Daddy is back!

Day 5 of 5 is done! Jon got home this evening in time to eat dinner with Logan and I, play with Logan and his trucks, and put him down for bed. Logan was, of course, Mr. Happy all night long - but I'll take it!

We had another rough morning before school/work. Logan woke up about an hour earlier than usual, which wasn't terrible since I needed us to get out of the house earlier than usual anyway, but it was still exhausting considering both he and Odin were antsy all night and between the two, kept waking me up every hour until waaaaaay too late.

I can't remember exactly all the things that set Logan off this morning. I think the biggest was when it was time to put on his socks and shoes to get ready to leave the house. He thew a fit, not wanting to put his shoes on (knowing he'd have to leave for school I guess?). I finally ended up carrying him kicking and screaming to the car. He cried and screamed in the back of the car for awhile until I finally got him focused on all of the cars, trucks, buses, vans, cops, etc. that we were passing by on our drive to school. He eventually warmed up to the game of pointing out the next cool truck to pass by (everything was a garbage truck this morning) or school bus.

The only problem with this game is it can sometimes backfire on you. For example, School Bus A, riding alongside us for a few blocks, decides to turn LEFT. However, Mommy and Logan need to turn RIGHT. And School Bus A tumbles along, growing smaller and smaller.

Logan then screams at me "NO MOMMY! No Mommy! This way!" (pointing left, toward the School Bus A)

*sigh*

Soooo very glad Jon is back home. :)

Possessed

This morning as we were getting ready for work and school, Logan found one of my cough drops on my bedside table. He was so excited, thinking it was a candy and trying to unwrap it. When I asked him to give it to me, he refused and ran away. I chased him down and after several "nice" asks, I finally just took it from him.

Logan was pissed.

After such a nice day yesterday, my demon child reappeared, throwing another one of his mountain tantrums.

I left him to simmer alone in my room and went to the office to check on a few emails. Unfortunately, ignoring him didn't help but instead seemed to upset him more. He seeked me out, yelling at me to "Go away Mommy!" and hitting me in between yells. When he wasn't hitting me he was hugging my leg desperately, with tears streaming down his face.

Dude, I did go away. I'm not exactly sure you know what "Go away" means.

I've often wondered how I'd do, if I quit work to stay home with Logan. The last couple of days I've been grateful for work - my daytime escape - leaving the teachers to deal with my sensitive monster child (of course he's happy and joyful with them). Just yesterday, one of my coworkers was teasing me about something at work and I just looked at him and said "I really don't give a shit. I'm just happy to have a break from my kid right now." He and the other guy with us, both fathers themselves, laughed and thought that was the greatest thing they'd heard all day. They knew exactly what I meant. ;-)

In other news, the hospital actually called and left a message to let me know the H1N1 virus restrictions for kids under 16 has been lifted for the postpartum unit, so Logan will now be allowed to visit his baby brother once he's born. Yay!! And how nice of them to call! They made sure to inform me that this was for the postpartum unit only, and that he still would not be allowed to visit during labor.

To that I respond: HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAAAhhhaaaaaaa. *gasp* OMG how hilarious. No really. HI-LAR-I-OUS.

Back to our Routine

Today was a much better day. I think it's because we were able to get back into our daily routine and it wasn't as noticeable that Jon is gone.

We had a fairly good morning, although there was a brief repeat appearance of the bathtub incident, where Logan stripped down to sit on the potty this morning, and then climbed into the tub right after and "soaped" himself up (from an in-reach Cetaphil dispenser) for another bath. I rinsed him off but BOY was he mad at not getting a real bath. Luckily, we got passed it fairly quickly.

I was pretty worried about drop off at school this morning but it wasn't as bad as some days have been. He clung to my hand, walking around the play yard with the other kids but not leaving my side. When I finally handed him off to one of the teachers, he whimpered a little but then very quietly just kept snuggled in her arms. We were actually all pretty shocked, but they were also giving him some extra love and attention since I explained what a rough weekend we had had (and that he was missing his Daddy).

