Time continues to fly.  I can’t believe she is now closer to one year than birth.  Many more new firsts keep passing us by…

Between her sixth and seventh months, Landri celebrated St Patrick’s Day and Easter.  For St Patrick’s Day, we had a few friends over and Landri did a great job playing in “baby jail” in the driveway with her friends (see picture, although sadly no one is looking at the camera, a basically impossible feat when it comes to multiple baby scenarios).  At Easter Landri tried to shove a cascarone in her mouth, dying her tongue blue (see picture, although the photo doesn’t do it justice).  This past month she also had her first bath with TWO of her friends (chaos!) and watched her first T-ball practice (tried to eat grass)!  She also went on her first trip to the Wild Life Ranch which for those of you who don’t know is a drive-thru safari.  I let her sit on my lap in the passenger seat and this little baby was in HEAVEN.  She hung out of the window of the car, breeze blowing in her face like a dog, smiling and laughing.  Most of the time she was just completely enamored with herself in the side view mirror, but she did seem somewhat impressed by the animals as well.  I was surprised!  It was such an exciting activity that she neglected to nap all afternoon, folding at 7:30 pm and sleeping for 12 straight hours that night!

Before we go any further with the latest more exciting firsts, I am sad to report that little bugaboo suffered from constipation for the first time as well as her first fever due to her first (mild) ear infection – all at once of course!  There’s something about a little baby grunting it out day after day without success that is just heartbreaking.  It’s a really long story, but the shortened version is that after almost three days of basically non-existent poop activity, Landri made up for lost time while I was at the dentist.  When I say Landri made up for lost time, I mean that Landri MADE UP FOR LOST TIME.  I guess that’s what happens when you feed a baby prunes for three days.  It finally catches up to them at some point.  So yes, at my dentist appointment, Landri set her own personal record for the blowout of all blowouts in the history of baby blowouts.  I won’t go into more detail because some of you may have just eaten or might be about to eat, but let’s just say I’ll need about five showers to recover – – – and Landri will need ten!  I used an entire package of wipes to tackle that sitch – something I have never even remotely come even half way close to doing.  But if she was ever going to have her own personal record for the blowout of all blowouts in the history of baby blowouts, there was only one day in my lifetime that I would gladly have welcomed it while at the dentist and that was today, on the heels of our three miserable poop-free days!  And PS she had another required outfit change blowout later that evening.  She seriously pooped over a pound that day. No lie.  Prunes rock, clearly!

And now, for the biggest first of all – Landri had her first time away from Mommy overnight (3 nights!) which also included her first sans Mommy sleepover (at her grandparents’ house).  Speaking of… HUGE shout out to my in-laws for watching her for so long including overnight!  Pretty sure that it was much more difficult on me (and Scott when he had her, LMAO) than her.  And actually, I was really impressed with Scott!  When I left, all the laundry was clean, folded and put away, the dishes clean and put away, the bottles were made; basically, the house was in perfect order.  I expected Hurricane Landri to make landfall that weekend and to my surprise, the place was actually in pretty good order upon my return.  Not sure if that means 1) Scott really has his $hit together (???) or 2) his parents kept her at their house more than he is admitting, LOL!  Either way, this gal is very impressed.  And also while I was gone, Scott packed up Landri and all of the crap she requires (it’s a lot!) and took her to a high school baseball game all by himself.  Again, super impressed.  I didn’t expect him to even leave the house or change clothes all weekend!!!  He’s really a dad!  So cool!

Well, last month I was wondering if this month I would be able to report on one of THE skills of baby skills and alas, that time has not come yet.  No, little Landri cannot crawl still.  Scott for some reason thinks and I quote him directly, “It will be so easy when she can crawl and entertain herself.”  Oh, okay, got it.  So you can all look forward to the blog posts about when Landri starts “entertaining herself” by pulling a glass vase on her head from a low shelf, knocking over my plants, choking on pennies she finds under the couch, and trying to drink cleaner from under the sink.

As far as what new skills Landri has acquired this month, I would say that she has really improved her ability to sit up on her own such that she can now ride in a shopping cart and sit in a high chair at a restaurant.  The first time I put her in the shopping cart, she was in baby paradise, looking around all over the place.  Now while she cannot crawl, she can kind of butt scoot forward.  Basically she sits as close to Indian style as a baby can, and then gets excited, flapping her little wings (arms) up and down, lightly bouncing her bottom on the ground while slowly propelling herself forward in tiny little scoots.  If she starts to lose her balance while sitting, she can now (usually) catch her balance with her arms by putting a hand down.  On her tummy she can plank very well now and is getting much better at getting up on her knees (although she isn’t sure what to do once she gets there).  Also on her tummy she scoots backwards, often backing herself into small, tight places from which she cannot escape (see picture).  Yes, this makes her mad until you rescue her.  She can also sort of pull her upper body around and over small obstacles like your legs if you are sitting on the floor with her.  Lately when tired and eating (mostly at night), she does her drama queen hands by putting the back of her left hand to her forehead. Hilarious.  Need to take a picture!  And while we are on the subject of funny things Landri does… she also has what we call “nighttime face plants.”  She sometimes randomly wakes up in the middle of the night from sleeping on her tummy, presses herself up, shoulders and head high in the air, and then seriously just releases her hands and drops, face planting hard into the mattress and instantly back into slumber.  Her head actually bounces on the mattress.  It is so sidesplitting to watch!!!  If I can get it on tape she will be an overnight YouTube sensation.

So what is Landri into these days…  Well, for one, she seems to really like parties.  In general, she appears to be a social baby who puts on a good behavior for company (not always but a lot of the time).  She also really likes eating (bottles or baby food – she isn’t picky) and playing.  Bath time is another favorite of hers and she likes to go fishing with her net and colored fish.

