Replacing the front porch

Our front porch has been in poor shape since we moved in, but the snow this year has pretty much killed it. The rail on the side closest to the drive way couldn't take the weight of the snow and the entire bottom rail pulled free of all the posts. The support post on that side has looked pretty rotted for a while, so James decided it was time to replace it. He learned how to support the roof while he was changing the old post out with the new post from The Handyman Family magazine (awesome magazine). He took the car jack out and supported a 2x4x8 with it and braced that against another 2x4. At first I thought he was really smart, but I was anxious about it. When he told me hours later it was a tip from Handyman, I just laughed and said, "Why didn't you tell me that before you started?! I wouldn't have been worried."
Anyways, he took down the first post and out of the entire 4x4, there was one corner that wasn't rotted. The day before he was standing on the porch roof getting leaves out of the gutter. He doesn't know how it supported his 200lbs. Anyways, we spent most of the weekend outside. Landon had fun. He did not like the nail gun, which is funny because the compressor is super loud and that didn't bother him at all. Anyways, they are now all replaced, all of them pretty rotten to some degree, but the first was the worst. James tapped it against the brick pillar at the end of the driveway and it snapped in half! Glad we decided to do this.

James took the first post down, see his support from the car jack?
Landon playing with some flower pots

I planted some flowers while James worked

James disgusted with the rotten posts

It looks like they weren't even one entire piece, there are several seems we found in them

This was the last one, not too much rot here, but you get the idea about how bad it was.

Left side, see the missing spindles?

Landon somehow got a leaf stuck in his mouth. When I pulled it out, the entire stem was in his mouth. Had to get a picture!

Playing in the dirt, yes, he took his first taste. I think he liked it...

I caught him a few times this weekend sucking his thumb. Where did that come from???

Laughing at James

James watering our tiny Maple tree.

Helping Daddy water the flowers.

Landon's First Easter Egg Hunt

James has a co-worker that has his own chickens and he gave us a dozen right before Easter. Since they were already blue and orange, we didn't have to die them, we just boiled them. Then James went out and hid (and I mean HID) them. I could only find one scanning the yard. Silly boy. I helped Landon get the first one, but since I couldn't find the others, James took over. He had a ton of fun. This is really the first time he has been outside in our front yard for any amount of time. He also has learned that Mom and Dad's fingers are great walking aids. He just latches on and off he goes. The other day, I was sitting on the couch, he grabbed my finger and just started walking off. We are now trying to break that habit.

Anyways, James got an egg salad recipe off the Internet and it was AWESOME! I am sure that the organic eggs made it that much yummier. Seriously, the taste is so much stronger and delicious.

What is this?

It is kinda cool

Loves to walk holding our hands

One handed is much trickier

Look at that silly grin

I love to watch him inspect things

What's over here?

Oh, I don't like this uneven ground!

Another one!

Look at that body language! He didn't want to go near the angel hair

What do I do now?

I think he had fun, what do you think?

Landon tried to juggle a bit later... it didn't turn out so well

First hair cut

I don't know about you, but those scissors look scary to me!
Trying to cut

Look at that face!

We finally had James cut with smaller scissors and I held Landon. And after it was all said and done, James threw the hair away!!!

Not over yet...

After the hospital, we went home and all went to bed. The next day, Landon looked great, so the my Pediatrician and I decided just to do Benadryl and no steroid. The next day, I woke up to this:

He woke up like this

Face

Leg

I gave him Benadryl and the steroid and expected it to work as quickly as it did at the hospital. Well, he woke up from his nap looking like this:

After his nap

Getting worse...

Neck

Funny drinking position

With the steroid we had quite a thirsty little boy...

Feeling better enough to play with Daddy.

During all of this, he popped 2 teeth on the bottom and has two very swollen gums up top.

Penicillin Allergy

The first pictures I took when I realized that he had hives and not a bug bite.
This was at the hospital. They got really bad.

Oh! Crocodile tears, not a happy boy at all!

James trying to distract Landon with his zipper.

Got the medicine in, saw immediate results, now we are ready to go home!

