Motorbikin'!!

When in Saskatoon, I went for my very first motorbike ride ever! Thank you Uncle Bob. I will say it was plenty windy - even Uncle Bob noted that the ride wasn't the greatest because of it. But it was pretty exhilarating, and a tad bit scary, and overall pretty awesome and I can't wait to go again!!

Landon got to sit on the bike too, although it will be MANY years before mom consents to him going for a ride!! LOL

other shots from the farm...

Arlan had fun playing on his playmat while we travelled, I'm glad I took it along. This picture was taken when he just rolled over for the very first time :-) He was playing away on his tummy, I was sitting beside him and talking to Grandma. I saw his roll over from the corner of my eye, but it took me a second or two to realize the significance of it!! Then he did it again, and on the third time we caught it on video (which can be seen here -- you'll find the link in the story containing Arlan's videos). My baby is getting sooooo big sooooo fast :-(
Arlan spent some time in his little red snowsuit-thing too ... we went outside on what looked like a gorgous day, but it was super windy !! Ah well, we hung out by the garage, out of the wind but in the sunshine.


And Landon was looking as cute as can be in Grandpa's boots!! Gotta' love the kid in the cowboy boots pictures!!

Thanksgiving Day

Yummy! Nothing like eating pie with Grandpa!! Landon loves eating pie with Grandpa, as you can tell from the expression on his face!
Landon slept so well at Grandma and Grandpa's (and at Uncle Bob & Aunty Rosemary's too) ... I love this blow-up bed (Thanks one more time Ricki!!). I thought this pose was just too cute to miss ... notice the missing sock even!

Hanging out with Aunty Yvonne before supper ... great shot Aunty!!
And Arlan with Great Grandpa Leisle and dad after supper. Arlan was a grumper-puss as he hadn't napped very well that day, and oh my was it warm in that kitchen!! LOL So no smilers for this picture, but no tears either which is good.


This is where Arlan spent dinner -- playing with those jingle-buddies which he loves! So at mealtimes we would put him in here and he'd play and talk and just generally enjoy himself!!

Trip to Moose Jaw - Oct 11

On the Saturday of our trip back to Sask, we checked out Grandma and Grandpa's new house in Moose Jaw (seen in the background here ... it was just about to get some siding, and is framed on the inside). Landon had the most fun climbing on the sandpile for the driveway. He had so much fun that when we got to the restaurant and took off his shoes, we left quite a pile of sand on the floor there too!!
We went to the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw after lunch. I hadn't been there in YEARS (like, 20 ??). We almost didn't see any of the museum, as Landon found the Thomas train table in the lobby. What a set-up!! But we broke him away from there, despite his protests, and he got to explore the museum with it's trains, boats, and planes. I think the planes were his favourite, and he even got to sit in the cock-pit of a Snow-bird -- which he thought was "pretty neat"
On the way out we checked out the gift shop (while Landon again played at the train tables). Thank goodness he didn't go in there - it's a Thomas SUPERSTORE!! LOL Both Grandma and I bought some Christmas stuff for Landon. Even my eyes were shining, I wanted to buy it all!

The trip back to the farm was pretty good. Landon slept most of the way, and Arlan made some fusses but I fed him and we were good to go.

What a Wonderful Week

How's that for alliteration?

We had a FABULOUS week back in Sask!! I will tell some stories with pictures as I post them, but here's the 'quick-hitter'.

We went to the farm Friday, arrived in time for supper. Both boys travelled very well! We stopped in the Hat for a few minutes, and had to give Arlan a bottle about Gull Lake to keep going (Landon was sleeping, I didn't want to stop!). And both boys slept well that night (and every night thereafter actually ... especially Landon (how often do I say that?) ). Arlan was a bit cold at Grandma's, next time we'll have to bring warmer sleepers :-/ But I just pulled him into bed with me at night where we snuggled together (poor John had to sleep in the basement!).

Saturday we went to Moose Jaw - checked out mom & dad's house that is under construction. It's looking pretty good. We also went to the Western Development Museum. Landon was much more interested in the Thomas the Tank train tables set up in the foyer :-/ But we did tear him away from there and he ran through the museum. He liked the planes the best I think.

Sunday we hung out at the farm and let Arlan get a bit more used to the play pen (he had spent WAY too much time in the car seat LOL). Monday we had Thanksgiving dinner -- YUM YUM! Great Grandpa, Aunty Yvonne, Uncle Greg and Kyle all came out. It was nice - except Arlan was pretty grumpy as he hadn't napped well that day. But c'est la vie. I did have to laugh at Landon though -- he wanted Kyle to play with him some more, so he said "Kyle, do you want to come and laugh at me?" LOL

Tuesday Aunty Laura came to the farm to visit, which was wonderful. John and dad went to Morse, so we had a great visit all afternoon while Landon and Arlan napped. YAY Aunty Laura gave me a facial with her Nutrimetics products, and some samples. I placed my (BIG) order today - I love that stuff!! My face feels and looks GREAT :-)

Wednesday we packed up and headed to Saskatoon to see Uncle Bob and Aunty Rosemary. That was a wonderful visit too :-) We hung out Wed and Thursday -- but the highlight for me was my first motorbike ride with Uncle Bob on Thursday (pics coming soon). Again, both boys were pretty good, sleeping well etc.

Friday we came home. A long trip - we decided to leave after Arlan's morning nap. Well, had we known he'd nap for TWO HOURS we wouldn't have done that :-/ We didn't get out of Saskatoon until almost 2:00!! Which got us home late. Arlan had a meltdown in the car ... he woke up from a nap and it was dark, he must've been scared so he started bellering. This woke Landon up who also started bellering. We gave them half an hour, and when they didn't quit (YES, this was full volume from BOTH of them) we stopped. I fed Arlan, he was happy and playful ... yay. Landon stopped crying. Then I put Arlan back in his seat and .... *sigh* I cranked up the kids tunes and Landon finally stopped crying (he had his hands over his ears still though!). Arlan kept it up for another 20 minutes, until John had the wonderful idea to turn on the light in the back. Finally - some quiet. LOL
So we got home in peace. Landon was so excited to play with his trains again ... cracks me up. Arlan played a bit, had a bath and went to bed -- in his CRIB! at 9:30. He slept like a champ (all that bellering must've really tuckered him out!). He woke slightly at 4 am, I gave him a soother. Then he woke shortly after 5 and might've gone back to sleep, but my boobs were full so I fed him. He then went back to sleep until 8:30!! Good boy :-D So he's out of our room now -- sad for mommy, but better for all of us I'm sure.

I will post more with pictures / stories when I get them all uploaded etc ...

My little men :-)

Arlan is such a little smiler ... this pic was taken this afternoon just after he woke up. He's usually a bit grumpy when he first wakes up, but very quickly he starts smiling like this and doesn't stop until he's ready for his next snooze!
He's also getting more used to the exersaucer. He grabs at some of the toys and drools all over the place ... good times. This pic makes me think "Yeah, just one minute, I'll be right with you!"

