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