Lean a Little to the Right

Every year, we take our picture in front of our tree for our Christmas scrapbook. It can be quite the challenge getting a toddler and dog in position, setting the timer on the camera, having Alan run to his place, AND being happy with the final product.

This is one of the shots we took:

I didn't like how my head was leaning so far to the right, so I had Alan set the timer again for another picture.

There - that's better.

But, just for kicks, we decided to take a picture where we were all leaning. As you can tell by Landon's huge grin, he loved the silliness of this one:


Merry Christmas!

Like a Clam

A few weeks ago we took Landon to the Macy's 8th floor display (same one as the past 2 years - boo!) and then to see Santa. Landon had a lot of questions about Santa as we were getting prepared for the experience - "Is he real?," "Can I talk to him?," "What does he drive?" You know, the usual almost 3 year old type questions. We tried to answer as best as we could and we're excited to see our talkative, curious boy interact with the jolly guy in the red suit.

All the questions and curiousity led up to...absolutely nothing. Landon shut up like a clam the moment with stepped into Santa's room. He took a couple steps in and stopped, not even getting within 5 feet of Santa. We knew setting Landon on his lap likely wouldn't go well so we sat him on the drum next to Santa. Santa asked questions and offered Landon a button. Landon wouldn't even nod his head in response.


Landon looked to Alan for cues, guidance, and perhaps some encouragement.


Despite our best efforts, Landon did nothing more than just sit and stare.


At least until we left the room. Landon then perked up and asked more questions...including if we could go back and see Santa!

Fess Up Friday

Today I bought 14 cans of cranberry sauce. 8 of the jellied kind at CVS and 6 of the whole berry kind at Target, where I had them price matched to CVS. Yes, 14 cans purchased in one day may be a little excessive, but Landon and I both like cranberry sauce - a lot.

The word "trough" sends shivers down my spine every time I see it. Why, you ask? Because I can't pronounce it. I look at that word and every single time I absolutely butcher it. It's not so simple as pronouncing "rough" with a "t" in front of it, which is what my brain and tongue want to do when they encounter that word. And, since it's Christmas, we're reading about the birth of Christ quite a bit, so as a result, I'm encountering my least favorite word in the world with way more frequency than I would prefer.

How about you? Any purchases you've made in excessive quantities or words that send shivers down your spines? Please share!

Surprise! It's a....

...REVEAL CAKE!

Several months ago, I saw this article in the Star Tribune and knew immediately that I wanted to do the same thing for Baby #2. Although we were certainly excited about Baby #2's arrival, things didn't seem as special with this pregnancy as it did with Landon. There wasn't a sense of newness with the whole experience and there wouldn't be registering or baby showers or a whole slew of new baby items that there were with our first. I wanted to do something meaningful and special for our second and this seemed like the perfect way to do it. Oh, and I also love cake!

I contacted Amanda of "I am Baker," a blog that I absolutely love and adore to see if she would be willing to make a reveal cake for us. She so graciously agreed and things were set in motion. I knew that our 20 week ultrasound would happen in the beginning of November and knew that we would be celebrating Thanksgiving with my side of the family at, well, Thanksgiving (so, basically 3 weeks after the ultrasound). For the ultrasound, I had an envelope pre-addressed and stamped to Amanda and told the ultrasound technician that we wanted her to put the gender results in the envelope and seal it and that we would find out the results later. The techinician was absolutely amazing. She asked us if she should just turn the screen away when she was getting near possible sightings or if we wanted to keep our eyes on the screen figuring we wouldn't know what we were looking at. We opted to have the screen turned away because it was pretty obvious with Landon that he was boy and didn't want to risk anything with this one! It was hard laying on the table knowing that she knew but I figured I had been waiting to find out the gender, what was another 3 weeks?!?

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I went to pick up the cake from Amanda's husband's office and LOVED it. So did all the ladies in the office, because they came to the receptionist desk to see the cake and hear the story of how we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, but Amanda and the ultrasound technician knew. Wednesday and into Thursday was probably the hardest. We had the cake in our possession and just had to refrain from cutting into it. Apparently, it was hard for other people too. On Thursday, my Grandma called and left me a cell phone message worried that we wouldn't be able to get a hold of her to tell her the news because of the poor cell phone reception in the area of Iowa we were in. When I called my Grandma back (prior to cutting the cake), my Grandpa answered the phone and as we were exchanging greetings and "How are yous?" I could hear Grandma in the background, "Well, did you cut it yet?"



