8 Months

8 months old

Landon is now 8 months old!  He's staying pretty steady at 19lbs 12oz.  Not sure of his length...we'll have to get that measurement soon because it seems like he really stretched out.  He is a crawling machine and will follow us around the house.  It's cute because he starts huffing and puffing if it's been a long travel.  He's pulling himself up onto things as well.  We are trying to encourage the crawling for as long as possible (Mommy is really big into the cross-crawl patterning--it helps nervous system develop) and hoping to hold off walking for a few months at least.  His favorite crawling destinations (to our endless frustration) is a plant in our living room, trashcan near our desk, and Mochi's water and food bowls.  We haven't really baby-proofed our house at all but definitely need to make a few more changes for him.  We love watching his little brain work and figure things out.  Such a cute age.  

We think he's also trying to get his upper teeth in as he's chewing on everything again.  His sleep continues to be broken up making life a little difficult on us.  We are trying to keep with the mantra "this too shall pass."  We are keeping our fingers crossed!  Food is going much better.  He's taking in much more at each meal.  His favorites are sweet potato, zucchini, and pears.  He  loves his apple sauce and prunes too.  We usually mix both in with liver to help him get it down.  We don't promote/agree with rice cereal nor fortified iron products so we are giving him the real deal to get his iron.  Yes, we are bad and haven't eaten the liver ourselves, but when it's mixed with his apple sauce and prunes or sweet potatoes he gives us an open mouth for another spoonful!  Maybe we'll each take the bullet sometime and try for the sake of supporting our son.

One day he'll have is own set of real binoculars

Yummy carrot

We took a family getaway to Mendocino a couple weekends ago.  This was a birthday present for Shani from John because she loves visiting the North Coast area.  Although Landon has been pretty good in his carseat, we were pushing it with the 4+ hour drive.  He would arch his back and scream loudly, driving us nuts.  We stayed at this B&B (minus the second B in our minds) which was walking distance from the cute downtown area.  The sky was beautiful and clear when we walked down to get coffee and breakfast, then when we walked out of the coffee shop it was foggy and stayed that way for the rest of the weekend.  The last time we were there it was breezy, but absolutely beautiful.  This was a bummer, but we still had a great time.  John was excited that "Shani's birthday weekend" allowed for him to hit North Coast Brewing Co, Anderson Valley Brewing Co, and Russian River Brewing Co.  He also "allowed" one stop at a winery for Shani :-)  John quickly tasted some heavy beers and was quite displeased with the winding roads/Shani's driving-- he was almost as unhappy as Landon to be in the car!  Although we had a wonderful trip, it made the weekend go by much too quickly and we felt we could have used another day to recover.

Fan blowing Lando's hair

Sword fight

First taste of ice cream (he won't have more for a long while!)

Big boy sitting at the bar

Anderson Vally Brewing Company

We made another Apple Hill trip with John's family this past weekend.  The weather was very warm, much warmer than we like while up there.  We enjoy the brisk weather at Apple Hill to help get us in the fall mood.  It was a very beautiful day though and we bumped it to some favorite friends of ours which was a lot of fun.  Can anyone go to Apple Hill during the peak season and not see someone they know?  What a fun place!

Landon, Morgan, and Grandma Mac

 

 

Landon and Grandma Mac

He's on the Move!

Landon started crawling last Tuesday.  He was going from his stomach to sitting and back to his stomach for the past week but wasn’t really going forward.  On Sunday John said that he’d be crawling by the end of the week.  Daddy knows!  We were at Nonni and Poppa’s house changing his diaper when we let him go “free” for a bit.  Just like that he crawled about 4 feet to the pistachios.  We called Grandma and Grandpa Mac to facetime with them so they could see him.  Landon had a blast crawling towards them around the house.   He picked it up just like that.  We had him stay up extra late until John got home from work so he could see.  It was adorable, Landon crawled right up to him!

