Week in Review

We have had a very busy week - here is the review in photos:On Friday, my mom, Landon and I travelled to Chicago to spend time with my sister and her family, my grandparents, and my aunts, uncles and cousins.  I was a little worried about flying with Landon but he was a champ.  Our flight even boarded late leaving the Cities, but Landon occupied himself by walking back and forth on the moving walkway in front of our gate several times.On Sunday, we joined Greg, Nicole, Charlotte and extended family at church for Eli's dedication.  I should have kept Landon in the nursery during the actual dedication because he was very squirmy and was not content just being held, but still not as bad as what Charlotte did (I'll let my sister explain in her blog!).Sunday after church we had a baby shower for my cousin, Sarah (sorry, no pictures here).Monday and Tuesday was filled with lots of play time with Eli, Charlotte, and Abby as I tried to work on Landon's scrapbook.  One of the most popular activities was jumping on the air matresses and then climbing up them like Spiderman.  Weather was even nice enough that we walked for ice cream.  Landon thoroughly enjoyed his first ice cream cone!Before leaving Chicago on Wednesday, we got to meet new baby, Lila Belle.  Isn't she adorable?  Thursday was Landon's first swim class.  He loved it!  Well worth the money!


And now, apparently, our week was filled with too much activity.  Picture above could be titled, "This is What Sick Looks Like."  Landon woke up an hour later than usual with a slight fever (101.8) this morning and a runny nose.  After giving him Motrin, the fever went up to 102.2.  Went to the doctor only to be told it wasn't an ear infection or anything viral or bacterial.  After Landon got up from his 3 hour nap (skipped lunch), his fever was at 104.  Called the nurse line and dispensed another dose of Motrin.  Ninety minutes later the temp only dropped 3/10 of a degree.  Through in a couple of diapers of the very loose kind, shallow breathing, and an overall lethargic kid, I was to the point where we were going to drive to the ER.  I called the nurse line again and was able to talk to the on-call doctor. After giving Landon a dose of Tylenol and watching him devour 4 chicken nuggets, he is now sleeping and his fever dropped back to 101.8. 

It will be interesting to see what this upcoming week is like as Landon and I go back to work. I'm sure he will be out of sorts on Monday (as will I), but will be raring to go by Tuesday - or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

Better Than a Blue-Light Special

Every Sunday when the newspaper comes, I sort. Comics, Target ad, coupons, Metro, Money and Business, Travel - these I pay attention to. Other sections and ads get tossed into the "to be recycled pile." This includes the K-Mart ad. I don't shop at K-Mart for a variety of reasons, so there is no need for me to pay attention to their ad. However, my sister Nicole is a money-saving rock-star and she led me to http://www.moneysavingmom.com/. It was there that a post entitled "K-Mart: Super Doubles at many stores this week," caught my attention.

I like saving money and I especially like when coupons get doubled. I went to K-Mart's website to confirm whether the post was true for our area and the ad came up stating that manufacture coupons are doubled up to and including those with a value of $2. "Whoa, this is huge," I thought to myself because: 1. Not too many places do double coupons and 2. Those that do certainly don't do it for coupons with a value of $2. After e-mailing Nicole asking how I had not known that K-Mart does double coupons, I ran upstairs to dig in my recycling bag for the K-Mart ad so I could read the fine print. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that you could bring in up to 25 coupons and that you could bring in up to 4 of the same coupons. The link in Money Saving Mom also led to a coupon for $5 off a $50 purchase or more. I needed diapers for Landon and I figured with those kinds of savings it would be worth the trip.

I headed to K-Mart tonight with my coupon file in hand. Apparently, I was quite the amateur as someone I saw actually had a 3 ring binder with her coupons inserted into plastic page protectors. I was quite excited to see Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups on clearance for $1.49 a bag as I had a coupon for $1.50 off 3 bags. Final cost - $1.47 for 3 bags or 49 cents each! Yummy! Don't worry - I'll share : ) Here's a quick breakdown of some other deals:
Suave Body Wash - FREE!
Head and Shoulders Shampoo - $2.50 (was on sale for $4.50)
Secret Flawless Deodorant - $0.29
Windex Wipes - FREE!
Bottle of Windex - $0.79
Pack of 2 Oral-B toothbrushes - $0.99

All in all, I ended up saving 46% and will now start paying more attention to the K-Mart ads.

