Hips are just fine :-)

We saw the doc this morning, and the x-ray results for Arlan's hips show that he is just fine. The doc checked for clicking again, and there isn't any. So our little monkey is good good good.
Landon's excited, I bought him the Wall-E movie after the doc appt. Well, I really liked the movie too, and so we're going to watch it together ... plus we'll take it to Grandma's house this weekend and he can watch with her too.
I also bought Landon a second bed rail -- we are hoping to move his bed more to the middle of his room so we'll need a rail on both sides. It's just too darned drafty under that window! Although Landon has been cold enough to actually sleep UNDER blankets these past weeks ... but I'll still prefer the bed away from the window.

That's it, that's all, until we get back from Saskie ...

Getting ready...

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

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

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

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

Monday update...

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

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

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

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

the boys

Here's a picture of Arlan snoozing in the swing. He was happy sitting in here, watching me make supper, listening to music. Then his eyes got heavier and heavier ... until I looked over and he was snoozing -- so cute, I just love it!

Landon was having fun playing static with dad ... John would cover him with a blanket, then flip it up off his head, and this hairdo was the result. It was pretty funny, and Landon was giggling the entire time!

FIVE months old ... already!

Here's a pic of me with my boys from yesterday ... actually got Landon to sit with us (pretty impressive ... he's usually moving FAR too fast for us to get a pic of him!! LOL).

And a pic of me with my little stinker ... he's so cute!

And Arlan sitting up on his own. This was on Tuesday (his 5th month birthday). He was falling over by the time I got the camera, but he is starting to sit on his own for short bursts (30 seconds to a minute). Can hardly believe it. He's getting SO big :-D

Chewing on the links is one of Arlan's favourite things. You should see how excited he gets when I pull those things out!! LOL

And just a picture of my smiler. Again from Tuesday -- exactly 5 months old. He is such a smiler all the time :-)

Tuesday tidbits...

Not much news, but thought I'd post a quick one waiting for Arlan to wake up from a nap. I've certainly discovered that when John puts Arlan down for a nap, Arlan sleeps longer! Weird ... but true. When I put Arlan down, he naps for only 45 minutes or so. When John put him down, he sleeps for 1 1/2 hours! I like it when John puts him down!! LOL Yesterday Arlan refused to nap all afternoon, so was up from 1:40 until 6 pm when I put him to bed for the night! That is the longest he's ever stayed awake (I can't say he was completely content / happy the whole time, but for the majority of that time he was pretty good). Then he slept from 6 until 3 am (John plugged the soother in twice ... at 6:45 and 8 pm, but that's it!).

So maybe this solids thing has some merit ... his longest awake period and his longest sleep period happened after his second feeding of cereals. He has eaten fairly well. I don't think he was quite as hungry as Landon when we started him (he sat there like a bird with his mouth open, we couldn't feed him fast enough, and he ate aLOT right away too), but he's getting ~ 1 Tbsp down per feeding, with not too much of a mess :-)

Landon's imagination is in full swing these days. All of his toys have brand news uses. I love watching him play and make things up ... it's very pleasurable to watch, as well as purely entertaining to see what he'll come up with next!! He is also loving the foam blocks that Aunty Yvonne and Uncle Greg gave him for his first Xmas ... they get build into many many things these days -> mostly bridges and tunnels for his trains to travel through (and around and over). But he also loves when John or I stack them up and he can smash them down.

I'm slowly recovering from the painting weekend :-P I played v'ball last night, so now my right shoulder is really tired!! LOL It sucks getting old(er). But that basement looks so great, I absolutely LOVE it!! John was also pleased to take him first sauna on Sunday night - so that thing's getting some use now.

Anyways, it's time to put Landon down for his snoozers, so I'm off. Of course, when I told him it was time for a snooze, he said "yes, let's go to the ZOO!" Not quite the same......*sigh*

Arlan's getting SO big!

Here's a cute picture of Arlan, practising standing up with dad. He is all smiles when you help him stand. John even had him 'walking' yesterday -- my heart leapt into my throat when I saw that.

Notice John's nice painty-pants? Well, that's because we got the basement painted this weekend. It's been a long weekend, but it's completely done! YAY Very exciting. Now we're waiting for carpet install (scheduled for Dec 4), then we'll put in the bathroom pieces (toilet, sink, vanity, ets). We are hoping to get light fixtures up maybe even before the carpet is installed .... it's really coming together nicely! I can hardly wait to move the toys down there!!! LOL

OMG - FIRST CEREALS!!

We fed our little Arlan his first taste of rice cereal today. I am so excited, and happy, and sad at the same time. Little stinker is growing up WAY too quickly for my liking.
Anyways, he rather liked the cereal. He liked the spoon more I think. But he ate about 2 tsp of cereal altogether. Then he looked like this:

These are the pics of his first spoonful. Do you think he was ready to try some solids, look at his face when I was getting it ready for him. I also love Landon - he's in there like a dirty shirt, checking out that action!! LOL He didn't stick around long, I think by the third spoonful he'd decided it wasn't that exciting after all.

Pics of Arlan ...

