Memorable Summer

Do you ever have a period of time that you know will stand out in your memory for years to come? I'm living it right now. It's pretty obvious why, I suppose. Being a working mom, I don't get the chance to be home all day, every day. My maternity leave is affording me just that chance and I'm lucky to have it fall in summer. With the new house and the great neighborhood and yard, we're having a great summer.... minus this week, with the insane desert like heat, of course. I do miss my work in some sort of perverted way. I guess you can't always have it all? But, I think knowing that I am going back in a month is making this time really count for me.

Because of my work, we have been able to keep Miriam on while I am home and I have to say, this has been the best thing ...ever. With her here to help me through the days, I've been able to either get away with Ethan for some 1:1 time or hole up in my bedroom with Ava for an afternoon of quality bonding time. I am even able to sneak in a few naps when Ava has kept me up during the evenings. I have to say, this maternity leave is leaps and bounds better than mine with Ethan. Given his preemie status, being a new mom and not having help made for a very tired, anxious Nicole. Not this time around. I am more confident in my parenting abilities and know that if Ava cries for a couple of minutes b/c she is not being held, I haven't scarred her for life. Ahhh, so much wisdom, yes? :)

So, me and the kids have spent our summer bonding. Ethan and I making frequent trips to the zoo. We are enjoying our backyard and the various swimming/wading pools and sprinklers and going for walks with Otis. It's not fair that men aren't offered more of a paternity leave...or one at all. With all of the drama leading up to Ava's birth, Jon had exhausted most of his vaca / sick time, so he never really got any real time off before going back to work. It's not right that he is not able to experience some of this as well. I'm trying to fit in enough for both of us...ha!

So, Ethan...man, surprising us every day. He's talking in sentences now...the things that he comes up with. He's recently learned left from right. Jon and I are still amazed by this and I am constantly asking him where his left ear is or right knee. It just doesn't get old for me. He also just recently decided that I am "mom", not mommy...what? Is he 12? Jon thinks it's funny and is trying to get him to call me Nic. augh.

With all this growing up comes the fight for independence, thus we are now often caught in a battle of wills. I never thought discipline would be my weakness, but I'm finding out...I'm not that good at it. hmmm. I feel like we're on some long extended holiday due to the fact that I get to spend this much time with him, so we make brownies and eat the batter or have ice cream in the middle of the day even though I know that it may ruin his lunch/dinner. I can't help myself, it feels like stolen time for us. In my defence, although weak as it may be, I am trying to get tougher though when he acts out. We've recently implemented time outs and they work surprisingly well on the little man.

Ava...she's just our chunky monkey. She is growing leaps and bounds. We have a drs appt for both the kids on Monday and we'll find out where she is. She was already at 7lbs right before mom and dad were here and that's been a month. I wouldn't be surprised if she isn't around 9 now. She breezed through her newborn clothes. I remember Ethan being in them for so long. I'll need to read back through the blog to see where he was at her age. We just got through a few days of some good night time sleeping! Last night being the best. She slept from 10pm - 4am. Hallelujah! I'm trying not to get too excited as I know she is young still and this probably won't become consistent for awhile. But, it was heavenly to get 5 1/2 hours of sleep uninterrupted. The only thing that I'm really worried about with the whole going back to work thing is her not sleeping well..thus me being a wreck. I do not work well with not enough sleep...I don't mean just professionally...for me, the act of living becomes a chore. I'm wired that way and my poor husband has to deal with the consequences ...I turn into a basket case. Anyway, early signs indicate that we'll be in pretty good shape come late August (crossing fingers now).

Ava has been a good baby so far over all. With her adjusted age, we weren't sure if her early calmness would be replaced by colic or just overall fussiness. But I think we've passed that crucial stage where this would have manifested itself. She does get a little fussy between 7-10pm in the evenings, but it goes away if you hold her. Ethan was like this, too, as I recall. It's a little bit of a juggling act as we're usually trying to have dinner and get Ethan off to bed when this all starts, so Jon and I have had to divide and conquer and the family dinner that we had become accustomed to with Ethan is now on hold until further notice.



Heading up to MN next weekend to stay with mom and dad. The Rosten's and Kuchynski's will be joining us for a couple of days. I'm so excited to see everyone!

