Nana & Papa

Ethan loves his Nana & Papa. We're lucky to live only 3 blocks away from my parents. The park is right across the street from their house. Lately, we've been walking over to the park and putting Ethan in the swings. Don't even get me started on how disgusting and germy those must be. After disinfecting the swings, my parents usually come over to play.

Here's Nana with Ethan & Nana with Ethan & Ella playing on Thanksgiving.


Ethan loves them both! I can tell that because we live so close and my parents are so involved in Ethan life that they will always be very special to him.

We're sick!!!

About a week ago Ethan woke up around 10pm, which he rarely does, crying. He was fussy for about an hour and finally calmed down around 11pm. The next morning I noticed he was congested. Ugh, a cold! For the last week he has been sick. We've used a ton of Boogie Wipes, which I thought I'd never buy, but they work. Now we have been told by the Pulmonologist office to begin nebulizers and to add a vest treatment to the middle of the day. He is not weezing or having a hard time breathing. He is his normal cheery self and is eating like usual (a lot!). He's just sick!
On Thanksgiving day he started to have a wet cough so that's what made me think to call the nurse on Monday to see about starting nebs. We now are doing nebulizers 2x a day for a total of 45 minutes at a time and his vest treatments 3x a day for 15 minutes at a time. I realize that in the CF world spending 2 hours and 15 minutes a day doing treatments is nothing so I should be grateful. However, it still sucks! Ethan hates the nebs. He won't stay still for long enough and the only thing that really works is turning on Baby Mozart. He has to watch it over and over again because that's the only baby video we have. I'm looking into finding another show on Netflix streaming so I don't lose my mind watching Baby Einstein.
Luckily the nebulizer treatments will be over when his cold is gone. He's had it for 1 week now and the nurse says that most colds last 10-14 days. If it's not gone by then we'll most likely have to go in and be seen by one of the pulmonologists. I don't foresee that happening, but it could. For now, we're doing as the doctor orders.

Tree Lighting & Decorations

On Sunday my parents, sister & her kids and us all went to the Christmas tree lighting near our house. There were train rides, hay rides, a ferris wheel, Santa, singing, a magician & free hot chocolate. We were there for a little over an hour. It was 48 degrees outside when we walked over at 430pm and by 5pm it was in the low 40's. We are lucky that we bundled Ethan in a snow suit that a friend had given me. I thought I'd never use it. Leave it to a Californian to use a snow suit when it's only 40 degrees outside ;)

It even "snowed" foamy bubbles.





Ethan & Santa

We also did some decorating this weekend too. We put up our Christmas tree and all of the ornaments we could find. The tree looks great! This year was the first year we bought stockings. It was our one buy for Christmas this year. We're gradually getting the things we need, but trying not to break the bank in the process.

I'll have to add the photos of our stockings and more of the tree once I get more off the camera. Merry Christmas!

9 months old!

Today Ethan is 9 months old! I can't believe he's already 9 months. The older he gets the more we enjoy him. He's a social baby and loves everyone. He hasn't had any problems with stranger anxiety or wanting to just be with me or Ken. He does love his daddy. He has to know where Ken is at all times. I can just see what it will be like as Ethan starts walking. I'm sure he'll follow Ken and Ken's dad everywhere.
In the day Ethan has started to crawl backwards and today got up on all 4's for about 10 seconds. I'm glad to see that he's almost crawling although I know as soon as he's mobile he will be everywhere.
Here are some pictures from the last month.

Getting ready for the niner game to start.


Sitting up really well.

Trying on Papa's glasses

Mommy & Ethan at the zoo with friends.

Over the past month Ethan has begun to talk even more. He's always been a talker, but now he's talking more. He loves to say "Dadadadadadada" over and over again. It's his favorite word. He doesn't understand that Ken is Dada, but I think Ken still loves to hear it.
Ethan learned how to sit up at about 7 1/2 months, but now is an expert. He hardly ever falls over and even does is vest treatment sitting up without falling over. When he leans over to grab a toy he sometimes falls onto his stomach and is happy to be there. He can reach farther than I think his arms to be able to go.
He loves to eat cheerios and bites of apples. We're about to start giving him more table foods like tofu, slices of pears, cheese, and carrots. He wasn't a fan of the egg yolk last time I tried it. He's a great eater! He also loves music which is no surprise.
A few weeks ago I went back to work part time and his Grammy, Ken's mom, has been watching him. He seems to be adjusting really well. I did notice at first that he was grumpy when I got home and thought that was pay back for being gone, but now I think he was just grumpy. I wonder if I never noticed the grumpiness at the end of the day because I had all day with him. Hmmm...
Anyways, he's growing and learning new things everyday. He's 21 lbs and about to be put into the convertible carseat still rear facing (just have to figure out how to fit it in my tiny car).

