I got it!

Greetings and Salutations...oh yeah, and Happy Valentine's Day...

It seems like it's been forever since our last blog post....I must apologize for the hiatus, but I was out of town for several days last week, and with the Superbowl and everything, we just didn't seem to have enough time to get anything done. Top that off with one of the busiest work weeks I can remember in some time, and the result is an extended break from blogdom.

Anyhow, we're back and ready to report on all the comings and goings of our little man Landon. I am not going to go in chronological order here, so please try to keep up ;).

Friday night we headed over to Landon's buddy Anthony's house to hang out and watch the season premiere of Survivor (turns out that all 4 of us are huge fans). They ordered the biggest pizza that any of us had ever seen, and we ate, watched the show, and watched the boys torment each other. It's a pretty interesting dynamic that Landon and Anthony have with each other. They are without a doubt best buds, as they are inseparable at school all day long. But apparently they have a sort of "Love/Hate" abusive relationship...and I say that in the comical way, ok? Here's Michaela's impersonation of their time together...."I love you, I love you"...then WHAM! One of them pushes the other one, grabs the toy they were playing with, and makes a run for it....only to start up the sequence of events two minutes later....and on and on it goes...anyhow....we really enjoy spending time with Anthony and his family, and we hope that the boys can work out their differences in a less violent way...otherwise we may have to send them to couples therapy or something. :)

This next picture is not the most flattering picture of Landon we have ever taken, as he's mid-bite on his breakfast from this morning...I didn't take it to show you how messy he can be (which we have already presented plenty of visual evidence in past blog posts), but to show you his new haircut...Michaela likes to call it his "Jim Carrey from Dumb and Dumber" haircut....while I do think that he now bears a striking resemblence to Lloyd Chrismas, I don't think it's all that bad....but we have elected to try out a different place today to see if they can fix it....The next picture shows the final product....

We ended up getting Landon's hair fixed at Tangles...a place that is tailored to kids...just an amazing experience, as they had video games, cartoons, a wall you could draw on, toys, and snacks...I had two thoughts after experiencing this place....first, I thought "why the heck couldn't they have had someplace like this when I was a kid!?!?!"...they used to just tell us to "sit there and shut up!"...second thought was "I don't want to leave, I think I'm gonna beat this little kid in some Nintendo!". Anyhow, they did a fabulous job and we're planning to bring Landon back there for future visits...as you can see, we no longer have the Dumb and Dumber look...this picture was taken while we waited for our food at "The Counter"....it's a new restaurant by the Galleria in Roseville, specializing in custom hamburgers...here's all I need to say about this place....great burgers, beer, and a great patio....pretty much my idea of heaven!

After lunch, we cruised by to check out the cool fountains that were set to music....Landon really dug it and even threw a penny into the fountain.

Speaking of Landon, we are 99% sure that he hit some crazy growth spurt this week, as the kid is eating everything in the house! A typical breakfast for him these past few weeks consist of two waffles, cut up fruit, and cheerios....and it could just be my fatherly eyes or something, but I'm pretty sure that Landon was stretched vertically in the time that I was away. I came back to a kid that slimmed down a little bit and he just seems taller to me for some reason.

It also seems that a light bulb clicked on in his head, as he seems to be WAAAY smarter than he was when I left. I don't know if Michaela smacked him upside the head and jarred something loose, or if it all just finally made sense to the kid...either way, it is much more like having a conversation with a normal person now, rather than the previous setup where it felt like we were teaching and he would just listen. When we say something now, he listens, and will not only do what we ask (most of the time), but he'll also respond with an answer that is relevant to what we said.

His favorite new saying is "I got it!!!", which he says all the time...whenever we ask him what something is, or where something is...for example..."Landon, is that your Lightning McQueen car on the ottoman?"....to which he'd respond "I got it!", run over, pick it up and start playing with it.

He is also getting very good at saying people's names after hearing them once....we didn't know he knew how to say "Michael", but the other day we were at my parent's house and my Uncle Michael was there....Landon said "Hi Michael!", which caught us all off guard.

It's amazing to think that he's going to be 2 years old in a month...where has the time gone? He truly is a little boy now...the baby has left the building.

I think I'll leave you with that for now. Landon's daycare is closed for the holiday tomorrow, so he and I will be out on the town. Maybe I'll take enough pictures to warrant another post....if not, have a great week and I'll make an effort to get another one up soon.

Last thing here...I wanted to end with a picture that I like to call "Nap Time!"...it's how we enjoy the few quiet hours when Landon is asleep...

Let the good times roll!