Arlan's in gotchies...

We'll see what the day brings. Arlan keeps asking to wear underwear, so I put some on him today. The first success was he came and told me as soon as he'd peed (in his underwear). So I put him on the potty for a couple of minutes (of course there was no action), and congratulated him on coming to tell me. Put clean underwear on and we'll see what happens. When I ask if he'd like to sit on the potty now he says no ... so we'll see what happens right after lunch (I'll sit him on there as soon as he's done eating). I was just happy that he knew enough to come and tell me he'd peed - the first step to recognizing what, exactly, that sensation means!!
Now, don't go thinking I'm all full of high hopes. I don't expect Arlan to train until next summer!! So any progress is far beyond my expectations. I just think it's a neat experiment :-)

Dare I say it???

Landon is pooping in the toilet these days! WOW! Hoping this continues :-) We've always been giving him the option, but he kept choosing the diaper. The last week or so he's been more agreeable to having us take his poopy diaper off right after pooping (WHY would anyone refuse to have their poopy diaper removed asap? Beats me ... we'll have to ask him when he's older ...). And then yesterday he said he needed to poop on the toilet! And he did! TWICE!!
So he got two special trucks, and another one today. Then when I was out shopping he pooped all by himself, and didn't even ask for a special truck. So hopefully we won't have to be stocking up on hotwheels to keep the poop trend on track! LOL But really ... do I care if we get a few more hotwheels? Not one bit!

So that's the good stuff there. He has been peeing more overnight though - we didn't have a diaper on him one night and he peed. That's not a big deal, but he had been dry for so many nights. But maybe he'll be set back a bit on overnight dryness while he gets the poop thing figured out. And again ... do I care? Not at all! If he needs a diaper overnight for a bit longer, I can most definitely live with that.

Arlan is so bloody cute it's ridiculous! What a happy camper :-) He MUST be getting another tooth soon though - he's biting everything! Then when you say "Arlan, no biting!" he just looks at you and laughs. Cute, but scary too! LOL

I'm starting to get plans together for Arlan's first birthday. We're having a small party on the Sat (June 20) for him ... cake and stuff, nothing too crazy, though. Grandma and Grandpa will be coming up, but I don't know if anyone else will make it. Right now I'm on the hunt for a cake pan ... then I'll spend next weekend making my icings, etc. Fun stuff -

Anyways, better head off to bed. Until next time...

Harder! Louder! Faster!

Landon's favourite refrains are to do whatever you just did "HARDER!" or "LOUDER!" or "FASTER!" Especially faster!! Everything from singing Row Row Row your Boat, to swinging, to chasing. It doesn't matter, it needs to be MORE!

Landon didn't wake me up in the night last night to pee. He wore a diaper to bed last night, maybe that was why (in his mind you can pee in a diaper, but not a pull-up?). I don't really care, I'm just glad my sleep wasn't interrupted :-)

And I gave Landon a truck as a reward for pooping on the toilet yesterday. I might've created a monster. He kept asking for another 'special' (I told him it was a special present, for pooping on the toilet). When I told him he would get one tomorrow (now today) when he pooped on the toilet again, I thought he would give himself hemorrhoids trying to poop again!! Poor kid LOL We were reading stories and everything, but all he could do was fart :-/ Reminds me of that saying you'd come across in bathrooms: Here I sit, Brokenhearted; Came to shit, but only farted. It might've been a disappointed 3-year-old wanting another 'special' who coined that little rhyme for the bathroom stall!! LOL

Another baby item out the door - the Jumperoo went this afternoon. Holy moly - we're cleaning stuff out and I like it! Just the bouncy chair & Bjorn left (that I've advertised), and the exersaucer will be advertised shortly too. I'll have to go on a shopping spree to fill the house up again ;-)

until next time..

Even BIGGER NEWS!

YAY for Landon -- what a day it's been. He POOPEd on the toilet, ALL BY HIMSELF! That's right - I wasn't even there for the momentous occassion! I was feeding Arlan supper and I hear from upstairs "Mom! I pooped already!" I went racing upstairs thinking "oh no! WHERE!" And to my pleasant surprise, he had pooped right where he should've :-) YAY

Let's hope this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship with the toilet (NEVER thought I'd say something like that!! LOL)

another weekend gone

I hate it when weekends come to an end!! Ah well, c'est la vie. I'm just looking out the window, watching the snow fall. Yup - LOTS of it on the way I guess. 5-10 cm tonight, 10- 15 tomorrow, 5-10 for Tuesday. so we'll be building snowmen again this week I'm thinking. ugh ... I'd REALLY like spring to arrive.

