Back in the States

We arrived safe and sound in the U.S. and are at our home base in Virginia!  It has been so nice staying with Mike's parents and the best part is...they have a GREAT yard for Lando.  Of course, we already did a little photo shoot and our little boy just doesn't seem that little anymore. 

Miscellaneous Randoms

Lando is growing up before our eyes and is so ridiculously cute.  Just a couple quick shots of him this last week.

Our washing machine had some issues...Landon had to take a look

One of Landon's favorite places to play...the bottom shelf

These two are definitely "brother" and "sister"...they fight and bug each other but still like to cuddle together at the end of the day

Yes, we torture our child for cute pictures

"What am I supposed to do with these things?"

Not really sure what to call this one other than "hahahahahahahaha"

"Mom, I can't do anything with these stupid things on."

Now he's sick of all the stuff he has on...hey, we do what we can.  In a country where all the little boys dream of being Professional Baseball Players and making millions of dollars...we have to plant some seeds of being a Professional Soccer Player and making a couple hundred bucks just because you love the sport :)

I got tagged!

While delightfully reading my friend Raleigh's blog enjoying hearing about 6 things that I knew/didn't know about her...there it was, all of a sudden "Amanda Goodwin."  If you don't know the whole story, you can go to her blog, but the shortened version is I now need to tell you 6 things about myself and tag a couple of other people (which may be hard because I don't even know if anyone but our mom's and raleigh read our blog).  But here it is, my six things.

1 - I secretly love teeny-bopper movies.  High School Musical, Mean Girls, 10 Things I hate about you...etc. you get the point.  I seriously get goosebumps every time the main characters (the ridiculously good-looking popular boy and the strangely-intriguing not-so-popular girl) kiss for the first time.  When the movies are all about teaching a good lesson in not forming cliques in high school, or being who you really are instead of what the world wants you to be, makes me all happy inside.  If there is a teeny bopper movie on the disney channel or on nickelodeon, I don't move until its over (but i do change the channel sometimes depending on who comes in the room and the level of embarrassment I may feel if they see me watching it).

2 - My biggest regret, maybe in my whole life, is not working harder at playing basketball.  I am PASSIONATE about basketball.  Yes, I even like basketball probably 30% more than soccer.  When I was growing up soccer was natural for me, I didn't have to try very hard.  Basketball I had to work at.  I told everybody that I didn't want to play basketball in college because I wanted to have a life (soccer and basketball in college would have taken up the entire year) but the real reason was I didn't want to risk having to sit on the bench in case I wasn't good enough to start.

3 - I could eat sushi every meal, every day.  It is my favorite food by far and I am never more excited than if I know I'm going to eat at a sushi restaurant.  No need for further elaboration.

4 - My favorite place in the entire world is my family's little cabin in Maine.  There's no running water, we have a port-o-potty for a bathroom, most days I don't even bathe...it's heaven.  Growing up it felt like my sisters and I were always fighting but for some reason, the two weeks every summer we spent in Maine it was as if someone put a spell on us and we were best friends.  I don't even remember if we even had a single fight in the 20 some odd years I have gone there with them.  Almost all of my best memories are from there.

5 - I have a really bad temper.  You probably wouldn't know it because I'm really pretty good at suppressing it.  But if its just the right week and I'm really overwhelmed and nothing I'm doing or trying to do is working out I blow up like a volcano.  Not for very long.  Maybe just for 5 seconds, then I feel immediate guilt, then start crying, then apologize like crazy if anyone (usually Mike) happens to witness it.  Not my finest moments.

6 -  My favorite book of all time is The Shack.  I hate books, I hate reading and I especially hate self-help Christian books....but for some reason because it is Fiction and the crazy truths you find when God is a large, African-American woman...I couldn't put it down and it truly answered a ton of questions I have always had about faith and Christianity and how to get past a crippling fear or sadness.

I tag Shelly Valentine, Chachi and Benji Zimmerman.

