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.