Our Western Summer

Here's a nod to the big gap since I last checked in!

The Landrys are committed to summer adventures. We have big dreams and exotic locations in mind. Only time will tell if we will realize some of the most exciting ones, but we definitely took a big step in our dream of summers away with this year's adventure.

2017: my grandparents' lake house in South Carolina

2018: my parents' condo in Jackson Hole, WY

I've been explaining myself all summer, but you see, my family lives in Jackson. I'm from SC and still have most of my family there. But one member of my family, brother Chris, visited Jackson in college on a NOLS outdoor leadership course and stayed for something like 15 years now. My family started coming out for Christmas in 2005 (I think) and all those visits led a second member of my family, my littlest sister Claire, to seek out an internship here during her college years. Then she came back and she stayed too.

Now we've come out and I see why a person would stay!  It's quite possible that one day, a little Landry will relocate out West and start their story with, "well, back when I was little, my parents brought me out to Jackson, and..."

Wouldn't you want to stay?

The vistas just don't stop.

We've been wrapped up in nature all summer and have seen its best sides. While Jacksonites might not love every season of their year, a New Orleanian is quite happy to come visit during the summer. Goodbye humidity. So long 95 degrees. Thankfully, we were duly warned and brought our equivalent of winter wear, including fleece jackets. In June, there were nights in the 20s and days that didn't get above 60. In July, it's still a brisk 48 in the morning, but hits the 80s midday.

The only thing sad to see the humidity go were Luke's curls. I refuse to cut his hair until we get back to New Orleans and see how much it springs back up.

We were tremendously lucky to be offered my parents' condo, which they were largely not using due to my SC sister welcoming their sixth grandchild to the world. My Jackson sister and brother-in-law also loaned us their car making our summer very affordable. Rather than pay pricey Jackson Hole flights, we flew in to Salt Lake City in early June and took the opportunity to explore a new place on the way here.

Jacob always has big ideas. (Hello Urban South.) As soon as we decided on Jackson for 2018, he was encouraging me to make a longer trek. Lest you think he doesn't want us around, you should know that he calls us no less than 7 times each day and has regretted (a little) his big thinking. We each made a trade off to make this summer happen. He's been a bit lonely. I've been a bit single parented-out. But it's definitely been worth it.

We structured the summer like this and here's how it played out:

- Week 1: Family Vacation: Salt Lake City, travel to Jackson, Yellowstone trip = idyllic

- Week 2: Jacob leaves :( Immersion in Jackson Hole life = Mama second guesses the whole experiment

- Week 3: Jack and Cora go to the Teton Science Camp = our goal of exposing the kids to new places and experiences begins to be realized in a deeper way and Mama's sanity is restored

- Week 4: My parents and then Jacob come for a week and a half of more vacation - with the chance to really explore the Grand Teton National Park = a huge appreciation growing for the National Park System

- Week 5: Jacob leaves on a Tuesday morning = single parenting round 2 goes better than round 1 in a week of library visits, exploring, a good bit of yelling, and Daddy growing lonesome back in NOLA

- Week 6: Jack, Cora, and Luke go to the Idaho campus of the Teton Science School = amid horses, mountain passes, farm animals, and ranches, team Landry knows this summer was a success

- Week 7: Jack, Cora, and Luke go to a church based day camp with a Wild, Wild West theme = Courtney caps off the summer with some well deserved solo time and the kids continue to explore around Jackson, including horseback riding for J and C and a wagon ride for L

- Week 8: The family reunites in Chicago for a final week of vacation with friends on a Michigan lake

"I not a baby, I a big kid!"

For a while now, I have wanted to capture all the sweet things Luke says, but many of the ones I wanted to record have already changed. He's growing SO fast! He's officially 2 years, 7 months. He's at that awesome stage where he's got a certain degree of independence but he's still clinging to babyhood and pretty much everything he says we think is cute. Except when he's full on trouble. But even that is cute depending on our state of mind.

For months, he said "my" instead of "I" and it was precious. He says "I" now...

For many months, he would cutely say "Thank you for duh clean pants!" when I changed his diaper. I used to say this and he picked it up.

Right now, he's all about the fact that he is a big kid, so we hear a lot of "My am NOT a baby" "Cora say I uh baby!" and "I a big kid!"  Last week, I said "Luke you are beautiful" and he said "I not beautiful, I a big kid!"

He often lets me know what "Cora said."  This sounds like "Cora say yucky Lou-Lou," or "Cora say stinky Lou-Lou." On the other hand, he loves his sister. Today, he ran toward her as she emerged, groggily from her room, and just stood in the hallway waving to her. Seeing her through the play ground fence at morning drop-off is what makes his tears stop.

He has cried every single morning since late August when he's left at school. This took me by surprise. I had him in my mind as "third-baby-smooth-sailing." I was feeling super comfortable as Luke moved to Waldorf where he would have Ms. Jan, who had taught Jack and Cora and who is a member of my village. I thought it would be simple for Luke to switch schools, thinking that going to school LESS and WITH Cora was an easy transition. But I forgot that even though he'd been in a daycare setting since four months old, that particular setting was all he'd ever known. He was lovingly cared for by Ms "Eya" and Ms Toya in a class of just a handful of children. This year, he moved to being one of the younger kids in a class of 16 and the transition was a little rough. He cried for hours some days 😓 We tried all the positive talk, we tried Jacob handling drop off, we tried a consistent morning routine. Ms. Jan tried letting Luke visit Cora and letting Cora visit Luke. She resorted to a lot of holding Luke. Finally, we brought star blankie too school and that has helped a lot! My little Linus drags it around and one particularly pitiful day when I asked "who did you play with at school?" he said "I play with star blankie." Ms. Jan said he was only too happy to spread star blankie on the ground and lay down with his thumb in his mouth. I think he was having trouble with earlier wake-ups and a much longer stretch until nap, but she's been putting star blankie away more and more and he's doing so much better now. When I arrive at pick-up he runs to me and immediately says "I cried" but now he says "I cried 2 seconds."  As of early November, he seems to love school and just needs to get some tears out at drop-off and then can get on with his day.

He's learning a lot of independence at school. He likes to put his own shoes on now and he proudly packs up his own lunchbox. He also loves how the school sink is one where he can turn the water on/off by himself and get his own soap.

He continues to follow in Jack's and Cora's footsteps as a little reader and often has a book in his arms along with his blankie. In the morning his priority had been mama's milk, book. (Last month we dropped his morning nursing, leaving him nursing only once each day. I thought he might be fully weaned by now but he (and I) can't quite seem to call it completely quits.) His favorite books of the moment are Richard Scarry's Cars, Trucks, and Things that Go, Come Along Daisy, "BB Wolf", Frog and Toad, and Berenstain Bear books.

He's a precious mix of baby and big kid. He still continues to be my soul-child, saying things like "I love you Mommy" unprompted and out of the blue. He says "You are the best Mommy in the whole world" and also tells me "You're kind" and "You're special" and rubs my arm. He loves to be held and he still loves "nuggles" (snuggles).

After peeing in the potty and pooping in his underwear for a while, I think it has all finally clicked. This is exactly the age that Jack and Cora had their aha moments so they definitely share some developmental genes.

He loves to be outside, he'd always be happy to listen to a story, he's obsessed with the Frog and Toad audio CD "Listen to Frog and Toad?", and he just traveled 1,500 miles roundtrip (in one week!) to visit his grandparents and cousins in SC and he was pretty amazing!

My beautiful, blue-eyed, golden-curled soul-child - I LOVE YOU!