Santa is Coming!

So, my friend Barb bought this really cute Christmas book for Logan. Every time you open a page, it plays a little Christmas song or makes a jingle bell noise or a "ho, ho, ho." Logan bobs his head to the beat of the music and quickly closes and opens the page again to hear the little ditty one more time. Now, I'm not bananas about Christmas, so we haven't taken Logan to see Santa at this point, nor have I explained the whole Santa tale, but he learned Santa's name and the sounds he makes through this little book. It's pretty cute. You ask, "Hey, Logan, how does Santa go?" and Logan replies, "ho, ho, ho," then giggles.
Logan also got a cool little coloring tablet that plays music. When you color on the paper, it can sense how quickly you're coloring, and it causes the pace of the music to quicken. It's pretty funny to see Logan sitting in the floor, listening to the music and bobbing his head while scribbling colors everywhere.
On a completely unrelated note, the Hill family got the swine flu vaccine tonight. Logan and I took it like a champ, but Eric's arm still hurts. Maybe his nurse had a lousy technique--I didn't think it was that bad. So if we're walking backwards or if this is my last post that isn't in pig latin or some other ridiculous side effect befalls us, you'll know why.
Merry Christmas to all, in case I don't have a chance to post again!

Boom!

It's a statement a parent never wants to hear: "Your daycare called; she says she wants you to call her. It's an emergency." I was in the middle of my 2nd hour class, and our school's secretary had just given me the news. Immediately, my limbs start to feel jittery and my heart begins to race. "Do you know what happened?" I asked. "She says he fell." "Oh my gosh! Dawn has stairs! Did he fall down the stairs?" I was thinking to myself as I left my classroom to call Dawn.
Turns out, Logan was trying to climb up on their couch, but failed on the execution and instead launched himself into the wrought-iron leg of her coffee table. "He's fine now. He cried when he fell. He's been acting fine and I've been icing the bump, but he needs to be checked," Dawn explained.
To make matters worse, I had noticed my wallet was missing yesterday. After rummaging through the house and my car, I had not yet found it and just went to school with my fingers crossed that I would not be pulled over for anything. Of course, I need to go to the emergency room the day I have no insurance cards! But just when I was about to burst into tears from the horrible chain of events, I opened my car door to find my wallet wedged between the seat and the floorboard. My jaw dropped--How the heck had I not noticed it there before?! In any case, I was thankful that the big guy decided to cut me a break on this one.
With wallet in hand, I made it to Dawn's in record time to find Logan in fine spirits. He looked at me, as if to explain his predicament, and said "Boom!" while patting his head gingerly. And from the looks of it, "Boom" is exactly the way it must have sounded when head met table leg. Man, does he have a massive bump on his noggin.
So I took him to the local urgent care center, which is, conveniently, right down the street from my school, and he checked out just fine. Usually Logan is a real bear at the doctor's office, but the nurse had the brilliant idea of giving him some crayons so he could color on the paper bed cover. (Why did I never think of that?) And he really seemed to like the doctor, albeit after eyeing him suspiciously at first. Logan's going to have a nice bump and probably a colorful scalp for a while, but no concussion--good news.
I took him back to Dawn's just in time for his nap and made it back to school a little over an hour after I had left. What a crazy Monday!

20 Month Old Wonder

Logan is two days over 20 months old. Whoa! Quantum leap going on here. He's going to be asking me for car keys any moment.

Logan's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. He can repeat nearly any word that we say to him provided that it doesn't have an R or an L in it. Logan has never attempted to say his name "Logan" and I find that a bit curious since it's the word that he probably hears the most, although "chock wat" is a close second. Our boy can't get enough sweets. We try not to give him too much, but we succumb to his adorable begging often. And it's the holidays, right?

This is probably T.M.I but when Logan has to poop he tends to try and hide under or behind things like chairs or under the Christmas tree. He gets real quiet (which is unusual) and seems to want his privacy. Hopefully soon we can encourage him to use the potty instead of secretly pooping his pants. (He's not fooling anybody). Anyway, not too enlightening a post, but it's all I gots...

Bee-Don!