Lastly, a nod out to the Nelson's, who welcomed their new baby daughter, Emelia, in late June! She is so adorable. Ava and Emelia were supposed to be 3 days apart so are close to the same size. I have a great picture of them, plus more of all of the kids, that we snapped over the 4th weekend that I'll upload soon. Stay tuned!

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Introducing Ava Michelle Koelsch

True to form, Ava's arrival was as dramatic as Ethan's. My kids sure know how to make an entrance! On May 9, Ava Michelle was born. She was 33 weeks gestation at the time. Leaps and bounds over Ethan's 26 week arrival, but still very tiny. She was 17 1/2" long and weighed in at 3lb 14 oz. Although little, she is happy and has been doing great. She is spending time in the NICU, but there are murmurings that she'll be home sometime next week.

While Ava came into this world small, but happy and healthy, I did not have such an easy time of things..thus the reason we haven't done a really good job of getting the word out about our beautiful little girl.

On Mother's Day, I started having upper back pain. I originally thought this was from laying in bed for a few days...being on bed rest and all in the hospital. I was up walking around more that Sunday, trying to alleviate the pain, when I started having pain in my rib cage area. Again, not suspecting anything serious, I chalked this up to gas pains from dinner and asked the nurse for something to ease my stomach. As the evening wore on, the pain increased.

I had trouble getting the nurse on duty to help me at all. She would leave my room not quite understanding that I was indeed in pain and needed something. Around 8pm, there was a shift change and the nurse that came on was a bit more concerned and seemed to get that this was no ordinary case of gas. She came in and sat with me and asked a bunch of questions. She was convinced something else was going on. Her first thoughts were that I was in contracting again and possibly having back labor, which I've heard is painful. She called the resident on duty and that's where things started going downhill.

The pain kept getting worse. I had sent Jon home earlier that evening to enjoy a good nights sleep as the couch in the hospital rooms were leaving him sleep deprived. I had to call him again and tell him to come right back in. We weren't sure what was happening, but something was definitely happening. Around 11pm, after 3 hours of pretty horrible pain (about an 8 for me on the 1-10 scale), the anesthesiologist was called and I was able to get an epidural. Sweet relief. I was moved back down into L&D and was hooked back up to all of the  monitors. I was dilated to about 2 cm at the time and contracting. Still, with the epidural, I was able to get some rest and soon fell asleep.

I'm not sure what time it was ...around 3am I think, the doctor on call came in and said he was questioning why I would be having such horrible pains in my upper back and rib cage...something wasn't right with him. He then ordered the nurse to stop the flow of pain medication (!!!!) and ordered labs to be done. I wasn't quite happy about the medication stoppage, but what could I do.

Around 4am, the pain was back and it was back in a big way. Jon was sleeping on his little cot and I had to wake him up just to hold me up in bed. It hurt to lay down...it hurt to sit up. I was able to find a little relief with Jon sort of supporting my at a 90 degree angle. It just kept getting worse...to the point that I started crying. I don't think I've ever cried from physical pain before, but it was pure hell and my only thoughts were that my doctor must be unusually cruel to let me suffer like that.

Finally the labs came back. I had pre-eclempsia. I would have to deliver soon. This was all still ok, as I was in labor. They gave me some pitocen to speed up the process and the doctor finally gave the ok to start the epidural again. Once all was back in order, Jon and I were able to get a little bit of sleep.

All was ok again. My doctor was back on duty that morning, so came in to check on me. She would be delivering and we were on baby watch. The epidural was in full swing. I wasn't feeling as good as I was when Ethan was born. Shell, Jon and I were playing a board game right up until they decided it was go time. I was a little shaky. I was feeling the contractions quite a bit. After a few hours of this the nurse asked me my pain level. I told her a '6'. She said I shouldn't be feeling anything at all and ordered another dose for the epidural to be injected directly. I had no idea. I thought I was supposed to feel something...and really, compared to the pain that I had felt throughout the evening, it was truly nothing.

The extra dose came none too soon. Dr. Belmonte came in and checked and said that I was dilated to 6 1/2 cm and ready to go. She broke the rest of the membranes and things went quickly after that! Ava was born after 4 contractions and approximately 10 pushes :)

This is when things for me took a bad turn. Ava was all good and getting cleaned up. Dr Belmonte and her resident were finishing up with me...things started taking a long time and I was starting to shake. After an hour, Dr Belmonte couldn't get me to stop bleeding. I don't remember much after this as I was in and out of consciousness, but it was determined that I had HELLP syndrome (http://www.preeclampsia.org/health-information/hellp). It can be life threatening and took all of us for a loop. Including my doctor. I'm just very lucky to have been where I was and have the care that I had.