We sufficiently stuffed our faces at Thanksgiving and I refrained from eating dessert so I would be in the mood for cake later. Finally at 7:00, we gathered Landon, my mom, my sister, her husband, and their 3 kids together to cut the cake. For added dramatic effect, my brother-in-law turned out the lights as we cut into the cake.



As I pulled the knife out, I saw a glimpse of blue but wasn't quite sure if it was from frosting on the inside or the frosting on the outside.


When we fully cut the cake (and the lights were turned back on), this is what we saw:

Blue, blue, blue! Definitely a boy! And do you see the image there? It's a heart. Because Amanda's cool like that and she makes designs on the inside of her cake! Which, by the way, not only looked amazing but tasted so, so good as well. We had such a fun time finding out this way and was so glad that we could share in this moment with family. And now we wait some more for a different kind of sweet thing in March!

Fess Up Friday

Sorry for the absence of the last two weeks. With Thanksgiving and Landon being gone, blogging wasn't exactly on my mind. But without further ado, here's my confessions for this week:

This week I had to go rummaging through the garbage not once, but twice. And the first time was for the most ridiculous reason ever. Landon and his Iowa Grandma had gone to McDonald's on their way home and his Happy Meal toy was some action figure that carried some red sword. I threw the red sword away because: 1. It seemed kind of pointless and 2. I don't like clutter. Well, of course Landon asked for it, so as a result I had to dig deep into our garbage past the ground coffee and leftover food to try and retrieve this miniscule piece of a cheap McDonald's Happy Meal toy that he forgot he had even asked for 20 minutes later.

I also totally stifled laughter as Landon acted in complete and utter defiance today. I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was just too funny. Bed time was a little rough tonight. Lack of nap results in an overly tired boy. Landon had expressed that he was thirsty so Alan and I told him that he could either get a drink of water when he brushed his teeth or Alan would get him a small glass of water before getting pajamas on. Landon opted for the water before hand. When Alan came back with the water, Landon looked at it and declared, "I wanted milk." He looked at me, looked at Alan, looked down at the cup and, then proceeded to dump the entire cup of water on the floor. Classic, I tell you and, hence, the laughter on my part (which, thankfully, I don't think he caught because Alan was very swift in removing him from the room for further discipline.)

Landon to the Rescue!

Landon's imaginative play lately has been all about super-heroes. Together, we don our capes and put on our flying boots. Landon insists that we pack a bag of clothes to take with us to the "Super-Hero Rescue." I'm not exactly sure what a "Super-Hero Rescue" entails but I know that it's somewhere down by the Mall of America.



And, although I try really hard to act the part of Super-Hero and Super-Mom (and fail on a daily basis), it is Exceptionally Super Being a Mom to Landon.

Fess Up Friday

It's getting late, but I'm getting my confessions up!

First, it appears that I can no longer watch daytime TV in which the host surprises the guest with a new car. I was watching "Ellen" while working out the other day and next thing you know, she surprised one of her viewers with a brand new car and next thing I know, I'm tearing up at that moment - in the "Y" - while on the treadmill. Ahh, pregnancy hormones. Gotta love them.

Went out shopping after dinner yesterday and didn't check or change Landon's diaper before then (no, this is not the same incident that I recorded a few weeks ago). While we're getting him in and out of his carseat, he's complaning about his bottom hurting. We came home and found that he had pooped in his diaper (and it was there for a while) and now he's got a bit of diaper rash. Ugh! But, in our defense - Landon will always tell us when he's pooped (and we can usually smell it). This time no such words came from his mouth.

Earlier this week, I went to pick up Landon's new bedroom furniture. There were a few cars ahead of me picking up their furniture, so I went to turn on my hazards as the car in front of me had done. Do you think I could find the button to get the emergency lights on? No, of course not! It felt like an eternity and I knew that it had to be somewhere visible because after having a car with a very difficult to find emergency lights button, I said that all my future cars were going to have a button that was easy to spot. It wasn't until the car in front of me had their furniture loaded and out of the way that I finally found the ridiculous emergency light button...



