Update and Santa

Thanksgiving - Santa

Just thought I would get in a quick update before Christmas. There has not been too much going on here. We got a foot of snow just after my birthday on the 5th. The schools here got two snow days (Tuesday and Wednesday). The streets in town are still pretty slick since it hasn't warmed up enough to thaw anything out. I have been wanting to take the kids out to play in the snow, but they have had runny/stuffy noses and been coughing some, so I didn't want to take the chance of making them worse. Landen did get to play out in the snow for a little while, but he took his mittens off and didn't like it when his hands got cold. Landen has had his cough for a little over a month now, but he seems to be getting better. I did call the doctor and talked to a nurse and she said they have had a lot of people/kids come into the office complaining of a cough with no other symptoms (his runny nose has only been recently) and they have just been telling them to take allergy medicine, so she told me to try that. He has coughed less since I started giving him allergy medicine. Elliot seems to have a persistent cough this time of year, so I think Landen just inherited whatever makes Elliot cough. Adellyn has had a snotty nose for about a week now and she had a couple rough nights where she coughed most of the night, but she also seems better now. I'm kinda glad I didn't rush them into the doctor because they are getting over whatever they had on their own.

We went to see Santa this last weekend. I really prepped Landen to see him and by the time we got there he was super excited to sit on Santa's lap! Adellyn was not as excited, but she calmed down enough for pictures. She did better than other kids her age that were there and better than I expected.

Adellyn is walking pretty good now. She is slow and steady, so she gets down to crawl when she wants to get somewhere fast. She is really good at picking objects up while she is standing and then will carry it. Today she carried a package of yogurt melts to me several different times and then whined for me to give her some. I'm trying to teacher her to sign "please" but she is being stubborn and just throws herself down in a fit instead. I'm not sure how many times she hit her head on the floor today when she threw herself down, but she got over it. I really want to get her to quit/reduce her whining to get things (I realized I was getting bad about giving into her whining because I knew what she wanted and it was easier to just give it to her).

Landen is talking more and more. He is putting sentences together that I didn't even know he could put together. He is also coming up with funny things he says. The Schwan's man stops every other week and always gives Landen a sheet of stickers. One night he started putting the stickers on his pants and told me that he had "sticker pox!" I thought that was pretty clever of him to come up with that! He has a couple of lines that we hear a lot right now. One is "Come on _______" (fill in the blank with Mommy, Gran-ma, Crap-pa, etc). He also changes the context in which he says it. Sometimes he is trying to lead you somewhere, sometimes he is trying to get you to give in to something, and sometimes it is his response to getting a spanking. He also changes how he says it. He draws out the vowels or lowers his voice. It's hard to say no to him sometimes because it is pretty cute! The other line I have been hearing a lot is not so cute. He has started saying, "I can't do it" to anything he doesn't want to do...most commonly, feed himself. I think he wants to be fed because it goes faster and he can get down sooner. Either that or he gets frustrated and it is easier for us to feed him. I want to find a way to discourage him from saying that he can't do something without punishing him. (any suggestions?) A funny story from today...I was changing Adellyn's diaper in the living room and Landen was in the kitchen. I noticed he was suddenly very quiet (which is never good!) I asked, "Landen, what are you doing?" After a pause I heard, "I'm pooping," followed by a quiet grunt! Gotta love his honesty!

I'm still going to local family's house to teach Algebra twice a week. We also go to MOPS twice a month. I think the kids and I are going more places now than we did when the weather was nice! That could explain their colds! I'm looking forward to the warmer days we are supposed to get later this week. Stay warm and have a Merry Christmas! If you have to travel for the holidays, drive safely!

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

I wrote this the same day as my last post (before Thanksgiving), but I had troubles getting my pictures to upload. I had to figure out how to re-size them so they weren't so big, so I finally got that figured out. We had a good Thanksgiving at my parents' house. We gorged ourselves on prime rib instead of turkey this year! Elliot and I went shopping on Black Friday and the kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Becker's house. That was Adellyn's first time away from us over night. My Mom said she woke up a couple of times, but went back to sleep pretty quickly and she took a good nap on Friday before we got back to pick them up. My Dad had shoulder surgery this morning. Everything went well and they said there was not as much damage as they were prepared for. He will still have 4 months of recovery...I hope he can make himself take it easy for that long! If you know my Dad, that won't be easy for him. Not much else to report. (keep in mind that what is written below the pictures was written a week ago!)

Our two little thumb suckers!!! They both suck their thumbs while cuddling their "blankies." Adellyn sucks her right thumb and Landen sucks his left.


I hope this is not a sign of what she will be like in about 15 years...talking on the cell phone, foot on the dash while driving!


Landen doesn't like to get dressed, but he did put his shoes on [the wrong feet] himself!!!


I found some plastic beads in my Halloween decorations and decided to get them out for the kids to play with...Landen was having fun dancing around the living room with them on!


Adellyn was pretty serious as she stacked the cow and horse on the tractor.


Not a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. I don't think I mentioned in my last post that I am tutoring/teaching Algebra to three girls whose family home schools. They were struggling with it and decided to contact me to help, so I go to their house twice a week. The youngest girl keeps an eye on Landen and Adellyn while I work with the older girls. I am enjoying it and it is a good opportunity to keep myself "in practice" for when I decide to go back to teaching. The kids have had colds this past week (I'm guessing because we have been going somewhere different more often than they are used to). Just runny/stuffy noses and coughing. I have been keeping a close eye on their temperatures because H1N1 has been going around in Arapahoe. I took Adellyn to the doctor this past Friday for her one year well child check-up (even though she was still a little sick). She weighs 20lbs (40th percentile) and is 29 1/4 in long (50th percentile). The doctor listened to her chest and Landen's chest and said their lungs sounded clear, so that was good news as far as them being sick was concerned. They are better this week, but not over it yet. Adellyn is making some progress in walking. She is getting more balanced and even tries to carry things now. (although, she isn't really walking well enough to try to carry anything)

In other news, Elliot shot a deer this year. We like deer jerky, so it only made sense to help thin out the deer population! He got a bonus permit, which means he can get two deer for the price of one. He is going to get a second deer in January when the rifle season reopens for two weeks.

That's all for now.

Adellyn at 1 year old!

I have been meaning to do this since Adellyn turned a year old 2 weeks ago and I finally got a chance (and the motivation) to sit down and type this up. I feel bad that I have not been as good about updating this blog since she was born, so I thought that I would try to "make up" for it by writing out everything that makes Adellyn who she is at a year old.



At one year old Adellyn is...
-silly. She loves to tickle anyone just to make them laugh.
-loving. She loves to give hugs and kisses to those close to her (and her dolls!) You can consider yourself "in" in her book if you get a hug or kiss from her!
-sneaky/ornery. She pokes or touches things she knows she is not supposed to and then checks to see if you are watching, then giggles when she gets in trouble. She is most guilty of closing my laptop when I'm using it or just pounding on the keys!
-a copy cat. She copies facial expressions and sounds. She also likes to get you to copy her too. (i.e. she opens her mouth to get you to open yours so she can feed you)
-trying to be independent. She does not like to be fed anymore. She will tolerate it for a little while, but so gets upset because she wants to do it herself.

Adellyn loves...
-to eat. We have joked that her nick name should be Mikey. ("Give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything!") Some of her favorite foods are fruit (most any kind), cheese, graham crackers, yogurt, and noodles.
-getting attention from Landen. She picks on him just to get him to play with her. She giggles like crazy when he tickles her even though he gets a little rough.
-to sing and dance. Every toy that plays music is a favorite. She will sit and sway with the music and she plays them over and over again! She also "sings" along with them. She really loves it when I pick her up and dance around the kitchen and sing along with the radio. (I only do that when no one else is around.) ;-)
-to take a bath. She will put her face in the water and blow bubbles and usually throws a fit when it is time to get out.
-going for walks. She really loves to just be outside...but what kid doesn't? This could be a really long winter since both kids love to be outside and the weather will not always be nice enough to go out.

