Cabin Fun!!

Landon was lucky enough to get to go on the quad with Carla. His face never really changed from this expression - we think he liked it, he never cried or anything, but he never really laughed either. Funny kid.

Landon learned new things at the cabin too. Like popcorn twists are YUMMY! He ate many many popcorn twists, and even approached the bowl as if it was a trough :-)

He also had fun giving everyone 'five'. He was learning how to open beer cans with Dave as well ... a skill that may come in very handy in a few years...

Landon had so much fun just being able to run and explore. This last picture he's just running on down the road ahead of Aunty Yvonne. He sure enjoyed exploring everything, and amazingly he never landed in any cactus.

Like two peas in a pod

Whether Ryder likes it or not, he has a devoted follower in Landon. Whatever Ryder was doing, wherever he was doing it, Landon wanted to be there. From watching dvd's with Jackson, to doing headstands on the chairs, to just hanging out on the coffee table. You can just see the gears turning in both of their heads as they figure out some more mischief to get into!!

Still loves to help pack!

Landon still has tons of fun playing in the suitcase when I'm trying to pack. Last week he discovered how to pull the suitcase closed on himself...one of these times I'll be wondering where he is and he'll be stuck in the suitcase!!

Home again...

Well, we are home again after spending 5 days at Eston Park. It was quite nice - peaceful, relaxing. We went swimming several times, which Landon loved. He kicked, splashed, dunked his face in the water, blew bubbles (sort of). The pool was great, with a paddling pool, then a very shallow end of the big pool. So Landon splashed and ran in the paddling pool, and then in the big pool he'd run into the deeper water until it was up to his neck, then I'd catch him and we'd do it all again. He really really had fun.

We also did lots of walking around, it was very quiet out there so Landon was pretty free to run around. Makes it harder now that we're back home, he doesn't want to walk where we are at all, but it was great while there.

Carla and Dave, Jackson and Ryder were up for a few days too (to Eston). So Landon LOVED playing with Jackson and Ryder ... Ryder and Landon will be trouble-makers together for many many years I'm thinking :-/ They brought their quad up too, so Landon got to go for rides and he thought that was pretty cool.

We did some golfing as well on their very nice 9-hole course. And the kids did some mini-golfing too.
John was down for the weekend, it was a lot of driving for only one full day, but he enjoyed it too. And Yvonne was there for most nights (had to work during the day), and even Greg and Kyle came out on Friday for a visit too.
So it was a great weekend in Eston. Has John and I dreaming of buying a cabin again .... *sigh* We're just debating if the 4.5 hour drive is worth investing in a cabin or not .... hmmmm

So now we're glad to be home again. Funny how that works - you look forward to going away for a few days, then you're glad to be home again. Huh. Uncle Bob and Aunty Rosemary are planning to come next week Monday. And I'm debating about heading to the farm for the long weekend --- maybe I'll just stay home, that's a lot of driving. We'll see ... it all depends on how long it takes me to recover from this last trip. Even though Landon travels incredibly well.

On to other news...
Landon's learning to feed himself now, he did pretty well with apple sauce tonight. At least there wasn't any applesauce all over the house.... So that's good stuff I'm thinking, I'll be glad when he gets better at that.

That's the news from here for today. I'll get some pics up soon...until next time! TK

What we're up to now...

Landon is a stinker. There's no two ways about it. But he's fun too. He still loves birds (pronounced buhhhrs), and points to them all the day long. He's starting to notice the airplanes too, so I'm sure that will provide us with lots of entertainment in the months to come.
He is starting to work on two syllable words now, he intonates more than pronounces I guess, imitating our sounds, pitch, etc more than the phonics of it all. But he says something like 'dahkder' for tractor, still 'guck' for truck and duck, although now he'll tell you ducks say 'kack kack'. Sheep say 'baa baa' too, don't you know. And he distinguishes between 'gucks' and 'gars' too, which is fun because he's always yelling about something he sees through the windshield.

The last few nights he has really cracked us up. He must be over his growth spurt as he isn't eating as much, and when we put him to bed he's not quite ready to sleep yet. So he lays in bed for an hour or so, most of the time playing quietly. But every now and again a rousing chorus of either 'baa baa black sheep' or the 'a-b-c song' comes from his room. Now imagine, he only says 'baa baa baa baa', but to the tune of baa baa black sheep / a-b-c song. He goes to about l-m-n-o-p ... then stops for a minute or two, and starts over again. Loudly. It's pretty funny - although I'd much rather he was going to sleep :-/

Another fun trick of Landon's is to jump around the house ... jump jump jump. Both feet off the floor, he jumps around. Pretty cute. Add this to jumping from whatever he can stand on onto the couches, sometimes from the couches to the floor, and often enough right onto his head, and I'm getting plenty of grey hair!!

