68 Weeks!

We have had a good week around here.  We have been busy spending all of our  time outside enjoying the hot weather before it gets SOO hot we can't go outside.  Landon LOVES to be outside and would stay out all day long if I let him.  He does complain if he gets super hot.  He tends to get pretty rosey cheeked if we stay out too long, so I use that as a gauge of when we need to head inside. 

Landon finally got a referral to the eye Dr. for his nasty eye.  I got a call yesterday from the on post clinic saying he was referred off post for a Dr. which means we will see a civilian Dr.;  I imagine specializes in toddlers...at least that is my hope.  We need to wait 7-10 days until the letter comes in the mail telling us which Dr. we can see and then hopefully schedule an appointment.  His eye was looking great a few days last weekend and now it is worse than it has ever been.  I feel so bad for him having to wipe it and put medicine on it constantly. I am really hoping we can get some answers at the new Dr.!

Logan is getting ready to leave again for a while this weekend.  SO we will be spending several days with him soaking up our remaining time with him! We are getting a baby sitter tonight so we can meet up with another couple in New Town for a while.  We are also going to be celebrating Father's Day this weekend since Logan will be gone! 

I am going to post ALOT of pictures! I don't have much to say this week clearly =).

Running around the fields at the WISC

Water table playing-his favorite activity outside

I bought him a watering can so he can help me water plants this summer!

Teething baby has 3 new teeth in the last 3 weeks!

Watching his DVD with Daddy on the couch like a big boy

The moon coming up over the James River at Logan's graduation party last week

The Marina in a neighborhood on the James River where one of the pilots lives...would be nice to be this wealthy right??

Landon playing on the beach at the graduation party

Working on learning how to slide!

Until next week =).

New Home: Week 7

The only exciting news this week to report is we officially flipped our contract to non-contingent now that Logan has graduated from his class! So now we have more waiting for about 4-6 weeks while our blue prints are made and reviewed by James City County. After this we will finally get a pre-construction meeting and a dry wall meeting at some point after that. So more waiting, but we are one step closer to actually getting the building process going!

The room this week that I wanted to focus on is the mudroom.  We have a mudroom that comes off the garage and is a pretty decent size.  In that area we will have enough room for a bench and it also has a coat closet.  I have visions of having this nice bench with storage, little hooks for coats/other items and it being a great place for Landon to keep his backpack, etc!

Here are the inspiration pictures:

I really like this shelf/hooks.  I am going to aim to find something like this for the mudroom.

I also like the idea of storage above the hooks.

I think it will be great to have baskets that sit under the bench for more storage for gloves, shoes, outside toys, etc. I do however, want a more comfortable seat and NO pillows. 

Until next week!

67 Weeks!

The little man is 67 weeks today.  It is starting to seem odd counting in weeks.  It has been a good week.  We haven't been as busy as we usually are with all of our Landon and Mommy activities, but that is with good reason; Logan is FINALLY home....well at least for a bit =). 

We have been making sure to spend alot of time with him since he will be leaving soon again for a month.  We have been spending alot of time playing, going to parks, walks, exploring outside, and the pool.  It has been hard having him gone so much this past year.  Each time he comes home we basically have to become reacquainted with how to be a family again.  Landon is transitioning beautifully.  He LOVES his Dada as he calls Logan.   For the first time this week, Landon referred to Logan as Dada while getting his diaper changed.  I heard an excited yell from upstairs that says, "I THINK HE JUST CALLED ME DADA!!"  Now, every time Logan is around all we here are lots of Dadas! He now knows that when Rusty gets excited that it is usually Logan coming home from work, so he runs around looking for Dada until he comes through the door.  It is pretty darn cute! Logan has also been helping alot with bed time routine and baths.  We do bath time as a family and we sing and read books to Landon during bath.  Logan then usually spends 10 minutes chasing Landon around after getting in pajamas, which of course gets Landon all wound back up, but I would venture to say it is both their favorite time of day playing with each other.   Before I nurse Landon, Logan spends several minutes saying good night to Landon and playing peek-a-boo at the door.  Landon will wave bye bye to him and blow him kisses before it is time to nurse and go into his crib.  I am happy to see that even with Logan being gone frequently Landon and Logan can pick up pretty much where they left off from the time before.

