playgroup baby shower

We were blessed by our mom's playgroup today when they threw me and our friend Lindsey a baby shower! Lindsey is about a month ahead of me and is also expecting a baby girl and sister to her 2 year old Jake.
We got to enjoy sunshine and some time with friends.
And we each were given a GREAT gift of a few hours of house cleaning from a professional cleaning company! What a sweet gift! We will definitely be using it in the next few months - although I can't decide when I'll want to use it more - before or after baby comes!

We so love all our moms and kiddos in our playgroup and are so thankful for them!

baby #2 gender reveal!

Finally! After 30 + weeks of waiting we were scheduled to get another ultrasound on Monday because I've been measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule in terms of belly size and my doctor wanted to see how big this baby has grown so far. For us, this was a great opportunity to finally learn what the gender of sweet baby #2 is!

Pete was in an all day meeting at work and so Ethan and I got to go to "have the baby's pictures taken" together. I had the ultrasound tech put the baby's gender in an envelope so that we could open it up all together as a family once Pete got home.

We were all done by 9:30 and had a long day of waiting ahead and so Ethan and I headed to the zoo to enjoy some sunshine and see the animals. By far, Ethan's favorite animal this time was the hyena (eeeeNA), but he also loved seeing the fish (ish), hippo (bippo), and fox (doc).
Waterfalls are also a particular favorite of Ethan's right now.
We had such a great time! Ethan spent most of our time walking instead of sitting in his stroller and did a great job staying close and holding my hand. Once we got home he took a 3+ hour nap!

After his nap, since we were STILL waiting until Pete got home, we spent some time playing and decorating our special envelope.
Finally, at around 5pm Pete came home and we quickly packed up and went to my favorite pregnancy #2 restaurant, Chili's to open up our envelope and celebrate together.

Ready?
IT'S A GIRL!!!!!
Hooray! Baby girl's stats right now at 30 weeks are: a little over 4 lbs and head down. Still measuring 2 weeks ahead according to ultrasound measurements so this baby may be really making her entrance sometime in May! I meet with my doctor on Friday so we'll get more of a scoop then.

Let the baby girl shopping begin! :)

grandparents galore!

Today is the first day that we have been without a grandparent at our house in over 3 weeks! In celebration of sweet Ella being born Grandma Sheila was here for about 2 and a half weeks and left for home last Thursday morning. A couple hours later we picked up Grandpa Todd and Grandma Bonnie from the airport and they were here for a long weekend and went back home yesterday afternoon. We sure were blessed to have some quality time with all of the grandparents!

I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't take more pictures of all the things we did, but here are just a few, mostly of Grandma Sheila and Ethan, since our big camera broke - really broke - last week right before my dad and step mom arrived - and has yet to be repaired.

We went to Powder Valley Nature Center with Grandma Sheila.
Grandma Sheila and Ethan spent a lot of time throwing puppets back and forth. Ethan did lots and lots of running! And laughing. And running.
Lots of time spent reading books.
Last Friday we went to the Science Center with Grandma Bonnie and had a great time!

Did I mention that the reason everyone was in town was to get to meet my sweet, sweet niece Ella? Is she precious or what?
Ethan had such a wonderful, wonderful time getting all of the extra love and affection from his grandparents and will definitely miss them! It was also a major blessing for me to not only get to spend time with my parents but also to be blessed by their service and extra help with Ethan and a few things around the house! They will ALL be missed! But, with baby #2's due date just around the corner, we are excited to see them all again soon!

st patrick's day

We had a fun, low-key St. Patrick's Day this year. I briefly considered going to the zoo (and then remembered last year's hours-long traffic jam trying to park at the zoo because of the parade), and then thought about taking Ethan to the parade. To avoid the craziness we decided to forgo both and went to the Botanical Gardens in the morning to enjoy the sunshine and a leisurely walk.
And then we worked on a St. Patrick's Day painting. It was probably the longest time (maybe 10 minutes) that Ethan has spent finger painting and it was only at the end that he tried his usual tactic of trying to eat the paint. :)

ethan at 21 months

Amidst all of these doctor visits and scans and babies being born, Ethan just continues to grow like a weed! The last few months have been so fun to just watch as our little man starts to truly grow into a young boy. Still very tall, of course. He weighs in at over 35 pounds and 36.5 inches - we're starting to move into 4T shirts and 3T pants and considering moving him to a toddler bed because he is just so darn big for his crib!

