Christmas in our home!

Christmas has begun and what a difference with a two year old compared to last year at this time! Logan so gets the excitement and as you will see in the pics below, he really enjoyed the night of putting up our tree and pulling out all the decorations. We have only just begun, as nothing else is really up yet, but it was an exciting night!

Helping daddy put the tree together...
at least that's what he thought he was doing!

Realizing he may have been in Daddy's way was no big deal
when he found the box and decided to play in it!
While I was looking for the tree skirt, this is what he was doing with it.
After I showed him what the tree skirt was really for, the Santa hat sparked his interest. We were playing Christmas music while doing this, so here you may be able to tell he was actually dancing!

The first ornaments to be placed on the tree were the first two homemade ornaments Logan has ever made... though I know there are MANY more to come! :-) Both were made in the church nurseries this past week...
so precious to mommy!

Putting up some ornaments with a little help from daddy. He thought this was so cool... especially when he'd find ones with his name or picture on them!

Last night really began the holiday season for me. Seeing the excitement through Logan was so much fun and really helped remind me what Christmas is all about.

Holiday in Gordon/Graham

Ok, so I'm like a week behind on this, but our Thanksgiving was so wonderful. The weekend before, we celebrated the holiday in town at my parents' house and my brother came to town... such a nice, relaxing couple of days. For the holiday week, we went to Gordon and then on to Graham and thanks to Grana and Papa (Jeff's parents) we had such a great break, as they took care of everything "logan." Mommy (me) got to sleep in every day and came back very refreshed! Here are some good family pics we were able to get with the people that were together this year!

All the boys... Jeff, Logan, Tommy, Kevin, Big Papa and Kris
All the girls... Brenda, Muna, Debra, Katie, Kelley and Jessica

Grace Family... but I think Logan was DONE with pictures!
Running around outside was just too much fun!

Playing with the new sticker book Grana got him... this was a daily occurence- sometimes multiple times a day! Thank you Grana for the new book, but mostly for your patience while Logan wanted to do itHIS way... not the way the book told you to! :-)

Doing one of his favorite things... driving! Gotta watch him though Aunt Kel,

or that nickel's gonna get stuck in the cd player!

Ready to go out into the cold! That hat makes his head look huge, huh?!

Ok, so here we have a new-found love.
The wind was so strong in Graham (a place where "fall" actually exists) and we ended up with a yard full of leaves. Too bad this was discovered just as we were leaving, because I think he'd have wanted to play in the leaves every minute for the rest of our trip if
we weren't all ready and packed to head home!
He LOVED this and it was just precious to watch!

Throwing them into the wind!

Taking a "swim" in the leaves! This made me want to get down and roll around with him... but it was freezing out and I stayed around just long enough to get these shots!

Hope you all had a blessed holiday time. Can't believe we are in December already!

A Hammer??? Or just some cheese?!?!

One day last week we were eating lunch and Logan kept pointing and saying, "Hammer! Look, mommy... hammer" over and over again. At first I thought, oh, he must see the hammer on the counter or something, so I said, "Yeah, uh huh." Really I was probably ignoring him while enjoying my food, but he wasn't going to take that. So, he kept on and on and finally I started to look around and wonder what he was talking about, seeing then that there was no hammer out on the counter. He was pointing to the queso bowl that we had been eating out of and that really threw me for a loop. SO... I decided to inquire further, and this is what I found....

I mean really... he was so stuck on making sure I saw this, and Jeff and I were very impressed!

I think we'll start pouring milk or ink on the table and further test these skills of his! :-)

Oil Ranch Trip 2008

Last week (pre-potty training) we went on our Second Annual trip to the Oil Ranch in Magnolia with our friends from our church playgroup. Last year was fun, but this year was so great with Logan knowing all of the animals and thus having more of an interest and a knowledge about where we were. Of course, he kept referring to it as a farm, and who can blame him!

No picture of Logan milking or petting the cow this year. We waited in line behind the other group of kids as he told me everything he knows about cows... mooing continuously and then singing, "The cows give us milk!" But when we approached the cow, he wanted nothing to do with it. Not much scares him, but that big black and white thing eating hay must have been intimidating.

Here's my little farmer driving the tractor.


We passed this thing many times and he kept stopping and staring,
watching it go up and down.

Waiting to get into the petting zoo.

This is as close as he would come to feeding the animals. You were supposed to hold the pellets in your hand and let them eat out of it... he threw his handful at them. Then he decided that feeding them hay was less threatening... poor animals!

