Rock 'n Roll

That's what Landon has been up to lately.  He's rolling back and forth like crazy.  He's also been getting onto all fours and rocking.  He's been staying up on all fours for about 10 seconds before flopping back down.  He is purposefully moving a little more but doesn't have the strength to do much of anything else while he's up.  He's 18lbs 13.5oz now, maybe slowing down??  Landon has been recognizing the whole eating thing.  Just today John took a swig out of the milk container and Landon grabbed it and tried putting it to his mouth.  We've let him suck on some fruit occasionally, but we are in no rush to start him on solids.  He's obviously thriving very well the way things are now!

Great Grandpa Mac and Granny came to visit last weekend.  They came into town for cousin Morgan's 6th birthday and to see Landon.  He was a couple weeks old since they've seen him last.  Landon would give the funniest (cautious) looks to Great Grandpa but he loved giving him smiles as well.  We had a great time hanging out with them!  Morgan turning 6 is crazy.  She had a Barbie-themed party and Shani made a Barbie dress cake for her.  It turned out pretty good, but cake decorating is definitely not her thing!

Landon having fun with Great Grandpa Mac

Granny and Landon

Landon giving Great Grandpa Mac a cautious look

Balloons are so fun!

Cousin Morgan's 6th Birthday

We also met up to BBQ at a park with friends from Cal Poly.  We haven't all been able to get together since before Landon was born.  Liz and Josh have Sophia, who is a couple months older than Landon, and Michelle and Peter have Claire, who is 3 weeks younger and Lucas who is 2.5 years old.  Kallie and Zach have an almost 3 year old and another one on the way.  The older boys had a blast playing together on the park and Landon and the girls had fun rolling around on the ground.  It will be fun to have all the Cal Poly kids growing up together and maybe heading there in the future??  While at the park, Landon sat in a swing for the first time.

Just hanging around

1st time in a swing

Sophia and Landon swinging for the 1st time

Claire and Landon

Sophia and Landon

Colton (almost 3), Landon (6 mo), Sophia (8 mo), Claire (5 mo), Lucas (2.5)

6 Months

Landon turned 6 months over the weekend!  How crazy is that?  He's weighing in now at 18lbs 6.5oz and is 27.25in long.  It seems like he's always doing something new or improving on something he just started. He's now sitting really well, but occasionally gets off balance and face plants.  He's rolling constantly from his back to his tummy and he pulls his legs up in a crawl position.  Since he still doesn't quite have the arm and core strength, this causes him to go backwards...but he's moving!  He's also rotating some while on his belly. We think he might be crawling by the time he's 7 months.  This frightens us as our house is definitely NOT baby-proof.  We might have a lot of work to do here soon!  Still no teeth, but he constantly is gnawing on those little fingers and everything else he can get his hands on.  He found his feet and has started putting those in his mouth as well.  He continues to smile tons and giggle too.  What a fun age!

Grandma Mac recently came into town.  Landon has missed her dearly and is enjoying all the time he gets with her.  Nonni has needed to be working in the front office more and can't watch Landon as much at the office. Thankfully Grandma Mac is here to be with Landon. We don't think either one minds :-)  Shani misses him at work, but is also glad that Landon gets to have that time with his Grandma.  

Landon had his first plane flight and did pretty well.  He started getting a little fussy in the middle of the flight because he was bored.  We had different toys for him but they only held his attention for 5 minutes (if we're lucky) before he was done with it.  We'll have to figure out something else for Hawaii or else we might go nuts.  Our flight was down to SoCal for one of Shani's chiro-friend's wedding.  This also made for a great opportunity to visit with Great Grandma Hori, Uncle Bry, and Auntie Tak.  They generously watched Lando for us while we went to the wedding.  It sounded like he had a great time with them and we got to enjoy ourselves as well.  It was so great for Landon to have special time with them.  We are fortunate to have such great family.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful and it was great to catch up with friends we hadn't seen since she graduated.  We also got to see and say goodbye to our best friends before they left for Michigan.  Landon got to play with Auntie Elaine, Eli, and Jacob.  Unfortunately Uncle Kev had already left.  We will miss them dearly and are so sad that they will be so far away for the next few years, but we are also very excited for the journey God has in store for them.  We will definitely see them soon!

Great Grandma Hori, Auntie Tak, and Kobe

Beautiful Mrs. Davis and chiro friends

Date night in Palos Verdes for Erica's wedding

Travel car seat with a perfect armrest for Landon

Cold water on a spoon...so yummy!

Lots of love from Uncle Bry

 

Face plant! He'll get his balance down soon.

Cousin Morgan entertaining Landon with an owl puppet

    

First Hair Cut

Some may have thought it was past due (John), others thought it was a little premature (Shani), but we did it. We got Landon a haircut!  It looks so much better.  He was starting to have small-town-news-anchor-comb-over that wasn't attractive.  Plus it was thinning in some areas, super long in other areas, and just uneven.  Now it looks so much cleaner and should help as it grows out.  His hair does grow pretty fast so it shouldn't be long before it isn't so short.  Landon did so well too! (so did Shani). They didn't fuss or cry once during the whole process.  The lady cutting it was great and John was able to stand close to help out.  He was  the youngest one in there by quite a few years.  Apparently Landon looks a lot more like John now because multiple people have commented, including a hostess at dinner!  John was a little concerned by the thought, but Shani loves it.  John just hopes if we have a girl that she looks more like Mom.