And here's Landon -- wanted me to take a picture of him with monkey. So cute.
He helped mommy make some muffins the other night ... mostly he delights in sticking his hand in the dry ingredients -- probably just to hear me say 'Get you hands outta there!' repeatedely. But the muffins did turn out well :-)



We've had a fairly good week. The boys went to Heidi's Monday night when I played volleyball. Arlan went to sleep SO well, then woke up at 10:30 and I'm sure he was thinking "who are you and WHERE's my MOM!". Actually he didn't fuss and cry too much, but when I got there and was holding him, he was staring at Heidi like she was an alien!! too funny. It took Landon quite awhile to settle in with Heidi's boys - he was scared of Jackson who is 1. Jackson would squawk and Landon would cower ... poor kid. Heidi did a great job of settling Landon in, and since Arlan went down before I left I don't think she had too much difficulty :-/ She offered to watch them again in a couple of weeks, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Other than that, we've been sticking close to home. I haven't done a very good job of putting Arlan into his room for naps. I did a few times, but slacked off today :-/ Last night he had a ton of trouble getting back to sleep after initially going to sleep at 7. I think the night before had thrown him off -- it was midnight before I got him back home and in bed after Heidi's. So he slept with mom ... I was worried he was getting sick, as Landon has a cold and I have a sniffly nose and scratchy throat. But he slept well after ~midnight, waking to eat at 3 and not again until 7 or so. *shrug* Tonight he cried for about 15 minutes and went to sleep - and is doing well in there still. So I don't know ...

We're getting ready for our road trip back to Sk ... leaving Friday noon-ish. I have a baby repositioning class for Arlan's flat head, then we leave. Hopefully the trip goes smoothly, and hopefully Arlan sleeps well while we travel and while we're visiting. I think at the farm he will be in the cmpt room for sleeping (?) - that will be his first nights not in the room with me!! Either that, or he and I will have to sleep downstairs, leaving John and Landon upstairs? We'll figure it out when we get there I guess *shrug*

Anyways ... that's really about it. Just wanted to get some pics up here. Don't know if I'll post again before our travels ... but will try to post quickly while we're in Sask. If not - well, we're back the 17 :-D

Weekend news?

Well, it's been a productive weekend, but not that exciting. John got the basement primed. our next step is to pick out carpetting, so we can pick out paint colours. John will get the sauna built too -- before we paint and install flooring. But it's coming together, that's for sure :-)

Landon's favourite activity these days is doing somersaults. Yup - he does 'em all over the house!! Mostly he likes to jump from the arm of the couch, flip in the air and do the somersault onto the seat of the couch. Gives me heart attacks every time. But he also does somersaults all over the living room whenever we can convince him to clean up his train tracks.

Arlan is a cutie of course. He is napping well in his room in the bassinet. Next step is to move him into his crib for naps, probably start tomorrow. Last night he slept well ... went to sleep ~7:30, got up at 4 to eat. He did stir several times before that, but I just plugged the soother in and he went back to sleep. I'm hoping to get him back to once a night eating if possible ... we'll just see if he co-operates!! LOL

Landon woke up at 1:30 with a horrible cough ... sounding like he was choking so I think it was post-nasal drip. I think that poor kid has inherited his mom's sinuses :-( I gave him Motrin, and laid down with him. He grabbed puppies and snuggled right up to me - it was so sweet - and went right back to sleep. I think he was most miserable just to have woken up. Oh yeah, he had poopy pants too that I had to change, which didn't help matters :-/ But he woke up fine this morning and has been playing his heart out all day, so maybe it won't be too bad?

This fish has been causing some work, of course! We are having to change some of the water every day because it's 'bubbly' :-/ But the little fishie is very pretty and surprisingly social, so I guess I'll labour away at it! lol By social I mean that every time we walk into the room, he swims to the front of his bowl and then swims back and forth like he's saying 'look at me look at me!" Reminds me of Landon!! LOL

Well, that's about it really. oh yeah, I voted as we'll be gone on voting day. And Landon and I planted tuplips in the front bed this morning. Let's hope they come up all pretty in the spring :-)
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....

Starting to roll.....

Well, no more leaving Arlan anywhere elevated, that's for sure. He's starting to roll around that little stinker. This bum shot shows how far over he gets. It's from tonight. By the time he was done rolling he had turned himself 180'!! And was quite pleased with himself too :-)

He's such a little cutie-pie, I just love it. Can't believe how FAST time is going with him though!! I weighed him today and he's 14 pounds, 14 ounces! WOW! I just stopped in at my community health clinic (where I take the boys for shots, etc) and I can weigh him anytime, which is really nice.

We had a pretty busy day. Firstly I asked Landon when he got up if we should get dressed and go to the zoo. His response: "ooooooh, there's gonna be lotsa hippos and rhinocinuses!!!!!" (Him trying to say rhinocerus is priceless...I'm going to try to get it on video because it cracks me up). So we got dressed, did some running around (picked up a small aquarium/heater/rocks/plant via freecycle) and went to the zoo. Landon was so pumped to see the hippos and the giraffes (pronounced girafeeeeees), plus the zebras and lions. I bought an annual pass because I think we'll be going more often now that Arlan doesn't eat 62 times a day. I know it's getting to be winter, but the pass is good until next fall so we'll go all next summer :-)

Landon loved the zoo. The first thing he asked for was a treat ... which is an Itzakadoozie (an expensive popsicle!) ... he remembered from when Allison and I took him to the zoo in August. Then we looked at animals, he climbed rocks and ran around (and around and around). We had lunch, he fed fries to the seagulls and chased the peacocks. Then I sat on the elephant bleachers while he climbed up and down (and up and down and up and down) ... I watched the baby elephant playing in the water and nursed Arlan. Then we left. It was a wonderful zoo trip - so relaxed and makes me want to go again tomorrow!! LOL

Tonight Landon and I went to the pet store to pick up a few more things for the fish now named Thomas (of course!). We just needed a net, and some water conditioner, and I bought a fake plant and let Landon pick out a little ornament thing -- it's plankton from SpongeBob Square Pants. Then we washed out the aquarium and got it all decorated up and put Thomas the fish in there. Looks pretty good - it's the first aquarium I've ever had (just some goldfish in fishbowls as a kids) so I was excited too :-D Now Thomas has a nice new home with more room to swim, some plants to rest on, and some ornaments to hide behind, sitting on Landon's dresser.

Arlan hasn't cried the last couple of nights when going to bed, which has been a treat. Tonight he woke at 10:30 hungry though - which is unusual. I think the earliest he's woken before was maybe 11:30 or so? But he did go to sleep at 7:30, so *shrug* At least he just eats and goes right back to sleep --> PHEW! Maybe he'll sleep through to 5 am or something ... heh heh I know, I'm dreaming, but I can dream right?

