Have We Turned a Corner??

Last weekend the 3 of us went to NY to visit my parents for a few days. It's a 5 hour trip usually. We've made it in 4.5 hours before and 8 hours before. Obviously the traffic plays a role and now Ethan plays a role. I'm not sure if he is just growing up and if he just had a few good days, but the drive up and back was almost enjoyable. As enjoyable as sitting in the car can be. Ethan of course talked but spent a bunch of the time just being cute. He was watching video's, singing songs, and eating snacks he usually doesn't have. The attached video wasn't from the trip to NY, but basically that is how he was. That will certainly make my summer a tad more enjoyable with trips to NY and Butler, PA planned.

Our First Little Town

I am not sure why this is such a big deal to me. I guess it just reminds me that my baby isn't going to stay a baby for ever. I mean he is a very active little boy... I know this.. However, watching him today on the ground playing with his new little spiders brought a tear to my eye.

We had to go to the BX to get diapers and wipes and a couple other things. AS with each trip to a store Ethan knows that being a good boy while mommy shops equals some little new toy for him in the end. At Walmart and Target it is almost always a new Monster Truck. That is when they have one that he doesn't already have. The BX doesn't carry Monster Trucks or Hot Wheels (The nerve of them) so it usually is just some generic car or something. Today he saw this little package of bugs and asked if he could have those. First, they were only 99 cents, and second, something new and different. He got a quick yes from me!!! As soon as we came home we opened them and he took them around the house to "show them around" he said. Then he laid in the entryway and made "their town" for them. He stayed there for just about an hour talking to them, moving them around and just playing... Sure he plays with a million other things, but that is always loud busy play. With this he just say there and quietly played..

The baby kitties are doing fine. We still see them 100 times a day, but at least now when we see them they are almost always doing something. All of them have opened their eyes and seem to being doing very well. Last night we put a blanket down and took them out of their box so they

could have some room to move around. I guess they are used to being very close to each other because they just wanted to crawl on each other and stay. All 4 are there. Pita Mommy seems to be doing great also. I think she is enjoying the nice warm garage and all the love and attention. Even I will admit that I will be sad to see ALL of them go!!!!! There is conversation in the house about how cute the orange one is. Yes, it is very cute and I have always wanted an orange kitty. However, now is not the time or place!!

Some Forgotten Footage!

Ethan loves to watch videos of himself. We were going through them and I came across this one in particular I had to share!!!

Twinkle Twinkle

A Christmas Present that gets used a lot!!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa

There is nothing that excites Ethan more than receiving his own mail.... We had a "situation" a
few weeks ago when someone in the house received a big envelope from Grandma and Grandpa. Ethan insisted that there had to be something in there for him.. After opening the package up and seeing it was filled with Aunt Coco's mail and nothing for Ethan he proceeded to throw himself on the floor and have a 20 minute tantrum. (Grandma and Grandpa have been briefed so that will not happen again) The mailman came while Ethan was napping (well, he was in his room with the door shut and was quiet) so when he woke up he was very excited to hear there was a package waiting for him. He was able to tell this time it was for him because there was an "E" on the front of the box and Ethan starts with an "E" I decided to record the whole event, but I seem to be having some technical difficulties getting them to upload here. I think the files are just to large. After all, it took us an hour to open the box. We have to take one thing out at a time, inspect it and talk about it before we are able to move on to the next item.... Below is the clip before we opened the box and then a couple of the shorter ones. The good ones are too long to put on here. Sorry!!!






Just a quick side note. It seems the chalk eggs are the favorite. He carries them around everywhere and talks to them like they are chicks hatching from the eggs.

Obsession

Is it time yet for the baby kitties to go????? The amount of time we spend talking about these cats is beginning to be soooo annoying... It has even gone as far as all of us having new names. I

am Mommy Pita, we have Daddy Pita and Coco Pita and even baby Ethan Pita. We check on them about 200 times a day. We talk about them when we aren't checking on them, we purr and meow like them. 6 weeks will not come soon enough.. On a side note though, they all seem to be doing fine. They have grown and all are eating a lot!!! Poor, poor Pita. Mom is doing well also. She doesn't mind us watching her and the babies, she even lets us pick up the babies to clean up their bed.

