2006 – THROUGH THE EYES OF LANDON WYATT
In the following entry I hope to summarize some of the more prominent events in 2006 for Landon. The year marked his evolution from toddler to little boy, a striking transformation that was somewhat unexpected, it also marked his entry into the forays of brotherhood thanks to the addition of his young sibling.
By far the biggest change for Landon in 2006 came on March 11th, when his little brother Colt came screaming into this world. The idyllic tranquility he had become accustomed to, a world where he only had to fight for his parent’s attention with the family dog, now lay shattered beneath a crib with its new inhabitant. Initially Landon seemed very interested in Colt, but asked us on more than one occasion after we returned as a newly expanded family unit from the hospital, when we could, “take him out of here?” - here of course referenced our home. After awhile he adjusted to splitting time with his new brother, and would ask to hold the little pink blob, occasionally attempting to shove a bottle in Colt’s mouth as well. He also briefly attempted to become a baby again himself, often borrowing a pacifier and chewing on it as he played around the house.
More recently, as Colt began to develop, and became able to interact, play and locomote the boy’s relationship has deepened. Landon always wants Colt around, although that doesn’t necessarily translate into him wanting Colt to play with his toys, rather, he just wants Colt to, “come see what Landon’s doing”. Most of the time Colt can be distracted to enjoy another toy in the room, but when he does become overly interested in what Landon is playing with, inevitable conflicts do arise. These conflicts are usually resolved by Landon gently pushing or shielding Colt out of the way. That being said, he never asks Colt to leave the room, and becomes genuinely concerned when Colt isn’t around. One afternoon I took Colt to the store with me while Landon was sleeping – when he awoke to find his brother had disappeared - he threw a fit. Landon always reminds Colt to “be careful” and enjoys singing to him in the car, and making him erupt into giggles via a game of peek-a-boo.
A year ago, Landon was still a chubby toddler, whose attempts at running often ended with a face first crash to the ground, and whose favorite word was “why?”, and who still took two long naps a day. Those days regrettably are long gone. Although at the time they seemed to be difficult, I now find myself missing the limitless devotion present in a toddler’s embrace. Today, Landon is a thin, coordinated little boy, complete with his own ideas and personality. He has a head of thick, crazy, light brown hair that sits atop a pair of fiery blue eyes, both of which he inherited from his dad. At one point this past summer, Landon’s hair was getting so out of sorts that we bribed him with a popsicle to sit still long enough so that we could buzz it all off. That was over six months ago now, and he hasn’t received another haircut since, so the curly mop is back in full effect. Landon enjoys running around playing tag, all the while explaining to us that, “he is fast now because he is big.” He takes only one nap in the afternoon, and if he had his choice in the matter he wouldn’t slow down at all – ever. Although still full of questions, Landon’s queries now are more elaborate and relevant questions than the monosyllabic inquiries he used to pepper his parents with daily. And more significant is the fact that Landon can entertain full conversations about a number of things complete with thought, analysis, and integration of his own opinions. His opinions however are also very strong, and can at times devolve quickly into tantrums complete with screams and flailing appendages.
My relationship with Landon has also changed as he has become more independent. The clingy idolatry of an infant or toddler has become replaced by a level of respect and friendship that I hadn’t expected to find in a relationship with someone so young. The experiences I share with him are invaluable – I am overwhelmed with how rewarding fatherhood is everyday.
Landon still drags his little orange friend Gully around with him. Gully is a small orange rabbit-shaped blanket that he has held since he was only a few months old. Actually the original Gully was blue, but he was lost and has since been replaced by an orange Gully which has since been replaced by another two orange Gully’s. Rhiannon and both of Landon’s grandmother’s have been responsible for losing a Gully while on their watch, thankfully, I have yet to join this somewhat embarrassing club. Landon shows Gully the dogs at the pet store and the cars on the freeway, and shares many an adventure with him.
Rhiannon has done an incredible job teaching Landon. With the help of an advent calendar, Landon was counting to twenty by Christmas, and thanks to an assist from the Letter Factory, if you catch Landon on the right day he can point out the letters and tell you what sound they make. He sings with his mom, including the alphabet song, and has learned about manners and rules and a number of other important lessons. I on the other hand, get the fun of passing along my love of biology to my oldest son. Over the past year we have taken numerous trips to the local zoos and aquariums each complete with a plethora of interesting questions from a two-year old mind. It amazes me what that brain can absorb. Landon shares some of what he knows, but every so often he divulges a nugget of knowledge that I had no idea existed, I’m pretty sure his mind is full of similar bits of information. Landon also enjoys pretending to be a variety of different animals, taking on different traits of each animal that he is mimicking. Bird nests have been built on the couch for him to perch in, and we have howled at the moon like a pair of coyotes.
