Getting Reacquainted

We've been following the weather like crazy waiting to hear when the weather would hit the 80s so we could get some pool days in. We were trying not to be too anxious because we love not paying for our A.C. to be on and the perfect temps outside, but we missed the pool! It's still gorgeous out and we can finally head to the pool. Is it asking too much for every single day to be like this? We took our first trip down to the pool the other night and brought some food down to cook out. When he told Ryder we were going he was serioulsy giddy! It's the only word to describe it. He just kept smiling this huge smile and even let out a few shrieks! I love seeing him get so excited over stuff.

It was so odd to watch Ryder be hesitant with the pool. By the end of the summer he was a crazy man running and jumping into the pool from any and all angles and swimming like crazy. This time he went in from the steps, got back out a few times, splashed with his hands some, blew some bubbles, and after some coaxing from Daddy finally made his way in. He was pretty comfortable with the pool again by the end of the evening, and i'm sure will be back to his old crazy ways soon enough!

Testing out the water

Still hangin' on the first step
Getting a little braver on the second step

And he's finally in!

Landon and I hanging out on the sidelines

Yum... missed you fresh fruit bowl by the pool

Finally time to put the grill to use again too!

A pro once again

Love Them!

Ryder swam by and asked me to take his picture!

Shocker right there!

Baby Landon Belly - 31 Weeks

After dinner we had some hot tub time followed by a little time by the fire to warm up

I'm really loving having my husband around at night! He is in between sports right now for officiating which leaves him only with his baseball rehab in the mornings and afternoons. He starts up baseball next week (officiating and spring training). Last night we even enjoyed a second evening by the pool again. We've yet to get any sun because we head down too late... so guess where we are off to right now!!! Time to tan this belly a little :)

A Comparison of Our Boys

Last night we pulled up Ryder's 3d ultrasound picture. Landon's was done at 31 weeks while Ryder's was done at 32 weeks. Kind of convenient they were so close together! The photo of Landon is much harder to see on the computer then it is on the paper copy I have. I've tried retaking it quite a few times, but no luck.

Obviously these 3d ultrasound pictures aren't very great or reliable, but from what we can tell Landon's face seems much less pudgy and a pointier nose... kind of looks like Daddy's nose. I guess we'll know more 9ish weeks from now :)

Baby Landon Update: Week 31

How Far Along: 31 Weeks

Size of Baby: 16 inches long and almost 3.3 pounds - more on this at the bottom of the post

Food Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Four naval oranges

Total Weight Gain: I forgot to weigh myself this morning... probably a good thing because my eating has been awful! Whoops!

Maternity Clothes: My philosphy right now: If it covers my belly... wear it! I put a bathing suit on this week... a super pretty site let me tell ya!!!

Gender: It's a BOY! Landon Brennan Lutz.. got this reconfirmed today :)

Movement: Oh yes. In the ribs thank you very much Landon

Food Cravings: Nothing in particular

Labor Signs: Lots of Braxton Hicks. On Sunday I was having so many so often and so much pressure it was making me kind of nervous. It went away after resting, and since the contractions weren't hurting I was very certain they were just Braxton Hicks.

How’s Ryder Handling It: He was so cute today at our ultrasound. They have the video feed from the ultrasound up on a tv so it's easier for us to see. Ryder kept saying "Daddy...baby brother in da t.v.". As i'm typing this he is "helping build baby Landon's dresser". He knows Baby Landon is coming soon... just not sure he understand the extent of it all!

What is the same/different as the last time:
Same: Hip pain, ready for it to be over, anticipation

Different: Pressure, pain in the ribs


Symptoms: My hip pain at this point is obviously not going away by any means, but last week was awful. I really thought walking was going to be a thing of the past for me. Luckily tylonel regularly in the morning and afternoon, the heating pad, and really trying to take it easy has helped relieved a little of the pain sometimes.


Best Moment This Week: Seeing our little guy today :)

What I Am Looking Forward To: Our doctors appointment next Wednesday!