So tomorrow Landon and I are off to Eston Park for 5 days or so. Very much looking forward to it. We'll have a couple of cooler days, to be followed by a HOT weekend (if the forecast is at all accurate), so I'm glad about that!! Lots of swimming for us :-) Yippee!! John will join us for the weekend, Aunty Yvonne will be there for several nights (except the weekend, when she's off to S'toon for a wedding), and I think even Carla, Dave and the boys will make an appearance for a day or two as well. Should be tons of fun!! Which reminds me, I'd better get packing...

until next week -- I'll post again when we get home. Have a great weekend! TK

Heritage Park - Monday

Yesterday we went to Heritage Park with our friend Howie from Winnipeg (in visiting his sis for a week). It was a cool day, which was probably good because that meant it wasn't too busy. Landon had a pretty good time exploring and seeing things :-) We explored through some train cars from the early 1900's, and he even sat on the seats (he fits quite nicely under the ropes meant to keep people off the seats). And we went for a boat ride on a paddle-wheeler. Landon loved the birds, as usual, and was pointing at a sail boat I believe in this picture. (He points at everything and nothing these days, I usually have no clue what he's trying to show me).

We also went for a ride on the real train - Landon was glued to the window watching everything go by. The first time he heard the whistle (we were outside the train) it scared him, but after that he was good.

Heritage Park was really nice, and is definitely someplace that we'll take Grandma and Grandpa when they come to visit again. I think Grandpa would really get a kick out of it :-)

PICTURES!

Landon has been enjoying his new drums (did I say thank you, Grandma and Aunty Vonnie ... let me thank you again!!). He and dad play with them often, although the drumsticks are still hidden (Landon likes to drum on everything in the house!!).

And isn't that a troublemaker smile! aiaiai He was having fun climbing all over the patio furniture last week. He has fun climbing all over everything, man oh man.

We went swimming this morning - first time in quite awhile at the pool. Landon loved it. He's now big enough to walk and splash and stuff. So we 'swam' for awhile, playing and singing, then I let him play in the shallow water, climbing in and out (of course!). He did a full head-under-the-water event when he got all excited and fell face first. Didn't bug him though, he just sputtered, laughed, and kept on going. Then a few minutes in the hot tub and we came home. He was pretty hungry and very tired when we got home, that's for sure. But I am very much looking forward to lots of swimming at Eston next week!! YAY -- only 5 days 'til we leave!

Grandma - you're welcome ;-)

TK

Lots of fun at the zoo...

Landon has been having so much fun the last day or so! Last night, Pam & Kevin and the girls were here (on way through to Banff), so Landon, Taya and Frankie played played played. Then this morning Sheri stopped by with her girls, Ava and Prue. We had some lunch and headed off to the zoo. Prue and Landon are 2.5 months apart, so it was fun to watch those two play together. They are both climbing monkeys :-)

Tonight a friend of John's is stopping for dinner as well, with her daughter. We've had a lot of company within 24 hours -- when it rains it pours! After that I think our week slows down, so hopefully I'll get a chance to go over to Ricki's so that Landon and Keaton can play in the backyard.

And I play volleyball tonight too ... I'm a bit hungover today, so I'm not really looking forward to it. But I'm sure I'll survive. Heh heh...

Anyways, just a quick post for today...will post again soon and will see if I can get some pics uploaded too. Until next time...TK

Landon - the MAN

Ha, this little stinker drives me nuts every day (yup mom, I knew you'd like to hear that!). But he's pretty darned cute too, so we'll survive.
Last night he cracked me up. I was wiping the kitchen table off, and got distracted with something. I walked away, leaving the cloth on the table. Up the chair scrambles Landon, to grab the cloth and finish wiping for me. All the while with a huge grin on his face. So if this is the 'helper' phase, I'm welcoming it -- I think.

Tonight Landon grabbed the vacuum cleaner and ran all over the house with it. He was making 'vroooom' sounds, like it's a car or something. This is a BIG change from the Landon that was sooo very scared of the vacuum as recently as last week!

And I've been wondering when he'll start using a fork or spoon to feed himself. He's great with his hands, but when it comes to cereal or mushy stuff, we still feed him because he has shown very little interest in feeding himself using utensils. Until last night. Again, I got distracted after getting his cereal ready and putting it on the table. And again Landon scrambled up on the chair, and while standing on the chair grabbed the spoon and got some cereal into his mouth!! When I got back he was a bit shy or something I guess (or lazy, wanting mom to feed him...). But I sat him on my lap, and keeping his hand on the spoon I just guided it for him from the bowl to his mouth. And if I was too slow in getting the spoon to his mouth, he did it for himself. So maybe, just maybe, eating will get a whole bunch messier very soon!!

