Once again...God is Good

A few months back the staff at Napa State Hospital were informed there would be some "Reductions in Force" to help with budget issues through the Department of Mental Health and the state.  John was given a letter informing him that he, among 40 other psychologist, was considered "surplus" even though there was already a shortage of psychologist at the hospital.  They initially heard there was going to be 13 cuts, but rumors suggested maybe only 10.  The hospital release the rankings based on seniority (which is how they decide who to "reduce") and John with his two other friends from internship were 9, 10, and 11, meaning if only 10 people were cut, two would be gone and one to stay.  They are all very close and the fact that they were going to be split the way they were was frustrating. We kept praying that whatever God's will was would be done.  If he wanted John to stay at Napa where he was just promoted to a position he loved, where he felt less stressed, and was actually able to get off work at a reasonable time, and gain the experience he was wanted, then wonderful.  However, if he wanted John somewhere else whether starting private practice or who knows where, it would bring a lot more stress and unknowns for us, but we knew it was what was needed.  It was difficult knowing that he could easily lose a job that he loves after 10 years of college and 2 years of full time training. The fact that he might not have a job was scary. 

But like we said above, once again God is Good!  On Tuesday they had an "emergency" meeting to let the psychologists know that there will be no reductions!  This brought tears to our eyes as we were so thankful for God allowing John to stay where he is for now.  We know that Napa isn't his long-term (we don't know how "long" is defined in this case) plan, but it's what we need at this time to get John the experience he needs in a place he loves.  Hurray!

Life in the past month has been quite busy for us.  There were 3 weekends in a row to Nevada for John and 2 for Shani.  We then were in Hayward the next weekend for Shani's chiropractic seminar.  These weekend schedules have made it very difficult the first couple nights back for Landon.  However, the past week we've actually had a pretty consistent sleeping schedule with him.  Yes, he's still getting up twice/night but they tend to be at the same times so we are getting used to it.  Shani's seminar was all day Saturday which made it rough for John to find things to do (in Hayward) with Landon between naps and meeting Shani for lunch.  He also had the great adventure with Landon back at the hotel.  Landon managed to poop 4 times and only make it in his diaper once!  It was a rough morning for John.  The rest of the weekend went better for them.  We did our routine stop in Berkley on the way home to grab lunch at a French take out hole-in-the-wall we really like, then it was Sunday night already.  Another weekend away and another weekend gone just like that.

Yes, that's poop on Landon's nose

This past weekend was nice to be home.  It was so HOT though.  We were in the 90's both days.  A week earlier it was hailing and chilly and now we are frying.  We had Michelle and Anthony (Landon's babysitter and her husband) over for dinner Saturday night so John could finally meet her.  He cooked his amazing Beer can chicken on his new charcoal grill.  He's been wanting one for awhile and we finally decided for his "Father's Day" present he could go buy one.  Definitely not the best idea to cook a meal for guests on a new grill for the first time.  It turned out great, but we didn't have our timing down.  We look forward to BBQing more this summer.  On Sunday we headed to Southside Park in Sac for an Earth Day festival. Shani's Holistic Moms group was hosting a booth there.  Again, it would have been a great day if it weren't so dang hot.  We just aren't used to it yet.  Hopefully next year it will be a tad cooler.

Earth Day

Now for a little update on Landon:

14 months old

23 lbs

Size 5 toddler shoe (yes big!)

Getting a curl to his hair

Starting to babble more, but still our quiet boy.  Has a few words and will attempt others when asked

Signing still like crazy, probably 20 words at least as well as putting them together (more food please)

Asks to go outside, calls to the blue birds, then asks to open the garage, goes into the garage to the refrigerator, gets the container of worms off the shelf, walks to the bird food dish (calling the birds as he goes) and then asks to be picked up so we can feed them.  It's so adorable!

Continues to LOVE being outside

Enjoy some pictures from the past couple weeks!

