End of 2012 and Beginning of 2013 in Pictures!

Since the last post Ethan has had many many many many milestones!!! We had Christmas which was alot of fun.  We were able to go to Phoenix the beginning of December and see all the family in Phoenix...which is always a great time AND we got to introduce Ethan to his family down in Phoenix.We also got to spend 7 days in Phoenix so we were able to see all the family plus Ty, Rhiannon, and Catelynn (Which is our best friends who live outside Phoenix, and even got to see Ty's parents! It was a great visit. 

We then had Christmas with my family at Ponca State park...it is becoming at tradition for us to rent a cabin at the park and all of us go there for the weekend, play games, eat food, and just hang out...it is always a good time!

Ethan has had several milestones since my last posting! He now has 2 of his bottom teeth (the two front bottom teeth) and he has more coming in--we can see the top 2 front teeth they just haven't poked through yet! He has been a pretty good teether too...mostly just drools ALOT and sleeps :-)

AND Ethan is crawling--ALL over the place :-) We put up a baby gate and he loves crawling from the living room through the dining room to that gate and turning back around and coming back to the living room :-) He is also pulling himself up on everything and loves standing up!

As we head into 2013 I know we will have more milestones to document and I promise to try to be better about uploading pictures and keeping up on the blog! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Ethan and Aunt Melissa having conversations at Ponca State Park

Our Little Blue Teddy Bear--all wrapped up ready to face the cold Nebraska Weather....

First time visiting Santa--In Arizona! He did such a good job!

First time eating Green Beans--Pretty Happy Boy

Ethan LOVED LOVED LOVED unwrapping presents....and then promptly eating the paper...but he still loved unwrapping the presents!

First time trying to feed ourselves with the spoon...he did eventually get it into his mouth! 

Elizabeth with Uncle Pete and Ethan with Uncle Clay -- they LOVED riding on the guys shoulders at Ponca State Park 

We had a Flashback Friday a few weeks ago--Ethan wore his "Charlie Brown" onesie!! 

LOOK AT MY BOTTOM TWO TEETH!! 

Ethan has started coming to my workout with me on Mondays and Kate brings Emma--we do mommy and me workouts so squats, lunges, crunches, with the babies...the kids love it! Here they are playing with the TRX bands and a kettlebell...

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Here is Ethan with his Daddy --- they have the same hair!! 

Pete, Ethan, and Uncle Ty in Phoenix!

 More Pictures from Phoenix and our little family to come!!

Happy 2013

A Year Already

I cant believe it has been a year already.  It seems like just yesterday we were sitting at Gringos with Pete and Grandpa telling you, you were going to be a great grandma! I can still remember everything about that day.  I remember thinking it was extremely odd that dad was calling my cell phone at 3:30 in the morning...and then he said the worst thing ever...grandma is being taken to University Med Center they don't know what happened but it's serious.  Pete and I instantly jumped in the truck and headed to Omaha.  We got to UNMC the same time as Derek, Marta, and Grandpa...after starting in the emergency room and then being told to go to one of the towers we finally ended up on the correct floor...the floor where we would stay for the majority of the day.....that was a year ago...so much has happened in a year...

In the past year we have started a Christmas tradition...of getting a cabin at Ponca State Park and going around the Christmas holiday...last year was our first annual Ponca Cabin Christmas...we are going again this year!

In the past year Elizabeth was born to Melissa n Clay...your first great grandchild...we all knew how much you wanted to be a great grandma...but we know you know this because your are her guardian angel...always watching over her...watching each milestone..which I believe she is almost crawling!! She is 8 months old already! So cute :)

In the past year Ethan was born to Pete and I...your 2nd great grandchild....you are his guardian angel as well...always watching him and his milestones...he wants to crawl so bad!! He will get it soon enough! He is 6 months old today....and getting ready for his first flight to Phoenix in a couple weeks...I know you will be watching over us as our angel :)

In the past year not a day goes by where I don't think how much fun you would be having with these two little babies...when we sit at your house with grandpa and the kids just roll around or sit on your living room floor playing...makes me wish you were physically there with all of us enjoying each milestone our children make.  once again, I know you are always there watching over us and smiling and laughing at us, celebrating each milestone we make or each milestone our children make.

