Busy being 6 months!

It's been forever since I've blogged! And in my defense I thought Blogger broke. haha. It won't allow me to log in on my Mac. Maybe my Mac broke? Whatever. So I need to get my 6 month post on here full of pictures of my sweet boy. I will do it soon. Promise! This weekend we have my dad over so after this weekend will be a good time to update my blog. Hope you aren't having too many Landon withdrawls ;)

More to come...

Busy boy growing and playing

What a busy month this has been in our household! Landon turned 5 months on May 16th and we celebrated by getting his pictures taken at the Picture People. I was going to save my Picture People Groupon for the 6 month pictures but I really wanted a family picture and my hubby had to get braces on this month so we decided to get the family photo before the braces. Seeing as getting Landon to smile for my camera is pretty hard, I was afraid that he was going to freak seeing a camera with lights and the whole bit. But he was amazing! We got some great shots of him and we were overly pleased with most of them. So we ended up buying more prints than what was included in the Groupon but they were worth it.

This month is also the month Landon gets the ok from his doctor to take the Ponseti shoes off full time and only have to wear them to bed. This happens on Tuesday and we are counting the hours. Even though he won't have much memory of this when he is older, I know he will be happy to have them off during the days. We have met more and more people that see his shoes and comment on having to have worn the same or similar shoes as a child. Pretty interesting to see how common it really is. We are very happy with the results of this whole process.

This month Landon has learned to play the screaming game. It has actually caused minor stress for us parents. We figured out that this is something babies do to try and get you to react. Well it works! And it wears me out. I am convinced my neighbors think we abuse him with the level of volume in that scream. He sure can capture the attention. And then he laughs. I however don't. Yesterday we discovered that Landon thinks it's hilarious when I eat popcorn. Am I a loud eater? Not sure. But man he was cracking up at me. I was starting to get insecure...Did I have something in my teeth? Was I making a funny noise? He's a goober head. For sure.

Today I bought the coolest new appliance in my kitchen: The NINJA! And it totally is too. I decided to try and make mashed banana for Landon to put in his cereal with the Ninja. In a matter of 3 seconds (literally) I had pureed banana with zero chunks. I was in heaven! And so was Landon. It was his first time trying banana and I didn't even get a yucky face from him. What I got was his full body weight lunging forward in his little plastic high chair seat as he bites the bowl as if to say "GIVE ME IT ALL!!!" and he ate every last lick of that banana rice cereal. What's with babies and their banana love?

Anyway, enjoy the cuteness.

On this day...

To my sweet loving son. You will not remember this day as a history maker but you will read about it in your books and hear about it in your history class. So let me tell you what you will one day understand. May 1st will never be the same in the eyes of Americans. For the past 10 years our country has been at a war that is so controversial throughout our great nation. That war was started on Sept 11, 2001 when I was a sophomore in high school. As I'm sure most people can attest, I remember exactly what I was doing that day. My dad came to wake me up and turn on my tv to show me that the twin towers were just destroyed by terrorists. Granted I was a sophomore just waking up,I was truly confused as to what he was talking about. "Watch this!" he says. Ok dad I'm still trying to wake up so bear with me here. My eyes became like glue to the tv. It was like I was watching a movie except it was real! It's hard to grasp the reality as this was happening all the way across the country and it was calm and quiet and sunny outside my window. Landon, there was a bad man in another country who didn't like America and so he sent a few of his people over here to crash our planes in a place that he knew would kill thousands and hurt the entire country. We spent 10 years searching for him. He was in hiding and on the move and eventually found a place to stay where he thought he would never be found...in a country that we were allies with. On May 1, 2011 our brave Navy Seals completed a mission that I am sure any military man or woman wanted to do. They found the bad guy, Osama, in a mansion in Pakistan and in 40 minutes were able to take him out for good. On this day, you were 4.5 months old. You still had your shoe braces on but you loved to roll all over the floor and jump in your jumper. On this day you made funny spit noises as your way of playing with us, you went to church and hung out in the nursery without even crying, you walked through a few open houses with mom & dad on a search to find a home you could grow up in. It was a good day for us as a family and us as a nation. Some people may tell you otherwise, that there was too much patriotic celebration over Osama's death and that's ok because everyone has their own views, as you will too one day. But this was a great victory for America and in my eyes, it's worth waving the American flag over. One man may have lost his soul, but I think it was gone way before we took his life. I would rather see one man who was in charge of mass murders lose his life than thousands more innocent people that just want to live a full and beautiful life. Not to mention the millions of people that were affected by the devastation this man caused.

