Cleaning up his own space

I would like to say that I am amazed at how much kids learn, but since it seems to be a regular state, I think I probably should come up with a different word. L has a habit of pressing his bottle down on the table to squirt water out so he can splash in it, dunk his food, whatever. Well, he has come to learn that after squirting water out, the next step is to wipe it up (because this is generally what we do after he does it, and usually with his bib, since it is typically the handiest thing around). Well, this video really showcases just how much L learns from seeing...

Christmas morning

So I know that I have been severely remiss in updating the blog...we have been pretty busy over here. Jim deposited his manuscript, I had an article due, usual end of the semester stuff including assessment grading for me, then the plague hit our house. We were hit with a double whammy of some vicious upper respiratory infection that seemed to combine the worst of a cold and a flu into one virus; then what we have deduced as the rotavirus, requiring numerous after-hours calls to the nurse line, urgent care visits, anti-emitics for myself and L, and even an IV drip for myself. So, Christmas morning needless to say we kept very very low key since we were all still pretty roughed up.

Here are a few pics and a video...

still not entirely sure what to do with a wrapped gifty...he's also sitting on the doggie fleece blanket that I made for him.
















I found this HUGE dog book at Sam's club and Logan LOVES it. He sits on it, lays on it, and gives all the dogs kissies!

















A few of Kim's relatives sent Logan some moola for his mom to pick somethign out for him. We decided to "splurge" on a kid-sized club chair. Shockingly we love it as much as he does and use it fairly frequently to park our buns on as well! Here he is "reading" in it.

















This video is of Logan wielding his new wooden popper toy...Grammy had asked me if there was anything that Logan wanted. And I said, YES. She was somewhat surprised as really how many 15 months old actually know that they want something. However, Logan had already tried to walk off with his friend, C's, popper on more than one occasion, so we settled on the wodden IKEA popper which is not as loud and obnoxious as the plastic one, but still loads of fun! While he now runs it along the floor, he was so excited with the prospect of his own popper toy that for the first 20 minutes or so after opening it, all he did was run around holding it up in the air.

Feliz Navidad

Here is a little video of L's new dance moves. He seems to draw on the macarena for influence... :)

Halloween and promises

I feel like I am so behind on my posting, but I think it is just more that we have been pretty busy and have a lot of photo opportunities. Here are some fun pictures from Halloween and the slideshow of all the pics that I have so far (Barb has some too) will be loaded to your left.

Here's one of Logan and I while we were trick or treating.

















Here's one with him carrying the bag that Grammy bought for him--though he kept stealing Caleb's hard pumpkin pail!

















Here is Josh (the Angler fish), Caleb (the dragon), and Logan (the ninja)!

















Go Ozzy!


















Dada and L!

Pumpkin and Apple Picking

L and I discovered Clearview Orchards in Haslett. Definitely not as wonderful as the orchard that Jim and I used to go to in Iowa City (Wilson's) mostly due to the lack of fresh turnovers, but it will do for now. We enjoyed the beautiful fall weather and gave Jim a much needed quiet house to work on his manuscript. We did some mini-pumpkin picking (as Logan couldn't pick the big ones!) And then we filled the pockets of our fleece with as many apples as would fit! L also picked out two mini-mini gourds for his friends C & J.

Here's our little gourmand smelling the gourds!

















L thought it was pretty neat to walk along and find pumpkins on the ground - little autumnal surprises.

















Here he is picking an apple all by himself. I missed the one of him trying to smell the apple on the tree, but suffice it to say, it was pretty darn adorable!

















We're actually in the parking area for this one, but I had put the pumpkin down to load some of the stuff into the car, and Logan got all excited about the discovery again!





















Here's a self-portrait of us on the beautiful day!

Tenterffic!

Here are some cute ones of L and C playing in the tent! So much fun! Sadie was not fond of it since it took up valuable getaway space, but the boys had a great time!