Landon's newest game is acting like a dog.  After we put him down from his highchair, he now crawls around on the ground eating the food that he dropped and fake barking like Rusty. Pretty cute.  I need to try to get this on video.  Landon also refers to Rusty as Ra ra.  He thinks Rusty is his and much to Rusty's dismay wants to touch and play with him all day long if we are inside.  I have also found that if I say where is Rusty or go pet Rusty he will stop what he is doing and go find Rusty-a great way to redirect if we are outside and he is running off in the wrong direction!

Landon's words are just coming right along!  In the last week he has learned two new signs-milk and up.  He can say bye bye, Dada, Mama, nana (banana and Nana), gee gee (Gigi)  Rara (Rusty), Wababa (waffle), chiss (cheese), boos (boobs), naaaah (no), ba (ball), boo (book), pu (puffs), keys, and I am sure I am forgetting something! His words have just picked right up the last few weeks.  It is pretty impressive how quickly he learns something!  The signs have helped greatly in terms of figuring out what he wants.  He has his own little language and will talk at you all day long if you ask him questions, but so far I only understand a few words of his babble! In addition to actual words we are still working on animal sounds.  He does dog, snake, sheep, and the newest sound is a cat.  I am trying to get him to work on cow, but so far he doesn't seem to pick up moooo.

He knows many parts of his body and will even point to them on our bodies and Rusty's.  He can do head, eyes, nose, ears, belly, hair, tongue and fingers.   We are working on feet, but so far he is confused with feet and penis-so we apparently need to clear that one up! I have no idea how he got them confused ha!

Here are some pictures from our week:

A cloudy but warm morning at the beach!

Enjoying Jamestown Beach

He is surprisingly good at this now!

Playing with pom poms

Until next week =).

New House: Week 6

We took a trip up to the 'house' this weekend.  There are 4 foundations poured and two houses with framing going up! One of those happens to be directly next to our house.  From what Logan and I can tell we think it is a Ravenna model which is what the model home in the neighborhood as well.  It is pretty large-Logan is worried it will make our house look small.  I am not too terribly concerned.  It has a side entrance garage as well.  From our best guess, we are going to have a pretty big space between the houses which is GREAT! That was awesome to see.

On the downside, we saw where the house will sit and it does sit back on the property per the county zoning.  So that means, we will have a larger front yard than backyard which Logan isn't too pleased about.   He is really upset that the yard is MUCH smaller than he wanted and is now having to rethink how he wants to do his patio, fire pit, and grill. Plus that means we will have to consider less room for Landon and Rusty to play.  On the bright side, it will be cheaper to fence ha!

Here are some pictures of the street and house next to ours:

Standing at the front of our property

Looking to the right on our property-this is lot 54.

Until next week =).

66 Weeks!

This little man is 66 weeks old! We have had a good week.  The best part of our week is that Logan is back for a little bit.  Landon was SOO excited to see Logan.  We were outside playing on our porch when Logan drove up and Landon eyed him up and then once he realized who he was looking at, ran to the gate and smiled and jumped around until Logan picked him up.  He then spent the next 5 minutes looking at Logan with this big smiley grin.

We went to gymnastics again on Tuesday and Landon had a great time again.  Lots of running around and jumping into the pit! I am very happy that he has this outlet for a safe place to run around!

We have still been going on our weekly walks, but with Landon constantly on the move he doesn't care to sit in his stroller for much longer than 20-30 minutes, which makes things rather difficult.  He complains alot more than he used to about being in a stroller.  We also have issues of getting back into the stroller when he has been out playing and not wanting to sit back down.  We usually have a battle of wills to get him back in and then he is fine once we start moving again.

We have been to the park several times this week and spending alot of time outside.  Our porch is a perfect play area for the water table and spending time outside in the shade.  We will really love that this summer!

