Gary’s Birthday and the Zoo

Gary’s birthday was last Friday but we did all of the celebrating on Saturday.  We went to the Budapest Zoo.  Gary and Ethan have never been before.  The weather was great.  Ethan has several books with animals in it that are typically found in a zoo, so we’ve told him for some time that he would get to see them at the zoo someday.  Interestingly, one of the animals that he’s asked about the most are flamingos.  He has wanted to see the gorillas beat their chest, but all of the gorillas were sleeping when we saw them. Ethan saying, “rhino-oferis.” Ethan was trying to push his sunglasses on his head and they kind of just stuck here.

Look at those good looking people!  I don’t know if you can tell on the blog with the picture this size, but I like looking at how well Sienna’s eyes match Gary’s eyes and his shirt.Ethan enjoyed watching the monkeys.  After we left he said that he liked the monkeys and flamingos the best. (And this has changed since Saturday… today his favorite animal that he saw was the Orangutan.)Course, maybe it was him being the monkey that he enjoyed the best.Ethan got a little exercise by pushing his stroller around the zoo.  We were watching the sea lions while they were underwater, but Ethan was more entertained by a little girl who was standing next to him than he was by the sea lions that were swimming right in front of him.  Our little social butterfly!He was a little more entertained by the sea lions when we were above ground and he watched the little ‘show’ from Gary’s shoulders.

Sienna slept off and on, so she didn’t pay much attention to the animals  (not that she would have noticed the animals much had she been awake the whole time).  Sadly, she doesn’t sleep as well in the car seat or stroller as Ethan did.  She has a 2-3 hour nap in the mornings IF she is in her bed, but not if we are out.  Thankfully, it didn’t throw her schedule off completely.

That night our team came over for a birthday dinner and party.  Gary requested BBQ type stuff, so I fixed BBQ pork.  The other women brought baked beans, salad, and corn on the cob.  I made chocolate cake and we had ice cream.

MRI Results

Gary started having tingling sensations throughout his arms and legs a little over a week ago.  It was keeping him up during several nights.  He hasn’t had a physical since before we were married, so he went to a doctor to get a physical and hoped to also find out about the tingling sensation.  The doctor had him see a neurologist.  The neurologist told Gary that he thought it was a problem in the neck and he wanted Gary to get an MRI.  When Gary asked about possible treatment, the doctor said, possibly surgery.  The appointment for the MRI was last Friday, on Gary’s birthday (yes, bummer).  He got the results afterward but the neurologist was out of the country for a week, so Gary wasn’t going to know the results for another 5 days.  Thankfully the family doctor told Gary to come in and he would look at the results so Gary would not have to wait.  He said that Gary has 4 herniated discs in his neck.  One of them has a broken membrane on the outside.  The other three are bulging.  These put pressure on the nerves which cause the tingling.  So, Gary is supposed to begin physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around the spine.  So, it was a bummer for Gary to have this on his birthday but the results were better than we thought they might be. 

4 Months Old

Sienna turned 4 months old this past week.  Her hair hasn’t fallen out yet.  Ethan had a lot of hair, but she actually has more than him.  Personally, I like it since she’s a girl, but I never remember to put little bow things in her hair.  She has little curls after it’s washed, and I love that since mine is as straight as a stick.  Her hair is still an auburn/strawberry blonde type of color depending on how the light is on it.  If her hair stays this color I will definitely be avoiding orange, red, and pink clothes.  Some of the red and pink things look okay on her but not great.  So far she looks the best in purple, turquoise, and brown.  There are still some colors that she hasn’t worn yet too. :-) What a face!

She really enjoys watching Ethan. He makes her smile a lot. He loves to mess with her face.  We continually work on the word “gentle” with him.  He does pretty well most of the time. I don’t remember if I mentioned it on here or not but she is a thumb sucker.  She never would take a paci.  There are advantages and disadvantages to her sucking her thumb, but we will have to tread new waters with that since Ethan used a paci.

One thing that I haven’t ever mentioned is that her hips are very loose.  Her doctor had us do a hip ultrasound to make sure that things were fine with them, and they were.  The Dr. said that she may just be real flexible like those people who put their legs over their heads, etc.

Here are a couple of snapshots that we took on Father’s Day. Sienna started rolling from her stomach to her back.  Ethan started rolling from his back to his stomach first (which is actually more difficult).  He didn’t like being on his stomach, but she doesn’t much either.

