YAY - for potty peeing!

Landon did another pee in his potty last night - a full pee this time, not just a dribble. He wanted his clothes off after supper, saying pee pee. I showed him his pot, and he peed! He won't stay on there long if we're standing over him, so we have to give him his space. That means he got some pee not in the potty, but most of it was in there, so YAY!

The past days have been good. I finally got all of the Thomas train tracks and stuff that I wanted off of ebay, so I can ignore that site for awhile.
And I never thought I would be excited to take a cake decorating course -- but I am. *shaking head* It starts next week, a couple of hours on Wed nights for 4 weeks. This was spurred on by me wanting to make a Thomas cake for Landons birthday in March. So the decorating course will be very handy (and used very quickly). I'll maybe even practise with a b'day cake for me...we'll have to see.
And I finally found a Thomas cake pan - and I'm able to rent it instead of buying it. Phew! So that's good stuff too.
Birthday party planning has begun :-D Hard to believe that he'll be TWO already!

Other than that, not much new. We went to the gym today for drop-in play. Landon enjoyed it I think. He's starting to enjoy being around other kids more. He likes to follow older kids around. He's pretty friendly usually - he'll bounce up to other kids and say 'hi'. I noticed today that not many responded to him (positively or negatively) - most kids are just playing in their own world. But he had fun, running around and not really playing with anything in particular for about half an hour. Then he said "All done.", so we had some juice and came back home.

It was just so nice to get out of the house - poor kid has been cooped up for so long!! LOL And it was nice for me to not have to be watching Thomas dvd's for awhile ... aiaiai ... as soon as Landon gets up he wants 'choo choo trains'!! At least it's giving me a chance to teach him please and thank you, and I always make him use words instead of just pointing and whining. We get enough of that as it is.

COLDness!

It's still plenty cold here. Yuck! Poor Landon, every day he gets excited, wanting to go outside. So we open the garage door or the front door. He stands for about a minute, then slams the door shut! LOL Poor guy though - he just wants to go out and play. Hopefully it'll warm up soon. And it's supposed to snow periodically over the next weeks, so maybe it'll get warmer and there will be lots of snow for Landon to play in.
We did leave the house today - went to buy groceries. Landon used to be an angel in the grocery store, but I guess it must be that he's so close to 2 or something? The last couple of trips he flips out when I put him in the cart. He bawls, and clings to me. You'd think it was torture or something. Poor guy. I end up walking scrunched up over the cart so that he can cling on to me while still being in the cart. By the time I'm through the fresh produce he's calmed down, and he gets excited to see the fish (well, lobsters and crabs at Sobeys). Today he ate a bunch of bread, which kept him pretty quiet. I think he's just so sick of being cooped up, he wanted to run

I was going to take him swimming this morning, until I tried on my bathing suits! LOL Nothing fits. Well, the bikini's do, but not the one pieces. Too much belly. So I ordered a maternity suit from Sears - but it's on back-order, so it'll be a couple of weeks :-( in the meantime, I have the times for gym-drop-in at Cardel, so we'll have to go and do that (tomorrow morning YAY). At least Landon can maybe burn off some energy.

He was pretty sleepy this morning though. He finally woke up on his own in the morning, without us having to drag him out of bed. But he was really sleepy all morning. I made up a song maybe last summer or so, for when I put him down for his nap. It's like "Mommy, I'm sleepy, I need to have a snoozy ..." Now he's singing that song to me when he's feeling sleepy. "Mommy, seepy, noozy" So cute.

Other than that, we've just been watching Thomas videos and playing with either trains or trucks. Landon LOVES when John gets home because John will play with him (after I'm tired out from the day). He has a bundle of energy, that kid!! aiaiaiaiai

Guess who used his potty tonight :-)

Now - I don't expect this to be the end of diapers or anything, but I am celebrating! Landon wanted his diaper off (which has become a daily request) tonight, saying 'pee pee'. So I made sure he knew where his pot was. He sat on it for a minute and farted, then got up to play some more. I turned my back thinking that was done. When I turned back he was back on the pot, obviously working on something. So I pretended to continue to ignore him. Lo and behold, a few moments later he got up and went back to playing. Leaving a little nugget and a few drops of pee behind. Big Boy! So we made a big production of it all, and the put a diaper back on him so he could continue playing :-)

So maybe these 'games' are paying off. Every day he wants his clothes off, and he pops on and off the potty until I get tired of following him around to make sure he doesn't crap on the carpet and put a diaper back on him. I know this is a long road, but hey, tonight I celebrate :-)

It's bloody cold here, so we are staying in the house these days. Makes for a cabin-fevered kid though :-/ I am thinking we'll go swimming on Wed, we haven't gone since Oct and he loves it so much. I'll see how I fare, but I think I'll sign him up for swim lessons starting in March too. Double-whammy - gets him swimming (and happy) and makes sure I get out and do something too!! For now we'll just have to try to get to the pool once a week or so, to make sure I can move for the last months of pregnancy (oh yeah - my belly's getting BIG already).

