Is There Anything Cuter Than....

...this boy...

 ...with the big brown eyes?!

I don't think so either!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter a few days late! Easter was very low key this year and I absolutely loved it. It was one of the best Easter's in a long time. We did absolutely nothing. I loved our laid back Easter. The Easter Bunny brought Landon a number of goodies. I think Landon's favorite gifts were his fishing pole and Super Why DVD. We also did an Easter egg hunt outside and Landon had a blast with it. We did an Easter egg hunt the day before Easter as well, but for once I found myself without a camera to capture it. It was a lot of fun though. There was the traditional egg hunt, but they also had a number of other activities. There were bounce houses, train rides, pony rides, a petting zoo, and carnival games. All of these things were geared towards toddlers so Landon had a blast. I did get a number of pictures Easter Day to make up for the lack of pictures of the egg hunt. 

Dying Easter Eggs!

 Landon loves Super Why!

 Landon also loved the candy bracelets.....

 ...until Mommy took them away! I didn't realize he made this face until I uploaded all of the photos later on that evening!

 Looking for Easter eggs

 In true Landon fashion, he lined them all up to count them when he was done.

 Landon found it challenging to resist the yummy Easter cake!

 

He kept saying that he didn't taste it, but his nose gave him away!

Landon Laughing

Landon has a toy with buttons of the alphabet on it. When you push one of the buttons it will say the letter name or play music depending on the play mode. Landon was playing with it the other day and when it was switched to the music mode he broke into laughter every time he pushed a button. It was absolutely priceless! I could spend all day re-watching the video clip. I don't think there is anything cuter than a child laughing hysterically.

Play-Doh Making and Heffalump Trapping

Landon loves to play with Play-doh. I just hate how quickly it dries out and how often I have to keep buying it. We always put it away in the sealed containers as soon as we are done playing with it, but after a few uses it still dries out. I decided to make some play-doh. It was actually rather easy to do. Landon loved helping during the preparation process. I didn't take any pictures of that because it would have been a little hard taking pictures while supervising Landon pouring flour, salt, and water into bowls. Landon quickly lost interest during the cooking process. There wasn't anything that he was able to do because I don't allow him to get near the stove. Stirring the ingredients in the pot over a hot stove is not very toddler friendly. Landon stood there watching me for a minute or two and then he started rummaging through the cabinets. He walked away with one pot, two lids, and one colander. He left the kitchen to go and trap Heffalumps! I continued cooking the play-doh and realized that the yellow play-doh wasn't going to turn out. Before we began I asked Landon what two colors he wanted. He responded with green and yellow so those are the colors that we made. However, when I added the flour I realized that the yellow wasn't going to be bright yellow that we were hoping for. I didn't have any regular flour on hand so I had to use whole wheat flour. I failed to take into account that the brown flour would change the color of the light yellow. The end result was more of a mustard yellow. Thankfully, Landon is pretty easy going and having fun was the only end result that he cared about. Fun was exactly what we had! Landon has a Cookie Monster play-doh set that makes letters, fruits, and veggies out of the play-doh and then he can feed them to Cookie Monster. He loves this set. We were making some letters for Cookie Monster to eat and I made the letter "K". I told Landon that it was a "K" and he exclaimed "Barbie!" I guess he's been watching too much Toy Story. He automatically thought of Ken and Barbie when he heard the letter "K"!

 

On the hunt for Heffalumps!

Toddler Years

I love, love, love the age that Landon is at. I miss the baby days. I wish I had those precious new born moments back, but I absolutely adore the toddler years. Sure they are filled with challenges. I think most of the challenges stem from Landon thinking he is more grown than he is. The other week I told Landon to pick up his toys because I was going to vacuum. He didn't want to pick them up so I moved them to his bedroom out of the way. He was so mad that I moved his toys. He stomped off to his room, let out an exaggerated huff, and slammed his bedroom door shut. Just in case I didn't hear him the first time he immediately repeated this act. I thought I had at least 10 more years before the door slamming started. What two year old stomps off to their room when they are mad?! I just had to laugh at it. I couldn't believe he had done it. Landon also has a whole lot of attitude packed into a small body. He knows what he wants and he's not shy to express himself. I think the eye rolling that he does is what drives me nuts. He constantly rolls his eyes at me. That's another thing that I thought I had several years before it started. Another new thing that he has started saying is "hear me!" If Landon is trying to get my attention, but I'm busy doing something he will scream, "Hear me Mommy! Hear me!" Just this weekend I had told Landon that it was time to leave the volleyball court (he loves playing in the sand) and he wasn't listening. I started counting to three and he usually comes by two because he hates time outs. This time he allowed me to finish counting to three. Not only did he allow me to count to three, but he then added to it. He finished my count by adding "four, five, six..." all the way up to thirteen! What a smart butt! I really do love these toddler years. I love all of the new things that Landon is saying and doing. I can't believe my baby Landon is almost three. I'm sad to see his baby years go, but I am excited for the last bit of the toddler stage.

