104 Weeks!

I have been a total blogging slacker, but we have been busy around here celebrating Landon's birthday, saying goodbye to Logan again, and just settling into a new routine with just Landon and Mommy.

Today, marks 104 weeks since the monkey was born, which means his birthday is Sunday! I just can't wrap my head around the idea that I have a two year old. He is so sweet lately  and so funny. He is such a little character. I think he has a great mix of both Logan's and my personalities and I love that he is turning into such an awesome little person.

He has been doing AWESOME in all of his activities lately.  For the first time ever, he finally sang into the microphone on Monday night. He went and sat right next to Mrs. C. and then sang a series of 5 notes into the microphone 5 times. I was SO proud.  The entire room clapped and cheered for him.  This is huge for him. Usually he won't even go up and sit next to her, let alone say anything into the microphone.  He often yells nooooooo and runs away back to my lap. I was so proud of him on Monday night for finally being brave enough to do it. I am excited to see if he repeats it next Monday at well. He mostly participates in everything at music now, which is so fun to see.. I often hear him singing a variety of songs that we sing in music and now he asks to listen to his cd in the car or on my phone.  I love that he has a love for music and learning!

He is also doing awesome in gymnastics! When we first started it was full of tantrums and him trying to run away, but in the last two weeks he has come a long way. I only had to redirect him once last night. He loves bouncing and swinging on all the things, so I think he is really enjoying his gymnastics time.  He even sat and did all the stretching last night, complete with his favorite the alligator chomp, where he makes a chomp sound. He thought it was hilarious, so his teacher did it a few extra times =).

Currently, the little monkey is at Mothers' Day Out. He often talks about seeing his friends in his class and asks to see them, I think he is finally enjoying going and playing. This morning we talked about him playing trains, cooking in the kitchen, and doing art while he was there today. He walked right in and saw his friend Julia and wandered off. I took his coat off and slipped out...no tears today. I hope he does well! I signed him up for 2 days in the fall if he doesn't get in to the preschool we have him signed up for. We will see where he ends up going. 

He is full of funny sayings lately-the latest when he does something bad, he goes 'Oh bigs" which is what I say to him when he does something he shouldn't ha ha.He also says Oh geez alot, hi to literally everything in the house, good night to everything on the way upstairs. He loves to play trains, cook in his kitchen, and play with chalk.  We color with chalk every day.

He is into counting, learning a few letters, and loves to do his shape puzzle.  He has started to identify most shapes, but he gets them confused occasionally.  He can count to five, but 5-10 get to be a jumbled mess, which is rather cute ha ha. I honestly think he may be colored blind. He doesn't name any colors correctly-everything is either orange/red. He can name blue, but usually it isn't ever the right thing. I plan to talk to his Dr. about this and see what they recommend.  He can name several musical instruments just by listening to them and he can name more power tools than I can count ha ha. He certainly has a wide range of knowledge at this age!

Last, but not least, his birthday party was great fun! WE had a great time with all his little friends.  I loved doing his Elmo theme; he loves the decorations. So much in fact, that we still have them up until his actual birthday this Sunday. Every morning he comes down and says "the decorations" and points up to them with excitement. Who could take them down when he loves them so much? =).

Finally, here are the pictures:

Until next week =).

101 Weeks!

The last week was busy as per the usual!

Landon and I are both battling another cold, which hasn't been fun. We still have been going to all our activities since we mostly just sound pretty bad, but feel fine.

Landon did SOO much better in gymnastics this week. We had been talking about listening to his teacher and the difference between gymnastics and the bounce house, even though it is in the same place.  He listened well for the most part and did awesome on the bars and trampoline. His teacher even said he had incredible strength for his age...so that is good. Now, let's hope it continues to go this well!

He did well at MDO this week as well. He did cry a bit when I left because I think he thought I was staying like last week. They said he settled quickly and had a very good day. He even made two art projects. I love that he comes home with art every week!

Landon has been saying some pretty funny phrases lately.  Some of my favorite are: "I need THE help," I love you waba," "Himay stop the train TOO".  His language is really expanding. He can put full sentences together and is starting to put in the correct filler words.

We are in full swing for Elmo party planning! His party is tomorrow at 3:00! Our friend is coming over this morning to help me decorate his Elmo cupcakes and I plan to put up the actual decorations at some point today as well. I think I am saving all the cleaning for tomorrow, at least the kitchen and the floors as that is where most people will be! I am excited, so stay tuned for birthday pictures next week!

Here are the pictures this week:

Here is a movie for the week:

Until next week!

100 Weeks!

Well, the little man is 100 weeks old which means he is 23 months old! He will be 2 next month-it kind of makes me a little sad, but happy at the same time that he has turned into such an awesome kid!

We had a busy week of music, starting gymnastics, coffee dates, working MDO, and the WISC on Friday.  It was our first week back to music since Christmas break and it was a bit rough, Landon didn't want to share or listen which made for a challenging 45 minutes.  Gymnastics was even more challenging. We picked a 4:45 pm class on Wednesday at the WISC. Unfortunately, it is soooo crowded and in the same place we go to on Friday for the fun zone where he can run free. He had an extremely hard time focusing because there were several other classes in there, as well as listening to his coach. Once we started doing activities beside stretching, he did a bit better, but it was still hard to keep his attention.  I spoke with the front desk and asked if we could try one more week in the evening class since we are with Madisyn and Wyatt, but if it doesn't work out, I plan to switch him to a Monday morning class that will be less crowded and in the big gym where they have the team gymnasts practice.

