Ovie isn't here right now.

Logan recognizes Ovechkin! When watching the Caps, he'll point to the TV and said "Ovie". To be totally truthful, he'll say Ovie when watching any hockey player including the old men in Jacob's hockey league, but we're working on that. Oh, and he also says "Ovie" when he sees a football player... but it's still progress.

This morning, Brody was "reading" to Logan in his room while I was getting dressed and listening through the monitor. I heard Logan go through the usual morning questions of "Mama" (Brody replies, "Mama's getting ready.") "Dada" (Brody replies, "Dada's at work.") At this point, Logan usually says "woof woof" to ask where Foster is, but today he went a different route and said "Ovie". To that, Brody replied, "Ovie's not here right now, he's playing hockey." Ovie's not here right now? Is he usually at our house? Would he be at our house if he wasn't playing hockey? So many questions for Brody, but then I'd have to acknowledge that I was listening to the boys and I'm not ready to give up my secret way of spying on them.

lala

Logan's pajamas are covered in construction vehicles. There are dumptrucks, bulldozers, and a wrecking ball truck. I went in to get him Saturday morning and he was sitting up, pointing to something on his arm and staring at me intently. As I came closer, he said "lala". Lala means two things, water and lollipop. Neither seemed appropriate for this moment, but he said it with such intensity that he had clearly been sitting there for a while, with his finger pointed to his arm, just waiting for someone to come in. Once he was sure that I heard him, he switched arms, pointed to something on the other arm and again said "lala". At that point, I notice that he's pointing to the red ball hanging from a straight line from the crane of the wrecking ball truck. When looked at upside down, from Logan's point of view, it looks just like a lollipop.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

Logan has a new word. Or several words mashed together. Whenever he sees a vehicle, he points and says "chugga-chugga-choo-choo". Because clearly that is easier than saying "car".

Unfortunately, when he sees a train he doesn't say much of anything.

Woodpile

Tomorrow is Brody's last day at Miss Shahnaz's. We've talked to him about big boy school and he knows that he's going somewhere with the word "wood" in its name. Yesterday it was "woodpile". Then "wood-what?" He's excited but he has no idea what big boy school means. Winwood is a lot more structured than Miss Shahnaz's, so we'll see how he takes to it. He's always transitioned well, so I imagine he'll do fine and I'm sure he'll love the playground. Hopefully he doesn't repeat the chin-puckered, not-crying-because-I'm-a-big-boy, tears-in-his-eyes face. That was too sad to handle.

Logan will stay with Miss Shahnaz for two more years. I'm interested to see how he does without Brody there. Logan is getting his own little personality and could benefit from some time being himself instead of Brody's little brother. Of course, I also think he'll miss Brody terribly.

...and now he's talking!

Logan started talking early, inconsistently using words like ball, fish, duck, quack, car, and cracker. Once he started crawling and then walking, he stopped talking. He regressed entirely and wouldn't say anything. It was like he had to put all of his energy into learning how to move and couldn't think about talking.

Now that he's walking comfortably, the talking has started back up. He calls Jacob and me Dada and Mama, very clearly. "Dada" is loud and punctuated at the end- like he's trying to get Jacob's attention. He says it the same way every time, even if Jacob is right next to him. "Mama" is much softer and is often repeated two or three times like "mamamama".

This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard him talking through the monitor. First he called for Dada (what's that about?? I'm always there to get him in the morning!), then he called for Mama a few times. Finally, he gave up and started playing with the aquarium in his crib, turning on and off the music. I heard him clearly say "fish" as he played and then, as if he was experimenting with the word, he started repeating himself "fish, fissshhh, fissssshhhhhhh, fish".

I remember us wishing Brody would just speak so we could prove Dr. Ben wrong and show that Brody didn't have a speech problem. Now we sometimes wish our little motor mouth would just be quiet for a few minutes so we could have a moment of peace. I guess it's time to prepare ourselves for two motor mouths in the family. Those long car rides are going to be tough!

Progress all around!

