Long Overdue Thank You

Last week I had food poisoning. Brian stayed home in the morning and helped with LT and then before I had even called my mom, she was on her way ready to help watch LT. They had tons of fun playing in the backyard while I was able to get some much needed rest. Thanks, mom!

Children's Museum

Landon and Z took their moms to the Children's museum today to burn off a little energy. Here are some highlights. For those of you blog readers who have kids in Denver and have not been to the Children's museum, I highly recommend it! These boys had a blast.



Stirring up a witches brew, round and round and round the broom goes....



Fishing for some fish.... or anything magnetic....



Pulling up some yummy veggies from the garden....




Climbing in and out of the boat, and in and out and in and out and in and out....always with this same facial expression.

And of course, boys would not be boys without playing on a firetruck.





This was a favorite for the boys. They watched an older boy show them and then they spun these animals around and around.

Escape the heat for a while

I drove up to Keystone late in the afternoon last Wednesday on my way to a conference for work. I hadn't driven over Loveland Pass in a long time and it was a little harrowing navigating the switchbacks in the heavy rain. However, it was nothing compared to when I used to drive the pass in the dead of winter in my little Volkswagen on the way to A-Basin.


Kari came up to the mountains on Friday after my conference and brought LT and the dogs with her. We stayed with my mom and LT rediscovered some fun toys and activities - in this picture he is *working* on the letters in his name. The letter 'O' is definitely his favorite and I can only assume it's because of all the sponsorship money Big Vowel pours into Sesame Street (even though he doesn't watch it yet).



We took advantage of the cooler weather in the mountains and went for a bike ride (not pictured) and took a nice family hike (excluding Bowen of course).











We've had a few pictures of the boy's team on the blog (here and here) but this may be the first exclusive shot of the girl's team together. I guess that's what happens when you loose the balance of power.





Little mountain man in action!

Twins

MC and Isaac dropped off LT's excersaucer the other day. It just so happened they had the same outfit on. This photo was taken by MC with her new camera phone, technology has come a long way in the year since I bought my phone!

First steps

Lots of LT's little friends are walking now but he just hasn't shown much interest in it (or ability). He has been standing on his own for a while and on some occasions he's taken one step and then crashed and started crawling (which is much faster anyway!). Today, however, he put two steps together for the first time and both Kari and I were there to see it and even had the camera with us. Here's the footage:



LT *loves* playing with the key and lock on my file cabinet in my office (trying to figure it out might be a more accurate way to describe what he's doing) . In this short video he's got the key in his hand and takes his first steps to try and get to the lock on the cabinet. I guess he just needed the proper motivation and apparently a pretty little girl walking didn't do it but trying to engineer the lock and key did. Poor kid is taking after his dad too much in that area already...

Weekend roundup

On Saturday we went over to Riley's house to check out her neighborhood pool. LT enjoyed the selection of fun toys while we were all getting ready.




LT showed off his guns before heading to the pool but Riley was clearly unimpressed.

On Sunday morning we had a little play date at The Market. Joss came with her dad who has managed to keep her alive and well so far while mom is in Africa for nearly three weeks. Here Joss shows off her skills at sitting in a regular chair.

LT and Riley causing trouble of some sort.

We hung out with Z a lot too but somehow he didn't make it into any pictures this time...

small things in small holes

LT loves putting small things into little holes (keys into key holes, straws into tops of drinks etc.) I decided yesterday to make him a toy out of a shoe box. I poked holes into it and put some straws that he could put in the holes and take out.


While he put the straws in the holes and took them out over and over again, I decided to make use of the time and bake banana bread. As soon as he heard the mixer, he crawled over to see what the noise was and noticed me taking the beaters out of small holes. He made it very clear that he had to see what I was doing. When I showed him, he instantly noticed there was a hole and something to go in the hole. Another new toy was found!

It is pretty amazing to me that he can get such a small thing into such a small hole, but he does it quite well. LT has some pretty good fine motor skills.

The mixer only entertained him for so long before he combined the two toys. Now everything (regardless of diameter) is a possibility for going into the shoe box.

REI and Brothers Bar

LT went to REI and played in the water today.

I have never seen LT make this face, but its pretty funny so I had to post it!

Meditating again by the calm water.

After REI we went to Brothers Bar with Z, Shawn and my dad. LT loved the burgers, fries, and especially the apricot I brought him.
Z , of course, loved the burgers and fries.

LT even colored on the coloring sheet (I always thought it is ridiculous to bring a 1 year old crayons, what is he going to do besides eat them, but today he colored with it!)

Water

We went to Gemelli's on Sunday but LT didn't have a date this time so he had to make due entertaining himself in their fountain.

Hiding cheese from the Bo man

Landon and Bo man are best buds. Landon loves hugging Bo, chasing him around, petting him, crawling over him, laughing at him, but... he hates when Bo steals his cheese. Yesterday, LT got smart and hid his cheese on the chair while he chewed his last piece, pretty smart if you ask me!

Nap Schedule Drama

Annick invited a few of us over this morning for a little play date. Unfortunately, with nap schedules all over the place, LT was the only one awake when we got there, even the host was sleeping. Z never made it, he was sleeping at home and Sofi showed up after her nap as we were about to leave for nap number 2. Timing is hard, but we managed to have some fun today.


Lan played solo with all of Sophia's fun toys. This bike/scooter thing with lots of buttons and sounds was a real hit. When Sophia woke up, Annick and I took the kids next door to pick lettuce. I wish I had a camera, it was pretty cute watching two one year olds in a garden.
LT and Sophia played on the playmat, not sure what LT was doing here, but apparently it was funny to pull it down on Sophia's head.
Sophia nicely asking for LT to give back the buzzy bee, but LT wasn't going to give it up.

The two of them went over to Jason's workout equipment. We still aren't sure what they were doing over there, but they were pretty content hiding behind it.

Sofi showed up with a smile on her face as usual (hidden of course with the passy, but still smiling).
This picture isn't the best, but LT gave Sofi a hug and then Sofi gave LT a kiss. He actually got a goodbye kiss kiss from Sophia as well.

Music Together

Landon started music class 2 weeks ago. He really enjoys playing instruments at home and listening to music, however, the music class hasn't been as successful as we had thought. Last week he cried much of the class (I thought it was just a bad day, or he was hungry, or it was too new....). We tried again this week and even took dad this time, but the same thing happened. He even quickly realized where the door was and would just crawl over to the door and cry until we took him out. The funny thing though is that he practices what we have learned in class at home (the teacher said this happens with most kids, they practice in a safe environment). I didn't think he even paid a bit of attention in class, but he seems to remember most everything we learn. I am hoping this coming week is more fun for him.

He seems to enjoy the time before class starts when the big drum is out and he can just crawl around and bang on the drum.

But then the teacher comes and plays his guitar and sings and fun is over...

Phoebe is in class too and really loves it!

We bit the bullet and cut the mullet

LT had a pretty good mullet, but it was so cute, I just couldn't bring myself to cut it.... until it got just too long and ridiculous. He wasn't too fond of the haircut, but looks like a pretty handsome little boy now.

Date night

Brian and I went to a wedding on Saturday night (without LT!) We got dressed up and everything (Shawn, these are to prove it!)

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Friday after work we went to happy hour with Mia and Sofia at Swimclub
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Hugs for mom!

LT tried on Sofia's colorful hat (but only briefly).

Sofia and I had a little conversation in French her chapeau- we speak French at about the same level right now so it works out well for me (she's 13 months old so that gives you some idea of my foreign language skills).