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.