March 5th, 2004

Landon is becoming more active and alert with every new day. This is definitely a double edged sword - while it’s great to spend more awake time with him, he also is requiring much more attention than the last couple of weeks. Where he used to float through the hours between his feedings asleep on his pillow, more often than not he will be awake for 3 to 4 hours at a time, and these waking hours are not all filled with giggles and soft coos. Landon’s lungs are developing well, and he seems to be finding more frequent opportunities to voice his opinion with them. I've heard it said that after awhile as a parent you can identify a baby’s needs by the sound of his cries, well, I’m not there yet. Right now I pretty much assume Landon is either hungry, or hungry, or maybe he needs a diaper change, if not that, then he’s probably hungry. I’m still trying to figure the little guy out; I think I probably always will be.

Dakota seems to be a little depressed since Lucy’s death. She is spending more time with the family downstairs, in the past she would often spend hours upstairs with the cat. She is definitely getting more attention from Rhiannon and me, I think we both feel like we took Lucy for granted a little, and we don’t want to repeat that with Dakota – this has turned into a real windfall for her resulting in increased treats and time in the park playing fetch. I think the extra time with the dog has been therapeutic for both of us as well.

Our neighbors next door have three children, Brooke (8), Hunter (6), and Josh (4). They are great kids. We’ve gone to some of their soccer, and baseball, and basketball games. We’ve gone trick or treating with them the past two Halloweens. I was talking to their mother, Tiffany, the other day, and she informed me that all of the kids had been spying from their upstairs window on my birthday get together with friends last Saturday night . The next morning Hunter stumbled downstairs and reported to his parents that, “Gabe had a log in his mouth last night, and it was on fire!” I didn’t realize that smoking a cigar could turn me into a wizard and a bad influence all at once; in the future I’ll have to be a little more aware of what audiences I might have. This will especially be true with Landon, its good to have neighbors that can run us through some pre-season drills.