6 Months and Counting

Landon is now 6 1/2 months old and so much is new.  Last week he got his first tooth (bottom front) and he's about to cut a couple more - it looks like at least 1 if not 2 on the top.  So that hasn't made for great nights overall, but we did manage to sneak in his first 12-hour night - that was wonderful!!  Just this past weekend he learned to wave and he learned to scoot/roll himself across the room.  In the past couple of weeks he started saying "mama" and really associating it with me. He is also getting better at eating baby food and continues to love trying whatever "real" food he can get his hands on.  Some of his faves are spaghetti sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pickles, nutri-grain bars, etc. 

In terms of his continuing travels, he's now been to 8 states and on 6 commercial round-trip flights. His first small plane flight will be in December when we go to Fredericksburg. He does great on commercial flights so far, so we hope that keeps up and that he does well in the small plane.

Anyway, he's just been so much fun and the time flies by. We expect him to start crawling soon, but we'll see how he progresses. Enjoy the pics!

On my 6th month birthday

 With Gaga and then Mama at the beach in St. Pete's (we went to a pirate-themed party that night)

 Ready to eat more spaghetti sauce and run in the waves!

First Halloween - Special Delivery!

Landon and his Great Grandparents (aka Landon's World Travels Continued)

We have had a very eventful month!  Landon has now met all 5 of his great-grandparents. He has also been on 4 round-trip commercial flights, attended his first wedding, and has been "served' his first kid's meal (at the wedding). He's now sitting up by himself and rolling over at night in his crib (not sure this is a good milestone yet!).  He's also laughing much more (the laughing fits are priceless) and becoming at least a bit more receptive to baby food. We do know he likes big people food - sweet potato fries and bagels have now been added to the list of "real" foods he's tried inadvertantly (he's really fast at grabbing food off a plate) and seemed to love.

Below are some pics from our recent adventures. Enjoy!

Great-Grandma and Grandpa Wanda & Wesley and 1st cousins Jordyn &Kaleb

This time with 2nd cousins Madison & Justin

Little man ready for the wedding!

Yes, they served him a kid's meal. :) He wanted those fries!

With Great-Grandma Sis and all the 2nd cousins on this side of the family except Jake. Landon got the seat of honor!

Meeting up with Jackson again...this time at Capaha Park in Cape. These Texas boys are both world travelers!

Great-Grandma and Grandpa Mary and Luke - this is a 4 generations picture

Veteran traveler...and those airline plastic cups are a ton of fun!



And finally, a really fun short video of his "baby crunches" and self-entertainment....

5 months and tailgating

Yes, that's right, Landon has now attended his first official tailgate and NFL football game. Texans v. Cowboys. The outcome wasn't great for us as Texans fans, but Landon had a ball at the game.

Papa Wes had a photo shoot idea. :)

Sitting up on the tailgate! 

It gets REALLY loud in Reliant Stadium so we were prepared - and he didn't mind wearing them either...now we know we're ready to fly with him in the small plane

It's been an exciting month all around. Landon can now sit up by himself - he's still getting his full balance but it's amazing how much steadier he gets every day.  He is talking up a storm and his sense of humor is really developing. He loves to laugh, especially when we tickle him or when we play tug of war with him for something he is holding. He also loves to jump and bounce and just play rough in general.  I think we're going to be in for it when he gets mobile! We started rice cereal and oatmeal this month but he's still getting used to the texture and the spoon. We haven't been very consistent  with giving him some every day yet. But we're trying to work that in now that he's getting closer to the 6-month mark.   And soon we're going to start with the veggies.

He wasn't thrilled with his first taste of squash!

But he does seem to look forward to the day he can eat bacon...this was a late night dinner on Saturday after church at Denny's. As soon as my plate came, he went straight for the bacon, before I could even stop him. He played with it the entire meal. Who needs rattles when you can play with bacon!?

Landon and I also went to Nashville this past month so he could meet his Branson cousins. This was my first trip alone with him and he was very easy on me on the flights. On the descent on the way home he even grabbed for his room-temperature bottle and put it to his mouth to drink. Not only does he not usually eat a bottle that is not warm, he had never given himself a bottle for me before. So I considered that a miracle for his ears on that descent.  But anyway, the trip overall was fantastic; the cousins all loved each other and we had a blast celebrating cousin Shiloh's 4th birthday.  Although it certainly was the "Land of Pink", Landon got to try a lot of new things - walker, bumbo, swingset, Wiggles. He loved them all!



Landon and Shiloh

 

Landon and Sydney

Landon and Papa Mike

Landon and Mama in enemy territory rooting for the Texans

So we're really enjoying Landon and hope you have enjoyed this long overdue update.  Life is hectic with work and daycare and traveling!  Below are a few other random pictures from the month. Enjoy!

This little cowboy is ready to party for our friend Christy's 40th

"Do all girls talk this much??" These two had a full blown conversation, but she did most of the talking!

