Our Mac Pac: An Overdue Catch-Up

Yes, we’ve been bad at updating and we’re so sorry. We’ve been so busy in the past month it’s insane. There is no excuse though, we need to keep updated stories and pictures of Landon because he’s growing so quickly and changing so much! We’ll keep each section short as we’ve honestly had so many different things go on, but hopefully you’ll see how much fun we are having with our little boy!

So, what’s happened since our trip to Yosemite for Mother’s Day…

Landon Updates:
Landon is now 16 months old. We aren’t sure what he is weighing exactly, probably around 23.5 lbs. He’s definitely slimmed down since he was a baby. He’s stretched out a bit too. We’ll have to measure him to see how tall he is now. He has eight teeth: 4 on top, 4 on bottom. He’s become such an active boy. He loves, loves, loves playing in the car. He’ll sit in the driver’s seat pushing any button he can, pulling anything he can, and the funniest of all, honking the horn using his chest. He’s not strong enough to push with his hands, but he’s learned to “hug” the steering wheel in order to make it go beep!

Landon honking the horn

He’s also really into climbing. He’s learned to get up on the kitchen chairs by himself. Gone are the days of the high chair. He now wants to help with everything in the kitchen and is constantly dragging the chairs over to wherever we are so that he can be up helping/playing. He’s learned to crawl up onto the window seat. He can’t do this without some help so he’s figured out how to turn a couple of his toys on a side so he can use it as a step to get up. NO, we did NOT teach him to do this! He’s really started using that brain of his. We allow him to climb as much as he wants, but make him get down on his own and have encouraged this. We want him to explore but he needs to learn his limits. However, just the other day he literally climbed by himself up Papa’s 8 foot ladder, with no help at all. Yes, Shani and Papa were there just in case he fell, but we did not spot him at all. We did have him climb down, but that required some help on our part. He’s so crazy!

Helping Daddy with the dishes

Window seat with Mochi

New recommendation for rear-facing is 2 years old. John thinks it's time for Landon to turn but Shani is insistent.

He’s starting to talk a little more. Some of his words include: mum, dada, papa, na-na (Nonni), book, more, milk, pa (please), duck, bir (bird), haa (hot), haa-pa (help), moo (cow). He continues to sign a ton still. This continues to be very helpful and we are so glad we decided to do it. Landon’s also really into books now. He used to browse through them on his own, but could care less about reading them with us. He now likes to read and actually enjoys “reading” them on his own. Very cute to hear him babble his way through a book. He has also learned to throw and to John’s dismay uses his right hand. There go Daddy’s hopes of a left-handed pitcher! His dexterity has improved as well. He’s been putting his screwdriver into the screw on his own, stacking nesting boxes by himself, and putting tops on bottles/jars. Although we are probably missing something, that’s a quick yet still lengthy update on what’s happening with Landon.

Put the screw-driver in on his own

Hanging with the Hills and Wards:
Uncle Kev, Auntie Elaine, Eli, and Jacob were in town from Michigan! We’ve missed them terribly since they’ve been gone and it’s been hard to catch up as often as we’d like because of the time change. They were in Sac for a couple weeks and we took advantage of their time here and saw them as much as we could. We had a great evening (on the eclipse night) of hanging out with them and the Wards. We used to all hang out back at Cal Poly so it was fun to get our families together. This was the first time since before Landon was born that we were all able to get together. Now we have a houseful of kiddos. Very fun!

Eli, Jacob, Landon, Georgia, August

Yes that's John under all those kids!

Landon's a bad influence already!

John and Landon also had a fun hiking day with the Hills. All the things we could do with them if we could convince them to move to Sacramento!

Eli, Uncle Kev, Jacob, Auntie Elaine

Hiking/Backpacking:

Since coming back from Yosemite we got back into hiking and backpacking. This was something we really enjoyed before Lando was born, but really haven’t done in quite some time. So we were a little spontaneous during Memorial Day weekend and decided to take Landon on his first overnight backpacking trip. We knew he’d probably be good on the hike part as he’s pretty used to that, but we were so worried about the overnight part. Would he be too cold, did he have enough food, would he be fine trapped in a tent? It ended up being such a fun, yet exhausting trip. A few things that made it exhausting: Shani was carrying about 40 lbs (including Lando), John was carrying about 50 lbs, we ended up hiking an extra mile further (after 4 miles already) to camp near water (the creek bed was dry - NOT John's fault!), it was an exposed trail so the sun was very warm, and we didn’t really pack enough to eat for breakfast. But we had such a great time as a family and actually started planning our next overnighter while hiking out.

Just a little into the hike

Half way through the hike

Yes we still have fun together!

Shani's Blue Boys. We survived the night!

Landon in his camping get-up from Grandma and Grandpa Mac

Now that puts us into June..

Sacramento Zoo:

We took Landon and Morgan to the zoo. This was Landon’s first trip. He did like seeing the animals, but at times couldn't care less. He really enjoyed the animals that made noise. His favorite was a Hornbill that honked really loud. His cousin kept us at a quick pace as to make sure Landon didn’t get bored. All the animals were up and moving for us which was really nice. We ended the day riding the carousel a few times, which they both loved.

Morgan and Landon

Shani and Morgan

Riding the carousel

Grand Junction, CO:

We took Landon to Colorado for the first time to visit Grandma and Grandpa Mac. It was a very quick trip, but we had a great time. They made the very long drive to come get us and bring us back to the airport and we couldn’t be more thankful. We also got to visit with Great Grandpa Mac and Uncle Bill and Aunt Jan. Landon had a great time with their 1 yr old dalmation pup Buck. It was especially adorable when a plane flew over while Landon was playing with him. He would go back and forth signing “dog” and “plane" and he looked like he really wanted Buck to acknowledge the really cool plane flying overhead. It was quite cute. One night we even put Landon down to bed and were able to go out for a date night. John found this really good place downtown with amazing desserts. It was nice to have a couple hours to hang out and talk. We also went on a fun hike with Grandma Mac to Independence Rock in the Colorado National Monument. It was a hot one, but very fun nonetheless. One of the highlights of the hike was seeing 5 desert bighorn sheep! Landon took a good nap through most of it which was probably good as this was another one of our hikes that was quite exposed. Although we wish we could have had few more days, we were so happy to get to go out and be with John’s parents. We know Landon loved his time with them!

Hiking with Grandma

Independence Rock

McIlnay boys: Great Grandpa, Grandpa, Landon, and Daddy

Landon, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Jan

Landon playing around with Great Grandpa

All smiles with Grandma

Being silly with Grandpa

Landon and Buck

Most Recently:
We also celebrated Shani’s 29^th birthday this week. Landon brought her balloons to work with the help of Nonni. She loved this and Landon loved the balloons. He carried them the whole way from the car to her. What a sweet boy! John also cooked a wonderful surprise birthday dinner for her and invited Shani's family. Shani made it a little difficult with threatening to come home during her lunch hour while he was prepping everything. It all worked out and the food was so yummy!

Happy Birthday Shani

John's delicious meal: Chipotle beer-can chicken, curry honey sweet potatoes, prosciutto and havarti wrapped asparagus, grilled portobello mushrooms with mozzarella salad, and 2 big bottles of birthday themed beer (neither of which Shani drinks)

The weekend went by quickly between doing Shani’s dinner Friday night, work Saturday, a wedding reception Saturday night, and then hanging out Sunday for Father’s day. Sorry again for the long delay in updates, but hope this catches you up for now.