"Kid"ing around!

Landon loves being able to come into contact with animals. I think the goat petting part of any zoo is his absolute favorite. He could spend all day petting and brushing the goats. When it is time to leave he will try to prolong his stay by kissing and hugging each goat. He will even kiss both ears of the goats. Here are some of my favorites of Landon with the goats from the Philadelphia Zoo.

 Trying to kiss the sheep!

 Seeing what the goats see

Philadelphia Zoo

While in Pennsylvania, Landon and I were able to visit the Philadelphia Zoo. Not just once, but twice! I remember going to that zoo many times as a child. It was an amazing experience to be able to take Landon and show him some of the same things that I saw when I was younger. The second day that we went we came across a bear statue. This statue was the same one that I climbed on as a child. I could have stayed there all day watching Landon climb on top of that bear.

The Philadelphia Zoo has a number of animals that the Jacksonville Zoo doesn't have. They have tigers, bears, hippos, an assortment of monkeys, and even aardvarks. I think Landon could have watched his "bobos" all day long. He was in hippo heaven at the zoo.

We even learned what kind of sound penguins make. Here's what they sound like according to Landon.

I must say, his penguin impression is dead on. Penguins sound like moaning cows.

The Polar bear exhibit was probably the one that I was looking forward to the most. I remember watching the polar bear swim in the water when I was a kid. We went back to see the polar bear 4 times. Landon and I were both in awe watching him.

We were also able to see a kangaroo with a joey in her pouch and a baby giraffe. The zoo was filled with new life.

Landon was also able to see tigers and lions.

 Landon was cracking me up with his lion growl impression. He even had another toddler start growling.

 He also showed me how a lion smiles!

Another sight that we saw and can't stop talking about was the gorilla. This gorilla walked up the hill like it was a man. It was the craziest thing. I had never seen a gorilla walk on just its back legs before.

Landon imitating the gorilla's face!

There are so many more pics that I want to share from the zoo. Especially those of the petting zoo with the goats. I'll have to break this up into several parts...more pics to come soon!

Go Eagles!

Today was the Eagles and Jaguars game. The Eagles played here in Jacksonville and I was so excited to go to the game. That was until I found out that Landon would have to be a full priced ticket. There was no way I was going to pay that much money to run up and down the stadium after Landon. We decided to stay home and watch the game. I dressed Landon up in his Eagles shirt and couldn't help to compare today's pictures to those of two years ago. Wow, has it been that long already?! I took pictures of Landon while wearing his first Eagles outfit. Him and I were the only ones home watching that game as well. I can't believe how much Landon has grown and changed. He can now even say "Go Eagles!" I love my little eagle!

You're a Goose!

Landon has been going around pointing and laughing at people while saying "you're a goose!" This started when my mom tried teaching him duck, duck, goose. The only thing Landon learned from that game was how to call people a goose! We came across a goose at the Philadelphia Zoo. Landon was in awe when he saw the goose. He ran after it trying to give it a hug. Then the goose came running after Landon. Landon was not very happy afterwards. He re-told me what happened and I snapped pictures of him acting it out. "The Goose" as told by Landon through pictures:

There was a goose.

The goose tried to eat my hair and bite my head.

The goose was very scary. It scared me and I looked like this when it came running after me.

It was a very big goose!

