Landon & Shoes

 

 

Landon in his first pair of cowboy boots.

 

 

  Recently Landon has become very picky about his foot wear.  It started back around April when we bought him a pair of sandals.  He wore these sandals for two hours one time.  They gave him a small blister on the instep of each foot.  He limped around for days due to the excruciating pain.  He also insisted on wearing socks 24 hours a day (even while bathing) for 3-4 days. Sandals are now at the top of his most hated list.   He also hates his church shoes because he feels the shoe laces are too long!?  As soon as he gets to nursery he rips them off.

 

I think Skecher's shoes advertising campaign has hit the bulls eye with their intended demographic.  All my kids have had a Skechers phase but Landon's obsession had the earliest conception at  barely 3 years old.  He had been asking for Skechers for the last few months now.  I took him to Ross where the shoes are a hodgepodge of disorder to get a new pair of shoes.  He immediately zeroed in on a pair of Skechers tennis shoes. There was no fooling him on which shoes were Skecher's and which were not.  It was a litte eerie!  He especially wanted a pair that lights up when you walk.  Lucky for him they had a pair in his size because I was not going to pay $45-$50 at a department store. 

 

I thought he was going to seriously hurt himself that first day because he could not take his eyes off his feet!  He also believed they were making him run faster.  Everyone in the family was shown a demonstration of how fast he was in his lightning Skechers. 

 

The poor kid has also been brain washed by Ashlyn into believing that pink is the most superior color known to humankind.  He keeps trying to wear Ashlyn's pink and too large cowgirl boots.  Since Chris accidentally took his beloved Skechers to Payson, AZ for the week we were in need of shoes.  Kohl's has Toy Story Woody boots that light up so he is now the proud owner of his first pair of cowboy boots.  I am interested to see which pair of shoes becomes his favorite once Dad returns with his Skechers.

 

 



Big Boy Pants For Landon

 

Why is it that your child becoming potty trained always seems like the most unattainable goal? Even though Landon is my fourth child I still felt like it was never going to happen!  I am happy to report that there will be no more diapers at our house ever again!  I was afraid to even acknowledge that he was potty trained for fear of jinxing myself for almost 2 weeks after the fact.  Like all my kids he was fully capable long before actually deciding he wanted to do it.  About a week before his third birthday, Chris said no more diapers and put him in underpants.  I was not home but Landon pooped in his big boy pants.  That's when he and his Dad had a come to Jesus meeting, as they like to say in the South.  This little boy LOVES his Daddy so much that he potty trained purely to please him! No accidents from that day forth!  For the next couple days whenever he used the potty he would say, "Daddy are you happy now?" It was really kind of pitiful...but I'm sure glad he decided to finally do it!

 

He always wants to wear his underwear backwards so he can see the picture on the bum.  When I said I wanted to take a picture of him in his big boy pants he wanted me to get the rear view.  It is a perfect profile shot too.

My parents gave him these Batman PJs for his birthday.  I did not think he even knew who Batman was but as soon as he put these PJs on he thought he was Batman...I mean he really seemed to believe he was Batman!  He was running/flying around saying, "I'm Batman"!  We need to get this boy a super hero cape ASAP! 





2 1/2

In a few more days Landon will be exactly 2 1/2 years old so I took him on a little photo shoot today.  He is at the age where getting a good photo of him his hard.  He never wants to hold still and he was also immersed in his role of dinosaur.  Whenever we go somewhere he always has to have something to bring along.  I try to discourage him from doing it because then we have to worry about keeping track of the item.  Today it was his beloved puppy dog which I was thankful about.  It was almost his T- Rex dinosaur.  Chris brought that puppy to him when he was a day old and we were still in the hospital.

The second of the only two good shots I managed to capture.  We sure love this little boy!  He is a lot of fun and keeps the whole family entertained.  When we say family prayers he likes to go around the circle giving everyone hugs and kisses.  Afterwards the older kids like to compare notes and see who got the most love.  Ashlyn used to do the same thing.  I think it is so sweet.

I had to share this one because it shows his smart aleck side so well.  I kept telling him to look at me, (which he mostly chose to ignore) but at this point he stopped and very pointedly looked at me for a good 30 seconds.  