As I mentioned, I'm fuzzy on the details after this. All I know is that around 10pm that evening, I was moved over to the surgical ICU just in case of the need for emergency surgery. It was all very surreal and it's the first time in my life that I actually felt that little twinge of fear that I might not make it.That night, I had 5 blood transfusions, 2 platelet transfusions and 1 plasma. Things stabilized for the most part the next day. I had regained consciousness. Although I couldn't move around, I was comfortable and able to stay awake for short periods of time. My test results were improving, but still not where they needed to be according to my doctors. I had one more blood transfusion and earned another night in the SICU.

By Wednesday afternoon, things were good enough to move me back over to Prentice, where Ava was in the NICU. I hadn't been able to visit her at all, but Jon and Shell were. I was a bit in shock on how little I could move around. It took every fiber of my being to sit up. I wasn't able to get out of bed. Getting back over to Prentice was nice as it was closer to Ava and less serious of an environment as ICU. Although, because things with my liver were still pretty serious, they were not able to give me anything strong enough to alleviate that pain. With HELLP, my liver had hemorrhaged leaving it bruised on two places and a lot of internal bleeding. I ended spending Wed - Fri night in ALOT of pain. It was an awful week to say the least.

By Friday, my liver enzymes had stabilized and all of my labs were trending in the right direction, so they finally ok'd me to have some real drugs for the pain. It was the best moment ever, I do believe, when that first dose starting kicking in. Soon after, I was walking around and able to walk up un-aided, to see Ava. By Saturday afternoon, things were good enough to be released. It's amazing how our bodies can recover. I still have a lot of healing to do...the fluids / blood needs to be re-absorbed by the body and my liver has to heal, but at least I can do this at home and get back to somewhat of a normal life.

Ava is still in the NICU. She is back at her birth weight (3lbs 14oz) and was put in an open crib. She is feeding well and has had no set backs and as mentioned, we could see her home as soon as next week.

Jon and I were not prepared for her early arrival, so have been spending time getting her furniture ordered and putting away all of the cute clothes that we've gotten from our friends for our pretty little girl. Jody had give us 4 boxes of clothes that her girls have out grown. I hadn't realized until Jon started unpacking exactly how much infant clothes can fit into 4 boxes!! Jon went out and bought 120 hangers and we still need more! :)

On Ethan news....he's been at the hospital twice to see his new baby sister. The first time, he liked looking at the 'baby'. But wasn't so happy to see Mom holding her. :) The second time was better and he says her name and says sister a lot. I think the transition will go pretty well overall. He's a pretty laid back kid.

 

We did turn his crib into a toddler bed this weekend! :) I can't believe my little boy is getting so big. He loves it and have had no real issues with this particular transition. The first morning, he was up at 5:30am much to my dismay. The 2nd night, he woke up at 1am and I heard him calling 'down'. I went in to find him sitting in the middle of his room looking sad and lonely. I picked him up with his favorite blanket and we sat in his chair cuddling for about an hour. He had long fell asleep, but it felt so nice holding him, that I didnt' want to leave. When I finally did, I laid him down and he didn't wake up until 7am. Normal time. This morning was very gray and rainy...so no sun. He slept until 7:30! So, all is well. He's such a sweet, good kid.

I'm hoping to be better with the updates this summer as I'm out on Mat Leave. It's already been nice to just focus on family and I plan to take advantage of this time off to spend as much time as possible with Ava, Ethan, Jon and Otis. Our little family is now complete. 

Coming sooner than expected!

On the way home from work on Wednesday night, our little girl decided to make a splash...literally. My water broke. All I could think was 'oh crap, here we go again'. I took the train home collecting my thoughts and putting together lists of what needed to be done. You'd think since Jon and I had been here before (even earlier!), we would be prepared. We weren't. With the move and both of us going through a busy season at work, our attentions have been everywhere but gearing up for the little bundle of joy that's been waiting to make her appearance...which was supposed to be on JUNE 20.

I got off the train and there was my little family, walking to meet me; Jon, Ethan and Otis all strolling my way. Otis goes nut-so to see me. Ethan has this new thing that when he sees me, he raises his hands above his head and squeals "MOMMY"...how can you not love that? Made me smile, although, I knew that our little worlds were about to change.

