| Halloween |
[01 Nov 2009|10:26pm] |
I just wanted to post pictures of my cute kids in costumes. Seriously, I almost couldn't handle how cute they were. I'm not sure the pictures of Ethan in his tiger costume do him justice. He didn't want to put it on, so we bribed him with candy and made him put it on. Surprisingly, once we were outside trick-or-treating he didn't take the hood off or anything. We did around 10 houses. He got scared by our neighbors across the street because they dress up with masks and stuff. Other than that, he had fun. He forgot to say "Trick or treat" most of the time, but said "Thank you" every time. He liked giving out candy too. We always have a lot of trick-or-treaters because we live pretty close to an apartment complex. There was one weird/funny group of trick-or-treaters. They were 3 teenage boys and they had a guitar and a laptop. They played music on the laptop and one of them played along on the guitar and they sang a song. They said they were Halloween caroling. I thought it was a pretty awesome reason to give teenagers some candy. :)
The cutest tiger ever. His LSU uncle Jeff should love him in this.
This is probably the best picture of Brandon and Josie we have. She's an adorable bumblebee. Someone called her a butterfly, but seriously it's black and yellow stripes.
The next pictures are for kid size comparisons.
This is Ethan at his first Halloween. He's around 5 1/2 months old. He can sit up by himself.
This is Josie in the same outfit. She is 3 1/2 months old and hasn't rolled over yet. They look the same size. Also, I didn't realize how much they looked alike until we were doing the face recognition thing that Picasa just started. We had it go through all of our pictures and find people. When the pictures are just thumbnails of their faces I have a hard time knowing whether it's Ethan or Josie.
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| Life Update |
[26 Oct 2009|11:10pm] |
I haven't posted in over 3 months, I wonder why. :) Oh yeah, I have a fat little baby and a super active two-year-old. Josie is 3 1/2 months old now. We just got her baptized on Saturday, little Noa's birthday! The priest, whose name is Josef (he's German) kept forgetting her name, which we thought was weird. He remembered the other baby's name (Hailey Virginia) getting baptized at the same time, but forgot hers. He had even made a comment about it when we met with him. Anyway, we chose Josephine for the Joseph thing Brandon has on his side of the family (his middle name, his dad's name, his grandpa's name) and because I've always liked Josie. Elizabeth is for my great-grandma Helen Elizabeth.
Josie is a pretty good baby. She was a lot fussier when she was a newborn; she wanted to be held all the time. Now she's pretty content to sit in her bouncy seat or lay under her activity gym. She's not sleeping very good right now, but she has slept through the night twice (not consecutively and not in a while). She's also a chunky little thing. She weighs 15 1/2 pounds and has fat rolls on her legs. She's moving into the next sizes of clothes faster than Ethan ever did. We think she'll start rolling over any day. Overall, she's pretty awesome.
Ethan really loves her too. He always wants to know where she is and gives her hugs and kisses all the time. He has had a few issues. Lately he says "No feed Josie either" when I am about to feed her. I'm guessing because he knows he doesn't have my full attention and won't get it until after I feed her. For several weeks after she was born he chewed on his fingers, which was really kind of gross. We think it was a nervous habit. Thankfully, he's stopped doing that. He also has some serious separation anxiety going on right now. He cries when one of us leaves to go to the store or something and is worried when he doesn't see me right away. He'll be watching TV or playing in the back room and realize I'm not in there and say "Mommy, Josie" in a scared voice. The other day I had a really bad headache and so I went to take a nap after Brandon got home and he was crying for me even though he knew I was just in the bedroom. Of course, this doesn't stop him from running away or wandering off in stores when we go shopping. He refuses to sit in the cart now, so it takes me twice as long to get half as much stuff as it did before. Ethan is definitely a two-year-old.
He's saying some really funny stuff now though. The other day I was picking up some of his toys and he pats me on the back and says, "Good boy Mommy." My sister wanted him to sit on her lap so she could put on his shoes and he said, "Sit in the Melanie chair." He also adds the word "either" to things he says even when there's not an alternative. "No watch Sesame Street either." "No go to Wal-Mart either." If you then ask him what he wants to do he'll say "Go to Target." :) He does say thank you or thanks at the appropriate times. He'll also say bless you when someone sneezes. He doesn't quite get please yet though.