We've had a good week. Arlan is pretty much sleeping through the night, waking between 6:30 and 7 for the day. It's alot easier for me to get up at that time when he hasn't woken me up all night long, that's for sure!!

And Landon is potty trained!! Well, for peeing anyways, Poops will be awhile yet I'm thinking. But the pee is there! He even tells me he has to pee when wearing a diaper (or a pull-up) and will then take that diaper or pull-up off to pee in the toilet. And if he's playing by himself, he'll just go without having to announce it to us (although he'll usually announce it after the fact, even 20 minutes later!! lol) I'm so proud.

Now he's not wanting to wear diapers overnight...so that's where the Pull-ups have come into play. They're easy for him to pull off (like gotchies) when he wakes and wants to pee in the toilet, but if he pees while sleeping that's ok too. Much better than Friday night when he woke up 3 times because he'd taken his diaper half off and had to pee (and didn't want to pee in the bed like he did earlier in the week when his diaper came half off). He even peed in the toilet at 2:30 am on Friday night /Saturday morning!!
So we put him in a pull-up last night, and it was dry this morning. He then took it off to pee in the toilet. So to me, that means he's officially potty trained! YAY

We had Julie here Friday night after her trip to Mexico. So now we're watching how we feel - hoping she didn't bring back swine flu :-/ Yikes - yuck. I sure hope not!! I really don't want the boys to get sick. But from what I've read, it's likely to hit me the hardest ... Not to be selfish or anything, but I sure don't want to be sick either!! We'll just have to wait and see.

That's the news from here. Until next time...

Sleeping ... with some crying too

Well, on Friday night we decided that we aren't going in to lay Arlan down at night time when he wakes up crying. It's become a habit with him, he wakes up, then practises standing up and cries for us to come lay him down again. Thursday night, after the umpteeth time going in there, I thought maybe he's actually hungry, and made him a bottle to see exactly how hungry. Well, he wasn't hungry at all!! So Friday night - cry if you need to, but you have to get yourself down and back to sleep.
It started Friday morning with his nap - he stood up, I let him figure out how to get down and go to sleep. It took about 20 minutes of really, REALLY mad howling, but he made it. Then the afternoon nap was fine. And guess what! Friday night ... he slept right through without a peep!! RIGHT THROUGH! Man that feels good!!

Saturday night he woke about 4:30 am (I should mention that the plan was/is to not respond until after 4 am, if he cries after 4 I go in and feed him). He ate and went back to sleep, oh such a good baby :-)

Then last night (Sunday) he woke up at 2:15 or so, and we left him to it. He cried, so MAD, but after about 15 minutes he was quiet. A few minutes later he cried again, but for a very short time. Then he slept through until 6:45 (when we got up for the day).

So we had 2 really good nights, some howling last night, but still a happy camper today. So we'll see what tonight brings as well ... It's SO hard to leave him in there, but when all he wants is to be laid down again, well, that's just TOO exhausting for this mama!! Wish us luck ... maybe he'll even give up that 4 or 5 am feed for good soon :-)

On another note - Landon continues to pee in the toilet. No poops yet, but consistent pees, without us needing to help him. He just gets up and does it, then comes to 'brag' about it. BIG BOY!

And a big Happy Birthday to Grandma today :-) Hope your day was wonderful...enjoy being 39!! Hey, how can you be only 5 years older than me, your youngest?????

Until next time...

Picture catch-up!

Well, I played picture catch-up today ... lots of new pics on here. I have been so slack!! If it hasn't been me doing shows and everything I'm trying to learn for Nutrimetics, it's been travels or flu-bugs. But I waded through the pics today, and got plenty on here :-)

Julie was here last night -- she's off to Mexico today (I'm VERY jealous ... oh just think, a day of lazing around on the beach, in the sun, reading a book ... just a DAY would be incredible, she's there for a WEEK!). She'll be back next Thursday for a day or two, which is wonderful.

