10 months old!

Well, once again I went two weeks between postings. I guess I didn't find much interesting to post about. We have mostly just been hanging around the house the last two weeks. We went to Kearney last Friday (April 4). Landen was very good and slept in the car both ways. Then Sunday night, Elliot broke his glasses, so we went to McCook on Monday to order a new pair. He went back on Friday to pick them up. We played poker in Beaver City that night. Friday was also Landen's 10 month birthday. The first two pictures are our attempts to get a picture in the spot on the couch to show how much Landen has grown. He didn't want to cooperate. The next picture is where Elliot found Landen on Saturday afternoon. I was running errands and Elliot was watching TV and pretty soon he heard Landen when he got stuck behind the toy bucket. The last picture above is Landen's new facial expression. He says "OOOOO" when he makes the face. He will also imitate you if you do it first. He is so much fun right now!





OK, before you read any farther, read Landen's shirt in this picture (he doesn't look happy because he was tired) .....Yes that's right! We found out about 3 weeks ago. The baby is due November 22. This was a little bit of a surprise, but we had talked before we knew I was pregnant and we agreed that we were ready for another baby. We are happy that they will be so close in age (17 months) because they will likely be friends as well as siblings, plus Landen won't remember not having a sibling and hopefully won't be jealous.

Is it summer yet?

Landen was fascinated by this new toy Daddy made. It is a peel for the brick oven that Elliot is going to build.










Landen was having some fun sitting in his toy bucket.






I'm going to start off with a little bit of sad news. Last week the man who married my Grandma Becker (technically my Step-Grandpa) passed away. His funeral was on Friday. Something good did come out of this, though. We got to see some relatives that we hadn't seen since Christmas and some that we hadn't seen since before Christmas. When we showed up to the funeral home, we found that Landen and Sutton were wearing the same sweater vest (both of them wore them for Easter as well). It was pretty funny because the people who didn't know us at the funeral kept asking if there were two of them because they had seen them both at different times or if they were twins. You can see why everyone thought they were twins in the pictures because they are the same size even though Sutton is 5 weeks older than Landen. (If you are struggling to tell which one is Landen, he is on the right.) Landen is getting more adventurous. He likes to crawl around under the kitchen table, in the pantry and, well, just about anywhere he can squeeze himself. He has also figured out how to open containers with a snap on lid. He first did it Sunday night at my parents' house. He was playing with the bottle of lotion after his bath and he used his bottom teeth to pry the lid open. We'd shut the lid and he'd open it again and it became a game. Well, on Tuesday he was in the kitchen and he spotted the can of wagon wheels and got it down and proceeded to pull the lid off. I watched him do it just to see if he could get the lid off and I took the can away before he could dump them everywhere. He also knows how to open the seat of his John Deere tractor now. (See last picture) He loves to push his tractor while making the tractor sound (see the video and turn up the sound, it's kind of dark, but you can tell what is going on).



Nothing else interesting has been going on. We are definitely ready for some warmer weather so we can go for walks. Landen really enjoys getting outside on the occasional warm day. It's raining today so it doesn't look like we will be going for any walks today...but I'll take the rain!

Another 2 weeks has flown by

As the title says, another 2 weeks has flown by and I have not gotten any better about posting. I have a feeling it will only get worse as the weather gets nicer. The bad thing about going so long without posting is that I kind of forget what has happened since the last post. First off, I took Landen 9 month picture in the spot on the couch where I always take pictures after I last posted. The first picture shows one of the attempts to get a good picture. He doesn't like to sit still for pictures...he'd rather play with the camera. On the 13th, we went to Elwood to do our professional 9 month pictures. Landen was very good for those pictures. The following Monday (St. Patty's Day) we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow, which (thankfully) didn't stick around for long. It was a cold day, but that didn't stop us from wearing green and pigging out on corned beef and cabbage! We didn't really do anything fascinating the rest of the week. Saturday, we had an Easter supper with Elliot's parents and we spent Easter Sunday at my grandma's house in Norton. Unfortunately, Landen would not settle down and take a nap for anything. Elliot ended up taking him for a drive to get him to sleep a little. Needless to say, he went to bed early that night. Yesterday we took advantage of the beautiful day and went for a walk around town. I think he got a little too much wind in his face on the walk because he woke up crying an hour and a half after going to bed. I had a hard time getting him to stop crying, but he finally settled down and went back to sleep. Today, we went to the doctor for a well baby check up. He weighs 19 lbs 4.5oz and is 27.75 in. long. He has dropped below the 50th percentile in height and is in the 25th percentile in weight. Even though Landen has slowed down in growing, he has not slowed down. He is now doing "so big" on command almost every time now. (that is how I got him to pose in the third picture) He also has another tooth now. He started to cut a tooth on top on the Sunday, but it didn't break the skin until Wednesday. This was probably the most painful tooth for him so far. I had to give him motrin at bedtime for 3 days just so he could sleep. He has been experimenting with this new thing in his mouth by grinding his teeth. I hope he doesn't do that for long. Lastly, he has been walking behind his tractor lately, so I think he could be walking in another month.
Pictures:
-9 month picture on couch
-crawled into the corner between toy basket and couch. he sat there and played for a long time before getting tired of it
-playing with shoes in our closet...read his shirt!
-(next 3) Easter Sunday... Don't Adam and Landen look so cute in their pastels?!?
-Landen wanted to get the toys from the Baby Einstein DVD tonight...He was actually getting mad that he couldn't get it.
-I had the DVD on repeat play and by the second time around and after his bath, Landen was totally relaxed while watching. He laid like that for about a half hour...I did give him a bottle after a while and that kept him content. (speaking of bottles, I just finished weaning. I'm a little sad that I didn't get to nurse him until he turned one year, but he is just to active to settle down to nurse like he needed to.)

