Shake Shake Shake your head...

Monday, Monday. Actually, it's not too bad of a Monday. Landon has developed this 'thing' where he won't let us lay him down at night - he keeps waking up and crying when we put him down. So I end up sleeping with him in the recliner for an hour or two ... until he's so asleep he doesn't wake up when I put him down (or wakes up but is so sleepy he goes right back to sleep). Not a habit I'm happy to have developed (as I recognize I'm to blame, he's just reacting to what I've taught him ... *sigh*). It might be that he's cold when I put him down, as the house is definitely getting cooler at night now that before fall/winter ... so I might have to leave the thermostat a bit warmer for the next couple of nights to see if that helps. It might also be that he just prefers sleeping in my arms (who could blame the kid). And if that's the case, that's a habit we'll focus on once we get to Calgary ... I'm not going to worry about it before then.

Last night Landon learned to 'shake shake shake' his head. It was adorable. He was jolly-jumping, and I would say shake shake shake your head while shaking my head, and he would copy me. All the while he's jumping in the jumper, so I'm sure he was half-dizzy too. He was smiling ear to ear, and shake shake shaking his head. Toooo cuuuute!! He wouldn't repeat it today though...

And he's just a scootching around whenever and wherever he wants to. So far he's still only interested in the living room, which is nice. I'm sure his 'world' will expand shortly though. Today he scootched on over to me (I was laying on the floor, talking to John). He got to me, turned 90 degrees, and kept right on scootching. He's quite interested in the footstool, of course, as it 'glides' and he's likely to catch a finger and break it. We keep telling him 'no' and moving him away, which I think only intrigues him more. We can 'lock' the rocking chair, but not the footstool, so we may have to jerry-rig something, or move it for awhile. We'll see.

So that's the news from here for today. It's a quiet day, nice out but grey. And our last full Monday in our home :-( Will post again soon....take care. TK

Fun Weekend!

We had such a wonderful weekend!! Friday night the Tremendons had a farewell party at Liz's house ... it was a great night. Landon was in a good mood all night, providing entertainment in his jolly jumper and just generally being too cute not to love.
Sat night Wes had us over for dinner and the band came over for awhile through the evening. It was so nice to see everyone again!!
So it was a fun weekend, but tinged with some sadness too. We've been thinking about moving for so long, and now that it's finally here it's hard to believe!! We've made such great friends here that we will miss terribly. There's been such great times with everyone. And I'll definitely NEVER find Tremendons anywhere else (which may be a good thing, come to think of it...!). So it is likely going to be a lot harder to pull out of Winnipeg than I ever really thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I'll be damned glad to leave the mosquitos behind ... but I will miss everyone sooooooo much.

Enough of that, or I'll start crying.

Landon's been a sweetheart. He was so good at the parties, and for once we were glad that he stays up late so we could stay out late :-P WE'll have to start trying to move bedtime up again here this week, but I'm not going to worry about too much as I'm sure the entire move will be throwing us all out of whack next week! It's sure cute to watch him getting around better now. He sometimes scootches, sometimes just gets to his back and squirms to where he wants to go. Either way it's fun to watch!!

And I think he's still working on getting some teeth to come through. His second one came through on the bottom last week, but he's just a chewing on everything still. His thumb goes in there all day long, and of course any toys he gets his hands on. So maybe we'll get a couple more teeth while we're moving just to cap off all the hoopla :-/

That's the news tonight. Tomorrow we start our final week preparations ... getting utilities organized, etc. Should be a fun week ...
Until next time...TK

Standing up on own...

Yes, Landon is enjoying his new-found ability to stand up by himself... As long as he has something to hold on to that is! The stools are nice a sturdy for him, and the bars are at the right height for him to chew on too :-)

Cute Picture...

Here's a picture of Landon from last week, playing in the exersaucer. He was being such a sweetheart, I had to take a picture! Gotta love digital cameras!

It's so nice to spend a day at home...

Oh how nice it is to just be at home today. I did go out shopping for a while (bought some new clothes ... the first non-maternity, non-new-mom clothes!!), but that doesn't really count does it? It's sooo nice to have our house sold. Tomorrow I'll start worrying about the rest of the stuff we need to do in the next couple of weeks, but for today - aaaahhhhhh!

Landon seems pretty happy to be home too. He is really starting to move around while playing on the floor. He's scootching pretty much wherever he decides he wants to go. His world is pretty much limited to the living room floor still (thank goodness), but he's rolling from tummy to back to tummy to back. He's getting himself around to explore things like the diaper bag, the foot stool, the couch. Today he played with the diaper bag for about 30 minutes. I guess all of those straps on there are very interesting. We brought the baby gate upstairs today, as we can no longer put him on the living room floor without having something at the top of the stairs. He hasn't gotten to the stairs yet, but he could at any time.
I brought out the 12-month clothes for him today too. The 6-month clothes are now too small, and the 6 - 9 month stuff is just fitting him. I'm just hoping that the snow-suit makes it through the winter!

And his second tooth is fully through now, no doubt about it. But he's still chewing on everything, so maybe he'll be getting more teeth soon? Who knows. Last night he really had trouble getting to sleep, so maybe his mouth is bothering him. I thought maybe he had an upset tummy, but we're not sure. Kevin and Taya have sore throats today, so maybe Landon is getting a bit of a cold too? In any case, he was up past 2 am. At 1:30 am I finally just put him in his crib with the aquarium playing and went to bed. He squawked twice, John got up and turned the aquarium on once, the next time he squawked John put him to bed. He squawked for a few more minutes, but I think John and I were asleep before him! Little monkey!! Hopefully tonight won't be quite as bad.

Some new pics posted ... Landon has been such a wonderful baby through this whole house-selling thing. It's unbelievable how good he is :-) I know we'll pay the price eventually, but I'm just enjoying this for what it's worth!! LOL
Anyways, off to do more of nothing! Until next time...TK

First time in the snow!

Landon sat in the snow for the first time today. Initially he was pretty happy, he even had his fingers in the snow for a few seconds. It didn't take long before he realized just how freakin' cold the snow is, and that was the end of that little adventure. If he dislikes the cold this much, it's a good thing we're moving soon!

Halloween Pictures...

Here's our happy Halloween cow! LOL Landon didn't mind the costume at all, as it was just a cow sleeper. The hat was a different story -- mostly he enjoyed pulling the strings and chewing on them. Needless to say, the hat didn't spend much time on his head. He would pull the strings, maybe chew for a few minutes, then yank the hat around all crooked, covering his face, and squawk until we finally took the hat off completely!! But he looked pretty adorable. Thanks Grandma for making the hat (love the ears!).
We didn't do any trick or treating. We spent the evening at Aunty Margaret's (our house was still being shown). But it was still fun dressing Landon up. Next year I'm sure will be an even bigger event!!

We sold our house!

YAY !! We sold our house today!! Phew! Thankfully we won't have to be up and out of the house tomorrow for more showings! It's been a stressful few days, but all was worth it as it is sold and the possession date is good (Nov 20). So we'll be packing up and heading out in 2 short weeks!

Landon's been doing so well with all of the 'visiting' we've been doing! Today we were in Niverville at Pam and Kevin's - we had a great visit. They have such a beautiful home. And Landon loved playing with Frankie and Taya!!

So we're looking forward to collapsing into bed shortly, and not having to panic getting up in the morning to pack up and leave!! YAY -- we can make coffee and breakfast and relax at home for a couple of days before we start worrying about details for packing.

I'd better go - Landon is (hopefully) ready for bed! Until next time...TK

How could I forget...

The most exciting news of the day: Landon rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time today!! YAY He was playing on the floor last night and almost rolling over (he's figured out it will get him closer to interesting things like toys), and today he did it!! Then he started fussing because he was on his tummy LOL What a kid!
He's starting to move around a bit more ... last night he was on the floor in the living room and after awhile he started fussing. Because he had himself crammed up against the couch (he's only figured out how to wiggle in one direction I guess!). So we won't be able to leave him on the floor upstairs without the gate up anymore ... Our days of immobile Landon are fast coming to an end I fear.
A few days ago as well, I was on the phone with my mom, with Landon sitting on the floor by my foot. He reached over, grabbed my leg, and almost pulled himself right up. He was on his feet, with his butt sticking out, but he got too tired I guess so he didn't make it all the way up. And later that day, he was sitting on the floor and jump-scootched himself about 3 foot forward, while sitting. He leans forward to the point he's almost going to do a face plant, then pushes down with his feet while throwing his upper body into the air, which causes him to kind of bounce forward. It's pretty neat to watch him figuring out all of these ways to try to move...little stinker!

So that's the mobility report for the week ... we'll keep you posted on any further developments.

On a different note: Nikki -- any news? You haven't posted for a few days....

day two of showings...

Day two of showings completed. Half done, phew! There was 8 showings yesterday, 6 today, and 3 scheduled for tomorrow so far. Hopefully we'll see some offers get written soon too :-)
We had a nice day at Aunty Margarets. We all slept the afternoon away! LOL Landon went down for a nap around 2:45, John and I went to sleep about 3 and we all slept until 5 pm! It felt so nice, especially since it's snowy and yucky here anyways! I was thinking of going to the mall, but it was way too snowy. And the nap felt sooooooo good :-) Hopefully Landon will sleep tonight.
He had trouble falling asleep last night, and today we see a much more pronounced bump on his bottom gum. Might not be too much longer and we'll see tooth #2. And the top ones seem to still be working on coming through too, but they will likely be a bit longer.
It was funny last night, he fell asleep only to wake up within 15 minutes. Then he really struggled to go back to sleep, so I gave him to John and he went to sleep within a few minutes :-) And I was already asleep in bed by then too. Worked well -> I think we'll have to try that some more ... heh heh. His poor teeth are just bugging him too much, he wants us to hold him to sleep, but he's getting heavy! I might just curl up on the couch with him tonight if he's struggling again, maybe he'll stay asleep better on the couch with me.