We're in a good place right now. We're into week 3 of "Operation: Put Logan Down". After a year-plus of Logan being attached to my hip and screaming whenever he isn't connected to me, he's finally starting to gain some independence. I don't think it's a coincidence that he started walking just a week into this initiative. He needed to spend time on the ground in order to learn how to walk. He's still happiest in my arms but he'll tolerate playing on the ground too, which is huge growth and a relief for my back and arm.

Logan is also communicating like crazy, nodding and shaking his head. It's made us realize just how much he understands. We can ask him if he's hungry or thirsty, if he has poo poo, or if he wants a diaper change (to that he ALWAYS answers no). He always answers questions, whether through nodding or shaking his head or by making sounds. He's trying to talk, but the sounds aren't quite right yet. We can't understand him, but he's getting so much closer. It's a lot easier to keep him happy now that we can ask him questions to figure out what's wrong.

Brody is fully potty trained and wearing big boy underwear at night too. He's only had a couple of accidents and has done great over the past couple of weeks. His first time without a pull up at night was at Pawley's Island. He was awake before us and just stayed in bed. When we got up, the first thing he said was "sorry" in an adorable little voice. Cute kid.

He's also getting himself into the car on his own now. He can open the car door, close it from the inside, and clip himself into his carseat. It's pretty fantastic, especially on rainy days when I don't want to be hanging outside the car clipping both kids in.

The boys are picking at each other. When we're not looking, Brody may step on Logan's toy or knock into him. Logan has discovered that he can cry out for no reason and we'll blame it on Brody. He's done that more than once, and when we look over Brody is saying "I didn't do anything!". No matter how they act throughout the day, there is always bedtime and morning that lets us know how much they love each other. Logan won't go to bed without first crawling into Brody's bed and laying down with him on his pillow. And in the morning, Logan squeals at his first sight of Brody. Brody for his part will jump as soon as he hears Logan through the monitor in the morning, asking if he can go in and get him.

We've done a good thing. We have two sweet little boys who love each other. The days fly by but if feels like forever that we've been a family.

The caveman

Thanks Granny. You let Brody pee outside one time. One time! Now he's a caveman. Jacob and Brody were walking Foster around the playground one evening last week and Brody lagged behind a little bit. Jacob turned around to tell Brody to speed up and found him with his pants around his ankles, peeing on a tree. In front of a playground full of kids and their parents. Thanks Granny.

FINALLY!

At one week shy of 16 months...

Wonderful communication!

Logan can nod! Technically he can rock his body forwards and backwards, but we know that's a nod and it means yes. Logan, do you want to eat? (rocks) Do you want a banana? (shakes his head no) Do you want yogurt? (rocks) It's fantastic! We're that much closer to true communication with the little guy.

She's a girl.

On our way to Miss Shahnaz's this morning I was asking Brody if he was excited to see his friends after being away for a long weekend. He said yes and then wanted me to name them. I started with Richa, a sweet two year old who's been Brody's best buddy since starting with Shahnaz. He said no, shes' not his friend. So then I went to Brady, who completes their pack of three, the quiet kids who stick together. Brody said yes, Brady is his friend. I kept going and named some of the other kids, noticing a theme. I asked Brody why Richa wasn't his friend and he replied "She's a girl and I'm a boy and Brady's a boy." And so it begins.

"I like to go on the potty"

How many times have Jacob and I scoffed at other parents who said their kid just woke up one day and decided to use the potty? Clearly that wasn't going to work for our 3-year old who screamed every time he sat on it and would rather pee in his pants, or on the floor, anywhere other than in the potty. But Saturday, out of nowhere he told Jacob that he didn't want to wear diapers anymore because they're for babies. That's huge progress but he still wouldn't let himself pee on the potty Saturday. He went once in his pants, once in his diaper during nap, then he held it until bathtime. During bath he was visibly uncomfortable and begging to get a diaper on so I said here, and put a tupperware container in front of him, pee in this. And he did. No hesitation, no crying. Then I poured the pee into the potty and flushed it. We talked about other ways to sit on the potty instead of using his Diego seat. He could sit on the potty without Diego or he could stand on his steps. He seemed open to trying something new.

