Interview with a 4-year-old and Landon update

I've been so busy trying to catch up on blogging all of our travel-related adventures here in Korea, and log Owen's progress month to month that it has been a long time since I gave a Landon update. I will start with our yearly interview. I love Landon's responses:

Favorite color: black and orange

Favorite number: 1

Favorite shape: Triangle

Favorite letter: "A" because it is in my name

Favorite Animal: Lion

Favorite sea animal: Whale shark

Favorite dinosaur: T-rex

Favorite food: chicken

Favorite dessert: Brownies

Favorite toy: Police car

Favorite book: The Good Dinosaur

Favorite activity: digging in the dirt

Favorite sport to play: Soccer 

Favorite sport to watch: swimming

Favorite fruit: Apple

Favorite Movie: Bambi

Favorite things to do for fun: Go to the beach

Favorite place we've been: I don't know, India?

Favorite thing to do in Chicago: Go to the park

Book of Mormon hero: Samuel the Lamanite

Favorite cartoon: Superwings

Landon is so special to me. He made me a mommy, and we have learned so much from each other! As a baby, he was fairly laid back, but very active. As a toddler, I just chased him around, but I could discount his lack of listening to his age. This last year has been tough for me, because he still has an age-appropriate level of not listening, but it is on purpose now, which makes it challenging for me to keep my temper. He was the quintessential threenager.  He has very strong opinions on what he wants to do, and is so independent that he will go do it regardless of what I say, unless I give him a compelling reason to not do it. We both struggled mightily when Owen was born. I think it was a combination of moving from living in hotels to a house, having a brand new baby that took up all of mom's attention, and the weather. It was cold enough that I could not get outside with him as much as we both would have liked. Eventually, I realized that Landon and I both exhibit some signs of sensory seeking behavior. For him, he sucked his fingers and picked his leg to calm him down, and needs more sensory stimulation than most to feel satisfied/good. I need exercise and movement. He has sensory needs that were not being met. As we have worked together this year to find out what works to calm him down, we've weaned him off of sucking his fingers (MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT!! WOOHOO!), his scab on his leg that had been there for over a year has finally healed, and we have a much more regulated boy. 

We taught him to recognize when "his engine is running too fast".This is when he gets over excited and does crazy, naughty things. Instead of doing crazy, naughty things, we have him spin, do somersaults, or go upside down. If he needs to chew on something to get some oral sensory stimulation, we get out the apples or other crunchy snacks. Part of his issues are that he is so bright and self-aware, that he knows that he's out of control and gets frustrated with himself.   I am so grateful that we have strategies, and even though some days are better than others, I feel like he is maturing and growing every day in his ability to control himself. 

Key to happiness- exploring and digging in dirt!

One key to help him feel good is to get outside with him every day. We go on adventures and he runs alongside me while I'm exercising. Then, we go somewhere where he can dig in the dirt and play. There are no parks in Samgilpo, but we can go to the seashore or to some gravel parking lot areas and he's happy to dig there and play his pretend games. He loves to play bakery at a little pavilion near our house. I'm the customer at the bakery and I order the treats. Usually, he does not have all the ingredients, so he goes to the store to get ingredients, then makes the treats. If there are wildflowers, count on him to pick one and present it to me so sweetly. Recently, he has gotten much more affectionate and will just come up and give me a hug. 

Landon loves his cartoons. He only gets to watch 30 minutes a day while I'm showering, but every day, he lets me know which one he wants to watch on Youtube. Some of his favorite this year have been: Tayo the Little Bus (Korean), Robocar Poli (Korean), Airport Diaries (Russian), Octonauts (British), Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Paw Patrol, Curious George, and his current favorite, Superwings (Korean). Thankfully, I can usually find all the episodes we need in English on Youtube. Hooray for Youtube, and for uninterrupted showers!

He loves finding sea creatures!

This summer in Korea, we have done home school preschool almost every weekday. Landon has gone from resenting copying even one letter to being able to form most letters without help. He still is working on writing his numbers correctly, and recognizing some numbers over 20, but his progress this summer has been pretty awesome to watch! He can add and subtract numbers 1-10 and read the hour hand on a clock face. The biggest accomplishment of the summer was that he learned to read! He has known the letter sounds for about a year, so it was just a matter of putting them together and learning how to blend. In July, he started doing just that, and although he does not like to read an entire book by himself, he is sounding out words like a champ! Landon has a very inquisitive mind, and I find myself answering his questions with, "I don't know, let's look it up later!" most of the time. We use National Geographic and Discovery channel online to learn about all sorts of animals and sea creatures, weather and natural disasters. Often times, I'm learning right along with him! Landon finally likes to do art projects, and so water colors and crayons have come out more this summer as he will actually sit down and draw pictures. He just started drawing people- with giant heads and stick legs, and I love it!

