A funny thing I left out: Landon has recently started covering his ears when we tell him 'no' or get mad at him for something. It is quite funny. He doesn't do it with a defiant look on his face, but rather like an 'oh no!' kind of response. Wish I had a picture or video to include of this one...
In the past couple of months Landon has become much more attached to his loveys, or as he just started calling them, "babies". These are his blanket and an elephant pillow. He likes to drag them out of bed with him, and wants to lay his head down on them when he is sleepy.
Lots and lots of words and short 2-3 word phrases being repeated or said on his own...
Oh no!
Cool
Let's go!
Twooo, GO! (Trying to count 1-2-3 Go. The only number he can say so far is "2")
On shoulders (when he wants up on daddy's shoulders)
Unnt dat! (I want that)
Right there
The bike
Hat
Han (hand)
Nooo (nose)
Eye
Poon (spoon)
Coffee (pointing at mommy's)
Bubble (used for referring to bubbles, and 'buckle', on his booster seat and his carseat, which he now proudly buckles by himself)
Bye bye ________! (fill in names, boo-boo (bomberos - firetruck), choo choo (trains when we see them), etc
Fresa (strawberry - an improvement from last month's pronunciation)
Ba (Caballo - horse)
Cu-chada (Cuchara - spoon)
So we decided that with all of Landon's climbing out of the crib it was time to convert to the toddler bed, which we did a few days after getting home from SoCal. Landon was pretty excited about his new bed and for a week or two afterward would point to it often and say "bed". Here he is below on the day we made the switch. He is doing pretty well, doesn't always want to lay down when its time to sleep (because of course its more fun to keep playing) but he will usually go to sleep quickly and can now get himself back into bed if he gets out. :)
Thought I'd try some of the colored bubbles. It warns you on the bottle that it is "Messy Fun", and boy are they right. These were yellow so not so visible in the picture, but he was covered and had to take a bath after playing!
Saying 'cheese' for the camera after 'bathing' himself in the sprinklers on recent evening.
We have had this balance bike since June, but Landon just began to take an interest in it and is quite proud that he can get on and off and walk around on it by himself
Last weekend we took a road trip to Southern California to visit my brothers, sisters-in-law, nephew Deacon, and our new niece, Delanie! She was born the day after Caleb, on July 9, so it will be easy to remember her birthday. She is such a sweet and mellow little thing and it was fun getting to love on her. :-) And all in our family agree she looks quite a bit like our Grandma Joyce (our dad's mom)!
Playing games at Chuck E. Cheese's. The one in Costa Mesa is new and much brighter and cheerier than what I remember of the one we went to in Stockton a time or two as kids. Landon wandered sleepily around checking things out, but not so interested in actually playing any of them. Caleb had a lot of fun though, and most enjoyed the water squirting gun and shooting hoops into the basket.
Loads of fun and toys at Uncle David (or D-D, as Landon was told to call David after referring to both boys as "Joe-Joe". Guess he can't tell David and Joey apart just yet :)) and Aunt Dana's house. They have a big backyard and live right next to John Wayne Airport so the boys loved it every time an airplane roared overhead as they took off throughout the day.
Video of Mommy driving Caleb in the Escalade:
Video - Deacon and Landon playing ball:
The first day there we put Landon into a pack-n-play for his nap. Two minutes later we see him walking around the upstairs hallway. He had climbed out. So David kindly offered to lower Delanie's crib for us, and we attempted to put him to sleep in the normal crib. Couple of minutes later, same story.... Landon out of the crib and wandering around! We had a heck of a time keeping him in there over the weekend, and to our discontent, he immediately did the same when we got back home to Lodi. He has spent this whole week climbing out of his crib moments after we put him in there, only to end up falling asleep on the floor with his blanket as a pillow and we then have to transfer him into his crib once he is asleep. Looks like we have little choice but to enter a new phase with this little escapee... Converting crib to a toddler bed tomorrow, not even so much for the safety part (though accidents can always happen, he is such a good climber I'm not even that concerned with him falling...) but more because he will at least have the ability to climb back in by himself. Hopefully soon with his door locked he'll get the idea that it isn't so interesting to climb out of his bed...
The boys had a blast running up and down the "hill" in their backyard (its so subtle that Joey and Lindsey hadn't even ever considered that they have a declining grass area, but the boys could feel that they were running up and down on it). When they weren't running in the backyard they were busy chasing Stella and Maverick around, the two little dogs J & L have. The boys absolutely loved them!
PB&J for breakfast at Uncle Joey (Joe-Joe, as Landon calls him) and Aunt Lindsey's new house.
Video:
On Saturday we went to the Orange County Fair, which is right next to Joey and Lindsey's new house. The kids had fun petting the animals, seeing a 3-ton Bull, eating fair food (grilled cheese food truck, foot-long corndog, popcorn, and a sno-cone). We only ended up riding the carousel, but the kids still had a fun time.
Next to some THREE TON bulls. They were huge!
Caleb keeping the blue snow-cone to himself, for the moment (thought you can tell by Landon's lips that he had his fair share, too!)