Adellyn does not like...
-to be left in a room alone. In the morning when both kids wake up, Landen can get up and leave the room and Adellyn screams as soon as he leaves because she wants to go too.
-to be surprised. She is pretty jumpy when it comes to sudden noises. I have a Halloween jack-in-the-box that is a black cat in a pumpkin and she was terrified of it until about a week or two before I put it away.
-strangers. She is getting better about not being scared of people doesn't know. She really doesn't not men with a lot of facial hair...Christmas will be interesting both with family and visiting Santa!

Long overdue update and Adellyn's 1st Birthday!

Sept - Oct 09

Once again, two months have flown by without an update. I did sit down and start another post a month ago, but I got called away to eat supper…I suppose that is important…anyway, I never got the motivation back to finish it. A lot has happened in the last two months, so much, I don’t know if I can remember it all, but I’ll give it my best. Elliot and I have been trying to clean up the room I had nick-named “the black hole” (stuff goes in and it doesn’t come out). It was supposed to be an office, but it rarely got used as that…especially since I got my laptop. We are turning that room into a playroom for the kids so we can get the toys out of their room and the living room. It is half done and we have moved some toys in there and got the foam puzzle piece floor to make a softer play area. Elliot is going to build some shelving along one wall to store toys and some of the office things that we can’t put anywhere else. Elliot’s free time has been spent mostly on the shop that he and his parents put in at the vineyard. It is a very big Cleary building that will eventually be a wood working shop and, of course, the winery. Elliot and his dad have been putting in the floor and now they are working on the insulation. They are hoping to have the winery part ready by the time the grapes are ready next year. This year’s batch of grapes are fermenting will hopefully be ready for tasting by harvest next year. At the end of September the kids and I went to North Platte to Railfest. Karen, Troy and Sutton joined us and the boys had a lot of fun playing together. In October, we enjoyed the random nice days we had. One of the highlights was Landen got to help Grandpa Becker drill wheat. I’m not sure who had more fun, Landen or Grandpa! We also went to a pumpkin patch near Hastings and the kids really enjoyed that. I think it will be more fun next year when Adellyn can walk. We had a great Halloween…the weather turned out REALLY nice, especially since it snowed two days before. Landen was Thomas the Train (well the engineer, anyway) and Adellyn was a candy corn. I made both costumes this year and I had a lot of fun doing it. We got a lot of complements on both costumes and everyone was most impressed with Thomas! If I would have realized that before the parade was a costume contest, I would try to get there in time…oh well, there is always next year and maybe Landen will actually WEAR the costume I make! So far this month, we have celebrated Adellyn’s first birthday. Her birthday is actually tomorrow (the 11th), but we celebrated on Sunday so that our brothers could come and also since my parents are leaving for South Padre on Thursday. A couple small things we have done that we are going to continue throughout the winter are going to the library and going to MOPS meeting. I have taken the kids to the library a couple of times and Landen enjoys getting a couple of new books for a while…now I just need to work on getting him to not run around the library when we are there…at least it isn’t usually busy, so we don’t bother people. The MOPS meetings are twice a month, so it is a good opportunity for Landen and Adellyn to get to play with other kids and also a good chance for me to talk to other moms. The women at the church where we meet watch the kids for free during our meeting. That is about all that we have done in the last two months. Of course, the kids are doing new things all the time, so here is what is going on with them.

Landen is talking SO much now. We can understand most of what he says and he repeats a lot of what we say…so we have to be more careful about what we say around him! One of my favorite things he says now is, “I wube you too” as we tuck him into bed! He calls my grandma “Grape Anma.” It’s too cute to try to make him say it right! Landen can also ride his trike now! He likes to ride it in circles on the deck and we sometimes ride up and down the sidewalk in front of the house. I can sent him out to the back yard to play by himself now that we have it fenced in and when I look out to check on him, he is usually riding his trike or “cooking” in the kitchen I found on a garage sale. Landen’s latest thing is to make sure people take their shoes off when they come into our house! He has always been good about taking his shoes off when going into a house and now he checks everyone else’s’ shoes. If you still have your shoes on, he’ll grab your foot and say, “help, help…shoe off” or something like that. I have taught Landen how to put his coat on himself. I learned a trick from Elliot’s cousin who has triplets. You lay the coat on the floor and he stands at the hood and puts his hands into the sleeves and flips the coat over his head. He has gotten so good at it that he positions the coat on the floor himself. He sometimes comes to me with his coat on and wants me to zip it so he can go outside!

Adellyn is also talking quite a bit now. She says: good girl, uh-oh, bye-bye, baby, boo, thank you, hi, tickle tickle (while tickling something and laughing), cup, ki’e cat, coo coo, ma ma, and da da and I think I have heard her say “Landen.” Some of those are just repeated after we say it and there are probably some I forgot about. She says good girl all the time. One time she was saying “good girl, good girl…” as she was spreading food all over her high chair tray and onto the floor…I was thinking, ”nooo, you’re not being a good girl right now!” In the last two months Adellyn has been doing a lot to learn how to walk. She is now a pro at cruising around furniture and climbs on top of, over and through any obstacle she can find. She started standing on her own around the beginning of October and used a pillow to get herself from sitting to standing…and I happened to have the camera handy when she did it. After that, she started walking with the help of a toy or us. One afternoon at the end of October we were outside and Elliot said she took a step and fell down. She didn’t try it again until November 2nd. That day she took 2 steps several different times. The third time she did it, she actually stood up on her own from sitting and then took two steps. Four days later, she took 4 steps while Elliot’s parents were babysitting and then the next day she took 9 steps to me. She has been getting pretty excited about it and tries to go faster than she can keep herself balanced! She should be walking pretty well by Christmas! I am also still nursing Adellyn twice a day…in the morning and just before bed. During the day she drinks whole milk from a sippy cup. She actually wouldn’t take a bottle because the milk wouldn’t come out fast enough, so that ended up being an easy transition. I haven’t decided when to stop nursing for good. We both like the cuddle time, so I guess it will depend on when I run out of milk!

Well, that is long enough for now…I hope I didn’t bore you too much. Enjoy the pictures.

2 funny stories

I have two funny stories that I wanted to share so that I wouldn't forget them.

In our house it is common to have the kids shower with one of us instead of giving them a bath. They love it and it is faster and easier than a bath. Last night, Landen was already in the shower with Elliot and I was standing in the bathroom with Adellyn waiting to hand her in to him. For the fun of it, I set her down on the little potty chair next to the bathtub. At first I left her diaper on, then I thought that I might as well take her diaper off since she was sitting on the potty chair so Elliot wouldn't have to wait for me to take it off when he was ready for her. She sat there and played with the shower curtain for a while and then I noticed that she was actually going potty in the chair! This was so funny to us because Landen has never actually gone potty in it or any toilet! I wouldn't be surprised if I end up potty training them at the same time...Landen just is not that interested and won't sit still long enough when I can convince him to sit on the toilet or potty chair. I keep hoping that one day he will make the connection of what he needs to do when on the toilet.

The other funny story happened today at lunch.
Landen and Adellyn were eating Lil' Crunchies after they had finished the main portion of their lunch and this is a conversation between Landen and I when he wanted more.
Landen: more some
Me: What do you say?
Landen: Say!
Me: No, what do you say when you want something?
Landen: sumpin'
Me: *while laughing, I slapped my leg*
Landen: *dramatically copies me*
-repeat the last four lines with us laughing even harder-
During this conversation with Landen, he nods his head using his full body to really make his point! (if that makes sense)

Sorry so long!

