Fun in the Snow

Yesterday we woke up to a wintery wonderland, and went outside to enjoy the snow and nice temperatures. Landon thought it was pretty fun - moreso than he found the snow to be all winter I think! He had a blast playing at the park. Yes, he climbs up that play structure all by himself (we stand close by just in case, but he makes it up there himself).

Back from fun in Edmonton

We made it back from Edmonton - it was a FUN trip! We went up Thursday afternoon, got home yesterday afternoon. We spent Friday at the waterpark in West Edmonton Mall. Landon liked the kiddie pool the most there, but wasn't too fond of the waves in the wave pool. Mostly he hated the fog horn that sounded to indicate the waves were coming. He would scramble into my arms every time it went off. Poor kid. But by the end of the day he was ok with the waves, as long as all four limbs were clamped onto me as tightly as possible. LOL

We met up with Rhonda & Clay, and their kids Bailey (almost 7) and Drew (3 1/2). They played very well together - Landon loves so much to have kids to play with. When we got home yesterday, Landon was very excited to see his toys and his dad and be home again -- but he kept calling out "Drew! Where are you? Come play trains!!". It was pretty cute.

And it was great to see Rhonda and Clay again - it has been FAR too long!!! Considering this is the first time I met Drew...aiaiaiai! Of course, we don't get to visit that much running after 3 kids, but at least we got some visiting in.

Landon traveled well too. We slept together in the hotel room bed, which was adventurous for mom, that's for sure. He's such a squirmer! And he took forever to go to sleep - I think he was so excited to have me there (to beat on and drive his trucks on, etc) that he wouldn't go to sleep. And once asleep he was very restless which didn't help me sleep much. But overall I would say he handled the traveling very well - and has allayed my fears of traveling with Landon and staying in hotels ... it's not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. But only for a couple of nights - I need my sleep too! LOL

Today we woke up to a wintery wonderland. We went to the park and played in the nice white snow, and it's still flurrying a bit here. I don't know if that's supposed to continue or not - maybe we'll have snow tomorrow to play in too.

Swimming is FUN

Landon definitely loves the pool! Not the swimming lessons part, but the time afterwards when he can play! He was fussing all through swimming lessons - wanting to play with the boats, and in the bubbles, and do everything except what we were doing. But once we got through lessons, he was very happy to play in the toddler pool - for an hour!! LOL It makes me think that Friday at the waterpark in Edmonton should be a ton of fun.

When we got home, Landon had a sandwich and then almost fell asleep on the couch. So I carried him up to bed - he hasn't been so co-operative to go down for a nap for ages! LOL But it's been a good nap, so that makes me happy.

Tomorrow Landon and I are headed to Edmonton to visit with Rhonda. I'm very much looking forward to that - it's been far too long since we had a chance to visit. And I know Landon will love the waterpark on Friday.

I found the camera today (it was in the bag with our pool gear...), so here's a picture of Landon in the tractor with Grandpa at the farm last week. He was pretty concerned about the whole thing when he first went in there, but once they got going Landon enjoyed himself.

we DID IT!

Yes! We got a full night's sleep :-) Very very happy mommy, much better rested Landon.

I think it was a full combination of things; moving into a bed, having a mouth that hurts (so much that he won't let me brush his teeth), and getting cold at night. Last night he did cry out at about 1:20 am, but he went back to sleep without me going in there, so that's great news to me. He slept until about 9:30 this morning. Tomorrow we'll be up earlier to go to swim lessons, and so I'm hoping we keep wake-up time by about 9 moving forward.

Landon was a very good and patient boy today while I had to sit in a waiting room for an HOUR to complete my glucose - pregnancy test (to check for gestational diabetes). Poor kid - I had promised him walking through the mall, but I guess I had to sit there to get an accurate reading. There was no Treehouse (or any tv at all), nor any story books, so it was a pretty boring hour for Landon. But he managed to entertain himself (and most people waiting) and we got through it. I was very proud of him for being such a good boy - even though he ran into the reception desk and gave himself a goose-egg (I think goose-eggs will be a big part of Landon's life, at least for the next several years!).

And we have some travel plans for later this week - Landon and I are going to head up to Edmonton to meet up with Rhonda and her kids for a couple of nights. We will do the water park at West Ed Mall, and do whatever else meets our fancy. I'm looking forward to that as I haven't seen Rhonda for YEARS! aiaiaiaiai
I learned while looking at stuff in Edmonton that Body Worlds will be on exhibit there from June 13 - Oct 13. I would like to go to that again - we'll have to see how this baby #2 behaves and maybe try a trip up there towards the end of the show. I don't know if Landon would like it much - so maybe we'll have to see if we can convince Grandma to come too or something. We'll have to see, but I'd like to see it (this is Body Worlds 1, I saw Body World 2 in Toronto a couple of years ago), and I think John would find it interesting too.