That's the news. Bought lots of Thomas track for Landon on ebay, so looking forward to getting that. And tons of clothes too - I can't help it, there is some adorable stuff on there LOL Ah well ... I think I've had my ebay fix for a few months at least.

Jingle Toque!!

Aunty Yvonne made Landon a jingle toque with matching mitts and scarf for Xmas (The mitts are perhaps a bit big though :-/). Landon loves the toque, he's always bringing it to us to put on his head, then he walks around bopping his head so that the bells jingle! Sometimes he even manages to get it on his head all by himself too, then we have a pleasant surprise when he comes to see us all jingly.

Look at Landon!

Landon is just a busy little stinker these days. If I'm downstairs, he'll go upstairs. So I go upstairs, and he heads downstairs. LOL And always to explore things he's not supposed to have. Today he discovered the sugar bowl. He dumped some on the cupboard, then spooned some into his mouth. MMmm...MM! He thought that tasted pretty darned good.
Then he brought me the snack mix that Grandma made - he REALLY likes goldfish!

And every time he's doing something, he's saying "look at Landon!". And we have to look, or he just keeps repeating that over and over and over and over and over...and over. Usually he's doing something really amazing, like standing up on the arm of the couch, or jumping on the table, or doing the surfer-stand on the rocking chair, or some other such wonderful, heart-stopping feat! Fun.....heh heh

I had my second ultrasound this morning - VERY active baby, which I don't feel much of because I have an anterior placenta (meaning it's on the belly side of my uterus, cushioning my belly from feeling all of baby's antics). But all the bits and pieces seem to be there and in the right places which is wonderful. And I am starting to feel more movement, which is thrilling of course.

So that's the news for now ... will post some more pics shortly when I get through them all. Right now I'm off for a snoozer...

Staticy Hair!

Landon LOVES to play with all the blankets, and the extra added fun right now is the static! It's hard to get a good picture, but I think you'll see what we were laughing at.
Also notice the new 'trucks' in the top picture. His first package of matchbox cars have been a HUGE hit! He loves his 'mee-muck guck' (cement truck), 'guck guck' (dump truck), 'cahhhhn guck' (crane truck), and 'loadah' (loader). They have been constant companions since Tuesday, he even slept with the crane truck one night. LOL
Picture with mommy.

With dad

Landon is now saying 'daddy' and 'mommy' (vs the indiscriminate mama and dada). Here are some pictures with daddy. Being silly, and then all snuggled up on the couch.

New Tricks and Fun

Climbing can get us to all sorts of things ... like when we climb up onto the garbage can we can reach the higher shelves in the pantry. Great -- *sigh*
Landon got paints in his stocking, and he finally tried them out. He thought it was pretty fun, and now mom is proudly displaying this artwork in the kitchen :-D
Here's the 'tiger' costume Landon's been loving that past few days. I finally snuck it back into the closet today - we'll see how long until he spies it again!! LOL
Landon loves playing 'feets' with dad, and now he can even go 'no hands'!! Can you tell by his facial expression just how much he loves this!??

Thursday

I'd like to post some pics, but something's up with blogger at the moment. Maybe I'll get another chance later today or tomorrow....

Things are going well here. We're ready for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive tomorrow -- Landon is so excited, everytime I mention one of them his eyes light up and he repeats Grama or Grampa for about 15 minutes. And sometimes out of the blue he just starts up with Grampa. So he'll be pretty happy to see them tomorrow I'm sure.

Other than that, not much new. We finally got some snow (about 1/100 of an inch) overnight. I'd like it to snow more so that we can actually get Landon's sled out and take him for a ride! We haven't even dug it out of the basement yet this winter!!

We introduced a potty to Landon last night. We have a small, portable type. Not very comfortable, and we're unlikely to use it much while training, but since he wanted to run around naked we got it out and sat him on it and said "pee pee". He repeated our words, then proceeded to pee on his way up the stairs!! LOL But today he sat on that little pot again and said "pee pee", so maybe, just maybe. I did order a bigger, sturdier potty from Sears last night - it will be here next week. We'll set that up and see what he thinks of that. He has the idea I think, but I'm not sure he recognizes the physical sensations within himself yet. But hey, we'll just see what comes...

That's all for now....TK

Tuesday update...

Landon was so excited today. He 'discovered' at tiger (Tigger) costume in his closet. He was jumping up and down "tiger! tiger". So I pulled it out, which was exciting enough. But you should have heard him giggling and laughing when I put the costume on him!! Then, to top it off he spent about 10 minutes loving his reflection in our bedroom mirror!! It was one of those times when I wished there was a camera following him around to capture this moment forever! He was smooshed right up to the mirror, with his hands folded just under his chin, with this big goofy grin on his face!! LOL What a memory :-D

Landon also discovered that he loves butter tarts -- he polished off most of mine and half of John's tonight! So he'll be excited to see more of those come out on the weekend when Grandma and Grandpa are here I'm thinking.