On this day, you were so peaceful

First Easter

I really wanted to put together an Easter basket for Landon this year but all I could find to put in it was an Easter bib. Boring! So I fulfilled my need by filling Easter eggs with chocolates and creating a candy Easter basket to take to my in-laws house. In return I was given Easter eggs filled with chocolate (what comes around goes around! and in this case...yay!) and a herb garden. Fun! Landon got a pretty cool baseball piggy bank that will go great in his big boy room once he turns 1. My plan is a classic baseball theme. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, back to Easter. Of course I knew I wasn't going to get pictures of him on an egg hunt and I didn't really care to take him to see the Easter bunny so I thought I would take pictures of him in his super cute Easter outfit with the eggs that I dyed (for my own enjoyment). Welp here is what I learned. Use the plastic eggs when taking pictures with a baby! And here is why. I decided to take these adorable pictures right before we were headed out the door to church. Once I realized sitting with the eggs in his lap was not working because he just folds in half and I can't get a picture of his sweet little face, I decided to lay him down. Well now that he is a roller, there is no leaving him on his back. It's an instant roll in that case. So here we are, he has his Easter bib on and looking oh so sharp, and I brilliantly lay him on his belly in front of the eggs. I was picturing a cute curious baby looking at the eggs, touching the eggs. What I got was a teething baby trying to gnaw on the eggs in any way he can while producing mass amounts of slobber all over the place which in turn gets the dye on the eggs to come off...and there we have it, a baby with egg dye all over both cheeks and his Easter bib. Picture time was over. As I sadly go get him another bib (sad because no one got to see his "My first Easter" bib) I come back and find that in the 20 seconds I left to get him a new bib, he has spit up all over his nice collared shirt. 10 minutes before church starts and I'm back at ground zero with a naked baby with colored cheeks. Scrubbing and changing and hurrying about, we finally make it out the door. And for that, I will use plastic eggs with my next baby's first Easter. phew!

Easter Sunday was Landon's first trip to the nursery at the church we now go to. They gave us a pager after we tried to explain "care for Landon 101" in about 2 minutes. I think any new mom does this. Like these folks haven't cared for an infant before...So we are sitting in service with a death grip on this pager just convinced it's going to go off and we are going to have a screaming baby on our hands (probably because he has dye on his face and he didn't get to wear his Easter bib!). But to our surprise when we showed up to pick him up, he was asleep in the arms of someone we don't know. She said he was an angel (he's a show-off) and he slept the entire time. What a relief to know he was comfortable there and we were able to enjoy Easter service.

Enjoy the cuteness!
The first collage is from Easter. The rest are just because he is so darn cute! :)

4 months today

Happy 4 months Landon. You are so fun to see grow and learn. Here's to the next 4 months....And in 5 weeks, the shoes comes off. Hooray.

Trying new things is hard!

Landon is coming up on 4 months already! (This Saturday) and so I decided to buy rice cereal and see how he likes it. And these were the results:

As you can see we went from attempting to introduce the spoon right back to using the bottle. I poured the rice cereal into his bottle and went that route. After several attempts at rice cereal I have come to 2 conclusions....1. He is not ready to eat with a spoon and 2. He does NOT like the taste of rice cereal by itself but will eat it mixed in to his bottle. So I'm going to wait till his 4 month check up and ask his pediatrician recommendations. But it was fun getting these priceless expressions on camera in the mean time.

A few weeks ago we started putting him to bed without rocking him to sleep. So far it's been going pretty well. Well then we throw a curve ball in there. Today we decided to try putting him to bed without a swaddle. Mostly because the last week he has been waking up a TON in the middle of the night and a lot of times I find he has busted out of his swaddle and is awkwardly flailing his arms about. So we read that 3-4 months is about when you stop swaddling. He screams when we swaddle him so I figure he is trying to tell us this is soo for newborns and he has grown out of wanting to be swaddled. Welp...as of right now he is screaming and won't go to sleep. So through the grinding of my teeth to keep myself from rescuing him and rocking his little butt to sleep, I will leave you with this sweet picture of a baby who is excited about successfully rolling onto his tummy. Enjoy!

