with me so Steve can sleep a bit more. 

What a day...and night.

Well Alex is sick just in time for his birthday. Poor baby. He was a little whiney earlier this week but otherwise no symptoms. The hoarse voice (which is completely pitiful on someone who can't talk yet) came on yesterday evening, the cough (even more pitiful than the hoarse-ness) today and a low grade fever this evening. So now I get to call first thing tomorrow to try to get him in tomorrow. We were just there and he was fine. It was such a nice weekend though, we played outside which he thoroughly enjoyed and he did wear a jacket but I think it was probably too much for him. This fall weather is tricky - feels great but there's an underlying cold to it.

In the past when he's been hoarse like this, he's had an ear infection. In fact, all but one of his ear infections were diagnosed after he woke up hoarse with a low grade fever and we took him to the doctor. The other one was diagnosed at one of his well baby checks – that one apparently was mild and likely had just started. Had he not been hoarse the other times, we may not have even known that he was sick because he still smiles & laughs and gives those super sweet looks. He’s still happy as a little lark or seems to be – just a little more clingy than normal. He did have a little fluid in 1 ear last Friday but looked clear, not cloudy so no meds needed. However, since I’m not the doctor, I’ll reserve final diagnosis to her. Who knows, it could be something else – even a regular cold. We’ll see.

Our Weekend

Yesterday Steve worked a split shift so shortly after he left for work at 10:30, the boys & I headed out for some errands. First on the list was to go to the Party Store where the Police Department was again doing the free Kid Print Ids. We had told Ethan we were going to go let the police take his picture which he thought was really cool. Since it was at the Party Store, I thought I could get some supplies for Alex’s birthday party next weekend as well….”thought” is the operative word there.

When we arrived, there was a big sign out front saying it’s their anniversary (15 years I believe) so they had several things going on. This sign sported a giant dragon which I somehow missed while trying to park. Not Ethan…”Mama! Look! A dragon.” Me (not enthusiastically as I was trying to park and as per usual, he’d been talking since we left the house anyway so I barely even registered what he was telling me to look at this time): “Yes, honey.” Ethan (not amused by my lack of enthusiasm or the fact that I hadn’t actually looked): “NO, Mama! LOOK! It’s a dragon.” I have now parked so I looked, sure enough, there’s a dragon. I become slightly more animated and say, “Yes honey, it is a dragon. That’s where we are going to the Party Store.” E: “For the police to take my picture?” Doesn’t miss a beat that kid. Me: “Yep.” E: “I don’t want to the police to take my picture, I dust want to see the dragon.” Me: “How about if we see the dragon while the police take your picture? They’ll give Mama a picture card to have for you and for brother just in case we ever need it. Will that be ok?” E: “Well, ok. But I dust wanna see the dragon.” Me: “OK, we’ll get the picture, see the dragon and get stuff for brother’s birthday party.” E: “OK, we’ll get stuff for my birfday party, too.”….that’s a whole other argument we’ve been trying to explain so I just pretend I didn’t hear it this time.

That's Dust Not Nice

Last night we took the boys to play at the mall play area after dinner.  Ethan loves it because he can play with other kids and run and jump on "furniture" without getting into trouble.  The last time we went, Alex was just starting to take a step or two so mostly crawling to the various play things and pulling up and checking stuff out, taking a few steps and dropping to his knees so as to better be able to get around without the other kids knocking him down.  Last night, he was one of those other kids - running (ok, waddling) everywhere checking everything out.

There was a little girl there (super cute) who was just his size and likely just walking or maybe a month ahead of him in walking.  He followed her around and then would try to hug her.  This was fine at first but when he "caught" her for that hug (which really was cute), she was right next to the fence so in order to hug her, he was basically pushing her into the fence which she was fine with her for a short hug, but the minute long bear hug was a bit more than she bargained for.  She was quick to let it be known that she'd had enough.  She was ok with being "friends" but wasn't into being sandwiched between him & the fence long term.  We got him to back away but then he just followed her around waiting for the next opportunity.  Someone jutted between them distracting him momentarily and he was back to waddling around checking everyone out and screeching at the top of his lungs to show how excited he was.  It's almost like he's saying, "WOW!  Check it out!  This is AWESOME!....WOW!  That's great, too!  OOOO! & check THAT out!  WOW!"....all in the form of a screech that I really think could be marketed as a way to shatter fine crystal.  I know it does a fine job of shattering my nerves.  Sheesh - I'll regret this I'm sure, but I can't wait for him to talk so he stops screeching and just flat out says, "WOW!  This is AWESOME!" or whatever it is he wants to tell us....I just hope he has a better "off" switch than his brother.

