Resurrection Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Day.  I love it that there is a holiday where we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead!  I was glad that Sienna slept through the music at church.  We had a choir (which I don’t think we ever have had before), and sang some great songs such as the Hallelujah Chorus.  Gary thought it was the best church service that our church has had.

One tradition in Hungary is that the boys spray the girls with water on Easter Monday, which is a holiday here.  I’ve never seen this happen, but Gary actually saw some guys doing it to a teenage girl who lives a few houses down from us.Michelle got Sienna this 0-3 month dress, but it’s been too big for her till now.  So I was glad she was able to finally wear it.  Kristen got her this onesie which happened to match perfectly.

Our teammates, the Beattys, invited us to their place for a cookout and potluck, and for the kids to hunt for eggs.  There were 2 other families and 2 single girls who joined us.Ethan didn’t understand the concept of looking for eggs at all.  He walked right over the first one.  So Gary gave him some help in seeing the eggs.  He just pointed to the next one (in the picture above).  Later he came back to it and touched it but didn’t want to pick it up.   He finally picked one up and put it in the bag with much encouraging from us.But he quickly went on to other things that were more fun such as carrying the trailer around.

We love his expressions in the next 2 pictures.It’s really hard to get a decent family picture now with 2 little ones.  This was the best we could do without taking forever to do it.

Two Months Old

We went for Sienna’s two-month check-up last week, and she is doing well.  She gained 2 pounds since her one-month check-up.  She seems a lot bigger, and we’re realizing that a lot of pictures that we wanted to do with her don’t work now because she is too big.  When Ethan was 2 months old, he weighed 2 pounds more than her, so she is still small compared to him at this age.

If you don’t want to read details about how she is getting along then you can skip the next 3 paragraphs and just go to the pictures below. :-)

Her hair is auburn now and it looks like blonde is growing underneath.  After we give her a bath her hair is curly.  So, we’ll see what happens with the color and curls.  I just hope that her hair doesn’t all fall out because I like it that she has long hair.

She doesn’t take a pacifier and doesn’t seem to take a bottle.  We practiced giving her a bottle a few days before a women’s meeting that I had last month.  She took the bottle fine, but while I was at the women’s meeting she didn’t take it well and then spit up what she did take.  Thankfully, my meeting was a block down the street, so Gary was able to just bring her to me so I could nurse her.  We tried twice over the weekend in anticipation for a women’s meeting that is this week, but she hasn’t taken it either time.  I will probably just take her with me since it is the last one of the school year.  We only gave Ethan a bottle 5 times, so I can’t imagine that it will be a big deal if she doesn’t ever take it.  Someone has let me borrow a great cover with a hoop type thing that goes around your neck so you can see the baby while she nurses, so I can use that anywhere.  I do love it that nursing in public is not a big deal over here.

Lots of people ask us how she is sleeping.  That seems to be the second or third question I get asked.  So, in case any of you are wondering…  She has slept well (waking once in the night) most of the time since her 2nd week (when we quit waking her to feed her).  Sometimes she wakes between 4 and 5 and then goes back to bed after nursing until around 8:30.  Sometimes she has been sleeping through the night and waking between 6 and 7.  We are not morning people, so I nurse her on one side and put her back to bed.  Then either she wakes up or we get her up around 8:30.  So, either way, we are getting up once (even though technically one of those times is considered time to get up:-)). 

She will be 10 weeks old tomorrow, but here are a couple of pictures from when she was 8 weeks old.One of the Hungarian women from my Body & Soul exercise class gave me this wrap.  She used it with her daughter all the time (including during the exercise class when she was fussy).  She taught me how to use it and showed me a video online to watch.  The wrap is quite long and neat with the different ways it can be used.

Ants

I wrote this a few weeks ago but am just now posting it.  I’ll try to catch up some with the blog. :-)

We have had ants each year, and I thought they were gone this spring.  I was nursing Sienna the other day and Ethan pointed to an area on the floor where ants commonly were and said, “Ants.”  I told him that I hoped they were gone.  He said, “Outside”, and I said, “Yes, we don’t want the ants in the house; we want them outside.”  He kept pointing to something, but I didn’t see anything.  Finally, he walked over to me holding an ant between his index finger and his thumb.  I told him to throw the ant in the trash can (it was dead from him squashing it). 

We were outside today, and he pointed to a bunch of ants walking around and said, “Outside.”  I told him that they were fine outside and that I just didn’t want them inside.  However, a few minutes later, he showed me where he had killed an ant and said, “Trashcan.”  So, we’ll need to work on the concept of leaving ants alone when we’re outdoors.