I don't think Landon will ever run up to another goose again. I can't blame him though. I have a horrible childhood memory of geese chasing me onto a picnic table when I was 5. I have hated them ever since and won't go near them.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Landon and I recently took a little vacation to Pennsylvania. We had a great time and were sad to see it end. It was Landon's very first plane ride. I was so nervous about flying with him. I was scared that he would be a terror on the plane and I would have everyone starting at me because I couldn't control his screaming. Landon was the complete opposite. I don't know why I was so worried about his behavior, but I am glad I was proven wrong. Landon really is well behaved for the most part. I think I was just imagining the worst case scenario and making myself nervous. Other people on the plane weren't so nice when they came on and saw Landon. We had several rude comments from people as soon as they entered the plane and saw Landon. They would say things like "oh this is going to be a loud flight" or "I'm glad I packed my headphones". They were saying all of this just because they saw a toddler. Landon wasn't even making a sound or moving around at this point. I guess children do misbehave on planes, but I hated hearing those things being directed towards us. When I heard them saying that a small part of me actually wanted Landon to scream just a little bit just to make them angry. I am glad that Landon was well behaved though. Landon had the window seat which he loved. He would look at the clouds and point different things out to me. When I first told him to look at the clouds he thought I had said "look at the clowns". He was looking all over for clowns, but couldn't find any. It was the funniest thing. 

                                                       Looking for clowns!

The only difficult part of the flight was the fact that Landon figured out how to undo his seat belt in 1.2 seconds. I even thought I'd outsmart him by twisting it upside down so he couldn't see the buckle. It didn't work. He figured it out right away. I struggled with him to keep his seat belt on, but that is when lollipops came in handy. Bribery always works! 

The Jacksonville airport had a mural on one of the walls with jungle animals. Landon loved looking at the tigers. 

And yes I was completely cheesy and dressed Landon in a shirt with a plane on it for his first plane ride. 

So much happened over the course of two weeks in PA that I will write a bunch of small posts. That way there isn't one extremely long post with a million pictures in it.

Big Boy!

I haven't blogged in a little while, but for good reason. I will get a blog up shortly on how Landon and I spent our little vacation. Until then here is a quick update on our Landon love. Landon now refers to himself as "boy". Landon still can't say "Landon" so he was referring to himself as "baby". The other morning he woke up and decided he was no longer a baby because he started referring to himself as boy out of nowhere. It was the funniest thing. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. According to Landon he is all grown up now. If only he realized that big boys don't use diapers! Landon still loves Tigger and Pooh, but is also now a big fan of Mickey. It all started with our trip to Disney. Now he loves Mickey Mouse. He is also becoming quite the talker. Just last week I had three people comment about how well he talks for being two. I was still thinking that Landon was a little behind, but now I think he is right on track with talking when I hear other parents commenting how well he talks. In the past month alone Landon's vocab has more than tripled. He still signs a bit, but tends to say the actual words while signing. I am continually amazed by how well Landon verbally communicates now. I guess he really is becoming a "boy"! I'm also slowly building up Landon's winter wardrobe. Once again we may have a problem with getting pants to fit him. He fits perfectly into 24 month pants when we adjust the waist, but the length is becoming too short. 3T pants are too big on the waist even when adjusted, but the length is perfect. Landon isn't even extremely thin. I don't understand why we have such a difficult time finding pants to fit him properly. Maybe I will really learn how to sew one of these days and create a toddler clothing line that actually fits toddlers properly. Bedtime has become quite the joke around here lately. Landon now postpones bedtime. I really thought I had a few more years before he started doing that. He will ask for juice as soon as I tell him his final goodnight. Once I get him juice and tell him one last time to go to sleep he tells me that he has to pee. This coming from the boy who can't seem to pee on the potty seat during the day. I can't help but laugh at it every night. Now after Landon's done drinking his juice and insisting on sitting on the potty seat one last time he will say every word in his vocab. He'll start off naming everyone (Mommy, Daddy, Tinkie, Jenn, Mom Mom, and so on). Then he moves on to his animals (tiger, lion, zebra, giraffe). He'll go on and on and will even start to say his opposites (light/dark, up/down, on/off, hot/cold). He will literally start saying everything that he knows in no certain order. I think he just makes himself talk so that he stays awake. I sure hope this is a short lived phase of his, but something is telling me that it will only get worse before it gets better. I do love his persistence though. Since this blog was a lot of rambling about no one thing, I will end it with what everyone loves- a picture of Landon! This picture will also serve as a sneak peek for what is about to come.