oh what a day/week/weeks

We have been in the midst of a very trying couple of weeks. Pete made a good point today that God uses parenthood as a means to sanctify us and boy is that true. After Pete and I (and Grandma Sheila & Grandpa Dean) got through the stomach flu a couple weeks ago, Ethan continued with his cough that he's had for 3 weeks and ended up getting his ear infection (and subsequent diaper rash). Then last week as Ethan was healing from both, I came down with a nasty sore throat and fever (doctor supposes strep or tonsillitis) and started my own set of antibiotics just as Ethan finished up his bottle.
And then today. Ethan and I got bundled up and headed to the mall to do some Christmas shopping and as we were getting ready to head out of the mall, Ethan fell out of his stroller and smacked his head on the floor. He screamed, got a major goose egg and an even more panicked and distraught mama. As I consoled him and got some ice wrapped in paper towel from a nice lady at Cinnabon, Pete came from work to the mall to console me.

Thankfully it looks like he should be fine. The doctor just wants us to monitor him through the night and give some tylenol as needed. But boy does this mama's heart want to go back and have a re-do on today! As Pete reminded me throughout the rest of the day: these last weeks are definitely a bit of a trial we have been going through; meant to help teach and shape our character. Today was really hard. Sometimes being a parent is scary and I don't know what to do and wish I would have done something differently, but it is days like today that show me how much I need to place my trust in Jesus who can take my fears and give me His strength to actually be able to do this whole parenting thing.

So, here are a few pictures of the injured child and his goose egg a couple hours after the big smack:

the big day

We have been excited for this day for a long time - the day Ethan tried solid food for the first time! We still need to buy a high chair and so I squeezed Ethan into his bumbo seat for the big event.

Here is Ethan's "before" picture.
And we are off! Ethan looks a little "uncertain" about what the heck is going on.

And the "after" picture. We made it through half of the bowl of rice cereal and most of what I fed him ended up on his bib, clothes, chair and table. But, it was sure fun!

the little man turns 6 months old

Our little man is already 6 months old! At his 6 month check up on Wednesday he checked in at 19.2 pounds and 30 inches. He is the average size of a one year old and the doctor said could even pass for a small 17 month old. Basically, he is a BIG boy!

Right now Ethan is really starting to grasp object permanence and is so curious about the world around him! He still loves having us read books to him and is starting to learn how to "turn the page." He has even decided to start rolling over in his crib now. He is still only rolling from back to tummy and so I always head upstairs to roll him over only to get back downstairs and see that he has already rolled over again. He is definitely wearing 12 month clothes and can still squeeze into a few 9 month outfits. We just moved him up to the 18 month size Gerber onesies which always seem to fit so small. He is still in size 3 diapers. We had to move him up to a new car convertible car seat because he is so big!

Here are some pictures from our 6 month photo shoot:

5 year anniversary, milwaukee and an ear infection

This December Pete and I will be celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary on the 18th. In celebration Pete planned a trip for us up to Milwaukee to visit our friends Kyle and Stacy and their daughter Madison for the weekend. On Sunday we were supposed to go to a Packer game at Lambeau field - Pete even got us indoor club seats so that we could take Ethan with.

Well, let's just say the weekend didn't go quite as planned. Ethan woke up with a fever on Thursday and so we headed to the doctor and it turns out he had an ear infection. The doctor said it would probably still be okay for us to go since we were driving and the antibiotics would be kicking in. So, after some discussion we decided to head out on Friday. The plan was to head to Chicago to see some friends (and our beloved city!), then head to Milwaukee for the weekend with the Packer game on Sunday to cap off our weekend.

Ethan was melting down quite a bit along the drive and so we decided to skip Chicago. The medicine didn't really kick in until Sunday and so Saturday was basically spent consoling Ethan (who also developed a mean diaper rash) and trying to get him to sleep and be comfortable. And because Ethan was not feeling good we decided to sell our tickets and forgo Lambeau Field on Sunday. Live and learn - as Pete and I say "now we know" that traveling with a sick baby is not such a good idea. We still had a good time catching up with our friends and watched the game at their place on Sunday before heading back to St. Louis.

Here is Ethan at the start of our trip. The little man sure was not feeling so good!