Do you see it there? It's that rectangular button to the far right of the photo, right under the vent. Relatively visible (although not in this photo, it was taken with my phone) and I think I found it just as I was going to get the owner's manual out of the glove compartment.

Fess Up Friday

Thankfully, none of my confessions this week revolve around breaking down in tears!

Friday night, I opened the back door and was calling for Bentley (our dog) to come in. Landon was standing right behind me as I called and whistled for her to come. No response. I started to panic because she had been barking earlier and I feared that maybe someone dog-knapped our dog because of her barking (yes, I seriously thought that). I had Landon go check his room to see if Bentley might have been in there. She wasn't. At this point, I'm started to think, "Do I call the police when my dog is missing or the Humane Society?" I told Landon to go downstairs while I go get my shoes so I could investigate outside. It is when I turned on the light that leads to our basement that I see my dog's legs...and had no recollection of ever letting her in.

Tuesday I went to the "Y" while Landon was at school. Before going to the "Y," I had some errands to run so my time was short. I walked on the treadmill for 18 minutes, including a cool down. I even inclined the treadmill to make myself feel better about only walking on the treadmill for 18 minutes. Hey, it's at least better than getting your card scanned and not working out, right? (Which, I'm guilty of having done in the past too).

Yesterday I put Landon down for his rest time and went to work on the computer. When he didn't fall asleep after spending an hour in his room I brought him down to the basement while I finished what I was doing on the computer. He asked if he could bring out his art supplies box and I said, "Yes," as I typed away. He asked if he could bring out his stamps and I told him he could figuring he meant his child-friendly, no-mess stamps. Do I stop and turn around to see what he's taken out? No, I was busy doing my own thing. So when I did turn around, I found that he had taken out the rubber stamp pads that you open and use a rubber stamp on. And that he has ink from the stamp pads all over the bottom of his feet. And that we have 3 month old carpet in our basement. Fortunately, none got on the carpet, but Landon had a hard time understanding why I was putting away the stamps when I had clearly told him he could. Obviously using the computer when my 2 year old is up and playing is not going to work (and for the record, he is sleeping while I type this!).

Fess Up Friday

We'll start out light with this week's confessions: I ate the majority of Landon's Halloween candy. Probably not a surpise to many of you since I'm guessing you also dug into your kids' candy, but I'm still fessing up to it. As a matter of fact, Landon's been pretty oblivious to the fact that we still even have candy in the house. It's like he's forgotten that he even collected it!

And on a heavier note: My pregnancy hormones (at least that's what I'm blaming it on) hit me like a Mack Truck this week. I cried when the garage door wouldn't close and knew that Landon was going to be late to school. I cried when Landon decided not to go to school because he said he wasn't feeling well and then changed his mind after I had already called school to say he wasn't coming. I cried when I really wanted to talk to someone but my sister was too busy to talk at the time. I cried when the pizza dough I was making didn't stretch out onto the pan like I wanted to. Those last three examples were from yesterday alone. It was a very emotionally exhausting day. I'm hoping that I got all that crying out of the way - or at least for the weekend, considering Alan has gone hunting and I don't know what I'll do if I have a day this weekend like I did yesterday!

Whew. Thanks for letting me get these off my chest : )

Fess Up Friday

I'm joining my sister over at Our Life with Foster Kids, in 'fessing up and sharing my imperfections as mother, wife, friend, etc. So here it goes!

Last Sunday evening, I took Landon to Michael's Craft Store. He was wearing a Pull-up and I didn't change him before we left the house figuring it was close to bedtime and I would change him when I got home. While at the store, Landon informed me that he needed to go to the bathroom. Now as one who is trying to encourage her son to use the toilet, you think I would have taken him, right? Wrong! I told him to just go in his Pull-up. When we were leaving the store, and I pulled him out of the cart, he asked me, "Why are my pants wet?" Sure enough, he ended up leaking through his not very absorbant Pull-up. Whoops!

Any confessions you need to make this week?

A Guessing Game

Yesterday, Landon said I was wearing my "pants jacket."

Any guesses as to what I was wearing?