Landon loves dinosaurs and all sorts of vehicles. He likes to play city with all of his vehicles, or Paw Patrol or Robocar Poli. The stories he comes up with are really interesting to listen to, and I'm glad he has such an active imagination. Landon really does love Owen, although his impulsiveness comes out when he decides to hurt Owen for attention. There are more and more sweet moments between the two of them, and I'm so happy for that. Someday soon, these boys will be playing together much more often!

My boy is still quite the sports guy. We play soccer occasionally around the pension, and baseball using pinecones as balls and sticks as bats. He loves to swim, and I'm trying to teach him more, but he's not as interested in improving his swimming at this point as much as he is just wanting to have fun in the water. His attempts at butterfly this summer after the Olympics were really cute. Before we left Chicago, we did a Spring break all sports class, and Landon especially loved hockey and basketball when he tried those sports. While we're traveling, I'm not sure we will be able to get him in sports, but we will put him in sports when we settle down somewhere in the next few years. 

Physically, Landon is in size 5 clothes and size 11.5 shoes. He's 18.1 kg and somewhere over 41 inches tall. His hair turned very dark sandy brownish blonde over the winter, and went back to his more golden blonde color with the sun this summer. He has finally learned to dress himself and if properly motivated, will put shoes on himself as well. He's kind of a skinny guy, we're thinking maybe a basketball, swimming, or baseball build. His eyes are still super dark brown, and everyone here in Korea says he is "very handsome." Being completely unbiased, I have to agree. 

Austin. All I see here is Austin

Things Landon does and says that I don't want to forget:

- Calls Owen "Owee-O" every morning when he sees him for the first time, along with hugs and kisses

- When he doesn't want to do something I've told him to do he says, "WHATEVER" or "Not Happening." Because threenager. Ironically enough,  he has stopped saying these things since he turned 4!

- Sings at the top of his lungs. Sometimes Primary songs from church, recently it has been the Paw Patrol theme song or Robocar Poli theme song. He listens to them over and over until he has all the lyrics, then he makes me listen to them until I have the lyrics and can sing along with him!

- When he gets disappointed or discouraged, he rounds his shoulders and hunches over so his hands almost drag the ground and walks away whining. So dramatic!

- Instead of just drawing on paper with crayons, he makes "weather reports." This involves a lot of black crayon scribbling across the page for tornadoes or hurricanes. 

- He will do anything if I'm creative enough to come up with a game that sparks his interest. We regularly have contests to see who can pick things up off the floor the fastest, and will only clean up if I bumble around talking trash saying that I am the best cleaner-upper in the land! Then he says, "No! I'm the fastest cleaner-upper in the land!" and he cleans up everything. Quickly. It is magic!

This is what he does if I ask him to smile, or "say cheese"

- He will try weird foods, like octopus and clams, but goes through weird phases of wanting things "washed off," or devoid of any sort of flavoring. If we're having pasta with tomato sauce, we had better leave some plain for this boy, who earlier in the day ate 20 clams out of their shells, complete with pieces of grit!

- Landon went through a phase of wanting to be read Wikipedia articles instead of bedtime stories. Austin read him a whole fairly detailed article on megalodons (prehistoric sharks) over several nights. I guess he needs his non-fiction fix. I wish we had access to our amazing libraries at home base in the Chicago suburbs because that was a highlight of our week when we were there- picking new fiction and non-fiction books and reading them over the week. 

- He loves the beach. I'm so glad! We have a wonderful time swimming around, playing in the small waves, digging in the sand, making sand castles and dribble castles. It the best way to spend a day with this boy!

To get a real smile, I have to tell a silly joke, like "What do you call a dinosaur in a traffic accident? A Tyrannosaurus Wrecks!"

- Landon is up for anything. He loves to check out museums, Buddhist temples, aquariums, zoos, historical sites, or hike up mountains. Over the course of his life, we  have taken him SO many places that aren't really designed for kids. As long as there is some dirt to dig in, he's happy. 

- He's a thinker. We have a dinosaur book that talks about how birds are living dinosaurs. One day when we were walking down the road, he randomly turns to me and says, "Mom, you need to tell Aunt Net that birds are living dinosaurs." I asked him why I needed to tell her that. He said, "Because, she has chickens and chickens are birds and birds are living dinosaurs." OK. On a related note, he was swimming in deep water with Austin at the beach. He got a little nervous because he was in over his head and afraid a megalodon might eat him. Austin told him not to worry, that a megalodon was not going to eat him. Earlier, we had watched a video about a mysterious whale that had washed up on the shore of Hawaii with its entire back end bitten off in one big bite. They think it might have been a megalodon that was alive today! Anyway, with this in mind, Landon said, "But Dad, megalodons eat whales. Whales are made of meat. Humans are also made of meat. So megalodons can eat humans." Good point, Landon!

Day to day, this kid is exhausting and amazing and I'm so happy I get to be his Mommy. On a more sad note, this may be his last year at home with me, as he could start kindergarten next year if we are not still traveling. I'm trying to savor every moment of his preschooler life, because I know all too soon he will be a grown-up man (he says this will happen when he turns 10 years old and has armpit hair). Happy birthday, Lando!