The rabbit wasn't threatening at all... probably helps that his Grandma has one and he holds it all the time! (that's "baby Chase" watching him)

Here he is taking a look at the goats and sheep. And he called all the goats "Billy"... get it... Billy Goat! haha!

We spent most of the visit there walking around with my friend Tanya and her two kids Sarah and Chase. Here all three of them are checking out the pig.
And here's the pig's close up... taking a nap after rolling in the mud!

Logan was very excited to ride the train. He even got to play with the bell on the front while we waited for more people to show up.
All Aboard!
And after the conductor (kind of a scary looking fella) rang the loud horn, this is how Logan spent the rest of the ride... after I calmed him down enough to even stop crying. He wouldn't even look at the man the whole ride... kept his face to the side or straddled me, looking over my shoulder!

Then came the pony ride. After the experience with the cow, I wasn't sure what to expect, but he did so well. He kept saying, "Giddy Up Horsey" "Ride 'em Cowboy" and "Yee-haw!" I was very proud of him and it was an enjoyment watching him get so into "cowboy" character! Wish I had been video-taping it!
"Ride em Cowboy!"


I had tried to get him to sit on hay in the petting zoo for a picture, but apparently he needed a pumpkin to feel comfortable doing that. He and Sarah had a good time climbing on the hay bells!
On accident, he dropped his pumpkin and it rolled down the stack. So, the boy that he is, got the great idea to throw (obviously not on accident) his pumpkin down and mommy caught him in the act with a photo to prove it! :-)
Then I wanted to get pics of him in the patch and this is how that started...
Sitting ON a pumpkin...
Finding and hugging the HUGE pumpkin...
And taking one pumpkin home with us... he had to carry it "all by loganself" (those are his words, not mine, and he says "loganself" smooth like one word)


We had such a great time that day and he has talked about it every day since. The two things that stand out in his mind the most were riding the pony and not wanting to go near the cow. He keeps saying, "No Logan feed touch cow."

Thanks to Tanya for planning such a great day out and getting enough people to sign up so that we could get the group discount. This is definitely going to be an annual thing because this is where I always get my pumpkin patch picture! Logan loves animals, so he definitely enjoys himself!

Our Success Put to the Test

Well, I continue to be amazed by this process. We went to church today and Logan stayed accident free. He told his teacher once that he needed to go and she took him... thanks MaNicki! After playing around the church after service, I took him to the bathroom and told him he had to go potty before we went home. He had no argument to that and went nice and quickly! There was a nighttime accident last night, but he did wake up through it and made it to the toilet to finish, so that's good news. He is obviously asleep when it happens though because the accident appears on his belly, showing that he must have been laying down on his tummy while peeing. Oh well though, three days later and we can leave the house... so I have no complaints. I'm sure the nights will come in time and we will just have to work a little better on our nighttime routine. Way to go Logan!

Almost Done

Well, I think we are potty trained over here... actually, I know we are because we are not going back to diapers at this point! Day Three started off so well and is almost over. Logan made it through the night last night... from getting out of bed around 8 to pee to waking up at 7:15 this morning! He was great for my parents this morning while I went and hosted a baby shower. He went potty while they were here and even called Grandma back in after she laid him down for his nap because he needed to go poopy before he fell asleep.
I am so proud of this kid.

Staying home for three days was so worth it, and for us, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! I know there will be accidents along the way, but this is one hump I am very happy to be over! Thanks to my friend Laurie for modeling and then recommending this method. We are very similar in our parenting ways, so it was nice to have her example to follow on this too!

If you are interested, check out www.3daypottytraining.com
This mommy (Lora Jensen) has it all written out for you!

The End of Day Two

Well, two days are now done and Logan is still rolling strong. Tomorrow's test will be to see how he responds when mommy isn't home. I will be leaving him with my parents (at our house though) for 4 hours while I go to a baby shower that I am hosting. I am confident that the success of today will continue and am hoping the best for Grandma and Grandpa's sake too!

About the rest of today, it went along fairly well... just one hiccup in the road. No one was paying attention to him (I won't mention who was responsible at that time) and he decided pooping in his pants would be ok. So, guess who got to clean up that mess? That's right, not mommy! So anyway, he did make it through the rest of the day accident free and a big bonus, I think, is that about 20 minutes after putting him to bed, he called me back into his room by yelling, "Mommy! Logan go tee-tee!" So I sprinted up the stairs, carried him to the bathroom, and pee-pee on the potty he did! I was so proud of him for realizing that he could do that, and not have an accident just because he was in bed. It makes me feel much more confident about tonight than I did about last night... and the last thing he had to drink tonight was milk at 5:30 with dinner.