Coffee Table v. Logan

While I'm sure that this will not be the first big bruise and black eye, it was nonetheless fairly traumatic! L and I were playing around his fun little Ikea tent (pictures of him playing with his buddy C to come), he fell head first into the edge of the coffee table. Immediately, he had a scratch and a bump, but as the day wore on, it completely turned into a shiner. He doesn't seem worse for the wear, but he does look pretty tough now. If only Halloween were this weekend!

Here's Jim with our little bruised boxer. Maybe next time he'll win his battle with the long time competitor, the coffee table.

















This one you can actually see if fairly up close and even see the scrape he got (the one by his eyebrow) from the day before when he fell into the front screen door.

Truck or Treat

Our township had a pre-Halloween event involving all the township trucks, everything from bulldozers, cranes, ambulances, fire trucks, and snow plows -- even the book mobile! Logan thought it was pretty cool ("tuck! tuck! tuck!"). But because all the kids were allowed inside the trucks, that meant that there was a lot of horn honking and blowing, this part Logan didn't like so much! He got a little scared, overwhelmed, and clingy. But overall, he still had a great time exploring.


Here is one of him after a big horn honk -- both Jim and I got lots of cuddles!
















Here he put his ninja costume to its advantage in his little warrior sitting pose in the bull dozer shovel.
















Here he is exploring the outside of the crane.

















Here he is with Jim in the cab of the crane, probably the favorite of the bunch. I think this is the first time that he has seen a big crane like this.





















He was so happy to find something more his size at this event. He played a lot with the cones!





















This is an attempt at a family picture -- oh well -- we tried!

gobble gobble

Here is L practicing for Thanksgiving! One of his sitters, S, got him to gobble on cue! Of course, now J asks him to gobble all the time! So all I hear is "What sound does the turkey make?" and then L answers with the gobbling noise. I'm trying to get him to respond by making a monkey noise :)

Happy Greenbee Baby

Here are two pics from the photo shoot, one of just L and then one of him and his buddy, C!

Adventures in using a fork

We haven't had much luck with using a spoon, so when Logan started to express interest in using a fork, we thought, why not? Here he is trying to use a fork - fairly well too since he has only been trying it out for the past few days!

Heritage Festival

Last weekend, we attended our town's heritage festival. There was a log cabin with people recreating a typical 19th century day, making soap, candles, dying and spinning yarn, cooking over the fire, etc. Logan had a great time. Here are some more memorable moments:

• Dancing by the gazebo to the traditional Irish singer
• Screaming at the top of his lungs and pointing to the pony, and saying "DOG!!"
• Calling the baby alpacas dogs, as well
  
• Joining in the Nokomis Native American Welcome dance ceremony, even though he wanted to walk in the opposite way
• Watching one of the heritage volunteers spin yarn
• Wiping down his own stroller tray like a big boy, all by himself
  

Tomato burglar

Last night, Logan and I shared a tomato and he kept asking for more of "this, this, this!". This morning before his nap, he and I were investigating what was in our vegetable and fruit basket and he was very interested in the tomato. At first he was satisfied with just holding it in his hand, putting it in the basket, picking it up again, smelling it, but then he took a big bite out of it. At this point, I put him in his chair, and he ate the entire tomato like a peach. Very cute! This video is part of that, and when I ask him if it is yummy, he answers "Yum" - also very cute!

Wooly wooly

Here are some new pictures of Logan sporting his brand new woolen "longies" that my Aunt Judy made for him. They are pretty darn cute and will definitely keep him warm in his room, which gets quite chilly at night.

Here he is getting ready for nigh nigh, brushing his teeth like a big boy! He is working hard on his bottom 1st year molars. The left is starting to break through and the right is really swollen. So those will be 9 & 10. Good thing he loves to brush those teeth!




















He is not too happy about being "restrained" to take a picture, but it is a good close up of the woolies!





















Here is a great "action" shot of him on the move. Pretty much, L does not walk anywhere anymore. He runs. I guess, his thought is why walk when I can run? And I have no good logical answer to that - as if logic could work on a 1 year old. He goes for it, full gusto, no fear, no hesitation, no thoughts of I might not be able to do this, just fully confident in his footing and his ability.
















