Landon's 2 years old!

Happy boy eating spaghetti

Finally, it is time for a Landon update. Landon turned 2 a few weeks ago and man, has he changed in the past month or so! In Korea, he was starting to put some sentences together and say more words. To say that his vocabulary and ability to communicate has exploded since we got home from Korea is an understatement. I think the combination of being back in an English speaking country and seeing lots of familiar faces in our families that really made him grow his ability to communicate in leaps and bounds.

 

Landon can make lots of full sentences and is starting to conjugate verbs and boss us around! He likes to say, "Dad, wake up! Dad, get up!" in the morning. One of my favorite sentences so far is, "Fireman drives the firetruck." He is reforming how he pronounces some words so he is more understandable to more people. He loves to narrate what is going on around him, as well as point out all the vehicle names that he knows now. He also is starting to vocalize what he remembers, and it is a little scary! For example, we saw a parking structure on our run the other day. Landon said "Umpa! Grandma! baseball game!" followed by "BIG fish, FISH MARKET!" He was recalling the last few times that we have parked in a parking structure. I did not put all those things together, so it was amazing that Landon did. After several months of saying everything was the color pink, he is vocalizing that he knows his colors and will add the color to a description of an object to make it more specific, like, "blue fast race car" etc. Landon is a little parrot! He will say whatever you say, which means I need to watch what I say a little more! He also calls himself a goof, funny bunny, and a stinker (when he messes with Austin's glasses.) He knows when he is being naughty :)

Sporting his first Speedo in Jeju, Korea

Austin likes to "bench press" Landon. He counts his reps and Landon has caught on to counting. On his own, he will count, "One, two, one, two, ONE!" Sometimes he will count up to 4. During bench press, he will count up to 10, and then skip a few to eighteen. Every day he seems to get a little better. He is also throwing numbers into every day conversation. He has 2 killer whales- one is a bath toy and one is his favorite stuffed animal. He will say, "Two whales!" or "two grapes" or whatever. He has never identified anything greater than two objects at a time at this point.

My little boy is a transportation fanatic. He loves anything that moves, and has learned the names of all different kinds of trucks and tractors. He loves to drive along and identify all the different trucks going by, and especially likes mail trucks and school buses. He got 4 cool travel-sized trucks for his birthday, and lots of little cars, so he is in heaven "playing cars" every day while we are here in Chicago.

Newborn

Landon still likes to play ball as well. He can jump as he shoots baskets, and wants mom or dad to lift him up to put the ball in the basket. He also likes soccer and usually mixes soccer and basketball together. He likes to watch sports as well, especially BYU! He came back from California identifying the letter Y, and even saying BYU! He knows that Y logo and likes to wear his BYU shirt and tell me when I am wearing BYU gear, which is often. Hopefully we can watch lots of football now and basketball later on. We watched lots of baseball this summer both in person and on TV in Korea, and Landon likes to study what the players are doing and then practice it on his own. He likes to jump and run- especially away from me!

One year old

It is hard to tell what Landon's favorite foods are because he will eat many things at this point. I know hot dogs are always a safe bet for him, as well as any kind of berry or grape. He likes applesauce pouches a lot, and bread and pasta. Oddly enough he will eat raw broccoli- something Austin and I both do not eat- so that is fun. He also likes carrots and cooked broccoli. He is asserting his decision making skills a little more in that he will refuse to eat things that I have on hand, and demands food that I do not have, or that I do not want to give him. For example, he ate a whole greek yogurt for lunch today and I wanted to give him some other foods to balance that out but he really wanted more yogurt. The only thing that would entice him away from yogurt was a hot dog.

Handsome little 2 year old!

We feel so fortunate to have Landon in our lives. He is a great little traveler, eater, and buddy for me. He likes to help clean up and give hugs and kisses. Always energetic, he keeps me on my toes and for the most part keeps a smile on my face. I think it takes a special kid to be able to live the life we are currently living, and we know that Landon is up for the task and is thriving in this crazy traveling experience! We love him so much!