After our summer vacation in June, Landon gave up his nap.  He still needs it but will not nap.  I have tried several different strategies including my laying down with him.  I would fall asleep only to have him shout wake up in my face at top volume.  Somehow he knew that his soothing sounds machine made him sleepy because he would immediately turn it off as soon as I laid him down.

In the last couple of months he started just collapsing in exhaustion where ever he might be. I started to suspect a growth spurt. This was confirmed after we missed two weeks of church.  When we put him in his pants and long sleeved shirt for church they were about two inches too short.  It is hard to tell when shorts get a little shorter but not so much with pants!

 

Snoozing on the staris.

Often he will fall asleep in the evenings in the recliner with Chris.  I think he thought if he laid by Chris's feet he would be more able to fight the Sandman.  Sometimes he falls asleep in the car.  I have found if I lay him on the sofa he will sleep for an hour or so BUT if I put him in his bed he pops up immediately!  What is it about males and sleeping on the sofa???

The best part of the day is when Gavin & Ashlyn come home from school.  The worst part of the day is when we drop Whitney off at school.  He has tried pleading, demanding, delaying and tricking her into staying in the car without success.  But he has not given up!

Landon is the king of sound effects.  He makes sound effects for everything and he is LOUD.  He loves imagination play.

He loves his Ashlyn!

In case you were wondering, yes, he is still a mischief maker.  He has a sandbox but decided digging in potting soil would be much dirtier.  Covering our walls with his artwork is one of his main past times.  It's not completely his fault since his siblings are always leaving writing implements around to tempt him.

Helping himself to some Nesquick.  I have photos of all of the kids helping themselves to Nesquick.  A chair is still his best friend and tool.

I wish I could say he was fully potty trained, but he is not.  In spite of the fact that he is completely capable.  More often than not staying dry through the night.  Getting out of the tub to pee on the floor and then getting promptly back into the tub after finishing.  Demanding a diaper change while in mid flow.  He actually did great for a few days until he decided it was too much bother. *SIGH*  Hopefully he will decide he wants to do it sooner rather than later.

Terrific Two - Landon's Had a Birthday!

Landon is 2!  Chris and I have decided instead of the Terrible Twos we are going to refer to this time as the Terrific Twos. Though we have been experiencing the Terrific Twos for awhile now he seems to have decided to kick it up a notch or two lately.  Two seems to be the age for train obsessions so we got him a "Tommy" cake.  He knew he was supposed to blow the candle out and did so immediately.  We had to keep relighting it so we could get it with the camcorder.

I love this one!  I guess he didn't want to dirty his hands.

Gavin had a train birthday for his second birthday also.  Landon drove the train around his cake just like his big brother did. 

He loves this Ironman robot.  He picked it out himself when we went birthday shopping. ;)  Chris kept trying to show him what he though were cooler robots but he stayed true to Ironman.

I love his look of concentration in this one.  He was a birthday pro! He got right down to business and opened all his gifts pretty quickly. 

His trike or as he likes to call it "me car" was his favorite gift.  We went for a long walk at the end of a long day but he did not want to get off of his car.

Chuckecheese's...Where a Kid Can Be a Kid! Last month we went to a friend's party at Chuckecheese.  Landon LOVED it!!! Ever since then he has known the Chuckecheese logo and will scream CHEESE excitedly when he sees it.  He loves putting the tokens in the machines so much I am a little concerned about a future gambling problem.  He even liked the person in the Chuckecheese costume.

This hoops games is one of his favorites.

Landon with Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

Landon taking Ashlyn on a wild drive.  I love the expressions on their faces in this shot. 

Decisions, decisions...trying to decide on his prize.

Mini Pony Farm

Ashlyn's preschool recently took a little field trip to a Mini Pony Farm. This pony with it's Mama was only 10 days old. The farmer was a sweet old man who looked like he was in his 70's. One of the boys in Ms. Dana's morning class asked me if I was the farmer's Mom. :D Gave me a good laugh and made me wonder why he thought I was his Mom.

The biggest rule the kids were told was not to chase the chickens. Landon had problems with this rule. He doesn't really walk anywhere he mostly jogs from place to place. He was really excited to see all the farm animals.

