New things heard in Jersey
Logan continues to surprise and amaze with the things that pop out of his little mouth. Here's some of the latest:
1.
Oh man! - he says this in frustration when he's not pleased with the way things are going.
2.
I moved backwer! - in English that's I moved backwards! As in -- I sat in my little Beetle car and pressed the pedal with my foot and traveled a bit in the opposite direction of what I had expected.
3.
I still want one! - This morning Logan wanted a bottle. This morning Mommy said no. He has been off the morning one for a while but had started to ask again in recent days. Logan cried and protested. Mommy explained that only little babies have bottles and Logan is, in fact, a big boy. She told him all the things big boys can do and the things little babies can't. Logan huffed and puffed and then he cried out "I still want one!" Since that exchange he's been walking around muttering to himself "No baby. Babies bottle. Big boy have sippy."
4.
One second! - I dared to send an email to work yesterday when Logan wanted to play Mickey (or Meme) Mouse on the computer. I said to my impatient little imp "Just one second Logan." So said imp placed his nose directly on mine and repeatedly said "One second, One second, one second, GOOFY PEEZ!" (that's please!)
5.
Nuggle? - Logan is a snuggler. He'll take a break in the action to climb up on your lap and burrow his head into a shoulder or chest. He likes it best of you wrap him in a big hug during this time or even if you rub his back. I've been telling him we're snuggling when he does that, so the last day or so he'll climb up (or turn around if he's been up on your lap already) and burrow in saying "I nuggle.")
6.
I kiss - When he's done snuggling he likes to give and get a kiss. He now announces it. A typical exchange goes like this - "I nuggle Mommy." snuggle, snuggle, snuggle..."I kiss" as he plops his face right up into yours.
7.
Turn on puter. Meme, Winnie Pooh. - This is what Logan says as he enters our home office for the first time each morning. Its Loganese for "Turn on computer because I'd like to play my games now."
8.
Wow, I have orange sock - Don't ask why, but once a upon a time I bought Logan a pair of orange socks. No, it was not Halloween related. Actually it had more to do with slippers and having a pair I could use for warmth that weren't confused with regular socks. It was a stupid idea...but now he has them. So yesterday we got snow and we were destined not to leave our house. So Logan wore sweats and his ugly, bright orange socks. I forgot when it hit him, but he was sitting there playing and suddenly looked up saying "Wow! I have orange sock!" He was very impressed by this and told most of the folks we talked to on the phone yesterday about this apparently cool feet.
I do
Yesterday I worked half a day. Instead of having Logan brought out to the car from Gram's house when I got there to pick him up, I went in side so we could visit for a bit. As the afternoon started to dim, Logan sat on my lap at PaPa's computer playing on the Disney website. That's when the following conversation took place:
Gram - Is Bruce coming home for dinner tonight?
Me - Nope, he's getting a haircut so he'll be late.
Gram - Did you want to stay here for dinner then?
Logan climbs off my lap and before I can respond says "I DO!"
Me - What? What did you say Logan?"
Logan says again, clearly slightly irked that he needs to repeat himself "I DO!"
So we stayed.
More Sorry
This morning I was exhausted. Bruce was volunteering to get out of bed at the first "peep" so I could sleep in a bit. Logan wanted nothing of it. So at 5:30 am we all got up and played. By 6:30 I figured Logan was ok with just Daddy and I could go back to sleep. I climbed into bed, pulled the covers up and heard the crying at the door. Logan got the door pushed open and appeared at my bedside pulling back the covers and saying "UP."
Me - "Honey, I know, but I'm not feeling well, I want to take a nap. How about you play trains with Daddy."
Logan looked at Daddy for a second. "Trains? Trains Daddy." And reached his little arms up to be carried out to the trains.
Me - Thanks Logan, I'm just going to nap a little then we'll play.
As he and Daddy left the room I heard him call back "Mommy, I sorry."
This has been our morning. . .
