Practicing for BINGO

Logan enjoyed some art time using BINGO dabbers -- watch out, Great Grandma, he's pretty good at it!

 I find it interesting that he's using his right hand here for art -- he definitely favors his left hand while throwing and hitting with implements (like last night when he was using a bowling pin to hit a plastic orange around the room...and would pick it up and throw it -- as a Southpaw -- in a line drive right at my face from about 8 ft away).

Crazy Hair Day

They had a theme week in Logan's room a couple of weeks ago. One of the days was "crazy hair day" - Logan may have been the best participant :) they should have painted each pony a different color, haha. I felt like he should have been snowboarding :)

Fort Hiding Place

Jim flipped the picnic table so Logan wouldn't climb it - James turned it into "a Fort Hiding Place."

Safety First

Playing the drums can be dangerous -- practice safe drumming!  Although, my favorite is the megaphone stuffed into his waistband and the stickers :-)
Yesterday on the way home he said :: "Look at the full moon, Mommy! It's a circle.  Can we play hockey with it?"  Love him and his imagination! He must miss hockey as much as I do this season.

Thanksgiving 2012

James loved the fire pit at GG and Pops' house when it got dark after dinner! Aunt Cassie enjoyed her some James time :-)

I didn't want to take Logan out because he was a bit under the weather, so Gma Sharon (Brian's mom) played with him for a few minutes while I checked it all out.

 

Logan thought he was hysterical sitting in the booster when it wasn't attached to a chair. He chilled there for a good 20 minutes before getting antsy. We had a great trip and really enjoyed the extended time with family since we don't see them as often as we'd like to see them.

Welcome to Toddlers, Lowgie!

Uncle John and Jess picked this awesome art board up for Logan to use on our trip for Thanksgiving (it's also great to keep him busy during James' swim lesson, haha). He is transitioning nicely to the Toddler Room at school - our baby is such a big boy! He loves to clap along with the morning song, played the drums in his first band yesterday during Music class, is walking the majority of the time, is using the signs for "more" and "milk" consistently and is eating lots (which amazes his teacher because James was the opposite end of the spectrum). I love this age but they grow and learn so much so quickly, I can barely keep up!

A Boy and His Books

Logan really loves his books! He cried when I moved them so he would be within eye sight as I was switching in his 18 month clothes :( but was happy again looking through all the pictures of animals. He climbs up his teacher's laps to point at the pictures during story time :)

Thumbtack Art

Morning art time :: thumbtacks are a) pretty and b) stick easily into a pumpkin.  Mommy made the "M" for some fall decoration.  James was extremely focused while bedazzling his silly pumpkin face (looks kind of like pumpkin chicken pox, haha). Logan was banished from sharp-object-art time (but was really good at finding the ones we dropped on the floor).  He's been so silly lately and sticks his tongue out all the time :)

Outlined

Playground art - James thought he was so funny with his leg out t the side.

Breakfast Time!

James insisted that he ate breakfast at the counter with everything properly on his homemade placemat....AND that Logan ate next him :)

Last Day of Summer Break

Last day of Mommy's summer break :-( I picked James up from school early and we met up with Gma Chele and the Wehrle's at Pirates Cove for some amusement park fun!

ARRRR! Ahoy there, Matey!


By far, his favorite "ride" was the hand-cycle trains -- he went around and waited in line 4 times for them!

Abby, Bella and James



Last ride -- what a fun afternoon!



Defense mode

Sometimes you just need a break from playing with your little brother :)

Beef-a-Rama Spokesbaby

Logan has quickly gone from pulling himself to standing to climbing into trouble within a matter of a couple weeks. I don't know what the fascination is, but both of our boys have loved to climb into the dishwasher (which is still above Logan's knees, so good coordination Lowgs).

The front desk ladies at the allergist's office LOVE Logan and decided that while I was helping James because "the potties are coming!" they would make Logan a Birthday hat :-) As a bonus, as long as he stays healthy, we get to drop James' preventative puffs down even more to only 1 per day in a couple of weeks (baseline dosage is 2 puffs/twice a day, which he's been under for over a year now)! Wooo Hoo!

Puddle Jumping

James was super excited to put on his rain coat and rain boots and go on a puddle hunt (we're gonna find a BIG one!)! They did such a good job re-surfacing our sidewalks a couple summers ago that it made it difficult to find one that wasn't along the curb...but he had a successful hunt and was able "to get some exercise" as he says (PE teacher Mommy has taught him well).

Pulling Himself Up!

