Landon at Three Months

Landon turned three months old on Thursday, January 1st.

Measurements
Weight: 14 pounds, 7 ounces

The kid gained close to three pounds within one month! 

Appearance
~Landon's eyes are kind of a grey color right now. They are still kind of light so I'm thinking he may have the same color eyes as his sister (hazel).
~He has the biggest eyes! Just like his Mama. :)

~His hair has thinned out a lot. It doesn't look like he has any hair, but there is some light hair when you're up close to him.
~The poor kid has a big head! I'm hoping he'll grow into it eventually.

~His little earlobes still stick out like they did when he was a newborn.
~Landon seems to have a long torso.

Sizes
~I think I was in denial that he was growing so fast and trying to squeeze him into 3 month clothes as long as I could. But he's definitely in 3-6 month and 6 month clothes now. There's no denying it!
~He wears a size two Target brand diaper. But I'm switching him to Honest Co. diapers and he'll be wearing size 3 in those.

Personality
~This little guy is such a smiley, happy baby! It was like the three month mark came, and he turned into such a good baby!

~He hardly cries. When he does cry he cries hard and loud and he gets mad. That's usually if he's super tired.
~It seems like he's ticklish everywhere!
~He loves to giggle and he's working on belly laughs.

Likes
~His play mat. He spends a lot of time on there just playing and playing.
~The bouncer.
~Landon likes to be talked to.
~If he has a Lovey in his hands (Kevin said we can't call it a "Lovey," so I think we'll call it a "Buddy") he likes to snuggle with it.

Dislikes
~Tummy time. He hates it.

~He has a love-hate relationship with the swaddle. He loves it if he's super tired, but most of the time he hates it. I'm slowly weaning him of the swaddle now.

^When he's not swaddled, he sleeps flat on his back with his arms up.

I don't think he'll be a tummy sleeper. 

~The car seat and the stroller if they aren't moving. As soon as movement stops he gets mad.
~He doesn't really like to take the paci so much anymore.

Eating
~I think we've finally hit our stride with nursing and I'm so relieved. I didn't have the best time nursing Preslie, and since Landon is our last baby I really wanted to make it work. Luckily, he's doing great with nursing now.
~If he takes a bottle, it's usually if he's at Kara's for a day or if Kevin feeds him before bed. He won't take a bottle from me, though.

~He eats every three, to three-and-a-half hours.
~He drinks only breast milk.

Sleep
~Ohhh sleep...it has been hit or miss. Some days he does great and takes good, solid naps. Other days he does not. His naps tend to last about 45 minutes at a time.

~Some nights he sleeps through the night, and other nights he doesn't. The frustrating part now is trying to figure out what worked on the days & nights he sleeps well so we can repeat it and make it a consistent thing.

Schedule
7am - Wakes up, eats & plays
8:30am - Nap
10:30am - Eats & plays
12pm - Nap
2pm - Eats & plays
3pm - Nap
5pm - Eats & plays
6pm - Catnap
7:15/7:30pm - Bath, bottle & bed by 8pm

Milestones
~He's getting better at holding his head up, but hates tummy time so dang much that it's hard to work on it. He spends time on his tummy propped up on the Boppy which he tolerates, some.

~He coos and giggles and talks all the time. He's rather loud!

 ^Talking to cousin Nate on Christmas Eve.

~He turns toward Kevin or me as soon as he hears us talk. He seeks us out immediately. I love it!

^He looks super frightened. Ha!

~We're still working on sitting up in the Bumbo. Again, he doesn't like it (I think because his belly gets in the way), but we practice each day.
~He can roll from tummy to back.

~Landon is starting to put his hands in his mouth more often. I don't think he'll be a thumb-sucker, but he may be a finger-sucker.

New Experiences
~We spent a nice, long trip visiting Grammy and Grampy the beginning of the month.

~He got a lot of good snuggles in with Mama.

