Is winter over yet???

Wow! Where did February go? It’s bad enough that it is a short month, but it really seemed to fly by! Unfortunately, I was sick the entire month. I started with a little bit of a runny nose and a cough at the end of January. I kept putting off going to the doctor; thinking is was a cold that would go away on its own. I even went in for a prenatal check up (more on that later) 2 weeks into my cold, but the doctor didn’t think it was anything more than a cold. When I did finally go to the doctor, it was actually for the kids because they were also sick. Adellyn went 4 nights in a row with a low fever at bedtime and then when she quit running a fever, Landen started running one, only he still had it in the morning. When Adellyn coughed for about 5 minutes straight and Landen just looked miserable one morning, I decided to get them to the doctor. While there, I mentioned I have been fighting a plugged nose for 4 weeks, so she looked at me too. Turned out that we all had sinus infections. I’m still a little plugged up, but not near as bad (the antibiotics are still working) and the kids definitely feel better. They still cough a little, but their noses have pretty much stopped running. Elliot did not escape this round of illness. A few days later, he complained that his head felt like it was going to explode (that’s how mine felt, too). I called the doctor and explained that the rest of us had sinus infections and Elliot had the same symptoms, so they just called in a prescription to the pharmacy without having to see him. I guess we were due to be sick since we had been pretty healthy all winter up to this point.

My prenatal check up went really well. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not gain even an ounce since the last appointment! We also got to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. It was between156bpm and 159bpm. That was at 12.5 weeks, I am now at 15.5 weeks. I have another appointment next week.

Landen is staying dry all day now. He even naps in under ware and wakes up dry. He still is not going poop in the toilet. I have a Hotwheels car hanging on the cabinet handle in the bathroom to give him when he does finally go. For a while, I don’t think he quite understood why he couldn’t have it and he would get upset when I told him he had to poop in the toilet to get it. Tonight, he was telling me that he can have that red car when he poops in the toilet, so now I know he understands. Hopefully he will do it soon! I have been trying to give him any foods that he will eat that will make his bowels move. I have even been adding wheat bran to some food such as malt-o-meal and spaghetti sauce. I am hoping that he will quit holding it for so long. He is also VERY independent and refuses help in getting dressed and doing many other tasks. If you flush the toilet for him, expect a melt down. The phrase heard from him several times a day is, “Let ME try it.” He also prefers to run around the house naked, so getting him dressed (in the morning and after he goes potty) is quite a struggle. He spent most of last week wearing pajamas because I couldn’t convince him to put anything else on. I figured as long as we were not going anywhere, why fight with him. I have found the best way to get him to get dressed is to say, “you do it, or I will.” When he gets distracted, I will tell him to be done by the time I count to 10. This doesn’t always work because I also have the rule that I count to 3 then spank if I want him to quit doing something or do something I tell him to do like get into his chair at the table. So when I am counting to 10 to get him to put on his pants, it makes him nervous and he gets upset because he is afraid that I will spank him if he is not dressed in time. As we keep working on that (and I remember to explain why I’m counting better) he will be less nervous when I start counting as a way to get him to hurry and stay on task. Landen is still a picky eater. If you ask him what he wants for lunch, he either said tomato soup [and grilled cheese] or fish sticks. He does occasionally surprise me and ask for something completely unexpected. The other day he asked for some raisins! I was happy to give him all he would eat. I could go on about Landen, but this is getting long. The only important thing I have left about him is his trip to the urologist. I mentioned in my last post that Landen pees up. The urologist said that having that extra piece of skin is not rare, but it is not that common either. He said the procedure to have it removed is simple and quick and he should only need Tylenol afterwards. It will probably take longer for him to go in and out of anesthetics than to do the surgery. It is scheduled for March 12 (next week). He has been talking about the doctor that is going to fix his pee pee and he seems okay with it. I’m glad we are getting this taken care of now so he won’t remember he even had this done.