Here are some pics -- I was noticing we haven't posted any for awhile.
First we have Arlan playing in the Jumperoo. While he does like this thing, he isn't as enamoured as Landon was...but he will play in there for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. He likes the music part, and being upright. But he really doesn't jump too much ... yet.

Arlan is learning to roll around to play. Many times I put him on the play mat one way, to find him switched completely around within a few minutes. Particularly to get to his favourite toy of the day, which recently has been the rainbow (seen in the background), and this sea horse in the picture.

Arlan finds dad's watch to be quite interesting too. This is a toy that Landon played with plenty at this age, and Arlan has now discovered it as well. I was trying to capture his look of concentration, but the darned kid kept looking up and smiling!! LOL

And here's a pic of Arlan on his first walk facing front in the stroller. It was a windy yucky day, so we didn't last long at the park. But I've since taken him on several more walks like this, and he likes being able to check everything out. Makes the stroller a bit lighter too, which mom likes :-)

Stats and stuff...

Well, Arlan's growth has definitely slowed down! He's 16 pounds, 2 ounces ... only 3 ounces gained in the past 2 weeks! Of course, I had the flu in there which likely impacted that a bit. But I discussed starting solids with the nurse, and I think we'll give it a go on the weekend. Start with some rice cereal. Makes me sad -- my little man is getting bigger (too big too fast!!). Stinker. But maybe he'll sleep a bit better?
He did sleep well last night though, after getting his shots. I gave him Tylenol, he woke up once to eat (woke another time and a soother put him back to sleep). He was up at 5:30 playing for about 20 minutes until I soothered him, then again at 6:30 and John soothered him about 6:50. Then he slept until 8:30!! YAY Mommy needed that 'sleep in' again ... trying to recover from that danged flu!

Arlan's hip was also cracking, so the nurse urged us to make an appt with the doc. We went to he doc this morning, and have been referred for an ultrasound. It might be a shallow hip joint, which could cause problems in the future (dislocation of hip), but it's easily cured if detected so young ... therefore the ultrasound. Because it hasn't been noted before (and it's checked at every doc appt and when he gets his vaccinations), the doc thinks it might be just the knee clicking, which isn't serious at all. But since we can't tell for sure, it's better to be safe than sorry. So we're waiting to hear when the ultrasound appointment will be. Hopefully before Xmas.

The rest of us got flu shots too - the first time for us. But after that bout last week, if I can prevent even one flu I'll be pleased!! Landon didn't even flinch at the needle. He watched mommy and daddy get a needle, then picked his bandaid colour (yellow, not blue!), and got his needle.
But Landon sure has been crying lots. He cries whenever Arlan makes a squeal or a squeak. So annoying for us. I've been telling him that if he doesn't like the sounds Arlan makes, he can go play in his room by himself. So far, he's managed to tolerate Arlan's sounds since that came into effect :-/ Silly kid.

Anyways, that's the news here. I'm amazed to be watching Arlan playing in his exersaucer right now. For a kid that never used to be able to stay up for even 2 hours, he's going on 2 1/2 here and completely happy. but Landon just told me to "start paying attention to [him]", so I'd better go. Until next time....

4 month shots coming up today...

We made it through another day with Landon not being sick. His appetite is slowly coming back, but not nearly as ravenous as usual. And while he does have periods of active play throughout the day, it's not nearly as active as before, and he then needs to spend some time on the couch recovering. But all in all he's on the mend ... it's just taking him a bit longer I guess. I will be glad when the poops firm up though .....


We get Arlan's 4 month shots today. At 5:40 pm. When I made the appt he went to bed between 7:30 & 8. Now I've usually got him in jammies and am settling him down for the night at that time :-/ We'll see how it goes -- he'll be plenty tired I'm sure, poor thing. But we'll just get him home and get him to bed and see what happens. I will likely have to do the Tylenol every 4 hours thing again (to protect against fever since Landon has a history of febrile seizures), but he's been waking frequently enough to feed that that shouldn't be an issue. He did let mommy get some sleep last night, although he was awake for about 45 minutes at 5 am!! He just gooed and giggled in his crib for about 30 minutes, then he started fussing so I went in and fed him and he went right back to sleep - thankfully until 8 am, so I got to 'sleep in' this morning (never thought I'd see the day when I said sleeping until 8 am was sleeping in!! LOL).

Anyways, we'll post some stats when we get 'em today. I'm going to phone to see if they'll even give Landon a flu shot, since he's just recovering from a flu. Likely not, so he and dad can stay home and chill out. I think I will get a flu shot if I can though ... if I can avoid another flu this winter I'll be pleased. But I need to check if they'll even give me one, since I was just sick as well :-/

Until next time....

scary squeaky door!

Forgot about the scary squeaky door....

Last night I played volleyball (and was it GREAT to get out of the house!). On my way home I called to see how things were going. Well, it seems that Landon was snuggled into our bed because he was so scared of the squeaking door! When our front screen door isn't latched, and the wind hits it just right, it squeaks. John didn't know this though - so he hadn't been able to locate the squeak for quite some time ... giving Landon enough time to work himself into quite the fright!! Poor kid! LOL That imagination is kicking into overdrive.
So I got home, pulled Landon out of our bed and we went and showed him how the door squeaks when not shut tight, and then we shut it tight and the squeaking stopped. Still Landon was pretty scared, so he snuggled back into our bed while I showered. But after that he was ready for sleep and happily went back into his own room -- PHEW! I thought I was going to have to sit in his room until he fell asleep, but he just snuggled into bed and said 'leave the door OPEN!' like he does every night.

