Landon is Five

Well if feels like just yesterday we had moved and I was eight months pregnant with my second sweet little boy, but lo and behold five years have quickly flown by. Landon decided that even though we had a nice scheduled c-section date that he was going to make an early arrival. I remember it was Memorial Day weekend, Sunday to be exact when I starting have some contractions. I tried not to worry and just got through them, Monday morning came and it was clear that Landon was coming sooner than thought. We called Jeff's mom and gave her a headsup that she might want to come earlier, like that night would be good. We called the Dr. office and they moved me up to having the baby on Tuesday morning. Since it was Memorial Day we decided to take the kids for a picnic at the park. I remember the kids and Jeff playing frisbee while I sat on the bench trying to make it through the contractions. Jeff's mom got up here at about 11 o'clock Monday night and Jeff and I headed straight to the hospital. I figured if I was in such pain,and I wouldn't be getting any sleep anyways, why wait until Tuesday morning, we were going in that night. We headed to the hospital, got checked into a triage room and then off to the operating room to meet my little guy. And little he was, my smallest little baby weighing in at 6lbs. 12oz. He was small from the beginning and not much has changed. I had been carrying him low and he dropped early so when he came out he had two little bumps on either side of his head. He looked like a Mickey Mouse baby. He was also a little jaundice and after the rough time we had with Ethan when he was born and all his juandice the Dr.s put him under lights early on and thankfully it never got too bad. Landon what can I say other than it really is hard to believe fives years have already gone by. It's hard for me to believe that you are now the same age as your sister was when we moved here. I can't believe you will be starting Kindergarten this fall, but I am excited for you and the adventure ahead of you. Landon made a lot of progress at Preschool this last year and we are so proud of him. Here are some things about that we love about our Landon:

-He is a total snugglebug -He loves firetrucks, buses, and garbage trucks -Loves Legos and got some for his Birthday. -Loves dogs -his favorite stuffed animal is "puppy"

-Is the first one asleep at night -Landon is small for his age -Can ride is bike at warp speed -Is competitive -Loves his brothers and sister

-Favorite thing to eat Chicken Nuggets -Likes to have books read to him -Is more adventuresome about trying new goods than his siblings -Loves to be outside -Had fun riding the bus to preschool

-Rubs his legs when he gets excited & nervous -Loves to go to the park -Has a fiesty streak to him -Has the loveliest Hazel eyes -Nickname is Landon Man

Landon you are a joy to our family. We are so glad you are a part of lives. You have so much personality packed into your small little body, you love life, you have a contagious smile & life and you find so much wonder and happiness in the things around you. Happy 5th Birthday Landon Man.

Landon's City

Landon Preschools class worked this last week making a city out of cereal boxes, complete with cars, traffic lights, a park, and roads. Landon kept coming home from school telling me all the things he had been working on. Today we made roads or today I made a traffic light. On friday they had a pizza party with New York style pizza to celebrate their city. I went up and took some pictures of his creations. It is always fun to see him and school and meet his little friends.

Landon at circle time

Skyscraper view

The Bridge. Landon's car is the small blue car going over the bridgeand has two "antenna"s coming out of it.

Notice Landon Way. Landon painted that stretch of the road.

Landon is doing well and making progress. At times it feels overwhelming thinking we still have a long road ahead of us, but he is learning and I am happy he is in a place that cares so much about his learning and growing. We recently had a meeting with the Occupational Therapist. They did some further testing and he is now eligible for OT time at school as well. We are hoping this extra time will help with is writing and cutting. We will have a meeting this spring to talk about wether or not we should send him to kindergarten this year or wait one more year. It will be nice to finally figure out what we should do, but we need to give him a little more time to see how he comes along. I truly am grateful that we are getting help for him, but it's still so hard as a parent to see your children struggle. I am excited to see how he will continue to excel.