The boy that has given up his morning bottle took my hand this morning, walked me to the fridge, placed my hand on the door and said "Open door. Milk in bottle now." My darling brat. ;)
some time passes, some cheerios get eaten. Logan - who had been playing trains with me, grabs my hand and says "Mommy go." drags me back to the kitchen and points to the fridge again. "Lollipop" he says. "Logan, we don't have any lollipops." He points to the freezer "Lollipop! There. have lollipop." I say to him "You mean Icepop? you want an icepop? Logan its 7 am." Logan says "Eye-pop. Peeeezzz!" I stop, I think. Its fruit juice. No sugar added....ok fine. I give. Ice pop. He has some (its strawberry) then hands it to me (Pop into my palm as he holds the clean stick. Gee thanks!) and then he says "No, have orange?" I say "You want an orange?" he says "Have orange lollipop." I say "You can have orange juice." He says "Apple Juice." Fine. We get Apple juice.
Later in the morning I'm trying to download some work mail. Logan shows up at the office door with an empty bowl. He holds it out to me and smiles. Then he grabs my hand and again and says "Mommy up. Out. Tearyos?" So up and out I go and I load him with Cheerios. I offer to put him in the Highchair. No. I offer to sit with him in the big chair. No. He insists on carrying it himself to the floor in the living room - making sure to use both hands and not spill (of causer when he gets there, he attempts to pour the cereal from one empty kid bowl into another and manages to get it all over the floor.)
As I'm wondering how evil I am for giving him a fruit pop already this day, I ponder how bad it'd be to just scoop up the mess and put it back in the bowl. Logan laughs and says to me "Mommy I pee. No diaper." and starts to tug at his diaper. He does not mess with the tabs - no my child pulls the waistband forward and yanks on it until he can pull down this diaper like its a pair of pants. He steps out of the diaper and sits on top of it. "Pee. Pee. Pee. I pee. Mommy diaper." and he points to the basket where all the clean diapers live. I lay him down, put a new diaper on...then pick up the one he just removed for me and sure enough its heavy with absorbed pee.
Before I can blink he starts putting his cheerios back in his bowl. Guess that solves my problem. :) He RUNS to the kitchen, places his bowl on the floor and pulls out a regular chair at the table. He turns and looks at me and says "Chair? Sit?" I say to him "Do you want to sit in your chair with your Cheerios." He says "No. Sit chair." He's still holding the regular chair. I pick him up and put him on it. He says "in" and pulls on the table. I scoot him in. He says "Mommy, Cheerios?' I give him his bowl. He pours it on the table and starts to eat. He decides its hard to reach that way so he attempts to stand. I steady him and start to take him off - - but he's fast and before I can get him he's sitting on my table...eating his cereal. I remove him...get his Cheerios and we relocate back to the living room where we sit in the recliner and munch.
He climbs down. "Mommy, booberry peeez." And so I get up again...and get him the blueberries I had bought yesterday. He polished off what was left...which was half a small container. When he was done he held the container upside down and said "Oh my! All gone!"
He's now enjoying a VERY long 3 and half hour nap! Totally unheard of. I suppose making huge leaps in maturity and eating everything in sight. takes a lot of out of you.
Phrases I welcome and those I don't.
Logan continues to add grammatically correct sentences to his verbal arsenal. Of his latest mastered sentiments there are two I almost wish he'd unlearn and one I'm thrilled to hear.
1. "I want that!"
Yup, it starts early doesn't it. Logan, by the way, wants a lot. He wants the toothbrush on the window sill. He wants the magazine I'm reading. He wants the train he sees in the store. Sometimes he'll vary it a bit to tell you specifically what 'that' is. "I want that cup" or "I want wawer" (That'd be water.) Phrase #1 that I could do without.
2. "I
NEED that."
This typically makes its appearance when repeated "I want that" statements get him no where. For what its worth, he whines the word need. Dragging it out as if seeming needy in itself will give more credence to his pleas. He will on occasion toss in the word please - as in "Peez, Mommy! I NEED that!" Yup, you got it, phrase #2 I wouldn't mind losing.
3. "I sorry."
