Blue

Blue Hands

+ Blue Mouth

Could only = one thing.

Mommy hasn't changed a dirty diaper in FOUR days (and Logan has been on an M&M sugar high)! This makes for a very happy mommy and a very sugared up Logan. Logan knows her body's cues very well and while we are still getting wet ones here and there, she's been very consistent otherwise. She's even become my little 5:30am alarm clock. She wakes me up every morning by very kindly reminding me through the monitor that it's time to go to the bathroom.

Boys boys boys

Last night we went to our friend Luke's graduation party. I've mentioned Luke and Patty several times on the blog because they're not only good friends to us here, but Patty and I have been friends since high school. We were kind of hoping that they'd withhold Luke's diploma so he'd have to stay here an extra semester (and then we'd continue to find ways to keep them around), but alas, he did get one, so they're off to bigger and better things in the next couple of weeks.

There were several children at the party right at or under the age of three. They were all conveniently boys (except for Logan and Anna Kate, but since Anna Kate is only 4(ish) months old, Logan got to choose her fancy). Let me tell you, our child may be shy around everyone else but she is not shy around little boys. My goodness, you would have though she walked into a candy shop when all of those boys started to arrive--as if they'd all been invited for her! She walked back and forth between them, said hi to all of them and then began to interact with each one separately, I guess she wanted to make sure she got to know each of them on an individual basis. Oh boy.

How to Keep A Toddler Entertained

How do I keep my toddler entertained?

By allowing her to sort her diaper laundry from one basket to another for a whole 30 minutes. Brilliant!

Change of Plans

Yesterday we had made plans to go strawberry picking but when we showed up at the farm they informed us that the big rain we had over the weekend had wiped out the rest of the crop! We were really sad (especially Logan since we had to get back in the car and drive another 20 minutes) so we stopped and got the kiddos some ice cream.

This child needed no introduction on how to eat an ice cream cone:

She dug right in.

It made the change of plans slightly better for her.

Peek-a-Boo!

Where is Logan?

Is she back there?

Or over there?

Peek-a-boo!

Here we are, yesterday, doing our morning reading routine of flash cards and a trillion books:

She gets comfortable.

And on a final note, we've now been cloth diapering for SIXTEEN months! That means, by this point, we've saved almost $700 in addition to the money fronted for the diapers. And we're exclusively cloth diapering now, no more disposables at all (we were using them at night and on outings). We've even got the nursery workers cool with changing the cloth diapers. I know, some people think it's cruel and unusual punishment, but it's not that hard, you're just throwing the diaper in a bag instead of the trash. I haven't been shopping for disposable diapers in over 2 months. Yesssss! About a week ago I hit a wall with disposable wipes because I was tired of having to throw diapers in one bin and wipes in another (it gets messy) so we made the jump to cloth wipes.

Aren't they fun? (diapers added for a little fun to the photo) I got the baby terrycloth and flannel on clearance at Walmart for under $5 and sewed together almost 30 wipes. We soak them in water, witch hazel and a little baby wash and voila! They've actually worked a lot better than the disposables. Clean nicer, easier on the skin and I use less of them. This won't save us a ton of money with Logan...probably a couple hundred dollars, but we'll see big savings with subsequent children. I know- I never thought I'd be a super organic mommy either, but I seem to have gotten there and I love it!

Confessions on a Lazy Saturday

Yesterday, Logan saw Mike getting ready for work. When he pulled out his apron, she got really upset because she knew he'd be leaving. Confession: I went to her room, pulled out her Starbucks apron and let her parade around in it for 15 minutes so Mike could get ready for work without the whining. All the while I'm sure she though she'd be heading there with him.

Boy was she not thrilled when he walked out the door without her in tow. Don't worry, we went to visit him so she could get her daddy fix for the evening.

Three weeks ago I bought Logan a bubble gun. Confession: I'm tired of having to hold the trigger for 10 minute increments (solid) while we sit outside in the afternoons only breaking to refill it. Extra confession: this past week we went and picked up this sweet guy so that I could rid myself of trigger finger:

Yes, he's amazing. I can press a button and he'll shoot out a bazillion bubbles in a matter of minutes. And since we're using good 'ol dish soap and water as our bubble recipe, he also provides the fresh scent of Joy (lemon scent) all over our porch. It's like walking into a lemon orchard.

Confession: Sometimes I just let Logan walk out there and bat around at the bubbles for 5 minutes while I catch my breath wash the dishes. Shh.

