Lazy Sundays (and some 2 year old conversations)

I've actually been meaning to post these pictures all week! I took them last Sunday when the weather was cooler and we were playing outside after Mike got home from work.

L: No, Brody, you're not old enough to play with the volleyballs yet. Grow a little.

I think Brody looks so much like my dad in this next picture, from the shape of his face to the squinting of his eyes! It's so fun to be able to pick features out and pinpoint what family member they came from.

Some more Loganisms and quotes:

Logan calls commercials amarshmallows. I thought for a long time she WAS saying marshmallow but then one day she was watching something and an advertisement came on and she sighed heavily and said, "ugh. not another amarshmallow."

Last night I was reading a Clifford story to the kids and Logan stopped me and said, "I don't need a Clifford. I have a Brody." I guess he does drool, play fetch and do things on command right now...I can kind of see the similarity.

I was cleaning a bathroom yesterday and was getting tired and stopped and put my hand to my head. Logan came in and said, "I'm going to handle it, honey. Don't worry."

I snuggled Logan before her nap a few days ago and she hugged me tight and said, "Oh mommy! Please stay here with me forever!"

Logan's new phrase of the moment is "you're the best!" She'll point her finger at you and say, "Mommy you are THE BEST."

Logan's favorite game of the moment? Hide and go peek-a-boo. We keep trying to tell her she's talking about two different games but she insists this one exists.

Speaking of hide and seek....Logan really needs to learn the rules. She tells you to count, then tells you to come find her then pops out of hiding and yells, "HERE I AM!"

I love, love, love having a 2 year old. She's so sweet and views the world with such innocent and unsuspecting eyes. It really makes me see "faith like a child" in a completely different light and I am so thankful to get to see it in this new and exciting way.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Today we headed over to Hillridge Farm to celebrate Olivia's 3rd birthday! Olivia is one of Logan's good friends here in town. We are in a small group with her parents so they see each other quite often.

It was rainy this morning so we threw on raincoats and were very thankful for our ergo so we could keep Brody close and dry!

They've moved the pumpkin patch so now you have to pay to go in and get pictures...we're hoping to find another one in town free or cheaper so we can get some good fall pictures, but if not, here's our pumpkin patch picture this year!

The girls had fun together on a hayride:

And Logan loved the Hello Kitty cupcakes:

A lot.

Then we headed off to the train and took a quick ride (how crystal clear are his eyes?!):

And capped off the day with this crazy slide.

Yes, our fearless girl did go down. Over, and over, and over again.

I have a feeling we've entered the season of life where birthday parties are the norm.

Fun New Toy!

Logan had a BIG day yesterday! We loaded up in the car and I told her we were on our way to get her a big surprise. She was so excited the whole car ride there (which ended up taking 35 minutes because of traffic) and was slightly disappointed when I popped out of the car, grabbed her new toy and stuck it in the trunk before she saw it. This meant she had to wait another 25 minutes to get home before she actually laid eyes on it. I think it was worth the wait, though!

Logan's legs have gotten just a little too long for her push toys and she has started to scuff ALL of her shoes by dragging them when she's riding. So, Mike and I decided it was time to upgrade to a tricycle and started scouring craigslist for a good one.

And I'm so glad we did, because this bike is just perfect for Logan! It's pink and purple and has lots of sparkle and is adorned with princesses. She's loves it. And we loved the price. We paid less than 1/3 of what it cost new, and the previous owner kept it in pristine condition.

It rained last night so we couldn't ride it this morning because of the large amounts of puddles and mud, but she's just itching for her daddy to get home this afternoon so she can go out and ride some more. We're so excited for our big girl!

6 Months!!!

Happy 6 months to my sweet, sweet Brody! Can you believe it's been half a year?! I can't!

Brody is SUCH a charmer! He'll smile at anyone for any reason. Even Logan, when she's screaming and throwing a fit, can pull a huge smile from Brody. Not sure how she'll feel about that in a few years...

And yes, he does smile all the time. That's why there aren't many pictures without him smiling. He is seriously always happy. It's incredible. You can wake up in a bad mood, go in to get him out of bed and you just can't stay in the bad mood.

He looks like a little chub sometimes, but don't let that fool you! He weighed in at 17lbs even, is 26 inches long and has a big head. :) A cute big head, though! He's in the 50% for weight, 80% for his head circumference (told you) and is in the 25% for height.

