Ethan is 4 months old!

Every month just goes by so much faster than the one before it.  This past month, Ethan has just continued to flourish!  He is a happy baby who is now sleeping in his own room, and started sleeping through the night about 2 weeks ago!  What a difference that makes to my days!!!  As soon as we moved him to his big crib in his room, his sleeping instantly got better.  I think he had just gotten too big for the thin cradle mattress.  Naps are still somewhat iffy but we are getting better.  He takes most naps in his crib unless we are out and about.  He still sleeps pretty well in his carseat, but now HATES to be in the swing.  He really enjoys sitting up and seeing the world, and we now put him in his reclined high chair while we eat.  He loves grabbing onto toys and his favorite right now is a little bee with shapes attached to it.  Ethan is obviously still a great eater, and nurses about 6 times a day.  He still primarily rolls from back to front, but has started being able to scoot backwards a little bit, and he goes around in a circle too!  He loves his exersaucer and can definitely entertain himself for a while in there. Ethan recently found his feet and loves grabbing hold of them, but for some reason will only grab them while barefoot!  At his 4 month check up, Ethan weighed 19lbs 12oz, and was 28 3/4 inches long.  That is a whole 2 inches taller than last month!!!  I've still been putting him in 6-9 month clothes, but have been noticing that they are getting tight in the length!  And I looked at size charts for gap and gymboree 6-12 month size (which he has been wearing), and he is either over the height limit or almost!  I have NO 12-18 month clothes yet, and he still has a few pounds to go before maxing out the weights on any of his clothes, so hopefully they will all work a little longer!  Ethan has a super sweet belly laugh and has really started to respond to people doing silly things and tickling.  So far he doesn't have a bit of stranger anxiety, which is such a blessing to me!! We are so in love with this little boy!

September

September has flown by and fall and just hit us all of a sudden!  We are enjoying the cool mornings and evenings and the warm afternoons.  Right off the bat, September took off running!  We got home from Lake Lanier and a few days later our friends from Arizona came to town.  They have a 3 year old daughter and a baby boy just a month older than Ethan.  They came in on a Friday and we all left Sunday to hit the beach in Charleston!  We had a great time seeing the sites and playing at the beach.  Mackenzie and Hannah played so well together, and it was a great time to catch up with old friends!  We had not had the opportunity to see them since Hannah was about 10 weeks old when we flew to AZ for a visit.

Then, they left on Friday, and my parents arrived late afternoon the same day!  And then the next day my sister and nieces came to town!!!  We had Ethan baptized on Sunday and it was so special to have some family able to be there.  We are so thankful that the Lord gave us sweet Ethan Matthew and we pray that He helps us to raise him to be a Godly man.

Since then Hannah, Ethan, and I have started to go to Community Bible Study and we are just having a great time with that!  I'm so thankful for the opportunity to study God's Word and have some time with other women.  The kids are doing great in their classes and I think it's also very good for them to have some time away from me!  Hannah also had a kidney ultrasound to see whether or not she has outgrown her kidney reflux. Which we are thrilled to say that it looks as if she has!!!  In other Hannah news, she is officially potty trained!!  We are so proud of her!  She has done awesome and really it just took her deciding that she was ready.  We've had minimal accidents!