Hope everyone is warm wherever they are. It's nights like tonight that I get super-excited to get to our new home and our new fireplace :-) Until next time...TK

we're READY!

Well, almost ready. We just have to do the 'one-last' vacuum and floor sweeping. YAY Our house is very neat, but it is not very 'homey' to me because I'm not used to such a clean house!! lol But hopefully others will find it homey. There are 6 or 7 showings scheduled for tomorrow, and they're starting to line up for Monday as well. We're off to Aunty Margaret's for the day, it'll be nice to get a good visit in. And it'll be WONDERFUL to not clean anything for the day!

Think good house-selling thoughts for us tomorrow :-) TK

day three of cleaning...

We're on day three of house-prepping ... and I'm feeling tired! LOL To be expected I guess. But we are close, we can see the end. The kitchen is cleaned fully, the basement is show-ready. The bathrooms are spotless. Even the windows have been washed (Dave should be glad to hear that...) Tomorrow is the final cleaning in the bedrooms, the laundry room, and the 'one-last-time' vacuuming and floor cleaning as needed. It's amazing what two people can accomplish when we set our minds to it. John cleaned the basement, I focused on the kitchen, and we just went at it.

Of course, Landon has been an absolute dream ... playing quite happily by himself for most of the day, having nice naps, and then last night going to sleep about 1 and staying asleep (the past couple of nights he'd sleep for 20 - 40 minutes, then wake up and need me to help him back to sleep ... grrr). Landon was so tired this morning, he was 'up' for almost an hour before he woke up. He'd just loll around on us, or go to sleep if we put him down. lol I tried sitting him up on the floor, he just bent over double with his face on his feet and went back to sleep!! Hopefully he'll still go to sleep well tonight, as I'm in need of some serious zzz's.

So tonight I'll do some more cleaning and then the final spurt tomorrow should have it done. Phew! Then let's hope lots of people come through the house! Heh heh We'll keep you posted!!

day one of house prepping...

and it went well. We got the yard cleaned up, the garage swept out. I put up the ceramic tiles (will grout tomorrow) -- that was way too easy for words. I'll be tiling more things in our new house ... heh heh, unless the grout-work is terrible! John completely cleaned up the basement, it looks huge now :-) Didn't know our basement was so big! Tomorrow is carpet cleaning, and finish cleaning up the basement.

Landon was so funny today. I had him outside as I was hosing off the cobwebs (so many spiders this year!). He was sitting on a blanket in the front yard, just looking around at everything, all "I can't really move in this snowsuit". I heard some squawking, looked over the bushes. There he is, face-planted in the grass. He'd tried to pull some grass out (the evidence was clutched tightly in his fist), and in doing so had pulled his face into the ground. There was dirt covering his face, he was sitting there mewling to be picked up ... I just about peed laughing at him!! But we got him all picked up and cleaned off and he was quite fine to sit there for a bit longer ... until nap time anyways!!

So that was our day. Tomorrow is cleaning day two ... will hopefully post again soon!! Take care...TK

Life is getting busy...

Frantic may be a better term...:-/
We met with the Realtor tonight. We plan to list the house on Thursday, with showings starting Sunday. **GULP** So we'll be spending tomorrow getting outside spic and span (the weather is forecast to be nice, thank goodness), and Thurs, Fri, Sat polishing inside. Mostly we'll be de-cluttering the inside :-P And finishing up some details, like I'm putting ceramic tile on the backsplash...to add some pain to the process heh heh. Oh yeah, and carpets get steam-cleaned Thursday too ... so they should look great! But I'm confident that we'll be fine in getting everything done, we'll just be tired on Sunday!
The good news in it all ... we'll be showing the house Sunday through Wed (was going to be Tuesday, but since that's Hallowe'en we moved it to Wed). Which means we'll be spending time with family and friends on those days (I don't want to be home only to get 6 phone calls to leave in the next 30 minutes ... too hard on me and on Landon, especially for naps). So we'll spend our days visiting, and what could be better? It ensures that we'll get some visiting time in before we leave in a few short weeks! And they will be days when we aren't cleaning our house, looking for a new house, nor fretting over things. We'll just be visiting. I'm looking forward to that.

So next Wed we're hoping that we'll have the house sold :-) YAY And it'll be cleaned and decluttered, and some stuff will already be packed :-) And then ... *sigh* It'll be so busy leading up to moving ... hopefully Landon won't get sick in there or anything. The on-and-off teething fussies are enough. He was good the last couple of nights (I've likely just jinxed it and he'll be awful tonight!). He goes to sleep well, but then wakes up 30 - 45 minutes later and cries for a bit. We've been leaving him alone, and he gets himself back to sleep within 5 to 10 minutes. He usually wakes up shortly after that and does the same routine, and then finally is asleep for the night. I don't know why he wakes up like that - but we've found that leaving him alone he gets back to sleep and all is good. He sure bounces the ambybed ... I think that helps soothe him back to sleep.

And Landon ate chicken today !! YAY He still made faces, just not as bad as last month when he ate the chicken! LOL He had just a bit (to taste), and we'll try it again tomorrow. He's such a munchkin ... eating so much :-)

So that's the news for tonight. I may not get a chance to post for a couple of days, but hopefully I'll get a quick break every now and again. Any one who's interested in helping out, just let us know :-) Cheers!! TK

We have a HOUSE!

That's right -- John has struck a deal for our new home in Calgary! We get possession on November 17...Which is very exciting, and very SOON! LOL We'll have busy few weeks as we have to sell this house now :-P But it's all coming together nicely, and we are excited!! We have beautiful hardwoods, three bedrooms upstairs plus a bonus room, ensuite (YAY), and a nice backyard backing onto greenspace, so no neighbours over the backfence :-) Pretty cool - we are pretty darned excited!
The other good news: John will be able to fly home tomorrow instead of Monday. Which I like ... it's not that I don't love Landon, and I love spending time with him too, and he naps so well all day long that I even get breaks, but it'll just be nicer to have John again. I'm so darned spoiled with John having been home so much for Landons first months, I don't know what I'll do when he goes back to work! aiaiaiaiai Actually, I'll spend the first few weeks unpacking and organizing, and then preparing for Christmas, but after that .... heh heh I'll survive, I know.

So that's the big news from here. I'll keep you posted on developments on selling our home here as that will likely all come together in the next couple of weeks as well. Fun fun ... Now I'm really looking forward to Dec 1 when we can be somewhat settled in our new house, as the next few weeks may be a bit hairy...

Bye for now...TK

Just hanging out...

When Landon's not trying to crawl or stand, he likes to hang out and watch the world go by. He loves the rocking chair, and he loves trees, and he loves cars. He gets all three when we put him in the chair in front of the window ... Plus he looks adorable too, 'talking' to us :-)

He might just go straight to walking!

I don't know if Landon will crawl, he may go straight to walking!! Here he's standing on the chair, by himself. John has his hands there to catch him should he fall / go off balance, but he's not actually touching him. And Landon was proud as punch to be standing there too. He also likes to stand holding onto the couch (I like that better too), although he hasn't ventured to taking his own steps while hanging on to the couch yet....

Getting ready to crawl?

Sort of... Landon is starting to work on getting his knees under him, but he's not always happy about it when they get there!! I think it's a bit of "Now what the hell do I do?" But more and more he is starting to pull his knees up, and if we help by putting our arm by his feet so that he has something to push off of, he'll move himself on the floor, a bit :-) I would actually like the crawling to hold off until after we move, but I don't know if my wants are going to matter that much! LOL

I spoke too soon...

I spoke too soon about the teeth thing ... Landon had a really rough night Thursday night, I think it was his teeth. He would fall asleep only to wake up 5 - 15 minutes later crying, hard. This lasted until 3 am, when he finally fell asleep and stayed asleep - on me, while I went to sleep on the couch. But at least we got some sleep!! And he woke up at 7:40 am, which is unusual ... he hasn't been waking up overnight at all. So I definitely think it's teeth. When he plays on the floor, it's all about whatever teething toy he has close by ... he ignores his blocks, balls, etc, preferring to chew chew chew on something hard or rubbery. So maybe we'll get to see another tooth in the next week or so.
That said, last night he went to sleep really well. I gave him some Tylenol, so maybe that helped ... ? But I put him down at 1:30, and he went to sleep on his own and slept until 10:15 when I got him up today. Which means I slept peacefully from about 1:45 until 10 - YAY. Oh yeah, 10:15, not 9:30 like it's supposed to be. After his bad 3 am night, we slept until 11! Oops!! So this morning was 10:15, and I think he was out of bed for 30 minutes before he even opened his eyes ... poor stinker, so sleepy in the mornings. And he had a crazy long nap this afternoon, so I could be in for it tonight! Oh well ... we'll take it as it comes I guess. *Shrug*
John's busy busy busy looking at sooo many houses in Calgary. We've got a 'short list' of about 5 from what he's looked at so far, and he was going to look at 6 - 10 more this afternoon hopefully. If we can get things narrowed down tonight, that will be great! It's exciting seeing all of these houses ... I can hardly wait to have a new address to share with everyone! :-D
I have a few more pics to post, so I will get that done here soon. Hope all is well...take care!! TK

And John's off...

to Calgary, house-hunting. John flies out tomorrow morning and will be back Monday afternoon - hopefully with a deal on our new house in Calgary!! YAY Yippee!! Now we're getting even more excited for this move!! We've spent two days staring at houses on-line, and are completely bleary-eyed, but there are (surprisingly) a lot of houses for sale in the areas we're interested in, so we're optimistic that this trip will be fruitful.