We're moving his morning schedule up - when he was finally somewhat feeling better from this most recent illness, he was sleeping until 11 am, and going to sleep at midnight or later :-/ Now he's getting up at 9 am, and is going to bed at 10 pm. He's pretty sleepy these days, so he's actually falling asleep shortly after we put him to bed too, which is good. I did feel bad one night late last week ... I could hear him in his bed saying "apple juice", but I just ignored it (he usually lays in bed saying many things, like "loader" and "kitty cat" and "Landon"). Almost an hour later he was still moving and making noise, so I went in to check on him. He saw me and immediately said "apple juice". Poor little stinker was thirsty!! So I gave him some water, which he gulped like he'd just made a trek through the desert, and went right to sleep!! LOL So now I make sure I offer a drink of water before he goes to bed.

Landon's getting to be quite the acrobat too. He jumps off of everything, including the couches (the front though still -- not the back ... yet). He takes a few falls a day, but usually he just giggles, gets back up, and goes right back at it!! We're going to need a trampoline and a jungle gym for him!

That's the news for today ...

Nice weekend

We had a nice weekend - didn't do much, which is maybe just exactly what made it nice :-/ Went to the Home Expo today (Home show at the Roundup Centre) -- there was a lot of interesting stuff there! Gave me lots of ideas for our house, that's for sure!! Landon was really well behaved too. As a reward he was lucky enough to get a balloon - and that's been a source of entertainment all night!

So not much new really. Just looking forward to a visit from Julie tomorrow, and getting ready for Grandma and Grandpa on the weekend. Landon is pretty excited, every time you say Grandma or Grandpa, or heaven forbid he should see a picture of them, he gets all excited and says "Gamma" or "Gampa" for the next half an hour or so... LOL

Thankfully we're all starting to feel a bit better too. This cold was a nasty one, but I think we may all finally be close to the end!
That's all for tonight...

Other fave Christmas pictures

Three little monkeys getting clean in the tub. Can you tell they're cousins?
Cool glasses man! (yes, that's John in the background playing Hotwheels like he's 7 years old again! LOL)
Squirt - I just love the expression on his face here.
Having SO much fun with all of Thomson's trucks and cars that he shared with Landon all week long. (and that we stepped on, tripped over, and swore at all week long)
Playing on the stairs.

Christmas Day

Landon and Isabel playing together after Christmas dinner. Don't they look nice? What's that saying about 'you can dress them up....'? heh heh
Storytime after Christmas dinner
Our Christmas feast!

Christmas Morning!!

Landon was pretty excited to open up this cash register! This toy was a big hit with all of the kids actually - and I'm jealous; I always wanted one as a kid!! lol

This piano table, with working microphone, was a big hit with all of the kids too!! Landon would even say 'Ho Ho Ho' into the microphone. It was was adorable to watch the kids as they played with it - they'd plunk down on the little stool and be absorbed with all the noise they could make!!
Thomson could NOT have been happier with Santa Claus -- a wonderful CAT truck with a bull-dozer on the deck.
Think someone's a little bit tired, and maybe even overwhelmed? lol Landon had to have a snooze and open the rest of his gifts afterwards - there was just too much excitement for this little guy!

I would have to say that Thomson and Isabel are two of the most patient kids I know. They were up by about 8 am on Christmas morning ... pretty normal. But they waited until lazy-bones Landon was dragged out of bed at 11 before they opened their gifts!! Pretty patient I would say!!

What FUN we arrived to in Toronto!!

Landon had sooooo much fun playing with his cousins, Thomson (4) and Isabel (2 1/2).
Thomson (a hockey NUT) was teaching Landon the finer points of the game ... here you see Thomson's superb goal-tending skills, and Landon's questionable defensive maneuvres.
There was a box of Thomas trains there -- which entertained Landon to no end throughout the entire week. Which is good, because there are a couple of unopened gifts here still (waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive next week) with some stuff just like this for Landon. I think he'll be pretty excited to find his own trains ('toot toot') when he unwraps those gifts.
Landon and Isabel are like two little peas in a pod - little dare-devils willing to push the limits and then look oh-so-sweet-and-innocent afterwards ... heh heh
Landon had fun with the toy-stravaganza at his cousin's house. Here he's checking out a hammering toy.

Self Portraits...

Landon was having fun playing with the camera in the days before we left for Toronto for Xmas. imagine my surprise to be going through the pictures on the camera and coming across these! Yes, I laughed, hard.

