UPS...again...

I'm not sure what it is about our local UPS store that brings out the inner "Dennis the Menace" in Landon. Although if we are talking about Landon's "Dennis the Menace", I don't know that inner is the correct term; outer is probably better!

Now that Landon is a little older, I often let him walk into stores with me, as opposed to riding in his stroller all the time. The UPS store is one that he always walks into on his own two feet, as UPS has a children's area set up for toddlers with a play table and chairs, some musical instruments, and books. Landon LOVES it.

He sits down, greets everyone as they enter and leave the store, and switches from toy to toy at lightning speed. Normally he sets up a toy at each seat and then plays a solitary game of musical chairs, switching seats and toys every 10 seconds.

Which explains what happened when I tried to leave the store. I asked Landon to "come on" so that we could go to the grocery store, but the little guy wouldn't budge. I moved to the door, held it open, and after a few more "come ons", Landon stood up. I thought, "finally, he's going to leave".

Would you believe that the little stinker picked up one of the chairs, and made a mad dash out the door?!?

Only 17 months old and I am already having to return stolen merchandise and apologize to store clerks on his behalf...didn't think that would be part of the Mom job description so early :)

Oops!

The other day Landon wanted some yogurt for an afternoon snack. As I opened the container, yogurt splashed all over me. I said "oops!", and Landon started giggling, which of course meant that we ran to pull out the video camera. Here's a video of Landon eating yogurt, while I pretend that I'm nervous about getting yogurt all over me...

Backseat Driver

When we hop in the car to go somewhere, Landon is always very intent on seeing everything. He watches the roads, the other cars, and likes to look through the sun roof to search for large buildings and airplanes. He even seems to recognize some parts of town and certain places as being familiar, based on his reactions (namely our neighborhood, and the Chik-fil-A drive through)!

Yesterday as he and I were out running errands, Landon was carefully watching all of my driving maneuvers. I guess that our positive reinforcement parenting style has rubbed off on him, because for some reason Landon started clapping for me when I made a routine lane change and exited onto the off ramp!

What a lovely backseat driver he is!

Cha-Ching!

One of Landon's favorite things to do is explore the dark recesses of my diaper bag, and especially my wallet. He loves all of my credit and customer loyalty cards, and I usually let him try to swipe the cards himself when we are out shopping. If he is fussy while I am grocery shopping I will whip out the Harris Teeter VIC card, and he happily holds it for the rest of the trip, and then eagerly passes it to the grocery clerk when we check out. All of this is background information to explain what the little munchkin did today!

We were back in one of the exam rooms at the Doctor's office, waiting for the Doctor to come in and see Landon. Since jumping on the 4ft-tall padded exam table didn't seem to be a good idea to me, I pulled out the trusty diaper bag, set it next to Landon and let him explore away.

To ensure that he stayed put and didn't fall, I stood directly in front of him, and talked about each of the objects as he pulled them out of the bag. Sure enough, before long, Landon pulled out my American Express card. Imagine my surprise when he looked around, couldn't find anything to swipe it on, and decided to swipe right down the middle of my cleavage!!!

Slow Dance

Landon did the sweetest thing yesterday afternoon. We were all getting ready to leave the house, and I perched Landon up on our kitchen island so that I could put on his shoes. After I was done, his Dad let him stand up on the island, but kept his arms on Landon's ribcage to make sure that he didn't fall. Landon must have misinterpreted the move, because he put his arms around his Dad, leaned in, then started swaying back and forth like he was slow dancing!

Phillip and I both laughed, then Phillip tried to step back. Landon pulled him back in for a few more beats, like he was saying, "bring it in big guy...I'm not done with this dance yet"!

Here are some pictures I took this morning - I'm trying to learn how to use our new camera.

Lovely Ladies

Every day Landon and I walk outside together to check the mail; it's kind of our thing. In December it was especially fun for him because we received so many Christmas cards. We would open the cards, look at the photos, read the inscriptions, talk about the friends or family pictured, then tape the cards onto our fridge so that we could enjoy they all month.

Today we received an Ann Taylor LOFT coupon in the mail...one with pictures of some lovely ladies modeling the new spring line. Landon took the card straight to the fridge and tried to stick it on there...sans tape. I laughed at first, but after he kept trying for a few minutes, I took pity on him and said "okay, okay. I'll get you some tape to put the models up on the fridge".

