Belated Wishes

This morning, I (and a couple other moms) received the below email from a co-worker of mine. It was an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise. Of all the mother's day cards, emails and calls I received this past Sunday, even of all the yummy dark chocolate that I love, this was by far the best of them all and really touched me deeply.

See if you agree.


-----Original Message-----

Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:55 AM

Subject: Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to wish you all a happy mother's day. I got the women I could think of anyway. I know there are a lot of others around, but I don't reckon I know them too well.

Without you ladies giving hope of turning a somewhat bleak future into one of hope, raising tough, smart children to meet the challenges that we are bestowing upon them, there'd be not much else to look forward to in the times that are nearly upon us. It takes a lot of courage and dedication to work a full-time job and raise a kid, much less a couple of them for some of you.

Even if your kids don't think much of you now, don't honor you as well as they should, or take you for granted, they likely will thank you someday in their own way (if not in words, then in actions). If not, well I'll say thank you for them.

Formula Don't Grow on Trees Yo

I completely forgot to post last weekend but Jenn's mom Bev gave us one of the best presents of all.... an entire *CASE* of formula (that's 24 cans of the powdered white stuff). Score!! This is huge since we are going thru the stuff like it's candy and it ain't cheap! ;-)

Thanks so much Bev!! We really appreciate it :)

First Day at Preschool

I contemplated on the drive home today whether I should refer to Logan's school as day care, child care or preschool. I've decided preschool is the coolest - it makes him sound all "grown up" and makes me feel like he's already started his education. I figure given the amount of cashola we're dumping into the place, I should be able to call it whatever I want. So, preschool it is. ;-)

He had a great first day, charming all the teachers apparently. Jon and I got a pretty late start this morning, so we actually dropped him off later than I was planning. But, after some initial crankiness (the classroom was fairly loud with crying babies when we arrived, which woke up poor little Logan from his morning nap and startled him a bit I think), he seemed to be right at home so we left him to manage thru the chaos on his own.

It finally hit both Jon and I today that we were leaving our little guy with complete strangers -- which made us pretty nervous. I choked up a couple of times while watching him lay on the floor next to another baby. Jon kept by his side the entire time we were there and gave him a sweet good-bye kiss when we left.

I wasn't very productive at work. I kept thinking about when I could leave and wondering how he was fairing. I refused to be one of those mommy-zillas and call to check in tho. But by the afternoon I found out how he was doing anyway since Jon called himself. :)

When I arrived to pick him up, he was upset and didn't notice me -- and when I finally walked up to him, he didn't immediately greet me with his usual big grin. I had this fleeting thought "Oh my god he's already forgotten me" which was a tad freaky. But, I then fed him a bottle and we ended up spending about an hour there just hanging out and playing on the floor together which he seemed to really enjoy. He seemed to just be really overwhelmed but otherwise in a good mood which was a relief. Of course, he conked out on the ride home (the pic isn't great, but you get the idea). ;-) It'll be interesting to see if he sleeps better/longer through the night now because of all the activity at school during the day.


Logan's been pushing out his legs more and more these days, like he wants to jump jump jump. Particularly when he's sitting on your lap. So, tonight we decided to put up the jumper that Julie and Jeff gave us (thanks guys!!). I had to put a little table underneath his feet since he didn't quite reach the floor in the living room (that particular doorway is taller than the other ones in the house). He slowly got the hang of it and by the end of the night was swinging and swaying and jumping like crazy. It was pretty entertaining and gave both of us a rest -- Jon caught up on some tv while I made dinner. I'll have to catch a video of him jumping around next time....


The other, bad, news is that I somehow tweaked my lower back today and am in intense pain just sitting at the computer or lying down on the couch. :( I can't carry Logan around the house with me like I usually do (the other reason why we pulled out the jumper tonight) which is doubly frustrating knowing he had such a big day. So, I'm really hoping it's nothing serious and I get better soon. Go go gadget Darvocet!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there!! :)

I had a nice leisurely day with the boys today -- Jon picked up a treat for me this morning, yummy donuts from a shop near our old house that we love. I then went to muay thai and worked it all off ;-) Aaron took us out to a late lunch, where Logan proceeded to give me a hard time throughout the entire meal even tho it was *supposedly* my special day, damn kid.

Jon also got me a brand new set of pots and pans for the house. Up until now we've been operating with an assortment of hand me downs and I've always wanted to buy a new (and complete) set. Of course, there's always a "gotcha" with Mr. Jon -- and apparently he thinks I'm going to cook more now that we have a nice set in the kitchen. I told him he better watch what he says or I'll be barefoot and pregnant (again) before he knows it. That'll shut him up for awhile. hehehehe

We spent the evening at Kim and Nathan's hanging out with friends and taking in the Survivor Finale and then came on home to put Logan to bed and pack for his BIG DAY tomorrow -- his FIRST day at child care!! Yikes.

Stay tuned to hear how it all goes! Same bat time, same bat channel.