Anyways, I should get to bed myself ... having these nursing naps with Arlan in the afternoon has me falling asleep later at night - then getting up to feed Arlan overnight I'm tired the next day so I look forward to and treasure that nursing nap again :-) Vicious circle, but I think I'll just take advantage of those naps while I can!! Until next time...

I got to meet the twins today!

Today I was able to go over to meet Trevor and Wendy's twins ... Evan and Dara. Such sweet little buttons! They are adorable, mom and dad are TIRED! But they are doing well, and hopefully will settle into this parenthood thing quickly. I remember how overwhelmed I was with Landon, so I empathise with them ... but cannot know exactly how overwhelming it is with two!! The little ones were 3 weeks early, so they sleep lots still (have to be woken up to eat). I told them to enjoy it ... in a few weeks they'll wish the babies would sleep so long as to have to be woken up!! LOL Isn't that the way with kids?

We went to a birthday party this morning -- Landon had a blast with all the other kids and toys. He didn't like the clown though - he was scared of them, so he hung out upstairs with the adults and the other little girl that was scared. Arlan was an angel, as usual -- he looked around, had a nap on mom, woke up and ate, then looked around some more.
The best part though -- Landon got a fish as a take-home gift!! He is PUMPED about that fish!! It's one of those pretty long-finny things in a rose bowl (I don't know what it's actually called, I'll have to go to the pet store and learn what we need to do). So we'll put it up on his dresser for him (that's about the only surface in the house that is fully out of his reach!). Of course, now I'm wondering what we'll do with the fish when we go back to Sk for a week in a couple of weeks :-/ Ah, the joys of having 'pets' heh heh

Well, gotta give Arlan his bath and hopefully get him to bed. G'nite!

Random Photos of the boys...

After posting curly hair pics, I had several people recommend to me to 'let the curls be'. Well, this is what we get if we don't comb Arlan's hair into what we affectionately call the 'old man do'. Heh heh His hair is still so fine that the curls don't stick around, but his hair still sticks all over the place. Looks pretty cute actually ... right?




Arlan is now starting to grasp at more and more toys. He's been grabbing the playmat toys for a couple of weeks, but this toy in this pic is the first one he's grabbed that wasn't dangling in his face. In fact, this was the first toy I saw him get really excited for, right from the first time he saw it. (it was a gift from Pam and Glenn and the girls for Landon, so Arlan says "thank you!" again!!). So we play with this toy lots throughout the day.

We're also giving Arlan a different perspective of the play mat by sitting him in the Bumbo to play with the toys. He likes that too for a while, but then he straightens himself out and almost flies out of the bumbo, so we move onto different things :-/ I still have to try putting the play tray that Juli sent on the bumbo, see how Arlan likes that idea.

And Landon still LOVES his trains ... right now he always wants us to play with him, with him directing every single move we make: drive here! no! not there! here! not Percy! Thomas! John delights in either ignoring these instructions or doing the opposite, frustrating Landon to no end. I just do whatever he says until I can't stand the contradictions anymore. Poor kid. I think it'll be good for him to go to a dayhome once a week, he'll learn he can't always dictate play!! LOL

YAY - Arlan's room is finally ready

The poor kid is only 3 months old...but his room is finally 'ready'. Heh heh I got it painted today, and it looks pretty good. A few 'oopsies' in there, but ah well. Good practise for the rest of the house, if I ever get to it. I must say I'll be relieved to get the basement painted, since we'll be doing that before the flooring goes in it'll be 'easier'. I don't know ... I tape and tape and tape, and still get paint EVERYWHERE!!

So that looks good, and I'm tired, but pleased.

Tomorrow morning we're going to a birthday party. I told Landon tonight, he looked at me and said "Ooooh, there's going to be lotsa CAKE!". Then he told me there'd be candles, and happy birthday, and [blowing out candles motion]. Cracked me up.
It's so fun to watch Landon as he's growing. Right now his favourite 'game' is to point to an object and say "that's a ...." where we tell him what it is. That's fine when he's learning new things (like what all the items are in the Canadian Tire flyer, for example), but it gets pretty old pretty fast for stuff he already knows. And if I'm trying to talk to someone or get something done ... well, let's just say my conversations are short and I get very little done, ever!

Arlan's a cutie-patootie, I can hardly stand it. Right now we're working on him falling asleep (and staying asleep) on his own at night. He's been regressing a bit, and some nights I was spending an hour or maybe two to get him down. He'd fall asleep nursing, wake up when I put him down, snuggle in and go right back to sleep when I picked him up, wake up when I put him down ..... repeat endlessly. So the last two nights we've left him to work it out on his own. One of the bloody hardest things to do I think!! *sigh* Last night he cried for 1 hour, 20 minutes!! Good thing I was taping his room for painting, so I was able to keep myself busy. Tonight was much better though, only 20 minutes. We'll see how tomorrow goes. *shrug* All of this and then we'll move him into his crib just to throw a kink into it all :-/ Poor kid. But he's all smiley in the mornings, so it's worth him getting good sleep at night.

Anyways, I think that's all for now. Landon's adorable, I love how he can talk and tell stories. And Arlan just amazes me every day with all of the stuff he's learning. *GUSH* lol Until next time...

Mommy's little helper

Landon has turned into quite the little helper the past couple of days. Last night we made muffins, which he stirred and helped to pour into the tin. And tonight he helped me make mini-meat loaves for supper too ... He pulls his stool right up and gets right in there -- his first expression of interest in cooking (except of course, the chocolate chip cookie dough eating from a few months ago!!).

We've had a couple of days of recovery, so I'm starting to feel better. Tomorrow I will prep Arlan's room for painting on Saturday ... looking forward to that. His room will be shaker beige (Benjamin Moore colour). John is working to get the basement cleaned up - bought a shop vac today to get rid of the blasted drywall dust. I'll be so glad when that's done.

Well, just a quick post. Arlan is starting to fuss a bit - time to get him in the tub! 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!

We survived our first road trip!

First off, here is a picture of Arlan's curly curly hair. This is right after his bath! It's only because we comb his hair (when still wet) that it looks somewhat straight in all of his pictures. But it's CURLY!! Of course, I absolutely love it (coming from mommy with the straightest hair on earth). It also cracks us up because if John's hair gets messy it looks exactly like this :-D

We're back from Medicine Hat and our first road trip with Arlan (aside from the trip to Banff, which was just a day trip). It was successful! YAY
We left Sat morning by 10 am (I know, hard to believe hey). When we arrived in Med Hat we met Dave and the boys at the Med Hat Lodge. John took Landon on the waterslides, which he absolutely LOVED! I left my camera in the room unfortunately, so I didn't get any pictures (nor any video of Landon screaming like a teenage girl) going on the slide. So John and Landon swam and swam, while I visited with Dave (who is lucky enough that he gets to sit by the pool and supervise as his boys slide and swim .... we'll be there too someday ...) and Arlan slept.
It got a bit hairy as we were trying to get everyone over to Judy's for the evening and I was trying to get ready and feed Arlan /pump, etc. But we got everyone there, Arlan didn't starve, and I got to go out with friends!! YAYAY!
I had lots of fun all night (yes, all night ... not much sleep at all for me!!), laughing and just enjoying not listening for baby cries!! John had a pretty good night too -- Landon and Ryder played well, and Arlan wasn't too loud. I guess he showed off his lungs for Dave for awhile, but was asleep shortly after 8 pm. John got up and fed him at 1 and he slept until 5:30 am when I got to feed him. I'm so glad that Arlan slept just fine in his play pen :-D Bodes well for our Sask trip coming up next month!
Landon was super great too ... fell asleep so nicely on his Thomas bed behind the couch in the living room :-) Gotta love that Thomas bed!!!!!!

