I can see Friday!!!

Finally, the week is almost over! Tonight the boys and I "vegged" out at our own TVs. (Sometimes a little downtime/alone is good for you) Ethan enjoyed "Clifford the big red dog" on our bed. Aidan enjoyed some "Diego" and I was watching American Idol results. My friend Heidi came over tonight and we had a chaotic subway/McDonald's adventure followed by a trip to the park. My behind still hurts from going down the big slide per Ethan's request. But it was fun. Too much to get done around here though...gotta get groceries for the Pampered Chef party, clean the bathrooms, dust & vaccuum and I'm beat. I'm working from home tomorrow though to help get a few things done between requests. Tomorrow night we're going to hit downtown...stop by a happy hour and catch dinner & a movie. The boys are going to ST. Paul to stay with my parents and are getting very excited for it. UGH! Well, I better get some sheets back on Ethan's bed and the rest of the load folded so they can get in bed and I can enjoy some Survivor before Jay returns from his work event. The day has been a long one and my motivation is running out!!

Yes....it's been awhile

OK, so now that I've gotten the house 90% clean, my work 95% caught up, my car is clean, AND even my purse has been decluttered....I'm ready to update this blog. So many stories to tell of Ethan & Aidan and the life of being their mom. PLUS I thought it would be a good place to start my new idea 100 Disney Facts as we count down our trip to Disney. So I have about 6 weeks before we're at T minus 100 days. YAY!!!

Ethan says.....

Ethan has said a couple "funnies" lately.....

Ethan: "Mama, I love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!"
Mama: "Oh Ethan, thank you. How much do you love Mama?"
Ethan: "As long as it takes."


We also recently enrolled him in Phonics at daycare. He took the assessment test and the teacher comments were:

Although Ethan excels in letter identification. He lacks know the letter sounds. I told him we have to find the sounds of the letters and he said "I don't hear no sounds" and covered both ears. I asked "What does J say"? He said "Daddy!"

Mr. Bruiser

OK, so since I last "blogged"...we had an incident with Ethan and a dog. Poor little guy got nipped by the dog on his face. We took him to urgent care where we were told they don't stitch them up because of all the germs from the dog. We slathered it in neosporin and had him on antibiotics and it is healing up fairly nicely. It kind of makes him look like he's got a little dimple. :)

But that's nothing compared to Aidan....he is our Bruiser. We were getting ready for school/work and I had sent both boys to the hamper with their dirty clothes. I stepped into our bathroom to turn off the light and I heard running, a thud, and major screaming. I ran over to find Aidan head first next to one of the bed posts on our bed. I picked him up and immediately saw blood and his skull bone. What an awful sight that a mother should never see! I got a wet wash cloth on it and called Jay. Once I got both boys downstairs to get their coats on and gave them some milk. Aidan was fine...not crying at all and the bleeding had slowed a lot. I put his hat on it to keep the bleeding in while we were in the car. We met Jay at children's hospital. I think we were the first accident of the morning. We got right in and they started numbing his head wound. After that sat in for an hour they came in, strapped him to a backboard and started stitching. He got 3 LAYERS of stitches. 10 alone on the top layer! He did famously as did Ethan waiting. I could not have asked Ethan to behave any better than he did. Of course it helped that we had a TV set to PBS, but he was wonderful. Aidan got praises from the suture nurse who did the stitching and they were both rewarded with juice boxes. I ended up taking Aidan into work with me to get my PC for the day. He wasn't phased at all....flirting with the ladies and jumping all over! I cringed all day when I saw him jumping around and running. He's got no fear!!! I think I have 3 brand new gray hairs from this whole ordeal! His scar is healing fabulously...better than the previous stitches. Today it looks like he had a run in with a cat instead of a bed post. He's our little Bruiser or "stitch" as we call him. :)

It's been awhile.....

Wow! I can't believe it has been since May 2008 that I last "blogged".... I'm going to try and do this more often. The boys are doing more and more funny things these days that would be great to remember...or remind them of as they get older.

2008 went out with a bang...New Years Eve, Aidan took a spill. He was climbing off of Ethan's bed and hit the edge of the toybox with his face. We had our first adventure with the Emergency Room at Children's Hospital. He was so cute in his hospital gown. He got 3 stitches and wiggled through the entire procedure. Of course with scissors, fish hooks, stitches coming right at your eye, what would you do?

