Ethan's ABCs

Ethan singing his ABCs with a little Old MacDonald thrown in for good measure. I was shocked that I was able to get this on video. Ethan isn't a big fan of performing on command.

Staying busy

Sydney and Ethan enjoying the fire truck ad Edventure's firefighter appreciation day. Ethan has a goofy look on his face because he was cracking up over kicking off his fire boots.

Sydney getting suited up and ready to strut her stuff at the gait lab in Virginia.

Ethan admiring the new painting on the wall at Hitchcock.

Sydney pausing during play for a quick picture

We have been staying busy even though I haven't posted lots of info or pictures to prove it. I guess by not posting everyone probably assumes we've been busy anyway, or else everyone thinks we have just been so bored that there isn't anything exciting to talk about . Anyway, we are doing well. The kids had a blast last weekend at Edventure! Ethan especially liked the firetrucks that they had parked outside to climb on even though he was a little too shy to actually get in one.

Ethan's vocabulary seems to grow a little more every day. He still mispronounces a lot of words, but it makes him even more fun to listen to. He has recently started pointing out words on everything- signs, trucks, buildings, etc., and he wants to know what they all say. It is neat to see his understanding that words stand for something, but it also a little taxing on the one trying to read every vehicle that passes by. His favorite phrase is "What that truck says mommy?" Which is fine except for when I forget to read the truck before it passes.

Sydney is doing okay. The diet is unfortunately not working for her. We reduced her ratio yesterday to a 3:1 (3 fats to 1 protein and carb). She has been a little agitated lately which has made her a little challenging. She is getting a cold though so that might explain the grumpy moods and the increased seizure activity.

Sydney started preschool a few weeks ago and really seems to enjoy it. Ethan started mother's day out at the same time, but he doesn't share Sydney's joy of school. He says that it takes me too long to come pick him up, and he has cried the last few days that I have dropped him off. He uses the word my instead of me or I so his favorite phrases lately regarding school have been "my no like school", "my no like my friends", and "take mommy too long pick my up." Hopefully this will be a short lived phase-the not liking school and the using the word 'my' incorrectly. He even says "next time won't you sing with my," at the end of the alphabet song.

We are going to try to take the kiddos to the State Fair in the next few days, we are going to go to Boo at the Zoo soon and Halloween is right around the corner. So, I'm sure we will stay nice and busy in the coming weeks, but hopefully not too busy to update:-)

John's Hopkins Play Deck

Here are a few pictures we took on the play deck at John's Hopkins. This is where we spent most of our time while we were in the hospital. Most days, we had it all to ourselves. Ethan loved the playhouse and all the riding toys and trucks, and Sydney enjoyed being pulled in the wagon the most. The play deck was on the third floor of the children's wing.

Fun with trucks

Here's a cute picture I took of the kiddos a few weeks ago at touch a truck day. Ethan is obsessed with anything with wheels or tracks lately. He has really loved going to his grandparent's house to watch the construction teams as they add a new room and pool. We haven't done anything really fun and exciting lately so I haven't had much to post about.

Now that I realize that we haven't been doing many fun things, I will have to make sure we have an awesome weekend full of fun things to photograph.

Ethan made the move from his crib to a bed this week. He had been sleeping in his "big boy bed" for several days, but he didn't want to part with the crib. Yesterday however, he said he was ready to take his crib down. So, we helped him complete the transformation of his room from a baby nursery to a big boy's room. He has talked about his crib being gone all day today. I'm not quite sure if it is because he is excited and happy about this new adventure, or if he is feeling a little overwhelmed by his leap into big boy land.

Sydney got a new pair of shoes to wear with her braces that she is very happy about. She has always preferred her girlie little white keds over any other shoes, and I was finally able to find a pair that would fit over her braces. We did have to have extra velcro added so they would fit, but they are still cute and Sydney seems to enjoy wearing them.