I had a pretty busy last 24 hours. I finally found a colour and painted our great room. I started prepping last night, filling holes, washing, taping, etc. I finished that at 1:30 am, got up this morning, and painted 2 coats by 3 pm. My arms and legs are tiiiired!! But we got the tape off, the drop cloths put away, and all the furniture back tonight and the room looks GREAT! I love the colour (I love any colour down there....that white on white was a bit too stark for my tastes!). We are also getting some new blinds for the living room, which should be here in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we'll hang pictures (I wanted one night with hole-free walls!! lol), and then I'll start contemplating when I'll move on to the entryway, hallways, laundryroom, bathrooms, staircase, bonus room, and bedrooms. Aiaiaiai ... I might tackle the entryway and downstairs hallway next week, but I know I'll be avoiding bathrooms for as long as possible! lol Bedrooms - well, maybe later in the fall. Although they are a bit easier to paint it seems, less windows and fireplaces and cupboards to go around :-)

So that's the news from here. Just glad to be home on this August long weekend :-) Hope all is well with everyone! Until next time...TK

Back on the computer...

Had a computer 'glitch' for the past couple of days - sorry if you've tried to reach me and I haven't been able to respond. It's fixed now, thanks to ~3 hours on the phone with Dell Tech Support today.

Things are going well here. Warmer again, but not as hot as it was so we're managing to stay cool enough. Landon is climbing and jumping all over the house, non-stop. Tires me out!! lol He's pretty entertaining though. Today he had a rough day - had to cry about 5 times because he'd hurt himself on various things: slammed his hand in a drawer, hit his head, fell down I don't know how many times. Poor guy - real, big, alligator tears :-( But a snuggle with mom usually fixes it all up again.
It's funny how he has to be around me all the time now ... dad just isn't good enough right now. I'm looking forward to dad being the be all and end all - give me a break. As it is, I don't even get a break when John gets home from work because Landon just follows me around everywhere I go. Stinker!

So that's that. Just a quick note...hope all is well with everyone! Until next time...TK

Still a climbing stinker bug!

Landon is still climbing on everything and playing as hard as ever. His play is changing - he definitely wants me to play with him more and more. In fact, I cannot leave his sight these days. Not even to pee!! He follows me absolutely everywhere. Which can be frustrating, but we're dealing with it I guess.

Yesterday we played outside quite a bit in the evening which was fun. He just runs runs runs in the open space behind us. Too cute. He wants to go everywhere, and never wants to hold my hand or be picked up. That can be pretty frustrating - if he'd just hold my hand I'd let him do pretty much whatever, but he gets soo mad. grrr. Then of course he fell over and scraped his forehead, so I was able to carry him home. But he pitched a fit when I put him on the deck (he wanted to run to the street of course!). *sigh* All moms are laughing at this post I know...

Landon has discovered he actually likes cherries, but only when he can bite them whole, giving us panics about choking on seeds and ensuring cherry juice all over his and our clothes! Of course. Luckily the cherry season is coming to a close, so he'll be stuck making strawberry juice messes.

Tomorrow we're going to visit Stephanie (Weinbender) in the morning, so that will be nice. I'm looking forward to Ricki getting back to the city so that Landon and Keaton can play again too. Now that Landon's a bit bigger, perhaps they'll have more fun playing together.

And starting to get excited for the cabin at Eston! Woo Hoo. It's turned into almost a full week ... Wed night to Tues morning. YAY

That's the news from here, just a quick post, and sorry no pics. until next time...TK

Yup, we're getting scared...

This little stinker! Man! Jumper continues to prove to have been the most accurate in-the-womb nickname. Tonight, Landon would stand on the couch, start jumping and then jump off onto the floor. yup, right off of the couch. Can hardly believe it.
This of course ties into the whole 'gotta climb on everything' deal that we've got right now. He loves to climb onto the kitchen chairs to get up on the table. And when we pull him down he pulls out a different chair to climb up on, like that's going to make the difference!!
He climbs all over the couches. Loves to climb up over the arms and then back down again. Loves to put things (mostly toys) on the half-wall between the living room and entranceway (I'm waiting for him to climb up there). He's climbed on the table beside the piano, sat there looking all smug.
He loves to get up to the computer room so he can climb onto the computer chair and bang on the keyboard (today I had a bunch of "Are you sure you want to ..." messages on the computer when I got up here!!). The other day he climbed onto the keyboard of the computer, causing the entire thing to fall off the desk!
He still loves to get up to look out the window - but we've moved the table so he can't climb onto the windowsill anymore.
And we had to put drawer locks on today, as he has discovered that he can open the kitchen drawers. We put a door lock on the pantry too, as he loves to get in there and pull the recycling out, and any box of crackers/cereal/cookies that he can reach!

So we're getting scared. Life with Landon is certainly changing. He's adorable and all, but this mischievnous!!!!! aiaiaiaiai

Oh well, he still makes us laugh. Last night he was playing with my cell phone, so I called it. His eyes lit up and he started jumping/dancing when it was ringing. Soooo funny, and too cute.