Ashlyn's with some of her besties, Maddie & Jordis. Maddie wasn't too interested in taking photos that day. These three girls were really worried about manure and took great pains to steer clear of it.

Landon spent a large portion of time trying to drink out of the ponies water trough. I offered him his sippy cup but he just wanted trough water.

Petting the ponies.

Mama goat with one of her kids.

Landon was more interested in feeding himself bread than feeding the chickens. At one point I saw him pick a piece of bread up off the ground coated in dried manure and pop it in his mouth before I could stop him. Yuck!!! He spit it out pretty quickly.

Ashlyn feeding the chickens.

St. Paddy's Day 2011

I was trying to get a cute shot of these two on St. Patrick's Day but Landon was not cooperative. Ashlyn giving him loves and posing nicely while Landon tries to wiggle away.

One of the differences between boys and girls.

Notice Landon's devilish smile and Ashlyn's dramatic pose. Nothing says Happy St. Paddy's day Sis, like a bash to the head with a wooden Thomas train.

Because your outfit always needs a little pink even on the biggest green day of the year!

Our Good Luck Charmer.

Photographic proof that I do fix Ashlyn's hair. Because someday I am sure she will ask me why her hair was never styled. Naturally she pulled it all out 5 minutes after I left her at childcare at the YMCA. Even though all the childcare girls told her how cute it looked!

Trouble

Let me introduce you to my little friend Trouble aka Landon. :) It just hit me the other day that at 20 months old he is now closer to two years old than one year old. I alternate between gratitude and worry that he is not talking a lot yet. Here is a list of his current vocabulary:

COOKIE

THANK YOU

NO

MINE

MAMA

DADDY

NITNEY

WOO-WOO (TRAIN)

RUFF-RUFF (DOG)

QUACK-QUACK (DUCK)

SLUG BUG

BALL

FOOTBALL

NIGHT-NIGHT

BYE

HI/HELLO

OH NO!

DANG IT!

UH-OH!
CAR

ICKLE-ICKLE (TICKLE)

This little guy is not a snuggler. Something he does that I love though is that he will run up and bear hug your legs for two seconds then run off.

All ready for church in his cute little man suit.

Landon turns anything and everything into a step stool. All kids this age love buttons but he is really obsessed with them! Two of his favorite past times lately are spraying water and ice from the fridge and adjusting our thermostats. He keeps turning on the emergency heat setting. Can't wait to get our power bill.


One day I could not find him then I heard strange clinking noises coming from the closet. He was having a grand time playing with some ammo.


I find myself often being surprised by his knowledge of random household items. One day he got a hold of the can opener and immediately ran over to the pantry to get a can. He tried and tried to open that can without success.

Here he is using Chris's nose hair trimmer! Those pesky nose hairs are a real pain.

I live for Trouble's naps. :D Normally I would never take a photo of him sleeping for fear of waking him but on this particular day I had to wake him up to go pick up one of the kids.

Landon's Stats

Landon had a well baby check up yesterday. Here are his current stats:

Weight: 27 lbs. 8 oz. 50-75%

Height: 35 inches 97%

Head: 52 cm off the charts

One of Landon's quirks is that he HATES to be touched by strangers. If he initiates contact that is fine, though it doesn't happen often. This quirk always makes doctors visits fun! The doctor commented on how strong he is. :) My arms are the strongest they have ever been thanks to him.

He recently learned a valuable lesson. Wait for the garage door to finish opening before charging full speed ahead. He clocked himself once and now runs out full blast, stops half way and watches the door until it is all the way open, before proceeding. Falling off the table must not be too bad for him cause he still gets on it daily despite repeated falls.

We also discovered a little miracle of a machine while we were in Vegas for Thanksgiving. My sister had a soothing sounds/white noise machine. We used it for him while he napped to block out the noise of the other kids. And it worked wonders!!! I immediately ran out a bought one for him. Best 20 dollars I have spent in some time! It has made nap time a breeze. Gavin loves it too. He has told me several times when he wakes up in the morning how well he slept. Now Whitney and Chris are both saying they need one.