It has been a year of many ups and downs, and I'm sure things will get easier eventually, but your memory will never fade away from us and Ethan will know about his Great Grandma Shirley who was petite but had the largest heart of anyone I know and always had room in her heart to love another person.  Great grandma Shirley who would attend all my chorale concerts and then let me know "that version of Beautiful Savior...I just love the way choir sounds while singing it." I know you will be listening on December 2 when I sing with the choir again and we sing Beautiful Savior again and I will see you smiling like you always did when we sang that song.

Grandma...you are deeply missed but never forgotten! Great Grandma...Ethan may not have physically known you, but he does and will know the amazing person you were and he always know you are watching over him....

I can't believe it's been a year.....I love you Grandma.

First zoo trip

Ethan went on his first zoo trip on Saturday.  We got there around 9, when they open, and left about noon.  Ethan got to see the gorillas, birds, monkeys, giraffes, alligators,  snakes, and part of the aquarium...he was asleep for the other part. Here are some pictures of his zoo trip

Ethan loved the fish..he probably could have stared at them all day...if he wouldn't have fallen asleep!

 

This was after the aquarium! He had a good time...I might forsee a zoo pass in our future! 

ER Visit....

Well Ethan had his first emergency room visit.  To make more sense I will start from the beginning....


Monday night, I picked Ethan up from daycare and the daycare lady mentioned that he was really fussy all day, which hasn't been the norm for him at daycare.  I took him home fed him and we snuggled...about an hour and half later he woke up screaming and crying...but not his normal scream or cry.  I also noticed he felt hot so I took his temperature...99.9...okay slight fever..we can handle this. So we took some cool cloths and put them around his wrist and he fell asleep.  He slept 15 minutes here 15 minutes there but not long .... around midnight he was just screaming again...so unhappy.  So I took his temperature...100.1...okay it has gone up but not too much so I tried cooling him off again and he fell asleep again for about 15 minutes.  At 12:30 he started screaming...and I felt him and believe it or not he was hotter then he was at midnight...so I took his temperature..101.4..okay now we are getting high.  So I woke Pete up and he tried to console Ethan and cuddle Ethan while I called the after hours nurse at the hospital.  She said to give him some baby tylenol drops and that should help.  So we did and about 30 minutes later he fell asleep for about 2 hours.  When he woke up he was in normal Ethan self...temperature normal and smiling and kicking his legs :-)



I took him to daycare and the ladies at daycare said they would watch him and make sure his temperature didn't come back.  So I left and came home and started working.  About 10:00 Tuesday morning, Jen, our daycare lady, called me because his temperature was 102. So I quickly went to daycare and picked him up and decided I should take him to the doctor because he could have an ear infection and if he did I need to get some antibiotics.  We got to the doctors office and they tested him for an ear infection and a cold and both came back normal.  The doctor said that because he is under 3 months of age that a temperature that high is dangerous and they need to find out the reason so they were going to walk us over to the emergency room where they would do more tests.  They asked me if I needed to call someone to be with me at the er...I told them no I should be okay.



