Blame it on the rain

Kids are funny. Lots of you know that, but it is a different kind of funny when it is your kid. Landon is getting more talkative, sometimes being funny in what he says. He is pronouncing things better and it is surprising when we hear something for the first time and he says it well. Sometimes he will say something 'wrong' but he knows it is pronounced wrong, but most of the time he says it properly. Heather got him talking about the shower as rain wawa, as he knows about water and the rain.

He's starting to sing more also. He seems to like country music. In the car, it seems that he will break into song when country music is on, no prompting needed. He is also starting to sing along with the night-time songs. We sing from a selection (that he chooses) before bed. Not that he gets the words right, but he is singing along and sounding cute.

He doesn't dance as much as he used to, but he still does it. It is still lots of the 'keep the legs still and rotate the upper body' dancing, but he adds in his jump a little. Did I write how he is 'jumping'? Sort of hopping, sometimes not getting his upper and lower body coordinated.

It is just very different in a 'not so different' kind of way, that he is sort of developing a different personality in a way. As I said, he is more talkative, saying new words or phrases without prompting. He has a newish thing where he wants us to go with him, he sort of waves his arm in a "let's go" sort of way, and says 'come one daddy' (or mommy). Very cute. Just lots of little things he does, sometimes for a brief moment that you hope to remember forever. Things you wish you could record everything you see, not just with a camera or flip video like we have, but just record things that your eyes see so you don't miss anything. We'll have lots of pictures and video to embarrass him when he gets older, ha ha.

A brief bird moment ... now that the weather is warmer birds are doing their thing. The birdhouse that my brother gave me (sitting outside the window of the morning room) is housing bluebirds again. We can hear the babies from inside asking for food. I was trying to get some pictures of the daddy coming back to feed them and got this shot of a male red-bellied woodpecker making his way to the suet feeder.

We also have some finches at the front door, nesting in a wreath we have there. It's a winter wreath, but we couldn't move it with them nesting. It has been interesting listening to them also, watching them change and now flying away.

We were thinking today that it's funny sometimes, the saying along the lines of 'what a difference a year makes'. Just a year ago we were about to leave for our second trip. Brings back some good and interesting memories, but to think that so much has happened in a single year. That is the craziest thing. To think that a year ago we hadn't even left. Some of the memories from hanging out in Krasnoyarsk seem so fresh. Remembering the day we met him, watching him walk towards Heather, letting her pick him up and then later falling asleep in her arms. Hearing him laugh the first time, playing in the orphanage. Just a huge difference in both us and him. I just feel so lucky to have him in my life.

Anyway, enough for now from me.