A Boy and a Boat Bed

Well, I'm back from New York. It was a good trip, but while I used to enjoy traveling for my job when I was younger, now I really just count the hours until I can get back to my wife and son. It's funny, but when I'm sitting in the airport or walking down the streets of New York I find myself spending more of my time watching people with little kids...and hopefully this doesn't qualify me as "creepy", but I just find myself laughing when I see a Dad chasing his kid around, or a Mom feeding her child while the kid keeps chucking the food in the airport....I guess it just reminds me of Landon and makes me wonder what he and Michaela were doing at that moment...I'm sure it was something similar...



Anyhow, apparently I miss all the fun when I'm away, because while I was gone Landon learned how to say "elephant" and "beach" (which of course was inevitable as that's one of Michaela's favorite words)...he also reminded Michaela about how fast he really is growing up by the fact that he can now reach the deadbolt lock on our front door, as well as he can open up the top drawers in the kitchen, pull himself up, and play with all the shiny sharp things that we had placed in there....needless to say, one of the first orders of business upon my return was to put a chain lock on the front door (we now have a little peace of mind that we won't wake up one morning to find the front door open and Landon playing in the street), and we had to do some serious rearranging in the kitchen as to keep our little boy from cutting off anything important.



While I was gone Michaela managed to take Landon over to Picture People in the mall for some updated pictures of him...as you can see, our little man has definitely left the baby phase completely in the dust and is now very much a little boy. I was making fun of his hair in this picture, but Michaela adamantly defends that his hair looked great when they got there, but after 30 minutes of wait time before they could take the photos, this was as good as it was going to get.



I got back into town late Wednesday night and was excited to see Landon when he woke up on Thursday...unfortunately the first word out of his mouth when he woke up wasn't "Daddy!"....instead, it sounded something like "Mickey"...oh well, at least he has his priorities in order. ;)
Oh yeah, I also wanted to throw out a helpful hint to all you parents of kids the same age as Landon...raisins are da bomb! They're pretty healthy for the kids, tasty, and easy to transport. Here's a pic of Landon eating out of a raisin box (we typically alot him about half a box a day as one of his snacks)...anyhow, if your kid is old enough, give them a try.



As for the title of this blog, Michaela and I had started to notice that no matter which way we positioned him, Landon was just getting to be too big for his changing table. We also realized that his crib-turned-bed was a little cramped for the big guy as he really likes to roll around and break dance when he's sleeping...so after some careful consideration, we decided it was time to lose the changing table and the crib and replace it with Landon's very own "big boy bed". We heard alot of stories about parents just changing their kids on the ground when they outgrew the changing table, and that just didn't sound all that appealing to us (especially with our dogs)....so we decided that it would be easier to put down a towel or sheet and change him on a bed. While some may think that it's too early to let him sleep in a regular bed, at some point you have to let your parenting instincts guide you. Landon is a whole lot bigger than most kids his age, and for us and Landon, the time was right, so we set off on a "big boy bed hunt".




We actually ended up finding one that we liked at a furniture store yesterday and purchased it (only to find out that it would take about a week for it to ship into town). So we headed home to get on with our day...luckily, while doing some internet surfing, Michaela came across an ad on Craig's list for a bed...and not just any bed, but probably Michaela's favorite bed that she has ever seen...I swear, if they made this bed in California King size, we'd probably have one in our room....it's a pottery barn boat bed...and is WAAAY out of our price range usually....but the ad that she found was amazing, and we got it at a literal steal...we went to check out the condition yesterday, and it looked as good as new, so we pounced on it.


I'm not really sure who loves it more, Landon or Michaela...but it's close. It really is a cool bed, and let me tell you, it makes things alot easier for all of us. It even has a bottom pull out trundal bed for future sleep overs...or when Uncle Adam comes into town and drinks too much! :-)



I think that's it for now....I did want to end on this picture though, as I think it's one of the funniest yet...I don't know why it makes me proud...maybe it's just an inherent "guy thing"....but how can you not laugh at this? It's Landon channeling his inner "Al Bundy"...enjoy!