pics from Elkwater

Despite his earlier fears, there were moments when all of the kids played together. usually with toys we didn't really want them to have -like a dominoes game :-/ But that's the way...

And you just gotta' love the hairdo here....

pics from Elkwater

Landon explored and explored. I love the picture of him running in the trees -- that is Landon!! And so is the hanging from the rope picture. And so is the splashing int he puddle picture... LOL but as long as he had fun!!

Home again Home again...

Home again after a nice weekend in Elkwater with Nikki, Fabian and the girls! We had a foggy day yesterday, but it was still a good weekend :-) Once Landon got used to the girls heh heh For awhile he'd be scared of Eastynn, then he'd be scared of Taylor, what a sucky-pants! aiaiaiai But by this morning he was pretty used to the situation ... of course, because we were leaving!

Let's see -- what did Landon do? Well, he learned how to sleep with mom, as there wasn't room for the playpen in the bedroom. The first couple of nights it took quite awhile, but by Saturday night it wasn't as bad (still not as nice as parking him in his crib until he falls asleep, but much better). He jumped in some mud puddles (of course). He saw deer, and cows (on the trip home today -- LOTS of cows, which he squealed at then moo'd). He learned that Eastynn is ok, despite the fact that she crawls. He learned that it's ok to play with Taylor, finally. I don't think he really picked up any new words ... but I'll have to think about that. Anyways...

Here's a picture Nikki took when we were at the park. Landon had a blast there - running like crazy!! I will post more pics once I get them uploaded. For tonight I'm just relaxing ....

And getting pumped for our trip to Saskatoon next weekend! Woo Hoo! Looking forward to it :-)

Well, Not much News I guess...

Here's a picture from last month when Howie and I took Landon to Heritage Park. He wasn't so sure about petting that horse LOL But he did touch the horse's nose slightly, once. Cutie.

Not much news from here. Landon still has a runny nose, but it seems to be bugging him less. I just hope that he figures out how to blow his nose one of these days. Tonight it looked promising - he picked up a kleenex, put it close to his face, blew, then threw the kleenex on the floor. Some snot made it into the kleenex, although most of it just stayed on his face for me to clean up. but it's a start right?!

We had a good weekend. I went to Ricki's on Friday night, and didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning. It felt SO good to get out without Landon!! LOL Saturday I had a headache, but it was very much worthwhile!!

Other than that, we didn't do too much on the weekend. *shrug*

Went to gym and swim today - Landon fell during the gym part and smacked his head really hard on the floor, so he was a suck the rest of the time. But he did enjoy the water a bit - especially sitting on the edge of the pool and letting himself fall in for me to catch him. And he loved going down the slide too.

Tonight Landon went to the park and for the very first time he went down the slide by himself (well, except that one time when Grandpa didn't catch him at the Children's Museum heh heh). He climbed the stairs up, then sat down and went down the slide. BIG BOY! He did it about 20 more times after that too - I think he might've just figured out how the park can be fun, right when it's going to get cold of course!!

So that's the scoop from here. Tomorrow off to the zoo with Ricki, Tasha, Keaton and Parker. Need to get another trip in before the cold weather sets in :-/ Until next time....TK

Another loooong night...

Landon was up again last night, from 2 - 5 am! *sigh* Poor kid - had a 'croupy' cough and everything. The only saving grace: I simply curl up on the couch with him and turn on treehouse. That keeps him occupied while I doze beside him. He dozes too, I know because he does that falling asleep twitching thing. But he wakes right up again. Finally, when he felt well enough for a rousing game of 'catch me', I put him into bed and went to bed myself. We slept 'til noon, and he's snoozing now, so I anticipate tonight will be late. But hopefully we won't be up all night again :-/
He woke up today in good spirits, minimal cough, and played well. He also ate well, so I'm hoping last night was the worst we'll see (cross your fingers for us!). Unfortunately I had to reschedule his vaccinations (was supposed to get them tonight) for next week, which has royally screwed up our travel plans to Elkwater. I won't be going out there until Thursday (gets shots on Wed). At least we'll still have the weekend out there. I just hope Landon gets to feeling better shortly...I feel so bad for him when he coughs like that - it sounds bloody awful!

