Monthly Newsletter #13

Dear Landon,

This has been a huge month for you. So many achievements, I’m not sure I’ll be able to adequately describe them all.

You had your first Birthday party. You steadfastly refused to nap that day, and when you did finally go down, it was 20 minutes before people started showing up for your party. Despite your lack of nap you were quite the ham at the party.

You kind of got the opening presents, but not really. It will be interesting to see if you remember at Christmas how to do it.

You have now gotten to the point that you prefer walking to crawling. And since we’re spending more time outside, that’s really a good thing. You still like to be carried and picked up, but left to your own devises, you’re going to walk, instead of crawl.

You started saying some more things. We think we know what you’re saying, but who really knows? We’ve got “Dat?” And you point at something. We tell you what it is, and you say “dat?” again. We’ve also heard “wook.” So we look at whatever you’re pointing at and tell you what it is.

You are a hugger. You hug everyone you see. You hug dogs as much as they will let you. You try to hug strange little girls. They haven’t let you so far, but I’m sure one day you’ll find one who likes hugging as much as you do. We’re trying to soak up all the hugs we can get now, because we don’t know how long this phase will last. And unlike some of your other phases, I’m not constantly repeating to myself “This is only a phase, this is only a phase.”

You scared your father and me to death this month. For the first time ever you were so sick, you were not yourself. You were lethargic, and you just let me hold you. Thank goodness for the after hours answering service at your doctor’s office. When the on-call doctor didn’t return your call, they called back and put us in touch with a nurse at a major hospital. That nurse walked me through exactly what was going to make you better. And it totally worked, and if I had one piece of advice for my future self, it’s that you cannot wash your hands enough.



Your second Halloween was way more exciting than the first one. Despite my own incompetence at getting the correct Halloween costume – you should have been a monkey, and I have no idea if you’ll allow me to turn you into a monkey next year or if I’m going to have to let you be whatever crazy thing you’re into. You loved answering the door, and people gushed over you. You tolerated the costume – and probably would have liked it better if it had been a little cooler. You tried to go with the people a few times, because clearly they had the better end of this deal. I mean, give away candy verses getting candy? What are you? Some kind of moron? We ran out of candy just before your bedtime, and slightly after a small meltdown – which I think was more about being hot in your bearsuit. So the timing worked out perfectly.

Love,

Mama