May 24th, 2004

Landon has definitely reached a new stage in his development. Gone are the days of sitting down peacefully with a little boy under your arm while he slowly drifts off to dreams of warm milk and warmer breasts. Landon has figured out that there is an ever-changing world going on around him, and that he needs to keep his head on a swivel to take it all in. He has reached a constant alert level ranking between orange and red. This makes him incredibly more fun to interact with, his smiles, intense stares, and perplexed expressions are an endless source of entertainment. It also makes him incredibly labor intensive, Landon is ready to take in the world around him, but he must have a personal tour guide at his side at all times. This evolves into long days of satisfying his limitless curiosities, broken up by periods of short naps where Landon recharges his little batteries for his next bout of exploration. Landon has yet to really embrace his toys; the real world appears to quench his inquisitiveness for the time being, however, he does have a few friends he holds onto during his journeys. Whenever he is in his car seat or stroller, he is always accompanied by either Chewy the brown dog, Scrappy the lobster, or Bananas the monkey. Whether it be by a paw or a claw, Landon holds tightly to one of his buddies, always alternating between hugging or trying to devour his plush little stuffed friends, giggling and sharing little secrets with them about whatever a little baby finds secretive.

Last week I nearly turned Landon into a block of ice. We usually run a humidifier in his room when it is hot and dry in the house, recently it has been both of these more often than not. The repeated humidifier usage had begun to turn our son's room into a mildew filled swamp, so per Rhiannon's request I partially opened up the window in Landon's room to air things out. Later that night Rhiannon reminded me to shut the window before the cool night air flooded the room. I quickly responded to here request, only instead of closing the window, I managed to open the window the rest of the way, and shortly thereafter drifted off to sleep. The next morning I took the dog out around 5:00am and heard a quiet little sneeze float out of the upstairs window. I literally froze. Another sneeze descended upon me from the wide open window above. I climbed the stairs and entered Landon's overly refrigerated room. He lay there quietly staring at the mobile above his crib. I reached out, felt his freezing little hands, and snuck him into our room and under the warm covers. He cooed a little and drifted off to sleep while I lay guilt ridden and wide awake next to him. I still manage to step into some deep holes in the fatherhood stream.

Landon took his first dip in a pool last week. He donned his Hawaiian print waterproof diapers and headed out to a pool party with his Mom and some of her friends from school. From all accounts he seemed to love the water. He looked hilarious in the pictures from the day - little baby man boobs and baby milk belly, literally glowing while sitting in RhiannonÕs tan arms. We visited the beach again last weekend, and Landon giggled and napped away on the warm sand. We have officially taken one step closer to family hood; we are now in the ranks of proud umbrella toting beach goers, next step a station wagon. Landon got a chance to feel sand between his toes which he seemed to enjoy; he also got to feel the ocean lap up over his feet which he seemed to enjoy far less. I guess we'll wait for the water to warm up a little more before his complete salt water baptism.