The next day, the drive home was pretty sweet. Arlan slept the entire way (!!!), and Landon was so tired he just stared out the window for most of it. I just wish I could've slept! lol

But I got some sleep last as Arlan slept pretty well, so I'm starting to feel a bit more recovered. Tonight I play volleyball for the first time in ~ 1 year, so I'll be putting my recovery back a bit though. But that'll be fun too. I hope the boys behave well for John tonight as he'll have to put Arlan to bed again.

That's the little bit of news from here. Oh yeah, Landon peed on the toilet again last night before his bath. So he will do it, he just doesn't take the initiative to do it on his own :-/ Ah well ... it'll come I'm sure. Until next time...



So yes, there has to be 'something' to commemorate the weekend ... in this case it was the 'silly putty incident'. Pretty self explanatory. So Landon got a bit more of a haircut, courtesy dad!! LOL

And we just won't tell Judy what Ryder and Landon were doing in her room ... or even that they were in her room, right?

Three Months - ALREADY!!

Arlan is three months old today. I cannot believe how quickly time is going. With Landon I was always looking forward -- to when he'd bath in a big tub, start cereals, sit on his own, etc etc. With Arlan I just want time to stand still a little bit ... all those things will come I know, so I just want to enjoy his littleness :-) *sigh* (yes I'm sucky today ... even Landon was pushing me away at bedtime because I was too mushy!! LOL).

So we went to the doc today to get Arlan checked out (regular check-up). He's healthy and well. I forgot to ask about his 'flat' head, mostly because it's not that flat anymore. I'm signed up for one of the repositioning classes in October, but I think it's a waste of my time. I wanted to ask the doc about his head and if he agreed we didn't need to take the class I'd cancel out. But now I guess I'll just go :-/ Can't hurt I guess ... and if I get there and they tell me we don't have a problem, so be it, I'll leave early!

The only thing with Arlan is this runny eye. It's his left eye - it's been watering for close to a week. The doc figures it's a blocked tear duct (just like the nurse when I called HealthLink when it first watered at 3 weeks). This is the third time it's flared up, but it could've flared up because of this cold he's had (complete with runny nose). So I'm supposed to massage his tear duct every day as long as it's watery. Hopefully the remnants of his cold disappears soon, and the blocked duct along with it.

Stats: Arlan is 14 pounds, 1 ounce; and 24" tall. This is just above the 50th percentile for both measurements.

Landon is 32 1/2 pounds, and 38" tall. He is at the 75th percentile for both measurements, just like he's been pretty much his whole life.

Tomorrow I will spend getting ready to go to Medicine Hat on Saturday. I am SO looking forward to a night out!! We are all going, John and the boys will spend the night with Dave and the boys at Judy's while I go out with the girls for Tilly's stagette.

Hopefully Arlan and Landon behave well for daddy ... I don't think Landon will be much problem, he'll be so busy playing with Ryder he won't even notice I'm gone (hopefully!). And I've got some milk pumped for Arlan, hope it's enough (there's some ready-mixed formula just in case as well) ... and I hope he does well sleeping in the playpen. The good news is it's only one night, so no matter what happens it'll be short-lived. It's our 'practise' run for a trip to Sask in October!!

Because I'm going out, I had to go and buy some clothes that fit tonight :-/ I found a couple of pairs of pants, but not too many tops that I liked. Limited shopping though as I find it WAY too hard to shop with both boys so I had to go after Arlan went to sleep, which meant I just went to Reitmans by my house. Ah well ... at least I got something so I won't have to wear a nursing top!! LOL

That's the post for 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....

Finally ... some sleep!

Yes, I got some sleep last night. Poor Arlan cried so hard until we put him to 'bed' in the swing. He woke up at 12:30 to eat, but then slept in the bassinet ... and went back to the bassinet after his 5:30 snack too. Thank goodness!!! So I feel much better today.

So good that we managed to keep Landon's hair cut appt. Here are pics of the new 'do. I really like the back. Landon was pretty good at the salon. We went to Beaners again. He was a bit impatient, and there was only one gal working so she was trying to answer phones and sweep up and cut hair so it took some time to get to us. But once she started cutting it didn't take long, and she was good at keeping Landon 'happy'. He was really good until after his hair cut when he wanted to play trucks with another little boy -- where Landon's definition of playing was to want whatever truck the other boy had :-/ So I let him whine it up for about 10 minutes and then we came home.

While Arlan's feeling better today, he's still plenty stuffy and plenty grumpy too. But here are some pics of me actually getting him to smile. I shouldn't say it like that - he's a very happy baby (when he can breath through his nose!!), smiling lots for me. I just never seem to get it on the camera!! LOL But look at those poor red eyes ... poor little monkey :-(

That's the quick post for today...well for this afternoon at least :-)

No sleep for this mama

Arlan definitely has Landon's cold, and he's grumpy as can be with his sniffly nose :-( Poor guy. He was up most of last night. He woke by 9:30, we steamed him and set up the humidifier in our room. He slept from ~10:30 until maybe 1, then off and on til 3, then he was pretty much up til 6 :-( I did catch about 2 hours in little snippets between 6 and 10, as I gave Arlan to John around 8!!

He's been doing ok throughout the day though as we've had him napping in the swing. But tonight ... different story. He was so tired, with red watery eyes, but as soon as I'd try to put him down he'd be screaming full volume. So I put him in the swing. He's sleeping in there now, but I don't know how long that will last. I shut the swing off, so he's just sleeping sitting up, which is probably more comfortable for that stuffy nose. We'll just have to see. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight :-/

Landon's still pretty sniffly, but his energy level has completely returned. So he's just a cold ... no more fever or anything to worry about. And he's been loving playing outside as we've had some warmer temps. This week looks to be warm too - which is great news because .... Landon got a 'new' swingset today!!

John and I have been having this discussion for the past year or so ... I say we need a swingset, he's adamant we're not getting one. Well, the neighbour came over today while we were all in the backyard and said his swingset could either go in our backyard or out to the dump. John couldn't really say no as I was standing right there (he did admit that if I hadn't been outside he probably would've let the swingset go to the dump!!). So we brought the swingset over and Landon's super excited to have his very own swings! Can't say as I blame him :-) So we'll get rid of the little slide/swing thing that we have in the spring and the boys can have fun swinging swinging swinging all next summer :-D And I'll like it because I won't have to go to the park for 'finging' time (that's how Landon says swinging).