Spring Fling

Our local Chick-fil-a had a Spring Fling this evening. Boy did Landon have fun. They had all kinds of animals there for Landon to look at and pet. Landon loved the baby ducks and guinea pigs the most because they reminded him of the Wonder Pets. One baby duck did bite Landon's hand. It was more of a quick peck, but it caused Landon to laugh hysterically. He said that Ming Ming (the baby duck from Wonder Pets) was trying to lick him!

He even asked a worker if he could pet a baby chick so they pulled one out for him.

They also had another pony for Landon to brush and another cow for him to pet. He sure has been doing a lot of cow petting and pony brushing these past couple of weeks.

I loved the baby sheep. They were absolutely adorable! They were almost as cute as the pot-bellied pig taking a nap on a bunny!

Landon also loved the sheep and goats, especially feeding them. I even caught Landon trying to help a baby goat escape from the cage!

Landon was even able to try some cotton candy. Being the Landon that he is, he only ate one bite before throwing it out. He said that it was sticky and didn't want to eat it.

I think Spring time is quickly becoming my favorite season. There is so much stuff to do around town this time of year. Most of which involve petting zoos for absolutely free! We also enjoy getting lots of outdoor time after dinner. It's not too terribly hot outside in the evenings so we use this time to our advantage. I usually take Landon outside around 5:30 and we'll stay outside until 7:00 or so when it is time to come in for bed. Yesterday evening Landon wanted to ride his scooter. He rode it around the entire block without stopping! He only fell once and quickly got back up. He told me that he wasn't hurt because Mommy put his "gummy pads" on- his monkey elbow and knee pads!

Child Labor

Today has been the third day in a row that Landon has colored some part of the house with crayons and markers. Needless to say, all writing utensils are now put up out of his sight and reach. Landon has an art desk in his closet that is filled with crayons, markers, and coloring books. He is able to use these things at his own leisure and we have never had a problem with doing so over the past year. Just the other day I stepped out of the shower to see Landon completely covered in marker. He even managed to cover his eye lids in green marker.

He found the arts and crafts bag that I had underneath my bed. I forgot that there was a box of markers in there. Thankfully, I don't buy any crayons or markers that are not washable.

A few days later I found my bedroom carpet covered in marker while Landon was suppose to be napping. He never takes a nap anymore. I should have known he was up to something when he asked to go "night night in Mommy's bed" in the middle of the afternoon. I allowed him to go lay down in my bed. I came in to check on him about an hour later and he got into the markers that I took away several days before. I thought I placed them high enough, but apparently not.

The next day Landon was in his room playing. I went to check on him and saw that he colored all over his bedroom wall with his Tadoodle markers that were on his art desk. I explained to him that we can only color on paper, placed him on time out, and cleaned up the walls. Then today I find him once again coloring on his walls with his crayons. This time I decided to make him clean the mess. He wasn't allowed out of the room until the walls were clean. Since he is only two I wasn't expecting too much from him with the cleaning. I know his version of clean and my version of clean are two different things. I just wanted him to attempt cleaning the walls. I watched him wash the walls by himself for about ten minutes. He got most of the crayon off. He then tells me "boy done" and asks to read a book. Hopefully having him clean the walls will teach him not to color on them. Just to be safe all crayons and markers have been put up on top of his closet.

Blue Bubble Disaster

Dear Crayola,

We really do love your crayon products. However, you should have stopped while you were ahead. There was no need to branch out into the world of bubbles. Please stick to just crayon making. You would make mommies all over the world very happy. Your colored bubble launcher was a huge flop for us. I think it was the worst toy that Landon has ever received. If you saw the number of toys this child has accumulated over the past (almost) three years, then that is saying a lot. Your bubbles have left stains on my patio, on my grass, on my pants, and on my dog. I immediately took this product back to the store (after taking cute pictures of my messy toddler, of course!) and exchanged it for the Crayola 3-D chalk. A much better product! You want to know why that was? Because it was chalk, a lot like crayons. Please, I urge you to stop trying to branch out and stick to your traditional writing products. Thank you!

From,
A mommy now thinking she is living in the world of Smufs!

Manners and ABCs

Here is a quick, cute Landon story.

I threw a blanket on Landon's head just playing around with him and he yells "Hey! Say sorry (to) me Mommy!" I apologize to him and he responds with "Thank you!"

At least the boy has manners!

He's also beginning to sing his ABC's and they go something like this, "A,B,C,L,O,P,W,Y,B!" Close enough Landon!

Weekend in Review

We had a very busy weekend. Our weekend revolved around animals and water fun.

Over this weekend we fed and brushed ponies:

Fed goats

Rode a horse

Petted a cow with horns (I'm not sure what they are called. Landon was partial to "big Daddy cow").

Fed giraffes

Went on a dinosaur expedition!

Rode a tiger!

Swam with the dolphins!

 

 Watched Kimodo Dragons eat rats and chickens (rather gross, but Landon loved it).

 

Watched penguins swim

 And conquered the big slide!

 

Whew! What a weekend!