On The Move...

Well, he's done it! Ethan has finally taken his first steps! He was so close before he got sick, but then things got thrown back a bit.. But now - the wait is over! And he wasn't messing around, either! He was over by the TV, turning it off and on {his new favorite activity} and then just turned around and started walking to us on the couch - about 10 feet away. He didn't quite make it, but he got a good 2-3 feet before he fell down.. And that was with his sleep sack on! {The time change kind of messed up his schedule, so we had just gotten him out of bed after deciding he wasn't going to give in}. Then he crawled the rest of the way over to us, said hello, crawled back to the TV and started all over again. We eventually got the sleep sack off, and he was much more successful.. Check it out:

Croup...

...he does not have.. An ear infection, he does.. :( I was really paranoid about ear infections ever since he was born after hearing horror stories from friends.. well - now I know, and boy am I glad he waited this long to have one! I've basically been up since 2:00 this morning and have only slept for an hour or so.. Ethan has done the same.. only difference: He's been screaming his guts out 90% of that time.. But we got his antibiotics today, and hopefully things are on the up and up.. Off to bed now... maybe when I'm more awake I'll give more details.... :)

Long Time No See..

I know, I know.. it's been like 20 years since I've blogged, and this is going to have to be quick.. Kind of like journal writing, there's no use trying to catch up, just start where you are and do better.. and I promise I'll try to do better... :)

I'm still scrapping like a crazy lady. To see some of my pages, go HERE or HERE. I've started selling again, which is very exciting.. I've even made enough in the two weeks since my store opened that Alec is a little less upset at how much time I spend on the computer.. but only a little.. ;) Visit my store HERE. My scrapbooking blog has some freebies on it, as well... But since I know all ya'll I'm sure I could hook you up with some free kits, too.. ;)

Alec is still having a good time in school.. He's working on a show this month for a professional theatre here in town, so that's fun for him.. And he'll also be going to South Africa in about a month to start some preliminary work on a show they'll be doing there next year.. You'll have to ask him for the details - I always seem to get it wrong... :(

Ethan is as cute as ever.. He turned one at the end of January - I can't believe it! - and he's still a "big boy"... at 26 lbs 14 oz he's in the 91st percentile for weight, and 31 inches puts him in the 80th percentile for height. No wonder he started wearing 12 month clothes 4 months ago and now has moved on to 18 month clothes! ;) He's not quite walking, but close. He does really well when we're holding both of his hands, but he usually will only let Alec get away with only holding one hand.. It's been warm enough here (upper 60s to mid 70s) that we went to the park a couple of times last week.. It's really close to our apartment - not walking close, but close enough - and there's a kiddy section and a big kid section, so Ethan can crawl around and play without getting trampled by the older kids..

I've been trying - not very successfully - to do the 365 Project. Basically you take one picture every day and scrap it.. I started out doing it for both Ethan and then just general stuff - what we had for dinner that night, etc - but it hasn't worked out so well.. Mostly I just forget to take the stinking pictures.. Oh well.. The result has been a lot of great photos to scrap with. Here are some of my faves from the last month or so...

Well - I guess that's really all we've been doing.. And like I said, I'll try to be better at blogging more frequently (sorry Mom and Dad)....

Merry Belated Christmas!

Ok - I know, I'm like 500 years late with this post, but somehow I just let things get the better of me and choose to scrap instead of blog... Funny how your hobbies end up taking over your very being.. ;) {And Alec's been home, so we've been taking advantage of the unprecedented amount of time we have together... cleaning, reorganizing, and just hanging out.}

So... We let familial guilt and duty get the better of us and went to Utah for 10 days. Luckily, we were able to convince Alec's dad and brother to make the long and treacherous drive up from Arizona, so we were able to see everyone in one trip.. It was a whirlwind! But let me tell you - as much as I love our families, vacationing with the wee one is not a vacation! {As I'm sure many of you could have told me..} There was just SO much to explore in these new places, and hardly anything was childproofed, and he didn't sleep well, which means we didn't sleep well, and he wanted our attention, but so did so many other people and things.... But it was nice to see everyone. :)

And now, without further ado, a few pictures from the trip:
{In reverse chronological order, because blogger is weird}.

Ethan's new car

Opening presents.. He didn't really get this whole convention..
The fact that there's a smile on his face is purely coincidental...

Chillin' with Dad

Hangin' with Grandma
Cousin Savannah helping Ethan open presents

Just hangin' out.. Why he has pink and she has blue, we don't know.
It just worked out that way...

At the Polar Express

Polar Express again - good times were had by all...

