So I'm back...

First things first. Let's get this out of the way. Two year olds are very obnoxious little people. I adore Lennon. I want another one just like him. But TWO sucks. SUCKS. Here's a little peek into my life, when the tantrums get bad:

But, the little pain in the .... well .... he's totally worth it.And it doesn't always suck, really. In fact, most of the time it is amazing. I still love being a mom!

So I've been chasing after a 2 year old and of course, that means I have not, for months, updated my blog. But SO MUCH has been going on in the Hartless House.

We had our second Christmas with Lennon. He dressed up super handsome and I wish I could get away with dressing him up like this all the time:

But, I think Daddy would protest if this was our daily attire. I think he thinks boys are supposed to get dirty... WHAT? Just kidding. I love him in shorts and a tee-shirt, too. Back to Christmas - Santa Claus was very good to all of us this year, and we had a great trip to Nashville to visit with the family. We are so blessed

Other important milestones...

We got to play in the snow for the first time this year!

You can't really tell so much in this picture, but he really loved it. I definitely struggled to get him to come in for a nap after this. I am looking forward to next year when I can reason with him about keeping gloves on, etc., and that we can come back out after we go in a while. Oh, wait, he will be 3 next year.... maybe in 3 or 4 years, I will be able to reason with him.

Also, got our first real bona fide shiner!

It was really hard to get a picture, but the basic story I got from day care is that he had a little tantrum (imagine that, right?), and threw himself on the ground. Sadly, his face hit a shelf on the way down! This thing lasted for 2 weeks, and after the swelling went down, it looked like purple and green eye shadow. He looked like a tiny drag queen that only did one eye!

Another BIG BIG BIG and WONDERFUL milestone...

NO MORE BINKY!!!!!

He was going through a rough patch sleeping (see many many previous posts for history on this one), and we finally had to break down and redo the sleep training. Well, when he would cry himself to sleep, he would get so mad that he would throw all of his binkies out of the crib. Eventually he went to sleep on his own without them. 3 days later when sleep training kicked back in, he refused to put the binkies in his mouth. Hates them. He slept with them in his hand for a while, but I caught him putting them in his mouth last week and got rid of them all for good. He hasn't really complained. He has asked for it a couple of times, but as long as I ignore that, he stops asking. YAY for no binky!

Another big milestone for my little squirt is that he turned TWO!!!! We had an awesome party for him - no blizzard this year, thank God! It was a Yo Gabba Gabba party, and we had 2 cakes.

We had a Brobee cake:

:

And we had a Plex cake:

and YES, I MADE THEM!!!! Go me.

Lennon did a little better with his cake this year. Let's do a little comparison.
First birthday cake eating:

And second birthday cake eating (notice the fork):

Much better this time, don't ya think?


Anywho.... little Lennon has become quite the man of mischief. One Saturday morning, I went to pour myself a cup of coffee, came back to check on him, and found him in the laundry closet brushing his teeth (hey, I guess it's better than finding him in the basement smoking, right?)

And thanks to the technology of very-low-light digital camera capabilities, I walked in to and was able to capture this scene first thing one morning:

What would you give to have that kind of joy and energy at 7 a.m.? I would give a lot. A LOT!

A favorite pastime is still, of course, playing with Brett any time he can. I got this of them sitting at Lennon's new table recently:

That's some serious love right there.

We have a hilarious play area in the mall that was built and sponsored by our local ABC station, and I take Lennon there to play sometimes. Here he is practicing to be our next local newscaster:

What he is looking at is the TV screen that shows him himself sitting at the news desk. He really loves that.

Potty training is on the near agenda. He has shown some interest...

Looks just like Daddy, don't you think?
Honestly, though, I hope the interest picks up soon. I'm getting a little tired of diapers.

