Happy Halloween

 Landon was a frog for his first Halloween.  We weren't sure what he should be and didn't really want to purchase a costume since he wouldn't be able to stay up.  We ended up borrowing one (thanks Dawn and Tamal) that fit him just perfectly.  He was able to wear it for a group picture at Shani's work-out class with other mommies and then for a quick bit on Halloween night.  Sure enough he was asleep before the first trick-or-treater's arrived.  Mochi was a little unsure of him crawling around in the costume.  We think she finally realized it was Landon, but for a bit she was running from him.  He did have a cute Halloween outfit he wore for the day including an owl hat and orange socks that Nonni got to go with it.  Next year will definitely be a different story we're sure.  

Mochi unsure of who/what Landon is

 

Babies at Shani's workout class

Best buds- August and Landon

Landon playing with the goodies for the treat-or-treaters.  Shani refused to give out candy

Grandpa Mac flew out to join Grandma Mac for the rest of her stay in Sac.  It had been since Landon was 2 weeks old since Landon had seen Grandpa.  He didn't seem to mind though, he was laughing with him just like it was the other day that he saw him.  We were so happy that they both were out.  Unfortunately it probably won't be until Landon's first birthday that we see them again.  We'll definitely have to get on facetime to show how much he's changed.

Grandma and Grandpa Mac

Speaking of changes, that is constantly what Landon is up to.  He continues to crawl like a champ, but he's now into pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING!  If it's possible for him to stand he will.  He's starting to learn how to sit back down as well.  For awhile he would pull himself up to stand then get "stuck" and not know what to do.  He's discovered that it isn't too far to just plop down.  We think he's said mumm and dada.  Mumm-mumm-mumm comes when he either wants Shani or to nurse and dadada usually is when he's a little upset.  He did crawl up to John's legs and said dadadada last week so maybe.  Maybe wishful thinking that he's said his first words??  He also recently had his 2nd haircut.  Yes, second haircut and he's only 8.5 months old.  This one was a little shorter, but maybe it will last us a bit longer.  It could still thicken up a bit but it grows so quickly.  We think he looks more like John with his spikey hair.  That's about it for now.  Next will hopefully be news that he cut his top teeth, but until then we'll pray for better sleep!

Tough guy

Yummy...wild raw elk liver from a 6-point that Grandpa Mac brought for Landon

Wearing Daddy's hat now that it's getting chilly in the house

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.