Logan is still just as enamoured with her purple car as she was the day that we restored it. She could spend all day sitting in that thing pretending to drive while the bubbles blast at the windshield.

Today she found a toy that we've had for a while but she hasn't ever shown interest in. She probably wanted to play with it because of her slight obsession love for her purple car.

She spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out why she couldn't get INSIDE the car.

Confession: it was really entertaining to watch her try and figure it out so I just let her go for a while before explaining why she couldn't get in.

"I just don't get it! Mommy, please help me get in."

She banged it into the floor several times, I think trying to get the door open...

Before she finally gave up and just sat on it.

Whatever works, right?

Happy Weekend!

Nee and She-Shes

About once a week, we have dinner with our friend's Patty and Luke. She's my high school best friend. We used to have breakfast together every Thursday morning at 5:30am, but since we couldn't convince the husbands that it was a great tradition, we do dinner instead--just kidding...I don't think you could pay me enough to wake up at 5:30 anymore because every second of uninterrupted sleep is heaven sent! Anyway, it's pretty customary that once of us provides the main course and the house and the other provides dessert, last night it was our turn to provide the sweets. Lucky enough, I'd been wanting to try a cupcake dish but hadn't had a good reason to bulk up on those calories, so last night was perfect.

Logan and I made these bad boys layered with butter cream frosting, chocolate cupcakes, reeses pieces and chocolate chips:

When we bake, I have to keep her as occupied as I can so that the mess isn't too big and we avoid injury. Logan has learned to locate several of her body parts in the last week or so (hair, belly, mouth, toes and her newest is her nose) and so I can usually scrape about 10 minutes of entertainment together just by asking her to point to them over and over. Her favorite is her nose (probably because she can stick her fingers in it...eww) which she has dubbed "nee." So when you ask where her nose is (if she's up for performing, that is), she'll either touch it or stick her finger up her nostril and say "NEE, NEE." Here she is mid way through:
If all else fails and I need something to keep her occupied I can pull out goldfish, one of her favorite snacks, and let her munch on them. I call them fishies and so now she asks for "she-shes" when it's snack time. It's been a lot of fun to listen to her vocabulary develop. It seems like every day she comes up with a new word to make her own and when she says one we've been working on for a while (like nose/nee), it's such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment! Here she is asking for she-she's:

And here she is enjoying them:

P.S. Have you been over to swagbucks yet? In the last two months I've earned enough swagbucks to pay for over half of our Christmas presents this year...I'm excited to see how many we'll actually have earned by November when we start applying for the gift cards so we can get them in time! I think we'll actually get a lot more this year than we did last year and won't pay a DIME for any of it. Go, now!

Morning Coffee

Every morning I make a big pot of coffee to help get Mike through his morning classes/early morning studying and so I can have a cup or two with my quiet time or with my mom's group and we found that Logan was feeling really left out. We realized this as she would try and take Mike's big traveler and drain it...over and over and over and would get upset if Mike tried to take sips (it's got a strong top, don't worry). So, recently she's taken to using this cup for her morning coffee (morning air since there's nothing in the cup). She really gets into it with the slurping and the blowing on the cup (like daddy does when it's too hot). It's fun to watch her pretend!

Back Together Again!

Today we finally had a little playgroup reunion! For about three weeks now each family has been battling sicknesses and so in order to contain the illnesses and not continue to spread it around amongst us, we've all kept away from each other. So, up until last week when we had our play date with Noah, none of us had really played together for a little over two weeks. Those two weeks without interaction with other mama's seemed like an eternity! But today, all of us were finally healthy and could play together again, so, we had a big Mexican lunch to celebrate!

Logan, Kate, Noah and Lindsey. (the girls look thrilled, don't they?)

Kate teaching Logan how to open doors with handles. (notice how intently L is watching...she's been trying for several weeks now to figure out how to do it)

Playing peek-a-boo in the closet.

Just about the only smile I captured today. She's been in a funky mood, I think she must be cutting teeth.

Logan will find books no matter where we go and inevitably will end up sitting and reading by herself or with an adult.

And we finally got a group picture of the kiddos! Kate, Logan, Little E (the baby I watch), Owen and Noah.

We have a nice variety of ages, too! Kate is 2, Logan is 16 months, Noah is 11 months, Owen is 8 months (I think?), and E is 6 months. It's like watching a time line when you're with them all.

And this last picture speaks pretty clearly of each of the kids' personalities. So fun!