July

Again- we've been busy! The first part of July was packed with a lot of activities. We went to UNC for fireworks on the fourth and Landon was scared to death. I thought he would never let go of my neck. They let the fireworks off in the middle of the football stadium (which is where we were sitting), so they were close, echoed and were totally overwhelming. So..next time I guess we'll watch them from the car or from really far away. He's now scared of loud noises- so hopefully he's not traumatized for life!

The next day we packed up and headed to Michigan for a week. It was full of seeing a LOT of people. It was nice to catch up, but good to come home where summer was actually taking place. I dont remember bugs being that bad before and it was cold. And no, I'm not being a wimp. Going from high to 90s down to high 60s-low 70s is a dramatic difference.

Once we were home, we continued our normal routine- gardening, playing Dr. Cheekers, organizing Mama's paintings for Artprize, museum with friends, swimming...
We made a really amazing tomato jam (http://kitchenconfidante.com/tomato-jam-recipe) which goes perfect on pizza with just some fresh basil and mozzarella. I ended up getting an end of season box of tomatoes from the u-pick farm we go to. I'm splitting it with a friend since it's 25#, but it was only $15. It would have been over $75 of tomatoes if I went there and picked them myself last week. AND they are delicious and perfectly ripe. I plan on making at least one more batch of the jam with less sugar and then a ton of salsa. This is our afternoon project today.

Other than this, we are getting ready for family to come in the next few weeks for Landon's second birthday. (when did THAT happen?!) He's definitely showing signs of being two and really likes to be...shall I say...independent. But, we're enjoying him really starting to talk and trying to say new words. He says about 1 new word a day.Kyle finished up his last final this afternoon, so we're going to celebrate another semester down, another semester of duke debt and the promise of 18 months to go by going out to eat tonight with a bunch of friends.

June

So...we've been busy. Kyle has much more of a life besides reading on a bed, so we've been out and about doing a lot of things, not to mention I've been hard at work putting together a new website that I'm almost done with.

We went to the zoo with Madeline while Carolyn was in town. It's a long drive and Landon was supposed to sleep in the car and didnt. He made it about a half hour through the zoo and then feel asleep. The next day we road our bikes on the tour de phat which road around town. It was extremely slow, really hot and there were a ton of people.

We hang around outside a lot. Landon loves his big pool we got him and going on train rides at the museum. His new thing is lining items up in perfect rows or pointing out anything that comes in pairs. 

He loves to "help" in the garden by picking non-ripe fruit and trying to eat them. We went blueberry picking. I say "we" but it was really just me doing all the picking while Landon sat in the shade and ate someone else's picked berries. Oops...

Erik and Megan came into town for a couple of days and we of course had to take them to Monuts. This boy loves his donuts. We also went to Jordan lake and watched boats ride by while trying to keep Landon's feet from sand. We were not successful. 

I just discovered the park right near our house that has a dam decreases it's water levels in the summer, making it a perfect place for these two to splash around and throw rocks. They would stay all day if I let them.

The Garden is going CRAZY. I dont even know what else to do to help the height of the tomatoes. They are about 6-7' high and just keep growing. of course they've fallen over from the weight of the tomatoes, so they are now tied to one another and it's a huge tangled mess. A good mess, I guess. The size of plants here amazes me. Everything grows in enormous proportions!

This is the blue dragonfly that lives in our garden, we see him every day! He lands on the plants, takes showers when I water them and likes to examine us and much as we like to examine him.

Potty update- I took being naked away from Landon and he did good in his pull-ups for about 2-3 days. Then it was completely over. He stopped telling us when he had to go and refuses to sit on the potty chair. So, we've thrown in the towel for now. He cant be naked forever and we're about the get on an airplane. If any time to take a break would work- now's the time. We'll try again in a few months.

Talking update- Landon is now "talking"! FINALLY. He says words like- more, slow, zoo, no, hi, bye, star, sit down, hot dog, ice and a lot of animal noises. He is now willing to try* and say words which is helpful. He repeats words like house or dinner once but will then get shy and not say them again for awhile. It's a start!

