Now that Landon's one, I thought I'd post about all that he's up to right now. I didn't want to brag too much on our public blog, so I'll just do it here. :)
Landon is walking all over. He took his first steps at 10.5 months and was more officially walking at 11 months. He does not, however, walk in shoes. He hates shoes and hates that he can't walk in them.
Landon says: Dada, mama, all done, uh oh (more like uh), bye, and ho ho ho. I think he also says dance, but it sounds like dad, so I'm not sure on that one. Also, I believe he's also starting to say ball and more. It's so much fun when they start talking!
Landon signs: All done, bye bye, and more. He ways hello and good bye and gives awesome high fives!
He loves balls and loves throwing them.
In one of his books it says to give the dog in the picture a kiss, and whenever we reach that spot, he always gives the picture a big smack!
Landon loves reading and cries every time I close the book or any time he thinks I'm going to close the book. :)
Landon loves music, and the one way I can get him to eat when he doesn't want to is to sing to him.
Walking!
Landon is a walker! He took his first steps back at 10 1/2 months old, and I would say he officially started walking just before turning 11 months old. Both Ryan and I have commented on how determined this little guy is. He practiced standing and walking all of the time. It was really fun to see. He wouldn't hold on to our fingers to stand up because he always wanted to do it himself. I am proud of him for that, for his willingness to work hard...even though he's just a wee thing. :)
He's also become a crazy dancer. He absolutely loves music. Music has always calmed him down. If he starts spitting out his food at dinnertime, I start singing a song, and he stops and eats. I took a trip with the boys to Dallas to see my Aunt Teresa and her family (while Ryan was at training in San Antonio) so I bought a little mirror that plays music for Landon, to see if it would help on the 3 hr drive. It did. He would get fussy, I'd turn on the music, and he'd calm right down. In fact, it put him to sleep twice!
Landon loves getting into trouble. He knows when he's being sneaky or naughty, and always looks to me with his grin, waiting for me to get "mad". He laughs this great laugh and does it again. It's so fun to get "mad" at him, for whatever he thinks he's being naughty about.
Landon is also tough. I guess that comes with being the third boy, but he will climb on the boys and let them wrestle a bit with him. He can squish faces and pull hair really well when he wants to. He likes to be in the middle of the mayhem, especially when it's with his brothers. I just love him to pieces!
Bigger Every Day
Today Josh, Carter, and I were "cleaning" the big window in our dining area when all of the sudden, little Landon was at my side wiping the window with a paper towel. Normally the first thing he does with a paper towel is eat as much of it as he can before I take it away. He was just wiping away, looking over at me with a sweet smile, like he was saying, "Hey mom, I can help you too!"
Landon has always loved a good beat. If he ends up playing the drums, I wouldn't be surprised. One thing we do to calm him down and get a smile is do a beat box. (Is that what you call it? Hah.) As of yesterday, he's started dancing. All I have to do is say, "Go Landon! Go Landon! Go! Go! Go! Go!" and clap, and he's bouncing up and down all over the place. He even performed for daddy when he got home from work. Give him a beat, and he's all over it.
Mama!
Landon has been saying "Mama" the last few days!! I love it. He's been saying Dada since he was about six months, so I think it's high time he was calling me by name. :)
He couldn't resist!
Water Baby
I have never seen a baby this crazy about water. He's always been a kicker in the tub, but now he's splashing water everywhere! He actually gravitates towards the tub. Now that he's beginning to pull himself up to stand, he heads straight into the bathroom and pulls himself up alongside the bath tub. (Perhaps because it's the easiest place to stand or perhaps because it's where there's water sometimes...I don't know). But once he sees water, he starts kicking both legs trying to get to it. We set him in the tub and he hits the water with his arms and legs, rolls around in it, sits up, lays down, chokes on it--it doesn't matter as long as he's splashing and getting as wet as possible. It's quite the work out to try to keep this little guy from drowning. The pure look of joy on his face is so cute. He is happiest when he's wet!
Sitting and crawling
Landon is now crawling and, though I thought he never would, sitting! He has always preferred standing, and honestly, it was a fight not worth fighting to get him to bend his legs for two seconds...but he eventually came around to deciding sitting wasn't a bad option. When he turned six months, I sat him up on the floor to see what would happen, and he actually sat, kind of. It was not very stable, but I was still surprised. Now he's a sittin' fool. With crawling, he never did the army crawl. He seems to be a really fast learner. At my parent's house I tried once to get him to start moving his arms, and later that day he was moving his arms. Then here in Oklahoma Ryan held his tummy up, so he wouldn't flop down to reach for his toys, and then he crawled. It's been two days of solid crawling.
Most people say, "Oh now you'll be sorry!" but I don't think so. Landon loves loves LOVES to be held and in on the action. He's pretty easy going when held, but he lasts for about 5-10 mins on the floor by himself. I'm hoping that this crawling business will help him feel more part of the action. I actually brought out the baby sling this week, because I was holding him so much! (He's missing his grandmas, to be sure!)
