DeLanceys Do Sonoma/Logan Breaks His Arm

We've been in California for 6 years and had yet to get ourselves to Sonoma Wine Country.  When we heard that our friends Otte and Eva were going to be there for a wedding, we took the opportunity to try and see them, as well as go to a winery or two.

Otte was free for a little bit, so we met up with him for lunch and walking around downtown Healdsburg.  It was great getting to see him, though we were bummed that we were missing Eva, who was busy with wedding preparations with the bridal party.  The kids loved Otte (because who wouldn't!), and we had a great day so far.

When Otte had to leave, we decided to find a winery.  We decided to try out Bella Vineyards, because they had wine caves, which we thought might be cool for the kids to see (rather than just a regular tasting room).  The winery was beautiful, and they actually had a neat tasting setup where there were food pairings as well.  Some were outside and some were inside.  After hitting the outside stations and letting the kids run around on the grass and play with the provided hula hoops, when we sat on comfy chairs, we headed into the wine caves.  We got our first tastes (maybe our 3rd wine, total) inside and sat down at a table inside the cave.

And that is when Logan got fidgety and as we were telling him to sit on his bottom, instead of kneeling backwards on the chair, he tipped it and landed on the concrete on his arms.  Luckily, he didn't hit his head at all, but he was NOT calming down, which is very unlike Logan, who is normally our tough kid, who calms down quickly.  He was even reacting worse than RJ, who is known for histrionics over the slightest injury sometimes, so we knew something was wrong.  And he wouldn't let go of his left arm.

So yeah, we drove him to a hospital.

Thank goodness for PBS Kids on the TV in the ER rooms!
Great Distraction.

We probably could have taken him to a closer hospital, as I'm sure there are hospitals in Sonoma, but we made the decision to take him to Children's Hospital in Oakland, because we knew that was a good hospital and would handle his case well given that they specialize in pediatrics and he was still only 2.5.  And upon getting him in the car, he was reasonably calm, although obviously still hurting a lot (I seem to remember giving him Advil to help with that - I figured that by the time we got there and got seen and they figured out what was wrong that it would be out of his system anyway).

Broken Elbow

We got to the hospital and they took x-rays.  The first person said it wasn't broken, just very swollen and sprained badly.  Then the second person came in and said that there was a small fracture, but that it was of a type that usually healed very quickly and sometimes didn't even need a cast (but given his age, it made sense to put a cast on and prevent further injury.  It was non-displaced, so they were going to be able to wrap it quickly with him awake (as opposed to needing to sedate him and set it with surgery).  So the orthopedic resident wrapped him up in a cast and we were sent on our merry way home.

Luckily, Logan is pretty resilient and was his happy self again the next day.  And less than 48 hours after the incident, had managed to tackle RJ to the ground one armed.














More pictures of our Adventures in Sonoma/Oakland Children's Hospital are here.

Logan Goes to Gymnastics

Logan has been watching RJ do gymnastics for a year now.  Week after week, he has tried desperately to get through the gate and onto the floor.  He has succeeded in getting in a few times and I've had to chase him down.  Back in January, I was thinking that he was almost old enough to try the parent-tot class, which is conveniently scheduled on Wednesdays when RJ has preschool!  I was planning on signing him up for April, when the next 3-month session starts (they take a percentage off when you pay for 3 months at a time rather than month by month).  However, Classic Gymnastics (where RJ takes his class), decided to help me out even more with their "March Madness" offer, where they offered a whole month of the parent-tot class during March.  I signed him up immediately, because this way, I didn't have to pay to see if he would like it or not!  Logan's bff, Ethan also signed up, so now they're gymnastics buddies too!

I love this class.  And not just because I get to jump into the giant foam pit with Logan (although I would be lying if I didn't admit that is my favorite part!  It's a giant pit full of squishy foam squares...how could that be anything less than awesome?!).  Logan is learning real gymnastics skills at a level that's very appropriate for him.  The coach basically introduces the skills and we help our kids through them, usually in circuits so that the kids don't have to wait very long.  Logan LOVES it, so we signed up beyond the free trial!  Although it doesn't make waiting during RJ's class any easier since he is not convinced to stay out by my "but you get to come on Wednesdays with Ethan" mantra (RJ's class is on Mondays).