I'll keep updating as we make it through tomorrow. I think we may even try to walk down the block to our friend's house (Logan's buddies Damon and Ty) tomorrow afternoon and take a little "test" outing. We'll see how the morning goes though for sure.

Day 2: Nap Time

We are at nap time on day two and the success has continued!
Big news... Logan went "poopy" on the potty just after lunch,
timing that is completely normal for his "regular" self.

I let Jeff take over this morning around 10 so that I could lay down for a bit and there were no accidents! He went potty two times for daddy and they had some fun playing together, as usual. That makes me feel really good that he doesn't need me in order to "tell someone." The only pee-pee accident came with the success of #2... I think he was trying to avoid pooping on the potty and just couldn't figure out what to do. No worries though, because now he seems very confident and proud of himself.

Of course, more phone calls were made with this success!
Thanks again to all of you! :-)
We are very happy with the results so far... hoping nap today goes well!

Day 2: The Good, The Bad, and The GROSS

Good morning... here we are on morning two and Jeff is off today to be home with us through the rest of this process! Last night went fairly ok.

Let's start with the bad, as that's what came first... I was awoken at 4:30am (9 hours after he went to bed, so that's actually really good in my eyes) to a crying boy with a wet bed. He sat on the toilet while I cleaned up and had a really good attitude about it. He was upset with himself, but that made it a good opportunity for me to be extra positive. He tried to tell me it was time to get up and play and much to his disappointment, I placed him back in his bed... new sheets, new blanket, and new stuffed animal (puppy dog and blankie needed a washing!).

The good news came at 7:30am. Logan woke up with a dry bed and went potty right away. Then, after breakfast he went again... coming to tell me in the middle of playing hide and seek with daddy! He is really starting to figure this out and is very proud of himself each time! Then we called Uncle Mike to share the news and Logan told him "Logan's a big boy!" Uncle Mike was very upbeat about it and praised Logan very well! We appreciate all of you that are playing your role in this... both for my support and Logan's!

Ok, so now the GROSS! Logan had not gone #2 yet and though we could tell he needed to and he kept sitting on the toilet to "go poopy," when nothing would happen he would want to get down. Patience is not a virtue of his at the age of two! :-)
So, while playing the drums in the playroom, it just happened... in the underwear. Poor baby... but we made it to the potty, dropped it in and he flushed it down. It wasn't pleasant, but that's ok... all part of the learning process.

So, that's the update for now. I'll post tonight with today's happenings. I have to say, it's already very nice to have Jeff home so that Logan knows we are all in this together!

Day One Complete

Well, I cannot complain. My biggest worry was sleep time and today everything went well. Logan slept for almost 2 1/2 hours at nap time and stayed dry. He received a Popsicle for having a dry bed and went to the potty three more times this afternoon/evening. There were a couple of "dribbles" along the way, but no complete accidents! I'd have to say the only real frustration aside from having to stay home through this is the number of times he goes into the bathroom, only to sit on the potty for 5 seconds and say, "All done" not having actually done anything! All in all though, I guess he is just learning his body and the signs of needing to go.

We shall see how tonight goes and I'll have to make sure to get myself up nice and early in the morning, but I believe in this process and so far have only been further convinced that it can and will work. Now we'll see if tomorrow he'll be willing to go #2. I don't remember the last time he even went a WHOLE day without pooping... usually it's at least 3 times a day! Oh well though, two is the age of change, isn't it?!?!

Oh, and I must include a thank you to all of the friends and family that we called today to brag. I thought it was important for Logan to get some encouragement from more than just mommy, and he was very happy to announce that he was peeing on the potty. Thanks to all of you that were able to make yourselves sound so excited for his sake! I appreciate it!

Off to a Good Start

Logan is doing great!

We are at nap time on day one and I have to say, it hasn't gone as bad I as had thought it would. We got started at about 8:15 this morning and here are some pics of our big boy in his "brief" style undies.

In this one, he was dancing, saying "Logan big boy!" after throwing away his LAST diaper!

After adding the shirt, he was ready to get on with his day... telling me he wanted to color! Such a busy boy!