We are pretty much just hanging out. I'm not sure if Arlan's getting more teeth or what, but he sure hasn't been sleeping well. His appetite has increased tremendously ... I can barely get the kid fed! I did up a bunch of veggies today (no purees, just chunky now, so he can feed himself) so hopefully I can keep up! He insists on feeding himself, so I'm constantly trying to find things that cook up soft enough for him to do so. We are getting through a bunch of new foods, so I hope that isn't the problem with the sleeping (gassy???). And he's been biting biting, so I'm sure another tooth is on it's way soon enough. If it's not one thing, it's another!! LOL Ah well, good thing he's so cute. And he sure naps well whenever we get him outside, so I'm hoping that bodes well for the summer......

Landon's being really wonderful ... defying every single request made of him. He just stands there shaking his head 'no', no matter what the request may be. But on the upside, he's been using the toilet consistently the past few days (I better not have just jinxed it!). Poops still in the diaper, but pees all in the toilet. He's even going on his own ... he was playing downstairs last night when I heard the toilet flush -> I went down to check on him and he's all matter-of-fact "Oh, I just peed." Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!! He has to be potty-trained to go to the daycamps I signed him up for this summer ... I know he'll love camp, so I sure hope he's trained by then, as I'd hate for him to miss camp.

Anyways, that's it for now. I should check on Arlan the snoozer ... really late afternoon snooze today. And of course, Landon wants to play blocks (he didn't have a nap this afternoon, something that's happening more and more frequently ... 2 or 3 times a week usually).

until next time....enjoy the pics ;-)

Poor Landon :-(

Landon got himself a nice fat lip today :-( He was splashing through the water (yes, it's about +10' here, so it's all slushy and stuff) and slipped on the ice that's still underneath and his hands slipped when he tried to catch himself, so he smashed his face into the sidewalk. Even his nose is scratched up. He sure cried! Good thing we had some nice cold snow to put on his mouth right away ... although it didn't stop all the swelling as you can see. He wouldn't let me lift his lip up, so I'm not sure how much damage has been done on the inside. I'll have to see when he wakes from his nap - maybe it won't be quite so tender.
Then on his way upstairs to have a nap (sooooo sleepy after a big cry like that) he bonked his head on the handrail. MORE tears ... it's been a REALLY tough afternoon for Landon.


Here's a pic from last week ... Landon is at the stage where he organizes everything. His favourite activity is to line his trucks up ... here he managed to get them all balanced on the back of the couch. And as you can see, he was quite proud of this accomplishment. He also enjoys lining them up when he plays in the basement, or on the table, or wherever else.
His second favourite passtime is loading his trucks and loaders up with play-doh -- play-doh is dirt, or coal (if he's been watching Thomas), or whatever else is in his imagination that day. I LOVE play-doh (although I am already tired of sweeping up dried bits of it already ... but I am realizing I have about 6 more years of that ahead of me...)

You'll notice we haven't been talking about potty training -- that's because it's at a complete stand-still right now. ABSOLUTELY no action on that front for well over a month :-( But he did ask to wear gotchies yesterday, for a few minutes anyways. He's also not wanting to wear a diaper much ... preferring to run around naked (of course) and getting a diaper only to pee or poop. I ask every day if he wants to use the pot, but don't push him. Hopefully soon we'll see some potty action ... but I think if he doesn't train shortly, he will in the summer time. I'm hoping anyways...

Getting ready...

We will be spending the day getting ready for our roadtrip back to sask. First though, we go to the doc for follow-up on Arlan's hip x-rays ... I hope the news is positive! That's at 11:30. And Iden will be here this afternoon, so either the boys will nap and not be nuisances, or they'll play and be only minor nuisances :-) heh heh We are hoping to be up and on the road by 9 or 9:30 tomorrow morning -- pray for us!LOL

Other than that, our week has been pretty low-key. We continue to explore cereals with Arlan - he likes oat cereal more than rice cereal, that's for sure. I fed him twice yesterday, once oats and once rice ... that will continue as he ate well both times. He usually eats between 1.5 and 3 Tbsp per feeding, so we're working our way up. He slept really well last night too -- I managed to get him down for a third nap in the afternoon, so he went to bed shortly at 7 pm. He woke to eat at 2, and then woke for the day at 7:30 -- with no hour long playing session in the middle of the night YAY Hopefully we can continue with that sort of a pattern :-/ Although I fully recognize that we're travelling this weekend and so whatever we're doing this week is likely to change next week!! LOL

Landon's a little monkey and I love it. He just plays play plays. I ask him if he wants something to eat, he replies "NO! I'm PLAYING!" heh heh He's doing much better on the potty front again -- we still have accidents, but not too many which is good. Now if we could just convince him to poop on the toilet ...