We get to the ER and they take his temperature and it is back down to 99.9 and take his little blood pressure and everything and everything comes back normal.  They then tell me they really need to find the source of the fever and why it is spiking so much so they were going to do a chest xray, ultrasound, take blood, and put a catheter in so they can get some urine...once I heard what they were doing I realized I needed someone there...I called Pete and he said he would finish what he was doing and then head to the office, change his clothes, and head home.  In the meantime, our friend Sarah came and sat with me in the hospital.  First thing they did was put the catheter in to get some urine...Ethan just screamed and cried...I knew he was in pain but I couldn't fix it! Once they got some urine they removed the catheter and then let me pick him up...so I picked him up and sang to him and just held him close to me and he calmed down...about 5 minutes later they took his blood...they had to lay him on the hospital bed and one nurse held his arm while the other took the blood--they had to take blood from both arm...Ethan screamed and cried ... and I shed tears as well because my baby boy was hurting and mama couldn't fix him :-(  After they drew the blood I picked him up and cuddled him close to me and just held him and he cried for a little bit and then calmed down and started to fall asleep. 




About 15 minutes later the nurse came to take us to do his ultrasound and xray.  We did the xray of his chest because back in December, Pete became very sick with pneumonia, and they wanted to make sure I wasn't carrying some pneumonia and transporting it to Ethan.  Luckily, his chest xrays and ultrasound came back normal.  They decided that because all his tests came back normal, they were going to give him a shot of antibiotics and let us take him home, but we had to do a follow up with the doctor the next day.  Luckily, Pete had gotten there right after the chest xray and ultrasound so he was able to help me try to calm Ethan down while he got the shot of antibiotics.  Then Pete picked him up and he cuddled right up to his daddy and fell asleep in the hospital room. 



Our follow up appointment with the doctor went well...looks like he just had a virus...I'm sure this is the first of many sicknesses to come and glad that the staff at the hospital took his fever serious...you never know what could happen with your sweet precious child.



Here is a picture i took of Ethan and Pete in the hospital...someone was very happy to see their daddy and just fell right asleep in his arms.  (Not to mention, I was soooooo happy to see him!)

Back to Work..Busy Week!

Well Monday was my first day back to work.  Since I had a c-section I took 8 weeks off of work.  Ethan's daycare is only about 4-5 blocks from the house so that is very nice. 



Monday started off awful! Ethan and I both fell back asleep after my alarm went off about 7:00.  My sister called us at 7:49 am to see how dropping Ethan off at daycare was...well needless to say, THANK YOU MELISSA for calling because that woke up me up.  I quickly changed Ethan and put him in some clothes for the day and drove to daycare.  On the short drive to daycare Ethan was making lots of noises so I just talked with him...I love his littles coos :-) When we got to daycare I was still doing really good...happy about the thought of going back to work and Ethan making friends at daycare.  As I was talking with the daycare ladies in the infant room ... 2 other babies started to cry and as those 2 babies cried it hit me...I wouldn't be there to comfort him when he cries during the day! What is he going to do! I tried very hard to fight back the tears, but low and behold, I started crying.  The day care ladies were so comforting...assuring me it was absolutely normal to cry on the first day because he is your baby and this is your first full day apart etc etc etc....  By the time I got home from dropping him off...I was 5 minutes late to work...5 minutes late on my first day back! ei yi yi yi!!!



I had to run up to the daycare on my lunch break to bring more breastmilk because since I just recently started pumping I'm not producing a ton of pumped milk for Ethan and when I went up there he was sleeping so i didn't bother him :-).  We are now on day 4 of daycare and he is doing awesome! The ladies at the daycare love him and he seems to be doing really good. 



On Tuesday night, Ethan and I went with Great Grandpa Wally to Elkhorn to his sister Helen's house to see my second cousin Allison and her baby girl Ava.  Ava was born about a week before Melissa's baby was born so she is about 4 months old.  It was so fun seeing her with a baby! Allison's sister also had a baby so the 4 of us cousins had babies all at the same time...Allison had her little girl first, then Melissa had Elizabeth, Jennifer had a little girl, and then I ended the "Cousin Baby Boom" with Ethan...I was the only one that had a little boy!

Cousins

Melissa had a little girl in March...so Ethan has a little cousin name Elizabeth Rose that is exactly 2 months older then him.  They are so much fun! Here a few pictures of the two of them!

Ethan Ayer Casarotto