His language has had a major burst over the last few months as well. He is learning new words every week and has a vocabulary of over 85+ words! He is communicating so much more clearly and starting to articulate some of his baby words very well - a "da du" is now a "bubble" and "bup" is now "up" as a few examples. I think my favorite new word of late is "nuggle" (snuggle). He's tried a few spanish numbers as well - he can say "doh" (dos), "ocho" and cinco. He loves to talk about his friends (Vi Vi and Jake) and Auntie and "mumma" (Grandma) all the time.
Ethan is very persistent and directive on what he wants you to be doing at all times. He takes us by the hand to place us in the spot he wants us to be, commanding us to "sit" or "ead" (read). He is adamant about closing doors (and opening them) and loves to climb all over the furniture. He loves his blankie (didi) and his stuffed cucumber Larry - they have to be with him pretty much wherever we go throughout the house. His "raff" (giraffe) can also be pretty critical from time to to time. He also loves to watch Larry every day - he hands us the remote and asks for Larry and loves to watch the sing a long song DVD (but only for 10 minutes or so, as we're trying not to do a lot of TV yet!).

He also is very interested in putting things together and seeing how things work. He has started to really enjoy playing with his mega blocks and shape sorter. Opening and closing anything is also a big fascination.

He continues to be a bucket of energy as well. Racing all over the house, he much prefers running to walking. He loves to go to the park and is gaining so much more awareness of his body and how to climb on or off things (this has helped his mama especially to not panic so much about him falling all of the time!). He is such a sweet delight to our family and it is so much fun to see him learning and growing so quickly!

Ethan Matthew Weseloh, we love you so, so SO much!

MRI and a cheerio

Last week Ethan was scheduled to have his follow up MRI with contrast at Children's on Tuesday morning. We had a slight hiccup in the plan when Ethan found and ate a cheerio an hour or so before we left for our appointment. Unfortunately even part of a cheerio could possibly have caused his stomach juices to start up and there was a risk of him vomiting while sedated - which would go to his lung, not a good thing at all. So, we packed up our things and headed back home, pretty upset that after all the waiting, we were now going to have to wait some more.

We were absolutely blessed when the hospital called to let us know there had been a cancellation for the very next morning! This time I was a little over-the-top in making sure there would not be another cheerio incident and so vacuumed the entire house and Pete lovingly agreed to vacuum out the car too. So, another morning of fasting for Ethan and this time we got to go through with it! Ethan did so, so well - we were so proud of our brave boy!

Now for the results. The whole reason we had to do another MRI was because on the scan in December they saw what looked like a lesion in his left lateral ventricle of his brain that was either a benign cyst or a malignant tumor. The doctor called me on Sunday to let me know that there is actually no lesion at all!!! No cyst, no tumor - nothing abnormal! What had looked like a lesion is simply the way that the fluid was flowing in his ventricle - which is what is supposed to be there! We are so, so, so overjoyed and thankful for this news! After nearly 4 months of waiting we could not be more grateful for this as the end result. God is so, so, so good!

As I've reflected the last few days on what this whole season of uncertainty has meant, what I am humbled by the most is how faithful God has been. Throughout everything from Ethan's seizure and all of these MRIs and all of the waiting, the Holy Spirit truly has impressed upon both Peter and I's hearts just a peace that He will carry us through, no matter what the end result is. And we are left standing with a strength that has only been given to us from God - without Him I know that I would have been lost in worry, fear and the unknown. So, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

miss ella sophia schmaltz

We have had a very busy couple of weeks! Last Friday, March 2nd our beautiful sweet niece Ella Sophia Schmaltz was born! My very brave sister did amazing during her labor (that ended up being a not-by-choice-natural labor!) and her and Russell have been enjoying life with their new sweet baby girl. I have to say it feels very strange to now be the only pregnant sister! We happened to take the only official pregnancy picture of the two of us just a week or so before Ella was born when Lindsay was 37ish weeks and I was 25ish weeks. Yes, although nearly 12 weeks apart we look pretty close in size!
And here is my new sweet niece Ella. 6 lbs, 6 oz. 20.5 inches long. So, so sweet!