Rub a Dub Dub my Big Broder Washed me in the Tub

Hayden is such a big helper. I can not say enough about what a great big brother he is. He wakes up so excited to see Landon. Wants to be right in his face; touching and kissing all over him. He talks to him and makes him smile. He loves him so much. Not one bit of jealousy or ill will towards him at all. Haven't heard "take him back" yet. He gets upset sometimes when Landon has to take a nap or go to bed. He wants to be around him; plain and simple. I do think the newness of diaper fetching has wore off as he doesn't really want to do that anymore. He is now asking to help with feeding him bottles and cereal, bathing him and burping him. I am trying to absorb all this brotherly love because it won't be long until I'm hearing "He took my toy, he hit me, he won't share, he's touching me"

Maybe it's Potty Time

A few months back Hayden took it upon himself to try out the potty. I had one sittin inthe basement and he wanted to sit on it and viola he went potty. I thought we hit the toddler jackpot and that he was pretty much going to train himself. Just wake up and Hello potty Goodbye diapers. For several days he would occasionally pee on the potty and then poof. His interest just vanished. Well for the better since I was still adjusting to bearing the title of mommy of two. In all honesty it is so much easier to just change a diaper. Not to have to repeatedly ask "do ya have to potty" or "it's time to try to potty now". repeated trips back and forth to the potty. Changing pants and underwear (or underpants) as he calls 'em. Having to sit on public toilets and have pee pee treats readily available. We were at the zoo and Hayden peed on the potty then asked for his pee pee treat. Uh oh. I forgot 'em at home. I went to the souvenir shops scattered throughout the zoo but no candy as it attracts rodents and varmints as the worker explained. Well as I explained the crisis the middle aged man said "here", and reached into his pocket to pull out a breath mint. Okay that should work. I handed it to Hayden who took a bite then spit it out. "Too hot, I can't like it" Hopefully I didn't just teach him to accept candy from strangers. Fast forward two months and we are trying again. Got some good pointers from Aunt Andrea and her successful approach to potty train Addison. Sticker board. check. Pee pee treats easily accessible at all times. Check. Pull ups. Check. Real underwear. Check. In addition we added a treasure chest full of treasures. Once he gets a row of stickers he gets to pick a treasure from the chest. So far this is working well. He usually is only having one or two accidents a day and having successful trips to the bathroom. He does not want to use the kid potty. He wants the big potty. Big potty it is. We are just going to take it one day at a time and not really force the issue. If he wants to potty great but I figure he will figure it out when he is ready too. It's not worth tears and a power struggle. He has no interest in going potty in the morning when he wakes up and you know what? It's okay. It's not like he's 25 his 2.5 years old. They already grow up so fast why rush it.

Stewgy

Little Facts about our Landon aka Stewgy

4months old

weight 15 pounds

length 25 inches

head circumference 43.5cm

Interests: Watching his big brother who can get a smile so easily, his hands at 4months, his feet a week before 5months, rolling over, sitting up or standing on our lap, learning to eat cereal, baths, being sung to (particularly Old Mcdonald and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before bed), cooing, squealing

Dislikes: sleep, poly vi sol vitamin, nasal aspirator, laying on his back, car seat

I got a Friend in You

Landon and Avery

Nana & Boogie

Looking back on my child hood some of my favorite times were spent at the babysitters. Jeannie and Donald Sherrard or known to us as Nana and Boggie. They kept me and Jilly and Mason. I remember loving Nana's cream of wheat and to this day not being able to get it to taste just like Nana's, her Nestea which has never tasted good since then, hot dogs with mustard and carrots and ranch (still love em to this day but substitute the mustard for ketchup), setting her afghan on fire when trying to run my finger through a candle flame like my big brother did. Not sure how he did it when I was younger so I slowly ran my hand through the flame and boy did it burn causing me to knock the candle over which landed on the afghan sitting in the couch. Boy how that could have had a disastrous outcome, burning my face with her iron, playing with "chico" the Pomeranian, the black stool that we all sat on, the bozo show and of course the soap Santa Barbara. Those days were so much fun. My mom enrolled me in preschool where my best friend Rachel was going thinking I would love spending time with her. But after only a few days I made it quite clear that I wanted to be at Nana's house.