Artprize update- I have one more painting to complete for Artprize and then I have to go through all of them and determine what the venue has room for and probably cut a bunch out. Wolverine called ME and asked me to show the collection in their space. There are 4 other artists and you can see their work online. Let me know if you want to peak. I now have a vote id and need to finalize some official stuff and then we should be further along in the process. I am working on a completely custom website that I designed myself which is essentially a portfolio. I have every painting on there, details, collections, etc. It's been really time consuming, but I love it and I think it's going to turn out really well. Next, I need to work on getting promotional pieces together like business cards and maybe some postcards. 

That's all I can think of for now and we'll be up TOMORROW to see everyone. Hoping to get some good Michigan pictures to add to my painting series!

Fun update

So, besides staying at home and watching Landon every minute (while naked) and guessing when he needs to pee...we do things to pass the time- like make this cool sun catcher out of tissue paper. We're also working on painting Landon's big boy bed and new dresser. The long dresser that held the changing mat is no longer really necessary and will take up too much room once the twin bed gets in there. I ended up selling it on craigslist for $100 (what I paid for it) and bought the new one for $35. We're painting the headboard and dresser the same color and I might do something fun with the door pulls on the dresser. I actually like that we swapped it out. The headboard is very modern/retro and the old dresser just didnt fit. So, for the time being all of Landon's clothes are piled up in the tee-pee. Need to get that dresser finished...this boy likes to organize anything in his reach. And by organize, I mean destroy.
Finally, this is Cheekers enjoying a much deserved cupcake after an accident free day with the potty. He of course wouldn't touch it because of the frosting. Wouldn't want to get those hands dirty...or feet.

Garden update

Our garden is going CRAZY. It's the only way to put it. I feared the tomatoes would out-grow their cages (4' high) and they have just popped over this week. We have two large pepper and a billion more on the way. We had our first mini harvest last week. If you cant tell from the photo, Landon was chomping at the bit to eat those strawberries :) That night we had a salad made fully from the garden except the onion, fresh Tuna steaks loaded with herbs and a strawberry/basil gin and tonic. It was delicious and well worth the efforts of gardening.

The photo below is about a week old. The peas have climbed all the way to the top of the wall by now- it's impossible to keep up photo wise. We had a bad case of the caterpillars eating at our bruccel sprouts and cauliflower. I got some anti-pest spray for the garden but didn't realize that you have to turn the bottle "on" for the liquid to mix with the hose. So..we might be down a couple cauliflower in the end. And of course, since Landon or Bentley cant reach the inside of the garden, it becomes a dumping ground for all sorts of things. It currently holds a screw driver, a "planes" ball, Bentley's tennis ball, many driveway rocks and a meter stick.

 Below are just photos that I cant help myself to take. Love seeing the plants actual produce edible items :)

Potty, Potty Cheekers

The day after we came home from vacation we started potty training. Landon had been showing signs that he was ready for a few weeks before, but I was NOT about to take him on an airplane or in the middle of no where trying to training him. He did amazing the first week and I thought we were home free. Exactly one week from the day we began, we went to a lake beach for about 3 hours. We came home and it's like he forgot everything. We were back to square one but have been doing well since then. It's now been a full week since then and he tells us when he has to go pretty much every time. Since he wont say potty, he basically tells me in different way, but does understand how to "say" potty in sign language- which is helpful. All in all, I don't think we're going back to diapers at this point. I've packed up the cloth diapers (feels amazing...) and it's summer so he's pretty much naked all day long anyways. He really loves his big boy undies and is super proud of himself so far. Today we've had ZERO accidents (that I know of) and we're half way through the day. Morning are the hardest, so fingers crossed!

Zion and Bryce Canyon

Besides the fact that Kyle and Landon got a stomach bug and were down for a day (the day it SNOWED)- all in all, this was an awesome vacation! Landon did so well and I cant believe he was willing to be in a carrier for hours on end. Better yet, I cant believe I tolerated carrying a 25 pound kid up MOUNTAINS- and there is no exaggerating in the statement. Hiking the Narrows in Zion (through the river) was by far one of the best things I've ever done. Too bad Kyle was sick the whole time. I will be going back to do all 13 miles one day..and I cant wait!

