Look Who's Talking

When I took Landon to the doctor a couple of weeks ago on his 8 month birthday, one of the developmental questions the nurse asked was, "Is he babbling?"

I asked her to define that.

She said, "Is he saying any syllables?"

I once again asked her to define that (I had a feeling that dinosaur growls didn't count as syllables, but I wanted to just be sure.)

She said, "Does he say like, 'Ba Ba' or 'Da Da' etc.?"

"No. No babbling yet. Just lots of squealing and growling."

Well not anymore!!!

Landon has officially reached the developmental milestone of "Babbling" also known as "Baby Talk"

Sunday evening Kyle, Landon and I were all sitting on the loveseat together half playing, half watching Over The Hedge on the laptop, and all of a sudden it was like it just clicked in Landon's mind, and he just started "talking." 

Of course, the first syllable had to be "Da Da" and not "Ma Ma."  Boo.

Last night we were meeting some people for dinner about 45 minutes away so we left early and did a little shopping. As he was riding around in his stroller he was just talking up a storm the whole time. He got all sorts of smiles from passers by. I have a feeling that now that he's discovered he can talk, there will be very little silence :)

Packing Part 1

This weekend Kyle & I made it our goal to start packing for India (seeing as we leave ONE WEEK from today, we thought it would be a good idea to start). Yesterday we made massive shopping trips to both Target and Wal-Mart, and then after Landon went to bed we started working on packing. Specifically, we packed Landon's food.

175 jars of baby food, 4 boxes of cereal, 9 packs of Puffs + other snacks

Yes, that massive pile is all of Landon's food for the summer. Well, most of it; I actually went and bought a few more snack foods today.

The fun began when we tried to arrange his food in the suitcase. Make that suitcases. After 5 rounds of packing, unpacking, rearranging, and weighing the first suitcase (which can only weigh 50 lbs) we realized that all of his food would NOT fit in one suitcase. We have overflow.

The suitcase on the left is the first suitcase we packed. It's 100% full, weighing in at 48.5 lbs (we left 1.5 lbs of leeway in case our $11 Wal-Mart scale is less accurate than the airport scales). We get 4 checked suitcases total (Kyle and I get to check 2 apiece, and Landon gets 1, but we're taking one suitcase over for the long term team, so we actually get 4 for us.) So of our 4, Landon is already taking up one and a half with his food; we're hoping that all of his clothes and toys etc. will fit in the half full suitcase. 

But then there's the pack & play. 

His bed for the summer takes up half of another suitcase. That leaves a grand total of one and a half suitcases of space for Kyle & my stuff. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our kids.

Our shopping adventure was made extra special for us by Landon. He happily rode in his grocery cart covered seat for the most part, but I bribed him with a snack to keep him extra happy. Remember when I told you about the new snacks Landon has been trying out? Last night I decided to let him try the teething biscuits because I figured they would last longer than the rice husks. My plan was to give him one at Target and then one at Wal-Mart. We wound up only giving him the first one because oh.my.goodness.MESS! Moms, if you've never given your baby a teething biscuit, DON'T. He was covered, his seat cover was covered, I think most of Target was covered in the mess. He thought it was delicious. In my frenzy to clean him up after it was gone I didn't even take a picture of him, but here was the aftermath on his cart cover:

It went promptly in the washing machine today.

Good thing we love this cute little boy!

Decked out in his new sunglasses & hat for the trip. Hat = way too big, even though it was the smallest size. Why can't they make hats small enough for babies?

Happy Snacker

Landon has been especially happy over a new development in his life.

When I realized that India is VERY close (only 10 days away! That's almost a single digit number) I realized that our very long flights are also very close. Then I realized that as much as Landon loooooves eating the little Puffs, that there's no way that Puffs alone are going to keep him occupied for 17 hours on a plane (not including layovers either). So I decided that I needed to increase Landon's snack food repertoire. He whole heartedly agreed.

