Landon wore his Barf Vader shirt for the last time today. His little Buddha belly was just about hanging out of the bottom. It’s a little sad to put this shirt in the bin with all the others he’s grown out of because it reminds me of how small and different he was just a little over a year ago. Here’s the progression:
My baby is growing up!
Ok, so….I had my yearly gyno appointment today and figured it wouldn’t be such a big deal to take Landon along, plus he could see his delivering doctor, whom he pooped on the minute she brought him into the world. I made sure to pack some little toys and books, which by the way are not nearly as interesting as table stirrups and the privacy curtain. So, we make it through the nurse’s part with just a little squirming and then it’s time to completely undress and put on the lovely little paper vest and waist cover thingy, it’s basically just a large piece of paper mâché that you wrap around your waist to make you feel covered. So Landon’s starting to get antsy and keeps trying to press a red button that I have no idea what it does, but red usually means BAD, so I’m all motherly like “don’t touch, baby” “no no, Buddy” “LANDON I SAID NOOOO”, so he starts getting upset and all fit throwy which heightens my blood pressure a bit. I stand up and bend over trying to get him interested in toys on the floor while also trying to hold my paper dress completely around my waist. Nobody is in the room at this point but it’s nerve wracking knowing my doctor could walk in any second to find my ass hanging out. As I’m gathering a toy out from under a chair the end all happens, Landon falls off the little step he was standing on behind me and didn’t hit anything hard but it was enough to throw him over the edge of reasoning and now he’s crying LOUDLY, I abandon my grip on the “skirt” to use both hands to pull him up and Dr Dewey knocks on the door. Great! Perfect timing! She walks in to a room with a screaming kid, toys strewn everywhere and the mothers breasts are half hanging out and the skirt is basically on the floor. Nice. Now my blood pressure is sky high and I’m sweating like a whore in church AND I’m basically naked holding a crying kid. Luckily my doctor is cool and she made a big joke about the whole thing. She did get me done super quick without much more complaint from my little angel child. One thing is for sure though, I am NEVER taking him with me again. Lesson learned.
Dear Landon,
Well, we are well into your twelfth month and I’ve definitely slacked on getting this letter written but its really just because we’ve been busy playing and doing things together, so at least its a good excuse. At your 12 month appointment you were 21 lbs, so you’re a skinny little squirt, I have a feeling you may have your Uncle Nick’s frame, at least mullets aren’t in style anymore, right?
Just before your first birthday we finally got that crazy hair of yours trimmed up and you look like such a big boy now, definitely not a baby anymore. You did pretty well, Mamaw cut it of course, and Dada held you and you sat still for the most part. You actually are really patient sometimes, like when we trim your nails, you just watch in amazement as I clip away, or when we use the q-tip in your ears, you’re so relaxed and zoned out, but that’s probably because its like a little massage, we are definitely a q-tip lovin’ family.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
We were able to get you out in the snow a couple of times, you weren’t too keen on the snowsuit. I have to admit that you do look like a blue marshmallow, but you stay warm and that’s all that matters to me. I think we expect too much of a reaction out of you when we do these “firsts” but you’re still a little young to get excited about snow.
On your actual birthday we took you to Monkey Joes for the first time, not really sure what to expect. You did AWESOME and had way more fun than I could’ve imagined. It was amazing to me that we put you and Maura inside of this blow up play area and you both saw the slide and immediately knew how to climb up the ladder side and then lie on your tummy and slide down feet first….HOW DO YOU JUST KNOW HOW TO DO THAT?? Your faces were hilarious while going down the big slide. You had this wide mouthed look of terror on your face but you loved it! And so we did it over and over and over for almost two hours, you two kept at it and finally hit meltdown stage. Lasted a lot longer than I would’ve guessed, we’ll definitely go back soon.
The weekend after your birthday we had a family party to celebrate. You got a lot of presents and you were impressed with all of them. Lots of ride on toys, including a wooden rocking horse that Papaw made just for you.
And of course we let you dig into your own cupcake. I made Snickerdoodle cupcakes with a cinnamon buttercream frosting which hardens up a bit after you ice them so you didn’t get as messy as I expected, you downed the whole thing though!