Rolly Polly

We have ourselves a little rolly polly here. Landon has mastered the art of rolling from back to tummy and boy is he on the move! Try changing a diaper when he knows he can move. Now we have to work on from tummy to back. I think it will be much easier when the shoes come off. He gets a little frustrated. They say babies usually go tummy to back....what a little rule breaker he is!

He is also eating 5-6oz of milk now. I've purchased some brown rice cereal but we haven't tried it yet. Once he bounced back from that nasty bronchiolitis it's like his tummy grew and he was eating more overnight. He is also very into grabbing things and putting them in his mouth. His little teether ring has now come out of the toy box. I feel like we need to get him real toys because he is so interested in them. The teether ring he likes has like 3 keys on it and so when he gets real excited he bats the thing around and for some reason when he bats one hand the other one automatically goes too. It's like they are in sync. And then he gets hit with the rings and throws them and then cries because he wants his toy back..."well you threw them!" He has found his shoes and I'm sure is trying to figure out how to get them OFF! And to top it off, we think there is a little tooth bud popping through on the top! I know...usually the bottoms come in first but I tell ya Landon has been anything but fitting the profile. He just does things his own way. Anyway I tried getting a picture of the little bud but he moves too much and I end up with a close up of his chin. Sooo for now just take my word and I'll work on getting a picture.

We are working on getting him to put himself to sleep. It's a work in progress for sure! Last night I fed him and laid him in his crib wide awake. He cried and cried for about 10 minutes until my husband went and put a pacie in his mouth. He cried a little more and eventually....silence! He did it! Cried himself to sleep. Although it breaks my heart listening to him cry and not running to his rescue, it really is good for us to let him become a little more independent.

Cowboy Town

Our first trip off the west coast was a success! The plane ride to Austin, Texas was a breeze! Landon basically looked like this the entire 2 flights:

Mommy and daddy were so happy! But then came the time change. Mind you he was still getting over his Bronchiolitis so that flemmy breathing was still there. He became uber fussy the 2nd day.
He would not allow us to stop at stop lights while driving without screaming. He would not sleep in the pak-n-play that night as every time we laid him down, he screamed. So the first night he spent lying on the floor between 2 rolled up blankets. I thought for sure Lauren & Jason were going to be irritated with the constant awakes in the night.

The 2nd day (my bday!) we went to downtown San Antonio. It was a little warm that day but was nice to walk around after such a long flight the day before. We walked to the Alamo and I confess I had NO IDEA what that was until we got there. I know...I'm terrible with my history. Whatev! Anyway, seeing as it was March Madness Sweet 16 weekend (in San Antonio) there were basketball fans everywhere! I mean I saw more Kansas fans than I see Trail Blazer fans in Oregon! We walked around the Alamo and down the Riverwalk.




It was gorgeous and Landon slept most the time.....only after we got him his very own Texas Longhorns hat. Adorable. The Texas hat came after we attempted to get him this hat...


But we decided it was too in the way. So ball cap it was. We had planned to go out to a cowboy dance hall for my birthday that night but with Landon so fussy we weren't comfortable leaving him with someone we didn't know and worry about whether or not he was screaming all night. So we stayed in and played games. It was more fun than going out would be. Getting that interaction time with friends is so important to me and being able to connect and laugh and be goofy was just what we needed.

Day 3 we went to the San Marcos outlets and man when they say everything is bigger in Texas they aren't kidding. Those outlets were the biggest outlets I've ever seen. We didn't even get to half of them! Landon was fussy there as well so we didn't last long. But at one point he did fall asleep (that was like Brent's goal...to get him asleep so that Brent could relax a little) And so he celebrated...


Day 4 we went to a Bass Pro Shop. Have you ever been to one of those? Oh man it was so cool! Giant live fish tank, game area, restaurant, all sorts of outdoor gear, cute as ever baby clothes and on and on. Sportsman Warehouse really had nothing on Bass Pro Shop. So we dreamed of owning boats and took pictures.