 

 

~He spent his first night away from Mama when Grandma watched him and Sissy while Mama and Papa went to Papa's work Christmas party.

~He visited Santa for the first time!

~He experienced his first Christmas Eve and Christmas!

 ^Hanging out with Bacca (aka Grampy, my dad) on Christmas Eve in his Christmas jammies!

~He helped celebrate Mama's 32nd birthday!
~Landon also experienced his first New Year's celebration!

^ So handsome!

~Landon came down with Bronchiolitis this month. It was just pitiful. Luckily, it wasn't anything more serious. He had a breathing treatment at the hospital, we waited in line at the pharmacy for two hours (luckily, he slept the whole time) and then we were sent home with an inhaler. He's still on the mend.

 

^Getting a breathing treatment at the hospital. 

He was not a fan.

 

 ^He fell asleep immediately after his breathing treatment. 

After all the screaming and crying, he was exhausted. 

Look at his flushed cheekers. Poor little guy. :(

We are just crazy about our little guy! We love to see his personality develop and how different he is from his sister. The next month will be an adjustment for the whole family as I go back to work after almost five months of maternity leave. I'm not sure I'm ready!

A Little Bit About Preslie

It seems the only time I blog these days is for Landon's monthly updates - and even then I still tend to be 15 days behind on that.

But I wanted to document what Miss Preslie has been up to lately. She is quite possibly the most entertaining toddler I've come across.

SIDE NOTE: As I was proof-reading this post, I realized that all the photos of her with someone else are with the males in our family. Ha! She loves the women in our family too; promise.
 

 

Preslie is talking NON-STOP! She will attempt to say anything she hears - which isn't always a good thing. Ha! I don't know if I could even list all that she says because she has a big vocabulary. It's been so helpful to be able to communicate with her now. She can tell us when something hurts, itches, if she's hot or cold, if she wants a snack or is hungry. She doesn't always say each word clearly or correctly (for example: she calls a movie or any show on TV "momo.")

If we're going somewhere she will list all the people that she knows will be there. She tends to automatically give people nicknames - mostly because she can't yet pronounce their name correctly. It's so funny the names she's come up with. Here are just a handful of some names she's invented:

Kala = Kahlua
Deedee = Grandma (Debbie, Kevin's mom)
Bacca = Grampy (my dad)
Omie = Grammy (my mom)
Nono = Uncle Matthew (Kevin's brother)
Leendeen = Landon
Lala = Lovey 1
Lala Two = Lovey 2

 ^Hanging out with Bacca in the backyard and pointing out birds.

^Feeding Jay Jay at Thanksgiving.

^Balancing act with Nono

Her favorite word right now is "goway!" If she doesn't want someone or something near her, she says "goway!" This includes books, her Loveys, the dogs or a person. We crack up when she says "Goway book!" or "Goway Lala!"

 

Preslie loves music. Her favorite songs are "Happy" by Pharrell, "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift and "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor; however, she calls that song "No Bubbles" because she thinks the part of the song where she sings "no treble" is "no bubbles." She was hooked on watching the music videos for a while there, but we've kind of weaned her off that as it was becoming more of an obsession and we didn't particularly want our toddler engrossed in a cell phone all day, every day.

 ^She was looking way too grown up on this particular day!

She is very sensitive when she hears what she considers to be a sad song. If I hum "You Are My Sunshine" she will start to get tears in her eyes and get sad. If she hears "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," same thing.

When someone sneezes, coughs or farts, Preslie will say "bless you." When Preslie sneezes, coughs or farts, she says "bless you." We die laughing when she does this!

She's learning the difference between being happy and sad. If she does something that isn't particularly nice, we'll tell her that makes us sad and she'll come up to us and pet our hand or pat our head and say "niiice." It's her way of trying to make things better. It's pretty sweet.

She likes to "halp" feed the dogs. When we were putting Christmas decorations away she "halped" by putting mini ornaments in their tubes.

