walking... soon. we hope.

So after months (yes months, not weeks. months.) of hearing people say things like "look at him!  He is going to walk any day now" "oh my gosh, he is so close!  I bet he walks by the end of the week..." "he is going to just take off one of these days..." and many other similar phrases, Landon is still not walking.  He is now 16 (and a 1/2) months old and while he is one of the fastest crawlers I have ever seen, can stand completely on his own, can dance while standing, can handle the stairs without assistance, climbs up and over ottomans, balances on tip toes on top of the ottoman, and can "cruise" on and around anything you put in his way, he is still refusing to put one foot in front of the other and do this simple thing called "walking."
While not walking by 15 months is considered an "early red flag" most doctors don't start worrying about "delayed developments" until the 18 month mark.  So that means we have a little under 7 weeks for Landon to get going vertically before the dreaded doctor worry and mommy guilt-trip will begin to set in. 
And while Landon is "close"  (standing on his own and taking a step or two) we seem to have been stuck at this point for going on 3 months now. Any other major milestone that Landon has struggled with seems to be mastered as soon as I start voicing my worry.... so after watching our neighbors little girl (who was born on the exact same day as Landon) run around her front yard today, I am running out of my positive mommy patience.
I thought maybe if I finally write a blog on this topic, the message will somehow make it to the appropriate parties and Landon will be walking by the end of the week (6 weeks before that 18 month deadline).  So... let's see what happens. (Positive vibes welcome.)

Zoo take two! Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this time

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo- Colorado Springs, CO

(Obviously the Giraffes were our favorite!)

and last but not least, a quick video clip of a couple of the more active animals we saw:

Applesauce

Heres a recent video of Landon from the beginnings of our blueberry photo shoot.  If you haven't seen the images check them out at https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/V-Hayes-Photography/126791327409120

Landon having fun as usual

Here's some recent video of Landon cracking himself up and then of his adventures to stand solo (cracking me up).

Stand-Up:

Zoo time!

we went to the zoo today:

Landon had a good time seeing a lot of the animals but particularly liked the prairie dogs because they were right down at his level.

Thank you Aunt Mindy...

Landon has a new favorite toy!  Mommy has a new headache. 

Seriously though, thanks for the presents Aunt Mindy!  Mommy will just take some advil and Landon will keep enjoying his new toy, until the batteries run out (or mysteriously disappear)...  :)

Ouch

Landon had his first big owie this morning when his arms came out from under him mid-crawl and he took a face plant into the tile.  He's actually done that before without it even slowing him down but now that his top teeth have come in he ended up with a bloody fat lip.  Mix that blood with his teething drool (from his 1 year molars!) and he looked like a vampire who just got done eating. I cleaned him up and after sucking on a cold rag he recovered quickly as you can see in the video below.  It was hard to see but hes got a big cut on the inside of his upper lip and the outside is fairly swollen too.

(please ignore my nasally, sinus, allergy, voice.  as well as the mess going on behind Landon.  He goes on a mini rampage in the morning and dumps all of his toys out of every toy basket in the living room and as you can see he also decided to dump his cherrios out of his "spill-proof" snack container too.)

Strawberry Pancakes for Daddy

I wanted to put up this unedited clip of Landon eating breakfast and being his normal cute self.  Thought daddy might want to see just some "regular" moments.  This was also the first time he had mommy's pancakes.  I'd say he's a fan (and that was without any syrup!).

these are a little late: Trip to Texas

It's been a few weeks since our trip to Texas to visit Jason but with finals I have been a little behind on posting video or pictures. So here are a few shorts and a couple pics from the weekend with Jason in San Angelo, TX.