Ultrasound Appointment: Today we went for our ultrasound. First off... Landon is a healthy little boy :) The cysts she assured us were truly nothing to worry about, and are gone anyhow. So it was basically an ultrasound for our viewing pleasure. We had such a sweet lady who let us look at Landon for probably about 30 minutes and even did some 4d stuff for us!

What we learned:

1. Landon is head down! WooHoo... terrified of the idea of a c-section.

2. Landon weighs approximately 4 pounds 3 ounces. If you look at the estimated weight for this week it should be 3 pounds 3 ounces. I looked to see at what week 4 pounds 3 ounces is considered "normal" and it's around 33 1/2 weeks.

3. The lady doing the ultrasound told us he was "slightly big, but nothing our of the ordinary and nothing to worry about". Although she never said anything to us, I knew that when they did all the measurements of the baby the main screen would show an estimated due date with what they found and made a point to look for it when the ultrasound was over... the Estimated Due Date was 4/23/11... 12 days before our 5/2/11 due date! It wasn't her position to say anything so i'm excited for our appointment next week with the doctor to see what their opinion is. Unfortunatley we are meeting with a nurse practitioner so i'm hoping she'll have some info for us! Doctors these days seem to be big into moving due dates up and inducing early if the baby appears to be big. I don't know where our doctor stands on this so i'm excited to find out.

A profile shot of Landon

Landon is indeed still a boy
The best 3D shot we could get. Landon would not move his hand off his face no matter how much we jiggled my belly and I moved around.
(Picture explantion: It's a close up of his face. The big blob to the right side is his hand. Right below that is his nose. His lips are towards the bottom of teh picture sort of. The slightly darker section in the big white smoothe area is his eye.. hope that helps for anyone confused)

Chuck E Cheese's

Last night we went to Chuck E Cheese's with the Heisey's and Wood's. Such a great time! Ryder played his little heart out for about two hours. All the guys were sore from playing so much basketball, and Ryder just kept asking for more. About 2,000 tickets or so later Ryder got a Hoop Shot basketball game, and we were all proud owners off some seriously tacky glasses! Such a fun night :)

The Boys

Minus Zander (Travis and Brit's baby boy)... he was sleepy

How cute is he?!?!
The Girls

All of us...

possibly the only group shot we've ever taken over the years!

Ryder still wearing his glasses when we got home.

He wore them out of the house this morning too!

Thanks for a great night guys!

two and a half

The little man turn two and a half today. I can't believe how old he's getting, how fast he's growing, and how much he's learning.

At two and a half:

- Ryder's talking has finally come around full circle. He was definitely slow in the talking department. I thought he'd never be able to have full conversations with us. It's amazing how much his language skills have totally taken off in the last month or two. He talks in full sentences, strangers can understand some of his conversation, and we understand him 99% of the time. We still have moments that we can't understand what he's saying, but for the most part we are over the hurdle. On days when Derrik isn't home with us Ryder can tell him what we did without me really having to help much with the conversation.

- Now that our talking has finally taken off we are working on our learning. Ryder has zero patience to sit down with me and try to learn so we have to be sneaky about it. He's great with physical things. We started him on some basic puzzles a couple of weeks ago, and were shocked how great he was doing. The puzzles had the picture on the board, and he had to put them in the respective spot. We were mixing three different puzzle pieces in a pile on the floor, and he was still mastering them in minutes. We moved on to some real puzzles. The wood ones with a border still, but no help with the picture in the background this time. These are still a work in progress, but he's doing really great really looking at the picture and figuring out where they go. We're trying to teach him patience and not to get frustrated if something doesn't go in on the first try. We've also been working on counting. He's doing really great to five, and sometimes gets to ten and other times it's a strange concoction of numbers all mixed together. Just weeks ago though his counting was "1,6,9,6,9,6,9" so we are definitely making progress! He is counting everything from toys, to coins, to pictures in his books, and I truly think he'll master it so soon. I know lots of other kids are so much further advanced then this, but we are just so happy that Ryder is finally showing an interest and making some progress in learning! I'm sure the next six months he'll make hure milestones in this department.

