Christmas

I have to say that Christmas is SO much more fun when you have a kid! Ryan and I were so excited for Cannon. I actually wouldn't have cared if I didn't get anything, because it was so fun getting things for Cannon. He was into it too. We sat him on the floor and put all the presents around him and let him open them. He enjoyed tearing the paper from the first couple of gifts, but then he lost interest. Blue was excited to play in all the wrapping paper. We got a few things for her to open too. I got Ryan a soft serve ice cream maker. He loves soft serve, so he was pretty excited. Ryan got me an Electrolux cordless vacuum. It's nice because it's small and lightweight so it's perfect for doing a quick vacuum in the kitchen or entry way. I prefer to vacuum the kitchen rather than sweeping it.

After we finished up at home, we headed over to see my dad and my sister. My dad was super excited for Cannon to open his presents! We all got our stockings and took turns opening our gifts. Usually we go one at a time, but we let Cannon do all his first so he could take a nap. He got lots of toys and clothes from my dad and my sister, but the big gift was the bike! My dad got Cannon a tricycle, but it has sides and straps so that older infants can go in it too. And it has a handle on the back so you can push him. Then when his feet reach the pedals, you can take off the safety sides and handle so he can do it himself. My dad put it together and we took Cannon for a little walk. It was cute because he immediately held onto the handle bars, but then he just chilled.

We stayed at my dad's for awhile and then we went to Ryan's parent's house. It's nice that we all live about 5 minutes from each other, it's makes it so easy. Ryan got a new suit and I got a deep freezer. We waited for Rob and Bev and the kids to get there so we could open the presents together. And we had Kylene and Jeff on skype so they could be part of the fun. It took a really long time to open all the presents, but it was fun to see what everyone got. Overall, Cannon got lots of outfits, pajamas, and toys!

We had a great Christmas! I can't wait until next year when Cannon is older!


I think his favorite thing was the string on the present.






Blue opening her bone.


Blue going to hide her bone.


My dad and Cannon.


Cannon's new train set.


Cannon opening his tricycle.


He loved riding on his bike!


On a side note, I was contemplating the real reason we celebrate Christmas. I'm not usually one to be sentimental on my blog, but I thought I would share this. I teach the five-year-olds at church and a couple weeks ago we sang the song He Sent His Son. I learned this song when I was a kid, but this time the words really hit me and I began to appreciate the beauty of this simple message. It's probably because I have a baby now and my understanding of things are deeper. Here are the words to the song and if you want to listen to it, click HERE.

How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness?
He sent his Son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness.

How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go?
He sent his Son to walk with men on earth that we may know.

How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?
He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath.

What does the Father ask of us?
What do the scriptures say?
Have faith, have hope, live like his Son,
Help others on their way.

What does he ask?
Live like his Son.

The Christmas Gift

We had a really nice Christmas this year, especially now that we have Cannon. I will blog about the details later, but I first wanted to post this video for Ryan's mom's family in New Jersey. Each family got one book of Nana and Grandpa Landolfo filled with pictures of them and all the kids and grandkids and great-grandkids throughout the years. It was also neat because each page had one of Nana's famous Italian recipes! This was a really special gift that meant a lot to everyone. I was never able to meet Ryan's grandparents before they passed away. But I look forward for Cannon and I to meet everyone else in New Jersey one day! I love family history, so I will cherish this book and hopefully have success with some of the recipes. Afterward, we went through the book with Toni and she told us who everyone is, so that was fun for me. Cannon still has lots of relatives to meet! So thank you Aunt Meg and Lisa for this wonderful gift!

8 months old today!