Preslie loves, loves, loves going to Miss Kara's! She goes anywhere from 3-4 days a week. I know I'm still home on maternity leave, but I can't just keep her home when she could be having fun with her little friends at Kara's. She will name all her buddies, too: Hala (Holland), Aubrey (Abrielle), Emmy (Emily) and Siseen (Sistine). She has such a good time with her little friends and asks about them when she's home. I love that she is so social and (generally) plays well with others.

She is also learning a lot at Kara's. She'll come home and will sing part of the ABC song. She's learning her colors, numbers and letters. It blows my mind what she catches on to.

Preslie has adapted well to the role of Big Sister. The extent of her jealousy usually includes wanting us to pay attention to her too if we're paying attention to Landon. She hasn't been mean to him or tried to hit him in any way. She's very sweet to him. Every morning when I wake him up and bring him out to the living room she says "Hi Buggy!" (his nickname) and will pat or rub his bald head. Every now and then she'll want him to sit next to her.

Miss P is bossy! She has no problem saying "no!" to a baby that is crying or "no!" to the dogs. She has to be reminded a lot at Kara's to be nice to other kids because she thinks everything is "mine!"

She's nowhere near being potty trained yet. She'll tell us when she has a dirty diaper, but she doesn't want to sit on her little potty unless we're lucky (the series of photos below was a lucky day so I had to document it). When we use the bathroom though, and we flush the toilet she likes to say "bye bye, pee pee!" so she's getting the concept.

 

For a while we were having trouble with her at the dinner table. We usually always try to eat dinner as a family at the table and there was a time it was a struggle to get her to behave. There were a few nights she'd be sent to her room without dinner because she was misbehaving so badly. And I know this sounds mean, but it was so hard to keep a straight face and not laugh when she'd be excused from the table and sent to her room because her little self would go running to her room and start to cry. It was so sad yet so cute at the same time. Bless her heart!

As any typical toddler does, she will fake cry or throw a big fit if she doesn't get what she wants. Our tactic is to usually ignore her and not give in when she does this. She gets sent to timeout or her room if she just needs time alone and away from a situation (or before Mama loses her ever-loving mind).

Preslie does pretty well at independent play. She likes to tell you to sit down though and play with her. She's starting to sit for longer periods of time to watch a cartoon - which I'll be honest - it's a nice reprieve when you have two under two.

Kevin and I love the guts out of this girl and as she's learning to say new words and communicate better each day, it makes life so fulfilling and fun. We have a feeling we'll have our hands full with this one!

Family Fun (2013)

Note: I am over a year behind on posting. I plan to eventually make books about our life using my blog so I need to get caught up while I have the time (ha!) and I'm off work. So bear with me as I do a little reminiscing. ;)

The day after Thanksgiving 2103, we headed home so we had the weekend to relax and regroup before heading back to work the following Monday.

After the 3+ hour car ride home, we unloaded the car, took showers and freshened up, and then headed up The Hill to my MIL's house for dinner with Kevin's big family.

Kevin's uncle Jim was in town from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (he lives there) so we wanted to make a point to see him before he made the trek back home.

It was a really fun night. Preslie was the only baby at that point so she got a lot of attention from everyone!

^ Preslie and her Uncle Matthew

Tricks with Uncle Leo!

^ Preslie loves her Aunt Courtney!

Landon at Two Months

Landon turned two months old on Monday, December 1st.

Measurements
Weight: 11 pounds, 9.8 ounces (46th percentile)
Height: 22 inches (41st percentile)
Head circumference: 15 inches (71st percentile)

He's growing right on track!

Appearance
~CHEEKS! He has some pretty kissable, chubby cheeks.

~The hair on the top of his head is starting to grow in pretty thick. I think he'll be hairy like his dad (poor thing - ha!). The rest of his hair never really fell out.
~His eyes seem to be getting lighter. They are kind of a blueish gray.

~Now that he has some meat on him, he has yummy little leg rolls!