We all try to make time to visit with Nana and Boogie and normally it coincides with the Christmas Holidays but as we have all grown older and started families of our own it seems harder and harder to make these visits occur. Well we all were able to visit last year which was a first in along time. This year Mason wasn't able to get there but Mom, Jilly, Hayden, Landon and myself managed to take a trip back to our babysitters. Hayden loved seeing the dogs (not Chico) but still a Pomeranian and he also got some up close and personal musical lessons from tapping at the piano to picking on a steel guitar. Nana was getting her hair done while we were all downstairs listening to some music and watching a man show off his talent where you could see despite his Alzheimer's he still had his skill for that old steel guitar and you could see the pride in his eyes as he showed us some of his prized guitars. We had a great time visiting and hope to do it again next year. Maybe next time I'll have to have a big glass of nestea despite my not liking sweet tea anymore. Hoping my kids get the chance to have somebody make such powerful memories with them that they can pull up one day and smile just thinking about them. That's what Nana and Boogie did for me.

One of His New Favorite Foods

Raisin Bran, Fruity Pebbles, Captain Crunch, Kix, Rice Crispies... you name it, if it's cereal he's eatin' it and drinkin' every last drop.

Learning by Imitation

Having a two and a half year old around sure does give one an accurate view of themselves. Sometimes this is what it takes to get a glimpse of some not so good attributes one might have. I have learned a few things about myself from watching Hayden model myself.

1. The word stupid is a very ugly word. I didn't realize this until it come from his mouth. It has now been removed from my vocabulary. Apparently this was a name I had called Linus a number of times.

2. I talk baby talk to Landon and therefore Hayden speaks baby talk to his brother. We had been calling Landon stinky and now Hayden has made up his own pet name for Landon, now known as "stewgy". Don't really know what this means but Hayden's been calling him this for weeks now and it gets a laugh from Landon every time.

3. I give Hayden choices to help him feel like he has a say in things. Such as do you want beans or mac and cheese for dinner, your bed or secret bed for nap, diaper or big boy underwear. You get the idea. Well now he thinks it's important to give us choices such as Daddy weed eat or cut grass, sleep on Mommy's bed or couch. He sure is learning fast.

4. I spend alot of time pumping. This is what I found Hayden doing today......

He told me he was pumpin milk for baby Landon and actually had the flange attached to his belly button with the pump turned on.

LAK 19 weeks Old

A Budding Photographer?... You Decide

Today we went to a nearby park with some good friends, both mine and Hayden's. We had a nice lunch, fed the ducks and then the kids played on the playground while us girls and infants sat under the cover of a shade tree. It was the perfect spring weather minus all the pollen aggravating every one's allergies. As I was packing up, after spending nearly 4.5 hours there, Hayden grabbed my camera (as usual) and took some photos. He loves my camera and I really don't mind him playing with it as it is not my super nice camera.... it's just a little samsung point and shoot. These are some of the pictures he took without any help from me. Not bad if I do say so myself .

