Landon Turns One

On Sunday, we went down to Scottsburg to celebrate my nephew Landon's first birthday. I cannot believe it has been a year since he was born. It seems like just yesterday that Jeremy was calling me from the car (racing down the highway) letting me know they were on their way to the hospital, with Jaime screaming in the background. I always say if Jaime could go through childbirth naturally, anyone can! I, never intend to, unless absolutely necessary--meaning I have no choice!

Little Landon is so adorable and toddling around everywhere. It makes a baby seem so much older instantly when they begin to walk. After opening presents, with a little help from big brother Lucas, he got to enjoy some birthday cake. What a mess! But he enjoyed it (of course, he's his mother's child) and it was so cute to see him eating his birthday cake.

I'm probably the only sad to see the babies growing up. It's exciting to see them grow and watch as they learn new things, but I love babies and it's the time that I treasure, knowing I'll never get it back again. Nate kept standing up all night, for several seconds at a time, and it was so exciting. Michael and I would clap and he would get so excited, so proud of himself and he had to just keep trying. So I know it won't be long before it's his first birthday and he's walking around. Amazing how quickly the time goes by! Guess I better start planning his party now!

10 Months

Nate is 10 months old today. I cannot believe in just 2 months he will be a year old. Time goes by too quickly. Nate is quite the silly little man. He is beginning to have a great sense of humor, sometimes it is hilarious and other times not so much. Like when it's time to change his diaper, he thinks it is the funniest thing to roll over and crawl away. The more I struggle with him, the more he finds this task entertaining. But I have to laugh, because no matter how frustrating this is, he is still adorable. He thinks it's funny to bite your toes...or the dog. To pull all the paper out of the waste basket, to unroll the toilet paper, and to slam cupboard doors. I'm amazed at his memory too. He always knows right where to find Sammy's food and water bowls and I think he waits for moments he doesn't think I'm looking and takes off for them. How does he remember where they are? It seems to be his new favorite past time, playing in the water bowl. He still loves watching tv and I worry about how I am going to stop that before it becomes a problem, oh wait, it probably already has.

He's doing about the same at night, usually getting up around one time to eat (any time from 3am to 5am), but there are those occasional nights that he seems to get up every few hours. I think the quality of sleep he has during the day is a definite factor in how well he sleeps at night. He's still eating stage 2 baby food. He refuses to eat more than a few bites of stage 3 before acting like he's going to gag to death, which I know he can handle because he chows down on crackers and teether biscuits. He's funny about textures though, and I think that's the problem. If it's hard and crunchy, he likes it. If it's soft and slimy, he doesn't want anything to do with it. I've tried pancakes, eggs, jello--without any luck. Although I did get him to eat mashed potatoes the other night. I will just keep trying in hopes that one day he will just decide to start eating real food.

As the one year mark approaches, I look forward to it for a few different reasons. I can switch his daycare to the part time daycare. This will give us more flexibility. [On a side note, we've decided to stop the one day a week daycare for now. It was supposed to allow me to sub one day a week, but I am not getting the jobs like I thought and so we are paying for daycare we don't need. And two, the last time I dropped him off he clung to me and didn't want me to leave. If I don't want to leave him either, then why are we doing this?] He will also be able to go to classes that he can't now because he's not old enough. The gym and the library have programs but not for his age group. So I am excited to be able to start doing things like that. But I also dread it. That one year mark changes him from being my baby to being a toddler. I don't know that I'm ready for that step yet; I need more time with Baby Nate!

Playing Catch-Up: Doctors, Labor Day, Injuries...

I'm sure there's going to be a ton of stuff that I forget to write about. I really need to start doing this when things happen or on a regular basis. But oh well, this is how it goes. I really don't know how time passes by so quickly, but before I know it the day is done and my to-do list is longer than when I started.


Nate had his 9-month check up at the doctor. He's 23lbs 10oz and 30 3/4" long. Yep, still big. Shocker. He's in over the 100% for height and 90% for weight. So I guess he is slimming down some. Everything else looked good. The doctor is not concerned with his pooping (or lack of) as long as he is not in pain when he goes. This is still a hard one for me but I am going to have to deal with it. He's happy and if it really bothered him then he would probably let me know. He also got his 3rd Hepatitis B shot, this time however, caused him to break out in a rash the next day. It lasted a couple of days but no fever or any other reactions.

He amazes me everyday with how much he is growing and learning. He explores everything, turning things over or getting under them to "study". It's almost as though he is trying to figure out how they work. He is crawling like crazy and walking on the furniture. And he even stood up on his own and stayed up for about 4 seconds--we were freaking out! The doctor seems to think he'll be walking within the next month because he's so confident when he stands. I'm not sure about that one-he just started crawling! And I'm not in a rush at all. He already feels too old to me.

But now his mobility has caused him to get hurt quite often. He's always falling or banging into something. He's pretty tough though and can shake it off quickly. Michael tells me I need to not react (with my big gasps) but it's hard when he gets hurt; I'm working on it. He's already had two pretty good owies. He hit his face against the end table and got a little shiner on his right eye. And then last week I was drying him off after his bath. He always stands there holding the tub while I do this. Well, he slipped and cracked his mouth against the side of the tub. His mouth instantly filled with blood. It was horrible. Michael quickly got a wet cloth for him to chomp on and it was better. It stopped bleeding within seconds. It was probably worse for me than for him, seeing all that blood! My poor baby. But I guess this is the start of Nate injuring himself. He's a dare devil and I think he thinks he can do more than he can.

We had a nice Labor Day weekend. We went down to Michael's parents for a cookout. His sister and her girls were there. When I first entered the family her youngest was a baby, a few months older than Nate is now. Now she's in school. I can't believe how much time passes and how quickly. Before we know it, Nate's going to be going to school, then driving, then he'll be off to college. :(

And last weekend my sister and her family came up. I wish we could get together more often and I think we need to just make that happen. Every time I see the boys they seem so much older. Lucas is so clever and says the cutest things. He knows where everything is in my house and makes himself at home, going up and getting a movie or even a snack out of the pantry all by himself. And Landon is taking steps everywhere! He looks so big and I can't believe he's going to be one year old in just a couple of weeks!

Whew! Okay, I'm going to try and update this blog more often but we'll see how that goes...I think the only reason I'm getting to it now is because Nate is deciding to sleep in this morning!