So I've had a la-ZEE day today too. But I'm sure I'll make up for it with a late night tonight.
Until next time....TK

Not feeling so well :-(

Landon isn't feeling so well today. He had me up all night long (well, until 2 am, then he woke me up again at 4 when his leg was stuck in the bars of the crib, and then again at 5:30 and 6:15 when he just cried out but didn't really need me). Today he is very stuffed up and his nose is running. So maybe another cold, maybe a molar coming through. We'll see. He's having a good afternoon nap, so that should help his attitude tonight (hopefully). It'll be nice to have dad home tonight, as Monday and Tuesday he's gone in the evenings. I love Landon to bits, but I love to have a bit of time away from him too when dad's home and can help out. Not that that usually happens - Landon is a mama's boy these days, and will usually follow me to wherever I am in the house versus hanging out with John :-/

And my first experience with being impacted by recalls. Well, I guess these bibs aren't exactly recalled, but Toys R Us has voluntarily pulled vinyl bibs from the shelves. And since I purchased 2 of them, I can return them for a full refund - no receipt needed, doesn't matter when they were purchased, nor what shape they're in. That sounds like a recall to me ... call it whatever you want. So I'll be heading to Toys R Us in the next day or so to take these bibs back.
http://www.babyzone.com/safety/toy_gear/a2408

Anyways, Landon just woke up and doesn't sound thrilled about it. I better go and get him. Until next time...TK

New fun and games...

Yesterday I noticed that Landon is really starting to play with his toys in the manner in which they were intended (versus just chewing on them and throwing them around, or banging them together). Like his shape-sorters. Aunty Liz gave him a truck shape-sorter for Christmas. Now he's enjoyed that truck, driving it around, pushing the sounds to make buttons, and even putting the shapes in (with lots of help from me). But yesterday he was really 'getting' it with the shapes - understanding that the square goes in the side so he has to turn the truck, etc.

We also bought a shape-sorter toy (actually got it through the Pampers Gifts-to-Grow campaign) almost a year ago already. He's played a bit with it, but now he sorts the shapes and last night he figured out how to stack the lego pieces. You should've seen his face. Here's a picture, but it really doesn't do it justice. The moment he sat back and looked at the tower that he built (I held it so it wouldn't fall over, but he built it) ... well his eyes lit up, he had the hugest smile, and he put his arms up "ta-da!". It was soooo cute. Made me proud too :-)

And this morning he figured out the fun of putting the rings on his ring-toy thingy ( I don't know what it's called ... you know, where you stack the 5 rings ... *sigh* *shrug*). So he was doing that for awhile and loving it.

And the fun stage has begun in that he has also realized the sheer joy in pulling every single toy out of his closet that he can. And he knows how to open and close the closet doors himself (no pinched fingers ... yet) so he gets in there whenever he wants to. His room is looking like a cyclone has gone through it, and I'm thinking it will look like that every day for the rest of our lives!! LOL

This morning we had gym + swim again (every Mon til the end of Oct). Today he enjoyed the gym part more, especially the small trampoline where he jumped jumped jumped. The pool he wasn't as interested in, but I think that's because he played himself out in the gym :-) He really clung onto me in the pool. Also, he woke up a bit earlier today (now hold on to your hats -- he woke up at 9:30 am!!), and he felt a bit warm, so I'm thinking he might be getting teeth or getting sick. Last night his cheeks were sooooo red when he went to bed! You can see it in the pic above too, how red his cheeks were. So maybe some new teeth coming (which would explain his waking up in the night a couple of weeks ago - he tends to be fussy a couple of weeks before his teeth come, versus when they're actually coming in.

That's the news - not much really...but that's the news. Will post again soon...until next time! TK

couple more pics

I caught a picture of Landon today as he was concentrating on just how that footstool works :-) And another from last night playing in his room. He was having so much fun trying to get the camera away from mom!

Fun things!

Landon had an absolute BLAST at the Childrens Creative Museum with Grandma and Grandpa. I didn't take many still pictures of him because, quite frankly, he rarely sat still!! Check the other site for some video clips.

Another favourite toy are washcloths. These have been faves for a long time, Landon loves to sort them out, lay them flat, bunch them up, and wear them on his head too. He's learned how to say 'ta-da' in this last picture :-)

Grandma and Grandpa have left the building...

A nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa - Landon was showing off from the moment they arrived! Monkey! He showed them how he jumps on the couches, does pirouettes in the living room until he falls down dizzy, eats so well with a spoon, runs runs runs when we let him out the back gate, climbs and falls down the shale piles behind the house, does pirouettes with the blanket over his face until he gets dizzy and falls down, climbs stairs, falls down stairs, falls off kitchen chairs on top of his head, and crawls out of his carseat, out of the car, closes the door and then climbs the stairs to the door of the house all by himself. What a big boy

We went to the Telus World of Science on Wed. A lot of the exhibits were closed as they are assembling a new one (and it's lego world or something, so it will take awhile). But we checked out the Childrens Creative Museum and Landon had a BLAST! He ran until he couldn't run anymore in that thing. There were so many things to see and do -- too funny. he even went down the curvy slide by himself (when Grandpa missed him) - he eyes were pretty big and his hair was pretty staticky, but he made it :-)