Sunday he was amazing! He wore big boy underwear all day except for naptime. He had one very small accident on our way to dinner and another right before bedtime. But that's it. He used the potty the rest of the day, including a "quick" trip to Target that turned into an hour-long trip because he needed to use the potty 3 times while there. All successfully. He also made it through dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse with 5 or 6 potty visits. Our next project will be to get him to hold his pee a little better. I'm all for praising him when he goes on the potty but every 15-20 minutes is a bit ridiculous. It's hard to get excited when all he has are drips.

It's up to Miss Shahnaz and Shazia during the day this week to keep his momentum going. He'll be back in big boy underwear in the evening. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we can start to phase out diapers at daycare and get him into pull ups or big boy underwear- very exciting. We've had two in diapers for so long, it's going to be nice to be down to one!

Hot

This morning as I pulled Logan out of his crib I noticed that he was really warm in his fleece pajamas. It wasn't as cold as I was expecting it to be when I dressed him last night. I said, whew, Logan, you're hot! To that, he started blowing out of his mouth like he was cooling hot food. I thought, no way, that must have been a coincidence. So, I waited a few minutes then repeated the test telling him my shirt was hot. He responded the same, blowing out of his mouth. How cool! He knows that when something is hot, you blow on it. Not bad for a barely one year old.

Pulling Himself Up

Well, right on the heels of crawling, Logan is now pulling himself up to a standing position. He did it first at Miss Shahnaz's on Wednesday, then repeated the feat several times at home. He'll pull himself up and cruise for a bit or just stand there until he lets go and falls back down. Two milestones in one week- that's a good week.

Peek-a-Boo

Logan played peek-a-boo in the car all the way to Shahnaz's house yesterday morning. He was cracking himself up, which was a lot of fun. Last night I came home to discover that Logan must have played peek-a-boo at the dinner table too... while eating pasta with tomato sauce. He was covered in sauce, from his mouth to his hair and even behind his ears. It took two wet wipes and a bath to get him clean but he was a happy boy.

OBX, May 2010

What a fun week Logan, Brody, and I had at the beach with Granny, Poppa, etc. The weather was beautiful and allowed us long days outside. We spent 3-4 hours on the beach or by the pool each day and with all of that activity, the boys were sleeping great at night. Brody is still afraid of the ocean, which was actually helpful as I had to keep track of both boys. It was nice to know that Brody could run free and not get in the water since he wouldn't go within 10 feet of the ocean's farthest reach. Logan spent the week on a beach towel, eating goldfish. He was happy as long as he had food. The birds figured us out mid-week and were anxiously awaiting our toss of the crackers that ended up in the sand.

Brody continues to love the sand while Logan didn't want to touch it. Logan looked like he was doing yoga or imitating a flamingo whenever I put him in the sand. One foot came off the ground and he would balance on one foot until I put him back on the towel. If the sand got on his hand, he shook it until I wiped it off.

After two mornings of Brody waking at 6:30am, I told him that he couldn't get up until the first number on the clock was 7. We talked about it throughout the day but I wasn't sure if he was getting it because he kept showing me 7s in the last number on the clock. Each time, I reinforced that in order to get out of bed, the first number must be a 7. That third morning, I rolled over to find Brody, standing on his bed pointing to the clock saying "look mama, seven." And it was 7:01. He did great for the rest of the week. When Logan woke at 6:45am Thursday morning, Brody looked at the clock concerned and told me that it wasn't 7 yet. I told him that Logan wasn't a big boy like Brody and we had to get up to get Logan. Brody looked like it was Christmas. He bounded out of bed and ran around like he had been awake for hours waiting for this exact moment. And he may have. I don't know when he was waking up but he was great about staying quiet until the clock said 7.