So off we went to the store a couple days ago, Landon happily riding in the cart with his new seat cover:

So happy looking around he wouldn't even look at the camera

We spent way longer than is ever necessary standing in the baby food aisle at Wal-Mart as I weighed out the snack options for his age. We came home with these:

Well, he already had the Puffs. But we got the Baby Mum-Mum rice husks and the Gerber Graduates Lil' Crunchers (think Cheetos for babies) and then last night we picked up the teething biscuits at Target. Technically the teething biscuits say they're only for babies 9 months and older, but I'm contemplating just giving him one to try anyway. In my mind they would take longer for him to eat than any of his other snacks. Maybe I'll wait a few days.

He tried the rice husks first; in fact I gave him one on our drive home from Wal-Mart. Verdict: Winner! He likes the rice husks, not that anyone is surprised.

He has also tried the Lil' Crunchies and thinks those are splendid. Thankfully they dissolve pretty well because he likes to stuff the whole thing in his mouth.

All in all, Landon thinks this is a great new chapter in his life: SNACKS!

Any suggestions of other great snacks for Landon to try?

To Make You Smile

On Saturday Landon was in a super happy mood and flapping his arms like crazy, so Kyle was trying to get a video of it like this:

But as he kept recording new clips, we wound up with this:

If that doesn't make you smile, then I don't know what will!

Happy Monday!

Magic Eight!

You got it, Landon is EIGHT months old today!!

I'm not quite sure how this happened...how could eight months have flown by already? His one year birthday is very close on the horizon.

Our little eight month old is showing more and more signs of mischievousness. When he's laying in his crib, he likes to take the pacifier out of his mouth and scrape it along the sides of his crib. It reminds me of old cartoons when a prisoner would run their tin cup along the jail bars to be noisy. When he's feeling especially mischievous he drops the pacifier through the bars so Mom has to come pick it up from the floor.

Who Me? Just look at that ornery face!

Landon continues to love food and is an excellent eater. He thinks he was just made for solid foods! He's not quite crawling yet, but he can push himself in a full circle laying on his tummy to play with different toys. He just needs to channel that energy in the forward direction! I think it's finally dawning on him for the first time that crawling is a possibility - he's trying a little bit!

Nearly crawling off the edge of the couch!

Because we'll be in India when Landon turns 9 months old, we went this morning to the doctor for his 9 month checkup a month early. He had a clean bill of health, as usual, minus one very peculiar thing...Landon has LOST weight since his 6 months appt. At 6 months he was 18 lbs. 6 oz, and this morning he was only 18 lbs. 3 oz. He had only grown about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch lengthwise as well. Given how much this boy likes to eat, I was really shocked! The doctor didn't seem overly concerned though; she just recommended increasing the amount of solid foods he's eating (I think Landon bribed her to say this), as well as offering him some formula after he nurses to see if he still acts hungry. We're supposed to go back in a few days before we leave just to get his weight checked to make sure he hasn't lost any more weight. Perhaps this explains why he has been waking up at night to eat again!

Turning into my skinny boy!

Our little eight month old still loves his vocal chords. He's constantly squealing, growling, squeaking, yelling, anything involving noise coming out of his mouth (no "Ma Ma" yet though). This is the newest sound he started making just yesterday - it's so funny! I was able to catch a little bit at the first part of this video:

Not quite sure what that sound is supposed to be, but I sure think it's hilarious.

Happy Eight Month Birthday My Sweet Boy!!

Where's Landon?

Landon's new favorite game! He's figured out how to pull down the cover, and he's just delighted by his new skill. New discoveries are so exciting!

Speaking of new discoveries, here are a couple more!

Sitting in the high chair at a restaurant for the first time!! He thought it was a huge improvement over being stuck in his car seat. Not to mention it's a much better vantage point for eating Puffs.

Playing in the grass for the first time. He's put his feet on the grass before, but this was his first time to lay down and try to eat play with the grass. He was very confused why the blades of grass stayed put even when he pulled on them (thankfully his grip isn't good enough to actually pull them off yet!)

How cute are those toes?? (and thick, fat feet!)

Our first family picture since FEBRUARY! Mom needs to discover consistent family picture taking, apparently.

Puzzled

First of all, I apologize that it's been a week since my last post. I've heard some grumbling about the lack of posts, so sorry for being lazy on the blogging!