Anyways, that's the story for today. Happier mommy, better sleeping Landon (let's hope that continues). I hope our trip doesn't jinx this sleeping thing - but I figure I'd better get this trip in now as I won't be going anywhere for awhile after #2 comes along (not a trip like this anyways). And since he's in a bed, he can just sleep with me now which will hopefully make it easier too. As long as puppy blanket is there that is ;-)

He may be cute, but...

Landon has certainly been trying our nerves these days! It doesn't help that he's waking up all night long, so we aren't as rested nor as patient as we sometimes can be. But let me tell you -- aiaiai -- is this what all 2-year-olds are like? If so, I cannot believe that there exist any siblings with a 3-year age difference .... who would be thinking about having another when the first one is acting like this!!!!!?????

He hasn't been feeling well -- feverish since last Wed although that seems to be calming down now (we haven't had to give him Motrin today at all). And he's getting these frickin' 2-year molars which must be like somebody drilling in his head or something the way he's carrying on. The bottom 2 have come through already, so I'm thinking the top ones must be that much worse (???). Add to that moving to his bed from the crib (which he was so ready to give up, or so we thought). aiaiaiaiaiai He wakes every night at 2:30, sometimes just for a minute or two, sometimes for a couple of hours. Drives me nuts, and I know my patience had worn right down. I'll be so glad for a full night's sleep.
And of course he's more difficult than ever to even get to sleep at night - given that he can climb out of bed sooooo easily. Plus he fights going to sleep ... last night he was on his tummy, up on his hands, he couldn't even open his eyes anymore he was so close to sleeping, but he was still swaying there until finally he fell over and stayed asleep. Reminded me of a kitten before it's eyes open, with their big heads all wobbly on their legs.

So sleep hasn't been easy and it hasn't been plentiful. The only consolation is a great nap in the afternoon - for Landon and me usually. *sigh* Hopefully he's getting past this illness / teething pain thing, and will get more used to his bed and we will all get back to sleeping again - at least until the baby comes.

I'm off to bed now, for a couple of hours sleep before he drives me nuts in the middle of the night again. Wish us luck....

Catch-up Post

Well, it's been awhile - we've had a couple of crazy weeks. As you can see, Landon's birthday party was a big success. He was very excited - so excited that he refused to nap that day. Then he was up in the middle of the night looking for his new loader tractor. At one point our bed consisted of dad, loader tractor, three other smaller tractors, Landon, and mommy!! Finally he made it back to sleep, much to everyone's relief.

Monday (Mar 10) Landon went to Grandma and Grandpa's -- riding in Grandpa's new 'noisy' truck. He was good for the whole trip (except for about 15 miles before Swift, but they stopped in Swift and all was well again). Landon had a BLAST at the farm -- riding in the grain truck, in the front end loader helping Grandpa move some wood around, and sleeping in a big boy bed! Yup - that's right. Grandma moved Landon into a bed for his week at the farm, and we haven't looked back since!

John and I had a great week out in Banff with Carla and Dave (pics to come soon). Then I went to the farm to get Landon -- spent a couple of days out there as well. We went to Kyle for Kyle's birthday on Sun (16), which was a lot of fun. Aunty Vonnie and Landon had a snooze together, and Landon played very nicely with some cars and trucks aunty had for him.
We came home on Tuesday, and again Landon traveled very well. When we pulled into Medicine Hat he was already asking for french fries...and I hadn't even turned off of the highway yet! LOL But he got some fries and we ran around the mall for awhile. When we went through Strathmore I stopped for ice cream cones too, and Landon devoured his with very little drippings ... attesting to his love of ice cream!! About half-way through his cone I hear from the back seat 'Thank you mommy!' :-)

Wed morning we went to swimming lessons. At first Landon wasn't too sure of the water, but he warmed up to it fairly quickly - especially when he got to jump from the side of the pool in to mom. He thought that was absolutely fantastic! LOL He squealed and smiled and jumped jumped jumped. After lessons he swam for another half an hour in the toddler pool, playing with the boats and just generally loving the water. I'm glad I got back into swim lessons with him - he loves the water so much and we just haven't swam much all winter.

