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.

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.