Time has been going by so fast, especially these last few months! Cannon is such a delight and brings so much joy to everyone he meets. My favorite thing he does right now is give hugs. He's been doing it for about a month now, but it never gets old. He wraps his arms around your neck and squeezes really tight! It just makes you feel so good. Stranger anxiety hasn't hit him yet, but there will be times when he wants to come to me when Ryan is holding him. There were a couple times last week when I handed Cannon to Ryan and I walked out of the room. Cannon started to scream! It's funny because he used to be such a daddy's boy. But I have noticed him preferring me to do certain things, like feed him. Cannon also loves his uncles and his grandpas. He LOVES his Uncle Robert (Ryan's brother). He always reaches out for him! It's fun to see him recognize other family members. He also LOVES my sister Shae. He lights up whenever she comes over. Of course, Blue is the one that makes him laugh the hardest.

Cannon is not even close to crawling! For some reason I knew that he was going to be a late crawler and late walker. I knew this when he was just born. But this fits with his personality. He is a very laid back baby (people at church comment on this all the time). He is content to sit and play with his toys or roll around when he wants to. Sometimes he will just roll around the room without playing with toys. He likes to look around and take notice of things. I put the humidifier in his room the other day, and he immediately knew it was something different. He kept staring at it. He will still lay in his crib and look at his mobile! He is also obsessed with pulling off his socks and eating them.

He has learned to hold his bottle. I don't know how he did this because I don't give him a bottle very often. I guess he learned it from holding his sippy cup. He continues to be a good eater. If you don't feed him fast enough then he will grab the spoon from you. So I now try to give him his own spoon. It will definitely be easy to transition him from baby food to regular food because he loves textures and loves to chew. I will give him pieces of what we are eating if it's something he can have. He especially loves meat! I let him try brisket a couple weeks ago, so now he's a true Texan! He also likes chicken, turkey, and pot roast. Recently I gave him asparagus and egg yolk for the first time (not together). He seemed to like the asparagus and he loves scrambled egg yolk! I also gave him mashed potatoes, but they were made without milk and butter. Of course he loved it! He still seems to be sensitive to milk products, so I am really cautious. I usually mix in a little soy formula with his cereal, but I just can't stand the way it smells. So the other day I bought goats milk for him to try. It's nice because it doesn't stink and you don't have to mix it. He seems to like it too. It also has Vitamin D which he needs. I have the vitamin drops for him, but they are so nasty! So I bought soy yogurt for him (he LOVES it), but it doesn't have Vitamin D. I have a recipe for making yogurt, so if I am feeling extra adventurous one day I think I will try it. It's a lot cheaper than buying it. There are lots of new foods that he can have this month, so I am really excited to try them!

Cannon just got his first cold the other day. It's so mild that I can hardly say he is "sick." He only has a little runny nose and congestion. He sleeps with his humidifier on and I put a pillow under his mattress to keep him elevated. He has been a little cranky, but he is also working on his teeth. Hopefully those things will pop through any time now!

Sorry for the picture overload, but there were so many cute ones. He was not in a smiley mood this morning when I took them. It was right before his nap so he really wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot.

A day with the boys

Yesterday we watched Cole all day so Rick and Kristina could look for a house. Cole was so easy going that day so it was great having him. He even took a three hour nap with Ryan in our bed! I always like to watch Cannon and Cole play together (well it's really Cole trying to get Cannon to do something other than drool!). They recognize each other and they act so cute together. Cole usually tries to give Cannon a toy and he also likes to touch his face or put his finger in his mouth. Cannon just stares at Cole, but will sometimes give him a big smile. Cole is also gentle with Cannon and I've seen him pat his back. They were kind of on opposite schedules that day, so they didn't get a whole lot of play time together.

That night we also had our church Christmas party. I was especially excited because I was looking forward to getting a picture of Cannon on Santa's lap. Of course we got the time mixed up, so we got there at 7:00 instead of at 6:00 when it started. But it worked out for us. Since everyone else was finished eating, other people held the babies so Ryan and I could eat. And we weren't there long enough for the babies to get bored.

Cannon didn't mind sitting on Santa's lap. Stranger anxiety hasn't hit him yet, so he will go to anyone without a fuss. But poor Cole screamed when I handed him to Santa. I knew he would cry, but we had to get a picture!


