School photo

We just got Logan's school picture. Such a big man! We can hardly believe it. But we are also surrounded by so much of his toddler love to help us navigate him growing up. Logan frequently requests "BIG hugs" and he also just informed me that "Logan LOVES messy kisses" which means that he loves to give kisses after eating something messy. He also asks for us to "talk". Frequently he will even specifically ask for a conversation about a particular topic, such as what he just asked "why baby throw the cement truck?" or "why sadie knock Logan on floor?" and so the big existential questions of toddler begin.

A bit of a back log...please forgive!

Here is a shot of Logan's first foray into spaghetti. Previously to this, he only wanted to eat penne and rigatoni. And considering how open-minded he was in all other food areas, I was willing to tolerate his odd aversion to other kinds of pasta. He now LOVES spaghetti. He particularly loves biting the middle of the noodle after commenting to us, "Whoah, big pasta noodle!"


Here is one of Caleb and Logan right before going trick or treating. Logan is a penguin, waddle waddle. Unfortunately, he really took to our requests to "be clear with your words," so he would walk up to houses and demand "More Candy," no please, no happy halloween, or trick or treat. I guess he just couldn't figure out how "happy Halloween" or "trick or treat" would yield candy so he just jumped right to "more candy". He also was not such a big fan of all the loud, motion-activated decorations.



Here's one of Logan "smiling" for the camera on the field trip to the apple orchard with his class. He had a great time. What isn't to have a good time with, lots of apples, room to run around, and all his school friends.


Here's one from the summer of Logan with Grammy and Pop Pop! He had a blast with them. He still asks for walks with Pop Pop to go and see boats.



Perfect - couldn't have been timed better! The joys of toddlerhood! I may need to use this one for the holiday card!


Sorry for the lack of posts. Logan has kept us quite busy. He is very investigative and quite talkative now. The "whys" and "wheres" have begun!

what happens when you eat lentils?

Here is Jim prompting Logan with some potty humor: "What happens when you eat lentils?" which of course quickly devolves into a discussion my bathroom routines -- clearly I've got my work cut out for me with these two boys!





Here is a picture of a huge car ramp that the two of them built!

Morning play date with the C & J

Here are some great pics from this morning's playdate with C & J...activities included practicing animal yoga (L even "helped" B with her down dog pose), tucking a komodo dragon into bed, practicing "cutting" up wooden fruits and veggies, playing with trucks and buses, reading, playing with little "babies," stacking blocks, playing with trains, and of course snacking.

New table!

We lucked out at our local kid's consignment store and picked up a beautiful maple kid's table and chairs. So we moved the dog bed out of the kitchen into the hall and set up L's new little snack table. He immediately made it his own and started pouring water from one glass to another. I even showed him how to peel a carrot, but he was mostly interested in taking the peels and putting them in his glass of water. But since Jim is in NY at Bard, we decided to have dinner at the table. I had him mix up the cucumber salad at the table (sliced cukes, a little soy, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds) and then he served the salad to himself on the little plate. Unbelievably earnest and cute.


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Also, lest anyone forget about our dog, here is our neighbor feeding the dogs cheeseburger treats in honor of Kodi's 8th birthday. Sadie woofed it down in one bite! Only surprising in that I was able to capture it on film!

squinchy smile

L now understands that we "pose" for the camera and has developed this totally adorable squinchy smile face...here are a few versions of that smile:







I also without thinking asked him to say "Cheese" for the camera; here he is reproducing the sign for cheese. I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't take the picture.

The young artist...

Here are a few paintings that L did at school. I thought it would be nice to upload a few for everyone to see.

new pics and news...

Here is one picture of Jim and his new grill that we got as a combination Mom's and Dad's day gift from his mom! Thank you, Mumsy!




This one is of Logan from his school picnic. It was a lot of fun; lots of people, but L had a great time running around, investigating the water fountains, stepping in puddles, eating his weight in watermelon, and seeing friends from school.