Watching Week 2 of the NFL season from his bumbo

Lucy is getting a bit more scared of Landon now that he pulls her fur, but they are still buddies

(he also loves the remote)

And here's a sweet one from daycare after Nanny Judy stopped by to rock him to sleep

Landon is 4 months old!

We visited the doc today for Landon's checkup and shots.  He's 15 lbs 11oz and he's 24 1/2 inches tall now.  He's in the 65th and 35th percentiles, respectively, so the doctor and I joked that he's short and fat. :)   But the biggest development from the appt is the go-ahead to try solids. He's been showing a lot of interest in what we're eating lately, so we'll start trying some rice cereal and then other solids. We'll be sure to take pictures of all the messes.

So Landon's been doing great. He's getting better and better at grabbing things, including his own feet. He's been rolling a lot more from side to side as he grabs his feet, so we're expecting him to get a lot more mobile on the floor soon. He's also adjusting to daycare quite well - he's able to interact a bit more with the other babies now, which I think he enjoys. He is just such a happy baby and we are so grateful for that - he smiles at everyone and is really so much fun to be around. He's also been pretty predictable at night, typically waking up twice in a 12-hour period and wanting to go to bed about the same time every night (7-8).  Sometimes it's harder for us to be ready to put him to bed than it is to actually get him to sleep.  But he's been sleeping longer periods at a time, so maybe one of these days we'll have a consistent sleep-through-the-night baby. Although I'm probably jinxing our chances just by writing that!



For those who like videos, I've uploaded 2 new videos of Landon playing in his Jump-n-Go...he's getting good at it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atLvxd2FEZg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiqf5H7NfRM


And below are some other recent photos from various things Landon's been doing. We have a lot of traveling coming up in Sept and Oct, so I'm sure we'll have a lot more pics to share from those visits.

new shoes!

big boy in jeans and shoes

with my new friend jackson fry!

 

watching the astros (seriously!)

Oshkosh, Chinese Brothers, and Daycare

Last week we had a great time in OshKosh for the annual AirVenture event. Landon did really well, although he did get tired of his stroller/carseat at times. But overall, we tried to take it easy on him and he did wonderfully. He would even watch the airshows at times - his eyes tracked those airplanes across the sky. He wasn't too bothered by the noise except when he was trying to eat and a big loud mustang or some other plane came by.  We really enjoyed spending the week with him in those surroundings and we got a lot of smiles and comments on "starting him early" and "future pilot".  He especially impressed us on our flights - he was the best behaved baby on the plane both ways!  Here are some photos of the trip.

Enjoying his first flight

Dad imitating Landon...I'm hungry!

Having fun in the camping cabin (we didn't last long there--moved to Holiday Inn!)

Ready for the first day at AirVenture

Chilling at the seaplane base

Resting after a long first day

Naked baby and airplanes - so cute!

Watching the planes overhead in the airshow

Landon loved walking around in the Bjorn with Dad!

Visiting with Cousins Brian and Madison

Landon's favorite souvenir from OshKosh

Today we said goodbye to Landon's Chinese brothers. Michael and Kevin (their chosen American names) were very good kids and we enjoyed the 2 weeks we spent with them. Last night they cooked us dinner and it was delicious. Although they said they had never cooked before, that is hard to believe. It was a traditional Chinese dish. First, an eggs/tomatoes dish and then a chicken/peppers/noodle soup dish. By the way, soy sauce on eggs is awesome.  We also got to know some of the other host families in our church and through that, we made some great new friends!

Dinner with Lindsay & Chris' boys: Alan, Sam, Kevin, & Michael

This week was a big milestone for us too (especially me) because Landon started daycare.  He did pretty well and the teachers are getting to know him and his needs a little better every day. A funny coincidence is a little boy named Brandon who is about a month older - he could be Landon's twin!  Anyway, Landon was worn out the first 2 days after I picked him up and slept all afternoon/evening until bedtime, then went to bed for the night. But the past 2 days he's stayed awake most of the afternoon/evening and has been in pretty good spirits (although noticeably more tired than usual).  And last night we had a big milestone - his first 9 hour night!  He usually goes about 6 hours and then 3-4 hours. But last night he drank a whopping 8.5 oz of milk before bed and made it all night. We were very excited about that, obviously. 

Ms. George & Ms. O'Brien with Landon on his first day of daycare

So overall, Landon is doing great, growing like crazy, and learning more new things every day. He's getting good at grabbing things now and pulling them to his mouth. He's also even stronger and can easily stand (with balance support from us) and hold himself up on his elbows during tummy time. He's getting better at sitting up when propped up as well.  He's also "talking" rather than outright crying when he tries to communicate what he wants. It's very cute and his tired "talking" will break your heart, it's so precious. We took a video of it when we were in Wisconsin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ApoHehMn4