Thursday night was a big surprise. We were at dinner, eating outside on picnic tables with Logan sitting on top of the middle of the table. He started inching forward, as he always does right before he flops on his tummy or pushes himself back onto his booty. Mom, Joyce, and Laura got excited as I said "you guys haven't seen this enough to not get excited. He's been doing this for a month and still isn't crawling." At that, and I think just to spite me, Logan crawled across the table on his knees, right to me. We all screamed and clapped and he flopped onto his belly and looked pleased with himself. The other couple eating outside looked amused and left soon after. I think our screams coupled with Brody and Evelyn running all over the place were a bit much for anyone to handle. We were pretty good at clearing places out.

We have more beach trips planned for this summer- Pawley's in July, Ocean City in August, and possibly OBX again in October. By the end of summer both boys will have bleached blond hair and hopefully Brody will be more comfortable in the ocean and Logan will be ok with the sand. I'm really looking forward to all of these trips with the family.

Freedom!

Logan seems to have found a place where he can have all sorts of freedom- the bathtub. The water provides buoyancy for him, so he's able to move back and forth, go from his rear end to his tummy, pull himself up to his knees, then flop back into the water, and he LOVES it. Last night he was a riot. He was laughing so much as he moved around the tub. Brody was in there with him and at times he was Logan's playgym and at other times he was a barrier. Logan was clearly loving the independence of moving around on his own. Now if he can just translate that outside of the tub and start to crawl! Or walk. Or cruise. Or scoot. Or pull himself along on his belly. Something!!

Dora Live!

Katie and I took Brody and Evelyn to see Nick Jr's Storytime Live show, which featured Kai Lan, the Wonderpets, the Backyardigans, and Dora. The show was at the Warner Theatre, so it was a rather formal environment for the show. The whole experience went rather well. Brody and Evelyn were mesmerized by the first act. After the intermission I would say that they both lost a little bit of interest but weren't disruptive. Brody asked two questions that I couldn't answer:
1. (to the Backyardigans and Dora) Why don't they look like they're on TV?
2. (to the Wonderpets, which were large puppets hanging from the actors/puppet masters) Why are those people riding the Wonderpets?

He cracks me up. Here are our little theater-goers:

Kylie's Bouncing Party

Brody wasn't exactly a fan of bounce houses last summer. We tried to get him to bounce but he was timid and he fell a lot. I can't say that he had a lot of fun bouncing but we tried hard to get him to enjoy himself. I remember at Celebrate South Riding last June, he went to the top of a large bounce slide and disappeared. Jacob and I watched as kid after kid went up and came back down. No Brody. Finally an older kid came down and said there was someone stuck at the top, too scared to come down. The attendant went up and retrieved our two year old.

Today Kylie had her 6th birthday party at Pump it Up, an indoor bounce house with big bounce slides and obstacle courses. Brody had a blast! He was all over the place, climbing the ladders, going down huge slides, maneuvering through the obstacles. Jacob or I had to follow him around because there were a couple of places he'd get stuck, but for the most part he was able to do it himself. A few times during the party, he turned to Jacob and said "I'm having fun!" Jacob was exhausted and sweaty but I think he was having as much fun as Brody.

Logan even went in two of the smaller bounce houses. He and I went in the normal bounce house and I jumped up and down with him in my arms. He loved that and had a huge smile as long as I didn't go too high and the big kids didn't get too close. We also went down the tall slide all together at the same time. Logan wasn't such a fan of that and he held onto my shirt tightly. Give him a little more time and he'll be just like Brody, all over the place.

What a fun party! I hope we get to do that again.

At three, already winning arguments

This morning as I'm trying to get everyone and everything into the car to head off to daycare and work, Brody is carrying a large bulldozer down the deck stairs. The toy is almost as big as he is and I think his plan is to play with it on the parking pad. I was already running late and couldn't handle more playtime so I needed a way to convince him to leave it. I decided to go with "if you leave it on the parking pad, Dada will come home and run it over." Brody countered by telling me he was going to leave it on my side of the parking pad, where Dada doesn't park. So then I said "Then when I come home, I'm going to run it over." Brody's response was simple: "You won't." Sigh. He's right and I had no counter. I need to remember to be on the lookout for a bulldozer when I pull into our parking pad tonight.

