Thanksgiving Week

Aaron took the full week of Thanksgiving off work and we headed down to Colorado to spend the holiday with my parents and most of my siblings.  My sister, brother in law, and two nieces came up from Alburquerque and my brother flew in from D.C. to share the week.  My brother in Tulsa and his fiance couldn't make it this year and we missed them!

Ethan got to meet his Uncle Brian and had a great time playing with him.  Uncle Brian was a hit since he wasn't afraid to throw him around, which E loves.  Brian became a favorite of cousin Anni's as well with his fascinating juggling skills. 

It was nice for Aaron to get to spend the full week with Ethan.  If only he hadn't just entered into a mommy stage...  Anytime Ethan was the slightest bit tired or hungry he would panic if I wasn't in the room or holding him.  He got some great play time in with Dad, but some days didn't venture very far from Mom.

We spent the days before Thanksgiving hiking around the foothills of the Rockies, checking out a local wolf conservation, and just relaxing at my parents house. 

Those of us from Alaska enjoyed the wonderful Colorado sun and warmer air.  We couldn't soak enough sunshine!

We all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner (probably one of my mom's best!) and Ethan tried yams for the first time.  Even though you can't tell in the picture, he really did enjoy it.  While at Nana and Poppy's house Ethan started to love eating solids.  If I was a little slow on getting the next bite into his mouth he started to dive into the spoon...kinda like a shark attack.  He couldn't get enough apples, yams, peas and cereal.

We started a new tradition this year of one club golf.  We all grabbed a club and a few beers and headed out back to the golf course.  It was a fun game, even if a little chilly.

Ethan got to see more family than just my siblings and parents.  He saw my Aunt Becky and Uncle Bob again...

As well as Grandma Dolly and Aaron's Uncle Vic.  Its nice that so much family lives in the Colorado Springs area.

Glenn and my dad took more pictures than I did, so once I get copies from them I'll post pictures of Ethan and his cousins and his grandparents.

Ethan was such a trooper on the flights to and from Nana's.  He has turned into such a flirt when out in public and seemed to love getting to hang out in the airport smiling and giggling with people.  E made it through two full days of flying without a single meltdown and was happy the whole time.  He made it through better than Aaron and I did!  It is so much fun to have such a happy, smiley little guy.

The day before we got home Anchorage was hit with loads of snow, making perfect skiing conditions.  As soon as we got back we hit the trails and enjoyed a great winter day.  We skied a different area of town than normal and saw wonderful views of the inlet with the Alaskan range on the other side as well as 5 moose on the trails. 

Cause and Effect

Ethan is really moving these days, crawling and climbing everywhere. As we've watched him figure out how to control his body and gain the stength needed to get around, we've noticed that he seems to be a pretty coordinated baby.  I can't tell you how relieved I am to see that he has apparently gotten his father's coordination and not his mothers!  Big sigh of relief there...  

He doesn't have much balance yet so tumbles all the time.  When he first started pulling up we don't think he fully understood that climbing on things was causing him to bump his head.  He'd just look at us like "Hey, how'd that happen???".  We think he's actually starting to learn his first lesson in cause and effect because lately he's a lot more cautious as climbs.  He's even stopped letting go of the table edges and holds on tight.  Its neat to see him learn.  :)

By the way, we do watch him and keep him from hurting himself!  You can't take your eyes off him for a minute or he's into something new...

I read that often when babies hit new milestones (like crawling) their sleep patterns get messed up because their minds are so much more active.  This is true for Ethan.  He plays very hard lately and now has a very hard time going down for his afternoon nap.  But if he doesn't get this nap he is miserable all evening until bedtime.  Hopefully this transition time will be short and he'll figure out how good that afternoon nap feels and not fight it...until then we'll have a lot of crying in the afternoons...

E's latest development is refined finger and toes movement, moving his fingers separately instead of moving his hand as a block.  As he sits on our laps he has started to strum his fingers against us or against his head as he lays in his crib.  It's an adorable little trick. 

