A 2 year old's list of favorites
Favorite Song
To sing -- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
From his CD's -- Elephant Walk from the JoJo's Circus soundtrack.
From the radio - Chain Gang (Or whatever the proper name is!)
Favorite Food
Anytime "meal" food - Strawberry or Strawberry Vanilla Yumsters Yogurt
Snack - He says its grapes but I think its vanilla pudding
Overall favorite thing to ingest - Chocolate!
Favorite Book
Oh who can keep up. He changes his favorites daily. He can't, however, go to bed without acting out "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" first. Say it with me folks "Teddy Bear Teddy Bear turn around. Teddy Bear Teddy Bear touch the ground. . ."
Favorite TV show
Logan doesn't really have a favorite since we don't watch much TV - esp now in the great weather. He does enjoy just about anything on Playhouse Disney though and will sit and watch a show while we get ready in the morning.
Favorite bath toy
An old sippy cup or an empty bottle of baby bath. He likes to fill it with water and dump it on his head. He also likes bringing his plastic cars in the tub with him, his plastic tools...anything that is essentially not made to be a bathtoy.
Favorite toy
Inside -- Who can keep up with a fickle kid that changes his mind with each waking moment. As I write this he's in the midst of an hour long stretch of play with Thomas and Friends. He's attaching freight car boxes (aka blocks of wood) to the back of each engine to create snow plows to, I'm guessing, plow through the insidious piles of dog fur. Before that we played with his new plastic tool set - yes, a black plastic hammer will leave marks on your wall. :)
Outside - that's a bit easier, he loves most anything he can do outside, but he's particularly enamored with his sandbox.
Favorite place to go
Grandma's house (Papa only lives there you know. It *is* Gram's house according to Logan.) He's also a particularly big fan of the beach - he can spend hours there playing in the sand or sticking his toes in ice cold water.
Favorite thing to say
Being silly -- Logan little goofy nut. Papa is BIG goofy nut.
Being independent -- NO! GO away! I do myself!
When playing -- Scoop it, lift it, dump it!
When being loving/flattering -- Give kiss. I love you. - OR - My mommy pretty little girl.
Favorite outfit
In the "if I could I'd wear it daily" category we luckily have four t-shirts -- a Thomas shirt, a crane shirt, a backhoe shirt and a dump truck shirt. Surprised?
Although truth be told, if Logan had his way, he'd be "naked baby" more often than one with clothes on. Give him a chance to run before you get clothes on him and he's off yelling gleefully "NAKED BABY! Naked baby!" Luckily Naked Baby is willing to play this game with a diaper on.
Favorite video/DVD
He doesn't have one specific favorite, but any of the Tommy ones will do.
Favorite store
Target - yes, he loves Target. He begs to go to Target. Of course, part of that is the fact that he's convinced he's getting a Hot Wheels car every time he's there.
Favorite activity that does not involve a toy
If its not a book its arts and crafts. In fact he'll stand at the base of his high chair or at his picnic table outside and he'll beg "Mommy! Arts and Crafts now PLEASE!" Anything he can glue is a winner but he's also happy with markers, crayons and paints. Lately he's got this thing for trying to cut paper with his blunt blunt toddler scissors. Only trouble is he needs two hands to work the "cutters" (as he says) so someone else needs to hold the paper taut and straight. He's also a HUGE fan of the Googly eye, the pom-pom and glitter. Give him something to glue those on and he's in heaven. Walls throughout the house are loading up with his artwork.
Almost 2
So technically the little man doesn't hit the "BIG" 2 until Wednesday, but today was his birthday party. I figure since we spent the day pretending he's two (he insists his birthday is today since - hey we had cake and presents) I'd just do a little update now. While Logan took his typical 2 hour mid-day nap, Bruce and I cleaned up the house, decorated and got the party food together. When Logan came down the hall from his nap he saw the Thomas the Tank Engine streamers and misc Thomas (or Tommy as he says) decorations. His eyes got big and he said "Ohhh, Tommy stuff! Wow!"
Me - Do you remember *why* we have all this Tommy stuff today?
Logan - It my birthday party! YAY!! I get presents, have friends play, see Papa and Gramma and Uncle Scott. Have Tommy cake! Happy Birthday Logan! (insert more clapping and cheering here from the birthday boy.)
And the afternoon went on much like that. When his friends arrived - we had just three other kids over and a grand total of 7 adults - he led the little parade out to the back yard and ran them to the far corner so they could all gawk at the giant, real-life, backhoe working in our neighbors yard to dig a new pool. The four kids had a blast running, laughing, pretending, squashing themselves into the sand box and the Little Tykes house all at one time and generally ignoring the adults. They loved the arts and crafts we did: making sand art with colored sand in old cleaned out baby food jars and then decorating poster board train cut outs with glitter, pom-poms, googley eyes and shiny things. They got hand stamps - actually I just used the Crayola Stampers markers - and Thomas temporary tattooes. Those stupid markers wasted a good 20 minutes of our day and produced what looked like 4 little bikers aged 2 thru 5. . . plus a lot of stamps on the adults. Yes, I have a whole lot of photos. ;) Logan adored the whole 'gift' getting thing and stopped after each was opened to play with it for a spell. I can tell Christmas is going to take hours and hours this year!
