Tenn St. Regular

LT doesn't drink coffee and is only recently starting to like iced tea, but he's a regular at the local coffee shop (Tenn St. Coffee). He probably hits up the place 3-5 times a week, sometimes more. I am not always the one to take him, in fact a few weeks ago, I took him for the first time in a long time. When we walked in, the barista said, "Hi Landon". Then looked at me and said, "are you his mom?" For being a stay at home mom, I felt badly that my kid goes there regularly without me and so we have made more of an effort to walk there together as well. On Sunday, LT took both his parents for a quick coffee before going to the zoo with dad. He rode his bike and, as you can see above, is usually a very happy camper there. This morning, LT and I cleaned the house, did some laundry and various other chores, played for awhile, fixed his stroller and then, as if he knew it was Monday (a usual Tenn St day with my dad), he said, "are we going now?". I said, "going where LT?" "Um, Tenn St? Wide bikes to Tenn St now?" Off we went. Last summer, fall, winter and spring, I took LT occasionally. He was a cheap date, he mostly wanted water, occasional piece of bread, but nothing else. My coffee is relatively cheap black. However, now he points to the treat he wants in the cabinet and is expanding his tastes from simply water with a straw to iced tea. While he still can't quite compete with his buddy Z's expensive food habits (Sushi, shrimp and various other college account breaking foods), LT is stepping up his tastes and "needs" at Tenn St.

Fun mornings with Daddy

Brian has been on lots of morning daddy duties the past few weekends. While I wasn't there to enjoy any of these events, I can only imagine from the stories told later to me how much fun LT has with his dad! Below, LT showed dad how he could ride on the chipmunk at Wash Park by himself. I am always amazed at how quickly he changes and becomes more independent. The last time I took him to the Wash Park playground, he wasn't able to get on the ride ons himself (granted this was a few months ago, but still!)

Bri and LT spent a morning playing at REI. This is one of LTs favorite spots, the "hiking" section in REI where there are "rocks" made to look like hiking trails for people to test how hiking boots.
Yesterday, LT took his dad and his bike to the zoo. While he's growing fast, he's clearly not quite as big as a polar bear! I am shocked by how big those things are!

Race!

Two of my mom's sisters visited her a few weeks ago and they stopped by to vist on their way to the airport to go home. We decided to meet and have breakfast at DJ's Berkeley Café which is only a few blocks from our house.

LT has been into racing lately and likes to 'wace Hay' [race Hailie] up the stairs. I'm not sure why he's chosen the fastest member of the household as his primary racing opponent but I guess he likes the challenge. He's yet to even come close to winning against her, at least when she actual participates that is.

Anyway, we were running a little late to meet my mom and aunts at DJ's and LT didn't want to be carried so we tried to encourage him to go a little faster by telling him it was a race.


Here's a little footage of the race. The ploy kind of worked.


And about the only picture I managed to get. Here LT is showing my aunt Margaret how to fly his spaceship.

Riley Turns TWO!

Riley had a small birthday party on Saturday to celebrate her 2nd birthday!
She has lots of boy cousins/family who are a bit older. LT mostly just wanted to do whatever they were doing, no matter how dangerous.
A little golfing.
A failed attempt at sitting on the ball and then crashing, but happily at least.
Racing through tunnels and tubes.


And working on his modeling career in his new "Camp Rock" shades.
But probably the best part was the yummy ladybug cupcake/cake!

Pantless in the Park

Sunday was the last City Park Jazz for the summer. It was beautiful weather and so we headed over for some fun with Dylan and Zack's families (and ended up meeting up with Craig and his family and Peter and his family, co-workers of Brian). Getting everything ready for the park is quite an ordeal and it probably would have taken about 20 minutes longer to get LT into pants. He just went pantless, which was fine by us. 2 year olds can get away with wearing anything, right? He also picked up his nice new shades from Riley's birthday party the day before (blog soon to come about that).


Shawn is always the organized mom who brings plenty of toys and entertainment for the boys. I thought I was doing well by bringing ONE small backhoe for LT to play with, but Shawn showed up with the best toy of all, a ball! It entertained the boys for about 30 minutes before the concert started.

LT has a lot of great skills, but I am not sure quick, fast running is one of them (takes after his mom and dad I guess). However, Sunday, he was pretty fast. Maybe his shorts and pants have been holding him back?

We were so excited to hang out with Dylan so much last week and hoping to get lots of good pictures of the three boys. However, Dylan is a little musician. He wanted to be right next to the stage with his mom or dad dancing and listening up close. Brian did manage to take this one picture of the Rifkin family.

Da Boys

LT, Z and Dylan had a little dinner/playdate the other night. It is rare to have an only boy play date these days, but was fun to see them all interact.
LT and Dylan in Dylan's patio chairs.

We were trying to capture a new version of the picture we took more than a year and a half ago of the three boys at Joss's Christmas party. The challenge taking that picture was trying to get them all to sit up without falling down. This picture, we couldn't get them to sit still and look at the camera.