He still is sleeping through the night. I put him to bed between 6:30-7 most nights and he'll wake up once before 10 and then quickly goes back down until 7am. We are so, so thankful for a good sleeper.

He is so snuggly. That 10p wake up? Usually just wants a few minutes of snuggling and then happily falls back to sleep. Melts my heart.

He's just slipping into his 6-9 month clothing.

We've sadly had to retire the small cloth diapers. He's moved into the one size diapers. We are so thankful for those and that we don't have to continue to buy diapers!

Big boy mastered sitting up just before his 6 month mark. He got tired of laying down and just went for it when I sat him down. It took a few days but he no longer wobbles and can actually get onto all fours from the sitting position and then get back up into it. Strong, strong boy.

He loves to give sweet kisses, which actually feel more like you've got a blow fish suctioned to your face (I've never felt that and cringe at the thought, but it's what I picture it'd be like). He also gives great "hugs."

He has started to try and reach for people he wants to hold him. While he can't quite get his arms out to reach, he leans his whole body into wherever he wants to go and tries to get his hands and arms to follow his body.

He is SO close to crawling, it's scary! His motivation? Anything Logan DOESN'T want him to have. If she makes any mention or motion to keep him away from something, he goes for it. He does know how to scoot his little booty and can move a bit that way, but he's recently been falling onto all fours and trying to get to things that way. Time to double check our baby proofing! I actually have a feeling he's going to get into a LOT more than Logan ever did.

Brody continues to adore his big sister. He gets so giddy when she gets down on the floor with him to play. They sit for hours in the morning together playing, singing, "talking" and enjoying each other.

We've heard a lot of babbling this month! A lot of it sounds like "a bababababababa" with the occasional "mamamamamama" in there. I know he'll probably say "dada" first and mean it, but I like to think maybe somewhere deep inside they know that babbling mama means they've said my name first. I know I'm just lying to myself, but it's ok.

They seem so sweet and innocent in so many of their pictures, but this one really shows the true meaning of being a big sister. Brody is just biding his time before he can get even, I'm sure. He has that look in his eye, doesn't he?

And lastly, this month we started solids, again! Don't worry, I threw the oatmeal cereal out and WILL NOT be trying it with any subsequent children. We started with some peaches and sweet potatoes (I'm doing homemade stuff again) and he's also tried bananas, apples and mango. So far he's loved all of it and we haven't seen any tummy issues. He gets about a tablespoon at breakfast and a tablespoon at dinner and then nurses the rest of the day. We'll throw in a third meal in the next week or two and see how he handles it!

Here's his post-eating, pre-cleaned face!

And here are his shots at all six months! I seriously, seriously can't believe he's already half a year old. Crazy.

Date Night

Today was a big day in our house! For the last week, Logan has gone all night without wetting her pull-ups! Last night we tried big girl panties and she kept them dry, too. I'd say we're officially night trained. So nice. To celebrate, we went and had breakfast at chick-fil-a. Seriously, where else would we go?

And tonight Logan had her first official date with daddy. They've gone out on their own a lot, but today was the first day that daddy asked her if she'd like to go on a date with him. She said yes, got all dressed up, asked to have her hair done up pretty and was SO excited when daddy came to "pick her up."

Logan and Mike have such a special bond. She is over the moon when he comes home from work or school and he really does a fabulous job of making her feel so special and so loved. I'm so glad she has such an incredible father who will make sure she knows how she should be treated so when she does start to look for qualities in a husband, she knows how high the bar is.

Can you see her fists clenched at her sides in the picture above? She does that when she is really, really excited.

Melt my heart.

As she was getting in the car, I told her I loved her and that I wanted to hear all about her date when she got home. She replied, "I'm going to have so much fun, mommy. I love you berry much, too." And all of the sudden I had a flash-forward 35 18 16 years in the future and definitely got a little teary eyed.

Best Buds

I love having two kiddos so close in age. I love even more that we're seeing the fruits of this so early on...the kids love to play together. Every morning we hang out in the living room with an armful of toys and I sit and catch up on e-mails or blogging while they play together.

Logan is so good with her little brother. She teaches him how to use toys, she'll "read" to him and she's gotten to be really good about running in as soon as he's done napping so she can calm him down and let him know I'm on the way.

