We had a great last few months celebrating the holidays and beginning preparations for our little girl who is on the way!
Since the last post (Landon's Half Birthday), here's what we've been up to:
- We took a trip to San Jose to visit the Kelepouris family and attend a wedding. Landon always loves seeing Papou (Daniel's dad) and Babcia (Daniel's mom). It was so much fun for us to watch Landon dancing his socks off (until 3 hours after bedtime). He LOVES music, and we just couldn't leave while he was having so much fun on the dance floor!
- Landon and I attended a few programs at the Temecula Public Library, including a Halloween music/laser show, a "concert" and a Christmas marionette puppet show. We love living in a family town that offers little things to enjoy like this. "Twinkle Time" turned out to be a fun concert because I watched Landon, the only kid out of about 40 (mostly older than him), stand up and dance the ENTIRE time. We don't know where he got it, but really does feel the music!
- As we have done the past several years we spent Halloween with a group of great friends, and this year there were several new babies joining us in the trick-or-treating fun! Since Landon loves ringing bells, we dressed him as a train conductor ("ductor"). It worked out well because he has since fallen in love with everything relating to "choo choos".
- Landon and I visited the San Diego Zoo with our good friends, Erin and Baby Sydney. Between the 2 little ones taking turns being unhappy it was a long day. This time Landon seemed to enjoy the stuffed animals in the shops more than the real animals a few yards away. Maybe next time he'll enjoy it more! :)
- I was lucky enough to spend a girls' night away with great friends while Landon and Daniel had a manly bonding day. (When I was employed Daniel had Landon every Sunday, and now he misses their boys' days.) It sounded like they had a great time, which works out well because I have a feeling they will get to spend more one-on-one time in the coming months!
- We celebrated Grammie's (my mom) birthday at Pretend City in Irvine. Pretend City has all kinds of fun interactive exhibits (grocery store, garden, construction site, marina, ATMs, library, art studio, restaurant, etc.). We tried to get through each exhibit, but Landon kept running back to the garden. He loved raking, watering, digging and planting! (Santa took note of how much Landon loved to rake.) Meanwhile, Papa (my dad) taught Landon a bad habit (pushing cars over the bridge).
- Daniel and I enjoyed a Babymoon (last getaway before the baby arrives) in Laguna Beach while my parents watched Landon. It was a nice, relaxing weekend on the beach for us. We spent most of it eating, walking on the beach and napping - the perfect weekend! We have no doubt that Landon had an even better time with Grammie and Papa (and vice-versa)!
- Daniel's brother and his family visited us a couple of times in a row. It was our niece, Zoe's, first trip to Temecula, and, as always, we loved seeing them! Jake and Landon have so much fun together, and we are excited (and hoping) for Zoe and our baby girl to be as close!
- Their first trip was for Thanksgiving, where Amber's parents, my parents, my brother and our family friends, the Tullars, (we missed Papou and Babcia, but were able to Skype with them in Northern California) joined us at our home. Aside from trading the flu for a cold with almost everyone there, we had a wonderful evening/weekend with everyone and feel so thankful to be surrounded by the special family and friends that we have on Thanksgiving and throughout the year. We even had a double date night while Vovo (Amber's dad) and Vova (Amber's mom) watched the 3 kiddos, which was the first night we've done such a thing in a very long time!
- Peter, Amber, Jacob and Zoe came back a couple of weeks later, and we were able to take the kids to a Christmas event at Irvine Regional Park while Peter and Amber had a date night. We took the holiday train out with the Zimmermans and good family friends, the Goods, to see Santa, Mrs. Claus and all of the Christmas lights. Jacob even got to go "ice fishing". Landon fondly remembers 3 things from this day: the train, the Goods and that evergreen trees are "pokey", as Gail (Mrs. Good) taught him. He still talks about those 3 things and requests to see pictures of them. We celebrated Jacob's 5th birthday one day and Cousin Christmas another. At one point on Cousin Christmas all 3 kids were rolling around on the ground and cracking up together. What fun it would be if the cousins lived closer to us!
- Each Friday Landon and I race outside for each of the 3 trash/green waste/recycling trucks on our street. Landon loves to watch and wave to the drivers, and they are so sweet to wave back. One of the drivers gave him a toy trash truck a while back and told me Landon makes his day each week. A few weeks later, he got out of the truck and invited me to sit Landon in the driver's seat because he knew my little guy would love it. Landon was kind of in shock while he was sitting up there, but he talked about it for a couple of weeks. :)
- Daniel's work hosted a holiday party for employee's families. We took a ride on a train, made some crafts and visited Santa & some Disney characters (Minnie Mouse was the biggest hit with Landon).