Where did the summer go? We have been pretty busy these last couple of months. July was pretty stressful for my family. Since the summer started out so cool and wet, the wheat was a little slow to turn and then the rain kept my dad out of the field and harvest ran until the middle of July. Landen and I got to ride in the combine with my cousin Jerome and also ride in the semi with my Dad to take a load of wheat to the elevator. Landen was pretty fascinated with the combine. He really liked watching the wheat come out of the auger and unload into the grain cart. He also liked watching the bin empty while unloading into the grain cart and fill up while harvesting. This was just another time that made me think that he will be an engineer someday because I’m sure he was trying to figure out how it all worked! My family is also very involved with the Furnas County fair, which was a little earlier this year than in the past, and wheat harvest ended just barely in time for fair week. I help out with entering exhibits in the open class, so I spent Wednesday in Beaver City. It was really nice since it wasn’t extremely hot this year! That night was family night for the midway, so the kids got to ride a lot of rides. Unfortunately, they were not feeling very well, so I don’t think they had as much fun as I had hoped. I was sick the week before fair with a sore throat and a sinus infection and Elliot and the kids got it the week of fair. They all went to the doctor on that Thursday and both kids had ear infections and Elliot had a sinus infection. I should have kept the kids home, but I look forward to fair week every year, so I drug them to the fair every night. Landen LOVED going down the Super Slide and he also enjoyed some of the kiddie rides. Adellyn also enjoyed the slide and the airplane swing ride. Saturday night of the fair is the demolition derby. We didn’t watch the whole thing, but Landen enjoyed watching the end of it! We took it easy for a few days, then Wednesday we left for a long drive to Ohio for a Nelson family reunion. We took 3 days to get there, spent a day there and took 2 days to get home. I wish we could have stayed longer, but Elliot wasn’t able to take another day off work. On the way there, we stayed in Lawrence, KS with my aunt and uncle, and then stopped again in St. Luis. We stayed in a hotel within walking distance from the arch. We went to the top and the view was awesome at night. We could even see the stadium where the Cardinals were playing (see the pictures). We didn’t really do any sight seeing on the way home, we were just ready to get home and out of the van. We were so glad to have the van with a DVD player! I don’t know if we would have been able to make the trip without it…at least not with our sanity! The kids were really good until we got close to home and they were getting antsy (so were Elliot and I for that matter). Even though it was a long trip, I was so glad to get to see family that I haven’t seen in many years and some that I had never even met before! After that long six days, we stayed home for a while. August 17th we picked our first row of grapes to be turned into wine. Landen helped pick and with every grape he picked he said, “I pick it.” Larry and Elliot would give him a cluster and he would proceed to pull off the grapes one at a time. He had a lot of fun helping. A few days later, the kids and I spent all day at Harlan County camp ground with my Mom, my brother and his wife. Elliot joined that evening for supper along with a lot of friends. It was a great way to end the summer, as it was our last opportunity to go to the lake for the year. I’m hoping that next year we get to spend more time on the lake since the kids will be older and I won’t be nursing. The last weekend of August Elliot and some guys he works with entered a meat smoking/bar-b-q competition in Norton called Smokin’ in the Barn. They smoked brisket, pork ribs, pork butt and whole chicken (Elliot did the brisket in his homemade smoker). They didn’t win anything, but they had fun. This was the first year for the competition and they had 23 teams. I think they are planning to enter it again next year and are already making plans to improve! Elliot found out that of the 19 briskets submitted for judging the top one beat the bottom one by only 9 points (I think there were 100pts possible), so that just shows how close it was…they had no way of finding out where he placed in that, but he wasn’t one of the top 3.

Landen has learned so much this summer. He can now recognize every letter in the alphabet! We are still working on getting them in order, but he doesn’t like it when we sing the alphabet. I guess I will keep trying! He also knows all of his numbers through 9…he can say them in order (with a little help) and recognize them. He is still obsessed with clocks and now every clock is a coo coo clock! He is putting sentences together now. Some of the sentences he has been saying are: “It makes noise!” (every word enunciated perfectly!) “I close the door.” “I fix it.”

A funny conversation we had a couple weeks ago went like this:
Landen (pulling on my hand) in a whiny voice: tress tress (trying to say trains)
Me: say it correctly (he had been saying it right)
Landen (let go, stood up straight and nodded his head while saying): correc-y
I about rolled on the floor laughing!
He has really gotten into Thomas the Tank Engine lately and wanted to watch one of his DVDs. He also has a few books of Thomas and that is all he wants to read now also!

Landen also got his toddler bed this summer. The first couple of nights in it were kind of rough, but he is sleeping in it really well now. Elliot built it and it is only about 8 inches off the floor, so there is no rail and Landen has never fallen out. I did find him with his legs hanging over the edge one night! He likes to jump in it, and had gotten several spankings for jumping. Now, Adellyn likes to climb in it and play up there…I think she feels like a big girl because she just grins when she gets up there. Landen doesn’t seem to mind, in fact, he gets up there with her and starts jumping to make her bounce…they are quite a pair!

Adellyn is also growing so fast. At her 9 month check up she weighed 18lbs 4oz (50th percentile), was 27.25 in long (60th percentile) and her head measured 18in (90th percentile). The doctor said that a big head is a good thing! She is crawling everywhere now and follows Landen all around the house. She is also pulling herself up to standing on anything that she can reach. She is just starting to discover “cruising” (walking along the furniture…a crucial step for learning to walk). I have even seen her let go and stand for a few seconds before falling or holding on again. She is not far behind where Landen was at that age, and she is still ahead of the curve! She loves to play the songs on the LeapFrog fridge farm and then she watches and waits for me to clap the beat and then she claps along with me! She also found a new game to play in the highchair; she will throw Cheerios on the floor one at a time, look over the edge for it and say, “uh oooh” and repeat. I just watch and laugh! One time when she was doing that and Landen was in his chair at the table he started saying “oh shit” every time she said “uh oh.” I was glad I was in the other room so he didn’t see me laughing…I hadn’t heard him say that in a long time and I haven’t heard it since. Adellyn is quite the copycat now. She copies faces (I stick out my tongue and she copies) and sounds (she copies Landen coughing and saying “coo coo” among other sounds). The other day we were eating lunch at the Dairy Queen with Elliot and she pointed to his cup and made a sound that sounded like “cuh.” I looked at her and said, “That’s right, that is a cup!” She looked at me and grinned and started bounced herself in the highchair as if she were proud of herself. She is a really good eater! She loves tomatoes! About the only thing I can’t get her to eat is baby food…go figure! She will eat some baby food still, but she would rather have whatever we are eating. Her favorite food is probably yogurt. She gets pretty excited when she sees the yogurt container. I give her lots of finger foods, so she gets pretty messy at meals, but she can feed herself. Today, I went to give her a lick of my popsicle and she took it from me. It wasn’t worth making her scream to get it away from her, so I let her have it. The funny thing is that she was less messy than Landen!

Well, I can see that this is getting very long. Sorry for taking so long between posts…no guarantees, but I will try to be a little better this fall and winter.

Summer!

Where has the time gone? I knew it had been a while since my last post, but I didn’t realize that it had been a month already! (I actually started writing this on June 28 and it obviously took me a week to finish it.) I thought May was busy, but June has been a whirlwind! Landen’s birthday, our anniversary (which are on the same day), father’s day, and Elliot’s birthday make for a lot of things to pack into one month. Not only that, but we still go to my parents’ house on Sunday nights (that is if they are home) and we just try to do things to take advantage of nice days. I also had to take the kids to the doctor at the beginning of June for well child check ups. I take the kids for a walk to get the mail and run errands almost every day. They like riding in the stroller and I get some exercise. We also go to the pool a few times a week.

Here is rundown on what is new with the kids.

Adellyn:
- started crawling on her tummy about June 15. She looked like she was swimming because she would lean over and put one shoulder on the floor, then reach forward with the other arm and stick her butt in the air and push forward with her feet. Then she would lean to the other side and repeat the whole process. As she has been practicing, she has started doing more of an army crawl and even pushing up on her knees and rocking herself. It won’t be long before she takes off crawling!
- recently has started trying to pull herself up. She pulled herself to standing using the laundry basket of toys in the living room on Elliot’s birthday (the 29th)
- has gotten five more teeth in the last month. She now has 4 teeth on top and four on bottom (the last two just broke through this weekend).
- went on her first overnight camping trip on Friday the 26th. My parents were camping in Cambridge and Adellyn and I went up and spent the night and Elliot and Landen came up at noon on Saturday.
- stayed in a hotel for the first time the weekend of the 12th and 13th when we went to Lincoln for a wedding.
- loves to go to the pool (she is more of a water baby than Landen was).
- developing the pincher grasp very well…she pinches whatever skin she can feel while she nurses (and has left marks). She can also pick up Gerber puffs and put then in her mouth. It’s funny to watch her try to pick pieces of bananas because they are slippery and just shoot out of her fingers.
- will sometimes raise her arms for “so big”
- is quite the little chatter box! She always seems to be babbling and has just figured out how to click her tongue.