Carrying around his bunny from Grandma and Grandpa Mac

Landon loves playing in the water

Landon loves airplanes

Getting ready for Yosemite

Hanging with his buddy Parker

Big boy hanging with Nonni

Christ has Risen and He's gained an Angel

Landon and Granny

And that Angel is Granny Mac.  Unfortunately John's grandma passed away almost two weeks ago.  It was a bit unexpected (brain aneurysm) which made it very difficult on the family.   Thankfully we were able to visit her in the hospital in Reno after surgery and she was her normal witty self.  Things then took a turn for the worse and she passed a few days later.  Although we know she is rejoicing in Heaven with Jesus, it's very hard on us knowing we won't get to see her again for a long while. We were in Winnemucca, NV over this Easter weekend to have a service celebrating her life.  She was another amazing woman in our life.  Boy, did she LOVE her great-grandson!  We were constantly greeted by friends at the service asking if Landon was indeed the great-grandson she always talked about.  One of the reasons we started this blog was so we could keep her updated on our growing son.  She checked it constantly for updates and we never could put enough pictures up according to her.  Landon will always know of his Granny and how much she loved him.  We will miss you Granny!

The Mac family out to see Granny in the hospital

Grandma with her grand kids at Granny's service

We made it back to have Easter at home.  Landon had his first Easter Egg Hunt at Nonni and Papa's house.  It took a little guidance at first, but then he started to get it.  He was most excited about the eggs in areas he already loves to play in (flower bed, drinking fountain, etc).  We love this age where he was excited to get the eggs even though nothing was in them.  It was just the cutest thing watching him collect the eggs and carry his basket!  We had a wonderful dinner with family and enjoyed celebrating this day of our Savior's Resurrection!  Happy Easter everyone!

Thanks Papa for your help!

Looking for more eggs

Happy Easter from our family!

Landon enjoying his Easter basket with Nonni

Playing at the pool with Misty

Landon hanging with Great-grandpa Chuck

Grandpa Chuck with some of his grand kids

Here are a few more pictures from the past couple weeks.

Landon loves going outside...rain or shine

Grandpa giving Landon a ride in his wagon

Landon on Papa's motorcycle

Feeding the Blue birds with Daddy

Landon in his birding hat

Winning stuffed animals at Circus Circus

A New Cousin on Its Way!

Landon's baby cousin

Landon is going to have a new cousin!  Uncle Chris and Auntie Kathryn are expecting!  His new cousin should be arriving early October.  This is very exciting news as we've been talking about this day for many years now.  Shani could not wait for the time that our kids would grow up playing together.  Now the time has arrived.  She was almost as excited to find out about them expecting as she was with Landon...almost :-)  We can't wait for this new addition to enter our family!  Congratulations Uncle Chris and Auntie Kathryn and thank you for making us an Aunt and Uncle again.

Landon has really taken off with the walking.  Although he will crawl still, he prefers to walk.  He's been making his way around the house pretty well.  Last week he started being able to stand on his own from the middle of the room.  He's still a little straight legged but he's starting to get some bend in the knees.  Unfortunately for Landon (great for Cali), it has been raining a lot this past week so we haven't been able to go outside much.  It'd be fun seeing him walk around the park instead of crawl.  We'll get back out there soon!  

 

Lately Landon's been super sweet and giving kisses.  At times it's the wide-mouthed slobbery kiss, but he'll also give the sweet little peck too.  So adorable!  For the first time last Sunday, Landon went into the church nursery.  We were very relieved that his number didn't get called.  We didn't think that it would since he loves playing with other kids and essentially goes to anyone, but you never know.  It was nice to not have any distractions during church for the first time in quite awhile.  We actually got to sit next to each other the whole service instead of Shani spending a chunk of time in the mommy and baby room (cry room) until Landon fell asleep.  Another way our little boy is growing up.  The only "difficult" part was when we were checking him in they asked if he had any food allergies to put on his name tag.  We had a hard time trying to figure out what to say but said no, however we didn't want him having any snacks.  The guy seemed confused and really wanted to make sure if there were any allergies that we put it on there.  Finally John just said Shani was a little crazy on food things and we didn't want him eating snacks.  He just smiled and said he'd figure out what to write on there.  Our poor, neglected boy.  No nasty, artificially colored, bad for you gold fish for Landon :-(  Don't worry everyone, we'll figure out a compromise one day, but until we do, the boy only gets real, whole food!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures from the past couple weeks.  Happy Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 

Playing with rice at Nonni and Papa's

 

 

Giving Auntie Kat kisses

Landon playing with Maycie (maybe he'd like a sister??)