Since then he checks out the ladies every time he walks by the fridge. I'm talking nose two inches away from the pictures.

Thank God it wasn't a Victoria's Secret coupon!

ABC Dance Moves

The other night while I was cooking dinner, Landon was in the mood to pull all of the pots and pans out of the cabinets. Phillip tried to entice Landon into the living room by turning on his i-pod, and it worked! We caught this video of the little man showing off a bit...he was trying to recreate for his Dad some dance moves that he did earlier in the day. (In case you're wondering, he did a Gregory Hines style tap and stomp number!)

He did a little warm-up dance to the ABC song, but when it came to the big dance reveal, Landon was a little shy; he changed his mind about it once he got to the middle of the room, and started shaking his head "no"!

Pancake Party!

Some of our friends are in the process of adopting a baby girl, and their Sunday School class hosted a pancake breakfast fundraiser for them this morning (we visit the same church). We thought we would support our friends, and have breakfast to boot, but we weren't prepared for how much FUN Landon would have!

The breakfast was in the church fellowship hall, with plenty of space for the 15-20 kids in attendance to run around. It was basically the trifecta for Landon: food, running around with wild abandon, and lots of girls to dote on him!

Landon was the youngest kid participating in the festivities, but that didn't stop him from pulling out a chair and trying to eat someone's breakfast Goldilocks-style, entertaining five three-year old girls (simultaneously) with his baby chatter, playing Red Light-Green Light, Red Rover and Simon Says, and enticing the "big kids" to pick him and carry him around so he could see the action.

To say he had a good time would be an understatement. Phillip and I loved seeing him work the room...it was hilarious.

When he was around adults he would nod his head in agreement after they made their point, and when he was around the kids, he laughed contagiously, or looked straight at them and nodded his head until they picked him up and carried him around! Phillip and I think that he was telepathically saying "yep, come on, you know you want to pick me up" :)

Fetch Lives

Today Landon and I played fetch. Nope, that's not a typo. I wish I could say that we played catch, but it just wasn't the case! Every time I threw the football to Landon, he picked it up, put it in his mouth, ran or crawled over to me, and then shook his head back and forth while I gently tried to pry the football out of his teeth!

He's getting in two bottom teeth right now; that's his story and he's sticking to it!

Peanut Butter Super Glue

Tonight I made chicken curry for dinner, a little hot for Landon, so he enjoyed a pb&j, some honeydew, and a little bit of naan and hummus. He didn't want to be totally left out from our Indian dinner I suppose!

After he finished his sandwich, Phillip and I silently said a prayer of thanks that tonight is bath night. It's so pitiful really, but Landon's eczema means that he only gets to bathe weekly (barring any crazy messes) - and the little one really loves a warm bath.

But Landon wasn't finished with his pb&j yet. He had asked to play with the paper plate on which I delivered his sandwich, so he was playing peek-a-boo with us behind the plate. At one point, he realized that the residual peanut butter and jam smeared all over his face could act as "glue" to keep the plate over his face!

You haven't seen such excitement. Peek-a-boo hands-free is so much better! Seeing those little chubby hands waving on either side of the paper plate was one of the cutest things Landon had done since...umm, lunchtime! Yep, this one always keeps us laughing.

Sweet Sounds

Nothing melts my heart more than hearing Landon talk. It is SO FUN now that he is getting older, and we can really have a conversation with him. Sometimes we say something, and he will do just what we talked about (like "why don't we put on our shoes to go outside?"). Sometimes he will nod his head "yes" or "no", and sometimes he will answer!

Today he curled up to his Dad on the couch, and Phillip said, "hey sweet boy". Landon responded back, "hey deddy" in just about the cutest voice you have ever heard. I wish you could have heard the way Landon pronounced Daddy; so sweetly, with an 'e' instead of an 'a'...

Bashful...Or, Not

Today the whole family headed to our neighborhood park for some fresh air. While we were there, a grandmother commented to Landon that he had the most beautiful blue eyes.

Like any self-respecting 16 month-old, he immediately looked upwards, tilted his head a bit, and started blinking in an exaggerated fashion...his version of eye-lash batting, but ever-so-much-more charming.

Umm yeah, totally not bashful.