Sweet Nothings from Monday

Monday: Steve was originally scheduled to work a split shift. That means he drops the boys off at daycare mid-morning, they play, eat lunch, take naps and then it’s time for Steve to pick them up. He’d then go home with them and when I get home we can do “family dinner” before he has to return to work for the 2nd half of his shift – usually a 4 hour break midday and then he goes back about 7:00-11:00ish. His work had another plan – he called me around lunch to tell me they’d just switched him to a straight shift meaning the boys would need to stay at daycare and I’d pick them up when I get off and he’d get home around 7:00 instead of going back at 7:00.

OK, no problem – Alex had at least enough formula for one bottle as well as enough juice for a couple bottles and then he can have water, too. Normally, he’d have that formula bottle at lunch (he had) and then would get more formula around 4 or 5 to tide him over till the last formula bottle at bedtime but he could wait till I picked him up and have formula while I fixed dinner. Daycare was fine with this plan so we’re all set.

The Wizard of Oz

This was the best date I've ever had!  I'm almost positive.

For those who don't know, yesterday my wonderful boss told me that she had tickets to The Wizard of Oz at the Lexington Opera House tonight but wasn't able to use them and offered them to me cause she thought Ethan would enjoy it.  So I called Sarah, my wonderful cousin, and she agreed to watch Alex so Ethan & I could go as Steve had to work.  So when I got home from work, I told Ethan about it - that we were going to see a play today and it had a scarecrow and a lion and a wizard and a tin man and a witch and even a little doggie, too.  He thought that sounded like a great thing to do.

This morning I'm giving kisses as I'm leaving for work and Ethan says, "I want to go to the play Mama."  I told him that we would go later tonight.  He said, "but I want to go now, Mom.  I want to see the scarecwoe."  I said, "Honey, Mama has to go to work and you are going to go to Kay's [the babysitter] and then Mama will pick you up and we'll come home and eat dinner and Sarah will come and watch Alex and you & Mama can go."  E:  "But I dust want to go now, Mom.  I don't want to wait."  I told him we couldn't, that it wasn't on now, it would be later tonight.  E:  "They are closed?"  Me:  "Yes, honey.  They are closed but they will be open later tonight."...This is apparently what I should have said in the beginning cause now he was fine and gave me kisses so I could go to work.

A few notes about Alex

1)  He can find many ways to occupy himself - including conducting experiments.  His current experiment is to determine exactly how gravity works (maybe the fascination has to do with figuring it out so he doesn't fall so often - poor kid doesn't realize that he has my genes so the falling thing will continue for some time).  His experiment goes something like this: 
Lay on the floor sucking juice out of a bottle
Sit up, take bottle out of mouth and stare at bottle
Hold bottle upside down and see what happens
 - Observation reveals that even without sucking on the bottle, if he holds it upside down, the juice will, in fact, drip out onto the floor.
Turn bottle right-side up - dripping stops
Turn bottle upside down again - dripping resumes.
Hold hand under drip and get hand wet.
Put hand back on bottle, juice does not go back into bottle....lick hand.
 - OK, enough observation....lay back down and finish drinking bottle.

2)  He thoroughly enjoys climbing the stairs....only when he's not supposed to.  When it's bedtime and Mama gives permission to climb, it takes him much longer to make it up than when Mama says no.  Even if he tried 5 minutes ago and Mama said no and he was Speedy Gonzalez with it; 5 minutes later when Mama says, "it's ok, go ahead," he becomes Pokey Joe.

Daylight Savings What?

I don’t recall having this issue when Ethan was an infant or even last year. But neither Ethan nor Alex get this concept of daylight savings time (let’s be honest, I don’t really get it either but I do know that I was supposed to get extra sleep last weekend….NOT).

So Sunday morning I had hopes of sleeping till at least 7 – which was really 8 before time changed. Nope, Alex was up at 5:20, 6:20 before the time change….that’s still early for him so we tried to get him back to sleep. He was having no part of that even though he’d been up late the night before with trick-or-treating. We finally get him back to sleep at almost 7 (the original time I thought he’d wake me up). He’s in bed with us at this point in hopes that he wouldn’t wake his brother. 30 minutes later I hear Ethan wake up to go pee and expect him to come wake me which is his norm. Nope, he goes to play. Fantastic.

He does sometimes play a bit on weekend mornings before waking his brother and then coming to tell me Owix is awake. This morning, Alex was in bed with me so Ethan couldn’t wake him so I thought I’d get another 30 minutes to an hour. I could still hear him in my half sleep phase and it sounded like he was in his room playing. About 30 minutes later, he comes in with a pack of Whoppers and says “Mama, I can’t open this.” I open my eyes now and there he is trying to climb up in the bed with a pack of candy in his hands. His speaking woke Alex anyway so I say in my best chastising voice, “Ethan Tanner Waters, have you been eating candy?” He says “yes” and I ask how much. He says, “One….two…two pieces.” “No more candy until after lunch…you do NOT eat candy first thing in the morning.”

