Please don't go!

Landon enjoyed everyone being here so much - he tried to keep grandpa from going by stealing his hat!! That didn't work, so Landon spent part of the afternoon looking out the front door - like he was saying "Hey, where'd you go? !?! Come BACK!"

Christmas Time!

Here's some pics from Xmas for everyone :-) Landon opened his first gift from Santa, and surprised mommy by actually being interested in the toy, not just the paper!! He really likes his dumptruck from his cousin Thomson too -- except he's much more interested in the wheels than the truck :-/ But it's fun to watch him spin those wheels!!
Mostly though, he enjoyed playing with everyone. He really liked 'the boys' ... his cousins Kyle and Mark. He would break out into the biggest smile whenever one of them would walk in the room!! It was fun.

Christmas was GREAT!!

What a wonderful Christmas time ... everything was absolutely wonderful! Everyone arrived on Saturday, left this morning :-( Landon sat looking out the front door this afternoon, like he was asking "hey, where'd everyone go?"
And were we spoiled -- Landon got Little People barn, truck and loading dock, a dumptruck and story book from his cousins, a sled from Grandma and Grandpa, blocks, clothes, shoes, "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament ... aiaiai. He was one spoiled little monkey!! He enjoyed opening his gifts, well, the first few anyways. After a couple he was hungry, so we took a break for some breakfast. Then he opened a few more, and that was the end. Too much paper and stuff going on. So he had a nap, and we all opened our gifts. Everyone got beautiful things and it certainly made me reflect on how lucky we are to have loving family to spend Christmas with, and we are so fortunate to have the means to share lovely gifts.

And EAT! Man have we eaten well the past few days :-) John was waiting for that time when we would eat and then sit around like over-stuffed grizzly bears!! Well that definitely described the last few days! LOL It was all so good. I am very grateful for the help from my mom, sister and Aunt though - I don't think I am practiced enough to have done all of the cooking myself :-P

So it was absolutely wonderful ... what a great Christmas!! I have lots of pics - will post soon (I tried, but I think lots of people must be posting pics because I had trouble). Trish is coming to visit tomorrow, so I'll try doing some pics in a couple of days.

Oh yeah - and HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLA - you old bag! LOL Hope you're having a couple for me tonight :-)

Take care....TK

Landon's getting better :-)

I had a dr appt this morning (one of those waste your time ones, but you have to go and 'see' the doctor to become a patient, whether you need to see the dr or not!) - and he checked Landon's ears while I was there. The infection is clearing up, just a little bit pink he said, which is good. Landon has been his old self again, which is nice ... playing and having fun. He's got a bruise on his forehead where he fell on his head last night (poor monkey!), but that doesn't seem to have slowed him down any! LOL

My cold is still here, but I feel better today than yesterday. I think the humidifier in our room last night helped a lot.

I'm off to clean clean clean today (ugh). Everyone gets here Sat YAYAYAYAYAY

Later...TK

Landon's feeling better...

The little man is feeling a bit better today ... thank goodness! He got some good sleep last night, and his fever is gone. So the antibiotics must be doing their job :-)

I got my Xmas shopping done today ... phew! The mall wasn't too nuts, but I spent too much time there so the drive home doubled in time :-/ Ah well. Landon was the hit of the mall, so many people adoring him as he sat smiling in the stroller, clapping his hands :-) Too funny!!

Tonight he had a rougher night though -- he fell on his face in the dining room, so he has a big bruise on his forehead. Then a short while later he fell against a table and scraped the other side of his forehead. Poor bruiser! I gave him some extra cuddles before he went to bed :-)

So tomorrow is housecleaning - Friday is grocery shopping, then we'll get the sleeping quarters all ready and voila -- pandemonium shall begin Saturday afternoon :-) I can hardly wait!

Chat soon y'all! TK

and 5 teeth :-)

It's official ... I just felt the 5th tooth in Landon's mouth. We could see it last night, and it popped through either overnight or this morning :-)


Here's our stinker (before the ear infection). I'll try to get some more pics up soon.

Owie - Ear Infection :-(

Well, Landon had a pretty rough day yesterday. Thankfully he did have an hour and a half nap in the afternoon, as he woke up at 5 pm with a fever of 104.1 :-( Yikes that's high ... sponge bath and Motrin, and one very worried mommy! John and I took him to a walk-in clinic (2 hour wait), where we learned he has an ear infection. No wonder he was sooooo grumpy! Antibiotics for Landon :-( We came home, in the hopes of getting some sleep ... heh heh Idiots! Landon cried cried cried until he physically couldn't cry anymore, then he whimpered. Poor kid. He finally konked out shortly after 1 am, only to wake up crying at 2. He did finally get to 'sleep' about 2:40, and slept pretty well until 9, which was a god-send! He woke up no grumpy - maybe not exactly happy, but not grumpy. Grandma gave us some advice to help his ear feel better (warm oil on cotton - wish we'd have known that last night!), and Landon seems to be feeling better. At least he played on his own for a bit this morning, and went down for his nap with very little fussing. Poor bugger - broke my heart seeing him cry so hard! He kept looking at me like "Don't you get it? This really HURTS!!! FIX IT!!!!!". :-(

