A Slide?

I guess its a good thing Santa will be bringing Landon a real slide for Christmas!

At Least One of Them was Having Fun . . .

Poor Oakley was just trying to eat his dinner, not dodge moving vehicles. Landon found a new purpose for his ride-on car - use it to torture the dog. Oakley is quite skiddish so Landon found it absolutely hilarious when he accidentally got a little too close to Oakley and the dog went scurrying away. This game continued for a good 10 minutes - maybe one day Oakely will realize he should stop coming back for more and just go hide (for his own protection!)

Putting up the Christmas Tree

This past week I took Landon to pick out his ornament (it is tradition to get one every year). We went to Hallmark and he picked out Thomas the Train to hang on the tree. He carried his "choo" around for 2 days. Needless to say he was not too happy about me putting a string on it so we could hang it on the tree - he kept trying to pull it off. We showed him how to hang it on the tree, to which he promptly pulled it back off the tree. He kept saying, "Off, off." It took several tries, and then it became a game - put it on, pull it off, etc. But as you can see in the video he finally figured out what he was supposed to do. (A+ if you can understand all the words he's saying!)

Here are a few pictures of us picking out our tree - our December 6 tradition. We did change it up though and went to Lowe's instead of Home Depot - better tree and I'm pretty sure it cost about $20 less than HD last year, but who knows - its been a year so I could be wrong. Landon was absolutely fascinated with the lights as I tried to put them on the tree (he wanted them back off). He kept repeating the names of all his colors and tried to hold them like a crayon and write on the floor. He had absolutely no interest in the other ornaments and enjoyed pushing his cars around the room while we decorated. Its only been up for 24 hrs. but he hasn't had too much interest in the tree so far. He went and looked at his ornament once today but other than that has left it alone (which is fine with me!) I'm perfectly content to have all my ornaments remain where I left them :)

Checking out the tree

Daddy and Landon with our perfect tree

"Coloring" with the lights

Its not the best picture - but he is actually in the middle of saying, "Off," as he is pulling the lights back off the tree.

He was so excited about his ornament

Admiring his work

Christmas Pictures

We had Landon's Christmas photos taken at Olan Mills about a week ago. There were lots of him running away but we managed to get a few good ones :)
(oh and even though it says "print me" it really means "order me")

Thanksgiving

We were able to space out our Thanksgiving meals this year. It was kind of nice not trying to attempt to eat 2 Thanksgiving meals in one day. We actually had our first meal with our Journey Group the Thursday before so that was yummy food round one.

Then we got together for round 2 with my side of the family on Sunday while my brother and cousins from California were in town. We had fun catching up with everyone!

On Thanksgiving Day we started out the morning with the 5k Gobble Jog to benefit MUST Ministries. This was the first race we have ever done and we joined my parents, aunt, and Elaissa (to be sis-in-law) for an early morning WALK. No I did not run this nor did I attempt such a thing. Running and I don't get along so well, but I have my power walk down :) Not to mention it was so incredibly crowded that if I had wanted to run it probably would have required me running someone down with the stroller - I never knew how hard it was to walk in a crowded area with a stroller and not actually hit anyone! Anyway, we came home afterwards to clean-up and prepare some food and then headed over to the Hardy house for Thanksgiving #3 and more delicious food! We had fun visiting and playing some dominoes (in which I was even able to win a couple of rounds - this a vast improvement from the last time I played!) We are so thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful family and close friends to celebrate (and eat) with!

Hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!!!

On the hunt for food...

Chris with Kaitlyn and Lindsey

Lindsey and Morgan doing a cheer

Chris getting tackled (Justin enjoyed the break!)

Mine - no mine!

We take a group shot at every major family gathering this is almost all of us minus 3.

Granny wanted a shot with the kids but of course Landon didn't want to be left alone so I was trying to hide behind him for the picture apparently that didn't work too well either :)

Gobble Jog '09

A friendly (?) game of dominoes

Elaissa (to-be-sis-in-law), me, and Laura (sis-in-law)

Gee Gee with sleeping Charby

Landon was also worn out from his long day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

19 Months

Landon was 19 months on Sat., November 21. We didn't really take any pictures but we did get to have a fun dinner with my brother who was in town for the weekend. Uncle Chris brought Landon a Magna Doodle - to quote him he's not above bribing to win affection :) Well it was a hit because what other toy allows you to draw endless circles? When I was talking to mom on the phone and mentioned his name, Landon immediately started saying, "I wan Chis," this was quickly followed with, "I wan circles." We'll see if he still remembers by Christmas :)

We've made a picture book of our family and close friends so Landon can practice names and hopefully remember some of the people he doesn't get to see very long. So far he mainly just points out and says the names of grandparents and cousins, but he is slowly beginning to add more names.

As for talking he can repeat just about anything you say even if he doesn't always know what it means. He is putting words together and forming short phrases - his favorite is "I wan (fill in the blank). We have been working on colors and about 90% of the time he can identify bue, geen, wewow (yellow - he sounds like Astro from the Jetsons when he says it!), red, purple, pink, and occasionally orange (although it doesn't really sound like orange). He has also started picking up on some of his letters thanks to a wonderful box of abc books he got for his first b-day. Sometimes he identifies the letter and sometimes just the sound - p, o, e, h, f, and r are among his favorites.

He still loves his blocks and colors, but he has started just a little bit of "pretend" playing. Of course his pretend playing is mostly pretend eating (which may be his all time favorite activity). Landon is constantly going into the kitchen and asking for a snack or juice - I spend a lot of time distracting him from eating :) He still loves Blue's Clues but I've been able to expand our after nap options to include -Choo-Choo (Thomas) and Elmo (one can only take in so much of good 'ole Steve and Blue and don't even get me started on Joe...) He is beginning to interact a little more with other children especially if they are a little older - when other kids are involved playing chase is among his favorites. He has definitely reached an age where he is really a lot of fun - now don't get me wrong we have plenty of whining, crying, screaming, throwing, mommy-clinging going on, but when I look at this face I tend to forget all that :)

First Trip to the Zoo

We headed down to the Atlanta Zoo on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for Landon's first trip to the zoo. He loves animals and can easily spend an hour in the pet store looking in all the different tanks and cages so we figured he would enjoy a day at the zoo. We started in the children's section at the petting zoo. At first he was not so sure about the goats and sheep that were as big as he is. He started by just looking from a distance, then he pointed at them, then he touched them with one finger, and eventually he worked his way up to petting them. From there we worked our way around the zoo - pandas, monkeys, snakes, birds, elephants, etc. If the animals were close and/or moving he enjoyed watching them. He especially enjoyed the freedom of walking most of the zoo (it wasn't very crowded so it was easy to do) - when we were finally able to get him to sit in the stroller he completely zoned out he was so tired! We ended the day back at the children's zoo with a ride on the choo-choo and a short visit to the playground. Needless to say he was asleep in the car by the time we were out of the parking lot! We can't wait to go back!

Checking out the animals...

Getting a little closer...

Pointing...

A little touch...

And he's officially warmed up!

Who me?

ROAR!!!

Looking at the parakeets

Landon watching daddy feed the parakeets. We tried to let Landon do it but he didn't quite understand what he was supposed to do and couldn't get the stick close enough for the birds to eat.

All Aboard!

Mommy and Landon riding the choo-choo

If you think I'm getting off this bus...

One very sleepy boy!