It has been a rough couple of days for me. I guess its the hormones, but I just have been feeling off. Ethan must be picking up on that, because he's been grumpy, which in turn doesn't help my feelings in any way. Today, Dylan and I are dealing with our allergies. I gave him some allergy medicine that normally works, but today it doesn't seem to be.

The swaddle blankets that I ordered for Ethan arrived yesterday. It kept him wrapped nice and tight last night and he slept very well. I think I woke up once and laid another blanket on him and gave him his paci, and that was it until we got up at 7. I swear by swaddling with his kid.

Dylan was ready to go when I picked him up from school on Monday. Since they weren't outside he was ok with coming home. We ran into Kroger to get some icing to put on brownies I made for Ryan for his birthday. Ethan slept.

Most of the day today, Dylan has been standing at a front window watching the neighbors load a semi with beans. The truck has come and gone quite a few times, and Dylan runs back to the window as soon as he sees the truck coming. Ethan finally decided to nap today, so that's helped. Hopefully his mood will improve since he is getting some sleep.

I thought I would put a couple of pictures up. The first one is Dylan around 3 months old. The second is Ethan at the same age.

We didn't do a lot this weekend. Ryan worked on Saturday. Sunday Dylan and I made a trip to town for a few things. Ethan stayed home with daddy. Then for dinner on Sunday, Ryan's parents took us to eat for Ryan's birthday. Today he turns 31. So we tried a new barbecue place in Cincinnati. We really didn't know what to expect. It was very casual, when we walked in, you could smell the smoker working. So good. It was counter service, so you just walked up and ordered what you wanted and they served you right there. I got ribs, coleslaw and potato salad, Ryan had ribs, chicken, collard greens and beans. The meat was amazing. You could taste the wonderful smoke flavor. The meat just fell off the rib bones. The chicken was the same way. That chicken couldn't have been more moist. Ryan said the collard greens were amazing. The potato salad was fantastic as well. It was really an awesome meal. Its called Jim Dandy's BBQ. Out back he had all of the wood stacked up that he uses for smoking the meat. He also had one of is big smokers out there. I would go back again. Very very good smoked meat.
Its cold, windy and rainy out today. Some of the day yesterday was actually sunny and warm, but the afternoon and evening brought the wind, rain and cooler weather. I hate going back and forth like this with the weather.
Ethan didn't sleep all that well last night. He fussed a lot. Before that, the last few nights have been nice. He didn't fuss till sometime after 5 usually, and then I would nurse him and he would go back to sleep. So I'm not sure what happened to him last night. He kicked his legs out of his swaddle blanket, but his arms stayed in. So kept covering his legs up and he'd kick it off, and start fussing. The velcro on that blanket is wearing out. It's not holding anymore. I did get 2 more swaddle blankets ordered on Saturday. I got one the same size as we have now, and then I found one called a graduate swaddler, for older babies. I was so happy to find a bigger blanket. They don't make may swaddle blankets for older babies. I guess because of rolling over. But Ethan will need a bigger one sooner rather than later, so I was thrilled to find one bigger. He just sleeps so much better when he is swaddled. He would never sleep well at night if he wasn't swaddled. His head control is getting better and better. These past 2 days, we have had him in his bumbo seat for a few minutes. He just loves sitting up and looking around. He is so good at holding his head up. He still doesn't enjoy laying on his tummy, so we don't put him there very much. He just screams, so its not helping when he just lays there and cries the whole time. Dylan was the same way. I'm kind of surprised Ethan doesn't enjoy it, because a month or 2 ago, he kind of liked being on his tummy. But I think that since he is more aware and interested in his surroundings, he doesn't like to be limited so much. His favorite position in sitting up, well being propped up so he can look around.
Dylan was ready to go to school again this morning. I just hope he doesn't put up a fight when I go to pick him up like he did last week. Since it is raining they wont be playing outside, so maybe he will be ready to go. No change on his pooping in the diaper. Still happening, only now MOST days he is pooping during nap AND overnight sometime. So I get to clean up a huge mess twice in one day! Yay me.
Today would be such a good day to just lay in a warm bed all day and listen to the rain hit the window. Too bad life gets in the way, haha!

Well Dylan got to ride in the tractor today. And bonus, he got to ride with papaw. Ryan was up planting corn, and his dad was here working ground. Dylan went out first thing this morning and stayed until lunch time. After dinner, papaw took him back out with him. The kid just loves it. He kept saying he was going to go back out with papaw, but I kept telling him maybe tomorrow. I'm glad papaw took him back out. Dylan will go to sleep tonight one happy little boy. Here are a few pictures. I know you cant see in the tractor, but that's ok.

