Sleeping in his own room..

For those of you who know us well, Sam and I vowed that Landrick (or any other future child) would sleep in our bed. I can honestly say that we've stayed true to that promise, although there are a few others that we haven't. hehe.

Before I had Landrick (and even when he was only a month or two old) I swore that he'd be in his own room once he was able to roll over easily. Well, he's been rolling over easily for at least 2 months now (probably longer) but he's just spent his third night in his own room. He seems to be fairly unfazed, as he still goes to bed at about the same time, still wakes in the middle of the night at the same time, and does just about as good of a job of falling asleep on his own. The transition has obviously been harder for me. I miss watching him sleep... hearing his little grunts... and laughing with Sam when Landrick would pop his little head up to watch So You Think You Can Dance, or just to check to make sure Mommy and Daddy were still there. I miss watching and listening to him 'talk' to the animals on his blanket... I miss hearing him scratch the side of his pack 'n play and then giggle to himself...

I know, it's only been three nights... but I'm still getting use to the little man not being right next to Mommy. I know the separation needed to occur, but it doesn't make me miss those little moments. My little man is growing up...

The sock monkey that almost got away!

When I became pregnant I knew that I would love my baby-to-be with all of my heart... but I don't think I fully realized the emotional roller coaster that was about to begin. I never imagined that I would be so sad for him to grow up but excited at the same time... I never thought I'd be the type of mother who would keep him sleeping in the pack 'n play in our bedroom till he was almost 8 months old... I didn't think that I would sleep with me head at the end of the bed just so I could check on him throughout the night... and I never thought I would cry if we lost one of his toys. Well, thus far I've been wrong on all of those accounts.

On Monday while we were shopping for some snacks for the hotel room, oatmeal for Landrick and travel wipes we had a little incident with Mr. Sock Monkey. Landrick kicked him out of his seat and out of the cart. I saw Mr. SM on the floor, picked him up and put him back in. Halfway across the store later, while in the shoe isle, Sam noticed that Mr. SM was missing. I immediately went into panic mode. Sam retraced our steps in the shoe isles and I went back to the baby isles... but could not find Mr. SM anywhere. Sam then said he would go back over to the snack isle to look there while I looked in the baby and show isles again. I did not find him and was already preparing myself to accept the fact that Landrick's favorite little animal might be gone forever.

When Sam came around the corner back from the snack isle he wasn't holding Mr. SM and neither was Landrick. Sam just kind of looked at me an shrugged and I immediately started to cry... who would have thought? Although I know Landrick would have been unfazed, I still was so sad that this little toy that he was fond of and we'd watch him cutely play with over the past several months was gone... and not even gone to someone else who would love him the same way. I kept thinking... I wonder if they would announce a missing sock monkey over their intercom? Would that be crazy to ask? What would I do if I saw Mr. SM in someone elses cart.... would I confront them (btw, the answer to that one was YES). Just as I laid my head on Sam's shoulder he reached into his back pocket and pulled Mr. SM out... I think I cried even more when I saw him again. He gave Mr. SM back to Landrick who squealed with delight and grabbed the little guy. Apparently, Mr. Sock Monkey escaped while we were in the cereal isle.... I told Sam that I may never eat cereal again.

Oh Mr. Sock Monkey, Mommy may have to put a leash on you!

Watermelon and Pickles, Oh My!

Lately I've eased up on my rigidness when it comes to introducing 'flavors' to Landrick. I still will not allow anyone to feed him high sugary foods or anything that isn't pureed, but I have begun allowing him to have 'tastes' of different foods from the table.

The first 'new' food I let him taste was watermelon. I pushed my finger into the watermelon and got some juice on the end of it and then allowed him to lick the juice off of my finger... he loved it! He loved it so much that I decided to give him a little piece to 'gum' on. I smashed it down close to the rind so there would be nothing to choke on and let him suck the juices. He was sooooooo happy! He got quite mad when we took it away from him... hehe. I guess he inherited my love for watermelon:)

Yesterday I let him taste a pickle... is it bad that Sam and I found it REALLY funny? Poor little man didn't really like the sourness of the pickle, although I should have know that since he thinks that applesauce is too sour!

Sitting up!

Landrick has started sitting up for long durations (5 min or longer) by himself. He first really sat up on his own on Saturday June 12th while in Cincinnati visiting Nonnie Jane and Pawpaw Fred. What a little boy he is becoming! Last night while in a cabin with Mom and Dad at Carter Caves he sat up for more than 5 minutes on his own while playing with his toys. He’s still a little wobbly of course, but he’s finally gotten the hang of it. He was even able to reach down and to his side and pick up a toy to play with! Mommy’s proud of her baby boy’s core strength! Hehe

While we were all sitting around being totally impressed at what a good job he was doing he ended up reaching a bit too far to his right for a toy and kind of plopped over. I caught him but as he was in mid fall he let out a little toot, when then as he fell further turned into a long bigger toot! We all had a good laugh at that. And, the best part…. Sam was videotaping! Ha! I’m sure Landrick will loooooove watching that when he’s older.

