Logan's words

I'm starting a list of Logan's words so far, just to help keep track as he continues to progress with his receptive and expressive language skills. 

Shoes

Socks

Kitty

Callie

Doggy

Penny

Mac/Macky

Mommy (only in the last week)

Daddy

Cheese

Cracker

Where are you

Hi

Hello

Bye

Elmo

Yes (still sounds more like Wes)

No

Thank you

Bless you

Nose

Yay

The Meatloaf Debacle

All my life, I've been known as a picky eater.  I don't like tomatoes, broccoli...  okay, most vegetables...  or fish.  I'm not into sushi, french onion soup or other "fancy" foods.  Peanut butter and jelly is still a go-to meal at 31 years old.  I keep it pretty basic.  When I married a picky eater, I wondered what our children would possibly eat.
Luckily, they both are really good eaters.  They love green beans and peas and all kinds of foods that I would never touch.  Usually, they both cannot eat enough.  They are growing boys, after all.
Last night, Adam whipped up a meatloaf.  He makes wonderful meatballs and spaghetti almost every Monday, his telework day, but wanted to change things up a little bit.  A very little bit, he uses the same recipe for both meals, its just a matter of a loaf or ball presentation.
So we baked the meatloaf, pulled it out of the oven, and I sliced up pieces for the boys to eat.  The plates went in front of the boys and the direct opposite of what I thought would happen, happened.
They revolted!  Logan took a bite, then immediately spat it out.  He then used his fingers to get any remaining meat out of his mouth and back onto his plate.  James had a similar reaction.  I bit into my meatloaf and thought it tasted great, but the boys weren't having it.  James was finally persuaded to eat, even though it was "terrible" but Logan flatly refused.  Now, if you put a meatball in front of either of them, its instantly inhaled.  We tried several times to get Logan to eat, but he wouldn't.  Finally, we gave him a string cheese and called it dinner.
Kids are funny creatures.

Penny the puppy

Just one day after the 6 year anniversary of bringing home our beloved Shetland Sheepdog, Adam brought home a new family member, Penny the Golden Retriever. The decision to get a puppy was one we made with relatively little fanfare. Adam wanted to get a cat, I said I'd rather have a dog and one day later Penny came home.

Adam grew up with a Golden and I know she is the dog of his dreams. They've already bonded and I can see how in love they both are. The boys have been very happy with Penny as well, she really is a sweet and lovable pup. 

Mac and Sassy are adjusting, but are still a bit perturbed by their new baby sister. In time, they will adjust. For now, we are working on training and enjoying all of Penny's puppihood. 

Penny's first night home

O Christmas Tree

Yesterday I finally got around to putting up our Christmas tree. It wasn't without a bit of a headache, but after two trips to the store, we have a 6 1/2 foot faux tree, with ornaments, up in the living room. The first tree I bought was black, I didn't even know they made black trees. I've seen white, silver and pink, but never a black tree. My friend Judy loves Halloween, so I thought this would be a great tree for her, alas I wanted a regular green tree. So I went back and exchanged it for a more traditional, 4 foot tree. Upon putting that one together, we quickly realized that it was tiny and very Charlie Brown-like. So Adam took pity on his wife and took the tree back. He came home with the larger tree and I was happy.

James helped me put up ornaments for the first time and was so happy to help. He also learned that his godmother has been buying him an ornament for every year of his young life. So it was kind of like Christmas came early as he has been continuing to show me all his special ornaments from Nene. I showed him the ornaments that Nene bought his brother and he was much less impressed. 

James with last year's ornament

Logan helped a bit too. He's been stealing decorations and handing them to me, which is the opposite of what we need to do, but is still pretty cute. I feel like I should make a recording of me telling Logan not to touch, might save me some trouble in the long run. Then again, James could use that reminder as well.

The tree, 2014

The last few months... list form

In the last few months Logan has:

1.  Gotten tubes in his ears.
2.  Begun speech therapy through the Baltimore County Infants and Toddlers program for his slight speech delay.
3.  Learned to LOVE Elmo.
4.  Started to climb everything.
5.  Continued to run head first through life, occasionally into the path of heavy machinery.
6.  Fallen in love with Rhonda's kitten, Callie.
7.  Started to have tantrums consistent with almost being 2.
8.  Fully committed to being a daddy's boy, which took much longer than mom thought.
9.  Slept consistently through the night.

In the last few months James has:

1.  Improved his bike riding skills (but still with training wheels).
2.  Gotten even more curious about the world around him (why does the sun rise and set, when does a new day start, what day of the week is it, why is it cold out).
3.  Figured out most of his family's relationships, save some of the more complicated ones (Grandpa is dad's dad, Grandma Deedee is mom AND Uncle Trav's mom, Auntie Chelle is dad's stepsister, which means they're family but no, they don't look alike).
4.  Continued to love preschool.
5.  Gotten even more opinionated on what he wants to wear.
6.  Mostly been accident free during the day...  mostly.  And has started to be better at night.  Well, a little.  Some nights?  We're trying...
7.  Started to refer to his brother as "Little Feet".
8.  Started to play alone in his room from time to time, especially when little brother wants to eat Legos.
9.  Played on his first soccer team, if you count sitting down in the middle of the field every game as playing.