Here are some pictures from our week:

For our weekly video this week, Landon enjoyed some time at the park and shows off his daredevil ways!

New House: Week 5

Not much to report this week-I have to drop off a check tomorrow to Greg as part of our requirement to pay 1% up front of the cost before building.  So I will be headed up to look around at the model and make note of the interior paint color in the living room that we like so much.  Additionally, I want to look at the light fixtures to see what will match with what I plan for the morning room and kitchen pendant lights. 

This week I wanted to do the half bath on the main level.  I have a pretty simple vision.  I want to pain the room a very pale pale blue.  Then add in some shelves behind the toilet from Home Depot since there is not a cabinet, but a pedestal sink.  On the wall I plan to do an open frame wall with antique colored whites and aqua blue frame.

These are my inspirational pictures for the room:

Shelving from Home Depot

This color of frame, but add in some antique white colored frames.  I found some great ones at TJ Max last week.

Aiming for this color blue.  Very pale, gray blue color

 
Until next week =)

65 Weeks!

Today, Landonious Broconius is 15 months! Where has the time gone.  This last month was ROUGH in terms of tantrums, opinions, teeth, etc.  I am hoping that his 15th month of life will bring back our happier little boy.  I have seen glimpses of this little boy lately and I am hoping we will get back there soon! 

We have had our usual busy week.  We went to a music class at a friends house on Monday afternoon.  It was a bit hectic, but fun.  L wasn't having any of it though...he wanted to get up and run around the room.  In his defense, it was REALLY hot and he doesn't like being hot....just like his Dad.  My friend's dogs were a big head with the little people that day as well; they were all gathered around the back door watching the dogs play and look through the window at them. 

Tuesday morning we went to our first gymnastics class!  In reality, it is more like a free play in a gym with equipment, but Landon had a blast.  45 minutes of unstructured play that he could run around in a safe padded place to his little hearts desire.  He has no fear and totally leaped into the pit off the floor without a second though.  Even the gymnastics coach couldn't believe it! I can't wait to take him back next Tuesday. 

On Wednesday, we ventured down to the base for Landon's 15 month appointment, eye follow up, and shots.  The appointment was pretty uneventful due to us not seeing our usual Dr.  He is 25 lbs 9 oz. (65th percentile) and almost 32 inches tall (75th%).  He has completely changed in the way that his body is proportioned...no wonder he is looking like such a big boy.  He got one booster shot and then will get more shots at 18 months, which will be our last shots until 4 years old! Thank the lord...overall he is healthy, minus his gross eye which we are still battling.  We go back in two weeks for a check up again for his eye.

Today we went to do a bit of shopping since this crazy kid is out growing 18 month clothes already.  I also picked up a second swimming suit since our pool opens soon and I plan to frequent that several times per week.   I got him a new hat also since his big head is already out growing the one we bought in January for Costa Rica.  I also plan to go to Kohls and get him some new Chucks since his current ones are just about too small.  Buying clothes for this wee dude is a pricey venture!  I spent nap time sorting through all the old clothes I have saved and put them in bins.  I didn't think 3 was going to be enough, but nb-12 month fit into them all thankfully!  I also put away burp clothes and receiving blankets....end of an era!

L's mini clothes!

Here are some pictures from the rest of the week:

Standing on his computer

Toddler emotions....

Cheesey smile

Snacks

Toddler squatting

Life of a boy Mom

For our weekly movie!

Until next week =).

New House: Week 4

Not much to report on the new house.  I drove by the lot the other day and saw that our road was finally paved instead of gravel! They have also poured two foundations for other houses on the street.  Last month, 7 home sites were sold in our neighborhood, including ours.  Several of the homes sold for over $500,000! We are super excited that this area seems to be very popular and people are building expensive houses; that will help raise the value of ours!

The room this week I want to share is Landon's big boy room! We are keeping with the baseball theme, but of course making it look more like a big boy room.  Most of his decorations are pretty big boy anyway, so besides getting a new bed and furniture, Landon won't need alot of extras.  Here are some pictures to help paint the vision!

