Moving On Up

I've been meaning to post about this for several weeks now but since we rarely eat out, I haven't had a chance to get some good pictures (and I know most of you skip past my writing for the pictures, anyway). Logan has been eating table food for a while now, and when she first started Mike and I easily could cut food off of our own plates when we were out and share with her...however, that doesn't seem to be enough for her anymore and so she's been ordering off of the kids menu now for a while. I don't know why this has me so excited...but it does. :)

Logan has quite an affinity for fruits and veggies, and pretty much nothing else. We have a really hard time getting her to eat meat of any kind. In all of my years of babysitting/interning in a children's ministry/teaching, I've never met a child that I've had to say, "Eat some more of your super fried and greasy yummy chicken nuggets and then you can have some more from your fruit cup" to...but I seem to have birthed that crazy kid. Could be worse, right? I secretly love having a child who loves all things healthy. It's a lot of fun to go out in public and see the shock on peoples' faces when she refuses the fries and goes for the broccoli.

Onto the pictures!

(there is a point to this little story and it does relate to the pictures, so it's ok to read it) We seem to have acquired a pet mouse (and by acquired, I mean he snuck in and ravaged through my bags of flour and has left me absolutely petrified). I had been hearing scratching/biting noises at night when Mike is working (because that's the only time those alarming sounds happen--when my manly husband isn't around to take care of it) and he had convinced me that I was nuts and it was only because he was gone that I was "hearing" things.

When I found a bag of flour chewed through in our pantry, though, we knew we had an issue. So, I went about life normally and just ignored the nagging thought that there was something sharing my space until this morning when the guys came to put traps in the kitchen and now I'm having a hard time stepping foot in there in fear that I'll see something other than peanut butter stuck in the trap. Yuck. So, we don't usually eat out, especially not when Mike isn't around to enjoy it, too...but I'm a fraidy cat and so instead of tip-toeing around the traps to fix lunch, we went and got some Christian Chicken. So sue me. :)

Fridge Phonics

Being someone who has taught in the primary grade levels and therefore has had the daunting task of teaching 6 year olds to read, I truly believe it is never to young to start teaching your babes to read. Obviously the most basic block in the reading tower is teaching your child the alphabet! Now that Logan has become a little more vocal and is more perceptive (and learning things like crazy), we wanted to start using the alphabet in our daily routines and also start teaching her some of those letter sounds (because if they can get the letters AND the letter sounds down at an early age then the reading becomes a lot less daunting of a task).

I did a lot of research and this toy seemed to be at the top of everyone's list...I actually wish I had had one when I was teaching--it would have made for a great learning center (hint, hint)! Really, anything from LeapFrog is wonderful, we have several videos we watch, as well. This toy is particularly wonderful because we can stick it to the door or move it to the kitchen when I'm cooking and she really will spend quite a while playing with the magnets. She's just now getting the hang of sticking the letters into the console (she mostly likes to just push buttons over and over to hear the sounds start and restart as you'll see), but it's been fun to sit with her and play with a toy that I know is building into her educational future. (It's especially fun to watch her dancing when the music starts)

Making Good Use of Daddy's Old T-Shirts

I've been going through Logan's closet again this week to put her winter clothes in storage and was sad to find several good onesies that either had snaps missing on the bottom, had nasty stains on the bottoms or just didn't fit around the bottom. Mike also went through his closet a few days ago and pulled out all of his old t-shirts that either need to be tossed or donated, so, I pulled a few of those from the bag and took some of her old onesies and put them to good use furthering L's spring/summer wardrobe!

Before:

In the process of conversion:

All done!

Here's the one I made for her last night:

It had a funny/ugly little bear embroidered on the front so I just covered it with the L and then added the flower to tie the whole thing together:

(we were at daddy's volleyball game in these pictures...don't think I'll go to another one since I spent 98% of the time trying to put peoples' belongings back after Logan picked them up and moved them....watch out for our little toddler!)

Jumping Beans

Mike was working today and so was Kate's daddy, so we loaded up the kids and took them to Jumping Beans. It was so much fun! Logan was a little unsure at first, but after realizing that it didn't hurt to fall, she jumped away for almost 2 hours. We got home and Logan pointed to the back room and then to her bed and was asleep within 5 minutes. Now I need to convince that we need a daily budget for Jumping Beans so that she'll sleep like that everyday! ha! Here are some pictures (it was hard to capture because you had to catch her in between jumps):

Logan and Kate

Logan and I met Kate, her mom and her little brother, Owen on a walk a few weeks ago and since then we've had play dates almost every other day! Logan just LOVES Kate, when they're together she follows her around and tries to copy all of her words (Kate is almost 2). It's so much fun to see her interact with a child closer to her age and it's such an added bonus that they get along SO well. Today we loaded up the cars and took them to another park in town to play and have lunch.

She went down the slide all by herself! Not only does she look like a big girl now, she does big girl things, too!

We found a kid sized bridge and the girls went back and forth on it for quite a while.

Then it was time to say goodbye...does this picture not make your heart just melt?

Afternoon Talk

If you've ever skyped with Logan, you know how much she LOVES to engage in conversation (that would be sarcasm seeing as she seems to loose her tongue when people are on the other side). She does, however, really enjoy talking to herself on the computer. Sometimes to keep occupied in the afternoons I'll turn the webcam on and let her talk to herself and I've never recorded it but thought I'd give it a try today. I know I keep looking at the computer--I'm trying to make sure it's actually recording. I'll post a word worm post so you all can see the words she's saying, but her newest one is hi with the wave which I caught in the video. Also, when she puts her hand to her ear she's talking on the "phone."

My-my

Logan has recently become very attached to her pink blanket. We really didn't think she'd ever become attached to anything because she's been so independent and has never really wanted a pacifier or her fingers. She sleeps with this blanket every night, though, and Mike likes to grab the blanket in the mornings and say "mine" just to see her reaction. Usually she laughs but about a week ago she got upset when he grabbed it and said, "no, no, no!" and grabbed it back and held onto it for dear life for quite a while. Now she looks for it when she goes to bed and will carry it around for a bit in the mornings after she wakes up. She calls it her "my-my", I think it's probably her way of saying mine since that's what Mike used to say when he would grab it...whatever the case, that's her little blanket's name. It's also made putting her down for naps and bed a whole lot easier (with the exception of last night...I promise, she really does go to bed that early, usually, Patty!).

Here are a couple of pictures of Logan with her my-my:

I kept trying to get her to look at me and smile but she was still sleepy and did not want to be photographed in such a state.