Hey everyone! Time flies ridiculously fast...as most everyone knows...but everyone still says it, too. We are enjoying our second summer in Michigan...it has been a cool one. July was the coolest on record in Michigan. I think we had one day at 84 and the rest were in the 70s. Sounds nice (and it was for the most part), but it's been hard to go to the beach much with that weather. The lake is frigid! We are planning on going camping as a family next week in Petoskey, which is up north on the lake. It will be the first camping experience for Lucie and Ethan. I am eagerly/anxiously anticipating the campout. I love to camp, so I am looking forward to it, but am anxious to see how the kids will do. We took Lucie out to buy her first sleeping bag (she chose a Princess one) and she is thrilled. She asks about it so much, that we made a paper chain to tear off a link each day, so she can keep track of when we will be going.
John is now in his 2nd year of residency, which is very nice. The first year was a killer, so it's nice not to be the lowest on the totem pole for him this year. He is through taking call for the most part, since he is an ER resident, it is mostly shift work. He does have to go to Ann Arbor for 3 months and work in Trauma and Surgery intensive care with University of Michigan, so we will miss him a lot then. John is trying to adjust to the crazy hours, he works all hours of the day. It's hard for him to adjust his sleep. Sometimes he will be laying in bed at 3am, saying I can't sleep! I say, "I know, you're keeping me up!" But overall, he says he likes ER a lot and is happy with his choice.
Lucie is doing wonderful. She is such a happy, sweet, tender-hearted little girl. She loves to play with her friends and is absolutely silly, like most girls her age. She likes her baby dolls, barbies, books, playing dress up, and playing with Ethan and Raven. She is pretty great with Ethan. If he is upset, she is always trying to come to his rescue! (Unless, he's done something to make her mad and she has retaliated, of course!) She always shares her treats (ice cream, goldfish crackers, strawberries, whatever) with him. Ethan just adores her...wants to be everywhere she is at. They always have squealing matches in the back of the car.
Ethan is doing well. He has had a lot of trouble eating since birth, but we think we may be getting to the bottom of it. He refused eating basically since birth and it has been a battle for about 9 months. We saw lots of specialists, lactation consultants, dieticians, speech therapists, etc to help us determine that he most likely has severe reflux or gastritis. He is now on a high dose of Prevacid and a thickening agent is used in his milk. With this treatment, he has done remarkably well and has gained a pound in 3 weeks, which is amazing! He is only 17lbs, 4oz, which is off the charts for this age, but we are glad to see him gaining weight. He was losing weight for a while. Other than eating, he is a great baby! He is so curious...we call him our monkey, because he is constantly climbing and dumping and destroying everything. I don't know if it is because he is a boy or if because his sister has things he can't get into, but he is always into things he's not supposed to be and wreaking havoc with them! He's pretty adorable and funny! He's waving bye-bye, pushing a walking toy across the room (or wherever), and chases Lucie and Raven everywhere. We heard him say "dog-dog" to a stuffed dog once, but have since not heard it, so I'm not quite giving him credit for a word yet (maybe he was just playing around with his ds), but we are trying to replicate it. As you can tell in the pictures, Ethan is blonde and I love it! It's so funny to see him in our family...with all the dark heads. His daddy's adorable blue eyes though tell him he's one of us :)
I (Stacy) have been doing well and enjoying my time with John and the kids. This summer has been busy. We went to Missouri in June to see our new nephew Issac Epema, David and Katie Epema's third child. He's an adorable little chunk, who will no doubt catch Ethan soon, although Ethan is 8 months his senior. We also took a ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaulkee and saw a Twins-Brewers game (Twins lost) for fathers day. John took me and the kids to Chicago for my birthday just recently. We went to Shedd Aquarium and a game at Wrigley, which I always wanted to do. Both my family and John's parents came to see us, which is always nice to have visitors.
Well, enjoy the pictures and the update!
