November 9th, 2004

Just a few quick updates on Landon’s development.

Landon has become quite the crawler. He can scoot across the floor in mere seconds now, and has completely abandoned his electric worm style of locomotion. His speed increases several fold if he is cruising around naked, unencumbered by the drag of loose fitting baby clothes. He also has developed the ability to pull himself up on an object and stand as long as he grips something with at least one hand for support. It is indescribably cute when the object he decides to use as his support is his Dad’s leg, seeing the little guy crawl across the floor and grab onto my pant leg for support evokes a smile from both father and son every time. He is getting increasingly steady on his feet daily, I have a feeling the little dude may be walking by Christmas.

There are now four little white teeth beaming in Landon’s smile. His top two teeth are not completely descended yet, but all four are present enough to produce a painful little bite, which it seems more often than not occurs on his Mom’s unprepared shoulder.

Landon has also taken his first steps in the romance department. This week Landon has begun giving kisses to family and friends, and all of his kisses are wet, open mouthed kisses, complete with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Any sloppiness incurred is immediately replaced by his adorable little face, smiling up at you after planting a kiss on your cheek. Presently Landon’s favorite kissing partner is Dakota, who happily returns the favor by licking Landon’s face and open mouth repeatedly with her tongue. We are trying to discourage this behavior, but unfortunately both parties seem to enjoy the experience.

Last weekend we spent Saturday night at my parent’s celebrating Landon’s Great Grandmommy Mleynek’s 93rd birthday. It was great to spend some time with the family, Justin and Jenn came down to celebrate as well, and they both really seemed to enjoy the time with Landon. The most memorable event from the weekend unfortunately came at the expense of my parent’s living room carpet. Landon had filled up his diaper with a fresh pile of fuming poop, and Rhiannon had decided to let his little bottom air dry before applying a new diaper. Apparently Landon wasn’t anywhere close to finished with his latest brown production because a few minutes later, while standing at a nearby table, he proceeded to drop a new pile of baby poo directly on my parent’s white living room carpet. It smelled and looked awful. Fortunately, everyone had just finished eating their dessert a few minutes earlier. The debacle that followed included Landon standing in his crap pile, his father grabbing him by the armpits, and winging him around the house unsuccessfully trying not to get crap on himself, and finally ended with Landon wailing while both his parents and his grandmom tried to clean him up in the bathroom sink.