Flanagan Clan

I cannot believe that we’re over halfway through November already, and that Thanksgiving is now a week away. November has been flying by, although I have to say that I said the same thing about September and October as well. When you have three young children and a booming business time has a habit of slipping away.

So, here’s what’s happened in the past month.

1. Ethan had his first birthday on the 1st.

For breakfast, I made heart shaped waffles

Ethan enjoyed them very much, especially with a dollop off whipped cream on top

Halfway through breakfast we had a knock on the door. I opened it to discover a big bouquet of balloons for the birthday boy. Actually, it’s a funny story because for every other child’s birthday we’ve had, I ordered balloons, but I conciously did not order them for Ethan’s b-day because it was such a hassle to go down, put in a balloon order at the party store, and come back on the day of the birthday to pick them up and try to jam then in a car without affecting my rear vision. So I didn’t buy him any, and it was a shock to find them at our doorstep, from Uncle Steve, Aunt Karen, and Cousin Carol Anne. Ethan definitely enjoyed them (and we still have one of the mylar ones stuck on our ceiling!!!)

Ethan thoroughly enjoyed his first birthday!

2. We got to spend one last morning with another family of three boys from Faith before they move to Pasco, WA. It’s funny how much differently moms of only boys parent their children from moms of only girls. We will definitely miss the Rhett Bentson family being here in our area!

3. We all got sick. I ended up getting it the worst, with having a cold for almost an entire two weeks. I’m finally on the mend, but it looks like Sammy is going in for round 2, as he has been hacking away all morning.

4. My business got swamped from the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt. I’ve had several large embroidery orders, and the largest by far is sitting in my room, waiting to be completed- a whole 19 diapers! Yesterday I completed an order of 8 items, and I have a bunch of dresses that I just finished making. I’m planning to take a break in December, so a lot of my customers have been putting their orders in now, in time for Christmas. It’s been crazy, but we plan to take the machine down to Portland for servicing the first week of December, so I definitely have to get everything done before then!

5. I got new contacts. I have the most sensitive eyes ever, and I hated wearing contacts because they always hurt no matter what. I finally found a pair that work with my eyes. So definite yay on that, but ick on the trouble I had to go through to get them. I scheduled back to back eye appointments for Andrew and I without remembering that my mom was going to be out of town, and so we ended up taking all three boys with us to our 8 AM appointments. Patrick acted up a little bit and Sammy did, too, but Ethan was the terror. He fussed pretty much the whole time. I tried keeping him in his stroller, but he wouldn’t have it at all. I was seeing a new eye doctor, and he turned out to be a really nice guy who allowed me to actually hold Ethan in my lap during the entire exam. It was crazy, but somehow we got through and now I have new contacts and everything is good. I also talked to the doctor about lasik, and it looks like as soon as I’m done having children I should be elligible to have that done!

6. We discovered that Ethan is SOY intollerant. Since Patrick and  Sammy are lactose intolerant, I decided to skip trying to given Ethan milk products and went straight to soy. He started getting really bad diapers and it took me about a week to figure it out, but finally I put him on lactose-free milk, and things cleared up. I then realized how much more expensive the lactose-free stuff is, so on a whim I tried giving him regular whole milk and he took it just fine! So, now we have two soy boys and one milk man.

7. Patrick and Ethan had their 4 year and 1 year well visits yesterday. They’re both very healthy and they both got 4 shots. Patrick is in the 50th percentile for both weight and height. Ethan, however, is in about the 10th for weight and 25th for height. I just think it’s funny that we have an average child, a short and fat child (sorry, Sam!), and a tall and skinny child. They all have come from the same parents, but each boy is just sooo incredibly different. Ethan’s personality is really coming lately, and he’s fearless. The other two were not as brave as little Ethan. Ethan LOVES the vacuum cleaner and tries to climb on it while it’s running. He’s constantly trying to crawl out the door and is always getting himself into trouble. He even likes to crawl all over Sammy while Sam is getting diaper changes or lounging on the floor. I am quite sure that he’s going to be the one that I’ll need to keep my eye on, and probably the one who will be going to the ER at least once a month.

8. The boys, as always, have been busy being cute. Here’s a few shots of them:

Patrick enjoying the swingset

Sammy figured out how to put a zip lock bag on his head, like a crown

Ethan got a new embroidered prefold

My littlest angel!

Sammy enjoying the fall

Well, that’s about it for now!