Now for our big event on Saturday. We were almost hit by a tornado; one touched down about 1/2 mile from our house. We knew storms were coming, but they never said tornadoes, just thunderstorms.  I was standing around looking outside at the sky and had just commented on how odd the sky looked, then the rain and wind started. We were all looking out the office windows when everything changed directions and we saw what looked like the outer part of a tornado cloud form. Then we saw branches and a shutter fly by and Logan said we needed to run and hide. We hid in our closet in the kitchen...L was crying. Logan was half in half out. We couldn't really figure out what was going on. We decided it was ok to come out since the crazy wind went away. Not soon after the power went out. We had to go out to dinner at Chipotle since we didn't want to open the fridge.  Logan dropped me off at the movie theater since I had planned on going to see Saving Mr. Banks. By  the time I got home, we still didn't have power, but Logan and Landon had a grand time playing in the dark with chemlights.  The power finally came back on around 1 am...it was a crazy day/night!

Now for the pictures:

Until next week =).

 

99 Weeks!

We had a good week this past week. Landon finally got over being sick, I am slowly getting better. We still didn't have many of our activities, but we did have a New Years Eve party with some friends and celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  

ON NYE, we had a little get together at our house. We had some friends over and ALOT of kids. There were 6 kids under the age of 6....oh my lord, so many kids. I nearly had a heart attack at all the kids wandering around with food and carrying things around near the walls. Overall, they did really well not ruining anything! The guys played corn hole outside with Logan's new boards, while the ladies stayed in and chatted and ran interference with the kiddos.   Most of the kids left between 8 and 9, but we put Madisyn down upstairs in the guest room so Allyson could stay until midnight. It went very well, so hopefully when Logan is gone coming up we can do this in the future and have fun girls night. Overall, I would say it was pretty successful! Staying up until 1 is never a good idea with a toddler that gets up earlier when he goes to bed later-that wasn't fun!

Landon went back to MDO this week. HE did AMAZING. This was the first week in months that I was able to drop him off and have him not cry. He went in holding his little Elmo and saw another little boy playing with the kitchen. I asked him if he would go make his teacher some eggs and he said ok. So I put him down and took his coat off; he seemed a bit concerned that I was headed towards the door, but I said go make eggs (his favorite thing to tell you he is cooking at home) and he said bye bye mommy and headed off with his teacher. They said he did amazing, no crying and best of all no pacifier ALL DAY. Now let's hope that he can keep this trend up after I stay all next week since it is my volunteer day!

During MDO, Logan and I went to get an hour long couples massage.  We always go for our anniversary, so this was a nice treat for us and worked out perfectly with Landon being in school.  It was very nice. We are hoping to be able to get a sitter a few times before Logan leaves as well =).

Ok, for the pictures this week:

Helping himself

One last visit to Christmas town. Busch Garden opens again in March.

Someone's birthday is coming!

He got some new Thomas boots...plus another black eye.

Using his cute little gift from Rere....now if we can work on him not eating the chalk.

The snowman on the door has a funny hat.

Sitting on his bike with his "helmet"

Getting ready for NYE

Landon being a crazy guy on NYE

 

 

 

 

Having a snack =).

Until next week =).

98 Weeks

Merry Christmas to everyone! We spent Christmas in our new home in Virginia, it was very nice. We had our little family most of the day until Joe came over to spend the afternoon and evening with us.

Both, Landon and I are rather sick with a pretty bad cold, which made for an interesting day. He was extra whiny and just irritated with himself and everyone around him. Unfortunately, that made for a rough day for all involved. He loved playing with all his toys, but that came intermittently between constant whining!

Landon got his train table which he has really enjoyed. I still think he is a bit young for it, so it will be a good gift to grow into! He loves his tunnel and kitchen food as well. I think we had a pretty balanced Christmas, just the perfect amount of things for him to play with.

On Christmas Eve, we had Chili and went to look at Christmas lights locally. We flipped Landon's car seat forward facing for the day so he could see. I am not really sure he was impressed. WE haven't decided if we are going to flip him back or not. He is so close to turning 2, when we would flip him forward facing anyway, but at the same time, it is so much safer for him to be rear facing. We visited a house that you can get out and walk around, kind of like Tincup in Colorado. We brought a food donation since they ask for one and enjoyed walking around their yard and looking at the display. We also drove to a few other neighborhoods, but we found our own to be the best! Landon also had his first "Chocolat" (hot chocolate) on Christmas eve. He was a big fan, he just smiled and smiled while drinking it. He calls it Chocolat, with a french accent, since he is obsessed with the movie The Polar Express. They sing it in a song and he picked it up from there.

We officially get rid of our old rental house tomorrow! We are having a problem getting in contact with the property manager, which doesn't really surprise me. I am sending Logan to the office to return our keys and get our security deposit back. Hopefully, that works in our favor.

Here are several pictures from the last few days:

Our best attempt at a Christmas picture

Surprised by his grill light from Annie.

Elmo love

He really loves his name puzzle.

Trying his Chocolat

Loving his "Chocolat"

Train table Christmas morning

Logan's Santa gift

Logan's other board from Santa

Polar Express watching

Until next week =).