A big 5 months...

Since I lasted posted, the Brown family has grown from Phil, Lisa, Ethan and Moses to incorporate it's newest member.  I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant with another little boy.  When Phil and I discovered I was expecting, the news was welcome but surprising.  I have to say I was just enjoying having a nice glass of wine after Ethan went down for the night - but that will have to wait!

Since April, Ethan has been growing in leaps and bounds.  He's now almost 11 months and he's turning into a real little boy.  His vocabulary is coming along nicely and includes words such as Mum, Dad, dog, duck, yay, yum and just recently, hello.  His favourite word has to be dog because he's just besotted with Moses and would happily sit and pull his hair all day if we'd let him.

He's also very close to walking.  After a slow start to his crawling career (about 8 1/2 months), he has taken to walking around whilst grabbing onto things very quickly.  He now stands reasonably comfortably by himself so we're just waiting for him to take that first step unassisted.

Ethan also has been busy growing teeth.  His first popped through while we were holidaying in New Zealand (8 months) and the second followed closely after.  We've been lucky enough as a household to also get another three through in the past few weeks.  It's been a tumultuous time!  But we've been enjoying Ethan so much - every day he makes us smile and laugh.  We're constantly amazed by his development and how fast he's growing up.  We're also excited about adding another little boy to the family.  We're hopeful that the two boys will be great friends.

While this time has been filled with the joy of watching Ethan grow, it has also been an extremely challenging time for us as a family.  I've been unwell for most of the pregnancy (again!) and this has taken it's toll.  Phil has also been going through a really tough time a work with a lot of disunity in the parish and accusations made against him.  We're looking forward to this phase coming to an end and moving on with life and ministry.

Approaching Six Months...

In the past 2 months a lot has happened.  We moved house from the suburban plains of Maribyrnong to the urban pastures of Brunswick.

Our house, in Thistle St has been wonderful!  We honestly thought that leaving our McMansion would be difficult but God has provided a house for us that not only suits our needs perfectly, it is in a great neighbourhood and is close enough to walk to church.  There are lots of young families around us and we have already connected with a few of them.  We're also loving being able to walk to a number of great cafes for brunch or a coffee.  The house itself has 3 bedrooms and a great living area at the back of the house.  Even though the move itself was very difficult, we're very happy here.

In the past 2 months Ethan has gone from baby to little boy.  We celebrated his 4 month birthday with starting solids and he has developed a wonderful eating / sleeping pattern which we're very thankful for!

Am I related to Shrek??

We also gave Ethan his first haircut and managed to get him out of his swaddle!  Praise the Lord!

He's been having a lot of fun using the new activity centre / eating the microphone, sitting up in the bumbo, getting strong with tummy time and now he's even sitting up by himself.  What a star!

The First Four Months...

The first four months with Ethan at home were epic!  Apparently the transition from no kids to having kids is one of the biggest in life - it wasn't without its challenges but Phil and I have honestly loved it.  The amount of joy we feel when we see Ethan grow and develop is immense.  What a great blessing from God!  The first few months were filled with 'firsts' - Ethan's first car ride, his first outfit, his first superman arm, his first Christmas carols in the park, his first Christmas... 

But our favourite first was his first smile.  It took place the day before his 4 week birthday.  We were sitting on the couch talking to him about his day when he started to smile a lot - we were lucky enough to catch it on our camera.

From there it has been smile after smile, giggle after giggle.  What a delight!

Ethan Arrives...

Being pregnant with Ethan was not an easy ride - lots of nausea and vomiting, stomach pain, swelling and other usual pregnancy symptoms.  Needless to say, I was quite over the whole process by the time his due date arrived.

At 9:33pm on the 25th of October 2012, Ethan Phillip Brown arrived to join our family.  He took about 24 hours to enter the world and by the end of the process both Mum and Dad were exhausted and happy.