Waiting for Spring to Come

I don't know about you all, but we're all getting a little bit eager for the icy patches of snow to melt and warmer weather to appear around here. This week we've even been pretending that it's warmer than it actually is. Bundled up in our coats and hats, Logan and I take our daily after-school stroll to the end of the block and back. He loves to pick up handfuls of snow and throw it in front of him, watching it smatter across the pavement. "Bwoken!" He says with satisfaction, and then scoops up another handful.
Our walk was really a temptation today, because it was 45 degrees--a veritable heat wave--and Logan was determined we would walk to the park down the street and play. We made it halfway there before I started to wimp out from the cold, though, of course, Logan did not, and I carried him kicking and screaming back home.
It's supposed to be in the 50s this weekend, and I'm so looking forward to some warmer weather.

Terrible Twos

Logan's nearly two now, and within the past week or so, he's really started to act his age. Usually, it's pretty funny when he asserts his personality, but today, with the second day of minimal napping and late bedtimes, it can be rather painful. As soon as we got home from school today, I had the pleasure of making dinner with the little tike hanging on to my leg while he was screaming random words. "Banana!" Thinking he wanted a banana, I peeled one and offered him a piece. "NO!" And he threw himself, kicking and screaming, in a fit of rage on the floor. This pattern continued through dinner, until it seems he finally started eating well. I guess all of the screaming he did helped him work up an appetite.
After dinner, he asked for apple slices, so I put those slices in a little bowl. What does he do? Throws them on the floor. I thought maybe he was just doing the aforementioned banana thing and rejecting what I had given him. Turns out he wanted the apples; he was just really against the whole bowl thing. After I had washed off the apple slices, he gathered them up into his fist and made his way into the living room to munch them whilst watching World News with Daddy-o.
This weekend was filled with funniness as well. Logan prefers to drink out of a regular glass now, and instead of drinking milk out of his sippy cup, he wanted milk from my glass. He took quite a few swigs and then put the glass down on his high chair. I said, "Hey, Logan. Can I have my milk back?" He replied, shaking his finger at me, "No, no, Momma! MY Milk!"
Sometimes Eric and I just laugh, and sometimes we look at each other and ask, "Why are we having another child again?" Oh, yeah. We're having another baby in August, blog-readers. But most of you already know this. :)
Well, I'm off for now...must...grade...more...papers...

Phrases

Logan is quite the chatty boy nowadays. He's saying some cute things that I want to get down for posterity before they get lost in the dusty clutter of my mind. Logan enjoys saying "Daddy-O Monkey" when he sees me. Adorable! I have to say, I do a good primate impression. We also had a bit of a funny incident the other day. I was laying on the bed and Logan and I were wrasslin' when Logan decided to thwack his little fist into my sensitive guy parts. Well, I let out a grunt, was not very happy and yelled out to Carly that Logan "hit me in the balls." Logan climbed off the bed and then went to his Mama and repeated "hit balls...hit balls." It was quite humorous albeit a bit painful.

My Boy

Carly and I were sitting on the couch enjoying a tomato, mozzarella, oil, basil and vinegar salad when Logan began begging for what we were eating. I gave him the cherry tomato on the end of my fork and after an initial pucker of his face he chomped on the tomato and actually ate it! He asked for more and more and polished off about 10 or so tomatoes. I am so happy that Logan now enjoys my favorite fruit/vegetable. I am looking forward to the summer when he and I can enjoy the bounty of our garden.

Happy New Year!

Hi, everyone! We hope you all had a great New Year's! We had a wonderful time at our second-annual Kidpalooza New Year's celebration hosted by the Bartels. It was much more fun this year with the kiddos, since all of them are mobile now. It's kind of amazing to think that last year, only Logan and Evan could sit up on their own for pictures, and now they're all walking and jabbering, becoming little people of their own.

We had a new addition to the gang this year--Jen and Ben's neighbors brought their four-year-old, and wouldn't you know it? Logan became fast friends with him. He was the only one Logan wasn't trying to push over at one point or another that night. Still a ruffian...and still a sleepless wonder. Logan actually rang in the New Year with the adults and his new friend, who is also a sleepless wonder. We enjoyed our little celebratory "Logan sandwich" and then decided to take off so that Logan might get at least a few hours of sleep. As soon as we put him in the car seat, he closed his eyes, and he made the car-to-bed transition without much of a whimper. He woke up at 6AM, though, crying his little head off. After about an hour of that, off-and-on, he stayed asleep until 11:00 or so and woke up to his first New Year's sleep deprivation-induced hangover. Needless to say, we all did our fair share of napping, a fine way to spend a very cold New Year's Day.

Well, signing off for now. We wish everyone a happy, healthy new year!

Eric & Carly

I was trying to get Logan to say my name, Eric, and it came out as "Egg-yolk." When asked to say his Mommy's name, "Carly," Logan said "Car-row." It was just so darn cute and blog-worthy that I had to post a lil' entry. Maybe I'll even post the video of it.

We're off to brave the roads headed down to E. Alton for a Koprivica visit. "Egg-yolk" signing off.

Christmas Crabbies

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Logan spent his latest night out ever last night at the Hills' house for Christmas Eve. He had a blast running around with his cousins until he clobbered Kaleb and got a time-out. Everyone thought it was hilarious how he was facing the corner at the end of the hall, crying. I guess it works in his favor that even when Logan is in trouble he's entertaining. He was particularly fond of Isabel, Jackie's new baby. He kept climbing up on the lap of whomever was holding the baby and pointing at the little bundle, smiling and saying "baby-o!"

Unfortunately, Logan started sneezing like a maniac later in the evening, and what we hoped might be an allergic reaction to the dogs or the relatives (ha!) ended up being a pretty yucky cold. We finally left the Hills' around 11:00 in the rain, and Logan soon was snoring in the back. He made up for his quick sleep in the car by waking up shrieking three times in the night. He felt pretty miserable, poor guy, but I rubbed some of the natural Vick's stuff Auntie Christine gave us, and that seemed to help. Nevertheless, he woke up around 9:30 pretty crabby, but we ate a small breakfast and then opened presents, and that helped raise his spirits. We got some pretty good video of him opening his toys--he particularly liked his hot wheels and keyboard. We bought him a little karaoke mic, too, but he hasn't quite found his voice for it yet. :)

We spent the rest of the day lazing around, napping and such. After his nap, he got down to The Fugees--pretty funny, and now we're getting ready to get his bee-don (blankie) and cuddle on the couch some more on this rainy, cold Christmas Day.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!