First Hair Cut and Some Other Fun Things

Andy thought is was necessary. That Landon was getting a mullet. I was fine with the mullet and resisting my baby's first haircut but eventually ceded under the condition that the second haircut would be mine alone to schedule. It ended up OK except that now, when he wakes up in the morning his new, shorter hair sticks up in the back. Kinda cute, though.

Now I'll warn you. The next part of this is going to be pure Momma gushing.

I am absolutely in love with Landon at this age. He's almost 17 months and is wonderful.

Things I always want to remember about Landon at this age:

• First words I hear from the monitor when we wakes up in the morning, "Up! Please! Banana?"
• He cracks himself up giving our leather couch raspberries
• To turn pages in a book he insists on using both hands while his fingers are clasped together like he's praying. Where did he come up with this?
• He asks for the "A B's?" song, and when I sing it he looks at me like I'm crooning a love song just for him. Complete eye contact, big silly grin, and he's over the moon when I pause occasionally and let him fill in the next letter.
• His obsession with letters; he knows 23 uppercase. He shouts (and I do mean SHOUTS) them out in the car when he sees them on a billboard, in the mall when he sees them on a sign, in his books when I read to him.
• His response to "What color is this?" is always "blue". At least the first time.
• His favorite game is having us draw a letter for him on his Magna-Doodle and then telling us what it says.
• He sets a book on my knee and says, "Please? Lap?" Ah, how could I ever, ever say no?
• Every time he sees Sushi he gives him a gentle head butt then looks at me for approval.
• For some reason he thinks the outside of the toilet bowl is a great place for his tongue.
• All bodies of water are referred to as "bath"

I could really go on and on. I probably will on my own private list so I can always remember.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween and A Little Surprise

Landon was a late walker; a fact I was perfectly ok with. I had no worries or desires to rush this milestone, but I did harbor a tiny hope that he'd be walking by Halloween. Because how cute would he be on our neighborhood sidewalks, toddling around as mini-Elmo? Well, his timing couldn't have been more perfect. He'd been working on it for a few weeks and in the days leading up to the big night he was really getting to be an independent little walker. Funny then, that he spent the entire (short lived though it was) trick-or-treating portion of the evening in either Andy's or my arms. He. Refused. To. Walk. There was no negotiating. He did not want to walk, and he most definitely did not want to accept candy from strangers. Like I said, the trick-or-treating portion of our evening turned out to be very brief. But he was SO cute. And it his stubbornness makes for good memories!

Asserting his position on walking

Trick-or-Treating with Dad

And with Mom

Showing off our Sesame Street themed jack-o-lanterns with Henry

And now for the Little Surprise...

Expected to Arrive May 24

Step by Step

He started taking steps last week. This weekend I was able to get it on video. It's official; my baby's becoming a toddler!

A September Wedding

Ryan and Clarie’s wedding, to be exact. This wedding was a long time coming, and we’re so happy that Claire’s now officially part of the family.

Ryan and Claire are the sweetest. After having Landon we quickly realized that a divide exists between couples who have kids and couples who don’t. This is mainly, I believe, due to the fact that having a baby = no more social life. Not that I’m complaining, just stating a fact. When your son goes to sleep at 7:30 pm, and he likes to go sleep in a bed, guess where you are at 7:30 pm? Every night. Sure, occasionally we get crazy and put him down at Derek and Gina’s where we hang out until 11:00. Wild. Because even if you can find a way to stay out late he will inevitably be awake at 6:45 the next morning. Awake, raring to go, and not at all cognizant of the fact that Mommy and Daddy went to sleep four hours ago. Now, some kid-less couples are kind enough to ignore this lack of a social life and treat new mommies and daddies as if they are just as cool as before. These couples ask about your baby, pretend not to notice when you yawn at 8:30pm, and don’t bat an eye at a poopy diaper even if they are secretly disgusted. This is Ryan and Claire. They are DINKs who don’t judge me for being a SAHM. Plus they completely spoil Landon with attention, love, and gifts. So sweet. It’s hard not to feel extra mushy about people who love on your baby. So that's how I feel about Ryan and Claire. Extra Mushy.

Now that we’ve established how wonderful Ryan and Claire are, lets move onto the wedding. Beautiful. Very hip. Processional songs consisted of a string quartet strumming out Coldplay and The Beatles among others. The reception was an awesome party with a photo booth for guests to take pictures in and more dancing than Footloose. I was very excited about the reception. We had a room at the resort and had a babysitter there with Landon. He made an appearance at the reception. Then, at 7:30, back to the babysitter for bed. So essentially Ryan and Claire’s reception was really a big date night for Andy and me. Only the second one we’ve had since Landon was born. Gina and I were talking about how pathetic we would have found that five years ago. Now here we are. Weddings are a big date night. And we partied like we didn’t have to wake up at 6:45 the next morning.

In all seriousness, we couldn’t be happier for Ryan and Claire. They really are such a beautiful, hilarious, and gracious couple, and we were excited to share in their special day. Congratulations!

Introducing the Newlyweds

A Family Photo

The only picture we got with them. It's blurry. Blame Matt.

Dancing the night away

I paid 5 bucks for this dance :)

Cousins

Not sure how much he paid. I love this picture.

This one too.

Back to the Beach

A few weekends ago we spent the afternoon at the Jersey shore. I wasn't sure how Landon would react to it since he's timid about random things lately. Turns out the ocean isn't one of those things. He went CRAZY...

Charging head first into the ocean,

laughing as the waves tried to deter his enthusiasm by smacking him in the face again and again,

ignoring his chattering teeth, blue lips, and goose bump covered skin while insisting that he needed to crawl just a bit farther out into the "bath".

He was daring. He was adventurous. He was unstoppable.

Then he was exhausted.

Success.

A peach by any other name...

The other day we were at a local farmers' market when we discovered a new addition to Landon's rapidly expanding vocabulary. As soon as we walked in he spotted some peaches and started shouting "Apple! Apple!" Then we passed some tomatoes, "Apple! Apple!" Nectarines, "Apple... " you get the idea. While I was having him show off his new word by walking past the nectarines repeatedly, he decided enough was enough and used his Go-Go Gadget arms to grab a nectarine and take a nice bite out of it before I could stop him. We decided we'd better buy some nectarines. Now every time he sees them on the counter, "Apple, apple!" He knows what he likes... I'm sure someday he'll learn that not all spherical fruits are apples.

Other new words he's acquired for those who are interested: "Elmo", "hat", "up" (when he wants to be picked up), "eye" (while poking himself, me, or random kids at the pool in the eye), and sometimes "hi" - if he's so inclined. 

Little Man, Lots to Say

It's been really tough figuring out what Landon's first words were because for a long time he's been making lots of noises that really sound like words, but we couldn't quite confirm that he was consistently using them at the right times. He's been saying Mamamama for Mommy for about 6 months now and Dadadada for Andy ever since Andy got home. Sometime in between there -ight became a favorite sound and I though it might be "light" because he would always be looking at a light when he said it, but then he started to expand -ight to mean whatever he was looking at at the time.

Within the past two weeks or so, however, we've really noticed that he is acquiring quite the little vocabulary, and he's using the words consistently and appropriately. So it seems that his first official word is "bubble"- which is a little ironic if you saw the video of him crying in terror the first time we blew bubbles with him. After bubble came "outside", "off", and the latest, "ball".  He's also quite good at making kitty noises "maw!" and dog noises "woof". It's amazingly difficult to get him to perform for the camera considering how often he says the words when it's not rolling, but I did manage to get a few short videos of some of his first words.