19 more days!

I can't figure out whether Baby Ethan likes Kung-Fu or Yoga better. Either way, he's a crazy person. :0) Brad and I went out on a little date tonight, and it was the first time I had Stonewall Pizza since I had become pregnant, and I think Baby rather enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure he did not appreciate the Shake's frozen custard afterward, because there was no room in my belly for him to do his little exercises.
I noticed the first stretch mark today, you can see it in just the right light. I'm sure it will get bigger, and some more of its friends will appear :0( Brad says I should wear them like a badge of honor... UGH.
Today at work, a little 4 year old said "Mommy, she has a baby in her belly... is it a dinosaur?" I can't wait for Ethan to say cute stuff like that! I just hope he doesn't embarass me... and I hope he is NOT a dinosaur.

Today started the weekly Dr's visits...

This morning was the first of our regular weekly visits, and Ethan is just great! We got to hear his heartbeat (as usual) and found out that he moved his butt to my left side while his feet are what has been jabbing me on my right. It was really funny, when our midwife was poking around by his feet, he kept moving them away. He is so playful :0) We really like our Midwife, and are happy that we switched from the doctor we were seeing. She told us a lot about what's going to happen right after baby is born. We talked about how important it was for the immediate hour of skin to skin contact with Mom and Dad, as opposed to what the hospital usually does which is take him away for a bit for Apgar scores, etc. Brad and I keep daydreaming about the moment when we first meet our little guy...

Only 27 days until Baby Ethan is due!

It's been a looong 8 months, but we are finally on the last one! Ethan is lucky enought to have plenty of loved ones waiting to meet him and spoil him. The nursery is all set and ready to go, and so are we. I guess all we have left to do is pack the hospital bag!

We created this site as a way for everyone to watch Ethan grow and witness all his milestones, especially the out of towners. We are planning on taking a trip up to Boston around spring break so everyone can meet him!

What can I tell you about Ethan so far? Well for starters, he is a really active little guy! He moves around all day long, but mostly at night and in the morning (you know, when I'm trying to sleep... LOL). He loooves pancakes and cinnamon rolls (eesh!). He hasn't given me a hard time with morning sickness or bad pains, what a nice dude! He DOES however like to find his way up under my ribs which feels funny most of the time, at other times it is hard to sit comfortably. He gets the hiccups several times a day, which always brings a smile to my face. The other day when he was moving really awkwardly, I put my hand where his butt was and felt a "pop"... I think he farted :0) He also likes to stick his foot out against my right side, it is CRAZY to see!

I have a feeling he might be a little early, because he is so antsy. We'll see. Take a moment and vote on the poll (on the right side of the page).

How Baby Ethan came to be...

Brad and I met in our high school gym class when I asked him how to pronounce the last name on the back of his shirt, little did I know that would be my last name someday. I thought his legs looked great in gym shorts :0) We had a brief fling, then summer came and we lost touch. A couple years later, he took a job at Rainforest Cafe where I worked.

It didn't take us long to reconnect, we hung out all the time and were roommates within two months. We were best friends for a year, when finally we realized how compatible we were. After awhile, we moved into an apartment by ourselves and he asked me to marry him on Fat Tuesday. On May 24th, 2007 at Unity Temple, we were married; just a handful of our close family members were there.

Brad left for his deployment in Iraq in June 2007 and returned in June 2008. While he was on leave in January, we flew to Boston where I got to meet his mother's side of the family. That July, we took a road trip to Oregon and Seattle... it was amazing. We got to see the very first Starbucks, and we stayed with the "grandparents" who "adopted" him while he was overseas. We both went to UMKC and took a couple classes together the following semester. We had our big wedding on September 14th, 2008 at Unity Temple on the Plaza with 100 of our close friends and family. 

In the following April and May 2009, we took 3 trips to Chicago for the Yellow Ribbon program, where we also did some sightseeing. Also in May, I finally graduated with my Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology that month. After graduation, Brad and I took a trip to Orlando to visit my brother Jeff, brother Doug, his wife Jessica, and their 20 month old Noah and 1 month old Briony. We had a great time with the family and going to DisneyLand and Universal Studios. Little Noah is the reason I wanted kids so bad, he is just too cute!

We tried to hold off the baby itch for awhile, but when we bought our first house in Overland Park in November 2009, we decided there was no "right time" to have a baby... so we should just go for it! It must have been fate, because when we moved in we painted the spare bedroom blue. In January we became pregnant and on June 2nd, 2010, we found out we were having a boy (just what Brad wanted).

In May, we finally took our Honeymoon. We went to Rome, Italy and Athens, Greece. We saw so many things we've only read about in books, and took over a thousand pictures.

Feeling our little Baby Ethan kick is the most exhilarating feeling I have ever had. We read to him every night and can't wait to meet him!