Trip to the Beach

We were able to go to the beach with the Sports crew a couple weeks ago (I like to think I'm part of the sports crew, even though I'm just a plain old photographer...Hey, washed up athletes count, right?) Anyway, of course I took my camera and had to capture a few of Landon's first "real" time at the beach. The other time he was too young to really know what was going on and the time before that he was still in my uterus. So here are the shots. It was a great day and a lot of fun.

Starting the day out with a little nap...

He always has this look on his face...do you think he's a deep thinker?

I love this one...and he LOVES his daddy.

Love this one too...we're all three in it, I'm just a little more inconspicuous

Haha...look at his face when the water rushed over him

CHEEEESEE!!!!

Kisses for daddy

Kisses for Mommy

Family!

And we end the day the same way we started it!

This is For You Mom!

My whole family has been losing weight in preparation for my sister, Ashley's, wedding coming up in May.  I, actually, had it pretty easy as all the natural food we eat and our busy schedule with teams this summer assisted me in losing 15 pounds.  I've gained a couple back but I ran across a photo from March of this year and another one from this week.  I didn't realize how much weight I can carry in my face.  Woo.  But this is for you, Mamma.  I can only post this because I don't look like it anymore but the first thing I thought was, "Where on Earth are my eyes?"  Haha.  Anyway, if no one else, my mom will enjoy these pics.


March 2008


October 2008

alright, alright

Ok so its been like two weeks. Apparently I'm supposed to get more photos up of Lando.

Landon is now 15 months old! Hard to believe. He is somethin' else too. Quite the little ball of energy, and he sleeps a lot to make up for it. He is still sleeping about 11 or 12 hours a night and takes two, two hour naps during the day. With the exception of today in which he wasn't interested in sleeping at all. He is wearing about a size 5 shoe, weighs probably 25 pounds or so and 16 teeth! Yes, 16. 4 molars and 12 teefers. It's crazy. He looks like a baby shark. We have completely gotten rid of bottles and he has decided he wants to drink all his milk for the day in the morning. It's pretty cute. As soon as you carry him out of his room, he points at the couch and then the TV. He's come up with this routine for himself where he has to watch 1-2 baby einsteins or praise baby DVDs while drinks anywhere from 8-16 ounces of milk. Then he doesn't want milk the rest of the day. If we try and take him anywhere else before he gets to sit on the couch and drink his milk he literally cries until we take him there.

He is saying "mama" (sometimes mami), "dada" (but actually prefers to call him "Ma" or Mike as we've figured out), Gracias (or "Gra"), mas (which is more in spanish), some new one which is "ee" which I'm not sure what it is...and several other sounds and words. He is still signing but because we've kinda slacked on keeping it regimented he confuses his signs a bit and actually has made up new ones for "more" "milk" "juice" and "eat". They all kinda look the same with a slight variation. Still, super cute.

Lando's favorite food of all time are BANANAS. If he even SEES a banana anywhere he will scream his head off unless he has one. And its awful too because here they have yellow plantains that look like bananas but you can't eat them without cooking them so when he sees the plantain he goes crazy. Again, still super cute. But yes, Landon has learned the temper tantrum very well. I do my best to not react too much to it and be as calm as I can be, but somtimes...man, oh, man...Especially at the supermarket. Woo. Exhausting.

Anyway, just updating a little bit about the little guy so here are some pics. Enjoy!

Lando with the bandana on for 5 seconds and wanting it off

I love this one cause he is looking so sweetly at Mike

Seriously, how did he get so cute?

My bandana boys

Remember when your mom said, "no playing baseball in the house."

Well, this is what happens when Mom plays baseball in the house.

Luckily it was with a wiffle ball.  Please don't call child services. :)

All the girls in my family have a picture of them taking a bath in the 

sink in Maine.  We didn't get to do that with Lando so we decided to

try it in the Dominican instead.

Washing the dishes for mommy.

Our sweet little boy.