A budding pianist...?

Landon enjoys doing just about anything with dad, including 'playing' the piano. Here he is last night tickling the ivories ... or was the drooling on the ivories? Either way he was adorable doing it :-)

Our little smiler...

Here's some pics of our little smiler ... 2 different days, same outfit :-) The one in the jolly jumper is from this morning (July 31). Gotta' LOVE those dimples!

Good Sunday...

Things are going well here. Landon has been napping in his crib these past few days, and we've started to transition him there for the night. What I mean by that is that he starts out in his crib, for about an hour, then he wakes up and I bring him to bed with me :-) He was much better last night though, only woke up to eat twice (three times including the time he came to bed). I know that still sounds like a lot, but it was much better than the 4 or 5 times the previous 2 nights!! I am wondering if he went through a growth spurt or something, because he ate like crazy for the past few days, and now he seems a bit more 'normal' again. Does anyone know if there's a 5 month growth spurt?
We're starting to look into when we'll start cereals. I've actually bought some rice cereal, so we'll likely start in the next few weeks. I have mixed feelings about that - I'm excited to see Landon try this and move on to the next stage, but I am sad to think that he's already 'so big' to be starting cereal!! I kind of like being the sole source of food ... as much as I never thought I'd feel this way when he was first born!! LOL
He's starting to suck his thumb more and more now too. I have mixed feelings about that as well. We've struggled with him re: the soother for months. He will take it now for only short periods of time when he's falling asleep. He doesn't really want it at any other time. But he's been sucking (more like chewing actually) on his thumb more the past few days. I don't know if I should be chasing after him and plugging the soother in every time he sucks on his thumb, or if I should just let it be. He's almost 5 months and he hasn't developed a 'habit' either way really ... I don't know if the thumb-chewing is related to the onset of teething, or if he will start sucking it regularly. There are pros and cons to thumbs -vs- soothers, and I'm somewhat ambivalent. Of course, I do recognize that if I let him start sucking his thumb, in about 18 months I'll wish I had chased him around with a soother :-/ But on the other hand I could chase him around with the soother (like I've been doing for 4 months now) and he will still suck his thumb. *Shrug* Oh well...if only I could locate his instruction manual I would know just what to do :-)

That's the scoop from here this Sunday. I should go feed him, and then I think we'll fill up the pool and sit in the back yard and play. Hope you're having a good Sunday!! Take care...TK

Landon is still enjoying his bouncy chair, although these days he sometimes sits up too much in it!! Here he found himself on the other side of the bears hanging on the bar! Yes, he sat up like that all by himself!

And he still loves to sit in front of the mirror ... and we love it too because he looks so cute squealing at the baby in front of him :-)

Enjoying the kiddie pool

Here's Landon enjoying the new kiddie pool we bought for him. The weather has been nice and hot so we got to use it. And it looks like it will stay hot for awhile too, so we'll spend even more time out there :-)

Crib Napping - YAY

Landon had 2 naps in his crib yesterday, and is currently enjoying another one in there today! That is making me very happy!! If he keeps this up, we'll have to try an overnight in there some day soon. When mom's ready to have him in the other room overnight that is... heh heh
I'm just hoping we got his day/night schedule straightened out a bit. The other night he was up until 3:30 am! aiaiaiaiai Last night he went to sleep at 11:30, and I managed to keep him sleeping through the night, by nursing all night long. Very tiring. But, he stayed sleeping until 9:45 this morning, so hopefully we've got this thing a bit straighter. I wouldn't mind moving it all up another hour or hour and a half, but I am going to be happy with this 11:30 - 9:30 schedule for now!! LOL Especially with crib-napping going on!
I hear the little stinker starting to wake up here, so I'll have to go and get him. I'll try to post more later on....Until then! TK

Still a feverish little Landon

Landon is definitely reacting more to these shots than he did his 2 months shots, that's for sure. He was feverish last night, so we gave him some Motrin. He fussed and fussed until he was too tired to fuss some more and he finally went to sleep. He was pretty good overnight - thanks to Motrin - but he was super-hot again this morning, and he had hives on one arm (I think ... red marks with white bumps anyways). So more Motrin, another bath, and we went back to bed for a few more hours. He seems to be better now ... the fever's gone -- don't know if he's kicked it or if it's the Motrin again -- and he's actually been up playing for an hour!! But he's not completely happy today, that's for sure. Pretty much a sucky-pants ... but I guess I'll let him be a sucky-pants for a day or so :-/ Hopefully he'll be better soon, makes me sad when he's feeling miserable ... and it makes me sleepy when we don't get much sleep LOL Ah well...