9 months old!

I have been really bad about posting lately. When Landen is awake, I am either chasing him around the house or feeding him. When he is asleep, I am trying to clean, shower, eat, catch up on the scrapbook, and do lots of other things are easier to do when he is sleeping. The worst part is, he only sleeps about 2-3 hours during the day (when I am lucky, and not all at the same time). Landen is learning a lot of new things. First off, I am teaching him some sign language. He can sort of sign "more." He just folds his hands, but I figure that is close enough for now...it's better than banging his hands on the tray and yelling. He knows how to push open doors. He thinks it is pretty funny to push open the bathroom door when someone is in there. He loves going into the bathroom because he loves taking a bath. He has also been trying to snort (see last picture above). He sucks in air though his nose like he is trying to suck in snot and sometimes he blows back out...now if I could only use that to get him to blow his nose. I don't know if he does that because his nose is stuffy or if he is trying to snort like a pig (when we do pig sounds, we snort instead of oink...we have a friend whose one-year-old snorts and it is the funniest things I have seen.) Landen has also been getting a little braver. Last Tuesday, he was standing next to me holding onto my shirt sleeve, and then he let go and stood by himself for about 10 seconds before falling down. He hasn't stood for as long since then, but he has let go briefly a couple of times since. This past Saturday, as I was feeding him supper, I finally got him to do "So big" on his own.
For those of you who don't know what that is, we say "Landen, soooo biiiig" and raise his arm over his head. The goal is to teach him to raise his arms himself, well, he did and hasn't done it since!

The only other news I have for the week is that we went to the doctor again last week because Landen was still pulling on his ears. The doctor said that there was still a little fluid in his right ear, but it was not infected and she said we didn't need to do anything. We will go back in a couple of weeks for his well child check-up.
Pictures:
-eating whole peas and carrots for the first time (most of them ended up in the chair)
-trying to grab the spoon and feed himself...not working to well
-Landen was supposed to be taking a nap...he found the mini blinds to be more interesting...I rearranged after that. It took Landen a couple of days to get used to his crib being on the other side of the room (he woke up scared for a few nights).
-hugging the lotion bottle while lounging on mom and dad's bed before church.

Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts!

Somewhat busy two weeks

Well, it’s been almost two weeks since I last posted. I have a couple reasons for that; one, I’m just a little lazy and two, we have been sick. Last Saturday (Feb 16) we went to Wood River (near Grand Island) to see my brother’s house that he recently bought. We also did a little shopping in GI. Landen continued to have a runny nose throughout that weekend and I started to get a sore throat Saturday afternoon. Sunday, my sore throat was really bad and I gargled salt water several times to try to get some relief, but it didn’t make me feel much better. On Monday, I noticed a white spot in my throat in addition to it being sore, so I decided to go to the doctor. As it turned out, Landen had an ear infection and I had strep throat, so we were both on antibiotics. We stayed indoors for the next two days since it was so cold. Thursday we were both tired of being cooped up so I bundled Landen up and went to the post office and the bank just so that we could get out of the house for a little while. Friday was such a nice day and we were feeling better, so we got out the stroller and went for a walk to the grocery store. Saturday night, Connie and Larry babysat while Elliot and I went to the Cattlemen banquet. It was kind of nice to get away for the evening. Monday, Landen and I went to Lincoln with Connie and Larry. Landen did not enjoy the ride. I think the cold weather was bothering his ears. He is still pulling on them every now and then, even after a week on antibiotics. On a good note, Landen is crawling on his hands and knees almost all the time now. He falls when he tries to go too fast. It looks like he trips when he falls. It’s pretty funny.
Pictures:
-Landen stands in his crib a lot now. He grabs the animals on his mobile. I should take it down, but he enjoys watching it when he is tired.
-Landen climbed the decorative ladder at Adam and Kayla’s house.
-Sitting on uncle Adam’s shoulders before we left.
-Snuggling with his stuffed elephant on the living room floor. Landen has started this thing where he will lay his head on stuffed animal or blanket and will immediately stick his thumb in his mouth.
-Examining the bottom of the TV
-Trying to climb the gate around the front door.
-Landen loves to play with this balloon. If you look close, it is also a good shot of him sticking his tongue out.
-One of Landen’s favorite games. He could be throwing a fit, but it I toss him in the air a couple of times, he will start giggling.
-Landen loves bath time so much that all I have to do is turn on the water and he will crawl from the living room to the bathroom as fast as he can. The funny thing is that when he gets to the hallway, he will peek around the corner before continuing to the bathroom, so this is a picture of him peeking around the corner looking towards the bathroom.
-After church on Sunday, Landen just about fell asleep while watching TV. After Elliot took the picture, he perked up, though. He knows the camera and tries to get it now.