Just like the rest of us, Ethan has allergies. The poor kid. His nose is runny and his eyes are all red and watery. He seems fine at night, but during the day he will sneeze up a storm. He hasn't been awake for very long this morning and has already went back to sleep.
Yesterday when I went to pick Dylan up from school, it was horrible. They were all outside playing. So I walk out there to get him, and he refuses to come to me. He doesn't want to go home. So he goes and hides in a little play house! After almost 10 minutes of trying to get him out on his own, I had to physically get in there and carry him out. Of course he cried the whole time I am carrying him to the car. I was furious. I mean, he has protested leaving before, but nothing to this extent. I know he just wants to play with kids, but it was the whole minding me issue. Thankfully we had to drive home, because that gave me a chance to calm down.
This morning while I was nursing Ethan, I saw something move out the corner of my eye. It was a mouse. Yuck! It was hiding behind the tv area. So when I was done with Ethan and went and got out one of those glue boards and laid it down by the only exit it had. Then I went and got Dylan and made breakfast. Not long after all that, I heard something. Sure enough I caught the nasty thing. At that point is when the cat finally showed interest in the mouse. I had done the work for the cat, so she was ready to take over then. I just took that nasty little mouse outside and took care of it. *Knock on wood* but we haven't seen too many mice this year, or even over the winter. But that's been my morning.
I finally got Ethan to sleep past 7 am too! He woke up around 4:45 this morning so I fed him and laid him back down. He woke again at 6:50, but I was able to stick the pacifier in his mouth and he went right back to sleep until 8. Yay! He didn't fuss as much as he normally does last night. He was quieter, so I got a little more sleep too. He did fuss around midnight, but not much more after that until I nursed him.
These last few weeks we have been having issues with the birds trying to make a nest under the hood of my car. If we want to go somewhere, Ryan had to take the air hose and blow all of the stuff out so we don't catch our engine on fire. Its insane. We will come home from somewhere and within 2 hours, the birds have already started a new nest! So we will pick out what we can reach and then pop the hood. They wont make a nest with the hood up. So we will leave, come back, park, and later we will see birds flying in and out under the car. Pop the hood and sure enough they have started again. I think its been going on for over 2 weeks now. They are persist ant little things. Hopefully they give up and build the nest elsewhere soon! Its frustrating. Right now the car is sitting out there with the hood up to keep them out. They already started a nest when I got home from picking up Dylan yesterday. We got home shortly after 11, and by 1 when I went out there to pop the hood, they already started a nest. I got out what I could and then left the hood up.
I was going to post a picture of Ryan working ground from this time last year, but I don't have one. The only pictures I have are of harvest. So oh well, no pictures this time either. Its supposed to rain this weekend. So that will put a stop to the spring work. Hopefully it doesn't rain much so that they don't have to stop planting for long. Ryan is supposed to start on corn tomorrow and then they will start working ground on the land around the house here. As much as I can, I will send Dylan out to the tractor with daddy. I would love the break and Dylan would love to ride in the tractor everyday. So I am kind of looking forward to that!

Why is good sleep something that has to be learned or taught? Shouldn't babies just be born to sleep well? Some may be, but Ethan is not one. I know I keep complaining about it, but sheesh! I tend to be tired and frustrated some days, and just need him to nap and sleep well. Maybe I just need a vacation.
So anyway. I think Ryan and I have just decided to drop the whole "Dylan you need to poop in the potty thing." Nothing we have tried is working, so we aren't even going to acknowledge it at this point. I say, "Ryan and I" but really its only me that deals with it, because Dylan will only poop at night or during nap, and I am the one who gets him up. But now when he gets up, I am just cleaning him up without saying a word. I'm just letting it go. I am beyond frustrated with the situation, but I don't know what else to do. I have tried all of the pieces of advice that I have been given and nothing it working with this kid. So I'm done. If he wants to sit in poop, then fine, he will sit in poop. One day he will poop in the toilet, so I will do my best to just be patient and wait for that day. I don't know what else to do. So I will do nothing.
Ryan is starting to get busy. Right now they are doing their best to get the ground worked up and then they can start planting. I think he said they will start on the corn in the next week or so. Hopefully the rain backs off so they can just get things all done and not drag it out.
Then we will plant a few rows of sweet corn in a small patch of ground he set aside for a garden. He asked the other day what else I wanted to try to plant. I came up with romaine lettuce (just a couple of plants), carrots, potatoes, and green beans. Not much else appealed to me. So we'll see if we can actually get around to all of that, or if we will just stick with the sweet corn. Later in the year, I will complain about the amount of sweet corn that we have to cut and freeze.

