Cookin up a Storm

It seems like ages since my last post... and so much as seemed to have happened since then!

We've had our first Halloween, our first rice cereal, we're rolling all over the place!!!  Where to begin?

We started rice cereal shortly after my last post.  The doctor told us that we could start it if we wanted, and after Landon woke up twice in the middle of the night, hootin' and a hollarin' for a bottle, there was no need for further discussion.  We were starting the cereal.  I have to say, it's so exciting trying new things with the little guy.  Whether it's a new toy that he's now old enough to play with, or rice cereal it's fun to see how he reacts to things.  I'm happy to say, rice cereal was a hilarious success.  For some reason Landon finds cereal time rather hilarious and for the most part he's giggling and smiling the whole time.  The only downside to it?  When someone has a mouth full of cereal and sneezes... all over you.  I knew it'd happen eventually, so I can say I wasn't shocked when it did.

The first time eating cereal! 

Busting out our PJs, while eating rice cereal, and desperately trying to watch the forbidden magical box... 

Puppy brother is an excellent helper in the clean up department. 

Landon is now a rolling pro.  If I need to do some things in the kitchen I'll put our rolly polly on his mat, and I swear I'll look away for 2 minutes and he'll have rolled himself completely off the mat and rug and will be hanging out on the hardwood floors!  

Oh hey!  Just mid-roll!  

Rolling towards his brother! 

Our first Halloween was a success!  We walked around with the neighbors and their adorable bumblebee.  We did not go to any doors to ask for candy (as we'd basically be grown adults asking for candy for ourselves,) but it was fun walking Landon around on his first Halloween!  Next year will be more entertaining when he can walk himself and go door to door.  

Our family of jack-o-lanterns.  I clearly carved the best two.  The cat with the witch hat and the smiley face.    

A little Halloween treat from mom and dad.  Puppy brother was too excited to open his presents to let us take his picture. 

A chef and his bag of flour. 

Cutest chef I've ever seen.  

Our little family on Halloween!

Not exactly a happy camper...

Trick-or-treat is a lot of work.  

I finally had to break down and realize that Landon no longer fits in his 3 month PJs (maybe it's because he's no longer 3 months...)  So today I went through his drawers and his closet and I packed up all the things that no longer fit.  It's insane how fast they grow out of things, and it's so sad packing up tiny little shorts knowing that he won't ever wear them again!  We now have two full boxes of clothes that may be worn again, if Landon were to have a little brother.  (Don't get excited this won't be happening any time soon, and it's going to be a girl anyway.  I need an equalizer, I'm out numbered 3 to 1 as it is!) 

Our new favorite sound in this house, is the sound of Landon giggling and nothing makes him giggle more than when Kevin lifts him high into the air and then brings him down low.  He even makes roller coaster noises to accompany this game.  Vedder however, does NOT like when Kevin and Landon play this game.  He gets all worried that Kev's going to hurt him, barks uncontrollably and Kev has to show Vedder that Landon is okay, in which he proceeds to give him a million kisses and checks him over.  

Puppy brother has had some terrible issues with his allergies, and had to go in the cone of shame. 

Do you play in your activity saucer with your face? 

Just a boy and his dog. 

Telling his puppy a secret.  (He really was whispering in the puppy's ear.) 

Playing in his activity saucer! 

Our new favorite thing is working the pole, if we had a daughter I'd be concerned.  

My southern blood can't handle this cold!

Someone fell asleep at the food truck parks, all cuddled up in my legs. 

Feeling a little witchy.

Lastly, Kev begged and pleaded me to enter Landon into the Gerber baby contest.  I'm not one for entering these contests, but when you DO have the cutest baby ever it does make logical sense.  Here is the link to vote for him.  If you scroll to the bottom there is a vote button.  You can vote once a day for this little stinker... so by all means, please do!  

https://www.facebook.com/Gerber?sk=app_586462271392312&app_data=192970

Pumpkins and Things

If you can believe it, we have a four month old baby!  This time a year ago we just had found out we were pregnant and we couldn't even begin to imagine how much our lives would change, what to expect or how much we would love this new little person!  Here we are, with this little guy and can't remember what life was like before him!

Landon had his four month check up on Thursday, he's growing perfectly, and got a clean bill of health.  He weighed in at 15.3 pounds which put him in the 59th percentile for his age.  He measured in at 26.5 inches long, which puts him in the 94th percentile!  The doctor said that he's currently measuring at that of a 6 month old!  I'm thinking we're going to have a basketball player on our hands!  While checking his eyes, he noted that there were no flecks of brown floating around so if his eyes were to change, (which at age 4 months they're 99% likely not to change,) they would be green.

We took Landon the pumpkin patch last weekend, as we all know I'm rather obsessed with the fall.  We found out we were pregnant with Landon shortly before we went to the patch last year, and we looked around at all the adorable children excitedly picking out the perfect pumpkin.  It made us giddy to bring our own baby to the patch, and it felt like a year was ages away.  Although Landon couldn't pick out his own pumpkin this year, we had fun with him!

Maybe he's pondering what exactly makes the perfect pumpkin...

Hmmmm, they apparently come in my size.

Our first hayride!

This feels interesting.

Bjorn with my mom!

No mommy, this is my monkey! 

I FINALLY have witnessed my son rolling over.  We've been doing practice rolls with Landon by helping him roll over by moving his body in the way that he would need to, to do it on his own.  I think that it's really helped him get the hang of what to do and the confidence to do it on his own.  Here in the next few days he's going to be rolling all over the place!  Watch out Vedder, he's coming for you!

Landon's new favorite thing is to chat in the car.  My car has bluetooth in it, so when I'm chatting on the phone with someone he automatically begins to babble very loudly in the background, so that neither myself or the person on the other line can hear anything over his stories.  

