Updates....

I have been slacking off a bit on the posts, not on purpose but just one thing leads to another every time I sit down to post. Nothing too exciting going on in the Phillips household. We are knee-deep in potty training with Ethan and I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We had been giving him mini marshmallows whenever he went on the potty which seemed to be working until he realized that he could get M&Ms at school when he used the potty.Well, that changed everything so we too had to start giving him M&Ms at home. I was very reluctant at first but I have to say in the past 3 days that we have been doing it, he has seemed to grasp the concept so much more and will ask to use the bathroom all the time. We're down to using only 1 or 2 pull-ups all day! He is so funny, he is very clear that he need "privacy" when he goes to the bathroom and will walk in there all by himself, turn on the light, close the door and do his business. He is such a little man...where does the time go? We are crossing our fingers that he gets the hang of things in the next few weeks, he is so close.
Other than that, I am doing well with Baby #2, feeling good and trying to keep busy. I have another ultrasound on Tuesday which is always fun to see the baby and hopefully they will be able to give us a 100% on the gender. Right now they are 70% sure it is a boy but haven't had a *money shot* to see the goods.
What else....baseball season is underway and the Phillips family couldn't be happier. We are still die-hard Red Sox fans but since going to Fenway Park is out of the question, we have decided to get a share in season tickets to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (crazy name huh, they just changed it from the Anaheim Angels). We have 4 tickets to about 20 or so games this season and plan to take Ethan to a bunch. I used to go to Red Sox games all the time with my dad and I have such great memories of that and can't wait to start that tradition with Ethan.
I plan to get my act together soon and post some recent pics.

The Very First Easter Egg Hunt

This year Ethan (and Mommy) participated in our very first Easter Egg Hunt. While Bryan was out of town for the weekend, Ethan and I, together with about 5 of our neighbor families got together for an Easter Egg Hunt. Ethan was very excited and quickly grasped the concept. He walked around looking for eggs calling out "Easter eggs where are you?!" I could barely keep up with him as he raced around grabbing any egg in sight. It was a blast watching the kids though it was over in about 5 minutes. Ethan loved it so much he is already excited about next year. Here are some pictures of Ethan on his hunt and of the Red Rail Gang.

Massachusetts Part II

After spending a few wonderful days in Greenfield, MA with Grandma and Poppa Brett, we headed off to Boston where we met our newest nephew, Mason Lewis Stern and spent time with Meme, Poppa Don, Uncle Ben, Aunt Karen and cousins Oliver and Mason. We had a blast though were quite busy. We went to the Children's Museum, music class, a music show and played lots. Ethan was very excited about his new little cousin and wanted to hold and/or see him at all times. It was such a nice visit and hard to say goodbye to our families, though we were looking forward to leaving the New England weather and coming back to sunny, warm Southern California. The plane ride home was a bit longer and Ethan was a bit more restless and needed more entertaining which exhausted Mom and Dad. Fortunately he fell asleep for about 3 hours which gave us a nice break. Although we are home now and settling back into our routine, Ethan still talks about seeing his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. He (and we) had a blast. Thank you everyone and look forward to seeing you all soon!

Massachusetts Trip Part I

We are back from an absolutely wonderful trip back to Massachusetts which was filled with seeing family, friends and many good times. Since we did so much in the short time that we were there, I am splitting up the week into two posts. The first, will be the time we spent with Bryan's family. We took the red eye flight and our little energizer bunny (his newly earned nickname) only slept 3 hours all night. He was so excited to be flying on a plane and was too interested in what everyone around us was doing, what the stewardesses were doing and had a question about everything imaginable. We thought since he barely slept on the plane he would surely sleep in the car during the 2 1/2 hour ride to Bryan's parents' house. No such luck. Again, the energizer bunny asked questions, sang and talked the entire ride while Bryan and I were bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. Let's just say this kid loves to know what is going on at all times and wants to be in the center of action. He literally napped only 4 of the 9 days we were there. We had a blast and loved every minute of it. Here are some of my favorite pictures and video from the first part of our trip. It is fairly photo heavy but I could not resist, there were so many great pictures. Ethan had such a blast playing with his cousins Emily and Colin, seeing Grammy and Poppa Brett and of course playing in the snow!! Stay tuned for Massachusetts Part II.