Brody always looks for Logan when he's taken to a new room. If she's not there he patiently waits for her and gives her the biggest smiles when she comes in. I'm not sure how she'll feel once he becomes mobile and starts following her everywhere. She may never have peace again.

I pulled this toy out today and took the legs off so Brody could play with it on the ground. Logan seemed more interested for a while, though. Finally I convinced her to teach him how to use it and now he's sitting and is quite content pressing all of the buttons.

My sweet beauty.

And the little man.

Conversations With My Two Year Old

Sadly, the only game day picture I could get of Logan.

When we were in FL, Bill brought some cookies from France to share with everyone. Logan was walking around with one and Bill asked if she knew where they came from. She looked at him, incredulously, and said, "Yes, they come from publix." We need to work on getting those taste buds some culture.

Logan hopped on the scale the other night (we don't have one at home, so this was her first experience with one outside of the Dr.'s office) and said, "Clock says it's time for bed!" ...maybe we should pick one up.

While we were staying at the hotel, she became rather attached to the hotel soap. Naturally, we stashed all of the unopened ones in our suitcase (don't pretend like you don't do it, too). She knew we did this so we could take it home for her. One morning while we were there, she woke up, went and dug through the suitcase and couldn't find the soap. She ran back and forth around the hotel room like a chicken with it's head cut off until she stopped, dropped her arms to her sides, pouted her lip and said, "DEGONNIT! I can't find my soap."

Today, as we got ready to head out the door, I told Logan we could pause her TV show and she could finish it later. She got the "your so silly" look on her face and said, "Silly mommy, this is on for real. You can't pause live TV."

When we go to the deli, Logan will stand there and say, "I need a half a pound of this, a pound of this, a half pound of this and that's all." Which is funny, but it's topped when we go to the fabric store and she knows that we don't need pounds there, instead she says, "I need a yard of this, half yard of this, and two yards of that." Smart, observant, child.

Logan and I frequent Sonic. Ok, it's an addiction. Sometimes we go just so that I can get out of the house and preserve what little sanity I have left, Kai-Lan took the rest of it. We only go during happy hour or when I have the survey receipts that give me free drinks. Yesterday, I realized just how much we go when she hopped in her little car and said, "Yes, I need a very big slushy. I have a receipt for that. It's free."

Speaking of her little car.... It's been cool enough in the late afternoon/evening to leave the door open and let her wander in and out of the house (to the porch) so she's been "driving" a lot in her car. A few days ago she went out, got in her car, got back out and came right up to Mike and said... "I forgot, I need some money dad. I'm going to need to buy some things." To which we shook our heads and said, you're not sixteen yet. Try again in a few years.

Logan was walking out the door and I called, "see you later alligator!" She stopped, turned around and said, "I'm not an alligator. I'm Logan. Go Noles!" And walked out. That's my girl.

Our new neighbor is an Auburn fan. Auburn and my side of the family mix about as well as vinegar and oil. Logan knows this. Very well. The neighbor has an Auburn flag that flies from her car window and any time Logan sees it (and the poor girl just happens to be around when Logan does this), she exclaims, "ROLL TIDE!"

Silly Songs With Larry is a segment of most Veggie Tale episodes. It's their "commercial," if you will. One of Larry's silly songs is "Where is My Hairbrush." If you haven't heard it, you can listen HERE. After bathing herself more than clean at the hotel, I put Logan's soap up high so she couldn't scrub her skin anymore and she began to sing, "Oh where is my soap? Oh where is my soap? Oh where where where where where is my SOAP?"

Every. Single. Night. Logan sneaks into our room. Most nights she sleeps on a little mat we've got in there specifically so that she doesn't get in our bed. Some night she makes it in the bed without us noticing and then in the morning we wonder how in the world she got in between us without either one of us realizing it. We're tired. We have a 2 year old and a 6 month old. Anyway, our standing deal with her is that if she sleeps in her room for an entire night without coming in our room we'll take a trip to Krispy Kreme for a donut breakfast. Every morning, she wakes up, and after poking me in the eye balls to wake me up, she says, "Maybe someday I'll get a donut. But not today."

I'll finish with this picture. Maybe you can help me figure it out. Logan came home with this from Sunday School a few weeks ago. It said something along the lines of, "We obey Jesus because He loves us." What does this hat have to do with that? We're not Catholic. Nor are we members of the KKK. ???

I apologize that the picture is a bit blurry. I couldn't stop laughing.