Landen:
- turned 2 on June 11. We celebrated that night and left for Lincoln/Omaha the next day. We had planned to go to the Henry Doorly zoo on Friday (as part of birthday gift to Landen and because we were so close), but the rain made us change our plans and we went Saturday morning instead. Unfortunately, we forgot about the College World Series when we made our plans and it ended up taking an hour to get parked, but it was worth it to see Landen get so excited to see some of the animals.
- wanted to have his birthday candles relit several times so that he could blow them out
- got a tricycle, Little Tykes basketball hoop, Little Tykes T-ball, clothes, quiet book (that my Grandma made), squirt gun and a patio set just his size!
- went to swimming lessons the week after his birthday. He did really well the first 3 days, but I think he got tired of it and Thursday and Friday he didn’t even want to get in the water. We have gone swimming a few times since then, but I have troubles keeping him in the water because he just wants to run around and explore. I’m hoping that I can get there when there are other kids to play with him so he won’t try to run off as often (and I have other moms to either help run him down or watch Adellyn while I run him down!) I’m probably crazy for even trying to take them both by myself!
- Landen has [finally] figured out how to crawl in and out of his crib. I have mixed feeling about this. It is nice at nap time when I don’t have to go in to get him and he is not as crabby when he gets up since he doesn’t have to wait for me to get him, but it is not so nice when he wakes up a 6:30am before Elliot and I are awake. One morning he went out into the living room and found a chair to push up to the TV and get the bottle of finger nail polish off the top. He then tried to paint his toenails and then moved on to paint the wall in the hallway and spilled on the floor and his pajamas…ah toddlers!
- continues to be observant. He has watched me pump breast milk and has since got into my pump bag and takes out the shield and holds it up to his tummy and makes a sound similar to the pump. Then he’ll look at me and say, “I pump.” I have to try really hard not to laugh as I take it away from him!
- starting to show some interest in potty training. He likes to go in the bathroom when Elliot is in there and take is pants off and sit on his potty chair. We can’t get him to sit long enough to actually do anything, but he has learned how to tuck his pee pee in…so that is a step in the right direction.
- when he hears crying or sees a picture of someone that looks like they are crying he says “her cry” or “I cry.” He has a sensitive side!
- when he doesn’t want the food on his fork or spoon and needs to use it for something else, he will hold the utensil up and start sticking out his tongue like he wants us to lick it off for him. It is pretty fun to watch his tongue.

Sorry this got so long. I’ll post 4th of July pictures later this week (hopefully).

May 2009

We have had a very busy spring so far. The last weekend of April and the first weekend of May we had brandings to go to. Unfortunately the weather was kind of cold and wet. Becker’s, which was the second one, was a little nicer and as you can see in the pictures, we were able to get the kids on the horse. Landen really liked it and didn’t want to get off (although you can’t tell that since he is not smiling in the pictures). The next weekend we had Southern Valley graduation where 2 of my cousins graduated. I also went to a reception in McCook for a student I taught my first year. The weekend of the 16th was Arapahoe’s graduation, but we just went to one reception and not the graduation. We had Landen spend the night with my parent that Friday night since he had not stayed with them since Thanksgiving. It was really nice to have all day Saturday without him to get yard work done. Adellyn also took a really long and peaceful nap! Last weekend was the first weekend in a month that we did not have to go somewhere. We did, however, leave the kids with Connie and Larry last Friday night and we went up the Lexington to a wine tasting at Mac’s Creek with my parents. It was nice to have an evening away from the kids, but they were glad to see us in the morning! In addition to our busy weekends, we have taken advantage of every nice day that we can get. Elliot put a fence up in the backyard this spring to help corral Landen. It makes playing outside more enjoyable for me because I can just sit on the deck with Adellyn and let him play instead of chasing him through the neighbors’ backyards.

We have been taking walks to the vineyard and letting Landen “help” with planting and pruning the vines. We just end up chasing him around, but he has fun. (Speaking of the vineyard, Elliot sent 6 bottles of wine to a competition and 2 of the wines won medals…one gold and one silver.) Landen has also been “helping” me in the garden. We built six raised garden beds and he has had fun digging in them (before I got stuff planted in them). We plan to put sand under the fort part of the swing set so he has his own place to dig.

The kids have been growing and changing a lot in the last month, so in attempt to keep this from getting way to long, I am just going to list some points.
*Landen has really started to expand his vocabulary and has been saying words I didn’t know he knew; recent examples – socks, train, rain, shoes, whale, diaper.
*Calls pin wheels flowers.
*He knows the color blue and sometimes red and green
*Knows the letters B and T (I don’t know why these letter, but it’s a start!)
*He is OBSESSED with clocks…anything that resembles a clock is a clock to Landen
*He loves to help – helps load the washer and unload the dryer, unload the dishwasher, puts dirty diapers in the diaper pail, carries the full bag to the back door, making supper, cleaning up his messes (i.e. spilled milk), watering flower, and he even got a Kleenex to wipe his nose when I asked him to get it because was nursing Adellyn.
*A couple of weeks ago I had to take Landen to the dentist because I noticed a tooth had a spot that looked like a cavity. My dentist said it is a small cavity, but he didn’t want to do anything at this point and to make sure I bush his teeth really good every night. I am supposed to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get any worse.
*After Landen crawled into the dryer a few times, we found some locks at Target to keep him from opening the door. The morning after I put the lock on, Landen threw a HUGE fit and was not happy about that lock. He still tries to get the dryer door open, but the lock is working great! ☺
*When swinging in the backyard, I have Landen do like on 'Little Einsteins' where they go "pat pat pat pat..." (to the beat of music) and then say "BLASTOFF" (it comes out "off off") Very cute and Landen loves it!
*He likes to salt and pepper his food. Sometimes that is all it takes to get him to eat.
*We are working at getting him to eat better and eat what we eat instead of expensive Gerber meals. We are trying to reserve those for quick meals.
*Friday for breakfast he had Cheerios with milk for the first time. He was so excited about eating his Cheerios like that. I didn’t think he would eat it because he is picky about food, but he ended up eating 2 bowls!

* Adellyn has been rolling circles around the house for a few weeks now. She is pretty good at getting to where she wants to go.
*She has been sitting up on her own for a month now and likes to sit and play with toys or just watch Landen.
* Adellyn absolutely LOVES her brother. He can make her giggle with the littlest noise and she loves it when he tickles her. He likes to push her over and roll her over and she just giggles. He has also given her rides on his tractor (with me closely supervising.)
*Adellyn cut her third tooth and first on top on Thursday. She has been a little fussy and not sleeping very well.
*She is quite a bit different than Landen in that she is pretty content to sit quietly and just watch what is going on around her. She sat really well for graduation. Landen, on the other hand, didn’t even come in the building; he played on the playground with Elliot.
*Adellyn is a lot happier than she was in the first couple of months. She is also better about being passed around and is not as afraid of people she doesn’t know.
*She laughs more than Landen did at 6 months.
*She also “talks” more than Landen did.
*Thankfully, she doesn’t move as much as Landen did; she is active, but not as much as Landen.

We have a couple different travel plans this summer. June 12-14, we are going to go to Lincoln/Omaha. Saturday we have a wedding to go to, so we decided to go up a day early to take the kids to the zoo in Omaha. I can’t wait to see how they (especially Landen) react to everything at the zoo. The first weekend of August we are going to go to Ohio to a Nelson family reunion. We are going to drive and take a couple of days to get there and a couple to get home. I’m hoping we don’t loose our minds on this trip, but I am looking forward to see family that I haven’t seen in years!

Funny story: Last week I took the kids to the grocery store at noon to the Coke truck sale and to get a hamburger. Landen scraped his arm on something, but didn’t notice it at the time. After supper he noticed the scrape on his arm and walked around the rest of the night saying “I got boo boo” and wanting us to kiss it. The weird thing is, I don’t really know where he learned boo boo because I don’t remember teaching him that.