Adellyn is little miss attitude. We have occasionally started letting her sit in her booster seat at the table for meals and snacks. If she sees that the booster seat is not in the chair, she throws a HUGE fit. She thinks she is pretty special when she gets to sit at the table! She is still a little too messy to give up the high chair completely. I’m pretty sure that when I am not watching (or when she thinks I’m not) she screams at Landen to get him in trouble. I have a tendency to blame him for her screaming, so I’ve started trying to observe the situation before bursting in to ‘rescue’ her. I even saw her walk away from Landen, throw herself down and scream. If I catch Landen doing something to her, I give him a time-out. If I don’t catch him, I ask him what happened and with the right questions, I can get him to tell me. Then I make them hug and kiss and say sorry. I try to avoid time-outs if I don’t see or hear what happened because Adellyn often instigates the problem by trying to grab something he is playing with. I have given Adellyn time-outs, but it is a challenge to get her to sit. Heck, it’s still a challenge to get Landen to sit even though he knows he is supposed to stay in the corner. She also likes to tease people. She teases with kisses…acts like she is going to give you a kiss, the turns away. She also does this when she holds out a toy or a piece of food, she pulls it away right before you try to take it. She has started doing something funny with our old cell phones that are now toys. She likes to put the down her shirt! I don’t know where she learned that, but it is hilarious to watch, especially when she has on footed pajamas because it gets stuck in her leg. I’m pretty sure she slept all night with something in her pajamas once. Adellyn is also talking a lot now. Most of what is says either not understandable or repeating what we say. The other day, Landen asked for some M&Ms for going potty, so I gave him 2. Adellyn saw them and started signing please to me. I said, “what, you want some M&Ms too?” She said, “M M too.” That was just too darn cute to refuse. She has Daddy wrapped around her finger and she knows it! All she has to do is she “DAAAdeee” and he will give her what she wants. Ok, so not always, but he gives in more often than I do!

Well, that’s about it for now. I will try to update after Landen’s procedure to let everyone know how it went. Enjoy the pictures.

February

Potty Training

Well, only one week (last Tuesday to this Monday) after we started working on potty training Landen, we can say that he is pretty much potty trained! I have potty italicized because we have yet to get Landen to willing poop in the toilet. Right now, he is either holding it for days or going in a diaper (or underwear...we had a big mess on Tuesday because I gave him wheat bran on Monday since he hadn't gone in 4 days). He has gotten up from his naps all this week completely dry! He even wore his underwear for nap time yesterday. Most of the mornings this week he has gotten up dry. Monday morning, he woke up a little before 5, to go to the bathroom. When I saw the light come on, I was worried that he turned on the bedroom light (which he has done before and woke Adellyn up), so I jumped out of bed to check on the situation. I was thrilled when he said, "Mommy, I have to potty," as he started to take his pants and diaper off. Afterward, he went right back to bed and slept in until about 8:30; and he was still dry! I have even stopped giving him M&Ms for going potty. I will still give him some if he asks right after he is done, but he hasn't even asked for a couple of days now. I'm pretty happy about that because I wasn't really sure how I would "wean" him off of the rewards once he got the hang of it!

Even though he potties in the toilet every time now, it doesn't mean we don't have messes to clean up...after all, he is a boy! However, his messes in the bathroom are not entirely his fault. A while back I noticed that he has a little extra piece of skin that causes his stream to shoot up. I was hoping that as he grew, it would become less of an issue, but now I realized that the problem is not going to go away on its own. I am going to take him to our doctor with me when I go for a prenatal check up next week to have her look at it. I'm hoping that whatever she decides to do doesn't interfere with his potty training or take us back to square one. Hopefully she also has some advice on getting him to poop.

New Year's Resolution??

Well, it's a good thing that my new year's resolution wasn't to be to keep my blog more up to date, because I would be off to a really bad start! This year so far has been a little rough, though. As most (if not all) of you have experienced, the first week of January was EXTREMELY cold. I would not have gone outside if I didn't have to, but I had to continue my responsibility of teaching Algebra to the girls I mentioned in an earlier post. My parents got lucky and were invited to join a friend in Cancun that week and they missed all of the sub-zero temperatures. Another reason I that this year got off to a rough start is because in the middle of December, I found out that I am pregnant! The baby is due August 22. I have been feeling both good and bad. I have had a hand full of days that I haven't been able to keep anything down. I have also had days that I feel really good. The kids get to watch a lot of TV the days I really need some rest. This past week I have been feeling much better, so I hope I am done with the morning/evening sickness.

