{Ethan is 5} No More E4

Happy Birthday, Bubba!

Ethan Brandt Markgraf was born May 15, 2008. He spent some time in NICU before he came home. He was a bit small, but that didn't stop me from nicknaming him Bubba. He quickly grew into that name.

When Ethan was three my dad asked him what his name was and he said, "E3" - that nickname has caught on with the whole family except we've changed the number after every birthday.

 

2008

 

2009

 

2010

 

2011

 

2012

 

2013

 

Click here for a few Ethan posts over the years.

{200th Post?}

Well this was supposed to be my 200th post, but that didn't happen. It's looking like my 219th post, to be more accurate.

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I'm going to try to make this interesting for you, my readers, but I make no guarantees (as a member of the financial field, I'm not allowed to guarantee anything anyway).

So, let me tell you what I've been up to lately...

1. Foster kiddos. About 12 weeks ago Jess and Luke started caring for 3 little boys: E(3), BV(16 mo), and FD(1 weeks old). It goes without saying that Jess and Luke's world was turned upside down, but the rest of the family has been able to help out and pitch in whenever we can. A couple days a week, Jen helped out during the day while Jess worked. She had a couple of basketball players who helped out the other days. I've been able to babysit quite a bit during the evenings and weekends - mostly after they're in bed when Jess went into the office or while they went out on a date or ran errands. I also spent a weekend with Jess when she was single-parenting it while Luke was in Boston at wedding. About 3 weeks ago Jess resigned her hr/accounts payable position at church; she's now a full-time stay-at-home mom and the boys are loving it! At this point we don't know how long they'll be with Jess and Luke, but we're loving on them as much as we can while we have them.
2. Fundraising for Metro Women's Center. If you gave money to the annual walk event, I thank you. This past fall MWC was able to purchase a home and many people been working on fixing it up and furnishing it to be ready to be used by those in need. If you were thinking of giving but didn't yet, you can still by going to my FirstGiving fundraising page. For more info about the Amazing Grace Home, I invite you to visit Metro Women's Center blog.
3. Work projects - I've mentioned before how I was interviewing for a new hire in my office. Well he's hired and thankfully not my responsibility; my co-worker gets to train him. We call him "Sabrina's* Slave". We're also in the process of changing 160+ investment accounts and ~100 insurance policies to a joint rep # for clients that we are buying out from another advisor. This is just Phase I of the accounts coming to us. Thankfully Phase II is a much smaller list. Something else I've been working on  is the planning of our annual client golf event to be held in August. Invites went out the middle of the month and RSVPs are already rolling in. You can check out our website that I help with. The bulk of it is designed and updated by a marketing company, but I'm responsible for content that is firm-specific.
4. May Birthdays - My nephew Ethan turned 4 on the 15th and we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Red Robin on that Tuesday evening followed by cake at my sister's. My niece Morgen turned 8 on the 20th and she celebrated at a birthday party with 10 of her closest friends. Mom, Dad, and the rest of the Mpls Gang were all in attendance as well. It was quite the hub-bub-a-loo! 11 screaming 8-year old girls, that's something you've got to experience first hand! Jess's oldest E(3) enjoyed splashing the girls while he was hanging out in the kiddie pool; they enjoyed egging him on as well. 
5. Baseball and Kindergarten Graduation - not to be left out from all the May activities, my nephew Carsten (6) graduated from Kindergarten and started little league baseball during May. His graduation program included songs and a play from all the seasons while one of his classmates kept asking when he could fly his kite. Each season he would ask, "is it time yet?" and finally, when it was Spring, he was able to fly his kite - and it actually flew! They had rigged up fishing wire for him and made it fly above the stage - pretty cool for kindergartners! :-) The baseball games haven't been the most exciting, but it was fun to see him connect with the ball for the 2nd time. 
6. Weekends with Mom and Dad - It's been fun to have Mom and Dad so close - they've been able to come over on different occasions and I think they were here 2 times in May and I went to their house over Memorial weekend. Of course, that wasn't so much a fun weekend as Mom was sick. I did enjoy getting to see my aunt and uncle though! Dad's baby sister, Jan and her husband, Dale, drove up from Rockford, IL on Saturday to spend some time with my parents. Unfortunately Mom wasn't feeling so great, so it was up to Dad to entertain them :) Jan did make a yummy strawberry-rhubarb crunch. I was able to have some on Sunday when I got there.
7. It's a girl! Probably the biggest news is our latest Flaming addition, my 3rd niece, Ella Taylor. Ella was born to Jake and Meg and big sister is Lily Bug who will be 2 in a week! You can read about Ella's arrival and see some pictures on their blog. There's also some cute comparison pics of Lily and Ella. Ella was born on Thursday and came home on Friday. Here's what they've been up to since she came home.

I'm pretty sure their are many other things I've missed here, but I think I'll stop for now. 

And I wasn't going for a 7Things post, but it appears that's what this turned out to be! For many weeks in a row I've missed writing my 7Things posts. Back in March, I think it was, I scheduled about 2 months worth  "A Year Ago on Not the Last to Know" posts.  Next year I think they'll be a little bit more exciting since I had been blogging a bit more regularly this year (...until about mid-April...). 

