I Love My Daddy!!!

Everyday that Shane is at work, I answer this question too many times to count:

"Mommy, where did Daddy go?"

As soon as he gets home, Landon is so excited, and he and Shane usually run around the house for awhile. Landon's favorite question for his dad is: "Daddy, what should we do?" Today, Shane took Landon to his first Munchkin Sports class. They played soccer, ran fast forwards and backwards, and kicked over cones and tipped them back up. Landon came home as excited as ever! Even when Shane tries to rest and have a little time for himself, his little bub climbs up by him and snuggles in close!

Quotable Quotes

1. When at the grocery store this week, Landon wanted to play with the buckle in the grocery cart seat. He kept closing it, but then needed my help to open it back up. After opening it back up for the upteenth time, he exclaimed, "Thanks Mommy. That's great!" When I told him you're welcome, he said, "Landon don't say you're welcome." I had just told him the day before that he doesn't have to say you're welcome when he says thank you.

2. Yesterday, Shane went and tickled Landon, to which Landon exclaimed, in a perfect imitation of my voice and intonation, "Sha-ane!"

3. Shane also went to tickle me yesterday. (Yes, now you know the true menace in our house). Landon looked at him and said, "Shane, don't tickle Mommy," in his most stern voice.

4. I heard Landon whisper something at the table this morning, then start laughing. When I asked him what was so funny, he said, "I'm singing the H in the Home Depot song." I guess that's a pretty funny song, but he wouldn't sing it for me again. He is actually frequently making up all sorts of songs these days.

Four is kind of a weird number, but that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure he'll say some more crazy things as soon as I publish this!

Going to Dama and Papa's

Landon and I just got back from our week in Ashland. Shane had to go to New York all week for a work trip, so Landon and I decided to go to Dama (da-ma, rhymes with grandma, imagine that) and Papa's house, as he says, for the week. Here are a few pictures of our trip:

Eating waffles with a balloon - As many of you know, a trip to the Morris household around breakfast time usually includes pancakes, waffles, french toast, or some other delicious breakfast. I guess Landon is well aware of this, because about 20 minutes before getting to Ashland, Landon suddenly told me, "Haffa go Dama's house. Dama make pancakes." About two minutes later, he changed his mind and said, "No, Dama make waffles." Crazy boy! Also, you probably notice the balloon he is holding. That is also something he always asks for at Grandma's, as she has a helium tank pretty much just for him.

Bath time - Landon loves all the fun buckets and toys grandma has for his bath.

Playing with the toys in Grandma's toy closet - This week, Landon's favorite toys were the classic Little People toys. Mom has the house, a ferris wheel, a parking garage, and a bucket full of all sorts of little people toys. Landon played with them all week. One day, he found this little table, pulled it out, and brought it to me saying "Haffa put food on the little table." So, here it is. We tried Cheerios first, but he finished those off before we could get a picture.

Bedtime stories with Grandma - One of Landon's favorite stories this week was The Pokey Little Puppy, a classic!

Watching football with Grandpa - Landon climbed up onto my dad's lap one night as he was watching some football highlights. He seemed pretty content to sit there and watch for awhile.

Going to Memory Lane Preschool - Here Landon is at Grandma's preschool. He loved this letter puzzle! He did great going with her in the morning.

Reading a Clifford book on tape a preschool.

What happened to my little baby??? He's so grown up now!!!

Making a mess - Landon most of the time just loved playing with all the toys and making a mess at Grandma's. For some reason, he liked to pull off all of the couch cushions. Here he is trying out his new blanket for his "big bed." Hidden beneath the blanket is a big pile of toys!

That was our week in Ashland! It was a fun break, and the only thing that would have made it better was if Shane were there with us. We were excited to have him home last night!

The Portland Saturday/Farmer's Market

After living here for over a year, I finally made it to the Portland Saturday markets. Before Saturday, I didn't know I needed to make that plural, yet after trying to meet my two friends Ashley and Heidi on Saturday at the Saturday market and ending up two completely different places in downtown Portland, I realized there were two. We first (once we all met up) went to the Saturday Market. This market is located under/next to the Burnside Bridge, right across the street from the riverfront. For you fellow Ashlanders, I felt right at home in this market. It was kind of like the Saturday market they have there, except a lot bigger. There were all sorts of items to buy, including some fairly cute yet expensive crafts and some wildly crazy items you wouldn't see anywhere else.

After wandering around for awhile and enjoying the excitement, we headed back up to Portland State University for the Portland Farmer's Market. Here I felt once again transported to another place I love . . . France. There was a large grass area full of small, local farmers selling their fruits and vegetables, plus a little cheese, honey, and even some bakeries. I loved it! I bought some strawberries to make jam, and some delicious green beans and corn we had for dinner last night. I also splurged a little as we were leaving and bought a baguette and an almond croissant at a small French bakery stand. Delicieux!

Me, Heidi, Landon, and Jackson at the Saturday market.

Me, Heidi, Ashley, Landon, and Jackson (back behind) at the Farmer's Market. Don't those tomatoes look delicious!