This is Logan's latest little sentence - obviously lacking the word "am" but still functional in its own right. Often he just says it for the fun of saying it. This morning however, he got it right. Stopped in the midst of a hands-a-flying-meltdown because I dared put him down to run to the bathroom, Logan looked me in the eye while I explained, again, that hitting was not acceptable. He put his head down, stared at his grey socked feet and said "I sorry Mommy." This phrase he can keep.
An aside. . .Why is it my child can clearly enunciate a word like "Shampoo" but struggles saying his own name? I've always assumed those 's' words were the hardest, guess the L is tougher.
Well Duh!
Logan got a LeapFrog Globe for Christmas from his Gram and PaPa. Some of its features are bit over his head as its aged for 8 and up. But the basics - spinning it and poking at it with the stylus are more than up his alley. Logan likes to play this gadget. He calls it "the planet." Sometimes he just enjoys pressing the button that makes the male voice come on and say "Goodbye for now!" followed quickly by "Welcome to LeapFrog."
Well this afternoon we were playing with the "planet" and discovered that Logan can find (as well as name) Canada and Uni-Stays (United States) pretty regularly. I decided to take it one step farther. I showed him on the globe where New Jersey was and told him that's where he lived near the beach. He kept poking at that area and saying "Beach."
Then I thought I'd confuse him a little. "Logan, where does Mommy live? Can you find where I live on the globe?"
He stopped and stared at me once again as if I was insane.
"Wit Daddy." he said.
False-alarm
Logan went to bed Sunday night a feverish little guy and woke up his normal temperatured happy self. Not sure what he had Sunday but whatever it was was shortlived and now gone. Yay!
First Fever
Well, it took him 18 months, but Logan has got some sort of bug willing to render him a fever. Nothing too high at the moment, although, it may have been "high" at one point. He felt a little warm, but not hot this morning. He was acting like his normal self so I wrote it off to the fact that he was funning around like nut. His nap got all carfunkled this morning. He fell asleep in the car on the way home from church - a normal Sunday occurence. He, however, woke up when I was pulling his coat off of him - not a normal thing. This kid slept through the installation of our new stove top -- complete with countertop sawing and banging.
He did NOT want to go back down for a nap. We tried everything. After the assortment of tricks up our sleeves including a drive to the beach, we came home...and the kid fell asleep on my lap watching Thomas the Tank Engine - even though he refused that method nearly an hour earlier. ;) He woke up a crank. He did not want to eat his lunch - but he did 8 ozs of milk prior to his nap so we figured maybe he filled up on that like he used to. He finally settled back to his normal little happy go lucky self. Nearly a half-hour before dinner, he fell asleep on top of Bruce during a quasi-game of "Tackle." He woke up happy enough, asking for dinner but still a little drowsy. He ate, but not well.
After that we decided his back felt hot - not warm. We stripped him down and took his temp - under his arm. It was 100.9 -- and that method is roughly 2 degrees lower than a rectal temp meaning technically it may have been as high as 103. I gave him Motrin. We did some reading on toddler fevers while Logan played "side down" but walking around in his diaper and doing the whole "inverted V" thing as he giggled his head off. I gave him a warm bath. Nearly an hour after the Motrin and just after the bath we took a rectal temp. It registered in at 100.2. He's had his bottle and is now sleeping.
No knowing what tomorrow will be. He's had head colds before - stuffy, runny noses. Massive crankiness. Little interest in eating, etc...but this is his first fever. He seems more tired than a normal day - more napping than he's done in a long time. He's not as interested in food as normal. He's got his cranky moments...but he's also got his moments of regular old Logan -where's he's knocking over small MegaBlock villages, demanding adults play airport with him and pushing his already running battery-powered train up a small hill. ;) We'll see how he is tomorrow.
Taken
Daddy has a chair that is well-worn and well-loved. This beat up blue Lay-Z-Boy is the only piece of furniture he picked out when we bought our house. The only thing he had to have. Its also where Logan has been fed his bottles from the beginning. We sit in it, cuddled together to watch his shows. We read it in. We sometimes have snacks or breakfast or lunch in it. Logan loves that chair. Sometimes, when you're not looking, he'll even climb up on his own and he'll stretch out making himself most comfortable.
And now he's taken ownership - although he's yet to tell Daddy this directly.