This has felt like an incredibly long winter because we had to be home almost all the time and now the weather is just starting to change. Your dad and I cant wait for all the things we get to do with you this year that weren’t possible last summer. All the new experiences of the Zoo, riding our bikes, exploring at parks, fishing, camping, hiking…..it’s going to be a fun year!
I plan on doing an update letter at about 18 months, so in August we’ll recap all the things we’ve done. I know you’re not technically a baby anymore, but I still love you just as much as the day you were born and its cliche to say, but you’ll always be my baby boy.
Love,
Mama
Quite a danger loving daredevil we have on our hands….or I guess about as dangerous as an almost one year old can get.
Dear Landon,
Wow, I don’t even know where the last month went, it seems like I just wrote month 10′s letter last week. Now I’m in the process of planning your first birthday! I took pics of you to make your invitations and they really turned out great, although they could’ve been better had you been in a better mood. You definitely weren’t crazy about wearing those boots, luckily I was able to get one shot and one shot only that you weren’t frowning.
This past month has been a whirlwind of new milestones for you. You got a second tooth! You started taking steps! You’re independently feeding yourself with your own little fingers, I know lots of babies do this earlier on but you were just so stubborn about it, so I have to say its the most exciting development, no more trying to shovel food into my mouth fast enough to get back to putting bites into your mouth.
You’ve added to your vocabulary, we were trying to name out all the words you can say now and they include, “dada”, “mama”, “baba”, “nana”, “ha ha haaa” and this new one that were not quite sure yet what it means, we cant decipher the first letter, I think you’re saying “that”, that would be the most general guess because whenever you say it, there really isn’t any consistency. We thought maybe “cat” but the cat isn’t always in the room when you say it, or “hot” or “hat” or maybe all of the above, who knows?
You’re looking less and less like a baby every month now. Your spiky hair is starting to lie down (on good hair days) and getting long around your ears and neckline which means we need to trim it up before long. But you’ve still got the chunky cheeks and Buddha belly that are a dead giveaway that you’re still my little baby.
Love,
Mama
We got our first big snow last night and I got this crazy idea to bundle Landon up in his snowsuit and take him out right before nap time.
Needless to say, it didn’t go very well.
This year has been a year like no other, with joy and fear, love and sadness, birth and death and hard work and very little sleep. My New Year’s Resolution, well, really more of a goal for myself this year are to focus more on photography and get a portfolio going so that maybe in a year or so I can start a freelance business. Happy New Year to you and I hope 2010 is an amazing year just like 2009:
(we couldn’t figure out why the pictures are pixeled so, sorry)
I am semi-hiding my pissed-offedness right now.
Have you ever been mad about something and it affects how you handle little tiny situations, like say perhaps you step on a little triangle plastic block and it feels like someone carved a cave into your sole with a rusty, dull knife, except probably like 10x’s less pain but still, you’re pissed off about one thing and it triggers you to yell muffled unrecognizable curse words because the baby is watching and you want to punch the stupid bucket from which the block is from, but yet again, the baby is watching so you just imagine slamming the bucket into the wall repeatedly until it breaks into small pieces? No?
I think I have unresolved anger management issues but that’s a whole nother story.
I recently interviewed with a local rec center to come on as a personal trainer and the job sounds almost perfect. WAY WAY WAYYYY better than what I’m doing now, which is basically being a janitor about 80% of the time and training people the rest, so the interview went great and the Coordinator I interviewed with basically made it sound like I had the job but she just had to run it by the big boss to make sure he didnt want to interview me himself. Welll, two weeks later and I still haven’t heard from her. No email. No phone call. I sent her an email, with her okay, with more questions that I had: no response. Okay, maybe it went to her spam. I tried calling last Tuesday asking if she could give me a call back: No response. I know I’m probably getting over excited about nothing, I usually do. It was Christmas and now its New Years week, more than likely she and/or he are out of town/not working as much so that’s where the delay is. But I don’t think they understand HOW BADLY I WANT TO START!!! I’m trying not to be a freakish stalker chic and call her all the time, but I’m SO ANXIOUS about this. I’m so burnt out where I’m at now and ready to quit and every day that goes by without word, I grow more and more pissy.
Plus, it’s freakin cold and windy as fuck outside so I can’t get out of the house with Landon and I go a little crazy when I’m cooped up all the time.
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