Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a wonderful & safe Halloween! 

Flying with a toddler: 15 Months

We had our first "Toddler" flight. It was VERY challenging! He is so curious and busy nowadays, I couldn't get him to take a nap!! He fell asleep the minute we landed. Imagine, a 6 hour flight... NO SLEEP.. I WAS DYING!!!!! 

Luckily, we came prepared. I was stocked with snacks, meals, activities and fully charged iphone with 10 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

STICKERS: 

We introduced stickers on this flight. He was instantly obsessed. This activity kept him busy for almost 30 minutes. We showed him how to peel and stick. He loves stickers!

He even peeled them and stuck them on our arms and legs!

Magnadoodle:

I purchased a few travel sized toys (you can get them at walmart, target and CVS) and they were perfect for our flight! 

He spent a lot of time doodling, erasing and doodling some more! 

Glowsticks and Waterbottles:

We've been using this activity for awhile and he NEVER tires of it! We asked the flight attended for an empty bottle once she was done serving beverages.

He spent about 20-30 minutes playing with his glowsticks. He is also obsessed with screwing on bottle caps.

Earphone Plugs:

Once he started to lose his mind, we introduced earphones. He loved plugging it into the socket and putting the earbuds into my husbands ears. 

For a 15 month old, his hand eye coordination is impressive and I'm so relieved it kept him occupied!

Connect Four:

This one is a hard one, I suggest keeping a close eye on your lil one. Every once in awhile, he would try to pop one in his mouth! This activity gave my husband too much anxiety so it only lasted about 15 minutes.

He did love putting the tokens into the holder.

Last but not least, we let him watch tons of Mickey mouse club. At one point, we thought he would fall asleep watching it, but alas, he did not! 

**tips for toddlers: make sure your baby drinks plenty of fluids during take off and landing. I used to nurse him, but during this flight, we have him a food pouch and a sippy cup with water!**

**bring plenty of food & snacks. We also brought a change of clothes and plenty of diapers** 

**bring infant tylenol (just in case)** 

Good luck traveling! XO

Toddler Meals: BLD

BLD: breakfast.lunch.dinner

Landon's biggest meal of the day is breakfast! We love Portuguese sausage. It's mild, not greasy and it tastes delicious with rice and eggs! Waffles are easy, we just throw them in the toaster oven and serve with bananas & yogurt! 

We rarely eat sandwiches, I'm trying to add it into our weekly meals because they're easy to make. So for lunch, we grilled up some turkey & cheese sandwiches, served crackers with hummus and cut grapes. Quickly devoured! 

Dinner is a "eat what we eat" meal. Now that Landon is using utensils, he loves LOVES pick up foods! We are still trying to get him to pick up vegetables to eat, so offering a fork really helps! 

Enjoy! 

Toddler Activities: Colander and Pipe cleaners

All these items can be purchased at the dollar tree. 1 colander and a few pipe cleaners.. This is a great activity for a toddler to practice fine motor skills. It takes great concentration to stick a floppy pipe cleaner into a small hole.

While Landon explores with this project, we talk about color.. Ex: that purple one can stick in here. Good job! You stuck the purple one!" A child loves receiving praise when he is successful!! 

We also talk about the activity.. "Can you stick the yellow one in this hole?" 

We teach him that there are different ways to solve problems.. So he can see how the pipe cleaners function on both sides.. 

When he's all done, I teach him how to pull it out and put his activity away. It's important for him to learn how to start something and then when he's finished, put it away. It'll develops into a normal everyday activity to clean, instead of a chore.

Potty Training: 16 Month Update

We started potty training Landon very early. You can read about it HERE!

So We have been in underwear since 13 months. In that last 3 months, he has wet himself maybe 6-7 times and he had 1 stinky underwear while I was cooking. He did tell me he had to go, but usually, he does a little dance... It was totally my fault because I didn't follow his cue. Anyway, thats the thing about potty training, Its trial and error and you learn from your accidents. There have been days where he stays in his diaper, but he's mostly in underwear and he likes it too. If you say, "let's go put on underwear", he will open the drawer and pick out a pair he wants to wear. 

Landon has been such a champ when it comes to potty training. He really has great understanding of his boy and he communicates well when he needs to go. We've been very verbal about his potty training with him. Here are some easy steps on how to start the transition to underwear...

1. Take him to the potty every 20-30 minutes. Once he does his business (pee) I give him some toilet paper and he "wipes" himself.. mainly he stuffs it into the toilet. He LOVES to do this.

2. Let him sit on the potty for 5-10 minutes until he does his business (he usually poops 1x a day and pees every time we put him on the toilet. While he tries to go, we talk about his business... questions to ask, "Landon, do you need to potty?", "Landon, can you go potty for mama?" "Landon, did you go pee? Yes, you did go pee!" (high five!) "Landon, can go you poo poo?" "Ok are you all done? Count to 10 if you're done.. (count)" **Always tell them "good job", "You did it!" "thank you for trying". positive reinforcement is very important for confidence!

3. When it's time to "go potty", we would say, "potty time!" Then he will stop and say good bye to everyone and everything in the room. Above is his "I'm ALL DONE" face. 

4. Sit him on the toilet for 5 minutes and talk about the potty.. Ask him to go.. Sing some songs.. Then when he's done, we count to 10 a few times..

Then repeat. I know it sounds exhausting but it's so great to have him communicating and encouraged to go when he wants. 

On days where we go out, we will take him straight to the potty when we get home. 

I really do believe that teaching Landon how to use te potty at a young age has made it normal for him. He also likes being in underwear and it's funny to watch him walk around like a big boy! 