The Week in Review

I already told you about the fun game of “rotten boy” Ethan & Alex enjoyed Monday evening. Here are a few things from the rest of our week.

I got a very sweet voicemail this week from my guys. Steve was on his way to drop the boys off at day care and as usual, they called me on their way. I hear Steve saying “tell her, Alex. What did you want to tell Mama?” Then there’s Ethan saying “he wants to say Ma-ma-ma.” This action repeated twice and then as Ethan said “ma-ma-ma,” I hear Alex chime in “Ma-ma Ma-Ma-Ma.” The cutest thing – I love hearing his little voice through the phone. As I did when Ethan was that age and started to talk, I saved the message so I can replay it at my leisure.

The boys got a package from Grandma on Wednesday. The UPS guy is kind enough to hide them for us and leave us notes as to the location. Ethan was expecting this particular package cause “Ammaw” had told him a few weeks ago she had a Diego book she was going to send him. So when I saw the note from UPS, I put Alex down and before Ethan could get his shoes off, told him to come help me find it. I took him over to the side of the house (it was behind the big blue recycling can) and asked him to look for it. He looked around at all the items right in front of him…he hasn’t yet learned to look behind or under things without prompting, something I’m hoping he grasps soon as it’s about to kill me. “I don’t see it, Mama. It’s not here.” “Yes, it is honey. Just look, you’ll see it.” “No, Mama. I dust don’t see it. It’s dust not here. It didn’t come yet.” I’m standing right beside him and looking at the package in the clear plastic bag which is right behind the can that is RIGHT in front of us. I said, “stand right here with Mama and look…I bet you’ll see it.” As he moves, he says, “Mama, I dust don’t think it came yet. It’s dust….OH!” He found it. Such excitement in that little “oh.” “I dust didn’t see it but it did come, it is here. Look Mama it’s my package from Ammaw. Let’s open it.” (said while walking with said package to the front door).

We get inside where Alex was still patiently waiting for us and I’m barely in the door when he’s begging me to open it. I asked him to wait just a minute so we could take our jackets off yet and I could get Alex a bottle. He’d been patient while we found the package but usually when we get home if I’ve picked them up from day care after work, he’s more than ready for a bottle and if he can get it in before dinner, a 30 minute cat nap to get him through till bedtime. Tonight the nap wasn’t going to happen but he did need the bottle. Ethan not so patiently waited while excitedly showing Alex the package and then as Alex took his bottle and started guzzling, I started on the package. I had Ethan throw away the wrapping as I cut into the tape on the box and he comes running back, “is it my book? Is it my Diego book? Ammaw sent me my book.” I, by the way, had completely forgotten we were going to get a package much less what it was supposed to contain (other than something for Halloween) but Ethan has a mind like a steal trap. If you want to surprise him with something, don’t say it to him ever or even whisper it in his presence cause he’ll hear you and he’ll remind you, repeatedly. Package open, sure enough it’s his Diego book – Diego’s Halloween Party. And a book for Alex about his first Halloween and a couple of other things which I can’t remember right now but I’m certain if I woke Ethan up, he’d tell me what they were and exactly where they are right now.

So now that Ethan has his book and other items and Alex is trying to eat his book because the bottle is gone, I head to the kitchen. Ethan and Alex play well in the front room while I cut up hot dogs for beanie weenies (which both boys love). Steve should be home shortly as he is only working 4 hours this day because a very nice co-worker traded 4 hours Wed for 4 hours Saturday so that Steve could be home for Trick-or-Treat. Dinner is ready when I hear Steve come in but I need to cool Alex’s and get it on the table so need about 5 more minutes so I told Steve to read the book that Ethan was excitedly telling him about. I now know why I read to the boys more than Steve does. He doesn’t seem to have the patience for it and I put more animation into it. Then again, he had just gotten home and wasn’t even fully in the door when both boys ran to him (and then as he walked past Alex to put his badge & phone on the shelf, Alex cried cause he didn’t stop to pick him up first) … so I guess that could have played a part in his lack of enthusiasm for the book.