That means that Landon and I get to hang out all weekend together. Little stinker-pants. Today we all slept in, so we missed getting Landon up at 9:45, instead we all got up at 10:45 (I wonder where Landon gets this sleeping-in habit from!! LOL). Tomorrow I will get him up at 10 again and we'll go from there. I think he'll still go to bed fairly decently tonight ... likely by 1:30 or so (he was asleep about 1:30 last night). He's been going to sleep well at night, not as much fussing to fall asleep like at the farm (obviously his teeth aren't bothering him as much these days). So we'll keep moving his wake-up time up, and hopefully we'll get this going to sleep time moved up a bit soon too.

John and I went out for a nice dinner tonight to celebrate our anniversary. We went to a french restaurant, La Vielle Gare. It was delicious - and so nice to go out without Landon (I hope that doesn't sound too harsh!!). Thank you so much to Trish for watching Landon for us (lucky gal didn't even get a poopy-pants to change!). But John and I are both soooo full ... ugh. Dinner was much too good I guess!!

That's the news from here ... I'll try to get some pics posted soon, and will keep everyone posted on our house-hunting....until then! TK

Quick note Tues afternoon...

Last night we almost got to sleep a bit earlier. Well, Landon did get to sleep earlier, much earlier. He fell asleep at midnight. But woke up shortly before 1, and struggled to get back to sleep. He was still sleepy, but maybe his teeth were bugging him or something? He would wake up and fuss, and fall back to sleep very quickly, only to wake up 10 - 15 minutes later fussing and crying again. I finally gave him some Tylenol about 1:45 and put him back down and we didn't hear from him again until we went in to wake him up. So at least he got a bit more sleep last night than he's been getting, even if I only got to go to sleep at 2 am! :-P
He was in a much better mood this morning (and we did get him up at 10:15 today ...), and has been happier all day. He's just down for his second nap right now, so it's nice a peaceful again. He's sure playing lots now, it's a ton of fun!! Right now he's really liking this cloth ball that Grandma gave him ... we toss it into his lap and he laughs and laughs. I also bought some 'roll-around' balls for him, and he's enjoying those too.
We're just waiting and watching to see if that second tooth is going to pop on through one of these days. We can see just a faint outline, and he hasn't been too fussy these past few days, so it could be a while longer.

Phoned for flu shots today ... still no serum, so we'll likely have to wait until Landon's Dec 11 appointment. And I don't know if we'll even still be here then. John and I may be able to get in to our family doctor in November, so I don't know why the Ped can't get serum until Dec? But that's the medical system I guess. Maybe it's a sign to not even bother...?

Oh yeah - other big news (how could I leave this to the end!?): John accepted a position with Toromont today. He hasn't nailed down a start date yet, as we're trying to co-ordinate that with when we can get possession of a house. But he is officially employed now, and we know what kind of tractors and stuff Landon will be playing with (Caterpillar)! Grandpa may throw a few red ones in the mix too, I guess. It'll be red and yellow tractors for Landon :-)
So we're full-fledged house-hunting now, but still debating on when John will make a trip out to Calgary to do some hunting in person. But we're one step closer...

That's the big news...we'll keep you posted on any further developments!! Until next time...TK

Piggy pig, and poopy poop

What a pooping machine ... he's still going 'full force', heh heh. Some impromptu baths have been in order for clean-up purposes. *sigh* But at least he's a healthy little bugger, and he's still eating up a storm.
Today we missed getting him up at 10:15, but he did get up at 10:30 still. He fell asleep shortly after 11, as I breastfed him in bed. And he wouldn't wake up ... I carried him around, was chatting with John, everything. He was sleepy!! So he had his first nap early, and all other naps have been early too. His last nap (this evening) which is usually only 45 minutes, was stretching out to be longer so we had to get him up. He was so sleepy again, I actually had to put him on the floor in the living room and keep talking to him to wake him up. He wouldn't wake up on me (even when I sat him up on my knee facing me and John and I were laughing at him). So on the floor he went, where he still struggled to wake up!! So we're hoping for a bit of an earlier night tonight? Maybe....just maybe, it'll be earlier than 2:15 am!!

So, we've been perusing houses for sale in Calgary. We are just debating on when John will head out there to (hopefully) buy one. We are both getting very excited for the move ... VERY excited! It's all starting to come together, which is great.

That's the news from here for today. We are going to check out more houses now, so I'll post again in a day or two. Until then...TK

Pictures for Grandma....

Here are some pics of Landon from the past couple of days. He was playing with John on the couch, and was particularly cute (first pic) so we got some pics. I was hoping you could see his tooth, but not quite yet. It's just barely through, so it's not quite visible.
Landon loves to chew on everything he can, but his most favouritest thing right now is John's watch. If he's fussing, we just give him the watch and he's content to chew chew chew on that for at least 20 minutes :-)
Landon has also discovered his love for his own little piano (thanks again Carolin!). It took him awhile to figure out that in order to get "music" you have to hit the 'keys' ... not just bang on the soundboard (plus that must hurt the hands, with the pegs on there!!). But mommy only had to show him a little bit and he got it all figured out. He even plays with his feet when he gets tired and decides to lay back :-)

pooping machine!

Landon has been in full-poop-production mode the past couple of days! Man oh man!! We are no longer worried AT ALL about the functioning in that area LOL I've increased his cereal intake while decreasing slightly his veggies / fruit, in hopes that we will slow this down a bit?! 3 times a day, covering all that he's wearing, is a bit much :-/

Things are going well though. We are working on moving his sleep phase earlier, so yesterday he was up at 10:45, today 10:30. He is so sleepy when we get him up, John said today he didn't even open his eyes for about 15 minutes!! Hopefully he will start going to sleep a bit earlier too. We will get him up at 10:15 tomorrow, 10 Tuesday, 9:45 then 9:30. That's where I'm stopping for now, as daylight savings ends next Sunday, and then 9:30 will be 8:30 and we'll have almost normal hours. Then we'll work on getting more of those hours in his night-time sleep with less napping hours. He's napping 4.5 hours during the day, sleeping ~9 hours at night ... I'd like to move an hour to 1.5 hours from the day to the night if we can ... if we can't I won't sweat it though. It's nice to have those hours to ourselves during the day too. But I would like an hour or so to myself at night too, if we can figure that in somewhere :-/ If only I functioned better on 7 or 8 hours of sleep, but unfortunately I'm still tired unless I get 9 (how ridiculous is that!).

Had volleyball practise today. Felt good to get out there, but it looks like my team has found my replacement so I won't be playing any volleyball at all :-( But I will still go to cheer them on and drink a beer or two I think!

That's the news from here. Grandma has requested more pics, so I will work on getting some more on the blog soon. Take care....until next time! TK

The teething continues...

Landon's first tooth is still working on popping all of the way out ... we see more of it all the time. And this morning John noticed the outline of the second tooth, so we should see that one soon (hopefully in less than a week). Landon is still a bit fussy, moreso at the end of the day, but he went to sleep a bit better last night. And was soooo sleepy at 11 this morning when John got him up!! It took about half an hour for Landon to wake up, he just kept putting his head back on John's shoulder ... then he took a big poop for daddy :-) Heh heh, I like when I don't have to clean those diapers!!
Things are going well here. The new flooring is in the kitchen - it looks fabulous!! The kitchen is much brighter now, I really really like it. Now I just have to fix up the backsplash in the kitchen (the new countertops end about 1/2" lower than the old ones), and we'll be done. I don't know if I'll tile, or paint. We'll see.
The job-hunt has gone well ... John should be 'employed' by the end of next week. We don't know when the start date will be, and we still have to make arrangements to buy a new house, sell this one, etc. But we may be moved by Christmas, which was what we were hoping for... I'll keep everyone posted.

That's the big news from here for today. My life is pretty uncomplicated these days, just feed Landon, play for awhile, he and I both nap (ahhh), and repeat. I am looking forward to volleyball practise on Sunday though, and the season starts next Wednesday. I haven't done anything since ball ended at the end of August, so it's about time. With Landon nursing less, I've gained a couple of pounds back, so it's time to start doing more exercise and I'll have to (gasp!) watch what I'm eating :-( Oh well ... I've eaten like a pig for about 15 months, so I can't really complain!!

until next time....TK

playing with Grandpa

Landon sure enjoyed playing with Grandpa all week. He was pretty amazed by those big fingers I think!! Whenever Grandpa would talk to Landon, he would stop whatever he was doing just to listen ... and then a big smile would spread across his face! I think Landon misses Grandpa this week (and vice versa too?).

Thanksgiving ...

Landon got to finally meet his cousin Kyle - he thought he was pretty interesting. So was Great Grandpa. He thoroughly checked both of them out, and they met his approval ;-)

Discovering Leaves...

