Tough times

Raising a family is definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done! As a little girl I always imagined it would be easy (like eating ice cream!). Not so I'm finding out. Ethan is at that akward stage of tantrum throwing. Even when he asks for something and I give it to him he still off and throws a temper. It's crazy and I'm finding I need a lot more patience with him. Eli is just cute. He is very crabby lately since he is cutting teeth, but all he has to do is smile at me and I melt away.

Where's your....

These words are very popular in our home these days. We are trying to teach Ethan his body parts, his brother, and his favorite toys. So far he has mastered finding his ear and foot, finding brother Eli, Curious George, ball, balloon, shoe and kitty. He also finds things he's not supposed to find as well. These discoveries either lead to mom and dad laughing, scolding, or comforting or the worst... cleaning up unexpected messes at inopprotune times. For example, the day Ethan discovered that pepsi cans stack great and look just like his stacking cups. Yes... Ethan proceeded with this discovery by knocking down the cans as he does his cups with a ton of force. In less then 2 seconds, he went from laughter to crying as the tower can down and pepsi went everywhere!! What a mess we had (right before work one morning!!). We have since put the pepsi cans out of his reach. Regardless of the curiousity that flows through our house right now, the boys are doing great and we continue to be blessed by a house filled with laughter, crying, tantrums and love. Love that we see everyday when Ethan smiles at us and gives hugs to us and Eli (way cute).

Back to work

Back to work is an understatement. These last six weeks have been a lot of work. I'm thinking that returning back to my job at the university will be a walk in the park!! :)Needless to say, the time here at home with the boys (I had both at times) was a fun challenge. I enjoyed seeing how much Ethan has grown and it is always a joy to cuddle and love a new baby. But I must return to the career world in order to provide for the growing family. We are proud to say Eli is now a child of God as well, as we had his baptism a week ago. Raising our boys will no doubt be an interesting endeavor. Can't wait to see what the future holds!

Eli Andrew Novotny

We would like to announce the birth of our son, Eli Andrew Novotny, born January 21 at 4:57 PM, weighs 6lbs 12oz., and 19 inches long. Melissa and Eli are doing well. Enjoy the few photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/mnovotny/EliAndrew

Creative fun

Ethan has continued to amaze us as he develops. His ability to create games out of nothing and mimic our actions is truly remarkable. With these fun activities however, comes the not so fun stuff. Ethan has developed quite a temper when he doesn't get his way. All Michael and I can do is ignore his display of frustration and anger and hope he learns that such outbursts will get him nowhere. He sure has one big personality!! In addition, we are still trying to get him to talk more, but he is not showing much interest. We are trying to sign and talk to him instead, but it is hard for us to remember all the signs and it takes a lot of patience!! Each day bring more amazment and challenges for sure. Walking is improving for Ethan, but he thinks he can run and often finds himself face-planted on the floor. He doesn't like when that happens, but he is still plugging away.

Turning One

Ethan had a simple birthday. He opened a few gifts, ate cake and then the next day took his first steps. What a week for his birthday! We were more excited than he was!! Sweet, simple, messy, and priceless. Ethan was covered in cake, but he sure loved the frosting. Enjoy the pics! We simply can't believe a year has come and gone. Ethan has grown and changed so much.

Busy Boy

Ethan is growing up more each day. He is really starting to look like a young boy instead of our baby. It is great fun to watch him make toys out of nothing, crawl all over the place and babble, squeal, and raise a ruckus. Never a dull moment for us! Ethan now has five teeth - 4 on the top and one on the bottom. He looks kind of silly, but oh well. He favorite thing to eat is cheese. I think he could live on the stuff. Other than that, he is just doing normal baby stuff right now. I cut his bangs a few weeks ago - what an experience. Hopefully we will have pictures up of that soon. Life is busy for us and to think it is only going to get busier!!

Boy Oh Boy...

Boy Oh Boy is only the tip of the iceberg. Ethan is growing bigger, stronger, braver, and Boy Oh Boy is he curious and full of energy! In addition, Ethan is going to be a big brother to a little brother. Boy Oh Boy will we have our hands full in a few months. Ethan is finally teething. At ten+ months, I finally felt his first 2 teeth poking through this morning. He is getting all four at the same time(we have had quite the crabby baby for the past month due to this mouth full coming in all at once). Nothing like getting them all at once. In addition to the teeth Ethan is standing, dancing, clapping and trying to walk along the furniture and behind toys. The biggest challenge for us has been breaking him of the bottle and trying to get him to use a sippy cup instead. We have less than 2 months to accomplish this as the Doctor and daycare make this a goal in the first 12 months of development. What a challenge for Mom and Dad!! We've upload tons of pictures and videos for September and October and we also have the new baby pictures up from the 20 week ultrasound. Enjoy our little ones!! They are growing soooooo fast.