- I have no clue what his height is, but all i'm saying is it is significantly taller then it was over the holidays. We are awaiting some warmer weather quickly out here because he has suddently outgrown most of his jeans and his long sleeve pj's! We were having a period of time when he was wakign up in the middle of the night screaming in pain telling us his legs were hurting. Putting it all together now it's quite obvious he was having a growth spurt!

- Ryder is big into us reading to him right now, really seems to grasp stories, understands full tv shows and tells us about them, and has started really watching kids movies with a purpose instead of just background noise. He's watched Cars for about a year now, but just now is interested in actually switching things up. I think we might be ready for a date to the movie theatre soon. We were waiting for Cars 2 that is supposed to come out this summer for the first go around, but if something good enough comes out before that we might have to give it a shot.

- Ryder is so independent. I think we could leave him home alone and he'd survive just fine. He goes to the fridge to get his own drinks now, tells us what he wants to eat, plays amazingly on his own... I am so greatful for this and know it'll be a huge blessing once Landon arrives. Although it makes me sad when I try to play with him and he tells me "Mommy go sit" or "Mommy go away"... a real sweet heart right there!

- Although he is independent he also loves us so so much. He is such a sweet cuddler, hugger, and kisser when he wants to be. At night he gives the sweetest kisses, makes us do "BIG kisses" when Daddy is home when we both kiss him at the same time, and hugs us both a good two or three times with all his mite before he goes to sleep at night. I loveeee when he yells "sweet dreams" from bed as I close his bedroom door at night. He kinda melts my heart :)

- He's sleeping great. We had a little rough patch when he was getting out of his big boy bed to sleep on the floor, but it's great now. We've set up a great routine for him before bed, and he pretty much goes down with no fight what-so-ever. I will always be thankful that Ryder since birth has been very good to us in the sleep department.

I know there is SO much more he is doing... of course when I go to write it's so hard to remember. Two and a half is great... we are loving this age, he's so much fun, and so much easier then he has been in the past. If there was ever a time we were truly ready to welcome another little one into our family we think this is the time. Ryder's going to be a great big brother!!!

He likes to pile his puzzle pieces on Landon

Putting the puzzle together
Playing some video games with Daddy after nap

(no he doesn't actually play, but he sure thinks he does!)

What Sunday mornings look like with my boys

Watching Toy Story

Heading out with Daddy to go shoot hoops with a couple of the guys

Baby Landon Update: Week 30

How Far Along: 30 Weeks

Size of Baby: 15.7 inches long and almost 3 pounds

Food Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Like the head of a cabbage

Total Weight Gain: 26 Pounds

Maternity Clothes: Oh man.. Even Derrik's t-shirts are starting to look like a more fitted tee on this huge belly of mine. I'm having a hard time keeping my belly covered with regular shirts, and have had to dig through the box of my old maternity clothes my mom sent me a few months back for some more options this week. For anyone who sees me out in public... i'm sorry... i'll try to regain some fashion sense as soon as this baby decides to get out of my belly.. until then it's all about just trying to stay covered!

Gender: It's a BOY! Landon Brennan Lutz

Movement: Yes still movign away, but I don't think quite as much as before. He feels like he's getting so low and I feel more pressure then anything these days.

Food Cravings: milk shakes... but I always want these... just givign into it once a week because i'm uncomfortable, pregnant, and just don't care :)

Labor Signs: SOOO much pressure. I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a "labor sign", but he's definitely getting down low. Let hope it's his head down there and not his butt... although judging by the feeling in my ribs his feet are right where they should be!

Sleep: I think I roll from one side to the other a million times a night. I just want to sleep on my belly!

How’s Ryder Handling It: How about some video of Ryder talking about his baby brother? I had to break it up into two videos because my phone will only send a certain length at a time. The noise he is imitating in the video is the sound of the heartbeat in case you're confused.

What is the same/different as the last time:

Same: the hip pain, the tiredness, the ready for it to be over-ness

Different: feeling so much pressure so early. I don't know that I ever really felt that with Ryder. I think it's becuase i'm carrying lower this time I guess.