Anyways, that's the quick post. I will try to post results from Arlan's x-rays this aft, but if not, look for it next week when we get back from the farm. Cheerio .. :-D

Monday update...

Well, I took Arlan to get his hip x-rays today. At his 4 month shots, the nurse noted some clicking and asked me to follow-up with our doctor. Which I did, and he thought that there might be clicking too, although it could be in the knees, but he sent us for x-rays. I went today to get it done. It was a bit of a pain because after waiting 30 minutes to be called in, they told me that Landon couldn't go in with us, but I needed to be in there with Arlan. Kind of hard to be 2 places at once ... wish they'd have mentioned that when I arrived (grr). But I phoned John and he was able to come to watch Landon while Arlan was x-rayed, thankfully. Of course, this meant waiting some more - first for John to show up (took him only 20 mins to get there), then for our turn to come around again.
But our turn did come around, right when Arlan was snoozing peacefully away in the stroller of course :-/ I thought he'd start yelling as soon as we pulled him out of there. But he'd gotten about 30 minutes of sleeping in, so it must've been enough because he was all talking and gooing and arghing when I pulled him out. And he didn't stop - even when he was getting x-rayed! He had a look of concern when I first got him undressed, but I held on to him (he was warily eyeing the tech ... like he was thinking "you're ok where you are, but don't you dare try to touch me!!") and maintained eye contact while holding him down (the tech held his legs how she wanted them, I held his arms out of the way). He babbled and cooed ... so frickin' cute I could hardly stand it!!!! LOL So not a tear was shed.
And Landon - what a good big boy he is. He is finally back to wanting to wear gotchies (especially since I bought him some new Curious George gotch yesterday ... that's all he wants to wear). And he wore gotchies out for this xray trip, even drinking water while we were waiting, etc, and no accidents. Of course, he did pee himself this morning -- he told me he didn't want to take his Curious George gotchies off to pee on the pot, so he just peed!! I helped him to understand that faulty logic by putting those now wet gotchies in the wash - better to take them off to pee than to pee in them and have them have to go in the wash. Poor kid, it's tough to be 2!

Yesterday I went shopping - by myself. What a treat!! :-D I thoroughly enjoyed going through the mall without a stroller or yelling at a 2-year old. I bought stuff for the boys - bibs, gotch, socks - and a new dress for myself. It's been a long time since I bought a new dress and I'm very excited. I'll be wearing it for Tilly's wedding, and for New Years Eve too. Fun stuff!!

And that's about all the news we have for this Monday. Until next time.....

p.s. oh yeah, and Arlan tried oat cereal this morning. His face was pretty cute ... he was like "oh! what's this? I like it...give me more!!" lol I'm going to start giving him cereal at noon, and again mid-afternoon, in the hopes that he'll take in a bit more as I find he wants to get an extra nursing in during the afternoon. We'll see *shrug* I'm just taking it very slowly for now - he's still so little so I don't feel the need to rush it along. Unlike Landon who was eating 12 Tbsp of cereal a day about a week after we started him!! LOL

Not so much news...

Life has just been plugging along here. We had the time change on the weekend, so now Arlan is going to bed at 6 pm, waking between 6:30 and 7 am. I'm hoping he'll gradually move back ... I liked 7 pm to 8 am ... but I can live with this. He's had some good nights too, where he's woken only once or twice (and when the first awakening is before I go to sleep, that makes the second one much easier to handle). In fact last night I would've had 6 solid hours, had Landon not woken me up moaning and groaning cold!! :-/

The potty training continues to progress very well. Landon wears a diaper to bed overnight and at naps, but has woken up dry from his naps the past 3 days in a row. He is wearing diapers at all other times, including today when we were out running errands for 2 1/2 hours (no accidents!!). Of course, he's slightly dehydrated now as I am not as liberal with the juiceboxes!! But we're getting better :-) Now if we can get him comfortable with pulling his own gotches down to pee (so that we don't have to take him to the pot every time) that will be good ... but hey, this is significant progress and I'm happy to make it!!

