Night terrors

Leland is now experiencing night terrors.  They are horrific.

Nothing else can quite rock me to my core like a night terror from Leland.

He has this cry that is awful and I can't get him to stop because he is still sleeping.  I have to slowly and quietly talk to him in his ear until he wakes up and takes his binkie back or nurses back to sleep. 

It is scary.  His eyes are half way open and just staring off to neverland.  He has already had a few and I hope that the future ones are kept to a minimum.

It is safe to say he is definitely dreaming.  Maybe he just has a very good imagination?

Summer

 Summer is here, it is way too hot.  It being June and already reaching 100 degrees is not a good sign.  We may just have to start escaping to the mountains on the weekends.  

This summer I am nannying a couple of girls I have known since they were born.  Leland is in heaven since he likes older girls.  It has been fun thus far.  Leland has also gone down to one nap because he just has to stay up and play.  He is still tired at his regular nap, but screams if I try and put him to sleep.   Instead he goes to bed right after lunch (around 1) and then goes to bed earlier.  He is still adjusting to this and is just now starting to take a longer nap, more than two hours. 

 One fun activity we have done is sidewalk paint.  Super easy: equal parts water and cornstarch and add some food coloring.  Leland really enjoyed it.  He liked to dump it out and then spread it around with his hands (similar to the mud). 

 It is an activity that we will have to repeat for sure. 

Magical Mud

Last week I was watering the garden with a helper.  I sprayed some water in a dirt pile and Leland thought it was the best thing ever. 

It is amazing to watch this little person grow and to see how wonderful little things are- like mud.  It makes you take a step back and wonder what is really important in life.  It also makes me want to slow down a bit and not get caught up in unimportant things. 

Because really, he is the most important thing. 

Mud stomping.  Leland also loved it since he is a dirt connoisseur and what better way to eat dirt than when it is wet.  The worst part about it was the clean up- he did not like that one bit. 

TAT: Future Letter to your Child

This week I am actually co-hosting Toddle Along Tuesday with the delightful Mama G from Growing up Geeky.  Melissa started TAT and I have been following it from the beginning.

This weeks topic is a letter to your child in the future.  I am going to pretend that Leland is about to graduate high school for this letter. 

Leland,

You will at some point think I am wrong about everything and that is okay as long as that period doesn't last forever.  I may not know everything but as you go through life please keep the following tidbits in your head, because these are the truth and are things I have to remind myself every so often.  Some of these things I didn't learn until you were born, but I hope it doesn't take you that long.   
- Always smile: it is often infectious, and can help your own mood when you are not so chipper.
- Never take yourself too seriously: rarely what you are doing is actually as important as you hope.    Take a step back and see how it is part of the bigger scheme in life, then relax.
- When you think you have hit rock bottom, look around and you will most likely find you still have it well, life is still good.
- Be kind, cruelty will never get you anywhere.  Same goes for complaining.
- Mistakes happen, learn from them, don't repeat.

Leland I hope you have a wonderful life and I hope you don't regret anything.  Also I will always be here for you and love you no matter what decisions you make.

Love,
Momma

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This week's Toddle Along Tuesday topic is letter to your kid in the future! Let's see what you would like your little one to read in 10, 15, or 20+ years. There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.

Lately...

So now we can go back to real time posts...

Leland has been sleeping in his crib until the early morning hours, like 4 am.  It is still a debate every night if I should just go get him when I go to bed, so I can have a snuggle buddy.  But eventually he will want to sleep in his own bed, maybe he is already making that decision.  That also means he is cutting out a feeding or two, another good thing right?  I can also fall asleep now without him nursing, definitely a good thing. (Okay scratch that, I think this was only happening because he was sick.  The past two nights he can been up at his normal 11pm time, but doesn't necessarily nurse, I just bring him to bed at this time.  So I still an not dependent on nursing to fall asleep SCORE!)

Leland loves to be pushed around on his Thomas.  His friend Henry loves to push it.  We showed the boys how to combine their two loves, it was a good break for the parents.

Leland can now climb up onto his slide and go down on his own.  Someone is a big boy now, or so he likes to think.  (He may also throw tantrums when you tell him no.)

Leland's communication is getting better and he is understanding more and more.  Leland is now signing more.  He signs bath, all done, milk, no (when I tell him no he repeats the sign), dog, and sometimes all gone and please.  Hopefully he keeps increasing his signs since he shows no sign of talking soon.  The only consistent word he uses is MA for food. Sometimes he will say something that actually sounds like a word and I get excited, but it is never if rarely repeated. 

At night when I put him to bed, I tell him, night night and we waves goodbye.  He then has to point to all his friends that sleep with him.  It is the cutest thing ever. 

Leland has also been a bit more picky about what he is eating.  He often refuses to eat veggies (unless in pesto form), but will always eat fruit and cheese.

He really is just the best kid ever.  No bias here.  

