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

Happy 1st Birthday Landon!

February 14, 2012  One Year Old!

Landon turned one on Valentine's Day.  ONE!!  We were thinking back to this day last year and how amazing it was.  The fact that he's already one just is crazy to us.  It's amazing how fast time flies now that we are older.  This little guy has definitely changed our life...and we do mean for the better no matter how sleep deprived we are :-)  He has taught us about a deeper kind of love, happiness, patience, and most of all joy!  To see him smile at us when we walk into the room gives us such a great feeling.  This little one is ours and he's a perfect mix of the both of us.  We could not be happier to have him in our life!

We threw his birthday party with family for Landon on Saturday.  It was Landon's Lefty Party.  Landon has shown a little favoritism to his left hand and John wants to encourage him to continue using it. His (tongue in cheek) goal is for Landon to be a 6 foot 5 inch left-handed pitcher so he has a good chance for a college scholarship.  We decided to have family help model left-handed behavior at his party so we had his Lefty party.  It turned out to be more of a baseball themed party, but that's okay.  Shani made homemade coconut milk ice cream for Landon as well as his own cake.  This was Landon's first time having any grain.  It was a gluten-free, no sugar cake using dates as a sweetener. It was actually good!  The frosting was a cream cheese-maple syrup blend so there was sugar in that part.  We didn't make our family suffer through it though and got a regular cake for everyone else.  Although he didn't completely tear into it, he did enjoy the frosting!  We had a great time despite the lack of excitement that accompanies a one year old's party.  We do appreciate our family and the fact that they helped celebrate our little boy with us!

Toy chest Mommy got Landon

August, Zach, Karin, and Landon

Birthday Boy

Great Grandpa Chuck, Great Grandma Hori, Auntie Tak, Uncle Bo

Aunt Robin, Auntie Kat, Misty

Paco, Giovani, Jenae, and Marcos with Landon

Happy Birthday Buddy

Tyler and Auntie Kat

Nolan, Owen, August, Georgia, Levi, Tyler (back row) Giovani, Marcos, Landon, Morgan (front row)

Soccer girls: Lisa, Jenae (Marcos and Giovani), Kelly (Levi)

Frosting face!

Yummy cake!

Landon playing the left-handed pitching game with the help of Papa

Aunt Margaret, Uncle Bo, and Auntie Kim doing baseball trivia game

John loves that he has a good excuse not to celebrate Valentine's Day anymore.  He never really liked the Hallmark holiday in the first place, but now he has a better reason to celebrate February 14th.  In the past February 14th was the day that Shani would get him a silly gift (Petco gift card for worms to feed his blue birds, electric razor, texting for his phone, etc) and John would sometimes give a card.  In John's defense, we usually celebrate February 6th as that was the day we started dating 12 years ago!  We did celebrate this year and went out to dinner together at a local restaurant we enjoy called Source.  Anyway, John made the comment that since he gave us our son last year for Valentine's Day that should cover us for the rest of our life.  Shani told John that he's never gotten her anything before so what's the difference :-)  Although she feels like she gave him a son since she did most of the work last Valentine's Day.  However, John reminds her frequently that we do have our wonderful son about 1.5 years earlier than he was "planning" on having a child.  Shani just rolls her eyes.  Like there was any way she'd ever wait that long! Shani did get a wonderful surprise at work this year on Valentine's day from.  A box came in the mail from Sherri's Berries! Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bo gave us Sherri's Berries as a congratulations for Landon's birth and they were the most amazing thing ever. John thinks they make for a much better gift than flowers, so he decided to keep the tradition and sent Sherri's Berries.  It was the sweetest thing and a wonderful surprise for Shani.  So as far as Valentine's Day goes this year, it was wonderful!

Now let's talk Landon's first birthday (yes, the same day as above).  Shani had in her mind this wonderful day, even if it be nothing big, but nonetheless a wonderful day for Landon.  She figured they'd go to the park, play with his toys, maybe even take him to Leatherby's ice cream parlor, a fun first birthday.  Well, that wasn't the case at all.  Landon was sick!  We think he started coming down with it on his birthday party with the family day (Saturday) because he was extremely fussy and needy.  Well it just got worse from there.  That night he had a 101.9 fever that continued through the weekend and finally broke on Monday afternoon.  Then Tuesday is when his rash started.  He didn't eat much Saturday, didn't eat anything Sunday-Tuesday, and just started barely eating Wednesday.  He lost one pound in 4 days!  Shani was just thankful he was still nursing so she knew he was getting the nourishment he needed considering it was the only thing he would eat.  The rash is starting to fade and we are starting to get our little boy back.  It's been a rough week with very little sleep (he's waking every 1.5-2 hours), constant holding, complete fussiness, and whole lot of neediness.  On Wednesday he finally started smiling and playing a little on his own.  Are little guy finally got his first "real" bout of sickness (all the other colds seem so minor now that we've had this).  He had Roseola, a common childhood disease that most kids get between 6 months and 4 years.  We are just happy we had a healthy, strong, chubby boy so that when he did get it, he could fight it well and come out of it.  Now he has all the wonderful antibodies to fight it next time.  Way to go immune system!  Anyway, the point of that story is that his first birthday day was a complete dud and not what we had in mind at all.  Maybe we'll shoot for something more fun this weekend! 

Here are some of the new things going on with Landon:

20 lbs 11oz (was 21lbs 11oz) last week before getting sick

Sits at the door waving goodbye to ask to go outside

Makes car noises while pushing his trucks
New signs: outside, car, moon, water (for drinking), and food

Standing on his own for long stretches (not close to walking yet)

Happy Birthday Landon! We love you and are so thankful God has blessed us with you in our life.  Everyday you brighten our lives and we look forward to watching you grow.  We can't wait to see where life takes you!

Growth chart we made Landon

Uncle Bo giving Landon a push around the house under watchful eye of Suki