Logan does quite the imitation of Linus from the Charlie Brown cartoons. He carries his "Bee-Don" around whenever we let him. "Bee-Don" is Logan speak for "blanket." Carly's Mom crocheted Logan a blanket that he's been using for his entire 20 months of life. He loves his blanket and chews on the corners to put himself to sleep. The corners get so smelly and gross that we have to wash his bee-don frequently. Ewww.

So I'm flirting with the idea of blogging again (I being Eric). What do ya think?

We're Thankful For...

It's Thanksgiving, and our friend Adolfo, who is filming coverage of the Texas A&M game today, reprimanded us for posting so infrequently of late, so here goes, a holiday post to commemorate Logan's second Thanksgiving.

We're headed to my grandma's today for a Tofurkey extravaganza around 1:00 and I'm wondering what Logan will be persuaded to eat today. It's an amusing contradiction--on a day dedicated to stuffing one's self, I'm assuming at least some of my day will revolve around placing tiny portions in front of our very picky eater, only to see them fly through the air in different directions. If he's feeling more polite, however, he may place the food he rejects into my hand.

Maybe he'll surprise us, though. He did last night. Every time we come home (to my parents') for a visit, we have to make a trip to Roma's Pizza, which specializes in pizza that has a thin, cracker-type crust. It is deee-lish. Logan usually turns up his nose at any pizza pie, but last night, he actually ate some surprising new foods. Not only did he eat pizza, but also he ate pieces of iceburg lettuce generously dipped in Ranch dressing, of course. He had black and green olives as well, and even a piece of red cabbage. I was amazed! Either he was starving before we came to Roma's, or my suspicions are correct in thinking that they lace their food with some sort of addictive substance, urging their patrons to come back for more. In any case, we had a successful meal last night.

Aside from the food aspect of Thanksgiving, this holiday is all about being grateful for what you have, and we are, of course, thankful for our amazing little boy who has completely turned our world around in the best ways possible, barring those few months of intense sleep deprivation. We are also thankful to have such a wonderful group of loving and supportive family members and friends who enrich our lives through their funny stories, unique perspectives, and incredible personalities. We are, indeed, blessed, and we hope all of you know how very, very much we love all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Logan Has a Cousin!

It's been a couple of months now, and I've not received any bad news about Logan's hair-pulling, biting, or hitting anyone (I'm knocking on my coffee table right now). This morning, as I dropped him off at our sitter's, it was an adorable scene. Logan is always greeted at the door by at least two of the girls, and the youngest, who is Logan's age, is the one who never misses an entrance. She waddles up, her big eyes all aglow, waving her little hand and smiling. Today she gave Logan a hug and a kiss, and Logan hugged her back. Our sitter's eldest girl said, "They're best friends!" I couldn't resist saying in response, "A big change from the way it used to be, huh?" Logan, as an only child, did not take kindly to another person--especially someone his size--getting something he wanted, and she, being the youngest of four, was not used to being appeased by everyone. Predictably, there were many ugly clashes. It's been a long, dramatic road, but Logan seems to have learned how to make--and keep--friends. What a relief!

And it's about time, too, because today at around 6:00PM, Logan became a cousin. Eric's sister Jackie had an adorable little girl today. Isabel Alice is 8lbs, 21 inches and healthy as can be. Eric was so excited! He almost teared up at the pictures she sent via email and said, "She already looks like my sister!" So we are all excited to meet this new little person. Welcome to the world, Isabel!

Poo poo in the potty!

We are on the verge of exciting times here at the Hill household. Logan is showing some signs that he may be ready to begin potty training.
A few weeks ago, Logan started alerting us to "poo poo" in his pants, so we decided to get him a little potty to see if he showed any interest in using it. Lo and behold, last night, he decided to sit on the potty and make a small deposit. After dropping off his...stuff, he quickly stood up, turned around to see what he had left behind, exclaimed, "eeew!" and ran off naked down the hall. Before I could catch him, though, his big step forward was accompanied by a small step back...he peed in the hallway. "Logan," I said, "poo poo and pee pee go in the potty." Hopefully those sage words sunk in.
And so begins our long journey on the road to underwearhood...While we're not sure we'll start full-on potty training yet (he's 19 months today), I'd appreciate any sage words any of you might have to share on the topic! Thanks in advance!