In other Lennon news, the kid is definitely a talker. He speaks in complete sentences and knows what he wants and asks for it. And definitely lets us know when he doesn't like something (refer to the picture at the top of the page). He is super snuggly still, which Mommy LOVES, and very sweet. He is starting to get into Disney movies like Cars and Toy Story, which is lots of fun for me, and he is a big fan of anything related to wrestling or to animals.

I'll try not to wait so long to update. This kid just keeps me busy!

Once again, I suck at updating

But I think I will make a New Year's resolution to be better about this. Which I am sure I will promptly break. Or, in the true spirit of resolutions, I will procrastinate in breaking ;-)

We had a red letter today in this house. Lennon was coloring and looks at me and says, "Pee pee potty?" I was skeptical. He has pee peed and pooped on the potty a couple of times at day care, but I am pretty sure those were random happy accidents. He was put on the potty because he was curious when other kids were on the potty. Today, though, it was his idea, and I took him to the potty, took off his diaper, and sat him down. He asked for his toothbrush, which I gave him. He proceeded to brush his teeth for several minutes, and I decided to go ahead and brush mine, too. Then, in a moment of absolute joy for this mommy, the kid pee peed on the potty. On his own, his idea, and I think that is awesome. He got about 64 hugs and 47 kisses and a cookie. I told him he was a good boy and a big boy and he walked around telling me "good boy, big boy."

In other news, this kid is SMART. Sometimes so smart it's scary. I know all moms think they have the smartest kid on the planet, but sometimes he just surprises the hell out of me. He can name every object in the house. He knows the names of everyone in every picture, even people he hasn't met or hasn't seen in months. He is starting to use sentences - last night he told me, "Daddy's at work." Just like that. This has evolved from "Daddy work." He can count to ten. He can name pretty much every wrestler in the WWE. He knows them by their theme music, action figure, or picture. He knows the names of lots of wrestlers who are retired (or dead) because of Brett's old action figures. He just talks talks talks.

He's obsessed at the moment with all things Christmas and every day tells me "Sah Caws" (Santa Clause), "Chinnen" (chimney), "Peasants" (presents). He also talks about Santa's boots and hat. He says ho ho ho. CUTE. He is in LOVE with Elmo's Christmas movie, and we are watching it 1-2 times EVERY DAY. So we're THERE already.

He loves his friends and teachers at day care and talks about them all the time. My personal favorite is "Lexie" whose name he can't say, and he calls her "Sexy." I can't wait to tell him that when he's like 16.

Santa is coming soon, and we are all well-prepared and anxious. We'll make a trip to Nashville that will be the typical whirlwind. I'm excited about that, but mostly excited about Christmas morning.

Still not the greatest sleeper at almost 2, but we go through phases. Sometimes he does great, sometimes he sucks at sleeping for a few nights. I guess that is just our lot in life with him.

I'll try to come back and post some pics soon.

New words

In addition to the words in the last post, Lennon is now saying "Baa" (sheep), Bye-bye, Paul and Gene (Paw, Gee) for Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons (plus he sticks his tongue out like Gene), Shaw (Shaun - Brett's BFF), last night he said "Biz" for Biz Marquis on Yo Gabba Gabba, he shakes his head no, he says drink (deek), and I think there is more that I can't think of right now.

And he now drinks through a straw. Ra ra ra!

And now for the real update

I'm at work, on registration day number one 2010, trying to be patient, waiting for the first appointments for financial aid to come in and talk with me. It should be a fun day. I rarely get to talk with families since I generally work with adult and graduate students, but on this day, I work with the traditional incoming freshman class. It should be fun, I say, but it rarely is. Lots of rush rush rush get these people seen, then hours of waiting, then repeat cycle.



I'm selfish about it today in particular, though, because tomorrow morning, Mark, Lennon, Brett, his friend, and I will be loading up in a rented minivan and heading to the beach! This will be Lennon's first time at the beach and only his second time sleeping away from home in his life (the first was Christmas 2009). I am a little nervous, but mostly excited. I am just watching the minutes creep slowly by, waiting until I can go home, pack up, get some sleep, then HIT THE ROAD!