Our house is home to few pets, most noticeably our first ‘child’, our chocolate lab Dakota. She is a great companion for Landon, and she even begrudgingly shares her food with him from time to time. Most of the time Dakota is cautious enough to miss stepping on Colt, although the occasional tail slap to the face is really unavoidable. A little over a year ago, one of the women at Rhiannon’s work gave us a baby desert tortoise for Landon to care for. We named it Sam, since its sex won’t be discernable for a few more years and have set it up with a nice cage in our office. Landon enjoys feeding Sam and watching him/her crawl around on the floor, he is respectfully gentle with his little shelled companion, and they often play together over a shared piece of broccoli. In the back yard we also have a small whiskey barrel pond with a few goldfish in it, and hopefully in the next few months we will be setting up a saltwater tank as well. Growing up I had innumerous pets, and this is a tradition that I will happily pass on to my boys.
As I think I have referenced previously, Landon is a train addict. What started as an innocent introduction to Thomas the Tank Engine over a year ago, has morphed into a full fledged addiction that dominates Landon’s play time. He has at least four different train tracks in our house and a train table in his room, and a ride-a-long train that currently loops around our dining room floor. He has train videos, and train t-shirts and a train night light and train sheets on his bed. When we are in the car he is constantly scanning for train tracks and the occasional diesel engine. At the shopping mall he knows every store that has anything even remotely resembling a train. When we visit Disneyland, our first stop is always the Disneyland Railroad. I think that there is a realistic chance that at three year’s old he knows more about trains than I do at thirty-one.
Speaking of Disney, for Landon’s second birthday we picked up season passes and since the park is only a half hour car ride away we have spent many afternoons over the past year laughing away at the Magic Kingdom. Other than the train rides there, Landon also enjoys numerous other attractions including: It’s a Small World, the Jungle Cruise, and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, to name a few favorites. He has also embraced several of the more recent Disney films. We limit Landon’s exposure to TV, or “tvd” as he refers to it, but most night’s before he goes to sleep we allow him to watch fifteen minutes from one of the movies in his collection. Some recent favorites include: the Lion King, Finding Nemo, Cars, a Bug’s Life, Toy Story and Monster’s Inc. A few months back after watching Monster’s Inc, Landon became convinced that there was a monster named Shadow living in his room, it took a few months to get him back into his bed from the safety of his pack-and-play, and as one might deduce, Monsters Inc has been removed from the bedtime viewing list for now.
Landon has become more coordinated and has also begun to develop an interest in sports and games. He likes to shoot hoops in the backyard, and has become quite accomplished at hitting a ball off the tee with a plastic bat, he also has a soccer goal in the house and will shout, “gooooooaalll” after kicking (or throwing) the ball in the net. During the past football season, Landon wore a lucky Chargers jersey every Sunday, unfortunately that jersey lost its luck during the playoffs. He also is always interested to help with the yard work and has also become a very willing assistant for a numerous of home repairs. For this past Christmas he received some plastic tools including a hammer, screwdriver and wrench that he used to help me assemble a baby gate atop the stairs last month.
This past summer Landon and I went on a few fishing trips to the local pond. We hooked a number of little bluegill and Landon seemed to relish in all of it from the worms to the hooks and bobbers to giving the fish a little kiss before he released them back into the water. Now he will ask when we can go fishing again which always makes me smile, and during the colder winter months he has created an indoor fishing pole out of some plastic chain and a stick that he uses to fish for “daddy-fish and colton-fish”. Landon has visited a number of streams and rivers, including the Provo, Big Wood, Merced, San Joaquin, Yuba, Silver Creek and Mammoth Creek. He also is proud to announce that trout live in rivers and streams, and that his daddy likes to catch trout. I can’t wait until our next trip to the banks of a flowing stream.
Another one of Landon’s favorite destinations is the beach. He loves to dig big holes and trenches in the sand for his trains to drive through. No seagull is safe from his giggling chase. More recently we have begun to introduce him to the animals of the intertidal; his fingers have already felt the tug from large green anemones. In general Landon seems to prefer to conduct his adventures outside whether at the beach, the park, or even within the confines of our backyard.
The year ahead should be filled with more incredible milestones for Landon Wyatt. He will start preschool next fall. Hopefully sometime soon he will transition out of his diapers. This summer I plan on teaching him to swim, and to ride a bike, and next winter he will get strapped to a snowboard for the first time. We will go on his first camping trip and maybe even try to catch his first trout. I can’t wait, but at the same time I want to hold onto each precious minute just a few seconds longer.
