Monthly Newsletter #22

Dear Landon,

Yesterday you turned 22 months old.

This month you’ve seen more family than I thought was humanly possible in such a short amount of time. Every weekend included extended family in some form or fashion and we didn’t even go to everything we should have. We missed out on Zoey’s birthday party – but we’ll make it next year. You ate up every bit of the extra attention, but it made for a pretty stressful home life, so we’re going to try and take it down a notch for a while.



We had some napping issues this month, mainly because of all the travel and extra excitement, you were totally unwilling to go down at normal times and ended up staying up way past my bedtime. And then of course you woke up at your normal butt crack of dawn, so there was no relief there either.

You’ve begun actually watching TV. As in, if you like what’s on, we cannot get your attention. (I think it’s genetic, I won’t tell you who it came from, but let’s just say it rhymes with Paddy.) I can see that we may be setting limits on TV in the near future, but for now, at least I can turn the TV to Sprout and walk away to make dinner and I don’t have to have someone tugging on my back pockets while I do it.

You are still helpful as ever, doing what we ask of you most of the time. Given specific direction, you can retrieve needed items, throw away trash, and close doors. You just need to be a little taller and then you can get mama a coke.

You have developed an interest in the potty. You like flushing it. You like dipping your hands in it, and I think you may be scooping up water to drink. Which, eeeeew, Stop that! Anyway, you wanted to sit on it, so I bought a potty seat that fits it. And even though you aren’t doing anything productive in the potty, you do like sitting there. Whether naked or clothed. It’s great place to park you after we get out of the pool before the water is warm enough in the shower, so it works pretty well. I am not under any kind of delusion that this is the beginning of potty training, because I’m pretty sure you’re not ready for that yet anyway, but it’s nice to have another parking place for you.

When we went to see your older cousins in a play this weekend, you were pretty well behaved, considering. You were impressed with the lights and sounds, and once a stranger sat down next to us, you were nice and quiet and stopped trying to find exactly the best position on the steps, and decided it would be ok to sit on my lap. Of your older cousins, I think you have the biggest bond with Joshua. He always makes a point of saying hello to you and getting a hug. He was not very receptive of your kiss, but one day (hopefully in the distant future) he'll have a little kid and he'll understand.

While we were waiting for the older cousins to get dressed to leave, we played on the stage for a while, you tried to get Zoey to come to you by patting your leg, the way you call Scarlett. When she wouldn’t come, we suggested holding her hand. So you took her hand and darted across the stage. She could barely keep up, and you had to be reminded to slow down. A LOT.



You’ve somehow decided that you don’t like your sandals anymore, you like your tennis shoes the best, so you wear them 99% of the time. I was pretty surprised at how the laces are not any worse in terms of re-trying every 5 minutes than the Velcro was. Actually, it’s better, because we double knot them, you only occasionally are able to get them untied, and normally it’s during a car ride.

All in all it’s been a pretty decent month with you. You’re talking a good bit more and we understand you more and more (or we’re pretending to know what you said because it vaguely sounds like that, pot-A-toe, po-TAH-toe.)

Love,

Mama