Logan and Ethan also enjoy their post-class Jamba Juice!

Sadly, I have no pictures of them actually in class because I'm busy with Logan, but hopefully I'll get some soon since Ethan's grandpa was snapping pictures during the last class!

Logan is 18 months

Physical Stats:

Height:33.25" (80th percentile)

Weight: 24 lbs. 4 oz. (35th percentile)

Teeth: 12: 4 top front, 4 bottom front, 4 molars. 4 Canines are en route.

Sizes: Currently wearing 18 mos., 24 mos. and 2T sizes.  18 months are getting small gradually

Sleep:  ~9pm-6:30am (though we make him stay in the crib until 7), ~2-3 hour afternoon nap around 1pm

Favorites

Favorite Food: Bananas, Cheese, Strawberries, Anything with chocolate in it

Favorite Drink: Orange Juice, Milk, Breastmilk

Dislikes: It's hard to tell - he will mostly try anything.  He only tends to spit out food when he can't chew it well or he's full.

Favorite Book: Any of our many, many truck books or picture books

Favorite Toy: Cars, Trucks, Balls

Favorite Color: Maybe Orange - he has a thing for RJ's orange cars.

Favorite Outdoor Activity: Climbing stairs and going down the slide, trying to run into the street, pushing carts, lawn mowers, shoveling sand from the sand table to the ground.

Favorite Indoor Activity: Playing with whatever RJ is playing with or stealing art supplies and painting/drawing wherever he can, taking toys for a ride in one of the ride-on toys and restocking them in various locations throughout the house.

Eating
Logan generally eats anything, however, he has started rejecting food, mostly due to texture when his teeth are hurting him, sometimes because he's a toddler and that's what they do.  It's our job to offer healthy food, and his job to eat it.  I generally don't worry much when he doesn't eat much because he's normally a great eater.  Now that he has molars, we've let him enjoy some of RJ's favorite snacks like fruit rope and yogurt raisins, which he loves.  Within the last two weeks he cut down from nursing twice a day to once a day, so he still nurses at bedtime.  RJ quit nursing on his own at 21 months, so I'm curious to see how the next few months go.  Our policy is generally don't offer, don't refuse at this stage, so it's on him how long he takes the nursing relationship.


Sleep
Logan FINALLY started sleeping through the night when he was about 16 months.  He will occasionally wake up if he's in pain (teething), but it's the exception rather than the rule now.  He goes to sleep easily - we read Sandra Boynton's "The Going to Bed Book" to him (RJ actually recites it too), and then he nurses during RJ's book choice and RJ's made-up story.  Then he gives hugs and kisses, we put him into the crib with his ocean waves sound machine, and he goes to sleep.  He likes to have his two frogs and a light blanket now.  For the last few nights, he insisted on putting his head down on the firetruck paperback book.  Up until last week, he had been nursing whenever he woke up, provided it was at least after 5am.  However, we stopped bringing him into bed with us when he wakes up, and so he doesn't ask to nurse in the morning anymore.  Now one of us goes to his room and lays on the floor until 7 if he wakes up earlier.  His super early wakings have toned down a lot in the past week.  He is also really easy to put down for a nap most of the time, and is quite flexible in terms of the time he goes down as well.  Some days I put him down by 12:30 so that we can get to RJ's gymnastics class at 3; other days, he might not get down until 2:30 or 3 if we're out at a long play date or something.  He normally naps from about 1/1:30 - 3:30/4; 2-3 hours.  On days he wakes up early in the morning, he sometimes falls asleep in the morning, particularly during my morning runs or most amusing, in the jumperoo when I'm showering after the run.  I will let him rest for 20-30 minutes, and it usually won't affect his afternoon nap.