Thursday I was scheduled to work a half day as a co-worker from our Cebu, Philippines, office was visiting not just the Lexington office for the first time but also the United States for the first time and so we planned to go to Keeneland for the afternoon to give her a taste of Kentucky Horse Racing. She’s the Admin Assistant my group works with in Cebu so the other AA that works with her a lot and I had planned this afternoon out. Steve & I had an errand to run before I headed to Keeneland so he was on his way to meet me and called to tell me Ethan had asked if he was going to get to go to the horse races again and Steve had explained he’s have to wait till the Spring season. But I thought about it and realized I could take the boys if the other two AA’s didn’t mind. I asked and they didn’t mind and thought it would be fun so I let Steve know the plans were changing and called daycare to let them know we wouldn’t be bringing the boys that day. This time I told Ethan all the possible colors for the horses and then asked which one he liked since he does get to pick the color from now on….he still said green for him and purple for me and there was no budging off that. The first race we won $4.80 on one horse; the second we won $15.80 on one horse … all in all, we bet a total of $44 for the day and won most it back as we were only down $27.50 for the day and that includes admission and food (I did the math – we lost $21.50 to food and admission which left only $6.00 we lost on bets). Alex ended up spending most of his time in the stroller because he wanted to walk EVERYWHERE and as we were on a bit of an incline, he couldn’t do that very well and I didn’t particularly want him to crawl. I think the other girls enjoyed Ethan & Alex’s company – they were fairly well behaved considering neither had a nap. Ethan was especially excited when he got to pet some of the Keeneland work horses a few times between races when they’d come to the rail. Alex seemed to enjoy most playing with his brother’s sippy cup. Another good Keeneland day and both boys passed out in the car on the way home.

Friday’s entertainment is compliments of Steve’s status updates on Facebook. The first one he posted said something to the effect of don’t leave big brother’s old sippy cup lying around – Alex had picked it up and from the look on his face it was sour milk in it and that was enough to make Steve dry heave (he has a very bad gag reflex). Apparently, it was one of the sippy cups we hadn’t found in a day or two and it was nice and curdled. I think Steve may have had a worse reaction to it than Alex. The funny thing is though that Alex has his own sippy cup but will have nothing at all to do with it. He takes great pleasure in picking up his brother’s cups to enjoy them but if we give it to him, like with something he should drink in it, he doesn’t want it at all. This doesn’t bode well for the years to come – I can see him now doing exactly what we tell him not to do and if we do give permission for something he wants to do, not doing it just to spite us. A later status update from Steve said that Ethan & Alex were entertaining themselves at the coffee table my dad made for me. Ethan was filling cups (not sure if they were real or pretend cups) with pretend stuff to drink and both boys were drinking it. Alex, not even a year old, will pretend like this with his brother simply because Ethan tells him to. One day a while back, Steve & I were in the kitchen making breakfast or dinner (don’t remember which) and Ethan and Alex were at the gate. Ethan had a wooden spoon and was pretending to feed Alex who was happily eating whatever Ethan had on the spoon…happily that is until he realized he really was hungry and that pretend food wasn’t very filling.

Boys are such fun and they have so much fun together. Stay tuned for our trick-or-treating fun next.

Trick or Treat

Ethan was a dinosaur and Alex was a lion but what was Mama going to be? I had originally planned to be a clown because Ethan liked Ronald McDonald so much but then last week at Walmart, Ethan started seeing costumes and telling me I should be that. So I kept asking what he wanted me to be. He had it narrowed down to a ghost, a scarecrow, a clown (with pink hair) or a witch. I told him I didn’t have a hat for the witch so he kind of dropped that one and then slowly the ghost stopped being mentioned also. But he kept waffling between scarecrow and clown. So today we finally head to Walmart to get whatever I’ll need to do whichever costume it is to be. For a scarecrow, I needed some hay which I had planned to use the Alfalfa we get to line the rabbit cage (which he eats also) since I could use it for the rabbit later. For the clown, I need the white make-up and spray for my hair. We’re in the aisle and Ethan is still waffling…until he sees a clown wig with pink, green, blue & orange hair. “You gonna be a clown, Mom.” OK that’s settled. What color hair? Orange, Blue, Green, Pink? “Green, Mom. You need green hair and I need green hair, too.” No baby, you have your dinosaur costume, you don’t need green hair. “But I do, my dinosaur needs geen hair.” OK, we’ll color the front of your hair green for your costume. “OK” We got the glow lights Ethan wanted for he and Alex and off to home for naps.

Ethan, Alex & I took a good nap together in my bed (a rarity these days) and Steve slept in Ethan’s bed. Alex woke up before I was ready as I had a massive headache and Ethan was still out, so like a good Mom, I put him off on his Daddy (smile). I took him into the other room and deposited him with Steve so I could come back and lay down. My plan wasn’t really to sleep for another hour as I thought Ethan would be up any minute. I just needed to lay down on my other side to try to aleve the headache which pounding. However, since Ethan did sleep another hour, I did, too. This put us a bit behind when it came to getting costumed up but who cares – naps are awesome.