Heading back to New England (for a visit)

So we are leaving tonight to go back to Massachusetts for our first visit since we moved out to California. As luck would have it, Ethan has developed a double ear infection so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the antibiotics have had enough time to kick in and he is not too uncomfortable on the airplane as we are taking the red eye tonight. Should be interesting! We are very excited to see our family and friends as well as welcome the newest member of our family, another nephew. Aside from planning for our trip, we've been taking advantage of the fabulous early spring weather here in sunny California and Ethan is as goofy as ever. I am sure we'll have lots of fun stories to share when we return from our trip. Here are a few pictures of our little man. One of him being his goofball-self and the rest from his gym class which he absolutely loves.

A lazy Sunday morning

Okay, so I have been really bad about posting in recent weeks. We've all had our share of illnesses that never seem to go away! I've also gotten a bit lazy and stopped bringing my camera with me as much so needless to say my pictures are slacking. Here are a few from this morning of Ethan with his beloved garbage truck. The sun was shining and it is times like this where southern California is wonderful.
We're heading back to the east coast in about 2 weeks for a long overdue visit with friends and family so there will surely be lots of pictures and stories to post about!

7 Weird things

So, this blog is supposed to be primarily about Ethan but I have been "blog tagged" by my dear friend Ruth to list 7 weird things about myself and you all know I can not turn down a challenge. Here goes nothing:

1) I love celebrity gossip, can't get enough of it. I read tmz.com, watch Access Hollywood and buy all the trashy magazines. Not sure why I love it so much but the trials and tribulations of celebrities is so intriguing to me.

2) I am utterly obsessed with the weather and not just the weather in my area, but weather all over the world. Bryan makes fun of me and says if they put music to the Weather Channel I would watch it all day. Truth be told, I probably would. I love learning about earthquakes, wind patterns, jetstreams etc. I missed my calling, I should have been a meterologist!

3) I can't get enough condiments on my food. I love almost all of them, ketchup, mustard, salad dressings etc. I have been known to create really weird combinations. My latest obsession is hummus. This is ironic since when I was little my mother had to by plates with dividers since I refused to let any of my food touch each other!

4) I have a weird game I play with the clock to "answer" burning questions in my life and I am not just talking about "should I wear a blue shirt or not". Let me explain. Actually, it is a game that I learned from my mother. You ask the clock a question like "will it rain on my wedding day"? After you ask the question you turn and look at the clock and if the last number of the time at that moment is even, ie 12:24,than the answer is whatever you want it to be (yes if you want it to rain and no if you don't), if the time ends in an odd number i.e 12:21 than you are out of luck and your wish will not come true. Kind of confusing and you're probably still confused but it makes sense to us. Guess that is why this is one of my weird things!

5) My feet are bizarre. My toes are as long as Ethan's fingers and my pinky toes curl around almost under my other toes so you can't really even see the toenail. For a long time I was so repulsed by my feet that I refused to get pedicures. I got one for my wedding and have been hooked ever since.

6) Although I consider myself to be an intelligent woman, I have been known to say some really stupid things. I just don't think before I speak sometimes. Fortunately for me I seem to only do this around my family and save myself from public humilitation. It all started when I was little and asked my mother if chocolate milk came from brown cows. Now, this might be cute coming from a 3 or 4 year old, but I was 10 at the time! My mother almost fell over:) The rest I will not share to save myself from embarrassment but don't worry, Bryan keeps a running list.

7) I have a pet peeve about people leaving dishes in the sink. When kitchens were designed someone brilliantly decided to put the dishwasher right next to the sink to make it very easy to rinse your dish and then put it in the dishwasher. I think Bryan was born without that gene or simply leaves his dishes in the sink to drive me nuts! It gets worse, I have a certain way that I like the dishwasher to be filled. If someone fills it, I will rearrange it to my liking.

So there you have it, though I am sure I could have gone on. So in the spirit of keeping the game going I am going to tag my fellow bloggers, Cristy, Kristy and Breck!