A Collection of Short Stories

Well, another weekend in the books for the Burgess family. While we originally went into the weekend with a lot of plans and things to do, not all of them worked out. But we’ll get to that. We have a few new Landon stories that we wanted to share with you…enjoy!



Smarty Pants
One of Landon’s favorite activities at school is circle time and flashcards. Each afternoon, the teachers round up the toddlers and they all sit in a circle on the comfy rug, while the teacher shows them flashcards with various things on them. Everything from everyday objects, to colors, numbers and shapes. Last week when I was picking Landon up, his teacher met me at the door of his classroom and whispered, “Wait, don’t come in yet. They’re doing circle time…just listen.” Through the cracked door I could see about 7 children sitting in a circle surrounding another teacher waiting for the next card to be shown. When Carol held up the next card and asked “Okay, what is this?” All I heard was my overly excited son yelling (before anyone else could blink) “TRUCK!” and then a few seconds later, the other children chiming in. Next I heard, “What shape is this?” followed by Landon’s enthusiastic “CIRCLE!” and then followed by the other children…this went on for another few flash cards, each time, Landon shouting out his response as quickly as he could, “Tractor! Cow! Yellow!” Which brings us to the last card…Landon is stuck on the color yellow. This was the funniest one, because when the teacher held up the last card (which was blue) I heard Landon yell out “yellow!” followed by a few “blues!” and “Yellows” and blank stares. Apparently kids will get "stuck" on a color, and Landon has been on Yellow for months now....we think he just likes saying "Yellow"...sort of like saying "Francisco!"...fun to say, right? (that was my little "Elf" shoutout for the holidays)...Anyhow, I guess we still have a few things to teach him.



Jolly St. Nicholas
Landon’s new favorite cup of tea is his buddy Nicholas. Not the typical St. Nick you hear of this time of year, but Landon's good friend Nicholas, the son of our good friends John and KC. We’ve had plans for a couple of weeks to spend Friday night with them and then to take the boys to see Christmas lights together. All week, leading up to the weekend every other word out of Landon’s mouth was “Nick”. If any of you have seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Landon pronounces Nicholas’ name like the father from the movie. It sounds like “Neek”. So all week, it’s been, “Nick, Nick, Nick.” Needless to say, Landon was very excited to hear we were going to his buddies house for dinner. He was even more excited to find that there were two extra playmates there, Nicholas’ two cousins visiting from Seattle. All four kids had fun destroying their playroom (sorry!) and playing with Nicholas’ trucks and new train set. We had a fantastic pasta dinner, yummy wine and enjoyed having adult time as the kids all played happily. After dinner we all got bundled up and ventured out to check out the Christmas lights…and this is where our evening came to a screeching halt. Unfortunately (for Dustin and I) we experienced (and barely made it through) our first puking child incident. We’re still not sure what, but Landon either had something that upset his tummy or had a 24 hour bug, but on the drive to the lights, we had to make an emergency pull over onto a random street because our little boy was throwing up all over the back seat. We had to cancel our plans and head home…and still can’t get the smell to air out completely. We're not sure if the event was more traumatic on him or on us, as it was really the first time that our little boy was that kind of sick. In the past it was just "baby spit-up" which may be disgusting, but doesn't give Dustin flashbacks of college life! Anyhow, Landon was still a little off on Saturday so he unfortunately experienced his first birthday let down…he had to miss Nicholas’ birthday celebration of pizza and a bounce house on Saturday. I guess the only lucky thing is he’s still too young to know what he missed out on.



The Poop Shelf
Yes, this is an interesting one and yes, we are now "those" people that talk about disgusting stuff our kids do. If you are just in it for the pictures, please feel free to look them over and read no further...for those of you who are interested in this kind of random crap, please read on.... We realize that Landon might not appreciate us blogging about this …or sharing with his future girlfriends when we eventually turn the blog to a book…but Landon has a poop shelf. We started noticing this a few weeks ago. Landon, when doing his business, well, does it over on the fire place. It’s like his little makeshift bathroom. He walks over to the fire place and does a few different squatting positions and/or yoga moves. We’ll ask him, “Landon, are you going poop?” to which he responds, “No” while grunting like a caveman. Oh well…so begin the stages of potty training. At least we have an idea of when he’s going now, so we can usher him over to the real bathroom. Yes, it’s random and apparently we’ve become “those people” but we thought it was a funny story…and this blog isn’t just for all of you to read…it’s for us to document those funny stories that we’ll one day forget about.



Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens
These are a few of Landon’s favorite things…Last night while we were eating dinner, Landon looks at me and asks, “Blueberries Mommy?” then to Dustin, “blueberries daddy?” then to both of us, “More blueberries?” It’s hard to describe his pronunciation of the fruit, but having him politely say “please” when he asks for more “buberries” it’s difficult to ignore. Even if it’s the 4th serving he’s had! The kid just can’t seem to eat enough of them! The other night, he snubbed Dustin’s offer for Peppermint Ice cream and opted for a handful of blueberries instead. What kind of kid chooses fruit over ice cream? I have to admit, that I’m happy to report he does not have much of a sweet tooth. I’ve been working hard to instill healthy eating habits into our family and will gladly give him 2nd, 3rd and 4th servings of fruit! (Dustin did want us to mention that while Landon initially snubbed the Peppermint ice cream, he finally had a taste and loved it. Dustin thought that this was important since Peppermint ice cream is his all-time favorite and wanted to be sure that his kid didn't come off looking too strange for passing up ice cream. )




Landon also likes to ask Daddy for “more lights”. As if Dustin has some sort of control over the sun setting and houses turning their Christmas lights on. It does make me laugh though, as he only asks Dustin for “more ights”…luckily they’re not very hard to find this time of year. We were even able to make it over to see the Dovewood court lights that he missed out on from Friday, which he loved!



Guinness & Jack – the non-alcoholic kind that steals food and snuggles at the foot of his bed. While Landon has taken to Guinness more then Jack, he does love them both! He loves to invite Guinness up onto his beloved boat bed (only towards the bow) and even calls for Jack when it’s time to go to bed. And Jack is even warming up to him more and more and will allow him to throw his arms around his neck for hugs! I suppose Jack realizes he’s here to stay and the large amounts of stove top stuffing that get shared with him are pretty nice! While he does love them both, Guinness has taken a special place in Landon's heart...as has this photo to me.

Well, that about sums up our collection of short stories for this week. We’re all looking forward to some much deserved time off from work to spend the holidays together as a family. We can’t wait for Christmas and for Santa to visit…and soon after that Nana and Grampa Steve will be in town…so check back soon. We’re going to have a lot going on!!