Logan's First Birthday

Our baby is one today! One year ago Logan was in the NICU under an oxygen hood and heat lamp, hooked up to a bunch of machines and monitors. What a difference a year makes. Logan is now a strong little boy. He's a great eater and will try anything you put in front of him. He's still not crawling, but he can get around on his tummy by pivoting, stretching, and rolling. He's becoming proficient at walking with assistance when Jacob holds his hands. He can pull himself up to a keeling position but can't seem to get his feet out from underneath himself to cruise. He's still a mama's boy, but will go to others when he's in a good mood and I'm not in the room.

Logan is making different sounds for words now and depending on who you talk to, he has words for ball, bye bye, cracker, duck, and quack. None of them sound exactly like the real word, but he seems to say the same sound each time. Ball is always "gah". Duck is "guck" and usually followed by quack, which is "gack, gack, gack". He lights up when he sees one of these things and gets to use his word, which is adorable.

We had a birthday party for Logan yesterday with the Plummers and the Weavers. It was a full house and the cousins entertained Logan quite a bit. Wilson's peek-a-boo could keep Logan interested for hours. By the time everyone left, Logan was exhausted. He fell asleep on Jacob's shoulder while watching TV in the basement.

This morning he ate a huge piece of coffee cake for breakfast (well, it is his birthday) then finished off Brody's piece too. Tomorrow he has his one-year check up at the doctor where I'm ready to be scolded for Logan's lack of crawling. Hopefully everything else is good news as our happy little one year old keeps growing and developing into a toddler.

What a sick three year old looks like...

Brody was not feeling well yesterday and was up very late last night "getting the yucky food out" of his tummy. The video below shows how he woke up this morning. He's obviously feeling better. He's home from daycare to contain the virus but shows no signs of yesterday's sickness. We're making chocolate cake and dancing to a CD of cool-kid music that Katie made for me. I have a light day at work so I'm enjoying my surprise day off with him.

Brody, Jacob, Paw Paw, Uncle Doug, and Cousin Amber went to the Caps v. Stars game Monday for Brody's early 3rd birthday celebration. They managed to get seats in an executive suite that was complete with catering and I hear Brody took full advantage of the hot dogs, popcorn, and chicken nuggets. Brody saw Ovie skating and saw Slapshot the mascot. He had a blast and as early as the next morning Brody started asking when he could go back to the hockey game.

I asked Brody what happened during the game, which went to a shootout. Here's his response: "The car went on the ice and it went fast and then one-two zambonis came on the ice and the car stopped." So apparently the second intermission was just as exciting as the hockey action.

Logan is eating table food!

Logan has been such a picky eater since we started him on table foods. He's guaranteed to eat yogurt, cheerios, and goldfish no matter how hungry he is, but for the past couple of weeks he would scream if we'd try to get him to eat anything else. This weekend was a breakthrough as he openly tried other foods. He had baked beans, toast with butter, pretzel sticks, and sliced cheese and loved it all. He also ate spaghetti with meat sauce and for the first time he picked a messy food up with his fingers. He wasn't such a fan of broccoli or cauliflower, but after trying everything else, who can blame him?

His third tooth came through from the top and he's enjoying grinding it with his lower teeth. It makes a sound that I can't stand but I know that it's just something new to him. Hopefully he'll tire of the grinding soon.

He's also fake laughing, which Jacob and I find hilarious. He does it unprovoked and randomly and it stops as quickly as it starts. He's a really cool little kid right now.

another sweet tooth in the family

I love that fact that every time Logan sees a cookie, he starts smacking his lips. He makes the same sound when I put on chapstick because he wants some too. I've been using sign language for months with Logan to communicate "more" and "all done" and he hasn't done it once. I have cookies in the house for two days and he's already found a way to communicate that he wants one.

Brody the chatterbox

Brody's speech has grown leaps and bounds over the past year. It's hard to imagine him not talking because he's become such a chatterbox. He found me this morning and asked for a bandaid. I opened the door to the linen closet and said where are they? He said "I don't know. Last night I put them right there and now they're gone." There was no stutter and no grammatical errors. It was like I was speaking to another adult.