Symptoms: My hip pain has been awful this week and lots of pressure. Trying to stop complaining, but it's just so easy to do. I can't wait to feel normal again.

Best Moment This Week: My husband had 3 consecutive nights off!!! It has been SOOO nice having him at home with us :)

What I Am Looking Forward To: Our ultrasound next week!!!

Doctors Appointment: We had our 30 week appointment this week. We at this point are meeting the five doctors in the practice so we know them all in case our doctor can't deliver. Our doctor and the one we met this week are nice, listen to your questions, and to the point. I wouldn't mind them delivering Landon, but wouldn't be upset if they didn't make it either. I hate being sexist, but i'm a fan of female doctors. I just think they can relate better to pregnancy, and the three doctors we have left to meet are the female doctors. Hoping I really like them!

My belly measured perfectly for 30 weeks and the heartbeat sounded great. They said all my blood work from my glucose tests came back great as well. They gave us the paperwork for our ultrasound, and we go next Wednesday. Our next appointment is the following Wednesday after that.

Baby Landon Update: Week 29

How Far Along: 29 Weeks

Size of Baby: About 2 1/2 pounds and just over 15 inches long

Food Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Butternut Squash

Total Weight Gain: 25 Pounds... Half way to last time with 11 weeks left!

Maternity Clothes: I pretty much sport yoga pants or sweat pants with a t-shirt 99% of the time. I don't get out of the house much so why deal with those uncomfortable maternity clothes.

Gender: It's a BOY! Landon Brennan Lutz

Movement: A-L-L T-H-E T-I-M-E!!! The doctor had asked us to chart his movements. They wanted to sit down to twenty minutes a day and count home many times I felt him move, and he said even the tiniest movement counted. I told him I could feel the baby move whenever I wanted that he moves non stop. He was happy with that and pretty much said we didn't have to chart it out.

Food Cravings: Nothing really at the moment

Labor Signs: Nothing going on

Sleep: Restless :( Between not being able to breath and hip pain it's almost impossible to get comfortable. It's making me exhausted and want naps. I guess it's just getting ready for life with a newborn.

How’s Ryder Handling It: Fine I think... we haven't talked about it much with him lately.

What is the same/different as the last time: As I said before... I don't remember feeling so awful, but I think it's because we forget. If we remembered we'd never get pregnant again! I couldn't even look at a pregnant person after I had Ryder without feeling nauseous!

Symptoms: The same... just pressure, hip pain, short of breath

Best Moment This Week: Spending time with friends... baseball and local :) and loving on their babies. I just can't wait for Landon to get here!

What I Am Looking Forward To: Hitting that 30 week mark next week... I need some kind of final countdown to look forward to!

anti-blogging?

I figured the comments about me not blogging would come soon enough... Those pregnancy updates aren't holding you over? I thought a nice self-portrait of my huge stomach in the bathroom mirror once a week was just what you wanted! I haven't been not blogging on purpose, but just haven't really had anything to blog about. I've been working on some projects in Ryder's room, for the babies in my life, and a project on the computer for some time now. I'll have to get a blog post up with my crafiness (or lack there of) of what I made for Ryder's room and the baby, but the one on the computer will have to wait... I'm really proud of it and need to show it off to some people (my mother) in person before I put it on here. Too much work to just show it on a computer screen. Anyhow... I guess it's pretty bad when my brother writes me a message about not blogging... that's when I know i've REALLY slacked on updating. I have no pictues... searched my iPhone and managed to come up with a few. Nothing too interesting, but he said anything would work.

The lack of blogging... Derrik has been SOOOO busy with basketball and football officiating. He is gone five days a week with baseball and usually six days (seven this past week) with basketball. Ryder and I have been spending a lot of time at home just hanging out while he's working. We did have a fun time at a cookout with our baseball friends on Saturday, but I forgot to take any pictures. It was dark out, and we spent most the night sitting by the fire... great night for us, but not really photo worthy I guess. We'll be back to regular blogging soon... lots of stuff to talk about with the baby coming and Derrik started to get slightly more involved with baseball :)

Until then... some not so interesting iPhone pictures....

