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 :)

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 :)

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!

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?!?

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.

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 :-)). 

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!

Santa 2011

The holidays just aren't complete without a visit to Santa! Thank you Cabela's for no line and our FREE picture with camo Santa and the roaming deer :-) James wasn't too thrilled with sitting on Santa's lap but the lady asked him to take Santa a card and managed to snap a picture quickly. Logan, on the other hand, could have cared less other then he was due for a bottle :-)

Logan's First Day of School

Logan had a very good first day of school :-) He chilled in the Boppy and took in the scene and new friends, napped a bit (although not well) and ate (finishing 5oz bottles now)! Mommy had a good first day of school too -- I got to reverse shadow the teacher who has been taking my classes (and she did awesome whipping them into shape for me)!

Sunshine x2

You Are My Sunshine :: Who is Who???? Good thing I bought this outfit on super clearance! I don't think it's going to make it to Christmas season either, but Logan sure did wear it well :-)

The best part was the stocking on the booty, haha! He hated the reindeer bib, the antlers kept getting in the way of him putting his hand in his mouth.

Answers :: First pic is James at 8 weeks, Second pic is Logan at 11 weeks

Gettin' Ready for the Big Man

Starting to get ready for the Big Man to make an appearance -- less then 50 days to Christmas, folks! I wanted to get some pictures of the boys in Christmas shirts and post them before the holidays because otherwise, it would just never happen. Also, Logan's are 0-3 months and he's getting close to the next size, so I wanted him to wear them at least once (this particular outfit is running a bit big, so crossing my fingers it will fit him for another month and we can get a picture of him and Sofia in their matching outfits).
Above :: James, always the silly man, successfully getting a smile out of his brother but not letting me see his face for the picture

James kept telling us there was a "snowman" on his shirt -- need to work on that one (I believe they were talking about snowmen at school one day). We're excited to bring out the Elf on the Shelf for this year as he loves hide-and-seek.

The actual smile was fantastic -- execution of picture taking by Mom :: failed; thus, the picture of Logan looking hammered...or maybe it was Logan imitating me sticking my tongue out at him :-)

Everchanging

The picture below is for Gma Chele :: Logan's eye color at 11 weeks -- a little out of focus but still mostly green with some browns creeping through...maybe it will be more hazel? Only time will tell, just gonna have to wait it out!
This kiddo can sleep pretty much anywhere! Here, he fell asleep sitting up on the couch where I perched him to give him a change of scenery. As James would say, "Silly Logan!"

What a Difference 6 Months Makes!

I was determined to get a picture of Ben (James' friend Katie's little brother) and Logan in cute matching outfits while they were still "little" (doesn't really apply to B.Dub anymore as he's rocking the top end of the growth charts)...needed some cute pics to bust out at high school graduation :-) It's really nice to have kids that are so close in age to compare war stories with...confirms that you aren't the only ones going through the tough times (non-sleeping nights, teething, 2-year old independence, etc.) and you can enjoy the fun things with them too!

Ben (9 months) and Logan (almost 3 months) Logan sitting in the Bumbo for the first time -- we'll have to bring our Bebe pod chair up and let him practice -- still a little bobble head-ish but getting stronger and more control over it every day!

Logan :: 11 weeks

Look at those chubby, totally kissable cheek-os :-) Don't you just want to eat him up? Logi is gearing up for Thanksgiving and wishes he could feast on real food; however, it's milk only for him this year, sorry Bear! He thought it was hilarious when I asked him if he was my "little pilgrim" -- got some good grins (but always seem to miss them on camera).
Side updates :: Logan is getting much more head control (although I still have a sore occipital bone from the head banging); he has discovered his hands, but often forgets they are there; and, all three of our favorite, he is smiling and "talking" a ton lately!!! We've had some great talks in Gerber, involving lots of different "goo"s, "ga"s and "ah goo"s...love this stage of speech development.

Halloween 2011 :: Execution

James was excited to go to school and dress up "in a costume" today. Logan and Mommy were able to join him for a parade through the attached school (which had all the students and faculty ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the Young Preschool and two tag along Infants' adorableness). I'm happy for maternity leave as Logan and I were able to get to school in time to participate as this is probably my only chance to attend an event like this because my school district usually schedules a Teacher Institute day on Halloween (and you don't miss those in these tough times of RIF-ing teachers). Ms. P told them all to grab a teacher or a buddy's hand and off we went! They were actually very good at walking and staying together, you can tell they've been practicing.
After the parade, Logan and I headed home for him to eat and to let James enjoy learning the rest of the day (they had dry erase boards and black paper w/ chalk out when I left for practicing writing skills; also, he was excited to get a turn wearing the astronaut dress-up as I believe they are talking about astronauts this week). The rest of the day was hectic trying to get things done at home, finish up a training session for school (didn't have to do them on maternity leave, but don't want my name on any "list," especially with a new principal who may not know I'm on leave) and then back to pick up James. Gma Chele was at home when we got back, she helped me get James into lion form and I moved a (finally) sleeping Logan into his puppy costume and into the stroller (had a tough afternoon). Daddy got home from work, got his camera and adult beverage and we were on our way for some trick-or-treating :-) Gma Chele was nice enough to stay at home with Easton and hand out our goodies so we didn't eat all the left overs :-) Uncle John surprised James with a visit too on his home from work!

Now the hunt begins for next year's costumes!

Halloween 2011 :: Preparation

Going to blog out of order to keep current and eventually will go back and catch you up on fun things between Halloween and our last post :-)
James :: the designer, sketching out his pumpkin's face

Daddy :: production; (with the hovering designer keeping a watchful eye to make sure it's executed correctly)

Logan :: manager, making sure the other two play nice and work efficiently