Stilley Cousins

 Leland also got together with his Stilley cousins.  We had our traditional play day where the cousins spend a day at Grammy's.  Above: I made Anna a baby carrier, and she was pretty happy with it.

 And as usual, we always try to get a photo of the kids. 

 Grammy tried to step in an help, that plan did not work well.

 Anna loved Leland, and he loved her.  I think he has a think for older ladies (just like his Papa). 

 Aaron reading an afternoon story.

 Henry feeding baby goats. 

 Snack time (or sharing of the germs, lol). 

Leland and Ashley still are not so sure of each other as you can see in the above photos.  Henry also is showing his 'goldfish smile'.

It is great that Leland has cousins his age.  I didn't not really have cousins my age growing up (besides Taylor) so I really wanted that for Leland.  Being at family gatherings and not having people to play with is no bueno.  

Bindel Cousins

 While in KC we of course saw cousins and there was a new one to meet on the Bindel side!  This was great grandma meeting meeting him for the first time too!

 Leland wasn't quite sure what to think.  A few times he would pat Liam on the head, but for the most part he ignored him (same with his other baby cousin on the Stilley side). 

 Harley was trying to contain the crazy. 

All the Bindel cousins in one photo.

Leland became so exhausted from being around all the cousins.  Skylee has so much energy that she would wear me out too.  But he still enjoyed the older kids as usual.  It was fun watching him being around these kids.

Kitchen

Here is what my kitchen looks like on a normal day.

Chaos.

Toddler Snacks

Leland is always hungry, I swear.  When he wakes up from his naps snacks have to be ready or he was be very crabby.  I am seriously starting to wonder how I will be able to feed this kid as a teenager, between him and Jeff I don't know how we can keep the food stocked with food.

Here are some ideas for snacks that we currently use:

Fruit- this kid loooooves fruit. Bananas, apples, grapes, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, pears

Veggie sticks- this sometimes calms him enough if dinner is soon.  He can't get much off but it will make him chill.

Toast with coconut oil or butter, or even homemade peanut butter (I have recently gotten into this).

Muffins

Homemade Larabars

Source: userealbutter.com via Megan on Pinterest

Cheese

Cheerios- I try to avoid these and use a last minute choice. 

Leland is a champion eater and I can easily give him items that are not recommended for kids his age, such as popcorn and grapes, but please note this is not the norm.  

This summer I am hoping to add in smoothies, yogurt pops, frozen banana bites and yogurt drops.

Source: joylicious.net via Megan on Pinterest

Do you have any good snack ideas?

I get it

I am now understanding how parents think their kid is the best.  The brightest, the smartest, the fastest, the funniest, etc.  Because watching a child grow from a newborn that cannot do anything, not even lift their head, to a baby that smiles and laughs, to a toddler that walks and talks- it is amazing.  How can you not think that is amazing and that your child is amazing for accomplishing those feats.

With that said, I may think Leland is the best, but he usually hits his milestones when he should, so he is average.  (not that there is anything wrong with that)

But I will gush about some new things he is doing lately:
- Animal sounds: He mooed like a cow when pointing at a cow picture the other day.  He roars like a lion occasionally, and we are working on more.  He is very close to making a whale noise.
- Signing: He does bath, light, milk, and now dog.  We are working on many more of course.  He has done 'all done' before but he is not consistent on it.  I also sometimes think he is doing please.
- Walking: He is walking all the time now.  He crawls only when he is tired.
- Tantrums: not everything is cheery and great, but these are definitely happening.  I try to ignore them as best as I can, and when he is not tired and having one he gets that I am not going to pick him and and stops.  When he is tired they just drag on and on until we go to another room or he goes to bed. 
- Copying:  He copies me when I do things now.  When I ask for his binkie, he now goes to put it under his pillow, because he saw me do that.  He likes to rub lotion in on himself.  When Jeff starts picking up his dinner, Leland helps put the food back on his plate.
- Trying to play with older kids: He followed a little girl around the park the other day, handing her toys and just watching her.  He doesn't like to be around kids his age that much, he always leaves the group for something else.  I don't think it helps that he is the only one walking. 

Watching Leland grow is probably the best thing I have ever done.

Posing

The other day we went to the Children's Garden at Denver Botanical Gardens with some mom friends and their babies.

It is a great little place for kids, especially since it has a little stream for the children to play in. 

I of course decided to take some photos.

The surprising part was I swear this kid was posing for some of the photos. 

Zoo

Leland has been obsessed with animals lately.  Like completely and utterly obsessed.  When we read books to him now, he has to point out every single animal.  He also has to point to the animals on his walls every time he wakes up from a nap. 

 I decided it was time to take a trip to the zoo.  The zoo was complete chaos by the way.

 Crane watching.

 Pointing out the monkeys.

 Pointing out the pictures of the lions.

 Roaring like a lion, he does this sometimes and it is so freaking cute. 

 Lioness watching. 

He was this close to a lion but kept looking at the one farther away, I don't think he realized how close it was.

Here are to many more zoo trips, for a die hard animal lover.