We walked home and I explained what happened to Jon. We calmly started getting our stuff together; got Ethan in front of Mickey with some Cheerios's and milk and made the call to Miriam to come get Ethan. We were in the hospital by about 8pm.

Things were looking a little dire at first. I started contracting and was having one every 1-2 minutes. They got the steroids out, brought in all of the doctors...My on call OB-GYN, residents, anesthesia, NICU...to explain the situation. We've been here. We knew the drill.

Good news: we are at 32 weeks. MUCH better than 26 with Ethan and a lot less risk of complications. Bad news: still not where you want to be. We were out of the major risks that Ethan faced, but there were still issues on lung dev, jaundice, eating and sleep apnea. With the contractions coming in so strong and being a bit dilated. The bets were on that I would deliver on May 5.

We made it through the night...contracting all of the time but no more dilation. Then, out of nowhere, the contractions stopped at 1pm on the 5th. Thank god! We are currently in a controlled stable state and baby is healthy. It looked like our alternative Cinco de Mayo name "Margarita Patron" was not to be.

Because my water broke, I'm in the hospital on bedrest until I deliver. The goal is to get me to May 16, which I would be 34 weeks. That is when the risks of a higher infection/complications outweight the postives of keeping the baby inside. I am on bed rest until then. Not too long from now. The good news is that I was able to receive all of the doses of the steroids to help speed lung development. From an ultrasound yesterday, the baby's at a really, good healthy weight of 4lbs, 5 oz. and she's active and strong. We're all in good spirits and Jon is spending his free time this weekend running getting everything out of storage and ready for the baby's arrival.

I'm already missing my little man...he's at Grandma's until we give her the word to come back when I start labor. He's in good hands, but it's hard to have him so far away, especially knowing that his little world is going to change forever when he does get home. And my other little man, Otis, is at the Malon's ...getting pampered and will probably never want to come home :) I miss them both. Such is life! And just so long we are all healthy and happy, we're all very lucky and have cause to celebrate!!

Ava Michelle Koelsch should be with us in the next week. We look forward to meeting her soon!

Thanks to all of our friends, family and the amazing people we work for and with. The support that we've received over the past couple of days is overwhelming and lovely. We are so lucky to have such a great support group around us.

We'll keep you all updated!!

Did he really say Mommy?

I was a little sad to come back to Ethan's page and to realize that the last time I posted, there were leaves on the trees, our header read 'summer edition' and Ethan and I were in swimsuits. Where the hell did the last 5 months go? I guess I just completely missed fall.

There is no way that I can give a good update on everything that has happened over the past 5 months. Ethan has turned into a full fledged little boy, where he tells us 'No' constantly and when we ask him why he has done something suspect, he puts his hands up in the air and answers 'Cuz'. I have a perfect picture that sums up how he manages to 'win'. That's the only way I can describe it. He is all energy and runs and runs like the energizer bunny. At some points, I give up. Case in point below, the picture is blurry as I took it with my phone and I really can't get a handle on how to take decent pictures with it, but I think you can get the gist...

Note the defeated dog just lying under the mess, Ethan looking victorious with purple crayon in hand about ready to color my couch. Yep. That sums up a lot.

A lot has actually changed in the Koelsch household since my last post. I've started a new job. It was a big step after being at Avanade for almost 10 years, but I don't regret it for a moment. I'm now working for a marketing agency out of Canada who primarily services the tech industry, with Microsoft being our biggest client. It's been a bit of an adjustment since I was their first full time US employee, but it's all well worth it and the work is rewarding.

We had a great 1st ever family vacation with the Kuchynski's and the Rosten's. Note: I've been vacationing with the likes of Kev, Shell and Pen for years now...and this is not how we usually roll. There were no late nights, long dinners or days wasted at a pool bar somewhere down south of the border, our usual type of vacation. Although, we were able to sneak in a happy hour or two by the lake, it was a lot of chasing two toddlers around and working around nap times. :) I, personally, could barely make it past 10 on any given night. God bless Shelly, who managed to do so and still had energy during the day. I don't know how she does it.

We had Ethan's first real trick or treating adventure and it was a blast. Jody and Keith, being new single family home home owners now (this is a rare thing in the city of Chicago), threw a party and we all met up, let the kids play and then set out in their neighborhood for some old school trick or treating. It exceeded my expectations. 1) they live in a fun, young neighborhood and all the neighbors were out and passing out candy. 2) it was a beautiful day/night, so nice to be outside running around. We couldn't have asked for a better time.

