The Houston Zoo

Logan has been to zoos in other cities a few times, but we were yet to do the Houston Zoo. Aunt Rachel wanted to plan something fun with us, so we met up for a fun day together!

Our little tour guide... reading the "directions"

Where do you want to go next?



And... off we go!


He had to carry the map and really thought he was planning out our visit. It was quite cute that he thought he was in charge!

After seeing the elephants get their baths (photos were too dark) they brought them out for a little talent show. I love how the little one holds the mommy's tale! Too precious!

Up close and personal with the giraffes...
there were quite a few of them too!

In the aquarium... this was all very familiar to him after having just been to the Houston Aquarium two weeks ago.

Had to get a picture of Nemo!

Anywhere there's a carousel, you can bet Logan will want to ride.
TWICE!
In serious conversation...
maybe already planning his next ride?!


Riding with Aunt Rachel


And he chose the gorilla when I went on with him.



I enjoyed a little sit time while Logan played at the kids' area
Down the slide...


Up on the frog...
Getting a drink from the cactus...


And taking his own break on the turtle's back


Checking out the water creatures


I have to pause here to explain that every time we got anywhere NEAR water, Logan was looking for hippos. It could have been a marshy area near the monkeys or the water that the bear was taking a dip in and he was hoping for a hippo to pop his head out!

Well, our zoo doesn't have hippos, so at the end of the day, without having found the hippos, he was very disappointed. Another disappointment, to him, was the fact that there was no rhino. He talked all day about the rhino and the hippo and when we got to the zebra area (where the rhino should have been) he again was not very thrilled!

In the picture below, there is a sign that reads "In Memory Of..." the Rhino that died two years ago. Trying to explain to him that there used to be a rhino but now there isn't was not very easy. So, we settled on the fact that the rhino is in heaven with his mommy and daddy (and a couple other people he named) and that sufficed him for a little while. As we were leaving though, he did remind us... "Mommy, this zoo doesn't have rhinos OR hippos" in a can you believe it? voice!



The petting zoo
Brushing the goat
Hugging a goat
And petting this goat's very big ears!

Acting like a prairie dog, looking up through the tunnel



The flamingos
"Mommy, they have numbers on their legs"



A white alligator... kinda creepy!



The biggest iguana I have ever seen!



Posing with the thing he really wanted in the gift shop (though I wouldn't even dare guess how expensive that was!) as he waited to pay for his panda figurine. A tired boy at the end of a fun-filled, hippo-and-rhino-free day!



I will admit that walking the zoo for 5 hours at 7 months pregnant probably wasn't the best thing for my back/hip/pelvis pain, but we had a great time and that's all that matters! Thanks Aunt Rachel for meeting up with us and taking Logan home with you for his first overnight trip... with someone besides his grandparents! He had such a great time and absolutely adores you!

Oh, and thanks for lifting him up every time he wanted to see something better. I couldn't have done the zoo trip without you!

The Lord's Prayer

A couple of Sundays ago my friend that teaches Logan's Bible class informed me that every time they say their prayers during class, my son says the prayer that blesses the meal.

"God is great, God is good,
Let us thank Him for our food."

Now, as sweet as I think that is, it doesn't really make much sense for that setting (since they aren't eating anything!) so I decided it was time for him to learn more than one prayer. So, that day (2 weeks ago) I started saying The Lord's Prayer when I would put him to bed. After only one week of working on it at naptime and bedtime, he was able to recite it to my mom and almost always got it right... now, here is a video of him saying it.

I'll admit, we have to work on some pronunciation, but he has the verses down and we are working on clarifying some of the words each night when he says it!
An example:
He used to say "deliver us from eagle" but now he says "evil" :-)

Spanish Update

A little over a month ago, I announced that Logan is now a huge fan of Dora the Explorer and promised a video of him counting in Spanish. Here is that video and one more with some other Spanish words he knows.

Logan's Big Boy Room!!

It has been one week of Logan sleeping in his big boy bed, all set up in his newly decorated big boy room. No more crib for this kid!

He has done really well with it... only falling out once so far! Don't worry, we have an extra twin mattress on the floor and after falling once he has taken the initiative to sleep on the far pillow by the wall. When he wakes up, he stays in his bed and calls for us, so that's been a nice outcome for my biggest worry... that he would wake up and just go right on to playing with the toys now that they are in the room with him.

My mom came over last Monday and spent the whole day helping me arrange the furniture, hang the curtains and put the bedding on. There are still some shelves and a bulletin board to be hung, but for the most part, the room is complete! As we were working, Logan was an angel. He just thought it was so cool that we were spending the whole day putting something special together for him.

After we moved his drums and some toys into the room, he was golden. Here he is playing the drums...



