Teeth

You know those little cartoon drawings of baby faces (they have a name but it's escaping me right now) that have three teeth, two on bottom and one on top? That's what our little Landon looks like right now. I've never actually seen a baby with this look. It does look a little funny and odd. Today his fourth tooth cut through the gums so this look will be short lived.

Landon is apparently in no hurry to become mobile. He has absolutely no interest in crawling; put him on his tummy and he rolls over immediately. He does have some interest in walking but he doesn't have his balance well enough yet to get moving. Nor does he have any fear of falling on his face. When he does try to take a few steps he usually ends up falling forward and seems to be quite fine with the prospect of knocking his now "four" teeth out as he take the header...thank god I've caught him or the waist of his pants in the knick of time.

Looking back (and ahead)

When I was younger I would hear so many adults talk about how quickly time flies. I really couldn't believe that time could pass by as quickly as they made it seem. I believe it now.

The holiday season has passed by...and when I say holiday season I mean Halloween through New Years. The holidays are different in the Midwest than they are on the West Coast.

First off, Pumpkin Hunting. In the Pacific Northwest, when you go pumpkin hunting you end up in rubber boots standing in inch deep mud in the middle of a pumpkin patch. You get to the pumpkin patch via a hay ride which is really just a flat bed trailer attached to a tracker with hay bails to sit on, no rails, nothing. Midwest stlye, you go to what's labeled as the "best pumpkin patch" which is really just a petting zoo with two large pop up tents that cover the mounds of pumpkins you can choose from. No mud, no rain, and a hay ride that required you sit on nicely spread out hay on the clean, side railed flat bed trailer that was driven around a half acre corn field!

Thanksgiving was the same as always...Tony in the kitchen cooking until he is ready to drop while the kids and I play and watch TV. Something tells me Tony will not be pleased that I mentioned this role reversal that occurs in our house...but then again you all know us well enough to know this is the way it has always has been. But, in my defense, I am much more interested in cooking these days and do around 75% of it!

Christmas. We looked up "tree farm" and were surprised to find one pretty close to home! It should have been labeled "plot of land between two subdivisions yet to be developed". Really. Driving in the navigation is saying ".2 miles on the left" and I'm thinking it's in someone's yard and then there is a 5 acre clearing with trees growing! You turn off the main road onto a dirt one and hand a guy $5 which rents you the nice tree saw he hands you and then you are on your own. You literally park on the side of the dirt road, walk out to the trees, find one, cut down, drag back to your car, throw that puppy on top and tie down with rope (if you need some, they do provide that). No guy with a mule and trailer to haul the thing back up to the shack where you can get a little cup of cocoa and watch a train travel around the village. No guy to stick that tree on a shaker thing to get all the spiders and dead needles off. No guy willing to carry that thing to the car and tie it down for you. Nope, all you and the spiders are an extra gift.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we experienced our first taste of the Midwest weather. We got inches upon inches of snow. Sub zero temps are something completely new to me and I'm not a big fan of hearing the words "we got up to -2 today". Jayden doesn't understand frostbite and that's not one I can let him "figure out" so each day he begs to go outside and play in the snow drift. The "snow drift" is actually the huge pile of snow that is nicely pushed up in front of our house by the snow plows (we live in a cul du sac). Tony seems to be at work when the heart of each storm dumping 4 or more inches of snow hits which means Jayden and I are out shoveling and shoveling. Jayden loves it now and he'll hate it once he's old enough to actually do it for us. And the kicker, we haven't even really hit the cold and snowy season! Great.

The best has been watching our boys over the last few months. Jayden loves it here. He's been having a great time at school, writing now and starting to spell. He seems to have grown up so much lately, leaving my heart aching that he's becoming a boy and no longer a baby. Landon has left the gummy smile behind and welcomed 3 teeth! It looks a little odd because he has two bottom and only one top. He waves and seems to say Hi if you say it to him first, that's in addition to the word Mama. No crawling yet but that's because I think he may just walk instead. Tonight was the first time I saw the brother bond. Landon was in his walker at the top of the basement stairs (get your breath back, I had the gate up so no one was going to go flying down the stairs) and he kept saying "ah ah"...he was calling to Jayden in the basement. When Jayden came up Landon got so excited and giggled. He spent the next half hour following Jayden around the kitchen as he set the table for dinner...which of course Jayden hated and told Landon "I can't get this table set with you dilleydalling around me all of the time". So much for my special moment.