Checking out his new carseat.

Losing the baby weight

I have begun to finally start to lose the baby weight. It took me 9 months to pack it on and it's taken me 9 months to lose only the initial 28 lbs. I have gained 5 lbs back and I know that if I don't do something about it I will continue to gain. I'm sick of living in this fat body. Although, I know many people would say that I'm not fat. I just don't feel good about myself at all. I need to lose 20 lbs to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight and hopefully size ;)
To start my journey I decided to join a gym so I could use the elliptical. The elliptical usually is the one thing that kick starts losing weight. Ken joined with me which made me feel a lot better. Having someone to lose weight with especially a spouse makes it so much easier. Well, we both joined and then Ken decided to use my parents treadmill so he canceled his membership. I had the best of intentions last week to start going to the gym, but I made every excuse in the book.
My plan was to go Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after work. It's hard to even think that I would be able to work out after almost 10 hours of work when all I want to do is go home to my baby. Anyways, I have now cancelled my membership in hopes of using my parents treadmill.
So, now I'm left with working out on my parents treadmill on my days off when my dad can watch Ethan. I only need 30 minutes. I'm on my way to eating better as well. It sounds stupid but yesterday I ate really well, except for the brownies at work. I had to try just one :0
Here I go. In a few weeks I hope to lose 5 lbs and actually fit into my current jeans. By Christmas I hope to lose 10 lbs total. Here I go...

Events in October

In October we went to the Jelly Belly factory and the pumpkin patch as a family.
Here are the photos from Goblin Gardens:






Then we finally made it to the Jelly Belly factory. We've both lived within an hour of the Jelly Belly factory our whole lives and never made it there. It was a wonderful day!

First Halloween

With Nana the fortune teller




Ethan had a great first Halloween. He was chicken, not a duck! My mom kept saying he was a duck, but the costume said chicken on the tag. I don't know any ducks with a sharp beak, do you?

The Giants also won that night and went on to win the World Series the next night. Ethan was almost as excited as Ken!!! Go Giants!

Here we go again...

Today Ethan and I headed to Kaiser for his first Synagis shot of the season, well he had two shots of it because he's such a big boy. He weighed in at 21 lbs 1 oz!!! The nurse said he is not your typical CF baby. He's huge! She said that compared to when he was supposed to come in March for a shot, she expected him to be small, but was pleasantly surprised that he is doing so well. She mentioned something about how he might have mild CF. According to our doctors CF is a luck of the draw thing. The more bacterial infections you have the worse your lung function is. It's not about having a mild form of it. I tend to lean towards what our doctors say and not the nurses giving the shots.
Anyways, Ethan got his shot(s) and we got another lecture on where to allow Ethan to go. Here is my list and instructions:

KEEP YOUR BABY HOME (until the end of May)
*Avoid airline travel
*Avoid large holiday gatherings
*No daycare, no church nurseries, etc.
*No ear piercing or studio photos
*Avoid malls, shopping centers, movie theaters, etc
*Keep sick people away from your baby
*Keep your baby covered, in the stroller or car seat, with a blanket when you need to bring them to Kaiser or other public areas.

The nurse also told us we basically can't go to Thanksgiving unless we don't bring Ethan. Right, like we're going to do that. She makes a good point that children between the ages of 2 and 5 are germ magnets. My niece is two. How am I supposed to keep Ethan away from her until May? She loves him and he loves her. Ken and I are upset again by the drastic measures we are supposed to go to keep him healthy. It seems like an impossible thing to do or at least that's what the list leaves me feeling like. As I said in my prior post, we'll keep him out as much as we can but we can't live in a bubble.
Every four weeks we'll be doing this all over again through April...we'll see how that goes.