28 months old

Over the past weekend, Logan turned 28 months old. I've been wanting to do a post on this milestone for a few days now, but have been soooooooo busy (nesting has now kicked into hyper drive!) and very very tired that the last thing I want to type out is another blog post. :)

However, this one is important to me. Perhaps more than usual. Why? Because I think it's very likely the last "birthday" milestone post I do for Logan, while he's still an only child.


About a month or two ago, I started to feel more and more sentimental about Logan's last days as an only child. I want to spend as much time as I possibly can with my little guy. With each day and week that passes us by, I only get that much more emotional about the limited time left with Logan as an only child. And while Jon and I may be excited about welcoming baby #2 into our family, I'm not so sure Logan feels the same way. In fact, I bet this baby isn't anywhere at the top of his agenda.


He absolutely understands there's a baby growing inside his Mommy. And, he often talks to my belly, pats and kisses and hugs it, and sometimes separates out toys and items in the house that "belong" to him versus his baby brother.

Helping himself to some cheese in the bottom drawer of the fridge which has pretty much become his drawer. ;-)

But, I don't think he understands that his baby brother will be joining us for good. That he will be joining our family and staying, not just visiting for a few days or a week. That he will be commanding a lot of his Mommy's attention and time, especially in those first few months. That he will soon share a room with Logan, share toys, share clothes.

If I were Logan, I might be thinking "Waaaaait a minute. I didn't sign up for this shit! I'm 100% happy running Mommy and Daddy around on my own!"

(In fact, as the oldest, I bet I did think that!)

So, we shall see.

You mean that baby is staying? For good?

As for Mr. Logan - he's doing wonderfully, of course. ;-) His potty training has really improved at school (he's continued to do well with us at home but had a bit of a set back and lost interest at school). I believe a lot of his improvement is due to Miss Kim, his teacher from two classes ago, who recently moved into our classroom. YAY!! We love her and I'm so glad to have her back. She's been very encouraging about his potty training and that seems to be all Logan really needed. Well, that and a few sticker rewards as an extra incentive never hurt. ;-)

Now, he asks to go potty rather than being asked if he needs to go. SCORE! I hear he also stands nearby to clap and cheer on his friends who are being potty trained too. hehehe

Lately I've noticed Logan has taken to chasing all the (poor) animals around the house, under the tables, behind the couches, under the beds. He RAWRS really loudly, with arms and hands outstretched, ready for any fistful of fur he can grab onto as the animals scream past him, trying to stay out of his reach. He absolutely torments the shit out of Grover. Odin merely puts up with him.


I know everyone says we're eventually going to wish he were silent, but right now, we are so thrilled with how verbose Logan is. We remember the days when he wasn't yet talking (and, nervously, think about the days soon to come when we'll have another not-yet-talking baby to take care of!) and how hard and frustrating it was for us to care for our little guy. The fact that he can carry on conversations with us is wonderful.

And, he's adding his own "flair" where he can. Right now, his favorite word to use (pretty much inserted as every other word in a sentence) is "upsie" (for oopsie). He uses it ALL the time. It's hilarious.

With his constant commentary also comes the ability to vocalize his feelings, and understand the difference between right and wrong, more and more. So, when he gets frustrated and hits me, I now pause and kneel down to talk at his level. I tell him that he shouldn't hit his Mommy (nor any of his friends, family, etc.), that it hurts, and that we don't like to hurt our friends and the ones we love. He stops, listens and then says "I'm sorry Mommy", followed by a big hug and kiss.

I know it won't last forever, but I must admit, it's pretty sweet right now. :)

Let's go Sharks! Let's go!

One of Jon's vendors invited us to the Sharks game this evening. Logan is having a blast. :)

Breakfast of champions!

Jon and I found a cute little French bistro for brunch, before heading back home.

Just received our food and it's gorgeous! Time to dig in. Baby will be happy. ;-)

Date Night

What a gorgeous view!

Up in the city for the night for a party sponsored by Jon's work. They're putting up employees (who live outside the city anyway) at The Westin. Wheeee!! :)

Right at home

Grover's doing great, in case anyone was wondering.

School Pics

One year ago, Logan's class looked like this:


This year, his class looks like this (with a few kids missing!):


Then:


And, now:


Jon teased me that he looks all 70's out with his long shaggy hair and brown striped shirt - and that it might as well be a pic of him instead.

Ummm, NO.

This would be a pic of Jon instead (at 2 yrs old).

Easter Weekend

Last Friday night the Easter activities began. I had bought several Easter egg decorating supplies, boiled about 2 dozen eggs that afternoon and invited the Jodoins over that night so that Robert and Logan could do a bit of Easter egg coloring. I had set everything out prior to picking Logan up from school that day, so when we got home, and he saw the array of arts and crafts on the table, he immediately put on his smock (informing me he was SUPER MAN MOMMY!), ready for some action. I had to distract him for awhile, telling him we couldn't start until Robert showed up, so he was raring to go by the time the Jodoins arrived. :)


The boys had a terrific time - we only had one casualty with the colored water (poor yellow, was mostly spilled on the table, before we could use it to paint many of the eggs). We had a couple eggs that were cracked since the boys weren't as delicate with them as we would have liked. But overall, I think it was a successful evening.