Ryan said that he's glad we don't have twins. I still think it would be fun.


It's a good thing Cannon doesn't have teeth yet.


This was the only time he cried that day.

Swimming or Flying?

Cannon will NOT get into crawling position. I found a trick to get him into it, but his legs are so strong that he forces them back straight. His torso is really strong too. When he is lying flat on his back he tries to sit up and then he holds himself in that position. You can feel his tight stomach muscles when he does that. We just need to work on his hip strength now. When he is on his belly he does this funny kick (as seen in the video).


I took this cute picture of him yesterday. Anyone who knows my know that Superman is my favorite.



I'm sure if I put him in the water he would just start swimming.

Nothing really new is going on around here, so I haven't had anything to blog about. The other day Cannon had a stuffy nose and a low fever, but it was gone the next day. He's never been sick before so I wasn't sure if he had a cold or if it was teething. I would assume that a cold would last longer, so I guess it was just teething. I know those teeth will pop through soon because I can feel two bumps on his bottom gums. Oh, he finally got that Cheerio in his mouth!

Basket Case

Cannon has discovered that he can roll to get to where he wants. Once I put him on the floor, he takes off! He usually gets himself in a pickle and yells until I come rescue him. I love the age he is at right now. I think it's my favorite so far. Although I LOVE newborns and it was so much fun to have my own, he is really a lot of fun right now. He loves to play with the blue basket. I load it with rattles and small toys and then he pulls them all out and picks the one he wants to play with. Then he usually eats the basket. His other obsessions are phones, X-Box controllers, and cords. I also decided to let him sit up in the bathtub now. I wanted to get one of those bathtub seats that he can sit up in, but I've just been lazy. He does pretty well, but I can't take my eyes off him for one second. It just gets slippery in the tub and he found out the hard way what happens when you lean to far to get a toy.


We had a nice Thanksgiving with my family at my dad's house. Cannon got to meet my brother, his Uncle Dakota, for the first time. He lives in San Diego and is working and going to school, so he doesn't make it to Austin very often. I also gave Cannon a hair cut. This was actually his second one, well it was just a trim. He was starting to sport a mullet again, so I had to take action. But this time I cut a tiny bit off the top too, just to make it more even. It's finally getting long enough so I can fix it again. He has some curl in his hair, but you can only see it when it's wet. Ryan and I both have curly hair, so I'm hoping Cannon will too.

Also, we had snow in Austin! It only lasted for about 10 minutes and it never stuck to anything, but it was still fun. The last time it snowed here was Valentines Day 2004 and there was enough to sled for a couple hours in the morning before it melted. Sometimes we will have freezing rain ("ice day") once a year, but snow is rare. The funny thing is that Houston had sleet and ice and then everywhere northwest of Austin had lots of snow. There was an open pocket in the storm right over Austin. So this was Cannon's second time to experience snow. This was Blue's first time and she just shook and trembled in the cold.










Cannon and Dakota


I can comb his hair to the side now.


Side view.


Mohawk.


Catching snowflakes on his tongue.

