Trying out crayons for the first time.
Landen decided to climb the ladder with uncle Adam to help him decorate for the wedding reception.
Sutton and Landen were entertaining everyone with their dance moves at Adam and Kayla's wedding reception.
Sutton and Landen enjoying a sucker at Rail Fest in North Platte.
Karen and I decided to have the boys' faces painted. Sutton had the same thing painted on his face, but he smeared it almost right away.
Landen was enjoying cartoons one morning while I was getting ready to go to the doctor.
Landen watched Daddy put some spices in the pizza dough last weekend, so he thought he needed to add some more. He is going to be a good little helper in the kitchen!
Sometimes Landen will disappear to his room and will be very quiet and this is what I usually find when I go to check on him. He loves to just look at his books. When I sit down to try to read some of them, he closes the book or runs off to play with something else.
As I have mentioned in the past, Landen loves playing in the water. He was drinking the water as it came out of the drain holes in my planters on the deck. He had actually done this several time over the summer, I finally just got a picture of it.
Our Schwan's man always gives Landen a sheet of stickers to play with, so Landen and Daddy were being silly and putting them on their noses.
It's been a while since my last actual update, so I had to read it again to see if Landen is doing anything new. He has learned a new sign, please. It only took a day of me showing and helping him do it to figure it out and remember it. It really helped that I had some chips that he likes and he kept leading me to them and pointing and grunting...so I took the opportunity to teach him the sign for please. He also has a few new words. He says quack (cack) any time he sees something that looks like a duck (or bird). Elliot taught him monkey and owl. He puts his hands up to his arm pits and says ooo ooo for the monkey. The only time he will do the owl is when he wants to look at this pop up book he has that the eyes move on the owl. He is totally fascinated by that and pulls the book off the shelf while saying who who over and over again. I have also heard him say cracker (cacka). When I ask him to say please and thank you, he kind of says the words as he signs. One thing he says that I forgot to mention last time is he counts two, three. We can't get him to say one, though and we have been working on four and five. I just thought of another word I forgot last time...he says hello anytime he gets to play with a phone...toy or real. He has finally started saying hi (I thought he would say hi before a lot of other words). He finally realized the reaction he can get from people when he says hi, so as we walk through the grocery store, he will say it over and over. He is such a flirt!
September 19th, 20th and 21st was a busy weekend. Friday evening we helped with the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Landen got to play with Kayla's nephews who are 2 and 8 months older than him. He had a lot of fun chasing and copying them. On Saturday morning, I took Landen to Beaver City to watch the Eager Beaver Days parade. We got home a little before noon, ate lunch and then Landen took a nap. Later that afternoon, we went to the church for Adam and Kayla's wedding. From there we went to the reception in Holbrook for supper and the dance. We left around 10:15 and I'm pretty sure that Landen was asleep before we were out of Holbrook. He did not want to have his clothes changed when we got home, but we managed to get him into a dry diaper and pjs. Sunday we had decided to go to North Platte for Rail Fest at Cody Park. We met my cousin there since she lives in North Platte. We rode a minature train and toured a real train that they turned into a museum. We rode a few rides they have at Cody Park. As you can see in the picture above, Landen got his face painted like a puppy. We all had a lot of fun and Landen slept all the way home. The following Tuesday afternoon, I took Landen to a friend's house to play with her son and the kids she babysits. We didn't stay long becuse she had a couple extra kids that day and her son was crabby and needed a nap. The next day I went to Elwood in the afternoon because my photographer was having an open house and doing free mini sessions and a free 8x10 from that session. The next evening we went to McCook because I had an eye appointment. This past week was less eventful. I'm not going to complain about that. Saturday we went to my parents' house in the afternoon. Landen and I rode in the tractor with my Dad for a little while, then we went to town to get the stuff my Mom bought at the auction for all the left over stuff from the Beaver City elementary. (Incase you didn't know, Southern Valley built an elementary connecting to the jr/sr high school which open in 1995...when I was a 7th grader. BC, Oxford and Orleans all closed their doors to students and teachers for the last time this year...sad) We stayed at my parents' house to watch the Husker game and Landen spent the night with them. Sunday morning, Elliot got up early to go to GI to get some more wood to finish the cradle that he is building. I stayed home and slept in and then worked on a sewing project. It was so much more fun with my new sewing machine. I had been using my Great Grandma's machine which is more than twice my age and is practically and antique! After Elliot got home, we ate lunch at his parents' house and then went to pick up Landen. I keep wondering what it would be like if I were teaching and then I think I'm glad I get to be a stay at home mom! I'm scared to think about how busy we will be when we have teenagers in sports and other activities and by then I will be teaching again. I'm glad that's a few years away!