Backing up a bit, this is how we celebrated Christmas and ended 2009: We had planned to go to Wragge Christmas in Pierce during Christmas weekend, but the snowstorm lead to a change in plans. The roads were not too bad around here, and we were able to make it to Becker Christmas on Thursday instead. Christmas Day we opened gifts at home then went to Grandma and Grandpa Hoefs’ for lunch and to open gifts there. That evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Becker’s to spend the night. That was Grandpa Becker’s wish to have kids and grandkids spend the night and then open gifts in pajamas first thing in the morning! WISH GRANTED!!! That afternoon we went to Norton for Christmas at Great Grandma Nelson’s. We eventually made to Pierce over New Year’s weekend and had a great time. We also had a family baby shower for Elliot’s cousin Nick’s son, Kolten.

The kids received plenty of useful gifts that should help us get through the rest of winter. It has been way to cold to even consider taking the kids outside to play in the snow. We did finally get to go out when temperatures got up to the 30s! Landen lost his gloves the first time we took him out and came screaming back to the house with his icy cold hands. Adellyn wasn’t too sure to about making snow angels, but both kids liked getting pulled around the yard in their sled. The last time we got to play outside, Adellyn stood in one spot and ate the snow in front of her! It wasn't yellow, so I figured a little dirt never hurt anyone and let her have fun for a while!

This week has also been somewhat eventful. We have stayed home this week (except Monday for MOPS) to focus on potty training Landen! This is the biggest goal I wanted to accomplish before the baby is born. He is doing really good. I decided to go with the method where you have the kid go naked from the waist down for about 3 days. When I first read about this approach, I wasn't sure if I agreed with it, but for the last month or so, Landen would tell us that he had to potty after his bath and before we got him dressed. I decided this would be the method of choice because when he is naked, he can recognize the feeling of having to go before it happens. The first and second days, he had only 2 accidents each! The third day (Thursday) we had to put a diaper on him for much of the afternoon and evening because he hadn't pooped since Sunday and he wasn't willing/able to sit on the toilet because it hurt him so bad. He was in tears every time he got the urge to go and couldn't. I felt so helpless. :( Today (Friday) was day four and Landen wore underwear and pants all day today and was completely accident free!!!! I still put a diaper on him when he sleeps. Once he has daytime down pretty good, then we will work on waking up dry. I'm pretty sure he pees once he is awake because his diaper is warm when I take it off just after he is up. He is pretty excited about going potty in the toilet now. He does get 2 m&ms when he goes, but eventually I am going to replace m&ms with stickers. I'm considering doing a prize (like a Hotwheels car) when he gets so many stickers to keep him interested. I also plan to give him a prize for pooping in the toilet. I'm hoping that will help to keep him from holding it so long. Over all, I feel really good about the progress we have made this week and I hope he keeps it up!

Landen is doing and saying so many things that make my stop and realize that he is growing up! He is finally starting to eat better again. His favorite meal is grilled cheese and tomato soup. If you ask him what he wants to eat, he often says, "tomato soup!" He likes to tell me exactly what he did, like "I go potty. I flush it. I wash hands. I turn on fan." (this is, of course, after he has gone to the bathroom) Thursday night, he went into the kitchen and started climbing on a chair to get to the clock and told Connie and Larry that he needed to change the clock to say that it's ice cream time! He told me the same thing in the morning! He got that off of an episode of Curious George when George learns how to change the time on a clock! Earlier this week, he was trying to get me to go into the play room and I said, "No Landen. Mommy doesn't feel very good right now." Landen asked, "Mommy want a kiss?" He crawled up onto the couch and kissed my head and asked, "Mommy feel better?" What a sweet kid!!! He can also put on his pants...but he get frustrated easily and gives up. I have been really working to encourage him to keep trying rather that jumping in and 'saving' him. He can also completely undress himself. I just taught him how to take a diaper off. I'm kind of glad he never figured that one out on his own...I've heard horror stories of kids taking their diaper off and smearing the contents all over...yuck! I also figured being able to take his diaper off would be good for potty training efforts.