In the following entry I hope to summarize some of the more prominent events in 2006 for Landon. The year marked his evolution from toddler to little boy, a striking transformation that was somewhat unexpected, it also marked his entry into the forays of brotherhood thanks to the addition of his young sibling.
By far the biggest change for Landon in 2006 came on March 11th, when his little brother Colt came screaming into this world. The idyllic tranquility he had become accustomed to, a world where he only had to fight for his parent’s attention with the family dog, now lay shattered beneath a crib with its new inhabitant. Initially Landon seemed very interested in Colt, but asked us on more than one occasion after we returned as a newly expanded family unit from the hospital, when we could, “take him out of here?” - here of course referenced our home. After awhile he adjusted to splitting time with his new brother, and would ask to hold the little pink blob, occasionally attempting to shove a bottle in Colt’s mouth as well. He also briefly attempted to become a baby again himself, often borrowing a pacifier and chewing on it as he played around the house.
More recently, as Colt began to develop, and became able to interact, play and locomote the boy’s relationship has deepened. Landon always wants Colt around, although that doesn’t necessarily translate into him wanting Colt to play with his toys, rather, he just wants Colt to, “come see what Landon’s doing”. Most of the time Colt can be distracted to enjoy another toy in the room, but when he does become overly interested in what Landon is playing with, inevitable conflicts do arise. These conflicts are usually resolved by Landon gently pushing or shielding Colt out of the way. That being said, he never asks Colt to leave the room, and becomes genuinely concerned when Colt isn’t around. One afternoon I took Colt to the store with me while Landon was sleeping – when he awoke to find his brother had disappeared - he threw a fit. Landon always reminds Colt to “be careful” and enjoys singing to him in the car, and making him erupt into giggles via a game of peek-a-boo.
A year ago, Landon was still a chubby toddler, whose attempts at running often ended with a face first crash to the ground, and whose favorite word was “why?”, and who still took two long naps a day. Those days regrettably are long gone. Although at the time they seemed to be difficult, I now find myself missing the limitless devotion present in a toddler’s embrace. Today, Landon is a thin, coordinated little boy, complete with his own ideas and personality. He has a head of thick, crazy, light brown hair that sits atop a pair of fiery blue eyes, both of which he inherited from his dad. At one point this past summer, Landon’s hair was getting so out of sorts that we bribed him with a popsicle to sit still long enough so that we could buzz it all off. That was over six months ago now, and he hasn’t received another haircut since, so the curly mop is back in full effect. Landon enjoys running around playing tag, all the while explaining to us that, “he is fast now because he is big.” He takes only one nap in the afternoon, and if he had his choice in the matter he wouldn’t slow down at all – ever. Although still full of questions, Landon’s queries now are more elaborate and relevant questions than the monosyllabic inquiries he used to pepper his parents with daily. And more significant is the fact that Landon can entertain full conversations about a number of things complete with thought, analysis, and integration of his own opinions. His opinions however are also very strong, and can at times devolve quickly into tantrums complete with screams and flailing appendages.
My relationship with Landon has also changed as he has become more independent. The clingy idolatry of an infant or toddler has become replaced by a level of respect and friendship that I hadn’t expected to find in a relationship with someone so young. The experiences I share with him are invaluable – I am overwhelmed with how rewarding fatherhood is everyday.
Landon still drags his little orange friend Gully around with him. Gully is a small orange rabbit-shaped blanket that he has held since he was only a few months old. Actually the original Gully was blue, but he was lost and has since been replaced by an orange Gully which has since been replaced by another two orange Gully’s. Rhiannon and both of Landon’s grandmother’s have been responsible for losing a Gully while on their watch, thankfully, I have yet to join this somewhat embarrassing club. Landon shows Gully the dogs at the pet store and the cars on the freeway, and shares many an adventure with him.
Rhiannon has done an incredible job teaching Landon. With the help of an advent calendar, Landon was counting to twenty by Christmas, and thanks to an assist from the Letter Factory, if you catch Landon on the right day he can point out the letters and tell you what sound they make. He sings with his mom, including the alphabet song, and has learned about manners and rules and a number of other important lessons. I on the other hand, get the fun of passing along my love of biology to my oldest son. Over the past year we have taken numerous trips to the local zoos and aquariums each complete with a plethora of interesting questions from a two-year old mind. It amazes me what that brain can absorb. Landon shares some of what he knows, but every so often he divulges a nugget of knowledge that I had no idea existed, I’m pretty sure his mind is full of similar bits of information. Landon also enjoys pretending to be a variety of different animals, taking on different traits of each animal that he is mimicking. Bird nests have been built on the couch for him to perch in, and we have howled at the moon like a pair of coyotes.