I love this bed-I actually saw it online the other day and it wasn't as much as I would have thought. I also like the contract to the light blue wall and the dark blue bed.

We have several balls from Logan that we can display and I think this is a unique way to do this.  I could get some shelves and display the balls that way.  I also like the balls in the glass jar!

Another way to display the balls and a cute bat on the wall.

Possibly an idea for a rug? Not sure about this.

I really like this idea of painting this on one of the walls.  I think we are aiming for more subdue paint colors in our next house.  I think we will paint Landon's room a nice tan and then perhaps do one wall like this to give it some pizazz! With all the various accent colors 

Until next week =)

64 Weeks!

We have had a better week around here lately...although I shouldn't say that because it will jinx it!  We are still having tantrums, but I feel like we are slowly wading through and trying to figure out what works for us. 

We are successfully down to one nap most days.  He has adjusted to going down around 12:30. We are now working on taking LONG naps so that way he gets enough sleep to make sure he isn't a total mess by bed time.  His bed time has become slightly earlier due to one nap, but so far we seem to be doing well with the transition.

We have had a busy week with Drs appointments, music class, play dates, walks, and breakfast trips!  Tomorrow may be the first day we don't have anything scheduled to do! Landon has a blocked tear duct still and that is apparently the cause of his eye issue.  We have been battling this for about a month and it is finally starting to look better.  We have been using eye ointment 3 times per day to calm the irritation and hopefully let it unclog.  His eye still waters a bit, but it is so much better in terms of gross eye goo and crustiness when he wakes up.  I am hoping that with a few more days of the ointment it will be cleared again.  If it continues to be a problem, Landon will have surgery to open the duct when he is close to two!

I am considering weaning Landon off the pacifier during the day except for naps and bed time. This means no pacifiers in the car or for emergencies in public.  This also means, that I need to learn to deal with tantrums and meltdowns without resorting to sticking his pacifier in his mouth!  I figure once we wean off those we will work on naps closer to 18 months and then work on night time before two.  I figure I would like him off of a pacifier before baby number 2 comes along.

I think we are also quickly approaching weaning from nursing as well.  Landon doesn't seem extremely interested in it anymore except for the first thing in the morning which then he will occasionally stop and ask for a banana instead.  I am guessing this is a sign he is almost ready to be done.  I am thankful that we had a great 15 months of nursing and we were so successful at it! We have just recently dropped all the middle of the day feedings and the next to go will be the one before bed.   It will be liberating to feel that I don't need to do bed time routine any longer and have to nurse him, but I will miss the snuggles.  I suspect that weaning will be harder on me than on him!

We went to Busch Gardens as a family last Friday for the first time and had a good time! Landon got to run around and visit with Elmo at Sesame Street Place.  When it gets a bit warmer, we will go back to play in the splash pad! Logan also got to ride one of the roller coasters.  We are going to get Logan a year pass as well so we can have dates and go with friends when he is home!  It is nice living super close to a theme park.

Logan on the top right front row, second seat in ha ha.

Watching Dad on the roller coaster and having snacks!

We also visited a park in Toano that Landon and I found several weeks ago.  Landon loved running around since he is totally a runner in public.  I am going to need a leash for hi when he is older! I can't set him down for a second without him running off.  So a big open park with a field and play area is the perfect safe spot for him.  Logan and Landon played on the playground, we let Rusty swim, and then alot of running.  Landon also learned to go down a slide alone!

We had our last music class on Tuesday and Landon had a grand ol' time.  We had a great year with Mrs. C and are looking forward to seeing her again in the fall for the 18-24 month class!

The original 5 members of our 10 person class, 2012-2013

I also took some other random pictures of Landon throughout the week!

Finally-I have saved the best movie for last.  Landon, being a typical boy, knows how to try to fart when I ask.  He does this at least once a day while eating and usually again while playing.  His face is priceless and I am totally going to use this as blackmail when he is older =).  Enjoy!

Until next week =)