Adellyn is practically running now. She is getting better about playing independently for a short time. She really likes the Little People doll house that she got for Christmas. Landen also likes playing with it, so I sometimes have to break up a fight. She also likes to play with Landen's trains that he got for Christmas. Of course, this really leads to a fight! There is definitely no lack of sibling rivalry in this house! Landen has been getting a lot of time outs for hitting and pushing. I really need to figure out how to discipline Adellyn when she is the instigator. I don't want Landen to think I am picking on him because she doesn't get time outs. She is almost old enough to start doing a time out. She tries to copy what Landen does. Tonight, Elliot watched her crawl up on the couch and jump off into a pile of cushions and pillows like Landen does...oh boy! Adellyn loves shoes! She is always trying to put on her shoes. Sometimes she will bring them to me to put on. She is definitely all girl! Her hair is starting to get long and curly. It's still really thin, but I can see shorter hairs where it is starting to get thicker. I'm really looking forward to it getting to a point where I can braid it and put it in pigtails and ponytails! I have tried, but it is just to thin and fine to do anything more than a headband (that she pulls off). She has also really started showing us that she has an opinion and an mind of her own. She DOES NOT like to be fed. She is very independent and will scream and throw a fit if you try to feed her instead of let her do it herself! She also screams and throws a fit if she doesn't get what she wants. She is very moody some days and I wonder what she will be like as a teenager...watch out! She is also very cuddly and if you are sitting on the floor, she will most likely find her way into your lap. I always laugh to myself when she walks backward or sideways to get to my lap. She has had a little cold this week, but she is still pretty happy.

Sorry this got so long. I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'll try to post more updates on potty training efforts. I really hope the news keeps getting better and we are diaper free by summer and his 3rd birthday! Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas and January

Update and Santa

Thanksgiving - Santa

Just thought I would get in a quick update before Christmas. There has not been too much going on here. We got a foot of snow just after my birthday on the 5th. The schools here got two snow days (Tuesday and Wednesday). The streets in town are still pretty slick since it hasn't warmed up enough to thaw anything out. I have been wanting to take the kids out to play in the snow, but they have had runny/stuffy noses and been coughing some, so I didn't want to take the chance of making them worse. Landen did get to play out in the snow for a little while, but he took his mittens off and didn't like it when his hands got cold. Landen has had his cough for a little over a month now, but he seems to be getting better. I did call the doctor and talked to a nurse and she said they have had a lot of people/kids come into the office complaining of a cough with no other symptoms (his runny nose has only been recently) and they have just been telling them to take allergy medicine, so she told me to try that. He has coughed less since I started giving him allergy medicine. Elliot seems to have a persistent cough this time of year, so I think Landen just inherited whatever makes Elliot cough. Adellyn has had a snotty nose for about a week now and she had a couple rough nights where she coughed most of the night, but she also seems better now. I'm kinda glad I didn't rush them into the doctor because they are getting over whatever they had on their own.

We went to see Santa this last weekend. I really prepped Landen to see him and by the time we got there he was super excited to sit on Santa's lap! Adellyn was not as excited, but she calmed down enough for pictures. She did better than other kids her age that were there and better than I expected.

Adellyn is walking pretty good now. She is slow and steady, so she gets down to crawl when she wants to get somewhere fast. She is really good at picking objects up while she is standing and then will carry it. Today she carried a package of yogurt melts to me several different times and then whined for me to give her some. I'm trying to teacher her to sign "please" but she is being stubborn and just throws herself down in a fit instead. I'm not sure how many times she hit her head on the floor today when she threw herself down, but she got over it. I really want to get her to quit/reduce her whining to get things (I realized I was getting bad about giving into her whining because I knew what she wanted and it was easier to just give it to her).

