John Deere kids and a funny story

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

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

Our kids are 18 months and 1 month old today!

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

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

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

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

Adjusting to life with 2 kids!

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

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

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

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

It's a GIRL!

Click on the link to see pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/sealhoefs/NewAlbum111608452PM#

Adellyn Ruth Hoefs was born on Tuesday November 11 at 8:41 am; 7 lbs 3 oz, 20 in. long. (For those of you who don't know my family, Ruth was my grandma Becker's name and my great-grandma Nickols name) She was born by c-section and Elliot was able to get video of the whole surgery. He stood by my head so you can't see most of the gross stuff, but you can see the important part as they pull her out. I'm not planning on posting the video because it is almost 9 minutes long, but if you want to see it, let me know. (by the way, that 9 minutes felt like an eternity because I was so anxious to find out the sex and to hear that first cry!) My parents had Landen all week so Elliot stayed in the hospital with me. Since we doctor in Norton, I had Elliot work all week so that he could save his time off for this week when I really need him because I can't lift Landen. When my parents and Landen came to see us, Landen reacted about how I expected. My mom picked up Adellyn, and my dad was holding Landen. Mom took Adellyn over to Dad and Landen and he took one look at her, turned away and started shaking his head and fighting to be put down. We kept trying the rest of the evening and we finally got him to kiss her hand. Since then he has gotten better. He kisses her head, giggles at every noise she makes, touches her nose and eyes and holds his cell phone up to her head. He has also thrown things at her and hit her, so we have to watch him closely if he is in the same room as her. It has been a rough week for him, but I think he will be a really good big brother once he gets used to this change. To make things worse, he got a new tooth last week, so that was making him feel sick. He had a really bad runny nose which caused a bad cough and he wasn't sleeping or eating as good as normal. I think part of the problem was that he was home sick and he missed us. Today he acted more like normal than he has since Adellyn was born.

Adellyn is a really good baby. She only cries when she is hungry and she is a good eater. She nurses really well and I have not gotten as sore I did with Landen. She also sleeps really good. She still has days and nights a little mixed up, but it is getting better and she does her binging in the late evening instead of the middle of the night now. I have had her sleep on my chest in the recliner for the two nights we have been home. I did it for two reasons, one; it's too difficult to get up at night with the pain and two; she woke Landen up the first night home and he had to get up and run around and have a snack for a half hour before going back to bed. Right now at 11:30 pm, she is in her cradle sleeping soundly (and like an idiot, I am not sleeping).

I have been doing pretty good. I went more than 24 hours without taking a percoset in the hospital (I only had advil), but since I have been home, I have been taking it as often as possible. I think I am doing too much, but it is hard to see the mess and not do something about it. I still have not been able to unpack my bag completely. It's been harder this time because I have Landen to worry about as well as a newborn. I get my staples out tomorrow (Monday), so hopefully that will help me feel better because I won't have that pulling feeling anymore. I am looking forward to being able to lift Landen again.

I have a great story that will be fun to tell Adellyn when she is older. I was released from the hospital on Friday around 1pm. I had Elliot stop at the pharmacy first so that I could fill my perscription and he wanted to stop at New Age so everyone in the office could see Adellyn. As we pulled into the parking lot, Elliot's phone rang. It was someone from New Age saying that email wasn't working. Elliot thought that it should be a quick fix and that we wouldn't have to stay any longer than we had planned. Well, that wasn't the case. His email server crashed and he couldn't figure out why or how to fix it. An hour later he told me that I could just go home and he would figure out how to get home later. He forgot that I am not allowed to drive. So I called my parents and asked if they could come get me. My mom couldn't becuase Landen was taking a much needed nap, but my dad was able to come down. Luckily, Adellyn was still asleep. I did wake her up before my dad got there because she ate at 11am at the hospital and slept through everything we had done until 2pm. I didn't want her waking up on the way home since it was extremely windy and rainy. We just waited for Elliot at my parents' house so we didn't have to swap vehicles later. He called to tell us he was leaving Norton at 5:20, and we finally got to our home in Arapahoe around 7pm...what a day! I told Elliot that I am going to put this story in Adellyn's baby book and that we will look back and laugh about it some day.

Halloween pictures

Here are some good pictures from Halloween. These are from Connie's camera.

a couple stories

Last night I thought of something I forgot to include in my update. I'm sure I've mentioned before how observant Landen is, and this proves it. For the last few weeks he has been going into my room to play. He climbs up onto the bench in front of my mirror where I fix my hair and put on my make-up (when I actually wear it). He has watched me enough times that he knows what to do with a lot of the stuff I have sitting out. He bushes his hair with my brush, brushes his face with my make-up brush, "puts on" or eats chap stick, pretends to spray my B&BW body sprays and hair sprays and the whole time he jabbers on about something. When he "sprays" something, he make the sound effect... ssss ssss sssss. He usually makes a mess, so I try to keep him out, but he is pretty sneaky. He almost always throws a fit when I take him out and shut the door.

One other cute thing Landen has started doing is kissing the baby...my belly. He likes to kiss it over and over again. I wonder if he will kiss the baby or my belly after the baby comes!

another update

part of the cradle that Elliot is building







Landen being goofy while eating theatre popcorn








Landen sitting with the pumpkins that I grew...they were suppose to be pie pumpkins, but they got really big. Notice the green one has Landen's name in it. I scratched it in when the pumpkin was small and the skin was thin and it scarred it...we used to do that when I was a kid.




playing with his food









trying to climb out of the high chair...and showing off for the camera










Landen was a puppy for Halloween. I tried to paint his face, but all I managed to get was his nose and he wiped it off before we left the house.
I'll try to get some better pictures posted later when I get them from Connie and my Mom.

















We haven't done a whole lot since my last post. We made it to see one of Justina's volleyball games on the 9th. Landen was really good and he enjoyed getting to play with Sutton after the game. A couple weeks later Landen and I went with my parents to see Jerome's last home football game. I didn't get to watch much of the game because I had to chase Landen, but it was a good game from what I could watch. (By the way, Justina and Jerome are my cousins and both are seniors this year. Dexter, Jerome's little brother, is a freshman this year and he has gotten a lot of playing time this year. He'll be fun to watch as he goes through high school.)

I have been trying to get a lot of stuff done before the baby comes...which is coming up pretty quick! I have had Connie come over to help me do some canning a couple of times. We did plum and cherry jellies a couple of weeks ago and the other day we canned tomato soup and juice. I'm so glad to get the 9 gallons of tomatoes out of my freezer! I had a very productive garden again this year. In fact, I have so many jars of canned tomatoes (soup, juice and whole) that I am only going to grow a couple of plants next year for eating and sharing...no canning! I still have several gallon bags of bell peppers in my freezer, but they are useful in cooking. Elliot knows how to make his pepper jelly now, so he might use them for that later this fall or winter. As far as my "to do before baby list" goes, I still have a couple sewing projects to take of, but I enjoy sewing...getting it done during Landen's naps is a different story. That explains my lack of updates.

The only really big thing we have done since my last post is we went to Lincoln last weekend. Elliot had a dentist appointment and we used the trip to buy that last things we needed before the baby comes and to do the majority of our Christmas shopping. Yes, that's right, Christmas shopping in October. We decided trying to get it done with a 17 month wild child and a newborn would not be easy or fun, so we did it early. Anything else we need to get will have to be done online.

Well, that's all I can think of to post about this time. At the rate I am going, I probably won't post anything (expect maybe more Halloween pictures) until after the baby is born. Enjoy these nice days we have been having, they may not last long.