He still really likes the alphabet, and knows all the sounds the letters make and can name a word or two for every letter. His new obsession is shapes. He knows them all and has several wood puzzles with shapes. If he wants a certain puzzle, he asks for it by naming all shapes in it in order. "Want circle square octagon oval pentagon triangle rectangle puzzle." He does this to ask for certain DVDs to watch too. He names all the characters on the cover instead of the title. "Watch Thomas James Percy and Emily." This can get a little annoying when he says it 40 times in a row. Another thing he is very into right now is Thomas the train. He knows their names, their colors, their numbers, and the theme song. It's funny when he sings it. We know what he's trying to say, but most people would understand maybe 3 words of it. The TV show is not very entertaining. I actually enjoy watching Sesame Street and Super Why, but Thomas is pretty boring and very British (sorry Zo). Ethan loves it though. I know way more about those trains than I want to.
Here are a few favorite pictures:
You can see a few of the fat rolls on her legs.
Josie and I at the State Fair. I love the little ears on her hoodie.
Ethan at the Arboretum. He tried to bite several pumpkins.
Family picture at my cousin's wedding. Look how skinny Brandon is! It's crazy.
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| 12 Days and Counting (probably TMI) |
[25 Jun 2009|10:17pm] |
I am so ready to have this baby. I am now 37 weeks which is considered full-term. I'm sick of wearing the stupid support hose for the varicose veins. I'm sick of having heartburn every day. I'm sick of having to pee 20 times a a day (this is probably not even hyperbole). I am very ready not to be a hot, sweaty mess all the time. Being 9 months pregnant in the middle of a serious heat wave sucks total ass. The only place I am comfortable in our house during the day is our living room. I can sit on the couch with the air conditioning vent blowing directly on me and the fan on super high. Even then, I usually wake up sweating when I take a nap. Everywhere else in the house, I start sweating after a few minutes. Going outside of the house without sweat dripping down my face is pretty much out of the question. Seriously, I am looking forward to having surgery and being in the hospital. I know I will probably throw up a few times because of the anesthesia. I will have no privacy. I will have to eat a liquid diet for a little while. I will be in some pain and the first few days of breastfeeding kind of suck, but it'll be better than this. Especially since I'll have the baby, which pretty much makes up for everything.
My C-section is scheduled for Tuesday, July 7 at 2:30 p.m. unless someone else goes into labor before that so we can move up the time. It's going to be awesome. :)
I had considered trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after Caesarean), but we ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk. The main reason I was wanting to do the VBAC was so I could pick up Ethan. Plus, the more C-sections you have, the more dangerous future pregnancies may be. The primary reason not to try the VBAC is because of the 1% chance of uterine rupture. It is small, but usually results in the baby having some serious problems. My doctor was actually really good about not trying to influence me either way. I finally asked her what she would do. She said that she has been around long enough to see a rupture and it's just not worth it to go through the entire pregnancy and have that happen. She had a C-section with her daughter and would schedule one again. I told her why I was thinking about it and she said women with vaginal births can have just as long a recovery time if they have tearing and stuff. Since I didn't have any problems with my previous C-section, I decided to go ahead and schedule another one.
I've been trying to buy stuff that I'll need for when the baby is here. We have most of the stuff we need since we're just going to re-use the crib, bouncer, etc. that Ethan used.
- My sister bought me this for my birthday. It says on the website that you can start wearing it in the hospital but since I didn't wear my own clothes until I left last time, I probably won't start using it until I get home. Kristen, I'll have to tell you if it works.
- Brandon's parents came for Father's Day so I was able to go nursing bra shopping without Ethan. I think I will probably be wearing my old ones for the most part, but the sleep bra I had is not really wearable anymore, so I bought 3 new ones. These are very comfortable and require no thinking in the middle of the night. Also, you can't really buy day bras until you have the baby and know how big you will be.