So, we now know that Landon is allergic to Penicillin. YUCK! We woke up Tuesday morning after the wasp sting and he had a welt on his face that I thought was just a bug bite. I had even remembered him crying a bit the night before, but going back to sleep. Then I changed his morning diaper after James left and saw hives all over his legs. I freaked out, called James and my friend Heather and then my Mom trying to get some comfort and advice until the Dr. office opened. When they opened, of course they just said to Benadryl and couldn't get me in to see the Dr. until the next morning. We did Benadryl and they continued to multiply. So glad I started taking pictures right away, it helped me to monitor the spreading instead of trying to rely on memory. We eventually went to the Urgent Care and they gave us a steroid. Got it filled, and gave Landon a banana to eat with it (since it was time for a snack and the steroid is supposed to be taken with food.) and he threw it up immediately. Great! So, James came home and we tried everything. An hour and a half later we just decided to go to the Emergency Room. They gave him an anti-nausea medicine and then the same thing (except it didn't smell horrible and seemed to taste good to Landon) and immediately we saw results.

The bad thing was, for a week he wouldn't eat banana. He is now fine and eating them again.

Apparently, the first reaction from Penicillin is mild (I now recall a mild rash after finishing Amoxicillin, that I thought was a tomato allergy), the second is moderate (obviously the Augmentin that he was just on), and the third could be anaphalactic shock. Stressing me out!

I think I got at least 10 more white hairs that week. I say that week because it isn't over yet!...

Wasp Sting

Swollen middle finger
Daddy's Wegmans hat

Ahhh!!!

This is how Landon rode in his first car ride in his new chair. "I could get used to this..."

The Sunday after the craft show, Landon got stung by a wasp. I was doing dishes and he was scrounging for dropped cheerios and he made the squeal sound he makes when he gets stuck. I looked over and saw that he wasn't stuck, so I went to investigate. (It is getting warmer now and I will be forever worried about snakes in the house) I went over and saw a wasp trying to walk away with its stinger up in the air kind of crooked. I knew right away that he grabbed it and got stung. (he has caught a ridiculous about of bugs lately. He even picked up a fly before it could take off! He should automatically get a black belt for that, right?) So I saw a red dot on the inside of his hand an just assumed that was where it was. James (as he was ready to leave and go to work) made me sit down and check him over to make sure there weren't any more stings. Well, I had the wrong hand completely. His other hand had a pretty could cut on the middle finger from the stinger, but it had already fallen out. I then noticed how swollen it was. So of course, I panicked trying to remember if I had any swelling when I got stung by a bee. Luckily for us, our Pediatrician's office is open on the weekends to the public and I was able to call and talk to a nurse. Later that evening, I had to make a run to Wegmans to pick up a prescription for an antibiotic that James had accidentally left out of the fridge overnight and went bad. So, we met James for his dinner break. He was quite the busy guy, even on his break and now I know that on Sunday nights, it won't be worth going to visit him. It was nice to see him in action though and Landon loved his hat. We drove home in an insane rain storm and I was so glad that we made it home safely.

Last Minute Craft Show

Landon's toys
Baby Blankets

Baby shoes on the left and Snugga-Luvs on the right

Car Seat Shade

Matching Game Quilt

Kids Lounge Quilts, Cuddles & Tag-a-longs

Close up of Tag-a-longs and Cuddles

I was on a cancellation list for a show and got called that there was a space that just opened up for me. I had two days to get ready. Luckily, I have a good inventory already and the two things I decided to add to my stuff this year: infant shoes and car seat shades were quick and easy things to make. I got 4 shades made and 11 shoes. The Shades we a HUGE hit! It brought tons of people over to look at my booth and the shoes we awesome too. People who weren't interested in looking at baby stuff, to a second look at the shoes and then really looked at my stuff. Nice!

Landon did great. While we were setting up, he found a tiny piece of a brown leaf on the floor. Take a look at the picture of his toys, you can see the speckled floor. Man, that kid has some serious eagle eyes! We did really well (thanks to the shoes, shades and tag-a-longs) and I am excited to get in gear for the winter shows.

Landon had to go home for a nap, so we called James's mother to bring us the "big boy" car seat, so I could keep the infant one for the display. Pic on next post :)