Kim and Miss Molly came over for a play date this evening which was great fun. The minute Kim and Molly showed up, Logan turned into an intense host, immediately grabbing Molly's hand and asking her to "Come this way; this room" (toward the living room with all of his toys) to play. He continued to grab her hand throughout the evening to guide her from room to room and seemed very happy to have the company. It made me think we need to have friends over at our house more often, so that Logan can play and share his house and toys too.


Toward the end of the evening, the two wanted to watch a bit of TV. Just when I thought we might have a fight on our hands for who would get to sit in Logan's little "sofa" chair, he plopped down on the floor next to the chair and told Molly to "Sit down, right here" patting the seat of the chair for her instead. What a gentleman!


Thanks again to Kim and Molly for the wonderful visit - and Kim for snagging a few shots of our two playing together! :)

Sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel...

Usually I'm pretty stubborn and won't give up but tonight, man oh man, did I ever feel like throwing in the towel on this whole parenting thing.

Day 2 of single parenting is finally over, THANK GOD. It was a really rough day.

We met up with many of our friends for breakfast at Stacks this morning. I sat between Jamie (age 6) and Logan (age 2), and across from Robert (age 2.5), so I didn't get much adult chit chat in, but I think that comes with the territory when you're flying solo with your kiddo. Poor Jarrod did try and keep a few conversations with me going in between the two of us catching flying crayons, wads of coloring paper, tipping juice cups and an occasional sugar packet being open and possibly eaten when we weren't looking.

After breakfast, the Chouns headed home but Kim/Molly, Logan and I all went back to the Jodoins house for a play date with the kids. I'm not sure what was Logan's issue today, but he definitely was much more sensitive than usual. Any time one of the kids snatched a toy away that he was playing with, or played with a toy that he was thinking of playing with, he'd burst into tears and throw a fit. He was also not hip on Robert consistently crashing trains and trucks and cars into this one truck that he was playing with - which is strange since Logan is usually all about the crashing and mayhem. Who knows.

Because I knew we'd be getting together with Zane for dinner tonight, I didn't want to try and put him down for a nap at the Jodoins house and then have a huge fight just before dinner with Zane. Instead, I opted for the fight earlier in the day prior to a (peaceful and restful) nap at home. HOW SMART, RIGHT?

When it was time to go, Logan was NOT a happy camper. In fact, he tore off his shoes as I put them on, throwing them across Robert's room and kicking and wrestling to get away from me. Kim finally offered a much needed hand for my disabled pregnant ass, and picked Logan up, carried him out and buckled him into his car seat. Yay for Kim! :) He was actually fine with this, up until I started up the car and backed out of the driveway. Then it dawned on him that he was leaving Robert's house. His precious Robert. His beloved BFF. *sigh*

So, the entire ride home (which is only about 10 minutes but felt like 10 HOURS), he screamed at me, like vein-popping-out-of-the-forehead-and-jugular screaming. He was pulling at the buckles on his car seat, begging to be let out. Begging to "No, go this way!" (pointing behind us). Begging to go back to Robert's house. It was awful. When we finally pulled into our own driveway he just lost it (as if he hadn't already), screaming "Logan doesn't want a nap!"

He had worked himself into a real state.

I finally coaxed him inside saying "How about we just lie down together on Mommy's bed instead?" That was a permissible idea and he suddenly perked right up, grabbing my hand and saying "C'mon Mommy, this way" pulling me down the hallway toward my room.

He climbed into our bed, I popped a movie in and warmed up a bottle of milk and we quieted down together under the blankets. He was tired, but not ready to sleep yet - so I figured at least resting was something. Plus, I was really struggling with some aches and cramping and needed to lie down myself!

Once the movie was over, I told Logan it was time to try and lie down in his own bed, being 3pm and waaaaaaay past his naptime. He refused, and I literally had to pick him up and carry him into his own room, kicking and screaming. I had made another bottle at that point, but he couldn't think about milk, about books or story time, about settling down in his bed for a nap. He worked himself into another state. At one point I was literally holding him down in his bed so he wouldn't climb out and just to calm the kid down. It wasn't fun.

