Landon Lately

Not my easiest child I assure you. It feels like a battle every day.



A battle I am loosing.





Oh gosh, I love him to pieces. I even still like him amidst this all. But he sure makes it hard to be excited to see him...



And then you say to him "Landon, what is going on?!" and he bursts into tears and you just know he is so sad and confused and frustrated and just can't get a handle on this kid thing and your heart breaks.



And then I wonder how my thoughts can so quickly turn from malicious to motherly. It's amazing how one so frustrating can be so endearing.





I'm trying Landon, really I am. But you've got to cut me some slack. I'm not trying to ruin your life, I'm just trying to help. And I just can't figure out what it is you want me to do.

(side note: I can't help thinking I will be saying these exact same words in 10-15 years)



Mommy loves you, please remember you love me.







Today, using only the skills a Landon can possess, he single handedly did the following to my house. And then proceeded to throw what one would think was the temper tantrum of the century (but really is just an hourly occurrence at our house) when told to clean it up.



(that's chocolate cupcake crumbled everywhere. Most notably on the new carpet)





(Check out that face!)





Yet, of course, when he realized I was taking pictures he had to quickly dry his tears and flash his best grin...





See what I mean?! This child is exasperating!

To the man who has given me much more than I ever hoped for: YOU are all my dreams come true and I love you with all my guts!

. you are the cheese to my macaroni .

. you are the horizon to my sky .

. you are the bacon to my eggs .

. you are the laces to my sneakers .

. you are the jelly to my peanut butter .

. you are the smile to my face .

. you are the gravy to my mashed potatoes .

. you are the bubbles to my bath .

. you are the milk to my cookie .

. you are the ketchup to my french fry .

. you are the water to my ocean .

. you are the icing on my cupcake .



In other words you are what makes all my me stuff better,



. You are my happy .

Here's to celebrating the day you and I became "youandI".



Best decision ever.

A Cooper. A Stick. and A Pocket Knife.

This afternoon I walked in to the garage and found Cooper, sitting on his bike with a stick on his lap and a pocket knife.



“Hi mom.

I'm just sitting here, cutting this big stick with this pocket knife.

Pocket knifes are really sharp.

They are so good at cutting big sticks.

‘Cuz you know what Mom, you have to have a really sharp knife to cut a stick and a pocket knife is a really sharp knife.

And I like to use sharp knifes to cut sticks…”





I had two choices:



Be the un-cool mom and make him hand over his pocket knife and choose a better activity.



OR



Be the cool mom and choose not to stifle his dreams and rather leave him in peace to whittle away at his stick.



Unfortunately I choose to be the cool mom rather then protect my son’s appendages.





Ugh! I know what you’re saying but I get so few opportunities to be the cool mom...



And honestly it made my heart do a little “awe” moment to think of my little boy being a little boy whittling down a stick… so Tom Sawyer-esk

(I’m not really sure Tom Sawyer whittled sticks but it seems like something he would have done.)



So I left my son, in the garage, with a stick and a pocket knife, and told him to be very careful as to not cut off his finger.



I returned to the garage a minute later to check on my boyish boy. My garage was missing a Cooper, and a stick, and a pocketknife. I thought about being concerned but seeing as I heard no blood curdling screams I choose to believe he had ventured off to a new boy activity.



I returned to my project in the dining room and a couple minutes later my little stick whittling friend approached me.



“Mom, you’re right, you got to be really careful with pocket knifes ‘cuz they are super sharp.

I even cut off part of my finger.”



“What?”



“I cut off a piece of my finger.

It was a pretty big piece… but it’s okay.

It’s not a really REALLY big piece, just a big piece like this.”



Oh my goodness.



For the record, he was totally okay with it.





About five minutes later Cooper walked back into the dining room and handed me the pocket knife.



“Here Mom, you better keep this. It’s probably not good for people to play with this.”

Drop it. Drop it. Drop it Low.

As part of our summer movie passes we got to go see rio. The kids loved it. (according to Cooper, he's loved it for 3 months now...long before he ever saw it.) This scene played on the previews all the time and so naturally when they saw it appear on the big screen they were giddy with recognition.







A few days after finally seeing the movie we were at Grandma's Landon randomly busted out this little ditty.



He makes me smile that kid.