Strawberry pickin & Mother's day

Landon and Madeline went strawberry picking at a local farm. First we had to establish that you can only pick the red ones, then we had to realize that you cant eat all of them! Landon would put a whole strawberry in his mouth, chew and chew and then spit it all out because the green leafy top was still attached. Madeline had no problem eating the whole thing :)

I took some Mother's day photos- which I probably will every year. Some are in our backyard and some are on the UNC Campus

and a comparison from last year on Mother's day...he needs to stop growing!!

We had a really nice Mother's day. It was a nice. sunny, warm day- perfect for a picnic. We went to a park near our house and had lunch and played outside. Landon was just happy to not be traveling anymore! Only thing that would have made it better was if the Grandma's were here to share the day!

Hoppy Easter

We had many Easter celebrations and I've come to realize how spoiled this kid is!!
We ended up dying some eggs...well, I did anyways. No one wants a toddler around food coloring. At least I don't!! Wasn't sure how dying brown eggs would go, but I actually like the way they dye better than the white ones! They turn a nice deep rich color. I tried to get Landon to eat one and he made a face that looked like I was trying to feed him dirt.

We also has some other Easter crafts like this amazing little chick that Landon created during music class last week. He likes to poke him in the eyes. We also made these shaped pancakes on Saturday that had sprinkles in them. Of course, the dinosaur had to be used as well. And a little side note- the cookie cutters started to melt....so I guess I need to stick with medal ones or make them super thin next time. And the last photo is of our spider we named Charlotte. She made a web in our garden last week and all the pollen (which is EVERYWHERE) stuck to the web. It was pretty cool to see all the detail!

Landon had 3 Easter egg hunts! The first one was with Madeline and her friends Essie and Nash. We found a bunch of eggs in the backyard and then had a nice little play date lunch.

Next up was our own Easter hunt which I had to lock Bentley in the house for since he found all the eggs and broke them. At this point, Landon was kind of over the excitement of the eggs, so we basically did a quick walk to the front yard where his PILES of Easter gifts were. He didn't even veer for the chocolate because there was so much to look at it!

Lastly, we were invited to a large cook out/Easter egg hunt on Sunday by a class mate of Kyle's. We met a lot of nice people and Landon had fun mingling. We sat out of this Easter egg hunt- we already way too much stuff at home!!

And this week starts the madness (if it's wasn't already crazy) of finals. Kyle has a ton of tests in the next week and a half and then it's vacation time for a bit..like 8 days. We cant wait to spend some down time in some glorious mountains!!

Landon's Favs and another garden update

I thought it would be funny to take a photo of all the things Landon loves right now at 19 months and see how it changes. Below are his favorites, followed by a comprehensive list- so I don't forget :)

Food- Watermelon (any fruit, really), tomatoes, meatballs (with BBQ sauce), lemonade, chocolate, dipping anything
Books- Very busy spider, Benjamin's Book, Toby Snax, Dr Seuss ABC, the Who book
Toys- Stuffed armadillo, Zippy the zebra, stacking cups, crayons, letter magnets, legos, my phone (to watch videos of himself), bubble maker, watering cans, chalk
Things to do- drumming, "flipping" (somersault), attacking Bentley's tail, swinging, reading, anything outside, stalling bedtime, eating snacks, constant jibber jabber talking, un-organizing everything (most of all the dishwasher)

Misc update- Our Easter eggs melted in the rain...so there goes that idea. We painted a birdhouse that I got for $1. He loves it. We took a quick trip to a fair down the road a couple nights ago. I had to show Landon the Ferris wheel. He was in awe. Landon's dream scenario, large spinning lights right next to the moon! Landon also really excited about mowing the lawn. We now have a normal gas powered mower and he walks up and down the driveway watching us mow. He also loves taking tours of each brand at Lowes. He's a total boy- except that he hates dirty hands...weird kid.

Next, garden update! It's complete and has plants in the ground!! We ran out of room and didnt plant quite as many things I hoped for, but it will still be amazing. If all goes well- we're going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears.

And lastly, I'm hoping this video works, because Landon loves little animals and laughs at them...and it's cute :)