I'm also excited because I'll get to see Kristin, who hasn't seen Lennon (or me) since his first Easter! I can't wait to see her! Her grandparents have been kind enough to let us stay in their beautiful Emerald Isle beach house, and I am so so so excited.



This week has been a bit frustrating. Lennon is working on seeral teeth (6-8 are trying to push through from what I can see!), and he has been a bit fussy. Hopefully all the new sights and activities will be so fun for him that he will forget to be a grump. We'll see.



I regret being so behind in posting. There are so many things that happen daily that just warm my heart so much that I never want to forget. He is sleeping through most nights (fingers crossed, no jinx no jinx!), he has officially been off the bottle for almost 2 weeks (yay!), in the mornings, he likes to sit in my lap with his sippy cup and snuggle away and watch TV, and I try to hold on to every second of it, because I know that one day will be the last time he does that, and when we don't have those sweet times, I know I will miss them dearly.



He's gotten to be a pretty good eater. He wants to be a big boy about it - he will take bites out of sandwiches and string cheese and crackers... he still has a tendency to throw a lot of it on the floor, though. He will throw a bite down and say "DOG!" as though he thinks he is feeding the dog. Yes, really. Cute, but also frustrating. He looks at me and says "Mama", FINALLY, and it just melts me. This kid is so going to get whatever he wants in life. I am powerless to resist his cuteness. He goes over to the fridge and says "Chiss? Chiss?" and I can't NOT give him cheese!




These days go by so fast. If only THIS day would fly by like the flash that has been Lennon's first 16 months on this earth. I just want to get home, snuggle my little guy, play a while, and then get ready to hit the road.


Here are some pics from a while back that should have been long ago posted:








Until next time...

Just a quick post

I'm feeling guilty for not having posted recently, so here's a quick Lennon update:

Words he is saying (that we recognize, even though some of them don't sound perfect): Mama, Dada, Brett, PawPaw, Dog, Duck, Moo (for cow), cheese, milk, me, shoes, outside (a-sigh), whee (going down the slide), Yo (when he sees DJ Lance, too-tee (cookie), Mmm (when something is yummy), uh-oh, ball, brush, binkie, 'sthat? (what's that?), tay-goo (thank you)

He is also starting to recognize and point to things when we tell him to. He has been able to get his cup, brush, and binkie on command since about 12 months. He will now point to his belly, head, feet, and ears. We are working on arms next. We do one body part until he masters it before moving on, but it takes a while for each new one!

He LOVES LOVES LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba, playing outside, and playing with Brett. His current favorite toys are Brett's old wrestling action figures.

He is sleeping pretty well most of the time, although he cutting several teeth which interrupts the sleep some. Much better than where we were a few months ago, though. Through the night a lot of the time, up once some of the time, up more than once even less.

OK. I'll try to remember to post more later.

Birthday gift

So, last Friday was my 29th birthday. Mark had to work that night and I had to work that day, so it was kind of a wash of a birthday, but it was fine, because Lennon and I had the most fun night maybe ever.

We went out into the back yard for our after dinner play time, as it was a gorgeous, warm evening, and we were playing on the slide and then started "wrestling". Well, Lennon pushed me and I acted like he knocked me from my knees to my back, and he jumped up, ran over, pulled up my shirt bottom, and started TICKLING MY BELLY!

He was laughing hysterically, as was I. He hooked his little index finger in my belly button like I do to him and started wiggling it. Then he started "tickling" my sides and stomach - it didn't actually tickle, but he was doint what I do to him. Then he started trying to blow on my tummy like I do to him.

That was a precious moment I am not likely to forget for a long time!

Musings

I'm a little dreamy today, so forgive me if this post is a little dreamy as well.

I'm feeling spring time coming on hard, and very excited about it. I'm ready for sunshine and playing outside, and grilling out and sitting on the deck until late with Mark, and going to the park, and sleeveless shirts, and bare feet in the grass...