We did a trial run with his costume a couple of days prior and he cried like we were beating him when trying to put it on. We did not think we'd ever get him in it. But mom got creative day of the party... I got a handful of cookies ready and when I brought out the costume and he started to look like he would cry, I offered him a cookie, got his foot in the costume, offered him another cookie, pulled the costume up and got his arms in, another cookie, you get the picture. I was rather proud of myself, once on, he was fine and even let us put the monkey hood up. He was absolutely adorable if I do say so myself.

Ethan and I also made a trip up north to see Grandma and Grandpa. Ethan's first plane ride and my biggest fear; flying alone with a toddler. It went better than I had ever imagined it would, but that was mostly because I was surrounded by mom's and very nice MN women, who helped me 'manage' Ethan. We went in October and had unseasonably warm weather, so got to spend a lot of time outside. We even got Dad out to a Pumpkin Farm. ha! The highlight there was Ethan's cheek to nose encounter with a very gentle, very large horse. The horse was actually nuzzling Ethan. Ethan at the moment didn't seem to care, but everything after that was 'horse-y, horse-y'. Later that night, there were 3 deer in the yard at dusk, so I brought him out on the deck to see them. He proclaimed "HORSEY!" When I said, "No, they are deer", he looked at me with that look only Ethan can give you when he doubts what you say, nodded his head and stated "horse-y". that was that.

Ethan went to two other pumpkin farms in October. That's got to be a record of some sort. The one we brought him to in Chicago had goats. They were a hit.

So, for the biggest news of all in FY10. Ethan is going to be a big brother. :) His sister is set to arrive in late June. Although, he refuses to pay any notice when I try to tell him about it, he'll have to own up to it sooner or later. We're already stressing about our lack of space and may be giving the kids the master bedroom while Jon and I move into Ethan's very small room. But that's ok. We're thrilled. I haven't been feeling well. With the new job and the morning sickness / utter exhaustion, you can understand why I haven't been on top of the posts. A little girl! It's hard to wrap my head around at the moment. Sparkly stuff, I'm ready!

Here we are...right on top of Christmas. We are planning our travel extravaganza, which will take us to Grandma Koelsch's on Christmas Day. She has moved into a new home (exciting!) which is 4 hours away (not so exciting :)). We will then head towards MN for 4 days. Me, Jon, Shell, Ethan and Otis...winter road trip 2010. We have no idea what we'll do next year when we have the new addition to consider...will Shell be sitting in between two car seats with a fat puggle on her lap??? Stay tuned!

Ethan's new stuff: so, so much.We're very proud of him, he knows every letter of the alphabet and can identify numbers 1-14. He's been doing this for a couple of months now and I'm still amazed at how he can easily spout out letters and numbers. He loves watching Wheel of Fortune and will call out the letters. As I mentioned earlier, he's getting sassy with his No's and Cuz's, but it's not anything too terribly horrible. He's a pretty good kid overall. He says thank you  for everything; which is sweet. When he trips or falls, he always yells "I ok, I ok!'. Nice of him to let us know. There was the one time...actually right after the purple crayon picture was taken... that he rolled off the couch onto the floor yelling "I ok!" the whole way down to only whisper under his breath once he hit "Ow".

He loves Mickey Mouse and would watch all day if we let him. With the pregnancy, he probably watches it more than he should, but whatever, how much harm can Mickey do? He knows the whole cast of characters and yells their names when he sees them. 'Bickey! Pudo! Foofy!' it's pretty damn cute. I swear that's where he's learning a lot of stuff...he can identify harder shapes like cones and triangles (ti-agle), diamonds (di-oms)hearts and stars. Gotta love Mickey. And what a long way Ethan has come.

Of course, the biggest thing. He's FINALLY calling me mommy. I've been daddy for months now and out of frustration, started calling him "Brian". Of course, it was all lost on him. But the last two weeks, he's slowly starting to consistently ask for 'mommy' and it's like the best word in the world. Mommy. :)

OOODEN!!!

The annual summer trip to MN has come and gone. I look forward to it starting around February and I'm always sad when it's time to leave. The time goes faster and faster each year. It's harder these days since I have Ethan in tow...in so many ways. Harder to get there, harder to see all of my friends and harder to say good-bye once it's time to leave. Knowing it will be a few months until Ethan gets to see Grandma and Grandpa and a full year until he and Otis can have the freedom to play and run like they do when they are at my parents.

