Sunday Seven!

"7 of my favorite Landon pictures"



1. This was in the hospital - August 17th, 2009 (the day after Landon's birthday) - the best day of Mommy's life!









2. This was one of the newborn pics that Nina took when Landon was 5 weeks old.












3. Of course Daddy bought and loves this outfit...I think Landon will be a sports fan!









4. Landon's 1st Halloween (he was 2 months old).

5. I love this picture of Daddy & his little boy, sporting the Bears attire!

6. My all time favorite...he looks like such a big boy in this picture!

7. First time in his highchair....LOVE that big cute smile!

*Of course I have MANY more favorites but I had to narrow it down and stick with "7".

So silly!

Last weekend Landon learned how to touch his toes! So this has been his new thing to do, especially when I'm changing him. It definitely makes it more challenging to change his diaper! :) Here's a picture....

Sunday Seven!

Well it's been MANY months (okay, almost a year!) since I've done my "Sunday Seven", so I thought I'd try to bring it back! Enjoy!

SUNDAY SEVEN......

"7 of my favorite things with LANDON"

1. Play Time - I cherish these moments that I have to get down on the floor and play with my lil guy. He loves his Baby Einstein Activity Mat and has so much fun hitting the dangle toys and loves looking at the lights. He's also been enjoying his Einstein Jumperoo and has learned to touch the ground with his toes in order to bounce up and down. We also have a car seat toy that he loves to play with, along with his new light up toy computer Daddy got him and many other small toys. And "Fido" (his lil blue doggie) is also one of his fav's!

If any of you know me very well you know that I'm not a morning person. Well, 5am is me and Landon's play time...that's his new wake time (unfortunately) and Daddy doesn't take him to daycare until 7:15am, so I find myself playing with Landon for about an hour every morning. Fortunately Landon is so happy in the mornings and full of smiles, so it definitely lights up my mornings and makes it tolerable (lol!). I'm thinking Landon is going to be a morning person....augh...sigh, sigh!

2. Bath Time - I love, love, love bath time. For some reason this is my favorite thing to do with Landon, therefore I rarely let Daddy do it because I'm selfish and want that time with him. I feel it's my biggest bonding time with my lil guy. The past few weeks he has discovered "splashing" and the first night he did this I could not stop laughing. He was splashing so hard that water was flying everywhere! He was splashing it into his own eyes and they were all red and watery but he still wouldn't stop. :) He was having way too much fun! So recently I've been giving him a few bath toys (rubber duck and water books) and I think he's loving bath time even more than he did before!

3. Interacting - This is by far the best! When their a baby they just lay there and sleep all the time and they have no idea who you are. Now it's so much fun that he knows Mommy & Daddy and loves playing at this stage. Playing and talking with Landon is so much fun and we look forward to interacting with him even more in the next few months.

4. Giggles & Smiles - Okay, so Landon smiles ALL the time now, we absolutely love it! He feeds off of your smiles and silly faces, etc....like I always tell Jeff, it's the one time now that I feel I can act silly/crazy all the time and it's allowed. At least Landon loves it anyway. :) Daddy has found his ticklish spot (under his arms) and can seem to make him giggle all the time. Daddy definitely loves play time with his little boy!

5. Our lil Trooper - I definitely have to say that Landon is quite the trooper for his age. I know alot of babies/infants that can't stand noise and chaos and cries when it's too loud or when it's past their bedtime. Not Landon...he loves the loud and chaos and is definitely a "people watcher", just like his Mommy! We went to the Ellis' Christmas Party and all of the babies went to bed or left early and Landon stayed up the entire time we were there (till 12:30am!), just looking around and watching everyone...he even enjoyed the loud karaoke! We have always taken him places and haven't kept him on a strict schedule since day 1 and I think this has really helped. Sometimes I think strict schedules are overrated. :) We enjoy the flexibility we have with Landon, although we know that this could change anyday.

6. Milestones - Each milestone is so special and makes you realize how fast time flies by. It's fun to see Landon smile, laugh, play, sit up (really good but with a little support), roll over halfway (he's trying so hard and he's almost there!), hold his head up strong, sit in a highchair, eat cereal from a spoon, focus on objects and follow them side to side...and watch Mommy and Daddy walk around the room, put all of his weight on his legs and dance with Mommy (lol!), and the list goes on and on. We are looking forward to each and every milestone, especially when he fully sits up on his own, starts to crawl, and then walks. We're really excited for the walking!!

7. Cuddling - I love my cuddle time with Landon and never want it to go away. For some reason I think he'll always cuddle with Mommy as I'm pretty sure he'll be a Mamma's boy...or I'm hoping anyway! When he's tired is when he really loves cuddling, and he always loves being held. He's quite the snuggler, and I'm so glad, as I know not all babies are like that.

It's Cereal Time!

We finally decided to start Landon on cereal the evening he turned 5 months. We felt he was ready and we were anxious to see how he'd react. As all of you Mommies know, each and every milestone is so special and so much fun to experience for the first time. So as you all probably did the same, we had our camera and video camera out and ready to capture this moment. I put Daddy's favorite bib on (Da Bears) and we buckled him in his high chair. I have to say he looked so darn adorable and so grown up too! He was full of smiles (see picture below) and seemed to enjoy his new high chair. Well he pretty much spit out every spoonful I gave him, which we expected, but it was so cute to see his little tongue a workin in a different way that he's never used it before. Also, we decided to start with Oatmeal cereal over Rice cereal because my sister said that Rice can cause constipation and he's already had issues with that in the past, so we didn't want to take any chances. Oatmeal is better for that.
We're already on day 5 of giving him cereal and he's doing awesome! We are so proud of our little Peanut!

