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.