- I also bought this because the lady at the store said they had several moms try it and it saves about 2 ounces, especially in the beginning. You basically get a bottle without having to pump.
- I also bought a new Brest Friend since the foam in my old one was starting to disintegrate.
Finally, in case y'all were wondering, this is what I look like 37 weeks pregnant. I took these pictures this morning.
Kind of blurry side view.
Front view.
Side view from about a month ago, pre-haircut and much smaller stomach.
Now I just have to wait and try not to die from the heat.
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| Birthday pics |
[21 May 2009|03:05pm] |
We just put up pictures from Ethan's birthday on Picasa. We're waiting for Brandon's mom to put up her pictures too. Most of the ones we took were of the cookies and cake I made. :)
The cookies were a hot new project on Craftster for a few days. Yay! Also on the Craftster homepage if you click on the Memorial Day crafts, you will see a picture of my picnic cake from last summer.
Ethan had a ton of fun at his birthday party. We had three other kids here (all kids of people from Brandon's office), ages 3, 2, and 1. Ethan and the 2-year-old girl played the most together. It's so cool that he plays with other kids now. They also look a lot alike for not being related at all, same hair color, eye color, etc. She's the little girl in the pictures from the party. We didn't get pictures of the other kids.
I was super happy that Ethan seems to like the present we gave him a lot. We got him a toy shopping cart with play food. I have been wanting him to have one since before Christmas. I'm also glad he likes it because it's seen as more of a "girl" toy. He has also been noticing babies (real and toy) a lot more lately and I would love to get him a doll. As of now, the only thing he lets ride in the toy shopping cart seat is Elmo. :)
New Ethan Developments: One thing I was super anxious about was moving Ethan out of his crib and the nursery into his big boy bed and room. He never tried to climb out of the crib and he actually wanted us to put him in there just to play. We moved the bed in our guest room (Ethan's new room) against the wall when Brandon's parents were still here and put ABC sheets and a bed rail on it. We kind of took apart the crib (our pediatrician's suggestion) and gave Ethan a little step stool so he could get in the big bed easier. His first night in the new bed was Monday. He went right to sleep with no problems. I thought nap time the next day might be different, but again he went right to sleep. Brandon and I are so happy that he likes his new bed. We thought he might try to come out of the room, etc., but he seems to accept the new bed as being just like his crib.
Something else he learned to do after his birthday party weekend is spell and say his name. We have been spelling his name out for a while, with the book I made him and with alphabet magnets and such. I was putting him in his car seat to go to the playground and he started saying E-T-H-A-N, Ethan. Seriously, he's the best kid ever, at least until I have two best kids. :)
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| "Time Square can't shine as bright as you" |
[04 Apr 2009|10:12pm] |
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This post can also be titled "Ethan is awesome." :)
Ethan is starting to talk more though he still doesn't say a lot. He loves letters and numbers. He can say the whole alphabet and count to 10. Some of the letters and numbers aren't quite clear, but we know what he's trying to say. The letter O is still his favorite; when he gets to it he gets louder and draws it out more. I'm guessing he likes them so much because of Sesame Street. He gets super excited when the letter and number of the day come on. I'm planning to do a Sesame Street birthday party for him, with a big Elmo cake, and maybe letter and number sugar cookies. It will probably be on May 17 if anyone wants to come. He also likes Wheel of Fortune (it has letters and clapping, what more could he want?). Brandon was a big Sesame Street kid who would say only letters and I apparently watched Wheel of Fortune a lot, so I'd say he's our kid. :)
Along with the alphabet, he has also started singing songs. One of his favorites is "Hey There Delilah." I have it on a mix cd and on the way home from Mardi Gras, he started singing part of the chorus. Instead of "Oh what you do to me" Ethan says "Ohhhh me" and he sings the Ohohoh part at the end too. When we get in the car he points at the CD player and says "Oh Me, Oh Me" until I play it. :) We have also taught him to like Jason Mraz. The first song on his latest album, "Make it Mine," has clapping in the middle and Ethan claps along. He also sings the EIEIEO part of "Old McDonald" and something close to "Row Row Row Your Boat." One song he can actually sing most of the words to is "C is for Cookie." We have a little music player book thing that plays that song and he knows how to make it play over and over.