Yesterday we went to Butterfield Acres which is like a farm you can explore and pet the animals. It wasn't quite a petting zoo, which is maybe what I was expecting, as I was disappointed. Many animals weren't around, you couldn't access others to pet them, and most of the animals you could access weren't particularly open to being petted (the roaming goats and baby piglets being the exceptiong). Landon had the most fun climbing and running down one of the hills, and climbing the stairs for their outdoor stage. I might go back in several years - it would be a good place for a large group of kids (say a birthday party), but I'd much rather go to Jackson's Barnyard (Carla's petting zoo) to see animals.

And then this morning Grandma and Grandpa left. So Landon and I have had a nice quiet day at home thus far. The good news is that Landon has slept right through the night the past 3 nights - thank goodness! I have slept through the nights as well - I'm feeling much better than last week when he kept waking up.

I will have to get some pics up soon - have to upload them first. Will post again soon as well...until next time...TK

Gym and Swim

We had our first 'gym and swim' class today. Landon was okay with the gym part - but it was the swimming that he really enjoyed. Actually, as soon as he saw the pool he was trying to escape from the gym to get to it :-) And once we were in the pool, he didn't really want to just hang out and do the songs and games, he wanted to do his own thing! Poor kid. He enjoyed running around the shallow part, doing some frontal floats (accidentally), and he still loves the river part. Thankfully he tolerated the games and songs too, so that wasn't too bad I guess. He'll likely get more used to it as the weeks go on.

We had a fun visit with Aunty Laura. So fun that Landon didn't want to go to sleep Sat night (of course). We are struggling to get his schedule moved up earlier ... but it's getting a bit better. We have been up at 10 or shortly after the past few days, and we'll move it up to 9:30 shortly. That's where we'll leave it I'm thinking, and when daylight savings kicks in we'll be getting up at 8:30. Maybe, we'll see how this all goes! LOL

Grandma and Grandpa are coming up for a visit this week. Will be here tomorrow -- YAY! We are planning some outings, but it's supposed to rain on Wed, yuck! But hopefully we'll get to either Butterfield Acres or to Heritage Park, and maybe the Telus Center if it's rainy Wed.

So not too much news really I guess. My chair is all pen-free and beautiful again (now that it's dry, there's no hairspray stains either). I'm still enjoying doing my yoga. John starts jamming with his new band tonight (he's been practising LOTS the past few days), and he starts his university class tomorrow night. That's that - will post again after Grandma and Grandpa are here....TK

Landon faces :-)

Landon was having so much fun with the spray bottle today (I had it out to clean up my hairspray which was out to clean up my chair cushions -- see previous post). In this picture you can see just how wet his face is (and that's all due to himself!!).

And a couple of days ago I snapped some pictures of him being all proud and happy because he was on the computer chair. If you don't know where Landon is, all you have to do is come up to the bonus room and he'll be on the computer chair, pleased as punch.

My mom was right (again)

Landon, the budding artist, took to our beautiful rocking chair with a pen ... twice. You can see his artistic creation, in all it's glory *sigh* I had no idea how to get this out, so I of course called Grandma. She told me hairspray (!!!!!). I doubted her, but after looking up "cleaning pen ink from upholstery" on google and finding everyone else agreed with her, I gave it a shot. And guess what -- it WORKED!! Like a charm! I couldn't believe it.

so now the chair has been restored (for the most part ... after the hairspray I soaked it down with a spraybottle of water, it's still drying, but I don't think there will be hairspray stains left behind). I'm amazed, and once again humbled that truly, mom does know best.

"Hi" and other fun things...

Landon really likes to say 'hi' now. He will walk up to us and say 'hi' when he enters the room (or comes back downstairs from hiding his nightlight). Pretty cute. I love that he's saying more and more words.

It is funny how they show us what we do. Kind of like a coworker of mine describing his daughter on the potty one day...every time she strained she'd mutter 'Jesus!' under her breath. Ever since hearing that story, I've caught myself muttering 'Jesus' a time or two as well (not on the pot, mind you, just in every day life, like lifting a heavy box or something...ahem).
Landon has shown me that when I finish a task, like buttoning his coat, or putting his shoes on, or serving his royal highness a meal, I say 'there'. Like 'there, that's done' but without the 'that's done' part. Now, you guessed it, Landon will be playing with things, like sorting washcloths, or taking every single book out of a box, and he'll be saying 'there' the entire time. It comes out more like 'dere', but the meaning is pretty clear.