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the blogging habit again, but don't hold me to it. June and July are looking to be busy months too! I think I'll work on some picture posts. I downloaded 430 pictures from my phone tonight. I need to go through them and see if any are blog-worthy :)

*named change to protect the innocent

{conversations with littles}

How Long is Long?

Carsten and I were driving in the car. I told him I was growing my hair out.
Me: Should I keep growing my hair long?
Carsten (age 5): Yes.
Me: How long should I grow it?
Carsten: About 9 days.
Me: 9 days?
Carsten: Yeah, in 9 days it will be really long!

Oh, Bummer!

Ethan (age 3) and I were walking into a Bruegger's Bagel shop and noticed a dog with his owner by some outdoor tables. On our way out...
Ethan (age 3): Where'd the dog go?
Me: Oh, bummer, I guess the dog went home!
Ethan: Bunner, the dog all gone!
Me: Bummer?
Ethan: Yeah, I said, "Bunner, dog all gone!"

Truth vs Fiction

I almost forgot this one but remembered during church - you'll see why...

I was trying to explain to Carsten the plot of the play Arsenic and Old Lace. Let me tell you, it was hard. How do you tell a 5 year old that two old ladies who were crazy were killing lonely old men, because they could - ?

We discussed if the poison was real and I was able to say that, "No, for the play it was pretend." I also explained that the whole play was not true. "It was fiction - like a story you would read in a book."

To that he said, "But the Bible is all true. It is true because it's God's Holy Word."

birthday week

MAY is typically a BUSY month for anyone, but add two family birthdays in one week and busy is taken to a new level!

The two-birthdays-in-one-week started three years ago when my nephew Ethan joined us. We celebrated his 3rd birthday this Sunday.

Of course there was a crowd of people (two families of my sister's clique who have a few kids each, plus uncle Luke and the aunts-Jess & me), a big lunch (pork roast - his favorite meat, can-you-believe-it?!), lots of presents (race cars, race tracks, $, etc., etc.), and of course, cake -- a chocolate, dinosaur cake!

This picture captures the essence of the birthday boy on his special day - he was so well behaved! He even said "excuse me" multiple times while he politely (and excitedly) played with his new toys (that he gets to share with his older brother)!

Three of the Many Reasons I Love You, Ethan:

1. You're my one and only Bubba!
2. You love to play "a phone on your game" (game on my cell phone) and ask to play ALL. THE. TIME.
3. Your fun to hang out with so I do it a lot - I especially like reading books to you, especially We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

From the Archives: Enjoy a short stroll down memory lane with two old posts from MAY 2008 when Bubba joined the family. 

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{Conversations with Littles}

If you're a regular reader, you probably know that my oldest sister has three littles who I spend a lot of time with. Last night I headed over there after work to play "catch up on Favorite Aunt status" since I hadn't seen them in a week or so. The reason I hadn't seen them was because they had taken a trip to Grandma & Grandpa's. They also saw Aunt Anna while they were there - she's my biggest competition, you know! I don't carry a gun or drive a car with lights & sirens...

So I asked Ethan about his trip:

Me: Did you go to Grandma & Grandpa's?!
E: Yes.
Me: What did you do?
E: I hit Tarsten [Carsten].

Apparently my "what did you do?" voice was a little too serious! Or he just automatically answers "I hit Tarsten" when he hears that question. :)  :)

Me: Oh. You were naughty then?
E: Yeah, I hit Tarsten.
Me: So, did you have fun with Grandma & Grandpa?
E: [I think he started rambling about how he didn't hit Grandma & Grandpa, just Carsten, but it was not clear. Then he started talking about his pig and cow he was playing with.]

Morgen, Ethan and I started to watch the of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers while Carsten went with Jen & Eric to Carsten's kindergarten open house. After almost an hour or so Morgen asks, "When is this going to be over so we can play?!" I'm not sure if that's a reflection of her opinion of the movie or if she really would just rather have been playing. She did get some new/used toys that same day so I think they were more exciting than a musical.

During the movie Ethan decided he wanted to cuddle with me so as he was coming over I asked him if we needed a blanket. I think it came across more like, "Where's my blanket?" though because he said, "My blanket up in my bed. Your blanket at your house." Yeah, he went up and got his blanket and shared it with me.

Part of the new/used toy collection was American Girl doll horse cards. As Morgen and I started to look through them I said, "I wonder if they have an Appaloosa horse in here?" Sure enough, we found one! We talked about how Grandma used to ride Appaloosas and how the info on the back of the card listed the height of the horses by hands. Oh, and I forgot to bring home the card she kept insisting that I could have...oops!

When Carsten returned from the open house he was excited, I could tell. He had his cute-little-Carsten-grin on his face and he was eager to show off his coloring pages. He told me he started kindergarten in the morning...uh, no. His mom had to break the news that he didn't start until after the summer...bummer! He took it all in stride, but I think he was a little crushed...

What are some of your favorite conversations with Littles?! Do share!