51 Weeks!

The little dude is 51 weeks old! We had his birthday party this past weekend, which means he is getting EXTRA close to be a year old. I haven't really put much thought into what I will do after we get through 52 weeks?  I will most likely continue posting, but just not count the weeks? Or maybe I will?  I still plan on taking monthly pictures and using little wooden blocks to count.  That idea probably sounds better in my head....because who am I kidding, Landon won't leave those wooden blocks alone for me to take pictures! I can barely get him to sit still to take a picture, let alone put something so enticing in front of him to wan to grab!

Our week has been pretty good so far.  We spent the first few days cleaning up and winding down from birthday party madness.  It took me a few days to take all the decorations down.  We still have the streamers up in the kitchen.  I figure I will leave those up until his real birthday since it is just Landon and I at the house for a bit!

Landon's birthday party was on Saturday, January 26th at 3:30-whenever. We had three families come, one that we invited wasn't able to come since they were on block leave in England.  That was too bad since Wyatt is just a week older than Landon and they are great friends! We spent the first hour or so socializing and watching the kiddos play.  There was a 9, 8, 5, 18 month and almost 1 year old at his party! They all found things to play with.  Landon mostly just crawled back and forth between the living room and kitchen to make sure we were all still 100% focused on him.  Occasionally, he would come through and entertain us with his clapping, booms, or attempts at walking! He LOVES attention.  We sang him happy birthday and let him have his first cupcake with a 1st birthday candle.  He clearly didn't blow it out, but he did seem rather mesmerized by the flame! After watching him eat, I cut his big monster cake! It had three layers: orange, green, and blue cake with butter cream frosting in between and then butter cream frosting on the outside that I colored blue!  I am pretty impressed with his cake since I have never made a cake like that before! I am still eating his cake all by myself...I may gain 20 lbs before it is all gone!  We didn't open gifts at the party, but Landon got some great gifts.  He got an activity table, a new monster blanket, a Pottery Barn anywhere chair from my parents, a Elephant that blows balls in the air, a few clothes, other little toys, and books! Overall we had a great party and I am so happy it turned out so well! 

Landon's Monster Bash!

Monster blanket!

We have just been getting back to our usual routine this week.  Logan is gone for a month, so L and I are trying to get back into our usual routine now that we are done traveling.  We went back to music this week.  Landon really does enjoy that class.  It has been fun watching all the babies in his class grow and develop over the last 5 months! We have so many January/February babies in that class, that they are all very close to walking! It will be a crazy class here in a few months with all the new walkers and crawlers.  Landon finally claps in class when Mrs. C asks him too and we are still working on waving!

Landon learns something new and fun every week.  This week he has learned roll them, for the part in Patty cake.  He still does so big! He claps for everything he does.  He still doesn't technically wave, but will put his arm up in the general direction of the person.  We call it his Hitler wave, which is rather funny now-but won't be so much in the future ha ha.  He is getting close to pointing, but again just puts his hand in the general direction.  I feel real pointing will be coming along soon.  He is getting SO CLOSE to walking.   He will take 4-5 unassisted steps and then crash into whatever he is aiming for....usually Rusty.  He has awful balance, so I suspect until he learns to stand alone, we won't be making much progress in walking any further! He is currently obsessed with a Baby Einstein video that Rere gave him for Christmas.  We have to watch it EVERY DAY, which is good because it gives me a few minutes of time to get things done while he is awake!

His separation anxiety is getting a bit better.   He will go to almost anyone as long as he isn't already upset or tired.  He also does better when I leave the room for a few minutes. He was very comfortable with Logan before he left, so I hope we don't lose all the progress we made with him since he will be gone so much in the coming months. 

Finally, here are just a few pictures from the week!

Until next week! =)

50 Weeks!

Hola everyone! See that is about the only bit of Spanish I spoke and understood in Costa Rica!!  We are clearly back state side after a fabulous whirlwind of a vacation!

Landon is now a world travler.  He did amazing on all the flights, considering both traveling days were well over 12 hours.  When we got in to Costa Rica we had to go buy a car seat at Walmart since the one the rental company tried to give us was a giant safety hazard.  I think he would have been better off riding just with a seat belt in the car! We ended up buying one of two infant car seats in the store and at the end of the trip donated it to the rental car company! I hope some family will be able to use it if they choose to rent a car from that company.  After all those escapades we got to the resort around 10 pm only to find out we didn't have a crib! The owner of the property rental company came over with food, beer, and vodka and called the manager to find us a pack n play! So we finally got Landon to bed around 11:45!

On Friday I woke up super early and headed out for a morning of bachelorette activities with the girls and horseback riding! We rode up a steep mountain for about an hour.  The horses were slipping and galloping...I held on for dear life! We finally reached a point where we had to get off and walk down to a waterfall.  We were able to swim in the pools and go down the rock slide.  We also played some bachelorette party games and even had a Costa Rican Rum! We the rode back to the stables and headed back to the resort.  It was a fun day!

Heading out!

Bridal party!

This is my super stubborn horse WALTER!

Rock slide!