Landen is talking more and more. He is putting sentences together that I didn't even know he could put together. He is also coming up with funny things he says. The Schwan's man stops every other week and always gives Landen a sheet of stickers. One night he started putting the stickers on his pants and told me that he had "sticker pox!" I thought that was pretty clever of him to come up with that! He has a couple of lines that we hear a lot right now. One is "Come on _______" (fill in the blank with Mommy, Gran-ma, Crap-pa, etc). He also changes the context in which he says it. Sometimes he is trying to lead you somewhere, sometimes he is trying to get you to give in to something, and sometimes it is his response to getting a spanking. He also changes how he says it. He draws out the vowels or lowers his voice. It's hard to say no to him sometimes because it is pretty cute! The other line I have been hearing a lot is not so cute. He has started saying, "I can't do it" to anything he doesn't want to do...most commonly, feed himself. I think he wants to be fed because it goes faster and he can get down sooner. Either that or he gets frustrated and it is easier for us to feed him. I want to find a way to discourage him from saying that he can't do something without punishing him. (any suggestions?) A funny story from today...I was changing Adellyn's diaper in the living room and Landen was in the kitchen. I noticed he was suddenly very quiet (which is never good!) I asked, "Landen, what are you doing?" After a pause I heard, "I'm pooping," followed by a quiet grunt! Gotta love his honesty!

I'm still going to local family's house to teach Algebra twice a week. We also go to MOPS twice a month. I think the kids and I are going more places now than we did when the weather was nice! That could explain their colds! I'm looking forward to the warmer days we are supposed to get later this week. Stay warm and have a Merry Christmas! If you have to travel for the holidays, drive safely!

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

I wrote this the same day as my last post (before Thanksgiving), but I had troubles getting my pictures to upload. I had to figure out how to re-size them so they weren't so big, so I finally got that figured out. We had a good Thanksgiving at my parents' house. We gorged ourselves on prime rib instead of turkey this year! Elliot and I went shopping on Black Friday and the kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Becker's house. That was Adellyn's first time away from us over night. My Mom said she woke up a couple of times, but went back to sleep pretty quickly and she took a good nap on Friday before we got back to pick them up. My Dad had shoulder surgery this morning. Everything went well and they said there was not as much damage as they were prepared for. He will still have 4 months of recovery...I hope he can make himself take it easy for that long! If you know my Dad, that won't be easy for him. Not much else to report. (keep in mind that what is written below the pictures was written a week ago!)

Our two little thumb suckers!!! They both suck their thumbs while cuddling their "blankies." Adellyn sucks her right thumb and Landen sucks his left.


I hope this is not a sign of what she will be like in about 15 years...talking on the cell phone, foot on the dash while driving!


Landen doesn't like to get dressed, but he did put his shoes on [the wrong feet] himself!!!


I found some plastic beads in my Halloween decorations and decided to get them out for the kids to play with...Landen was having fun dancing around the living room with them on!


Adellyn was pretty serious as she stacked the cow and horse on the tractor.


Not a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. I don't think I mentioned in my last post that I am tutoring/teaching Algebra to three girls whose family home schools. They were struggling with it and decided to contact me to help, so I go to their house twice a week. The youngest girl keeps an eye on Landen and Adellyn while I work with the older girls. I am enjoying it and it is a good opportunity to keep myself "in practice" for when I decide to go back to teaching. The kids have had colds this past week (I'm guessing because we have been going somewhere different more often than they are used to). Just runny/stuffy noses and coughing. I have been keeping a close eye on their temperatures because H1N1 has been going around in Arapahoe. I took Adellyn to the doctor this past Friday for her one year well child check-up (even though she was still a little sick). She weighs 20lbs (40th percentile) and is 29 1/4 in long (50th percentile). The doctor listened to her chest and Landen's chest and said their lungs sounded clear, so that was good news as far as them being sick was concerned. They are better this week, but not over it yet. Adellyn is making some progress in walking. She is getting more balanced and even tries to carry things now. (although, she isn't really walking well enough to try to carry anything)

In other news, Elliot shot a deer this year. We like deer jerky, so it only made sense to help thin out the deer population! He got a bonus permit, which means he can get two deer for the price of one. He is going to get a second deer in January when the rifle season reopens for two weeks.