Landon and Colton

Pulling weeds with Daddy

Claire and Landon

Landon loves his puzzle

Big changes around here

In the last month there have been so many changes around our home.  Although change can be tough, we've welcomed many of the new developments. 

Where do we begin?  Probably the easiest is with the one that's changed our lives the most...Landon.  Our growing boy took his first steps a couple weeks ago and is now attempting to make his way around on foot.  He still prefers crawling because he's quite quick on all fours.  At most, he's probably done about 10 consecutive steps before falling, but he usually stays around 4-5 steps.  He definitely has the drunken mummy walk currently which is just the cutest thing!  We occasionally try to make him walk to us in order to pick him up which turns into a game of him falling into our arms.  Cute, but definitely not helping his balance.  It sure makes him look like such a big boy now that he's taking those steps.  Thankfully, we both were there to see his first ones which was very exciting.  

Landon's weighing in a hair over 22 lbs and we are pretty sure he's grown in length too but we haven't measured him lately.  He continues to learn more sign language "words," but he still isn't speaking much (but plenty of babbling and screeching). Shani gets a little worried, but others reassure her that he still is by no means behind.  Some new signs he's picked up in the last week are: please, bath, kitty, windy, and we think the sign for changing.  Thankfully Landon's been staying pretty healthy lately (knock on wood) which has been really nice.  The only unfortunate thing is he hasn't recovered his sleep patterns since he was sick last.  What a joy to be around during the day and a horror at night.  We'll get there, hopefully before baby #2 decides to join us.  NO, there isn't one yet, but we'd like there to be in the somewhat near future.  At this rate, however, we may go from not sleeping with one and into not sleeping with another.  Let's pray that isn't the case.  Don't worry, we have lots of time still.

Let's go onto John now.  John was offered a job in the Forensic Department at the hospital.  This was something we were hoping for, but were a little unsure would happen.  They were only taking a few people and doing it over time.  With John's special training in this department they've asked him to join them.  We are very excited for this promotion.  Shani is especially happy as there should be less nights where John gets stuck at work dealing with a patient crisis (John is happy about this too!).  He is also happy that he doesn't have to be "behind the fence" as much either.  We are so excited for him! But as is true with most things state-related, he'll believe it once he is assigned his new office. There are a lot of state financial crisis related layoffs happening right now as well...so John got a "surplus" employee notice (i.e., pink slip) last week as well. Don't worry, however, because they send these letters to three times the number of people they expect to lose their jobs. We think he'll be OK, but we won't know for sure until June or July.

As for Shani, her change has been a little tougher.  Although we know how blessed we've been to have Landon in the office with her, the time has come that he's outgrown the space.  Landon is now home with Nonni a couple afternoons and with a sitter a couple mornings.  This has been quite the change for her and for Landon.  Thankfully she can make her own schedule, so she is able to have Monday mornings, Tuesday afternoons, and all day Thursday home with him.  This is a blessing that she can work this schedule so she can be with him a lot, but it's still a tough transition.  The especially hard part was finding someone we trusted to watch Landon.  God answered prayers and opened up an opportunity that we didn't really know existed.  A sweet, caring, mature gal named Michelle who is currently in a MFT program will be caring for Landon.  This is a huge relief for us to find someone so great to watch Landon.

There are probably more changes, but it's crazy how quickly we are onto the next thing and forget the little ones.  Anyway, most of the time change is hard, but usually always good.  We just have to learn the new way!

Cracking up at dinner time with Papa

Wagon ride with Mochi

Enjoying sweet potato fries with Auntie Kat

Landon loves his wagon from Great Grandma Hori and Uncle Bry

Beautiful sunny day in February

First sushi

Pushing his trucks around the house

More wagon time

Landon with Grandma

Landon, Tobin, and Aya

At Maidu library

Enjoying the kitchen already

August and Landon

Zach, Georgia, Landon, and Daddy

Our standing boy

At the park supporting Cal Poly and Uncle Kevin's Michigan

Auntie Kim and Landon

Lodi wineries with the mommy's: Michelle, Liz, and Kallie