Six Months Old!

Dear Ethan,

You are now half a year old!  It's hard to believe and you have come a long way since those first weeks home from the hospital when you were just an itty bitty who cried a whole bunch!  Now you are a big, strong and healthy boy who almost always has a smile plastered on his face.  We love you!

This is what you have been up to in the last month:

- At your six month well check you weighed 19.4 (80th percentile), you were 27" (70th percentile) and your head circumference was in the 90th percentile.  We lovingly refer to you as the square rectangle.  You are adorable!
- You are wearing size 3 diapers and 9 month or 6-12 month clothes
- You are eating three meals a day now and drinking four bottles (5 oz. each)
-  We are working on your schedule and you are doing well, though you are still an inconsistent napper.  We are aiming for three naps a day at 9, 2 and dinnertime.
-  I finally put the swing away for good and you are in your crib full time and sleeping unswaddled.  Can I get an amen?!
- You are still not sleeping through the night, but are making it until about 4:30 or 5.  Then you come into bed with mommy and daddy and sleep blissfully until about 7... arms straight up over your head and hogging most of my pillow!
- You do wonderfully at BSF and the nursery at church.  Everyone just loves you and you have the most pleasant personality!
- You are very content when you are awake and love to be where there is action.  You cry when we leave you alone in a room.  You love the jumperoo, the saucer and your walker and have mastered sitting up on your own.
-  You only spit up occasionally and are completely off Zantac.  Yay!
- You love your brothers and are always laughing and smiling when one of them walks into the room.  It's really fun to watch you and James interact.  He already likes to wrestle and play with you, which can be a bit overwhelming for you at times but mostly you laugh hysterically at him.

I love this age as it seems you are mastering new skills every day!

As the weather grows colder and you are napping more regularly we are going into a season of quiet days at home.  I am loving all of this special time I get to have with my two little buddies.  Some days are especially long and tiresome and I know God is using these days to grow my faith and trust in Him.  But I am always amazed at His provision.  He knows what I have need of and He lovingly nourishes my soul.  And usually the very next day I experience such joy and peace in abundance and I am so grateful for this life He has given me.  I am so thankful for you!  I am one blessed mama.  Happy six months to my sweet baby boy!

I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
    with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
    through all generations.

~Psalm 89:1

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This has been a busy week in the Lewandowski household!  Sunday we celebrated Ethan's dedication and Monday was Paul's birthday.  Tomorrow we will be hosting Thanksgiving!  I love the holidays and God has given us the privilege of gathering friends and family in our home.

Monday evening we had family over for dinner to celebrate not only Paul's birthday, but our niece as well.  She turned sixteen yesterday!

My boys are so blessed to have such a wonderful father and I am blessed to have him as my husband.        He works so hard to provide for our family.  He never complains and he is an absolute blast to play with!  James adores his daddy.  You would think a celebrity had arrived every time his truck pulls into the driveway.  It is truly an event!  And since his office is in our home we are often lucky enough to see him several times a day.

He has a huge heart and is always willing to help someone in need.  What a wonderful example for our children!  He loves each one of us so much and is truly selfless when it comes to meeting the needs of his family.

We are so thankful for him on his birthday and every day.

Happy Birthday Daddy!  We love you very much!

Our Little Fireman

A few weeks ago we heard siren after siren as several fire trucks raced through our neighborhood to what we thought was a five alarm blaze.   Turns out there was a forest fire in the woods behind our homes and several acres burned up.  James was glued to the window when he woke up from his nap and realized he could see the flashing lights off in the distance.  You can imagine how excited he was when Daddy told him they were going to get in the truck and go see them!  The fire was under control at that point and the trucks were just getting ready to leave the scene, but not before they let our little James sit in their truck and wear one of their hats.  Absolute heaven for this little two year old boy!

Ethan's Dedication

This past Sunday was a very special day for our family as we dedicated our Ethan at church with prayers that he will one day entrust his life to the one true giver of life, our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

We were given this special prayer and will continue to pray this over his precious life.

