Landon

Last but not least, Landon. How this boy has grown!!

His hair is ridiculously long but I'm not sure what kind of cut to give him. A Ryker-cut just doesn't seem fitting. He's also extremely wiggly so thinking about bringing a pair of scissors anywhere near his little head is a bit intimidating. And there's no way I'm buzzing it. I love my boys' hair.

Landon started sitting up reasonably well around 7 months old (he's 9 months old today).

He started crawling at about 8 1/2 months old.

He's been so interesting to watch; so different from the other kids as far as development. The other three were all on the early end of the spectrum with milestones whereas Landon is on the late end. He's clearly healthy and happy so it's not a cause for concern or anything. It's kind of endearing actually. It makes him more needy too which is sometimes endearing and sometimes irritating (like when he needs more help falling asleep and his learning curve in that department is slower). Alaina particularly just flew from one stage to the next, giving us very little time to appreciate each stage. Landon spends quite a while at each level. It's interesting to watch how he just plugs along at his own pace. He seems oblivious to all the things going on around him that you'd think would motivate him to sit or crawl or babble. He's just happy being himself, which I love.

He's been our hardest sleeper

and our worst teether, but he's mostly a happy little guy...

until around 4:30 or so when he is only happy riding on my back in a carrier while I make dinner or do chores.

Alaina adores him and loves to hold him, but he's getting mobile enough that he's not liking that so much anymore. He's also mobile enough that he fell down the stairs the other morning. I wasn't out of bed yet and Brice had just left for school. When everyone left my room after family prayer, they left the door open. Landon was in my bathroom playing and I thought I was waking up enough to be aware of him so I didn't call after them to close the door (no one but me is really in the habit yet of keeping the stairs unaccessible to him). I guess I fell back asleep because the next thing I knew, I heard the terrible and distinct "thump thump thump thump" of a child falling down the stairs. I was out of bed and running before he hit the bottom, but the poor guy fell down the whole flight! Fortunately he wasn't hurt--he stopped crying in well under a minute after I picked him up. He had a small bump on the head but that had all but disappeared by the end of the day.

He has the most gorgeous eye color. They are so sparkly and bright! The ever-present drool, however, is not so attractive. At least he's not as bad as Alaina was. Also gotta love the spikey hair do.