Happy Thanksgiving!

One year ago, we were just telling everyone that we were 11 weeks pregnant! 

E has had a bit of a tummy ache and bad poopies all week. Poor baby! His little bum was so red. He had a few days when he was just miserable because of it, but it seems like the worst is over and he is getting better. He's been eating green beans and really likes them. Actually, he just really likes eating from a spoon! As soon as he sees it coming, that mouth is open for business!

It has been a good week. We only had 3 days with students, so it went fast. My school's first edition of the newspaper came out - the kids did a GREAT job! They worked so hard, all on their own time, and were able to put together a nice looking product. They were in my room ALL day on Tuesday folding and sorting the papers to go out to homerooms. I forgot what it was like to an extracurricular and have kids around non-stop :-) Yesterday, I got two special visitors at school - Papa and Ethan! AJ went to the nanny's and picked up E and took him to school. Papa grabbed E there and brought him to New Brighton to visit me before his big sleep over. He got there during my 6th period class and the kids were SO excited! They were hilarious - I told them that they had to act like 'good little children' in front of Papa and E - they cleaned up my room and sat there like angels - it's really funny if you know these kids! The girls just couldn't get enough of the baby, and the boys were happy Papa was there to help them with a bonus puzzle game. Then, I took E to visit my friend Allison b/c she doesn't eat lunch with me. She happened to be teaching a class full of all of my students from last year - I had a nightmare class of all boys who were so bad. Well, I have never seen these boys so sweet and nice as they were around the baby - too funny. Then, we went to lunch. We had to walk through the cafeteria to get to the teacher's lounge - all I heard was "Awww" and "Oh my god, can I see your baby?" Finally, we got to lunch and were able to get all of our visiting in and I saw them on their way. It felt very odd coming home to no baby! We went out to dinner with some teacher friends and had a great time. We stayed out until 10 - it's been a while since we've seen 10! 

Thursday morning, we slept in until 9 and have been watching the parade in bed with the dog...who, by the way LOVED the fact that the baby was not here! We put up the tree and headed to Connellsville for a great dinner. We gave E a bath there and put him in the car - big news - Ethan has slept UNWRAPPED the past two nights! We are so glad. He has always been a light sleeper and the wrap always helped get him to calm down enough to sleep (those of you who know E well know that is a feat!). Since he loves to roll, he has been coming out of the wrap so we figured break would be a good time to try. He surprised us, but in a good way :-)

Friday, I took E shopping. Black Friday! I only went to a few places around Cranberry so it wasn't too bad. We got some good deals and I am pretty much done with all of my shopping. I only have a few stragglers to get. My mom came for a visit in the evening and had Ethan laughing so much he had tears flowing - too funny. Today, we had a quick visit from AJ's parents (we are roping Papa into another project around the house - a railing so I can hang our stockings!) and then got our pictures taken. I've posted just a few. The rest are Christmas surprises! He did pretty well - he just wanted to stand, which was a problem. We got a bunch of smiles, though, so that was good.

Anyway, a few things we are thankful for:

1. We have a beautiful, curious, healthy, and funny son who is learning and growing every day. He is amazing!

2. We have a happy and strong marriage and still genuinely enjoy each other after 10 years!

3. We have a supportive and involved family who gets to share our life and spend time with E.

4. We have stable jobs that we actually enjoy going to and are good at!

5. We have a nice little house that will soon have new windows :-) It's also within 5 minutes of anything we could possibly need! 

6. We will have a new President in a few months who will hopefully bring our country out of its current funk.

7. We have a great group of friends we can trust and have fun with.

8. We have Baby Einstein, which lets us occasionally eat without holding an 18 lb. baby who just wants to stand up!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the few pictures from the last week.