Taking A Chance

It's Sunday night, still technically Valentines Day, so I thought I'd post this tonight. But at the same time I'm taking a chance that Eric won't check our blog until after tomorrow morning. We had a crazy weekend so we agreed that we'd celebrate Valentines on Monday. He works nights and is at work right now, so I set up his surprise tonight and he'll get it in the morning when he comes home.

I love you sweetie, Happy Valentines Day!

Ok I have to applaud my creativity here, we didn't have any toothpicks or skewers, so i used spaghetti noodles! I was pretty proud of myself...:)

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day!

Ethan has a follower

Chase was going as fast as his little legs would carry him.

But he was no match for Ethan's bike.

Time with Ethan

Tonight after I put Chase to bed and Eric left early for work, Ethan and I had a few rare minutes to hang out together, just the 2 of us, where I didn't felt like I had to be doing fifty other things. I love that little boy so much, he amazes me everyday with the things he comes up with and what he is able to do, I am still awestruck by how fast kids grow and learn. With Ethan's humble beginning and bleak outlook on his life and abilities, I am always silently thrilled when I find he has learned new phrases on his own, copied an action he wasn't able to copy before, or demand he do something by himself even when he knows he'll need some help. He struggles everyday to do what is normal for other kids his age, and works so hard to accomplish what he wants. He doesn't know he's any different, or that things are harder for him, so I try to treat him that way. He is occasionally stubborn, belligerent, and ornery, but he has the biggest heart and mostly wants to express his love for others and his enthusiasm for life.
Ethan's therapists help me understand and celebrate every triumph, every step toward him being able to live a normal life, and I'm so grateful for their expertise and guidance. They also put into perspective that Ethan is very high functioning, and to an outsider he may not seem to have any usual struggles. I know that this is because of a loving Heavenly Father who loves him and us very much. I know that Ethan will continue to grow and improve and impress everyone with everything he can do, and I need to not take the time we have together for granted. Tonight we just played Memory, but it's a memory I'll not forget soon and try to repeat as often as I can.

Us Lately

Chase: crawling, sometimes with his left leg out like a pegleg, at his 9 month checkup last week he weighed 20 lb 5 oz (50th percentile) and was 30 inches long (90th percentile), laughs at everything Ethan does, makes a squinty-smiley-oh-so-cheesy-face when you do it at him (see picture below), loves food, is eating more real food, weaned to formula, sleeps 12 hours a night but only takes 2 naps a day, 45 minutes each, loves to carry around a Little People donkey (also in pictures), screams if you take it away at naps, wants to do everything Ethan does, loves his mommy.


Ethan: talking talking talking more and more every day, cracks us up all the time (ex: at the store the other day he started saying what we say to him when he's in trouble, but to Eric: "Daddy, look at me! Look at me! 1, 2, 3. Time out!"), loves Thomas the Train and Lightning McQueen, jumps off EVERYTHING- the coffee table, the fireplace, chairs..., doesn't eat much but will eat almost an entire box of mac n cheese by himself, trying unsuccessfully to potty train, loves to play cars, likes it when his friends come over to play, terrorizes his brother, enjoys going to therapy- physical, occupational, and now speech too, always wants juice, always calls Chase "Chaser", copies everything we say, loves his daddy and his grandparents.

Jessica: having fun with calling in Activity Days (8-11 year old girls), works about 5 hours a week at a cooking school and learns a ton!, just started training for a half marathon, shuttles kids around, tries to cook and clean but usually only gets one of those done each day rather than both, enjoys reading and blogging, wants to go snowboarding before this winter is over, appreciates her amazing husband and loves her boys!

Eric: Works nights at the hospital, sleeps days, has weekends off (yea!), already planning fishing trips for this summer, does some tutoring on the side, getting excited for Med school, looking for housing in Des Moines, IA, does so much for his wife, is reading Ronald Regan's autobiography, teaches amazing Gospel Principles lessons each Sunday, teases Ethan incessantly, very politically active/opinionated, loves his family.

Mobile.

My little Chase-man is now mobile! He's not completely crawling on hands and knees yet but he can definitely get where he wants to go. I wanted to get it on video to post but my computer isn't recognizing my video camera when I plug it in, so a series of pictures is the best I could do:

He loves these star shaped veggie puffs, he'll go anywhere for them!

The flash on the camera distracted him.

He's into everything! Gotta love it!

Christmas and Good News

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a great holiday. We spent the holiday with Eric's family and it was a lot of fun- we enjoyed spending time together, relaxing, and eating a lot of good food! Here are some pictures we took--

Christmas Eve we ate a great meal and then played some games. Ethan went fishing...

and uncle Matt helped him catch prizes!

Chase wanted to open his Christmas eve present-- PJ's!

I LOVE this picture of Chase but it wouldn't let me flip it...
This was the first present he opened on Christmas morning and he was SO excited for it! He cried when Eric took it to get it out of the package and stared at him until he gave it back. He loved playing with it-- thanks Grandma and Grandpa Stastny!

Chase also like the way soft bear from Grandma and Opa Rindlisbacher, it was bigger than him!


Ethan wanted to play with Chase's toys- most of them were louder and had more lights than his :)

Christmas Pajamas! Gotta love Ethan's cheesy grin...

As for the good news: Eric applied and was accepted to the Podiatry program at Des Moines University in Iowa! He was even offered a partial tuition scholarship! He accepted the invitation a few days ago, so it's official we will be heading to Iowa next fall. School starts the first week in August, so we'll probably leave Alaska mid-July and pick up our stuff in Utah on the way there. It's a 4 year program and then about 2-3 years of residency, so wish us luck!

Behind the Beard

At my parents Ward Christmas party, my dad got chosen to play the part of Santa. Have you ever seen my dad??? He is about the skinniest man alive and they chose him. Maybe cause he's so jolly, I don't know. So Ethan and I crashed their party for a bit so he could have a chance to sit on Santas lap. My mom was curious to see whether or not Ethan would recognize his voice.

He was really excited as we were waiting in line and kept asking to see Santa, but when it was his turn he turned timid and didn't want to sit on his lap. But the candy was too tempting to ignore. As he turned around to sit on his lap, my dad started talking and Ethan turned around, recognizing his voice. But then he saw the beard and got shy again.


The whole time he was on his lap he was leaning as far away as possible from him. But at least he sat there and didn't freak out like last year!

Merry Christmas, Santa!