On our last day in Texas we spent most of the day in Austin. We didn't get to see too much of the city but the downtown totally reminded me of Portland. Very urban and trendy. Lots of pedestrians and cyclists. I liked it. We ate at a very yummy place that had excellent service. All in all it was a great trip and I was able to spend some much needed time with my friend. We loved that our husbands got along so well seeing as they didn't even know each other. We'll see if being with Landon was a form of "birth control" for them. haha! kidding ;)





Don't you think they look good with a baby? (*wink wink*)

Happy travels.

Bronchio-what?

Bronchio...? No not bronchitis (phew!) but Bronchiolitis which is common for 3 month baby boys in daycare. Go figure! His symptoms included coughing, vomiting, lesser of an appetite, and stuffy nose. However he has not had a fever. Thankful for that! He still smiles and is very alert. He seems worse in the night, like most colds. We went to the doctor after the 4th day of coughing and occasional vomiting. He was given an inhaler with this tube attachment that goes over his face. He HATES it. Poor guy. But he has to take it every 4-6 hours until he is better. The inhaler helps loosen the airways and get that junk out of there that is making him wheezy.

Last Monday was the first experience with the vomit. It freaked me out! I thought we were in for just a little spit up. So after cleaning the entire kitchen, me and Landon, I called his daycare and told her we were having a rest day at home. He slept 5 hours total from 7am till 3pm. That's a TON for him. So I thought he was just in a growth spurt and maybe didn't like his milk that morning. I didn't think much of it and took him back to daycare Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday was when we noticed the coughing. It became more frequent and more violent. We decided to keep him home Thursday which was pretty convenient for my husband who quickly volunteered to come home from work to watch him while I go to work. Little did I know that Kentucky was playing that day so he was stoked to be home and watch March Madness with our little sick guy. Thursday night the coughing was worse. It was so violent sounding. The kind that burns your throat every time. Still...no fever! So I called his doctor Friday morning and got an appt to come in. That's where we learned 2 things....he has Bronchiolitis and he is 13 lbs 4 oz! Big boy he is!!! Last night (Friday night) it took us 45 minutes to get him to sleep of which included passing him off to each other twice because neither of us could get him to calm down, lots of attempts for him to eat...most rejected, and a swaddle put on, taken off and put back on. It was the sound of the ocean on my husband's phone that finally calmed him down and put him to sleep. Why didn't we think of that before?? He slept till 1am which is record for him this week! At 1 we had to give him the dreaded inhaler. I feel like I'm suffocating him or giving him sleeping gas...it's not fun at all! Then came 3am when it was my husband's turn to feed (attempt) and rock the baby back to sleep. I was enjoying my moment of sleeping when I hear through the monitors "help!.....help!......Kendra help!" ok give me more than 10 seconds to get up and get my drousy butt down the hall before you keep yelling for help. Anyway, Landon had thrown up again and it was a middle of the night strip the baby down, wipe him down and get him changed kinda thing. Not fun when you are half asleep. So today we spent the morning cleaning ALL the bed sheets, laundry, boiling/sanitizing all his paci's and cleaning everything to try and get these bronchio germs outta here. Not to mention we both woke with sore throats so it was an early morn trip to the store for Zycam. We have to be 100% for Texas this week! Yeehaw!

Play Ball!

We are ready for Red Sox season in the Perry Household!

Slobber Fest

We have entered the slobber fest stage! I mean it looks like he spilled a cup of water...(milk) all over his chest. And then there's the gnawing on well anything that is within 2 inches of his face. He'll attack it and love it! So I've been trying to give him teething rings to gnaw on but then I have to sit there and hold them and with his head swinging side to side so much it becomes rather useless. He is fascinated by pretty much everything around him...all the time! It's quite the entertainment with him now. We are slowly (but surely!) moving out of the super fussy crying phase and entering into the loud squealing phase. I'm ok with that. really.