He’s talking more and more (still in baby language) and can now make the ‘BOP’ sound. He started out with ‘Da da da da’, then progressed to ‘Ma ma ma ma’ then went on the ‘Na na na na’ and now there’s ‘Ba ba ba’ and ‘Bop Bop Bop’. He’s also quite good at putting different sounds (words, in my opinion) together to form what I think are sentences. I told me mom last night that it was music to my ears to hear him babble… I can’t get enough of it. I know I will miss that when he learns to actually talk….

By the way, we’ve realized that our baby boy can’t sleep well unless it’s noisy. I guess that can be a good thing… but it can also be a little bit challenging at times! Sometimes a little peace and quite is nice, especially at night. But Roo likes the radio to be on, or his rain water ‘music’. I can’t blame the little man though.
It was super funny this morning because the fire alarm went off in our cabin at 6:00am. I was up in a heart beat and, as any mom would do, I covered Landrick’s ears. He didn’t stir until I started to cover his ears… and I think only then because I was touching him. Of course, the fire alarm does sound like Sam’s regular alarm clock (he’s a heavy sleeper), so Landrick probably thought we were just at home!

One more thing

Oh - one more thing... Landrick gave himself a hickie on his arm today! I noticed a little redish spot on his left arm next to his wrist yesterday and thought it had been brought about by his sucking... but today I was out looking at Mom and Dad's garden when I looked down and in horror saw a huge (about the size of a quarter) spot on his arm. I freaked out and then realized that he'd sucked so hard on it that it broke the blood vessels. It made me want to cry! I'm not sure I knew that babies did that... but of course, as I've realized, everyday brings something new and unexpected.

Learning to whisper

Today was a good day:) Landrick woke up at 5:16 to eat, which allowed me to get a little extra sleep! Then he immediately went back to bed and slept till 9:00. Although I could have slept a lot longer I stayed up after his 5am feeding and managed to get a little cleaning accomplished. Sam went on a 50 mile bike ride in Maysville but Landrick and I stayed behind to go to the Arts and Crafts Festival... I wish we would have gone with Sam because the Arts and Crafts festival was a bit of a disappointment. I think I preferred it in Laughlin, even though it was a bit more crowded there. Oh well though - I'll know the next time.

When we got back Landrick took a nice little nap. I heard him stirring a hour or two later and when to get him. When I walked into his room he was playing with his little blanket and was as sweet as can be. I leaned over and talked to him. Then... he started whispering 'da da da da' back to me. Now he say's da da all the time, but this is the first time he really has whispered like that. It was the cutest thing ever. He did it several times while I was changing his diaper. Then once we left his room he was back to his normal loud (now really loud and high pitched screechy) self:) Ahhhh the sounds that little man makes.... music to my hears.

Remote control hide-and-go-seek

So I’ve been ‘slacking’ a bit on my blog… normally I would post after Landrick fell asleep at night but since Sam’s been home I’ve spent that time watching tv or talking with him. It’s nice to have him home in the evenings before I go to bed… I’ll get spoiled this summer and will have a hard time adjusting in the fall.

Landrick’s been so stinking cute lately… of course, he’s cute all the time so I guess that’s nothing new! The night before last he ‘held’ a book (as if he was reading it) for the first time. He probably could have done this a few weeks ago, but he just took a notion to do it while Sam was reading a new petting zoo Biscuit book to him. He looked like such a big boy! Btw – he love, love, loves that book! He spazes out every time we read it to him… he’ll pound his little hands against the pages and gets so excited! Hehe Sam bought it as a treat for him the other day while they were out and about – he said it was the book that Landrick liked the best:) I love those boys!

Sam, Landrick and I participated in Morehead’s Memorial Day parade… I thought it was quite fitting that Landrick’s first parade was the Memorial Day Parade. His Papaw Landon Mason (who passed away in June of 2004) was a Veteran and would have been so proud of his little grandson. We rode our bikes (with Landrick in tow in the trailer attached to Sam’s bike) with the Sustainable Morehead group. It was nice… and fun. Landrick fell asleep before the parade began and slept the whole way through. We kept hearing shouts from the spectators about how cute he was… Oh yeah… that’s my cute son:)

We played ‘where’s the remote’ with Landrick last night. It was the funniest thing! We put him in the bed with us (not to sleep – just to play) and would place the tv remote in various places around us (some obvious, some not-so-much). Little man would jerk his little head around until he spotted the thing and then he’d pounce. When it disappeared again he’d first check the place he last saw it and then when he didn’t see it he’d begin his search from there. It was soooooo funny. We would hide the remote half-way under the blanket or put it far away from him just to see if he could spot it. He found it every time. I’m thinking we need to find a remote for him that we don’t ‘use’ just so he can play with it!