Landon the Little Helper

Last night, I was making breadsticks to go with dinner when Landon walked up to me with a hot pad on his hand. He said, "Need wear no hurt hand." I guess he knew what it was for. He then came up to me, still with the hot pad on, and said, "Hafta make dinner." (Hafta seems to be his new favorite word. Hafta go that way, hafta go outside, hafta get a drink, ...) When he started opening the oven, I got a little nervous though, so I instead got him out a casserole dish. He carried it around for a minute, but then he wanted me to make dinner in it. I took out some orea cookies and lined them up in the pan. That once again satisfied him, and he walked around with his hot pad carrying the casserole dish full of cookies for awhile. This still wasn't enough, I guess, because soon he was back, and I saw him grab a can of beans off the counter. I thought he would just put the can in his casserole dish, but I heard rummaging behind me, turned around, and saw him reaching his hand up into the kichen drawer, pulling out items until he found the can opener! It was pretty funny. I guess he just really wanted to help mom out with dinner. Here's a picture of him holding "dinner."

Hafta go Ocean!

Last week, we went to Brookings for our annual coast trip with the Morris family. We left on Friday and drove down to Ashland. By late Friday night (more like Saturday morning actually) the rest of the family had arrived. The hilight of our day Saturday was the tennis tournament Jake had arranged. I didn't play, as I still feel quite nauseous at night, so Shane competed with David, and they made it to the championship, losing to Jake and Stacey. Landon had fun throwing tennis balls around and playing on the playground at the park.

Sunday, we enjoyed our going to church and relaxing most of the day, but in the evening we had yet another tennis tournament - this time table tennis. I did compete in his one, and had a little more success, even almost beating David (well, at least keeping up with him for awhile). He ended up being the overall champion, so I didn't feel too bad.

Monday morning, we woke up early and drove to the coast. We stopped, as usual, at Smith River for lunch. It was a little cold, but Landon didn't seem to mind. He loved throwing rocks in the water, and by the end, his shirt was pretty much all wet from reaching in to get the rocks. Shane took Landon over to this little island in the river, and they found a frog over there, which Landon thought was pretty exciting.

We then headed to the beach. It was cloudy, but actually quite warm since there was no wind! We had fun reading, playing baseball, and digging in the sand. Becky was the only girl brave enough to go in the water. The rest of us were glad we didn't when we saw her get knocked over by a big wave and come up soaking wet! Poor Beck! Landon loved the water too, but his favorite thing was running away from it. "Water coming! Water coming" he would yell as he tried to get far enough from the wave.

The next morning, Becky and Nate had to leave early, but the rest of us headed down to the beach again. We dug a big hole for Landon to play in, and Jake dug him some pretty cool tunnels to drive his cars in. It was a lot sunnier, but also more windy! Landon still loved it though, and we had to bribe him with other exciting things back at the campground to get him to leave! He was so exhausted when we got back that he fell asleep in his stroller while we were watching a helicopter, and stayed asleep the rest of the night.

It was sad to leave the ocean Wednesday. We packed up that morning, then went to the beach one last time to eat lunch. We were attacked by some pretty daring chipmunks while we tried to eat, but we all survived. They would even jump up right next to us on the picnic table to try to get some food! We've been home for a week now, and Landon still says, "Hafta go ocean" whenever he sees water, or pretty much anytime! I guess he had fun too!

Check out the pictures of our trip on our slideshow!

http://picasaweb.google.com/shane.malan/AugustCoastTrip02/photo#s5104629739095000834

A Whole Month!!! (Well, almost!)

I got on our blog this morning, and realized that with today being August 9 already, I realized I had better hurry and post again or it will officially have been one month since I last posted! It has been a busy last month, with lots of fun things to post about, but I guess I have been too busy . . . or should I say, lazy? :)

Three days after coming home from New York, we left for Park City, Utah, to stay with Shane's family. We had a great time visiting with family, especially Shane's sister Wendi and her kids as we hadn't seen them in almost two years. Landon especially loved playing with his cousin Laci, who is only six months older than him. The two of them were even patient with all of the hugs and kisses everyone made them give each other!

We came home a week later, only to have Shane's mom, grandma, brother Mark and sister-in-law Melanie come out to visit us. We were so glad to have them come, especially Mark and Melanie since they hadn't been out to see us yet. We had fun taking them to Cannon Beach and showing them around the area.

The night after they left, we went to a Portland Beavers baseball game at PGE park in Portland. We decided to take the Max train because we've heard parking can be bad. Landon loved it! He was grinning the whole way. I guess we should ride that into town more often!

Finally, our last recent trip happened two days after they left last week when we drove to Ashland to celebrate Shane's 31st birthday!!! Jake and Stacey have been in California for the summer, so we met them in Ashland for some fun times for the big day. Tennis was of course included, and Shane enjoyed playing in his brand new tennis shoes he got for his birthday. We also went to the park for a hot dog roast and played some horseshoes. Saturday night, we all went out on the trampoline to watch a movie on the "big screen" (a projector shining on a white sheet). It's been a fun few weeks! Here's a few pictures of the month's activities.

Landon watching TV with his three cousins.

Landon smiling while showing off his new haircut.

Playing boules in our backyard with the Malans. Landon felt left out, so he had to play with his ball. You can see him in the back waiting for his turn.

Landon taking his turn at the boules game.

Landon riding on the train to the baseball game. He was so excited!

At the baseball game.

Landon playing in his new water table.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll try to do better from now on! Hope to hear from all of you too!