Getting Braver

Ethan is getting a lot braver as he begins to figure out the mechanics of crawling. This morning he became bored with the toys we offered him on the floor in our bedroom while we were getting ready for work. Normally he would just pitch a fit and expect us to give him something more fun to play with, but this morning he up and decided to just army crawl away from the toys and into our hallway. Once there he was confused by the new floor texture, but it didn't take him long to deal with that change and sit up on his butt to explore the hallway, shadows, and the air exchange vent. Once he figured out the air vent made a great "string" instrument, he went to town making music by strumming the vent guard. He then proceeded to use his pacifer as a drum stick on it as well. It was great fun to watch him discover a whole new world outside of the confines of our bedroom this morning. The world seems to be at his fingertips now. What will be his next adventure???

Rolling Rolling Rolling...

Ethan finally rolled over from his back to his belly on July 31st. He now can't stop rolling all over the place. Right now it is his mode of transportation and he is already getting himself into mischief. It will be loads of fun when he puts all his coordination together and starts crawling. We are enjoying watching our son grow up (but it is all going much too quickly). I just want to bottle him up where he is right now and save all these precious moments.
Ethan is also beginning to use sign language. He first word/sign was milk on Sunday, August 9th. I am so excited that he is learning from Michael and I. Can't wait until he learns another word.

Food Rocks!

Ethan is finally starting to love food. It took a while for him to figure out what to do with it, but now he can't seem to get enough. Even though he has proven to be a messy eater (no matter what I try) he continues to chow down on the good stuff. Sometimes instead of eating the food he prefers to pull it out of his mouth in an effort to investigate what I put in his mouth. He then paints a self portrait on himself or the highchair. I'm glad I have patience, because if I didn't I wouldn't find any humor in his mess!

We are happy to say Ethan pulled through his surgery well earlier this month. He is healing wonderfully. Ethan is back to enjoying all that life has to offer him right now.

Parade and Fireworks

Ethan enjoyed his first 4th of July celebration, well mostly. The parade went well until the modern day fire trucks came roaring down the street with sirens blarring. He made it through the guns and old fashion trucks, but not the modern ones. After that he did great until he got tired and had to go take a nap in his stroller. He seemed to like watching all the activity streaming by on the street. That evening we went to see fireworks too. He only cried during the first few but then he got comfortable on my chest and watched the remainder of the 15 minute show. He cried a little at the end too when things got excessively loud again. We have a few pictures from this weekend in our July photos. We also upload a ton more to June. Enjoy our little Ethan!

Growing Tall

Ethan’s checkup went well last week. He got his 3 shots and even though he cried hard, it was pretty easy to calm him afterwards. He grew 2 inches since his 4 month appointment!! We were excited about that because it puts him back on the growth curve. His weight was 16 pounds 2 ounces (also perfect) and we have been cleared to start real food (though I have been trying the rice cereal for sometime). We are to feed him with a spoon twice a day now. This will be exhausting until he figures out what a spoon is and how to use it. He still hasn’t figured it out since we started cereal on Memorial Day evening. But I suppose in time we will all get used to it.

Road Trip

Ethan had his first long road trip this weekend. We spent Friday afternoon through Monday morning with my mom's brother and family in Indianapolis, IN. Ethan had a blast!! He played so hard with the family that he slept hard every night and took amazing naps. We all had a lot of fun! Road trip #1 was a success. Let's hope future ones turn out this well.

Laughter

Laughter is such an amazing drug. Little Ethan sure knows how to laugh it up during the day. I am so addicted to his full belly laugh and amazing smile. If I am having a bad day, I know I just need to tickle Ethan to get that laughter fix. Besides making my day with his smiles and giggles, Ethan has been a busy boy. I can't get over just how fast he has grown and changed. He rolled over from his back to his belly the week of Easter. He hasn't quite figured out how to go from his belly to his back, but in time he will figure that out too. But what he really wants to do is sit up on his own. He tries to lunge himself out of the car seat in an effort to sit up more. It is quite comical. He also is starting to sit up unsupported (though he still seems to be a bit head heavy - he often falls backwards or forwards - but he's getting there).