In other news, L is now sleeping in his "big boy" bed (a mattress on the floor). We had a few rough nights where he was pretty upset at the transition, we had lots of cuddling, singing songs, and kisses to help him through it. But now, two nights in a row, L is happy to cuddle and sing a few songs, including his own variations "Twinkle Twinkle Little Banana" and he enjoys making up lyrics to a nigh nigh song. We then give lots of kisses and then he waves good night. Big boy!

where's the baby bean?

Here's a cute little video. Jim happened upon a great way to help L finish dinner if he gets too distracted; it works especially well with small food items, such as the beans.

whoah!

L also is "mimicking" our excitement at his accomplishments, "Whoa" covers a lot of ground with respect to pee in the potty, boogies, huge lego towers, or trucks on the road. Pretty cute!

Logan, who eats bugs?

Logan and Jim have developed a cute little "joke" game...

J: Who eats bugs?
L: Dadie.
J. Who else eats bugs?
L: Blub blubs.
J: Who else eats bugs?
L: Dada.
J: Dada?! Dada doesn't eat bugs, you big turkey. Who else eats bugs?
L: Mama.
J: Mama? Mama might eat some bugs. Okay, who else eats bugs? Does baby eat bugs?
L: Noo-ah

Here's one version caught on film...

All wrapped up...

A close friend told me over her "struggle" whether to sell her Moby wrap at a mom-to-mom's sale; and it got me thinking that it had been a really long time since L had been in the moby. Usually when he wants a "hugging wrap" as we call them here, we opt for a more easy-on easy-off carrier because he usually just wants a little 5-10 minute pick-me-up and not much more. But today, L was sick, throwing up and diarrehea, so I asked him if he wanted to go in the hugging wrap and put him in the moby. We cuddled for a really long time. I made sure Jim snapped off a few pictures because I thought it would be neat to see how much he has grown since he was a little peanut in the wrap so long ago!

Here he is about 3 months old...with C in the other wrap, and B & I loving our moby's.




And here are two from today...

Mom's day weekend...

Here's the chalk art of L and J; lots of fish, but a firetruck, a duck and some other stuff. Super fun!


L has been very interested in babies lately, so I picked up a small "baby" doll at the store, which he adores. Here he is giving it a kiss and then laying it "nigh nigh" in his toy plane. Ridiculous adorable. To only be outdone when the plane tipped a little during one of the many trips nigh night that the baby took, and he said "uh-oh baby uh-oh" ;)



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Jim took L to the firehouse while I tried to cram as much work in as possible so that I could take the day off for Mom's day. L was very impressed by the firetrucks. If you ask him about it here is what he says: "Whoa. Wow. Tuck [Truck]. Whoa. Tuck. Dada." Hilarious. Presumably for a 20 month old it is a pretty great time! He came back with a coloring book and a great plastic fire chief hat, which wore around the house up until the camera came out with his rain boots and underwear!

Reading with L...

Now that L has a bit more words under his belt, he is really enjoying reading with us! This is a "long" video (about 3 minutes long) of Jim reading How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food. L kind of knew that he was being expected to perform a little for the camera, but he still complied somewhat. Except rather than our typical reading a book slowly where he finds the cat or the dog, everything that is out of place, and the food, he wanted to speedread it this time. Still cute; sometimes he fills in with words/sounds and others with signs, usually please and more; but this time I don't think he signed please since he skipped past that page fairly quickly. His favorite pages are the one where the spaghetti is all tossed up in the air and when the dinosaur sticks beans up his nose; thankfully, the beans up the nose is less interesting to him than the fact that the chairs and table are toppled over.



Other fun news and notes...L now sings E-I-E-I-O or some version of that, then signs that Old McDonald has a "cow"; if left to him, the poor farmer would only have a cow! He also appropriately provides a "POP" when "monkey thought it was all in fun...POP...goes the weasel". The other night, I overheard him in bed: "nigh nigh...mamma dada ooooh...e-i-e-i-e-i-ooo...mama dada oooh...nigh nigh oooh" very cute singing himself to sleep with his own song.