We had a chance to visit with Kirby and James on Thursday morning before they flew back to Winnipeg. It was so nice to see them - it's been WAY too long!!

And now Landon is sick. Poor kid. He spiked a fever Wed evening, almost falling asleep on me after supper (VERY unusual for this energetic little rug rat). Thursday still miserable and feverish, Friday too. Today - not quite as bad, there's been no need to give him Motrin so far anyways. I'm not sure if it's an ear infection, or if it's just his teeth bothering him. He got his two bottom 2-year molars, and I think one of the top ones is working it's way through now too. Poor kid!! The good news is that these are the last ones for him, thank goodness!! Hopefully they'll all be through shortly and we can go back to peaceful sleep.

Sleep - yes Landon is in his big boy bed. We even took his crib down the other night. He has been sleeping in there pretty well. I fell asleep with him a few nights, but last night he went to sleep on his own, and for his nap today as well. So I think we're well on the way to him being comfortable in his own bed...with his very own Thomas quilt (very important). It's nicer for me too when putting him to bed. At least now I can lay beside him to read stories and sing songs (Froggie Went A-Courtin' is a nightly request).

So that's the update for now, I will post more when I get the Banff pics uploaded, etc. Happy Easter everyone!!

Opening birthday presents

Landon got a new tricycle from mom & dad for his birthday. He had discovered it in the garage before his birthday, but finally we let him ride it. He even likes his 'hat' (helmet). Notice the gorgous Thomas quilt he's riding on -- that was a present from Grandma and Grandpa (homemade) and is now on his big boy bed :-)
Taylor is showing Landon how to play with the new Thomas magnet book that she brought him for a gift. He loves that book. Almost as much as he loves the Happy Birthday Thomas book that Taylor also brought for him (THANK you Taylor and Eastynn, and Nikki & Fabian!) ... we read that book several times a day, often over and over and over again...
Grandpa brought Landon a new loader tractor - and that was a definite hit. He had to help Grandpa get all that packaging off, and he's been inseparable since then. That night Landon was climbing out of his crib at 2 am crying for the tractor!! *sigh*
Opening the tractor
Opening more gifts on the beautiful Thomas quilt. I love this quilt!

Happy Birthday my big boy!

Here is Landon on his birthday -- nice face hey?? LOL Gotta love it.
Saturday March 8 we had a birthday party for Landon. Here he is admiring the 'crackle' on his cake (he was WAY more excited about the candle than he was about the cake....hmmmm...maybe next year it'll just be an icecream cake! LOL)
Landon's friend Taylor was here for his birthday party. They played very nicely together, and ate their lunch together too, which was very nice.
Grandpa and dad brought Landon a Thomas balloon in the morning - it was a BIG hit. When you hit the balloon it played a happy birthday song for him.
Here's Landon blowing out his candle. He really did blow, but mom ended up having to help him get it out ( to save the cake from getting too full of spittle!!).

Birthday suits can be so much FUN!

Landon has been loving running around naked the past days. He even wanted me to take his shirt off in the store on Sunday - stinker!! And once we get the shirt off, then he wants pants off, then he wants diaper off....

Last night he spent a fair amount of time naked without accidents. Until he was sitting on me while I was sitting on our bed, of course. But we got that cleaned up without too much trouble.
The troublesome one was when he went to bed. At some time between going to bed (and crawling out of bed 4 times) and falling asleep Landon stripped down. Then he went to sleep. Then he peed. John found him sound asleep, curled up in a ball, cold and wet everywhere. So we had to get him dressed and change the bedding - poor Landon was so upset at being woke up. For a kid that takes to long to fall asleep, he sure is miserable if you wake him up again!!! Poor guy :-( I felt bad for him. But maybe, just maybe, he'll keep his clothes on when he goes to bed now!! LOL

He was very good kid this morning - I had running around to do and he was so well behaved. I don't even take the stroller anymore, he wants nothing to do with it. But he is pretty good when we go shopping. I let him spend about an hour in Toys R Us too, which helps. He checked out Thomas stuff, and ride-on toys (I was there to buy a bike helmet to go with his birthday tricycle this weekend), and all the Tonka trucks and loaders and tractors, and balls and cars. It was a pretty busy trip, but I managed to get away with only a bit more than I went in there for ;-) Then we stopped at Michaels to return some stuff and he was good there, and then we spent some time in the dollar store getting party supplies and he was really good in there too. I was so impressed. Makes life a lot easier when Landon is behaving.
Although I almost missed the naptime window this afternoon - he was out of the crib 3 times before finally sucumbing to snoozer-time. Thank goodness, I like the downtime.