Landon seems to have recovered from the Hallowe'en scare :-/ At least he hasn't mentioned the green paint again!! LOL But he's still scared of the Thomas Hallowe'en episode ... maybe I'll have one of those kids that just doesn't like Hallowe'en (could I be so lucky? Maybe ... then Arlan will LOVE Hallowe'en right!! LOL)

We bought a replacement betta fish today ... half price Tuesday at Petland (call me a mennonite ;-D ). He's beautiful ... an irridescent teal colour, I love it. Landon couldn't have cared less ... he was way more excited to see the crickets in the frog container (luckily the frog didn't eat any of them while Landon was watching!!). So let's hope I don't kill this betta as quickly as the last one :-/

We picked out flooring for the basement on Saturday, they came to measure today. We should have a quote in the next day or two, and then we can get it ordered and a target install date. That means we'll be getting our butts in gear to paint. We've picked our colours, I plan to go and buy the paint and supplies tomorrow. That'll make for some tiring times!!

And my Xmas parcels have almost all arrived (I ordered so much online ... WAY easier with 2 little ones!). I'm just waiting for 2 e-bay purchases, and I'm set. I still have to buy a couple of things that I need to go to the store for, but then I'll be done. Except maybe for a garbage truck that Landon insists Santa NEEDS to bring for him ... he just might wear me down because I'd love to see the look on his face. *shrug* Am I a soft touch or what!! LOL

And really, that's all the news there is. Lots happening, nothing too major. Until next time....

weights, measures and potty

I weighed Arlan today ... 15 pounds, 15 ounces. I was kind of shocked - I thought he would've been well over 16 pounds by now, he's gained only a pound this entire month. Could explain why he's eating so much these days!! Maybe he is ready for cereals :-/ That thought makes me kind of sad, I want my baby to stay my baby!!! *sigh* I'm trying to hold off until he's 5 months old, and will simply increase the number of times I nurse throughout the day (hoping that he'll sleep better at night too!!). But I did buy some cereal today ....

He's also 26 1/2" long. So he's still getting longer, and I am not actually worried at all about his growth.

Landon has been making great progress on the potty end of things. He still has accidents, mostly when he's wearing pants and is playing upstairs. Luckily the pants soak up most of the pee!! But if he's naked downstairs he goes potty all by himself, and will dump the pot and everything. It seems that the pants confuse him, but he's going to have to learn with pants on too because we don't live in a nudist colony LOL
But he's made a couple of grocery store trips and 2 car trips (to drop John's car off and pick it up from mechanic) with no problems. So that's looking good.

But I hear Arlan waking to eat (surprise surprise) so off I go. Until next time (which hopefully will be soon with Hallowe'en pics)...

broccoli crashing and dirty movies!

Landon always makes me laugh it seems. The other night we were watching ... wait for it ... THOMAS of course. Thomas did not puff with care around the dangerous bend and crashed into the bushes. Landon looked at me very seriously and explained "Thomas crashed into the broccoli mom!!" Of course ...

Then we were at the library on Saturday afternoon, and I let Landon pick out two Thomas videos to bring home. While we were checking through the videos, I would open them up to see just how scratched they actually were (I hate library videos, but it does break up the monotony of the videos we have here), telling Landon I was looking for scratches. We find a couple that didn't seem to be too bad. Landon then goes ripping through the library yelling excitedly "Let's go home and watch dirty videos mom!!" Of course ...

Another cute story from a few weeks back. Landon was running around ... wait for it ... naked, I was upstairs. Then I heard him "I peed a bunny mom!" Wondering just what he was trying to explain, I went downstairs getting ready to mop up a pee accident. There was an accident all right, and Landon's exclamation was a perfect description. There in the carpet was a wet spot shaped exactly like a bunny head, big pointy ears and all .....

So yes, Landon makes me laugh, and blush occassionally too. But it's all fun! LOL

Potty training - a bit slower these days...Landon peed his pants yesterday and today, and then wants diapers on because he feels bad. He is 100% when he runs around naked without gotches or anything. But put gotches, and esp gotches and pants on, and he forgets he's got to use the pot. *sigh* Ah well, we just mop up the messes and keep trying ...

Arlan is perfectly adorable, of course! He was laughing laughing laughing today as I tickled him. Sooooo cute. He's such a happy little man, I love it. He's been going to bed nicely at 7 pm, wakes up 3 times to eat, and wakes in the morning at 8 am for the day. Gotta' love that schedule. He has only short naps throughout the day, but with that nighttime schedule I think I can survive it!

