Locomotion is in our future!

Ethan got his knees up underneath him tonight for the first time.....it's getting close folks!

Long lost Christmas photos and videos

I thought I had more pics of Christmas at my mom's and here they are!

A day in the life of (6.5 month old) Snooks

My friend Angie did this a while back for her daughter Abby. I hope you enjoy!

8:15 am Ethan woke up.
8:15-8:30 am Ethan talks to mobile and waits for someone to come and get him.
8:30 am Got Ethan out of his crib. While I get dressed Ethan plays on our bed with his yellow "Einstein" block. He loves his yellow block because it has a sun flap on it with a mirror underneath. He gets really excited when he sees this block. He also only gets to play with it when he is on our bed in the mornings, so maybe that is why he likes it so much.

Block

8:40 am Philip brings Ethan downstairs and puts him in his highchair. From this vantage point he can talk to the dogs and watch Yoda walk around. He also plays with his stand-by orange spoon. I call it that because while I am making him breakfast (and he is on stand-by) he entertains himself with this spoon. I don't know why it is so entertaining, but apparently it is.

8:50 am Breakfast begins!! This morning Ethan had 2 defrosted cubes of "Fruit Medley" (a medley of applesauce, bananas, and peaches) mixed with applesauce, 4 tablespoons of rice cereal, and a tablespoon of prunes. He really loves applesauce. I think I could feed him the entire jar and he would open his mouth every time for the next bite. He also likes prunes which is good because I don't have to mix them with anything. The verdict is still out on bananas. He doesn't really like them all by themselves, and even with the "Fruit Medley" you can tell by his face that he knows that something is going on.

9:15 am Finish off breakfast with a couple of ounces of formula from a bottle. This week I have really started using three signs: Eat, More, and Milk. He seems perplexed by the sign for milk (which I do before a bottle) which I think is funny. You just clasp and unclasp your hand like you are milking a cow. He just gets this look of, "Mommy, what are you doing with your hand?"
9:15 - 9:45 am Ethan moves around the Kitchen in his walker while I eat breakfast and load the dishwasher. He is really getting the hang of it now. If he sees a dog he would like to touch he moves himself over there. He is not quite "walking" yet. Mostly he just pushes off of the floor in the direction that he would like to go, but that alone is an accomplishment. Today he really discovered his mouth and all the cool noises he can make with it. For about 20 minutes this morning he just blabbed away to no one in particular.
9:45 - 10:45 am Ethan amuses himself on the floor with his plethora of toys while I did work on the computer. We have a basket of toys for him in the library so that I don't have to move toys from one room to another everyday.

10:45 am I get Ethan dressed for the day and lay him down for his morning nap. I don't know why he HATES to get dressed, but this morning he broke down in tears that lasted longer than was necessary. He went down for his nap pretty quickly so he must have really been tired.

Morning Nap

12:30 pm Ethan woke up from his nap and played with his crib entertainer! He then polished off a 6 oz. bottle.
12:45 - 1:15 pm Ethan played again on the floor with said toys while I prepared some supplies to run an errand.

1:15 pm As I go to lock the back door I look out and what do I see? SNOW!! Now I know that people who live here in the valley don't think it snows very often here, but it sure snows more here than in Louisiana!! Here is a video of Ethan's first snow.

1:20 - 2:40 pm Surprisingly Ethan does not fall asleep on our errand and we are back at home!
2:40 - 3:00 pm Ethan plays with his toys in the living room now. His train is there and he enjoys is very much.
3:00 pm Ethan eats an 8 ounce bottle and actually falls asleep in my arms. This is very atypical for him, but it was fun for me.
3:30 - 6:00 pm Afternoon nap. When Ethan awakes he is greeted by his Daddy!
6:00 pm Dinner. Tonight he had peas and rice (mixes of course), with sides of acorn squash and for the first time: carrots! He seemed to enjoy the carrots even though I was worried about the texture.
6:30 pm We all sat by the fire. Ethan stood behind Philip and watched the fire. While I was playing airplane with Ethan he began again showing off his new "vocabulary".