What we were trying to fix...look at that cow-lick!

Very confused about what was happening

Sitting still like a big boy

Before...

AFTER!

John has held up on his end of another one of his three "deals" in taking the new job in Napa. We booked our flight to Hawaii a couple weeks ago so that was the first one. The last one Shani won't cash in on for a little while (another kid).  The other was a new car and we got one!  It's our first brand new car purchase.  All of our other cars have been generously sold to us by family, so we haven't endured the stress of deciding which model, what upgrades or lack thereof, or haggling over price, we just paid.  What an ordeal the whole process was!  But it was worth it and we are happy with our new car (Kia Sorento).  Lando's carseat fits much better in it than the Acura and we love that it actually has air conditioning! 

Over the weekend we hung out with Auntie Kim, Uncle Josh, and cousin Morgan.  We went swimming for the first time in their new pool.  It was very fun and Landon had a blast as always.  It's almost as if this kid was born in the water :-)  They also got to experience the baby life again as they've watched Landon for 5 hours on Friday and again on Monday.  Thank goodness we have family around to help us out otherwise we'd be toast! 

We (mostly Shani) also had our first "bad" experience with dining out with Landon.  We went to Yard House with our good friends Karin and Zach for dinner.  We've been able to take him to dinner with us with little trouble.  However we didn't factor in a big crowd and an atmosphere that is little different on Saturday nights at places like that.  It was so loud we could barely hear each other, Landon was so overstimulated by the noise and craziness that he was fussing non-stop, and Shani was coming close on losing it.  Thankfully we made it through by using a couple trips outside to calm down a bit, and we enjoyed the time with our friends.  By the way, their kids did GREAT and they weren't as frazzled as Shani was.  We guess it's something you get used to after having kids.  We haven't had ours long enough to experience this.  All the things we are still learning!



175 year old Oak tree (sadly) cut down at Nonni and Poppa's neighbor's house

    

First Boating Trip

We took Landon out on the boat for the first time with Shani's family.  We decided to go in the evening to have dinner and cruise the lake a little.  We know Lando already has chubby cheeks, but with the life-vest on they look even bigger.  Thank goodness he didn't mind wearing it even though it was squishing him so much.  It even matches Poppa's boat!  On the way back to the dock he was so relaxed that he fell asleep, so we know this will be something we do again sometime.  We were going to try him on a wakeboard, but figured he'd better learn to walk first.  I'm sure Poppa and Uncle Chris will have him up on one in no time! 

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary a couple weekends ago.  Landon got to spend all day with Nonni and Poppa and we went to Harry Potter and dinner.  Not very romantic for some people, but it was great fun for us.  Since we've been married there have been many Harry Potter book and movie openings that fall on our anniversary weekend.  Thankfully we enjoy them so it makes for a fun weekend.  Our anniversary tradition is to watch our wedding video (at least the ceremony portion) and we look forward to keeping that going.  We know it's a little crazy to have the threatened "7 year itch" and a baby in the same year, but we are truly blessed for the wonderful relationship we have.  So much has happened in the last 7 years and we are so thankful that we have done it together!

Another exciting thing...John has an "official" job next year!  Hurray!  This past year he's been doing his post-doc stuff so although he's graduated, he still was working way too hard and not being paid a full salary.  He was offered jobs at Napa and Vacaville (the only 2 places he applied) and was graciously offered both.  After a long talk, list of pros and cons, and steep negotiations with Shani (she gets a new car, a family vacation in Hawaii, and another kid in less than 4 years) John took the job at Napa.  Yes it's a little further from home (hence the list of requirements from Shani), but we both feel this would be the best place for John.  We are very excited for him to officially feel like he's out of school.  However, he still has one more test to pass...licensing!

Back to Landon...a few more things he's been doing lately.  He's started to sit a little more upright, sucked on a pickle (not necessarily the best 1st food), enjoyed making clucking noises with his tongue, sucking on his upper lip, sticking out his tongue, and arching his back to roll in a full circle.  He continues to drool like crazy, put everything into his mouth, and suck on whatever he can (shoulder, chin, neck, cheek, nose) but still no teeth yet.  We think they are coming soon, but we don't mind that they continue to remain hidden.  Occasionally (very occasionally) we'll have a full night's sleep (9pm-5/6am) but we still seem to have the three-ish wake-up.  We'll definitely be glad once he's passed that, but until then we are trying to appreciate the time he still needs/wants us.

Sleepy boys

Hanging with Lisa

Crazy hair!

Yes, he can be unhappy too!

Sock Monkey and Landon butts

Helping pack the diaper bag