Well, think good sleepy-time thoughts for me. I hope I can fall asleep ... I'm in that 'just waiting for baby to wake up' mode :-/ *sigh* Hopefully these colds will pass quickly and we'll get back to some nice sleepy nights.

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!!

I think Arlan caught Landon's cold :-(

poor little sniffly guy :-( he's been sleeping and grumpy all day, and tonight he was REALLY grumpy, and even more sniffly. I don't think he's been up a total of 5 hours all day! We elevated the head of the bassinet, and he's snoozing away already, so we'll just see how it goes. He's also been eating non-stop ... every 2 hours or so ... which I'm thinking is his 3-month growth spurt. I don't know if that would bring on the sniffly-snuffly nose, but it could be why he's sleeping so much. *shrug* We'll just have to see what the night brings. Last night he was up lots, I hope he lets me get some sleep tonight ... I'm tired!

YAY Basement!

Well, the mudding / taping is almost done ... Jeff will finish on Monday. And our basement ceiling will be done tomorrow afternoon. WOWSERS!
So next John will likely put the sauna in, and we'll get the drywall primed in a week or two. After that I plan to paint Arlan's room in preparation for moving him into his crib. I picked out the colours today for his room and for ours (but not yet for the basement, go figure!). So there will be lotsa paintin' going on in our house :-/ But it's gotta' be done. And I sure won't miss the white walls!! Of course, I'll still have plenty of white walls ... the hall/stairs, bonus room, Landon's room, and all the bathrooms. Maybe I'll get to those in the new year.........

Landon's feeling better. Had a good sleep again last night. Arlan didn't of course ... he was up 3 times between 1 am and 7 am!! Yikes! Ah well ...

I got my hair trimmed this morning ... it feels SO good to get your hair washed by someone else, doesn't it? Anyways, I look the same, my hair's only about 1" shorter.

That's the quick post. I'm off to start trying to rid my house of drywall dust :-/

Landon's doing better

Landon's doing much better today ... he slept all night long, and has no fever which is a blessing. I must say, Motrin is an amazing drug. Landon woke from his nap yesterday afternoon very groggy ... he was feverish again, and told me "I sick. I just stay in bed." Given Landon's regular activity level, this was very shocking. So I gave him Motrin, and about 5 minutes later he said he could come downstairs and watch Treehouse. About 20 minutes after that he was full-blown Landon again, and continued until we put him to bed. Amazing!!

Anyways, that's the quick post on Landon's well-being. Just a cold, looks like the worst may be behind us. Phew!

Poor sick Landon :-(

Landon was up half the night with a very sore throat. He woke at 1, then again at 3:30 and was up until 6. Poor kid. At 3:30 he woke up, then Arlan woke up, so we had 2 crying babies in our house. I sent Landon down to watch Treehouse with John while I nursed Arlan, who then proceeded to poop EVERYWHERE! I was starting to wonder what kind of a night we were going to have.
But Arlan ate and went back to sleep. I watched some Treehouse with Landon and then we turned it off. He didn't want to go back to bed so I said 'let's sleep on the couch'. That 'thrill' wore off after him tossing around for 30 minutes or so, and he was quite happy to go back to bed -- of course it was 6 am by this point :-/ Poor guy.
I let him sleep all morning, and he's played pretty well this afternoon, so I'm hoping he just has a cold and nothing worse :-/ He said his ear hurt this morning, and he had a fever of 38.5', but since I've dosed him with Motrin his fever came down and he hasn't complained about his ear. We'll see what he's like when he wakes up from his naps. He'll be due for another dose of Motrin if the pain and/or fever is back.
But this does explain why he's been waking up SO grumpy the past several days ... whatever this is was probably working it's way into him. Usually my first sign that he's not well is when he wakes up grumpy.

Luckily Arlan has been a good kid. He slept in until 9 am this morning, giving me some extra sleep. And he's napped fairly well throughout the day. Still cat-napping for 45 minutes at a time, but he does do that 4 times :-/ Last night I got him to bed a bit late (thanks to Landon's help ... he had a screaming fit that his legs were hurting ... don't really know what that was about), anyways - Arlan had trouble getting to sleep last night, and wasn't down until almost 9. Hopefully tonight I can get him to bed a bit earlier ... I like those evenings with only one kid to contend with :-/

On a different note....last night Landon was running around with no diaper on (this has been a regular occurence at our house all summer). Now, Landon usually has no diaper on and is outside. He's learned to recognize the sensation that he has to pee, and will stop to watch himself pee (whether he's in the tub, or out in the yard peeing in the grass). Well ... a stroke of luck that I just happened to look at Landon sitting on the couch as he looked down and reached with his hand. I was able to very quickly remind him to use his potty. So Landon got up off the couch, over to his pot, sat on it and peed all by himself. He was even fully prepared to take the now full pot to the toilet to dump out -- but I managed to intervene in time. So we put the pee in the toilet, Landon was very proud to flush, and we washed up.
So Landon went on to play some more, with no diaper, because now he's peed (and he pooped earlier in the day), we're fine, right? I'm upstairs with Arlan getting him ready for his bath and I hear Landon at the patio door "MOM! I NEED A DIAPER ON!! MOMMMY!!!!!" This is a sign that he has to poop, so I asked John to go put a diaper on him. Then I hear "It's not a big deal" This is a sign that he no longer needs a diaper on.
Yup - Landon dropped a log out on the lawn :-D Cracks me up ... I'm SO glad it was outside. And I think it's a good sign that he pooped without the diaper, even if it wasn't in the pot, right? And it's an even better sign that I was busy with Arlan so John had to do the clean-up, right? Heh heh
So that's the potty-learning news for now -- yes, potty learning, because apparently it's more of a learning process than a training regime, or so I'm told. Whatever.

Think 'get healthy' thoughts for Landon, and more importantly 'STAY healthy' thoughts for little baby Arlan....

Well, the mat clothes have left the building

Mom has told me that by doing this I've guaranteed myself to get pregnant again, but .... I have sold my maternity clothes (the winter ones anyways) and they have been mailed off. I love ebay :-)

This morning was a bit hairy around here, but this afternoon I'm hoping for a bit of peace. I just put Landon down for his nap, and hopefully Arlan has a nice nap too. I wouldn't mind some quiet for an hour or two :-/

On the bath front -- the last 2 nights Arlan hasn't screamed when he came out of the tub. The difference? I didn't use any soap :-/ I don't know if it's soap in general, or the type I was using. Tonight I will try a different kind of soap, see if that's makes a difference or not.

other than that -- pretty quiet around here. Until next time.....

Landon Logic?

I must admit, 2 year-olds can be logical when it comes to this English language. Landon looked at the picture of him mopping and said "Landon brooming" I giggled and said "Yes, Landon is mopping." But I got to thinking .... why is it mopping when we use a mop, but sweeping when we use a broom? I think Landon's got a point -- if you are using a broom, you should be brooming, not sweeping :-/ Or maybe brooms should be called sweeps if you prefer it that way. Either way....*shrug*

Just a thought...