7:00 pm Before going to bed Ethan's hair has been really bothering me! So into the sink for a quick trim. Notice the straight line next to his ear!
7:30 pm After his haircut, I undressed him for bed.Look at that cutie!! In his hand is his "Changing Table Turtle". He loves this turtle. Today he bit the foot of the turtle and then just started laughing. It was so funny. Speaking of biting things check these out.
8:00 pm Ethan ate his final bottle for the day.
Before Ethan went to bed he watched a little bit of "Chuck" with Dad.
8:30 pm After he puts on his sleep sack, with binki in mouth and softee in hand he's off to bed! See you tomorrow Snooks!

Cool idea for parents of little ones:

So on the right side of my blog there is a list of other cool blogs. I found this idea on the Parent's magazine blog. They are customizable temporary tattoos!! Ethan is not yet mobile on his own but when he is I'm sure we are going to get some of these. What a cool idea! 9 out of 10 parents experience a lost child incident (I have a few of my own stories to tell!!) and how much sooner would parents be reunited to children if that child had a phone number right on his body?! To customize your own just click here.

Update

There were 232 wrecks that KPD responded to this morning... no wonder it took them over two hours to get here and it took the tow trucks until after 1 to clear the last vehicle! Now we prepare for tomorrow!

Eventful morning!

Well, there was a seven car pile up this morning at the bottom of our street (on Hickey). Philip thought he heard something at about 7:30am and Emma let out a bark when she heard voices outside. By the time I got up I heard my neighbor Kristin's voice outside and since she works nights I assumed she was one of the ones that had gotten in the wreck. By the time I got outside (nearly taking a spill on the front step) 5 cars were piled up and one other car was in the ditch. As it turns out she was aware of the bad conditions and safely parked her car across the street. Philip was not so lucky as he headed out the door and did take a spill on the front steps (I tried to call and warn him but he was on the phone with his boss.) He is okay...us Cajun folk don't know nothing about ice, we don't get to see it often enough.

We did get to meet some new neighbors that had come down the hill to assess the road conditions. One guy goes to our church and we had no idea that he lived in our neighborhood. Anyway while Philip and I were standing out there a policeman and a firetruck finally arrived (at least 2 hours after the initial accident) and two EMT's started headed up the hill. When asked where they were going they said there was another accident at the top of our neighborhood. Philip and I hung out outside for a little bit and that is when we heard the final wreck. There is nothing like the sound of two vehicles colliding. I'm pretty sure the last car hit the police car that was in the road, but we couldn't see because of the trees.

Philip salted the driveway and safely left for work at about 11am. It should warm up today, but the bad thing is that it is suppose to keep raining and freeze again tonight..... Could be another bad morning.

Safe driving everyone!

New Toy and Last Year

Well, I got a new toy for Christmas!! A roomba (who will in the future be referred to only as Herman).

Herman the robot!

Herman is great! He cleaned the entire living room tonight and then when his battery ran out he returned to the charging dock...by himself (seen above)!!

Meanwhile on the food front: Ethan tried peas tonight. Well, I say "tried". I only really got one bite in to him and that one bite gave him a bout of the "freesons". (Danielle you'll have to help me spell that for the non-cajun folk). His reaction to them was very similar to the first time I fed him avocados. At least this time he didn't start crying and refuse to eat anything else! He has tried and does like applesauce. I am not making my own though, because he can just eat over the counter "natural" applesauce which is so much cheaper than baby food applesauce.

My friend Allison had a list of things that happened to their family in 2007 and I thought I would steal that idea and make our own list:

2007

1. The year started off with a bang when my best friend Laura had a baby boy: Blaise Samson Neff! (Landon Walker only missed 2007 by a few weeks)
2. I flew home for two awesome baby showers (thanks Mom and Mrs. Cindy) and had two additional ones here. We felt tremendously loved and blessed after these four throw downs:)
3. I missed Laura as I finished my fourth and last year teaching at South Doyle High. I really loved working there because the faculty was like my family away from home. Words can not express how they supported and loved me during the Katrina and Rita hurricanes when I felt so far away from home.
   