The best so far came about last night. John and I were watching a "Happy 2-4" anniversary celebration for the Hosers ... Bob and Doug MacKenzie. Landon walked around trying to imitate the 'coo-oo-coo-coo-co-oo-coo-coo' (if you don't know what I'm talking about here, you'll just have to find a tape of Bob and Doug to learn about it...). Pretty cute to watch our own little hoser walking around coo-oo-coo-cooing. Take off 'eh.

And I think we may have misnamed Landon after all. I'm thinking Stewie might've been more appropriate. As I was putting Landon down tonight, he sat up on my knee facing me. Then proceeding to try to smother me with his puppy blanket. He would put the blanket up over my face, then hug me really tightly with his face smashed into his blanket which was smashed into my face. If I by chance could actually see (given away by my making eye contact with him), he would lift the blanket higher and hold it even tighter. That, combined with the hypnotic coo-oo-coo-coo-coo-oo-coo-coo -ing, and I think Landon may just be working on plans for world domination. (If you don't catch the Stewie reference, please visit http://www.familyguy.com/).

So that's been our day or two with Landon. He's definitely keeping us busy. I'm hoping this cold hasn't settled in too much for him - his nose didn't run as much today, but he woke up VERY grumpy from his nap this afternoon (and now is still pissing around in bed, not asleep yet! *sigh*). So I drugged him up again tonight with Advil, hopefully we'll get another good night's sleep in. I don't want him to be grumpy for visiting with Great Aunty Laura tomorrow!!

Will post again soon...TK

Bad dreams?

I am thinking Landon might be having bad dreams at night or something. For the past week or so, he wakes up typically between 2 and 3 am, sometimes only for a few minutes of moaning and groaning, but other nights crying hard and it takes a long time to get him back to sleep. Last night was the worst so far. He woke up crying hysterically at 2 am, poor little bugger, you know that cry when they're sobbing and can't catch their breath? He cried so hard that I was starting to worry maybe there was something medically wrong (long enough that I noted the time so that we would call Healthlink in another 15 minutes if he couldn't settle down). Finally he calmed down, he was soooo sleepy, he went to sleep in my arms almost right away again. But when I put him into bed he was awake within 5 minutes crying again. I tried to put him down 2 more times, with no luck. So I took him downstairs and he watched cartoons until 5 AM!!!!! I was dozing on the couch, but I don't think he went to sleep at all. Then I put him back to bed and he was good until 10:15. He woke up crying (which in itself is very unusual), so I brought him into my bed so he could wake up happier, and we both fell right back to sleep until 11:20! My good gawd! And he was very difficult to wake up at that time too! I guess so though, he did miss a big chunk of sleep overnight.
So he went down for his nap very nicely at 2:20 this afternoon. Hopefully tonight we'll get him to bed at a decent time (last night was a bit late as we had company), and maybe, just maybe, he'll sleep through. I feel so bad for him, waking up like that. I just think it must be nightmares ... the kind where if you don't wake up fully, you just go right back into the nightmare when you fall back to sleep. He seems to need to really wake up before he can settle back in to sleep again.

On the good side -- I got to snuggle with him in bed for an hour this morning. God I love that!! LOL

John's back from camping - it was a great trip. The pictures are incredible. I'll find a couple to post here. It sure is nice to have him home again. And now that his office has moved closer to home, he's able to come home for lunch. So that's a great treat to have him here at lunchtime. Landon was soo happy to see him when he came through the door today!!

Landon's getting to be good when playing outside too. We were in the backyard, and he knows to stay back there, he doesn't even try to run to the street very much. And when he does start that way and I say 'no', he comes right back. We did eventually move to the front as I was picking weeds, and he played very well up front without going onto the street even once. He does want to go and visit the neighbours all the time, but at least he doesn't run onto the street!! He's getting to be such a good, big boy!

Oh yeah, and he says 'hi' now. He'd run by and I'd say hi, he'd say hi, I'd say hi, he'd say hi. Pretty cute :-) That, and 'hot' (which comes out 'dhot')...he learned that with Aunty Rosemary I think (that's the first I'd heard him say it anyways). So more words ... and lots of babbling!! We love it!

Until next time...TK

Visiting with Prue

Here are some pics from visiting with Prue on Friday night. These two little monkeys love to climb all over everywhere! Prue is about 3 months older than Landon, so I enjoy seeing her as I get a glimpse of what to expect with Landon a few weeks hence.

So these two climbed all over everything in the hotel room, even standing in the window sill overlooking downtown Calgary from the 9th floor (no fear!). It is just so cute to watch them play together :-) Although Landon wasn't too sure about that kissing thing ... lol