Until next time...

Saturday news...

Well, things are going well here, I think. Arlan seems to be settling back into a pattern of sorts. Unfortunately that pattern involves 2 overnight feeds, followed by feeding in mommy's bed at 6:30 or 7 (I do get another 45 mins to an hour snooze after that third feed though!). We've been getting up at 8, and he's been going to bed at 7:30. I guess I can't complain too much!! LOL Especially thinking back to Landon at this age ... ummm, bedtime at 1 am? *sigh* But I am hoping that the overnight feeds cut back a bit - I don't mind once, but twice? The good side of that is usually the first one is before I fall asleep (10:30 or so), then between 3 & 4, then at 6:30 or 7.
He nurses so much better overnight than throughout the day, I can see why he wants to eat overnight. During the day he fusses and pulls off (and my nipples bloody HURT!). At night he eats and goes back to sleep. I haven't had as much of a 'let-down' sensation this week, and when I pumped I was getting less milk than before, so I am wondering if that led to his day-time nursing fussiness? I know one time I nursed him and it was 5 minutes before I had a let-down ... both Arlan and I were pretty frustrated by that point, needless to say. But yesterday seemed better, and I've gotten milk when I pumped yesterday and today (Wed I got NO milk at all!!). So maybe it was the phase of the moon, or a low pressure system or something? the chinook?? I don't know ... I ordered more nursing tea on-line just in case -- my neighbour (who has twins) wants more too, so we'll share the bag when it arrives. She noticed a decrease in her milk this week too ... makes me wonder about weather phenomenon...

Anyways...

Landon has been doing so well re: potty training!! He has been wearing gotchies for at least part of the day the past couple of days, and no accidents! He still is a bit tentative around pulling his gotchies down to use the pot -- although he's proficient at using the pot when he's naked. He will go pee, dump the pot into the toilet and flush, rinse the pot out, wash his hands, and then return the pot to the living room!! LOL one time he did all this and John didn't get a chance to see if there was even pee in the pot - but there must've been based on him doing this process several times since then!!
He still has a diaper on for part of the day. We put one on for naps, and he will pee in that before we take it off when he wakes up. He also wears a diaper for poops (you know he's gotta' poop because he comes running "NEED diaper ON!!"), but when he's done we take it off and put gotches back on again. And of course he wears a diaper overnight, and pees in that in the morning before we take it off. But I think it's wonderful progress :-)

John's putting the sauna in the basement this weekend ... he's got the big back wall up, and is hoping to get all the walls up today. Smells pretty damned nice in the basement, I gotta' admit :-)

That's the news from here ... until next time...

Potty ALL BY HIMSELF!!

Yup- that's right. For the first time ever, Landon used the potty all by himself. I wasn't even in the room.
I was upstairs feeding Arlan, thinking 'oh man, Landon's downstairs without a diaper, I'm gonna' have a mess when I get down there'. I get Arlan back to sleep and head downstairs. I asked Landon "did you pee?" He says "no, yes!" (those who recently spent time with Landon can likely hear exactly how he said this, his favourite two word combination!). So I checked out the couch - nothing. Then I look in the potty and [insert angels singing here].
YAYAYAYAY!

So we gave Landon a Thomas tattoo and phoned Grandma and ran downstairs to tell dad and we are so very proud of him.
Now let's just hope tomorrow brings more of the same....heh heh

Landon has also learned the wonderful word "WHY". So far he's only used it with John, but I'm sure it's coming for me. With me he's more inclined to say "how come?" because that's what I say. He also asks "What's going on here?", and says "oh my bloody gawd!" alot. And "Drive me NUTS!!!" Heh heh Don't know where he gets that from......

Arlan's a cutie-patootie. Bedtimes are still a bit iffy...last night he cried for an HOUR before finally falling asleep. tonight he went to sleep but woke up 45 minutes later for the second half of his bedtime snack. *sigh* I don't mind those nights, I can feed him again if needed, as long as he goes right back to sleep - which he did tonight. Naps can still be touchy for him, but are getting a bit better.
I took Arlan to the doctor today - the sclera (whites) of his eyes are still dark (were darker with the jaundice) so I wanted to know if I should be worried / following up. Doc said 'nope, they're fine'.
He also said we should be staring Arlan on solids! GACK! MY BABY!!! He can't eat solids yet!! But he was very interested in my glass of water today, and when I put it to his mouth he eagerly mouthed at it and even got a splash of water. So maybe soon ... but not quite yet!

