races, kitties, and sleep (and ethan too, of course!)

My energy comes in waves, it seems. It seems completely random, but it's probably is very unmysteriously related to how much sleep I got the day before. Like yesterday, I felt like I could barely move from exhaustion and the whole family slept for most of the day (cats included, they're always ready for a group nap). But today (at least now that I've had lunch), I feel like I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. So of course, I'm blogging instead of To Do-ing. Aren't you glad though? Because it means more pictures of Ethan.

I'll start with a warning...this is going to be a long blog. I considered making it more easy for the reader by breaking it up by topic and posting several different blogs. But I'm not going to do that because I'm going to conserve my energy for something else--like taking a shower.

I love how much it's been raining lately. It's cramped my style a little bit. I have been taking Ethan on these hour long workout walks for the past few weeks, but I won't take him out if there's lightning. I also haven't tried taking him out with his rain cover on the stroller yet. But that's not the rain's fault, that's my laziness again. Maybe after I blog (and after my lunch has settled a bit more), I'll take him into the rain to see how we like it.

So, I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for the remaining post about Brett's birthday racing adventures. Here it is. He had a total blast. I would say his favorite part of the entire weekend happened on Sunday morning before the race. All the Ducati riders who had purchased the special ticket (like Brett's) were able to TAKE THEIR BIKES ONTO THE RACETRACK AND DO A RACELAP. Ohmygoodness. I love thinking about how much fun that was. Ethan and I are going to go with him next year, so that we can watch him doing that part. He made some Ducati race friends that he rode around the track with, getting yelled at by the race marshals for going too fast.

He was also able to walk around and look at all sorts of cool things, get some free stuff (hats and keychains and whatnot), sit on a real Rossi motorcyle, and of course watch all the racing. I am so glad that we were able to get him the tickets, it was a great birthday for him.

This is the special VIP parking lot for Ducatis only. You can see his bike in the middle right, with the gray tank. It's fun to see so many Ducs in one place.



We have some sad news. Our kitten (he's actually 5 years old now, I can't believe it), Andrew, is a very sick kitten. He's been losing weight for the past few months. We thought it was that Cordelia was getting chubby and we would tease her about being fat (she would respond with a look that could only mean, "I'm not fat, my fur is just this poofy."). But it turns out that Andrew has lost 25% of his body weight since we took him to the vet last November. He's skin and bones now. We made an appointment with the vet yesterday and they found that he's having kidney problems. They don't know what exactly is wrong: whether it's an infection that can be treated with antibiotics or whether his kidneys are actually failing and there's nothing they can do. THe vet said from the tests they did, they know that his kidneys are only functioning at a quarter of their capacity. I'm taking him in tomorrow so they can rehydrate him with a little kitty IV. After that, the vet recommends that we do an ultrasound to see where the problem is in his poor little body. We just hope that whatever is wrong is treatable and that Andrew won't be sick anymore.

Yesterday we had to leave Andrew at the vet because he wouldn't calm down enough to have his blood drawn, so they sedated him and monitored him until he woke up. Ethan was doing tummy time when the vet called back and said Andrew was ready to come home. As I stood to leave and get him, Ethan started really pushing with his arm and leg to roll over. He rolled onto his side and stayed there. But once I left (of course), he rolled all the way over for Brett to see and not me.

We went up to Snowbird to go swimming at the Kocherhans timeshare. We love Snowbird. We got Ethan all ready in his swimsuit. I couldn't get a picture of both Ethan and Brett looking normal, so here's one of Ethan looking semi-normal. (He always does his Grandpa face for the camera. I hope he stops that as he gets older.)
And one of Brett.
Soon after the pictures were taken, Ethan decided he was done with the swimming idea and started screaming. He didn't stop until we got him in his carseat and left the building to go home. He didn't last up there very long, we were probably only there for about 30 minutes. We think the altitude change was causing his ears to hurt, since they probably still have fluid in them. Poor sad baby.