With all of the fallen leaves at the farm, we took Landon out for some playtime. He thought the leaves were pretty fun, all crinkly. He tried to taste them too, but we were able to stop him :-) He enjoyed when we threw the leaves up in the air and let them land on him, and he loved scrunching them in his hands.

NEW TOOTH

Well, after a week of sucking and mewling and whining whining whining ... the FIRST TOOTH is finally poking through!! It hasn't come through completely, but when I put a plastic spoon in his mouth, there's a 'tick tick'!! YAY
Now I've heard that teeth come in twos, so I'm wondering if the second one will be far behind? We'll just have to see I guess.
Landon tried some bananas today for the first time. He wasn't too sure about those things ... but we'll try again tomorrow. I bought tons of baby food today, so we'll have a good variety of stuff for the next month I'm sure!!
Landon actually went to sleep fairly well last night, at 2 am (which is about an hour earlier than at the farm). He woke up a few times over the first hour (tooth?), but then got to some serious sleeping and slept until 11 am. And I slept until 11 am too which felt wonderful. Tomorrow morning we're going to start moving his 'sleep phase' earlier ... by waking him up 15 minutes earlier each day until we're getting up at 9:30. And hopefully his bedtime will follow suit ... heh heh. I chose 9:30 because daylight savings ends in a couple of weeks, and then we'll be getting up at 8:30. That'll be a change, for Landon and mommy!!

Winter is on the way here ... it was bloody cold out. aiaiaiai I'm searching for a warmer jacket (that's not a one-piece, or that includes snow pants) for Landon. I think I'll have to make a trip to the mall...
Tomorrow we get our kitchen flooring replaced. That will make the kitchen look better :-)

That's the quick post for today. Pics coming shortly! Until next time...TK

Week long travels...

Well, we survived the week back in Sask and are safely back home today. It does feel good to be home ... but we really enjoyed the trip back to Sask. Landon traveled so well, there and back (sleeping most of both trips ... we left early in the morning to accommodate that). And he even slept pretty well while we were there, although it did take him awhile to get to sleep most nights :-/ Surprise surprise. He started full-fledged teething last week, so we had a very late night at Grandma and Grandpa's, and he's been really fussing when trying to go to sleep ever since. It's funny, he actually went to sleep really well at Carla and Dave's, but didn't sleep as well overnight (waking up 3 or 4 times). At Grandma and Grandpa's he really struggled to get to sleep, but once there he slept very well. *shrug* Who knows! heh heh

So we're in teething mode now ... every night he falls asleep nicely, only to wake up several times crying and chewing on anything close to him. I've been walking and holding him to sleep, even spending an hour or two on the couch when he first falls asleep before putting him to bed. I sleep all right that way (I'm usually so tired by the time he goes to sleep), and it ensures that he gets some sleep, so that's what I've taken to doing. I'm curious what tonight will bring as he slept so much today on the trip home. But he had a 2 hour nap after we got home ... I don't know if he's still looking for a third nap (I sure hope not!!), or if he'll be good to go down for the night when he next goes to sleep. I'm not panicking, what will be will be.

This week we're planning to introduce some fruits ... we've gone through plenty of veggies, so I think it's time Landon got some sweetness :-) (and not just whipping cream, Dave!). So we'll start something yummy in a day or two. He's loving peas and even creamed corn now. Little piggy. And he's doing four full 'meals' through the day too ... cereal for breakfast (4 Tbsp), and veggies(2-3 Tbsp)/cereal (2-4 Tbsp) for lunch, dinner, and before bed. aiaiaiai
Nursing is still going well ... 5 times a day, with the fifth being a cluster-feeding type of thing while getting him to go to sleep at night. Especially with the teething, he must like to sucking motion ... soothes his gums and alleviates teething pain a friend told me. He doesn't usually wake up over night, but that's likely because he's only getting ~8 hours by the time he gets to sleep (we're still waking him in the mornings so that we don't push the schedule back too much).

It's funny now that we're on more solids, we definitely know when Landon's pooping. He will be sitting and playing, and all of a sudden he's very serious and concentrating quite hard on the business at hand. He just made a stinker, makes me smile to watch him, he's so cute!

Thanksgiving was very nice. We got to see Aunty Yvonne, Great Grandpa Leisle, and Landon met his cousin Kyle for the first time. It was so nice ... I will post some pictures soon too.

I should go, I could write a novel, but I will write more when I have pics to post with it. :-) Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Until next time...TK

We made it!

Well, the trip wasn't nearly as harrowing as I worried it would be ... PHEW! We hit the road ~6 am on Sunday, Landon slept until 11 (we usually have to wake him at 11 at home, but he woke up right at 11 on the road :-/), he was fine for another few minutes, but was pretty hungry by 11:30 so we stopped in Indian Head for a bite to eat. We stopped at the Craft-Tea Elevator ... very nice place to stop. The food was so-so, but the craft room was nice to walk through. We bought Grandpa's birthday gift there (a nice photograph of Ernfold elevators).
So we fed Landon, ate a bit ourselves, and then Landon was pretty much ready for his nap, so we hit the road. He did wake up in Regina, and I thought the last 2 hours wouldn't be so pleasant, but he went back to sleep and slept all the way to the farm! YAY!

So we're here. Landon is napping like an angel (like usual), having troubles getting to sleep at night (like usual). He's super tired today, as he went to sleep at 1 and got up at 9:40 (woke up early on his own ... don't know what that's about...but he still woke up happy). So maybe he'll go to sleep a bit earlier tonight - I'm tired! LOL

We've just been hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa these past couple of days. We're going to Swift Current on Thursday, will stay until Saturday. John's coming back from Calgary on Friday night and will meet us in swift. It'll be nice to see him ... I miss him and I think Landon does too. But I have to admit, Landon has adjusted quite well to a new place. And once I get him to sleep, he's sleeping well.

Happy Birthday to Johnny-cakes!! He had to celebrate in Calgary without us today :-( But he said the job-hunt is going well, so that's good.

Well, that's the news from here for now. Landon's enjoying Grandma's house, we think he may be seriously working on a tooth or two, and he loves peas. I will try posting again in a few days if I get a chance. Landon's sleeping in the computer room, so I don't get many chances to get on-line ... when he's sleeping I can't get in here, and when he's awake he's keeping me busy. :-/ Ah well.....Until next time...TK

Cutie in the high chair...

Here's a picture of the little smiler in the high chair. I don't know exactly what John was doing to entertain him, but Landon was sure enjoying it. I managed to catch a couple of pictures, before he saw the camera. As soon as he saw the camera, mr. serious-face appeared... LOL

We're ready, I think...

We're all packed up and ready to hit the road in the morning. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything too important ... heh heh. Most things can always be purchased when we get there. The main thing: I've got diapers! LOL Oh yeah, and food ... that's an important item now that we didn't used to worry about :-/ Lots of food. *sigh*

I'm surprised at how hard it is to find barley cereal with formula. A couple of places carry oatmeal and rice with formula, but I couldn't find barley ... until I wasn't looking for it. I found it today at Shoppers Drug Mart - made me happy. Now all of Landon's cereal have formula in them, so I don't have to use formula to mix them ... much easier. Happy mom.

We had a nice dinner last night with Aunty Margaret (who's celebrating her birthday today! Happy Birthday!). We had pork (we always have pork with Aunty Margaret), nice white wine, and homemade apple pie for dessert. Very yummy! It was nice to spend the evening with her - we don't see her often enough.

Other than that - Landon is adorable. Getting to sleep at night continues to plague us, or rather elude us. Last night he went to sleep at 11:20, only to wake up a midnight and play happily until 2:45. It's lucky for him that he played happily ... aiaiaiai. I just laid on the floor beside him, and he played with my pj strings, he played 'oops dropped my soother, where is it now?' and giggled and laughed. He was very cute, and I hate to admit that I enjoyed watching him play (despite the hour), but I was very glad when he finally went to sleep :-/ Hopefully tonight will be better as we plan to be on the road at 5:30 am.

So that's that for now. I'll post again when we're at the farm hopefully ... let everyone know how the trip went and whatever. Hope all is well where you are...Take care...TK

New countertops!

Our new countertops have been installed ... YAY!! They are quite nice, I am very happy with them. The flooring install has been delayed, it will be installed on Oct 12 now. Ah well...

With the counters being installed today I actually relaxed a bit, felt really good to just read in the afternoon, instead of painting something LOL. I have some touchups to do now around the counters, and the backsplash is lower than the old counters, so I'm going to have to fix that up. Either with paint, a paper border, or a row of tile. I may just try the tile, see how that goes.... But that is a project for a couple of weeks from now!

Landon has fully recovered from the his shots. No more fever or anything. And no fever with foretelling the onset of roseola...that'll likely hit Saturday or something, just because we want to leave Sunday morning :-/
Right now he's in the jolly jumper jumping away, puking about every 5 minutes because he gets himself jumping so much and then sticks his hand in his mouth, gagging himself. But he doesn't seem to mind. I'll just notice him stop jumping for about a minute, he'll be chewing on his hands, and then BLECH ... and I go clean him up and he starts the entire process again! Monkey...

He slept through the night again last night ... and I got the longest stretch I've had in, oh I don't know, a year or so ...?! I slept from shortly after 1 until 9:30 without waking up! YAY Usually I wake up sometime between 4:30 and 7, just because. And then it takes me awhile to get back to sleep. Not last night ... I woke up at 9:30, and then went right back to sleep until 10:50, when it was time to get Landon up.