Blue monster, Yikes!
We were able to meet up with our friends Mike and Kristy, and their boys Michael (3) and Thomas (2) at the fair. The boys had fun running around the picnic area and eating snow-cones together.
An attempt to get a shot of all four boys. Who were we kidding??!
Deacon was so excited to have two playmates in the tub with him! The boys splashed and scream with excitement!
On the drive home we stopped at the In-N-Out at the North end of the Grapevine. It was insanely busy. I have never been at a restaurant when there were FORTY orders ahead of ours. We were number 132. They were on 92 when we ordered. In one attempt to keep tired, hungry boys happy, I gave Caleb these cheesy shades that we got from the fair, and here is what he did with them. At least it passed a minute or two and kept them from trying to get down and run around!
The boys are at a really sweet age where they are starting to show a lot of affection toward one another, and Caleb has started being a bit more protective over Landon at times. One morning recently I was trying to comfort Landon while he was crying, and I had my arms around him. Caleb walked over to us and said "Its ok Landon, you don't have to cry. Do you want me to love on you? Come here... Mommy, can you let go of Landon so I can hold him please?" I wanted to laugh at how grown up he sounded saying all that to me! It was very sweet.
Then the other day, I was holding Caleb as he was crying about something, and Landon, who had just woken from a long nap and was in a great mood, kept walking over to Caleb and patting his back saying "K... K..." with a big smile on his face. I'm pretty sure he was trying to tell Caleb, "Its ok." :-)
Here are some other hi-lights from the month of July...
Caleb was having fun playing with some boys at the park. The one on the right was 6 so he was leading the show, then asked Caleb what game he wanted to play. Caleb doesn't really know very many games yet, so he said "Ring around the Rosie." Of course the six year old wasn't so into that idea. He decided they should play a dinosaur game, and Landon wanted in on the fun and roared, too.
We recently got a sandbox in the backyard. Its messy, but fun for the boys who always want to drive their tractors in things.
This year was the first time I attempted making a birthday cake for Caleb. I realized that I think it was my first time making a cake - ever - and the design I wanted to do wasn't the simplest for a beginner, but it turned out pretty well I guess.
The theme was firetrucks and Elmo, so the cake was supposed to look like fire. I didn't do the color blend layers because I was trying not to complicate things, but after the fact I realized it would have looked more like fire and less like a rainbow. :P Oh well. Next time maybe.
We talked to a friend who pulled some strings and dropped by the house for a visit in the fire engine. We thought Caleb would be totally into it since he and Landon LOVE fire trucks. Turns out they were both a bit overwhelmed...
Playing construction with his new remote control crane (gotta have our hard hat, too!)
Fun with the slip-n-slide
Hat and goggles by Caleb's request...
Landon loves to put his mouth on water anywhere and try to blow bubbles. We even caught him once doing it in the gutter, gross!!
Peeking through the gate at the boys having fun at Nana Gigi's recently. She made them a bean bag toss and a puppet theater. The featured show at her theater was about manners, and when the puppets asked if he knew what 'manners' are (a word we haven't used a lot yet at home, though we are teaching them), Caleb answered "listening." Way to go buddy, good answer!
Caleb and Landon having turns running the puppet show...
An unexpected swimming day at Lodi Lake was messy but fun! Notice Landon laying down again, and of course trying to blow bubbles in the yucky water...
Boys vs Girls: Full of Sand / Totally Clean
Finger and body painting. Landon and Claire weren't so into it, but Caleb and Jake had a blast! Guess that's why they save these things for the preschool aged kids instead of the younger ones... :) This was still fairly early in the process... boys ended up much dirtier from the paint and then washed it all off with the slip-n-slide!
After 15 months that Jimmy has been working at his job in Lafayette, I finally got to meet his boss and all of his co-workers. The company picnic was at a reservoir in Lafayette, wonderful catered food, lots of family-friendly activities to participate in (water balloons in a giant sling shot, baseball, rings and cones, face painting, and bingo), and it was so nice to get to put faces with all the names I have been hearing about for so long. There are a lot of kids between everyone, as you can see below. Caleb made friends quickly with the young girl, Ava, who is holding Landon - cute with long brown hair, just as he usually gravitates toward. We had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to know his co-workers more at future events.
Video of Caleb and similarly aged kids doing a gunny sack race. This was hilarious - Caleb hasn't done anything like this before, so all the kids hopped across the stretch of grass to the finish line, then Caleb stopped literally with his toes touching the back side of the line, and didn't move any further. "I'm tired Daddy!", he said. Meanwhile Jimmy (a very competitive person) is saying "Caleb, just jump over the line, cross the line!!" It was so funny. Caleb didn't understand, and as you can see in the video, with a little help, he eventually made it across:
Video of Caleb and kids doing the Egg on a Spoon race:
Tasting fresh Coconut water (is that what its called??)...
Daddy set up our new tent in the backyard, just for fun. The boys thought it was the coolest space ever and had lots of fun running around inside it.
This zucchini was found growing straight up into the center of the plant where we didn't see it. It worked well to make some zucchini lasagna, yum!
