Date Night

I have to say, we have, quite possibly, the best neighbors in the entire world. On a moments notice they'll be up here to watch Logan and they do it all out of the kindness of their hearts. It's so nice for Mike and I, because, on such a tight budget sometimes all we have $ for is the actual date and if we had to pay for a babysitter, we'd be in trouble! (of course, they know that we'll definitely repay the favor in the future--no question about it)

So, anyway, we asked them to come up last night so Mike and I could go on an early V-day date (since Mike works tonight and tomorrow night) and they did (we made them pizza to entice them). It's nice because Logan knows them now and so we left and she didn't even bat an eye, which makes for a much nicer dinner for me. As I was making dinner for them, I looked at Mike and said I now felt like a mother, officially, because I remember being a babysitter and just PRAYING that they'd have dinner for me, as well, so that I wouldn't starve all night; and here I was, making dinner for babysitters.

We had a nice dinner, went out for coffee and even came back home to find her asleep on the couch! (which is insane because I think it's the first time ever that someone, other than myself, has been able to get her to fall asleep at bedtime) Of course, this didn't last because as soon as I got her into her bed she woke up and was ready to party. So, because we hadn't seen her in several hours and since we knew we'd be up watching the Olympic opening ceremonies, we got her up and hung out with her for a while. Here are some pictures we snapped:

Look at all of those teeth! She's got 7 now and the 8th is about to poke through! (P.S. this is not her real smile- it's her, "I'm teething and don't quite know what to do with this new moutful of teeth" smile)

This is the real, award winning smile that we like to get:

New Blog Layout!

Do you love it?! Shelly over at Atomic Creative Design whipped this bad boy up for me and I have to say, I'm crazy about it! I'm not great with graphic design but really wanted a unique layout for the blog so I contacted her and voila, we got it done (with 50...yes 50...emails back and forth to get it just right).

So, have you seen the new etrade commercial? If not, here it is:

Mike and I watch it over and over again and just fall on the floor laughing because the attitude that the little girl at the end exhibits is the attitude that we see this little one exhibiting a LOT:

"Milk a what?"

(In no way do I think Logan will help other boys cheat on their girlfriends, I just think it's funny how spot on the attitude is)

P.S. If you haven't read the post below-do- it has a lot more pictures (which is the reason a lot of you put up with my babble...ha!)

What a difference 3 months makes!

When I put Logan's outfit on this morning, my thought was, my goodness, she really did shoot up 5 1/2 inches in the last three months! I'm around her all the time so I don't notice differences unless they're drastic, but I definitely saw it today. This was the dress three months ago, it almost hit her ankles when she was standing up (this was taken about a week after her last Dr.'s appt. in late Nov.):

I had a hard time getting a great picture of her standing up in the dress because she's the definition of a wiggle worm but here it is three months later:

Now, I understand the shock when the Dr. realized how much she had grown! The dress barely fits as a shirt now.

We've been housebound now for several days because it's been cold and Logan's been feeling icky--not a combination I mess with at this point. BUT, today, we had a rough one with the baby that we watch and so as soon as he left, Logan and I donned coats and went out to "run" around a little. It's so different now that she can walk because I can watch her play and don't have to help her play.

She definitely gets a TON of Mike's expressions but every once and a while I snap a picture and compare it to one of my own baby pictures and I feel like she looks a lot like me:

Logan's two new favorite phrases are "come on" ('mon) and uh-oh (wooooh). When she says uh-oh she throws her hands out to the side (like in the picture below but with both hands) for emphasis. Today, she started to pull her bow out, toss it to the ground, throw her arms out and say "woooh" as if she did it on accident. I know your game, girl. Don't mess with mommy!

And here she is laughing at her new found cleverness.

Dance Dance Dance

This is one of Logan's favorite parts of the day, when she gets to sit down and watch Mickey or the Little Einstens. She recently started to dance with the opening music (to both) and we just love to watch her do it, so, we'll look up the theme songs on youtube just so we can play and replay for her to dance. :) She looks so tired because of the shots (post below), also, I try and get her to watch it a little after lunch to keep her up long enough to make it to her second nap time.

Lazy Days

So, the last couple days we've had a lot of this going on:

Doesn't she look sad? She's been running a temp of 101.5-102.3, has been up pretty much all night for the last three nights and just hasn't eaten much of anything. Other than that she's got no symptoms. I was really worried about her yesterday when the fever spiked and wouldn't go down even with tylenol/motrin and then I remembered that on Friday she had her 12 month vaccinations. Then it all made sense. She got her MMR, Pneumococcal, Chicken Pox and her Heb B booster all in one day and all of them have the side effects that she's been experiencing. Poor thing! Then I remembered that I hadn't posted the stats from the visit, so here you go:

Weight: 22lbs

Height: 30 inches (the Dr. was shocked when he looked at her chart because she shot up 5 1/2 inches since her last visit!)

I didn't pay attention to the head circumference but she's the 75% percentile across the board, so she's a bit above average but is proportional. Perfect!

She's also developing (speech and motor developments) at more of an 18-24 month level than at the 12 month level which the Dr. said he sees a lot of with babies who are at home with mommy all day long and get constant one on one interaction. That and she came from good stock. ;)

Logan has grown and learned SO MUCH since her birthday, it amazes us daily!

-She's beginning to communicate more with words than with grunts.

- She's walking all over the place now and rarely crawls.

- She climbs everywhere! Yesterday, I caught her climbing into the tub while it was filling for her. (I don't leave her in the bathroom alone, I promise)

- She's quite the little mommy. We got the little boy I watch back yesterday and she's just crazy about him! She rocks him in his carseat, tries to hold him, bounces him in the bouncer and even will lay down on her tummy next to him when we have him doing tummy time. She's even translating this behavior to the nursery where we caught her bouncing a baby nearly her size in the bouncer when we picked her up last week! She'll be sad this weekend when she's transitioned to a room with bigger kids because she won't be the big girl anymore.

-AND she started to run this week! It is SO FUNNY to watch because she turns her head to the side when she does it so she can see what's going on--she hasn't figured out that she really needs to look in front of her and so she just bumps into all kinds of stuff. I'd like to get it on video but you actually have to chase her to get her to do it and it's hard to get it on camera when you're running after her. We got a picture though!

Ready, set....

GO!

So, before Logan was born I swore I'd not do overalls for her. I'm not sure why, they just didn't really appeal to me until we got two pair for her birthday! The one above is from her great grandparents (the Carlsen's) and then she got another sweet pink pair from her Kayle grandparents which I'll snap a picture of when they fit her a little better- right now she pretty much stands on them. So, all this to say, I think I'm in love with overalls and will be needing to get her some more soon.

Yesterday, we ventured out to WakeMed to meet Anna Kate! One of my best friends from high school, Patty, has been waiting on pins and needles to go into labor and on Monday, she did! This girl is my hero...she birthed a 10lb 1oz, 22 inch baby with no pain medication at all. Seriously, a rock star. And she looked incredible on day 2, like she just stopped in at the hospital for a visit! It was so sweet to meet this little one, we can't wait to spend a little more time with her.

Hot Dog Dance

This post is per my sisters request. :) This is the video that Logan is watching as she "dances" (she's trying to do the hand motion that the characters in the video do. She's usually a lot more into it, but this is the best video I've gotten of her doing it as she gets a little camera shy.

Love You Forever

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be."
- Robert Munsch

Someone get my mom a tissue.