I couldn't believe Landon today - he slept right through the countertop install, including taking the old countertops off, sawing and banging and everything!! What a sleeper! If only he slept like that when we first put him down at night!! LOL Oh well, I will take the good napping and not complain too much!

Oh yeah, Landon tried green beans today. I thought he wouldn't like them as much as they aren't as sweet as squash and sweet potatoes, but he barely batted an eye and munched them all up. Something's gonna' happen around food here, because feeding him is just too easy ... he has only rejected chicken so far. And to like green beans!! C'mon!! I guess he doesn't like cereal made with water either, so I pump every day to mix milk in with his cereal. So that's not easy ... so maybe that's the trade-off. I don't know. But I'm liking this veggie love of his ... we'll just keep on introducing veggies!! LOL

That's the news for tonight. Getting excited for the trip to the farm. Calling all friends back home: I'm looking for a loaner exersaucer for the week I'm at the farm. If you have one, or know of one I can borrow, please let me know. Mom will be in Swift on Saturday, so she can pick it up in it's there...Thanks!! I'll post again tomorrow probably...TK

Landon's world today...

Well, Landon was a bit feverish last night, and extremely fussy. The Motrin likely helped him feel a bit better, but he did struggle to get to sleep. He slept for about 30 minutes from 11:30 to midnight, then he was up for quite awhile, and miserable. Finally I put him in his crib with the aquarium light going, which he watched for quite awhile, and he was quite happy in there -- playing with his feet, 'talking' and laughing. I fell asleep shortly after 1, Landon woke me up about 1:40 fussing because I think he was ready for bed but doesn't realize he could just fall asleep in his crib ... He cried and was a moron until I nursed him, then he calmed right down. I snuggled with him in the recliner and we both fell asleep. I put him into his bed shortly after 2 and went to get some quality sleep myself! He did wake up again about 6:30, but I was able to nurse him and he went right back to bed. By then the Motrin was likely worn off, so he probably felt crappy again. He seems okay today though - the fever is gone and he's napping like a star right now. So maybe that will be the end of the fever, and hopefully the fussiness will disappear too.....

I got the painting touch-ups done today ... and put the painting supplies away. YAY I like painting, and I like getting it done even better :-)

Now it's full-fledged 'getting ready to travel' mode for me ... I'll be going shopping to get baby food, diapers, etc today. Clothes washing comes next...etc, etc. I'm excited, and I hope that Landon travels and sleeps well. The more I think about it, we'll have to be creative with the sleeping situation ... Landon whines and stuff during the night, but doesn't necessarily wake up. If he sees me or anything then he does wake up and it's a struggle to get him back to sleep (if it's early in the night). So I may end up sleeping on the couch, or we'll have to put Landon in the computer room ... poor kid, in the 'office' to sleep! But I'm afraid if we don't neither of us will get much sleep. *sigh* we'll see, I'm sure it will all work out ... I'm just used to sleeping in my 'own' room now, so I don't look forward to sharing with Landon again!! LOL

Anyways, I hear the little monkey waking up now, so I'll go get him. I will maybe post again later, and I should have some pics to post again soon!! take care...TK

6 month shots...

Landon had his 6 month shots today. What a trooper he was. He didn't even cry at the first needle, then a short little whiny-cry at the second one. The third one though (the nurse said it hurts the most) he really bellered ... but he calmed right down even before the nurse had the band-aid on. What a big boy! I was very proud. Then he nursed and went right to sleep ... such a deep sleep that he didn't even wake up when I put his pants on to leave! LOL But he did wake up when we got outside...
He's doing okay ... no fever yet, but we've given him Tylenol today and I just gave him Motrin when I put him down for the night. Hopefully he won't react this time ... He's whiny as hell though :-/ Oh well *shrug* What can you do?
Other info from the dr appt: Landon's 17 pounds, 10 ounces, 27 1/8" long. He's totally healthy (spleen and liver are back to normal size). All is good, the doctor thinks he's wonderfully cute too! She thinks that he quite likely will get roseola as it's very contagious, but she wasn't at all concerned about it, and thankfully recommended that we still give Landon his immunizations. So we'll probably arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house with roseola.

That's right! We're making the big trip back to Saskatchewan!! WooHoo!! We are planning to leave here early Sunday morning (hoping to make a good chunk of the trip before Landon wakes up fully). John is going on from there to Calgary, job and house-hunting. I will stay at the farm for the week, and we will likely come back home either Thanksgiving Monday or Tuesday. So get ready .... I'm bringing my baby home to show him off!! :-)

So the rest of this week will be devoted to getting ready for the big road trip! LOL Wish me luck that I don't go insane before we even leave!

On the house front - I got the painting done today. Just have to do the final touch-ups tomorrow and no more painting YAY!

I should get going now, all this painting and doctoring and I'm tired! :-P And I'm still incredibly stiff from volleyball!! Imagine that! I'll post again soon...TK

Painting ... again...

Today I finally got started painting out the faux stuff in our house, in the dining room, living room and kitchen. There isn't much there, but I got it all primered today. I kept putting it off as I'm pretty stiff from volleyball practise, but I knew I'd better get to it or it'd never get done.

Landon's doing well. Last night he went to sleep at 11:40, then woke up at 12:10 and we thought 'uh oh, it's gonna' be a late one'. But we just left him in his bed (he was bouncing and whining, but not crying ... I checked on him once, he was fine) for about 20 minutes, and he got himself back to sleep! YAY Landon. And slept until 11 am ! Double YAY YAY Landon!! So I think (hope) we're making some progress (knock on wood!!). He went down again tonight at 11:30, so we'll see how tonight goes.
I will have to get him up a bit early tomorrow to get him to his doctor's appointment at 11 am. I think I will just put him straight into the car from bed at 10:30, and let him 'wake up' on the drive. That way it won't be quite such a shocker, and maybe we'll be able to salvage a bit of this (dare I call it) routine. I'll just change him and stuff at the dr office when they weigh him. Watch ... he'll have a big dump in the morning or something...heh heh. I hope he doesn't react too badly to the vaccines this time.
Karen let us know that Nathan does in fact have infantum roseola ... so we'll see if Landon gets it. I've been checking him for fever and he hasn't had one. It's supposed to be contagious only when the child has a fever, and we weren't around Nathan when he was feverish, so I'm hoping Landon won't get this one. Just once it'd be nice if Landon didn't get 'it' (whatever it happens to be at the time). Of course, roseola isn't a serious illness, so if he gets it so be it. I just hope that we won't have to delay the shots because of this exposure :-/ We'll see.

We had a wonderful visit with Trish tonight too ... we haven't seen her all summer so it was great to have her over for awhile. Landon really likes her too - didn't make strange at all :-) And he put on a couple of flirty-faces, complete with one-eyebrow-lifts, just for Trish!! LOL

That's the kind of day it was here ... tomorrow to the dr, then hopefully I'll get the painting finished and that'll be done. Flooring guys are here on Friday! YAY. Then only countertops to be done. Phew...

Hope you're all well. Take care...TK

I'll be sore tomorrow...

Today I went to volleyball practise ... I can already tell that I'll be stiff and sore tomorrow!! aiaiaiai Went to Liz's to watch the Bomber game after that, and it was all fun!! It was nice to go out for most of the day ... without Landon (as awful as that might sound). Practise was at 10, so I left before Landon was up, and got home about 4. I had lots of pumped milk for him, and so John could give him bottles and cereals all day. It was fun. But when I got home I was very relieved to breastfeed Landon again!! LOL
Good football day too as the RoughRiders won as well!! :-)

Got a call today from a mom from mommy's group last week ... it seems everyone and their kids have gotten sick since last Tuesday / Wednesday (Tuesday was a birthday party that I didn't go to, but I went to mommy's group on Wed night). Now Nathan (her little man ... we shared the hospital room with them) has little pink spots on his body too :-/ They think it could be infant roseola ... very common. It is also of the same viral strain as CMV, chicken pox, etc ... so perhaps Landon is actually immune??!?? Could that be?!?!? What I've read about it (just a quick google search) is that it's only contagious when the child has the fever (that occurs just before the pink rash), and no one was feverish on Wed night, so maybe we'll actually get to avoid this 'illness'. In any case, most kids, again, get this virus before they're 2 years old ... it's very common, causing nothing more than a fever for a day or two, and a minor rash. So if we get it, we get it, if we don't, that's good!
As long as what Nathan has is in fact this roseola.....Adults don't get it, so there must've been another bug flowing around that the adults weren't feeling well either.... hmmmmm But both John and I feel fine, and Landon hasn't displayed any symptoms at all, so maybe we'll be good.

So, that's the news for today. I think I've recovered from my football beers, and John's recovering from his squash game with Wes, and hopefully Landon will go to sleep well tonight! Last night I nursed him to sleep at 12:30, he slept until John woke him at 11 am. Another night slept through ... they're becoming more common now, that's for sure. I'm not holding my breath, nor expecting it every night, but when it happens we sure enjoy it :-)

until next time....TK

PS -- Nikki, I fixed the speeling mitskaes!! LOL

Guitar Time!!

Landon loves when John plays guitar ... and he loved it even more today when John put the headphones on him (very quietly). He was mesmerized!!

yummy sweet potatoes...