Now that Landon can sit up by himself, he is really starting to play a lot more, which is so fun. One of his favorite toys to play with is the puzzle he got for Easter from Aunt Mandy. You might remember Alycen showing him how to do the puzzle. Well, Landon has decided on his own way to play with the puzzle. He pulls out all of the pieces of the puzzle one by one, chews on the handles, and then waits for me to put the pieces back in their proper places. Repeat! He'll play with the puzzle for hours several minutes at a time (which is like hours in Landon time). Here's a demo:

Recently he has started banging the pieces back on the puzzle. We like to think he's trying to put them back in their places because he's a genius almost 8 month old.

The funniest thing is when he has a puzzle piece in each hand and tries to chew on BOTH pieces at the same time. So far, it hasn't worked yet. But that doesn't stop him from trying! Stubborn? Maybe just determined :)

Thanks for the great toy Aunt Mandy!

The day I became a mother...

One of the greatest days of my life.

Thank you, Mama, for showing me and teaching me how to be a godly mother, who loves her children selflessly and shows them what it means to love Jesus. I'm so grateful for you! 

I love you!

Happy Mother's Day!

Can't Handle the Cuteness

Sometimes Kyle and I look at Landon, then look at each other and say, "I can't even handle how cute he is!"

All our prayers for a cute baby were answered, ha!

Looking out the window. Probably wishing he was outside!

Taken just this morning!

Does it get any cuter than this?

Landon has blessed our lives in so many ways. It's probably one of the laws of parenthood that after just a few short months, you can't imagine life without your baby. I sure can't. Being a mom has been one of the greatest things I could ever imagine. All my life when I was little I just wanted to grow up to be "the mudder" (or so I'm told by my mom and grandma and aunts). For Halloween I used to dress up as a mom for my costume. (Which was probably great for my mom, because then all I had to do was put on a dress and carry a baby around. No fancy costumes for this girl!) And actually BEING a mom is even better than I ever imagined it! It is nothing short of a pure gift from God.

Loving it so much makes me extra mindful of all those women who are experiencing heartache this Mother's Day. I'll be praying for them. 

On a funny note, here's a video to prove Landon's progress on eating the Puffs:

Yes, he really does make that "Mmmm!" sound every time he eats. anything. always. I told you this boy likes food. In addition to the Puffs, he's been able to "chew" some tiny bites of banana as well. What eating talent!

Sorry for the poor quality of photo, but how could I not post this cuteness?!! The picture is waaay zoomed in from a big group picture, which is why it's so grainy. Talk about a happy face! (from Landon and Dad!)

We Made It

We officially survived our time at staff training!

At the hotel on Monday!

It really wasn't as bad as I had psyched myself out for it to be. I still got to see Landon several hours each day, the childcare room was fine, all the babysitters loved him (no surprise there) so he wasn't lacking for attention at all, they sent me text messages anytime he was ready to eat (or I just went up to check). He even napped decently in the room considering that there were other babies sometimes crying in the room. Aside from the fact that he slept *terribly* at night every night, it was an all around successful trip!

Thinks it's funny he refused to sleep

We took our smaller stroller & used it for the first time. It was perfect wheeling him all around the hotel. He liked it!

I also bought the pacifier tie thing in the above picture specifically for the trip - didn't want him losing that thing (or having it borrowed by another baby)!

Thank goodness he learned to eat Puffs before we left - they turned out to be a HUGE lifesaver in the car. And I think the babysitters fed him a few a LOT of them if he would start getting crabby. Good thing a serving size is 90 puffs! And only 25 calories! They're the perfect solution to distract him from being hungry/tired/generally upset. In fact, he's eating them right now as I type as I'm trying to keep him awake for another 15 or 30 minutes. Here's a video of him the 2nd or 3rd day of him trying to eat Puffs:

How hilarious is that? He's much more adept at feeding himself now, but it sure was funny to watch him try at first. He would eventually get mad that he couldn't get it in his mouth and just whine till we would just put one in his mouth. Yes, he has us wrapped around his little finger. Can you blame really us with that smile?