Playing hoops at Chuck E Cheese with Daddy

Playing video games (hockey) with Daddy

check out the smile on his face :)

I know his face is cut off, but love that he has his hand on Landon :)
Cuddle time post nap

More cuddle time. He doesn't just jump up after nap like he use to.

We love it!

Sleeping baby... I love sleeping picture of him.

We use to never check on him in fear of him waking up, but.....

latley he tries to pull stuff like this so we check on him a lot more.

He never wakes up and I love seeing him sleep so it's a new habit :)

Ryder and Mommy heading out to meet Daddy for some In-and-Out Burger after a late night of work for Daddy

Goofing off with Daddy at dinner

Baby Landon Update: Week 28

How Far Along: 28 Weeks

Size of Baby: About 14.8 inches and about two and a quarter pounds.

Food Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Like a Chinese cabbage

Total Weight Gain: 23 pounds.. good think we were back to only 1 pounds this week!

Maternity Clothes: The same... Hoping Target puts out some materity shorts soon though!

Gender: It's a BOY! Landon Brennan Lutz

Movement: Enjoying it a little more then last week, but still get some crazy ones that get the best of me.

Food Cravings: Still loving the O.J.

Labor Signs: Negative

Sleep: It's starting to get more uncomfortable. It's hard to breath in certain positions, but once I'm asleep i'm fine. I'm always exhausted when I go to bed.

How’s Ryder Handling It: He's good. He loves talking about his baby brother to people.

What is the same/different as the last time: this question annoys me... honestly it's the same. At this point both pregnancies were uncomfortable and unbearable some days and others I feel totally fine.

Symptoms: Hip pain, getting really full if I eat a lot at once, it's getting harder to breath in certain positions, braxton hicks

Best Moment This Week: I finally got to meet Baby Nash this weekend and Baby Zander today :) It was fun seeing their parents and the Heisey's (who need to be parents!) too!

What I Am Looking Forward To: Time with friends soaking in the time with their babies :)

On a side note... We had an doctors appointment this Monday. Nothing too exciting. I did my glucose test and should have results by Thursday or Friday. They said no call means everything was good to go. We go every two weeks from now on and start rotating to the different doctors in the practice to get to know them all. We should get an ultrasound in about a month at our 32 week appointment to check out the syst I told you they saw at his 16 week ultrasound. They showed no concern, but thought it was a good excuse to take a sneak peak of our little guy at the expense of the insurance company.

Baby Landon Update: 27 Weeks

Whoops!! Forgot to post this yesterday. I was waiting until I got out of my pj's, but it was cold here yeseterday which meant I showered and got right back into pj-ish clothes. Never really got around to it so here it is a day late and picture-less.

How Far Along: 27 Weeks - Third Trimester!!!

Size of Baby: About 14 1/2 inches and about two pounds.

Food Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Like the head of a cauliflower

Total Weight Gain: 22 pounds... 3 pounds this week...here we go

Maternity Clothes: Still enjoying my Target purchases. Getting a little nervous about it warming up and needing shorts though since I don't have any, and don't even get me going on bathing suit season!

Gender: It's a BOY! Landon Brennan Lutz

Movement: All the time and painful

Food Cravings: Orange Juice...yum!!!

Labor Signs: Wow.. feel like i just wrote "no comment until third trimester or so".. it's the third trimester. Still hoping I have no labor signs soon!

Sleep: Been so great sleeping right through the night. Although I wake up in the morning feeling like I've been beat up.. my whole body hurts.

How’s Ryder Handling It: Good.. he just found a bag full of old bottles of his and some new paci's for Landon. I was thankful he told me they were for the baby and went about stacking them into bottle caps instead of trying to suck on them.

What is the same/different as the last time: I'm just going to go right into the "symptoms" category on this one...

Symptoms: Pressure, hip pain, and braxton hicks. I am sure I felt this way last time, but don't remember it. I have SOOO much pressure I feel like Landon is going to fall out or my water is going to break. I know it's an exageration, but it is painful. I am just not happy :(

Best Moment This Week: Going to Monster Jam with my boys :)

What I Am Looking Forward To: By this time next week most of our closest baseball friends will be here for Spring Training!

