Getting excited for Ethan

Today has been a busy day for me! I know it is still 3 months before the anticipated arrival of our sweet little boy, Ethan, but I simply felt the urge to work on his room and get things prepared. Perhaps it was after purchasing the new glider/recliner this weekend that I felt the need to get Ethan's room in order. This morning I re-assembled the crib in the nursery by raising the mattress back to the top level and taking off the toddler rails and replacing them with the front of the crib. I was amazed at the dust that had accumulated, thus cleaned that thoroughly (with Ryan as my big helper- he loves to dust!) and then cleaned the sheets and waterproof pad. After lunch, Ryan and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and picked up some cute name letters for Ethan's wall as well as some navy ribbon. I thought I would try to change things up just a little bit since Ryan was in that room.

I have also had a few people asking about any items that we lack or are requesting this time around. There are really not that many things that we need because we were so blessed by family and friends the first time around. However, we have registered for about 20 items I believe at "Buy Buy Baby" if you are interested to check it out. Other than that, diapers are always a blessing (I have 3 bags of sz 1 already). We also could use a handful of outfits in the NB, 0-3, and 3-6 mo range. Other than that, I believe we will be all set! Thanks for all the love and support of our family and friends. We can't wait to meet our sweet little boy. One more week until my glucose test, sonogram, and regular Dr's appointment. I will hopefully update again then. For now, enjoy the latest nursery photos- not finished, but much closer!

Ethan Robert Campbell

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there and future mothers out there! We began the day worshipping with our church family followed by lunch with both our parents as well as grandparents and aunts and uncles at the Roberts' house. We enjoyed a BBQ lunch provided by Dickey's and overall a very relaxing afternoon. We also decided to announce the name that we had chosen for our second baby boy yesterday. We have picked Ethan Robert Campbell. I thought I would provide some background regarding the meaning of the name and how we came about picking it.

First, Ethan means "Firm, Strong or Enduring" in Hebrew. In 2011 Ethan was ranked #8 in US births. Ethan is a name that we considered last time before choosing Ryan and thus made our list this time early as we started considering names for our second baby boy. This year in reading through the Bible in chronological order, I learned more about Ethan as a Biblical name (which I didn't realize it was). Ethan is the name of four different men in the Bible. The first reference I came across was Ethan the Ezrahite, son of Mahol. He was distinguished for his wisdom and said to only be surpassed by Solomon. He is also the author of the 89th Psalm. There is also an Ethan, grandson of Judah. Next was Ethan, a Levite and from the family of Merari. He was a musician in the temple during the time of King David. Lastly, was another Ethan who was also a musician and ancestor of Asaph belonging to the tribe of Levi. I had to do some research to realize that the last two were separate individuals as I assumed they were one in the same when reading in scripture. Anyways, we liked the significance and references of this name and decided it would be a good fit for our little boy. If you get a chance read Psalm 89, I think vs. 1-2 will go in his baby book. (Scripture references: 1 Kings 4:31; 1 Chronicles 2:6, 8; 6:42, 44; 15:17, 19; Psalm 89:1)

Next, Robert means "bright fame" and is of English origin. In 2010 it was ranked #54 in US births. Robert has a fairly significant family meaning for us. Michael's father's first name is Robert, as is his grandfather Gaynor (his Mom's father). In addition, my maiden name is Roberts, so we thought it would be a nice way to incorporate my maiden name as well, thus honoring my father and grandfather. All four of these men are wonderful examples of the kind of man we would pray our son would grow up to emulate. We are thankful for strong male role models in our family and hope that our boys learn great values from each one of them. Baby Ethan's initials will also be the same as mine which I thought was kind of fun. Anyways, this is some of the background and thought that went into our deciding on Ethan Robert. We can't wait to meet him in September!

