Logan Bear

Logan is showing his imagination today while practicing his role as a big brother. We were in the basement and amongst his toys, he plucked a cuddly little teddy bear, carried him upstairs, and proceeded to rock it like it was a baby. Next, he decided the bear had a poopy diaper, so I gave him a diaper to affix on the bear's bootie. Next, he wanted to take a little nap with the bear, so he had me put them both in his crib. Pretty soon, he had to change the bear's diaper again, and then placed him on the potty (this bear is pretty advanced, I guess), read him a book, and put him back to bed. I had to ask if he was going to name his bear baby, because he just kept calling him "bear," which seemed sort of generic. "Wogan Bear," he said with a smile. Pretty cute.

Chalk-eating monster

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everybody! I'm officially out of school as of Friday, so I am super excited to be kicking off the start of summer this weekend. Eric has one more week, and then we'll both be home full-time with Logan for the summer! Yay!

The only sad part about ending the year is that we had to say good-bye to Miss Dawn and the girls. Of course, we're going to pester them all the time for play dates, but I know Logan and I are going to have a tough time adjusting to the days that will now be so girls-less. I remember how much anxiety I felt at the beginning of the year, wondering how Logan would adjust to being with them all day, nearly every day. I was worried I was being a bad mom for asking someone to watch my son for the majority of his waking hours; I was worried that I would somehow become usurped as well. I can honestly say that I feel so fortunate that we were able to find a family so loving--Logan became like one of their own, and he learned so much and shared so much love while in their care. Thanks, Miss Dawn! Thanks, girls! We love you!

Yesterday we enjoyed our day with a group of friends we don't see nearly enough of--Cody, Ramona, their kids, Colleen, and Pete. We enjoyed the beautiful day grilling outside while the kids had a blast jumping on toddler beds, playing out in the yard, and, if you're Logan, eating sidewalk chalk. The kids were throwing the big hunks of chalk into a bath of rainwater from one of their little play sets, and Logan thought it would be funny--and apparently delectable--if he munched on a blue, then later yellow, chunk of chalk. Like a true circus freak, Logan wowed his friends with his uncanny ability to stomach the brightly colored substance. I probably made the situation worse by freaking out a little and making him wash his mouth out. Of course, I had to document my proud moment as a mother with a photograph first.

Today, we're headed to celebrate our friend Leah's completion of her doctoral degree and her new job as a teacher with IMSA--yay, Leah! I think I'll keep the sidewalk chalk at home today...

Bad Vibe

I love my car--my Pontiac Vibe. It's so peppy and comfortable and reliable. At least that's what I thought until yesterday. I was on my way to Target (big surprise to those who know me well), traveling down Sycamore Road, which is a fairly busy road in DeKalb. The traffic light was red, so I was slowing to a stop, when suddenly, without a hiccup or any other sign of warning, my car's engine stopped. Being a bit flummoxed as to why my car would suddenly stop working, I put it in park and tried to start it again. No go. So now I'm in the left-hand lane with no way to pull over to the side of the road, and cars keep zipping around me. My friend Corrinne just happened to be driving by at the time my car stalled and pulled over to make sure I was OK. By the time I called Eric and a tow company, a police officer had pulled up behind me to make sure oncoming traffic wouldn't plow into me.
While I was being towed, Eric went online to investigate possible causes for my engine to spontaneously cut out. Turns out, it's another Toyota issue. My Pontiac Vibe is essentially a Toyota Matrix with a cuter physique--a fact that used to give Eric and I peace of mind, because, after all, how reliable are Toyotas? Well, with all the trouble Toyota has been in lately, I guess it's no wonder this has come up. Eric found some fairly recent articles that claimed that a small number of Matrixes and Vibes are crapping out for no apparent reason, just like my car did. Toyota doesn't want to do a recall, though, for obvious reasons, and they say that the engine's cutting out poses no imminent danger to the driver. Say what? Let's say I'm driving along a busy highway, like I was just that afternoon, and my engine randomly cut out. Yeah, I think anyone could say a safety risk is posed by spontaneous engine failure.
So apparently, my engine may have gone on strike due to the failure of some part, the ECM, which can come unsoldered from the engine. It's supposedly a quick and relatively inexpensive repair, but boy did this whole episode cause me to doubt the safety of my car. Thank goodness Logan wasn't in the car with me!

Tell the Truth but tell it slant

So I told my first parental lie today...well, the second, if you count the bit about Santa Claus. We've had some thunder and lightning this afternoon, and Logan's a little freaked out by thunder. He hears the noise and his mouth drops open, his eyes go wide. I think it bothers him most because he can hear the noise but can't see where it's coming from. "Thunder! Wanna see it!" He says. No amount of logical explanation helped soothe his frazzled nerves, and he even started crying. "I know thunder is loud, but you can't see it. It's like when you sing. You can't see your voice, right? But it doesn't matter. It won't hurt you." Yeah, not helpful at all. How many times does a kid hear "Now, this won't hurt a bit," when it actually does quite a lot...the shot from the doctor's office, the Bactine dabbed on a fresh boo boo.

So it turns out that the explanation my mom gave when I was little worked much better than my vain attempts to console with logic. "God's bowling, Logan. Doesn't it sound like that one was a strike?" He immediately seemed to accept that rationale happily. "God bowling!"

It really is like that Emily Dickinson poem "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant" when she says that only "explanation kind" can ease children's minds about lightening. How true, how true. And down it pours.

