Lovin' Landon

I've been wanting to post about Landon for a while.  So many random little special moments over the past few months or so.  I love this little boy.  He has the best laugh and the sweetest smile.  When my kids are happy, they just melt my heart.  It's that kind of uncontainable joy that brings a huge smile to your face and tears to your eyes at the same time.

A lot of people have trouble understanding Landon when he speaks.  I will admit that I don't get everything, but I feel that I can honestly say that I'm about as fluent in three-year-old as they come.  Landon has a special way of formulating sentences as well.  I love it!  I know I'm obligated as a parent to teach my children to speak correctly and I will generally correct them when they say things like, "I felled" or (my favorite Trevyism) "I doed (pronounced 'dude', as in past tense of do) it", but it also makes me a little sad, knowing that someday they will speak like adults, like educated individuals.  And that will make me proud too, but I will miss these sweet little magic moments when they speak purely from their hearts and it's okay!

On the way home from seeing Dr. Parry a few weeks ago, Landon wanted to sit in Trevy's seat.  As we had a stop to make to pick up medication before we picked up the girls, I knew I could have him back in his own seat before Trevy saw him and any battle ensued, so I told him he could sit in Trevy's seat on the way to the grocery store.  (She now sits directly behind me on the front bench seat, next to Timmy.)

As we left the parking lot, Landon told me that when we picked up the girls, Trevy would ask him -  emphasizing each word in his own special way - "'May I have my seat back, Landon, please?'  And I'll say, 'Yes.'"  It was the sweetest thing!  Timmy was asleep after another rough day being sick so it was nice to have some quality time with Landon.  He is currently obsessed with buses.  Particularly school buses.  He even told me, "Mom, I love buses" on the way to the pediatrician's office later that week.  He knows the sign for bus and will point them out wherever we go.  Our appointment with Dr. Parry had been at 2:30 so we were leaving at the prime time for spotting school buses.  He pointed out a number of "big yellow buses" and city buses on our way home.  Such fun for him to have something to do in the car that he so enjoys.  The girls help him watch for them too.  They all talk about getting to ride on one someday.  Ah, the fantasies of youth!

Landon also loves to help.  If James walks through the door with grocery bags, Landon will run outside to get a load.  He also loves helping James catch grasshoppers to feed the chickens and collecting the chickens' eggs.  Speaking of, he's still my little chef and has also started wanting to be the one to vacuum and who am I to get in the way of that dream? ☺

He has a definite hot streak in him, but he can be so sweet.  Especially with little people.  Especially little girls.  Quite the ladies' man.  A few weeks ago, James was doing some dental work on the young son of some friends of ours.  We hadn't seen the Busbys for way too long so we decided to make it a party and take everyone to the office.  Obviously more work to get 9 kids there in a reasonably good mood than anyone would want to do on a regular basis but so worth it!  We were there for a couple of hours and Heidi and I could have chatted for at least a couple more days!

Jenny tried to entertain our little people with bubbles and we messed up the floor pretty well with the granola bars.

So worth the vacuuming to get pictures this sweet!

Just call him Landoman the Ladies' Man!

The one puzzle in the office.

Landon is also 100% boy.  James found a used tennis racket the other day and Landon has already claimed it to be his.  Even with the cold weather now, he wants to go out and hit some balls against the wall.  He also has pretty impressive hand-eye coordination and is well on his way to being a great batter.  (Should work out well with Timmy's pitching arm!)

Landon also loves having a brother.  I think he enjoys having sisters close to his age to play with as well, but he really wants to play with Timmy these days.  He asks me on a regular basis to put Timmy in his lap in the rocking chair, wants to push Timmy in the stroller, tries to get Timmy to stand so he can help him walk (I think Timmy's a little scared so he usually refuses), and even asked if he could carry Timmy into the Snider-Simons' house last week for preschool.  I ended up having to walk Timmy in so Landon could hold a hand as well.  Such a sweet big brother!

And, as one might expect from a little boy, there's no lack in his love of cars.  Especially the nice pull-and-go racers that General Mills was putting in their cereal boxes.

These pictures were from back in August.  So silly!

He's so good at making Timmy laugh!

 ♪♫ "He's the one eye, one eye, one eye.  He's the one eye, one eye love." ♪♫

He loves playing tiger with James and has become Dad's "Tiger Boy".

One of my favorite posts that I never got around to from back in the spring was when Landon learned to pump himself on the swings.  About that time, the kids had discovered that they could just reach the key holder from the back of the couch and would climb up there all the time.  We never lost our keys (thankfully) but the kids set the alarm off in the Honda more times than I care to remember.  We told them that that is annoying to the neighbors and finally just moved the key holder all together.  Much nicer!  In any case, one evening I was out at the swing set with just Landon and we could hear sirens a distance away and he said, "Uh oh, somebody pushed the button."

This video only shows the girls pumping, but Landon figured out how to pump himself soon after.  He still seems to like to do things on his belly, though.  He goes down the slide on his belly too!

Another favorite post that I wanted to put together was watching the paving of the parking lot across the street.  On the way to the zoo one day, I noticed that they had removed all the gravel in the parking lot and leveled it.  When we got back, the western half was covered in asphalt, but the part directly across from us was still dirt.  Landon was in 7th Heaven!  I had never actually watched the paving of a parking lot myself so we all sat out there for a good hour or so, watching the asphalt get dumped, spread and packed down.

I gave Landon permission to sit in front of our cactus garden to watch.  He was very obedient, never getting close to the street,  and sat in awe watching the big trucks dump out the asphalt.

I think we may have been able to snag some lunch during the tedious unloading and spreading of the asphalt.  (This was back at the beginning of March, so I don't distinctly recall.)  But the roller-compactor was by far Landon's favorite.

As we were arriving home, the guy driving it finished up the little section in front of the church and zoomed back to the big parking lot on the other side and Landon yelled after him, "Hey!  HEY!"  As in - how dare you take off with my truck?!  So it was a real treat for Landon to get to watch him roller the entire east parking lot.  The guy even waved to him.  (One of the church CEOs came over to watch and take pictures and talk to us and was telling us about how much force those little trucks exert on the ground.  I only wish my memory were that good, but I remember it being pretty impressive, given the size of the machine.)

 Landon just parked himself out in our driveway.

 So cute.

 So sweet.

 So tired.

I just love Landon.  He's such a fun little kid.