There are definitely pros and cons to being a stay at home mom.  I absolutely love being able to be home and be the one that fosters Landon's growth.  However I cannot deny there aren't times that I wish I could drop him off at daycare and head into work and regain my sanity.  I say this, knowing that there are a million moms out there that would kill to be able to stay home with their babe, I know I'm very fortunate to be in the situation I'm in.  But, for those of you who know me well enough, know I'm not one to sit idly very well.  My sanity would truly be pushed to the limit if I didn't set a schedule for myself, and create goals to obtain.  Days would all blend together into a giant blob of me sitting on the couch, watching trash TV, eating bon-bons.  So in order to create order and structure to the days, I decided to create fun little goals.  Besides the looming half marathon (in which I really need to kick up with the training for or I'll be crawling across the finish line) I decided I would try to try out at least one new recipe a week.  I have to say, I've gotten pretty lucky on the recipe front, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites!


These rolls are so super easy, and they are amazingly delicious.  As much as I love to bake, and as good at is as I am, yeast can be the enemy.  Anyone could make these rolls, even someone who isn't a baker!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quick-yeast-rolls/

These pumpkin snickerdoodles might be like pringles, once you pop, you can't stop.  At first I wasn't sure how I felt about them but after my second one I kept thinking about when it would be socially acceptable to eat more...

http://www.seededatthetable.com/2011/10/28/pumpkin-snickerdoodles/

This manicotti recipe is not only yummy but it's super easy.  I could make it even on one of Landon's fussiest days without batting an eye.

http://heartmindandseoul.com/parmesan-chicken-manicotti/

I guess since the Indians are out, I'll root for the Red Sox. 

These next three photos are ones Kev sent to me while I was out to dinner.  The progression of the cranky baby... 

Walks are more fun when you have friends! 

Daddy sometimes has to be forced out of Landon's room after he's fallen asleep for the night.  I think Kev could let him sleep on him all night long.  

Thing 1 and Thing 2.  It's too bad you can't see Vedder's shirt! 

Landon feel asleep in my arms after his bottle.  Once he fell asleep I just stopped in the moment and enjoyed savoring the feelings of him sleeping in my arms.  Life has taught me to sometimes push pause on a moment and enjoy it.  

A Traveling Man

We have a traveling man on our hands, and he does quite well with it.  

As any new parent can tell you, one of your biggest fears is traveling on a plane with a newborn.  Who wants to be that person, on the plane with the screaming baby?  Not us.  With the mixture of part luck, and part excellent planning, we had a happy baby who after deciding to tell a story to the entire plane, gave a few weak attempts to crying and then passed out the remander of the flight.  Our flight home was a bit more entertaining... As soon as we started to take off Landon promptly had a major blowout.  I had to rip pages out of an air travel magazine and cover my lap so my white shirt was also not sacrificed in said blowout.  I don't think it's ever taken so long for the seatbelt light to go off.  After which, Kevin and I huddled into the tiny bathroom to tag team cleaning our poop covered baby.  Good thing we have a sense of humor.  After we cleaned Mr. Poopy Pants, he laughed and played in our lap and then passed out and slept the remainder of the flight.  Now I know not all flights will be this smooth, but it was nice to have our first done and over with!    

My Dad bought Landon an activity mat for us to leave in Ohio so that when we come up to visit, we don't have to drag the one here up with us.  True to Grandparent form, my Dad outdid us and bought him the most amazing mat ever and now Landon doesn't seem to love his mat as much at home.  Now we're obligated to buy him the same one.  I tell ya, Grandparents make our jobs so much harder as parents....  

Man of the house.  (Not to worry, he really wasn't watching TV.  Just pretending to so with the remote.) 

So Landon, this is how you Really feel about me is it? Or is he just sticking his tongue out trying to get some of the yummy MVR food? 

Landon had his first trip to the zoo!  We had so much fun with him, and for the most part he was actually awake and would look at the animals.  Not that he knew what he was looking at, but I'd like to think he was interested.  He also rode a carousel for the first time, and my sister and I also squeezed our tushes into a tiny train to ride with him.  

My mom was all too happy to watch the little guy for a night so that Kev and I could go to Cleveland for the Brown's game and go out and pretend for a night that we weren't responsible parents.  We had an absolute blast.  

The whole reason and we trekked to Ohio was to see my beautiful sister get married.  We had a great time celebrating with her and her new husband, JJ.  

My little family. 

Best dressed guy at the wedding. 

The two loves of my life, looking dashing.  

The happy couple! 

My little ray of sunshine!

A sneak peek of the Halloween picture... the first as a twosome.  

Vedder had a brush with death while with Grandma Jill, mostly he snuck through a cracked door and her dog Keisha had to go fetch him.  Thankfully she did, and I think he came back a changed man.  Since his return home he has been showing a ton of affection towards Landon.  Maybe during his great escape, his life flashed before his eyes he saw he and Landon as the best of friends.  In the meantime his sneaky ways gave poor Grandma a heart attack!

Landon has only rolled over once since the last blog.  He tries so hard to flip himself, and he's got the motion down on how to roll over, I just don't know what's holding him up!  Sometimes he gets so close to flipping over that I think it's actually more work for him to go back the way he was then to just let himself fall the rest of the way!

Besides the rolling he's starting to scoot his tush up to put himself in the position to crawl.  Once we start crawling poor puppy brother is seriously in trouble...  I may need to start stocking up on apology treats for him now.

We have our four month doctor's appointment next week, it hardly seems like it's time to be going back to the doctor already, where has two months gone?  I know I keep saying this, but seriously???

I promise to never run away again!

Best Friends

Walks are serious business

Our festive front porch

The big boy in his bumbo!