- Landon really enjoyed the Christmas festivities:
- Helping set-up and decorate our Christmas tree
- Visiting the (fake) snow and watching ice skaters in Old Town Temecula
- Looking for Ding-Dong (our Elf on the Shelf) each day.
- Counting to and opening the Advent calendar
- Christmas parties
- Looking at Christmas lights
- Helping bake and decorate cookies
- I was able to attend the wedding of my best friend from high school, Rochelle, and catch up with old friends.
- Christmas was spent in Mission Viejo with the Zims. We all had a blast, and Landon was spoiled crazy by all of the relatives and Santa. His favorite gifts include a bubble lawn mower, tool bench, broom, guitar, rake, t-ball and hockey sets, fake foods & cooking set and some new books (oh, and Goldfish crackers).
- Landon took a spill (while Daniel and I "work da body" at CrossFit) right on his face/top tooth. The pediatric dentist checked it out, and we're hoping that when we go back for the next sets of x-rays she will see that it's not infected, changing color or will have to be pulled. Then we wait 5 or 6 years and hope to find no damage to the permanent tooth.
- It snowed in Temecula! A lot! We woke up to about 5" of snow in our backyard, made a snowman, had snowball tosses, (Daniel and Landon) sledded down the hill at the park across the street and took a drive out in the wineries to enjoy the snow (which hasn't happened for 10 years in our area). It was so much fun for all of us. Landon still looks for it in the morning when he wakes up and looks out the window.
- We rang in the new year at our friends', the Fenwicks, house with our little (yet quickly growing) group of friends. It was a fun family night with tacos, 2015 eye glasses and baby monitors. (Only 4 of us made it to midnight...and we were all in bed by 12:04am.
- Some of my very good friends threw a baby shower for me right after the new year. Baby Girl and I were spoiled crazy with a really fun day, love, nursery decorations and gifts from good friends! I had a wonderful time and am so fortunate to have such amazing friendships and support for myself and my family.
- While in Mission Viejo for Baby Sydney's baptism, Grammie took the family to Pretend City again. We went the opposite direction this time so that 90% of the day wouldn't be in the garden. It worked, and, again, we all enjoyed watching Landon explore.
- Landon and I went to a My Gym class with trampolines, singing, a ball pit (yuck!), slides, balance beams, a "circus tent", climbing stuff and uneven bars. He was quite sad when the hour-long class was over. We may have to venture back another time or 2.
- The nursery was just finished being painted, and we are so excited for our travel-themed nursery to begin to come together. This baby better not try to come early because we have big plans to get everything done this weekend! We had the walls painted with landmarks of places that are special to us as well as places we hope to someday get to experience.
Landon is such a fun little guy. He talks and sings non-stop, runs around, dances, recites the alphabet (well, most of it), counts (consistently to 15), plays with cars, trains & balls, reads a bunch, has picnics with his stuffed animals and us, plays hide-and-seek (not very well), jumps with 2 feet (finally! We really need to set-up the trampoline that he got for Christmas - sadly for Landon the Baby's furniture trumps Landon's toy on the list of items to assemble). He loves to look at pictures & videos, watch the trash trucks, street sweeper and gardeners each week, watch us cook, help me bake, put together (and takes apart) puzzles, sort coins, play the guitar with Uncle B, go to the grocery store to chat with old women, play in forts and Mickey Mouse. He has a generally happy (yet stubborn) and silly temperament. He "jokes" and cracks up when he says that his birthday is in July, before he tells you that it is "Apwil tenty-fird". He knows boundaries/rules, and has even begun putting himself (as well as select toys and books) in time-out (after only 2 bouts of me putting him there). We love watching him explore and learn new things, and we are interested to see how he will adapt to his "Baby Titur" when she arrives.
We're very excited about the new addition to our family coming very soon (she is due January tenty-fird), and we'll definitely keep you posted (although it might take a little while) on her (whatever her name ends up being!) arrival!
Love,
Daniel, Nicole & Landon
Since the last post (Landon's Half Birthday), here's what we've been up to:
- We took a trip to San Jose to visit the Kelepouris family and attend a wedding. Landon always loves seeing Papou (Daniel's dad) and Babcia (Daniel's mom). It was so much fun for us to watch Landon dancing his socks off (until 3 hours after bedtime). He LOVES music, and we just couldn't leave while he was having so much fun on the dance floor!
