dogs, cars, and cousins!

London has been obsessed with dogs for a few weeks now. I mean OBSESSED. He loves all dogs he sees but has a particular obsession with his doggies Brooklyn and Brixton. The first thing he says when I put him in the car after school is "dogs." When we pull in the driveway he says, "dogs"...and when we get in the house he attacks them with excitement and they are just as excited to see him. I'm so glad he is such an animal lover.

London's other obsession is cars. He loves to say the word and his favorite toys are his cars. He has one he can ride and has tons that he can push around on the floor. He even makes engine noises as he plays with them. We are thinking soon we'll need to start a matchbox car collection like Uncle Josh had.

London also has been skyping a lot with his aunt Jess and cousins Mason and Isla. The other night they got to have dinner together. It was so cute to see how excited Mason was to watch London dump his applesauce cup. London does get excited when he sees them but doesn't quite get that they are there live.

London has been making the goofiest faces lately. He sticks his chin out and squints his eyes all funny. It is not the cutest face, but so hilarious. He does it on demand now too.

London has sparked an interest in crayons and decided to add some artwork to the toilet the other day. I can't believe all the stuff he can do now. He is growing so fast but this is such a fun age!!

Pumpkin Patch!!

Sunday we took London to the pumpkin patch. It was at a local farm and there was a lot going on: bouncy castle, pony rides, farm animals, hay ride, face painting, etc. Most of the activities were for kids older than London but he loved climbing all over the pumpkins and of course he loved the farm animals. He was really excited to watch the horse walk around the stable. He also loved the goats. He called a few of the animals "dogs"..haha. We also took him into the sunflower garden. He wanted to take all the petals off. We got some homemade kettle corn...sooo delicious. We didn't end up buying a $10 pumpkin...London is working on saying "pumpkin" but not quite there. He said "kelton" today and pointed at the skeleton on the wall. Every day he amazes me.

It's Official: London James is a Toddler! :-)

London is now officially walking~ which means he's a toddler! He still crawls a little but mostly his means of transportation is by foot. It is so incredibly exciting to watch him walk across a room with a big giant smile. The craziest part, he learned it in just a matter of a few days. Having a baby shows you how truly amazing it is how people grow and learn. London is also talking his little head off. His favorite phrase is, "Was Sat?" (What's that?) He wants to know what everything is...it's so cute! So far he knows dog, cat, car, dada, bat, and says a few other words/sounds I am not sure of. He loves to yell back and forth with daddy and last night they were making ninja noises and karate chopping each other. It was a cutest thing...he was way into it. He also loves to sing. He will match a note if I start to sing and he loves to sing along in the car. He also gets totally pumped when we have dance parties to pink...he loves her music...haha! He also eats really well. He is not picky at all and will try most things. He even eats pickles and olives. He loves peanut butter sandwiches and broccoli. It's great he's not picky!
Kary got a new car last week so now we have an SUV in the family...time for baby #2?? haha...not for a while but I definitely want another one. London makes it all seem so easy :-)

A Whole New London!!!

Over the past few weeks London has gone through so many changes and it is amazing! I think this is our favorite age so far. Of course, part of me misses the tiny baby version of London but I am so excited to be able to communicate and just hang out with him.
London is such a happy kid. He is always giggling, squealing, and talks constantly (no surprise considering who his parents are...ha) Over the past few days he is starting to really want to walk. He walks across a room now but still drops down to crawl a lot of the time. I think he realizes he is faster on all fours but he has been getting stressed out trying to cruise and carry things so that might encourage him to choose walking. He loves to walk along side the dogs and constantly points at them and says "dog!"
He is saying dog and dada constantly and a few other words like car, bat, duck on occasion. But he barely says mama :-( My name has been dada for a few weeks now. He loves to do this adorable thing with Kary where he yells dada and Kary yells back "lou lou!" and they go back and forth. It is quite ridiculously adorable.
London loves to eat and is pretty open-minded about all the new foods he's been trying. He loves waffles, french toast sticks, applesauce, mac n cheese, any cheese, broccoli, pears, rice, even chili and the occasional french fries (I'm not totally down with that) He loves to use his spoon to feed himself and his meals usually last about an hour. He hangs in his highchair and takes his time as we listen to pandora and I dance around the kitchen while he bops his head and cracks up.
We are so happy in our new house and our neighborhood is awesome. They had a little fall festival get-together today and we dressed London as a shark. We met a few people but mostly just hung out in the grass and in the bouncy castle. It was a beautiful day. Everyone loved London as a little shark. During the costume contest, when it was his turn to be judged he started screaming because all the clapping scared him. It was sad but so adorable and funny.
London is now officially off formula (YAY!) and off the bottle (switched to a sippy) He has been sleeping much better but due to his hormone shot last week he has been waking up in a rage a few times this past week. Plus, I think he is teething. We have let him cry a bit and he's learning to put himself back to sleep. He really started nuzzling at night and he' getting some long hair in the back of his head. So much happening with that little guy and we are enjoying every second!