Getaway

Ryan and I went on our first overnight trip without Cannon. We had actually planned it before he was born, but for a while I was iffy on whether or not I was going to go. Early last spring Ryan bought tickets to see the Tennessee Titans play against the Houston Texans in Houston. The Titans are Ryan's favorite NFL team right now because he loves Vince Young, as do I. We loved watching him play as UT's QB and we have been following him since he was drafted into the NFL. They are finally starting him and he has won every game since then. Ryan had bought 4 tickets at a really good price and then sold 2 of them for more than double what he had paid.
Anyway, I decided that I would go with Ryan since Cannon has been pretty good lately about taking a bottle. I have never left him more than a few hours, so this was going to be a big step for me! The plan was that Ryan's parents were going to watch him on Monday and that night and then a friend from church would watch him on Tuesday because Ryan's mom had to work. So we dropped him off at 11am on Monday and then we headed to Houston. I didn't want to be a psycho mom and call every hour, although that's what I wanted to do. I waited until we checked into our hotel before I called. Cannon had had a good nap and enjoyed going to the mall with his grandparents and 2 cousins.
The game was awesome! We had amazing seats, the 13th row at the 50 yard line! And best of all, VY sat right in front of us the whole time (except when he was playing)! The game was close the whole night, but we were able to get the win. It was weird cheering for the opposing team, but it was still fun. There were a few other Tennessee fans amongst the Texans fans so it wasn't so bad.
The next day we slept in and then went and did a session at the Houston Temple. On our way back to Austin we stopped in Bryan/College Station to see our brother-in-law at his new job at the Miramont Country Club. This place was spectacular and decorated with the finest materials you have ever seen! Just to give you an idea, the owner really wanted a particular kind of Italian marble. The wait list was a few years, but he wanted it immediately. So he bought this company in Italy and made himself first on the list! After Rick gave us a tour, we ate lunch/dinner together and then headed home. I was so excited to see Cannon that I could hardly stand it!
When I saw Cannon for the first time, he smiled and reached out for me! This was the first time he has ever reached for me, so it was really cute. Then he saw Ryan and lit up like a Christmas tree. Then he looked around at everyone else and smiled at them too. So Cannon was a champ and they said he was happy the whole time. He never took a bottle for Ryan's parents (what a stinker!), but he took the bottle fine for my friend. They have 5 kids, so he was entertained the whole time. I felt bad that he wouldn't take the bottle, but it was nice to hear that he was still happy.


Ryan also really likes Chris Johnson, so I got a picture of him too. I forgot to get a picture of Michael Griffin, who also used to play for UT.












This was taken right after the game. It's kind of a bad picture of us because we were tired and my hair was disgusting because it was humid.

7 months old, almost

Technically he won't be 7 months until tomorrow, but what's one day? I love that he is doing all these new things! He is interested in everything around him and has to have it. This includes my hair and Ryan's glasses! He's been pulling my hair for a while now, but now he does it on purpose.
He is still a great eater and likes to try new foods. Sweets are still his favorite (peaches, mango, bananas, etc), but he eats most anything. Oh, he LOVES soy yogurt! I think he has a sensitivity to milk products. I usually mix in a little soy formula with his cereal and every now and then he has a soy formula bottle. I used to give him regular formula, but I noticed he would spit up ALL the time. It went away when I switched. I tried regular whole milk yogurt with him and he did the same thing. Ryan even gave him a teeny tiny taste of tapioca pudding (made with whole milk) and he spit up all the next day. And it's not the usual spit up, it's the kind that smells like vomit. I might try regular yogurt again when he's 9 months old, but hopefully he will be okay to drink regular whole milk when he turns one. But anyway, he eats 2 small solid food meals per day, sometime three. I have introduced him to new grains other than rice cereal and he seems to enjoy them too. I have enjoyed making his own baby food and cereal and it's not as hard or time consuming as I thought it would be and it definitely saves us a lot of money. We do keep some jar food on hand for when we will be out of the house. I have been following the book Super Baby Food and I love it. She is, at times, a bit overzealous, but I take what I need from the book. This is one of my favorite baby stages and I love introducing new foods to Cannon.
He is still going 12 hours at night, with one wake-up to eat at around 4 or 5am. I have temporarily given up trying to break him of that feeding. There was one week where he went 11-12 hours without eating at all, but then he went back. But what I noticed was that it messed up my milk supply. During the day he wants to eat/nurse every 4 hours instead of 3. Without that early morning feeding he would only be nursing 4 times a day and I don't think that is enough for him. So I will just wait a couple more months until he is eating more solids.
He is still toothless, but they are on their way. He has been "teething" for quite a while now, so we're just waiting for them to pop through any time. Generally he is his usual self, but every so often he will be in pain for a couple of days and then it will go away. The pain is always relieved with baby Orajel or Motrin.
His likes are pretty much still the same, Blue, Ryan's singing, exersaucer, jumperoo, reading, etc. But he has a new fear of the blender and vacuum. He will be okay for a short period of time if I hold him while I vacuum, but the blender freaks him out! I have to put him in another room and close the door if I need to blend something. He is also afraid of the Wicked Witch of the West, as you will see in the video.