Picnic In The Park

Connor (aka Baby Connie)
Erin and Aidan

Me and Landon

Me and Hayden

Aidan, Hayden, Landon and Connor

The Zoo was A Zoo

Well we have dusted off our zoo membership and have already been twice in the past two weeks. The fist time was with Dede and I thought that was a challenge trying to figure out how to manage two kids with two adults but that was a breeze compared to last weeks trip. Headed out to meet a friend, Erin and her two kids, Aidan 3, and Connor 11 months, only to get a voicemail saying they may not be able to meet up with us. My mind begins to panic. Can I really juggle a toddler, infant, stroller, cooler and diaper bag all by myself. I turn down the road leading to the zoo to see cars backed up for what appears to be miles. Both main parking lots are full and I am able to secure a spot in the bus/RV parking area. I knew it was spring break and a sunny beautiful day. I expected crowds but nothing like this. It literally was a zoo! After parking I realize it is time to nurse Landon but he is sound asleep in his car seat. Hayden is bouncing up and down in his excitement to go see George (as in Curious George who lives at the zoo from our latest nighttime story) So I figure I might as well go ahead and nurse Landon in the car instead of waiting til we are in the middle of an animal exhibit and have to try to nurse in the hot sun covered up blindly shoving his face into my chest trying not to flash everyone. I unbuckle Hayden and gave him a toy to play with in the backseat as I sit in the front trying to nurse a sleepy infant as the cars continue to file in. Hayden proclaims that he has a wet diaper and I look into the back seat and he has taken off his pants and is proceeding to take of his diaper. NO! I have no idea what's in his diaper and I can envision the contents of a two and half year olds diaper being smeared all over my new cars cloth interior. I have Hayden climb up front and proceed to get his clothes back on. Erin calls to say they will be able to come and will see us in about 45 minutes. Yeah! We finish up; I get Landon in my maya wrap and Hayden in the stroller. We wait in line and then head to see some of the exhibits close to the main entrance. We ride the merry go round and then head back to meet Erin. Poor Hayden is getting restless, Landon is getting hot as its 80 degrees and he's baking in the maya wrap with his big bald head absorbing all the bright suns rays. So Hayden gets out of the stroller to walk and Landon gets in the shaded cooler confines of the stroller. My back thanks him very much. As much as I love my wrap it is not designed for hot summer days walking for hours. So off we go to take in the sights and smells of the zoo. I had planned to only be there for maybe 2 hours tops but 5 hours later Hayden is asking me to carry him. He says he's tired and so I am holding him and pushing a sleeping Landon in the stroller. I bid Erin ado and off to the exit we head. Off course Hayden's legs can go no more when we are at the back of the zoo at the bottom of a hill. He was so tired but had such a good time all day and both boys were excellent. I get to the main entrance and we wait in line to get a refill on our drink. Actually not even a refill.... we were just wanting ice water in our cup which they have given us countless times before. Well not today; the day we are most in need of it. "That'll be $2.99" What?! $2.99 that is what they charge for soda, not tap water in a cup I already paid for. No thank you I say and walk away in search of the water fountain. After quenching our thirst we make it to the car. I get Hayden in and roll the windows down and open all the doors to cool it down. I hop in and START the car. Nope, that's how it SHOULD have gone. But the way it went was I TRIED to start the car. Click, click, click is all I hear. Great! The battery is dead. I call Jeff who starts to talk in a tone that I don't really need or want to hear when I am stranded after being at the zoo, the super crowded zoo, with two kids for 5 plus hours at 80 degree temperatures. I tell him I will call my dad to come rescue us and sure enough he did. Isn't that what dad's are for? Turns out when Hayden climbed up front to get his cloths back on earlier in the day his hand hit the overhead light which ran the battery down.

Hayden kept asking me while we waited for my dad if the car key was broke. In the few times I have driven our new car I have managed to drive the rear door into the side of the house, drop a shovel on the newly repaired door that was just repainted from the side swipe of the house. I also have lost the keys at the local kids gym and then the next visit there I couldn't get the car to start but it was something to do with the steering column. Pretty soon I think Jeff is going to limit my transportation to a bike and helmet at the rate things are going.

Gone Fishin'

On the weekend of my birthday, Jeff, myself and the two boys, loaded up and headed to Northern Kentucky to celebrate Keith's birthday. When we arrived Matt and Brooke were there with Baby Blake who technically is no longer a baby since he celebrated his first birthday just a week or so before. It is amazing how fast they grow and especially that first year. It was a beautiful spring day and before the rest of their guests arrived we headed to the neighbors that have a trampoline. Hayden lost interest in the trampoline fast as he had spied a pond stocked with an assortment of fish. Jeff and Hayden headed down to the waters edge and father and son did a little fishin'. He was mesmerized and loved every minute of it. The little two year old boy watched as his dad taught him to bait a line. The little warm curling on the hook as they cast the line. Over and over and never did he bore. A neighbors grandson was fishing with them and happened to catch a cat fish. Hayden was impressed to say the least. You could see his little swagger as he walked feeling much older than his 2 1/2 years. Me, being the typical over protective, overly anxious mom had to hold myself back from releasing the hundreds of thoughts racing through my head.... watch out for the tree root, don't trip and fall into the water, watch the hook so you don't cut yourself, ohh no your getting to close to the waters edge, oh Jeff you almost hooked your son as you cast the line...... and so the thoughts kept coming but I was able to keep them to myself except to just tell Jeff to watch out that he doesn't fall into the water as the scene plays out in my head. There were no injuries, no hook in the eye, no toddler falling in the murky water. It was just a purely innocent, sweet moment between father and son that I was privileged to watch from a distance. To think I was almost too lazy to walk across the street to get my camera and capture these moments. So glad I did.

Afterwards the guest started to arrive and Hayden had fun playing with the neighborhood kids. Landon not so much. Anytime Madison, a tween neighbor, would hold him, speak or even glance his way he would turn up that lip and start to wail. He really just did not like her one bit. I'm sure when we visit next time he will be all about her and maybe give a smile and coo in apology for his previous behavior.

I was surprised to see that Emily even had a cookie cake made for Keith and had my name on it as well since we share birthdays. That was super nice and boy did it taste good too!