And today during a moment of frustration, we made up lyrics to "Shake the Sillies Out" to something about moving our mad out, clapping our crankyness out, shaking our frustration out, jumping our grumpies out, shouting our anger out (AAAH!) -- that was his favorite part; soon he was laughing and asking for more of the AAAH! part.

BABY!!

Here is a totally cute video of Logan saying his new favorite word...baby! He now recognizes himself in pictures and it is pretty cute. He is definitely in the middle of something developmental-wise, because he has learned a bunch of new words and signs fairly quickly. And even today while I was putting him down for nap he put together the following signs: "itsy bitsy spider" + "more" + "please" (with both hands rubbing his chest, he really meant it!) to ask me to read the book again.

Here are some of his new forays into language:

• pointing outside and saying "curl" (squirrel) + "dadie" (Sadie) because he loves it when Sadie gets excited by her friend the squirrel.
• pointing to the floor and saying "bug" + "dadie" because he just thought it was so cool one time when Sadie ate a bug off the floor (he even remembers exactly where that happened and tries to make it happen again or asks for "more" of it).
• talking about the various animals he sees out at the farms and if they went "nigh nigh," so "kitty nigh nigh" or the sign for cow "nigh nigh"
• during lunch today, he was pretending with his piece of bread, "gotta go" (making it travel across the table) then "nigh nigh" and laying it down on the table.
• pointing outside and saying "poop" + "dadie" + "dada" + "boom" (and before you get any ideas, about where Jim poops, what L is refering to is the now almost daily ritual he is obsessed with which is going outside with Jim to pick up Sadie's poop and then putting it in the dumpster (referred to as "boom" for the sound most things make when being deposited into it).
  

International Night at School

Today was International Night at L's Montessori! And we have been bustling and busy to get ready for it. I made empanadas de pollo (yum!). I also helped out at the school in decorating the room. I worked mostly on the rainforest that you can see. L enjoyed the musical instruments, listening to lots of different kinds of music, running in any open space, and of course, saying hi to all the animals in each classroom. He also very much enjoyed his bowl of black bean soup with sour cream and chips. And we all pretty much had a great time eating all different kinds of food we don't usually get to taste here in MI - by the time we got to the cafeteria, all the empanadas were gone, so it was lucky that we tucked in during the day when I made them!

Here's a picture of us in "Australia" - L was coloring in a boomerang.















Here's L as a one of the Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London.
















Here's L walking across the Andes in South America!
















Here's L the panda in Asia.

















Here's a good picture of the rainforest that I helped work on.
















One of L's favorite play stations...bugs in a gooey mixture of cornstarch and water -- what isn't fun about that?




















One of the things that L enjoyed most was seeing all of the different animals in all the rooms. In the toddler's South American room, the teachers had gotten a parent to bring in their beautiful bird, Romeo, who was 14 years old.
















The other favorite part of visiting each room was investigating all the different kinds of musical instruments and dancing - here he is jamming with some maracas.















Here is L and J saying hi to the BIG monkey in South America...

Potter Park Zoo

First let me say, that I really resist local zoos a lot. Having grown up so close to a large conservatory like the Bronx Zoo it is very difficult for me to see animals with limited to no habitat. However, with a toddler, I thought, okay, let's try the local zoo, maybe it isn't as bad as I imagine it. And some parts weren't as bad as I thought, but others were! It was nice for L to be able to see all the animals, excepting for a few that were still indoors because it still gets quite cool here, especially at night. And it was a nice activity to do with his friend C and with my parents. Here are a few pics and an alarming video...

Here is a great picture of the two boys...I can't believe how big they are! The two were talking up a storm. L kept saying all the animals were eating crackers (then trying to share his crackers with them) or they were sleeping. C said as they were leaving the park "Bye Bye Logan's Grammy and Pop Pop" - so cute and sweet!
















Here L is feeding the pygmy goats in the petting zoo part of the park...

