Doing his part with the hammer. He wanted to use the real ladder and hammer on the wall like we were, but settled for this instead.



Trying out the bed with Daddy when he got home from work.



His new rug, bringing in just enough of a sports theme.



Very proud to try out the ladder...
But this is put away in the closet and he has been told that when he is 4 we will put it up and he can start sleeping on the top. He is now very looking forward to the 4th birthday, and we haven't even celebrated the 3rd yet! :-)




And the three views of the room:
1. Bed and dresser

2. Window wall with new curtains and the toy box from his nursery. This was a baby gift from our special family friends, the Garys, and is a great piece of furniture!
Thanks to Tommy and Debra for the new blinds! Now we have matching blinds on all the windows in our house!
The baseball hat rack was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa!



3. The toy wall...
We had these sport decals up in the playroom and they peeled right off and re-stuck so easily! The Colt McCoy jersey was up in the playroom too and is autographed by Colt and 3 other players. One day he'll appreciate this as much as his daddy does! The Mets step stool was a gift from Aunt Maureen and allows him to reach the light switch on his own now... perfect placement.

I just love this room! I didn't really want to do an all-out theme of sports, so I was very happy when I found the bedding at Target. I love the bright colors and how versatile it will be for future use. The room is full of everything that our family loves and has just enough of a sports theme to not feel overdone!
Some special things that represent where Logan comes from:
a NY Giants bear on the bed, an OSU pillow on the top bunk to support Uncle Mike, the Mets step stool, and then the obvious UT additions that our little Longhorn and his daddy love so much! On his dresser is even a commemorative St.John's Redman hat that his Great-Grandpa left to him before his passing. It's a great room and I look forward to watching our little boy grow up in it!

Another Day at the Pool

Last week, my parents were out of town and I really wanted a day at the pool. I invited my friend Laurie to bring her two kiddos (one of which is Logan's best buddy) and we had a great day in the sun. We scheduled things nicely and after lunch and some swimming, we managed to get all three kids down to nap together and got about an hour and a half of poolside time just the two of us.
It was fun for the kids and more relaxing for us than I ever could have hoped for.

Levi's first time in the pool this summer!


Logan and Levi sharing the raft


In taking the picture above, Logan learned the importance of the floaties I make him wear. I took them off for the picture (probably not the best mommy idea ever!) and because he is so used to just jumping in and swimming, he dove right off the raft as I was stepping out to get my camera. Under he went!! He was working very hard with arms and legs to bring himself up, but mommy instinct took over and I jumped in to get him... his response:
"Hey mommy, I jumped in and I went under!"
So, we had to have a talk about that being the reason he has to keep his floaties on. I re-set him on the raft to get the shot and if you notice, he is sitting completely still like a little angel waiting to get the picture taken and his floaties back on. Mommy mistake, but a lesson learned... at least now he knows to fear and respect the water a bit more! :-)

Baby Avery's first time in the water...
and boy did she LOVE it! I think she would have chilled in the raft all day without any complaints!



Laurie and her kiddos...

Great Grandma Came to Texas!

For one week, that fell through Memorial Day Weekend, my Grandma came from New York for a little vacation and a visit with her Great-Grandson. Logan was very excited to see her and we got to spend a lot of time together. She was here (staying at my parents' in Kingwood) for 7 days and we saw her 5 of them... would've seen her every day if Logan hadn't had a virus at the beginning of her visit, but he recovered quickly and they got some great quality time together!

Within minutes of her being here,
this is how affectionate he already was!


He is a big fan of anyone that will enjoy a popsicle with him!

We took one day and had an outing away from the pool.
The Aquarium in Houston had so much to offer
and with Daddy and Grandpa taking the day off to go with us,
it was a great family fun day!


At the entrance with "Bruce" the shark...
Every creature at the Aquarium that is also a character on Finding Nemo was referred to by their movie name that day! :-)

Sneaking underneath the stingray tank and taking a closer look.

Sitting at the White Tiger exhibit... Logan went through the whole tour waiting for this at the end. He loved the tigers!
Posing with (and as) the Tiger for a photo op. My fierce little one!

Outside at the bird show.
This was nice and relaxing, taking a break from all the walking!

My little monkey waiting in line for the train.
The train takes you inside a shark tank... pretty cool stuff!

On the train with Grandma and Great Grandma

Carousel ride (one of MANY)
He rode every animal they had to offer and yes, we have pics on every one... I will spare you the repetitiveness... here is the shark!

I tried riding and the belly got in the way, so here are Jeff and I sitting down for the ride.

And the ferris wheel... no fear of heights for this kid.
He loved it and rode it more than once!

After some fun, we enjoyed a great meal at the restaurant.
Hard to keep a kid focused on eating when this tank is right in front of your table.