Logan has found all new meaning to "trouble" in the past month while learning to crawl (and even modified crawl as he's developed a different style crawl for the hardwood/tiled floors).  He has been shut out of 3 new rooms today because of his curiosity :) Yesterday he got himself up into a bear crawl position (there's some back-to-school PE jargon for ya) and today I caught him pulling himself up to standing at the fireplace! He even transferred his hands from an assistive object to me to help him stand and shuffle his feet.  What else can he squeeze in and accomplish before his 1st Birthday?!?

Future Engineer???

My dad tried his hardest to get one of us girls to be an engineer like him.  Cass and I showed some potential by excelling in math (Kris is more of the writing type) yet he got a teacher, an amazing HR leader and an accountant :)Don't worry, Pops, there may be some hope yet - James came sprinting to me at pick up last week showing me the "diving board for the flippers" from the Olympics that he designed. He has a walking area (yellow), a climbing area (red) and the board (grey)...patent-pending. Then he had to take a pic of me with it :-)

Clean Puppy Dawg

Easton is loving his newly groomed self :-) Such a handsome dog when he's all clean and brushed (or it's just the super hero bandanna, not completely sure). James had to get a picture of him with E since Logan got one the day before :)

Tooth #5

Lowgs cut his 5th tooth overnight - bottom right, 2nd one out. The dr had said he was cutting at least 4 of them (maybe 6) a week ago.  I told Jim this morning that I bet Logan cut a tooth because he was fussing a lot about 5:30am, which is really early for him to wake up. He went back to sleep until 8:40 and I found a happy, hiccuping baby playing with his binkie with a new tooth poking through :-) He started playing peek-a-boo with his burp rag while I was changing him and he turned it into a teething rag - such a silly boy.

Play Dough Time

James is enjoying some time with Play Dough today! He has been entertained for over an hour straight...why didn't we bring this stuff out sooner?!? He's loving the fact that he doesn't have to share with any of his friends from school :-) and I have to give all of his teachers,  past and present, for having such strict Play Dough Playing rules.

Puppy Love

Easton :: ah, man, the other one is mobile now too!?! Logan is now hearing "gentle, Logan, gentle" a lot :-)

You Know You're Tired When....

...you fall asleep in your high chair. Poor baby had ear infection with high fever (probably roseola since it went around his classroom and he got the rash the next day after the fever broke ) and then the next week got sent home from school with hand, foot and mouth (yuck, but he had a pretty mild case...only 3 kids were left in the room when I picked him up). He seems to be recovered and weighed 19lb 12oz at his ear re-check appt (well, according to Dr. James' weighing anyway :-)). 

Brotherly Love

Even though it tends to be tough love, there is definitely love between these two brothers!


Hug Tackled



Lion Hugs



James being a helpful big brother at bed time...he loves to give Logan his bottle

Picnic after a dr. appt, just outside the office, we got some strange looks :-)

Octopus Painting Project

After bowling, we needed an afternoon project to make waiting for Daddy to get home go a little faster.  James has been asking me if he could paint for about a week now -- I've been avoiding it at all cost because of time to set up, risk of paint everywhere and clean up time, but I finally caved today (not before getting him to go potty on the toilet, wash his hands and help clean up his playroom first)

 Found a use for old paper towel and toilet paper rolls :: paint and then cut slits into the bottoms to make them into an "octopus"

Logan got in on the art project action too -- I had James pick out 3 colors and put blobs of them at the bottom of an empty animal cracker container -- insert toilet paper roll and let Lowgs go crazy shaking/rolling it around

Our paint wasn't yet dry at picture time, but this may be as close to a "finished product" picture as I get :-)

1st Bowling Trip

Today Jamie and I embarked on a little adventure with the boys -- their first bowling trip!!! AMF Bowling lanes offer 2 free games/day in the summer (awesome), you just have to rent shoes -- score! James did great following rules and only almost double-bounced the ball off his toe when trying to put it away (we didn't even ask him to clean up). He started with trying to push the ball down the alley himself but then gladly took the ramp when the pro brought it over for him to use. Logan even got a couple of turns in (which were his brother's idea)! James got a 67 for his first game -- pretty awesome -- and decided it was time to go home for lunch after the 7th frame in game 2. Such a great way to beat the 103 degree heat today!

Look What I Can Do at 10 Months Old

Lowgi Bear :: such a cutie pie, now with 3 teeth (two bottom, one top)

He may not have crawling down just yet but he can still get into everything

 He can hold the sippy up and drink himself (when he's not being lazy)

 And he can even push from laying down to sitting up all by himself

Finally, a Hair Cut

The Fro :: Before (his hair gets crazy)

 During (can you hear the whining?)

 After (sooo much better for summer)