John Deere kids and a funny story

These are some pictures I took this morning. I put Landen in his John Deere shirt first and then remembered that I had a onesie that Adellyn could wear that was Landen's (I thought the pink would help make it look more girly). Then I thought it would be cute to get a picture of them together with their John Deere blankets that Grandma Becker made. I just had a little trouble getting Landen to cooperate. With one grandpa the works for John Deere and the other that uses John Deere on the farm, our kids will have many more pictures like this!

This morning I thought of another funny story to tell about Landen. For some strange reason, he likes to hang out in closets. He goes into either his closet or our closet and closes the door. (they are bi fold doors.) In our closet he plays in the drawers of a plastic storage container and pulls everything out. I bet we find some interesting things in our shoes! This morning he was just sitting on the floor, sucking his thumb and snuggling with his blanky in his closet with the door shut. The funny thing is that there is not much room in his closet because it is stuffed full of clothes, diapers, and a few things in storage. Another thing he does in the closet is knock on the door and waits for you to knock back. We have made a game out of that on about every door in the house. He gets such a kick out of it when you "find" him. Then he'll close the door and hide some more. He has actually thrown fits when I try to get him out.

Our kids are 18 months and 1 month old today!

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Adellyn surprised us last Thursday by rolling from her tummy to her back. I had her on the floor for some tummy time and she picked her head up, rolled to her side and pulled her knee up to kick over to her back all in one swift motion like she had been doing it for a while. I thought it was an accident at first, so I put her back on her tummy and she did it again. She has done it several times since. I have never heard of a three week old baby being able to roll over! We have had some long nights here lately. It seems like after 10pm, Adellyn turns into a different baby and she is fussy and not willing to sleep. She has been awake in the evenings so I would think that she would sleep better at night, but when I try to lay her down, she wakes up and starts crying. She nurses like crazy at night, too, which is another reason I would think she would sleep good. I am beginning to think that she might have acid reflux because a couple of nights ago she slept in her papasan seat from 1:30 to 6 (the best 4.5 hours of sleep I've had in a month!). We are going to the doctor on the 23rd, so I am going to ask about it then. On the plus side, Landen is getting better about sleeping through her cries at night and naptime.

Landen has me confused about how he feels about Adellyn. At times he acts like he really loves her. He pats her on the head while I nurse, gives her lots of kisses, tries to share his toys, talks to her (maybe she understand his babbles), and has started acting like he wants to pick her up. Other times he acts like he doesn't want her around anymore. He hits her when he wants my attention and throws toys or his sippy cup at her. He also rocks her in her cradle...sometimes a little too hard. I need to have Elliot figure out how to put a lock on it. He has kind of quit saying new words and even words he used to say. He jabbers on about something quite a bit, but no one can understand a word of it. He has, however, picked up a word that I let slip, so the last couple of days he has been running around saying "oh shit" (it sounds like "sit" or "jit"). I hope it is like other words and he forgets it after a few days. I don't make a big deal about it beacuse he is a typical toddler and will think my reaction to him saying that is funny and it will only encourage him to say it more. Of course Elliot just laughs, so that is encouragement that he doesn't need. When he is old enough to understand and no longer likes to eat soap, we will teach him that he shouldn't say naughty words.

Here's a funny story that happened last week. I was doing something in the kitchen and Landen was in the back room right off the kitchen. He knocked over the step stool and it made a loud noise when it fell. I turned around to see what that was and he looked at me with a worried look on his face and said, "oops, uh oh, OH NO!" (By the way, just last week he started saying "no no"...I can't believe it took him this long as often as he hears it!) He had another similar incident the other day. I had a laundry basket on the bench in front of my dresser (the one he climbs on to get to all of my lotion, make-up, body spray, etc.). He pushed it on the floor like he does when there is something on that bench, but this time the clothes spilled out and made a mess. I came in the room right after he did it and he looked like he was about to break down and start crying and he was saying "oops" and "uh oh." That was the first time he acted like he felt bad about doing something. It about made me cry to see the look on his face, so I picked him up and told him it was ok. Since then, I have gotten that look from him after he knocked over the Christmas tree and after I thump his hand for getting into something he is not supposed to touch. He also has me kiss his hand after I thump it. What a funny kid!

Well, that's all for now, Adellyn is hungry again!

Adjusting to life with 2 kids!

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We have been home for a little over two weeks, I am getting around better and Adellyn is learning how to put up with her big brother. Landen sometimes loves his sister a little too much. He gives her toys, blankets, food and even my shoes! Sometimes these things land on her head, so we seem to yell at Landen a lot. I don't think he is trying to hurt her, he just doesn't understand that she is too little to play with him. Last night we caught him trying to sit in her papasan seat while she was in it. Lately, Landen has been pretty stingy with his kisses, but he will almost always give Adellyn a kiss when we ask, and even when we don't ask. It is so cute to see him try to cuddle up to her, but he usually bonks her head with his in the process and makes her cry, then he kisses her to make it better. She is going to be tough growing up with him!

Adellyn is a typical newborn...eat, sleep, poop. Of course, she sleeps more during the day and is awake more at night, but she is getting better. I was pretty spoiled with Landen because he slept through the night at 6 days old! It also seems like as soon as I put a clean diaper on her, she has a wet fart, and because of that she has a diaper rash that just won't go away. On the plus side, she nurses really well and I did not get sores like I did with Landen. She has really filled out since she was born and she is going to outgrow the newborn diapers soon. She is growing a lot faster than Landen did at that age. We went to the doctor last week for her first well baby check-up. She is up to 8lbs 2oz and 20.25in. long. She had her first shopping experience and we broke her in hard core by shopping on "Black Friday." Unfortunately, I think she got a little too much cold air in her face and she has been a little more fussy the last couple of days. We did make shopping a little easier on us by leaving Landen with my parents. He just stayed the night on Thursday and we picked him up Friday night.

We have been considering starting Landen on potty training. I was going to wait until after Christmas at the earliest, but he has be showing signs that he might be ready. In the last couple of weeks he runs somewhere in the house and pees right after his bath. He has peed in his closet, on the floor on my side of the bed, on the living room floor and who knows where else. We are not going to push anything, we are just going to see what he does if we put him on the toilet after his bath. (We don't even have a potty chair yet.) Some other funny things Landen does...he likes to smell candles, he pushes every button that he can find including starting the dishwasher. He also likes to hide in closets and shut the door, he pulls and pushes doors shut. Sometimes he shuts himself in a room and then knocks on the door as a game. He is getting better about playing with his toys by himself. He has this plastic dump truck that he likes to push around. He has also started to get the hang of building with his blocks.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to be sure to get at least one more update before Christmas.