But - we did get him weighed at the dr office. Which was interesting ... a balance beam scale, he was screaming blue-bloody-murder on that thing, let me tell you! But he weighs about 21 pounds (she couldn't be exact because he was kicking and screaming and flailing!), so he's been gaining weight healthily for the past 6 weeks (which we knew he was). And when the pain wasn't unbearable, he was a super-cute little monkey!!

So that's the news ... getting ready for Xmas has some nice new stress to it this week :-/ I'm not too concerned though - I'll go finish Xmas shopping tomorrow, the malls will be insane, but I'll survive it I think. Today and Thursday are house-cleaning (as much as I'll get done today), and then final preps Sat and we'll be good. Hopefully John can get some Xmas lights up tonight or tomorrow night too - we have to dig those out of a box in the basement, they haven't been out for a couple of years! :-/

Hope everyone is well ... I'll post again soon! Take care...

Fun Weekend!

Well, we made it through John's Xmas party - it was a lot of fun!! And Landon kept his sitter busy, but wasn't too bad. He really struggled to get to sleep, in the end I helped the sitter out by coming to the room to sing a song and get him down. But I think he would've fallen asleep without my help shortly anyways, as he was already calming down when I got there. He slept very well though, not waking us up until 9:30 am (thankfully, as both of our heads were a bit swollen...). He didn't make strange with the sitter at all, and had lots of fun exploring the hotel room. We were on the 8th floor, and he really enjoyed looking out the window at the lights and the traffic. I was so relieved that this hotel stay was better than the first (at 3 weeks old, he cried and cried until 5 am!). and the party was so fun - it was great to get out and meet some new people :-D Sunday - not so fun! LOL But we made it through

Now Landon isn't feeling so well today. He woke up lots last night, just whimpering and whining. I didn't have to go get him or anything, he would get himself to sleep again, but I heard him many many times. He would whine, bounce his bed, quiet for a few minutes, and do this again. Well into the night he was whimpering and bouncing, so I don't know how much sleep he got. He was crying at 8 am, so I got up with him - he was feverish and miserable. I gave him a bath, some Motrin, and he slept for about 30 minutes after breastfeeding only to wake up crying big alligator tears :-( He was doing better after that nap though, had some cereal and played for a bit - but mostly he just wants mommy and is not himself. I don't know if it's teething (he is droooooooling and cheeeewwwwing!), or if he caught John's cold. My throat is a bit scratchy, so maybe that's how Landon is feeling. *shrug* Poor little monkey - I guess I'll have to spend the day spoiling him. I'm just glad he wasn't sick this weekend in the hotel room, and hopefully he'll be over whatever ails him by this weekend when everyone arrives!

And we're only one week until Christmas! Holy moly!! I guess we'll have to do some decorating this week :-/ And I MUST get my shopping done. I was planning on going today, but with Landon's mood I may have to put that off for a day or two. Maybe I'll just try to get the house ready today....

That's the news from here. Hope everyone is ready for Christmas (or really close to it)! I'll post soon....TK

New tricks...

Landon has been very VERY busy this week, exploring all of the new things he can now get to (either by crawling or by pulling himself to standing). The computer room is a wealth of fun, since John's guitars and equipment are in here, as well as all of the computer cords and wires, and bookshelves, and garbage -- you name it, he's trying to get at it. Slowly but surely we are getting everything put up / away / behind obstacles so that we can be in here without having to hold onto Landon the entire time!
The main floor really is Landon's domain - and it's pretty well child-proofed. He's explored everything he can, even the carbon monoxide detector (didn't take him long to pull that thing off the wall!). His bedroom and our bedroom are pretty fun places too, although from our room he tends to do a bee-line right for the gate at the top of the stairs! Thank goodness John got those gates up - just in time! LOL

One of Landon's favourite passtimes right now is chasing things around. Balls work the best (obviously), but he'll improvise with just about anything. He swings his arms until the object flies out and goes somewhere, then he pounces after it like a cat pouncing on a mouse, and when he gets whatever it is he's just tossed, he starts the process over again. Keeps him quite occupied :-)

I'm getting excited for Christmas. My shopping is close to being done (just Grandma and Grandpa left), assuming all of my web/mail-orders arrive shortly!! I did alot more internet shopping this year -- it was so convenient given my limited 'outside the house' time with Landon. I did a test yesterday, shopping at the outlet mall, to see if he'd fall asleep in his stroller. Nope - he wants to sleep in his bed now :-/ I don't know if the elevator ride was scarier because he was tired, or if he couldn't fall asleep in his stroller because the elevator ride scared him too much - but there were some big tears while on that elevator!! In any case, he didn't fall asleep in his stroller, but konked out promptly when we got him in the car!! Poor sleepy guy! We'll see how he does in Red Deer on Sat night (John's Xmas party), when the sitter's in the room with him while he's 'sleeping', and when he has to share the room with mom and dad all night (we'll take ear-plugs to hopefully block out the bed-bouncing noises!!).