Loving the exersaucer

Well, at least tolerating it!!

This is a picture of Arlan's first time in the exersaucer ... He's still in there actually, just a cooing and gooing and drooling all over it. Pretty darned cute I think. Also a good way to keep him upright (for that flat head thing).

We're having a good day. I had to have some bloodwork done this morning - we waited for almost 2 hours at the clinic! Ugh. Luckily I was smart enough to take Landon shopping while we waited (I was number 150, they were serving 113 when I got there) ... he got a new 'monster' truck and a story book to keep him occupied. Arlan was good as usual, had a snooze (that 45 minute cat-nap), and then sat on my knee and watched Landon play.

John finished dry-walling the basement last night. Tonight our mudder/taper is coming and should get started! YAY I can't wait til he's done ... I'm going to CLEAN my house top to bottom to get rid of this flipping drywall dust. Yuck!

That's the quick post for this afternoon ... I'm off to mop my floors while Landon's still snoozing ...

Just a quick post

Things are good here today. Arlan has been studying his hands at every opportunity ... who needs toys???? Cracks me up. He watches his hands even while he's nursing LOL
Now if only Arlan would remember his wonderful napping habits :-/ He has little cat-naps throughout the day ... gone are those glorious 2 or 3 hour snoozes. For now anyway. I will keep trying :-/ At least he goes to sleep well at night, giving me time with Landon.
Landon has been pretty good. He imitates every damned thing we do, that's for sure. He dropped his first F-bomb for me the other night (that should surprise anyone who knows my potty mouth). I was feeling guilty ... letting a few too many slip. Then he said F off ... I don't say that ... so I have my suspicions that he's learned more than just how to hammer a nail while helping daddy in the basement heh heh. Ah well ... I completely ignored what he said, which is the advice I've been given to do in those situations. We'll see if he repeats it, or if he drops it from his vocabulary.

Landon's so cute ... he just climbed up onto the chair behind, then said "mommy ! mommy!" and leaned around me to give me a kiss. Of course, since I started typing that sentence he fell off the chair and screamed blue-bloody murder :-/ Poor kid. I guess it's time for bed.

Until next time....

Arlan had a big day :-)

Arlan realized this morning, for the very first time, that he has FEET! We were hanging out in bed (b/c I was too tired to get up yet) and all of a sudden he saw his little feet wiggling around. How fascinating! He watched them for several minutes, while John and I watched Arlan watching his feet :-)
Then he was playing on the playmat and grabbed the little octopus. This is a big accomplishment for him too - he hadn't yet actually grabbed a toy (he's been batting at the hanging toys, but no grabbing). He hung on for dear life, all the while checking out the baby in the mirror hanging there. heh heh

One thing I can't seem to figure out with him is his issue after baths. Arlan loves his bath, he's smiling and cooing and talking the entire time. Then when I pull him out he screams ... sorry to say it ... like a little girl! You know ... that high-pitched, OMG you're killing me kind of scream. I have no idea why. One night he didn't, I don't know what I did differently. *shaking head* If anyone has any ideas, let me know. I've tried not washing his hair, washing his hair, carrying him facing out and facing in when I take him to get dressed, longer and shorter bathtimes, different types of towels... Tomorrow I will try no soap at all to see if that is bothering him. *shrug* Once we get him dressed, he usually calms right down, and then we get him ready for bed (nursing and off to bed). He responds so well to the bath otherwise, always ready for bed afterwards too so I want to keep it as part of his bedtime ritual (unlike Landon where the bath always got him revved up :-/ ). I'll just keep trying, but I might stick some earplugs in for future baths.

It is pretty cute when I pull him out of the bath (before the screaming starts). He has discovered that baby in the mirror too. So I just hold him standing up while he smiles and talks to that other baby. Cracks me up. I just love watching him learn all of these things. Soon he'll sit in the Bumbo longer and then I'll put him in front of our mirror for awhile and he can goo and gurgle to his heart's content!

We sure had a sleepy day today (must've been all of Arlan's learning). Me and the boys all slept for the entire afternoon!! Arlan went to sleep ~1:30. Landon went to bed at 2:30, fell asleep around 3. Arlan woke up at 2:30, so I crawled into bed with him to nurse him back to sleep. I fell asleep with him, and we all got up at 6:00!!!!!!! That was despite John working in the basement and making gawd-awful noises too. We must've been sleepy is all I can say.

It was nice to have Arlan sleep that long. He hasn't been napping as long in the afternoons these days ... I think he's transferred that afternoon sleep to the evenings, as he's been going to bed earlier for me. Can't have it all, right? But he is falling asleep on his own for his naps and at bedtime, which I like. He even had his morning nap in the crib yesterday (usually we're out at the park or whatever in the mornings). His afternoon nap is in the bassinet, and today most of it was in bed with me (he was soooo sweet, snuggled right up to mommy!). Then he usually has a cat-nap right around the time we're eating supper, lately that's been in the swing.
After supper we bathe him, listen to him scream, nurse him and he goes to bed. He wakes up twice overnight to eat ... usually 5 hours between meals (i.e. if he nursed at 7:30, then he wakes ~12 or 12:30, then again at 5 or so). And we've been waking up for the day at 8, which isn't too bad. He's happy when he wakes up in the mornings now (before he used to wake up cranky and hungry, it was a rude awakening for this mama, let me tell you!), so we have nice morning times before Landon wakes up. Of course, Landon still keeps rock-star hours (I'm putting him to bed when I post this), but it does give me a chance to have one-on-one time with both boys throughout the day. Hopefully we'll get Landon's schedule moved up a bit too, now that mom is out of bed in the mornings :-/ Heh heh

Anyways, that's enough about sleep -- what a sleepy day! LOL Until next time...

Of course, Arlan's amazing too :-D

our little munchkin is growing and learning so much! He can sit up in his Bumbo already, although he doesn't enjoy it for too long yet. He's also learned to blow 'spit bubbles' -- there are some in this pic, but don't know if you can see them.

Right now his favourite is on the play mat, looking at himself in the mirror. Landon loved the octopus, Arlan loves the mirror. If he's fussing, that's the place that will calm him down. Sometimes he'll be squawking when you put him on there, then he catches site of himself and calms right down - cracks me up.

Arlan also loves his bouncy chair. He checks out the little bears that hang on it (or the shapes on the bouncy chair upstairs), and coos and talks. He has been talking lots - telling plenty of stories. He smiles all the time for mommy too. When he wakes up I go in to get him and once he sees me his whole face lights up and he squirms and puts his hands to his mouth. I love it!

I think he may be a thumb-sucker some day if he ever finds it. He always puts his hands to his mouth, and will even push the soother out to get his fingers in there. But when he's falling asleep he still likes the soother (likely because I swaddle him so he can't get his hands to his mouth!! lol).