One of his newest favorite words is apple. Anything that can be eaten and remotely looks like an apple is also an apple. We have oranges and apples in our fridge, both called apples. When we call an orange an orange, he insists "apple." :) The other day we ate at a Mexican restaurant and he called a jalapeno an apple. So far the only fruit that isn't an apple is a "nana."
Other funny stuff he does: He can reach into the silverware drawer and get out all the silverware. He loves getting out the spoons. We find spoons all over the house. The other day he had objects from 5 different rooms in his room, which included pillows, mixing bowls, trashcans, and toys. He loves cups with straws. If you get a drink with a straw, you better be willing to give him some or have one for him too. We bring a straw cup with us to restaurants now and fill it with water so he won't go nuts. He loves being in his crib. He will pull and push me to get up and follow him to put him in it. He'll stay in there for long periods of time just playing with his blankets and talking to himself. It worries me a little since we're planning to move him out of it after his birthday.
Ethan saying the letters that I wrote down the sidewalk.
 Ethan sitting by our neighbor's flowers. The only reason he is sitting still and smiling at the same time is because I was getting him to count to ten.
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| Ficklet #2 |
[03 Dec 2008|09:20pm] |
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So, my dad kind of outed me to my friend from high school, who then outed me on Facebook. I was going to wait until after the second doctor's appointment, but anyway, we are expecting Ficklet #2. I am about 8 weeks along, and due July 12, so we could have an anniversary baby. A few of y'all know that I had a miscarriage in July (at 6 weeks gestation), so we are super excited about this. The nausea super sucks right now, but other than that, I'm doing fine. :)
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| Cake!! |
[08 Nov 2008|10:01pm] |
I realized that I haven't posted pictures of a lot of the cakes I've made. So unless you stalk me on Craftster, you won't have seen them. Most of these I made for my cake classes. I'll start with the most recent.
( LOTS of pictures. )
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| Meme (basically I go on about Ethan for a long time) |
[06 Nov 2008|11:09pm] |
High School? College? Working? Really, none of the above. I work at home, being Ethan’s mama. This is the first job I’ve had where I feel happy 99.9% of the time and I actually feel like I am doing a pretty good job. I love staying at home. I just could not handle it if someone else got to be the one that picked Ethan up when he falls, or was there when he did something for the first time. Some days are hard. Stupid Daylight Saving Time messed up Ethan’s schedule so he’s been getting up an hour earlier than he should, so he’s cranky until after his nap. I miss seeing and talking to people other than an 18-month-old whose vocabulary consists of 5 words (that we understand). One thing I loved about grad school was just talking to all the other people who had a lot of the same interests. I have met a lot more of our neighbors, but none of them are really people I can have deep conversations with. I need to find a playgroup or something for him, but it’s hard for me to just walk up and talk to other moms. I do get out a couple days a week. We go to story time at the library and the playground next to it on Tuesdays and Gymboree on Wednesdays. What do you want to be if you're not already working as it? I sometimes feel like a hypocrite still saying I want to do the librarian thing when I haven’t made any effort to accomplish that goal. I still think that’s what I will want to do when I’m not a stay-at-home mom anymore. I did want to do the editor thing (like Cara), but when I tried to find a job doing that, it didn’t work out too well. Also, like Cara, I am into crafty things. The cake decorating thing is fun. I don’t know if I’d want to do it full-time, but I love doing what I have time for right now. I have gotten paid to make some cakes, which is nice. I like finding new things to make for Ethan. I look on Craftster and other sites all the time. Right now, I want to make him a snake, a chalk mat, and an advent calendar. I don’t think I’d ever want to do a business type of thing for this stuff, but crafting is fun. Relationship with your parents? This question will be so boring compared to everyone else. I have a great relationship with my parents. I talk to my mom a lot and she comes to visit whenever she can. She has