Potty Training with Ryan

Well, we decided to start officially potty training with Ryan on April 2nd while I had an entire day devoted to being at home with honestly nothing else but cleaning to do. That entire week was fairly light in activities as well. I put him in his special Elmo underwear the first day that we had been showing him and talking about for awhile. (He loves ELMO) The first day Ryan had about 3-4 accidents, but I just took him to the potty after each one where he continued to go more and explained about not going tee tee in his big boy underwear. On Tuesday, we had MOPS, so I just remembered to take him before and after his class and had him in a diaper while we were out. By Wednesday he was in underwear full time and has been since then. (Other than changing him to a diaper while we were at Main Street Arts Festival the 19th as bathrooms were honestly just inconvenient)

We have been so proud at how quickly Ryan has caught on and how well he is doing with the change. He seems to love going in the potty especially now that we have showed him how to stand and go. (Oh the joys of being a boy I suppose!) Ryan is even staying dry at night and has only had 3 accidents overnight since Wednesday, April 4th. We chose to use the diapers that we had left over at night time until Friday, April 27th when Mike decided to give Ryan a shot in undies overnight since he was doing so well.  He always hates when we put him in a diaper and says "No baby diaper, Mommy. My underwear" (which honestly sounds more like Elmowear). He hasn't wet the bed yet and has stayed dry at night, but has had some tee tee in the morning in his underwear once or twice before we actually make a trip to the bathroom, especially if he starts the day with a temper tantrum over something... (there are a variety of things which will set him off at the drop of a hat).

Regarding going #2 in the potty, that took Ryan about a week and a half to finally understand and begin to understand the urge before needing to go. He went from being a regular every/every other day pooper in diapers to waiting 3-4 days to go during the first week of potty training. By the 3rd time that he needed to go #2 he had figured out how to go on the potty and now has gone each time and tells me before he needs to go which is a very big step!! Since week two we have not had a single poop accident in his underwear (that Mom is also thankful for!) and he has been going in the potty every day to every other day once again and occasionally twice a day. However, he does like to have books available for reading during poopy time which sometimes lengthens the time he would actually need to sit on the toilet to about 20-30 minutes... This can be frustrating, but we are trying to be supportive and when he is actually done we can usually use bribery or distraction to coerce him to leave the potty when he is actually all finished anyways. (aka books in the other room, playing upstairs, time at the park, a treat, etc.)

Mike has also been working with Ryan on doing more of potty time just on his own regarding bringing his step stool to the potty, pulling down his pants/underwear, etc. without help. We still monitor and watch because he will often times need help with something. However, earlier last week I was surprised for the first time to find him standing at his potty on the stool with his undies around his ankles and going all by himself while I had gone into the other room to finish some cleaning. It honestly surprised me, but I was so proud that he knew he needed to go and went and took care of business himself. It will be awhile before I feel comfortable just letting him go by himself whenever he needs to, but he has made significant progress in the last few weeks. He always wipes, flushes and washes his hands all by himself which is our routine, but we will assist with #2 wiping of course.

Additionally, rewards and treats were a huge deal starting out and getting Ryan pumped about potty training. He would receive an M&M or one of his Easter bunny treats (since we had so many around Easter) after going tee tee in the potty and not his underwear. Also, after one week of being dry and in his undies all day we rewarded Ryan with an ice cream party at Braums, then a week later after finally starting to go poop in the potty, he was rewarded with a slurpee party from 7-Eleven. He loves rewards and "parties" and being given praise for his accomplishments. However, at this point, we no longer reward going on the potty with an M&M or treat each time he goes. I explained to him after about two weeks (and LOTS of sugar...) that he was just going as necessary because he was a big boy and just like Mommy and Daddy he goes when he needs to and we don't always get rewards except for on special occasions. We still tell him "Good Job" or give him high fives & claps, and occasionally I will let him pick out a sticker, but in general it is just a part of our daily routine now. Carrying an extra pair of pants and undies has also become a normal routine for our outings and while we have fewer and fewer accidents, he is certainly not perfect, nor do we expect that.

All this potty talk may be more than some of you hoped to read about, but I have several friends starting off potty training with their 2 year old and they have been asking me questions, so I figured it would be easiest to just have our experiences listed out on the blog. Hope it has been helpful!