Last night he wiggled off my lap and posted himself in the middle of the living room. We had been sitting in "the chair" watching Salty's Secret (aka a Thomas the Tank Engine video) and feeding Logan an orange ice pop, which he calls Lolli...as in Lollipop. He turned and smiled at me before extending one little finger and pointing to the chair.
"Daddy chair" he said.
"Yes, Logan, this is Daddy's chair" I said.
"No." said Logan and he smiled even bigger than before "No-nin's chair" he said. Nonin being the latest way he pronounces his own name.
"Logan's chair?" I said "This is now your chair?"
He laughed at me and ran to the kitchen stopping next to his high chair. "Nonin's chair" he said pointing it. "My chair" he said just in case I didn't catch him the first time.
"Right" I said "That's your high chair."
He smiled again and said "Two chair."
"I guess so, Mr. Logan. I guess you do have two chairs." I said. Then I called Daddy on his cell phone to tell him how he lost possession of "the chair."
Of course, since Dad got home last night, Logan will only call that recliner "Daddy chair." I guess for now its just our secret.
What a great night!
Bruce just commented tonight that in the last week there seems to be a HUGE leap forward in terms of maturity for our little guy. Just things that he says and does. Ways he responds that he never did before. Well tonight was another example.
Our normal bed time routine goes like this:
bath
dressed for bed
bottle of milk
say our goodnights
turn on music, sway for about 5-10 minutes
put groggy or sleeping boy in his crib and tip-toe out.
Tonight however, we progressed with our routine as normal. Walking down the hall in my arms Logan calls out "Night Daddy!" We get into his room, he puts his head on my shoulder as he normally does and he says "Bye Daddy. Daddy ni ni." (Usually if he fusses and calls for Daddy I say "Daddy's in bed too. Daddy' sleeping. Shhhh, night-night."
Then comes "Ni mommy."
Tonight, Logan lifts his head, sitting straight up in my arms, eyes WIDE open and he stares at me. He turns and points to his crib and says "Bed? Down? In bed?"
I say - Yes, we're going to bed. Go to sleep little man.
Logan - Bed. In bed. Down.
me - Umm, ok, you want to go in your bed? Ok. But its not play time, its sleep, ok?
I lower him into his bed, he goes right to his hands and knees. "Head down!" he calls out as he lowers his head to the mattress. (At nights when I put him to in the crib groggy he sometimes kneels in there looking around. I'll say "Head down, little guy, go to sleep.")
I am stunned. STUNNED. Usually if I try to put him in any earlier than groggy he yells at me. I say my usual "Night little man. You're a good boy. I Love you and I'll see you in the morning." I tip toe quickly before he changes his mind.
"Mommy?" he says
I'm thinking its coming - the breakdown.
"Night" he says and he's silent.
That was over an hour ago - not a single little peep.
PLUS - today was day 3 without a morning bottle. I did nothing at all different other than not offer him one. Now we tried this a few other times and he'd ask for it...but not this time. He goes right into his chair and eats, taking some milk from his new nifty straw cup. Wah-hoo! We'll see. Hopefully this won't jinx it! ;)
I sing, that's what I do. . .
Bear in the Big Blue House fans might realize the title to this little entry is a direct quote from Tutter Mouse - Logan's favorite Blue House inhabitant. Yes, Tutter sings. . .and now so does Logan. He loves to sing, mainly one particular song, sure, but hey, its music.
He loves to sing "Wheels on the Bus." Ok, let's back up. Logan has a book - I no longer recall where it came from - that illustrates this song. He loves to read this book. Recently he started filling in the actions on each page. You'd read - "The wheels on the bus go. . ." and he'd chirp "Round round!"
We read this book over and over and over and over and...you get the idea.
So we started singing it. In the house, in the car, wherever. "The wheels on the bus go. . .Logan what do they do?"
Logan says - "Round Round!"
Mommy says "That's right, Round and round, round and round the wheels on the bus go round and round all through the town."
The other day we stopped singing the song to resume normal conversation - Daddy and I. From the back seat of the car we hear Logan humming a little and then, to the actual tune of the song, he starts to sing:
"Round n Round all town. Babies Wah wah wah all town, Pair-ants shhhhhh all town. . ."