- Landon and I attended a few programs at the Temecula Public Library, including a Halloween music/laser show, a "concert" and a Christmas marionette puppet show. We love living in a family town that offers little things to enjoy like this. "Twinkle Time" turned out to be a fun concert because I watched Landon, the only kid out of about 40 (mostly older than him), stand up and dance the ENTIRE time. We don't know where he got it, but really does feel the music!
- As we have done the past several years we spent Halloween with a group of great friends, and this year there were several new babies joining us in the trick-or-treating fun! Since Landon loves ringing bells, we dressed him as a train conductor ("ductor"). It worked out well because he has since fallen in love with everything relating to "choo choos".
- Landon and I visited the San Diego Zoo with our good friends, Erin and Baby Sydney. Between the 2 little ones taking turns being unhappy it was a long day. This time Landon seemed to enjoy the stuffed animals in the shops more than the real animals a few yards away. Maybe next time he'll enjoy it more! :)
- I was lucky enough to spend a girls' night away with great friends while Landon and Daniel had a manly bonding day. (When I was employed Daniel had Landon every Sunday, and now he misses their boys' days.) It sounded like they had a great time, which works out well because I have a feeling they will get to spend more one-on-one time in the coming months!
- Daniel's brother and his family visited us a couple of times in a row. It was our niece, Zoe's, first trip to Temecula, and, as always, we loved seeing them! Jake and Landon have so much fun together, and we are excited (and hoping) for Zoe and our baby girl to be as close!
- Their first trip was for Thanksgiving, where Amber's parents, my parents, my brother and our family friends, the Tullars, (we missed Papou and Babcia, but were able to Skype with them in Northern California) joined us at our home. Aside from trading the flu for a cold with almost everyone there, we had a wonderful evening/weekend with everyone and feel so thankful to be surrounded by the special family and friends that we have on Thanksgiving and throughout the year. We even had a double date night while Vovo (Amber's dad) and Vova (Amber's mom) watched the 3 kiddos, which was the first night we've done such a thing in a very long time!
- Peter, Amber, Jacob and Zoe came back a couple of weeks later, and we were able to take the kids to a Christmas event at Irvine Regional Park while Peter and Amber had a date night. We took the holiday train out with the Zimmermans and good family friends, the Goods, to see Santa, Mrs. Claus and all of the Christmas lights. Jacob even got to go "ice fishing". Landon fondly remembers 3 things from this day: the train, the Goods and that evergreen trees are "pokey", as Gail (Mrs. Good) taught him. He still talks about those 3 things and requests to see pictures of them. We celebrated Jacob's 5th birthday one day and Cousin Christmas another. At one point on Cousin Christmas all 3 kids were rolling around on the ground and cracking up together. What fun it would be if the cousins lived closer to us!
- Daniel's work hosted a holiday party for employee's families. We took a ride on a train, made some crafts and visited Santa & some Disney characters (Minnie Mouse was the biggest hit with Landon).
- Landon really enjoyed the Christmas festivities:
- Helping set-up and decorate our Christmas tree
- Visiting the (fake) snow and watching ice skaters in Old Town Temecula
- Christmas parties
- Looking at Christmas lights
- Helping bake and decorate cookies
- It snowed in Temecula! A lot! We woke up to about 5" of snow in our backyard, made a snowman, had snowball tosses, (Daniel and Landon) sledded down the hill at the park across the street and took a drive out in the wineries to enjoy the snow (which hasn't happened for 10 years in our area). It was so much fun for all of us. Landon still looks for it in the morning when he wakes up and looks out the window.
- While in Mission Viejo for Baby Sydney's baptism, Grammie took the family to Pretend City again. We went the opposite direction this time so that 90% of the day wouldn't be in the garden. It worked, and, again, we all enjoyed watching Landon explore.
- Landon and I went to a My Gym class with trampolines, singing, a ball pit (yuck!), slides, balance beams, a "circus tent", climbing stuff and uneven bars. He was quite sad when the hour-long class was over. We may have to venture back another time or 2.
- The nursery was just finished being painted, and we are so excited for our travel-themed nursery to begin to come together. This baby better not try to come early because we have big plans to get everything done this weekend! We had the walls painted with landmarks of places that are special to us as well as places we hope to someday get to experience.
We're very excited about the new addition to our family coming very soon (she is due January tenty-fird), and we'll definitely keep you posted (although it might take a little while) on her (whatever her name ends up being!) arrival!
Daniel, Nicole & Landon