Logan loves turtles and seeing "Crush" was pretty cool to him!
(again, a Finding Nemo character!)

In the gift shop... my little shark.

Bathing suit on and ready for the water feature.
Taking his pal along with him!

This kid loves water!

Taking a drink?
I don't want to know how unsanitary this is!


The next day we returned to my mom's for some more pool time. My brother came in from Dallas and brought his dog with him... Champ took a dip and loved the water.
Swimming buddies!

Oh so cute!

For dinner, we opted for another meal of seafood-
no complaints from me!
Logan loves the crab shack, so no complaints from him either!


This kid LOVES his Grandparents (on both sides!)

My Grandma with Jeff and me...
after I enjoyed some oh so delicious dungeness crab!


A great pic at the end of the night

Memorial Day was very relaxing... taking in some more pool time!
Our little jumper!

Daddy helped make this day very relaxing for me... he stayed in the water with Logan almost the entire day and I got to lay out and enjoy some much needed raft time! They are such good buddies!

Great Grandma chasing Logan... he was really getting the hang of swimming by the end of this pool-filled, extra-long weekend!



We were so thrilled to have her here for a whole week and are already looking forward to her visit back in September. Logan just adores her and it is obvious she adores him as well!
What a great start to our summer!

This week...

Of course, as many of my friends have posted, Mother's Day was a wonderful treat around here. My husband made blueberry muffins for breakfast before we headed out for church and then we headed to my mom's for the day. Unfortunately, the day came and went without a posed picture of me with my son, but here is one we did get that gives a little glimpse as to how relaxing my day was. I was very happy to finally have warm enough water that I spent most of my afternoon on a raft... which was great for the back pain I've been having with this pregnancy!
Logan, of course, wanted to ride along!

What a great Mother's Day treat to watch my little man showing off his soccer skills. He has really gotten into playing with the full size ball and is working really hard to refrain from using his hands!
Uncle Mike enjoyed this quite a bit too!

Showing us how he "swims"
He LOVES to be let go of and just wants to swim on his own...
maybe this will be the summer when the swimmies come off and he takes that first dive!

This week has been a little different. On Tuesday, I started watching my girlfriend's newborn so that she could finish out the school year with her 3rd graders. It's only from 8-4 Tues-Fri, but it is definitely giving us a little taste of our future. Logan LOVES her and wants to do everything... feed her, burp her, help with the diaper changes and he really loves singing to her. He says "I love her!" and "She loves me!" at least 30 times a day and it is just precious. Hopefully the newness will wear off at some point and he'll stop asking, "When can we wake her up?" which is asked about every 5-10 minutes during every nap she takes. I'm trying to be patient, as I'd much rather have this reaction than the jealous, acting-out one, but really!

Here are some glimpses at what our life may look like in just 3 short months!

Very proud!
Oh, and very similar to many of these pics when Logan was a baby,
Dylan is right there lying by her side!


Today he wanted to show off his new skill that he and daddy have been working on on the trampoline... the seat drop! As he gets tired, his legs don't always catch him back up, so this time I was able to get the good video early in the play!

May=Summer

No doubt about it here in Texas... SUMMER HAS ARRIVED! We have had several consecutive days in the 90s and the humidity is just insane, but the heat surely doesn't bother Logan! On our first crazy hot day, I was out running errands and daddy was home with Logan. Our outside boy was waring Jeff out so he opted to use the sprinkler with the trampoline, which Logan just LOVED! An hour and a half later, Jeff was dragging him off to come in the house for lunch. The following day, we decided to make our first trip to Grandma and Grandpa's pool... and the water was a bit cold (probably a little too cold) but after some convincing, Logan was having a blast with Daddy.

Our little swimmer with his Spiderman floaties
(Pictures of the below captions are missing... and I cannot locate them!)




We had Logan's buddy Levi over for some playtime on Wednesday and after just 10 minutes of them jumping (at 9:30 in the morning!) they were both SOAKED in sweat!
My solution: bathing suits and the sprinkler while they jumped.
They had a BLAST!

Playing in the sandbox...
didn't think this through- they were soaking wet!
Water + sand = VERY dirty!

So then came the hose...
COLD water, but I had to get the sand off them

And here you can see the cold really didn't bother him much!

And when you are soaking wet and need to pee?
This is how we handle the problem!



As we have been going through some closets, Logan found mine and Jeff's softball/baseball gloves... wanting to play with them, we decided he could finally put his own ball and glove to use. This was a special gift from my Grandpa before he passed. He wanted to make sure that HE bought Logan his first ball and glove, especially if he wasn't going to be able to watch him grow up to play ball.
He's actually pretty good.