We went to the pool today. Adellyn loved it and was happy to just sit in the floaty as I pulled her around to stay close to Landen. It wasn’t very busy, but the water was great. Landen got bored with the water pretty quick, so we didn’t stay very long…Adellyn and I weren’t really ready to go, oh well. We have all summer to enjoy the pool!

Sorry this got so long. I have a feeling this summer I will not be much better about keeping this updated regularly, so be patient and keep checking!

Easter and more

It's scary how similar these pictures are! They are within a couple weeks of being the same age.



We had a great Easter. On Saturday we went to a baby shower in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to two Easter Egg hunts. The first one was in Arapahoe. Landen wasn't quite sure about it at first, but he quickly figured it out and ended up with about 6 eggs. We went to Beaver City from there and Landen took his nap in the van. He woke up in time to do the egg hunt. He was even less interested in this egg hunt. I think he will have more fun next year and maybe he could show Adellyn how to look for eggs. Sunday we did our own little egg hunt before church and once Landen found the candy inside, he quit looking. We went to my Grandma's house for lunch and spent the afternoon sitting around and playing with the kids. Monday evening we went to Connie and Larry's house for supper and Landen looked for eggs again. He still didn't have much interest in finding them and we ended having to pick up most of them ourselves. He wouldn't carry the basket at any of the egg hunts either.

Landen turned 22 months and Adellyn turned 5 months on Saturday before Easter. I took Adellyn to the doctor for a well baby check on Monday the 20th. She weighed 14lbs 14.5oz and is 25.5in. She grew 1.5in in a month! The doctor was impressed with how strong she is. She wouldn't bend for the doctor when she was looking at her hips! She was also impressed with Adellyn's ability to reach for and grab a toy held in front of her...an advanced skill for a 5 month old! I was watching a baby the same age as Adellyn play with a rattle and his hand-eye coordination was not near as good as Adellyn's, so I can see how my doctor was so impressed. She has been eating rice or mixed grain cereal for a month now and I started giving her sweet potatoes on the 17th of April. I gave her squash the other day, too. She wasn't too crazy about either, but she did eat it with pretty minimal mess! She is funny when she eats, though. She typically sucks her thumb between every bite. On the 19th, she got her second tooth! I think she is going to have a hard time teething like Landen did. The day after she got her first tooth she woke up dry and wouldn't pee all morning and then the next couple of days she ran a low fever and had runnier than normal stool. I was concerned that she had a urinary tract infection, but the symptoms went away on their own. I told the doctor about it at her check up and she wasn't too concerned. She said that Adellyn just might be easy to potty train when she is older! She was also pretty fussy and wouldn't sleep during the day when she got the second tooth. She puts everything in her mouth now. It's funny that as one of my kids is getting out of that stage, the other is getting into it! Adellyn is also rolling pretty good, now. She isn't too ambitious and is content to just lay on the floor (back or tummy), but when she wants a toy, she gets to it one way or another! I have a feeling that she will be crawling soon as well! She will scoot herself forward to get something she wants. It is funny to watch because she puts her head down, pulls her knees up under her and digs her toes into the floor and pushed so she moves forward a little ways. As she continues to get stronger she will figure out how to use her arms to help her.

Landen has been giving me troubles lately. I have been struggling to figure out what to feed him because he doesn't seem to want to eat much of anything. He quit eating macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. He won't even touch hot dogs (I thought every kid ate hot dogs)! I couldn't even get him to eat apple sauce at supper tonight! He used to love chili soup and the Gerber Grad soups, but now I can't get him to eat more than 2 bites. On Saturday, he ate a good breakfast of Malt-o-meal, but the rest of the day he ate black olives, pretzels, 3/4 of a container of yogurt, Doritos, and 2 mini cupcakes. I really tried to get him to eat some other, more healthy, foods, but he just screamed and fought to get away from me. The screaming is another thing we are struggling with. We know that he screams because he doesn't have the language to tell us what he wants or what is wrong, but we can't figure out how to get him to talk. We try to have him repeat words, but he often refuses to say them. When he is in the mood to say something, we can't understand a word of it. I have been trying to talk to him during the day, but I get tired of one way conversations! On the plus side, he is not kicking and screaming when it comes to bed time and nap time anymore! He has been going to bed pretty willingly the last couple of weeks, so that is a relief!

Last Wednesday, I took the kids to North Platte to spend the day with my cousin, Karen, and her son, Sutton. Sutton is 5 weeks older than Landen, so they had a lot of fun playing together. We hadn't seen them since Adam's wedding in September, so it was great to get together. We went to the Children's Museum and we had the place to ourselves. The boys had so much fun. Landen has been fascinated with clocks lately, so his was thrilled when he found a big wooden clock that he was just his height that he could play with! They also had fun 'picking' apples (see the pictures) and playing with cymbals. This last Saturday I took the kids to Blickenstaff's branding. (branding and working calves for those of you 'city' folks!) It was too cold to let them get out of the van, so I had a friend sit in the van with them while I rode my horse to help gather the cattle. It was an exhausting day because my parents weren't there most of the day to help me with the kids and Elliot stayed home to get caught up on some of his projects. (My parents went to Kearney to see a doctor about my Dad's knee which has been swelling and so sore to the point he can't walk some days. They came in time for supper, so I did get help then.) The Becker branding is this coming week end and I hope that I will get to ride my horse a little longer. I should have more help with the kids, anyway.

We really enjoyed this past week when it was so nice out! My garden had been tilled and we are just waiting to see if the weather is going to stay warm before planting anything; we are getting anxious! We have big gardening plans this year and hope we can find room for all of it. At least our back yard will be fenced in so that I won't have to chase Landen across all of the neighbor's yards! I better quit before this gets any longer. Thanks for checking on us!

Great day!

I just remembered something I forgot to put in my previous post. Landen is tall enough now that he can reach the light switch in our room and his room. We used to be able to keep him out of rooms by keeping the light off, but now that he can reach the switch, that doesn't work anymore. It also doesn't work to keep the door shut either because he can turn the knob to open the door as well.

Today was a big milestone day for Adellyn. After supper I noticed that the tooth she has been working on broke through today. I knew it was going to happen soon because she has been really chewing and drooling for a while now. Another thing that she did today is she finally rolled from her back to her tummy. I really thought that she would do that a lot sooner since she rolled from tummy to back at only 3 weeks old.

It was a beautiful day today and we took advantage of it and went for a walk and played in the backyard for quite a while. We really needed the fresh air and Landen needed to run and play. He was so silly and had a blast playing outside. I can't wait for more nice weather!

Ready for spring!

I had to read my last full post to sort of pick up where I left off. In my last post I talked about Landen battling the ear infections and the good news is that it did finally clear up. We have been trying to keep his ears covered outside or keep him indoors on really cold days so that he doesn't end up with more problems. He seems pretty sensitive to cold and wind and he messes with his ears after being outside. I just make sure to give him claritin when I notice that he is stuffy.

Since last time we have had some extremely nice days and even more crappy days. March 16 was one of the nice days. I took the kids for a walk and decided to play at the park for a while. Landen had a lot of fun playing on the slides. He really liked it when I would take him down the big slide. He went down it by himself once and when he went back to the top again, he wouldn't come down. I finally climbed up to get him and when I was close enough to see him, he went down on his tummy feet first. I just stood there and watch for him to get to the bottom. Luckily he was going slow enough that he didn't fly off the end. March 21 was another really nice day and Elliot and Larry built the fort and slide portion of the swing set (with Landen's help...see the pictures). Before they finished, I took the kids to Kearney to see a college friend who was there for the weekend with her husband and new baby. Unfortunately, the next day was too windy for Landen to play on his slide. He did finally get to play on it a week later and he climbs the ladder like a pro! He is going to have a lot of fun in the back yard this summer. I will enjoy our time out there more since we are going to fence in our yard. The weather has really affected attitudes in the house. Landen constantly wants to go outside and doesn't understand why he can't. Since our house is so small, he doesn't have the room to run and he can't get rid of his energy, so we have been having some issues at nap time and bed time. I'm hoping the weather improves soon so we can go outside again.