Speaking of swaddling - he's learning to sleep with his arms out. Not by my design, but because he gets his arms out himself. Last night he had his arms out within an hour of going to sleep for the night, and he slept like that for 4 more hours. But when I tried to leave one arm out of the swaddle when putting him down for a nap yesterday it was unsuccessful. So I'll still swaddle him to put him down for now, he'll have to keep working his arms free himself ... for a week or two more anyways :-)

And I think his flat little head is rounding out ... we haven't attended a positioning class or anything, I think it's just rounding out because he's moving his head around on his own when he's sleeping, plus he's spending more time upright with us while playing, or moving his head around on his own while playing. So I don't know if I'll worry about going to any classes anyways (they're full at this point, so I may not have a choice). We'll see what the doc says at his 3-month check-up on the 18, but I just don't think it's going to be a concern.

Anyways, that's the news for the second amazing Keller-baby :-)

Landon is Amazing!

Of course Landon is amazing, aren't all parents' children amazing?? Maybe I should say Landon is amazing for me to watch as he learns so many things.
These days, Landon has so much fun reciting the letters wherever he can find them. He can sing his ABC's, has been able to for awhile now. But now he recognizes the letters wherever he sees them and takes great pleasure in reciting them all. He gets G and H mixed up, but those are the only ones usually. He is starting to learn the 'small' letters too (he recognizes the capitals only at this point). I think the fact that he knows his alphabets and recognizes letters is pretty amazing, though :-D

Landon also jumps on one foot. He will show off this new feat to anyone who will watch. Of course, this shouldn't be that surprising, given how much he loves to jump!! LOL Makes me giggle to watch him do this though :-)

Landon also has a very annoying voice that he enjoys using. For anyone who's ever watched MADtv, he sounds like Stuart!! So in order to save our sanity, we remind him that he needs to kick his foot out (like Stuart does) whenever he uses this voice. It usually gets him giggling and he stops whining -- meanwhile John and I are laughing at his antics -- so it's a win-win situation.

Other big things Landon is learning to do -- he can wash his hands by himself (mostly he loves the soap part of washing his hands ... ). He helps mommy by fetching baby blankets and towels and soothers and all sorts of things. He reminds mommy whenever Arlan's crying to "plug in the soosie, the crying stops!". He cracks me up when you ask him if he wants something by replying "Oh! Sure!". Yesterday we saw a big semi truck, he's babbling in the backseat and says "Oh look! A big semi truck! That's NEAT!". Landon also always wants to direct our driving ... "not that way, this way!" I keep reminding him it'll be 14 years before he gets to drive, but he doesn't care, he keeps telling us where to go (literally!).
And we have to be oh so careful of what we say these days. Landon walks around saying "oh my bloody gawd" a lot. He also says "Drive my NUTS!" and "no whining/hitting/throwing" right after he's whined/hit/threw something.

So that's a little bit of info about Landon. He will be 2 1/2 years on Sunday ... hard to believe. *shaking head* I can still remember the ride home from the hospital with him...thinking "now that was fun, but do we have to take it home??" LOL Ah well...

Here's your happy post Nikki ;-)

It's already SEPTEMBER???!

aiaiai...where does the time go?

Well, Saturday night Arlan certainly didn't go to sleep so nicely as I was hoping. It was a frustrating night to get both boys to sleep :-/ Last night wasn't much better either. Both nights Arlan didn't settle for the night until after 10! He just gets my hopes up with an early evening and then BLAM! 2 late(r) nights in a row!! LOL Ah well, we'll just keep on keepin' on.

Landon hasn't been feeling that well the past couple of days. Nothing specific nor major, just waking up kind of cranky, and he's been telling us his neck hurts (pointing to his throat). But once he's up for awhile he's back to full-speed ahead. Hopefully this is as bad as it gets, I don't want a sick kid ... not yet anyways, I know they'll be enough illnesses throughout the winter months!! But we'll just have to keep an eye on it, and have nice quiet days.

Yesterday I went shopping for most of the day. But I didn't buy much :-/ I got some nursing tops for these cooler days (now that it's fall - man, ALREADY!). Then I looked for warm fleecy pj's for Landon -- I guess they don't exist (or else the stores just don't have them out yet). So I will go back to ebay. Ebay is much more enjoyable than the mall on a long-weekend rainy day just before school starts as well :-/ Luckily I had left Landon home with John and so it was just Arlan and I. He was a trooper - although he didn't nap that well while we were out (which may explain his super-fussy evening last evening). Today we were at the park for Arlan's first nap, but he's snoozing peacefully in the bassinet for this afternoon's nap! And hopefully Landon starts snoozing soon too ... He has SO many trucks in bed with him, I don't know if he'll ever fall asleep!

So that's that. Not too much excitement here. Just hanging out close to home...........

Oh yeah - we're working on getting Landon more interested in potty training too. Yesterday he wore a pull-up (in the evening), and he even pulled it down, sat on his potty, and pulled it up by himself (no pee that time though). He also sat on mom & dad's toilet (with the big fancy seat) and peed a little too (with mom's help, otherwise he'd fall into the toilet!! LOL). So we're working on it ...

Sleeping Stuff...

Well, we've figured out how to get Landon to sleep under covers. We blew up his Thomas bed, and now that's where he wants to sleep. Since there's a blanket as part of it, he'll sleep under that blanket. Just now he was playing on his bed with his trucks, getting ready for naptime. He must've gotten sleepy because I just went by his room and he's crawled into the Thomas bed, and even covered up with the Thomas fleece sheet he has in his room. So much for that twin bed!! LOL To think Ricki gave that bed to us as she wasn't using it, and now Landon is using it full-time! aiaiai I'm not sure he'll want to move back into his twin bed (what he calls the 'hard' bed now). It's been up since Thursday afternoon, and he's slept both nights and all naps in there since. I don't know if that's the best bed for him, but I guess we'll go with it for now :-/ Mom suggested telling him that this bed is for special times only, and in a few days I may just have to do that. But for now it's just neat to see him crawl into bed when he's tired and fall right to sleep.

And Arlan slept really nice last night. Gotta love it! He fell asleep after his bath, ~8:30. He slept until 3, ate and went back to sleep until 9 am! And not a grunty, stick-the-soother-in-to-keep-him-sleeping type of sleep ... nice, quiet, mom's-sleeping-soundly-too type of sleep! YAY I think it's to do with him getting simethicone the past couple of days ... he's not as gassy, and when he does need to fart it's not as difficult to do. Good thing!

So hopefully tonight goes as smoothly. John's going out, so I'll get both boys for the night and for putting to bed. The evenings are the most difficult it seems, Landon wants attention and Arlan's somewhat fussy and tired but doesn't always fall asleep so nicely as last night. But I'll have to get used to it, John's gig schedule is filling right up - already 3 gigs for Sept. I'm just looking forward to starting v'ball (late Sept) ... one night a week out! YAYAYAYAY!! lol

Arlan didn't develop a fever last night at all either, so no more Tylenol for him. If anything, I think he reacted less to these shots than Landon did. *shrug* Maybe the steady Tylenol the first day held off any reaction he would've had. I'm just glad those first shots are over with.