Ethan still talks about his fire station party every day. I don't think he grasps the fact that he is going to have to wait a whole year before he gets another party. Nor does he understand that grownups don't get to have fun parties like kids do. When we tell him that "daddy's birthday is next", he says that daddy's party will be at the firestation too. Who knows, mabe we can cook up a little fire truck birthday cake to help Andrew celebrate his third decade.

Well, now that I wrote all of this I realized that fun things did happen the past few weeks, and I will try to get a picture of Sydney's fancy new shoes and of Ethan in his big boy bed.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday this morning with a party at the fire station. He had a great time and so did his big sister and all of his friends!

More Jaymi pics

Sydney found a jumping buddy!

Ethan didn't realize that feeding the goats would entail giving up his fingers.

Everyone looking oh so thrilled with my attempt at a posed picture. At least I had Sydney's support:-)

Fun with Jaymison

Sydney and Ethan had lots of fun visiting with their cousin Jaymison the week before last. They especially loved taking her to their favorite place-the zoo!

Sydney, Ethan and Jaymi all riding the panda bears on the carousel.

Having fun in Ethan's room.

Happy Fourth of July!

Our attempt at a family picture.

I'm not quite sure what Sydney and Ethan were looking at here, but I thought it was a cute picture.

I think we caught great-grandpa mid sentence in this picture, but it was a keeper shot because everyone was at least looking at the camera, well, sort of.

So, I'm a little late on my happy 4th post. Oh well. We had a great holiday! We celebrated Sydney and Ethan's great-grandpa's birthday with a Happy Birthday 4th of July cookout. Then, we headed to Augusta for the fireworks. It was the first time we kept Sydney and Ethan up late enough to watch a real fireworks show. They enjoyed it, but were a little overwhelmed. Ethan kept saying that his ears hurt and that he needed his sunglasses. Sydney just watched with wide-eyed amazement.

Andrew and I celebrated our five year anniversary yesterday. We had originally planned to go out of town for the weekend, but the thought of going somewhere fun without the kids didn't really appeal to us. Instead, the kids stayed the day and night with my parents and we went out to eat, we shopped in lots of non stroller-friendly boutiques, and we watched the Transformers movie. Transformers was obviously Andrew's pick, and shopping was mine. The movie was pretty good though I was surprised.

Last week, Sydney and Ethan's second cousin Jaymison came to visit all the way from Pennsylvania. They had lots of fun playing with her and I will try to post some pictures from the visit later.

Congratulations Aunt Adrienne!

Check out Aunt Adrienne's fancy new ring. She and her boyfriend Martin got engaged on June 27. Congratulations Adrienne and Martin!

A Day at the Beach

We went to Hunting Island beach yesterday and had a wonderful time! We were attacked by a big swarm of mosquitoes when we first got out of the car, but other than that, it was a perfect beach experience. Well, I guess we also had a little hiccup on the way to the beach. It just so happened that yesterday was the Hampton County Watermelon Festival, which we didn't realize until we were stuck in traffic watching the forever long parade. It wasn't too bad though, the kids got to watch the whole parade from the comfort of the car with the air conditioning to keep us all cool.

One big bonus from our beach trip was that Sydney didn't put anything in her mouth. Everyone who really knows Sydney, will realize this is a real accomplishment. Sydney and Ethan both loved playing in the shallow water the best, until Ethan got knocked over by one too many waves and started requesting "no bubbles" to the ocean.

The kids were totally wiped out by the time we got into the car to head home. Mission accomplished-great day at the beach-everyone had fun, no one got hurt, no one ingested scary sand paraphernalia, and we topped it all off with an early bedtime and a good night's sleep.

Picking Strawberries

Ethan eyeing his strawberry right before he pops it in his mouth

Sydney stopping to smell the flowers

Sydney and Ethan got to go pick strawberries this week. There was also a flower garden that they got to walk through, and when we were finished picking berries, we got to cut some flowers to take home with us. It was unbelievably hot, but it was a fun experience and we topped off our trip with some fresh strawberry lemonade.

Father's Day

Sydney and Ethan wanted everyone to know that they think their daddy is the greatest!

Happy Father's Day!