We officially started Landon on solids.  We are doing a combined type of feeding using the Baby Led Weaning philosophy as well as mashed foods.  Although we are pureeing it, we are keeping it on the thicker, chunky side as opposed to the runny side.  When we hold most of the bowls upside down, the food isn’t going anywhere!  The Baby-Led approach is giving him food that he can feed himself.  This allows him to explore the foods and put them to his mouth as he pleases as well as teaches him to chew/mash than just swallow lessening the likelihood of choking.  However, until they get it down it causes some gagging that John really isn’t fond of.  Landon doesn’t seem to mind and we keep a good eye on him so we know he’s okay.  We do want him to get more food than he takes in on his own in hopes of filling his belly more so he sleeps a tad longer, so we’ve added in the mashed food as well.  He’s doing really well with it and seems to like it.  So far he’s had mashed sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, and apples and eaten/gnawed on chicken, avocado, green beans, summer squash, pears, banana, egg yolk, broccoli, and apples.  It’s been fun introducing food but it’s also a lot more work than just nursing.  When we say more work we mean very messy.  It almost always requires an extra bath or close to it and we don’t even want to begin on the poo!

 

Landon had his first trip to Apple Hill.  This is a tradition we always do in October.  We drove all together with Shani’s family and It was fun to have him with us this year.  Crazy to think last year we were pregnant with him.  He loved the fresh apple cider and the small taste of pumpkin butter.  It was a little crazy getting in and out of the car at each stop, but he did well and enjoyed the excitement of all the people.  Usually we like to go when there is more fall colors, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous!

Since coming home from Hawaii John officially started his “new” job at Napa.  He was just thrown into the mix like he had been working there for the past couple years, which he has but in a different type of setting.  He’s definitely keeping busy with the different but same type of work load.  He finally had his first Friday off from work on his 4/10 schedule.  This allowed a lot of Daddy and Landon time which was a change for the both of them.  Landon was a bit on the fussy side that day making it quite the challenge for John.  Both survived but were probably ready for the day to be over.  It doesn’t help that Landon wasn’t taking the bottle well and was super tired.  Soon they will get their flow down and look forward to the exciting time they have together.  Although Shani wasn't very excited about it, John enjoyed watching Simpson's with Landon.

Kauai, Hawaii

Moon-set and Sunrise on the same morning.  So cool!

 We took our first family vacation with Landon to Hawaii...and we survived!  We had an incredible time.  We were in Kauai for a week with Shani's family and it was beautiful.  This was our first time to this island and the first time on a long vacation since before Shani was pregnant.  It was a much needed and wanted time away from the real world.  Did we really have to come back?  Enjoy all the pictures!   

Landon did great on the plane flight.  We were very anxious about this because it was a long flight, we had no distractions (Nonni, Poppa, Uncle Chris, Auntie Kat were flying in the next day), and there wasn't much space to move around.  There was one point about half way through the flight that we gave each other the "are we going to make it" face, but Shani took Landon on a "walk" and he calmed down...we survived 5+ hours on a plane with a 7 month old! Overall, Landon had a couple fussy moments, but no cries or screams.  Everyone around us thought he did terrific (thank goodness) and we were glad they thought it went better than we did. He was definitely the center of attention with his constant full-face smiles.  Everyone just loved him.  He only took 2, half hour naps (we were hoping for much longer).  If there is one thing from the trip we are glad to be through with, it is the plane flights. At the same time we couldn't be happier on how well they went (in hindsight).

We went on a couple of hikes while on the trip.  We wish we had time to do more, but were happy to see some of the island.  The first was a hike to Hanakapi'ai beach along the Na Pali coast that we did with Nonni and Poppa. It kicked our butts!  It was a beautiful hike, but it was a little tough on us.  We also hiked in Waimea Canyon to look for some native birds.  John got two new birds ('Elapaio and Anianau) and another that was new for Kauai ('Apapane) but not to his life list (both spotted by Shani).  We (mostly John) wish we had more time to spend on that side hiking and birding.  We guess we'll have to go back sometime to do that.

Hanakapi'ai beach along the Na Pali coast

Waimea Canyon

Kauai was also Landon's first time to the beach and swimming in the ocean.  The sand was quite fascinating and also very difficult to wipe off.  Someone mentioned the baby powder trick, but we don't have any and we didn't remember to pick any up.  It ended up not going too bad though.  No sand in the eyes...that bothered him at least.  Landon didn't really like the waves much.  He loves the water, but having the waves splash on him was a different story.  He didn't cry, but he definitely held us tighter and he didn't smile at all.  We then went to Queens Bath which is almost like a pool made by the rock formation and Landon loved it.  He also loved the salty taste of the water. We tried very hard to keep him from purposely drinking it.  Landon also had "Shave Ice" for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We didn't add any syrup, but it was still a treat for him.