In an attempt to keep this short, I'm going to just list some short stories. (they are not in any specific order.)
- Last week Landen saw a commercial with the Cadbury Bunny and now he attempts to copy the sound it makes when we ask him what a bunny says.
- As Landen watched me dip up some ice cream, he grunted [for me] every time I put the scoop in to get more ice cream. I guess he could tell how solid it was!
- I can no longer enjoy a cup of coffee without Landen stealing a drink from my cup. Crazy kid!
- Landen has been showing jealousy toward Adellyn even more now than when she first came home. I think he thinks that she gets more attention because I have to nurse several times a day. He typically hits her, throws toys at her or takes her toys away, and kicks her (not very hard, though). He also tries to pull her away from us if he wants attention. On the flip side, if she is in her cradle and starts to cry, Landen will run in and start rocking the cradle and she immediately stops crying. He also likes to make Adellyn laugh or smile...his favorite thing is when she is in the swing he grabs it and counts to 3 and pushes her hard on 3. She loves it.
-Sometimes when Adellyn falls asleep while nursing, Landen comes up and says, "Hiiii" in a very high pitched voice and startles Adellyn. Then he laughs because she jumps.
- Adellyn had cereal for the first time on March 22...4 1/2 months old. She eats great. She opens her mouth much better than Landen did when he first started eating cereal. She also sucks her thumb after every bite.
- She had her 4 month shots almost a month ago and she weighed 14lbs and was 24in. She ran a slight fever the next day. She also had a little bit of a stuffy nose the day of and a couple days following her shots.
- Sometime around the time that Adellyn turned 4 months, I noticed her pass a rattle from one hand to the other. I don't remember what age babies are supposed to be able to do that, but I think that skill is either right on or even ahead. I wish I would have written down the day that she did that.
- Adellyn has been chewing on toys a lot more lately. I felt her gums and I think she is getting a tooth.
- Adellyn has been getting better about standing when we hold her.
- She is also making a lot more and different cooing noises.
- She loves to giggle and is very ticklish, especially on the chin and neck.
- Landen is saying a lot more words, including: apple, cheese, truck, stinky (when he fills his diaper), peep peep (for a chicken or other birds).
- We have been able to get him to sit on his potty chair without a diaper a couple of times...funny story on the first time. He ran to the kitchen after a bath and peed on the floor. Instead of getting mad, I pointed to the puddle and said that we don't potty on the kitchen floor, we potty in the big boy chair. Then I took him to the bathroom and showed him and he sat on it without hesitation. He sat for a minute or two and then got up. I didn't expect him to go since he just went on the floor, but I considered it a success since it was the first time he sat on it without a diaper or pants on.



These are Adellyn's 3 month pictures. Enjoy.

funny videos

Here are some funny videos from the last couple of days. I will do a more detailed post later this week.



This video is from Sunday night at my parents' house. Landen didn't get a nap that day and when he was driving the toy Gator he kept falling asleep. Let's hope he doesn't do this when he starts driving larger vehicles!



I got Adellyn giggling this afternoon and I actually caught it on video. It's a little jerky because I was trying to keep eye contact with her so that she would keep giggling. Apparently she thought my laugh was pretty funny.

Illness and more

We have not had a very good week with Landen. He is still sick. On Saturday we noticed he was starting to cough. I kept thinking that it was just a cold that needed to run its course, so I put off taking him to the doctor. Besides that, he had just been to the doctor and just finished the antibiotic (it was a 5 day antibiotic). When it didn't get better by Wednesday (and he was driving me nuts with his crying and clinging) I decided to take him to the doctor again. It turns out that both ears were infected this time. So, he is on a third different antibiotic and this time the PA we saw said to start him on Claritan. She also said that I need to bring him back as soon as he is done with the antibiotic to make sure his ears are clear. So far he seems to be feeling a little better, but still fighting the cough and stuffy/runny nose. Luckily, Adellyn has not gotten sick.

Even though Landen has been feeling sick, it hasn't stopped Elliot and I from going on with our plans. Last Friday (a week ago today) Elliot decided that we needed to go to Kearney to look for a new pair of shoes for him. We didn't realize as we were leaving how much snow Kearney would get and as we got into town, it was coming down pretty hard. But, it turned out ok because it had quit snowing by the time we got done eating supper and the roads were mostly clear for the drive home. (I suppose that night out didn't help Landen any either.) Saturday we left the kids with Connie and Larry and went to the Cattlemen Banquet. It was a good night and both kids were in bed when we got home. Sunday, Connie and I went to the movie and the kids stayed home with Elliot and Larry. Monday Elliot's boss had a supper for New Age Employees, including spouses, and the sales people that were in town. My mom watched the kids that night and again they were both in bed when we got home. We had been needed to get out of the house without the kids!

In the last couple of days, Landen has started doing something new and funny. He runs or spins circles in the living room saying "ashes, ashes" and when he gets dizzy enough he falls down. Sometimes he gets mad when we start to sing "Ring Around the Rosey." I was thinking the picture of Landen sleeping in the chair. I have taken and posted several pictures of him sleeping recently. I think I have been doing that because it's funny that he will fall asleep in some of those places and positions considering how active he is. I guess that is also about the best time to get a picture of him, again because he is so active I don't always have time to grab the camera.

The only new thing Adellyn is doing is buzzing her lips and I posted a video of that earlier this week. I will probably have more to post about her next time. I should also have her 3 month professional pictures to share.

some videos

Here are some videos that I have been meaning to post for a while. I had to figure out how to use iMovie so that I could edit them a little.



This one of Landen is from Jan 23 and he is copying a funny laugh that Elliot does. He also showed a few words that he can say.



This one of Adellyn is from Jan 26 when she really start cooing. It is really dark, but we were going after the sound more than anything.



This is another one of Adellyn from yesterday. She figured out how to buzz her lips and I managed to catch it on video...she is already doing it a lot more today than yesterday.

Yet another long update...

Well, once again I have gone several weeks between updates. I could list several excuses, but I won't waste my time (or yours)! I ended my last post saying that Landen had an ear infection and pink eye. None of the rest of us got it, but Landen didn't completely get over it. We finished his antibiotics around the 16th, and about a week later (the 23rd) we went back to the doctor, so Landen is on a different antibiotic. I hope this ear infection gets cleared up this time...I'm ready for Landen to be less crabby! We have also been having some battles with Landen during meals. We are having troubles getting Landen to eat healthier meals. Lately he eats crackers with peanut butter, yogurt, apple sauce and dry cereal. Occasionally I can get him to eat chicken nuggets, re fried beans, and peaches. He won't even eat the Gerber meals that he used to love. I just have to keep reminding myself that he won't let himself starve and he will eventually start eating again. Unfortunately his poor diet has caused him to be constipated. When he does go, he does what we call the 'poopy dance' where he runs frantically around the house and occasionally stops to grunt. It is hilarious to watch. Landen is continuing to show us that he loves his little sister. He loves to give her kisses and has started trying to entertain her now that she has started to respond and watch him. He doesn't do a lot, but I have seen him talking to her and trying to give her a toy or tickle her. Landen has just recently figured out how to open the gate going to the kitchen. It is a hands free gate and he has known for a long time that you have to step on the pedal to open it, but he is not heavy enough to make it work. The other night he was jumping on it and it opened, so now he knows that he can make it open if he tries hard enough. I was hoping that he wouldn't be able to figure it out for a while...oh well.

