What's Up Homie!

Matt and Alex had one task the other day- to watch Landon for two seconds while I ran back inside for something. When I returned back to the car, Landon greeted me with "what's up homie" while wearing a backwards hat! I don't think Uncle Matt and Uncle Alex will be able to keep an eye on Landon again, even for just one second. There's no telling what they'll teach Landon next!

Muffin Makin'

Landon loves to help in the kitchen. Whether it's cooking, baking, or washing the dishes he is always by my side wanting to help. Yesterday we made cinnamon muffins and had a lot of fun while doing so. The entire time I was singing the Muffin Man song to Landon and now he's been going around singing his version of it all day today!

 You're never too young to learn how to crack an egg!

 Landon was even in charge of pouring the batter.

Super Readers!

According to Landon there is only one super hero- Super Why! He could care less about Batman, Superman, or Spiderman. Maybe because he has never actually watched anything with them in it, but nontheless Landon thinks that the power of super reading is the only super power. He loves watching Super Why and the Super Readers solve reading problems. Landon goes around in a pair of orange goggles daily. He has been known to where them to Target and just about anywhere else that we go. The other day we came across two orange circles on the street. Landon was so excited when he saw them. He pointed excitedly while saying, "Look Mommy! The street has gobbles too!" Landon says "gobbles" for "goggles" which makes it even cuter! 

Landon even has a dance that he does along with the Super Why theme song. I'll have to try to sneak a video of it one day to share with everyone. He'll stop dancing once he realizes that I'm watching him so I'll have to be "sneaky sneaky" as Landon would say!

Summer Fun

One of my most favorite parts of summer is the afternoon rain showers. It may mean that we are stuck indoors for a little while, but they never last for long and they allow us to have plenty of fun after wards. After a good rain I love to take Landon outside to jump in the puddles. It's always a lot of fun and he could spend hours jumping and splashing. 

 Another part of summer that we are beginning to enjoy is swimming. I have always loved pools, but Landon never shared the same love for pools. That was until yesterday. We spent two hours in the pool. Landon actually swam in the pool for two whole hours! I was amazed. It took him all summer last year just to become brave enough to sit on the ledge of the pool. Last month he would go as far as the second step, but now his is a little fish in the pool. He wouldn't let go of me or of the swimming ring that someone allowed him to borrow, but he had a blast. I'm so happy that Landon learned to love the pool. I see a lot more swimming in our near future. The only down fall to all of the swimming is Landon crashing. He fell asleep on the floor as I was making dinner. He napped until almost 8:00 p.m. which made for a very late night. I guess our pool time will have to be in the mornings for now on so that he doesn't crash in the evenings just before bed time.

STOP!

On our way home from our July 4th festivities we made a quick stop at Walgreens. We decided to walk over to Walgreens through a parking lot and we came upon a stop sign. Landon looked up at it and then pointed out each letter as he said what they were. "S-T-O-F! Stop Mommy! Stop!" Landon read his very first word and I couldn't be prouder of him. I'm not quite sure why he confused the "P" for an "F" because he can properly identify both letters regularly, but either way he's growing up far too quickly. I applauded him and smothered him with hugs and kisses. I then pointed to the "P" and asked him what letter it was. He corrected himself. I blame the first little mess up on the fact that it was dark out and almost 11:00 p.m. I work with him daily on his letters. I was so happy to be able to see the fruits of my labor. He's also learning to write his letters as well. He received a great gift at his birthday party and he's been playing with it almost daily since. It's the LeapFrog Scribble and Write tablet and it has helped a lot with Landon learning his letters. It makes learning fun. I love how portable it is. It really does go just about everywhere with us. It also eases my mind a bit on days when we run out of time to do an arts and craft project with letters. I don't feel as bad with we skip some letter working days because I know he at least learned them on his writing tablet. Our Landon Love is growing up. He even tells me a bed time story whenever I lay down. If I put my head down on the couch or lay down with him at night he will tell me a bed time story. He will usually tell me a story about elephants drinking water with their trunks! It's one of the cutest things ever! I love him to pieces!

Biting Search

I decided to check the blog stats to see who has been viewing the blog and how often. I like to check on those things every now and then just for the heck of it. I came across a funny finding. Someone was referred to Landon's World by searching "bite-himself on his arms" in a web search. I don't know why, but I found this to be funny. I guess Landon wasn't the only toddler to bite himself on the arms! Thankfully, this stage has been long gone. I actually forgot all about Landon having a biting stage until I saw it pop back up on here. So to the person searching for answers on how to get your child to stop biting themselves, rest assure that it will stop on its own time. Boy am I glad that I no longer have to deal with this. Once Landon was able to properly express himself through words, then he stopped biting himself on his arms.

I love being able to read through the blog and remember the little stages of Landon's life that I would have other wise forgotten about. This is going to be a great time capsule of sorts when we're older.

Our July 4th

I love the Fourth of July. It is one of my favorite holidays. It's right up there with New Years Eve. What's not to love about the Fourth? The Fourth of July means cook outs, fireworks, family time, and usually activities around water. This year was no different. We spent the evening with Jenn and we grilled some hot dogs and then went off to The Landing. We walked around for a bit and then took a little ferry ride. Landon was begging for a boat ride so that is just what we did. Landon was so sweet on the boat. I was feeling sea sick almost immediately (darn those hot dogs and chili right before hand) and Landon tried to comfort me. He would place his hand on my knee and say, "I here for you Mommy." He melted my heart once again! Whenever he's not feeling well or scared of something I always place my hand on him and tell him that Mommy is always here for him. He did the same thing when Aunt TT told him that I was feeling sick. What a sweet, sweet boy! The boat ride was a little long for me, but Landon loved it.

Notice the little bit of purple underneath the flag? That was my first sign that Landon was going to have a meltdown during the fireworks. When he realized that the fountain was lighting up and changing colors he became scared. We weren't even allowed to walk by it because he would start screaming in fear. I'm not really sure why, but that should have been my clue to take him out of there while we were ahead. The firework display was torture. Landon screamed and cried through the entire thing. He kept screaming that he was scared and refused to look up at the fireworks. He would also become upset when I would look up at them. He wanted me to cover his face and ears the entire time and he still screamed throughout it.

My Landon Love was so scared and I felt so bad for putting him through it. Right before the fireworks began, he was excited for them. He kept pointing to the fireword character on his shirt and then pointing to the sky while asking, "Now? Now?" over and over again. We managed to pass the final minutes up until the firework display by finding creative ways for Landon to have fun. He found a small pile of leaves by the stairs and spent quite some time throwing them on himself.

He also made a little friend while we were waiting and they passed the time by playing with some toy trains and race cars. Minus the firework meltdown it was a near perfect night. We even managed to get a picture by the fountain early on in the day before the feared light display was turned on:

Right after this picture was taken the wind kicked in and we became soaking wet. And I do mean soaking wet. We looked as if we came off of a log flume ride once this picture was snapped. At least we cooled off!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

"Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall." ~John Dickinson