Landon update- just what the grandparents have been waiting for!

He was very pleased with himself to open a peanut butter cup, and then he slurped up most of it!

I was very worried about dragging little Landon to the other side of the world. What would this do to his sleep schedule? His developmental milestones? His digestive system? His attachment to his toys and books? Would he regress? would he get really sick and die? Would he get bitten by a monkey or rapid stray dog and die? All of this raged within me, and I was fairly certain if nothing else, he would probably starve to death.

Never fear! Toddlers are resilient little buggers, and after a period of adjustment to the time change, I would say that he is thriving in his new environment. I think routine is key, and we definitely have one, albeit fluid and changeable depending on if we have anything to do that day, and if Austin is awake or asleep.

So pleased with himself, and the peanut butter!

We wake up. Sometimes we go for a run prior to Austin returning home. Sometimes we don't, but at any rate, we get ready for the day and at some point, Landon wants to escape from the room. He is tall enough, so he opens the door and goes out pretty much whenever he wants. Fortunately, there are guys that clean everything outside in the halls of the hotel all of the time, so usually they play with him until I have a chance to catch up. We go downstairs and say "hi" to the geese and swans, and then to the fishes in the front. At this point, usually Austin comes home and Landon waves to the driver. Some days the driver takes him for a spin around the block, where Landon gets to help steer the car. Safe, I know! Then we go to breakfast. Then Landon and I go play outside at central park or in the kid's play area there. We have balls and cars and that seems to be enough for Landon, along with the dirt on the ground. Then we get cleaned up and eat lunch. Then we go back to the room and Landon goes down for a nap during the hot afternoon time, while I catch up on reading, blogging, etc. Then we do some learning games on the tablet, or read books, or do puzzles, or other quiet things either in the room or out in the halls, basically just waiting for Austin to wake up. When 5:30 pm rolls around, we wake Austin up and get ready to go to dinner. After dinner it's bath and stories and bed time. I feel like that paragraph doesn't do it justice in that I am EXHAUSTED at the end of each day. Chasing around a toddler who does not really have any limits on what he can do or where he can go at this point is very exhausting, especially because I don't bring the stroller along most of the time because we are on the 2nd floor and there is no elevator so I carry that beast up and down the stairs 1-2x a day and don't want to for every excursion. And ultimately, Landon gets tired and wants to be carried. He is way too big and heavy to be carried, but such is life.

The swan pond at night, with fountains lit up

Landon has good days and bad days with the food. I think mostly he doesn't particularly like the tie chair, because he can barely see over the table. He eats 2 bites and then says DONE! and then wants down while we are eating. There are waiters around and the cashier for him to play with, but mostly he likes to grab the spoons that are set out for the buffet, so we have to keep a close eye on him. He LOVES the ham that they sometimes have for breakfast, so much so that he learned the word the first day they had ham. I asked him if he wanted more ham, and he said, "HAM!, HAM!" so I had to get him more. There is always a selection of potatoes, veggies, rice, and 2 kinds of meat as well as dessert with lunch and dinner. Breakfast is a funny selection of some sort of breakfast meat (chicken sausage, chicken salami or ham), all gross, hard boiled eggs, grilled tomatoes, cheese, baked beans, oatmeal, and corn flakes. Sometimes the Indian breakfast food is really good, like they have these grilled, buttered dinner rolls that are excellent for breakfast. They also have papaya (which I don't like) and watermelon juice (which made Austin sick). I had a coconut chutney in a crispy crepe type thing yesterday for breakfast. It was not sweet, but had lots of cumin and cilantro and a little heat. Aside from it being a weird whitish green color, it was actually pretty good! I try at least 1 Indian food everyday, just to expand my horizons a bit and get more veggies and beans in my diet.

Back to Lando! He is full blown in the vocabulary spurt. He has started to say 2 word phrases and 2 syllable words, with the newest ones being "diaper" and "the ____". He says fish, push, poop, color (verb), "hoop" (sounds way too much like "poop"), trash, step, up, bus, dirt, water, juice, church, Jesus, shirt etc. Way too many new words to count, and he learns new words every day. It really is fun to randomly hear him use new words that I have been saying to him for a long time. He is also getting more frustrated when I don't do what he wants, and shrieks this horrible high pitched shriek that wakes Austin up from his sleep every time. Any suggestions on stopping shrieking? We have tried time out, covering his mouth, telling him no, getting him what he wants, and a variety of other things, but to no avail. Sometimes, he just shrieks when he's excited or something is uncomfortable, so it is not just when he is upset.

Landon has made some friends already here. There is a little boy that plays in central park in the mornings that is probably a little older than Landon, but at least 5 inches shorter. Indian children are tiny! I wonder how much is genetics and how much is being vegetarian, because most people are also very skinny. Anyway, Landon shares his toys with this little boy and they play alongside each other until they lose interest and one of them wanders away (usually Landon). There are also 2 ladies that are grounds people at the park and spend all day weeding, planting flowers, building flower beds, watering, etc. Hard work! They like to take a break to play with Landon, and don't speak any English. We communicate through simple hand gestures and smiles. They are so nice! Landon has charmed his way into the hearts of a few of the other women whose husbands are working at Reliance and they are staying in the guest house. One of them has 2 children in college, and keeps saying she loves babies and young children because she was working when her children were small and she is sad that she missed that part of their growing up years. She gave Landon a "biscuit" (cookie) today, and we talked and found out that we will probably all be here around the same time, as her husband is also going to be here for a month. They are from India, but live in a different part of the country. Her daughter is in medical school and her son is studying to be an engineer. She is really nice, and remembered Landon's name. The other friends are the housekeepers, which are all boys here. They look to be in their late teens, early 20s, and they work all day long! They start around 6:30 when they bring around newspapers to everyone's door. They pick up laundry and drop off laundry, mop the floors like 5x/day, scrub the dining room chairs and baseboards everywhere, dust, clean the light fixtures, shine the glass doors, and mop some more. They are always working! It is an odd juxtaposition to see how clean everything is inside the Residency compared to the dust and filth in Jamnagar.

Gross motor wise, Landon is walking up and down 3 steps on his own, and gets lots of practice walking up full flights just holding onto 1 hand, because our room is on the 2nd floor, no elevator. He is trying to jump, and is running fast! He was drop kicking balls in the US before we left, but hasn't done that since arriving in India. Oh No! He's regressing :)

Sleeping is getting better. He was waking up a lot during the night and sleeping too much during the day. That is evening out so he takes reasonable naps, and sleeps 11-12 hours, sometimes he wakes up if I wake up to go to the bathroom or something, but he goes right back to sleep (unless Austin is up, then they start playing and it is hard to get him back to sleep).

Dancing at the Hindu temple