That's the scoop from here for now. I should get Landon some lunch so we can go buy a few groceries (to last us until next week, when I'll buy the big Xmas groceries!!). Hope all is well wherever you are, and that you're not too stressed getting ready for Christmas!! Take care...TK

New things to explore...

Lanodn has been having fun exploring all of these new things. He has decided he likes the new car seat (it fits him soooo much better!). But he's not too sure about those gates all over the place ... I don't know how long it'll take him to figure these things out ... heh heh. He's just like his dad, having to tinker and fiddle until he gets something figured out!! LOL

Newfound mobility causes troubles...?

Whoopsie!! Landon found himself in trouble last night, when he went head over teakettle over his piano. We heard some grunting and looked over to see his butt in the air! Too funny. Yes - we did help him get out of his predicament, eventually! But not before we got a couple of pictures and some video :-)

Playing with chairs

One of Landon's favourite passtimes ... playing with the office chairs!! At least it used to be until he figured out the crawling thing - we'll see if he still cares about chairs now that he can actually get places!

Our days have changed....

Well, with Landon's newfound mobility, the house has definitely changed :-) He's exploring all corners of the kitchen, dining room, and even eyeing up the great outdoors (I'm sure he's thinking "If only I could get through this window, what fun I could have exploring!"). We thought his exploring the tv set while Raise a Little Hell was playing was too cute an opportunity to pass up - as this pretty much describes Landon today! He had fun though, pulling lamps over and trying to rip the blinds down from the window, eating paper, and checking out his brand new car seat too. It's so fun to watch him crawling all over the place, he so curious and so excited to see all of these new things!

Daddy's Little Helper

Landon was quite busy yesterday helping John put the CD's and videos away. He had so much fun, taking the tape out of a video, chewing on boxes, and of course, checking out the CD collection :-) And if that wasn't enough, he was certainly checking out this Jane Fonda video ... I don't know if he was admiring Jane's outfit or thinking that mommy should start working out !!

guess who's crawling...!

Landon started crawling today. And can he motor!! He's been on the brink for so long, and now that he figured it out there's no slowing him down!! He actually is on one knee and one foot, both hands. Now the 'real' child-proofing will begin. He's already explored beyond the living room now that he can really move, and is making his way into the kitchen. So everything will be put up and away right quickly here. And we'll have to be getting baby gates right away as well.

For learning to crawl, he's been pretty miserable all day. This morning he fell on the frame of his bed and bruised his cheek. Perhaps that's hurting him all day because he's just a fussing, crying, pain in the butt! We just put him down for a nap, hoping that he will wake up in a better mood. aiaiaiai Either his cheek is hurting, or maybe he's getting a tooth (although we can't see anything, and he hasn't been this fussy for any of his first 4), or maybe he has a bit of a tummy ache? We don't really know for sure...

I'm heading out tonight to see Carla and Tilly who are in town for the weekend at Kristi's. I'm very much looking forward to getting out for awhile. I'm actually planning to spend the night, and it'll be my first night away from Landon, so I have mixed emotions about it...I'll be up and speeding all the way home first thing tomorrow I'm sure :-)

That's the scoop from Calgary today. Hope all is well with everyone everywhere :-) TK

Pics of Landon...

Here are a couple new pics of Landon that you've been waiting for...
We've been having fun just hanging out. He enjoys playing with just about everything these days, and I'm sure he was trying to get into some sort of trouble that first picture. The second one he was being quite quiet ... watching Sesame Street :-) And this yet-to-be-unpacked box was a lot of fun as a drum too!! He must've sat there for about 5 minutes ... soooo cute!

Busy Landon

Landon is a busy bugger these days! He just may crawl soon, as he hasn't been bum-scootching that much and is instead making tentative motions on his hand and knees. When he wants to get something, he gets on his hands and knees but then sits back down. It's like he's afraid if he moves on his hands and knees he won't be able to sit down - and that's a relatively new trick so he doesn't want to give it up!! But he's taking a few 'steps', mostly just walking his hands out and back in while he's on his knees, so maybe he'll get his knees figured out too. When he does get right onto his belly, he usually ends up going backwards, which frustrates him as he gets further away from whatever he wants, so he hasn't been doing much of that lately. It is so amazing to watch him learning and figuring out all of these things!!