We went to an Easter picnic and Easter Egg Hunt yesterday and Ethan had a great time. He enjoyed running around looking for eggs, and then realized they had candy in them too... Life can't get much better.

4 baby kitties + 1 mommy kitty = NO SLEEP

And I thought I would have nothing interesting to blog about!! Boy, was I mistaken... So a little history before I get to the good story.

Living on a Military Installation, cats are always left behind when a family moves. Lately, there have been many around our block.

Mainly because we live on a corner and they live in the drain thingy in the ground. Well, there was this one very tiny, very very tiny, very friendly kitty that would come up to our door. Well, one un named person, temporarily staying with us, wanted to give little kitty some food. Not a problem. Well..... DUH!!!! When you feed one kitty they ALL come. Some how little kitty, who at this time we were calling Petey, began to sleep in the garage. There were some extremely cold nights and we didn't think she would make it being so tiny left outside. So then "it" had it's own food bowl in the garage, and then it's own place to go potty. Well, Petey began to flourish. I was brave one day and picked "it" up to make sure Petey was a fitting name. Not the case, Petey turned into PITA. Pita began to get really really healthy. So healthy I began to think she was going to be a mommy. No one, but my trusted friend agreed with me. The other day I picked PITA up again and, oh my, could feel she was going to be a mommy. You could feel the little kitties inside kicking and moving. Having the kitties in our garage was NOT an option!!!! IT really was NOT an option!!! A Doctor's Appt. was made for tonight at 7pm for her to get checked out...

Now onto the good stuff!!!

I had a dental appt. yesterday and planned on doing some shopping and having some ALONE time when I was finished since Ted was home with Ethan. Dental appt went well, and I was off to shop.. (Maybe looking for some UGGS on sale) I receive a picture on my cell phone from Ted showing me what he thought was a mouse that our little Mommy Hunter Pita had taken care of. After all, living on our garage that is the least she could do, right??? Well, after looking at the pic and talking to Ted I realized that was NOT a mouse. PITA was having babies!!!!!! I was 45 minutes away, the un named person was 45 minutes away and Ted was home with Ethan and had NO experience with any kind of labor. A bit anxious, to say the least!

THANK GOODNESS for our GREAT, neighbors across the street. They have a new born themselves and she works at a vet clinic, so Ted goes across the street to see what he should do... She very quickly gets baby Wyatt dressed, and marches over with heating pads, blankets and a crate. Talk about being prepared. Well, wouldn't you know PITA decides to have her babies in a great big trash bag filled with clothes to go to The Goodwill. Our Saint of a neighbor, basically brings one of the kitties back to life. It was pushed off to the side and was very cold and stiff. When everything was said and done PITA had 5 kittens, with only 1 not making it. That was the first one born Ted had mistaken for a mouse.

As the night progressed on, it was obvious that the little gray kitty that was found away from Momma was having some trouble eating. After a trip to PetsMart, some kitty formula and a bottle bought, we thought we would be ok. Baby kitty had other plans and still didn't want to eat... So we are off to the 24 hour animal ER! (This is at 11pm with a 45 minutes drive) Baby kitty was making some progress with a medicine dropper by the time we got there. After being quickly checked out and given some sugar water, baby kitty began sucking on the Vet's finger. We were sent home with direction on what to do. The un named animal lover, had set her alarm for every 2 hours to go feed baby kitty and make sure the heating pad was on. Well.... at some point baby kitty decided mommy milk was MUCH better than what we were trying to give her and latched on!!!!!! WOOHOOO!!!!!

So after 6 hours of sleep, my alone time cut short yesterday, a hurting mouth this morning and a 2 year old that thinks he just won the Jackpot because there are baby kitties in the garage, PITA has a whole new meaning.. Pain In The A$$

When Ethan first came home (2 years ago last Saturday, can you believe it??) I was obsessed with his little, or not so little toes. His fingernails were growing like weeds, but I think he was home for a few months before I had to trim his toenails. I would look at them everyday to see if they had grown. It was easy to look at them since he refused to wear any type of shoe. He came home in March and in Jersey it was still chilly. I remember getting so many looks, when we went out, and they could have been for the obvious reason (I had the cutest kid in the world with me) or because it was still cold and he had NOTHING on his feet.. He wouldn't even keep socks on.