So, like I said, we got started around 8:15 and it took him awhile to get going with it all. I would say it was at least 40 minutes before he did anything. Then came the accidents that I was prepared for. After the third one, he did "finish" the accident on the toilet with a little dribble, so of course, we celebrated!

Then came the successes! Two times in a row, only about 10 minutes apart, he said, "Mommy, Logan go pee pee!" and we made it to the toilet in time! He is not a fan of either child toilet (the small one or the one that you put on the seat). He would rather just hold himself up on the regular one! There's money well spent, huh? The rewards have included some mini m&ms, a lollipop and some stickers. We are charting by the toilet with stickers how many times he goes today!

So, about nap time... I'm not very optimistic. I'd like to be, but he didn't pee before the nap, so I'm just trying to be realistic here! I can't make him and I did say, "OK, let's pee before our nap" and he sat there, but nothing happened. I went ahead and put him down and was sure he'd call me before he fell asleep, but now he is out cold, so it's too late for that.

On another note, no number 2 yet! I did catch him in the squatting position making "that face" and said, "Oh, no, honey... we don't poop in our pants anymore. Let's go potty if you need to poopy!" and he said ok and off we went... but nothing happened once he was sitting. Maybe the little potty will end up coming in handy once he is ready to take that step!

Hoping the afternoon is just a continuation of where we left off... I'll update tonight to let you all know how the nap and afternoon work out!

Our Son's Attention Span

Well, it has happened... our son now has an attention span! Not like he's never had one before, but it hasn't always been very long! It's so nice for mommy to sometimes be able to get something done while he is awake, and as you will see it is lots of fun too!

Logan has finally decided that full length movies are enjoyable and he is able to follow them from beginning to end. Ok, so let's be honest... he is able to do this with ONE movie. We haven't tried any others, because since we came back from NY there has really only been ONE movie he has even wanted to watch. Aunt Julie let him take home "Air Buddies," the sequel to "Air Bud" and he calls it THE PUPPY MOVIE. I have to admit that it is a cute film that has lots of clever lines, but that was only my feeling the first couple of times that I watched it. Now I have seen it at least a dozen times (and we've only had it unpacked for less than a week) and I don't know that I still have the same feelings. It is a cute one and it's better that the Wiggles, that's for sure.

But along with movie watching, the increased attention span does go into other things. Logan has discovered the love of coloring and thanks to Aunt Maureen's purchase of the Color Wonder things, it's also a lot less worry for mommy when he is coloring by himself! He starts by naming all of his shapes (and not just your basic ones either) and then he proceeds to color each one in while telling you what color he is using. He likes to make sure that the WHOLE shape is filled in (no white spots for this boy) before he moves on to the next one. Because he knows so many different shapes (including pentagon, octagon, trapezoid) this can take him up to twenty minutes or more! Very nice indeed.

Here is a picture of him coloring at the table. Excuse the crazy hair and greasy face... this was after dinner and before bath time! The humidity in Houston is to blame for the curls after a long day of playing!

Here is a sample of some of his work. He likes to make a page almost exactly like these EVERY day! He is definitely a creature of habit and has his mommy to thank for that!


Another new project he has gotten into with this attention span increase is playing with playdoh! Oh the child wonder that it is and he really does LOVE it! He was very disappointed the first day that I didn't have cookie cutters for him to make "flowers" with... apparently he has played with playdoh in the nursery during my bible study and they had cookie cutters. So, today we went out and purchased a kit to do all sorts of fun things with. I thought he sat for a long time yesterday! Well, today, having the little "tools" and such, he sat at the table for over AN HOUR and played with very little assistance from me. But, having loved playdoh myself as a kid, I didn't get anything else accomplished during this hour. I took it upon myself to play with the colors he wasn't using! Those little gadgets can be lots of fun!

Obviously, this was my work... he can spell his name, but we aren't to making the letters yet!
Here's my happy little fella in playdoh heaven with the color red.
He hasn't even thought about mixing colors yet (and I'm hoping he doesn't for a long time!)

On another note, Logan has become quite the little singer. He has always really enjoyed music and was very good at finishing the last word or so to different lines in songs, but lately he has really picked up on singing some of his favorites all by himself... and he's say, "No Mommy! Logan do it!" if I try to sing with him! He knows Jesus Loves Me (which for some reason he just won't do for the camera), Twinkle Twinkle, and you've already seen him sing his ABCs. Counting is really improving as he can now use his fingers to show 1-10 and can count to 20 (though he didn't want to show that either).
He has really gotten into the whole performing thing... probably has something to do with all the new people he met in NY and how many times he sang and counted for everyone there!
Here is a video of the Twinkle, Twinkle with a repeat performance of the ABCs. I guess he thought since he wasn't doing Jesus Loves Me, he would pacify me with the alphabet! :-)

Here is another video of him singing the sounds of the alphabet.