to travel to Austin and other places in Texas for her job, so whenever there is a stop in Dallas, she comes on Friday and stays the weekend. I don’t talk to my dad as much, mostly because he does not like to talk on the phone. Though, he actually just got a cell phone (seriously, this is amazing), but I think he mostly wanted it for emergency type things. They have always been supportive. Any kids? Ethan. Seriously, the best thing I have ever done in my life. I’m glad other people think he’s perfect too. I love that you can see his personality so much now. He is the opposite of me (and Brandon) in that he loves being outside. If he’s whiny, I tell him we’re going outside and he’ll be at the door waiting or finding my shoes. He loves Sesame Street (one of the things I feel guilty about is letting him watch TV). Elmo is one of the 5 words he says (along with mama, dada, up, and nana [banana]). He also does a cute thing where he imitates Cookie Monster. We have it on video, but haven’t put it on the internet yet. He loves books (which I am sooooo happy about). For a while, he would only sit still for touch and feel books, now he’s into lift the flap and anything with Sesame Street characters. Lately, he’s been into climbing on things. He learned how to climb onto the kitchen chairs to get stuff off the table and climb onto the couches. Tonight, he climbed onto his Lego table. He is a little shy around new people, but will smile at them forever. He loves to open the refrigerator and “help” do the laundry. I could go on and on forever. Brothers or sisters? Melanie is 26 and we have always been pretty close. She lives an hour away and comes to see us basically every weekend. She is the tomboy to my girly girl. She is a successful physical therapist and crazy athletic (who I am jealous of because she now wears a size 4). Eric is 20 (Brandon thinks he should still be 12, the age he was when Brandon met him). He goes to Angelo State University. I mostly talk to him when he wants my help with an English paper. J Any pets? The turtles, who Brandon keeps threatening to kill since he feeds them and cleans their tank. Mel has a dog that comes with her every weekend, but she stays outside unless it is too cold or raining. Maybe someday I will let go of my OCD issues enough to get a dog, but not anytime soon. I would really prefer a cat, but I’m allergic. Dating anyone at the moment? Brandon and I have been married for 4 years and together for 8 ½ (we are old). Religion, do ya dig it? Yeah, still a practicing Catholic. Though we usually don’t make it to church for Holy Days of Obligations, we go every Sunday. Right now, we don’t get as much out of church as we used to because we sit in the cry room with a toddler who just wants to run around, but we think it’s important to go. I don’t pray as much as I did when I was in high school and college, and I try to work on that. Something everyone loves that you hate: This is hard. Umm, I don’t like Nicholas Cage and don’t understand why people think he should be in action movies. I don’t like sour candy at all, and I don’t like things that are sweet when they should be salty (putting pineapple on pizza, for example). Something else I’m not a fan of is the Leapfrog reading system where the kid points to a word to hear it while he’s reading. This just seems like a way for parents to be uninvolved and for kids to take the lazy way out and not try sounding out the words. Something everyone hates that you love: Hate and love are too strong. I love reading romance novels, but a lot of other people like those too. Wal-Mart? I like candy Sweethearts and black licorice, which most people don’t like. Something a lot of people are into you're indifferent about: I’ll agree with Kristen and Cara, politics. I did vote on Tuesday, but it doesn’t interest me a lot. Also, designer things. I really don’t care about having a designer purse or clothes.
Something different about your online self and your real life self? I have more friends online. I talk to Breanne on the phone every few months, but other than that I don’t really talk to anyone besides Brandon, Ethan and my family. What are or were you teased about most in high school? Or are you the one doing the teasing? Definitely not the one doing the teasing. Probably just being a general nerd. I was teased more in elementary and junior high, but not to a great extent. I was quiet and people left me alone for the most part. It was more like I was left out for not doing things like getting drunk and driving around town. Though I still feel awkward around the “popular” girls. One of them asked to be my Facebook friend today, so that’s kind of weird.