I'm always amazed at the lessons of extroversion, absolute joy in small daily wonders like the blender or the coffee maker, faith in one's ability, and a unshakable confidence in one's ability even if he goes "boom" that I learn from him daily, hourly even.


By the way, for those of you waiting for L's big photo debut, HGB has a few pictures up on the their website. On the RIGHT there should be a link for Foods For Living, East Lansing, MI. When you click on it, you will see Logan's picture on the first page of 6 images. There is one of him (dark blue with light blue striped tank) with his friend C (green, red, yellow striped tank) and then one of him alone! The boys are pretty cute! If you are interested in seeing the whole photo shoot, all 72 pictures. Let me know by email and I will send you a link!

http://www.happygreenbee.com/photoshoot.cfm?sid=30

L's first cooking show...

Okay, as I said before, L really enjoys helping with appliances. Today, we decided to make some breadcrumbs and Logan was a super helper!





And here is one from dinner the other night. Jim thought it would be fun to give our toddler the empty wine glass to see what he would do with it. Apparently, there was absolutely no confusion on this front!

I got rhythm

This little video is of Logan trying to walk with both of the maracas in his hands. We got them for him for his birthday and he loves them! At least, he wasn't wielding them at the dog!

Logan: the Barista

I had to compress this video, so I'm hoping that it will work out okay. It is a bit long, and it has 2 parts (I got to play with iMovie, yeah!). L is crazy about helping Jim with the espresso maker, so here they are in the morning making J's coffee! Too cute! More to come, I have some cute footage of L wielding his maracas that he got for his birthday....

In more detailed news, L is developing too fast - let me say for the record, L, please SLOW down! He is now using both hands to play with his toys in a more deliberate fashion. For instance with his stacking ring toy, he holds onto the ring with one hand, gets it over the peg, and then steadies it with the other to match the hole up to the peg. It's important work. I will try to get a good video of it without interrupting his work of course!

Ode for Logan

Ode to Logan on the Occasion of the
Very First Anniversary of His Auspicious Birth

What can a mother say looking back on the first year of her son’s life?

As I am told by so many more seasoned and presumably wise parents, there are many inconveniences:

the interrupted or sleepless nights

the indignity of being peed on, vomited on, and even finding poop on an article of clothing and not being sure how it got there

the nips, pinches, and now more than often the acrobatic twists and contortions that accompany nursing

the helplessness to prevent the bumps, goose eggs, bruises, scrapes, and lots of tears that come with the tentative, wobbly first attempts to stand and then walk

the inability to form intelligent or sustained thought on any topic--ever
the loss of personal freedom to decide spontaneously to go somewhere or even get out of the house in under twenty minutes

the ever present guilt that we live with, when we are working that we are not with our families and when we are with our families that we are not working

While I might wish to say that many of these things are not true, I really can’t: In this past year, I have been exhausted, peed on, ended up with poop on my sock or my shirt or both, have breastmilk stains on the majority of my shirts, have been pinched to the point of breaking out into hives, had to endure wrestling-style nursing sessions, watched in fear and utter powerlessness as I couldn’t protect you from falling off the bed, been unable to concentrate on my project like I might like, and missed social events and even lost contact with a few friends...

But--I have you.

I have you.

You are my miracle - my little squishy alien bean who fought and stuck and stayed with me

You are my miracle - you fell asleep on my chest and breathed your little strange, hesitant baby breaths

You are my miracle - you trusted me with your care; you taught me what you needed and when and how

You are my miracle - you showed me a world of adventure, fearlessness, extroversion, and joy

You are my miracle - you showed me unconditional love in those big, wet open mouth kisses, the razberries on my belly and my breast while nursing, and even the insistent, “MAMA” when I walk in the door

You are my miracle - you find your work and your meaning in the day-to-day, in taking your diapers out the drawer and then replacing them, in moving magnets around on the door, in following Sadie around and around the house

You are my miracle - you teach me about what balance really means

You are my miracle - my son

And today, I celebrate you and your first year, Happy Birthday

two cake videos!