His most favorite part, however, may have been blowing out his candle and having everyone sing Happy Birthday to him. At first he stared at them all in total shock, then it dawned on him WHAT they were singing and that it was for him. He got this HUGE smile on his face and he just glowed at each one. When the song was over he cheered, clapped and asked that they all sing again. He also asked them all to sing to him as they left. ha!
This is a typical snapshot of a day in the life of Logan. He's an incredible jabbering nut (or "little goofy nut" as he recently decided to bestow upon himself.) His mouth starts running when he wakes up in the morning and it doesn't stop until he's too tired to keep the lips forming words. Seriously, each night when we put him to bed at about 7:45 he talks to himself, his toys, and/or his fish tank music thingy for at least a half hour. He sings. He recounts his day. He says his prayers. He makes up stories. It amazes me still to hear that little voice. We have regular old conversations with him and we're reminded regularly that he his memory is already a little steel box.
He can spell his name if you ask him to. He can now write the letters L and O at will - we're working on G. He is obsessed with his books. He's got a few favorites and now has them memorized start to finish. He'll grab one of those as he tells you "Go away. I read myself." He climbs up in a chair or gets comfy on the floor, opens his book and tells himself the story. . . the right lines to each page. Of course, he still loves to be read to. He'll pick out a book (spending time sitting or kneeling in front of his book shelves, finger to his chin and saying "Hmmm, let's see. Which one...") Then climbs into the designated (by him) lap for a good cuddle and story. Since he's into the whole "tell it myself" thing lately we try to read with our fingers pointing to each word we say. If a word reoccurs throughout the book we'll point it out the first few times and then the next time ask him what it says ...usually he gets it. He has a few words he can pick out of text nearly anywhere now the first time it appears.
He's working hard on jumping. He has two speeds of motion - stand still and fast. He can now actually pedal his bike very slowly and very short distances. He adores anything that takes us outside. He begs to go swimming in Gram's pool daily. He loves to sing and dance. He absolutely loves "arts and crafts" and will spend an inordinate amount of time sitting with things to glue on something else, crayons, markers, paint, etc. He's become the official greeter of our town I think. He's very proud to say he lives here if nothing else - we made it a point to tell him that the police are here to help him if he can't find Mommy, Daddy or his grandparents & Uncle. (we several weeks later remembered to show him exactly how to tell who is a police officer - duh!) He knows that if he gets lost or scared he can go to the police and tell them his name and where he lives.
We practice this a lot lately -
Us - What do you tell the police if you're lost or scared?
L - I nee help. No find mommy and daddy and gramma and papa and uncle scott and sydney and tasha (the last two being his grandparents dog and our dog.)
Us - What's your name?
L - Logan Pot (he's got this thing about making Potts singular)
Us - Right, very good. And where do you live?
L - United Stay, Tom River
Us - Right and which state?
L - State
Us - yes, which State? New...
L - Jersey. I live New Jersey, United Stay Tom River.
Its a work in progress. ;)
Spelling Bee
There are a ton of things we say and do daily with Logan that just become habits you don't think about. For example, we write his name on things for him and we spell it as we do it. It just gets done and no one really focuses on why or what's happening - least of all, it seems sometimes, Logan. The other night, however, he showed that even when it seems he's ignoring you, he's not.
Logan sat in his bathtub surrounded by his foam letters. He'd pull one of the sudsy water and stick it up on the tub wall announcing which letter he was plugging up there. After we did a few letters and word combos (as in "D" is for Daddy) Logan plucked up the "L."
"L" he said as he had the others before.
"Right, very good," I said as I always do. "Do you know what starts with the letter L?" not getting a fast response I told him as I do often without thinking of it "L is for Logan."
He smiled at me and then said "L - O - G - A - N spells Logan!"
Flower Pride - I have a wildflower bed along the back of the house. Its thick with sunny yellow flowers and better yet its near maintenance free. I wanted to spread this garden around the sunroom as well - making the yard nice with little effort on our part to keep it going. All the took - between scattering last year's seeds and transplanting some plants that first took up home in the lawn - was the one thick wad of plants that holds court just outside the back door. Logan claimed this as *his* plant. He takes care of it - using his little elephant watering can to water it regularly. He watches of it. He yells at the dog to stay away from it. And now, when people cover over to the house, he drags them outside to see it in all its flowering glory. This photo is on of him showing off his first bloom. Like I said, he's very proud of it.
Embrace your inner mountain Goat
Logan has gone for months shunning the mere idea of serious climbing. Sure, he'd help himself up onto the recliner or couch. He'd hoist himself up on a chair in the yard or wherever else he felt like being. He'd climb ladders and stairs at the park or Gymboree. Yeah, he'd do that stuff but serious make Mom's heart stop climbing wasn't something he was into. . .until today.