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| Craftster Awesomeness! |
[10 Jul 2008|10:53pm] |
Since I did the Memorial Day cupcakes, I've been making other cakes using similar methods. Brandon's boss asked me to make a cake for his wife's birthday, which was the day after mine. So that week, I made two cakes. I used mine as a practice for the one I was getting paid to make. 
This is the one I made for his wife. Here's the link if you want to read more about both cakes.
After I made this cake, Brandon's boss thought it would be great if I could make a cake for the HGA picnic the following week. The minute I thought about picnic and cake, I wanted to put ants carrying off food on the cake.
This was my ants at a picnic cake. Everyone loved it. Everything on the cake is edible and made with a combination of cake, candy, and lots and lots of buttercream frosting. I posted this to Craftster, where I post everything I make. They just chose it as one of their featured projects. There's a link to it from the main page of Craftster. This is super awesome.
Here's a screen shot where you can see one of my little ants. Here's the link to the whole post if you want to know how I made it or want to see more pics.
Since I'm posting these, I'll talk about my other projects on Craftster too. I talked about the cupcakes, which are on Craftster, but I have also sewn a lot of other stuff. They're posted from newest to oldest.
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| Memorial Day goes well with cake |
[27 May 2008|03:06pm] |
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For Memorial Day, our neighborhood association had a picnic. We were supposed to bring a side dish. I decided that this would be a perfect reason to make more cake. :) For those of you that look at our picasa web album, I made lots of cake for Ethan's birthday. I took the Wilton course 1 class to learn some things and wanted to take the next course, but there weren't enough people. The people at Brandon's office were enjoying my cake class since I sent the cake I made every week with him to work. As long as I was going to make cake for Memorial Day, Brandon said I should make some for his office too.
( This is how I ended up making 24 cupcakes and 50 mini cupcakes this weekend. )
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| I Choo Choo Choose You!! |
[14 Feb 2008|11:57am] |
Happy Valentine's Day!
Nine-month-old Ethan now has six teeth, four on top and two on bottom. He started grinding them together, which the doctor said was normal, but freaks everyone else out. :) He has gotten brave a few times and stood by himself for a few seconds before grabbing back on to something. We're trying to use some baby sign language. I think he recognizes the sign "drink" which we use when we give him juice. He had fun at Mardi Gras, even though he slept through several parades. He's so much fun.
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| My Boys :) |
[13 Sep 2007|05:21pm] |
This is my new favorite picture:
We went to the doctor yesterday for Ethan's 4 month check-up. He had to get four shots. :( He now weighs 14 pounds and 9 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. He is in the 50th percentile for weight but the 90th percentile for height. He really is the best baby ever. He has such a happy personality and smiles all the time. Now we are getting him to giggle more, which is seriously the best sound I've ever heard. He rolls over constantly so we think he'll be an early crawler. I can't wait to see what new things he does every day, but at the same time I miss the sweet little baby he used to be. He'll be so much bigger when some of y'all get to meet him for the first time at the wedding, but he'll still be super cute. Everybody should have an Ethan, they're great. :)
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| Lechnerd on Jeopardy |
[08 Jun 2007|10:48am] |
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I've been watching Jeopardy almost every day since I'm usually feeding or holding Ethan when it's on. Yesterday when they were introducing the contestants, I thought the middle girl looked very familiar. Then they said her name, "Susan Mitchell, a graduate student from College Station, TX." She's one of the other two Susans who lived in Lechner. She won yesterday, so she'll be on again today. There's a picture of her on the show's website. Maybe I'll post again about something more important soon. :)
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| Baby Shower Pictures |
[12 Mar 2007|11:41pm] |
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I just wanted to post to say thanks to everybody who drove in to come to the baby shower. Brandon and I thought it was fun and enjoyed seeing everybody. I thought the games would end up being super cheesy, but Mel did a pretty good job of making them fun. Thanks for all the cute baby stuff.
We uploaded the pictures of the shower, the nursery, and putting the turtle baby in all the new stuff we got. :) We're weird. The link to those pictures is: http://picasaweb.google.com/brandonfick .
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