Anyways, that's the news here. Good potty news, improving bedtime news, and *sob* my baby's getting big :-) Until next time...

and again, Landon amazes me :-)

Last night it was pretty warm in our house, since we had beautiful record-breaking temps here yesterday (up to 27'!). We put Landon to bed in some nice new pj's that are light-weight, but he was still too hot. So when I went to check on him, he asked me for his 'white bed'. Then he says "blue bed too hot". LOL He wanted his white sheets on his bed, the blue sheets are fleece and so were obviously too hot for last night! Crazy kid - makes me giggle. So I changed his sheets for him. It must've helped because he did eventually fall asleep, but not before cooling off a bit more by taking his pj pants off! Thankfully he left his diaper on...

Landon's been a bit better on the potty front. We aren't pushing him, we just give him the choice to wear gotch, diaper-gotch (pull-ups), or diapers, or to run around naked while in the house. When he chooses naked, he's done a pretty good job of going pee on the potty. Let's just say there's been no accidents (I just jinxed it, didn't I?). And last night he peed in the toilet before bed ... standing up just like daddy! He pulled the stool over and was quite proud of himself :-) So that's promising. He's not too keen on the gotch these days, I think the accidents he had turned him off for now. But naked is ok while we're at home, so we'll go with it. I think I'll take a potty along for our Sask roadtrip too ... again we won't be pushing him, but if he's interested I don't want to be caught unprepared!

Arlan's doing well. So cute! He is going to bed better, but has started waking an additional time. The good news is this wake-up happens before I go to sleep, the bad news is that he still wakes up twice more overnight :-/ I'm stll managing to get 6 or 7 hours though, in small chunks maybe, but I'm getting some sleep. His naps are getting a bit better too ... yesterday he had a 2 hour nap in the morning (!!), I think because he slept so poorly the night before :-/ Today he was back to his 45 minute snooze, and is grumpy now, but I guess I'll have to make do.

ummmm, that's about it really. We're hoping to start priming the basement tonight (well, John's going to be priming ... his first foray into painting!). Then next week I'm hoping to pick out flooring and wall colours so that we can start painting when we come back from Sask. oh yeah, and John's going to build the sauna when we get back too. But it's moving along...

Anyways, that's the news from here. Until next time....

First night of volleyball...

I'm a bit stiff today after playing volleyball last night for the first time in almost a year. But it was so much fun - definitely worth it ;-) I think John had a fairly good night with the boys, Arlan showed off his lungs again, but now that we know he'll pretty much settle down for the night by 8 we can both just get through that crying when it happens and things go much more smoothly. It's good, because we've also learned that Arlan drinks 6 oz before going to bed ... so now I know how much milk to have here for John on those nights (or for someone else should he have another sitter).

Of course, leaving the house to get to volleyball was interesting ... isn't it always? I'd just pumped and was trying to put the milk in the fridge and wash everything up quickly before I changed and raced out the door. Arlan's kind of fussing like he likes to do shortly after 6 (needs some quiet time, maybe not a nap, but some cuddles for sure), so John has him. I look over and Landon's walking through the living room with his diaper hanging around one ankle ... leaving turds in his wake!!! It wasn't too bad, just added another element to my trying to get out the door!! LOL
And of course gas prices have gone down, and I had to fill up before going to v'ball too, so I wasn't sure I'd ever get there, but I did :-)

Tonight Landon didn't have poops in a diaper hanging off his ankle. Tonight he pooped right in the tub. I figured it was coming, he hadn't pooped all day, and he was in the tub giggling because he was 'making farters'. I was nursing Arlan to sleep for the night (of course) and I hear "MOM!! Big Deal! Big Deal!!" I knew what that meant. I walk in the bathroom and Landon is standing on one foot with the other on the edge of the tub, and he's in a panic! LOL Poor kid. So we got that all cleaned up and for the second day in a row Landon got to flush his poop down the toilet :-)
Landon has also peed on the toilet before bed that past two nights, and has been wanting his diaper off more and more. If we could just get him to remember to tell us he has to pee during the day we'd be well on our way. But *shrug* Tonight when I was getting him ready for bed he asked to pee on the toilet, so that's a good sign I think. We'll just keep plugging away (and apparently cleaning up poop!).