John and Landon coming in from some fun outside.

counting!

an exciting new advancement for Landon - he's been counting to TEN for us these days! We start him off by saying 'one', then he counts (we repeat each number back to him) right up to 10. Now - not everyone would recognize what he says as the actual number, but we sure do. And he giggles and laughs and is very proud of himself when he reaches 10!! lol

He talks almost non-stop actually. Telling us about trucks and planes and helicopters. Today in the car was passed construction, and he pointed out the back-hoe and the bull-dozers to me! Too funny.

We're also thinking more and more about potty-training. He is starting to tell us when he's gone pee and poop, which is a good sign. So we'll be buying potty's soon.

And I'm going to buy a booster seat for him so that he can sit up at the table with us to eat. He isn't liking his highchair nearly as much (besides being able to now crawl right up into the highchair all by himself), and is eating some of his meals just sitting in a normal chair. So I think a booster seat is called for - and we can then put the high chair away for a year or so!! Clean up the kitchen a bit ... heh heh

Pics to come soon ... promise....

Still on the mend...

Well, our household certainly isn't 100% yet. Landon seems to be faring the best of the three of us, but that's likely because John and I do all the work and all he has to do all day is play :-D He is waking up crying at night though - maybe a bit of a habit formed from when he was really sick and we'd go running in there at every snuffle and squawk? I wasn't running in there last night, so John actually got up to check on him. By then Landon had found his soother and was calming down - so hopefully tonight we'll get a full night's rest!!!
So we haven't done a damned thing for the past week beyond just trying to get through it. Actually that's not altogether true -- I went to see my Ped on Monday, he will see me through the rest of the pregnancy and delivery. Things are good - heartbeat at 136 bpm (for those who are noting these things for guesses). I'm gaining weight, a bit, but mostly belly which is good. My next ultrasound is in 2 weeks (jan 22) and I'm really looking forward to it.

And we saw Trish on the weekend - finally! It's been awhile. She's moving to Calgary though which is great news! Landon actually played shy when she first arrived, but he very quickly warmed up to her.

And that really is it. Hopefully I'll find the energy to get through some pics in the next few days - I know everyone's waiting for them :-/ until then..TK

Happy New Year!

A week without posting ... aiaiai

But, we're back!!

We spent a week in Toronto with Aunty Liz, Uncle Rob and cousins Thomson (4) and Isabel (2 1/2). It was FUN! Landon had a blast with all of Thomson's trucks and trains, and with Isabel too.
We travelled on Sun the 23, arriving at the airport early. It was needless, we didn't run into any lines at check-in or at security. Which meant lots of time to kill with Landon. He ran and ran and explored everything he could. John and I just tried to keep up! LOL But it worked out well because he ran so much he had a good snooze on the flight.
We had a big warm welcome in Toronto - Thomson and Isabel were at the door clambering to see Landon. Landon wasn't too sure what the fuss was about, but he settled in pretty quickly with Thomson showing him all of his trucks, and cars, and helicopters (pronouned 'hel-co' if you're Landon).
So the 3 kids had a blast playing together for the week. Particularly once Santa arrived and brought such wonderful gifts. The big hits were a piano with a microphone for Isabel, a cash register for Landon, and a huge truck and bull-dozer for Thomson. Oh yeah, and the hotwheels that Thomson got were a big hit for John too ;-) Landon had the most fun playing with Thomson's trains though -a big box full of tracks and Thomas train pieces. Entertained Landon for many good long stretches.... Which is good as he has a couple of presents still to come that contain just such a thing - so when he opens them up he'll be having tons of fun with trains here too!!

We got home Sat night, and just in the nick of time. I was fighting 'something' off while in Toronto, and did a pretty good job of it until Sat. And Friday night I put Landon to bed with a slight fever. He woke up with a full-blown fever Sat morning and we struggled with that all day. On the plane (we flew out at 8 pm) he had a nap and woke up very hot - worrisomely hot. I gave him my only dose of medicine (Motrin) - as you can no longer carry many liquids on the plane, and what you can carry is restricted in size - and we stripped off his shirt and mopped him down with ice water. Poor kid!! But we made it through (thanks to the West Jet in-flight tv service -- we had Treehouse on one set, and a hockey game on the other), and got home safely. That night Landon barely slept, and he and I were fully sick. Sunday was a write-off, but today we are on the recovering end. Now, of course, John's getting sick :-/
What this meant though is that we cancelled our New Years plans with Grandma and Grandpa :-( We've postponed their visit for a couple of weeks. The good part of that is that maybe Uncle Greg, Aunty Yvonne and cousin Kyle will be able to come too!! So we'll see. Landon will just get spoiled again in mid-January :-)

So that's the news from the week. I will post some pics soon - I've just had trouble with Photoshop tonight :-/ There are many ... heh heh And some videos that will go on Landon's website too - so check that out in a few days.

That's all for now - Happy New Year everyone !!!