First REAL Conversation with Landon!!!!

The best part about having an upset toddler is knowing how to change his mood in less than 7.7 seconds. Tonight, in one moment, Landon (or LJ as I affectionately call him) was crazy upset that mommy or daddy wouldn't read him "stuff." In his words, "I wanna read Seuss' stuff." For those who aren't parents in the know, Dr. Seuss wrote a great lyrical book called "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff." And while this book would only take 3.5 min to read to Landon, we refused based on the notion that we were going to be "good" parents: 17 books before bedtime was enough.

So, I'm trying to help Anna get Nolan (our 3 month old) to bed, and all of a sudden LJ comes in the room crying at the top of his lungs, tears streaming down his face, screaming: "I wanna read stuff!!!" He runs up this slide and decides he wants nothing more to slide down but also doesn't want to come down. Big mess. So daddy takes the hard line that LJ needs bed-time routine and is going to bed NO MATTER WHAT.

Well, bed-time routine didn't work. In fact, LJ was so upset that he couldn't and wouldn't stand up. Apparently we needed to find "rar-rar." Rar-rar is his stuffed-animal (pillow pet) lion who has been in the crib every time LJ goes to sleep. We look in every room but no rar-rar and now LJ is beside himself. So, to get him side-tracked, I asked him if he wanted to feed Samson, our golden-retriever. "Feed Samson??" was his response through trickling tears. "Yeah," I say, "let's go feed Samson." Landon follows me into the kitchen full speed and suddenly yelps: "rar-rar!!!" Rar-rar was chillin behind the kitchen table. And from here, the night becomes my favorite as a dad.

As we're walking towards the door to get Samson's food bowl, Landon re-discovers the food that daddy grilled him for dinner. We eat it for about ten minutes while occasionally checking on mom and Nolan as they're trying to sleep. LJ downs the final chunk of grilled chicken then asks me for Samson's "bowl." I get it, we feed Samson, and now the world has become perfect again. The night is becoming pure joy.

While having "milk and stars" (where Landon drinks milk, watches the stars and hangs out with daddy) LJ makes a crack about "new car." He's pointing at the guy across the street who has chosen 8:07 PM as the ideal time to sweep his driveway. Still not following the joke, but it is apparently funny enough to make milk spew out of LJ's mouth when he laughingly tells it.

After digressing about 5-10 more times, I finally get LJ in the bath tub and ask him about his weekend. Specifically I ask: "what was your favorite part about this weekend?"

LANDON'S WEEKEND AS TOLD BY LJ HIMSELF

"I saw rar-rar... I saw baby rar-rar... like Landon... rooooaaaaarrr!!!!" - LJ referring to watching his new movie "The Lion King" (it appears Landon thinks the baby lion in this movie is actually a toddler lion).

I ask: "did you also see the lion at the zoo?" Landon replies, "rooaarr! rar-rar at the zoo. I fed the birds at the zoo!!!" I ask, "you did???!!" LJ says, "I fed the bird medicine!" He actually fed the lories food at the zoo without any encouragement (but swatted away the birds as they landed on him). I ask about the elephants; LJ: "Dumbo's mom... I see Dumbo... I see Dumbo's mom!!"

We make silly noises about elephants for a few minutes, talk about the zoo a little more, then I ask him about his favorite part of the weekend. He says: "I ride choo-choo?! Choooooo choooo!" Landon calls escalators at the mall "trains" and loves to ride them. We went with mommy while she and Nolan shopped and pretty much rode the escalators for about an hour. LJ then says: "I sorry daddy. I go choo-choo. Sad day. Sad week." I burst out laughing: Landon got in "trouble" because he tried to ride the escalator without daddy, even after daddy had told him specifically not to - LJ laughed and looked back at me, straight up testing me, while running to the escalator that got him in trouble. To diverge from the topic I say: "Yay!! We rode the escalators!! You are such a big boy!"

His response: "I play with Thomas!!!" Thomas the Train might just be his favorite toy. I exclaim: "you sure did!!" Landon: "I play with Thomas at church!" I asked him whether he played with anybody else and he sadly said "No." Anna later told me that one of his best friends, Owen, wasn't in his class at chruch today... so now that makes sense.

By the way, this whole conversation is during bath.

We talk about bubble bath (he's confused why were not doing bubble bath since we had for the previous five nights), we chat about bath Jerry (a toy giraffe that is made for water and rides in an inner tube), and we laugh about hot vs. cold water (whole other post).

This is a very good sample of our conversation, but only includes a portion of it. Needless to say, I love my son - he's a great boy who continually keeps me smiling AND on my toes. I praise the Lord for such a great family. I wish everybody could experience this joy!!!!