Crazy Busy!

Sutton and Landen playing together at Sutton's birthday party








Sutton and Landen in the bathtub after the party.










11 month picture (I made the mistake of putting the same outfit on him as the 10 month picture.)








Playing with a pinwheel on a breezy afternoon.








As I mentioned in my last post, we have been busy lately. May 3rd was the Becker branding and the last one for this year. We did not stay all day because we wanted to go to Sutton's birthday party since Landen and Sutton are only 5 weeks apart in age. The following Wednesday my Mom, Landen and I went to Norton to a supper with my Grandma at her church. While we were there, Landen's temperature went up and he was not feeling very good. As I mentioned in my last post, Landen has been working on three teeth on top, so the fever was likely from teething. Another symptom of teething was a really runny nose. The runny nose drained into his throat and caused a really bad sounding cough for the past two weeks. Anyways, I had a doctor appointment the day after the supper with my Grandma, so I had the doctor examine Landen while we were there. She didn't see any infection and was sure that it was all from teething. My exam went well too. We were able to here the baby's heartbeat and it was 140 beats per minute. It is always relieving to hear the heartbeat when you can't see or feel the baby growing inside. On Friday we left with Elliot's parents to go to Atkinson to Elliot's cousin's graduation. Landen traveled pretty well. I was worried that he wouldn't sleep good in the hotel because he hadn't spent the night away from since he was six months old. He slept as good as he does at home. The only difference was that he was in the same room as us so I responded a lot quicker when he woke up...and he got to come to be with us for an hour or so until we were ready to get up. He actually didn't feel too good the whole weekend, but he was pretty good most of the time. He also took a dive off the bed in the hotel room. I think he was reaching for the alarm clock and leaned too far and fell of the bed and scrape his head on the bed side table. Once I finally got him calmed down, he was back to his playful self. I spent my first Mother's Day wrestling Landen during graduation and riding in the van for 4 hours.

We stayed home to relax last week (at least Monday - Thursday). Friday, May 16, we left my parents' house at 6am and drove to Wichita for my cousin's graduation party. We came back that night. We got back to my parents' house at 2:30am. Landen slept all the way home...we left at his bedtime. Once we got back to my parents' house, he decided that he didn't want to sleep anymore and it took me about 45 minutes to get him to go back to sleep and not start screaming when I put him down in the pack and play. Luckily, he slept in until 9am after that. After that we had a pretty quiet weekend and enjoyed the nice weather and did lots of yard work.

Other news...All three of the teeth that have been giving Landen trouble have come in...hopefully the cough goes away now. Landen also took his first step while we were in Wichita; he was trying to get the dog that was entertaining him. A few days before he stood up from the ground without help for the first time, so I knew it wouldn't be long before he tried to take a step.

Where has the time gone?

not really liking the grass, but he is getting used to it









first time on a horse; we didn't walk around because my horse was acting up a little (he hadn't been ridden in a year)







Watching for the cows with Grandma Becker








Riding Taylor's tractor after Blickenstaff's Branding (Taylor had been pushing the tractor with Landen riding...it was so cute)






Redneck playpen!!!












Finally, I got a picture of Landen standing on his own. He hasn't taken any steps yet, though.








We have been pretty busy this last two weeks. The last two weekends we have gone to some brandings. (For you city folks, we brand calves, give shots and castrate the bull calves) This is a once a year thing that I look forward to because I love gathering the cattle on my horse (and he enjoys it, too). Last year I was 7 months pregnant and didn't get to ride, so this year I was really looking forward to riding (especially since it has been a year and a half since I last had a chance to ride). I am riding with a little more caution than I would if I wasn't pregnant, but I am experienced enough that I will be fine. Other than our busy weekends, we have doing some yard work...planting flowers, tilling, and hoping the buffalo grass will finally grow. If we ever get a day when we can get away, I have been wanting to go to a greenhouse to get my veggies for my garden and some more flowers for my planters. I hope I can get this done before we get too far into May. I had my garden planted by about this time last year. Landen and I also went to Norton last week and on Tuesday this week to visit my Grandma. She was in the hospital last week (she is home now), and then Tuesday was her birthday. Landen was good for both trips.

The last couple of days, Landen has been pretty cranky because he is getting three teeth, all on top, all at once. They have been hanging out just inside the gums, but they are slow about breaking through and the last few days have been rough. On Monday I thought I felt the middle left tooth, but it was teasing and I haven't been able to feel it since. He has the middle right tooth already, and today I felt the tooth one the outside of it, so they are coming in in a strange order. I'll be glad once he is done teething because he is not dealing with it very well. This time around he has had a runny nose and even been coughing some. On top of his crankiness from teething, he has been throwing fits when we take away something he isn't supposed to play with. The other day my Mom was letting him play with a coozy cup (i don't know if i spelled that right) and he bit off a small piece, so she took it away. He screamed and cried so hard that he nearly hyperventilated. He finally got over it but he has done that other times with different things.

He also remembers things really well. Our office is right off the living room and we try to keep the door shut because there are a lot of small things that Landen could get into. The other day I did not get the door shut very tight. Landen was playing near the door and he used it to lean on as he stood up. Before he got stood up, the door popped open and he fell to his hands and knees. He was a little surprised, but excited because the door to the mysterious room was open and he was free to go in and explore! Of course that didn't last long and got him out of there and shut the door tight (and he threw a fit). Later he went over to the door and stood up and started pounding on the door. I'm sure he was thinking "I know I got this open earlier by pushing..."

Well, I didn't realize I had this much to write about. I have a feeling I may go another two weeks before posting again because we have more busy weekends coming up. This weekend is the Becker Branding. We are also going to go the North Platte to Sutton's first birthday party. Then we have two weekends of graduations. I'm looking forward to a weekend of nothing.

10 months old!

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





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

Is it summer yet?

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










Landen was having some fun sitting in his toy bucket.






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



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

Another 2 weeks has flown by

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

9 months old!

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

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

Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts!

Somewhat busy two weeks

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