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!

Ultrasound

The day finally came....March 6th aka Ultrasound Day. John and I fondly remember the day we went for my ultrasound when I was pregnant with Ethan. It was Valentine's Day and we were in the midst of a horrible blizzard. When the receptionist called that morning to see if we would still be able to make it in I joked that we would find a way unless she could tell me the gender over the phone!  We were so thrilled to find out we were having a boy! Remembering those feelings we were beside ourselves on Friday while we waiting for our 3:50 appointment.  As the tech started the ultrasound she asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby...I think I screamed yes!  I was surprised though when she asked us what we were hoping for. This question always baffles me. Although she expected us to say boy or girl we of course answered, "a healthy baby".  We waiting as she looked at the image and I held my breath as I waited for her to announce the big news. Instead of hearing boy or girl we heard....."the baby has its legs crossed!" What?!?!?! That happens to OTHER people during their ultrasound...not us!  She tried a few more times during the appointment to catch a glimpse. Although the baby kept moving he/she did not offer much of a view in that area.  

The technician was able to tell us that she "thinks" its a girl.  She is about 65% sure that the baby is female, but we were unable to see from the front. She was not comfortable calling the gender for sure due to the babies position. She did feel however, that in her experience babies that have their legs together like that our almost always girls. Our modest lady!  I must say I am shocked at the possibility of a girl...I never thought I would have a daughter! For some reason I just assumed our next baby would be a boy.

The moral of this story is that we will not know for sure until our next ultrasound which right now will be scheduled for mid-June.  We plan on asking the dr on friday if we could pay to have a short gender determination ultrasound next month. 

We probably sound like crazy parents desperate to know our babies gender. I have to stress here that we truly only hope and pray for a healthy baby and mommy.  We would be thrilled if Ethan had a brother and just as excited for the new experience of raising a girl.  I'm simply a planner...and I can't plan without this information!  We don't have any girl clothes!  

So hopefully we will be able to find out before June....otherwise June will lead us on when heck of a shopping spree! 

Has it been 2 months??

Wow I am embarrassed that its been so long since my last post. I'm usually much better at this, especially when traveling.  My only excuse is that the holiday's were very busy, and my first trimester wiped me out!  I'm back though and ready to update everyone!

I guess I should start by saying how wonderful Christmas was this year. It was so much fun seeing how excited Ethan was on Christmas morning and at all of the holiday parties.  He's such a little boy now, it just gets better and better!  Here is a picture of all of the cousins on Christmas day. 

Once we got through Christmas we had a few bumps!  I was feeling very sick and extremely tired from the pregnancy. Plus...our sump pump failed on a warm rainy day and our entire basement flooded. I should mention that most of our basement was finished 2 years ago and turned into a second family room/cinema.  Needless to say it was ALOT of clean up (which John had to do!).  Everything is back together now though thank goodness!  

January was a very exciting month. I turned 30!!! John threw me the most amazing birthday party!  He thought of everything, including the most beautiful cake I've ever seen!  It tasted great too!  

Other than that we just returned from Hilton Head where my parents are spending a few weeks. We had a great vacation and were happy to have some time away with Kristen, John, and Ava too!  I'll download some pics and post them later on today!

Now i feel a little more up to date and I can start posting current events! Whew!  

In the Dark

I usually have a moment of dread of Monday mornings because I know that John has to go back to work. Most weeks we've just completed a great weekend together and I hate to see it come to an end. Plus it means no sleeping in for me!  When I woke up today however all I could think was thank god that weekend is over!!!!!

Our weekend was kicked off on Friday morning when we woke up to no power.  The great news came when I called NYSEG and they assured me that the power would most likely probably maybe we back on my Sunday evening.  What????? It's cold outside!  After figuring out that pretty much everyone in our family was without power too we had to come up with a plan fast.  Just to make things a little bit more difficult we had to find a warm place to stay that would also welcome our very large dogs.  Our dogs have very little body fat so leaving them at he house for even a little while was simply not an option.  Unlike most people who own their own companies John is unfortunately not able to skip work in the wake of a natural disaster. In fact when power fails it usually means longer hours for John and ALOT of stress. That meant that he had to shuffle off to work while I got all of us packed up and devised a plan. I remembered that some friends of ours had a similar problem a few years ago and found a pet friends hotel. I was able to get us a reservation at the Marriott Residence Inn which let me tell you is a pretty cool place. So....me, Ethan, Raven, and Blade all loaded into the car with all the necessities and off we went. John left work as quickly as he could and since we had a kitchen at the hotel did grocery shopping for three days.  This is when it gets good...

That evening went pretty well. Our dogs settled in and relaxed as best they could and Ethan is so used to traveling with us that he wasn't surprised by any of this.  We all collapsed into bed at an early hour. Now keep in mind that my dogs haven't had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night in YEARS. They were in a new place though and a little nervous that night so of course I had to get out of bed 3 times and get suited up to take the trip down the stairs and to the dog area in the freezing cold!!!  Hotels and therefore apartments I'm assuming are not ideal for dogs. I thank god for my fenced in yard!  

I finally settled back into bed after the last bathroom trip at 4am excited for the  pancakes John promised to make in the morning. 7am came and Raven woke me up to let me know that guess what?  NO POWER AT THE HOTEL!!!!!!   Do they power gods not know how exhausting it us to move from place to place with a baby and two dogs the size of horses? It was still pretty dark out but luckily my dad had suggested that I pack some flashlights. We bundled everyone up in the cold room, and packed every thing we brought with us. We were now regretting the grocery run.  So it was off to HostRocket to make sure the generator had enough fuel and home to try and warm it somehow for the dogs so that we could take Ethan to my in laws who had finally had power restored.  Once returning home we realized there was no way to get it warm enough for the dogs. So John's parents were kind enough to hide their cat and welcome Raven and Blade.  Off we went again.  Saturday turned out to be great actually ! We ended up doing our Reyes Christmas a little early and exchange presents.

That evening we got the call from a neighbor that our power was back on. YES!!!! We were never so happy to get home!  As we fell into bed that night we thought about the amount of complaining we did and although felt it was a little justified we thanked god for our good fortune. How many people would not have been able to afford a hotel room for that night? So many people wouldn't have family close by to offer them warmth.  Many people didn't have a warm home to finally return to. Our complaining stopped there....

Until Sunday when we lost power for 5 more hours!!!!