He can grab the Cheerios, but he can't quite get them in his mouth yet!

And don't think I'm a mean mom, Ryan! Now that it's on video I promise I will never do it again!

I think he is starting to wave. He did it to Ryan when he left for work this morning and he does it to the "baby" in the mirror. I've been testing this all day to see if it is real or not. It's hard to see on the video, but he copies me when I wave to the mirror. He is also starting to reach for people. This is still an emerging skill, but it's going to happen for sure this month. He did it to Ryan this morning and then when I went to take him, he turned away from me! He did this another time when his Uncle Robert was holding him and he turned away from me when I went to take him.


New trick, pulling the cloth off his face!


That's pretty much it! Oh, he has been making new letter sounds. In addition to vowels, w's, k's, g's and h's he says, "bah, bah, bah, bah," and "buf, buf." He is no where near crawling or doing the army crawl. He is content to hang out where he is or else he will just roll to get to where he wants to go. I will try to put him in the crawling position, but it is nearly impossible! He either stiffens his whole body so that his legs won't bend or if you do get his legs bent, he won't hold his chest up and he does a face plant into the floor. Oh well!

Who does Cannon look like?

I suppose that Cannon is a good mix of us. Half of the people say he looks just like me and the other half say he looks just like Ryan. I can see both of us. And I think that Cannon's looks change as he grows. When he was first born he didn't look like either of us. Actually, he looked like my dad. I don't have very good pictures of either of us and I only have two pictures of Ryan. What do you think?

Ryan:


Me:



1 year old (I know, where's the hair?!)

Utah Trip

Cannon and I spent a week in Utah to see my family. Ryan stayed home this time and took care of the house and Blue. We had a great time there seeing family and friends. Mostly, we enjoyed spending time with my sister and her new baby Kennedi! I took tons of pictures of Cannon! I was really hoping that we would get some snow, but it seemed unlikely. The weather was actually kind of warm and nice when we were there. But on our last day there we woke up to snow! It wasn't very much, but enough for some pictures. The sun came out and all the snow melted, but later in the afternoon a huge blizzard came through when we were leaving for the airport. Crazy! Our flight was delayed and we barely made our connecting flight in Phoenix. It was a fun trip, but we are happy to be home. Cannon was SO happy to see Blue and he kept laughing at everything she did!


My sister and I took the babies to this really cool aquarium right down the street from my mom's house. Cannon loves to look at fish and animals and we really enjoyed it too!


Cannon had fun grabbing the crunchy leaves and trying to eat them.












This is his new old man face that he makes all the time, in addition to sticking his tongue out!


Here is baby Kennedi! She has blue eyes and blond hair. Cannon looks so dark compared to her.


My sister dressed her in the cutest clothes and bows! It kind of makes me hope for a girl next time.




Cannon would just stare at her. It makes me wonder what he was thinking.


Playtime on the bed turned into a photo shoot. I got the best pictures of him just rolling around and eating his feet!










Snow!






On our way to the airport we stopped to visit my grandma. It was sunny and all the snow had melted. All of a sudden, the sky got dark and this blizzard came through! It was really fun for me because I haven't seen snow in a long time.

We had fun on our trip and Cannon was the best baby! He was so happy everywhere we went and he was so smiley with everyone! Random people in the airport would come up to me to tell me what a cute baby he is. Ryan and I definitely think we are so lucky to have such bright spirit given to us!