Swimming Part II

Some pictures from the kid's second swim lesson.
Sofi
Landon
Zack

Apparently swimming wore Sofi out... but not LT. He had his usual 30 minute nap a while later.

Little baby...

in a big bed.

Teletubbies

Landon gets to watch a few minutes of Teletubbies some mornings although he is often more interested in watching what Hailie is doing than watching the TV.

LT's cute green hat kind of makes him look like a little Teletubby in this picture.

A week behind

Last weekend we went up to the mountains to see my parents (I guess I should start calling them LT's grandparents). Shawn and Z came with us (Albert was in Europe on business). We always make fun of their huge truck but it came in pretty handy as we packed in two babies, two dogs, and three adults. The baby boys worked well together and made sure that at least one of them was awake and crying for the whole drive up. Which was nice. It worked out so well for them that they decided to go with the same plan on the drive home.

Brother like brother

Bowen loves pink. He loves his big pink dog and all his other pink toys (of which there are many). He's even been known to dig thought a basket of candies (surreptitiously obtained) and pick out only the pink ones. Personally I think it's cute that such a big ol' mean looking dog has a soft side.

From the looks of these pictures, LT may have something in common with his brother Bowen. Landon looks pretty happy hanging out in Joss's pink boppy.

What a mom can do in 30 minutes...

(Editor's note: yet *another* post from Kari. Between her writing more often and now Z having a blog I'm starting to loose my monopoly on this baby blog business.)

Shawn thinks I [Kari] should write a book titled, "What a mom can do in 30 minutes" because I have become extremely efficient in my 30 minute time frames that Landon gives me these days. You see, he has taken up exactly THIRTY minutes of napping EXACTLY every 1 1/2 hours. Thus, I have learned to rake the yard, shower and put in a load of laundry in my first 30 minutes, change the laundry, unload the dishwasher and read in my next 30 minute nap slot etc... Not sure writing a book can be done in a 30 minute time slot, so it might just need to be an entry on the blog.

(Editor's note part 2: shortly after Kari finished writing this, LT fell asleep for an hour and a half. So much for predictability.)

Shawn and Kari plus Five

(Editor's note: another post by my lovely wife featuring photos by Z's mom about their adventurs in babysitting about two weeks ago)

OK, so we aren't quite the same as Jon and Kate plus Eight, but it gave Shawn and I an insight into what it might be like to have 5 babies! Chrissy and her husband needed some extra hands last week and so Shawn, Zack, Landon and I watched her 3 boys for a few hours. It was surprisingly not as hard as we had thought (mostly thanks to her boys being on a really great schedule and Shawn's laid back and extremely helpful personality!) These pictures show Landon as a speed bump that was supposed to slow Casey, Gavin and Liam down when crawling around, however, it didn't phase any of the boys and they went right over Landon. They enjoyed crawling over and Landon apparently enjoyed being crawled all over!

Socks go where?

It's colder in LT's room than it is in the rest of the house. I don't know why. Maybe if I had some handyman skills I could figure out why and even fix it but I'm just a computer nerd with no actual abilities in the manual arts. For several nights in a row LT had woken up with icy cold hands. I didn't want him to be cold so I can up with a solution - socks on the hands of course! Well, my misguided plan didn't last long but we all had a good laugh (LT included).

I guess I am a dad...

Because I thought this:

iiiiiiiiiiiikkvfdffffffffffffffk......,,,,,,,,,k, 9 m,,,b

was really great. It's what Landon instant messaged me today (with a little help from mom) while I was at work. I never fully understood until now why my parents though some of the crap that I produced when I was young was so great. Now I get it.

Readin'

Just to be clear - you are not the first person to make a joke about how Landon is going to help me improve my reading skills. It doesn't mean it's not funny - just that it's not all that original.

Swim Lessons

LT, Z and Sofi all started swim lessons today. The report from the other parents was that Z and Sofi were worn out and each slept for over three hours after swimming. Landon took only his usual 30 minute nap. My theory was that he wasn't tired because he's such a good swimmer (skills inherited from his parents and their distinguished swimming careers).

But Shawn said she thought he didn't sleep because he was so excited about holding Sofi's hand. A better theory I'll admit.


Notice Sofi flirting with both of the boys at the same time (a little payback to LT). Also notice that she's got a look on her face like she knows she's up to no good.


Apparently LT sticks his tongue out if you pull on his ear. Sadly, it looks like Landon got his dad's social skills.


Zack


Sofi


and LT (who just recently discovered his tongue)

Snap, Crackle and Pop

When I heard other parents talking about babies having rice cereal for their first solid food I just assumed they were talking about Rice Krispies. What do I know? Apparently not much about baby food. Good thing mom is in charge of that department.

Saturday morning was our first foray into the world of solid foods.
It was also LT's first time in his little highchair which he really enjoyed. In the photo above I picture him thinking, "Wow mom! This is really fun, what are we doing?"


And here, "That red thing isn't as cool as some of my other toys but this seat is still pretty fun."


But here, "I've been tricked! What is that crap? I don't think I like this anymore. What's wrong with good old fashion mama milk?"

