Tracey came up with this great idea on how we can all share the positive things that we do as parents.  It's called the "I Did It Right" tag.  It was a great idea because it got me talking to Derek about what we HAVE done right with Ethan as opposed to always worrying about what we are doing wrong. 

We started talking about how worried we were to drop Ethan off when I went into labor last week.  He had only been left overnight one time before in his entire little life and that it didn't go very well.  This time around, we had worked on preparing him for being left without Mom and Dad and for dealing with transitions from one situation to the next situation.  It turns out that WE DID SOMETHING RIGHT.  Ethan was such a big boy and he did GREAT at his cousins house.  He didn't get upset when we didn't come back for him that night and he didn't get upset when his cousins had to go to school the next day.  He understood that changes were happening and he was totally OK with them.  Yea!!!!

I wrote about it here.   I want to tag Samantha and Rachel, because it is obvious that they have BOTH done lots of things right. 

Everyone is still asleep at 6 p.m.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

7:30 a.m. Wake up
7:40 a.m. Shower
8:25 a.m. Eat cheesecake. Only a piece but want to eat half of cake.
9:00 a.m. Contraction.
9:12 a.m. Arrive at church for 9:00 a.m. service because God forbid we ever arrive on time.
10:45 a.m. Go to Target because now seems like a good time to get latch to install carseat. No latch.
11:14 a.m. Go to other Target. Larger, only same stuff with greater quantity. No latch. No bike for The Boy, which has now been added to list.
11:43 a.m. Lunch at Famous Dave's. Eat pulled pork sandwich, all of The Boy's chicken fingers, all french fries at our table and the table beside us. Start to notice contractions.
12:45 p.m. Head to Babies-R-Us for latch because now seems like a really, really good time to put car seat in car. Have more contractions in Babies-R-Us because I can't find anything. Common reaction by anyone in Babies-R-Us. Think nothing of it.
1:15 p.m. Get in bed at home to make contractions stop. Husband decides to put car seat in car and truck.
2:30 p.m. Suspicious sounds of husband's truck driving off.
3:00 p.m. Confirmation truck is gone and husband is at Wal-Mart. See the color red. Have more contractions
3:32 p.m. Husband arrives home and realizes error of his ways. Too late. Has bike for The Boy so not in dog house with everyone.
4:45 p.m. Arrive at sister's house because it seems smarter to be closer to birth center rather than further away. Eat all of sister's pita and hummus in house. Dump off The Boy, who begins to party like rock star with his cousins.
5:30 p.m Call midwife. Sheepishly complain of contractions every 5 minutes. Can't really talk but not really noticing it. Told to go to center.
6:00 p.m. Midwife drives up to center to find me hunched over mid-contraction, 5 cm dialated, trying to steal wireless connection from the neighbor.
6:30 p.m Get into jacuzzi bathtub. Not as much fun when in labor as when NOT in labor but much better than rolling on the floor. Realize that it was better that there was no wireless connection to blog because everyone knows a jacuzzi, laptop and labor make a deadly combination.
7:00 p.m. Go to restroom, cause husband to panic that I might have baby in the toilet, which I of course have no intention of doing.
7:38 p.m Water breaks in bathroom in an Alien-like scene, spraying all 5 people in the bathroom. Seems ironically fitting since there were 5 people in the bathroom the size of the lav on a 737.
7:39 p.m Crawl to bed of horribly decorated room reminiscent of tacky southern colonial-style B&B run by a woman named Mae, determined to have baby in a bed like a normal decent woman.
7:47 p.m. Begin screaming manically "Get him OUT. SOMEONE GET HIM OUT. I JUST WANT HIM OUT."
7:48 p.m. Give birth to the sweetest baby in the whole world. Am really glad I did NOT have a silent birth.

 

My sister swears that Ethan is starting to realize that the end is near.  The end of the world as he knows it.  All I know is that he whined and cried for 3 hours this morning.  Thank heavens I could take him to school.  SHEESH!!!  He then came home and cried all night for his father.  And spilled his milk twice. 

How am I ever supposed to get ready for his birthday party if he is going to be so cranky?

Ethan and his girlfriend Paige

Tonight my mother gave me a hard time because I planned Ethan's birthday party for this weekend.  "So soon?" she asked.  His birthday is next Thursday.  It's not like I am having it 6 weeks early.  But I don't want him to NOT have a birthday because I go into labor.  So all the family is invited this Saturday and hopefully we'll have a party.  I made a cheesecake and cupcakes tonight.  The cheesecake for the adults and the cupcakes for the kids.  I had to make the cupcakes from scratch because my husband is on this "No-partially-hydrogenated-oil/trans-fat" kick that I imagine will stick.  I think the cupcakes turned out OK, but it's not like I can try them to see if they are good.  Chocolate and heartburn.  Can't wait to get this baby out.  He's driving me crazy.

This morning when I talked to Jen she told me that despite the fact that there was only a half inch of snow on the ground, school was cancelled in her county.  I laughed.

Until I found out that Ethan's school was cancelled today.  UGH!!!  I'm too tired today for this.  He has lots of energy and now no place to get rid of it.  LOL.  There is only so much tricycling one can do around the dog.

My friend Jennifer came to stay yesterday with her 4 month old baby daughter Paige.  Wow, was I happy to see that Ethan was just as sweet as can be and didn't even get jealous when I held the baby.  In fact, he was obsessed with her and kept trying to rub her on the head so sweetly.  OK, there were a couple of moments when he really wanted to drive his train over her head, but she was a good sport and we managed to run interference well enough.  I hope that he is as good with his new baby brother...

This afternoon we took Ethan to the mall playground because it was just too cold for him to be outside.  OK, it was just too cold for us to be outside.  Apparently everyone else within 20 miles had the same idea because there were about 50 kids in the play area.  And I don't think any of them had been outside in days because the crowd was crazy.  I felt like I was in the mosh pit at a rock concert.  The kids were flying off the slide at about a million miles an hour.  At one point, two girls pushed Ethan down the slide and then came down after him, effectively pushing him right off the end of the slide.  He looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders.  What can you do?

You know, the kid is only 2 years old but you would be surprised how fast the preschool classes fill up.  UGH!!!!  I went early this morning and there were 60 people in line in front of me to register.  I managed to get him into the Tuesday and Thursday class for fall, so I am pretty excited about that.  Now I just have to find something for him to do this summer.  This kid has WAY too much energy.

What was I thinking?  I was trying to take pictures of my big belly and Ethan kept trying to drive his train over it.  I am starting to wonder why we ever buy him toys because he seems to have loads more fun making toys out of practically nothing.  His Nana and Papa came through town the other night on the way to someplace else and Nana had more toys for him than you can imagine.  He played with them for a few minutes and then he was back to riding his tricycle around the house at around 30 miles per hour.  It's best to stay out of his way.  Here's to the next baby being a little more laid back.