When it comes to feedings now, he has figured out what the bottle is. He reaches for it with gusto and grabs and pulls until he has it in his mouth. I can't believe he is already holding his bottle on his own!! Daycare is impressed too. His most recent passion is for one of his toy balls. He palms the ball and one hands it around his head. I think he is going to be a football player because he takes the ball in his one hand and can lob it pretty far. A picture of the referenced ball is below. Yes, he pulls the ball off the velcro strap and away it goes.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mnovotny/April2009#5321288267615333314 (the ball is in images 144 and following)
http://picasaweb.google.com/mnovotny/April2009#5321289705111183682 (video)
This video doesn't show the sport side of things - but close enough - we are working on getting a video that shows the pull, palm and launch - STAY TUNED!!)

We are sure having fun with our little guy. I'm so glad the weather is starting to get nice. Many walks are ahead for Ethan!! YEAH!! There are more April pictures and videos. Enjoy!!

Challenges

Michael and I are finding out that there is never a lack of challenges as a parent. Just when everything is going smooth and things are figured out, Ethan will throw a new loop in front of us. Nevertheless, there is definitely no time to hesitate, we've learned to just pick up where things left off and continue on.

We had our first true sickness. Poor Ethan had a 102.6 temp last week. The weird thing is he wasn't crying or fussing. I didn't even know he had a fever. I only checked his tempature because I had been sick. Now I know what a significant temperature in a baby feels like. Learned a big lesson there. Ethan is doing great. Just had a cold get out of hand and it turned into a sinus infection. He's already back to his normal happy and peppy self.

The best thing about this past month is the giggles. The full belly laugh is soooooo amazing. I also enjoy being greeted by a smile when we pick him up from daycare. I now know he truly regconizes us and enjoys our company.

I also can't get over how his interest in toys has changed. A few weeks ago, toys were non-existent to him. Now he can't seem to get enough toys. It's just amazing. Absolutely amazing. In addition to the toys, Ethan has finally found his feet too. He will grunt in an effort to pull his feet up to him in order to grab the toes. There are several pictures in the April album of Ethan and his feet fetish. Pretty cute. We are definitely enjoying watching Ethan grow and develop.

Getting to know you

Well, Ethan is getting to know us and all the great people at daycare. It's hard leaving him everyday, but he comes home happy most of the time so that makes things a little easier. And we try to reconnect as a family on the weekends. I can't belive I have been back at work for nearly a month! There are times life moves way too fast.

Ethan's new thing is playing with his hands. He spends a lot of his time trying to figure out how to shove his whole left fist into his mouth (Michael thinks he is going to be left handed). It's pretty cute and very entertaining. He's starting to smile a ton more too. And the best part.... He is sleeping nearly 7 hours straight at night!!! Michael and I sure love this!!

The adorable red puppy, which we have properly named Clifford, was a Valentine's Day gift from Michael's mom. Ethan took to the soft stuffed animal right away. There a several more pictures with Clifford in our picture gallery. Enjoy!

Parenthood

Ok, so Parenthood has kept me way busy! Haven't had much time to update the blog these past 6 weeks! My how time flies! I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks and I have to go back to work and Ethan to daycare in 2 days. How crazy! Regardless, things have been pretty good for Ethan and I. He is growing so quickly. He has finally outgrown the newborn clothes, but has yet to really fit into the 0-3 month clothes (he is swimming in them). He is technically too big for the newborn diapers, but I have 20 left to use and by golly I am not going to waste those! I will find a way to squeeze his little butt and belly into those diapers (however, I might just have to deal with more messes - oh well). There are always more pictures and videos of Ethan. We try to update each weekend. We are also proud to share that he was Baptized this past weekend! It was such a moving experience. Well, it's back to baby care.

Ethan Michael Novotny

We would like to annouce the birth of our son, Ethan Michael Novotny, born at 1:08pm, weighs 7lbs 6oz., and 19.5 inches long.

Melissa and Ethan are doing well.

Enjoy the few photos

1 week left...

So it seems our little guy is going to continue to be a bit stubborn. My appointment yesterday revealed more good news (3 cm and 100% thinned) - basically I should be in labor so says the doctor, but clearly I am not (bummer). Baby is showing his stubborn side once again just like he did with the photos and hiding his face from us earlier in the pregnancy. Unfortunately, baby's position (way low) and my bladder disease are causing more discomforts, but I am still able to work through it all so far. I am definitely learning more and more about patience these past few weeks.