He makes the same sad face (and spits up the same way) when he gets medicine at the doctors office.

them's good people

A sleepless night with LT compounded with tons of well meaning but contradictory and overwhelming advice about getting your baby to sleep from friends, books, the Internet, etc., finally caught up with Kari yesterday. She was having a pretty rough time in the morning. So bad, in fact, that I was trying to figure out how I could cut out of work early to go home and help (not that I would be much help but I didn't know what else to do). But then Shawn instant messages me wanting to know what Kari's might like for lunch and before I knew it Shawn had driven across town, brought Kar a turkey and avocado (with NO MAYO) sandwich, and was watching Landon while Kari took Bowen on a run. I may not have known how to help but Shawn sure as heck did and she really saved the day. I feel really lucky to have Z, Shawn and Albert in our lives right now - them's just good people.

Alright, enough of my sappy ranting! I know my readers don't want to see a bunch of sentimental garbage here - they demand my cliché humor, flair for bad grammar (or is it poor grammar?), and uninspired photography. So there's a picture at right of Z, Albert, Shawn and Landon (taken a few weeks ago at Amici's). And the only funny thing I could come up with from yesterday was Z grabbing a handful of Shawn's sandwich and stuffing it in his mouth. They say that your baby will start to show subtle signs that they are ready for solid foods but apparently Zach isn't much for subtly.

Mismatch!

The way Riley and Landon look, you'd think their dads dressed them. But their moms are to blame this time!

Fun while it lasted

A few pictures of LT watching game 4 of the World Series. Of course, he won't remember any of it and doesn't even know that *his team* lost. Heck, he was asleep long before the end of the game (truth be told, I almost was too).

Saturday Morning Coffee

A few of the babies and their respective parents decided to get together at Tenn St. Coffee on Saturday morning (for some reason Kar and I have always called it T Street and I still think it's a better name).

Dylan and Ben, the men in Super Jamie's life, shown at left.










Shawn asked us if LT had been biting his lip. We said we didn't think he had but this picture (that Shawn took) seems to prove otherwise. And apparently I do it too. Who knew?






LT was in all his sports gear right down to his Nikes (not pictured). Kari said the outfit "wasn't really her" but I thought it was pretty cute.

The Z Man

No matter if they are hanging out in a bar or hanging out in Landon's crib watching the turtle toy together - LT and Z are starting to be inseparable. True, they hardly even acknowledge each other yet so the term "friend" might not be quite right but it seems like they are destined to be buddies. Besides, with all the little girl babies around (Maike, Mia, Joss, Sofi & Sofia) these two guys are going to need to stick together just to stay sane.

Mom & Baby

Hanging out on a Saturday morning.

Falling asleep early on a Wednesday night.


I am downstairs working right now and I can hear Landon crying (and has been for a while) and I know Kari is struggling but doing her best to comfort him. Pictures like these, and most of what I post, show the good, fun and easy times. And mostly it is just those good times but we have our hard moments too.

"You've got to just put that one up 'cause it's so cute"

Is what Kari tells me about this picture.

I agree.

Is Rocktober Over?

I've already admitted to being a fair-weather fan so it's ok for me and my family to watch the World Series on TV even though we didn't watch a single regular season game. At the end of the 1st inning of the 1st game of the world series and the Rockies are losing 3-0. It doesn't look good for the Blake St. Bombers at this point but maybe this cute little fan can help the cause?

Success!

(Editors note: this is now the *second* post by Kari. The first can be found here. That's two in one week! I better keep my day job...)I have taken Landon several times to baby and mommy yoga, only to be disappointed because he was asleep, or eating, or crying. It was always a waste of time it seemed. When Zack's mom Shawn called yesterday to see if I could watch Z for an hour during my normal baby
and mommy yoga time, I have to admit I was slightly concerned about having TWO babies, but nonetheless agreed to take them both to yoga. Two babies... yes, I was slightly overwhelmed with how it would all workout, but thought it would be alright. It turned out it was not only alright, but more fun than it had ever been. As usual, Landon cried a bit and then fell sound asleep on the mat for the remainder of the class. While I normally would just be sitting there bored while all the other babies were having fun with their moms, this time I could enjoy the class too! I could focus entirely on Zack who was laughing, smiling and having the time of his life doing baby bridge pose and getting massaged! It was a success!
As usual, I did not have the camera during the yoga class and therefore don't have very good pictures to support this blog entry, but Bri took a few when he and Albert showed up to help carry the boys out of class...

Baby's First Snow

The weather called for snow and we'd even talked about how we should take a picture and all that because it would be LT's first. However, we woke up this morning to some light rain and cloudy skies but no snow. A little later in the morning it looked like the rain had let up so we decided to take the whole family on a little walk. Turns out we walked right into the start of the snow storm - we weren't even a hundred yards from our house before the sky had opened up and the snow was coming down hard and wet.

Once around the block was all we could manage. Kari and I with our heads down and poor little Hailie with her tail between her legs and a look on her snow covered face that seemed to say, "Mom & Dad, why are you doing this to me?" Landon, all bundled up and under the canopy of his stroller, was just fine and even fell asleep. Bowen, of course, loved the weather and was disappointed when the rest of us cut the walk short and headed inside. I guess some family members are just tougher than others.

"I love dogs..."

"...but I don't think I like dogs that bite."

That's what the dog food delivery guy said to Kari as Bowen was trying to prove how tough he is by barking and jumping (to the guy bringing him his beloved food no less).

Kari told me this moments after we finished the last post and I just thought it was too funny not to share.

Looking at Bowen I can understand why the delivery man was nervous but just look at that big goofy dog - the only thing he's going to bite is his toy.