This visit was a good one. We had perfect weather the whole time we were there. Mom and Dad set up a play area for Ethan and we spent every day outside. He even came back with a little bit of a tan! (poor kid has my pale, pale skin). He started the trip a little uneasy on his feet on uneven ground, but by the end of the week, he was running around like a pro. Otis, as always, had the run of the place and went swimming whenever he pleased and foraged through the woods...unfortunately, he brought back a little poison ivy, which I am just recovering from now. I do not remember poison ivy being so horrible when I was little.

I wasn't able to make it to Fargo like I usually do, but Peni, Aaron and Brady all made the trek to Grand Rapids, so we got to hang out with them for a night. I finally got to meet my honorary nephew Brady. What a cute kid! He is the happiest little (well, not so little ;) baby I have ever met. You can't help but smile when he looks at you. Ethan wasn't so sure about having a cute baby around. I mean, he IS the cute baby, right? He looked like such a big kid next to Brady. They grow up fast!

Jon was able to come up for only part of the trip, but since we weren't traveling around MN as we usually do, it was pretty chill and was good quality time. Dad and Jon got to hang out quite a bit and got the boat in the water and brought Ethan for his first boat ride. It was pretty successful, although Ethan wanted to get up on the boat's side to feel the water with his hand. He would have jumped if I wasn't holding him, I swear that kid has no fear.

Jon and I also brought Ethan down to the local beach area one day. I had visions of all of us in the water with Ethan peacefully floating in this very overpriced inner tube type thing that sang songs when the different cartoon buttons were pushed. So, we all loaded in the car for the 4 block drive over. We had every sand toy and water toy that we thought could be possible. Thought is the operative word. We put Ethan in his floaty device and hit the water. Took about 20 seconds for me to get sick of the show tunes blasting from the damn thing and Ethan to want to get out. Why did I think that Ethan would want to sit passively by? Has he ever done this? No.

We pulled him out and took turns trying to hold on to him as he struggled to get out of our arms and figure out the depth of the water all on his own. We were trying to keep his head above water when Ethan looked around and noticed a certain item that we had failed to pack. A ball. Beach balls were everywhere and Ethan wanted one. BALL! BALL! BALL! Crap.  We had no ball. He noticed the buoy's that closed off the swimming area and wanted to get closer, thinking that these were shiny red balls. I saw no harm in getting closer, so Jon carried him out and let him touch it. Not enough. He wanted to take it with him. Needless to say that things kinda unravelled a little after that and my little vision of a perfect family water outing deflated a bit. We managed to stick around for a few more minutes, but the water was cold and Ethan started to shiver, so after just 1/2 hour, we packed up and headed back to grandma and grandpa's house where the pool water was a little warmer and easier to manage....and there were balls.

Ethan's exploding with words these days. Apple, orange, George (as in Curious) and he's finally saying 'momma' (yay!) He has started calling his little bear blanket 'baby' and Otis has been renamed Oden. He likes to tease Oden by carrying 'Baby'  around and calling his name. Otis thinks that he can play with said baby and tries to grab it, which makes Ethan yell at him "Let Go Oden, Let Go Oden!"...all the while laughing. Poor Oden can't catch a break. Oden is also Ethan's newest obsession. If he's trying to sleep, Ethan will try to ride him like a horse or lie on him. I have to say the dog is taking it all very well, even when he got hit by a ladle last night. Poor Oden.

I wanted to wish a big Happy Birthday to Katie Larson. It was her bday early this past week and b/c of one very big storm and a bunch of water at Jen and Tom's home, we hosted her party at our house. It was last minute, but Jon rose to the occasion and ran out to buy purple balloons and borrow glittery floaty things and princess signs from the Nelson's, who just celebrated Madison's 3rd bday a couple of weeks ago. I was pretty impressed with his 3 year old party planning abilities. It was all very urban with no grass for the kids, just a rooftop deck, but they had the pool and a sandbox and I think Katie had a good time. Below is a picture of the pretty birthday girl herself and Ethan trying to sneak in to get a better look at her presents.