1 year follow up

I took Landon in earlier this week for his follow up appointment with the orthopedic specialist.  They took an x-ray of Landon's pelvis and hips and even though he stared at the x-ray room in a very "verge of panic break down" sort of way, he was a trooper and didn't move an inch.  The point of the x-ray was to measure the depth of his hop sockets and make sure everything was forming correctly.  For a one year old they are looking for 30 degrees or below on a bilateral measurement of the hip socket.  Landon has a very well formed socket that measured in at 23.7 degrees. 
We also asked the doctor about Landon's hypermobility of his hips (and possible knees) and the doctor says it is nothing to worry about. It's just the way that Landon is built and if he decides to be a great olympic gymnast someday, the flexibility might come in handy.   We'll go back in around his 2nd birthday for another follow-up just to see how everything is sitting after he is up and walking and running and jumping but everything looks great, more than great, for now.
I'm fascinated by this stuff, so for anyone else who is interested, here is a copy of the x-ray:

Adventures in Mobility Continued: Bear Crawling

Dancing

Getting ready to go see Jason

Busy!

It's been a busy couple of weeks lately.  I have been swamped with school work, working on the house, took a trip to Steamboat for my birthday weekend and had a Landon's first group play-date (at our house none-the-less). And through most of that Landon has been teething terribly.
I even took Landon in to the doctor because after 3 weeks of "teething" I was concerned that he had something else going on.  I was mostly concerned with his ears as he was pulling at one fairly repeatedly, was vomiting (projectile at times), and I noticed his balance was not as good as it used to be (falling down more often).  His ears and nose looked normal and after a thorough hour long exam by the doc and her 2 med students, Landon's condition was given the official fancy title of "teething syndrome."  Turns out he was textbook for true "teething"- vomiting from the extra secretions, loss of appetite, pain, irritability, excessive mucous and snot (resulting in possible sinus pressure discomfort), ear pain, swelling, mild fever, change in sleeping patterns, cries when layed down, cries when eats, cries when yawns, cries when cries....
he was great when we were AT the doctors (of course) and had a rare moment of normal happy Landon throught the past weeks, but in general he was pretty miserable up until this past Sunday when he finally seemed to be more like himself again. Thank goodness because I was at my breaking point with 4 am wake ups followed by a day full of unhappy non-napping baby who decided to go through seperation anxiety phase all at the same time.

Landon has been busy with his own agenda, of pushing those top teeth through and then learning how to actually push himself around and turn his dinosaur.  He's also been working on standing and earlier I found him sitting at his keyboard one second then standing at it the next.  He's also been making a lot of noises lately that sound like words.  So far I've heard things that sound like kitty kat, dog, that, duck, night night, what, this, and baby (other than the mama, dada, nana he's been saying).  Nothing really consistent enough yet to call it a first word.

Oh, and he's been waving hi a lot as well as signing for more and all done.

In other big news, we have decided to make a trip to Texas to see Jason!   He was talking about coming home for a quick visit over 4th of July weekend but I decided I just can't wait that long so I am going to pull of a slight miracle and get my school work for this unit done a week early and hit the road next thursday.  We booked a hotel, ordered Landon a new car seat (he was outgrowing his infant one) and I am busy getting my disections and bacteria cultures done for the week. 

Actually that's a lie, I haven't started my labs yet because I just went downstairs to get going on them when I saw another black widow hanging from the window (that's 3 here since we moved in).  It's raining and she must have been hanging out on the beams of our deck when the rain washed her down from above.  She was hanging at eye level on the other side of the window, working her way back up.   I would have put my face right into her when I peaked outside to see how the yard is draining from the rain we are getting right now, but she had come down a foot to the left of the door and not directly in front of it, luckily.  I managed to run through the house, over laundry and dog and cat and toys, to the garage and grab the spider spray (with a 3 foot, battery operated shooter) and make it back downstairs before she had dissapeared.  I shot her right out of the air and into the darkness and can only hope that enough of the spray made it onto her to keep her from coming back.  She was smaller than the other one we found in October so I think she is one of the offspring that somehow made it through the winter.  Who knows where she has been hiding but I do know it wasn't the garage which I have been regularly checking.  While I love the wood stairs running down the side of our house, I have a feeling that it is a haven for spiders under there.  I wouldn't have a problem with this if I didn't have an infant and pets to worry about.  PLEASE black widows, go away.  Find a nice home somewhere else and take your nasty grass spider and orb web weavers with you please (although they are more ugly than dangerous, unlike you).

okay, back to the mission at hand.  lots of school work so we can make this trip to see Jason happen!!