What Landon Wore

I seriously can't get over this outfit! I must say, these Old Navy jeans are my favorite pants to put on him.. they're comfortable and I can't believe it took him a whole year before he fit into this shirt! I bought it last christmas on sale. It's the perfect plaid/flannel. He looks so cute in it. Of course our studded black high tops from zara is his goto shoe. He can really run around in them.

Landon is 16 Months

I swear, raising this kid just gets better and better. He is a delight and there are days where I  look over and he smiles and it makes the sun shine brighter!! When I'm exhausted and he runs over and blows raspberries on my leg.. I get a burst of energy! He is amazing and He's SO funny!

Weight: Still no official weigh in but this morning on our home scale, he weighed 23.4 lbs! He does feel heavier than usual.

Health: We are healthy in the Scaife Household! We are very cautious with traveling and we keep cleaning antibacterial wipes around EVERYWHERE!! We have been on a few outings and we do try to wipe his hands down. With flu season around the corner, we are super extra careful.

Diet:  Everything. EVERYTHING... and its awesome!

Social: Friendliest guy ever! I need to get him in a play group but currently we have him on 3 outings a week, swimming, gymnastics and Pretend City. He loves exploring. We're considering part time day care to get him out of the house and to give me free time to work on my Etsy Shops!

Crying: He is trying to earn his independence. We have discovered "Instant Noodle".. this is when we go to pick him up when he's not ready and he immediately turns limp like melted butter and scream like we're trying to kidnap him.. He DOES get embarassed quickly so it lasts for about a minute. To get him to go where i need, I bribe him. For instance, he's walking freely but I want him in the stroller. I will bribe him with food to eat.. it really gets his attention. 

LOVES: Balloons and wagon rides.

Clothes: his 12 month Jammies are teeny tiny. We're moving into long sleeved jammies now that the weather is colder. I'm a little confused with the whole toddler and a blanket deal. He's been using a blanket since he was 10 months.. but it doesn't stay on him.. so he wakes up as cold as an ice cube. other than that- clothes is super fun! 12-18 months, 18-24 and size 5 shoes!

Milestones- He's been in underwear at home since he turned 14 months. He's only had 1 accident since. some wet undies but we run him to the toilet every 20-30 minutes and he will tell us when he has to "poo". 

New Words: Mr. Chatty Chatterson picked up "Duck". He's pretty verbal but we're hoping that he starts using more words.

Treat "tweeet" (for the dogs), hot dog "haw daw", leiah (our poodle) "yeayah" maddox (our yorkie) "dado", toilet paper "tee tee" for wiping when hes done peeing in the toilet, Eat "eee", Shoe, Socks "so", shirt "shhht", shorts "Shot", bird "Bur", Tree "Tee", hello "heyo", Bye "buh bye".. pap pap (grandpa), ba (grandma), more, banana "bah", Dada, dog "dah", Ba (grandma), please "peaz", done, poo, help "hew", up "puh", water "wahwah", bottle "bah", milk "bah"...

signs: eat, milk, more, all done, please

Travels: Went to Pennsylvaina to visit our inlaws. We had so much fun!

Must Haves: balloons and mickey mouse club.

Teeth: 9!!!! his molar finally made a debut and it's sharp!

I cannot say it enough.. Every day is such an adventure with this guy. He cracks ms up! In fact, when he passes gas he thinks it's funny! He's nosy too, he listens into other peoples conversation and when he hears laughter, he joins in. It's almost embarrassing!!

What Landon Wore

Halloween Flashback

My husband and I have spent 6 halloweens together! I thought it would be fun to look back and reminisce with Halloween! 

Our 1st Halloween together, we went as jazzercise instructors.. 

It was my first of many halloweens with our good friends Vanessa and Andrew. 

Our 2nd Halloween, we went with a group theme.. We went as the YMCA. My husband was the cowboy and I was the Indian. 

Here is a group photo.. Don't mind the drunk man in our photo lol! My best friend Jenn joined us this year! 

Our 3rd Halloween we started celebrating in San Diego! 

The girls went as Alice in Wonderland

 My husband ditched me to start doing themes with His best friend... They went as the duo from "blades of glory"

During our 4th Halloween, again he dressed up with Andrew..

Jenn & I decided to go as superheroes. I went as Wonder Woman.. I glittered my own costume (in a kids size) and it was pretty awesome! Jenn went as Zena. 

My husband went as " Semi Pro". yes, it seems like he loves wearing wigs!

Our 5th Halloween, the girls went with corsets and tutus while my husband and his friend went as dumb and dumber.

 I was a macaw! (One of my prettiest costumes)! A week after Halloween, I found out I was pregnant! 

Here are the boys.. 

Our 6th Halloween, we had Landon! We've always dressed up the dogs so I was excited to go as "The Wizard of Oz"... Josh refused to join us because he didn't want his friends to make fun of him.. But it was my all time favorite costume theme EVER!! 

We still went to San Diego to party while my MIL & SIL came to visit. They stayed with Landon in a hotel while we went out for the night.  

My husband went as Joe Paterno and his friends went as the victims.

I wasn't a fan of the boys costume idea, however, I still made their shirts and my husbands jacket.

The Picture above might be our last "party" Halloween together. This year, Vanessa is due with her first baby (due this weekend!) so we will take it easy and stay home, take Landon trick or treating & pass out candy.

As a side costume, my sister and SIL went as slutty ghosts to mess with my aunt who happens to live down the street... We couldn't resist! I'm still laughing about this one!