So, new Ethan stats. Jon brought him in for his 18 mo check up on Tuesday. He is now32 1/4" tall and in the 50th percentile for his real age, a huge growth spurt! I think it was the MN air. He hasn't gained much weight at all though, he's a skinny kid at 21lbs 3oz. He eats so much, it's hard to believe, but then again, you watch him motor around all day and realize that the kid uses every bit of energy he consumes. He's only in the 5th percentile in this department. No one is worried about this of course. He's doing great as usual and progressing more and more at his real age rather than adjusted.

To end, a little now and then. Mom and Ethan last summer compared to them this summer. My little boy is growing up!

I'm Back!

It's been awhile! So much has happened, I don't even know where to start. It's been a pretty chaotic spring with a lot going on in the Koelsch family. It all kicked off in Feb with a non-stop 3 month work schedule and came to a header in May with Ethan's first fever and an ER trip at 4am topped off by my very own trip to the ER which landed me in the hospital for a few days. We've seen enough drama to last a long time hopefully. We're all happy to lie low for a while and look forward to enjoying the summer season.

So, maybe we do some recent Ethan highlights? The little man is walking, talking and dancing away. He has this way of walking where he raises his feet high and to the side and he puts his arms way back, sorta like George Jefferson. I can't get enough of it. I could just follow him around all day and watch his antics. He is definitely getting into toddler mode. He has started with some separation anxiety and has mastered the skill of wrapping his legs around my waist really tight so I can't hand him off or put him down. Although, at the other extreme, if there is no threat of me leaving him, he will lunge away from me when I am holding him and I am left grabbing frantically for a body part to keep him from slamming to the floor. It's fun.

He has a whole arsenal of words now. Although he's been using words for quite a while now, I'm always thrilled to hear them. He goes through phases where he will start and stop using certain ones, but clearly he has some favorites that has stood the test of time: Fav word number 1: Shoe. Shoe was one of his very first words we could understand clearly and I have no idea why this word in particular stood out for him. Is he taking after his mommy and her love of shoes? Maybe it's because we didn't buy him shoes until he was over a year old and they are novel? Not sure, but he's obsessed. He will go around the house and find shoes so he can say "shoe". He has also started putting our shoes away by the door. I guess it's never too early to teach him some clean up skills. Wish he would start on his toys.

Fav word #2: Cook. When he's hungry, he will yell 'cook!' in which someone is supposed to go to the kitchen and get him something to eat. The grandma's (both Koelsch and Kruse) have found this out first hand and they are not above being ordered to "cook!". He's also got some of the normal toddler first words: book, duck, kitty. He will say daddy, but he won't say mommy, which is driving me nuts because I work on this every morning. I will say it and he will just get quiet and look at me. It doesn't make sense: He can't say mommy, but he'll try to say 'flower', which seems like quite a mouthful? Sigh.

He is also counting :) Miriam got him to do this. When someone says "one", he will yell "two!". We're quite sure he's a genius (ha!). Just this week, I've got him to go to the next level; with me saying 'three' and him yelling 'four!' It's not completely consistent, of course, and forget about him ever saying 'one' or 'three'. My kid is going to count in evens the rest of his life.

We've had several doctor appts since the last blog entry. Ethan is currently at 21lbs. and is just shy of 31" tall. His doctors are still very happy with his growth and development. He's just doing so great. Now Jon and I need to stop adding in "he was 3 months premature" when someone asks how old he is. We're always self conscious that he may look smaller than other (almost) 17 month olds. He probably does, but it's not that sharp of a difference any more and it's time to stop viewing him as such.

The last few months have been tough, but as you can see, we've had some really great moments. My mom came to stay with us when I was sick. It sucked that I had to be sick, but it was great that we got her to Chicago and that we all got to spend time with her, especially Ethan. They had a great time together. After just a small period of shyness, Ethan was crawling all over her and ordering her to 'cook'! She also got a very 'warm' welcome out by our kiddie pool one day. We didn't have any swimmer diapers so Ethan was going commando under his swim trunks. Let's just say, Mom should have been a little more careful when having him sit on her lap. Video link attached above.

Also available on video, be sure to check out the li'l guy jamming out to "Mary had a little lamb". He's got some moves I tell you!

I wish I could fill in all of the fun, cool moments that have happened over the past 3 months.. As he's growing at such rapid pace, I could write for hours and still not capture it all. But there's always another story around the corner, so I'll wrap up here for now.

Note: I'll post a bunch of pictures later this week as well as figure out why my older pictures are no longer showing up. Not sure what I did, but I can pretty much guess that it's user error.