I can’t believe it’s already been one year since you came into this world. Since you arrived your mom and I have had so much fun watching you grow up. In the beginning we used to think it was adorable when you blew a bubble or tooted… Now we have to draw straws every time you throw up or have a poopy diaper. j/k We can’t even begin to tell you how much more fun and exciting you’ve made our lives.
Since you probably won’t remember this when you are older I thought I would document some of your favorite things to do at this point in your life. I think your most favorite thing to do is play in the bath or pool. You also really enjoy eating pancakes, going on play dates with your mom and friends, eating veggie burgers, playing baseball with me, eating graham crackers, taking laps around the family room using furniture as a guide, eating grilled cheese, pulling down and braking window treatments, eating pasta, playing with your cars, and drinking juice. There are many other things you love to do, but I think these are your favorites so far. You are also soooo close to walking, in fact you are so close you might even start walking this weekend.
Thank you so much for being such a fun & happy guy. I love everyday when I get home from work and see you smile, giggle and crawl as fast as you can to come see me. It just makes my day! We couldn’t be happier with how much you’ve grown up over the past year, but we also can’t wait to see what you do next. We love you so much.
Here are some pictures with your Brother Bear that we took every month to keep track of how much you’ve grown.
It’s hard to believe we are less than a week away from Landon’s first birthday. It seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital sending out hourly Sterncast updates via my cell phone. This weekend we are heading to Upstate NY to celebrate Landon’s First Birthday as well as my 30th. I don’t know what’s more crazy. The fact that I am halfway to 60, or that Landon is already a year old. Well if you ask me 30 is the new 23, or at least that is how I feel. We’ve got lots planned for next weekend so rather then telling you all about what we are GOING to do, I’ll wait a week and tell you all about it later.
One exciting piece of news we would like to share with everyone is we bought a house. YAY!!! We had been actively looking for about 7 months with no luck until we found this awesome Cape with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and an awesome yard in Harleysville, PA. I think Grandma Marcia and Grampa Larry will be happy to hear we bought a house in a town named after their bikes. I guess this means you have no choice but to hop on those Harley’s and drive out to see us more often. We don’t have any pictures to share yet, but as soon as we close we’ll be sure to share them with you guys. We are closing on June 18th, so we don’t have to wait too much longer.
For now we do have some videos that we’ve taken over the past month or so that we’d like to show you. This first video is Landon playing basketball with an awesome gift Grandma Terry got him. He loves playing basketball and who wouldn’t standing nearly a foot above the rim? I haven’t seen anyone attack a basket like Landon since Shaq brought down the hoop against the Nets back in the mid ’90s. Hey Wizards, it’s not too late for you to draft Landon with the #1 overall pick next month.
As you’ve seen from previous posts and pictures on Facebook Landon LOVES the park. I think he would sleep there if we let him. His new “trick” at the park is to crawl up the stairs and then dart down the slide head first. I’m glad he perfected this with his mother before I saw him do it for the first time. Yes that’s right, I’m the paranoid parent.
If the whole basketball thing doesn’t work out, which I honestly can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t, he might give Barry Bonds a run for his money as the next Home Run Champ. The only obstacle in his way might be a recliner…. confused? I guess you will just have to watch the video to understand what I am talking about.
One of the things we love most about Landon is he’s always finding ways to have fun. He is becoming more active everyday, and finding ways to play with toys we never thought possible. This morning he found out how fun it is to play with a piece of fabric and a plastic ball.
Well I’m hoping this update makes up for the amount of time since our last post. We’ll be sure to update everyone next week with some pictures and videos from the birthday weekend.
Landon turned 10 Months old yesterday and on his Birthday he decided he wanted to start using his baby walker to get around the house. He isn’t quite ready to run in the Boston Marathon, but he is taking “Baby Steps” towards his freedom. His Mom and Dad, while ecstatic about Landon’s achievement, are probably a little oblivious to what this really means to their sanity and peace of mind.
Spring Training has started and that can only mean one thing… Spring Time is right around the corner. This afternoon was beautiful (Mid 50’s) so Melissa and I decided to take Landon to the park for a little bit to enjoy the nice weather. I have to say it’s nice living in a place where March actually means spring, and not just another cold month towards the end of winter. Nothing against MN, but I don’t think we saw days in the mid-50’s until mid April.
Landon loves the Park and we are lucky to have a nice one right around the corner where he can play and watch other kids have fun. We decided to take the video camera with us this time so you can see how much fun he has there.
I am also happy to announce I’ve started to work out again…. Well, not exactly, but Landon loves when I do leg lifts with him. This kid has the greatest laugh. If you are ever having a bad day, all you have to do is make this kid laugh and it will surely lighten up your day. Enjoy my 60 second leg workout with Landon. We hope we see you guys soon.
On Saturday February 20th Marni, Melissa, Landon and I all went down to DC for the day to hang out with out with the Chambers’. We hadn’t seen Jordan in months and this was our first chance to meet Eva. We knew we were going to have a lot of fun, but we had no idea we were going to see such an amazing concert put on by Jordan and David. Watch out Billy and Elton, there is a new duo in town.
Thanks so much for having us. Next time we will have to get together during the summer so we can go to the Park. It’s one of Landon’s favorite things to do, and I hear Jordan is a pro on the swing set.
Here are a couple videos of the concert. Hope you enjoy!
