One Man Comedy Act

Any day now, I expect Landon to tell me that he is hitting the road with his one-man comedy act, or that he has signed up to participate on Fox's latest variety show. Our little one loves to perform! He will ham it up for anyone that will watch or listen, and he has some very enthusiastic viewers (his parents)!

This morning he took charge of the Bose remote, then proceeded to go down our I-tunes playlist...doing a different little dance to each song. Al Greene's "Let's Stay Together" got a slow back and forth sway. Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" got a right-foot stomp. Jack Johnson's "Girl I Wanna" got a series of spins. I can't think of a better way to spend a snowed-in morning.

By afternoon all three of us had cabin fever. We braved the roads out of our neighborhood, then took off on the main roads (which were all cleared) to do a little after Christmas shopping at the mall. This included a stop at Stride Rite to find some new shoes for Landon; this little one has some stompers! Every time I do laundry I have to double-check the socks, because I get his and mine confused! Luckily, mine don't have non-slip grippers on the bottom.

But, back to my story. Stride Rite is not a fun place to go normally - the employees are grossly outnumbered by rambunctious kids and the weary parents trying to round them up. Landon seemed to sense this, so when the store clerk tried to measure his feet, he turned it into a game, moving his foot at the last second and laughing hysterically.

We could not get him to put his foot on the sizer (technical term) for anything, but all three of us couldn't help but laugh along with Landon - he was having such a good time messing with the clerk. Finally, Phillip convinced him to keep his foot still and the clerk was able to check his size. I think that a toddler laughing at/with him is much better than a toddler crying at him!

Let it Snow!

Late in the day on Christmas, we started getting beautiful, big flakes of snow. Christmas scene complete!

The next morning after some yummy blueberry muffins for breakfast, we went out to explore the winter wonderland with Landon. I was amazed how well he navigated through 6+ inches of snow...especially in his new snow boots! Once he got acclimated to the wintry scene, he took off sprinting towards his friends already playing outside.

I can't wait to go out with he and Phillip again tomorrow! Hopefully the snow will compact a bit more and he can go sledding down the hill again. He seemed pretty happy today on his first snow sled ride; somehow I held back and did NOT sing Jingle Bells. It was hard though. Don't want to embarrass the little guy in front of his friends!

Family Man

Landon LOVED the past week! And it wasn't all of the Christmas presents under the tree. It was creating memories with friends and family. The little guy had us "awwwing", tearing up, and laughing...every day brought a new surprise.

Like the time he reached over his high-chair tray and gave me a minute-long hug; wrapping his chubby hands around my neck, then patting my back.

Or the time he ran away in the middle of a diaper change, then casually went and stood in front of my sister, and subtly lifted his shirt up in order to moon her! You wouldn't believe the comic timing on this one!

Or the time he happened upon our family Christmas card, pointed out each of us in the picture, then clutched the picture against his chest and swooned from side to side.

Even the time he found one of my own paintings in the laundry room and brought it out to put it back in its place on the wall, where hours before I had replaced it with a new painting (from a real artist) I received for Christmas.

What a sweet, sweet little angel he was to the whole family! We couldn't have wished for a better Christmas...and a white Christmas at that!

Ho Ho Holidays!

Landon is eating up all this Christmas spirit! And when I say eating...I mean literally! He has said the word "cookie" about 432 times this week, and the last two mornings Phillip and I had to ask Landon to lay down flat on the floor while he's getting dressed - just so that we could zip his pants up!

We are so happy to have Phillip home with us for the next few weeks. Landon especially realizes that it's an extra special treat to have his Dad home during the day, so he has been giving him lots of lovey hugs, free pats on the back included!

And I'm soaking up every second of this Christmas; I promised myself that I would slow down and enjoy every precious memory, instead of thinking about the future, and planning ahead as I normally do.

Every time I walk into a room and find that Landon has abandoned his red Radio Flyer bike in the middle of the room, I am overwhelmed with emotion. For some reason that scene just reverberates family, love and the holidays to me.

Of course, I am also overwhelmed with emotion because Landon's bike so perfectly matches this year's Christmas color-scheme. What can I say, can't change who you are!

Boys Will Be Boys!

Landon is giving me such an interesting look into the brain of boys! I see him do something, and then I realize that so many behaviors must really be instinctual and based on our DNA makeup - if not, why would my precious son act SO MUCH like a monkey, or a gorilla, depending on his mood!

One of Landon's new favorite activities, as he explores the jungle that is our home: climbing onto the kitchen or dining table, then grabbing onto the chandelier. And sometimes swinging. Just a little thing to pass the time.

Big check in the monkey behavior box.

Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to go upstairs and take a bath. When we got upstairs, he tried to open the door of his bathroom, but could not. He put his weight into it and gave it a nice push, but nothing happened.

He slowly started walking backwards (another favorite), and continued walking backwards all the way into the guest room, whose door is directly opposite the bathroom door. I thought he wandered in there to look at something else, when all of a sudden, he ran out at full speed and slammed into the bathroom door - SWAT style!!! I couldn't help but burst out laughing - he wasn't even phased; just gave the door an "aw shucks" look and wandered off.

Big check in the gorilla behavior box.

It's rough out there - watch yourself in the concrete jungle!

Snowed In!

Today we had snow and freezing rain, so Landon and I spent a lazy day inside enjoying the Christmas decorations and music...here are some pictures!

My favorite is the one where he is showing his "swagger"....laaaaaid back on his tricycle!

Nope, I Can't!

Today Landon did the funniest thing. He and I were Christmas shopping in one of my favorite boutiques, when another customer in the store that I was chatting with offered up the idea that Landon could go play with her two children in the play kitchen set up in the back of the store for kids. Since we were the only customers in there and I knew the store owner, I felt comfortable letting Landon play on his own...but I wasn't sure that the toys would hold his attention...knowing that I have a climbing, adventurous son.

Landon and I walked back there with the other Mom and she introduced her children - all of them were fast friends and played together nicely. For about two minutes! I had stayed by to watch Landon and see if he would stay put, but sadly the stockroom and the store office proved too tempting for him and he ran off to explore.

I grabbed him up and walked back over to the children and told Landon to tell them that it was nice to meet them, but that he was going to stay in the front of the store with me. When the four year-old boy asked me why, I said "well, Landon isn't responsible enough yet to stay here with the toys and play; he's not as old and mature as you are!".

As I was halfway through the sentence (past the responsible part), Landon solemnly shook his head slowly from side-to-side, as if he was saddened to admit that "nope, I can't do it". The other Mom and I thought it was pretty funny! She was cracking up at Landon's antics!