Landon is also LOVING his new daycare. I get adorable pictures and texts throughout the working day which definitely helps me get through the day. I come home and he is just exhausted from watching all the girlies dance around him all day. Heck I would be too! I love that he is happy to go there in the morning and happy to come home at night. It's a healthy balance. I'm finding the hard part for me is feeling that I am missing out on all the fun. I get the hungry cranky tired guy. But I keep telling myself that this is best for him as he is around little munchkins all day and in a healthy environment.

Here's to the excersaucer time and the slobber time! cheers.

Bounce & Play

Since our baby has shown so much interest in sitting and standing, we have been finding fun ways to encourage him. Daddy and baby like to play "bounce & play" which is basically holding his hands up and bouncing him on your lap. Oh the smiles we get from that game! Priceless. This weekend we put together his bouncy chair and tried it out. It's a little bit of a work in progress. Since he can't stand straight yet, he tends to lean way over the tray on the chair and just drools. Today he figured why drool when there is a wrist there. So he spent his playtime attacking his wrist. We thought it was hilarious!



P.S....thanks to JAMIE I learned how to edit pictures like I've never done before. Watch out blog!! I'm getting creative here. ta-ta for now.

Back to Reality

Today was my first day back to reality aka work...which means it was Landon's first day of daycare. He was in a great mood when I dropped him off so it eased my worries a tad. But typical mom got in the car after dropping him off and started to cry! Then I realized I put mascara on top and bottom lashes so I had to buck up and stop the tears before I walked into work looking like I got socked in the face. I confess I sent several messages to Landon's sitter asking how he was but I did manage to refrain from requesting picture messages. Although I REALLY wanted one!

Work to me felt like it was my birthday for several reasons...(although one not being balloons at my desk but that's ok)...1. Everyone was friendly and happy to see me (at least they acted as though they were happy to see me..) 2. Flowers on my desk 3. Hubby brought me coffee 4. Landon (hubby) sent me flowers! so flowers x2! WOOHOO!

So all in all it was a good day. But now it's past 6pm and that means he is fussy! I better get to the mommy thing!

Flowers from my baby & my love

Ready for our first day of reality

Playing sit up while we wait for the dr

Proud Momma

Snow day might have come and gone but the snow has been hiding my car since today. Snow day melted away and then came back strong that night. Apparently our little town saved the snow for several days longer than surrounding areas. So we have been hiding inside since then. On Thursday (aka snow day) we had to make a trip to town to visit the dr in between snow storms. Landon got his big boy 2 month shots. Mom and dad were prepared for blood curdling screaming for the rest of the day but actually, he did great! There was the initial needle poke scream that was silent for 30 seconds and we couldn't get him to take a breathe moment....But after that he was pretty norm. I'll never forget that face though...poor guy looked at me as though he didn't know why someone would want to poke him. After-all, we did just brace his feet 2 days earlier. I tell ya...this kid is incredibly special. We have been through a lot in just the first 2 months of life. He has been so good. We've been through the casting, feeding problems, bracing, shots, and through it all he has shown tremendous smarts and growth. At his check up he weighed 12 lbs 15 oz....50% percentile (We guessed 13 lbs!) He is 24.5" long (in the 90% percentile!!) He has recently shown interest in sitting and standing! His dr said babies normally don't show interest in this until about 4 months so we are excited that even with a brace on his feet, he is still trying hard to move. He LOVES to sit. It won't be very long until he sits on his own. Momma so proud. He has also moved up a size in diapers which I LOVE because he have a TON of size 2 in his closet from the baby showers. Can we say HOLLA for no buying diapers for a while?!? Yup. check.

Since his cast is FINALLY off we can give him real baths rather than sponge baths. We gave him his first bath the night he got his cast off. Initial contact in a tub of water was hilarious. Talk about wide-eyed confused! Not quite a splish-splash-taking a bath experience but at least he can join the bath club now.

Until next time..enjoy the cuteness

Snow Day!

This morning we woke up to this:


SNOW! We didn't believe there would be snow until we saw it. But sure enough it was still snowing hard when we woke up. So my husband took the day off to play with Landon in his first snow day...Ok actually he took the day off because we have to take Landon in for his first set of shots and my car doesn't have the traction for the snow. And I don't have the confidence to drive in the snow. But anyway we thought it would be fun to bundle Landon up and take a few shots before the snow melts away for good.

Enjoy the cuteness.