Landon likes sweet potatoes too! He gobbled them right up this afternoon LOL So now he's an orange-veggie lover ... squash and sweet potatoes. I'll maybe have to try something green next, see if he likes that. That's for next week, after his 6 month shots.
Shots on Tuesday morning :-( I don't like the thought of that, but I guess it's for his own good in the long run. I hope he doesn't react as much this time ... he had quite a fever after the 4 month shots. We'll see.

Sleeping - he keeps changing it up, but we're getting used to that!! Last night he had a late third nap, falling asleep at 10:15 after his bath. There was no keeping him up, he fell asleep while I was burping him!! He woke at 11, and played and cooed and talked, quite happily, until after 1. When it was time to go to sleep, he lay nice and quiet in my arms and went to sleep. I liked that -- he can do that anytime! The best news though --> he slept through until 11 am. He was awake when I went in to get him, but not crying or anything ... just waiting for us to come and get him I guess :-) Little stinker.

This afternoon John and I cleaned up the yard a bit -- it was nice to get some trees pruned and our poor neglected garden tended to!! Landon was so cute - I sat him on his blanket outside with a few toys. He ignored the toys, just sitting there watching the trees and us work and whatever was around. He sat there for almost 2 hours!! Then I sat with him in the grass, and he pulled and pulled at the grass ... it must've felt pretty neat, all cool. What a sweetheart.

And Landon listened to John playing guitar today, with the headphones on (really quietly). It was pretty cute -> he sure loves guitar. I took a couple of pics with the webcam, I'll post them soon. I have to run now, as Landon's done his bath, and it's time I took him up and got him ready for bed.

until next time...TK

Sleeping Angel...

Ok, if all nights could be like last night ... *sigh*. Landon went to sleep at 11 (YES 11:00 PM!!). No crying, no fussing. I put him into bed, he went to sleep. Done. He woke up at 4:30 am, ate, and went back to bed. Until 11:00 am. 12 hours of glorious sleeping Landon-baby!! Very nice. Now we do recognize that he was crazy tired from stupid crying the previous 3 nights, and we don't expect that he'll do that every night, but to have done it last night was just wonderful!!
We'll see what happens tonight. He's only taken 2 short naps today ... he may need to get that third one in there, and that will push bedtime back a bit. But we'll deal with that when it comes...

We went to the mall today, bought a toque and mitts forLandon :-) I couldn't believe how many places were already sold out! But The Children's Place had some left, so we got 'em. :-) All of the clothes are so cute, but I had to restrain myself as I already went nuts on ebay (that's in addition to all of the wonderful hand-me-downs we've already received from Thomson and Kyle!!) and there's absolutely no room in his drawers for more clothes!! LOL

And EAT! Man this kid can eat. He still breastfeeds 4 - 5 times a day, and once overnight (I don't plan to quit that anytime soon). It's the cereals and veggies that he packs away as well...aiaiaiai. Today, 4 Tbsp of squash, and 10 (yes, 10) Tbsp of cereal! PIGGIE!! LOL And I stop feeding him when he's had 3 or 4 Tbsp at a sitting, he'd keep eating if I kept on feeding him! And I always feed his cereal / veggies after breastfeeding, so he's taking in quite a bit of food at one shot. Man oh man ... we'll have him eating steak in about 3 weeks at this rate!!

That's the news from here for today. Landon is right now enjoying his jolly-jumper ... he's spinning in circles because he's trying to look at the the harness. Too funny!! Yesterday I swung him slightly in the jumper ... he lifted his knees right up and giggled the entire time. Something about this worries me ... like maybe he'll be swinging from the chandelier by the time he's 1 year old?!?!?!?! hmmmmmm

Hope all is well wherever you are....take care and I'll post again soon!! TK

Cute Landon... :-)

Here's some cute pics of Landon from earlier in the week ... chewing on his favourite rattle and sitting around in his Tigger outfit (thanks again Dianna!!).

Bath time fun!!!!!

Here's Landon enjoying his bath. This kids LOVES the water ... and the sooner he figures out how to drink the bathwater, the happier he'll be! He is absolutely intrigued with any type of running water, always watching us fill the tub, and more recently a fascination with playing with the water coming out of the faucet. Could prove interesting when he's bigger and wants to turn the faucet on himself... We dump water from a glass repeatedly while he's in the tub (we've done this since he was about 2 weeks old, he loved it then, and loves it now!). And now he's trying to figure out how to do it himself -- well, how he can pour the water into his mouth!! He still hasn't mastered that one yet...thank goodness. But he plays with his sippy cups every day, so sooner or later he'll get this figured out.

Me no like chicken...

We tried giving Landon some chicken today ... to start him on some protein foods... Didn't go over too well!! LOL He screwed up his face, made gagging sounds, his eyes were watering! It was funny as hell, for me not for him! So I tried putting a very very small amount on a spoonful of rice cereal ... he could tell! So no more chicken for awhile. I froze the rest of the jar and we'll try again in a month or so.
I gave him some squash again though ... I had not given him any for the past few days to see if he was having tummy troubles (which were causing him to cry forever at night instead of going to sleep). He's still crying for hours to go to sleep, so I figured I'd give him squash anyways. The menu of cereal-cereal-cereal had to be getting boring! He likes the squash, no doubt about that. Next on the menu -- sweet potatoes. I had Landon pick what was next by putting the jars in front of him, and the one he gravitated towards was sweet potatoes. So we'll give that a whirl in a couple of days. For now, it's cereal-squash-cereal-squash-cereal......and repeat.

Nighttimes are still a struggle. I've been trying to follow Ferber ... putting Landon down a bit later than he usually goes to bed so that he'll fall asleep easier. That is not working for us. He just gets too tired to calm himself down and fall asleep. Last night was 3:30 in the morning before he fell asleep, in my arms. He hasn't had to do that for weeks!!! So it's a regression, not progression. We're still getting him up at 11 am every morning, to 'reset' his daily clock (at least he gets up at the same time every day!!). Tonight I'm going to try to get him down earlier...I'm not 'keeping him up' any more. And I'll do whatever it takes to get him down ... I'm done with the whole cry-it-out for hours on end ... not for us!!!!
So we'll keep trying and trying ... one of these days we'll get it right. We had it right twice last week ... when Landon went down with very little crying at midnight. Hopefully soon we'll figure out the 'right' bedtime routine so that he's calm enough when we put him to bed to actually go to sleep. These days he's just tired and gets overtired easily, so it's extra touchy at night. But at least he is still a happy little monkey, and he's darned cute too!

So, I'll upload a few pics for you too, just because he's adorable. enjoy and I'll post again soon...TK

What a great weekend...

We had a wonderful weekend with Grandma and Grandpa!! Landon didn't make strange at all, which was very nice. And John and I got to go out, by ourselves, for almost 5 hours!!!!! I drank beer (3 -- woke up with a hangover at 4 in the morning LOL). It was good, we had a good time, and now that first 'leaving Landon with a sitter' step has been taken, so the next times should be that much easier! :-D
Landon was a bit fussy the last couple of nights ... don't really know why. Maybe he's got a bit of an upset tummy from eating squash? Maybe he's starting to teeth in earnest? It hasn't disturbed his overnight sleep (thank goodness!!). But we are thinking it could be teething now, as he's chewing on everything so HARD ... much more than before. And his drooling is kicking up a notch as well. So we'll keep an eye on his mouth to see what happens there :-)
I think he's dropping his third nap too, which will be nice to go to 2 naps. We put him down for his 2nd nap at his usual time, and he just wasn't ready to go to sleep. He didn't cry or anything, but just wasn't ready for sleep. So we got him up and he played for another hour. I ended up feeding him before he went to sleep, and he's been sleeping for almost an hour and a half. So maybe it'll be 2 naps / day from now on :-) That will be fine, because maybe he'll even move his bedtime up a little bit? Maybe? We'll see.
We're getting him up at 11 am on the dot now, and he's been going to bed fairly well. Last night it took a bit longer, he was very fussy (teeth? tummy?). But it's been between 12 and 12:30 for the past few nights, with very little crying (YAY). Last night I ended up holding him for a few minutes to calm him down, then he went right to sleep, so only 20 minutes of crying. We'll see what tonight brings with this new nap schedule. I want to give it a few more days to adjust to the new nap schedule (if this is in fact the change), then we'll start getting him up earlier to move his schedule up a bit. Next Tuesday he gets his 6-month shots, so I want to move him up before then (likely to a 10 am wake-up time), and keep him there for a few days so that we know where we're at with the shots. He spiked a good fever last time, so I want to know what to watch for this time.

That's the news for today. It was a good weekend, despite the rain (which is continuing still ... I hope tomorrow is a nicer day!). I caught up on some of my sleep with a nice nap this afternoon :-/ I wonder where Landon gets those sleep habits!! And hopefully this going to bed thing will continue to be not so bad tonight! Will post more soon, along with a couple of pics when I get them uploaded. Hope all is well wherever you are! Take care...TK

Squash ... yummy!

Well, Landon has tried his first veggies this morning - squash. So far so good. He ate them like a pro. He didn't seem turned off by the taste or anything, so that's a good sign! He'll get squash at lunch time for the next week or so now, so hopefully he keeps on liking them!! Then we'll try another veggie.

I decided to go with veggies versus a protein now because he seems to have more troubles pooping since starting cereals, and the veggies should give him a bit more fiber than meat would. We'll introduce meat in a couple of weeks, once we have a couple of veggies under out belt.