Thoughts
A few thoughts about my sweet little baby:
The day after I posted about Landon gnawing on everything, his bottom right tooth popped through his gums. Soon after, his left bottom tooth cut through. Now, his bottom left canine is trying to make an appearance.
Landon is trying really hard to scoot. He places his head on the floor and uses it to hold himself as he gets his legs bent up under him. Then he straightens his legs does kind of an awkward side-scoot. He'll then look at me like, "It's not quite working, mom!"
Landon is definitely my busiest baby. He's always moving around. He's never liked to sit, so he mostly stands when you hold him. Well, he doesn't really stand, he jumps and kicks and moves all over the place.
He loves playing with my hair. He runs it through his fingers like it's the prettiest thing he's ever seen.
Landon does not like to be put down. He'll be good for about 5-10 mins and then he's whining to be picked up again. He is such a pleasant little soul, but he likes to be held!
Landon loves grass. We took him out on the lawn to see how he'd react, and he was bent in half trying to get as close to the grass as he could.
The day after I posted about Landon gnawing on everything, his bottom right tooth popped through his gums. Soon after, his left bottom tooth cut through. Now, his bottom left canine is trying to make an appearance.
Landon is trying really hard to scoot. He places his head on the floor and uses it to hold himself as he gets his legs bent up under him. Then he straightens his legs does kind of an awkward side-scoot. He'll then look at me like, "It's not quite working, mom!"
Landon is definitely my busiest baby. He's always moving around. He's never liked to sit, so he mostly stands when you hold him. Well, he doesn't really stand, he jumps and kicks and moves all over the place.
He loves playing with my hair. He runs it through his fingers like it's the prettiest thing he's ever seen.
Landon does not like to be put down. He'll be good for about 5-10 mins and then he's whining to be picked up again. He is such a pleasant little soul, but he likes to be held!
Landon loves grass. We took him out on the lawn to see how he'd react, and he was bent in half trying to get as close to the grass as he could.
Getting older
When Landon turned 6 months old (a few days ago), I thought I'd set him on the floor to see how close he was to sitting. Since he's always hated sitting, as in you could never get him to sit, I figured he'd be no where near sitting. Well, to my surprise, at 6 months old, Landon is kind of sitting! Hah. He's still tipsy, but he can sit on his on for a bit...a very short bit. I was very surprised.
Another surprise came in the form of a tooth. Both Josh and Carter got their first tooth at 8 months, but after gnawing hard on everything he could get he mouth around, I found Landon's bottom right tooth poking through! His little left bottom tooth is almost here as well. I felt a bit bad that his dentist dad couldn't be here to see it, but Landon will be super cute for Ryan when we get to Oklahoma.
I was thinking of how proactive Ryan is in helping our kids with crawling and the like, so I helped Landon scoot a bit today. He picked it up pretty quickly, so I'm thinking we'll soon have an army crawler on our hands. How fitting...
Lastly, I was sitting on the lawn with Landon today, and he was obsessed with the grass. He kept bending over to run it through his hands and grab at it. He got his face right in it. It was so funny to me, because Joshua absolutely hated the grass and would move as much of his body away from it as he could.
Love my boys.
Whoa
Man oh man. This little guy has grown! In my defense, I haven't been able to contribute to this blog...but Ryan fixed that, so here we are.
A few things I love about this almost six month old:
-He is so pleasant. There are times I'll come to check on him in his play pen (we're at Grandma's right now), and his head will be awkwardly pushed up against the netting, but he's not making a peep...until he sees me, then he starts cooing. He doesn't cry much. He'll start talking a lot and bouncing all over the place when he gets tired, but if he's crying, you know he's upset!
-He won't sit down. I think it might be in part to having a sensitive tummy (he had a rough few months with nursing, luckily those are over), but he will not sit. He'll stand in your lap and arch his back if you try to sit him down.
-He laughs so easily. He has a smile that lights up his whole face, and you can just look at him funny, and it will get him going. He gets especially giggly when it gets to be too late at night.
-He's bald. He is bald and has a round little face. He looks just like a Cabbage Patch doll.
-He bites down with his gums and makes a funny little face. He also likes to bite fingers or anything he can get in his mouth...sometimes I'll find him biting his blanket like a dog.
-He loves to watch me eat food. In fact it's almost painful to watch him because he looks so longingly at my food. He doesn't love baby food though. He takes a while to eat it, especially the fruit, which I find quite funny--who likes their vegies more than fruit?
-He's much more patient. He used to hate being put down (but I love holding him!) and he hated his car seat, but he's grown much more patient and can lay on his play mat for at least 10 mins with out fussing (it's actually pretty awesome believe it or not). He also has overcome his angst in the car seat.
We love this beautiful little guy!
Smiling
It's official. After numerous days of Katie telling me she 'thinks' Landon is starting to smile, he actually started doing it!