Ethan Hardy Carriere's Life: Ethan is ONE YEAR OLD!

I still cannot believe we just celebrated Ethan's birthday! Over the past couple of weeks we've been reminiscing about where we were at this time last year.....right now Ethan was still in the NICU at St Boniface, had 2 major surgeries, was transported in an ambulance from one hospital to another, was poked and prodded, had been intubated twice, had a catheter twice, had IVs in every limb and even his scalp and a pic-line in his leg, had an NG tube from his nose down to his stomach, had spent a lot of time under billireuben lights....and many, many, many more things......BUT all that being said, we are so happy and thankful that we are here today and that he is healthy, happy, thriving and getting so much bigger and stronger every day!

We had Ethan's birthday party on Saturday, January 7th and there were soooo many people there to help us celebrate! The kids (and adults) seemed to have a lot of fun with the magician. Ethan LOVED the cake! Check out the pictures below! And then on Sunday, January 8th, his actual birthday, we had a nice day at home and he got to have a cupcake after lunch (which was devoured!)

I started back to work on Monday, January 9th. It has been bittersweet....I'm sad for me that I went from 12 hours a day with him down to about 3.5. Quite a shock! He's been doing really great with our friends Dave & Andi, they have 2 children of their own (Chloe is 2.5 and Christian is just a few months younger that Ethan) and they all have lots of fun together. So despite me wanting to be selfish and keep him to myself, it is really great for him to interact and play all day long! :)

Ethan took his first couple of steps this past Sunday (January 15th). Hasn't really taken many since. In the afternoon Dale and I were sitting on the floor helping him walk between us and then later that evening we were chatting and Ethan used the laundry basket on the floor to pull himself up to standing, took about 3 steps and dove head first right into the basket full of clothes and started laughing like crazy! We were clapping and saying, "YAY!" and he puffed up his chest and had a big, proud smile on his face! So precious!

Here are pictures from his birthday! He's had cake before, but never left to his own devices on how he wanted to eat it.......watch as the story unfolds........ :)