Mother's Day (or Life as We Knew It Is Over)

On Mother's Day morning I was woken up by a sound of small feet stomping in the distance. I opened my eyes and heard Eric announce: "E is out of his crib." Well, we had been anticipating this day for a while now. I believe that we have gotten more mileage out of the crib than normally expected. Even recently we spoke about the matter and decided that E was too laid back to jump out of his crib and risk breaking his neck. He simply sat there in the mornings singing our names out: "Mooommyyy! Daaaddyyy!"

Well, as it turns out, E has grown tall enough and athletic enough to safely climb out of his crib. Thankfully, he still has not mastered the door knobs in our new house!

Having reluctantly left the warmth of our bed, Eric went to say "Good Morning" to E and I went downstairs to the garage to find some tools and dig out the toddler bed attachment that had come with the convertible crib. We had agreed we would not make much of a deal out of the event to avoid unnecessary excitement. E posed for a few pics before we converted the crib into a "Big Boy's Bed."





E loved the old-new bed! We let him enjoy the novelty for a while before we resumed the matter-of-fact approach.













Fortunately, and knock on wood, our nonchalant attitude has so far prevented E from getting too wound up about the "new" bed. He has not yet tried to take advantage of his new freedom. He went quietly down for nap yesterday and to sleep two nights in a row.

Fingers crossed we will get over this milestone “unscathed.”

Back in (the Water) Business

Soon after we arrived in New Zealand over a year ago, we were advised that E should stop swimming indoors due to his frequent ear problems. With reluctance, we obeyed the doctor's instructions. A few months later, in August while in Fiji, E seemed to feel quite uneasy in the pool. We thought that the previous five months (without weekly swim classes) had impacted him much more than the earlier year of swimming and truly loving water. It seemed like such a shame!

Well, after eleven months of monthly ear check-ups, several Amoxicillin-treated ear infections, a hearing test, and a burst eardrum, we bit the bullet and had grommets inserted into E's ears. E was a trooper through the whole process too. Last week our ENT doctor told us we could go back to swimming! We did not waste any time at all. Last Sunday E resumed his classes. He was so excited. He smiled and laughed most of the time he was in the water. Once the class was over, he kept saying "Ephraim try again!"