I will try to get some pics up of our trip to the zoo the other day. Man was that place packed!! I guess it's summer and it was the first cool day of the month so far. Landon finally enjoys the animals ... he liked the ostriches, the zebras, the giraffes. But it was the elephants that caused him to just sit and stare - with a half-smile on his face. They were the best there that day for him. Of course, the most fun he had was running around the grass after we had our picnic lunch. He made friends with all sorts of people!! lol It was the young pre-teens "in love" that made me giggle the most - they were all giggly-goo-goo and Landon just walked right up and patted the young guy on the head, then stood there and stared for about 3 minutes!! LOL They were squirming after that inspection!

That's the news ... here's looking forward to some cooler temps mid-week. TK

Did I mention climbing?

Yup - Landon has learned to climb, and not only does he love it, he's pretty good at it too :-/ Aiaiaiai So he climbs everywhere, most notably onto the windowsill in the bonus room. The first time he was banging on the screen of the open window, and gave me a bloody heart attack. Now we moved the 'steps' (the end table) over to the other side of the window, so he climbs up to see what he can see. I hate it, but he insists he must see what's going on outside, from this high vantage point.

He also climbs up on the spare bed now, using the bedside tables as steps. And he climbs chairs and couches like nobody's business. He loves it. The big game last night was climbing onto the couch, then clambering off over the end (over the arms). There were several loud thuds, followed by giggles, and he'd be at it again. *shaking head* Crazy kid.

One thing I did get pure enjoyment out of was watching Landon run through the sprinkler yesterday. He's finally figured out just how fun that really is. He runs, runs, runs through the sprinkler. Yesterday we stripped him down so we could watch his bare little bum running through the sprinkler ... too cute! With this hot weather, that's about the only way we can stand to be outside! yikes!

So that's the news today ... just climbing everywhere! and trying to keep cool. Until next time...TK

Finally - it's cooling down (a bit)

Now that we've managed to borrow a window air-conditioner from some neighbours, it's starting to cool down. Isn't that how it is. We started out putting a fan in Landon's window to at least suck some hot air out of his room at night. But the other night the fan itself almost got sucked out when a storm blew through!! So luckily our neighbours were kind enough to lend us their a/c, as they weren't using it (they have just moved to the basement through this heat-stroke weather). Now we can turn the a/c on for about an hour before Landon goes to bed, and then we turn it off and the house has cooled off before it has a chance to warm Landon's room up (did that make sense to you? It did to me, so I'm just checking).
The whole reason -- the rest of the house cools down fairly well, but Landon's room just doesn't. Frustrating, and hot for the little stinker.

We are almost back to normalcy again. I am still not 100% over this cold thingy, but I'm getting better. Much better compared to Wed actually :-) And Landon is getting back to 12 hour nights, with a 1.5 - 2 hour nap. Now we just need to move the 12 hours up to 9 - 9 and we'll be great (it's currently about 10 - 10).

And Grandpa will be happy to know that Landon did indeed get another tooth. His first top left molar has poked through. Now he had 15 teeth!!

Landon was pretty cute tonight - we turned the sprinkler on and he ran under there for about 20 minutes, getting himself thoroughly soaked and giggling the entire time. It was cute as could be, but I didn't get any video of it (the camera was upstairs and I couldn't leave him outside alone, as we still don't have a fenced off yard).

So that's the update for this Friday night. I'm off to bed now. It's pretty windy (glad we have the a/c in the window, not that fan!! lol), so maybe we'll get a nice rainy storm to move through (a nice one, no hail, no damage, etc). G'nite! TK

Happy to be home...

Landon certainly has been happy to be home these past few days. Monday morning he jumped for about 2 1/2 hours non-stop, he was so happy.

Landon has been trying some new foods the last week too. Firstly he tried beets at Grandma's house, which he absolutely loved. He enjoyed the fresh peas too. then this week we BBQ'd some corn on the cob, which Landon gobbled up off of the cob like a pro. All those new teeth are being put to good use!!

Grandma of course spoils him and bought him a new toy. He's been having fun banging the hammer on every surface save the 'nails' on the new toy (did I thank you properly Grandma?). When we got home from that shopping trip, Landon promptly made the biggest mess he could in the laundry room :-/ Little stinker - but at least he was quiet for a few minutes ;-)

And he's been so happy to get his ride-on cars back into his life....he pulls them both around non-stop (one just wouldn't be good enough) and gets frustrated because he can't quite lift them onto the couch. Usually he does ride them the right way around, but not always :-)

At Grandma and Grandpa's

Landon sure was excited to get back to a familiar place at Grandma and Grandpa's. As soon as we pulled in the yard he was excited. He ran around all night, playing and playing.

Sunday morning, Grandma and I packed up and headed back to Calgary. But not before Landon got a chance to visit Grandpa and help out a bit with fixing up the swather. He got some kisses too, much to his delight.

