(almost) 18 months: Videos, Daddy Daycare Alerts & Much More!

You know, when Landri turned 17 months in February and I posted that this would be her last solo monthly update, I would have never believed that would end up being entirely false. I’m posting this a few days prematurely in the odd event that I actually go into labor before Landri’s 18^th month birthday and am otherwise occupied. Besides, what else do I have to do but sit around a wait for hours, days, weeks… I cannot even begin to explain how upset I am with the entire situation of baby #2 being this late. I cannot go into it or I will have my 8,308^th meltdown since my due date over a week ago. So, moving on…

Landri is 18 months old this Wednesday. A year and a half old! This last month we had a couple of new “firsts.” Landri visited the Snake Farm in New Braunfels on I-35 and had a blast. I already posted some pictures of her with her B – Fri Cami earlier (https://livinwiththelehnhoffs.com/2014/02/21/b-fri-love/), but below you can see a few more of Landri hanging out with the animals (it’s much more than just snakes!). This month, Landri also attended her first HS basketball game (Steele v Judson) and had a lot of fun cheering the girls on with her Gendy (pic also below). And of course there has to be one “bad” first… Landri vomited for the first time (since she was 12 weeks old as you may recall here: https://livinwiththelehnhoffs.com/2012/12/08/mom-badge/ ), and sadly it was projectile in nature, and at a restaurant. Of course. And you’re welcome, no pic of this below, LOL!

And as Landri gets older, she has new passions, hobbies, and things that she really likes. She has been a fan of hand puppets for some time now, and those continue to be high on her list of cool things to play with. And along the same vein, she has loved balls for quite some time now and still is rather obsessed with all balls: soccer balls, baseballs, golf balls, basketballs, and most of all footballs (which is the only ball she actually calls by its full name, FOOT-ball). She is also still pretty into babies thankfully, although we’ll see how that goes once one moves into her house! And besides babies, she also still adores all animals, but especially our dog, Smoke, who she hugs and plays with every day (pics below). And I know I have posted about this before, but Landri still very much enjoys being a “customer in training” at Whole Foods, pushing her toddler-sized shopping cart (see pics below and here’s another video clip: http://youtu.be/O5OPdHiA_lU). A newly discovered hobby is playing with Mommy’s jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and even wearing headbands, necklace pic below). She seems to be more and more interested with blowing bubbles these days… she begs for bubbles and love to chase them around in the wind, especially with her friends. One of her other latest passions is her new slide. The other day I was early to pick her up from school and I noticed how into the slide she was, sliding down over and over and over again, so I jumped at the chance when I saw a used one for cheap online. Landri loves it and rides it continuously. Here’s a video of the day I brought it home (sorry, she had gotten something on her pants that day, poop maybe? I don’t remember): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD6tZcCCH3A. Unfortunately not in this clip, but still the same evening, she was eating a cookie while sliding down her slide, and as Scott pointed out, she was like a tuber on the Guadalupe River going down the rapids with a beer, she saved that cookie, hand high in the air as she tumble-crashed her dismount at the bottom of the slide. It was hilarious!!! Girl aint’ gonna waste a cookie! And we ended up putting the slide on the side of our house where if you shout really loud, there’s a pretty cool echo effect which she loves. So she shouts random stuff when sliding and giggles at the echo she makes – kinda funny. I should try to get that on video too. Landri is also pretty into “owies.” You know, “boo-boo’s” or cuts/scrapes. She always points out hers and other peoples’ if she sees them. And one last new hobby is playing on Mommy’s yoga mat. She will see it rolled up in the corner and grab it trying to get it out and loves to play around when I unroll it for her (pics below).

So what does Landri look like these days? Well, I’m happy to say that she still has that cute little pot belly. It’s not quite as big as mine anymore (mine obviously has gotten much larger, but hers has stayed the same size I think). I love how it hangs over the front of her pants. Scott and I are always admiring her profile – such a physique! Yeah, I know, she’s gonna hate me someday for saying that! She also has 4 new teeth coming in, making for a total of 16… if I am correct, I think this only leaves the 6 yr old molars??? Landri’s hair is getting longer and longer and I’m guessing will be pony tail ready in a few months (she’s getting close!). Her bangs are super long and have to be pulled back, so as not to get in her eyes. Her feet are still pretty small (size 4-5 depending on the shoes). I am sad to report however, that although she still has what many consider to be “Thunder Thighs,” Landri’s leg rolls are pretty much gone now, and only large creases remain (inside her thighs slightly above her knees). She still has majorly large legs, it’s just in solid chunk form, not rolls anymore.