Real for Imaginary

The other day Landon and I went to the park. At this park, they have this ittt-bitty table underneath the slide. There's a small hole in the wall of the slide, next to the table. The positioning of this table and hole made for the perfect ice cream shop for Landon.

He brought me over to the hole and went around and underneath the slide. "Would you like some ice cream?," he asked.

"Yes, please."

"Cup or cone?"

"Cone," I replied.

He promptly handed me my imaginary ice cream cone. I asked, "How much do I owe you?" He looked at me a little perplexed through the little hole, so I pursued it a little more. "How much money do I owe you?" No response, so I handed him my imaginary money, "Here's a dollar for you." He looked down at my hand extended into the little hole and promptly stated, "I want real money!"

Thank you, Landon, for always making me laugh!

I Went to the Dentist

Today I went to the dentist. Everyone there did such a great job taking care of my teeth. I got my teeth cleaned and flossed and I'm pretty sure I didn't have any cavities. I never felt so loved going to the dentist before.




My "dentists" were Landon and my niece and nephew. We were helping to take care of Charlotte and Eli at my grandparents' house, where they have this awesome reclining/massaging chair. Looking at the chair and how far back it reclined, how could you not think "dentist chair?!?" So we pretended we were at the dentist's office. I let them take turns using my toothbrush sans toothpaste to clean my teeth. Landon pulled all of the floss out of its container. Grandma and Grandpa even had surgical gloves for the kids to use. Hands down - the best dentist experience ever!

What are You?

Tonight at the dinner table, Landon opted to eat like a dog. No hands, no silverware. Just his face to his plate scarfing down his noodles. This behavior is certainly not accepted at our table so in an attempt to get my point across, I asked Landon, "Are you a dog or a boy?"

"I'm a dog-boy!" was his reply. This answer resulted in Alan breaking down in laughter, while hiding his face so as not to let on to Landon that we are anything but calm, cool, and collected while trying to address his behavior. I gave Alan a look that said, "You better stop before I start cracking up." It didn't work - Alan had tears in his eyes from laughing and said, "What?!? It was a clever response!"

I gave up trying to talk with Landon and help him process through his actions and took his plate away for a few minutes. Landon - 1; Parents - 0.

It Happens Sometimes

Yeserday, I was completely overwhelmed and frustrated with my new position as Crew Leader for the US Census Bureau. Landon asked me, "What's wrong, Mommy?" To which I replied, "I'm just a little overwhelmed." His response? "It happens sometimes." Three simple words to let me know that he, at two years old, understands and was sympathetic to my plight and to let me know I'm not alone when life goes a little awry. Oh, how I love that dear, sweet, sensitive boy of mine!

Raising a Rider

Of roller coasters, that is. After a particularly busy week, we decided that tonight was going to be Family Fun Night. We headed to the Mall of America for dinner and decided to ride some rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Alan took Landon on the "Back at the Barnyard Hayride," while I waited to the side. As the roller coaster (okay, so it was pretty tame as far as roller coasters go, but still...) started out, I could see Alan trying to encourage Landon to raise his hands above his head. Landon tentatively agreed, but as they rounded the first corner, he thrust his hands into the air and kept them up the entire time while squealing in delight. As a lover of roller coasters myself, this makes me so proud!

"When You Get Older"

"When you get older," is a oft-heard phrase spoken and heard around our house. As in, Landon will ask about __________________ (fill in the blank: riding a two-wheel bike, using scissors, driving a car) and our response is, "When you get older." Tonight, Alan and Landon were driving home from a friend's house in one vehicle while I was in our other car. We met in the garage and the following conversation occurred:

Alan: Landon, tell Mommy what we were listening to in the car.
Landon: When I get older.
Me: You'll tell me what you were listening to in the car when you get older?
Alan: C'mon Landon tell Mommy what we were listening to in the car.
Landon: When I get older.
Me (a few seconds later): Okay, you're older now. Can you tell me what you were listening to in the car?
Landon (with a gleam in his eyes): I use scissors now?!?
Alan: Man, is he quick.

Quick and, perhaps, too smart for our good.

Oh, and they were listening to "Third Day," which is quite the change from our usual driving soundtrack - "Veggie Tales."

10:02 pm on a Saturday

This is what Alan and I do on Saturday nights when Landon goes to bed.



