Wednesday, September 6, 2006

As Landon told Ella several times this morning - "it's just a rough day". He was trying to comfort her as we drove home from her 15 month checkup at pediatrician. For all of the grandparents, Ella checked in at 31 inches (50th %) and not quite 22 lbs (30th %). That wasn't so bad even though Ella does not sit still for a minute and didn't really want the dr. checking her out but when we told him about a reaction she had last week after nibbling on some peanuts he ordered a blood allergy screening. Picture - Landon at my legs saying "I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home!!!" and then 2 nurses walk in to get Ella's blood sample (one to hold her down and one to take the blood) out of her tiny little elbow with a tube to fill about the size of a quart of milk, Ella screaming with tears running down her arm while they tap her elbow to see if they can find a good vein, and me having to hold Ella's other arm down while the other nurse lays on her legs. I was just about to lose it when they finished only to leave so that the other nurse could come in and give Ella her 2 vaccinations. I felt so bad for Ella as I know she was freaked out and for Landon as he was probably scared of all of the craziness. Ella quickly recovered and Landon was happy with the 2 Thomas stickers he got for being a good boy. The worst thing is now I have to take Landon back next week for his 3 year checkup and I am pretty sure he won't want to go after today.

Once we make it home I was looking forward to a calm afternoon, soon to realize that there would be calm but only about 15 minutes. Landon decided to throw a pretty bad tantrum to earn a timeout for several minutes and with the hitting he also had his last paci taken away for the afternoon nap. We have been talking to Landon about giving them up but haven't put the hammer down so to speak. Anyway, Mike was great to come home for lunch and give me a little breather while he talked to Landon about the paci being taken away. Things were good until Landon layed down for his nap and continued to cry for 1.5 hours over his paci being gone. I thought for sure he would fall asleep but never did. I think I am going to have a harder time with paci leaving than Landon is.

Later on we headed to church for our Wednesday evening dinner and classes. This fall Mike and I aren't leading Financial Peace University but will restart that in January so it was nice to have some time to attend a session together. By the time we got home and ready for bed Landon fell asleep in a jiffy - with paci.

Pictures today are from our trip to the beach last week. Ella was quite happy to play in the sand or around the pool. Landon wasn't much on the waves after one knocked him over but loved going down to the channel where we had some great pictures of him and of a pelican that was hanging out. I think his favorite though was hanging out with Lindsay and Melissa in the water or watching videos. The picture is a little fuzzy but gives you a good idea of how happy he was.