So… one of the fun parts. Landri’s latest Bad Habits. Last month we talked about her GTT’s (Gargantuan Temper Tantrums) which sadly, yes, still are an issue from time to time. And we also talked about her passion for consuming dry dog food. So, along the same line… besides dog food, Landri STILL puts basically EVERYTHING in her mouth. I thought this was supposed to be a phase that would slowly disappear upon entering toddler-hood. But alas, it has not. We joke that Landri has Pica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)) which is basically a disorder in which individuals have
“an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive, such as ice, clay, chalk, dirt, or sand.” For example, in addition to dog food, Landri happily eats or tries to eat pretty much everything: rocks, acorns, weeds, grass, leaves, chalk, poisonous berries (DDA), glow sticks, her wooden crib, plastic, hand sanitizer, ice, etc.

Yeah, so did you just catch the “poisonous berry” part? Insert the latest Daddy Daycare Alert. As it may or may not surprise you, Scott was SUPPOSED to be watching Landri outside while hanging out with one of his buddies. After a while, I come out and see Landri who clearly has something in her mouth that she is trying to eat. I run over there shouting about what is in her mouth (you know, because she acts like she has Pica and for all I know, it’s another rock again), and I see a red oval shaped round thing. I immediately assume that since she’s been in her father’s care, it must be an M&M or Skittle or something (you know, because it’s easy to make her stop crying if you spoil her with sweets and treats). I start chewing him out about candy before dinner and he’s like, “I didn’t give her any candy!!!” So we pull out the mysterious red thing and sure enough it is a poisonous Mountain Laurel berry!!! Even better!!! I called Poison Control (to which Scott told me I was completely “overreacting”) and luckily, they told me that those berries, while they are very poisonous, have tough enough exteriors that toddlers are very unlikely to be able to chew them up enough to release the poison – that they will just pass through them whole if they do manage to swallow them (and for all we know, she had already swallowed a dozen!). The lady told me to look out for “unusual behavior” as they can cause hallucinations. Nice. Thanks, Daddy!

So what does Landri like to eat these days besides poisonous berries? Well, her newest favorite food has to be one that her little B – Fri introduced to her: dill pickles (which she affectionately pronounces as “boo-kgee”). That is of course after cookies, candy, cupcakes and probably even ice and rocks which she has really come to love too, LOL!

Landri’s Language is getting more and more advanced. She probably has a few dozen words she can say and maybe a hundred or so that she can understand. She has also put together a couple of new sentences, “Puppy dance,” (she has a toy puppy that dances from Scott’s parents) “Ice, please,” “Puppy out” (Smoke is outside). She has been attempting to say many other sentences that I cannot understand entirely. Usually only one word (the noun/subject) makes sense to me and verb doesn’t.

Here are a couple random fun facts about Landri at 18 months:

She runs most places (and pretty fast too)
She seems to be a pretty tough kid – For example, she got lime juice in a cut on her face, and fussed a little but didn’t really cry and she usually gets up pretty easily after she falls or wipes out.
When she gets really mad/frustrated, she often times FIRST hits herself in the head (totally weird, I know), which is a sign that NEXT she’s going to hit whoever she is playing with that made her mad (you can see her draw back her arm/hand, winding up to make a blow; sometimes you can catch her before she strikes and other times it’s too late, but either way, she gets a scolding).
Not a “fun fact,” but when I took her swimming at the gym (inside) this month, she had completely regressed from summer and was terrified and hated it. This made me very sad. I have a lot of work to do in order to catch her back up to where we were last summer, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to with a newborn/young infant who can’t really be in the sun.

Landri also with age, she seems to be getting smarter (or maybe this is just growing up, I don’t know)… She will go find my or Scott’s shoes (oh, and she knows which shoes belong to which parent) and use them as stepping stools to climb up onto couch. Another example is that she notices when I am wearing Scott’s Steele Knight sweatshirt or shirt and screams, “Daddy!” pointing to the Steele emblem on my chest, knowing it’s his. I have also noticed her realizing that depending on the book, she can tell when it’s upside down! It’s so neat to watch her little brain grow and learn!

And since we are about to everyone’s favorite part of the blog… I have another DDA to throw out there! So Daddy was putting on Landri’s footed PJ’s the other night and sadly it didn’t go too well. He got her legs and arms in them and just had to zip them up from foot to neck which he did in one quick swoop. And then Landri burst into complete HYSTERIA. Come to find out, Daddy had actually zipped her skin into the zipper at the very top in not one, not two, but in THREE PLACES. Now Landri has three owies on her lower neck, chest area. She would definitely point them out to you if her triple chin wasn’t blocking her view of them!!!

Scott Says…

M: What is Landri’s best skill at one and a half years old?

S: I don’t know. Talking. She’s getting better at talking.

M: What does she say that’s showing notable improvement?

S: I don’t know. She says a lot of words. <I snicker at the high level of detail he is providing and he laughs and says, “I hate you.”>

M: What do you find most annoying about Landri at this age?

S: Her screaming all the time.

M: I don’t think she screams all the time.

S: That’s all you complain about!

M: Well, I hate when she screams, but I wouldn’t say she does it all the time.

S: I would.

M: What is the funniest thing she does now?