So that's the story of the scary squeaky door. Makes me giggle a bit, and a bit sad because our little Landon just keeps on growing - this imagination that he's recently developed if proof of that.

and the toy battles have begun!

Landon is finally feeling better, although he is still not the energetic little firebomb we're used to. He's pretty quiet most of the day, he'll play for awhile, then hit the couch for awhile. But he hasn't thrown up since Sunday, so my hopes are up that he's beat this bug and is now just getting his energy back. He ate well yesterday, but hasn't eaten well today. His tummy is still a bit sore I'm thinking....But we made a trip out of the house this morning - to the grocery store - with no major calamities (i.e. no puking, no peeing pants, and only a minor melt-down at the check-out when I wouldn't let him have smarties).

And the toy battles have already begun! I thought I'd have a few more months of peace!! LOL Landon has been loving all the toys I've gotten out for Arlan - playing IN the exersaucer, and stacking rings, and loving that ever-lovable giraffe. Well today Arlan was getting him back, by snatching a piece of train track!! LOL He was happily slobbering all over it and Landon was near tears because his poor train track was 'broken'! Thankfully mom was able to come to the rescue, giving Arlan a different piece of track to drool over and fixing Landon's bridge. Poor Landon -- he's going to have some lessons in patience and sharing over the upcoming months (actually, mommy is going to have the lessons in patience, I'm sure!!).

Well Arlan is just as adorable as ever - gotta' love that little stinker!! He was busy oohing and gooing in the grocery store today - I love it! (And with Landon decreased energy levels, grocery shopping wasn't all that bad). I'm just hoping for a dual nap this afternoon as I'm still super-tired (I can understand what Landon's dealing with in recovering from this flu bug). Yesterday I got a nice sleep in ... let's hope it repeats!

spoke too soon :-(

Poor Landon was sick again last night ... threw up in his bed. So he got to sleep with mom again - poor dad gets stuck on the futon! Hopefully tonight Landon can sleep in his own bed, and hopefully we'll all get better sleeps!! He was fine the rest of the night and is back to 'normal' this morning -- maybe not quite as super-charged as usual, but is playing and bugging us again!

Arlan woke up lots to eat last night too, which makes mommy tired today. But I guess I'll just keep plugging away.

That's the tidbit for today...

Finally - healthy again!

Landon and I have been down with the flu since Wednesday morning .... YUCK! I woke up about 2:45 am, Landon at 6:30. I was pretty much done with the disgusting stuff by 8 am or so, and spent the rest of the day in bed (John stayed home from work). I just nursed Arlan and slept as much as possible.
Poor Landon however, he was throwing up most of the morning, then again throughout the evening and overnight. Thursday he was sick in the morning, but then seemed to be on the mend. But Friday night he was sick again about 5 times :-( Poor kid. Every time he had to puke, he'd cry so hard and say "No puke! I don't wanna puke!!" I think he thought our putting a bucket in front of him caused him to puke. I tried to explain to him that there were bad germs in his tummy and his tummy was getting rid of them by puking, but he didn't care to hear about that.
So Landon slept with me Wed night and again Fri night ... aside from the waking up to catch his puke all night Wed, I must admit I enjoyed snuggling with him all night long. That's not to say that I want him to get sick like that again anytime soon! Yikes.
We were actually quite worried about him last night as he hadn't peed all day, and when I phoned HealthLink they wanted us to take him in to the hospital. I requested that the doctor on call call me as well - he did and recommended we wait until morning. I'm glad he said that, because of course Landon got up and peed :-) So we didn't have to take him in at all ... thankfully. Although I was plenty worried when he started up puking again last night. And of course, John was playing so I was home alone with both boys :-/

Arlan has managed to avoid catching this one -- thank goodness!! I attribute that to breastfeeding -- gotta love me protecting him through my milk! He was SO good too when we were focusing on Landon...he slept so well when Landon wasn't sleeping so well. Of course, Thursday night Landon slept really well and Arlan was up all night. But I can handle that!
John also avoided this flu too ... which is good because he's been busy taking care of us! LOL

So that's our news - not much of it, but at least we're recovered. Landon has recovered now I'm sure - he was full throttle tonight!! Which is a relief - and tiring! I liked the past couple of nights when I put him to bed and he went to sleep! Last night I was advised to keep pushing fluids on him, so was actually trying to keep him up to get him to drink more! Very unusual situation for us... By 11 pm Landon was so tired he was refusing the drinks and just going to sleep! Poor kid ... after he puked in his bed I moved him to mine and let him sleep.

So, I'm off to bed to hopefully get a good night's sleep tonight. John let me sleep in this morning, but I'm still exhausted. Hopefully tomorrow will be less tiring ... less cleaning up of pukey things for sure! Until next time...

Not so much news...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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