Life Happens!

As you can imagine, I have been a little busy and my blog has been suffering. We are adjusting to life with 3 kids and I think we are finally getting the hang of it. Adellyn still LOVES Ethan as if he were her doll. She is constantly giving him hugs and kisses. She is usually pretty gentle, but she doesn't know her own strength sometimes and gets to poking a little too hard. I haven't noticed Adellyn being set back in any way since Ethan has arrived. In fact, she as really advanced. Her imagination is really starting to blossom and she loves playing with her baby dolls as well as her Little People doll house. She talks in sentences and knows more words than I could even try to list. She is very advanced for her age, but she has learned a lot from Landen. We have also started potty training. She is doing pretty well, but I have to remind her a lot. Some days she is really good about telling me she has to go and will stay dry most of the day, and other days she isn't as interested. I'm hoping that by Christmas she is more consistent and in underwear at home.

Landen still hasn't shown too much interest in Ethan and even refuses to sit with him for pictures. He does get concerned when he is crying and I'm in another room. Shortly after we brought Ethan home, Landen started stuttering and it got increasingly worse to the point that I was thinking about having him tested by a speech therapist. I have a few friends who work with children that require speech therapy and I asked for advice. They re-assured me that this is typical for his age and agreed that it could have been triggered by getting a new baby and that we shouldn't make a big deal about it and should go away with time. I took their advice and focused on speaking slowly when talking to him, gave him more positive attention, and made a point to not use Ethan as an excuse to not help him or play with him. It paid off because I noticed he did not stutter much at all this week. We are still struggling with his behavior, so I made a chart titled "Good Behavior Race." I made a "race track" with several stars between the starting and finish lines and cut out a car to move along the track. When I notice Landen showing good behavior, (ie: sharing, helping, using good manners, following instructions, etc) he gets to move his car to the next star. When he gets to the finish line, we will go to the store to pick out a new toy and he will start over. I think it is helping. As of right now, I don't move his car backward because I don't want him to get discouraged.

Ethan is a pretty good baby. He had some troubles with his tummy bothering him, but he seems to be getting better. After his 6week check-up, I noticed that he had and umbilical hernia (his belly button stuck out) and I think that may have had something to do with his tummy issues. I did some reading on it and there is nothing the doctors can or will do unless it can not be pushed in or it turns purple/blue. I could push it in and it would stay until he would strain, so I didn't worry about it. I did have the doctor look at it while at his 3 month check-up and by then it had gone down significantly since I first noticed it, so she wasn't at all worried. He weighed 14lbs 10oz and was 23.75 in. long at that appointment last week. He is more than a pound heavier than the other two were at 3 months! Ethan loves to be talked to. He grins and coos when he gets attention. He is also very ticklish! He tries to giggle and curls up his body when I tickle his collar bone. He has found his fist/thumb and will suck on it to soothe himself...like his brother and sister, he won't take a pacifier, so I guess we have another thumb sucker!

Today we baptized Ethan at church and then after church we celebrated Adellyn's birthday. She got some Duplo blocks to add to our collection, 2 new babies, "Beauty and the Beast" Blu Ray, a cup cake necklace and several new outfits. Aunt Kayla also made some really cute bows for her. It was great day with family! Enjoy the pictures...there are a few in there of the house addition. (In case you didn't know, we are adding a master suite to our house above the garage which will almost double the size of our house! I don't know if I'm more excited about getting a second bathroom or a walk-in closet!)