Landon travelled back to Calgary very well. We stopped in Brooks at the spray park, which was a lot of fun. Landon didn't get wet, just cooled off, which was perfect. He was good for the rest of the trip. When we got home, I don't think I've seen a happier kid. He just ran and played and laughed and giggled. He was pretty darned excited to see dad too - the biggest grin ever when he saw 'dada'.

Swinging Bridge in Wolseley

It took us awhile to find the damned thing, but once we found the swinging bridge in Wolseley, Landon had a lot of fun on it. He took off right away, the sway didn't bother him at all. But when we got close to the other side, he was pretty tired as you can see.

We got an ice cream cone and a drink and hit the road after that. The play-time worked, and Landon had a good snooze all the way to Moose Jaw!

The Park in Wolseley

On the way from Winnipeg to Grandma and Grandpa's, we stopped in Wolseley for about an hour. The first stop was the playground, so that Landon could play off some energy. Again, I was amazed at how well he played, climbing the play structure, and loving to play at the bottom of the slide (the slides here didn't work as well as in Winnipeg, so it wasn't as much fun to go down them). He also sat on the spring horse all by himself (made his mommy proud).

Playing the Keyboards

Landon had quite a fun time playing Cor's keyboards. There was some pretty interesting music coming out of there...heh heh. Then he thought that maybe his butt, and/or his feet and knees could play too. The climbing stage has officially begun - he's climbing EVERYTHING!

At Uncle Neville's we had a nice night watching the football game. Landon got to spend some time with Neville and Mary, which he took full advantage of. Here he's drawing something for Uncle Neville.

Playing at the Park

We had a lot of fun playing at the park by Cor and Dave's house. Landon has so much fun going down the slide ... Allie took him down as did I. He smiles with big dimples right from the top! It was fun to watch him playing here, he actually climbed the play structure himself, and he likely would've gone down the slide on his own (but I was too worried he'd crack his head open). Then he had fun playing at the bottom of the slide, examining rocks and such.
This was all after we went to feed the geese. It was pretty funny. Landon just wanted to chase the geese, he thought their hissing at him was funny (mom didn't think it was too funny though). Then Cor gave him some bread to throw to the geese, and he just ate it. Then he proceeded to eat 2 more slices of bread (yes, we do feed this kid, just not stale bread which is apparently a favourite!! lol). Too cute.

Playing at Pam's

Here's a picture of Frankie posing for me.

Despite being a sick little monkey, Landon did get some playing in at Pam's. Landon had a blast playing with Murphy too, they both chewed the same toys :-/

And Landon had so much fun 'cheersing' with Pam -- they must've cheered each other 2 dozen times, giggling the entire time.

Visiting Nathan (and Karen)

We managed to get a short but sweet visit in with Karen, Ken and Nathan (born same day as Landon, shared hospital room) while in Winnipeg. It was cut short as Landon was sick, but it was so great to get to see them. Nathan sure is a cutie-pie, and he's still got an inch or two and a few pounds on Landon. They got along as well as any 16 month olds do I guess ... playing more beside each other than anything. But it was cute to see them together.

Golfing!

I was lucky enough to get a few golf games in while at Falcon -- three to be exact. While my game isn't quite what it used to be a couple of years ago, I did manage not to hack up the course too badly. Uncle Bob, Aunty Rosemary, John, Uncle Neville, Brian and I all managed to get out through the week, and here's a picture of Brian, Uncle Neville and Uncle Bob on the course.

Also - we did manage to get a picture of most of us one night. Unfortunately Lorie and the kids were already gone, Isabel was sleeping, and Thomson didn't want to get in this picture (although he did make it for a second version not posted here). But the rest of us were here and smiling. This was taken on the top of the boathouse.

Fun at the Cottage

Landon had so much fun playing with Aunty Liz at the cottage - here Aunty Liz was singing 'the wheels on the bus' and Landon was laughing his little butt off.

Landon loved playing with his cousins too - he and Konur got along especially well. It sure was fun (if tiring) with all the kids.

Landon didn't take to the water too well on his first try with dad, but after a couple of times playing on the beach he got into the water with mom at the end of the week.

The best part of all for Landon was playing with Zoey. He loves puppies so much, and Zoey is so great with all of the kids. They gave each other kisses at every turn it seemed.

Home in Calgary :-)

Ok, I got orders from Grandma to get this thing updated now that we're home again :-) So here it is. Pics are not yet uploaded, so watch for them in the next day or two.

Landon recovered from his throat infection fairly well, once he started his antibiotics on Tuesday evening. This was after he threw up all over Karen and Ken's house (I sooo hope Nathan didn't catch this infection!!), cutting our visit much shorter than originally intended and prompting me to go to a walk-in. I must admit, the walk-in experience was great -- about a 10 minute wait, then saw the doctor immediately for about 5 minutes, and I was outta' there!
So Landon got some good sleep in on Wed afternoon (after being up for 2 hours throwing up overnight ... my first experience with Landon puking in his bed ... poor little bugger!!). But his good nap on Wed aft meant that Pam and I could (finally) get a good visit in ... that was long overdue and I really enjoyed it.