Over the weekend we asked what he wanted for lunch and he replied "I don't want anything." I know, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but usually he'll throw in a double negative or he'll misuse the word something in a sentence like this. ("I don't want something.") I think this is the first time I've heard him say anything and it was pretty cool.

A dangerous

Brody just used the word dangerous as a noun.

"Look, mama, look!" He held out a measuring spoon with something inside.
"What is it Brody?"
"It's a dangerous", he said.

Then he threw it up in the air and laughed hysterically.

I still have no idea what it was or where it's gone. Probably not mother-of-the-year material.

? Or no.

Poor Brody. I guess he's getting used to hearing the word no. He's started asking his questions with an "Or No." at the end. For instance: "Mama, can I go outside or no." "Mama, can I play with this or no." This morning it was "Mama, can I touch Logan's foot or no." Poor kid.

Logan at 9 months

Logan is 9 months old. How did that happen? I still call him "the baby" but that label won't stick much longer. He's babbling like crazy these days, especially the sounds of da, ma, and ba. His only intentional sound is "Dat", which he uses when pointing to things. Whenever he does it, we tell him what the object is and then he points to something new. He's also learned to direct our walking path by pointing. I hold onto him, he points, I walk a few steps in that direction, then he points again. Eventually he gets me where he wants to go. With skills like this, who needs to walk or talk?

On that note, no, Logan is still not crawling. The doctor scolded me for holding onto him too much, which I know is true. I'm away from him all day. When I get home, I want to hold him! We're listening to the doctor and getting him more tummy time and he's becoming more active on the ground. He'll kick his feet and push with his hands, but always seems to go backwards instead of forwards. He'll get it eventually. Until then, he's happy to sit, stand with help, and be held.

Logan's second tooth is through. He now has his two bottom, middle teeth. When eating Cheerios, which are his favorite, he knows to put it in the front of his mouth to chew using those two teeth. He also knows that he can make me jump by biting down when I'm checking his mouth for things that shouldn't be in there. Then he laughs. He's such a great kid.

He's eating table foods with us but it's going slowly. He loves yogurt and anything carb-related and crunchy. He is not a fan of fruits (bananas and peaches both failed the first test) or pasta. He will tolerate meat and vegetables but only for chewing. He doesn't swallow them so I have to pull them out of his mouth later, once he's sucked the juice out of them. He also doesn't like touching wet or sticky foods with his hands so we have to place most foods in his mouth. Such a pampered life he leads!

He's still mama's boy and won't tolerate anyone else when he's not feeling well. When he's in a good mood he'll happily be passed around, even among strangers. He's learned to lunge his body in the direction he wants to go while being held, so he lets us know when he wants to go to someone else. Every night before bed he lunges between Jacob and me, 3 or 4 times while we throw him up in the air or fly him around like Superman. He loves it and knows it's coming so as we're putting Brody down to sleep Logan is already kicking, smiling, and ready to jump out of my arms. I believe it is the highlight of his night.

We'll soon have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. A pre-schooler and a toddler. It's amazing how fast time flies.

Hi Dada!

It's MLK Day and Shahnaz and Shazia have the day off. Mama is home with Brody and Logan and have this message to send to Dada, who's at the office working...

Message to Brody

Dear Brody,

I think it's great that you want to share with your little brother. That's very sweet of you. But Logan isn't ready for chocolate hazelnut candy bars yet. Please stop feeding them to him.

I love you,
Mama

Chunk

Jacob started calling Logan "Chunk" at birth. He's never really been fat; he's just a big boy. Poor Logan, the nickname stuck and even Brody knows that Logan is Chunk. I found this video on our camera and thought it was worth posting. It is a good example of Logan being Chunk.

Logan's First Tooth

Our little boy has a tooth! One of the lower middle teeth popped through last week and the other is very close behind. It's visible when he gives big smiles, which thankfully is more often these days now that he's finally recovering from his ear infections. He loves to chomp down on anything stuck in his mouth as if to say "check this out!" Spoon feeding him is a slow process of insert spoon, Logan bites down, wait, Logan releases, refill, and start again. Every spoonful requires a bite from Logan.