That's the quick note for today. I play ball tonight ... last game of the regular season - I can hardly believe it!! Play-offs start next week, so we'll see how much longer our season lasts. Until next time...TK

Four Month Shots today...

Landon got his 4 month shots today. He was a real trooper - he didn't cry too too much :-( He's a bit fussy tonight, has a bit of a fever, but overall I think he's doing okay. He's definitely been sleeping today though - even when we were at the dentist! He's such a good baby :-) Now he's getting a bath, and then we'll do some play time and hopefully to bed at a decent time. He's been doing pretty well with going to bed at night - the screaming festivals have been minimal the last 2 nights (hopefully I didn't just jinx it!). We've found that he really enjoys looking at story books at night -- he lays in our bed with me and kicks his feet like crazy (I call it marathon legs, because it's a running motion!). Then we do some bouncing on the yoga ball with some singing, and then off to sleep. I hope this bedtime routine continues to work because I like it too. Last night he woke up after 45 minutes, but we think he was just cold. Tonight we'll bundle him up a bit more and see how that goes :-)

That's all the news from here for today. I'll try to get some pics uploaded soon. Take care...TK

We Did It!!

We did it!! We finally used our beautiful crib today! That's right -- Landon napped in his crib! The first time he's slept in there at all :-P He was tired, so I put him in there with the mobile on and took a load of laundry downstairs. By the time I went back upstairs he was sleeping. :-)
The next nap didn't go quite so well, so we put him back into his hammock, but at least he slept in there for one nap today! YAY
Everything else is going well. He's just as cute as ever...smiling and kicking and playing. He is loving his jolly jumper more and more now. And he loves to spend as much time as possible outside. I'll be filling up his little pool again tomorrow so we can sit in it. This all day in the house when it's so hot out doesn't go over well with him :-/
I'll have some more pics in a couple of days. Hope all is well where you are! Take care...TK

Tummy Time!

Landon still doesn't really like tummy time, but it's more tolerable now that he's stronger. He was imitating dad pushing up on his hands here. It's cute, but I hope he doesn't figure this crawling thing out too quickly -- I'm enjoying the immobile stage! LOL

Landon in the mirror

I told you he was cute when playing with the baby in the mirror!! Here are a couple of shots of him smiling in the mirror. It was hard to get a picture, because he kept getting distracted by the camera (the red-eye light would come on) and would then put on a serious face! Little stinker -- but I stuck it out and managed to get a couple of cute shots.

Landons New Trick...

Actually, Landon has 2 new tricks ... one good, one not-so-good. The good one: He's finally figured out why a jolly jumper is called a jolly jumper. That's right - he figured out the jumping part tonight and was jumping, Jumping, JUMPING! And loving it. It was great to watch him jump away.
The not-so-good ... he's decided that it's a good thing to wake up at 4 am and be awake for awhile. Not wide-awake or anything, just kind of not sleeping awake. Awake enough that I'm awake. Then he'll fall asleep for 5 or 10 minutes and wake up again. Just to make sure I'm awake. *sigh* Hopefully he'll outgrow this little phase sooner rather than later because I am one grumpy mama bear these days!
And I'm wanting to get some sleep as I'm hoping to paint our bedroom this weekend ... getting prepared to put the house up for sale. We've picked out countertops, and potentially some flooring. Nothing's final yet, but we are starting down that path.
We got Landon's SIN today ... finally. Now he's 'official' I guess, and we can submit it for his RESP and stuff. Maybe even get a bank account opened up for him soon. He's got some money from Grandma and Grandpa, Jason and Chris (crib winnings!) to put in his account, and he won some money on a lottery ticket from Grandpa too (yes ... Grandpa gave a $2.00 winner to mom, I've been playing on that $2.00 ever since with more $2 winners and free tickets, and finally won $20 last night for Landon). So we'll maybe have to get that sorted out soon.
Well, I'm gonna go check out the bathtime, see how Landons doing. He's been kicking and splashing so that John's pretty wet now too :-) Until next time.....

Landon Report for July 17

Landon is such a cute little bug!! He actually woke up naturally this morning at 9:20 -- the earliest in many weeks! Must be because he went to sleep by midnight (with a short little wake-up period in there about 12:30 ... just long enough to get into mom and dad's bed :-/). It's amazing what going to sleep 'on time' will do. I know ... midnight might not seem like on-time, but it's better than the 1 and 2 am bed-times we had last week!! LOL And since he sleeps in in the mornings, it's not so bad. We will be working on moving that bed-time up a bit, but for now it works fine. It coincides nicely with our bedtime, and since he wants to sleep in our bed, with me beside him, it's fine. We think he doesn't like the dark ... he was sleeping fine until John turned out the light, then he woke up within minutes crying. He settled down when we turned the light on, started crying again when we turned it off. He may need to have a brighter night-light than what we have. We'll have to see. For now I'm just hoping that we can establish a consistent bed-time (that will be tough, as neither John nor I have a consistent bed-time!!), then we'll work on moving it up, then we'll work on his own bed, then we'll work on his own bed in his own room. By the time he's 10 we should be good :-P