He's been a cute little stinker today ... maybe he's just getting practiced up for when Grandma and Grandpa arrive *shrug* They should be here in about an hour, so we're looking forward to seeing them!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm sure we will. Take care...TK

Grandma and Grandpa are coming!

YAY ... Grandma and Grandpa will be here tomorrow afternoon!! I'm very excited to have them come, and of course I'm excited to show Landon off. He's grown so much since they were here in June.

Today was a pretty good day. Landon is eating up a storm, so tomorrow he will get some veggies. I used formula to mix with the cereal today, and he liked that too, so I don't need to panic about having enough milk pumped.

I had a pleasant surprise ... I've been reading Ferber's sleep book. I was not too keen on the idea, as I viewed him as a tyrant who insisted you let your child cry all night so that they learned to fall asleep. Instead, I'm learning even more about sleep than I've learned already (reading every sleep book on the market!!), and his approach isn't nearly as tyrannical as I thought (it's stern, consistent, but not tyrannical). I've learned a lot about my own sleep habits, (which I recognize I've passed on to Landon), and the information he's shared will help me as well as Landon sleep better. So we're moving forward on that front. Last night Landon went to sleep at midnight without any crying YAY!! We got him up at 11 am today. Tonight will hopefully go smoothly again. And maybe in a week or two we'll have his schedule (what Ferber calls his sleep phase) moved up to a more normal hour. That will be wonderful!! I will keep you posted on that. The good news ... we're getting enough sleep now (albeit between midnight at 11 am, but that's pretty usual for me!!). Landon has been waking up only once to eat, and I think once we get this sleep thing figured out a bit more, we'll be able to lose that feeding fairly easily. So I'm pretty optimistic about everything now....there's much less stress which is nice.

Well, that's it for tonight. Hope all is well with you! Take care...TK

The look of concentration...

Landon has a very serious look of concentration, especially when he's focused on something important ... like the tab on the zipper on John's shirt. He played with this tab for quite awhile, we guess just amazed with the tab itself! We tried hard to capture this look ... it's hard to get a true view of it with a picture. But it's close....

That's all the pictures for tonight! Enjoy...TK

Eating pictures

Landon likes to "help" us feed him ... and the result is he usually ends up pretty messy. Since discovering the yummy-ness of cereal with breast milk instead of water, we've had a lot less 'help' at feeding time ... he now sits there with his mouth open like a little bird, and I can't shovel the cereal in fast enough!!

Family Pictures...

Here is the family picture from Sept 7 -- Landon at 6 months. And a really cute picture of me and Landon from last night. He was being particularly cute and we managed to catch a couple of pictures.

Forgot the weights and measures...

As I've been such a stickler on weights for Landon...he weighed in at 16 pounds, 14.8 ounces today. So he's still growing, albeit not as fast as he used to! Thank goodness ... I like my little monkey just the way he is! LOL

Bye...

Our room's back together again!

I got our room painting done today ... phew! So it's put back together, complete with our new bedframe from Aunty Margaret. It is definitely brighter!! I'm just glad it's done, painting over that blue was a pain in the buttinski! :-P

We had our follow-up appt with the dr from Landon's cold a few weeks back. The bloodwork came back negative for mono, but positive for CMV (Cytomegalovirus). It's the same viral strain as mono, chicken pox, and herpes. It's surprisingly common for something I'd never heard of before. Apparently most of us are exposed by the time we're 40 (yup, even adults), but we often don't realize we have it because it can be asymptomatic, or appear as a cold. It's true, if Landon was 2 years old, I likely wouldn't have taken him to the doctor, just treated his cold symptoms. So he wouldn't have been diagnosed.
More on CMV: It has symptoms like mono, and will have been the cause of enlarged liver and spleen. Now that Landon's had it, he will always carry the antibodies, so hopefully he won't get sick with it again. We don't know where it came from ... could lie dormant for 3 to 12 weeks, so maybe at the cottage ...? *shrug* Doesn't really matter I guess. Most kids that go to daycare or are exposed to lots of other kids will get it, so I guess Landon is just getting it over with early! In any case, he is healthy now, so I'm not worried about it. I just hope he stays healthy for awhile...I'm tired of viruses affecting our little monkey!

The doctor also recommended that we start Landon on protein foods next, not vegetables and fruit like we'd planned. She said meats (baby food meats) and even hard-boiled egg yolk should be next on the menu!! So we'll give Landon wheat cereal this weekend, and then the following weekend maybe we'll try feeding him an egg yolk. I guess I'll keep the vegetables in the cupboard for a few more weeks...

So that's the big news from here today. Tomorrow should hopefully be a quieter day, I don't think I'll do any more painting this week, instead focusing on getting ready for Grandma and Grandpa's visit. I will get the rest of the painting done next week. My back is sore from our bedroom ... I must be getting old :-P

I hope everyone is having a good week...chat again soon!! TK

Cereal feeding goes much better...

Feeding Landon cereal goes much easier and quicker when I use pumped milk instead of water!! Today he sat there like a bird with his mouth open while I shoveled in cereal ... barley and oatmeal cereal even, not his favourite rice!! LOL I'm going to try mixing it with formula to see if we get the same effect. I hope so, or I'll be hooked up to the milking machine a lot more often to have enough for cereal!! LOL And this week I'm trying to save the pumped milk for John and my big outing on Saturday. We'll be gone for dinner and part of the evening ... likely until 9, maybe 10 if we can handle that long!! Probably only 9 though!! But we're looking forward to it nonetheless.
I got our bedroom primed today, and plan to head up there to paint it in just a little bit. I should get it all done tonight, and will do any needed touchups in the morning. It sure is a lot brighter in there ... I should've painted that hideous blue out years ago... *sigh* It'll be nice to get that done so that we can move our bedroom back in there, and clean up the living room / dining room for Grandma and Grandpa's visit this weekend!
We went for a walk tonight to enjoy this beautiful weather. Landon had his first time on a swing ... he thought it was ok, but wasn't overly thrilled with it. John also took him down the slide, but that didn't even really phase him. But we thought we'd try it out since swinging and sliding weather is fast disappearing!
That's the news for now...will get some pics posted soon. Take care...TK

Sunday news...

Things are going well with us these days. Landon is as cute as can be ... he's starting making some new sounds, like 'dadadadadadada'. And he's still squealing away whenever he's excited, which seems to be most of the time he's awake. And especially when he's in the jolly jumper! He's making lots of razberries too, wherever and whenever he can. On his hands, on our hands, on our shoulders, cheeks, chins ... Little goofball!
I started today to give him cereal three times a day, feeding him a bit when we first get up, then in the afternoon and in the evening still. He's eating barley, likes it a bit better than oatmeal, but nothing is as good as the rice so far. I'm looking forward to introducing some veggies, but we'll get through wheat cereal later this week first I guess. Then the fun stuff!!
I started getting our room ready for painting. Filled the nail holes, etc this afternoon, and sanded the wall with faux painting on it. It will be done a nice off-white, something I likely should've done when we first moved in!! But I guess I'll do it now that we're planning to move out :-/ Landon had a 3 hour nap this afternoon so I was able to spend that time working on the bedroom. Tomorrow morning I'll get up and prime it, and then paint it in the afternoon, and hopefully we'll only spend one night sleeping in the living room!! lol Then I'll move on to the faux wall in the dining room, living room, and the stenciling in the kitchen. Then the painting will be done! :-D I'll be very glad to put that project behind me.
And we're getting estimators in this week for the kitchen flooring and counter-tops. Those should both be done within the next few weeks, which will also be very nice. Then I think we'll be ready to put the house up for sale :-D YAY
That's about it for news here. Landon is just as adorable as ever. Except when it's time to go to sleep. This crying-it-out bullshit is becoming very annoying ... one week and he's still crying for 40 - 45 minutes or more each night. He is nothing if not persistent. Hopefully it will end soon, and we can all relax to go to sleep at the end of the day. I don't know how much more of this I can take. Once he's asleep he is sleeping really well. Night before last he slept from 12:30 until 11 am ... no waking up to eat at all in there!! Last night he woke up three times, I fed him twice. So it's definitely still up and down. But when he slept all night long he missed a full feeding as we didn't make it up yesterday, so perhaps that contributed to a poorer night last night? Who knows...but it was nice to have him sleep that long. We'll see if we can get a few more nights like that!!

Ok ... so I'm outta' here for now. Going to sand my patch-jobs. Hope all is well with everyone!! Take care...TK

Cute picture from yesterday

I forgot, I took this picture yesterday ...actually got Landon smiling! Gotta' love it! Thanks to Darilyn and Larry for this adorable outfit :-)

pooper pants!

Here we were kind of worried as Landon hadn't poo'd since Sunday. Well he definitely made up for it today ... with no less than 4 poops, 2 BIG ones, and man do they stink now that he's eating cereals. aiaiaiaiai *gag* But at least we know everything's working down there, and if this is the normal course of things, we'll be thankful for the poopless days and deal with the poopful ones as they come! LOL
Tomorrow we're going to start barley cereal, see how he likes that one. He prefers the rice, but he doesn't refuse the oatmeal either so that's good. I'm so excited for him to start vegetables that I bought a bunch today :-) We will likely start some veggies late next week, assuming no adverse reactions from the barley.