Landon {Journaling}

I am really going to try to be a better blogger this year, so here I go. I decided to do a little journaling about Landon today because it was his first day at a new Preschool, and I wanted to document our little journey with him.

Landon is sweet, loving little boy, but I have to admit that he has also been quite a struggle for me. Landon might be tiny, but his personality is anything but that. It's hard to understand sometimes how my biggest snuggle bug can also be the family bully and how he can talk back and yell more than any of the other kids.

I have never thought that Landon was really behind for his age group or anything. I have to admit he has always seemed a little immature to me, but I also thought he is a third child so that probably has something to do with it. But once he started preschool it started to be more obvious that he was struggling a bit. Landon also suffers from a lot of anxiety. His anxiety most often comes out when he is seperated from me. We have dealt with this everytime I take him to someones house to be babysat and we have had issues with it at church in nursery and again when he moved up to sunbeams. Any time his teachers got changed he would really struggle and have a hard time. The first week of preschool set off his anxiety, but he finally started doing better and as long as his teacher acknowledged him with a hug or a hello, he would be fine.

Unfortunately that was not the only area that Landon was struggleing it. It wasn't too long before his preschool teacher let me know that Landon was not keeping up with the other kids. He hadn't really learned to cut, and really couldn't draw either. One of the days when it was my turn to pick him up his teacher and I had a little chat and she suggested taking Landon to a district screening day. Our school district has days set aside where you can take your child to one of their screening days if you are concerned in anyway about your childs development. It could be speech, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, etc.. I made an appointment, but was disappointed to find out that the day I called they were holding one, but I would have to wait until the end of October before getting him in for an appt.

In the meantime we just kept plugging away at preschool and I spent extra time at home helping him to learn to use scissors and to try to get him motivated to draw and color. I have always had a hard time getting Landon to focus. If he doesn't want to do the activity you want him to do he is very resistant and ends up getting mad. It has also been hard to keep him doing an activity for long before he would tire of it and not want to do it anymore.

It was really hard picking him up from preschool to find that all the other kids completed their projects and to see that Landon's were only partially done, or if done, they were not done correctly. My friend who I carpooled with also told me once that the other kids recieved prizes for completing some of there projects Landon however did not recieve one because he didn't finish his. It was so hard to hear that he was being punished in a way for not having the ability to complete a task. There has been many tears shed over him and what needed to be done to help him.

Finally the screening came and I was not shocked at all that his anxiety manifested itself. At the screenings they have parents wait in one room while the children are taken to different screening activities around the school. Well Landon would not have any of it unless I was by his side through the whole thing. Finally towards the end he had had enough and I could see him start to shut down and not do what the people were asking him to do. At the end of the screening they total up the points and depending on where your child falls on the scale it will show whether your child might have delays or not. Landon showed a potential delay in about two different areas.

Because Landon showed potential delays he was able to qualify for a week long evaluation at one of the district preschools. We are lucky that one of the preschools just happens to be up the street from us. It is at the elementary where Madie went to kindergarten. Our kids no longer go to that school because a new school was built and then our boundaries were changed so our kids go to a different school, but the old school is literally just up the road, so I was very happy about that. So at the end of November after Thanksgiving Landon went for his week long evaluation at the district preschool. It was a busy week for him because we kept him in his regular preschool in the morning (mon, wed, and friday) and then in the afternoon he was off to the other preschool (mon, tues, wed, and thursday). He had fun attending both, but towards the end of the week I could tell he was getting a little tired out from doing both preschools. Before Christmas break Jeff and I went for a meeting to discuss with the preschool teachers what they thought Landon needed or didn't need baised on the week long evaluation. Based on their testing it came back that Landon was delayed in a couple of areas, language being the main area that he was struggling with.

When I say language I dont' mean speech. Landon can talk just fine, but he does have a hard time communicated his wants and needs and also has a hard time following directions and instructions if there are too many steps involved. It was good to hear that what we were worried about was real and that some of the struggles we have had at home and a preschool were truly there. At the same time to hear that one of your children is struggling is so hard to hear.