As far as Landri’s dislikes go… We learned that she certainly does not like apple juice (we had to try to help un-constipate her but she refused to play along).  This actually doesn’t bother me though as I am not a juice fan.  She also isn’t a huge enthusiast of sippy cups (although I think this is because she is still not sure how to work them all the time).  And lastly I would say that she hates being constipated and having poopy diapers (the latter of which we learned we would rather have).

So here’s my latest parental confession: I have a Daddy AND Mommy Daycare Alert.  So a couple of weeks ago, we had our last real cold snap of the year.  So cold in fact, that out here in the hill country we had a slight freeze.  Well, we forgot to turn on the heat that night even though we spent hours covering up the garden and were fully expecting Ice Age 2013.  When we woke up in the morning it was 54 degrees in Landri’s room.  OMG we are terrible!  Luckily she was in fleece jammies that night and snuggled up in her super warm wool blankie her Aunt Carla knitted for her!  And speaking of parental issues, I have already seen two live scorpions in our house this year.  I may have to get my Scorpion Hunting Reality TV Show booked sooner than I thought.

So it might surprise you that Landri is still a very fat little baby.  You know, since partying and eating are her top two favorite hobbies and all.  So yes, it seems like she keeps getting fatter and fatter and fatter since she still hasn’t learned an effective way to burn calories yet (i.e. crawl).  Literally everyone who sees her feels an uncontrollable urge to pinch her cheeks. I even catch our four year old neighbor pinching them (totally adorable by the way).  Check out the pictures below to see her Michelin tire thigh rolls and her rarely seen “Kooka Rolls” that hide under her diaper.  Her hair seems to have some blonde new growth (?) and is still super long on top with the short sides and back.  Still a disaster but still cute.  Her eyes are the bluest blue – such a pretty little lady.  She still only has two teeth (bottom front) and she now uses them to chomp on toys as she still isn’t too sure about the baby food “solids.”

As far as things go for me, I have been able to keep up my yoga practice and was able to attend both an arm balances and inversion workshop recently.  Also Landri has been doing some yoga of her own.  As you may recall in older posts, she is very adept at Happy Baby Pose.  See pic below of her latest yoga feat!  Looks like she really is working towards a solid plank, LOL.  I am also starting a four week yoga practice paired with a cleanse at my gym and am really excited about it.  I will be giving up several pretty big things for me (alcohol, sugar, etc) and I can’t wait to see how I feel.  Scott seems annoyed and at least once a day says, “stop being such a weirdo.”  Whatever!  I’ll share my favorite new recipes with you guys.  As far as running goes, I still try to put in 20-25 miles per week and recently finished my 4^th half marathon in 2013.  I also did my first mud run which was a blast (had some pictures on FB).  Right now I’m not signed up for any more runs, but would like to do the Chupacabra de la Noche 10k night trail run this summer.  Anyone want to join me?  It is usually in July.

The garden is doing great – we’ve had two nice lettuce harvests for salad as well as some basil harvests. We are looking forward to everything else too!  Also, we are seriously considering getting chickens for eggs.  Anyone out there have experience here and any advice to share?  We’d love to hear it!

And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for…and I am going to try out a different format this month so you’ll have to let me know which is better… I apologize that it spaces out so much – I don’t know how to fix it!  And note to self for next month: if Duck Dynasty is on, there’s no point in trying to communicate with Scott Lehnhoff until it is good and over.  Even if you’ve already seen that particular episode three times.

Scott Says…

M: What is your favorite thing about Landri?

S: How she laughs now.

M: Can you describe it?

S: It’s always original because she has a lot of different sounds.

M: Okay, elaborate more.

S: She has a lot of laugh sounds!

M:  What is Landri’s favorite thing?

S:  Bathing and playing on the ground with her toys.

M: What are her favorite toys?

S:  Anything that makes noise or talks.

M: What does Landri hate most?

S:  Doing one thing for a really long time.  She cannot do one thing for a really long time.  She is easily distracted.

M: What is most surprising about Landri?

S:  How big she has gotten.

M: Well how big has she gotten?

S: Just a couple biscuits shy of 20 pounds

<which is true – she was 19lb 7oz at the doctor yesterday although that was pre-blowout so she may actually only weigh 15lb now, LOL!>

M: What is Landri’s newest skill?

S:  She interacts more.

M: How so?

S:  She just interacts.

M:  Like what? Use your words!

S:   Like right now she is treating me like a jungle gym!

M: What is Landri’s BEST skill?

S:  Putting her toes in her mouth and baby planking.

M: What about her most useful skill?

S:  Crying for no reason.

M:  How is that useful?

S:  It’s useless.

<okay apparently we both don’t speak the same dialect of English…trying again…>

M:  What is her most USEFUL skill?

S: Holding a bottle.

M: What is the best part of being a parent?

S:  Seeing her smile at me!

M: What is the worst part of parenthood?

S:  Being tethered to this baby nonstop <except that he’s not> and my lack of hunting.

M:  What is Landri’s most unique/interesting feature?

S:  Her fat body.

<I’m pretty sure his response to this question at 6 months was “her 85% body fat” – does he have an obsession or what, LOL?>

M: What is your biggest fear either as a parent or for Landri?

S:  Her becoming a teenager.

<my interpretation of this is tiny clothes and lots of skin>

M: What you have learned since becoming a parent?

S:  Patience.

M:  But you said that last month.

S: More patience.

M: Have you really learned patience because it seems like you’re still impatient.

S: Yeah.

M:  So then what have you learned?

S:  I’ve learned I love my baby.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Deep Thoughts by Scott Lehnhoff.  So sweet!  I love him!