oh yeah and London went to college last week with his babysitter. He attended a Spanish course and sat in the back like a good little boy and ate cheerios. She took this pic of him sitting in a college chair and sent it to me at work. Apparently we was quite a hit and waving at everybody...haha

12 Month Check-up and a Trip to the Urologist

I've been battling poison ivy and have had the chance to spend a lot of time with London over the past week. The itching sucked but it was cool to be off work. I was super excited that I got to go to London's urologist appointment on Thursday afternoon. Everything looks good and he's ready to proceed with the second surgery. The doctor gave him a shot of testosterone to prepare him for the surgery. Poor little guy had to endure a minute long shot that was stuck into the muscle of his leg. But it was necessary and soon all this will be behind us and hopefully no more surgeries.

London also had his 1 year check-up on Friday, Oct. 7th. I left work early so I could be there. We were super eager to see how much he weighs, how tall he is, and find out all the foods he can eat now that he's on his way to toddlerhood. The appointment went great. I really like our doctor. She is so good with London and he loves her. He was so chatty and hyper while she was examining him. She answered lots of questions we had and reassured us that he can go ahead and be a perfectly healthy vegetarian. He weighed in at 23lbs and is 30 inches tall. He's now average in weight for his age but still taller than 1/3 of babes his age. But with 2 lanky parents, of course he's a tall boy.
We started feeding him real food now and he loves it. He eats waffles, fruit, cheese, broccoli, tortillas, black beans, goldfish, yogurt, etc. He is sleeping much better now too. We are barely using a bottle and are going to switch to soy milk as soon as we run out of formula.
London is growing fast and is learning new things every day. We were happy to hear the pediatrician say he is a bit advanced in language because he is saying quite a few words: dog, mama, dada, daddy, hi, car. Our goal is 50 words by 15 months! :-)

London's 1st Birthday :-)

Kary and I were able to spend London's 1st birthday with him. We both took off work and wanted to give him a fun-filled day. It turned out to be a great day.
The morning of his birthday, he was up at 5am and ready to party. We put him in bed with us and after a few minutes of peak-a-boo and major smiles and giggles, he fell back asleep for a bit. He woke up about 2 hours later happier than ever and was cracking up and hugging me. He must have known it was a special day. We let him have a little cake for breakfast and he enjoyed squishing it and licking the chocolate from his hands. We hung out for a few hours and then headed to Mooresville. We planned a trip to Lazy 5 Ranch but Kary had to stop by the salon for about an hour for a training. While he was there, London and I went shopping and hung out. We stopped at Jimmy Johns for some subs and then headed to Lazy 5 Ranch. The hay ride had just left so we decided to drive the trail. We bought a bucket of feed but the first llama we drove by, grabbed it from my arm as I was readjusting London and it was gone within 30 seconds of our drive. London sat up front with me (the car never went above 5mph) and had a fantastic time. He was really into the animals and was ooohing, aaaaahing, and pointing at them. He even pet a few llamas and goats and showed no fear. He liked the pigs and giraffes. Kary and I enjoyed it a lot too. Kary was a bit freaked out because it seemed all the animals were obsessed with him and kept sticking their heads in his side of the car. He even got bit by an emu. But in the emu's defense, Kary was talking crap to him for being in the way of the giraffe...haha. We walked the trail and saw turtles and birds and all kinds of fish and little cool animals. At this point London was leaned back in his stroller sucking down some milk and getting very tired.

We had plans to go out to dinner and get ice cream. However, when we got home it was after 5pm and London was exhausted. We sang Happy Birthday while all hugging and jumping and dancing. It was sweet. He had a bit of a cupcake and then hit the crib early. I think he had a fun day. We are so lucky to have him in our lives and look forward to many more fun birthdays with out sweet London. Now, onto toddlerhood!