Okay the videos are a bit chaotic...grammy is on skype and on speakerphone b/c we had problems with audio, C is in the background chatting it up, and then we're also of course having a party...but here it is, the chaos of a first birthday in all its glory!




This first video is of L eating his initial bites of cake....




This second video is a bit more into the cake eating experience and he is much more covered in cake than the first one!

birthday bash

Today we celebrated L's birthday. And we were very thankful that a few very close friends braved the torrential downpour to help us out with all the cake! L had a great time - loved the cake, somehow learned the word immediately even though up until this point has never actually had any cake!

Here's one of the cake that I made him! I used mini-oreos and chocolate chips for the paws!

















Here is one of L giving Sadie a treat!

















A great one of L in his birthday hat!

















L fully enjoying the sugar and chocolate with our good friend and neighbor, M

















Post-cake mini-bath in the sink!

Big day for the big boy

Logan is sleeping sounding while Jim and I sit up together reminiscing and retelling the story of his birth to each other. Tracing out the hours before 7:33am on September 8 to see what we were doing when. In many ways it feels like no time has passed at all, but then when we think back we know exactly how much time has passed -- our little squishy guy is now walking and talking -- he has very definite ideas of what he likes and isn't afraid to tell us. He chases the dog around the house trying to share his toys with her. He eats finger food meals on his own. He has figured out how to do so much, both on his own and with our help. He crawls up the stairs for bedtime on his own. He walks to his chair for meal times. He even accompanies me to the bathroom so that he can help flush his own poop and then affix the lock on the toilet back again! He is already communicating in sentences. His first sentence was while watching Sadie outside doing her morning business, he turned to me to say "dog, poop?". His second was actually two sentences was far more complicated: "Nur nur done. Gotta go dog." To which, I understood him to me that he was done nursing and wanted to go look for the dog. We can't even keep track of all the new words he says anymore. He's a hilarious and goofy little guy. He enjoys listening to music, everything from Ralph's World and Johnny Cash to Iron and Wine and Frank Sinatra. His favorite toys and books have pictures of dogs in them. He loves to give hugs, mostly to Sadie. He also loves to bonk heads (lightly) and he often tries this as an a playful way to extend pre-nap and nigh night routines. So here is to Logan - the big birthday boy - now one year old!

Feed me, mama!

After I came home from work yesterday, L was fairly fussy, crying, whiny, etc. I was ready to sort of chalk it up to teething, me being gone for work, and such. But when I sat him down in his chair with food in front of him, it was clear that he was just plain hungry. Here's what he ate:

• 4 slices of zuchini
• 1/2 mini bella mushroom
• 4 chunks of eggplant
• 5 slices of chicken & artichoke sausage
• 1/4 small potato
• small bread heel
• 1/4 peach
• lotsa water
• couple sips of soymilk (by accident)

The meal ended with him saying "teesh" for peach. Very cute. The same thing pretty much happened today with dinner. He ate and ate and ate. Then we cleaned him up, and he walked back to his chair and tried to climb into it. So we figured, he might still be hungry. So I gave him some peaches. He ate those down. And was still looking for more. So I got him some cut up watermelon. and then more watermelon! It was actually fairly insane.

I think I need to let both of L's babysitters know how much the boy can actually eat. I think that whatever they are giving him for afternoon snack simply isn't enough. Feed me, more!!

So busy getting big...

I've been keeping track of some of L's new words, what he finds funny, and cute moments on a scrap of paper. Right now, I've scribbled in minute words even in the margins, so it is definitely time to update the blog. The semester started, L is now walking the majority of the time, Jim came home, whew, what a week!

Here are some highlights!

