Flanagan Clan

We got the call from Mary Bridge this afternoon- they want us to be at the hospital at 7 AM tomorrow morning. They didn’t say what time the actual surgery would be, though I’m guessing it will be closer to 8, based on his last surgery. We will be having Patrick and Samuel spend the night with my parents tonight, and Andrew and I will take Ethan to the hospital tomorrow. I’m guessing that they won’t make us stay overnight- it wasn’t mentioned in the pre-op instructions- so I’m hoping we’ll be home by mid to late afternoon. I’m glad that the surgery is scheduled for early morning, and I’m hoping that there will be no complications. Last time they had a complication with getting the IV in, but I hope that they don’t even have that problem this time. I’m also hoping that Ethan will recover quickly. He is a very active little boy, and they have given us fairly strict post-op instructions about what kind of activities he can do once he’s done. Hopefully he’ll want to sleep a lot and not be a fuss, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one…

It snowed about three inches yesterday! The two older boys got to make good use out of their sled, but Ethan only got to sit in it inside and long to be out in the rapidly melting snow…

Poor little man…

Ethan always has a smile for Mommy

A diaper I embroidered for Ethan for St. Patrick’s Day!

Sammy’s “new” German diaper, since Sammy is German and Patrick and Ethan are Irish, according to Patrick

Patrick learning to help around the house

Sammy hiding from the vacuum cleaner

I was trying to get a picture of Ethan in his Grove City shirt for the alumni mag. Here’s one shot that is really funny, but I will not be sending in 🙂

Another funny attempt at a GCC baby picture- we might have to try another photo shoot in a week or two when Ethan is less wiggly and puts some pants on (I was trying to get a shot without the diaper!) 🙂

Besides whole milk and chocolate (yes, he already has a bit of a sweet tooth…), Ethan’s absolute favorite thing is…

OUR VACUUM CLEANER!

He seriously gets excited every time I pull it out and he follows it around while I vacuum, sometimes even getting in the way of my work. This morning while I was vacuuming I had him in his high chair eating breakfast, and he did not like not being able to run after his favorite thing. As soon as he was done eating the first thing he did was run straight for the vacuum and give it a nice big “kiss” (more like slobbering on it, but it seems like he must have been trying!). The funniest thing of all is that Patrick and Sammy are scared of it! We’re slowly trying to get Patrick more involved in the chores, including vacuuming, but he still prefers our little handheld Dyson, and Sammy, well, he runs and cries if the vacuum gets anywhere near him. Not Ethan! He’s always running up to it, and I have to work hard to avoid hitting him every time I use the thing. He really is a strange, silly kid. I hear that Andrew loved vacuuming as a child… he must have gotten this one from his daddy 🙂

A certain brother was having fun with the Mr. Yuck Stickers!

Apparently, the new baby is also yucky!

Fun with play dough (until it somehow managed to make it’s way onto the living room carpet!)

Patrick is actually pretty creative and imaginative- he was making butterflies, sharks, the ocean, and all sorts of other things with his play dough.

The other day we were all seated at the dinner table and I looked at Patrick and told him, “Patrick, in a few months we’re going to have a very big change in this house”. He looked at me and said, “Yeah, a DIAPER change!”

Sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, Patrick kept on saying the word “yogurt” over and over. I looked at him and told him to stop saying it. “Why, Mama? Is it a bad word?”. I replied that it wasn’t, but I didn’t want him to say it anymore. “Oh”, he said, “so it’s a GOOD word!”.

And, the fun of preschool drama… Today he was telling me that he doesn’t like one of the girls in his class. “Yes, mama”, he said, “Tasha likes Keagan better than me, but I like Kennedy. She’s nice”. Oh boy…