So spring has me feeling a little high.

I have been thinking about this time in Lennon's life and realizing that he is growing up so fast. If you sit still ling enough, you can almost watch it happen before your very eyes. These days, I know that one day he will not want me to hold his hand, so I hold it every chance I get. I let him sit in my lap whenever he wants (which is rare because he is always on the go!). I give him as many hugs and kisses as he will let me, as if I am stocking up for the time in his life when I won't be cool anymore and he won't want me to hug and kiss him.

And this age is fabulous, because he hugs and kisses ME now. He reaches out to hold my hand when we are walking around the house (I don't let him walk without holding my hand when we are away from home).

He is now saying "This", "me", "Brett" (which sometimes sounds like "bra" and sometimes like "bree"), "thank you", and I think he is saying shoe, but that one is a little fuzzy. When he wants something, he holds out his arms toward it and opens and closes his hands saying "me me me me me me me me"!

He stacks blocks and his Stack and Suprise toys now, too. That's very cool to see. He also likes to sit on things - his stool, my lap if I am on the floor, Brett's shoes, whatever - which is also a new trick.

And, this morning, he signed "all done" for the first time after lunch (after me signing it to him after every meal for SIX MONTHS!).

He is definitely down to one nap a day, and I am sure that I will kick myself for saying this later, but he also has been sleeping well at day care for a change - about an our and 45 minutes a day, which is an enormous improvement from 20-40 minutes!

We are off purees finally, and I am working with him on getting rid of the bottle. This is very challenging. We quit nursing about a month ago, give or take, right when he was about 13 months. He is still drinking his whole milk in bottles, though. I am trying this weekend to do bottles only first thing in the morning and at bedtime. He just won't give in and take more than a couple of sips from the cup. I suppose we'll get there eventually.

It is so amazing to watch him grow. It is amazing to see him do new things. I love this. I hope one day I can talk Mark into one more!

Getting back to normal

Here I sit at 1:07 a.m. with a thirteen month old who still does nothing resembling sleeping through the night. Sigh. I am writing now as we, once again, go through the trusty Ferber method, each time breaking my heart a little.

Lennon was sick this week but is better now. He had what started off as what we though was teething, but turned out to be ear and throat infections. He was miserable, poor kid. His tongue broke out into white and dark red spots, and he just didn't want to eat or do much of anything except cry and drink milk.

But, he woke up happy today, which was awesome, and proceeded to be happy all morning. He played and giggled and had a ball of fun. Then he fought a nap for an hour and a half! But he took an almost 2 hour nap, and then we headed to our Saturday lunch spot, Cracker Barrel, and had a ball on our Saturday lunch date.

Then more fun this evening. Until bedtime. It was like we were starting from scratch. I have no idea why! I just had to let him cry, and I did a 2 min, 5 min, 7 min check, and then he fell asleep before the 10 minute check. He seems to have done the same thing just now - he has quieted down between the 7 minute and 10 minute stretch.

Hopefully we will do better the rest of the night but, frankly, these are not high hopes.

Some fun things - Lennon said "bink" very clearly this week when I handed him his binky. Brett witnessed it, so we are counting it as a word. Also, Friday, Lennon walked into day care (rather than being carried) for the first time. He held my hand, and we walked together. I had to coax him through the doorways, but he knew which room was his. We are making serious progress with the sippy cup - he will drink significant amounts of water from the sippy - hopefully he will start drinking mill from it soon!

I think he's asleep, so I will quit here, other than to say that despite the small setbacks like poor sleep, this is such a fun age. The giggles are the sweetest thing in the world!

1 and 1 month

Well, almost.

It's been a weird week. I won't go into a lot of detail because some of my real-life friends reading this might make fun of me, but I have been alienated (my own fault, but still makes me sad) from an online community that has been a huge part of my life since I was pregnant. I am now adjusting to my life without being a part of that community. Wonderfully, many of the friends I made there have really rallied around me, and we have been keeping in touch in other ways, which was wonderful. Still, it is bittersweet.