I know it's not my fault that Landon is behind, for some reason things just click differently in his head, but there is also a huge amount of guilt that I feel. It's hard when your older kids have been just fine, and in some cases way ahead of where they need to be and then to have another one of your children be behind in some way. You wonder if you didn't do enough for the one. You wonder where you failed. I also worry because I know Landon is a smart little boy and I would hate for him to be labeled in some way that would make people think that he isn't. I don't say he is smart just because I am his mom, I truly mean it. He really is a smart boy, he just needs help to figure out how to verbalize all the things that go on in his mind.

I know this is a huge post and a huge mouth full, and I don't even know if anyone even reads this old blog anymore because I have let it go for so long, but it also feels like a release to "say all these things out loud". I feel grateful that there are programs and people to help Landon and any child who struggles. Landon will be five at the end of May, but as of right now I don't believe he will be ready for Kindergarten in the fall. I guess we will just have to see how fast he progresses at this new preschool. I don't have any reservations about waiting if we need too. I want Landon to feel ready and happy about going to school. I want him to be successful at school and feel good about himself. I don't want him in anyway to feel that he can't keep up or to have him fall through the cracks because teachers are so loaded down with the number of kids in their class that they can't give him the attention he needs. I feel like it is an answered prayer that he has people on his side that want to help him get where he needs to be. I felt so lost so many times about how to help him, and what to do to get him where he needed to be.

Like I said it's the first day, so I have no idea what is to come, but I have hope that he will do well and that he will progress and get to where he needs to be. He cried and got anxious when I mentioned preschool and going on the bus today, but he got on, he rode the bus to school ( I followed behind), and I know that this will become routine for him and that hopefully his anxiety will fade and he will flourish as this becomes his new rountine.

School Boy

Look who is an official School Boy, yes Landon. He started preschool today. I have been very nervous about sending him, because he has a lot of seperation anxiety when I leave him. He usually cries when I have someone babysit him and he even ran away once while he was at someones house (he was trying to get back home). When the subject has been brought up about school he gets all upset and says he doesn't want to go. I took him at the end of last week to his meet the teacher night and he actually had fun playing with toys while we were there, so I was hopeful that maybe he would be alright. I also gave the teacher a heads up to his seperation issues. Over the last couple of days I have been calling him my school boy and telling him how neat it is that he gets to take his backpack to school just like Madie and Ethan. I told him this morning that we were going to go take his school picture out by the raspberries just like we did with Madie and Ethan. He did really well this morning and never cried. He looked a little worried and like he might cry, but he never did. We got to school, went to the potty, and headed up to his classroom. We unloaded his supplies, hung up his backpack and I got him started at a little shapes activity that was set up at the table. I told his teacher I was leaving, she went over and started talking to him about the activity, I gave him a little wave and off we went. I got a call from my friend whose little boy is in the same class and she told me he was doing great. When we picked him up he was all smiles and ran to his cubby to show me his cookie he decorated. I am so glad he had a great time and hope that everyday it will get a little easier.

Goings On {Journaling}

I have not journaled about the kids in so long, it makes me feel like a slacker. So here is what's been happening around here.

{These pictures crack me up because this is a try representation of the dynamics of the four of them. In the top one Landon refuses to look at the camera, Madie is telling Ethan something and Owen is just happy to be outside with a popcicle. In the lower one Landon is off doing his own thing and own't sit still for a picture. Ethan won't look at the camera, and Madie is being sweet with her baby brother}

