Scrub-a-dub-dub (S.A.D.D.) in Catalina

Every year a friend of ours named Foots (for David Footman) celebrates his birthday on Catalina Island. A big group of people, anywhere from 20-50 people, go every year to celebrate with him. Sonje has gone in years past but I've never made it to the celebratory weekend before now. Friday afternoon we boarded the 2:00pm express shuttle to take us to Catalina. Just a short 1-hour boat ride and we were there. We stayed at Hotel Catalina, along with the rest of the clan. The hotel was 75% booked with our party. Friday night we all had dinner at El Galleon. While everyone else stayed up late either chilling in a bar, relaxing in the hot tub or dancing at a club, we of course turned in early so little Landon, along with mommy and daddy, could get a good nights rest. Saturday morning mommy and Landon slept in but daddy rose early to go play a short 9-hole round of golf with 3 of his other buddies. Saturday is always the big day of the weekend which always includes a round of mini golf starting at 1pm. The theme of Saturday was (S.A.D.D.) as noted above. Therefore, everyone was to show up in either a doctor, patient or nurse outfit. Mommy was a nurse, daddy a doctor and Landog was a surgeon. His little costume was fitted for a 3-7 year old but once I pinned it, he looked adorable. Later that evening we all ate dinner at Antonio's (yummy pizza). Landon was awarded MVP of the vacation and was given a Catalina bison stuffed animal as the prize. Everyone sang kareoke (even mommy) and it was a good night. Somehow Landon was able to fall asleep even with all the loud noise in the restaurant. On Sunday, the three of us went to mass and then joined the rest of the gang for breakfast. Many of the clan left on the 11:45 shuttle back to the port of Long Beach. However, we choose the 3:45 shuttle so we could walk around the island, window shop and relax before heading home. It was a fun weekend had by all.getting ready to leave the port of LB Landon sleeping in daddies arms on the way over to Catalina

Playing in the hotel room Saturday morning while daddy golfs

our little surgeon with his blue golf ball

playing mini golf in our medical attire

On the 18th hole, mommy took Landon out of the stroller so he can try his hand at mini golf.

I say he looks like a pro.Dinner at Antonio's

Little Mr. MVP of the weekend.

Relaxing Sunday in Catalina

Pictures with a Catalina bison

Play Date

Wednesday we had so much visiting Lauren and Daniel. Daniel is such a good friend to Landon. We had a yummy lunch and a nice stroll around Daniel's cul-de-sac. Hopefully we can all get together again soon.

Visiting Sonje's Class

On Monday we visited Sonje's final class of the day. We hadn't planned on going to his school but since we were driving past his exit on the freeway, we thought we would surprise him. So, we called daddy and said we would be stopping by his classroom in about 20 minutes. Daddy's students were thrilled to see us walk in. We didn't stay long though because his kids were too distracted by us being there. It was really fun to see daddy's students interested in his little boy. Landon was so cute too because he was loving the attention and was totally hamming it up.

Eat your heart out Tom Cruise

Here's my handsome little Air Force aviator

Happy Birthday Pop Pop

On Saturday we celebrated Pop Pop Haven's birthday by dining at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Boy was it a yummy meal. Happy Birthday Pop Pop.Hanging out at Pop Pop and Grandma Haven's before and after dinner

High School Friends

Saturday morning Landon and I meet up with a handful of my old high school friends. It's not very often that we all get together so it was pretty neat to see each other and our kiddos. The purpose of the gathering was to see our friend Donielle who was visiting from Colorado. Donielle recently had a baby girl, Harlo, who is just 7 weeks old. However, Harlo came down with her first cold (probably got it from the plane ride) so our guest of honor had to cancel.

all the girls...

the mommies...

Angela's (who is on the end) has 2 kids but one was outside playing with neighborhood friends and her little girl was napping.

some recent pictures with more to come...

eating avocadoLandon loves to help mommy in the kitchen. As soon as he hears the dishwasher open, he races over to "help". It actually isn't very helpful as I have remove the silverware tray so he can't get to all the sharp utensils and then make sure he doesn't pick out any glass items. However, if he takes the whisk out it'll keep him occupied for several minutes so I can hopefully finish the loading/unloading.

Little nugget trying to see how he can open the fridge.