Adellyn is growing so fast. She has really found her voice and will just sit in her swing and 'talk.' She screams and squeals and has the biggest grin on her face when she is happy. She is also very ticklish and occasionally lets out a giggle. She has also started sucking her fingers or thumb to soothe herself when she starts to get hungry. This is great for me because I don't have to feed her every time she wants a snack. She has even put herself to sleep sucking her fingers. She also examines her hands and feet. She gets pretty intense...her eyes get big and she sticks her tongue out as she stares. I'm still waiting for her to reach out and grab her toes...I saw her do it on ultrasound at 23 weeks! She also loves to watch Landen run around. Sometimes when she is nursing, she will stop and listen if Landen runs through the room screaming...then she grins at me when I ask her if she hears her noisy brother. She is at that age where the slightest unusual noise gets her attention. Speaking of age, we went to the doctor for her 3 month check-up on the 12th. She weighed 13 lbs and 0.5 oz and is 23.75 in. long. She is in or near the 75th percentile for both. I looked at Landen's size at 3 months, and she is 11oz smaller and .75 in. shorter. I thought she would be bigger. Her chubby cheeks make her look bigger than she is. On the 7th, we baptized Adellyn at the Saturday night church service. We thought that having fewer people at church would make it easier for us since Landen doesn't sit very well. Turns out that Adellyn was the bigger problem. Shortly after we got to the church, I tried to feed her and somehow that made her upset...possibly because of the nursing cover. Anyway, she started crying so hard that she could not stop crying. I have never seen her cry so hard and for so long. After she started to settle down, she still had that whimper from crying so hard. My Dad was able to get her to calm down and go to sleep. She slept until it was time to start the baptism. I was worried that she would start her hysterical cry again, but she was fine...I think she even liked having the water poured over her head. I did end up having to go feed her during church and then I just stayed out in the fellowship hall the rest of the time because Connie was out there with Landen. After church, we went to my parents house to continue the celebration...if you know the Becker's...any reason to get together with friends and family! After the kids got baths, Adellyn fell asleep on her tummy on the living room floor while we were playing the Wii! She was tired! The latest thing with Adellyn is that we have been working getting her to take a bottle. Elliot and I are going to a Cattlemen supper on Saturday and the kids can't come, so Adellyn had to be able to take a bottle. We finally got her to take it without fuss on Sunday and she has taken it twice since then...so Connie and Larry should get along ok. I and very proud of myself for going over 3 months without having to offer a bottle...but I am ready for a night away.

In the last few weeks, we have been out and about some. Other than several trips to Norton for doctor appointments, we went to Grand Island on Valentines Day...yes after a snow storm, but the roads weren't too bad. We agreed that the new van was a life saver with the DVD player. Landen usually gets really crabby after a day of shopping, but when I stayed in the van to feed Adellyn, Landen stayed in and watched DVDs. This gave him a chance to relax and he didn't get near as tired. He was also pleasant in Perkins for supper. He colored, cuddled with his blankie and ate really well...I was really proud of him! We also got a new stroller...a double stroller. It came just in time for the nice weather we had. The kids loved the last two days we had and they even fell asleep on our walk on Tuesday! When we got home, we continued to play outside until it was time to go in to fix supper. I really have spring fever after the nice days this week. Sorry this got so long!

busy but not...

When Adellyn was born, I told myself that I would do a little better about posting updates on a more regular basis...she is almost 3 months old and I am not doing so well. I knew I would be busy with 2 kids...but I never imagined how busy I would actually be. Of course, much of my time during the day is spent nursing and I can't really type very well with one hand and she wiggles too much to attempt to prop the computer up behind her. I'm forced to wait until they go to bed at night to update and sometimes that is pretty late...I need my sleep more than I need to update the blog.

We haven't done a lot since my last post. We have enjoyed the occasional nice day by going for walks and even played in the snow the one day it snowed last week. I guess the most exciting news since last time is that we finally decided to trade our Stratus in for a 2008 Chrysler Town & County Touring van. It's pretty cool for a "looser cruiser" (that is what a friend of mine calls mini vans). It has power sliding doors and lift gate (that means I can open them with a remote...awesome), dual DVD players, stow and go seats, ambient lighting, heated leather seats, and a handful of other cool things. If you can't tell, I really like it. The only thing I don't like it the color, but it had everything else we wanted including a reasonable price.

Adellyn is growing like a weed. I don't know how much she weighs now, but I am sure she is over 12 lbs. She is "talking" and smiling a lot. I have even gotten her to laugh a couple of times. I can't believe how much I have forgotten since Landen was that little and it hasn't even been that long ago. She is really strong and holding her head for longer periods of time. She is even starting to like her tummy time! She doesn't really like to be held by anyone but me...which is frustrating. Fortunately, she likes to just lay on the floor and look around. One evening my parents stopped by on their way through town and she cried as soon as my Dad picked her up and stopped as soon as he put her back down. When she allows someone to hold her, she is picky about how she is held...again, she likes to look around, so she has to face away from the person holding her. We have been working on her night time routine. She has gone from going to bed anywhere from 1 to 3am to going to bed closer to 11pm. (Tonight she went to be at 8pm...wow) She is so good in the mornings. She will lay in bed quietly while I get Landen up and fed and dressed. I have left her there for an hour or more and she just drifts in and out of sleep until I get her up. She has had a few mornings where I go to change her diaper and she is completely dry! Even after feeding her she is dry. Then she cries (as if in pain) and then she finally wets her diaper. Then she is fine the rest of the day. This has happened about 3 or 4 times. I called my doctor about it, but she didn't seem concerned unless she was running a fever, which she wasn't.

Whether I am nursing or not , Landen is often trying to lead me around the house saying "cookie," "bankie" (with the emphasis on the "kie" in both words), "o-wow-o-wow-o-wow-o" which means 'I want that' or simply whining about something that I can't figure out. A funny story about 'bankie': I was washing it yesterday and Landen was looking for it and trying to get me to find it for him. I told him it was in the wash and he wasn't very happy about that, but soon got distracted and forgot about it. After a while, I was on the phone with my mom and Landen heard the washing machine and ran back there to watch it. He could see his 'bankie' through the door and he ran to get me crying "bankie, bankie, bankie," (again with the emphasis on kie). I had to take him outside and push him in the swing to get him to forget about it. Luckily Adellyn had fallen asleep on the living room floor and would be fine while I was outside. He is getting better about playing in his room without me, which is nice. I try to go play with him as often as I can. I really just enjoy watching him and seeing how his imagination is growing. He is still playing with the shape sorter about everyday. He has also been stacking rings and he really examines them as he stacks. He is so intense when he plays and I love to watch him. When I think about it, I narrate for him by saying colors or shapes as he picks things up. I have noticed on several occasions that he has excellent hand eye coordination. He can eat a meal using a fork or spoon with little mess. He also has good balance. He climbs into his highchair on his own. He also climbs on this wobbly little table by the couch to look out the window and has not fallen yet (knock on wood!). I have even seen him balance on one foot for a few seconds before falling down! He has been able to get both feet off the ground when he jumps lately.

Yesterday, Landen had some green stuff in his eye and by the afternoon, it had gotten worse, so I called the doctor. They just called a prescription for eye drops into the pharmacy so I didn't have to drive to Norton. Today, I had a dentist appointment in Norton and Landen acted like he didn't feel good (he also woke up a midnight and 6am crying), so I made a doctor appointment for him. Turns out that he has an ear infection that spread to his eye and caused pink eye. I am really hoping the rest of us don't get it. I figured out that he probably picked up the bug last week when I took him to daycare (for the first time) for an hour while I ran some errands and picked up the van to test drive. I didn't leave Adellyn there because my friend who runs the daycare only had room for one more kid that day. I'm hoping that since I am nursing (and I'm on antibiotics for a sinus infection) that she doesn't get sick. She acted a little fussy tonight, but I think it was just a gassy tummy.

I get this feeling that I am forgetting something. I'll add more later if I remember. We are baptizing Adellyn this weekend, so I will post pictures from that.

Adellyn's Baptism

We are going to baptize Adellyn on Saturday February 7 at the 7:00pm church service. I would like to invite all friends and family to attend (Trinity Lutheran Church in Arapahoe). The baptism will be at the begining of the church service, so don't be late. We are also going to have a soup supper before church starting around 5:30 in the church fellowship hall for anyone who plans to attend. If you can't make it before church, you can stick around after church, there will be plenty of food. Please let me know if you plan to come for supper so I can have a general idea of how much I need to make.

