Visiting GAG (Great Aunt Glo)

GAG & Ethan

Stark Cousins minus Ben :(

A couple weekends ago, my mom, sister, niece Ella, Ethan & I drove to Clearlake to visit with my Aunt Glo, otherwise known as GAG. It was a very short day, but it was great to finally make it back to Clearlake, see my aunt & uncle and to spend the day with most of my cousins. We were missing Ben, but the other 6 of us were there. Here are the pictures from our trip:
A picture of Ella & Ethan on our car trip.

GAG, Ella & Ethan

Nana & Ethan

Tucker & Ella

Auntie & Ethan

2 weeks old!!!!

Sleeping on Daddy

Ethan finds his fingers to soothe!

A little Daddy/ Son bonding

1st time in his bouncer. It lasted about 2 minutes before he started crying.

He's already two weeks old! I can't believe how fast he has been growing and how fast times has flown by. I guess when you live in segments of time (eat, poop, sleep) with a baby the days start to go fast. Ethan is doing really well! He can hold his head up better. We need to start doing tummy time with him very soon. He's generally very happy and content especially if he has a pacifier to suck on.
We are sleeping as well as can be expected. Although, I do think that we have a good sleeper and are lucky that at night we can put him down drowsy and he usually goes right to sleep. He has his days and nights figured out. When the sun comes out he is much more alert and tends to stay awake for longer periods of time just staring at his daddy. He loves to look at our faces.
Lately, the funniest part of being a parent has been that it seems that whenever Ethan goes to Ken he poops. A few days ago Ken was holding him and Ethan let one rip, well he pooped, it just sounded really nasty. Ken kept saying "Take him, take him!", but I couldn't stop laughing and it was kinda funny to let him sit there with the stinky baby. Here's a picture:

A week ago, Ethan met his cousins. Ella fell in love with him almost immediately. We weren't sure how she would react, but she is a little mommy. She really wanted him to have his binkie in his mouth and would gently place it there and then say, "Eatan meh mehs (sleeping)!" then she would put her finger to her face and say "Shhhh!"

I love this picture! My friend, Lauren, came to take newborn photos when Ethan was 9 days old and he was not a happy camper that day.

Ethan cried and kept looking like he wanted more food earlier today so I gave him one more ounce of breastmilk in a bottle. A few minutes later this is what came back up. All because he just wanted to suck on something. Needless to say, he needed a small bath.

We're getting close!

I'm about 37 1/2 weeks pregnant now and ready to go! Time is standing still and now that I'm off work it's even slower. I'm bored. It's nice to be able to make my own schedule, but when the schedule involves television and a nap it gets boring really quickly. I'm told that I should enjoy this boredom because I will never be bored again. Lately, I've been trying to make some plans for each day and to hopefully get out of the house. One day I went to Starbucks & Kohl's and today I met up with my dad for lunch.

The baby is still moving a lot! His movements are not as jerky as they were before since he's getting wedged more and more. He's still headdown and still enjoys spending half of the day with his butt under my right rib, which is really uncomfortable. I've been having a harder time sleeping at night, but it's nice that I can take a nap in the afternoons.

We finally finished Ethan's room this last weekend. My sister, mom and I finished getting the house ready on Saturday by putting receiving blankets, diapers, wipes, etc in Ethan's room, my bedroom, and downstairs. My sister also put together a diaper bag & nursing baskets for upstairs and downstairs. We cleaned all the infant toys and put them in toy baskets and then got started on finishing his room.

We got his bedding from Goore's and its been on his bed for the last week or two. We're still waiting for his matching nightlight and lamp & shade. Other than that the last thing to be done in his room is to put up the poem about little boys above his changing table, another picture frame and a sports shelf to the right of his changing table. Here are the pictures of his room. Ethan's daddy is very proud of the room.

Ken's Forty-Niner Way sign is now Ethan's

His bed with a little monkey.

The co-sleeper is set up next to our bed. Just needs a baby ;)

Ethan's take home from the hospital outfit. Courtesy of his dad.

Ella has been very into baby Ethan (Eaton as she says). We ask her where he is and she will pull up my shirt, lower my bellybands and give him kisses on my bellybutton. I think she actually thinks he is my bellybutton. She looked at me confused last week when I told her he was going to come out soon to play. I'm pretty sure she is going to be all over him when he comes out.

Hopefully, I'll get one more post in before he comes, but if not you'll see pictures of Ethan soon! Only 19 days to go!

Family

I just couldn't help posting some new pictures of my niece, Ella. She's 15 months old now. She's started saying "Get it" when she drops things on the ground and when she sees a park she said "Park". It's cute to see her learning new words every day.

Ella with her Daddy.