Ethan's favorite toys right now are a toothbrush, his baby comb, his pacifier clip string - not the pacifer, just the plastic that clips to his shirts (he seems to have weened himself off his pacifier...), his socks, and balls.  Four out of five of these surprise me...  Who needs Baby Einstein when you have Crest.

Just this week E started to look like he didn't mind eating solids. He's not quite at the point of actually enjoying it, but he doesn't seem to mind it now. He even opens his mouth a little for me every once in a while. I am still a little suprised that he didn't love solids right away because the kid has loved to eat anything else we've put in front of him - even Rotovirus vaccines. Apparently the guy just likes milk.

Winter Wonderland

Our little man Ethan is living the good life of a six month old these days.  He's crawling all over the place, getting used to eating a few solid foods a day and his parents are trying to make sure he continues to get good sleep (which is getting harder and harder the more active he gets!). 

Once Ethan started crawling a few weeks ago, it only took a day or two for him to start pulling up on things.  The little stinker has now figured out how to stand up in his crib.  This is what I walked into one day after he woke up from a nap.  Even as cute as he is with that proud look of figuring out how to pull all the way up on the bars to see over the top, we went ahead and lowered the mattress that night.

We did it to protect his head, as well as the furniture...

I love this picture - these are two faces that I see a lot these days.  They blow bubbles at eachother all the time, even now as I write this they are playing together next to me making this face at eachother and laughing.  Goofy boys.

Snow has come to Anchorage and now that its here we've been heading out to the trails to cross country ski.  Ethan rides first class, tucked in a carrier on skies!  The first day out our friend Hattie offered to pull Ethan while we got the hang of being back on the snow.  We called her our sherpa for the day.  :)  Now when we go out Aaron pulls E behind him and gets quite a workout on the uphill.

E stays snug and warm in his carrier.  We bundle him up in his layers and snowsuit, then tuck him in a fleece snuggly, then put a blanket over all. Its a good thing he sleeps as we ski because he definitely can't move much!  On cold evenings we put a hot water bottle in with him to add a little extra heat.  The carrier has a great plastic cover over the front to keep in the warmth and protect his cheeks from the wind. 

Before winter hit, Aaron and I decided we really wanted to be able to get outside even in the cold temps so I sought out advice from experienced outdoor moms and found out the secrets on keeping babies warm:  

Base layer is key!  Non cotton base layers are a must to make sure the kiddos stay dry since cotton clings to the skin if the babies sweat...and as you can guess from the carrier picture, there is a pretty good chance Ethan might get a little warm and sweat...  Here is Ethan in his long underwear before we headed out to ski.  He's 'helping' Dad put the bindings on. 

After the base layer comes the fleece layer for lots of warmth without a lot of bulk.  Also important to have a warm hat that fits snug to the ears (not always necessary for it to make his head look bigger than a watermelon, but it adds some style!).  This is Ethan playing in the snow for the first time.  I am pretty sure it confused him - he picked it up as a solid but when he put it in his mouth it was liquid...very strange...

The third layer he wears is a thick snow suit.  Once E is stuffed in all these clothes he doesn't move very well, but stays nice and warm.  This picture above was taken after we'd been out hiking for over an hour with it 20 degrees outside.  E was happy the whole time and even his hands and feet were warm when I undressed him.

Aaron, Ethan and I are truly loving Alaska now that winter has come.  Over the last few months I found myself dreading the day the cold and the darkness came, thinking that all our fun in Alaska was coming to a close.  Now that it is here I am happy to say that I love living here even more.  We are excited to get to start participating in winter sports and are enjoying the beautiful mountains and forests all covered in snow.

Anchorage has a fantastic park system with miles and miles of cross country trails all within minutes of our front door, most of which are lighted (which is helpful when the sun goes down at 4!).  This makes it so easy for us to get outside and enjoy the season, rather than stay inside (which is what I have always done when it's cold outside...) and let the dark and cold make us sleepy and sluggish.  Alaska has given me a huge paradigm shift on my outlook of being outside in the winter...hopefully it holds until next spring! 

6 Months

Happy half birthday to Ethan!  He, as well as his parents, has made it through the first half year..whew! 