Stories

Landen is using more words and is definitely back on track. He is starting to repeat words we ask him to say...when he feels like it anyway. He says grandma (an-ma) and grandpa (ah-pa). He has said "I love you" a few times...I really don't know how to describe how he says it, but he repeats it in the same tone when we ask, so we know that is what he says. The other day when Landen was in his highchair for lunch, I was holding Adellyn with her feet dangling near him, he reached for her foot and said "tickle tickle tickle." I just laughed because I hadn't seen him do that before. Another funny thing that Landen started doing is he spanks himself. He has done this a couple of times this past week when he gets into something that he knows he is supposed to stay out of, like the trash can. All I did was say his name in a tone that let him know that he was in trouble and he walked away with a sorrowful look on his face and he hit his butt a couple of times like he was giving himself a spanking. I couldn't resist laughing at that. A not so funny thing Landen has started is when he wakes up from his naps lately he sometimes cries and throws a huge fit. A couple of times he would throw himself down in he crib and when we would try to pick him up he would arch his back and kick and scream. We have no idea why he started doing this because he used to wake up happy and even be content to sit in his crib and talk to his stuffed animals until we went in to get him. I hope this is just a phase that will pass soon. As I am watching him right now, I am reminded of another way that he is growing. He is playing with one of his shape sorters and I am amazed at how much more patient he is with it now. Several months ago I mentioned how frustrated he would get when he couldn't get the shape in on the first try and now he is figuring out what shape goes where and even patiently turning it to make it fit. In the last couple days, he has played and played with those shape sorters.

Adellyn is also growing like a weed. I am amazed at how much she is filled out compared to our skinny little Landen. She is still not a fat baby, but she has more rolls than Landen ever did. Adellyn had her first round of shots on Monday. She weighs 11 lbs 13 oz and is 22.5 inches long. She is just a little bigger than Landen was at that age. It will be interesting to see if she continues to be bigger than him at certain ages or if she slows down. She is sleeping through the night and even slept almost 12 hours one night. Now if I could get her to go to bed before 1 or 2 a.m. I'd be really happy. (she sleeps in until around 10 when she goes to bed so late) I'd really be set if I could get both kids to nap at the same time during the day. It never fails that as soon as I get Landen down for a nap, Adellyn wakes up and stays up until just before Landen wakes up. I guess there are couple of good things about that; one is that I don't have to worry about Landen trying to drag me somewhere while I am trying to feed Adellyn and two is that she gets used to the noise of Landen playing while she sleeps. I don't want to have to be quiet just because a kid is sleeping, so I make them get used to the noise. Adellyn is also holding her head up really well now, but it does still bobble a little. She hasn't rolled over as much lately. I think her balance has improved enough that she doesn't fall to the side to get started. I still don't think she was rolling by accident before, because she had to kick her leg over after falling to her side. She is "talking" a lot more with coos and gurgles. She usually grins while she is talking. She also "sings" when she is just starting to get hungry. She makes this noise like she is starting to cry, but it turns into a coo and it sounds like she is singing. I hope I can catch it on video before she quits doing it.

Happy New Year!

click on the slide show to see larger pictures and captions

Well, I am finally getting around to updating again, sorry it is so long. We have had a crazy last few weeks. We have hardly been home, and when we were home I was trying to get the house back in order from being gone. Saturday Dec. 13th, I took the kids (that still seems strange to say) to see Santa in Beaver City. Landen didn't want to sit still for a picture, but he wasn't scared. I spent the rest of the day at my parents house and my mom and I worked making some jewelry while Landen took a nap. On Friday Dec. 19th, we went to Grand Island to get some last minute shopping done. Then Saturday we had Christmas with Elliot's parents. On Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Becker Christmas. We spent Thursday in Norton for Nelson Christmas. Friday we drove to Pierce for Wragge Christmas which on Saturday. We drove home on Sunday and went straight to Norton again to see my Aunt and Uncle who were not able to make it on Christmas Day. (I really wanted them to get to see Adellyn since my aunt didn't get to see Landen until he was almost a year old.) Monday and Tuesday I stayed home and tried to get stuff put away from the crazy week we had. Then New Year's Eve we went to the party at Blickenstaff's house. Everyone who had kids brought them along and Landen had a blast playing with them and he was even awake to welcome the New Year! Shortly after midnight my mom helped my take the kids to the house and give them a bath before we went home. New Year's Day we went to my parents house to watch the Husker game. Friday we picked up all of the Christmas decorations inside and out and did some other cleaning around the house. Sunday we went to my parents house again to celebrate Christmas with them. Finally, the craziness of the holiday season has ended. whew!

Landen is acting like a typical toddler these days. He is happy and laughing one minute and throwing himself on the floor in a fit the next. We came the the conclusion that he had regressed after Adellyn was born, but he is starting to get back to where he was before she was born. The biggest thing we noticed was that he quit using a lot of the words that he had learned just before she was born. The only thing he has really been saying is "uhn uh" and shake his head no (I don't really know how to spell it the way he says it, but we know that he is saying no). "Uh oh," "oh no" and "oops" have also been favorites. He is really babbling more and occasionally we can pick out a recognizable word. Tonight after supper he was signing that he was done and at the same time he was saying "I duh," which meant "I done." The other morning when I was getting Landen's clothes out of the closet, Adellyn was starting to grunt and groan and Landen starting saying "Hi Addie" over and over again. It was pretty cute. He is still stingy with his kisses, but every now and then he surprises us. Lately he is obsessed with moving chairs and stools around the house to get to something he wants. When the Christmas decorations were out, it was my Willow Tree Nativity. Now he is constantly going for the phone. Most of the time he just pretends to talk on it or practices putting it on the charger. Occasionally he manages to turn it on. Landen has also turned into a picky eater and he even refuses to eat things he used to love. Elliot and I have gotten pretty frustrated with his screaming fits when he refuses everything we put in front of him. I keep telling myself that he will not starve himself and that he will eventually eat when he gets hungry enough, and he does. At his 18 month check up, our doctor reassured us of that. Speaking of that, he weighed 26 lbs and is 32 inches tall. Landen has also become much more interested in books, especially Spot books. I think he likes them for two reasons, he loves dogs and he likes to lift the flap on each page.

Adellyn also saw the doctor the same day as Landen. At that appointment just before Christmas, she weigh 10lbs 7.5oz and was 21.75inches. I'm sure she is around 11lbs by now. I have not compared how she is growing to Landen, but she is definitely more filled out than he was as a baby. She is cooing and smiling a lot now. She has beautiful blue eyes and we are sure they will stay blue. If you saw Landen as a baby, you may remember how he moved his legs constantly, Adellyn is not quite as active; thank goodness, I don't know if I could handle another kid with his energy. She is pretty good most of the time (although as I am trying to write this, she is fussing). She tends to get a little fussy at night after eating. I asked the doctor if she might has acid reflux. She didn't seem too concerned because I have been able to keep her head elevated to ease the discomfort. She is also pretty gassy, which could also be a cause for her discomfort after eating. My doctor said that it is a good thing that she is not bottle fed or her gassiness would be even worse. Two things that I have found that really helps her settle down is she likes to bounce or sit on my lap with her back against my chest and rock. Once she finally settles down and goes to sleep at night, she sleeps all night (most of the time). For about the first 6 weeks, she slept all day and wouldn't sleep at night. Then I switched her bath to night and it made all the difference. She also cluster feeds at night, which helps her sleep. Unfortunately, that is the time of day when I usually get the most done around the house because Landen is asleep. Needless to say, I have been struggling to keep up on house work and other things I do in the evening, such as update this blog. I have also been struggling to finish thank you cards for gifts that I received since Adellyn has arrived. (If you are waiting for one, be patient, I will get it to you eventually.) She is also pretty accepting of her brother. He still throws things at her and hits her occasionally. He mostly does this when he wants attention from me. For the most part, Adellyn is pretty patient and has started to soothe herself by sucking on her fist. She doesn't really take a pacifier, so I think she is also going to be a thumb sucker. (at least she was in utero) She does like to cuddle and often will stop crying when she is picked up. Adellyn is a very strong baby. She is always trying to hold her head up. She is also still rolling over. I keep wondering how many other milestones she is going to hit early. Only time will tell.