He sure is a sleepy-head now though. He was up at 9:20, went down for his nap at 11, and is still asleep at 1:15!! But I'm sure he'll wake up hungry soon. It's kind of frustrating -- I don't think he goes this long overnight without eating, yet he'll do it now! He used to go 5 or 6 hours overnight between eats, but the last few weeks it's been 3 or 4 hours (when he was sick it was sometimes 2 hours!). Then after his first 'mid-night' meal (between 4 and 5 am), he's up in 2 hours to eat again, then again 2 hours after that!! I think when we get a more consistent bed-time, we can work on getting him 'better fed' leading up to bed-time, and then hopefully enjoy a longer stretch (or two) overnight. I don't feel sleep deprived though, because when he's in bed with me I barely wake up to feed him ... just snuggle up to him and go back to sleep. He does the rest :-)

Our friend Allison just called, and she's coming over for a visit for the afternoon, so that will be great! I'd better go and check on the sleepy-head. Will post more later ... along with some pics from in front of the mirror (too cute!!). Take care...TK

Landon is getting better, slowly

Landon is still recovering from his cold, but at least he's on the recovery side of it. He's mostly stuffed up, which interrupts his sleep (particularly his night-time sleep). But he's sleeping more in his own bed (hammock) now ... his naps are all in there again, and last night he spent a good part of the night in there (waking every 2.5 hours to eat though :-/) I think we've got the 'routine' (if you could call it that) somewhat figured out. He's dropped his last 'nap' of the day, so we're at three --> a long one in the morning shortly after he gets up, his second in mid-afternoon is a bit shorter, then a 45 minute cat-nap in the early evening. He is then awake for about 4 hours of fun and bliss ... actually he's pretty happy during that time so we have lots of fun with him! Then a bath, some eats, a few songs, and to bed. Well, that's what we did tonight at least!! Tomorrow could be a completely different story! LOL What we do know is that going for a stroller-ride definitely makes him sleepy -- when we came home from our walk tonight he was falling asleep sitting up ... pretty cute! We took a couple of pictures.

It is so amazing how much he's learning so quickly these days. He can really grab onto things and hold them now ... while flailing his arms around! He's finding favourite toys, and will play with a specific toy for 10 or 15 minutes in a row. He particularly likes this tigger toy we have that makes noise when you pull on it. He loves songs too ... I can sing songs to him all day long. Actually - I think he has his father's love of music -- he stops whatever he's doing to listen to John play piano or guitar! And when he's excited he does what I call 'guitar hands' -- he holds his left hand in the air to the side and 'strums' by banging his right hand against his belly :-) It's pretty funny.

We found a new game to play today, too. We put an old mirror up against the entertainment centre and put Landon in front of it in his bumbo. He sat there cooing and squealing at the baby in the mirror for about 15 minutes! I think he would've happily continued 'playing', but we were headed over to Aunty Margaret's. I'm looking forward to putting him in front of the mirror again tomorrow :-)

That's the Landon report for tonight. Hope all is well with you...chat soon!! Take care...Tamara

Here's a picture of John and I at the cottage. Also a couple of really nice shots to show how beautiful it was. Examples of the beautiful sunsets that we enjoyed. The kids are Thomson, Tyson and Konor throwing rocks into the water.

More Family Photos

Here are some more family snapshots from the lake. Landon loved playing "stand-up" with Uncle Bob. And a few nice shots from by the water, with Liz and Izzy; and with Uncle Neville and Izzy.

Here's Landon "helping" dad get his swimmers on as he gets ready to go for a swim. It's like he's telling him "Just put my feet through these holes here. Not like that, like this. Here, let me show you!"

Landon swimming at the lake

Here are more pics of Landon from the lake. With John is his first swim ... he didn't mind it too much so I took him in again a couple more times. He hung out on the beach for awhile under his sunshade, and spent lots of time on the dock with us as well. I don't know what I love more, the swimming outfit, or the funky "tilley" hat! We certainly had fun with him at the lake though. He absolutely loved it because there were LOTS of trees to check out, which he did every day all day!