8 months old!

Landen turned eight months old on Monday. I mentioned last week that he has been waking up one or two times in the night wanting to nurse, well he is still waking up and I am still not sure why. We are still thinking growth spurt, but last night I got the impression that something else is going on. I heard him whining/crying over the monitor, but it wasn't constant, it was more like short bursts. After a while, I got up to check on him, and he was sound asleep, so I came to the conclusion that he is dreaming and just crying in his sleep. I hope this doesn't last too much longer, because he is also not sleeping much during the day. Another thing that he has started doing even more now is standing in his crib. If he is not sleepy, he stands up and "yells" until I come pick him up. The last couple of days he has has a runny nose and a little cough, so this is not help the sleeping situation. On Friday last week, my Grandma came up to visit since she wasn't home when we went to Norton on Thursday. We had fun that day and Landen was happy to see her (he doesn't look thrilled in the picture above, but this was a rare moment that he was totally relaxed and content to just sit there). We also finally got some baby gates this week (see pictures above). I got tired of chasing Landen in the kitchen and pulling him away from something that I didn't want him to get into. We put another gate around the doorway to keep Landen away from the front door. The gate was much easier than trying to keep that area clean, especially on muddy days. That's all for this week.
Happy Valentines Day!

Some funny pictures

I'm a little late posting this week because Elliot ended up staying home from work on Tuesday because of the snow. Since Elliot stayed home, I took advantage of it to get some stuff done that I can't do without someone else in the house. I got so much other stuff done, I ran out of time to post. Landen is getting better at pulling himself up on things. He can pull up to standing on the coffee table with little effort now. He has even gotten brave enough to walk along one side of the coffee table. He has fallen a couple times and even hit his chin on the way down, but he gets right back up after getting a hug. He is still working on crawling with his belly off the floor. He tries, but can't get his coordination right. He does it when he is trying to go over the top of something like the diaper bag. Last week was pretty uneventful, but we had a busy weekend. Saturday we went to Kearney to watch the Lady Lopers and my cousin play basketball. It was a very good game and the Lopers won 87 - 82. Landen was very good during the game. He watched intently for most of the first half. When he started to get restless, I nursed him and he fell asleep and slept most of the second half. After the game, we did some shopping and Landen was good the whole time. We had to stop in Holdrege on the way home so that I could feed Landen. We went to my parents' house on Sunday for a Super Bowl party. Landen had plenty of entertainment and gave me a break. This week Landen has been waking up one or two times in the night and wanting to eat. I think he might be going through a growth spurt or possibly having pain from teeth. I don't know what to think about teeth, though. Since about Christmas, I thought he was getting another tooth; finally last Thursday, his second tooth came through. I hope he doesn't continue this pattern of one tooth every 4 months!

Pictures:
1 - This is Landen's "poopy face." He has a little trouble with constipation and hard poops and this is the face he makes when he is pushing. This is probably a picture that he will kill me for taking when he is older, but it is sure funny now!
2 - The other night Landen was a little restless and was not satisfied with any of his toys, so I turned on a Baby Einstein DVD. Elliot had Landen sit on his chest and it looked like Landen was doing yoga with his legs folded and the way he was holding his hands. He was pretty focused on the TV.
3 - Landen has started sticking out his tongue when he is pulling himself up on something or reaching for a toy. I was trying to get a good picture to show how long his tongue is. I think that he will be able to touch his tongue to his nose like his Grandma Becker and his Great aunt Patsy!
4 - This morning I was in my room and Landen came in to see what I was doing. He found this basket of clean clothes and climbed in! He saw the camera and posed!
5 - This evening Landen was playing on his tractor and the noticed the jack-in-the-box on the table, so he tried to get it. I just hope that he doesn't pull my violets down.