Slideshow of Ethan's Baptism

We celebrated E's baptism on June 5th. Here are some pictures from the day!

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Our Trip South of the Border in Pictures

During the week before Easter, we took a road trip to South Carolina where we visited Isle of Palms and the city of Charleston. Ethan was amazing in the car. We hit that awful line of storms that caused many tornados in VA and NC. We were detoured a bit because of the bad storms but thankfully we found a hotel and stay safe. It was really crazy.

And so starts our story....

LOTS of rain and wind. Thank goodness we didn't see any tornados

(although they were not that far away from us)

rainbow after the storms

some of the devastation on I-95 caused by the tornados

those poor people. we saw one mobile home park that was completely flattened.

prayers.

...and we're here! checking out the resort and beach at Isle of Palms

first drink after a looooong drive

east bay deli in charleston...GO THERE!

ty and ethan

beautiful architecture

around charleston

lots of churches

graveyard in charleston

so true

dew on the dunes at isle of palms

the atlantic

hanging with dad on the porch and watching the fans

hanging in the pool (of course he loved it)!

tom cruise

me and my e

baby foot in the sand

our resort

we visited boone plantation one day. this one was unfortunately way too commercial for our liking (once we saw the "RV parking" sign we kind of knew what we were in for but we had already paid). there were some nice things about it...

i loved all of the moss hanging off the trees

gorgeous poppies

these were the slaves' quarters

-back to the beach-

playing with sand toys

starfish

Charleston again...

part of 'rainbow row'

of course we got hit with another severe storm on our last evening venture into charleston

we will just have to go back :)

OAK bar - our refuge from the storm

family pic

after the rain

ready to hit the road again

getting ready for our last hotel night

We had tons of fun together on our spring break trip! Hope you did something fun too! If you have never been to SC, definitely check it out one day. It is a beautiful city that has lots to offer! We will absolutely go back one day.

Stats from the doctor visit

Doctor Visit - May 26, 2011

Weight - 20.8 lbs

Height - 28 inches

Head Circumference - i forget, but big ;)

A hearing test was attempted but they could not get an accurate read because of our little squirmer. Finger stick test for iron - he just watched in awe, no tears. Ethan got one shot (third and last dose of Hep B)...whimpered a bit. Then he screamed bloody murder when mom was getting him dressed - he HATES getting dressed!

trying to eat off the band-aid the nurse put on his finger

p.s. - dr. said we have watch E for allergy to dog. I mentioned that we were at a friend's place earlier in the day and they have a dog (yellow lab). It gave Ethan some kisses and the area that got smooched turned extremely red. Doc said if it happens again he should go for allergy test. Funny because Max kisses him all the time and no reaction. This ever happen to anyone? Hopefully it was just a fluke because Ethan LOVES dogs.

Nine Months Already

Well really nine and a half months now.

Ethan is still motoring around on his belly. I'm not sure if he will ever crawl on all fours?!? He sometimes attempts to pull himself up on various things around the house...the stroller (parked in the apt.), the ottoman and some of his toys. He still has a SERIOUS thing for Max. I sometimes joke that I am going to dress up as a ginormous chihuahua just to get half of the attention Max gets. Ethan, I think you love the challenge because Max is just not that into you, my love. Six teeth have made their way through (4 top and 2 bottom). Ethan has started to clap and wave so he tends to make a lot of friends here on the streets of Hoboken. He loves his soccer ball and rolling it back and forth with us (clapping is included). And he LOVES to show us his dance moves, bopping left to right. He is eating basically anything we eat (with the exception of spicy food and sushi). He seems to love legumes (chick peas, black beans) and green peas. He is not a fan of rice and orzo, as they come right back out of his mouth!

Okay - this post is being cut short by the E man himself - - he actually slept til 7:30 am! GOOD BOY, ETHAN! We are going to doctor this afternoon. Will post latest stats later...remind me!

I leave you with some pics from May.

Mother's Day, 2011

Max...always wanting the big people's attention

Ethan...GETTING INTO EVERYTHING!

love that little face :)

I heart this picture

"So long for now!"

dear aunt fran,

i'm not quite sure how it could be a year gone by already

it still hurts sometimes and feels unfair that you were taken from us so quickly

i am really quite astounded at how much i think about you

and i hope you know how many lives you touched so deeply

i so wish you could have known ethan

he WILL know about you

one night i had a dream and you were hugging me,

but i don't think it was a dream because it felt so real...

...so real that i woke up and smiled

all my love,

your miss piggy

Eight is Great!

The little - i mean, BIG guy is eight months now! Well 8.5 months actually...mommy's been slacking on the blog updates once again. But we were busy on our road trip last week...more to come on that.

Let's see...Ethan in tummy crawling all over the place. This great achievement has him getting himself into some predicaments lately, for example getting stuck under the ottoman, almost knocking my plant table over or finding things around the house to munch on. So we are really making an effort to make sure there are no choking hazards on the floor and all eyes are on Ethan as he explores his home sweet home. He loves being groomed...hairbrushes, toothbrushes and q-tips are some of his favorite tools. He watches in fascination as Ty and I brush our teeth. Ethan loves his toys, especially the musical ones...you know...the ones that make you want to poke your eyes out after you have listened to them ten million times. He loves playing "peek-a-boo" and being startled. We do a lot of this to hear his belly laughs. In the food department, some new items include kiwi, yogurt, biscuits, bread, avacado, mango. He hasn't met a food he doesn't like yet, with the exception of my homemade green peas...gags every time. Don't worry Ethan, no offense taken. Four teeth have poked their way through, two bottom front teeth and two upper eye teeth. Tyler noticed number five starting to come in - his right upper front tooth. Thank goodness, teething has not been so bad for Ethan.

This boy continues to love school (his daycare) and we couldn't be more pleased with his teachers. Miss Jenni, Miss Elizabeth and Miss Karina show a genuine affection for Ethan each time he is there. He is no longer the youngest in his class and I am already sad to think about him leaving that class when he is walking. You don't need to walk anytime soon baby!

Here he is at school crawling through the tunnel...

"Mamamama" has been a favorite and frequent vocalization. We were at the Millward's place the night before we left for vacation and E looked right at me and said "mama". IT MADE MY HEART HAPPY! No "dada" yet but he loves Ty sooo much, even crying for him when he went into the shower this morning. We also love hearing him babble in his crib in the morning.

And a few more pics from our eight month photo shoot :)

E and his brush

As you can see...he mouths EVERYTHING!

Reaching for the pull-toy that Papa made him...

Taste testing the ride-on toy that Papa made...

Yup...good stuff, Papa.

Ethan approves of your choice of wood and your wonderful craftsmanship!

Okay...that's it for now. Bye-bye from the Sorokas!