• L has some new things that he thinks are just hilarious: Sadie sneezed (it's allergy season even for her) and L laughed for several minutes; eskimo kisses get him really going with that deep belly laugh that he has; he also finds me washing my face something very entertaining as well; and pretty much any words that begin with P or Z he thinks are pretty funny.
  
  
• He has learned a host of new words (see list to the left for all of them). But here are a few highlights. Poop, Burp, , Ter (water), Gar Gar (Sugar Sugar - the song, not the sweetener).
  
  
• His favorite new fruit is pluots; we had to fight over the last one!
  
  
• He loves watching rocks get "plunked" into a bucket of water.
  
  
• He was walking down the hallway, let out a pretty big fart, turned around and said, "Broom?" (for bah-room, which is what we say when he farts). Pretty cute!
  
  
• We let Sadie out in the morning for her "business" and Logan as always stood at the sliding glass doors to watch her. And he looked at me and said, "Poop dog" - pretty much I think that counts as his first sentence! :)
  
  
• In one of his books, he fills in the words. "This little baby wants her mommy...MAMA" and "This little baby is sleepy...NIGHT NIGHT" Very cute!!
  
  
• He is now thriving with some new freedoms (to go along with some restrictions in freedom, mainly consisting of me reminding him to be gentle with mama, no biting, no hitting, etc). He walks to his chair for snacks and meal time. He climbs up the stairs for nap time, anytime we go upstairs, and usually for bed time, though sometimes he is too tired. He is learning how to wipe up his placemat. And he is even learning how to wipe his bottom when we change his diaper. He has mostly mastered drinking out of a cup when we hold it, but not so much when he holds it.
  

Now that I have written some of these out, I know why we've been so busy! Hopefully, more picture to come!

A meal in the life of L...

This is a rather long video of L just being L at a mealtime. We are slowly introducing him to the spoon with wet food. Today he was experimenting with black beans and sweet potato with a lot of oatmeal to make it thick. And as I knew he was going to get a bath after this, it really didn't matter how messy he got. But in the video, he dances a little, asks to nurse with both a sign and by saying "nigh nur" (different than nur nur, which is nursing unassociated with nap or sleep - L coined these himself), says his infamous "ahh" after drinking, plays with the beans in his hand, gets the spoon in his mouth at least once, gets his elbow in the bowl, and drops the spoon to say "uh-oh". At some point he also says "dog dog" - when doesn't he say dog? Usually we end up having a "fight" pretty much at every meal over his attempt to feed the dog; he has even come to keep a little pile of food that he reserves for her off his place mat for "dog dog". If it wasn't so cute and deliberate (he really does have a plan!), it might be frustrating! It's an ordinary meal on an ordinary day, filled with wonderful and extraordinary little moments with L talking, interacting, learning, and problem solving. He really is such a cool little guy.

Working, giving love, waiting for dog...

Here are some fun new ones of Logan.

L really misses his Grammy! Here is a big fat wet kiss that Grammy got right before leaving!
















Here, I was unloading the dishwasher, and I turned to the left to grab a dish and turned back and I couldn't find L. He had climbed on top of the dishwasher door and was sitting there under the pulled out top rack. I got him down (fully expecting him to do it again) and grabbed the camera, but all he did was try to climb into it. Still cute, though - he just wants to help!


















And in this one, L was pretty tired after a way too short nap, but was also missing his doggy, so he kept laying down on her bed and calling for her, "Dog dog? dog dog...dog?" Very cute!

Early birthday present

Of course, while Grammy has been here there has been a lot of spoiling going on - as it should be. No doubt L will definitely miss her tomorrow when she goes back to NY, especially since she leaves and I start back to work with the semester. And it has been nice to have her here for L when J is still in NY teaching at Bard.

L received his 1st birthday gift early so that Grammy could enjoy it with him. They got to take a walk, and generally L was pretty good about staying seated in the wagon. He also decided he wanted to walk the wagon around with some rocks and cherrios that he put in there.






















Here's one of L and Grammy - though noticeably, L could not stop eating to just take the picture. That's my boy! He was enjoying the fresh corn way too much to smile for the picture.