Here is Madison Mae - almost one year old. She is quite the little peanut!
We took one outing with Ethan over the weekend to get some burgers and custard on Saturday afternoon. You can see he was still pretty tired.
Ethan and Madison "played" together in Madison's bouncer.
Packer Sunday. We all got decked out in our Packer gear to watch the game.

Madison was enjoying some sloppy joes. We got to see what is just around the corner for Ethan with solid foods!
This picture sums up what a lot of our weekend was like.
But, with good friends we still made the most of it and even let Ethan watch the game for a bit.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

Luckily we had all mostly recovered from the flu on the Friday after Thanksgiving and so we were able to decorate for Christmas (after cloroxing the house!). We always get our Christmas tree from a lot they set up at Ted Drewes (famous custard place) and so off we went.

Ethan and I are on the tree hunt while papa Pete stopped to get some custard.

Our first family Christmas tree with Ethan!

Grandma Sheila helped to load Ethan back up in the car while Pete and I loaded the tree and wreaths.
While decorating our house I came across Norman's stocking and santa suit we had bought him last year. It is our first Christmas without our bulldog too, which is definitely a bummer. We miss him so very much. In memory of our bulldog here are a few pics of Christmases past:

Our first Christmas with Norman. We had literally picked him up from the breeder like the day before this picture was taken.

We took this Christmas picture on a very cold day in Chicago. Norman was totally shivering the whole time!

Our first year in St. Louis. Norman was always a trooper letting us put him in hats, sweaters, coats and antlers.

And this one is from last year, actually on New Year's Eve. I was tired and pregnant and Norman was always there to cuddle with.
Norman will sure be missed but we are also so very excited to celebrate Christmas this year with our precious Ethan! It may seem a little early to be saying this but Merry Christmas!

how we spent our thanksgiving

It all started on Thanksgiving Eve morning, when I started to get the tummy rumbles. Thinking it was a bout of food poisoning, I took it easy, drank some sprite and ate some toast. I felt worse as the day went on and continued to have "stomach emptying episodes" to put it nicely. We were supposed to host Thanksgiving the next day with Pete's family and so I sent my mom out to the store to buy the last minute food and put her on pie baking duty. Well, things then just went from bad to worse. What I thought was food poisoning turned out to be the stomach flu as it unfortunately had a domino effect throughout the rest of the house-Pete got sick later that night, and then my mom and finally my step dad Dean on Thanksgiving Day.

We cancelled as hosts of Thanksgiving and spent the day in our PJs recovering! Luckily the only one to not get sick was our little man Ethan! I still had to cook the 23 pound defrosted turkey that was sitting in our fridge and so we have been eating turkey now for days!

I did get a chance to put Ethan in his Thanksgiving outfit to snap a few pics. He pooped out early in the morning soon after I had him dressed and so I had to wash it again quickly to get some photographs!


Ethan also decided to take a short morning nap, waking up at 8:30 am and would not go back to sleep after that! I tried putting him down at 10:30, then 12:00, then 1:00, and nothing would work! He cried and was restless - clearly overtired and subsequently wired. So, we did what I never thought I would have to do - we took him for a car ride at 2:00pm. And, within 5 minutes he was fast asleep.

All in all, a Thanksgiving to remember!

mr. & mrs. schmaltz

It's already been a little over a week since Auntie became Mrs. Schmaltz and Russell became an official "Uncle" to our little man. The wedding weekend was a complete blur filled with lots of time with family and friends, good food and best of all the happy occasion of the big wedding! Needless to say it was a packed weekend and we could not have made it through without a lot of help from everyone pitching in to help clean our house, take care of Ethan, cook food, and pick up last minute wedding things. There are way too many pictures from the weekend to post here and so here are just a few snapshots.

The bride to be preparing for her big day.


The bride and her ladies. It was such a beautiful day!


A quick stop on Russell's motorcycle.
Inside the limo.
We were so proud of our little ring bearer, making his wedding debut at 5 1/2 months old!



Here are Ethan and Asher (Russell's cousin's son) making their way down the aisle. I was so proud of Ethan! They both did a great job!
All in all it was a wonderful, wonderful day!