Ethan finally joined the ranks of the potty trained at the end of 2008. We started him in big boy undies at school in mid-November and by Christmas his teacher sent his diapers home! Oh, we had a few accidents at home including a rather gross "present" for us on his bedroom floor, but all-in-all, he's been so easy. We still have him in diapers at night, but one of these days his Mama will be brave enough to try without them....and see what happens!?!

It's now 2009 and Ethan is 3 years old! Where does the time go? We had a "Thomas the Tank Engine" party with blue cupcakes (Ethan's request). We also took both boys to "Elmo's Green Thumb". Ethan has become quite the little singer as we hear "I Love Trash" almost every time we get in the car. He is in gymnastics in a big boy class - no parents. I'm so proud of how well he's starting to listen and actually pay attention to the teacher! He LOVES to help...all the time. He is a huge fan of chocolate milk (and sometimes "white chocolate" when Mama doesnt' feel like actually making chocolate milk), macaroni & cheese, pizza, chili, and fruit snacks. He loves all things transportation...trains, cars, trucks, bikes. He enjoys Thomas the Tank Engine, Martha Speaks, Sid the Science Kid, Word World and his new favorite is Turbo Dogs. He can identify all the letter and most of the numbers and still appears to be a lefty. He is the best big brother...he would do anything for Aidan and although he does steal Aidan's toys, he will give them back to make Aidan happy. One of the coolest things (in my opinion) is that he can spot almost every volvo on the road, along with "Daddy's car" (any Mazda), or "Mama's car" (any VW). The other pretty cool thing is how he knows O-back Obama when he comes on TV and that he is the president and lives at the White House....oh and he's Ethan's cousin. :)

Aidan is becoming his big brother's shadow (which Ethan loves). He's 20 months old already. He is starting to love cars, but by no means do they come before his love for balls and books. He could sit for hours with a pile of books just looking at page after page of words and pictures. He also loves Elmo, bikes, and Wheels on the Bus. Somewhat a picky eater, but he likes milk, juice, mac & cheese, and bananas. He enjoys drawing and coloring; looks to be a righty. He enjoys Dora, Elmo, and Martha Speaks. His words are coming along. He's just recently started using "down", "elmo", "pwease". He knows quite a few animal sounds and loves to point out dogs.

They are so entertaining...and I love that they are still Mama's boys. I plan on keeping them that way for as long as I can! :) (Sorry Jay)

Funnies from Ethan

On Mother's Day I was playing Mario Kart on our Wii...and as I was driving through the mall parking lot, I saw Dave's Mii and I kept running into his car. So I, without thinking, said "Dammit Dave" and Ethan turned around, looked at the TV and started "dammit Dabe, dammit Dabe" Oops! It was hard not to laugh.

Today, I was in a client meeting when my phone rang. It was Kindercare. I stepped out of the room and I hear "Hi Lori, this is Ms. Colleen. Ethan has something to tell you." At this point, the thoughts of someone being hurt/sick were gone, but then I went to worried thinking about how he had come home with two incidents recently of biting and now they are making him call me to tell me. Ethan gets on the phone and says "Mama. Potty" Apparently he'd used the potty! Ms. Colleen came back on and said they call the parents after the first time the kids use the potty for the first time. I was so excited and yet a little apprehensive to be talking on the phone in the middle of all the Target offices and saying "Great Job using the Potty!"

Not to be out down by his brother Aidan is soooo on the verge of walking! He's pushing our shopping cart all over and our Elmo walk-behind toy. He's even taken a couple steps between Jay & I.

Maybe Grandpa & Grandma will get Ethan potty trained & Aidan walking while we're on vacation!

Cleaning / Finding stuff

I dread the thought of cleaning our house, but we have to do it. With two little boys...we have to do it a lot! But it seems like not matter when we do it, it isn't half as bad as we thought it would be and it always takes twice as much time as we thought it would. And we always find stuff we forgot about.....this week a couple things have come back to us that we forgot about. When I took Aidan in for his appointment to check for stitches I put his shoes on the roof of the car while I was locking him in the car seat only to forget them up there and drive away. One of them flew off! This week when I took him back for his follow up ear infection....there it was on the side of the road! Crazy huh? Also this week I ended up working late because of a meeting and I ran into the cleaning guy Jesus from American Express. "Hola Amiga" He asked how many babies I had now and where Jay was working. It's so fun to run into old friends and he was so nice! I hope to run into him more. Well....back to the dreaded cleaning.....Cross your fingers the place will stay somewhat clean until we leave for Mexico! :)