Ethan - Shy?

Olivia's having a little sleep in her chair!


Here's Ethan with his hockey/soccer game!

Ethan loves opening presents!

On Friday, I signed Ethan up for swimming lessons at the Oakville Swim Academy. They have small classes with only four kids per teacher and parents don't participate. Unfortunately, when we got there and Ethan realized that I was not coming with him, he did not want to go. So I sat by the pool while he played around on the steps, but he had not desire to participate. It may just be because he is not that comfortable in the water yet. I am going to try to find lessons that parents can attend instead because I really want him to learn how to swim.

On Saturday, Ethan started a new Sportball class. This was another class in which he now gets dropped off. Three seems to be the magic age after which parents don't always have to participate. He was a little bit shy at first but after a couple of minutes he started participating and he had a lot of fun. Another mother and I stayed in the gym just to watch. Next week I will let him stay by himself. He seems to be developing a bit of shyness or self-consciousness when he is in new environments, I wonder why?

Later on Saturday, I went to my friend Nicola's wedding shower. It was a lot of fun catching up with Nicola, Wendi, Rebecca and Michele. There was even a belly dancer! After the shower, Michele and I came back to our house to join Jerry, Scott and the kids for Thai food.

On Sunday, we went to Sear's to get some pictures taken. Olivia woke up in a cranky mood and was not interested in getting her picture taken and Ethan wasn't too into it either. We tried to get a family picture, but no such luck! However, we did manage to get one nice shot of each of them separately.

Olivia went to the ear specialist last week and she is scheduled to get tubes put into her ears on April 23rd. Although I am nervous about her having to go through the surgery, I think it will be much better than having her on antibiotics all the time.

Here are some more pictures from Ethan's birthday weekend...

Ethan's Third Birthday

Ethan playing air hockey!


Carly and Ethan on the slide!

Ethan just after he blew out his candles!

Here is Olivia walking with Paula!

This is Olivia's outfit for the party!

This is Olivia getting ready for the birthday fun!

On Saturday, Ethan and about 20 of his friends celebrated his birthday at Busy Bodies Indoor Playground. He had a great time playing with his friends (although he was quite particular about who he wanted to play air hockey with). We had snacks, pizza and birthday cake. Ethan loved blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, but overall was too excited to eat.

After the party, we went home and opened all his presents. He got lots of great presents, some of his favourites being baseball gear, a baseball bating game and a hockey/soccer net with goalie. Pictures of him playing with his toys to follow in the next blog.

On Saturday night, my family came over for a birthday dinner. Ethan (and I) opened some more presents. Ethan loved the puzzles he got from Scott and Carolyn. Not to brag (okay, just a little bit), Carolyn says that she has never seen a child Ethan's age put together puzzles so fast, especially when he had never seen them before!! What a smart little guy!!!

On Sunday, Michelle and I enjoyed some time at a spa in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was very nice (except that I had a migraine type headache for most of the day). We then went to Michelle's for a yummy prime rib dinner, it was delicious. Ethan had a great time playing with the hockey/soccer net that Michelle and Kevin bought for him.

Olivia has another ear infection. I think it probably started on the weekend (she caught a cold from Ethan) but I didn't catch it until Monday night. She hasn't cried so much since she was a little baby. We went to the doctor to get some antibiotics yesterday and hopefully she will be feeling better by the end of today. Luckily, she goes to see the ear specialist tomorrow.

Aside from the ear infection, Olivia has been doing great. She is cruising a ton, from toy to toy, accross the couch from one side to the other. She is clapping a ton and has a couple new words (although I am not sure what they are yet). She loves walking around holding onto your hands. Here is a picture of her from the birthday party practicing her walking with Paula (the dress she has on was a present from Uncle Kirk).

Will post again soon with more birthday pictures!

Ethan's Exciting Weekend

On Friday, Ethan and I went to Toronto to go to a doctor's appointment. Ethan was very excited because he was able to ride on the GO Train, the subway and a number of escalators. Ethan was very well behaved and he had a great time.

On Saturday, we went to our friends Ben and Steph's to meet their new little boy named Dashiell. He was very cute, I forget how little they are when they are newborns. Where has the time gone? Here is a picture of Olivia and Jamie, Jamie is working on being comfortable with all the little babies. He did a great job playing with Olivia! We tried to get one of all the kids but it didn't work out so well. Olivia was very interested in checking out Dashiell but because of the size difference she almost squished him. Luckily Ben intervened just in time (I was trying to take a picture)!

On Saturday night, I went out with my high school friends. We had dinner at my friend Alison's new townhouse in Grimsby. It was a ton of fun but it was a late night, so I was quite tired on Sunday!!

Luckily, Sunday was a relaxing day. Ethan once again went on the GO Train to Toronto with Scott to see a Raptors basketball game (thanks to Jamie for the tickets). He had a great time and loves playing with the Raptors basketball Scott bought for him. He made it almost all the way to the end of the game and only started to get tired on the way home on the GO Train. He is already talking about the next time he goes to a game. This time he wants me to come with him. He thinks that Olivia can stay home and play with Paula because she is too little to go to a basketball game!!!

While the boys were at the basketball game, Olivia and I played, practiced walking and had a long nap!! It was great, I love long naps in the afternoon.

Since both kids are sleeping, I am off to do some errands to prepare for Ethan's party on Saturday!!

Let's see what is new since last time I blogged? Sometimes so much is new that nothing is new!!!

I found a new way to blog (which should hopefully increase the frequency), I can write the blog during the day while I am at work (on my lunch of course) and then add the pictures when I get home. Otherwise, I am too tired by the time the kids go to bed to do anything but go to sleep myself!!

This weekend we went to St. Catharines to celebrate Michelle, Harry and Casey's birthdays. We had a lot of fun. Ethan especially enjoyed playing air hockey with Casey and Bailey. It's great now that Ethan is getting a little bit older because he can play with the older kids and we don't have to be watching him all the time! And Olivia is so easy to take care of! Above is a picture of Ethan and Courtney at dinner!

We also went down to St. Catharines two weekends ago. Scott and I went to test drive new cars while Michelle and Kevin babysat the kids. I think we have decided on the Honda mini-van, we are just waiting for Kevin to get us the best price. We then stayed at Michelle and Kevin's for dinner. It was a lot of fun with plenty of teasing to go around for everybody. Above is a picture of Ethan playing air hockey at Michelle and Kevin's.

Ethan and Olivia are both doing well. Ethan is getting very excited about his birthday party, which is in two weeks. Lots to do before then!! He now often picks favourites between Scott and I, one day he wants mommmy to do everything and the next day he wants daddy to do everything and if he doesn't get his way, watch out!!! Scott, being the sensitive dad that he is, often gets his feelings hurt when Ethan isn't in a daddy friendly mood!!!

Olivia is cruising a lot now. We are trying to encourage her to crawl, but as soon as you put her on her knees, she just stands up!! She hasn't had an ear infection in almost a month (knock on wood), which has been great. She is getting so big!! She is turning into a bad sleeper (she moves around too much), so I think it is going to be time for her to go into her own room soon because even if she is beside me in her crib, the moving around wakes me up!!

A special congratulations to the Thornton's, who welcomed a new baby boy last week. We are looking forward to meeting Dashiell this weekend.

The picture of Olivia is from a birthday party that we went to a couple of weeks ago. She had fun playing in the balls with Charloette!