Look, a Toddler!

I almost typed, "Look, a Baby!" and then I realized, Landon really isn't a baby anymore. He's a walking, talking, rebelling, charming, frustrating, and utterly adorable toddler.

He loves all food, and is seen here enjoying one of his favorites- blueberry pancakes. He is also showcasing his favorite trick- flinging pancake pieces onto the floor with gusto and without warning. Yesterday a piece landed neatly on top Tex's head; Rosie immediately licked it off.

He loves his wagon, but now only wants to push it BY HIMSELF and any attempts by me to steer, give a little push over a bump, or even get close are met with indignant fury and abandonment of the now tainted toy. Here we are on an attempted walk to the mailbox:

I say attempted because soon after this picture I tried to nudge it in the right direction and Landon immediately walked away from the wagon and threw himself head first into the grass. Later we tried again but only made it to the end of the driveway.

When he's not throwing himself to the ground in frustration, he's the most charming, smiley little guy (and he flips between the two with great speed). His teacher wrote on his daily report today that "Landon is such a sweetheart! He had a very smiley day and loved playing outside with his classmates." I love that - a "smiley day" - he has a lot of those. My very favorite thing he does is walk (yes, walk! there's video proof below) up to me and snuggle his head in my neck. It usually doesn't last very long before he's off to push his mini wagon or bang a block on the tile, but oh how I savor those moments- and memorize every detail so I can recall them ten minutes later when he's throwing a tantrum for reasons I don't think he could explain even if he had the words.

Daycare is going swimmingly. Drop-off was drama-free both Friday and Monday, but since JP did it, I was apprehensive about taking him myself this morning. He's usually a lot clingier with me, but he did great! He smiled when we got in the room and looked very excited at the toast with grape jelly his teacher was preparing. I sat him in his little chair and he looked up at me like, ok mom, there's toast coming, you can leave now. So I backed away and waved, and he looked up and smiled, and then turned his attention to his breakfast. Seeing him at ease and happy from the get-go made my whole day easier, I think I billed 90% of the time I was in my office. I didn't spent hours staring out the window wondering if I could in fact be happy at home or even if I wasn't happy, should I do it anyway. I just focused and worked and smiled on my way to pick the little guy up at 5:15.

Here's two videos I took on Sunday. They aren't very good - I'm trying to hold the camera, cheer Landon on, and move around so he'll keep walking. The first is unnecessarily long because I was never sure if he'd start walking again, so you can either stop watching after about a minute or stick around to the see the dogs, our stairs, and the mini wagon back in action.

The second shows how good he's getting at popping right back up when he falls down. We give him lots of encouragement. It's funny to hear myself in the videos, Lag Liv the mommy sounds so different from Lag Liv the lawyer* who generally refrains from spontaneous clapping. But how can you not cheer for this little guy?