Today Logan has embraced his inner mountain goat and scaling the great mountains around the house has become his big hobby. This morning for example, we had been playing on the computer. The dog did her usual nearly break the back door down leaping as a means of letting us know she was ready to come in. With the computer in its new habitat, the backdoor is mere feet from the desk chair. I put Logan down on the floor and let Tasha in. Turned back to the computer to find my child kneeling ON the table in front of the keyboard about to stand and try to scale the monitor! He had climbed up on the desk chair (which is on wheels mind you!) and then onto the table. After a few more attempts at getting back onto the table after being removed, I picked him up and walked him out of the sunroom. He cried and yelled because he wanted to "Climb keyboard!"
Moments later we had breakfast. I removed him from the high chair we're working on getting him permanently out of and walked to the sink to wash off his yogurt spoon. That's when I heard scrapping on the floor. . .he had rolled his high chair over next to my chair and was trying to climb up on my chair so he could climb back into the high chair. Luckily it was time for the local stores to open so we could make an easy get away to the van and errands instead of debating the merits of staying off the furniture instead of using these items as ladders.
Bon Voyage Dennis
The great Potts family goldfish experiment has ended after three short days. Yes, on Saturday Logan got a goldfish at the Founders Day event held downtown and yesterday we bid the belly-up fellow adieu.
When we first received that orangey little guy in his plastic bag and dumped him in his little bowl we asked Logan to help us name him. He selected Dennis - non-Playhouse Disney aficionados won't know, but those of you with youngsters in your life will recognize the name. Dennis, you see, is the goldfish on a Disney cartoon named Stanley. Dennis is a genius quite frankly and he chats quite a bit with his best friend Stanley - a young school aged chap that has a thing for animals including his own pets (a cat named Elsie and a dog named Harry in addition to the fish). Each episode Stanley and Dennis take a journey into the Great Big Book of Everything to learn about an specific animal (or two...two different 'episodes' per half-hour show.) Logan enjoys this show although we don't see it all that often lately, and he loves that fish. So Dennis was our fish's name.
We watched Dennis.
We fed Dennis.
We bought a net so we could catch Dennis and change his water.
We said good night to Dennis.
We told him stories.
We sang to him.
And then Monday night (just three short days into his stay with us) when I went in to drop a few flakes of food in his bowl I found him floating belly up in the tank. Daddy had funeral duty while I got Logan preoccupied with a bath. The tank, apparently, was a lost cause too and now takes up residence at the town dump.
Of course Logan saw Daddy holding up Dennis' tank - fish still floating lifelessly. "There Dennis!" he says, running to see his pal.
"Ummm, well no, honey, ahh.." and we, not quite ready to get into the whole - Dennis is dead thing with a nearly 2 year old - settled on our story. Dennis has gone back to live with Stanley.
"Dennis see Elsie?" Logan did ask me later.
"Yes, and Harry too," I assured him.
And that's been that.
I'm assuming another fish won't reach death's door under our watch anytime soon. Apparently unless I have a filter running I'm like the fishie grim reaper or something. Who knows. At least it wasn't a hamster...
Another first
Perhaps its not an official milestone, but Logan had another first yesterday. His first official logged complaint with a store manager. Yes. I'm not making it up. Foodtown, you see, has a train. It's tracks are suspended above the check-out area and the big billboard toting cars with their engine go around the oval endlessly - as long as its working. It has not been running, however, for weeks.
Each time Logan would go to Foodtown (mostly with Gram but occasionally with me) he'd be sure to instruct the cashier to "Fix train." And usually it was the same cashier. Yesterday - no running train and the little man issued his command. Only this time, there was SOMETHING different. The cashier called over the manager. Yes she did. And so Logan told the manager to fix the train because it was broke.
The manager, a very understanding sort apparently, told him that they were waiting for the engineer to come fix the train and she hoped it'd be fixed soon.
"Me too!" Logan said.
More language developments. . .
I really should stop being surprised by the things that fall out of Logan's mouth. Yet that doesn't stop the shock. Here's this child, still 19 days shy of his 2nd birthday, popping off yet another concept in its full grammatical correctness and again it surprised me. What was it, you ask? Well let me give you an example. He did it a few times today alone but here's a time that also showcases his 2 year-old sense of humor.
Gram, you see, will sometimes tell Logan that he's goofy (as opposed to silly which is another thing he knows he can be.) And tonight, Mr "I'm so Overtired I'm acting like I'm a Frat Boy at a party" Logan was truly goofy. In the car on our way home from dinner with his grandparents I told him he was a nut. SO he laughs loudly and deeply. Catches his breath and repeatedly yells out "Goofy nut!"
Then he adds in "Logan goofy nut!" bursts into a fit of giggles and squeaks out barely getting enough air "I goofy nut!"
I finally, hoping that verbally recognizing his glee will move him to the next thing as it sometimes does, agree with him "You are a goofy nut."
Then he adds his newest verbal conquest:
"Mommy goofy nut too!"
Yes, Logan now uses the word "too" properly...even if it is to tease me.