Wed evening we watched my old ball team, Bad Habit, win their game out at Blumberg. Then we went to Cor and Dave's where Landon terrorized the house. Thurs we met Loreen and Liz down at the Forks for lunch (Landon isn't exactly restaurant trained, but he wasn't too bad at the Forks). I stopped by MTS for a few minutes to see everyone - it was short and sweet, although I didn't get a chance to visit very much. Thurs aft was spent with Cor and Liz visiting and relaxing - very nice - while Landon snoozed (good kid!).
Thurs night Alison stopped by Cor's for a nice visit - it was great to see her again!! We went to feed the geese (Landon chased them, and then ate the bread himself!! lol) and went to the park where Landon had tons of fun on the slide.

Friday was spent on Sherry's deck (friend from MTS), which was very nice and relaxing (and hot). Landon was a good kid and napped very well there too, giving us a chance for a really good visit. Then Friday night to Neville and Mary's where we ate pizza (Yum Yum) and watched the football game. It was a nice relaxing evening there too, I am so glad Landon got over his infection so quickly as those last days wouldn't have been nearly as nice.

Sat morn up and off to the farm, Sun back to Calgary as Jenay was here for only a couple of days before flying off on Tuesday morning (so I didn't spend any extra time at the farm). Mom came back with us, which was nice. To have some company on the ride, and some help with Landon. Although I must say that Landon has learned to travel extremely well. We stopped in Wolseley and were 'tourists' on Sat afternoon ... we walked across their swinging bridge, and played in the playground, and at ice cream. And on Sun we stopped in Brooks at their water park (it was 33 degrees or something stupid like that!!). Landon didn't go under the water, but he splashed and stood close enough to get 'misted'. It was fun.

so that's the play-by-play of the trip.

I can hardly believe how much more Landon is playing now. It's like he's grown 3 months in 1! He climbs all over everything, the couches, chairs, everything. He loves light switches, and he can reach a few in our house ... one in the living room, and the three by the front door (he climbs the first 3 stairs). It is fun to watch him now. He rides his cars, he actually plays on the play structures at parks now (climbing them mostly, I still help him down most slides as I'm worried he'll crack his head open on the bottom). He is learning how to manipulate objects by twisting his wrist, so he can 'start' his ride on car, he can open his diaper garbage, etc.

And words. He calls everything with wheels a 'guck', except cars. But trucks, semis, tractors, graders, etc are all 'gucks'. Ducks are still 'gucks' too. Birds are a sort of squeal, as are cats. Baths are 'bahs' , and he LOVES them. He responds when you ask what a puppy says with a breathy 'arf', and he loves dogs more than anything. He had a blast with both Uncle Neville's Zoey and with Pam's Murphy (will have pics to post soon). He imitates many things, but mostly just the intonation than the actual sounds. But he imitates the tones of cock-a-doodle-doo, an owl hooting, etc. And he loves baa-baa-black sheep, he says Baa Baa all day long hoping we'll sing it again!! It is so much fun to play with him now.

So ... this is a long post. I will post more when I get pics up. This is too close to a novella for me!! lol Until next time...TK

Trip Update :-)

We are back from the lake and have survived, if barely ;-P LOL It was a ton of fun, with lots of family and visiting and swimming. Landon really enjoyed himself, and was a good boy most of the time. He had a bit of a time settling into a sleep pattern, and has managed to fanagle himself to a midnight to 11 am sleeping routine :-/ But we're dealing with that and will worry about 'fixing' it when we get home.

The trip out was good. Landon travelled like a pro. I left the farm last Fri morn (June 29), and drove for 5 hours before stopping (to Brandon) ... I stopped because I had to pee!! Landon had a good run, and we would've made it all the way to Winnipeg had he not smacked himself in the eye while we were going through St Francois Xavier (and I had to pee again anyways).

We stayed with Aunty Margaret for a couple of nights, and relaxed most of Sat. We went to Liz and Chris for some fun times with the Tremendons -- I sure miss those gals.
Then Sunday off to the Lake. It took a few attempts before Landon got used to the water, but by Friday we had him swimming and enjoying himself. Good thing too, as he got sick after that, and has been since then.
I'm at Pam's in Niverville (since Sun) until tomorrow. Hopefully we haven't gotten Frankie and Taya sick as Landon has a throat infection. He even threw up yesterday and today -- poor kid :-( He's on antibiotics now as I took him to the doc this afternoon. Yesterday I thought he got sick because he choked on a cookie so I wasn't so worried. But today he got sick while visiting Karen and Ken and Nathan (I sooo hope Nathan doesn't get sick now too!) so we were off to the doc. He started playing right after being sick, so he wasn't too traumatized, and hopefully the antibiotics will kick in quickly and we can salvage the last days of our visit.

