Grandma Bonnie, How did you know??

Landon's Grandma Bonnie sent him something very special in the mail the other day.  It was something she had been working on for him that she knew he would just LOVE!

When we received the package, I told Landon it was for him and he immediately wanted to open it.  As I was getting the box open, I was asking him what he thought Grandma Bonnie had sent him.  He told me "9!", like he always does to everything.  I opened the box and pulled out a giant #9 that his Grandma Bonnie had made for him!  You should've seen his face.  It was one of those moments where I wish I was on a reality show so someone could have caught it on video for me so I could watch it over and over.  His face lit up and he had the biggest smile. :)  He sleeps with #9 and #9 rode to school with us the other day.  He LOVES it!!!  I took a couple of pictures of him smiling with his present.  There was also another little keychain of a little boy that had a #9 on his Tshirt.  I put it on Landon's backpack zipper and he took him to school.  Thank you Grandma Bonnie!!!

He kept saying "eye, eye, eye" over and over...so cute!

VROOM!!!

Braydon and I had talked about getting a new car when Sydney was born.  We decided to wait since my 2002 Highlander still fit our family and was still running in excellent condition.  Plus, we were enjoying not having a car payment at all.  Such a good feeling.

Then, my car started to show its age.  The air conditioning knob broke and wouldn't blow cold air.  In the middle of summer that is a must have.  I took it in to get it looked at in April or May and the guy told me that some part that tells the air to be cold or hot broke and it would only blow out hot air unless it was fixed.  Of course it wasn't going to be cheap...it was $800 just for the part...  So instead of replacing the part, the mechanic turned the air to only blow cold to get us by for the summer.  Thank goodness for him!  :)

So, we've gone all summer with the air stuck on cold.  Which is nice for the hot summer, but I knew we were on borrowed time.  Braydon and I decided that we would need to get a new car soon, and the time had to come before we needed heat again, or really anything besides really cold.  We wanted to make sure that we got something that could fit lots of people since we could only really fit four people in my old car.  I have loved my Highlander, so I decided that I wanted to get a new one.  So...here she is...she's a beauty and I've enjoyed her a lot!!!

She's all-wheel drive, for the snowy days, and she has super cold A/C for the hot days.  She comfortably fits seven (or six with two car seats).  She's got bluetooth so I can talk to people on the phone through the speakers in the car.  She's got a back up camera so I don't have an excuse if I run into anything. ;) ...not that I will. hehe  I have XM satellite radio right now for free and I'm trying to decide if it's worth keeping.  I enjoy it, but I'm not in the car that much to pay for a radio service.  I'm pretty okay with the free one. :)

School Rocks!!!!

Landon had his first day back at school on August 19th.  He was excited to get to school and see his teachers.  I think he thought he would be going with the same kids he went with last year, so I think he was a little confused when he didn't see anyone he knew.  Nonetheless, Landon had a great day and Heidi reported to me that he was "an angel".  I thought she had the wrong kid.  He had to have done SOMEthing wrong.  Nope.  He listened to his teachers and did everything he was told.  Mrs. Sanders didn't have to tell him to do something twice.  I thought maybe aliens had abducted my child and replaced him with a improved model...who knew my kid actually listens and does as he's told!  He sure doesn't do that for me!!

He has loved being at school again this year.  He's behaved himself and has settled back into the school routine very well.  Heidi said that the teachers were doing their normal testing on all the students and Landon knew everything he was asked.  His numbers (of course), his letters (uppercase and lowercase), shapes, and colors.  I think he's just mostly there for the social aspect this year.  :)  He knows all the answers at circle time and Mrs. Sanders has had to teach him how to raise his hand to answer a question because he would blurt out the answer (on his iPad) and all the other kids would know it because Landon just told them the answer! :)

He has refused to use his iPad to talk to his friends, and has been wanting to talk to his teachers without the help of the device.  He's making a lot of progression with talking, and although he doesn't sound like you or I would, you can make out most of the things he's saying when you listen really carefully...Here's Landon counting...