Family Pics from the cottage

Here are the family photos from the cottage. The full family picture:
Back: Rob, Thomson, Liz and Isabel Huot (J's sis and family), Margaret Keller (J's aunt), Neville (J's uncle), Tiana, Larry, Darilyn and Tyson Skanderbeg (J's cousin and family)
Front: John, Landon, and Tamara Keller, Brian Skanderbeg (J's cousin), Lori, Elise and Konor Gork (J's cousin and kids).
The kids picture: Isabel Huot (11 months), Konor (3 1/2) and Elise (5) Gork, Landon (4 months), Tyson (4) and Tiana (10 months) Skanderbeg, Thomson Huot (2 1/2).

Here's is our adorable Landon hanging out on the dock with mom. That's the life hey ... sitting on the dock with mom, Corona and fishing rod by your side!!

Here's the family that was out at Uncle Neville's for the spreading of Great-Grandpa John and Great-Grandma Ione's ashes on July 1, 2006.

Back: Darwin & Konor Gork (John's cousin-in-law and son)

Middle: Bob Dishaw (J's uncle), Liz Keller (J's sis), Lorie and Elise Gork (J's cousin and daughter) , Rob Huot (J's bro-in-law)

Front: Rosemary Dishaw (J's aunt), Isabel Huot (J's niece), Neville and Mary Skanderbeg (J's uncle and aunt), John Keller, Thomson Huot (J's nephew), Tamara and Landon Keller, Brian Skanderbeg (J's cousin).

Here are some pictures from out at Uncle Neville's farm on July 1. Landon was very excited to meet all of his relatives, including Uncle Bob and Aunty Rosemary, and his cousin Lorie (holding him while he plays "Roly-Poly" with Aunty Liz). There's a nice photo of us with Landon as well, taken in Uncle Neville's yard.

We're home...

After a wonderful week at the cottage, we are home again. We actually got home on Sunday, but the week has continued to be busy so I haven't had a chance to post. Landon is just recovering from his first cold (break my heart), so we've been to the doctor twice this week, and not sleeping that much. Finally yesterday he got some good sleep (along with mommy), and he slept much better last night as well. Right now he is actually in his bed napping -- YAY! I'm hoping that we can get back to a 'routine' of sorts shortly, but while he's been sick I've been letting him sleep as late as he wants in the morning, meaning that he doesn't go to sleep well at night again. I can't blame him ... with a stuffy nose that he can't breathe out of and a sore throat, I'd be grumpy and miserable too.

The week at the cottage was wonderful though. We started out going to Uncle Neville's farm on July 1 for the day. It was a family event - spreading Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa's ashes at the marsh. Most of the family was there, so we had a good visit. Landon was pretty good throughout the day, but had a screaming festival that night - keeping most of the house awake. But once we got him to sleep it was fine and he slept well (after 2 am!).

Then on Sunday we came home to pack up the car to go to the cottage. Landon travelled so very well, sleeping the majority of the time he was in the car. We got to the cottage late in the day on Sunday. It was great ... a nice sized cottage that could fit all of us - as it needed to be!! Liz (John's sister), Rob, Thomson (2 1/2) and Isabel (11 months) were our weeklong cottage-mates, it was wonderful getting to spend time with them, and to have the cousins "play" together (as much as they can at Landon's young age!). In addition to us, we had Uncle Bob and Aunt Rosemary, Uncle Neville and Brian out there for Sunday and Monday. Then on Wednesday Darilyn, Larry and their kids Tyson (4) and Tiana (10 months) came out, Lori came with Elise (5) and Konnor (3 1/2), as did Uncle Neville, Brian and Aunty Margaret. We had a very full cottage - but it was so wonderful to have everyone there!! We spent some time at the beach, and then played on the HUGE dock for the rest of the day. We got some group photos which will be treasured forever.
The rest of the week was quieter, but we did have Aunty Margaret out again on Friday. It was so wonderful. The cottage was great, the boat dock was huge, the water was warm, and the week was wonderful. Landon napped very well all week, I could just put him in his hammock and he'd go to sleep. The night-time continues to be a struggle, but we're hoping to get that figured out now that we're home again -- once he's recovered from his cold that is.

That's the news here. I will get some pictures posted hopefully soon. I have them uploaded but need to go through them first. So check back in a couple of days.

Oh yeah -- the 4 month dr appt update: since Landon woke up with a fever on Monday morning, he didn't get his 4 month shots. We will take him in on July 25 for those (which will be a busy day, as John & I have dentist appointments that afternoon :-/). But he weighs in at 15 pounds, 4.5 ounces, and is 25 3/8" long. Aside from the cold, he's 100% healthy. He's grasping toys and flinging them around now, and of course everything goes into his mouth :-) He isn't laughing too much yet, but he will laugh briefly every now and again. Mostly it's his open-mouthed silent laugh that we get to enjoy.

Anyways ... better run. I hear Landon waking up from his nap, so I'd better go and feed him :-) Hope all is well with everyone ... take care!! TK