5 Months Old

This morning Logan actually fell asleep shortly after I started nursing him. I figured he must've woken up too early and still needed some rest. So, I laid him back down in his crib and was about to go back to bed myself when I thought, dang, he looks so damn cute (with his two little arms/hands up in the "stick 'em up" pose) that I thought I'd take a few shots with my brand new camera. So, I got the camera out but of course, this big ol' honkin' lens and autofocus started making tons of noise and Logan's eyes peeked open to see what all the commotion was about! Damn it. Last time I do THAT again. ;-) Anyhoo, we ended up doing a photo shoot in the crib anyway, but instead with little Loganito practicing his standing all by himself holding onto the crib railing! :)

This afternoon I decided to move onto a new solid food, yummy sweet potatoes! You thought the rice cereal was a mess, check out the damage from this sweet orange goo!! ;-) We had a good time and he seemed pretty interested in the whole process - eating about half the jar (well, half the jar is now gone, I can't say it all made it to his stomach) before losing interest and wanting to play with his spoon and bib instead. He also polished off about 8oz or so of milk. So, he seemed pretty hungry. We'll see if he sleeps any better tonight because of it. Else, he's just going thru another growth spurt.

The last couple of days, Jon's brother Aaron has been visiting and we've had a really nice time. It hasn't been the action packed weekend that this bachelor is probably used to - instead it's been chaotic dinner outings with friends and LOTS of babies ;-) but I think he and Jon have enjoyed catching up and of course Uncle Aaron loves his new nephew. As you can see from the pic, our silly boy has discovered his tongue more and more these days.....

And finally, because I haven't posted many pics up lately, here's one I really like of Logan with my dad, that Jon took earlier in the week. Click on any of these images for a whole slew of more photos with the new toy....

Happy 5 months today Mr. Logan!

Juror Summons

Did you know? Depending on the state you live in, you can be excused or deferred from jury duty if you are breastfeeding? Pretty cool. As it so happens, I just got summoned to jury duty and on the back of the form there is a section to fill out if you want to be excused, and one of the options says "Currently I am a mother who is breast feeding (Rule of Court 859)"

I never really thought about it, but it makes sense. Have you ever seen a court room with a mother's room attached? or, a Juror who puts up her hand and says, "Hold on a sec Judge, I gotta flip sides here", as her baby nurses in her lap? ;-) So there ya have it. Not that you'd EVER want to skip out on jury duty, or that you needed any more reasons to breastfeed. But if you did, then this is just one more reason to think about. :)

We're coming up on the end of Jon's paternity leave this week and overall I think Jon and Logan have gotten along smashingly. Funny, Tuesdays are not a favorite day for Logan. Both Tuesdays (last week and this week) I came home to a little baby meltdown and had to skip muay thai class and just comfort my poor little kid because Jon was at his wit's end. Jon thinks he's just missing Mommy but I really don't know. Logan's also still waking up at least once, and if we're unlucky, then twice, in the middle of the night.... but he's not STARVING like he was a couple weeks ago when he was downing 6-8oz in the middle of the night. So, Jon just gives him a little milk, however much he wants and needs, and then sets him back in his crib to watch his mobile and fall asleep on his own.

I'd say our biggest news this week has just happened in the last 24 hours. Ever since he was born, we've been swaddling Logan up tight anytime we lay him down for a nap or bedtime. But, I've been thinking maybe we should start transitioning out of that habit, since I'm concerned it hasn't given him enough chances to learn to roll over on his own (since his arms are bundled tight against his body) *and* it hasn't allowed him to learn to just fall asleep on his own. I'm not really sure if it's a huge issue or not (I doubt it), but since we're working on getting him to sleep through the night still anyway, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

Anyway, last night Jon tried putting him down without his swaddleme blanket (best invention EVER by the way) for the first time and he slept about 4 hrs on his own before waking up this morning. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but that's HUGE! Anytime we used to put him down without being swaddled before, he's always squirmed and kicked and punched his arms in the air and woken himself up within 10 seconds. So, Jon laid him down swaddleme-less for each of his several naps today and he did great, sleeping on his very own each time. We've just put him to bed tonight without the swaddle again, so we'll see how long it lasts tonight. *crosses fingers*

One last item before I turn in for the night. Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Zafu!!! :)

Wiggle Worm

Logan is a super wiggly guy on the changing table. Today was no exception. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get a video of him squirming around. This capture is actually him being mellow if you can believe it (you'll see I even took off his diaper and pretended we were going to do a changing just to see if he'd move around more like he usually does!) :)

His favorite move is arching his body to one side (toward the wall). He's also really good at planting his feet and then rubbing his butt back and forth along the table and then launching his entire body toward the end of the table.... usually JUST as I'm about to put the diaper on (which means the diaper stays put but his body moves about 6 inches off the diaper).

Suffice to say, it's definitely getting more and more challenging just to get a friggin' diaper on him these days! And don't get me started on how many times I've had to wipe pee off the adjacent wall. ;-)