Landon: What can I say about Landon he is the middle child. I feel like I am in a constant struggle with him. Taking him to stores lately is a nightmare with a capital N. I took all four kids to Kohl's with me this week and by the time we left I was carrying him kicking and screaming from the store while Madie lagged behind pushing Owen in the cart. With all that being said I can't imagine not having that handsome boy in my life. He is my snuggle bug and loves to be held and he lets me give him lots and lots of hugs and kisses. We had a scary experience with Landon last week. Madie was trying to help him down off the bunkbed and they both fell. Landon got cut on some magnet boards we have on the wall on his way down. I was not home, but got a call to get home ASAP because he was going to need stitches. Jeff said that as soon as it happened Madie started shouting and when Jeff got up there he was spurting blood out of his head. Madie was pretty upset but she held it together and was able to help Jeff get the first aid kit while he stopped the bleeding. I didn't actually see the injury until I was at the ER with him, and it was a good thing because I started crying right after they uncovered it. Landon was a trooper through the whole thing. The gave him a CT Scan just to check to make sure there wasn't any internal bleeding and then they closed up the wound. They decided to use dermabond instead of stitches. The covering finally came off a couple of days ago and now it's okay if it gets wet. I hope the scare isn't too noticable, but if it is hopefully the girls will think it's rugid and manly when he gets older, much much older :)

Ethan: Ethan finished Kindergarten and had a great year. He is a smart little whipper snapper who loves to read and draw. I know I have said a million times that he loves to draw, but really he does. He spends at LEAST an hour a day drawing superheros and making books. I am so curious wether his love of drawing will turn into anything someday or if it's just a stage. Ethan has found a love of Star Wars recently. They had a Star Wars marathon on TV awhile ago and Jeff decided to DVR them. It took many weekends to see them all, but Ethan was in heaven and loved them all. It's so hard for me to think that next year he will be gone all day at school. Maybe it's that he has a late birthday so I got an extra year with him, but it's hard to think he won't be a part of my day. I literally get teary when I think about it.


Owen: This little guy is changing constantly. I am so in love with him it's not even funny. That sweet little face of his makes me so happy. He is getting a whole mouth full of teeth, which I am hoping is the reason for his grouchiness lately. He loves to get his way and when he doesn't he proceeds to throw himself down on the floor and cry his eyes out. It was cute at first, but now it's really annoying. He loves animals especially this stuffed animal sheep we have. He literally goes nuts and squeals at the top of his lungs everytime he sees him. He can say Baa and knows that's the sound that sheeps make. Owen is into everything and is obsessed with technology (the remotes, my cell phone, my ipod), it's a constant battle to keep them away from him. Owen is very vocal and does a lot of talking even though I have no idea what he is saying. He has his Madie and I wrapped around his little finger. He is very expressive and constantly keeps us all laughing with his funny faces and actions. He loves to be outside and can slide all by himself on the little slide (and I mean little slide) that we have in the backyard. Owen can say ball and loves to throw balls. Owen is also very into books and loves to look at them and have them read to him.

Madie: Just finished third grade and had a really great year. Madie loved her teacher and has already commented on how much she misses her and how she wants her to be her teacher again next year. Madie just seems to have grown up so much this last year. It's hard to see all the baby and little girl in her disappering especially since she is my only girl. Madie is a very good helper especially with Owen (the brothers aren't so gentle). Madie got an ipod for her birthday and loves to listen to music and dance. Madie makes her bed every morning and is usually the first to wake up. I find her reading and playing her DS when I go in in the morning. Madie loves to read. She really likes Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, Junie B. Jones, American Girl Books, Cam Jansen, and Geronimo Stiltson. There are times lately when Madie expresses a hatred for being the oldest and the only girl. What can I say I guess the oldest does get the raw end sometimes because they are asked to do the most and the sister thing, well what do you do? It is what it is and she is going to have to get used to the idea that she isn't going to have a sister.

It's amazing how different they all are especially when you think they all came from the same genetic pool. They all have their times of total sweetness and total annoyance. They aren't perfect by any means, but I couldn't ask for better kids. They love each other and are each others best friends and for that I am grateful.