4. Danielle came to live with us for the summer which turned out to be a blessing straight from God.
5. I know this seems small, but I got to see whale sharks when we traveled down to the Atlanta Aquarium with Sarah Williams.
6. Ethan made his triumphant, dramatic entrance into the world and we lived through the longest week of our lives.
7. The Boudreaux family went from 5 to 6 or from 2 to 3 if you only count the humans.
8. I accepted a full time position with Knox County where I could bring Ethan to work!
9. Ethan flew on a plane (and did great) for my 10 year reunion in Louisiana. Sadly only 3 or 4 of my high school buddies even showed, but I gave the rest of them great tongue lashings on myspace.
10. With my new job, I planned an executed a full day of professional development for all middle and high school science teachers in Knox County. I was really nervous about it all coming together but it worked out great and the teachers really liked it!
    
11. I pulled back from work a bit after Ethan was not able to come with me to the office and am now fully enjoying my part-time position.
12. For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Birmingham, AL for the Lambert family reunion. It was good to meet all of Mrs. Cindy's extended family and Ethan did well for both car rides!
    
13. We celebrated Christmas with Ethan for the first time. Since July he had learned to roll from front to back and back to front, sit up by himself, has developed two teeth, is eating a multitude of solid foods, and recognizes Philip and I as people he likes to smile at!
14. To celebrate Christmas with our family, we took our first road trip down to Louisiana with out the dogs, but with one special edition and all of his multitudes of STUFF! Seriously, I never knew kids had so much stuff! Thanks to Philip he made sure I had everything I needed while I made sure Ethan had everything he needed!

Thanks for letting me journey back and reminisce over the last year. I know it is a discombobulated list, but they are the things that popped into my head first! Here's a new picture of Ethan straight from Sears:

You can see his puppy Martin's ear in the corner, but the photographer edited this out for our prints!

Food, Food, Food

Well, we've made it to the solid food stage of Ethan's life. He covered all the cereal basics (rice, oatmeal, and barley) and now we have added:

• peaches
• sweet potatoes
• avocados
  
• bananas
• acorn squash
• and tomorrow: apples!
• Also soon to come: green beans, peas, and maybe even prunes!

I am making my own baby food and it is easier then you would think! At Food City I got 4 pounds of bananas for only $1!

Anyway, we had a great visit down in Louisiana and as soon as I find the camera (long story) I'll post the pics!

Last but not least: GEAUX TIGERS!!

Books of 2008

My friend Allison kept track of all the books she read last year and I think that is a great idea! I forgot to keep track this last year, but luckily I keep track of most of my "good reads" on the website of the same name. I hope Allison doesn't mind me copying her on this!

Here are mine from 2008:

• The Thirteenth Tale - A good read that doesn't take too much thought
• Sign with your Baby
• The Friday Night Knitting Club - I hated the end of this book, but I just saw the sequel to it in Border's so that might be interesting.
• Whispers of the Bayou - A fun read that reminded me of home. Again the ending disappointed me, but still a good read.
• The DaVinci Code - I listened to this one on tape and it caused serious problems in the story line. Serious problems....
• The Other Boleyn Girl - I loved this book. I haven't read any of the others by this author and I still haven't seen the movie. Danielle, why didn't we do this when you were here?
• Three Cups of Tea - A good read even if it was a little slow. Shows what one person can do for the world if they have motivation.
• Uglies and Pretties - A good little teenage series. Even though I bought the third one I probably won't read it.
• Twilight and New Moon - Great books! I did not expect these books to be romance based but they are. I really liked them and I look forward to reading the other two in the series this year.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Surprisingly short and unlike the bug's bunny version of the story.
  
• Becoming the Woman of his Dreams - You can read my review on my BB's favorite things blog.
  

So that's only a total of 13 books, but at least I have a starting point for next year. I know I started other books this year, but these are the ones I know I finished.