Our house is home to few pets, most noticeably our first ‘child’, our chocolate lab Dakota. She is a great companion for Landon, and she even begrudgingly shares her food with him from time to time. Most of the time Dakota is cautious enough to miss stepping on Colt, although the occasional tail slap to the face is really unavoidable. A little over a year ago, one of the women at Rhiannon’s work gave us a baby desert tortoise for Landon to care for. We named it Sam, since its sex won’t be discernable for a few more years and have set it up with a nice cage in our office. Landon enjoys feeding Sam and watching him/her crawl around on the floor, he is respectfully gentle with his little shelled companion, and they often play together over a shared piece of broccoli. In the back yard we also have a small whiskey barrel pond with a few goldfish in it, and hopefully in the next few months we will be setting up a saltwater tank as well. Growing up I had innumerous pets, and this is a tradition that I will happily pass on to my boys.
As I think I have referenced previously, Landon is a train addict. What started as an innocent introduction to Thomas the Tank Engine over a year ago, has morphed into a full fledged addiction that dominates Landon’s play time. He has at least four different train tracks in our house and a train table in his room, and a ride-a-long train that currently loops around our dining room floor. He has train videos, and train t-shirts and a train night light and train sheets on his bed. When we are in the car he is constantly scanning for train tracks and the occasional diesel engine. At the shopping mall he knows every store that has anything even remotely resembling a train. When we visit Disneyland, our first stop is always the Disneyland Railroad. I think that there is a realistic chance that at three year’s old he knows more about trains than I do at thirty-one.
Speaking of Disney, for Landon’s second birthday we picked up season passes and since the park is only a half hour car ride away we have spent many afternoons over the past year laughing away at the Magic Kingdom. Other than the train rides there, Landon also enjoys numerous other attractions including: It’s a Small World, the Jungle Cruise, and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, to name a few favorites. He has also embraced several of the more recent Disney films. We limit Landon’s exposure to TV, or “tvd” as he refers to it, but most night’s before he goes to sleep we allow him to watch fifteen minutes from one of the movies in his collection. Some recent favorites include: the Lion King, Finding Nemo, Cars, a Bug’s Life, Toy Story and Monster’s Inc. A few months back after watching Monster’s Inc, Landon became convinced that there was a monster named Shadow living in his room, it took a few months to get him back into his bed from the safety of his pack-and-play, and as one might deduce, Monsters Inc has been removed from the bedtime viewing list for now.
Landon has become more coordinated and has also begun to develop an interest in sports and games. He likes to shoot hoops in the backyard, and has become quite accomplished at hitting a ball off the tee with a plastic bat, he also has a soccer goal in the house and will shout, “gooooooaalll” after kicking (or throwing) the ball in the net. During the past football season, Landon wore a lucky Chargers jersey every Sunday, unfortunately that jersey lost its luck during the playoffs. He also is always interested to help with the yard work and has also become a very willing assistant for a numerous of home repairs. For this past Christmas he received some plastic tools including a hammer, screwdriver and wrench that he used to help me assemble a baby gate atop the stairs last month.
This past summer Landon and I went on a few fishing trips to the local pond. We hooked a number of little bluegill and Landon seemed to relish in all of it from the worms to the hooks and bobbers to giving the fish a little kiss before he released them back into the water. Now he will ask when we can go fishing again which always makes me smile, and during the colder winter months he has created an indoor fishing pole out of some plastic chain and a stick that he uses to fish for “daddy-fish and colton-fish”. Landon has visited a number of streams and rivers, including the Provo, Big Wood, Merced, San Joaquin, Yuba, Silver Creek and Mammoth Creek. He also is proud to announce that trout live in rivers and streams, and that his daddy likes to catch trout. I can’t wait until our next trip to the banks of a flowing stream.
Another one of Landon’s favorite destinations is the beach. He loves to dig big holes and trenches in the sand for his trains to drive through. No seagull is safe from his giggling chase. More recently we have begun to introduce him to the animals of the intertidal; his fingers have already felt the tug from large green anemones. In general Landon seems to prefer to conduct his adventures outside whether at the beach, the park, or even within the confines of our backyard.
The year ahead should be filled with more incredible milestones for Landon Wyatt. He will start preschool next fall. Hopefully sometime soon he will transition out of his diapers. This summer I plan on teaching him to swim, and to ride a bike, and next winter he will get strapped to a snowboard for the first time. We will go on his first camping trip and maybe even try to catch his first trout. I can’t wait, but at the same time I want to hold onto each precious minute just a few seconds longer.
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