We took some family pics today, will post those in the next day or so once they're uploaded on the computer.
I've been busy e-baying these past days, but I think I've got enough clothes for Landon now so I'm not buying any more until these parcels arrive. Once they're here, if I need more I will go back to buy more. It's just so hard to stop once I start! LOL

That's the news tidbit for tonight. Until next time...TK

6 Month Old Landon!

OMG - it is so hard to believe, but our little munchkin is already 6 months old! aiaiaiai Where has the time gone?!?! We will be sure to take some pics and post here later, we just didn't get any pics taken yet today (surprise surprise!). It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in my rocking chair 23.5 hours a day nursing, and now he's eating cereals twice a day! John and I were watching some of Landon's videos from his first weeks ... he was so small, so cute! I am so glad we took lots of pictures and video ... the videos are the best! Reminds me to keep taking lots now :-)

So now Landon is six months old. He's eating cereals twice a day ... oatmeal in the afternoon, rice in the evening. We'll be trying barley next, on the weekend. He hasn't reacted negatively so far, so that's good. Neither John nor I have allergies, so I don't anticipate Landon will have any problems with food (let's hope!). He's sitting up to play now, doesn't want to be laying down at all! We sometimes lay him in his crib to watch his mobile, but that is fast coming to an end now that all he wants to do is grab his mobile characters and chew on them! He rolls from his tummy to his back, and I think he could roll from his back to his tummy, but every time he gets close he stops himself because he still doesn't like to be on his tummy!!! LOL That might change if he figures out how to skootch himself around on his tummy one day! He will move himself around more now though, especially when on his back he plants his feet and lifts his bum which pushes his head along the floor. So he's losing some of the precious hair he's finally grown back there!! LOL
And he's sleeping in his bed all night long now. It's very nice ... finally mom was ready for him to be in his own room, and he went quite willingly. He's still crying himself to sleep at night (I had to admit that our doing anything to help him get to sleep was only keeping him up longer, so now he goes to bed and we check on him periodically). It's been four nights of me in bed with earplugs in while John listens in case the cries are more than just "I'm f*#($&g mad, come and get me out of here!". It was 1 hour the first night, 40 minutes the next 2, and 35 minutes last night. So hopefully we're getting to the end of this 'training' phase ... Plus we're getting him to bed a bit earlier and he's getting up a bit earlier too, which is good. Last night he was sleeping by 12:30, up today at 11. It doesn't sound early, but it's over an hour earlier than a week ago!! Hopefully by the time Grandma and Grandpa get here we've got his bedtime moved up a bit more, and the crying minimized or completely eliminated at night. That's the only time he cries, so it's really hard to listen to.

We have been taking full advantage of the beautiful fall weather too ... every day Landon plays in his kiddie pool in the backyard. He really enjoys it, and it's been so nice to sit out there. The days are getting shorter, the mornings colder. I do love the fall though, so this isn't too hard to handle. I'm excited for Landon to see his first snow too ... but that can stay away for a month or two still :-P

Well, that's the novella for this afternoon. I will come back and post some 6-month pictures soon. Hope all is well with everyone!! TK

Play play play!

We are having such beautiful weather for September, which means we still get to use the kiddie pool with Landon. It's so much nicer now that he can sit up ... it's much easier for him to play now. We always have to have one hand on him, because he still falls over alot, but it's a lot more fun now!! Just like when he was only a few weeks old, Landon is still mesmerized by water being poured from a container! He will stop whatever he's doing and watch the water, putting his hands under it. We don't know if he's trying to catch the water, or just loves the feeling of it. Either way, it's cute to watch.
And he's sitting up to play more and more. Where we used to put him in his bouncy chair, we now put him on the floor. I guess more toys will be able to be put away soon! He loves playing with these stacking rings (thanks Meagan for the toy-buying tip!). And he loves the pillow too, he's always trying to pick the bugs off of it :-D
We've been having good days lately. He's not sick (YAY), he's not yet teething, he's eating well, and we're all getting lots of sleep. Very nice, very nice indeed!! Let's hope this keeps up for awhile ... heh heh

The black eyes are healing up quite nicely, only a bit of bruising left, and that's quickly turning yellow :-/ John's on the job-hunt, which I'm sure will be short-lived now that's it's gearing up. And we're getting ready for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa next weekend YAYAYAYAYAY!! That's our news ... hope you're well. Until next time....TK

Sunday news..

Not much news this Sunday, really. Life keeps on going by, and we're loving it. Last night Landon only woke up once to eat!! Unbelievable!! So I'm feeling pretty darned good today - albeit a bit 'full' ;-) And the fibrous wonders of oatmeal are kicking in, so we're getting our first FULL doses of 'solids poops' ... *Sigh* Gone are the days of the sweet-smelling waste from a breastfed baby. But I think we can live with it, since he's so much happier and is sleeping so much better. It's a small price to pay, really!

We are having some friends over for dinner today, so we are in the midst of preparing for that. It's nice to have something finally prod us to clean the house up a bit ... heh heh. It's not that dirty, just full of baby stuff EVERYWHERE!! So for about 2 hours we'll clean up the clutter, and then I'm sure it'll go right back to how it was. Oh well...

For those curious about our 'go to bed at night-time' battles (I've been avoiding writing about them, for fear people accuse me of being obsessional): Landon's still up stupid late, but sleeps late too (like me!). Overall he sleeps between 9.5 and 11 hours at night, getting up twice to eat (last night only once). The best news: he's sleeping in his own bed in his own room all night long. I pull him into bed to eat, but put him back into his own bed when he's done. Last night he was even awake when I put him back in his own bed, and he went to sleep. And sometimes he'll even go to bed at night awake and fall asleep on his own (assuming he's not overtired). Those are the good nights, even if that bedtime is 1:30 or 2 am!
Naps are wonderful, he has 3, sometimes 4. If we don't let him nap, he gets over-tired and won't go to sleep at night (cry-it-out ... don't think so ... not when we know he can keep it up for at least 1.5 hours!!). And for everyone thinking "well don't let him nap as much during the day and he'll go to bed earlier at night", that doesn't work for Landon. Believe me, we've tried, several times, with disastrous results (see cry-it-out note above)! So we're working on shifting his schedule, getting up earlier in the morning, so that he'll be ready for bed earlier at night. I'm a proponent of gradual shifting ... we'll try that first. If not, then it will be 'the rude awakening' where we'll just get him up early in the morning and deal with grumpy, overtired, miserable Landon. I hope the gradual thing will work - much easier on all of us, even if it does take longer. We've got nothing but time ... what do I care? I can sleep in in the mornings right beside him :-P

So that's the news and the sleep update. It's a beautiful day, great day for a B-B-Q with some friends. Hope you're all enjoying your long weekend!! Take care...TK

The feeding frenzy continues...

No wonder Landon was breastfeeding so much the past month ... he's been HUNGRY! LOL He likes oatmeal, had it for the first time this afternoon (3 Tbsp). And still loves rice, ate 7 Tbsp of it tonight. This is all after breastfeeding too, it's not like we're starving him to get him to eat solids or anything! Man oh man. It's fun feeding him this way too, and it's great because it gives John more opportunity to feed him too.
All of this eating, we are definitely noticing that Landon is chubbin' out! Ha ha. He has dimples for elbows and knees, a dimply butt (gets that from his mother), and he's getting a chubby belly too! So cute, we can hardly stand it.

The E-bay shopping has begun again. Landon is starting to truly outgrow his 3 - 6 month clothes, so we're shopping for wintery 6 - 12 month stuff. Fun Fun Fun!! Gotta love e-bay!! I bought some outfits today, and some sleepers. I'm trying to control myself, but it's all so damned cute! *sigh* I keep telling myself to take it slow, to savour the shopping fun, stretch it out so that it lasts longer!

And Grandma is making plans to come up for a visit. She's planning to come for the weekend of Sept 16, she will babysit while John and I actually go out somewhere, together, without Landon, with other adults!! LOL It's about time! :-D That is the night of my softball social, so we'll go for dinner at least. How late we stay depends on Landon's night-time 'schedule' at that time. It'll just be nice to go out for dinner at least! Hopefully Grandpa will make the trip too ... Landon has grown so much since they were here in June, and he's in need of a good grandparent-spoiling (after all, it's been 2 weeks since he's seen a grandparent!).

That's the news from here. The face is healing well. My nose is itchy (healing), so it's driving me nuts! And the bruises are now turning that beautiful yellow-green colour ... sweeeeeeeet! Ah well, live and learn I guess. Until next time, take care....TK

Landon's a piggy!

I think Landon may be feeling much better, despite a still stuffy nose and a cough. This afternoon he ate so much cereal, I could hardly believe it. I fed him until I was empty, then he ate about 3 times as much cereal as he ate yesterday! 10 tsp of rice in 14 tsp of water ... and the last 6 tsp were mixed 1/2 and 1/2!! He kept eating, I kept mixing more, he kept eating ... I wasn't sure it would ever quit! So we'll be sure to mix up more from now on. Tomorrow we are going to try oatmeal cereal, we'll see if he gobbles that up :-)

So here are some cute pictures of Landon -- taken before I broke my nose obviously!! He is just such a happy little monkey, it's so fun to capture those big smiles! John took the camera fishing the past few days, so I don't have any new ones from this week. He should be home shortly and we'll take some more cute pics ... especially when he gets himself covered in cereal!!

That's the news from here ... not much of it, but what can I say!! I spend my days putting Landon to sleep and waiting for him to wake up so I can feed him again :-) And I'm loving it!! Take care...TK