Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday. All in all it was a pretty good day. Very laid back and relaxed- just what I needed that day. The weather was way too hot for the zoo like our original plan so we did the next best thing. A shopping trip at Michael's! My mom told me that I could pick anything out. I almost tried pushing my luck by throwing a Cricuit machine into the cart, but the sensible side of me won out and opted for something smaller. I've had my eye on a wreath for the front door for months now. I was able to get all of the supplies to make my wreath and I'm really happy about the final product. I can't wait to hang it on my door. 

 I came across this picture that was taken May 22, 2001:

May 22, 2011- my how we have changed!

I spent the day with my family and couldn't have asked for anything better. It was a great way to spend my birthday! I was even serenaded by Landon. When we woke up he started singing "Happy Birthday" to me! It was the sweetest thing. Then he topped it and even managed to make me cry- not very hard I know, but he really was sweet. After he finished singing "Happy Birthday" he said, "wait Mommy" and ran off to his room. He came back a few seconds later and shouted, "Surprise Mommy!" He was pushing his Pooh firetruck and opened it up for me to see. He put some of his small toys inside of it as my surprise! I have a picture of my birthday surprise back at home. I will upload it later. He really was the cutest thing yesterday. I love my little boy so much!

Role Playing

Landon loves playing pretend. Every day he is a different animal. Most days he is a cat. He becomes upset if I refer to him as Landon while he is in cat mode. He will only respond to me if I call him cat and his response will often be in a series of meows! He gives me a good laugh every single day. He can go from this...

...to this in a matter of seconds.

 His personality is constantly changing. The one constant is the amount of fun that Landon can have with the simplest things. His Cookie Monster Play-doh set is one of his favorite activities. We play with it almost daily. He makes different fruits, veggies, and letters and feeds them to Cookie Monster. Today Landon even insisted on brushing Cookie Monster's teeth once he was done eating.

He then wanted to give him a bath, but I assured him that Cookie Monster doesn't need a bath. Landon settled on just putting a t-shirt on Cookie Monster and then went on to do his next silly thing.  The other day while I was cleaning up after our lunch dishes Landon came into the kitchen. He yelled,"Surprise! I Mommy!" I turned around and sure enough he looked just like me, kind of! He put on the t-shirt that I had worn to bed the night before and pretended to be like Mommy for the rest of the afternoon. I even had to refer to him as Mommy for most of the afternoon. He sure does keep me on my toes and laughing. Landon is the perfect pick-me-up each morning and evening.  

Three Year Photos

I recently had the privilege of meeting with a local photographer for Landon's three year photos. Every year we have Landon's pictures taken in a studio. We have always walked away with good shots, but the process is always rather stressful. This time around we were able to have candid shots taken at one of Landon's favorite parks. I am so excited over the end results. We wound up with a number of amazing shots. Here is the link to Landon's photo shoot:

http://britperkins.smugmug.com/Children/landon/17132673_VCJ9jd#1298323935_dh3b935

If you are in need of a photography in the Jacksonville area, then please contact Brittany Perkins at bajperkins@gmail.com. She did an amazing job with Landon. She was so pleasant to be around and Landon really warmed up to her.

Early Morning Road Construction

Today has been a long day and it is not even 10:00 a.m.! Landon woke up at 5:30 this morning and I woke up with a horrible headache. It was due from the combination of the lack of sleep over the past two weeks and the sinus pressure that I was having. I tried to persuade Landon to fall back to sleep, but he refused. He kept telling me that the sun woke him up. I told him that even the sun is still asleep. Landon's response was, "Oh, right. Moon wake me up!" I managed to stumble my way into the kitchen and make a pot of coffee. At this hour there was no point in a coffee mug. I put a straw in the coffee pot and was good to go! If only my coffee maker actually had a coffee pot. It would have been a time saver saving me from making several trips back into the kitchen for refills! With caffeine in hand I was ready to face the day. By 7:00 a.m. we had already made a tropical island out of Moon Dough complete with palm trees and monkeys. By 7:03 a.m. Landon was becoming bored. He was begging to watch cartoons. I wasn't fond with the idea of cartoon watching. I didn't want the day to be wasted in front of the tv. I also couldn't imagine going outside to play. I knew the outside allergens would have made my headache worse. Landon started playing with his toy cars. I kept thinking to myself that it'd be great if Landon had one of those floor road mats to play on. Then an idea came to me. I could make one. With duct tape in hand I set out to make a road way. The duct tape didn't go as far as I thought it would. The roll size was deceiving. I had planned on making a road wrap around the hallway and pass under the dining room chairs. I quickly learned that the road was only going to be a short one and only passing through one tunnel. Landon didn't seem to mind. He had a blast and it kept him busy for quite some time. Now I am wishfully hoping that it tires him out so that we can take a nice long nap this afternoon!

New Words

Landon's vocab has more than quadrupled over the past several months. There isn't a word that he can't say. This can sometimes be a bad thing. I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes and Landon was screaming, "Look Mommy, damn! Damn, damn, look Mommy!" I immediately stopped what I was doing and walked into the living room with the intention of explaining to Landon that we don't use that word. As soon as Landon saw me he said, "Beaver dam Mommy! Look look!" Phew! Crisis adverted (at least this time!). A beaver was building a dam on the tv show and Landon wanted to show it to me.

We did recently have the conversation that "crap" is not allowed. I try to not give bad words power. I know the more power I give to the offensive word, then the more Landon will want to use it. When the Jungle Book taught Landon "stupid" I ignored it and the word was quickly forgotten about. The same can not be said for "crap." Aunt TT uses that word a lot. I've asked her not to, but Landon picked up on it very quickly. If something doesn't go his way he says "oh crap" or if he's mad he'll say "crap" and stomp his foot. It happened so frequently that I could no longer ignore it. I explained to him that we don't use that word. Just yesterday Landon has been heard saying, "drap." That's right- my smart alec three year old replaced the "c" with a "d" in hopes of making it ok to say. Oh the joys of toddler hood!