I'm not sure how, but he finally listened to reason and decided to take the bottle. Once he started taking a few sips, he calmed down (which I knew he would) and his eyelids became so heavy he could barely keep them open. He handed me back the bottle, rolled over and instantly fell asleep. THANK GOD.

While he napped I did some stretching to help with my back and joint pain, finished up a couple loads of laundry and dishes, and then laid down to watch a movie of my own. I got through about half of it before he woke up from his nap. He slept about 2.5 hours so it wasn't too bad.

Since it was close to dinner time, and we were meeting Zane, I needed to start getting us ready to go. I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth, brush my hair, go to the bathroom, etc. While on the toilet, Logan walks in and says "Mommy wants an M&M?"

Because, whenever Logan goes pee or poop these days, we'll give him an M&M afterward.

It was pretty cute. :)

He then proceeds to strip down naked, diaper off and all, before I have a chance to get up off the toilet and rescue him. He walks into our shower asking me to turn on the water so he can take a "bath" and starts picking up the few shampoo bottles within reach, asking me which one was for him.

And, right in the middle of inspecting my shaving gel, he pees.

Thankfully, he was naked, and it was in the shower. But still. We were supposed to meet my brother clear across town in half an hour. Gah.

So I carry him over to the bathtub and start an impromptu "quickie" bath, while calling my brother to let him know we'll need a few more minutes before meeting for dinner. :) I scrub him down quickly and then flip the switch to drain the tub - at which point Logan loses it. AGAIN.

He couldn't stand the idea of bath time being done. He couldn't stand the idea of me turning off the water. He couldn't stand the idea of me draining the tub. He just sat in the tub screaming his head off at me, his entire body shaking with rage.

And that's when my emotions got the best of me, and I finally felt like throwing that towel in.

I left the bathroom for a minute to shed a few tears, before composing myself and going back in to fight the nasty fight. He was so furious that he couldn't sit down and just play in the tub anymore. It was past the point of no return. So, I picked him up out of the tub, laid him onto the bed to dry him off and try to hug him and calm him down. He continued to shake and scream with rage.

I was so desperate to get him to calm down I finally decided to call Jon. I thought MAYBE if he heard Jon's voice on the phone he could snap out of it. A circuit or two could get reseated and we'd be on our merry way. But, alas, that idea backfired on me - and he screamed at Jon on the phone as well.

I flipped on one of his TV shows, and that finally cooled him off (or distracted him) enough for me to finish drying, lotion him up and get him dressed. He was still holding onto a couple of his rubber bath toys this whole time and when I took them away to put them back into the tub, I also flipped the switch to finish draining the tub and HOLY SHIT was that the wrong move because he heard the draining water start up again and threw another fit! I stopped the drain, brought the toys back in for him to hold, and thought oh well, I guess I'll just drain it tonight once he's in bed (speaking of, I still need to go in there and drain the damn tub).

It had just started raining which was actually a good thing, since it got him interested in walking outside, with his new umbrella, and climbing into the car (I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get him out of the house or not!). We met up with my brother for dinner at one of our favorite Mexican places, La Milpa, and had a fantastic dinner. Logan was a total champ, hamming it up for his Uncle Zane every other minute, never showing a sign of grumpiness or devil-child that he had had in him just minutes earlier. We hung out for a couple of hours before calling it a night, and heading back home.

Thankfully, Logan didn't resist bedtime. Thankfully because I'm not sure if I'd have had the strength left in me for another fight tonight.

25 months old

Another month has come and gone! I’ve debated back and forth about whether to keep these monthly updates going, especially now that Logan has passed the two year mark. But, it’s a nice way for me to round up everything that’s been happening over the last month, that I haven’t kept up with on regular/individual posts. So for now, I’m going to keep at it. I may change my tune once the 2^nd one arrives. We’ll see. ;-)

So, Logan! He continues to be ultra charming and cool. Some of the unblogged-about events that have peppered this last month, are:

• He started the transition to his preschool class yesterday! He'll transition over part time throughout this week and then start full time next week. This is big! Not only will they start potty training him (more seriously) and keep him much more active with a lot of independent play and arts/crafts in this class, but our fees went down as well. SCORE. :)
  

• We were driving in the car when a song on the radio came on, and out of nowhere, he starts yelling out “Cars! Cars! Cars!” Since we had been on the road for sometime already, at first we had NO IDEA why he was suddenly pointing out the cars all around us. But, after a couple of minutes I recognized the tune (from the movie "Cars") and told Jon, I’m pretty sure he’s talking about the song on the radio! It was really interesting to us.