That's all for now.

Adellyn at 1 year old!

I have been meaning to do this since Adellyn turned a year old 2 weeks ago and I finally got a chance (and the motivation) to sit down and type this up. I feel bad that I have not been as good about updating this blog since she was born, so I thought that I would try to "make up" for it by writing out everything that makes Adellyn who she is at a year old.



At one year old Adellyn is...
-silly. She loves to tickle anyone just to make them laugh.
-loving. She loves to give hugs and kisses to those close to her (and her dolls!) You can consider yourself "in" in her book if you get a hug or kiss from her!
-sneaky/ornery. She pokes or touches things she knows she is not supposed to and then checks to see if you are watching, then giggles when she gets in trouble. She is most guilty of closing my laptop when I'm using it or just pounding on the keys!
-a copy cat. She copies facial expressions and sounds. She also likes to get you to copy her too. (i.e. she opens her mouth to get you to open yours so she can feed you)
-trying to be independent. She does not like to be fed anymore. She will tolerate it for a little while, but so gets upset because she wants to do it herself.

Adellyn loves...
-to eat. We have joked that her nick name should be Mikey. ("Give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything!") Some of her favorite foods are fruit (most any kind), cheese, graham crackers, yogurt, and noodles.
-getting attention from Landen. She picks on him just to get him to play with her. She giggles like crazy when he tickles her even though he gets a little rough.
-to sing and dance. Every toy that plays music is a favorite. She will sit and sway with the music and she plays them over and over again! She also "sings" along with them. She really loves it when I pick her up and dance around the kitchen and sing along with the radio. (I only do that when no one else is around.) ;-)
-to take a bath. She will put her face in the water and blow bubbles and usually throws a fit when it is time to get out.
-going for walks. She really loves to just be outside...but what kid doesn't? This could be a really long winter since both kids love to be outside and the weather will not always be nice enough to go out.

Adellyn does not like...
-to be left in a room alone. In the morning when both kids wake up, Landen can get up and leave the room and Adellyn screams as soon as he leaves because she wants to go too.
-to be surprised. She is pretty jumpy when it comes to sudden noises. I have a Halloween jack-in-the-box that is a black cat in a pumpkin and she was terrified of it until about a week or two before I put it away.
-strangers. She is getting better about not being scared of people doesn't know. She really doesn't not men with a lot of facial hair...Christmas will be interesting both with family and visiting Santa!

Long overdue update and Adellyn's 1st Birthday!

Sept - Oct 09

Once again, two months have flown by without an update. I did sit down and start another post a month ago, but I got called away to eat supper…I suppose that is important…anyway, I never got the motivation back to finish it. A lot has happened in the last two months, so much, I don’t know if I can remember it all, but I’ll give it my best. Elliot and I have been trying to clean up the room I had nick-named “the black hole” (stuff goes in and it doesn’t come out). It was supposed to be an office, but it rarely got used as that…especially since I got my laptop. We are turning that room into a playroom for the kids so we can get the toys out of their room and the living room. It is half done and we have moved some toys in there and got the foam puzzle piece floor to make a softer play area. Elliot is going to build some shelving along one wall to store toys and some of the office things that we can’t put anywhere else. Elliot’s free time has been spent mostly on the shop that he and his parents put in at the vineyard. It is a very big Cleary building that will eventually be a wood working shop and, of course, the winery. Elliot and his dad have been putting in the floor and now they are working on the insulation. They are hoping to have the winery part ready by the time the grapes are ready next year. This year’s batch of grapes are fermenting will hopefully be ready for tasting by harvest next year. At the end of September the kids and I went to North Platte to Railfest. Karen, Troy and Sutton joined us and the boys had a lot of fun playing together. In October, we enjoyed the random nice days we had. One of the highlights was Landen got to help Grandpa Becker drill wheat. I’m not sure who had more fun, Landen or Grandpa! We also went to a pumpkin patch near Hastings and the kids really enjoyed that. I think it will be more fun next year when Adellyn can walk. We had a great Halloween…the weather turned out REALLY nice, especially since it snowed two days before. Landen was Thomas the Train (well the engineer, anyway) and Adellyn was a candy corn. I made both costumes this year and I had a lot of fun doing it. We got a lot of complements on both costumes and everyone was most impressed with Thomas! If I would have realized that before the parade was a costume contest, I would try to get there in time…oh well, there is always next year and maybe Landen will actually WEAR the costume I make! So far this month, we have celebrated Adellyn’s first birthday. Her birthday is actually tomorrow (the 11th), but we celebrated on Sunday so that our brothers could come and also since my parents are leaving for South Padre on Thursday. A couple small things we have done that we are going to continue throughout the winter are going to the library and going to MOPS meeting. I have taken the kids to the library a couple of times and Landen enjoys getting a couple of new books for a while…now I just need to work on getting him to not run around the library when we are there…at least it isn’t usually busy, so we don’t bother people. The MOPS meetings are twice a month, so it is a good opportunity for Landen and Adellyn to get to play with other kids and also a good chance for me to talk to other moms. The women at the church where we meet watch the kids for free during our meeting. That is about all that we have done in the last two months. Of course, the kids are doing new things all the time, so here is what is going on with them.