He sang every verse he could think of. Quickly and to the correct tune.
Later in the evening he decided to top off his dinner with grapes AND a banana. We commented that he was having a little fruit salad and sang a few lines of the popular "Wiggles" song. Sure enough, mouth full of banana again to the correct melody Logan sings "Froo Sala, Mummy Mummy."
The song - for you non-Wiggles aficionados - goes "Fruit salad, yummy yummy. . ."
18-month reflections
We just got back from Logan's 18-month check up and I figured it was as good a time as any to do a little catch up on what's happening with him/us. First the stats - He's now 24 pounds and 10 ounces & 32 inches tall exactly. Per the doctor he's developing and growing just perfectly. Of course, this is also after she thought I was being difficult because I couldn't enumerate the number of words he says. Telling her "He says a lot" was not sufficient enough. Oh well.
So yes, let's talk about talking - Logan doesn't stop unless he's asleep and even then, sometimes he talks. He says more words than we can count now and he uses them in sentences - small ones, but still in sentences. He's got a firm grasp on the art of pronouns - Elmo eat your heart out!
For example, last night I said to him "Logan aren't you getting sleepy?"
And Logan said "I am not" as he darted by me and into the kitchen half dressed in his PJs.
His speech isn't about labeling things as it used to be 6 months ago - its about communicating. He'll very clearly tell you what it is he wants - whether its something to eat ("Eat cereal bar?), something to do ("Play trains?) or somewhere to go ("Mommy, go car! Peez!" he says as the doctor pokes and prods.)
He still loves his alphabet toys. Now he's associating words with various letters - not that he's reading, but he will pick out a letter and share based on what he's been told, what words starts with it. For example "D - Daddy. Donald. M-Mommy, P-PaPa, L- me" He will also pick out a few words from memory when he sees them in print - namely ZOOM - he can always pick that word out! He's started to learn some phonics - although he doesn't always like saying much more than "Ppppah" for every letter he sees. ;) P always has been his favorite letter. He'll walk around with an H in his hand sometimes telling you "Hhha, hhhha, Harold Hehcocker."
We play hide and seek A LOT in our house. When we seek and wait for Daddy to hide, I hold Logan close and count to 10 - within the last weekor so, Logan's starting to count to 10 on his own. Actually he gets to 9...10 typically comes out as "GO!" This also includes when he's counting objects -- Un shoe, Two, Tree, Or, I've, Seeks, Evan, Eight, Nigh, GO! If he's hiding and seeking - and gets bored of waiting to seek he'll just skip to nine. Last time he played I was counting with him and he kept yelling NINE GO after every single number as if he could trick me into leaving our space sooner.
When we're not playing, eating or sleeping, we're reading. We actually read a lot per Logan's request. The kid lusts after books. He LOVES them. It quite honestly is not exaggerating to say that if books were chocolates we'd be worried about his weight and teeth. ha! He'll be in the middle of destroying our latest block creation (Yelling "ZAZILLA!" As he does it) and stop short, run to the book case where his ever growing collection is stored. He'll pull out a number of books looking for exactly the one he wants and then he'll bring it to whoever is closest saying "Read?" as he turns around, backs into your lap and plops himself down. We've started pointing to the words as we read assuming at some point he'll make a connection between the words on the page and what we're saying to him
He still loves to eat peas, a pasta, and chicken. He loves his cheese and yogurt. He adores cereal bars. He loves chocolate - LOVES it. He loves vanilla pudding. He feeds himself now. The spoon and things like yogurt he has some trouble with - but he's a pro with the fork! Occasionally he'll get frustrated - fling the fork aside and revert to fingers. He's a work in progress. ;)
He's got a sense of humor that just bowls me over every day. He did something in the doctor's office now that I honestly forget - but I do remember it was a great example of his humor. He'll just say or do something so deadpan then he'll look at you with this twinkle in his eye and a half crooked smile as if to say "HA! Gotcha!"
I guess that's it. I could easily go on for ages. ;) I'm sure you're glad I don't. ha!