• Ever Mr. Independent, Logan really enjoys doing things by himself as much as possible. Which can really test your patience when his little hands and fingers and legs don’t move as fast as ours. But, more importantly, it can be frustrating when he can’t work something out himself because THEN. Well THEN he gets VERY impatient and upset. So, I’ll generally move closer and ask him if he needs help. His response? “Go away please!” or “Stop it please!” (while he’s holding up his hand to wave me off) At least he’s polite about it?

• Right around Christmas time Logan started getting out of his crib in the morning or after his nap and open his bedroom door himself. So, we now are usually greeted by a little half-asleep munchkin asking to join us in bed (in the morning) or walking into the room that we’re in. The first time he did this was after his nap, and he walked into the office where Jon was and exclaimed to Jon “Logan [is a] big boy!” thumping his chest. Indeed he seems to be. We’ve actually kind of enjoyed the morning greetings since it means neither Jon nor I now have to get out of our warm beds and walk into his room to pick him up. ;-)

• The one downside to learning how to open our doors is his habit of getting into anything and everything. Most specifically, we have caught him opening the front door of our house, to walk outside into the front yard (one of us has been out front which is why he does this) a couple of times. So, we now have to keep the front door locked at all times and Jon’s thinking about a better solution for long-term use (like a locking latch higher up on the door).

• Besides the constant reminders that “Logan [is a] big boy!”, he’s also learning that a baby is growing inside Mommy’s belly. And, what’s more, it’s his baby brother and Logan is going to be a big brother. He loves repeating that any chance he can get, often times running up to me and patting my belly at the same time. I have to say, it’s quite adorable. :)

The funniest development of all, however, is how SNEAKY Logan has started becoming. He’s always had that mischievous glint in his eyes, but the latest stunt he pulled (Sunday night, after our drive home as we were unpacking and settling back into the house) was the best so far.

Jon was out picking up Odin at the Hickson’s household and I was at home with Logan getting him ready for bed, unpacking, starting the laundry and dishes, feeding the animals and generally trying to tidy up and settle in after a long weekend away. For the most part, Logan was following me around from room to room and getting into trouble when he could – excited to be back home (and out of the car, I’m sure). At one point, however, he snuck off to another room without me. I was pretty sure I saw him out of the corner of my eye, walking into our room, but I wasn’t positive. Since I was unpacking in there anyway, I went back into our room but didn’t see him anywhere.

I called out his name – but it was silent. Like, dead silent. I thought, how strange, if he was hiding surely I’d hear him. So perhaps he went into the living room to play with his toys again. So I continued to unpack but still felt like Logan was in our room – especially since I didn’t hear any toys banging or clanking from the other part of the house. I called out his name again; silence again. I noticed our bedroom closet doors were closed shut, and we usually have one or two kept open, so I thought he was probably hiding in there (since he likes to play with the doors, opening and closing them). Still, it was hard to tell since it was SO DAMN QUIET!

Then, from the vicinity of the closet, I heard the faint crinkling of a candy wrapper. I walked over to the other side of the room and opened the closet doors. And there, hunched over and sitting on the floor of our closet, was little Mr. Logan looking completely guilty. In his hands, was a little peppermint candy (I had a couple I was carrying in my pockets and had emptied them onto my nightstand), that he was trying desperately to unwrap.

AHA! I said.

He screamed.

It was a delighted “you caught me” scream but also a NOOOOooooo LEAVE ME ALONE! scream. It was pretty funny.

