We are going to ignore the small fact that this post is 2 weeks late, ok? :) Life is a bit hectic here at the moment, what with Thanksgiving, a mobile child, Christmas, one who does not sit still, anniversary (3 years!), a child who moves constantly...did I mention that we have a mobile child? She can no longer be left just hanging out while mommy blogs--I usually have to wait until she's down or Mike's around to do it.
Anyway, Logan Elizabeth, you are 10 months old today (the pictures were actually taken on the 10 month anniversary of her birth)!! What are you up to?!
- For starters you are SUCH a good stander! You love to just hang out holding onto the coffee table, it gives you such (restricted) freedom. You really got a good hold of the pulling up thing. You even try to stand by yourself every once and a while. Usually it freaks you out and you immediately sit down, though. (It's ok, we can hold off on walking for a while...no rush!)
- You have started trying more and more table foods. Right now you can eat little tiny banana chunks (which you love), you've tried mac n cheese, bread, tiny pieces of chicken, cheese, small pieces of crackers, cheerios, gold fish and some steamed squash and carrots. It's so much fun to watch you put them in your mouth-you get such an accomplished look on your face!
- You HATE the vacuum cleaner. I have to sneak it out to use it (and I HAVE to use it all the time now since you'll eat anything off the ground) otherwise your eyes get huge and you grab onto my legs preventing me from moving. When I turn it on you pretty much just crawl to the nearest hiding spot until I'm done.
- You love to sing. We'll catch you singing in the car or to something on TV (usually Little Einsteins or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), of course when we start watching you you stop.
- You're getting so good with your signs! You have "more", "all done" and "down" mastered and can differentiate between them. For example, the other day I was giving you a snack and you signed for all done and when I got up to put it away you made a noise, I looked back and you shook your head no and signed for more. :) It makes me so proud! We're working on
"please" and "thank you" now and hope to get those down in the next few weeks.
- You're vocabulary is starting to develop a bit. You now say "mama" and "dada" and know what they mean (whereas before it was a lot of just jumbled babbling, now when you see either of us you know what to say), you can say "baby" and "bye bye" (buh-buh) and you just learned how to say "night-night" (nah-nah) and you say it when it starts to get dark or when we walk toward your rocker or when you see your lovey.
- We just started you on a new sleep schedule because we'd had such a rough go of it for a while. You're taking two naps a day totaling about 3 1/2 to 4 hours and then you're going to bed between 6:45-7:30 a night waking up only once or twice to be comforted for a minute or two. More sleep really does promote more sleep, I guess!
- You recently started to really enjoy playing in your room. For a while you hated it in there but now you'll crawl back there by yourself just to play with your stuff. It's been fun for us to be able to spend time in there together.
- You love to read. I think if we did nothing but read book after book after book all day long (only breaking for food), you'd sit still the entire day. It's about the only time of day, besides bed time or when we're with other people, that I can get you to just sit in my lap and relax.
- You love your baths. When we were in Miami this last month, your grandparents got you some bath squirt toys and they make it so you never want out of the tub. In fact you'll fuss and complain when you see us pull a towel out because you love it so much.
- You took your first airplane ride this last month and you'll be taking your second one this coming month! You're quite a traveler.
- You had your first Thanksgiving this last month and you'll have your first Christmas before your 11th month hits and WE CAN'T WAIT! We just want to pull your presents out and give them to you now!
You are so much fun to be with. This is such a fun age for us to watch! Everything is so interactive with you and everything is so new that you're allowing us to see everything through a child's eyes again. It's really such an incredible blessing to be your parents. We love you (and if you could stop growing for...oh, another year or so before we have to start planning your first birthday...we'd appreciate it)!!
(click on image to enlarge)
Logan got to eat one of her very own. I cut it up into small pieces and let her go to town with it. And that she did:
Umm...really? Look at that outfit and tell me it's not the most adorable little thing you've ever seen. I could seriously just look at it and smile. (not to mention the model is pretty stinkin' adorable)
Last spring, when they had their sidewalk sale I found several fall/winter items on clearance and picked them up, once again, thinking that the time when she'd fit them would never come. It has, though, and I was so excited to pull these items out and put them on her yesterday. Even though she does look like a little French baby.
She happily kept her little Beret on all day long, pulling it off only once to show me that she was still in charge of what gets put on her head (ha! I have news for her!).
Then, she found my scarf and wouldn't leave it alone, so I put it on her and she just smiled and smiled...until she tried to crawl when she decided the scarf tripped her up a bit too much. She hasn't touched it since. Score: mommy: 1 Logan: 0
As you can see, we were hitting the point where we were getting anxious to meet our sweet little girl! And this year we added this sweet pea to our mix:
What a fun addition to our family. She has brought such a light into our eyes and we are so excited for her first Christmas this year! She was full of precious smiles during our little family photo shoot.
And for good time and memory sake, here's a little collage of our Christmas tree pictures over the last three years of our marriage (click it to enlarge):
And we have no mantel this year (nor did we last year, I guess), so we have our stockings on the little ledge that looks into the kitchen. We had two stocking hangers and I had quite a time trying to find one to kind of match them! I should have picked up a few more in anticipation of future kiddos, but they didn't have a whole lot in stock. Carolyn made Logan a gorgeous cross stitched stocking that we're waiting for to put up--but for now we went ahead and put out the decorative ones.
Speaking of handmade stuff, I did a lot of little handmade things this year for the house because it's cheaper than buying new stuff (and it creates nice memories). Here's a little taste of our tree skirt:
So, when I married Mike, I became privy to an incredibly delicious recipe for holiday sugar cookies. For Mike, the holidays don't officially start until he's had his first batch of these puppies. Around Halloween, he starts talking about his mouth watering in anticipation for these cookies...but I'm not allowed to make them until it's almost or right after Thanksgiving because they are a treat that is to be enjoyed for a very select period of holiday time, otherwise they lose their specialness. Last year, as I baked the cookies (a lot slower, mind you, I was 8 months pregnant, after all), I thought of how much fun the years to come were going to be when I'd be able to share this tradition with our new baby and with any future babies God blesses us with. 
After our first project we got started. I worked on the batter while Logan tinkered around the kitchen and posed for the camera.
As time progressed, tinkering was just not enough for her, so she got into some flour and also began to tear apart the contents of my wallet, which you can CLEARLY see behind her in this next picture:
Oh, well, if it keeps her entertained and out of danger, one can't complain, right? She also really loved the rolling pin. I set it down next to her little flour covered body and she went to town. Maybe next year I won't have to stage baking pictures and she'll actually be able to help a little. 
It was SUCH a great surprise for Mike! He walked in and his eyes immediately lit up and it was like he was 5 years old all over again. It's officially the Christmas Season in our household (in fact, we're headed out today to pick up our tree) and we are so excited! Christmas is going to be such a joy this year with a little one around. I'm a Christmas nut, but I don't think I've ever been this excited for one to roll around and I'm not even excited for myself, I'm excited for her. What a blessing!
- You recently started to really enjoy playing in your room. For a while you hated it in there but now you'll crawl back there by yourself just to play with your stuff. It's been fun for us to be able to spend time in there together.
