Curious Little Monkey

One of the first things that people always comment about Ethan is how curious and alert he is.  Often it's followed by "Wow those are long eye lashes." or "Wow, look at him hold up his head!"  In weeks 10 and 11, his great curiosity turned into some great playtime.  Of course, his chair is still a favorite, but he's now also fascinated by his baby gym.  He loves to grab at the toys, and put them in his mouth.  His hands are almost always in his mouth now, or he's grasping one in the other.

The monkey is his favorite!

He loves when we sing "The Wheels on the Bus."  Most times you don't have to sing more than "THEEEEE..." before he starts to laugh. He also likes "If All the Raindrops," especially the "ah ah ah ah" part. His legs are getting really strong, and he loves to be held in a standing position. In fact, he wants to stand all the time!  He can hold himself so well that loosely holding his upper arms to help with balance is all he needs. He is finding his feet, and can be quite enchanted by them- looking and grabbing.  It's also fun to chatter and coo, especially when Mommy or Daddy repeat back in conversation.  He can be quite chatty! Ah-goo!

Playing in the baby gym.  He really enjoys the flat stuffed frog, and he likes to grab the elephant.  Somehow, they both made it to his mouth at the same time!

We've been working on sitting in the Bebe Pod since he was able to bobble his little head.  He does pretty well in it now, and yesterday we added the toy tray to the mix.  It's really hard for him to reach something right in front of him, but you can see the concentration in his eyes... and SUCCESS!

In other news, I start back to work tomorrow.  It's of course a bittersweet transition, but one that still leaves me feeling rather confident.  In the last week, I've been busy getting things together for his days at Grandma and Grandpa Savko's and for his days at home with Momma Liskey.  We got a membership to Costco so we don't go bankrupt on formula for daytime.  We also officially have his daycare lined up.  He starts January 3rd.  The program is great, and I'm actually excited for him.  I think a Learning Center is a great fit for him.  He's a little boy through and through...so active and interested in everything.

They also finished reviewing Ethan's case at the Children's Hospital.  They are still leaning towards his reaction being to the Atypical Pneumonia, however, based on the time frame, they are not ruling out a possible reaction to his DPT immunization.  To be on the safe side, we have a follow up in December with the hospital to be sure that his Pneumonia has cleared and to do a checkup.  There is still a slight chance that the immunizations could be at fault.  Specifically, there are cases in some medical journals of similar outbreaks following DPT.  The next step is that Ethan will receive his next DPT immunization from his local pediatrician on a Monday separate from the rest of his shots.  This way, if there would be a reaction, it would be evident that it was the DPT.

Oh, and the best news yet!  Ethan did his first full "through the night" sleep two nights ago (10pm-7am).  Last night he slept from 9:30pm until 7am, and then went back to sleep from 7:30am until 10am!!  Just in time for me to get a good nights sleep for work!  Good job little dude!!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun-filled Halloween.  Be sure that there will be Halloween photos to follow!