Tuckered out after a quick trip for some last-minute (i.e. didn't want to pack) gifts.

I got to meet some of the girls on my creative team {scrapbooking} in person!

This horse belonged to me {or Erin, depending who you ask} when we were little.

Last time we were in Utah, Savannah wanted Ethan to play with her so badly... Being 4 months old, he just didn't get it... She was much happier with him this time around. And he's SO social, so he was pretty pleased with her, too.

Chewing on keys with his second cousin Jonah, who is about a week younger than Ethan.

Ethan LOVES his uncle Austin. They were bouncing buddies for the whole trip! Every time Ethan saw Austin, he would start bouncing and would become really upset if Austin didn't bounce back.. These episodes would go for 5 minutes at a time or more...

The first night we were in Utah, we were lucky enough to have a quick visit with Alec's grandpa before he left town. So we took the opportunity to get a four-generation picture.

Well - that was our Christmas vacation.. I hope to be back soon with some news of what's been going on since then.. Also, if you'd like a little family letter (in lieu of a Christmas card) from us, I'll be sending those out sometime after Ethan's birthday at the end of this month. Email me your address, and I'll put you on the list.. Those of you who sent us Christmas cards don't need to worry - I already saved your addresses. {amberdawnlabau@gmail.com}

Quick Catch-Up

Ok - so it's been ages since I've posted... (sorry about that) ... Things here have been going well.

Alec has managed to finish his 3rd semester of grad school and is still alive. He's officially half-way done and feels pretty good about things. However, he's pretty much been running on fumes since Thanksgiving. He had a show that opened a week after the holiday and was super busy getting that all together. It was a series of 6 one-acts, so he had 6 times the people to deal with and meetings and it was kind of hairy for a while, but he worked it out. Then he went straight into finals week. And of course all the time he spent on the show was time taken away from projects and papers and whatnot, so he was busy still. On average, the earliest he's been home in the last month is about 2 in the morning... sometimes as late as 5. Poor kid. Oh well - it's all over now. :D

I've been keeping busy with Ethan, who is getting more and more mobile and more and more into everything. He's definitely mastered getting up on his knees, and just yesterday began consistently pulling himself up to standing at the only piece of furniture short enough for him - the tv stand.. Lucky him. Although the last few times I've gone to get him after naps, he's just standing there waiting for me.. Too cute! :D He's also developed a new sleep schedule, which means he doesn't go bed now until around 8:30 at night, but still wakes up around 8:00 in the morning. However, he doesn't wake up for a night time feeding anymore, which is nice. :)

You'd think with all of the sleeping he's doing I'd be getting lots of sleep, too. Not the case. I'm just SO addicted to this digital scrapbooking business - it's kind of ridiculous. I've been releasing a kit about every week, as well as doing pages for my own books. I'm currently selling at one online store and will be adding another in January. From the time Ethan goes to bed, I keep myself up until at least midnight every night with it.. But I love it, and so I'm ok with that .. Besides, we're more "night people" anyway..

Here are just a few pictures from the last month or so...

This is what it looked like outside when mutual was cancelled last week due to weather - with one exception. This picture was taken the morning after, and there is more snow on the ground than the night before. Sometimes I really miss my Utah snow... and I hear there's been a lot of it lately!

This is how Ethan prefers to spend his diaper changes. Trust me, it's a real thrill!

But he's just so darn cute, you can't get too angry with him...

A few weeks ago I was doing some organizing and needed to open the box of preemie-3 month clothes, and thought I'd take this quick picture. That little blue sweater was too big for him until he was about 2 months old. This green sweatshirt (size 12m) is now on the verge of too small.. Wow, how time flies!Ethan decided to help me re-pack the clothes boxes, and here's a page I made with some of the pictures. The {free} kit I used is Beach Bum by Digi-Designs by Nicole, and you can get it here.Now that Ethan is starting to be up on his feet more - and since it's cold, and since we have hardwood floors that are very slippery for stocking'd feet - we got Ethan his first pair of shoes. Mind you, it's not really the first pair, but his feet are "thick" from top to bottom and didn't fit into any of the shoes he was given :( so we had to spend a little extra and get some "real" shoes.. Here he is showing them off with his proud papa.

Well, that's about it for us.. We'll be in Utah for about 10 days later this month and will try to see as many of you as we can... However, we convinced Alec's dad to meet us there instead of going to AZ as well, so we'll have 2 families to visit with in a short amount of time, so no promises. Also, we won't be sending out Christmas cards this year, instead I hope to do something around Ethan's birthday at the end of January. So if you'd like one, send your address to: amberdawnlabau@gmail.com. Have a happy holiday! :D