E's sixth month has been a huge one.  This month has been filled with firsts - he grew two teeth,  learned to sit up and crawl, started solids, began to figure out how to pull himself up, swam in a pool (made his mama proud!), saw snow for the first time and rode in a sled!  What a cool time in a baby's life!

The biggest milestone he mastered was crawling - after weeks and weeks of working himself through the process, this last week he put it all together and crawled himself across the room!  Now he's a crawling machine.  The days of being able to set him down in one spot expecting him to in the vicinity of it a few minutes later are gone - he is mobile!

Ethan has been a little barrel of energy for the last few months and now that he's mobile, he's using all of it to explore his new world.  He loves to check out all the corners of a room and everything in between, especially looking down the heating vents (which is funny when the heat kicks on as he's playing over it).  He loves to chase little balls across the room and crawl to Aaron or I.  It's fun to watch his adventurous spirit take him places rather than just explore whatever is right in front of him.

To celebrate E's half birthday, we gave him his first taste of solid food. Food is such a wonderful part of life, I really wanted his first taste to be meaningful.  I seriously debated about what to give him and settled on avocado. This is one of Aaron's and my favorite foods - anything is better by adding an avocado on it - so it seemed natural that he should taste this first. Plus, he was conceived in Texas AND was born on Cinco de Mayo - I felt like a little Tex Mex was appropriate for the occasion. As you can see by the picture, he was not a huge fan. This was the first thing he's tasted that wasn't super sweet and he didn't know what to think about it. We'll probably give him some fruit for the next round!

Part of Ethan's exploring the world is wanting to touch anything that Aaron and I pick up. This includes cups - he loves to 'drink' out of cups.  We started giving him little drinks of water a few weeks ago, but since he hadn't started solids he didn't really know how to swallow.  'Drinking' for him usually ended with water all down his front and all over us.  He really liked sticking his tongue in the water and playing in it.  When he did actually swallow some water, he would look up at us like "what the heck was that??".  Funny kid.

Ethan turning 6 months should have marked the end of my maternity leave from ConocoPhillips.  Per the original plan, last Monday I would have dropped Ethan off at daycare and gone back to the corporate world....but luckily a few weeks ago Aaron and I threw the original plan out the window and decided to extend my leave of absence from the company.  I realized it was important to me to put my career on hold for a bit so that I can be with E all day as he learns and develops.  I couldn't be happier with this new plan!

Look at that face - how lucky am I this little man is my new job!? :)

Since Ethan and I spend so much time together during the week, it is an exciting time every night when Dad gets home from work.  He thinks his dad is the silliest guy and giggles and laughs so easily with him.  Now that E is a little bigger and sturdier, play time has gotten to be even more fun because Aaron can now play wrestle with the little guy.  Ethan loves it!

Ethan laughs so hard when tickles and munches on his back...

...and when he swings him upside down (E LOVES to be upside down now!)...

...and carries him around like a sack of potatoes.  He is daddy's little man for sure!

Over the last week it snowed a lot at our house and up the mountain.  Here's a picture of the frosted trees in our backyard.  I love how the birch look in the winter!  Today we tried cross country skiing for the first time on the trails above our house and had a blast.  I'll post pics of the little man in his sled soon!

Love the Weekends

Weekends are good in the Fuhr house (ok, they're good in almost every house...), and this last one was a nice relaxing one.  Here's a peak at how Ethan spent it -

Playing with Dad on the couch - love it that Dad gets to be home with us for two days straight!

Getting some quality play time on the floor.

Bundled up spending time out in the fresh air.

Reading the Times with Dad, the perfect Sunday morning ...

...falling asleep while watching the game, the perfect Sunday afternoon.

Hanging out with Mom at the table in the afternoon sun.

Then back in the Halloween costume to hand out candy to the trick or treaters. 

Whew, its tough being a busy baby bee!

On a different note - we had our first big snow today, at last!  The city and mountains are so pretty all covered with fresh powder.  Here is Ethan watching his first snow fall - pretty sure it blew his mind!