It's been fun though. I have plenty of pics which I'll post when we get home. Should be home no later than Tues as I play v'ball Tues night. I'll post more info with the pics when I get them up.

Hope all is well with everyone!! Take care...TK

I'm supposed to be packing...

So I thought I'd post a note instead.

And post a picture too. Landon loves to play with the headphones, there's many pictures of that. So we stuck these ones on his head ... too cute. He thought it was funny because we were laughing :-) Little imitator. He loves to be the centre of attention, no doubt about that.

So I'm off to pack for the trip to the farm tomorrow. To Manitoba Friday and won't be back for a couple of weeks. I'm sure hoping Landon sleeps well at the cottage. Last night he woke up at 11 pm for about 30 minutes of talking and googling. I didn't go in to his room at all and he did fall back to sleep. Then at 5:30 am the same thing. *sigh* At the cottage he's in the same room as us, so hopefully he won't know we're sleeping on the bed or he'll just want to play, and we won't get much sleep! John and I are taking ear plugs - the rest of the cottage will have to fend for themselves!! lol

That's it for now. He's still babbling up a storm. Bah is for sure bath - I said to him 'let's go upstairs for a bath' and he ran to the tub and said 'bah' as soon as he got upstairs. He LOVES the bath, that's for sure.

No posts now until mid-July. I hope you won't suffer too badly ... I will try to sneak one in maybe, but no guarantees. Have a good Canada Day weekend!!

I've been neglecting news on WORDS!

I've not been letting everyone know about Landon's new words. He's getting more and more as time goes on, and it's kind of fun to hear him say something other than dadadada and momomomom :-)

first official word (beside mom and dada) was up ... pronounced 'bup'. He uses it non-stop now ... heh heh. Sometimes he says up when he's already up, so I'm not sure what he's thinking of then ...?
He also loves anything with four wheels, and they are all called trucks, pronounced 'guck'. He even will say guck at a picture of a truck too.
We're working on getting tractor to be something more like tractor, although he usually sticks with guck for that one too. But every now and again he'll say 'gackter' (after we've prompted him).
He also has some sort of sound that we've been able to equate to birds, same for dogs and cats (usually a high-pitched squeal!). Birds is more like 'buh', dog and cat less clear.
Grandma claims he would say 'go' all the time at the farm, but not so much here. Could be because he's so fussy and whiny all he's saying is 'bup' *shrug* Not as many neat things to go to here versus at the farm either I guess.
I think he's also saying bath, pronounced 'bah' ... it's not 100% clear that he is speaking with intention or if it was fluke, so the jury's still out. But I think it is bath.
And he likes ducks and the word quack. So he says 'guck' for duck, sounding very close truck, but in response to seeing pictures of ducks or to me singing 'six little ducks'. He also responds to quack, with something like 'ack' or 'aghk'. So I guess those count too :-)

So that's Landon's set of words for now. I'll post more as he gets more :-)

When oh When will Landon get better??!!?

This kid is still not feeling 100%. don't get me wrong, he's considerably better than say, a week ago. But he's still pretty fussy and miserable most of the time. Last night he was up most of the night ... crying so hard! Breaks my heart and ticks me off all at the same time :-/ Then he slept in until 11:30, and hasn't had a nap yet despite being in bed for over an hour already. So who knows what tonight will bring ... aiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiai
All six teeth have broken the surface though. I'm just wondering if there's a couple more in there working their way out too ? Who knows.... If this runny nose would give in and go away, I think he'd be much easier to live with.

So we're just hanging out at home all weekend, nice and relaxing, starting to get prepared for next weeks travels to MB. Hopefully Landon will have put all this teething and cold business behind him by then....cross your fingers!

Dr appt follow-up

Landon does not have RSV or pink-eye. His chest is clear, his throat is ok. He did have a slightly reddened ear drum on one side (beginning of ear infection), so if he develops a fever we go back for antibiotics. Other than that, he's to work through it I guess *shrug*
He slept very well last night, from 9:30 (fell asleep on my lap) until 10 this morning! YAY - mom and dad got good sleeps too!!
Today he's doing a bit better. It's mostly just his sore sore mouth...Some Tylenol helps that a bit. He did finally get off of me and play for awhile this morning though, phew! What captured his attention? Well I left the gate open at the bottom of the stairs. He played on the first 4 stairs or so, and discovered that from there he can reach the light-switches...so the lights went on and off for about 45 minutes!! lol I didn't care, I could get something DONE!

I had to laugh yesterday, he'd slept so poorly the night before, he napped for FOUR hours! aiaiaiai
But then he ate some dinner finally, and a good snack before bed. And today his appetite seems to have returned a bit more yet. He likes Montreal bagels, that's for sure!! Kid has good taste :-)

I had dentist appt yesterday aft as well, a crown preparation. It feels pretty good today, I get the permanent crown next Wed. I have a cracked tooth, and we're hoping the crown will prevent me from having to have a root canal, or worse, have the tooth pulled.