That's the scoop from here for today...

We survived the shots...

Arlan is a trooper, making it through his shots. He sure bellered though, and for those that have heard how strong his lungs are, you know just how loud he was!!! Afterwards, I was nursing him and the nurse sat beside us to review some information...he gave her quite the look -- like "YOU are the mean one! Back away...back away very slowly...keeping your hands where I can see them!!" Heh heh
But he hasn't had a bad reaction so far. We were advised to give him Tylenol every 4 hours for the first 24 hours due to Landon's history of febrile seizures. But last night Arlan slept so well that I didn't wake him for Tylenol -- he went for 8 hours between doses and was none the worse for wear because of it. I did check him several times while he was sleeping, but he had no fever at all so I wasn't worried. And tonight he has no fever either, so unless he gets one shortly I won't give him Tylenol before bed at all.

Stats: He's 13 pounds, 3 ounces, and 23 5/8" long (weird b/c at his 6 week check the nurse measured him as 24"....I think she must've read her tape wrong :-/). So he is growing just as he should...~ 1 ounce a day.
He nurses a lot faster than Landon did, finishing a side in ~10 mins or less, so it's good to see such solid weight gain. And if he could sleep as well as he did last night every night, we'd all be better-rested!!! LOL I am giving him simethicone again to help him fart easier in the hoped he'll wake less often overnight...hopefully it helps. I asked the nurse yesterday...simethicone isn't absorbed at all so it's very safe to use; and it certainly does seem to help.
Oh yeah ... he has a flat head on one side, and his right ear is slightly forward on his head :-/ He's always had the flat head...I think from being squished in the womb. But the nurse was concerned and suggested we take a 'positioning class' to help his head round out. Of course the classes are all full -- must be lots of kids with mis-shaped heads out there. It's called positional plagiocephaly, and if not corrected the shape could become permanent. I'm not overly concerned at this point as Arlan is starting to sleep more on the other side of his head, and he's spending more and more time upright or with his head in varying positions when he's playing. His neck is getting a lot stronger too, so he can turn his head easier. But I guess it's something we'll have to watch. After Landon's perfectly round head this seems a weird problem to have :-/ Hopefully it rounds out...otherwise they'll want him to wear a helmet ... at $3000 each!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways...that's the news on Arlan today. He's pretty precious, and I'm proud of how well he screamed at the nurse for poking him (and for how quickly he stopped crying afterwards too).

Potty news...

Landon has been peeing on the toilet the past couple of days. He likes to do it because he gets to flush the toilet afterwards (it's like he pees just to get to flush!). But I don't particularly care. I'm going to try putting him in some pull-ups and put a smaller seat on the toilet with a stool in front so that maybe he'll try it on his own? He may be one of those kids that doesn't like the little pots and goes straight to the toilet, who knows?! Or maybe this is a 2-day thing and it will end now that I've gotten my hopes up.

The other news on that front: Landon was running around naked last evening (like usual!), and all of a sudden he says to me "Need diaper on! Need diaper on!" So I put a diaper on and he pooped. I had asked if he wanted to poop on the pot but he said no ... just to give him the option. But I was pretty impressed -- shows that he recognizes the sensation of having to poop, and the need to do it somewhere specific (versus just letting it fly). So that's a good step too.

So maybe now that we're company free, we'll spend some time focusing on the potty ... maybe. I do have gotch for him too, which I may just bring out to show him what he can wear when he starts peeing on the potty regularly.....maybe. heh heh (I sure hope I haven't jinxed this just as it was getting started...)

And one more thing -- Landon now has his last 2-year molar. Phew! Again, we'll be done with Landon's teething just for Arlan to start in upcoming months....Ah well.

Visit from Aunty Yvonne and Uncle Greg

Aunty Yvonne and Uncle Greg were up for the weekend. Landon had fun showing off for them, mostly his whining voice and unpleasant behaviour :-/ But I guess that's a 2-year-old!!

We had a good weekend though. Saturday we went out to Olds to the birthday party - Aunty and Uncle spent most of the time chasing Landon around, the other portion of their time was spent 'dancing' with Arlan. I'm so thankful they were there though as I wasn't feeling very good, firstly with a major headache, and then some stomach upset. All of it went away over the course of the evening though (mostly when we got in the car to come home actually), which is good. I was worried I was getting mastitis again :-/

Sunday was a quiet day as Yvonne and Greg visited some of Greg's relatives, so I had the opportunity to take a nice nap with Arlan. Sunday night we visited some more, and then Monday morning they were off.

Sunday night we also had Jenay for the night as she was on her way back to Korea. It sure is good to get the chance to visit with her on her arrivals and departures ... I don't know when she'll be back next so I'm happy to have seen her several times over the summer. Visiting is hard with 2 young kids, but at least it's adult conversation that doesn't revolve solely around the kids (like mine and John's conversations most of the time!!).

So this week is quiet thus far. Just trying to sleep as Arlan has been a gassy pants, waking up a couple of times a night :-/ I'm just keeping my chin up, thinking 'maybe tonight he'll sleep better'. He's getting better at napping throughout the day though - I'm learning his 'tired signs' and what to do to help him relax, and he's falling asleep on his own in the bassinet for naps in the afternoons. In the mornings I try to get him outside, and he's napped quite well in the stroller while Landon and I go to Superstore, or the library, or just to the park.

I bought a new stroller last week. After having to carry Landon half the time while we were out n about with Allison, I invested in a Baby Trend sit & stand stroller. I bought it through craigslist (gotta' love that site!!). I LOVE IT!! Landon refused to sit on the 'old' stroller in any way (which I don't blame him, it's meant for only 1 rider), but he'll sit and sometimes stand on this one. It looks normal at the front end, but behind the main seat there's a bit of a 'jumper' seat where Landon can sit facing backwards, and there's a small deck for his feet to rest on or he can stand on that deck and face front. There's full seatbelts and a belt for behind his back if he's standing. It's lighter than the Graco, and it's easier to maneuver (although it's harder to 'tip up' to get the front wheels onto the curb, just because it's that much longer). I haven't put it in the trunk of the car yet ... hopefully it fits well. But let me tell you - I'm loving that thing and am no longer concerned about longer walks where Landon may tire out. Now we'll just go for walks and he can ride if he wants to.

I'm not looking forward to Thursday -- Arlan's 2 month shots :-/ We've finally just gotten through having to get Landon shots so frequently, and now we start with Arlan. Poor little stinker! Hopefully he won't have any bad reactions, and will actually be *like* his brother in this way (Landon would get slightly fussy, but usually some Tylenol was all he needed). At least it's on Thursday evening, so if we have some bad nights we'll be into the weekend and John can watch Landon while I nap with Arlan if needed.

That's the news for now ... until next time....