Looking ahead at the 2's...

Hey Y'all,

I hope everyone is having a good week. And if you're not, I'm sorry to hear that, but at least Friday is just about here, right?

I'll quickly give you an update on Jack, as we've had so many people show their concern and support. The long and short of it is, he is home with us but we (the vet included) are not exactly sure what's wrong with him. He is no longer shunning his food/water and vomitting, which are all great signs....but his blood levels for his kidney and liver are still well above where we want them to be and don't seem to be reacting much to his current treatment. So the name of the game is "wait and see". Michaela stayed home with him yesterday, I stayed with him today, and tomorrow he's going to go to our local vet to hang for the day (although not in the dreary kennel he was at last week). We will pick him up tomorrow evening and will monitor him over the weekend. On Tuesday we'll re-check his blood to see where he's at and go from there. We are hoping that he shows signs of improvement by next week, but with everything that happens, we're literally just going to have to wait and see. Jack is a big dog and typically weighs around 100-105 lbs, but he weighed in this morning at 85 lbs...so as you can tell, this is serious. We thank you all for your prayers and support, and we'll keep you posted as we know more.

Ok, enough with the downer stuff....as we are rapidly approaching Landon's second birthday, I thought it might be fun to discuss where Landon currently is in his development and where we're hoping the next year may take all of us.

Sleeping - Landon transitioned to his "big boy" bed many months back and all things considered, he's not a "bad" sleeper....we put him down every night around 7:30pm, which usually takes about an hour. We read him a few bed time stories, and then one of us (typically Michaela) will lay in bed with him until he dozes off....and he'll typically sleep in his bed until around 2am. Then he will either walk into our room and ask to sleep in our bed, or he'll sit in his bed and shout for us until one of us comes in to get him. While neither of us really mind this setup, it is not ideal. We are hopeful that sometime this year he will begin to stay in his own bed all night long. We think it may call for us to get up at 2am and stay with him until he falls back asleep in his own bed....while this sounds simple enough, trust me when I say it's a different ballgame at 2am when you're out of your mind exhausted and you can either try to squeeze into his bed with him and get kicked all night or bring him into your giant bed where all 3 of us can sleep comfortably....but like most "parenting" things, this one is going to require some sacrifice and determination on our part.

Sass - No, that's not a typo....the "sass" is what Landon calls his pacifier. Yes, he still uses a pacifier when he's at home....he does not get one at school, nor does he even ask for it...but it's usually the first word out of his mouth when he gets home and he doesn't stop until he finally gets one. Michaela and I have both felt that we need to "pick our battles" and the pacifier never really bothered us....but I'm beginning to notice it more as he gets older, and so I'm thinking that this is going to be a hot topic in the coming months. I know that we are planning to discuss it with Landon's doctor at his 2-year old checkup and we are also willing to read any research that people can find about the issue.

Diapers - This is most likely going to be the big thing that we get done this coming year. The general consensus is that girls are easier to potty train than boys, but most boys typically get going by the time they are three. So we recently went out and bought a training potty for him to get used to. So far he likes to throw all of his cars into the pot, but that's about it. Anyhow, we've heard that it's best if the child leads the way here, so we're waiting to see if he'll show interest. He's also going to be moving into the 2-year old room shortly at daycare, where they actually work with the kids on potty training, so we figure that may spark some action. In the meantime, we have started to ask him if he wants to use the potty when we can tell that he's going to the bathroom, but so far it's no go. I'm sure that the next year of potty training will be funny, frustrating, disgusting, and exciting....hopefully more exciting and less disgusting.

Physical activity - Landon is a crazy boy that loves to run with a full head of steam until he encounters an immovable object. He loves to play with his cars, and he loves to read books and look at pictures. One thing that we haven't spent as much time on as I would like (this is mostly my fault, but poor weather can also be blamed some of the time) is on physical activities such as sports. Other than running and throwing things, Landon hasn't had as much exposure to sports as I think he should. So I'm going to start working with him in the coming months on shooting a basketball (he knows how to dunk and can't understand why anyone would do anything else), catching things (he sticks his arms out but closes his eyes as soon as whatever he's catching is in the air), and swinging golf clubs (I'm hoping that at some point this year he'll be able to come to the driving range with me, but that's going to depend on his behavior).

Eating - Landon is an awesome eater most of the time. He is usually very good at trying new things (his latest being salad with ranch, which he scarfs)...there are some things that he refuses to try and that's ok for now, but we'll continue to work with him. But I would like to continue to work with him on how he eats, not what he eats. He is still insanely messy when he eats (even though he is getting much better with forks and spoons), he typically throws whatever remaining food is left on his plate when he's done, he hates to sit and wait for others to finish when he's clearly finished, and when he drinks out of a "big boy cup" or a real water bottle, he ends up covered in whatever he was drinking (he usually does a good job for most of the drink, but then forgets his concentration at some point and tips the drink too far). He knows the general concepts behind each of these, and I am going to attribute all of this behavior to just being young...but that doesn't mean we can't work on it and expect more from him this coming year now, does it?

Vocabulary - Last, but not least is how and what Landon speaks. I will be the first to admit that over the past few months his vocabulary has grown exponentially. He can literally hear a word once or twice and parrot it back to us most of the time. He also will answer questions with coherent and relevant responses most of the time (although I still think he gets "yes" and "no" confused sometimes). He loves to read and is very good at identifying things in books, on television, and in the outside world by name. He can count and say his numbers up to twenty, and he knows the ABC's, even if he doesn't do the ABC song all that well yet. He will also chime in occassionally when we sing twinkle, twinkle or other songs. But this is area (along with potty training) is one of the few that I expect to see the most growth this coming year. Based on what I've seen over these last few months, I can only imagine what types of things he'll be saying this time next year. Will he be speaking in complete sentences? Will he be able to read something back to me?...I'm already thinking about introducing him to Harry Potter! Will I be going to him for advice? All of these questions bounce around in my head....will he be having inner dialogue soon? Hmmm...

I guess we'll just have to wait and see....should be a fun year though!

On a completely unrelated topic, I just want to say again that getting old sucks! Ok, I'm only 28, so I'm not that old...but I took today off to watch Jack, and I didn't get to watch one lousy minute of TV! In my younger days I'd take a day off and go play golf, watch a movie, or read a book...relaxing right? Well today I took Jack to the vet, did yard work, ran 4 miles, hit the grocery store, did homework, caught up on work emails, and spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone....not what I'd call relaxing! So yeah, getting older and having responsibilities kind of sucks...just wanted to get that off my chest.

Hope you're all doing well...we'll be in touch.