Just getting ready for my Pampered Chef party tomorrow evening. Grocery shopping when Landon wakes up (depending on his mood), and I'll have to get some cleaning done. Our house is a shambles. Mostly because one of the things that will keep Landon quiet when he's feeling miserable is shredding kleenexes! He'll spend half an hour on one kleenex, ripping it into strips. Makes me giggle, and mutter and swear when I spend 4 hours afterwards picking up little bits of kleenex all over the house!

So that's the news for today. I'm looking forward to picking Jenay up from the airport tonight! Haven't seen her for sooooooooo long! YAY!! Talk again soon...TK

Six new teeth and one helluva cold!

That's our Landon! Leave him with Grandma and Grandpa for a week, and all hell breaks loose!! Well, all teeth break loose anyways.

That's right - SIX teeth popping through at once. Poor, sore little mouth! Two molars, both eye teeth (moving up and down, although one has popped through), and some more bottom teeth. He looks like a different kid from when I dropped him off at the farm! This mouth full of teeth.

And his sore red eyes...He has one helluva cold or infection or something. He is miserable! Thank you to Grandma for such great care when we were down East and you had this sick little munchkin to deal with :-/ He's still miserable now, he's been sick a week. We're going to the doc this afternoon, to rule out severe infection, pink-eye and RSV. There's no fever (he broke that after a couple of days), but lots of coughing, boogers, and sore eyes.

Between the cold and his teeth - we don't have a particularly happy boy these days. Although he was pretty excited to see daddy yesterday. That was about the only time he really smiled and showed some enthusiasm for anything. Other than that he's just grumping and whining and squirming and making everyone's life miserable. Poor guy...

The trip was great though - John and I had a great time. Cape Breton Island is gorgous, the Bay of Fundy (at Hopewell's Rocks) was incredible, the seafood was scrumptious, the scenery (mostly) breathtaking. We hope to go back sometime to see CBI in the fall, maybe when the kid(s) are old enough to come along. I'll post some pics when I get them uploaded.

Until then, I'm going to relax for a few mins until the grump wakes up. Until next time...TK

Getting ready to go...after Landon's first flu

We are almost all packed up and ready to go. John leaves for PEI golfing tonight - his flight's in about 2.5 hours. Landon and I head to Carla's tomorrow, to the farm Friday afternoon. Then I'm to meet John in PEI on Monday and we'll spend a week touring through Nova Scotia. Mostly Cape Breton Island, a day at the Bay of Fundy, and a day or so on PEI. Lots of seafood, lots of fresh salty air. Hopefully some whales. Some wine. And most importantly, some Alexander Keith's :-)

All of my travel has been delayed a day as Landon had his first tummy flu yesterday :-( We went shopping in the morning, and he was sooooo good. But when I pulled into the garage coming home, he cried cried cried. I was wondering why, then he puked all over. Yuck! I got him in the house, cleaned up, sitting in front of cartoons and I got the car seat out to clean it up. Then I picked him up to feed him -- diarrhea poo everywhere. Into the tub. He ate a bit, went down for his nap. Then he woke up at his normal time, cried and puked again, poor guy. Then a few more poops ... another bath. Yuck. Poor kid. He ate lots of supper though, and hasn't looked back. He still has a bit of a fever, but other than that he's good. So hopefully he'll be fine for his week with Grandma and Grandpa.

Anyways, I won't be posting until the week of June 18. See y'all then!! Take care..TK

Just Ridin' along in my Automobile...

Here is a pic of Landon riding on Mater. He has figured out how to ride "properly" on his ride-on cars now, and does so occassionally. Mostly though, he pulls the both of them around at once, all over the house. He loves pulling them everywhere!! lol

Another weekend down...

Weekends certainly go too quickly. Sheesh! We had a good one though. Today we went out for lunch - to one of John's co-workers, it was very nice to get out for a bit and get some visiting in. This afternoon was quiet - Landon snoozed, I got a pedicure, *shrug* That's really about it. We're starting to plan for packing for the big trip! I have to give Carla a call to see what her plans are this week, and then I'll have to make my plans for when I'm leaving. Getting excited, although I don't think the excitement will fully hit until I get to the farm. Once I get Landon there and settling in, then I'll be excited for Nova Scotia.

Off to call Carla...TK

When All's Quiet...

I was brushing my teeth this morning. Landon was being blessedly quiet. Oh wait -- when they're quiet, there's something up right? Check out these pics!! LOL

Somehow he got the kleenex box off the top of his dresser. I'm guessing it was some sort of magic trick involving the cord to his lamp and the cloth that both the lamp and the kleenex sit on. Then the fun was on!! He got through most of the box before I got in there...little stinker. And looks at me all innocently. bah! He actually didn't destroy most of the kleenex, just pulled it out of the box, so I folded them all up nicely and we're all happy.

Made me giggle though - him all stuck in that nook, just tearing kleenex from that box. Stinker!!