Fishing w/ G & G

Jeff's parents invited us on a fishing trip, it was short notice, but we pulled it all together and we had a great time. The kids loved fishing and became pretty good at catching them. Landon and Owen just played around on the boat and Grandma kept them entertained and happy. Jeff and his dad both caught pretty big catfish, but croppy is what we were catching a lot of. Madie caught a small bass, but it was under the required size so she threw it back.

Madie and Ethan turned out to be pretty good little fisherman

Jeff and his dad with Jeff's catfish

Papa giving Madie fishing lessons, Grandma keeping Owen entertained, the child fishing rod we brought kept Landon very busy, Grandma brought some books for the kids to read and Ethan read and reread them.

Ron and his catfish and then helping Jeff get his out of the net.

Jeff caught double fish about three times (what a show off :)

We all had a great time hanging out on the boat and the kids did so much better than I thought they would. Even Owen did really well, he didn't sleep much, but stayed pretty happy and he loved "driving" the boat. Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa for bringing the boat up and sharing some special time with us. We'd love to do it again sometime.

Landon @ Four

This handsome little fellow turned four at the end of May, but don't let this cute little face fool you he isn't all sugar, he has plenty of spicy moments. He is defintely the middle child. He loves Lightening McQueen, lollipops, being outside, riding his bike, looking at books, snuggling, he knows all his ABC's and the sounds they make, he loves to wear hats and does almost everyday, he is always trying to keep up with is older brother and sister, is often bugged that his baby brother tries to play with his toys, but most of all he is loved. Happy Birthday Landon, it's hard to believe you are already four.

Greenhouse

It's Spring and than means it's time to take a trip to our favorite greenhouse for pictures. If you've missed our previous trips you can check them out HERE and HERE. Ethan is the only one that hasn't been yet, so next year will be his turn. This particular greenhouse always has the most beauitful and colorful planters and hanging baskets. I also have some exciting news; I will be doing my very first giveaway on Monday and trust me you don't want to miss it. I hope everyone has a great weekend and don't forget to check back on Monday.

Easter in an Orchard

I have been dreaming of taking pictures of my children out in an orchard for a very long time and I couldn't think of a better time to take some than with the kids all dressed up in their Easter best. The setting was gorgeous, but the sun was way brighter than I had anticipated, it was a learning experience that's for sure. I have to admit the pictures turned out nothing like I had in my head, but there are some keepers none the less. I also have to give a shout out to a super talented friend Jessica over at Fresh Tomatoes, who made Madie's lovely skirt and the boys handsome ties. If you haven't seen her amazing bags and other fabric creations, you have to check her out HERE. I have to give myself a couple of snaps as well, I made Madie's headband and the flower pins on her shirt and I was super pleased with how they turned out. I hope you all had a great weekend and I think spring may have FINALLY sprung.

Happy Easter

Potty Time

Well it's official Landon is FINALLY potty trained. None of our kids have been early potty trainers. Madie was the earliest at just over three years (which in my book is a great age), but the boys oh my they are super duper slow pokes. Ethan was almost four years old and here we are with Landon who also is almost four. I have always been of the mindset that you wait until they are ready, but with the boys they just didn't seem to care at all. About two and half weeks ago I couldn't take it any longer so I decided to take the bull by the horns and force the issue. I kept sticking Landon on the potty, but not getting great results, then Ethan was sick last week and it ended up being a good thing because it forced me to stay home and keep this guy on the potty regularly. I didn't think the day would ever come when he would be out of diapers. All I can say is I hope Owen is faster at potty training then his brothers have been, because I'm about sick of diapers. Jeff and I have been buying diapers for the past eight years with NO breaks in between and at some point in time all the kids have overlapped so we were buying diapers for two kids. He has been doing a good job though with practically no accidents, I am still totally afraid about going out and about with him in underwear, so I've been putting a pull up on him, but he has stayed dry, so maybe soon I will live on the edge and go out with him in underwear. Wish me luck.

Bubble Boys

I sure love these handsome guys and they sure love playing in the bubble bath.

Two Little Monkeys

hanging out on my bed in their pajamas.