Whew!

I am a little bit behind in my posts, but I have a GREAT reason...and her name is Sophia! Landon and my Mother and I just got back from a 5 day trip to my Grandparent's house in Tennessee, where our whole family descended (yes - that's the right word) to see my Uncle Rex and his 11 month old daughter Sophia.

Rex moved to Australia, and then Thailand about 7 years ago, and hadn't been able to visit since then, so it was such a nice trip.

Of course, it's nice to be home again, and catching up on things, but I do miss my little Sophia!

Good Times!

The Lewises had a great weekend - so many good times the past few days. I think that all of us are so happy to have some spring weather, and get out of the house a bit.

We had the best playdate with Amy and Josi on Friday - so good that we ended up having an impromptu sleepover! It was one of those magical spring days where it is 82 degrees, so of course we pulled all the toys out into the cul-de-sac for the kids, and pulled out some ice cold beers for the adults. The kids were playing so nicely, and Amy's husband was out of town, so she offered to stay in with the kids while Phillip and I went out to watch the big game. It was such a nice treat, and 3,000 calories later we got to keep the good times rolling with Amy when we got home!

Saturday was gorgeous again so we headed to one of our local parks, Blue Jay Point, right on the edge of Raleigh's largest lake. Imagine our surprise when our good friends the Hemphills showed up right after we arrived - another (unplanned) playdate. We even hiked through the woods down to the lake, and let the kids climb around on the rocks, wave to boats, and generally just explore a really, nice peaceful spot. The adults were all on the same page - what a nice place to come visit with a book, and completely relax with the lapping waves as background noise.

Today was cooler, so we had a fun day inside watching the tournament, plus some weekend cartoons for Landon. To wrap it all up, we went to dinner at the fabulous Lynwood Grille and introduced Landon to the legend...wait for it...dary food. To say he liked it was an understatement; the waitress was quite impressed with his diligence in eating up every last bite; with a knife and fork of course. He was kind of showing off because she was cute. He's been known to do that from time to time.

Good Morning Sunshine!

Landon and I have so many little routines that are special to just the two of us. One of my new favorites is our wake-up routine. Whenever he awakes, I run into his room and say good morning, and then we share a little hug, and he pats my back. Then, we sit down in his glider for a minute and snuggle, while I take off his sleep sack for him. At that point, he's off to the races.

Monday morning, he jumped out of the chair, ran to open the nursery door, then shouted over his shoulder "Gotta go!". It was so cute, and something that makes me smile every time I think back to it. It's one of those little memories that are such a good snapshot of a stitch in time.

This morning, he sprinted out of the room and down the hallway. And I mean FAST. By the time I walked to the nursery door, he was nowhere to be seen (or heard). I walked down the hall, calling his name, and didn't hear any response. I peeked into the guest room then walked into the bonus room, where Landon jumped out from behind an armchair to scare me. Scare of the morning over, he nonchalantly grabbed by hand, and we walked downstairs together.

And here's where my favorite part of the morning routine comes in: looking down and watching Landon's chubby little feet navigate the stairs each morning...his small feet mimicking every step I take...too sweet

If Mom Cooks, I Clean...

Daddy is Home!

Sorry for the lack of posts last week; Phillip was in London on a 9 day business trip, so it was just me and the little guy for the last week or so.

I wish you all could have been a fly on the wall to observe the Lewis family reunion in the airport though! Landon and I headed to the airport to pick up Phillip on Thursday afternoon; it had been a rainy day, so we went a little bit early to stretch our legs in the airport's vast open areas. Landon loved it! First we stopped at Starbucks to get his organic chocolate milk (of course - he can't pass those up), then we headed to the large windowed-wall to watch the airplanes loading and queueing for the runway.

Finally, Phillip made it through customs and Landon and I walked downstairs to the baggage claim. Landon saw Phillip from about 15 feet away, sprinted towards him, then hugged him tight. He hugged him for about 20 seconds, then pulled his head back to check Phillip's face (as if to make sure that he was real!), then hugged him again. Then repeat.

Even Scrooge would have teared up at this one. Just too sweet. Landon and I are both happy to have Phillip back home; Landon especially since he and his Dad have been playing non-stop with the double-decker bus that Phillip brought back for him.

Let's Read Another

How is it that all babies and kids use the same stall strategy when it comes to delaying bedtime? You would think that we did a Pavlov study on Landon; when we say "bedtime" he runs to his bookshelf.

Tonight I read him one book, then he brought a second book to me, so I firmly told him that it was bedtime and we were only reading one book. His response as he thrust the book at me: "but it's good!".

I'm very quickly finding out that the only way to get Landon to use his vocabulary is to refuse to do what he wants based on his non-verbal cues. How nice to hear him say a phrase after only saying "ball" today - about 150 times!

What a Whopper!

This weekend my Mom came to visit us, and Landon was so happy to have his Grandmother here to spoil him!

We had a great time just watching Landon play and explore new things. One of these "new" things was a box of Whoppers that I had bought for my Mom to take back home with her. Even though Landon has never seen them before, nor seen candy in a carton like that, he somehow knew it was something delicious!

He is after all a connoisseur of all things sweet, seeing as he is the sweetest thing going these days...

We let Landon explore the box on his own, to see if he could open it. Which he did using his mighty toddler brute force. He then stuck his chubby little hands in there to pull out handfuls of candy at a time - and he wouldn't share!

When I told him that he had enough, and that he couldn't just stand there eating candy all day, he promptly plopped down into my lap, as if by sitting down, that made it official! I think he was saying, "No Mom, it's not junk-food snacking, it's a proper meal now!"