Long time, no post

Well, my goodness.  Its been awhile since I posted anything.  I think about posting a lot, I get a good idea going and then...  well, I have not followed through.  There are a million reasons for not finding the time.  A promotion at work, a merger at work, a new supervisee at work...  All these work things, keeping me so busy!  And tired.  And stressed!  Oh, the stress.  Not to mention those two little children I have at home, keeping me ever busy and ever on my toes.
So I'm not quite sure the work excuse accounts totally for being missing in action, but there has been a lot going on.  But I do miss writing and having even the slightest bit of creative outlet for all the stress and worry that life can throw at me.
I guess there's the Mirena too.  Oh, the Mirena.  Without going into too many details, I will mention that I had a Mirena IUD placed a few months after Logan was born.  And after much consideration and thought, I had it removed recently.  In a very small amount of people, Mirena can cause anxiety, depression, and lots of other unpleasant psychological side effects.  I will never know for certain, but I know that I feel like a new person in the time I've had it out.  As Logan continued to age (how is he almost 2?!) I knew that my symptoms were no longer those of post partum depression or anxiety.  So out Mr. Mirena came and I am so glad for that.
So here I am.  Maybe I'll post about the boys tomorrow.

The spokesman

In the last few days, James has started speaking for his brother.  He's often given us his interpretations of Logan's cries, but now he's telling us exactly what Logan is saying.
Last night, Logan said "Baa" as we were trying to feed him, and James looked at us and said, "I think Baby Logan says no."  Adam and I cracked up, Logan was saying no, because he was definitely done with dinner at that point.
Then this morning, as I was walking downstairs with the boys I said,  "I love you guys" to which James responded, "We love you, too".
I love that James is a great big brother, he's caring and loves to hug and kiss his baby.  Lately, he's been a bit impatient with Logan, running him over, rather than walking around him and we've been working on saying, "excuse me, Logan" while walking around.  Sharing is actually getting easier, especially now that Logan joins in the playing, rather than just chewing on the shared toy in question.
Our James is an outgoing sort of kid, which should make life increasingly interesting in the years to come.

A little snot

Today, I wore a purple sweater dress, black tights, and heeled booties to work. It's a pretty cute outfit and I was pleased with myself for being so fashion forward on a Monday. Mondays are usually reserved for ill fitting khakis and a boring top. I don't have a lot of energy to be fashionable on Mondays. 

My coworker, Debbie, pointed out a spot to me. "Chelsea, I think there's some fuzz under your boob, but I'll let you get it."

I looked down, assessed the situation and promptly responded, "Nope, it's just a little snot."

Potty talk

"James, did you pee on the potty?"

"No, I pooped... And peed."

With one exception (due to complete distraction by a Lego video game... Sigh) James has had three totally accident free days. This is huge for us, he's closer to four than three and we are so looking forward to being done with this phase!

2014!

A new year is upon us!  I honestly can't believe how fast 2013 went by, mostly because I was exhausted for most of it.  Last year really was the fastest year of my whole life and I think 2014 might just speed by as well.  But I am loving our life and where we are.  As a family, we've gotten used to the 4 of us and I am happy we are at the end of our time with newborns.  Even though they're cute and cuddly and require no actual parenting, I am happy to have our two big boys.
Logan turned one a few weeks ago and since we'd already had his party early, it was fairly uneventful.  Rhonda's holiday party happened to be on the same day, so he got to celebrate twice.  The boys wore their pajamas to daycare that day, so when we went out for dinner as a family, they stayed in their pajamas!  Luckily, we went to a pretty casual place that was not very busy yet.
Christmas and New Year's Eve flew by too.  James loved opening presents and Logan loved chewing on wrapping paper.  We are going to have an interesting time next year when Logan also wants to open presents and James is used to opening all of them.  But there are worse problems to have and James has gotten used to sharing (at least a little bit).
My 31st birthday is coming up, but other than that, life is pretty quiet.  I am glad we are done with the holiday madness and back to a schedule.  I haven't really made a resolution this year, but I did start the Couch to 5K running program again and am hoping to do another 5K in March.  Losing another 15 lbs is my ultimate weight loss goal, but if it took the whole year, I wouldn't be upset.  Last year, I said I wasn't going to talk about weight loss, I was just going to do it.  And I have managed that fairly well.  Also, going to the gym is my only quiet, alone time ever, so I will continue to embrace it!
In the Spring, we will make some decisions regarding James and Pre-K.  We are fairly sure that we make too much for James to automatically get to attend public Pre-K, but will still apply, in case there are extra spots available (HA!).  We have decided that a full day Pre-K program is probably not something we're going to do, but a half day program would present other challenges.  Mainly, it would mean that I would be using my lunch break to cart James between school and daycare.  But when we find out for sure about the public Pre-K decision, we will look at our options again.