Logan says:

"A tornado was going to get me. But when a tornado comes, you go in the house and down to the basement...Do tornadoes have teeth?"

So I was feeding Auden a little after five today. Eric had taken Logan out to play with the neighbors. The ice cream man drove down our block and the children started to make their way to it. Suddenly, a look of shock came over all of their faces and elbows and feet flew in the air. "What the...?" I thought. Eric came in the house, eyes wide, with Logan. "There's a tornado! Get in the basement!" So I toted the boys downstairs...Where was Eric? We waited a bit more. Logan and I had a conversation about tornadoes and teeth, or tornadoes having teeth...or not. Eric finally came in. He had been snapping photos, apparently along with the other neighbors. It was a funnel cloud, a spiraling vortex of terror that didn't touch down. Phew. Gotta love living in the midwest.

Funnel Clouds are cooler than funnel cake.

DeKalb was exciting today.

Choice phrases

So I've been a bit worried about Auden and his speech development. I flipped through one of those milestone charts (probably a mistake), and it says he should be addressing Eric and I by our proper names (dada, mama) by now. He's not. I mean, he says "dada" all the time, but he's looking at me when he says it, or he's just babbling. I had to check back through Logan's baby book to see where Logan was at this age: he was saying mama and dada, though I didn't specify if he was calling us by those names then.

Ok, so Auden might be a little behind. I'm not going to freak. Especially when I noticed today that he officially has a word he is saying and using appropriately: uh-oh. He dropped three things in about five minute's time while I was just sitting back and watching him today. Every time he dropped something: "uh-oh!" It was pretty funny. I guess that's his first word, officially. Hmmm. Not sure what to think about that...

Not to be outdone, Logan also rattled off a couple of amusing new lines while we were playing out in the sandbox today. He was working on making some sandcastles when he realized the sand wasn't wet enough, so I suggested we fill up a couple of buckets from his swimming pool (which had a good inch or two of water standing in it after our rainstorms) and dump them in the sandbox. "Ok, mom. I'm on it!" he replied and took off toward the pool. Where did he get that one? Pretty funny, anyway. And he's thought of a new, entertaining way to stall at bedtime: "Mom, I have a question for you..." Tonight he asked me how planes are made: wooden ones and jets. Then he asked how string cheese is made. A brief glimpse into the mind of my young son. What's important? Jets and string cheese.

More good news on Logan's speech front is that his stuttering has dissipated a bit over the past few days. I'm not sure if it's just one of those weird things that happen to young stutterers (the stuttering tends to become better and worse for no apparent reason sometimes) or if he's growing out of this thing altogether. Of course, I'm hoping for the latter, but we'll see!

H-O-T

That's the way it's been around here lately. HOT. In the upper 90s and even up to 100+ with the heat index. It's kind of funny. I feel like I'm used to hot weather and humidity, having grown up further south where it's about 10 degrees hotter than here on any given day. Yes, it's unpleasant and annoying to be cooped up inside when my work-free days are quickly flying by. But fortunately, we had a nice rain storm yesterday and last night, which gave us just a bit of a break from the stifling heat. So Eric and I, bored out of our minds, decided to go to Brookfield yesterday at 3PM. We're members this year, so we feel the need to make use of it, even though we arrived only two hours before closing. It ended up being a really nice trip. Few people were there. It wasn't that hot, and we got to stand under the misters as long as we wanted because, again, few people were there. Logan got to see all the critters he wanted, except for the elephants, who were chilling in the a/c or something. Still, it seems the true highlight of any zoo trip for Logan is the playground. He got to play on two of them, so all in all, it was a good trip to the zoo.

Photo update from the City Museum

Splashing good fun on the rooftop

Logan's first journey through a labyrinth

Smiling after a fearful journey through the airplane

Eric climbing through the corkscrew
Sliding!

These feet were made for walkin'

Holy moly! Auden took his first steps yesterday! Today, he's up to taking about six steps before crashing, but he's well on his way to bipedal propulsion! His face lights up with a big smile when we prop him up and send him on his short jaunt to the couch, daddy, grammy, or papa (visiting this weekend). Yay, Auden! Video to follow...