I tried to get him to say "eleven", but he was really wanting to go upstairs (which is why you hear him say "up").  Yes, I had to bribe him to say his numbers for this video.

Heidi is also thrilled that after 3+ years of being Landon's nurse, he is finally pronouncing her name!!!  First he called her "Hi-duh", but now he's finally gotten that D sound.  She's so happy and asks him to say it all the time.  It's gotta feel good to her.  Almost like when he called me "Mama" for the first time...almost.  :)

My cutie patooties

I just love my kids!  They make me so happy. :)  Here's some pictures of them being cute:

Sydney's first time in the pool.  Landon was showing her the ropes.

Daddy and Landon playing with his racing set.  He thought it was really funny.

Spy Mater is really cool.

Relaxing with the iPad.

Kisses from Dad

Super Why on the iPad??  Could life get any better??

Mom, I'm not sure I like this tummy thing...

"I'm number 9!"

Landon's number obsession is still in full swing...

Now, Landon likes to be called the #9.  Sometimes it's the only way you can get him to complete a task.  "Okay, number 9, drink your juice so you can get down from the table."  "Okay, number 9, we need to sit on the potty." Oh my, it's over running our lives!  I'm going to be haunted by the number nine for the rest of my life! ;)

One day I was folding laundry and Landon found something of Daddy's that he just had to put on:

He gave me a smile, and I told him to turn around so I could get a picture, so he literally turned in a circle...oh, a child's literal mind...

Then he realized that the sleeves were a little big...

But he didn't care.  He found a #9 shirt. :)

He loved it so much, he wore it to sleep in for nap time.  :)  

Recently, we've ventured into playing with other numbers, like 8 and 10.  Sometimes 1 and 0.  It really depends.  His speech therapist, Kim, has done an awesome job with teaching him word approximations so that he can say his numbers.  He knows how to count to 10 (and we can sometimes make out 11 and 12) using his voice.  More on that later. :)

Mangia, Mangia Sydney!!

Sydney LOVES to eat.  She will eat just about anything on a spoon.  We haven't always had it this easy though...

When I first started giving Sydney rice cereal (which is what is recommended by most pediatricians as "the first food") she did really great with it.  She loved it and would eat just about all of what I gave her.  On the third time, however, the eating resulted in lots of throwing up. :(  I tried again thinking it was just a fluke, and the same thing happened, so I stopped feeding her until I talked to Dr. LaCroix about what it could be.  She suggested just starting her on food (like apples) and adding a little bit of rice cereal to her apples and see how she tolerated it.  She said she hasn't ever heard of a baby being allergic to rice cereal before, so she figured maybe it would be better to start out with a little bit and work our way up.  So, I started her on apples and, hesitantly, added a little bit of rice cereal to her food.  Thankfully, it worked out perfect!  We haven't had any messes since!  YEA!

Sydney has an amazing appetite!  I'm glad she has loved everything she's tried and eats willingly.  We've tried a lot of different types of foods such as:  apples, bananas, carrots, peas, prunes (too many bananas ;) ), sweet potatoes, pears, squash, green beans, white beans, and just recently we tried some blueberries.

Feed me!  Feed me!

I don't have any more Sydney...sorry.

Okay, then I'll just lick the bowl.

And maybe I'll get something off this spoon too.

At her six month appointment (just after my last post) she was weighing in at 14 pounds 2 ounces.  A little small for her weight (between the 5th and 10th percentile), but I just chalked it up to her not eating rice cereal like other babies her age are doing.  Plus, Dr. LaCroix didn't seem concerned because Landon always fell around there with his weight too.  She said she expects small babies from two small people. :)  I'm sure Sydney has made up for lost time now!!  She eats two 3.5 oz containers of baby food at lunch and dinner.  I was just talking about starting to include a breakfast in her diet.  She's gotten a little hungrier in the mornings, so I'm hoping if I give her something in the morning she'll last until around lunch time....hopefully. :)