Recent video of Landon

Taking advantage of Mother Nature's April Fool's Joke

Crawling adventures continue...

Landon has mastered a good army crawl and even though he gets around really well, it's beginning to morph into something resembling a normal crawl.  Here's some video....

and yes, that little split maneuver at the end is how he sits up.  the only way. he does things his own way... some people call that an "outside the box thinker", a problem solver.... it works.

and yes, that is a toothrush.  his favorite thing right now.

monkeying around

A couple new pics of Landon, with post bath wild hair...

Art-Time

Landon had his first art project today and we ended up with a really good little masterpiece actually! He was tempted to eat the paint but somehow we made it through without any major mess or without any paint making it on anything other than his tray and hands. Of course it's too early to really know if he will be artistic but this wasn't a bad way to start...

 



Dino-Digs

Forward Motion!

For those parents who have had babies that have met all of their developmental milestones right on time, this video might seem like small potatoes.  For those parents who know what it is like to see the months of milestone development come and go, you might understand how excited I was about Landon finally making strides towards a forward motion!  He still hasn't perfected the army crawl but I think he will have it down in another day or two.  Heres a video of the past few days/week leading up to the big moment where he finally started going forward.



(On a side note: I'm almost positive that Landon is a "late bloomer" on gross motor skills because of his start in the Pavlik harness.  While he was only in it for 2 months, it definitely affected the amount of tummy time he was able to get in- crucial stuff! On every other front, Landon is ahead of where he should be.  I'm sure if his Uncle Matt has anything to do with it, Landon will still be an amazing athlete someday- maybe... if he wants to be...)  ;)

A minute of happiness....

Here's a clip of Landon and my mom from today where Landon obviously thinks that mommy is funny. I had a lollipop in my mouth and he just couldn't stop laughing...

learning to be more mobile but definitely not a pro yet...

Here's a funny clip I got of Landon.  He was standing. holding on to our ottoman/his toy chest but his feet kept sliding farther and farther back until he was just hanging on by his chin (literally).

One week down...

So it's been one week since Jason headed off to Texas.  I'm not going to say it has been easy but it is getting better each day. 
We started going to a kids gym today and after talking to Jason about it I realized that maybe some people don't know what a kid's gym is.  So I thought I better mention that it is not a place where babies are strapped to mini treadmills or are bench-pressing 1/4lb weights.  It's just a place where some little ones get together with their mommies and an instructor and do some organized play with focus on different motor skills as well as some free play where they get to tumble around on gymnastic mats and practice gripping bars and pulling up on beams, etc.

Anyway, we'll have to take a video at our next class for daddy to see.  Until then, here's a video of the tired little guy after class and before nap.  he was a little out of it but fun nonetheless....

First sign of talking back?

We were having lunch today and Landon started eating his toes.  I jokingly told him he can't eat those toes! and he responded by laughing and then sticking his tongue out.  Here's the continued tongue sticking outing...

Dada

It's been awhile since I have written anything on the blog mostly because we have been so busy over the past 9 months that when I have an extra few minutes I tend to choose sleep over this.  To bring everyone up to speed (for the most part) I started school again last fall (pre-nursing). Then we bought a house in September (yeaaaah!) and Jason's orders were cancelled the very next day (wah wah wah) but he stepped up his game and talked his way into a retrain into intelligence (an almost impossible task these days). Before he headed off to his school earlier this week we got to spend a lot of QT time together as a family and even took a trip cross country to Michigan and Pennsylvania for a few weeks.  Now here we are, Landon is doing great (being stubborn about crawling but otherwise being a perfect little boy), I'm back at school with a full semester of online classes (online since we couldn't find reasonable daycare while Jason is away), and Jasons is trying to keep sane while reliving his barracks-days down in "bfe" Texas.

I thought I would revive this blog and use it as a way to keep Jason up to date while he is away and of course, anyone else who wants to follow along is more than welcome.