Today Landon went to his first swimming class and he loved it! Whether we are brushing teeth, washing our hands, taking a bath, etc… this kid just loves water! So every Saturday morning from now until the end of March we will be going to the local Y for swimming lessons with other kids his age. I especially love this because now I get to have some fun bonding time with Landon since Melissa gets to take him to all of these fun play groups during the week.
Our little chunk is turning into a little-big chunk . He also had a great time over the holiday’s spending time with both of our families. Here are a couple pictures from Christmas and Hannukah.
Comments 0|November 12th, 2009|Posted in What's New
This week Landon started rolling over on his own. YAY!!!! It won’t be long before he is crawling, walking and asking to borrow the car… well it might be a while before he gets to sit behind the wheel, but you get the point. Last week we also noticed he has two teeth that broke through on the bottom. That really explains all of the excessive drooling he has been having lately. I just assumed he was so happy to see me that he couldn’t help but drool all over himself.
Last weekend Marni came to visit us for the entire weekend. We had so much fun hanging out with her, and the best part was probably going to “The Link” on Sunday night to watch the Eagles battle the Cowboys. Unfortunately for Marni, the game didn’t go as well as she had planned, but we still had a lot of fun and our seats were awesome. Honestly I have never seen so many drunk and angry fans in one place before. There were literally dozens of fights in the crowd, and people getting kicked out of the game (some in handcuffs). I don’t see myself taking Landon to an Eagles game until he turns 23. It’s just not safe!
The next two months are going to be pretty busy for us. First we have Thanksgiving with both of our families in NY, Hanukkah with my fam, then Christmas in Chicago followed by New Years Even in Atlantic City. Hopefully we will have some great pictures and stories to share with you guys when it’s all said and done. In the meantime enjoy this video of Landon rolling over that we recorded earlier tonight.
Comments 5|October 18th, 2009|Posted in What's New
It’s crazy to think this, but Landon has lived in Pennsylvania longer than he lived in Minnesota. Time is flying by and since we moved out here he has definitely started to show off his personality and sense of humor. He is also growing like a weed weighing almost 16 lbs. In the past two months Landon has…
- gone to his first (and second) METS game(s).
- gone to the bar with his dad to watch the Patriots play.
- started eating cereal.
- been traveling all over (visiting Chicago, Albany, New Hampshire, NYC, Philadelphia and Syracuse.
Here are a couple videos we would like to share with you…
This video was recorded a couple of days after he realized how much he loves eating cereal.
The last video is of Melissa and I playing catch with Landon. I think he has a bright future as a WR for the Patriots, Center Fielder for the METS, or maybe even a Goalie for the US Olympic Team.
I have finally faces reality and decided it’s time to face the truth and move on. Ever since we moved here, things have been crazy, and we have been so busy. I guess that’s a good thing, but at the same time I haven’t been able to update the site. So rather then trying to find time to dwell on the past I want to move forward and start updating you guys on the present. However I still want to share with you the end of our Minnesota memory countdown, even if it is in the Cliff’s Notes Version…
#4 – The OCC
The Owatonna Country Club was my home away from home for 5 years. I met some great people there, and left with some amazing memories.
#3 – Our First Home
We bought our first house back in May of 2004, and since then we have learned a lot about our ourselves and just how handy we really are. Well maybe I should rephrase that last statement. We learned how handy Melissa can be with the help of her dad on the phone . It was a great first house filled with lots of great memories. We will definitely miss it and look forward to making new memories in our next home.
#2 – Our Wedding
July 4th 2009 was the greatest day in my life for almost 11 whole months. It was a beautiful day and we were so grateful all of our friends and family were able to come out to Owatonna, Minnesota.
#1 – Landon Jay
… and to think my favorite memory in Minnesota was only 1 hour and 21 minutes away from being my own birthday. Well, we tried… I mean Melissa tried… for several hours… about 16.5 hours to be exact. It was a very long day, but one that Melissa and I will never forget, and thanks to my play-by-play on Sterncast there will always be a permanent log of everything that happened.
So that’s it. The countdown is FINALLY over. Now it’s time to be better about keeping you guys up to date on what’s happening today.
We still have boxes all over the apartment, but we are finally starting to settle into our new home. Melissa worked her ass off all week taking care of Landon and getting our new home in order while I worked my first week out of the East Greenville plant. As far as the apartment goes, we really like it a lot. There are definitely things we miss about having our own house, but the apartment was just remodeled so everything is new and the community’s amenities are great. I definitely think we will enjoy our time here until we find a new house to move into next year. Once we get the apartment all setup we will share pictures and/or videos with you.
As for Landon, he is also doing great. This weekend we took him up to NYC for the first time to meet Marni. As you can see from the pictures we all had a great time. We also met up with our friends John and Erika and hung out in Prospect Park across the street from Marni.
On Saturday night Justin, Greg and I went to see O.A.R. perform at Madison Square Garden. Our tickets were center stage, 5 rows back so needless to say we had an amazing time. Before the show started we ran into Mikel, Marc, Jerry and Benj (all members of the band) which was really cool. One of the things I love about these guys the most is that they are not too big for their fans. Jerry came up to us, shook our hands and said thanks for coming. How cool is that?
I need to get going, but I realize I still need to finish my top Minnesota Countdown. I was going to finish it off really quick, but the top 4 deserves more respect then that so I will be finishing it up when I can.
We can’t even begin to tell you how much more fun and exciting you’ve made our lives. 