Adventures

Eric posted the most recent pictures of Logan's adventures in redecorating our furniture. He got into my blush the other day and, as the photo shows, completely pulverized it. On Monday, we had adventures of a different kind. Logan and I beat Eric home, and as I was changing clothes, Logan shut himself in our bathroom. He's done this many times--he thinks it's a funny game to shut himself in the bathroom, then knock on the door until we open it. Well, this time, he decided to flip the lock. Of course, we don't have a key for that door. It's just a little hole, and I have no skill at picking that type of lock. My mom is a master at picking those locks with an ice pick, but I didn't have an ice pick, nor the skill to use one. Imagining what sort of mischief he could get into behind a locked door, I started to panic a little, as was Logan--his shouts of "Mom! Open door!" shifting from a stern to a worried tone.
Luckily, just as the tension was starting to build, Eric made it home and freed Logan by climbing in through our closed, though unlocked, bathroom window. I guess it was a good thing we had neglected to lock it a few days ago?
A couple of hours after Logan was liberated from the bathroom, Logan broke into my school bag and stole my favorite lipstick, smearing it all over his face and hands. Needless to say, Monday was filled with excitement!

Logan's adventures with make-up!

Turkey Jerky

Yo! Been a long time since I blogged (this is Eric). Anyway, summer is approaching and the Hill family is very much looking forward to it. Wanted to write about our recent trips to Target and how we can no longer exit the store without Logan saying "Turkey Jerky." He loves the stuff and it's so darn cute hearing it that I had to write about it for posterity. Even though I claim to be a vegetarian, anyone who knows me knows that I have a hard time turning down jerkied meats. Well, now I have an excuse to indulge in the MSG wonder known as Turkey Jerky. It's a great treat to keep Logan busy in the car when he is fussy too. Although I guess it is sort of a choking hazard. Anyway, hearing a two year old repeat turkey jerky about a hundred times doesn't really get old.

The elusive "R"

Yes, I'll be glad when Logan can pronounce his Rs. Since I know that may take some time, however, I guess I'll just have some good laughs at his r-less words. It's amazing how some words transform without the R sound. For example, this weekend, we were sitting down to a yummy breakfast of waffles. Logan was happily picking at his food with his fork. Before too long, though, one of the pieces of waffle refused to stay on his fork, and, exasperated, he said, "Mommy! Fork...this!" You can imagine how that sounded without the R--it's funny enough with the R in it!

Viking!

So our neighbors gave Logan a hooded towel for his birthday that is just too cute. It's themed from that movie How to Train a Dragon, and so it's viking themed--the hood has a helmet printed on it with two little terry cloth horns sticking out of its sides--pretty funny. Tonight Logan walked out of the bathroom with his viking hood on, the towel wrapped around him, and as we were helping him put his jammies on, we decided to see what entertaining things we could get him to say. He stated with glee, "I'm a viking!" and "I pillage the village!" Luckily, I stopped myself from saying the other famously rotten thing vikings are known to have done--boy, would that have been an awkward sentence to have resounding from my two-year old's mouth...

baby and coffee in tummy

Hi, it's Carly! So, it's been a long time since we've posted an entry...a really long time. It's not that we haven't had anything to blog about or that we've meant to allow this blog to drift off into cyberspace, but life has been pretty hectic with the school year winding to a close and papers piling up in my bag. I think I'm handling the stress so much better than usual this year because I know I'll soon be starting such a long break from school, what with my taking a year's leave next year. I'm really looking forward to having a year with my three boys (because how could I neglect to count Eric in that number? Ha!). Who knows? Maybe I'll like it so much that I just won't go back.
Anyway, since we've last written, lots of things have happened. Back in April, Eric and I had different spring breaks, so he went to Philadelphia to visit Kevin and (perhaps more importantly) to climb the "Rocky stairs." Kevin was, as expected, a gracious host, and Eric had a wonderful time. I went to visit my family while on my spring break and took Logan along, of course. Lo and behold, Eric got bored...which is never good news. He completely gutted our bathroom, which we had been planning to do over the summer, but Eric upped the stakes by starting it one week before the day we were going to celebrate Logan's second birthday. Long story short, we're now enjoying a newly finished bathroom--it looks great, and Eric did a fantastic job. Logan loves taking a bath in the new tub.
Speaking of Logan, he's been cracking us up on an hourly basis. And when we're not cracking up, we're either enjoying some cuddles or pulling our hair out. These days we've been trying to warm him up to the idea of having a baby brother around. I've ballooned quite a bit in the past few weeks, and the other day I was driving home from work, with Logan in the back. I had my hand on my stomach, and he said, "I want baby in tummy, too!" After having a good laugh, I explained that scenario probably wasn't in the cards for him.
Today, on the way home, I decided to stop for a decaf mocha frappuccino, my favorite guilty pleasure of late, and I got him an apple juice. Now, Logan loves coffee. Since I drink decaf now, I give him the occasional sip from my mug without feeling too guilty about it. After all, my grandma used to give me little servings of the real stuff when I was young, and I can't have been too stunted by it, being 5'8'' now. Logan sees what I have to drink, and he says, "Mommy, I want decaf!" Too funny, right? What two-year old asks for coffee, let alone decaf. I wonder what his preschool teacher is going to think of me when he asks for a cup of joe at snack time? Nah...
Well, we hope this blog finds you all well, and I promise to be more diligent about posting more often (especially for you, Adolfo)! :)