Ethan, the Fresh Fruit Expert

Ethan is often picky about his food.  He likes things a certain way.  Though this is common with kids his age, I’m not sure how common it is for kids his age to realize that things are not fresh just by looking at them.  For example, the bread rolls here are not fresh unless you eat them the day you buy it or the next day.  Well, somehow he knows if it’s not the same day and won’t eat it.

Tonight, while I was nursing Sienna, Gary got some pineapple out of the fridge for Ethan to eat.  He sat it down in front of Ethan, and Ethan said, “No” (without even touching it) and then pointed to the countertop where a fresh pineapple sat.  Gary told me that Ethan wanted fresh pineapple, and I told him that I just cut it yesterday.  Then I remembered that I had used some canned pineapple for a recipe and put the remainder of it in the fridge.  I asked Gary to bring it me so I could see it.  I looked at it and realized that it was the canned pineapple and that it actually needed to be thrown out.  So, Gary got the pineapple out that I cut yesterday and put it in front of Ethan.  Ethan looked at it and said, “Oh yes!”

Cherry Pickin’

Gary has been gradually cutting dead branches off of our trees.  Ethan loves it when Gary works in the yard and he gets to help out.  He often asks to go outside so he can use the tools.

Here are some pictures of Ethan picking cherries from our cherry tree.    After Ethan would pick a cherry off, he would drop it and enjoy watching it fall to the ground.  Then he would pick up the cherries from the ground and put them in the greenery trash can (that is for branches, greenery, etc.).Maybe before the summer is over and the cherries are gone he will actually start eating them.

3 Months is Bliss

I’m VERY thankful that Gary is back home.  There were a few good days and some bad days while he was gone.  Thankfully the whole family will join him on his next teaching trip.

One good thing that happened while he was gone is that Sienna went to a 4-hour feeding schedule.  I think I mentioned on here at some point that Ethan went on a 4-hour feeding schedule when he was 3 months old but I didn’t think she would be doing that for some time.  So, I was pleasantly surprised.  We have continued to wake her between 10 and 11:00 for a late night feeding, but I figured that she would probably be able to sleep through the night without us waking her anymore.  I didn’t want to try it until Gary returned, so once he got back we stopped waking her for that feeding.  We’ve been putting her down around 7:30, and she has been getting up between 7:30 and a little after 8 in the mornings.  I actually had to wake her at 8:15 this morning so I could nurse her before my exercise class.  It’s been funny because since we stopped waking her for the late night feeding, she has made lots of ‘happy’ noises and coos in the mornings when she wakes up.  She didn’t wake up crying before that, but she wasn’t making all of the little ‘happy’ noises. 

She has also seemed to get settled into a good nap schedule this past week with taking a 2-3 hour nap in the morning and another 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  I think we are much better at putting her down at the right time for a nap than we were with Ethan, which may be why his naps were so short for 10 months.  Also, we know now not to get her just because she wakes up after the first hour (a mistake we made with Ethan for a long time). :-)

Gary and I both thought that things were SO much better after Ethan turned 3 months old, and it is wonderful to be experiencing the same thing with Sienna.  It’s nice that she is a lot more interactive with us, but I REALLY like it that she only nurses 4 times a day.  That makes it much easier to go places and plan things.  We have enjoyed each month with Ethan more and more, so I hope that will be the same with Sienna.   The picture above is from a few weeks ago, and the picture below is from yesterday.  Not much difference, but I thought they were cute.  I must say that it’s so much more fun dressing her than it ever has been dressing Ethan.  I just love her cute clothes.

Bagpipes and Tractors

We haven’t shown Ethan any DVD videos yet, but he has started associating our computers as something where he can look at pictures and watch bagpipes and tractors.  Yes, you read it correctly- bagpipes.  He enjoys musical instruments, so Gary has taught him a lot with signs to go with them.  He recognizes some of them when he hears them.  Sometimes he asks to listen to certain instruments on the CD player.  One time he asked to listen to bagpipes.  We didn’t have any CDs with bagpipe music, so Gary pulled a video up on You-tube for him to watch bagpipes.  Now, Ethan wants to watch several different types of instruments on You-tube.  In recent weeks, Gary has shown him some videos of tractors, backhoes, etc. on You-tube.  After watching for about 5 minutes he asks to watch bagpipes and drums.

Here are two pictures from a few weeks ago where we stopped at a nearby construction site for Ethan to look at an excavator.  (I have learned the names of all kinds of construction vehicles… something I never thought I would know.)