He stood up and tried to close the closet doors again – not wanting me to take his precious little treasure away from him. When I asked him if he wanted help, he then stood up and handed me the candy saying “Help please, Open please”. I unwrapped the candy and bit into it, to break it into smaller pieces – but as he saw me putting it in my mouth he started to break out into tears, suddenly feeling betrayed that I took his toy away from him, and running back to my nightstand to grab the OTHER candy that was still left sitting there. I finally convinced him that I was just breaking the candy into smaller pieces and gave him one or two. He put them in his mouth, sucking hard and saying “Yummy!”, forgetting about the other candy (that I quickly grabbed and hid back in my pocket).

I am still chuckling over how WELL he kept quiet and sneakily hid from me for so long – but then broke his cover once he started trying to unwrap a piece of candy. It was one of those wake up calls for me that he’s just going to become a more stealthy guy as he gets older. Eeeps!

21 months old

A few days ago, Logan turned 21 months old. It was also his Daddy's birthday and for the last few days I feel like we've been doing an extended celebration for Jon instead. ;-) We had a nice evening with friends on Thursday night, my parents took us out to dinner at La Milpa on Friday night - Delicious! Logan then showed off his train set to his grandparents late into the evening until it was time for bed. Saturday we got a large number of friends together for a big dinner at the Taiwan Restaurant, walked to one of our favorite frozen yogurt shops for dessert, and then hung out at our place for a little bit before we then took off to see the movie 9 (interesting and entertaining).

But this post was supposed to be about Logan!

Last seen with Odin's cone on his head

We're pretty sure this was a big growing month for Logan. Several nights, he's had trouble sleeping. I even blogged about it here and here. But, just last week his body finally decided to right itself and we had a couple of the most glorious mornings ever, when he slept in 'til 8am one morning (holy cow!) and then 8:30am the next (unheard of!!).

Buckled himself in and then CRASH! Toppled over trying to get out. :)

Besides putting on the inches this month, or perhaps because of it, he's actually calmed down some. Just a little. But not too much. He's been more and more interested in his books, and will now sit with you on the couch or bed asking you to read to him. Or, he'll ask you to help him practice drawing letters with his favorite retractable pen (that he loves to push in and out on your arm, fingers, face, whatever). Or, he'll sit on your lap watching random funny video, after video, after video.


And when the funny has run out, he's mesmerized by the brilliant score (created by Amanda's hubby Jesse! woohoo!) to the latest LucasArts game. If it weren't for the work calls that I had to take each morning this weekend, I think he would have stayed on my lap asking me for "more" YouTube videos all day long. ;-)


Besides his cute cuddly persona, we still see flashes of the obstinate "terrible twos". It may be 100 degrees outside but goddamn it Mommy, I want to wear the big black thick soled tennis shoes with SOCKS. And, I may have just spilled spaghetti sauce on the front of my shirt but I want to keep it on - because it has CARS Mommy, CARS! Don't you see? It has CARSsssss! Or, I want to eat with a grown up fork and knife, because they are cool and shiny and hey! they make neat sounds when I bang them together JUST. LIKE. THIS.

Or, I refuse to leave the play yard at school because I'm having sooooo much fun with my friends and isn't it soooooo funny when I run away from you and you have to chase me down just so we can go home? And I know that the new train set you got me will still be home when I get back but I MUST HAVE THIS BLUE TRAIN CAR clutched to my chest all morning long during the drive to school and will you JUST give me my JUICE JUICE JUICE please?


I'm okay with giving into the smaller things that he insists on, but he's definitely learning the hard way that some things aren't up for negotiation. Like, the annoying little habit he's recently picked up when he isn't happy with something I've said or asked him to do.

When that happens, he tries to hit me.

*Cue: Let the hitting (of parents) begin!

Or, not really.

And that's where all the cuteness that is Logan just stops dead in its tracks. And Logan and I have a down-at-his-level loud, stern, steam rising from my ears, in-your-face heart to heart. He's tried it a couple of times but has quickly realized hitting me is not going to fly. Hopefully I've been able to nip it in the bud early, but only time will tell.

The good news is, he's a great listener and you usually only have to tell him once or twice before he quickly understands what he can and cannot do.

That doesn't mean he won't keep trying but at least we know he knows. ;-)

Kim has a very similar pic of me like this (from college days).
I'll have to scan it in at some point.