Barking Sands

John also took us on quite an adventurous drive.  He heard about a good sea-birding spot (turns out not that great for the time we were there) near a lighthouse that we decided to check out.  We entered the destination in good ole Garmin....oops. We later learned from his book that there used to be two different entrances but now the road "doesn't connect."  It turns out the road does connect...but no one in their right mind would ever try.  Well Garmin took us on the road less traveled and it completely tested Shani's patience.  Thank God (no seriously, Praise the Lord) we made it safely and that Landon slept through it.  The road was a dirt road that was so uneven Shani had to hold Landon's head so it wouldn't bobble off!  The sugar cane (or whatever the plant was) literally lined the road to the point that it was constantly hitting both sides of the car at the same time--sometimes it almost went across the road completely. If we got a flat there would be no space to change it and there was no place to turn around. Oh yeah, did we mention this road was about 2.5 miles long? We drove 5 mph in the heat (jeep no top) and no air flow because of the sugar cane being so thick and high.  Yes, it was miserable.  We did see some guy fishing with an ol' school net, which was cool and the lighthouse was really neat.  Oh and the "real" road was a normal paved road that connected to a golf course immediately.  Yes, definitely an adventure. 

We were very fortunate that Shani's parents gifted us a helicopter ride to view Kauai.  It was so amazing!  The view from above was breathtaking.  We could not take enough pictures while up there.  We wish it could have lasted longer because it was the most beautiful way to see the island.  This by far was definitely worth it and we recommend that everyone try it out sometime. 

Here are some other pictures from our stay.

Landon trying pineapple, toasting Uncle Chris, and smiles with Nonni

Landon turned 7 months while we were there.  Pretty crazy.  He now has 2 teeth which we are reminded of every night.  Yep, every night.  Since about a week before his first tooth he has gone completely downhill when it comes to sleep.  His only getting up once a night has gone to getting up every 1-3 hours with maybe one 3 hour stretch...if we are lucky.  So much for a vacation to sleep in and relax.  Thankfully he seemed well rested because he did fantastic during the day.  Just mommy and daddy were extremely exhausted.  We do hope this time will pass soon, but until then we look like zombies.  We thought he would be moving forward a little more with the crawling, but he's kind of slowed down in that department.  He does get up on all fours and goes backwards.  Sometimes he'll go about an inch up, but mainly back.  He seems to have grown so much.  We thought for sure he put on a ton of weight but when we got back and weighed him he was 19lbs 6oz.  Yes, that's big but we figured he was over 20 lbs because it sure felt like it.  He does look like he's stretching out some so we'll have to see what his length is.  Otherwise our big boy is doing very well and as happy as can be--during the day!

1st Tooth

Landon has his first tooth popping through!  It showed its sharp little edge on Sunday.  Thankfully he isn't  biting yet and Shani hopes it stays that way.  Wishful thinking, we know.  Now that he has his first tooth, we'll be starting solids.  We are going to wait until after we get back from our trip to make things easier on ourselves.  Food will be a fun (but somewhat anxiety provoking for Shani) adventure!   We are having trouble getting a picture of this ever-so-slightly-popping-through tooth so until then enjoy some other pictures!

John got his official start day for work...the day before his start date!  He was told it was going to be October 1st, but on August 31st they called to say come to work on September 1st.  This was great news, but also a bummer too as he was planning on spending that time to study for his licensing test.  Somehow we'll have to find a way to give him time to study.

Grandma Mac had to leave over the weekend.  A big bummer as Landon had a great time with her (as did the rest of us).  She'll be back in a month so we are very excited for that.  

Labor Day weekend was pretty uneventful for us...which was wonderful!  We got to relax and keep things pretty mellow.  We had our good friends over for dinner which was a lot of fun.  We also had a yummy breakfast with John's family and we BBQ'd with Shani's family.  It's always nice to have a fun and relaxing weekend with family and friends.