We have already purchased his first pair of crocs for this season. Black and yellow Batman ones. He had 3 pairs last season and we'll see how many he needs this year. Whenever we go out he wants to wear his crocs, no matter what he has on or where we are going.

I came across the pic in the above LO and I had to scrap it and then write about it... He still has the cutest little piggies I have ever seen...

Making Dinner at Midnight

Nope, not me!!!!

That would be Ethan!

Apparently he only received half the memo.. He knows mommy likes to stay up late after everyone has gone off to bed. Apparently, he likes to stay up late also, and cook dinner in his little play kitchen in his room. However, when mommy stays up late a little extra sleep is always nice in the morning. I am such a night person and love sleeping in.. Sleeping in is sleeping til 8 by the way. Last night was a very funny night in our house. It went something like this:

7:00pm Bath
8:00pm Daddy turns off the TV and reads a few books to Ethan
8:15pm Ethan is in bed
8:15-9:00pm He calls us 100 times for a hug, to take out the monsters, or to cover up his toe
9:00pm Birthday planning - Ethans calls mommy and daddy in his room because "he has an idea" his birthday is coming soon and he wanted to talk about what presents he might get and he wants a Monster Truck Cake
10:00pm I notice his light is on (Certainly, not how we left it)

Now the fun really begins. Ted walks in Ethan's room and quickly calls me to come see the funny picture. Ethan is in his bed with about 10 different books, his doctor toys and his animal rescue cage with his Baby Jaguars stuffed in it. Apparently in that hour he hopped out of bed and continued to play very quietly (WHY CAN"T HE DO THIS DURING THE DAY???) After about 20 minutes of us laughing and cleaning up his room we got him back into bed.

10:20pm Ted goes to bed
As I am walking done the hallway I see the light on again. Open up the door and find my sweet son "in his kitchen" I ask him "what are you doing" He tells me he is making dinner and he has to do his job... He also just got back from the grocery store and "it was ridiculous there" I spend another 20 minutes trying to convince him he really needs to go to sleep. At one point he was sitting in his bed and I told him he needed to close his eyes and go to bed. He says "mommy, I am in bed, you want Ethan to sleep" Are you kidding me??? I am being corrected for not being literal by my 2.5 year old!

Midnight Ethan calls me in to cover him up and turn off his light.

7:30am Rise and Shine

Not a very fun morning cause my little night owl was soooo tired all morning. At one point we were sitting on the couch together at 11:00 and he could hardly keep his eyes open... So hopefully he has corrected this little problem all on his own. He laid down at noon for his nap and I will be waking him very soon... Maybe he will actually be tired at a decent hour that 2 year olds should be tired and going to sleep? Let's hope so!

A Trip to the Grocery Store

Anyone who knows me knows that I could live a very happy life never going to the grocery store again... So after Sunday making the big run, I needed a couple days to recover. Lately, Ethan has been enjoying a nice healthy smoothie for breakfast. SO this morning we got up and decided to go to a nicer market other than the Commissary on base. About a 30 minute trip. We get there and spend 30 minutes just looking at produce alone. We talk about colors of fruit and if something tastes like candy or not (most importantly cotton candy) and fill up our cart. For some reason every store here in NJ requires you to have some sort of "member card" for extra savings. So, luckily, before I get to the register I dig through my purse for this "special member card", I find it, but in the mean time I realize I don't have my debit card. So I look and look and guess what?? It's on the microwave at home where I left it after coming back from the Commissary on Sunday. I quickly realize we need to leave. AS cute as I think Ethan is I didn't think they were going to let me by on his charm and good looks alone. Try explaining to a 2.5 year old why we have to leave the red strawberries and blue blueberries behind. Surprisingly, that was not the topic of conversation for the rest of the day.. Thank Goodness!! SO of we go tomorrow again to get some fruit.

The whole outing wasn't a bust though. We were able to get some (good chicken, as Ethan calls it) and the best sweet tea around for lunch at Chick-fil-a....

Everyone else does it

Everyone I know Blogs!!! Just about everyone..... I have been asked why don't I?? What else do I have to talk about than my days spent with Ethan... After thinking about it, this summer with a 3 year old may provide some funny entertaining stories... So why not blog!!!