Landen is talking SO much now. We can understand most of what he says and he repeats a lot of what we say…so we have to be more careful about what we say around him! One of my favorite things he says now is, “I wube you too” as we tuck him into bed! He calls my grandma “Grape Anma.” It’s too cute to try to make him say it right! Landen can also ride his trike now! He likes to ride it in circles on the deck and we sometimes ride up and down the sidewalk in front of the house. I can sent him out to the back yard to play by himself now that we have it fenced in and when I look out to check on him, he is usually riding his trike or “cooking” in the kitchen I found on a garage sale. Landen’s latest thing is to make sure people take their shoes off when they come into our house! He has always been good about taking his shoes off when going into a house and now he checks everyone else’s’ shoes. If you still have your shoes on, he’ll grab your foot and say, “help, help…shoe off” or something like that. I have taught Landen how to put his coat on himself. I learned a trick from Elliot’s cousin who has triplets. You lay the coat on the floor and he stands at the hood and puts his hands into the sleeves and flips the coat over his head. He has gotten so good at it that he positions the coat on the floor himself. He sometimes comes to me with his coat on and wants me to zip it so he can go outside!

Adellyn is also talking quite a bit now. She says: good girl, uh-oh, bye-bye, baby, boo, thank you, hi, tickle tickle (while tickling something and laughing), cup, ki’e cat, coo coo, ma ma, and da da and I think I have heard her say “Landen.” Some of those are just repeated after we say it and there are probably some I forgot about. She says good girl all the time. One time she was saying “good girl, good girl…” as she was spreading food all over her high chair tray and onto the floor…I was thinking, ”nooo, you’re not being a good girl right now!” In the last two months Adellyn has been doing a lot to learn how to walk. She is now a pro at cruising around furniture and climbs on top of, over and through any obstacle she can find. She started standing on her own around the beginning of October and used a pillow to get herself from sitting to standing…and I happened to have the camera handy when she did it. After that, she started walking with the help of a toy or us. One afternoon at the end of October we were outside and Elliot said she took a step and fell down. She didn’t try it again until November 2nd. That day she took 2 steps several different times. The third time she did it, she actually stood up on her own from sitting and then took two steps. Four days later, she took 4 steps while Elliot’s parents were babysitting and then the next day she took 9 steps to me. She has been getting pretty excited about it and tries to go faster than she can keep herself balanced! She should be walking pretty well by Christmas! I am also still nursing Adellyn twice a day…in the morning and just before bed. During the day she drinks whole milk from a sippy cup. She actually wouldn’t take a bottle because the milk wouldn’t come out fast enough, so that ended up being an easy transition. I haven’t decided when to stop nursing for good. We both like the cuddle time, so I guess it will depend on when I run out of milk!

Well, that is long enough for now…I hope I didn’t bore you too much. Enjoy the pictures.