Dear God,

You love Ethan George and want his best.

You entrust Ethan to his earthly parents.  We ask that Paul & Cara would parent well.  But we know that even when parents do things well, unless You work in his life, it is only human effort that is at work.

We ask that Ethan would come to know Jesus as his Savior early in life.  We ask that all of his life would be devoted to Your glory.  We ask that Your promises be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength would fill his soul.

We ask that Ethan George would be a person of the Book, one who loves, studies and obeys Your Word in every area of its teaching.  We ask that he would be a person of prayer, so that the power of faith and holiness would be upon him and that his spiritual impact would be great.

We ask that Ethan George would give himself to Your service, and not fritter away his time on excessive recreation, unimportant hobbies, or aimless ambition.  We ask that you would remove the influences that would lead him away from You and from all that is good and right and true.

We ask that You would protect Ethan from damaging experiences and people.  We ask that You would grant him positive relationships with the significant people in his life.  We ask that he would live his life for Your approval alone.

Amen.

After the service we had family over for a celebratory brunch.  The morning flew past and unfortunately I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked! 

I ordered mini cakes instead of one big one and they turned out beautifully!

It was a wonderful morning.  We are so blessed by our family and church community.  We praise God for our Ethan and the abundance of blessings he has poured over our lives.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Chris our Savior, that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

~Titus 3:5-7

Fall Happenings

The month of October has been a whirlwind and I have to say... I'm kind of glad it's over.  We have been trying to cram in as many fun fall activities as possible, but have been plagued with colds, fevers, teething and bouts with the stomach flu as well as a hurricane of monster sized proportions!  Let's just say we have been battling a lot.

Not all of the fun was lost though.  We did still enjoy our trip to Shenot's Farm on a beautiful, cool fall Sunday.  James was enamored with the tractor!

It was a fun ride up the hill to the patch.

And there was plenty to enjoy at the top!

My sweet little pumpkin...

Compare him to James... two years ago!

And now look at my Jamesy... almost 2 1/2!

I love these guys!

Ethan was thoroughly tuckered out by the end of the trip.

We didn't actually buy any pumpkins at Shenot's this year.  The little boys are really still too little to carve and the big boy is not really all that excited by it anymore.  So, I had pumpkins painted for each of them instead.  They turned out so cute!

Each one had their own theme.

Due to the Hurricane Sandy our township opted to postpone Halloween.  So, we actually celebrated on November 3rd this year.  I managed to do a little photo shoot of my darling dalmation!

He is so cooperative and happy for photos that I just keep snapping and snapping!  He is almost sitting up.

But not quite!

Oops!  That's ok... He will just keep right on smiling.

My sweet mother-in-law came down to have dinner with us before trick or treat and then she handed out candy while we took James to a few houses.

Ethan got to stay in the nice warm house with her.  Brrr... it was chilly!  Our little fireman was all ready to go.  He was very serious.  No smiles for the camera. 

Well... I did get one.  But that was only because he was getting ready to loot our candy bowl!

In typical James fashion I heard him talking to his Little People all morning this morning telling them all to say "cheese".  Love that kid!

How about this one?  We're not really sure what he is... but you're never too old to dress up!

James loved trick or treating!  We just took him down our street in the neighborhood, but he could have definitely kept going.  Did I mention it was cold?!  Oh... and the Pitt/Notre Dame game was on.  Priorities people!

I don't think he ever actually said "trick or treat", but he became quite skillful at reaching into the bowl and taking what he wanted.  He did whisper "thank you" at each house.  It was so cute!

There was even a visit from the firetruck!  That was a real highlight.

And this woman downright scared him!  From there on out everyone was "spooky".

Once we got home he immediately dug into his pumpkin for a treat!

I can't wait until next year when we will have two little buddies to take around the neighborhood!

As October comes to a close I am so thankful for our family, for sweet boys and for our health.