Sizes
~At two months Landon is wearing 0-3 month, and 3 month clothes.

^ He was having a chubby day on this day, 

and he wasn't pleased I was taking his picture. ;)

~We finished up the last of his newborn diapers, so he's in a size one diaper now. 

Personality
~The day he turned two months old I was able to catch a purposeful smile on camera for the first time!

~He is a little flirt.

^ Flirting with his Great Grandma Helen!

~When he gets mad, he gets mad really fast and there's no calming him down.
~I think he'll have a passionate personality.
~The crying has let up a lot so that's been a nice reprieve.

  
Likes
~Mama's milkies.
~His bouncy seat that vibrates.

 ~Baths

^ Chins!

~His Mama, Papa and Sissy. He will just stare and stare at Preslie when she's around him.

  
Dislikes
~Naps! This would be the reason I struggle to post just his monthly updates because the kid does not like to sleep during the day.
~Tummy time.
~He's getting a lot better at car rides, but he still has his moments.

Eating
~His eating (at 2 months - he's now 2 1/2 months) was beginning to get frustrating. I had to nurse him in a laid back position because he couldn't handle my forceful letdown. That was just an awkward way to nurse and I didn't enjoy it and Landon always fought it. So I took a little break on the breastfeeding and focused on the bottle for a while. He was still having issues with the bottle until I changed the bottle I was using. Then he started taking the bottle a lot better and was getting nice, full feedings. Each week I try nursing him to see if he can nurse without choking and this week we're finally there! So he's been nursing a lot more as of late. I'm thankful he seems to be a pretty flexible nurser.
~At two months he was eating every three hours during the day and once at night around 2 or 3am.

Sleeping
~As I mentioned before, he does not like naps. I am a proponent of Crying It Out (CIO). I did it with Preslie when I sleep trained her and it worked and she does a great job at self-soothing now. Landon gives CIO a run for it's money. I won't tell you how long I've let him CIO lest you think I'm a horrible person and mother; but Landon wins every time.
~At this point Landon goes down for a nap in his crib two to three times a day and will "nap" 30-45 minutes. I've tried letting him nap in his swing, in his bouncy seat or on the play mat and he won't go longer than 45 minutes. Once he's awake, he's awake.
~HOWEVER! He is an awesome sleeper at night! So I'm done complaining about his no-nap-taking-self. ;)

~I consider "sleeping through the night" to be from the time he goes down (which was about 8:15pm at two months) to any time after 5am the following morning. At two months he had not slept through the night. BUT...he did go a 7 hour stretch a couple times and that was awesome! I'm sure he'll be sleeping through the night soon.
~Which..side note - I don't get why he'll sleep so great at night but he won't during the day. Even at night if he stirs and wakes a little he will fall back to sleep. I do everything the same during the day (crib, swaddle, sound machine, dark room) that I do at night.

Schedule
At two months old, he was still on the same schedule as last month, except I moved his nighttime routine up because I was tired of him crying so much in the evening. So at two months his bath would start at 7:45pm and the rest would follow, and he'd wake between 2-3am for a feeding.

New Experiences
~We went to Grammy and Grampy's house and Landon met his Great Grandma Ruth for the first time!

~This was also his first long road trip and he did surprisingly well!
~Sister decorated him with stickers and he took it like a champ. ;)

~He met his Grandpa Pino for the first time.
~He enjoyed a Sunday brunch with friends and family during the 49er game.

 ~He got in lots of snuggles with Mama.

~He met his cousin Joseph for the first time!

~He had his first set of vaccines and only cried for a few seconds.

~He has discovered his hands and will put his thumb in his mouth when he can find it. I have a feeling we'll have another thumb sucker.

 ~He enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!

 ~He had a nice, long visit at Grammy and Grampy's house after Thanksgiving.

As Landon gets older and does something new each day, it's so fun to see his little personality peek through his newborn-ness!