We went back up to Silver Lake this weekend. It's strange that Snowbird up Little Cottonwood bothered him, but Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood didn't. We had the Tylenol with us this time, just in case. Brett's Dad told us that Snowbird is higher in altitude than Silver Lake, so maybe that was the problem. We didn't need to use any Tylenol, this time, but I think that Brett actually gave him some before we left just in case. I don't remember.

The snow that was covering the lake when we were there over Memorial Day was all gone. It was rainy and very cold, but we bundled up and had a nice walk.
Ethan likes best of all to be held by his mama and to watch his daddy. This was the look he was giving Brett while we walked around the boardwalk. The picture's fuzzy because Brett took the picture while we were walking. Ethan didn't like it when we stopped walking. He knows the Bjorn is for hiking, not for standing around!

It was really cool to be up there at that time, because the clouds were so low. We walked through them on our way around the lake.
And then we saw a moose! I've only seen one moose before (It was a baby one that we saw as we were swimming at the Jeremy Ranch timeshare. It came right up to the fence surrounding the pool. We were scared because the mama probably wasn't far off, but happy that we had a fence to protect us.) We obeyed the number one moose rule--as soon as you see a moose, turn around and go home--and no one was kicked or otherwise maimed. Quite an adventure!
We've found that Ethan loves it on his tummy. When he's tired, he calms right down and sucks on his hands while he's on his tummy. When he wants to play, he likes to hold his head up and look around. Plus, he sleeps better that way. I feel nervous about him sleeping that way. I only let him stay on his belly if he's taking a nap right next to me and I can hear him breathe. At night, he falls asleep in his tummy and then I check on him every so often until he's deep enough asleep to turn over without waking him. Then he stays the rest of the night on his back. I'm happy we've found that he likes sleeping that way, though, because it's helped him fall asleep more quickly many times.
He's also really improved a lot with his motor abilities. He can control his hands now (mostly) and is aware of them all the time. He's noticed his feet and looks at both his hands and feet when he's by himself. His hearing seems to have improved as well. I don't know if it's the antibiotics and that his infections have cleared, or if it's that he's older now and pays more attention to what he is hearing. Maybe both. He turns his face to sounds and starts if a sudden noise (like Brett opening a Coke) occurs. He loves to listen to music and recognizes songs that he likes. Brett claims that he cries when he hears a lame song. Mostly he cries because he's tired and he doesn't want to be in that noisy restaurant anymore, but I guess you can extend that to the lame song that's playing in the place as well.

He's got such blue eyes, like his daddy. They say all babies have blue eyes when they are infants, but that after 6 months they change to whatever color they will be. They must mean all white babies, because if they really mean all babies in the whole world, now that's just asinine. My eyes aren't blue, but I think Brett's will have the stronger gene in this case.
My pediatrician recommended that I read a book called "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Dr. Richard Ferber. I really liked the book a lot. I read another book about getting your baby to sleep called "Babywise" that I didn't like nearly as much. What I like about the Ferber book is that he explains so much about sleep and biorhythms. I feel like I understand the event of sleeping better and so I can really understand any problems that Ethan may have. I think I even understand Brett's sleep problems better, so that we can work on helping him at the same time as we establish good sleep habits in Ethan. Also, I really like that he doesn't say I should just leave Ethan to cry himself to sleep. I hate that idea and I don't think it would work for Ethan. Anyway, I totally recommend the book to everyone. Even if you don't need help getting your baby to sleep, it's an interesting read.

Ethan has long conversations with Brett in the mornings. He does more than just goo and coo, he moves his tongue around and makes all kinds of funny sounds. We've tried so many times to catch it on video, but he gets distracted by our bright red camera and stops whenever we hit record. Here are a couple videos where we weren't really able to catch any of his talking. Mostly these videos are for Grandma, because she's been away since he was born and doesn't know how he moves and looks around. (The video can be for both grandmas, but Brett's mom doesn't read my blog.)