Beddy-bye

I remember reading this magazine article once that said you can shave a little stress out of our life by thinking about what part of your day is most hectic and finding ways to deal with that segment of time more effectively. Wise advice, I thought. And hands-down, I would have said bedtime was my most stressful part of the day. If everything isn't timed just right, and it seldom is, one of several things can go wrong: bath time can end in a screaming fit; story time can be interrupted by Auden attacking Logan because he's still too little to pay attention. Then there are the nights when Logan doesn't feel like going to sleep, so he'll play quietly in his room for an hour or so, and then make an appearance just to show you he's thumbing his nose at you and your bedtime enforcing. And Auden still doesn't seem to understand that he can, indeed, sleep more than four or five hours at a time.

Yeah, so all of that can be pretty annoying. But tonight, it was just kind of funny. And cute. Logan went to bed, but forty-five minutes later or so, he opened his door and announced, "Hey, mom! Look!" And with a dramatic wave of his arm ("Ta-da!"), he showed me the floor of his room, which he had turned into a giant Hot Wheels parking lot. It was a perfect cube of cars packed together in crazy configurations. "Wow," I said. "That took some doing."
"Yeah," he said proudly. "Now we've got to keep Mimi and Jackson away from it. Because they'd probably just wreck it."
"OK, we'll do that."
"Yeah."
And as I was tucking him in for the second time tonight, he had to give good-night kisses. My eyes, my nose, my chin, my cheeks, my ears--just like I give him good-night kisses sometimes when I'm being silly. He giggles like a madman. So did I. "I wuv you, mom," he said.

And about three hours after I put Auden to bed, he started to cry. I'm usually really annoyed when he does this, and lately, I've been letting him cry it out a bit, but since he's battling the same lousy cold I'm battling, I soothed him back to sleep without wondering what awful thing I must have done in a past life to deserve not one, but two boys with sleep issues. And as I laid him down in his crib, I had to smile because he's been doing this thing lately--he stretches himself out on his back and folds his arms up behind his head like he's some tiny Tom Sawyer or something. And I just think that's adorable. By the way, happy 11 months old tomorrow, little guy.

Fireworks R Fun!

Well, our Fourth of July festivities were quite different from last year's--in a good way. Last year, Eric and I had to pack up our folding chairs and our screaming two-year old out of the park just as the fireworks show began. Logan was not digging the loud booms. This year, we watched the fireworks peacefully in Alton, Logan shouting, "I love fireworks!" His favorites were red and green, by the way. Christmas in July or what have you. Auden experienced his first fireworks show just how Logan did: fast asleep. Maybe we'll skip the screaming in terror stage next year?!

We just couldn't get enough of being on the road, so the week we returned from Door Co., we spent a few days at home, packed up again, and spent a few days with my family. I wanted to make sure Eric got to experience the City Museum for himself this summer, so Logan, Eric, and I went while my mom watched Auden. Logan was much less timid than last time. He still loved the mini train ride, but he also climbed through some of the labyrinths, slid down some slides (including the ten-story one), rode the roof-top ferris wheel, and climbed through a plane suspended by lots of iron tunnels. The last two on the list even I was sweating about. He was really only nervous about the ferris wheel, as was I, frankly. It's on a roof for one, so my fear of heights was kicking in. And, secondly, it's creaky and, I'm sure, recycled from some second-rate carnival. So my fear of dying on a poorly maintained carnival ride was kicking in. Still, once we were up, Logan stopped crying, I stopped holding my breath, and we enjoyed it. Eric, who has serious thrill issues, had a blast.

Since it was really hot, we spent most of the rest of the weekend playing in the wading pool in my parents' backyard. Logan's favorite thing to do was take off from the far end of the yard, leap into the pool face-first, and run back to do it all over again...like fifty times. Auden liked to stay on the outside and lean over the edge of the inflated pool and splash or play with the toys. It was a nice time. Oh, and Eric decided to buzz his hair. Hey, it's summer. Whatevs. I took Logan to get a haircut, and he ended up with a buzz cut, too. Not my choice, but apparently the stylist decided to follow her bliss or something. Fortunately, he's still pretty cute and all.

We came back home. Eric constructed a potter's wheel from tree stumps, the motor from our old furnace, and other odds and ends. I guess the City Museum really inspired him. I may be seeking refuge for me and the boys in the coming weeks if he goes through with his plan of constructing his own kiln. According to YouTube videos, it's really easy, and you only need an oil drum and a propane tank. Awesome.

I'll post some pictures from the museum later, but hope you enjoy the cute pool pics for now.