Melt Downs & The Zoo

Yesterday Landon had a major melt down. It was my first day of training at the gym in Maple Valley and my friend Shellee was a saint and watched him from 7:30am to 12:45pm! She said that he was happy the entire time and played with her son Sutton. I was so happy to hear that and I was so excited to see him when I was done. He gave me a huge hug when I got there and we quickly went to the grocery store before taking him home and putting him down for a nap. He slept for 2 hours. He obviously needed to sleep longer because he was totally cranky when he got up. Then when Dad got home, changed his clothes, and was ready to go on a walk, Landon totally broke down and started crying. It was as if he had fallen really hard or thrown up or something like that because it was an emotional crying meltdown that seemed to last for 20 minutes! It probably was only 5 minutes, but it seemed like FOREVER! We kept trying to calm him down and tried to tell him that we were going to his favorite place (the park), but nothing was working. He suddenly just started to calm down and we went on our walk to the park. But when we got there, he wouldn't go down the slide. He acted as though he was scared of the slide. He was just in a funk, I guess. It was hard on me because I hate to see him upset, but at the same time, I don't want to feed his tantrum or give him his own way all the time...

Today the crankiness was not over. We were invited to the Woodland Park Zoo by some friends of ours, the Crossleys and Scmalles. And of course I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to go to the zoo just because Landon was being cranky. We left our house at 9am and luckily Landon napped on the way there. He NEVER takes morning naps. But that seemed to help a bit because he was happier when we got there. He was fine in the stroller for a while but once we took him out to see some of the animals, it was a challenge getting to sit back in it.

Landon & Daddy's first time to Woodland Park Zoo!

Yes, this is the sense of humor that made me fall in love and marry this man ;)

This was what I was talking about when I said it was hard getting Landon back in his stroller. We'd say, "bye bye Landon, we're leaving", and he'd wave at us and walk off the other way...like I've said in previous posts, this kid has no fear anymore!

"Look momma! EGGS!" I love the look of excitement/surprise on his face!

He was very excited to see the gorillas...

I love the look on this tiger's face...I can't believe I caught it on camera. Landon was pretty excited about the tigers too. He's familiar with gorillas, tigers, elephants, and hippos because they're in his favorite video and book.

Landon and Logan had a great time together on their first trip to the zoo. But Landon was definitely in need of a nap.

He should have followed the example of these brown bears.

Little buddies sitting on the Komodo Dragon!

Landon was intrigued by this lion...

So much, that he gave him a hug before leaving...

My favorite! I LOVE giraffes!!! And I told you that Landon was in need of a nap ;)

We all had a great time and it didn't even rain like it was supposed to. I'm definitely taking Landon back when he gets a little bit older. That way he'll get even more excited about the animals. I just love it when he gets excited about things.