Ethan and Carter

Our two boys always keep me on my toes. I love watching them together as Carter gets older. It's hard to believe that Ethan is such a big boy. He is still pretty much always sleeping on the floor rather than his bed...During nap time one day he never went to sleep, but he stayed in his room for over an hour quietly. When I went in to tell him quiet time was over this is what I found:

He loves to line all his cars up on his bed and drive them around.
He obviously got tired of his cars and resorted to his books as well! At least his bed is being used for something!

This picture is for our Louisiana peeps--especially Jill and Nathan. They got him this shirt before we moved and he finally fits in it! I was having a hard time getting him to stand still so I could get a good pic, so here's an action shot!
And one with the binoculars...he's a weirdo, what can I say?!

Carter at 5 months old--he's getting so big!
Ethan is becoming better buddies with his brother each day. One day after church they were laying on the ground together and Ethan reached over and put his arm around Carter. It was so cute!
Then he was doing in another morning while they were watching cartoons. It's so cute to watch them interacting.
I love this picture because they are both actually looking at the camera!
I love this one because it captures perfectly how much Carter loves his big brother. He is always watching him and just smiles at everything Ethan does!

I love my boys!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was celebrated before and after for us, since Tristan had to leave to go to work on Valentine's Day. We made plans to have dinner the night before he left and went to a new restaurant for both of us. It was pretty good but mostly we just enjoyed some time to ourselves.

I planned a fun dessert (thanks to Pinterest) for later that evening. Tristan really likes sushi, but me...not so much. So I compromised with this dessert sushi. I was actually really pleased with how they turned out. It tasted just like strawberry shortcake and I made everything from scratch including the cake! The sauce is a strawberry coulis and was super yummy. We had sparkling blueberry juice with it and enjoyed some quiet time once the boys were in bed for the night.

A Valentine's picnic!
I had a special Valentine's Day breakfast planned as well, but since he got called in early we didn't have it until after Valentine's Day. And yes, these were ideas from Pinterest, too. And yes, we really did eat it on Ethan's Cars table...we were in the middle of moving and the table was already at the house!
I was a bad mom and didn't really do anything major for the boys while Tristan was gone. We did make a handprint/footprint craft for their grandparents and also made some cookies to deliver with them on Valentine's Day. We also dropped some valentines off to friends, so at least I recognized it!

Boys, Boys, Boys...

My life is filled with boys! The newest boy to come to our family is getting so big! I'm not going to lie, Carter was a more-than-average high maintenance baby. Our doctor pretty much confirmed that he was what would be described as a "colicky" baby, which was my worst fear. It was hard, I was overwhelmed when Tristan was gone and many tears were shed (and probably still will be). However, he turned a corner around the 4-month mark (almost to the day!). He eats better, sleeps better has less difficulty with his reflux and is really content most days. I love his sweet face and smile. I love how he literally hugs me when I pick him up in the morning and how he grabs the collar of my shirt when I'm rocking him. I feel the love multiplying in my heart for him each day. He is a down right sweetheart!

He is finally getting more comfortable on his tummy and will actually sleep that way now. We went through about a 2-week period that he would roll on to his tummy at night and wake up. I ended up having to go in about every hour to roll him back over and help him get to sleep again. That was a long 2 weeks!
Having a house full of boys means lots of mayhem a lot of the time! Tristan was pulling the two boys around on the sled one day around the apartment...it was quiet a scene!
Life in the big boy bed is about the same. Six out of 7 nights Ethan is on the floor. You can't see him all that well in this picture, but he is right next to his crib on the floor. He chooses the floor most nights and we are fine with that as long as he gets good rest and stays in his room at night. So far, so good!
Another night on the floor...
Carter is enjoying more and more time being upright. Allisha lent us her Johnny Jump-Up and we put him in it every once in a while. I was bummed that the strap was in the way but you can see he is having a great time in it! He also really likes to be in his exersaucer for short periods of time.

He is forever putting EVERYTHING in his mouth. If he can't find something to put in, he'll put an a hand or foot or both in it!

Mmmmm...toe jam!
Ethan is as rowdy as ever. He loves getting out to run and play. Tristan took both boys to the park one day to walk some trails and Ethan had a great time climbing rocks.
Carter reportedly was a champ and enjoyed the view from the front-pack!
Apparently there was some nasty goo on the surface of the water. Ethan was having fun dipping his stick in it and saying, "Ewwwwww!"
One day Tristan and Ethan built a fort out of his bed while I was grocery shopping.

Brothers in the bath tub. For a while we tried it this way and Ethan would help us bathe Carter.
Brothers
Life is sure fun when it's filled with boys like these!