We got our piano tuned today. Landon was priceless. The tuner would play some keys, Landon would bang on his toy piano and laugh. The tuner would play a few more keys, and Landon would bang on his piano and laugh some more. When that got tiring, Landon laughed and giggled and squealed while the tuner did his thing - he loved that someone was 'playing' the piano, and must've thought it was just for his listening pleasure!

John got our new tv stand put up last night, so the living room looks alot better. Landon explored it a bit tonight, he likes the pull knobs on the doors. But the components aren't behind glass (yet...John's working on fixing that), so Landon doesn't get free reign yet.

And Landon discovered the drawers on his dresser tonight, having fun pulling the bottom drawer out every time I closed it. He even pulled the box of diaper-pail bags right out of the drawer - I couldn't believe it!! So I cleared everything out of that drawer that he shouldn't get (like a strap from his diaper bag, the diaper-pail bags, etc), so if he wants to play in there, I guess I'll just have to let him play in there!!

Landon's developing a trick that I do NOT like though -- biting while nursing. OUCH does not even describe it. I'm trying not to over-react and am hoping that this will stop soon. If not, there may be a weaning on the horizon!!

That's the news from here today. Hope all is well with everyone!! Take care....TK

Standing up!

Landon succeeded in pulling himself up to standing, all by himself, today. He has been 'practising', using our legs and hands to get to standing for awhile now, but today he did it all by himself (with help from the crib). I was putting clothes away, turned around and he was standing there all proud. So proud that he squealed and reached for me, only to swing his face into the crib and dangle there by the one hand that hadn't let go :-) But no tears, just frustration because he fell over! I scooped him up and we did a celebratory dance, and he was very very proud to have stood up. I'm sure he'll be busy practising that skill over the next weeks, and he'll be able to show off quite suitably for everyone at Christmas :-D

We bought our tree today. Artificial ... at least for the first few years with kids ... heh heh. But it's pretty nice I think ... fake trees look better now than when I was a kid I think (although when I was a kid, that tree was magical!). So maybe John and I will put it up on the weekend.

Landon and I went for a nice walk today. We were gone for just about 2 hours, it was very nice out and it felt so good to stretch my legs. Landon just gawked at everything - it's been awhile since he's had a nice long walk. Now that he stays awake a bit longer it's easier to get something done during the day. Before he was only awake for ~2 hours, and by the time I fed him and changed him he was starting to get sleepy again! Now he's up for about 3 hours in the afternoon, giving us some time. But he wouldn't fall asleep in the stroller - those days may be gone. He was sooooo tired, but he just wouldn't close his eyes. He pretty much fell asleep on my shoulder as soon as I took him out of the stroller, but not in the stroller :-/

I'm hoping to get some Christmas shopping done over the next couple of days. I'm planning a trip to Toys-R-Us (heaven help us!!), and then I will focus on the adult shopping later in the week. Aiaiaiai ... I'm used to having most of my shopping done by now, but I've put it off due to the move (why move a pile of Christmas presents?). As long as I don't leave it until the 24th I guess...heh heh

That's the scoop from the Keller household today. Hope all is well with everyone out there. Nikki, keep posting so that I know when you don't post that you've had Eastynn!! I was starting to wonder already as it had been a few days...

Take care...until next time. TK

Dinnertime just got messier...

The days of 'clean' feeding have come to an end. Tonight we started Landon on some 'table food'. By table food, I mean we gave him some of our baked potato, which he gobbled up (and spilled everywhere) like a pro. So we gave him banana, and for the first time, Cheerios. He gobbled (and spilled everywhere) everything, and loved every minute of it. So dinnertime will now be messier, I'll have to think about feeding Landon more of what we eat, and it'll be longer. I think he was in the high chair for about 45 minutes!! LOL But he really enjoyed having the chance to feed himself, so we'll just go with it. I still spoon fed him veggies and cereal, to make sure he got his dinner, but he loved shoveling the extras in, two-fisting all the way!! LOL

We had a quiet Saturday at home, which was nice. Landon has been such an angel these days, I'm waiting for some teething pains, or a cold or something to set in here. We've been getting far too much sleep! I even had a nice 1.5 hour nap this afternoon. Aiaiai. I guess we might as well enjoy it while it lasts, before we know it it'll be Christmas and there'll be very little napping for a few weeks.

So that's the news ... not too much I guess. Just exciting that Landon is starting to feed himself. And he loves Cheerios. Fun fun Fun!! And the weather is supposed to warm up for a few days ... around zero tomorrow so we're hoping to go for a nice walk and check out the neighbourhood :-) Until next time...TK