Wandering Browns

For a few weeks now, I have been wanting to record some of the interesting and cute things that both my boys are doing right now. They are so full of energy, destruction, love, curiosity, and more energy! Without further adieu, here's what Landon has been up to: - Landon LOVES all things science. Dinosaurs, marine biology, electricity, geology, anatomy and physiology, animals, physical science, astronomy- he is really into learning about all of these subjects right now. For our home school preschool, we do "reports" off and on where we learn about a specific subject, or do an experiment, and Landon draws a picture of the subject/experiment, and then he directs me on how to label the picture. I have him give me three facts about what we learned and I write those down too. I recently reintroduced him to The Magic School Bus books and he loves them. - We're still working through sensory issues, but things are much better. Landon is a textbook sensory seeker. He p...

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...

 Four years ago this summer, I was super pregnant and nesting like crazy while watching the 2012 Olympics. This summer, I'm watching the Olympics a little at a time, and we celebrated Landon's 4th birthday! Because of our traveling, his birthday celebrations have not always included a kid party, but this year, we had friends to invite from church here in Korea! Landon decided he wanted to go to the local free water park for his birthday party, and some wonderful Korean families joined us. Austin and Owen, the watermelon eater! I had no idea what to expect from this party. I was not sure what Koreans do for birthdays, and I was just crossing my fingers that our guests would show up at the right place at the right time, because I told one lady at church that speaks English and told her to pass it along to all the Primary kids' parents. I planned on having enough food for everyone, and we brought along a couple picnic mats so everyone would have somewhere to sit (...

Coach Steve with all the boys! To give Landon an outlet and reason to get out of the house once a week around the time that Owen was born, we signed him up for a T-ball class. Coach Steve was great with the rascally, energetic 3-4 year olds in his class. The class taught T-ball basics in a non-competitive environment. Landon learned to run around the bases, throw to different bases to get runners out, swing a bat, field a ball with his glove and throw it, and many other skills. He also worked on his listening skills and following directions. This has been a big struggle for him, and he did great for the first 30-45 minutes of class, but his ability to listen and do what Coach said deteriorated the last 15 minutes every class.With our constant international travel, this was the first opportunity for him to do sports, and we wanted to try it out while we could. He got some great exposure to the sport, but he just doesn't quite have the attention span to listen and get the most...

He grew up too fast! I cannot believe that I have a three-year-old son. It seems like not very long ago I was holding him as a tiny infant, wondering what he was going to be like. Today, we took a taxi to a museum and he was tired on the way back. He put his head in my lap, and stretched out his legs across the seat and filled the whole back of the taxi. I remember when he was 4-6 months old and we were on airplane rides where I was worried that he was stretched out to the next airplane seat when he was feeding. He's grown so much- it all went by so fast! Anyway, Landon is quite the talker these days so I decided that instead of giving just my take on his favorite things, and how he is doing as a brand new three-year-old, he could do it in his own words. So I interviewed him. Here are his responses: 1. Favorite color? Red 2. Favorite number? 10 3. Favorite shape? triangle 4. Favorite letter? A 5. Favorite animal: The African animals at the zoo that mommy doesn...

The Birthday BOY! This weekend, we celebrated the birth of a special little boy. I would say toddler, but he's definitely over that stage. He is full-on little boy! I had him pick out a birthday activity, birthday dinner, and birthday cake/dessert beforehand so we could do his favorite things. There is only so much you can do when you are living across the world from all friends and family, so we tried to make it as special as we could. Main pool of the outdoor pool place For his birthday activity, we visited an outdoor temporary water park/pool place that is relatively close to our hotel. We can see it from our window every day, but it is a little pricey, so we have only gone one other time this summer. There are four pools with various large, inflatable slides and obstacles that he loves the play on. There is a shallow pool with a soccer field and an area with a swing! He loves the swing because we have not found a park with a swing during our time here in Ningbo, and...