Photographic Evidence of Landon's Engineering Aptitude

I've said it before and I will say it again, "Landon will be an engineer just like his daddy." Today, I have photographic proof, but first some background information:

I've shared with people how curious Landon is, particularly with regards to the way things work and how things fit together. As a kid, Alan told me that he would take things apart just to be able to put them back together (Oh who am I kidding? He still does this!). When our sweeper was broken, I actually took it apart, but Landon was right there watching me. He will still occasionally flip over the sweeper just to inspect it(not when it's running, of course.) Alan was also big into Legos growing up (don't get him started about the time his dad threw away his Legos, though)and creating all sorts of cool Lego inventions - not like the kits today where you only get enough pieces to create what is actually pictured on the box. Fortunately for us, we don't need to buy Legos. Landon has discovered that he can just use canned food to create.


As we were putting away the groceries, Landon found the cans and just started stacking them.

After he mastered stacking 4 cans, Alan decided to throw some more in the mix.


He was totally content playing and stacking these cans for no less than 15 minutes!

The More You Know

When Landon was younger, people would comment about how much he must be changing each day and all the new things he must have been learning. I would politely nod my head, all the while thinking, "I know that he must be learning new stuff, but I'm not seeing it." Of course there were the big milestones, that had me calling everyone in my phone book - "Landon rolled over today from his back to his tummy!," "Landon started pulling himself up on furniture!," etc, but day-to-day it seemed to be the same old stuff. He'd eat, he'd sleep, he'd need his diaper changed.

Today, I can unequivocally say that Landon is changing each and every day. There isn't a day that goes by that Alan and I shake our heads in amazement and wonder. The observations and conversations that Landon has heard for the past 13 months are coming out of the file cabinets in his brain. Case in point: from the time Landon was about 2 months old, we started doing sign language with him. As he got older, he would actually laugh at us as we did a sign. Now, he knows how to do the sign for "please" and no longer laughs at us.

Some other stuff that he knows:
He knows that when he gets to the stairs, he needs to turn around and go down on his tummy. I think he also knows that he can sometimes give me a panic attack because he'll barrel towards the stairs and not even crouch down until his feet are at the edge of the stairs.
He knows where to put his diaper when I'm done changing him.
He knows how to feed Bentley, although were still working on the fact that Bentley's dry dog food doesn't need to be mixed up.
He knows to go to the bathroom when Alan and I say "It's time to brush your teeth. Where's your toothbrush?" It's funny that he actually does go to the bathroom considering he no longer likes having his teeth brushed. We can wait a few more months before he figures out that he could just bypass the bathroom and lead us on a wild goose chase.

Landon isn't the only one that has acquired new knowledge. I now know:
That laundry and dishes are never-ending.
That a later bedtime for baby does not mean a later wake-up time.
That it is okay to let Landon watch a video in the exersaucer and not feel guilty about it.
That being a parent is the most rewarding job ever.

Landon and Bentley: BFFs

With an active 13 month old and a 70+ pound black lab, the question often comes up as to how Landon and Bentley get along. The answer: amazingly well as you can tell from the title of this blog. Prior to having Landon, we were very intentional with our training of Bentley of what she might face with having an infant/toddler around. We'd pull her tail and ears, we'd take her food away while she was eating it, we'd carry around a baby doll, etc. When I was in the hospital after delivering Landon, Alan brought home blankets with Landon's scent on it to give to Bentley so she could get more accustomed to the idea of a new little being in the house.

As Landon's getting older, he's definitely paying more attention to Bentley. Bentley absolutely loved breakfast, lunch, or dinner because Landon was more than generous with sharing his food - even food that he absolutely loves, like pancakes. As his fat, little fingers dangled over his chair, Bentley would oh so gently reach for the pancake without trying to nibble Landon in the process. Unfortunately for Bentley, we didn't want to encourage this behavior so we've had to put her in the basement during meal times.

Landon's new game with Bentley is catch. Although his throwing arm isn't the greatest yet, he still takes great joy in dropping the ball in front of Bentley. Here's a video for your viewing pleasure. My favorite part is when Landon is laughing hysterically but stops as soon as he realizes that I'm videotaping him.

Long Awaited...

Remodeled bathroom photos!!!

But first...I opened up my blog today and didn't find anything there. I could click back and see my old posts, but my posts didn't pop up on the home page. Just the title, Landon's picture, and our profile. Anybody else ever have that happen to them? Is it just a glitch with Blogger? Weird!






Now I know that it looks as if it is done, but I still need to paint the door trim and putty the nail holes in the trim. I was hoping to do that during Landon's afternoon nap, but alas, it took him a long time to go down and I need to make dinner for us and dinner to take over to a friend's house. Maybe tomorrow?!?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Here's a Valentine's Day
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Landon opening up his Valentine's Day gift from us. "They Might Be Giants" now does kids music and we got him their CD with songs all about numbers.