That's the news for now...

Dr Appt went well today

Landon is getting soooo big... makes me amazed and somewhat sad that he's getting so big! lol He's 35.5" tall, and 30 pounds! So that's about 75th percentile for height, 85th for weight (which is somewhat surprising since he's such a wiry little bugger! There isn't much fat on Landon, that's for sure. But he is very strong, which is where the weight is coming from I guess *shrug*
So he's doing well. He still has a bit of an ear infection, so he has ear drops for the next 5 days. Hopefully he'll be fully recovered to go to Grandma's house! Poor kid. He still hasn't been acting like he's in pain - he does pull at his ear a bit, and he wants a soother all the time, and he's been chewing on his fingers alot -> all of which I thought meant he's teething (I hear horror stories about 2-year molars!). But maybe it's just been his ears.

And I'm doing well, and baby #2 is doing well. When the doc was listening to baby's heartrate, s/he didn't like it too much. They moved from one side of my belly to the other, and when the doctor followed with his heartbeat-hearing thingy, the baby kicked him and moved again! LOL Fiesty little bugger already!! aiaiaiai

Last night Landon was a very good boy for his babysitters. John and I went out for dinner with some friends, and they're kids looked after Landon for the evening. He didn't even cry or fuss when we left. But those poor sitters - they were pretty tired by the time we got back from dinner! LOL He even tires out the teen-agers that kid! I was very glad that he was so good, hopefully we'll get out a few more times before #2 comes along.

I'm getting geared up for Landon's birthday party on Saturday. We're hoping Nikki, Fabian and the girls are able to stop on their way through to Edmonton. Plus Aunty Trish will be here, as will Grandma and Grandpa. I know Landon will be very excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, that's for sure. I haven't even mentioned that they're coming yet - he gets so worked up!! LOL I'm picking up the Thomas cake pan tomorrow - then the fun will begin :-/ Ah well, I'm sure it will work out just fine.

So that's our news for today...

poop on pot...

...and pee on floor.

Well, hey, what can a poor kid do?

Landon was pretty good tonight - he of course wanted to run around naked, so we kept asking if he had to pee or poop. He came over to me holding himself, so I said "do you have to pee?" 'no' "do you have to poop?" and he ran to the pot saying 'poo poo! poo poo!'. Then he sat down and pooped! Good boy!! But he still had to have his diaper off. So he would be playing, then say 'pee pee' so we'd take him to his pot, and twice he peed a bit, not lots, but some. YAY! We celebrated (and cleaned the potty for the second and third times :-D). He's still running around naked. Then he sits on a kitchen chair, doesn't say a thing, and we hear what sounds like water running ... *sigh* I think he gets so excited when he starts to pee on the pot that he doesn't relax to let himself finish. So I took him to his potty and sat him on it, but of course he was now completely done peeing. So I just said to him 'that's okay, you missed the pot this time, but we'll do it next time' and John cleaned the floor ... and we put a diaper on Landon (of course, after he's had his accident!! LOL We likely could've left him diaperless for the rest of the evening with no more accidents! ) But all in all, I think it was a good night ... he's catching on, and it is the most action we've had for a few weeks on that front.

We had a wonderful weekend with Uncle Bob, Aunty Rosemary, Juli and Lilja. What an incredibly good little baby!! Wow! Sleeps wonderfully, eats wonderfully, and is SO cute to boot! A real little angel.
We didn't make it to the Home and Garden Show yesterday, like we'd set out to do. Instead we did some shopping for fabrics, I got Kyle's b'day gift, and we stopped at e-Children (which I'd been wanting to do since we moved here!). By then it was time for lunch and we came home again. It was a fabulous day - I really enjoyed the shopping, and it was a real treat to get to eat in a restaurant, without Landon (Landon went with Uncle Bob and John to the motorcycle shops).

Today we relaxed, did a few errands, but nothing major. Just a nice quiet day at home. Tomorrow night we're out for dinner with some friends while their daughter watches Landon for a couple of hours ... hopefully that goes well. Tues is doc appt for both Landon and I (his 2-year check-up! I can hardly believe it!!). Wed I pick up the Thomas cake pan for Landon's b'day cake, and then the final preps for Grandma and Grandpa's visit as well as the making and decorating of Landon's cake for the rest of the week. Should be fun - we are very much looking forward to it!