Saturday was a fun day of zip lining and rehearsal activities.  My parents had Landon the majority of this day with the exception of mid day.  He was a hit at the rehearsal dinner.  He flirted with all the girls and gave high fives to all the guys! He is a social little dude. 

Zip lining! So much fun!!

Sunset at the rehearsal!

Sunday was an all day wedding festivities! I got my hair done around 12 and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing pictures, getting dressed, and hanging out with the girls.  The wedding started around 4:30.  My Mom had Landon off to the side during the ceremony since everyone was directly in the sun.  I had a perfect view of them was was sweet to watch!  The ceremony was nice and short and then we had more pictures with the sunset! The reception was inside and was beautiful as well! It was a wonderful wedding and a great way to spend time with friends!

The beautiful bride!

At the reception!

Eating his own ice cream they brought him ha ha!

Monday we made the long drive down to Manuel Antonio National Park where we had planned on seeing monkeys, parrots, etc.   Come to find out the national park is closed on Mondays! Instead we ended up across the street at a picture perfect white sand beach. Landon LOVED the beach.  He loved splashing in the water, sitting in the waves, and crawling along the beach.  I tried hard to not let him eat the sand, but that was a losing battle.  He did learn how to make a funny face every time he tried to eat the sand since his Gigi would make a similar one and say yuck when he tried to eat the sand. 

The yuck face...he does this now while eating all the time!

Happy boy after the beach!

On Tuesday we headed back to the airport to head home! We had a delay coming out of San Jose, but we made our connecting flight to land in Richmond around 11 pm! We got home at 12 AM and were so happy to be able to be back in our own beds and see Logan! We missed him and wished he could have been in Costa Rica with us!

Until next week!

49 Weeks!

We are in Costa Rica this week, so no big update post! 

Until next week =) 

48 Weeks!

This sweet boy is 48 weeks and that means he turned 11 months old yesterday.  He changes so quickly, I am thankful I have this blog to look back over every week to see what he learns or how he acts each week!

We got back SUPER early Saturday morning due to a plane delay coming out of Denver.  Landon did decently on our flight back.  He was overly tired so it took him a while to settle, but once he did he slept for about 1 hour and 45 minutes of the flight and through landing again!  When we had to get off the plane, he woke up and was in a fine mood.  He even felt like doing his "so big" moves in the airport at 12:30 AM! I can only hope he behaves as well on our flights coming up next week!

The past week has just been us getting adjusted back to this time zone and getting back into somewhat of a routine.  We leave in one week for our trip to Costa Rica, so our routine is still a bit loose since we will just be off of it again soon.   We went back to music this week, had a play date, went on our walk, and had coffee with some friends. We are avoiding super crowded places since the flu and RSV are awful in this area right now.  I am so sick of both of us being sick, so I am keeping somewhat secluded for the rest of the cold/flu season.

 In addition to all of that, I have been knee deep in birthday party planning/supply making.  I somehow have even talked myself into make his birthday cake.  If all else fails, I will grab cupcakes from the store!  I sent out Landon's birthday invites on Monday.  Family should be getting them this week =).  I have been busy making things from pinterest as well!  His first birthday outfit arrived this week as well!  I  am excited, but stressed that it is all happening so quickly!

Landon's upstairs bathroom got a bit of a make over since Rere got him some great bath toys for Christmas.  I had a fish themed bathroom growing up and all through college.  So I saved all of those items for when we had kids!  I put them up this week and they are really fun! Perfect little boy bathroom! 

We are in the midst of getting two more teeth for Landon.  The two top teeth on the sides of his two top front teeth are coming in.  It has made for a similarly behaved baby as at Christmas time with lots of fussing and whining.  I wish he liked chew toys more instead of having to be given Tylenol or Motrin, but I guess it is better than him being in pain! Hoping they come through in the next week and the poor boy gets a break from teeth while we are in Costa Rica.

Rusty still dislikes Landon, but just in the past few days Landon has learned to gently pet him and share Rusty's toy's with Rusty! Hopefully this means Rusty will slowly come around.  He seems rather depressed to be back with us.  Poor guy-I just keep telling him in a few months Landon and him will be best friends!

Like I said, Landon turned 11 months old yesterday! He is such a challenge to get to sit still, these monthly pictures are so difficult to take!  This weekend it is supposed to be close to 70 and I am enlisting Logan's help to go out and take pictures of Landon at Colonial Williamsburg.  Hopefully we get a few good shots.  Here are some from our photos yesterday.

 

Landon has turned into a dare devil.  The kid has no fear.  He stands and tries to walk, but usually just face plants after 2 steps.  He stands up on chairs and tries to dive head first off if we aren't paying close attention.  His new thing is trying to stand up in the bath.  He is definitely going to push the limits on what we allow him to do!  

 
Even with severe separation anxiety and a bit of stranger anxiety, he was back to his old tactics of catching peoples attention at the store and awwwing them with his "so big" skills and clapping at Walmart and breakfast the other day.  He had two older ladies wrapped around his finger within minutes of getting in the restaurant.  He is a regular old flirt!

Finally, here is just a few pictures we took last week at Nana's house that I didn't get to post last week!

Until next week =)