That's a spicy meatball!

L was introduced to meatballs yesterday and has since taken quite an affinity to them. Here is a rather long, but hilarious video of him eating his dinner, meatballs, pasta, and sweet potatoes. It is important to note that he had eaten with us, mom and I finished our dinner, and L was still eating. While for most kids, this would be because they are slow eaters, as you can tell from the video, this does not apply in L's case - I honestly think for some meals, particularly dinner, he eats more than I do!

















Here is a close-up of a L taking a huge bite out of a meatball.

Afternoon of Fun...

Every day Logan, Sadie, and I (and now Grammy) head out to a little stretch of yard behind the neighboring townhouses and we throw the tennis ball until Sadie is exhausted. L is having a great time watching her run again and again and again. He now as we pass the front door where the chucker is kept, asks "Dog??" to see if we can play then with her. Some days we do this twice a day because he is so insistent, and really Sadie doesn't mind much at all. The video here is L watching Sadie while she enjoys a good game of fetch.




Here is a pic taken soon after the chucker video, when L was playing in the mulch and dirt - getting really really dirty before dinner.

one more video

sorry this one wouldn't load last time!

Walking!!

As promised, here are three videos of L showing off his new walking skills! Unfortunately, trying to capture this on film has been a bit difficult - so all of these videos are pretty short, but they do showcase L with his new swagger! B had a doctor's appointment so she dropped the boys (J & C) over for a playdate and the kids got to have a lot of floor time together this morning. The first video has Logan walking and then dancing! And the second one is of him walking and laughing so proud of himself. The last one is of him walking to me and then falling. All in a morning's work!

Getting the hang of this spoon thing...

Logan has of course been working very hard on eating on his own but usually this involves his fingers. Sometimes he smells the food, sometimes he puts it up to his ear (hello??), sometimes he gives it to the dog, to me, or to J, sometimes he likes to push it between the tiny crack between his chair and the table so it lands on the floor (again for Sadie), and other times he likes to drop it behind his back. But here he is playing with the spoon. I've been putting food on it and then letting him try to get it up to his mouth, sometimes it works, sometimes not. Here I managed to get on film him putting a cherrio on the spoon (like I do) and then instead of putting the spoon to his mouth, he picked up the spoon and took the cherrio out with his other hand! Super cute!! And of course, the pictures are extra cute because we had a colorful meal of beets, avocados, etc.

Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog

Okay, so only one of these has to do with dog, dog, dog, dog, dog...but it is my favorite! Here are some recent pics and a video.

Here is a pic of the boys while B & I were blueberry picking. They were having fun with their GO-GO Gadget arms and trying to help pick berries.
















Here is L in what J has dubbed his 40-year old Bolinas hippie outfit...L's friend J made this tie-dye onesie for L, add a bandana, and a cute baby, and really, priceless!















Grammy and grandpa sent us a package and L was having a ball with of course with the box...
















This video is hilarious. Sadie came home after being at day care all day and L clearly just missed her terribly. He kept saying dog, dog, dog, DOG, dog, DOG!! over and over again. I got the camera, and managed to get most of it on camera. Lots of hugs and kisses - he just had so much to tell her!

Strike a pose...

Our local health food store is sponsoring a HappyGreenBee photo shoot on August 23. L is signed up with his friend C. We have been told by store representatives that any photos that get posted to HGB's website will of course be available for purchase. And what luck, Aunt S bought an HGB outfit for him for Christmas--though the photographer did say that they will dress the babies when we get there. Here's a link to their site: http://www.happygreenbee.com/photo_shoots/index.html#2008/06/15/brooklyn-boing-boing

We'll let you know how it turns out and when the photos go up of our little organic model!

Fun with friends

L has had a big summer with friends. Here are a couple of pics from "play dates" with friends...

Here he is with C and K (both sons of friends of K's from LCC). The boys were really enjoying the pool.
















And here are the little guys all in a row at J's birthday party...they are all growing up so fast!