Stomach Bug & Bad Cold

Augh, it's been a rough....I mean ROUGH week in the Grant household. Where do I even start?! First of all Landon has had a bad cold for about 2 weeks now. Him and I had it at the same time in the beginning but I was able to get over mine in about 5 days. Landon has held onto his and still has it to this day. I'm sure he'll constantly have 'something' since he goes to daycare with 3 other babies and about 10 kids. There's bound to always be something going on around there. :( Anyway, his cold has kept him from sleeping 'soundly' except we are shocked but thrilled that he continues to sleep through the night (yay for Mommy & Daddy!). He has been coughing lots, sneezing constantly, a runny nose and is super congested too. Poor thing can't breathe half of the time, especially in the mornings after he wakes up.

Not sure if it was coincidental or what, but the evening he got his shots is when the stomach bug started and the diarrhea came on full force. This was Wednesday evening (Dec. 23rd) and he didn't get over these symptoms until Wednesday, Dec. 30th....a full week of a sick baby with a stomach bug AND cold does NOT equal a whole lot of fun. Thursday the 24th was Christmas Eve and we celebrated that evening with my family in Washington. We were looking forward to a fun evening but about half way through the night (during gift opening) is when the crying and screaming came on...and lasted for DAYS. At this point Jeff and I didn't know for sure what was going on but we knew he was obviously in alot of pain as Landon never cries unless he's overly tired, in which he'll stop and fall asleep within 5 minutes. Well the crying was not stoping so Jeff and I spent the rest of the evening upstairs at my parents house, trying to calm him, while everyone else was downstairs having a good time. Unfortunately we missed out a little bit and weren't able to get pictures with my family of Landon's first Christmas. It was a bit of a bummer but nothing we could do. My poor baby was so sick and he was letting us know. Tylenol or nothing would ease the pain...the only thing that took the crying away was when he'd fall asleep.
Friday was Christmas Day and we were hoping Landon would feel better. Thankfully in the morning he was in pretty good spirits so we took some pics and had him open his gifts (wink wink) and then he took a nap before heading over to Jeff's family's house for the day. Well I'm not even kidding when I say that 5 minutes after walking through their door the fun began....lets just say we didn't get to relax or enjoy much of the Grant's Christmas, as we spent the entire night upstairs with Landon, trying to rock him to sleep or at least calm him. Nothing would work...and he wasn't just crying but he was screaming crying so loud for hours on end. He would fall asleep for a little bit and then wake screaming again...you could tell he was in so much pain and all I wanted to do was cry with him. You feel so helpless and it's so sad to see them hurting like that. So unfortunately once again we weren't able to get any first Christmas family pictures. But we will still hold the 'memories' in our heads, as it was still very special having him there with us. It's just unfortunate that he was so sick on his first Christmas.
Well the crying, screaming, sickness didn't stop there...like I said it continued for an entire week. And because of his diarrhea he then got a diaper rash and would scream everytime we changed him. Poor little guy has had a rough time. Sunday evening we decided to take Landon to the OSF Peds after hours since he wasn't getting any better and I wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or something we could get treated. Dr. said he looked good so we just had to patiently wait it all out. On Monday evening Landon passed the stomach flu to me and I was up getting sick most of the night and had to call in sick on Tuesday. I laid in bed and slept most of the day and didn't get out of bed until 9:30pm that night just to eat some pretzels and go back to bed. Daddy did a great job of taking care of me and Landon. Let me say it's soooo nice that Jeff is so hands-on and so good with Landon and knows how to do everything, as I never have to tell him what to do, he just knows how to do it ALL. Thankfully my mom (Mimi) watched Landon this day so he wasn't anywhere close to me and so Jeff could have a little break. Mom said he was really good and smiled and giggled lots. Because of this we knew he was starting to feel better. On Wednesday Jeff's mom (Nana) watched Landon while I was at work and so Jeff could have another break. That evening is when we finally witnessed Landon feeling better and getting back to himself....his happy, giggly, smiley self. :) What a relief and joy to have him back!!!!! It's been one very LONG week but we managed to make it through and I feel that we're stronger parents having to go through that.

Landon.....happy or sad, good or bad, we love YOU just the same. You are our precious little angel!!!!

4-month immunizations

On Wednesday, December 23rd we took Landon to get his 4-month immunizations...1 oral and 3 shots. Thankfully Daddy goes with us cause Mommy would have a hard time holding him while getting these done. Although I sit across from them and watch it all...that seems to be easier than being the one holding him while he cries. This time was definitely alot harder than the last time. Landon reacted differently and you could tell he was in alot more pain, and his thigh actually swelled up pretty bad and was red for hours after. We were a little concerned since this didn't happen the last time but the nurse just said to keep an eye on it the rest of the evening. Again I gave him a dose of Tylenol an hour before the shots and had a bottle ready after they were done, but this time nothing seemed to help...he screamed and cried for a little while and it was so hard to see him like this...as a Mommy (well and Daddy too) it just breaks your heart and you wish you could get the shots for them. Thankfully Landon slept when we got home and seemed to be feeling better, although his thigh was still swollen for a few more hours. I decided to give him a bath to soothe him and so I could get the 3 bandaids off of his legs...I knew those would kill if I just tried ripping them off. Oh the 'little' things you have to think of now as a Mommy. :)