Well, it doesn't happen every Saturday night. It happened this past Saturday because I was inspired, after following I am Baker , to make and decorate Easter egg cookies for our brunch at church on Sunday. Landon and I made the cookies on Friday and Alan I decorated them on Saturday night. It might end up becoming a Saturday night "thing" for us, because:
1. It was fun
2. It was quite therapeutic
3. The cookies were delicious, and
4. I think we did a darn good job, for it being our first attempt at baking/decorating 'a la I am Baker .

It's a Bug's Life

I have a little boy who is curious about a lot of things. Things that he studies intently and asks lots of questions about. Yesterday, on a beautiful 70 degree plus day, he was curious about bugs.



Now, I don't like bugs. I don't like how they sometimes get into the house. I don't like killing them when they get in the house, but know that I have to since I don't like them in the house. I don't like how they fly around forcing one to swat around their face to avoid said bug landing on them. I don't like eating outside because I don't like bugs by my food or beverage. I don't touching them and I don't like them crawling all over me. It seriously gives me the wiggles just thinking about it. But, I have a little boy who was very curious about bugs yesterday, so I tried to encourage him.



I pointed the bugs out to him. I held his hand out to see if the bug would crawl on it. I even touched one of the bugs (gasp!) with the tip of my fingernail on its wing when it accidently flopped over onto its back. That was the extent of my touching the bugs. I was glad when Alan came over and picked up the beetle so it could crawl on Landon's shirt. I was perfectly content to stand a reasonable distance away and click pictures (I love zoom!).



You may think it's a "noble" thing that I put aside my own fears for the sake of my son's curiousity. Not really...because if he ever developed a curiosity for reptiles or amphibians, you can be guaranteed that I would run in the other direction : ).

Ice, Ice Baby

Or, "Toddler" if we want to get really technical...Anyway, yes, this is Landon sucking on an icicle from our house. My mom gave it to him. He liked it. She also took these pictures. I was worried that he'd impale himself. He didn't. I obviously just need to relax more as a mom. Perhaps my mom was the same way and really wanted to give me and my sister icicles when we were kids, but didn't out of fear that we'd impale ourselves. But now that she's a grandma she has learned to relax and instead gives our kids icicles. I doubt that. Enjoy the pics!

Ice Skating

We took Landon ice skating for the first time a few weeks ago. Ice skating went great; getting there was not. Case in point:

Amount of time it took to get to St. Paul: 20 minutes
Amount of time it took to exchange $1 for quarters from the bank to pay the meter: 3 minutes
Amount of quarters put in the meter: 4
Time that it allotted us: 24 minutes
Time it was supposed to allot us: 48 minutes (the first quarter didn't take, the second did, the third one didn't - at which point I called the meter repair line and was told that there was nothing they could do and if I wanted my money back I'd have to send in a self-addressed stamped envelope. He also said I could stay parked there but risk a $33 ticket or move and use my last quarter. We opted to put the last quarter in the machine, hoping it would "take." It did.)
Additional time in here to walk to the rink, pay, and sign waivers.
Amount of time to put skating gear on a toddler and 2 adults: 13 minutes
Amount of time actually spent on the ice: 9 minutes
Ticket: None (thank you, Lord!)

It would have been nice if we had more time, since Landon thoroughly enjoyed it (and we paid $4 for the experience, but we didn't want to chance it any further). Next time, we'll remember to bring more quarters/dollars.



When Landon got tired of us holding him up by the armpits, he was perfectly content to sit on the ice and have Alan push him around. As you can tell, it wasn't crowded!

Long Overdue

Remember this post in which I shared my dreams for a freshly painted kitchen to go with my white cabinets and the cute pear fabric I found? Well, the kitchen is just about done and I neglected to post pictures. Yes, I did paint my kitchen lime green and love it!

It matches perfectly with my lime green KitchenAid (not pink, as I was initially hoping for, but it was a very generous gift and Landon loves using it, which might not be the case if it was pink - ha!) and the paint casts a kind of eerie glow upon our kitchen windows when it's dark outside and the kitchen lights are on.



Thanks to another gift, I was able to get new hardware for the kitchen cabinets, which we are slowly but surely getting installed.

I have a few more finishing touches to go (like hanging my apron, a shelf, and some artwork), but you still get the general idea.