Signs of Spring

Ironically, just 2-3 weeks after being completely snowed in, we had a beautiful February weekend with highs in the 60s! We decided to jump on the opportunity and headed up to the zoo to meet Kelly, Justin and Anderson for a day of fun!

Ethan getting up close and personal with the resident roaming peacock

Taking care of our littlest
Enjoying the "Nemo" aquarium
What a beautiful day for the zoo!
Anderson and Ethan cheesing it up!
We had several days of wonderful weather, so we decided to hit up Yauger Park another day that week. This play structure is HUGE. Like to the point I'm a little uncomfortable up there. So I let Tristan do most of the high altitude playing with Ethan.
Sitting on the teeter-totter with Dad
Trying to pull dad off to go play on other toys
Carter enjoyed some time in the swing (Thanks for the fleece suit Brandon and Jennie!)...
and Ethan still pretty much doesn't like them!
Trying out some of the other toys
I ventured up for ONE trip down the mammoth slide.
Then we went for a little stroll around the baseball fields. Ethan did some rock climbing...
and puddle splashing (boys!).
Home after a fun day. I think he looks like a little thug in this one!
We are hoping that that isn't the last spring-like weather we see any time soon! What a fun couple of days!

Moving to a Big Boy Bed

When your child starts doing this:

You know it's time to move to a toddler bed. Ethan started climbing out of his crib when we moved here in June. But once his crib from Louisiana got here it stopped being an issue and even though he could climb out he didn't all that often. Well in January it started becoming a regular thing again and since we have been talking about it for a long time we just decided to take the plunge!

This is Ethan's last morning waking up in a crib. As you can see, he's really happy about it. When he's mad he purposely hits his head on his crib (I guess he didn't realize that even when you do it on purpose it still hurts!). I can't remember what he was mad about...he's 2 1/2, he's mad all the time! ;)
That night he and Tristan got to work, converting his crib into a toddler bed. Ethan even got his drill out to help!
All snuggled up in his new bed!
The really funny thing was that in order to get out he kept climbing over the little guard rail instead of just climbing out the open part at the bottom. I guess old habits die hard!
Now, as excited as he was about his bed he was even more excited about sleeping on the floor. In fact, 8 out of 10 nights he asks to sleep on the floor! It's so funny. This is the scene we found after nap one day. I you are having a hard time finding him, his head is on the elephant blanket. I especially love how his left foot is up in the air!

Ethan has done really well transitioning to his new bed. He rarely comes out of his room once he's been put to bed and during nap time even if he doesn't fall asleep he doesn't come out. We are officially a one-crib household now!

While The Cat's Away...

So things can be pretty interesting (a.k.a. crazy) around here when Tristan is not around...When there is one of me and two boys who need attention, sometimes mayhem ensues! During the snow I had put all of our food into a cooler with snow to preserve it and the egg carton fell apart. So I moved the eggs into a tupperware container to store them. Well, for some reason Ethan was fascinated with the eggs and kept asking to play with them. One afternoon I came out from putting Carter down and saw that the refrigerator door was propped open with the mayo jar. At first I thought Ethan was just messing around in the fridge (as he often does) but I came around the corner to find this:

And, yes, he was driving his cars through the egg! Only a boy!!! I couldn't help but laugh and laugh.

If Tristan isn't here when I'm putting the boys down, I usually do our bedtime baths and clean up and leave Ethan to play quietly while I put Carter down. Then I read to Ethan and put him down. He's been really good not to disturb me while I'm doing this and can often be found lingering silently in the hallway or rolling on the floor waiting for me to read books to him.

Well, one night I walk out to find this:
In case your wondering, that's a pencil pouch mowhawk.
I especially love how you can see his real hair through the clear window! Where does this kid come up with these things?!

Sometimes hanging out at home all day leads to some cute cuddle time like this:

Ethan loves to lay in his bed or Carter's bed with Carter. Carter has even started enjoying it, too, and just laughs and laughs at Ethan as they lay by each other. These two are going to be such good buddies!

But most of the time, things look like this around here when Tristan isn't home:
Yup, that Hershey's chocolate syrup all over my floor. What you can't see is that he poured it in the kitchen sink as well...this day I didn't get up early enough to take a shower before he got up, so I left him watching cartoons while I jumped in real quick during one of Carter's cat naps. Yeah, not so sure that shower was worth it...

After all that playing, Ethan is worn out. Sometimes, I just can't get him down for a nap (he's growing out of them anyway)...but this day he fell asleep on the floor. Poor guy.
Needless to say, I'm always glad to have back up to help clean up these crazy boy's messes! We love our crazy boy, messes and all!