The weather has been so nice these last few days. Its been great. If I let him, Dylan would live outside. The only bad thing is the amount of bees and wasps I've been noticing. Just standing out on the porch, it seems like they are everywhere. Hopefully they all calm down soon. Id hate for Dylan to be stung. Or worse Ethan. Ethan finally slept well last night. That was so nice. He has been very talkative here in the last couple of days too. Its very entertaining. Both boys amaze me. Dylan is like a small adult most of the time. He is only 3 but sometimes I swear he is older than that. The things he says or does amaze me. I think he wants to grow up already. He was been pretty good lately. He's been very helpful too. Now if only I could get him to poop in the toilet! I really dont have much to say. My attention is divided right now. Here are a few pictures of Ethan from the past week.

It was a decent weekend. Dylan did behave with my Grandparents this weekend, which makes me feel better. We did to try to go to the restaurant we wanted to yesterday. It is a small burger place that we saw on either the Food Network, or Travel Channel, not sure, but it is in the German Village area of Columbus. All street side parking, small restaurants and stores. So we drove by, no parking. People everywhere on the sidewalk. So we called the place and they said they had an hour or so wait! We didn't have the time to wait an hour to be seated. Oh well. One of these days when we can leave both boys home, Ryan and I will try to go again. Who knows when that will be though. So anyway, we drove back out to the edge of the city and ate at a Mexican restaurant. It was good. Oh while we were in the German Village area, we tried to find a couple of other places. We did a quick search and there was supposed to be a rib joint and a wing joint. Both phone numbers had been disconnected when we called, so we drove to the rib joint and there was an empty building. Its so hard to find a good bbq place in this state. They are just few and far between. So Sunday we basically spent the day rushing around. No relaxing at all. This whole weekend for some reason Ethan has been so fussy. Even this morning at the grocery store he was loud and fussy. He spent most of the time on the edge of a screaming fit. And he didn't sleep well last night either, which means I didn't. I wonder if he is going through a growth spurt. For him to be fussy so much lately something must be going on. He isn't getting sick though, thankfully.
When we got home Ryan and Dylan stayed outside doing different things. I kept trying to go out with Ethan, but he wasn't having it. I tried sticking him in the sling, but I just cannot get him positioned right anymore. When he was tiny, it wasn't problem, but now no matter what I try I just cant seem to get him in here right. So I got out the carrier that goes on like a backpack, only in front and stuck him in there. He hated that. So we came back in and I finally got him to nap for a little while. I still need to work on getting him in that sling better.

It has been a nice weekend. The weather became decent for the most part. Dylan is spending the weekend with my Grandparents. I dropped him off Friday morning before lunch. I hope he is behaving himself. We will pick him up on Sunday. I didn't do anything yesterday. Today I finally got to see a friend's baby. Then we made a very quick trip to the mall. I would have like to have walked around more, but Ethan was being cranky pants, so we did what we needed to and just left. I at least got my jewelry cleaned, and got Dylan some short sleeve shirts. We aren't doing anything this evening. Ryan worked today and yesterday. It would have been nice if he didn't have to work, but oh well.Tomorrow before we get Dylan, we hope to have a nice lunch out together at a new place. So we'll see. Not much else right now, I am just hoping the day slows down and doesn't move so fast. I needed a little down time and it was good for Dylan to get away and have some one on one time. He enjoys being with my Grandparents so much. I really am hoping he is being good!

