Happy Birthday Ethan!

3 years ago today we welcomed the most amazing little boy into the world. Happy Birthday Ethan!

We celebrated this past Saturday with a wonderful party at our home. It was so wonderful having our family and friends with us to celebrate this special day. John gets credit for the incredible Toy Story cake that he had a local bakery make. And the day was topped off by a visit from Reptile Adventure. Ethan and Ava both held big snakes! Perfect celebration!

Pictures to follow....having some trouble uploading right now

Tonight we are in Warren ME visiting John's grandparents. Tomorrow we are off to Bar Harbor and Acadia national park for four days!!!! Aaaaah Lot's to blog about this week!

Raven

Those of you who have a doggy baby will completely understand the craziness that has been our past two months. It all started with our Greyhound Blade. He had a toe nail fall off and it turns out he had a tumor in his paw. After having the toe amputated he had a very difficult time recovering. It was believed that the tumor may have been cancerous and unfortunately spread. We were thrilled when pathology said he was cancer free and just a crazy greyhound. A few weeks ago he starting having episodes of extreme pain. After a trip to the neurologist and lots and lots of blood work, we found out he is hypothyroid. Having an under active thyroid can cause a LOT of problems in dogs. Luckily its an easy fix. Two pills twice a day and he is doing great.

Obviously at this point we were hoping our dog medical issues were behind us. Then one afternoon Raven was innocently running in the back yard when she fell and tore her ACL. We gave it a few weeks to heal but then got referred to an orthopedic surgeon. Turns out the ACL's in both hind legs are torn. Urgh. Apparently 60% of dogs that tear one... tear the other shortly after. Of course this means surgery. Major surgery. Two different surgeries because they can't do both legs at once. It will take her a total of 6 months to recover, although she will be seemingly better before that. The hardest part will be that she has to be taken outside on a leash for at least 8 weeks per surgery. This is not the easiest thing with two small kids, but we can make it work! Also she can't go upstairs for 8-12 weeks. This presents a problem because she sleeps with us. Great Danes will very rarely sleep in a separate room from their human parents. Obviously we can't leave her alone downstairs, she would not only bark/cry and wake the kids but also she would be so sad! So John and I will be sharing the pull out sofa from July until seriously almost Thanksgiving. Awesome.

The fact is that we love our dog babies and would do anything we can for them. The stressful recovery period and pain that Raven has to go through will all be worth it when she is able to run and play again next Spring. Her first surgery is July 14th.

Right now its time to think about fun! Very busy week....getting ready for Ethan's 3rd birthday party on Saturday and leaving for Bar Harbor for vacation one week from today! Lot's of exciting posts to come!

The Weekend

This past weekend was so much fun! It seemed like we were busy every minute of the day but it was a good kind of busy. We started the weekend off with a trip to Bowman Orchards to pick Strawberries. If you haven't done this...you should! The berries are obviously less expensive than in the grocery store since you pick them yourself plus they are really really good! Ethan had a great time searching the plants for the big red berries. He did seem to eat a few too! We got to ride on a tractor pulled trailer type thing which brought us to the fields. Ethan thought the ride was fun. The only not so great part was that Paige of course had to be in the stroller. Although the fields are set up so that the stroller can park on the outside perimeter, the plants are too close together to push the stroller through the field. I felt bad that Paige could not join in the fun but next year will come soon enough!

On Saturday it was off to Ava's birthday party. For those of you that don't spend your day with a small child, you should know that birthday's to toddlers are like Christmas/Halloween/Easter rolled into one. It is a BIG deal! Ethan woke up at 6:00am Saturday morning and declared that he was ready to go to the party. At 7:30 I saw him open the door to the coat closet. He said he was getting his coat and shoes to go to Ava's. It wasn't easy holding him off until party time! They kids had a great time celebrating. When we got home that night Ethan asked to go to bed please! Here is a pic of the kids searching through the pinata goodies!

Sunday was of course Father's Day. A few weeks ago I took Ethan to the paint your own pottery place in Stuyvesant Plaza. At first I was nervous. Let's be honest putting paint in the hands of a toddler in the middle of a store full of breakables...not exactly what most people would sign up for. I tried to have full confidence that it would be okay, and it was! Ethan was soooo excited to make something for his daddy. He knew that he wanted to make him a mug for his coffee, and he did. It came out so well! Seriously it looks like funky earthenware that you might find at Pier One or something. I was impressed! The highlight of the weekend for me was seeing the look on Ethan's face as John opened his gifts. He was so incredibly proud of the mug and was so excited to tell John that he painted it. I seriously had tears in my eyes! Plus I must admit that I felt pretty good to have given Ethan the opportunity to create something and give it to someone he loves. It was perfect!

After breakfast with both my parents and Johns, we decided to leave Paige home with her Grammy for a few hours and take Ethan to Toy Story 3. Let me first say that I think Ethan is a little too young for the movie theater. But since he is such a Toy Story Fanatic we decided to give it a try. He did beyond wonderfully. He brought his stuffed Woody and Buzz and sat like an angel through not only most of the movie but also the 13 previews that preceded it. Right when there was about 25 minutes left in the film he started to look a little sleepy and asked to please shut off the movie. He was very sweet about it though and left the theater willingly! I say no kicking and screaming = success. Sadly we did not see the end of the movie which I hear is quite sad but the trip was a lot of fun....popcorn and all!

It's been too long....

It's crazy to think that Paige was not even here the last time that I made an entry. This blog first started when Ethan was 4 1/2 months old. John and I were taking him on a two week cruise and this seemed like a great way to stay in touch with everyone back home. Looking back at the entries from that trip I realized that the blog also served as an excellent journal that I can return to whenever I want to remember that wonderful vacation. That made me realize that I should be doing this ALL the time! Each day with Ethan and Paige brings new exciting adventures and I want to be able to document it all. At the same time I'm hoping that friends and family both near and far can stay up to date on what is going on with us by checking out the blog from time to time. So as I realize that its been quite a long time, I am vowing to blog at least 3 times per week and hopefully include photos as well.

It is hard for me to believe that it is already June and that Paige is 10 months old. The first 10 months with Paige seems to have gone much faster than Ethan's first 10. Has anyone else experienced this with their second or third child? Perhaps its because we are so busy or because there are two of them now, but it makes me sad to think that time passes so quickly. Ethan will be three years old in less than a month and it feels like only yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. Although time seems to fly, each and every stage is so exciting. Exciting and I must admit challenging. :-)

I like to think that I do a pretty good job of getting out and about with the kids each day, in fact I've been called crazy for doing as much as I do during the day with them. My hope for the summer is to try introduce them to something new each week and to document it all here. Looking forward to sharing our adventures with you!