L: "Kitty"
me: "not quite sweety"
L: "Roar"
me: "The lion is roaring"
C: "Angry lion"
















If you have similar feelings towards zoos, you may not want to watch this. Apparently this lioness was brought to the PPZ when she was 6 months old with her brother. She is now 19 years old. The enclosure that you see here in is only the indoor portion, there is a "larger" "habitat" outside as well as a basement facility. However, as there are three lions in total who don't apparently get along, they must be separated. She is an angry lion! And who could blame her. None of the adults there had ever seen an animal held in captivity act like this. The lioness is in a sound proof enclosure (thankfully for the kids b/c otherwise I think it would have been downright terrifying).

Grammy and Pop Pop visit

Grammy and Pop Pop arrived on Friday last week and left this morning and we had a great time. Pop Pop took care of our mouse problem, built and fixed a number of things for L, including his train table, a fun outdoor musical instrument, and a "petting zoo" for his stuffed animals (no pics of this yet). SuperGrammy as she will now be called just seemed to make everything easier from getting L out of the house and to school, to helping with his quilt, keeping L occupied so I could take a shower, and so on. Here are some pics from their trip...

Logan & Grammy making cornbread...

















In the most recent Family Fun, they had a fun outdoor musical instrument project. Pop Pop was a bit confused as to what L would do with it and how it could be any fun, but he played along and humored me. He got all the stuff at the local Ace hardware store, put it together, and L was entranced by the sound it made.
















Here's a pic of me and L...

















Pop Pop made sure the train table was safe for L and for our dryer! L kept taking the train set apart and depositing all the pieces in our dryer. So Pop Pop screwed every piece he possibly could into the table. No match for the little man now! All I have to worry about are the train pieces themselves, not the track, the train, the trees, the trucks, the people and so on!

















Here's a picture of grammy and pop pop with L!

our new family member!!!

Welcome Blub Blub!

L has been talking so much about the fishes at school that it was really only inevitable that we got one of our own, which he named, what else, but "Blub Blub"! He has had a great time watching Blub Blub. He feeds Blub Blub regularly, even if sometimes it is a bit too much. He gives BB tank kisses and hugs. He makes sure he says nigh night to BB for every nap and bedtime. It is very sweet!

Little big boy moments...

• Today after bath, I wrapped L in a towel and he held on tight to the towel and started walking for the door. No help needed. So cute and so big!

• We've been cleaning up to get ready for Grammy and Pop Pop coming to visit, and while we were in the kitchen I asked L to not play with my cookbooks, followed by those are "mama books." Afterwards, he stood there going down the shelf, pointing to a book, "mama," to another book, "mama," and another, "mama". Ridiculously sweet and wonderful.

• L and I regularly go to the chiropractor for adjustments, and in the past week or so, when I lay on the table, he "helps" out by checking if my feet are balanced, pushing on my back, giving me kisses, pushing on my hip, giving me more kisses, moving my head from side to side. I will count myself one lucky mama if he grows up to become one!

• Every time he sees a hair (any hair, dog hair, dad hair, logan hair, heck even fuzz), he points to it and says "mama" - Jim thinks it is hilarious!

• One way that we have been talking to L about appropriate behavior is to say that "Dada has his feet under the table" (not on top of), as well as talking to him about others may share a particular behavior (Do you know who likes bananas, too?). Well, L has our number on this one. Today, I looked at him when he put his foot on the table and he looked back at me, smiled and said "Dada"; to which I of course responded, "No, Dada keeps his feet under the table." "Mama" again, "No, Mama keeps her feet under the table." "Dadie" ... you get the picture!

• Big helper! L has been enjoying helping out around the house, though we have found that if we really want his help setting the table, I have to tell him that everything is for Dada. Plates, forks, and what have you, never make it to the table, except if I say, "This is Dada's plate, can you bring it to the table?" I also heard that L had great fun helping the babysitter out with washing the floor, too! What fun!

Visiting the cows...

Jim has been having a wonderful time taking L on little field trips to visit all the various animal farms associated with MSU's campus. So far, L's favorite is the horse farm! I believe they've been to see the cows, horses, sheep, and chickens.

The boys having fun...















Checking out the cows up close!















The cows up close!