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