Please don't think that I sit and work with him all day. I want to assure you that I do not. He knows his sounds from the Leap Frog video "The Letter Factory" and truly is a fast learner. He asks me all the time, "What that?" if it isn't something he recognizes and almost always points it out to me on his own the next time he sees one.... shapes, for example. He has a puzzle of them all and we probably "taught" him them only a handful of times and now he says them all when he does the puzzle each time. Same thing with the letters and numbers... puzzles are my "teaching" tool!!

One thing he told me yesterday that I thought was really clever...
We were driving and he says, "Mom, I see trash man!" and I said, "Oh, yes, that is a trash man's truck." (Note here that the truck was green, like the one that comes to our house)
We are at a stop light about 30 seconds later and another trash truck pulls up along side us.
Logan says, "Mom, another trash man." And I say again, "Yes, Logan, another trash truck."
He says, "No Logan's trash man. This truck brown. It someone else's."
It took me a second to understand what he was saying and I asked him, "What?"
He repeated himself almost verbatim and added, "Logan trash man green."
Then I realized what he was thinking.
Every time he points out a trash truck (man) on the road, he must think if it is green that it is the exact one that comes to our house, like there couldn't be more than one. BUT, because this one was brown, it couldn't be ours! Now, that was some good thinking! Seriously, kid?!?!

I'm sure with most mothers of toddlers, I am not alone in saying that I am truly amazed EVERY day by the things this kid picks up on. He is always saying things and often I have no idea where he gets it from... but it makes sense, so I don't question it.


Now I'm just hoping he'll be as easy to potty train as he is to teach things to! :-)

Sticker Fun

Logan LOVES stickers! In his Halloween card from his Grana and Papa (Jeff's parents) he received stickers of both Spiderman and Mickey Mouse Club. We are going through a sheet at a time and I mean the WHOLE sheet. He finds places for them all over his body, and this time he managed to put 5 on his face and proudly pose for a picture!

Here is a pofile of the spiderman ones... thanks Grana for all the fun!
These things can occupy him for up to 15 minutes at a time!
Only problem... I then find them in the strangest places! :-)

Happy Fall (And Halloween too)!!!

What a happy fall it is turning out to be! We have had some great weather the last few weeks and topped it all off last night with a great Halloween with family and friends.

First of all, I need to show off my fall decorating. I'm not really into the whole Halloween decor items of spiders, witches, ghosts and tombstones in the yard, so we went with
the "Happy Fall" idea this year.

Here is a picture of my hay and scarecrow set-up and Dylan enjoying a little time in the sun.

Another of the set-up in the yard... Logan with his friends Luke and Scotty (neighbors)
This was Halloween afternoon, before the whole dress up started.

And now we present our future doctor...
Dr. Q.T.Patootie (that's what the pocket says!)
And for the Second Annual Halloween Celebration with the Turners,
Levi (Logan's best buddy) was dressed up as a monkey.
Aren't they just the cutest things?
Our monkey and doctor playing with puzzles,
not having a clue as to the fun that was ahead of them.
Posing with Grandpa right before heading out the door to trick-or-treat!

Already eating a lollipop made photo time a lot easier on all of us! :-)

Back from trick or treating, a very tired doctor for sure...
but never too tired to eat another lollipop!

Jeff and Grandpa took the boys trick or treating while the mommies and Grandma sat in the yard and handed out candy, having a good time comparing costumes and getting ideas for future costumes for our boys... and I must mention, there were a lot of,
"My child will NEVER wear that or be something deadly!"

Jeff said that Logan wasn't saying "Trick or Treat" like we'd been practicing, but that he was instead saying "Please" and "Thank you." Can't complain about that!
They didn't get scared of any of the people walking around, so that was a blessing.
Levi went for a second shorter trip after Logan wanted to stop and come home, but that was ended quickly as there was a house that spooked him and made him want to come home.
We were very happy to get to spend the holiday with family and love when Levi joins in on the fun with us. The boys play together so well and Laurie is a wonderful friend!

Happy Fall to all and may the holiday season approaching us be times of joy!