Arlan's adorable - so cute. Smiling and talking and cooing. I love his curly curly hair, and his big eyes, and his big smiles and little giggles. It's nice to be over those trying early weeks, now that he's 3 months I am better able to figure out what he wants, what works and doesn't work to calm him, etc. That and I've been getting nice naps with him in the afternoon again (does wonders for my outlook!).

Exciting news ... our neighbours had their twins yesterday! YAY Dara (6 lbs, 1 oz), and Evan (6 lbs, 7 oz). I hear she's doing well... it was a c-section so she won't be home until at least Friday. I'm so excited, can hardly wait to meet the little ones :-D

That's the news from here today .... until next time!

That Arlan!

Arlan's been giving us trouble in falling asleep at night. He was going to bed SO nicely, but not the past several days. Crying and fussing and several hours later he'll get to sleep. He's soooo sleepy, but just won't let himself go. Stinking kid!! We'll keep plugging away, but it sure is frustrating, especially since he was doing so well before :-/

Not much news today. Landon is still soo cute, gotta' love him. He LOVES the swingset, he's swinging all the time!! LOL I'll be glad when he learns to pump his legs and swing himself ... with John on the case it shouldn't take long. John has a knack for teaching Landon how to do things.

That's really about it. We went shopping this morning. I bought Arlan a little outfit for Xmas (used gift card from Curt and Anne ... thanks again!). Arlan was really good while shopping, having a nice snooze, not causing any trouble. Landon was a stinker, crawling through the clothing racks and dumping clothes everywhere. Can't blame him, he is only 2 and clothes shopping can be boring. He was being very helpful for about 10 minutes of the shopping though, bringing me clothes one at a time to show me (never mind that it was 5 of the same shirt), then he'd repeat whatever adjective I'd used on the previous one (i.e. sharp looking, neat, cute, etc). But that got boring and it was more exciting to take those clothes off the rack and make a pile on the floor!! LOL He was very well behaved overall in the store (we were there for quite awhile to find something I liked), cleaning up clothing piles is really not that big a deal in the end.

That's the news here. A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aunty Yvonne tomorrow :-D

Oh yeah - no potty learning news, we didn't do anything today. But Landon did say tonight at bedtime that he wanted to use the potty tomorrow again, so we'll see. And both boys are relatively healthy again -- Landon still has a slightly runny nose but he isn't at all slowed down by this cold anymore. Arlan's still a bit stuffy, but nothing major at all ... nothing that should disturb his sleep (or make him fussy for HOURS before going to sleep for the night!!).

And one more thing ... Arlan had his first bath in the big tub tonight. He didn't mind it at all. No screaming, thank goodness!! :-D He was WAY too long for the baby tub, his poor legs were all bent and he'd end up kicking the edge of it when he got excited. So from now on he can kick kick kick to his heart's content in the big tub :-D

Potty News...

Forgot about the potty learning process ... ahem

So Landon is very excited to wear gotchies ... so much so that he would wear them all the time. The problem is that he still isn't quite making the connection that when he wears gotchies, he has to pee on the pot. He peed himself twice yesterday, and again this morning :-/ Poor kid ... every time he pees himself he gets very upset!! Luckily two of those accidents were outside, so clean up has been relatively minimal (besides the increase in laundry).
So this afternoon we put 'gotchy-diapers' on ... pull-ups. I'm going to try to get him to use the pot with those for now ... and when he can use the potty successfully a few times with the pull-ups then he'll be 'rewarded' with being able to wear gotchies again. We'll see how that goes ....

Suggestions on potty learning are welcome by the way -- not guaranteeing that I'll follow any advice given, but I'm always open to new ideas and I think more information is better than less....

Good potty news...

Landon was such a big boy today. He wore gotchies for the first time :-) And when he had to pee, he had mommy help him to pull his pants and gotchies down and peed on the pot. WHAT a little man!!

That was before his nap. Since his nap he's been very content with a diaper. But that's ok with me ...

I think the little critter helped us out here. I bought The New Potty by Mercer Mayer yesterday, and we read it several times last night. Those books are fabulous!! I was going to look for another potty book, but I think this one may just do the trick. Landon loves the little critter :-) It has certainly helped him with understanding his feelings too. He's so cute!!