Big Bed

We knew that we would need to get a “big bed” for Ethan at some point after Sienna was born, so when a family here sent an e-mail out that they were selling one, we jumped at the chance.  It is a single bed that actually starts off short but extends into a longer bed.  We have talked to Ethan about it for some time and decided to go ahead and put it together and in his room, so he can get used to it being there before moving into it. And he would start sleeping in it a good amount of time before we move Sienna out of the pack ‘n play into the crib.

Ethan was eager to help Gary put the bed together.  He would ask Gary to lift him up so he could get to the tool box to get a tool, or he would tell Gary what tool he wanted.  He specifically asked for a wrench and later the pliers.  I have a feeling that he is going to be handy when he gets older.  He’s almost more handy than his parents now, so he will have to learn from his grandparents when we visit.  Kent and Mom, you can probably start teaching him this fall when we visit. :-) Gary and Ethan had to take a break for dinner.  During dinner Gary asked Ethan if he wanted to sleep in the big bed, and of course, Ethan said yes.  We had planned to let him see it in his room and get used to it some before making the change and probably even begin using it at nap time.  I can’t say that I’ve been looking forward to him moving into a big bed.  Many parents make the change when their toddler is climbing out of the crib.  Well, Ethan has never climbed out of the crib, or even tried as far as we know.  However, he does try to climb INTO his crib every night.  Go figure!

At this stage, he really likes the number two so he wants to have two blankets on him at night.  He wants to sleep on one of those animal things that velcros together and is also a pillow that my aunt and uncle sent him.  When we go in to get him in the mornings, he is usually sitting in the crib reading a book.  And, even then, he wants to stay in the crib and read to us or for us to read to him while he sits there.  Gary and I really like how things are with him in the mornings, so we’re not sure how changing to a big bed will affect that and know it will take some work on our parts to train him to stay in his room when he wakes in the morning, etc.  Plus, Ethan knows that he can only have his pacifiers (“boppy” as he says) when he is in his crib, so we have planned for them to stay with the crib when he moves to a big bed.

After dinner they finished putting the bed together and we put sheets on it that my cousin, Nikki, gave us.  We explained to him how when he moves into the big bed that he will need to leave his pacies in the crib.  We talked about the things that he could have in the big bed, so afterward, he said, “sheet in big bed, pillow in big bed, blankets in big bed; no boppies.” 

He was very excited and after having his diaper changed told Gary that he didn’t even want to read a book.  He wanted to sleep in the big bed.  So, Gary and I were surprised and not planning to start tonight, but thought if he wants to sleep in the big bed knowing that he can’t have his pacies then we should try it. He’s not used a top sheet before, and we put that on his big bed, so he just wanted to use that and not the blankets.

We weren’t sure how this would work especially since he sucks his paci and holds the other two to go to sleep.  So, needless to say, after lying in bed for almost 30  minutes he started crying (he normally goes right to sleep without any problems).  After a little bit Gary went in to check on him and sure enough, he couldn’t go to sleep.  So, Gary moved him back into his crib.  So, we’ll try again hopefully when we are all ready for the change (I know I certainly was not ready for it to happen tonight).

Ethan Trying to Help

This past week Ethan asked me if he could put the silverware in the drawer (sometimes he helps put it away).  I told him that after it was cleaned that he could.  Then a friend came over to drop something off.  I went outside to get it, and when I came back in, he came up to me holding a butter knife saying, “knife.”  When I walked in the kitchen, he had pushed a chair over to the drawer and had the drawer open.  I explained that he needed for Gary or me to be with him when he does that (since there are sharp knives in the drawer… we may have to change that now even though he knows that they are a “no touch”).  Then I realized that there was some dirty silverware in the drawer.  He had opened the dishwasher and taken some of the silverware out and was putting it away. 

Any time he sees me getting a mixing bowl out he wants to push the big chair over to the counter to help “cook.”  He loves to stir things with the spoon and mixer.

Below are some pictures from two weeks ago.  The family behind us has a swing set and slide and allows children in the neighborhood to play on it.  We were given a swing set, but it doesn’t have a slide.  Ethan loves to go to their yard to go down the slide.  He wasn’t able to climb their ladder last year but is now.  And, he loves going up into the “fort” as he calls it. Here are some pictures from a week ago.  I’m enjoying seeing things bloom now along with having some nicer weather.