We had a good Easter weekend. Saturday we went up to Ryan's mom and dad for dinner. Dinner was good. Ethan was passed around and held by all. He was a very good baby. Dylan was also a good boy. He got to play with his cousin, which always makes him happy. The 2 of them also did a little egg hunt. Dylan was thrilled at the money he got in the eggs. It was a nice warm day out, but it was so windy. Sunday we went to my mom's side of the family for lunch. Dylan got to play with all of the kids there too. He was a very good boy. Ethan again was passed around. Most of that part of the family hadn't met Ethan yet. He did his best to nap, but his sleep was pretty broken. But he slept great last night. He didn't fuss until 4 am and then I fed him. And we got up just before 7.
Took Dylan to school today. When I went to pick him up, he didn't want to leave. They were all outside playing.
We are getting the first storms of the season this evening. Just south of us they are pretty nasty. We've got the thunder and lightning right now. The satellite was out for a bit. I hope the bad storms stay south of us. We don't need any of that! I enjoy watching the storms roll in. I like seeing them from a distance, but I don't like those severe ones over us. Being home by myself with the 2 boys during a bad storm scares me.
Last year we got a few bad storms close by. One evening we did have a small tornado touch down in the county. I asked Ryan not to leave (he is on the fire dept, and during tornado warnings the dept goes out to the corners of the township as storm spotters). It got pretty bad there for a while. He and I were ...ok as I type its starting to hail. Great...yep, pea sized hail. Anyway, Ryan and I were standing outside on our porch and we heard a rush of wind and a roaring sound on the south side of the house. Sure enough a f-0 tornado had gone through. Obviously it didn't do much damage. There was some damage to a house and a barn and of course trees were down, but the next day you could follow the path through the trees.
Its taken me probably 30 minutes or so to type all of this up and I think that the storm has moved on. No more hail. We got a torrential downpour for about 10 minutes as well. Dylan told me just a few minutes ago that he was starting to get scared as he hugged me. I tried to explain to him what was happening. He's fine now. Id hate for him to be terrified of storms. Ok, well enough for now. Things are calm and quiet again for now.

What a day...it's not even noon yet. Ugh. Woke up, fed Ethan. Cleaned up kitty puke in 2 different rooms. Got Dylan up, had to clean up rancid poop from his diaper. It has leaked onto his pjs, and his blanket on his bed. Wash 2 loads of laundry. Bathe myself, and Dylan. Changed numerous poopy diapers of Ethan. This kid won't stop pooping. Fed Dylan, only enjoyed one cup of coffee for myself. Made over a dozen deviled eggs for the 2 dinners this weekend. Dried my hair. Keep in mind this is all before11:30 am. Now I am sitting beside Ethan while he again fills his diaper. He has yet to take a nap this morning too! Yay! So now, off to change his diaper...again. Then get lunch fixed. Then maybe a little down time. Its been a long morning!
Wait...I think I keep forgetting to tell about Dylan and his Scooby doll. I don't remember if I have mentioned it before. Dylan has a small Scooby Doo doll. He has been carrying it around and treating it like a baby. He wraps Scooby in a blanket, puts his to bed, which is a small tub from his toy stand, gives him an imaginary bottle, and paci. He feeds him in the high chair, and will carry him, cradling him in his arms, and even changes an imaginary diaper...its so funny! He is being a little Daddy. He really pays attention when I take care of Ethan.

Yawn. I am sleepy, and rather grumpy. Dylan is crabby, Ethan was too. Thankfully Ethan is asleep. Dylan should be but isn't. He is in his room entertaining himself when he is supposed to be sleeping. Ethan had me up at around 6:30 this morning. He was fussing quite a bit, so I brought him downstairs to feed him unsure if he would go back to sleep. I didn't want to keep Ryan awake. So after I nursed him I laid down with him and he finally fell back asleep for a while. I think I got about 30 minutes before the rest of the house woke up. I could try to take a nap now, but I know that I wont be able to.
We are still battling the poop with Dylan. The other day I bought a Hot Wheels ambulance, showed it to Dylan and explained to him that if he makes poopy in the potty that he can have the new car. He seemed interested at the time. I then put the car up out of reach, but still in sight. I then asked him off and on if he needed to poop and if he wanted to try to poop in the potty. That first day, he did try. He would go in there and sit and grunt, but nothing ever happened. Now its been 3 days or so, and when I ask him if he wants to try to poo in the potty he just says no. I remind him of the cool new car and he seems not to care. I swear this boy will poop in his diaper until he is in high school! Ok, I know it wont last that long. I have to put him in a diaper when he sleeps. He cant control his pee when he is sleeping. He just doesn't have the bladder control for that. So since he wears a diaper during sleep times, he just saves the poo for then. It is always a huge mess when he does. It squishes out everywhere, and i have to stick him straight in the bathtub to get completely clean. It is very frustrating. I know that one of these days he will get it, but jeez!
We have a busy weekend. Saturday with Ryan's family, Sunday with mine. Hopefully Dylan will be well behaved both days. Sometimes he can get kind of wild around others. But it should be a good weekend. I think I'm ready to get out of the house for a while anyway. During the week I don't go anywhere, so I'm usually ready to do something on the weekends when Ryan is home. We got the boys a few little things for thier Easter baskets. Ethan will get a clip for his paci, a link toy, and a noisy toy that can strap to his carrier. Dylan will get a coloring book, a school bus toy, and a Nerf football thingy for outside.
Happy Easter