C'est la vie. In other news...

Lennon and I had the most fabulous weekend last weekend - we didn't do anything super special, but Mark was working, so it was just the 2 of us. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel and then a Target trip on Sat. and we went to Mark's grandmother's for lunch on Sunday and then to the toy store where we had a gift certificate from Mark's birthday. We got a really cool 36" x 36" floor mat that looks like a little town with roads and buildings, and some cars to zoom around on it. It folds up into a carrying bag! I like it more than he does, I think. He even slept through the night both nights, something he hadn't done in months.

We've had a somewhat trying week since then. Lennon is getting better with table foods, but sometimes he gets inexplicably frustrated and acts hungry, but won't eat. I can't tell how much is tantrum and how much is distress. But, he did drink milk out of a sippy cup for the first time yesterday, so that was a triumph.

I found out this week that I have psoriasis. It may or may not be something I deal with for the rest of my life. I am not really thrilled about that. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I am anticipating.

Happy Birthday Lennon... and me.

No, we don't have the same birthday, but I feel like the mother ought to be celebrated on the birthday, too. After all, we mothers know what we went through to get to this "birth".

Here we are, at one year, an indescribable year. The pain from not having the natural birth I wanted and ending up with a c-section has faded. The scar from the c-section itself is now flesh-colored, and even the stretch marks have faded to a light silvery-pink.

In a year, I have become a mommy. I don't think I became a mommy the minute he was born. A mother, yes, biologically, and of course I loved him and took care of him, but over the course of a year, I have become a mommy. I was so nervous in the beginning, but now, with confidence, I help him sleep and eat and I kiss his boo boos and I love to play with him and chase him around. This is much, much more than I ever expected of myself in any capacity, and I think it is what I was born for. Who knew?

And still breastfeeding, which is a joy. The way people spoke before he was born, breastfeeding is impossible. Can't be done. No one can breastfeed for a year or more, just not going to happen. But here we are. One year in, and no sign of stopping soon. and I don't even have to pump now, which makes it all the more enjoyable.

Lennon is now such an animated little person. He is pretty emotional, still, but all-in-all much happier now that he was in the early days. He is walking, and even starting to run a little bit. He says mama, dada, uh-oh, and he once said milk, but he hasn't really gotten the hang of that one.

He now has 6 teeth, 2 of which broke through just in the past few days, and 2 of which came through in the past couple of weeks.

He is still struggling with eating table food, but he does ok with cheerios, puffs, and sometimes breads. Last night he munched on some pizza and seemed to like it a lot. Still working on the sippy cup - sometimes he seems to have the hang of it, other times not so much. I'm hoping he will really come to like it soon.

He gives hugs now, which is awesome. I'll be sitting on the floor and hold my arms open, and he will run (orangatan-esque) toward me with open arms, grinning, and throw his arms around my neck. He loves to run around naked. He still loves bath time a lot.

His laugh still makes my heart melt. His smile still lights up a room. I am still overwhelmed on a daily basis by how much I can love another person.

Parenting has, at times, tested my marriage, and I am glad and proud to say that we have come through with flying colors so far. I love my husband even more now than I did before we began this crazy journey.

Lennon and his brother, Brett, have become big pals. Lennon adores Brett, and Brett (16) has really opened up and enjoys playing with his little brother. The two of them are quite a fun pair to watch.

Lennon also loves the animals. He chases the dog around with a rawhide chew trying to convince her to take it. He "pets" Kabuki, and they are pretty good pals. Vegas is kind of oblivious.

And outside, we have a blizzard. We will always remember Lennon's first birthday as the day if the SECOND blizzard of 2010. We had to postpone his party, but it's just as well - it will be just the 4 of us, and Mark's dad may come by for a while since he lives next door. It will be a family affair, and that's fine by me. We can part later.

What a wonderful year. Hard and frustrating and exhausting and exhilarating.