After the egg coloring activity, we all ate dinner and then the boys played and screamed and yelled and chased each other around the house until they were tuckered out. We put all the kids (Logan, Robert, Connor) down for the evening and then played a game of Alhambra, yet another new game Jon has roped us all into. It was tons of fun, I won! And Jenn came in a verrrrry close 2nd (although, she reports in her blog that she won so who the heck knows now). The important thing is, we totally left the guys in the dust. ;-)


I realized this weekend that I never posted about Easter last year and what a bummer! Because, it was our first experience of Campbell's Eggstravaganza that was a crazy experience. Logan had just learned to walk a few months prior, so he was still a bit unsure on his footing, especially when compared to the savvy 2 year old running machines or worse, their parents.

Jon and I were aghast and totally blown away by the fact that the parents just picked up their children and RAN out to the center of the circles, collecting eggs on behalf of their kids, and leaving smaller children (like ours) to stand alone, bewildered and empty handed. Luckily, Logan ran into a very nice girl who shared an egg or two with him, and it couldn't have made him happier.

(Enter memory lane with a few pics from last year's event)


So, this year we were PREPARED. We brought BACKUP. Enter Tia Catherine.


While Jon parked, Catherine, Logan and I staked out a nice little spot near the edge of the 2 yr old ring, getting ready to let loose. I warned Catherine of the madness that would ensue. How kids and parents alike would be RACING to grab any and all eggs they saw. She must not have believed me. When the flag was raised and all kids were allowed in the ring, Catherine and Logan took their sweet time finding the perfect little egg or two, only to be beaten out by the other eager parents clamoring to fill their precious son or daughter's baskets with eggs.

Somewhere in all that madness are Catherine and Logan!

Tia Catherine wised up quickly though, and competed with the best of them. She found a group of unclaimed eggs which she quickly set Logan down to, "roping off" the area with her arms and pushing other kids and parents out. Their goal was 5 eggs. Logan scored 4. Good job Cat! ;-)


After the Campbell egg hunt, we had a delicious lunch at Hobbee's before meeting up with a number of our friends at Sky High Sports, a warehouse sized trampoline center, to partake in a day's worth of activities celebrating Nathan's birthday (Happy Birthday Nathan!).

Logan likes to jump, but is still learning and the bouncy houses intimidate him a little I think. His reaction to the trampolines was similar - he was very cautious but seemed to pick up interest as time passed, since Daddy and Tia Catherine were bouncing all over the place with him, not to mention Robert (and Jenn), Jamie (and Julie), and Kim. :) I think he was enjoying his time by the end of the session.


Jon split with "the boys" to wait in line at the Apple store, for their reserved iPads, while Catherine and I headed back home to put Logan down for a nap. Jon actually got home just about the same time that Logan was falling asleep, so he snuck in and laid down with Logan, showing him the fun new glossy toy he had just scored. Jon had just downloaded a simple "Trucks" flashcard app on the iPad, so they ran through that before Logan finally fell asleep. :)

While Logan napped, I rested and Jon and Catherine played a round of Alhambra (where this time, Catherine whipped Jon's butt, noticing a pattern?!?!). We then filled up several (and I mean SEVERAL) plastic eggs full of chocolate candies and Catherine did a KICKASS job at hiding them all around the front yard while I distracted Logan once he woke from his nap.

He had a BLAST during his own personal egg hunt in the front yard - yelling and pointing "THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!" every time he saw another neon green or pink or blue egg peeking out of a bush or tree or corner. It was awesome and we all had a really fun time.


After Catherine took off, we packed up the car and headed over to the Hickson's house to continue visiting with friends and enjoying Nathan's birthday festivities. We were all pretty tired from such a long day we ended up going home rather than staying over, so that we could put Logan down at home. I was noticing his cough more and more and a few more sniffles and runny nose (and, based on Monday, I'm glad we did come home early!).

Sunday morning we headed over to my parent's house for EVEN MORE Easter fun. My dad whipped up a DEEEEEEE-licious batch of homemade pancakes. Logan helped prep the batter but wasn't as interested in flipping the hot cakes this time around. By then he was getting pretty hungry (and finally climbed into his booster seat asking me for some pancakes), and I think he was also starting to feel more out of sorts from his cold. :( Still, we had a great breakfast and enjoyed everyone's company.


While Logan napped, I coaxed my brother, Zane, into hiding all the eggs (it's great what you can get the Aunts and Uncles to do!) around the house, so Logan could do another hunt when he woke up from his nap. It had been raining most of the day so we decided to do the egg hunt inside the house this time, rather than outside. Which made for a more challenging hunt since there are LOTS more places to hide eggs! Zane did a great job at creating some really cool hiding places. :)


After everything was set up, we decided to break out Alhambra once more, this time with my mom and dad. I did SO TERRIBLE, coming in the very last last spot. But the surprise of the day was MY MOM! who totally killed all of us in her winnings. Poor Jon, batting three for three now in the loss department. I wonder how many more times he'll play before returning to one of the other games he excels in? ;-)

Logan had a blast with his third, and final, Easter egg hunt after nap time. I was afraid he might not find some of Zane's more challenging hiding spots but he did great! And of course, absolutely loved the game. Afterward (and just like the day before with the hunt at home), he spent a good 20-30 minutes carefully taking apart each and every egg, collecting his winnings. He quickly learned he could shake the egg to know instantly if it was "worth" opening.

Those with M&Ms were worth opening. Those with stickers/tattoos were, sadly, not.


As you can tell from this post - we were busy busy bodies and had a lot going on. It was definitely an exhausting weekend - but oh so much fun!! :)

(Click on any of the pics above to get to the larger album of all Easter pics taken)