Monster Jam Video Footage

Sorry the vidoes aren't the greatest, especially of Ryder during the races. I was trying to video and watch at the same time. Always thinking of family wanting to see :)

P.S. - Remember you can always pause the music all the way at the bottom of the blog to listen to videos

MONSTER JAM:

This video is when we were first walking in and seeing the Pit Party. It was hard to video, but you can kind of see his face taking it all in.

BRUTUS:

In this video when you see Ryder waving he's saying "Hi Brutus"

BLUE THUNDER:

When Ryder starts talking he says "Watch this Daddy!" Too cute!!!

Monster Jam

Friday night we all went to bed SOOO excited that Monster Jam was the next day. It seriously felt like it took forever to get here. We had plans the next day to hopefully put Ryder down for an early nap since it would be a long afternoon/evening at Monster Jam, and we didn't think it was a good idea to just ditch the nap all together since we'd be out late. Well Friday night Ryder got up SIX times! Talk about feeling like Landon was here already. Nothing appeared to be wrong, and I figured it was just a bad night. I mean we have nights like that every so often, and we just make do. On the bright side he slept really crappy so that early nap idea just might work. I put him down at noon instead of one. Well 2 1/2 hours later Ryder was still awake and officially had a nasty cold!!! Go figure :( We gave him some tylonel and were on our way. I mean we weren't letting some little cold, a bad nights sleep, and no nap get in the way. It was FINALLY time for Monster Jam!

We got to the stadium around 3 for the Pit Party. We got to go down into the pits to see all the monster trucks and meet the drivers. When we walked in the look on Ryder's face was priceless. Watching him take it all in from up above was so awesome! We took a few minutes to let him check the whole scene out from up above. We made a point to show him where all of his favorite trucks were. He was just in awe!

The view of the pits

(A.K.A. - the baseball field... we can never get away from it!)

Ryder's face when we first got down into the pits
Posing with Blue Thunder - The winner of the races that night

Brutus - Our first monster truck we ever got

Max-D

For those we talk to often... this is the monster truck he gets when he FINALLY goes on the potty again that he is constantly talking about.

Avenger

We weren't really into Avenger before last night. He happened to have a short line at the end of the pit party and totally won us over. He happened to be our favorite free style of the night!!!

The pit party ended at 5:30 and the show didn't start until 7. I was a little nervous what we were going to do with our cranky, nap-less, sick toddler for an hour and a half, but we somehow survived. Between them getting the show set up, some four-wheeler entertainment, food, and walking the steps... we made it!

We found our seats (best in the house by far!)
Watching them clear the trucks from the pits to get the show ready

Anxiously awaiting the show!!!

Once the show started Ryder did so great. Our biggest problem was the fact that Ryder was very obviously getting sicker and sicker by the minute. Add that together with the lack of sleep, and we had a nodder! He would be freaking out during the race and then have a bobbing head from nodding off waiting for the next one to start. It was so sad and pitiful knowing how much he had looked forward to this.

Watching a race with Daddy One of the best races of the night...

Avenger crashing into Madusa to win the race
Two of our favorites
Max-D against Grave Digger

:( He was crying because he couldn't stop sneezing

We did this probably 200 times during the course of the night... or maybe even more

BUT then he'd purk up and have this face... so of course we didn't go home. We were so torn!

(Notice the white on his shirt.. yeah it's dry snot... we had it EVERYWHERE!)

Brutus flipped over

Avenger flipped over... best free style!

Max-D

Love that face!

AND finally... the grand finale.. Grave Digger free style!

After six and a half hours of Monster Jam it was finally just a memory. I was so bummed that Ryder was sick, but I truly think he still enjoyed himself so much. He has talked to us about it all day today, and is doing so many new tricks with his trucks. I love watching his little imagination recreate what he saw. I love that Derrik and I can get so excited over watching monster trucks because of our little man. I never thought i'd be so excited over something like that.