Oh.... I forgot to tell you that all the bottom kitchen cabinets have the safety locks on them. Sonje installed them about a week ago and thank goodness he did. He installed them on Monday (MLK day) and the very next time he was trying to open them. I tell you... I'm just barely one step ahead of this little guy.

I fit perfectly under the barstool

Landon loves it when mommy pushes him around in his dump truck.

Bergie is super protective when Landon is in his dump truck. She follows us to make sure Landon is okay. You can tell she is a little nervous when he's in it and being pulled around the house. Isn't she a good girl?

Big Weekend

This weekend Landon started clapping, giving us high 5's and eating food with his fingers.

On Thursday (Jan. 21) I went to his 9-month doctors appointment. The doc said he is in the 50% for height and 25% for weight. I had just got finished talking to the pediatrician about him not taking interest in eating food on his own with his fingers and of course, later that night, he decided to eat chicken pieces with his fingers.

Waving

The exact day Landon turned 9 months old he learned to wave hi/goodbye. It is the cutest thing. He even tries to mimic the word hi when he does it too. What's funny is he did it while Sonje was teaching. When Sonje came home that evening he didn't wave to him so I was thinking he had already forgotten. However, the next day was Saturday morning and Sonje took the dog and Landon to go run down at the beach. Apparently, a little old man stopped to talk to Sonje and Landon and when the man went to leave he waved goodbye to Landon and Landon copied him. Sonje of course called me all excited because he got to see Landon's wave in action for the first time. Just precious.

Give It to Mikey He'll Eat Anything

Do you remember that famous Life cereal commercial? Well, we changed Mikey to Landon. That kid will eat anything. For the past few weeks now we can't eat anything in front of him without him begging to have some. If it's something we don't want him to have, we have to hide that we are eating it. It's crazy. I've never seen a baby that just downs anything and everything. One nice thing is we can actually go out to dinner with him. As long as we keep the food coming, he's quiet. We take turns breaking little bits of food off. Tonight we went to El Torito. Landon ate chicken fajita, cornmeal cake, spanish rice and carnitas. Yum.

There's a good reason for diapers

One of the funniest things happened the other night. I saw that been there's been so many comical moments since Landon has been born so maybe I'm exaggerating but it was funny nonetheless. Landon LOVES.... being naked. As soon as the diaper comes off he races off. It's so hard to change his diaper or dress him. Well, the other night I was changing his diaper to get him ready for bedtime. This time when he made a little dash I turned to Sonje and said, "He's got such a cute little body. If I wasn't so worried about him peeing everywhere, I might just let him have his way and be free every now and then". Just after I said that I grabed Landon to put his diaper on. To my surprise a very tiny, finger-nail sized poop nugget was laying on the carpet. Sonje said, "And that's why he wears a diaper". We both burst into laughter. Sonje went for the video camera and captured the nugget on camera and I could not stop laughing. The video must be hysterical. The series of events/comments couldn't have been more perfect. Boy did we have a laugh!!!

Saturday- family zoo day

This past Saturday we did a Berg (well, Vecchione too) day at the LA Zoo. Every year we receive a family gift on Christmas day after all the other presents have been opened. Pre babies it usually was a theatre show. We've done The Producers, Oliver, Lion King, Mama Mia, and more. These days the family gift has changed to include our newest members (aka Bella and Landon). We've since done Disneyland and now the zoo. We took a nice family picture at the end of the day so I need to get a copy from my mother-in-law and post it on here.

I want to do it

So Landon decided he wants to feed himself with the spoon. As wonderful as that may sound, it's not ideal just yet. If we try to feed him he throws an absolute fit because HE wants to do it. However, he makes an absolute mess everywhere (floor, clothes, etc) and he wastes a lot of food. I don't mind him helping but AFTER I know he's eaten enough from my spoonfuls. His way also takes soooo long. It's a weird balance because I don't want to discourage him from trying but I also don't think he's ready just yet. He can't even eat food using his own fingers. He's sort of skipped a step by wanting to go straight to the spoon. What should I do? I can't afford him wasting all the food. I already give him a toy to distract him so I can get as many spoonfuls as possible. I also don't want him to think he can throw a tantrum and get his way. What's a girl to do....