Potty Training
RJ was potty trained early (he started at 22 mos.), so we might be looking at Logan through that lens, looking for the signs of early readiness.  Even though RJ hasn't used the potty seats in at least a year, we never put them away since we didn't really have a storage place for them, and occasionally had younger kids visiting us, so they've always been around for Logan to sit on, which he tends to when someone else is using the potty.  He has actually peed on the potty 3 times, all just before bath, which isn't a bad start at all.  We are not forcing him to do this at all, but if he follows one of us into the bathroom, I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty and sometimes he will sit on it naked (he sometimes says "diaper", indicating that he wants it off), and sometimes he'll just sit on it in his clothes.  He also seems aware of what he's doing since he wants his diaper changed right after pooping and if he makes a puddle (or worse) when he's running around naked, he lets me know.

Fine Motor Development

Logan has shown interest in scribbling and painting in the last couple of months. He makes a huge mess, but it's important for him to get opportunities to make his own creations on paper (or on RJ once when I was making dinner).  He can hold and control the crayons, markers, and paintbrushes well in the appropriate gripped fist and loves seeing what marks he can make.  He can also use a spoon and a fork when eating, but often gets frustrated when the food goes overboard instead of onto his spoon/fork.  Then he reverts back to using his pincer grip to pick up food and shove it into his mouth.  He is also getting better at turning the pages in his books (particularly board books).
One of Logan's favorite things to do in the bathtub is to pour water out of various cups, pitchers, and bowls, where he experiments with their flow. For a little while bath was horrendous because he would get the entire area (and the parent charged with bath duty) soaked thanks to not keeping the water in the bathtub, but he has finally figured out that it's fun to pour the water back into the bathtub too!  In our kitchen, Logan regularly ransacks my pantry cupboard and stacks canned goods. I think his record is 3 objects right now.  He is right on target, if not a little advanced for fine motor developing, which makes sense since his hands are NEVER still!

Gross Motor Development
We have a climber.  Both kids are climbers, but Logan seems much more insistent on being dangerous places than RJ was at this age.  I blink and he's dancing on  or trying to jump on the kids' table.  I found him on the kitchen table once when I was trying to get something ready for dinner, and he regularly scales the couch to stand on the window sill to look outside.  The baby gates at the top and bottom of our stairs are my best friends, since he will scale the stairs the minute the gate is open and he would fearlessly attempt to go down the stairs (on his feet now, not crawling) if the top gate was open.  We do let him go up and down the stairs when we're there with him, so he gets practice.  In the same vein, our playground trips are filled with circuits of up-the-stairs, down-the-slide, repeat.  Or, like today, he followed RJ up the big kid angled ladder.  Yeah, this child has NO FEAR AT ALL.  And he's crazy strong.  He loves hanging from his arms off of bars and seeks out bar-like things to do this on.  His current favorite hanging spot is a little handrail next to the drinking fountains at RJ's swim lessons.  Logan has also hit all the major milestones in Gross Motor Development for an 18 month old.  He runs, he throws (nearly everything), he kicks balls, and he jumps (although he lands on his ass still, which he discovered was a super fun time when he climbed onto our bed and started trying to jump like RJ).  

Cognitive Development

Logan is a busy little guy, and he's continually trying new things and problem solving.  Usually his problem solving involves trying to get into something we've barricaded (by practicing various ways to destroy the barricade, but this is an important skill nonetheless!  Logan has also been imitating a lot lately, which is related to early pretend play.  He especially loves the cars and the dinosaurs, frequently doing what RJ does with them, and taking them for rides in his ride on truck around the house, often hiding them so that it's virtually impossible to keep all the toys organized!  He doesn't get the concept of clean-up time, but does enjoy helping put things in bins, so he can help if given direction.  He understands most of the language directed at him and will follow short, simple, commands.  He can also match objects, as he does with some of our wooden puzzles that have pictures in the appropriate spots.  For example, he can put the cat piece over the cat, even wiggling it a little to get it in its spot.  He also knows a majority of his body parts and will point to each upon request.  RJ even taught him to say "penis" in the bathtub, and it's clear he knows the referent for that particular word!  Most of his cognitive growth at this stage is in the area of Language Development as his vocabulary production and receptive language both increase.  He is remarkably aware of what is going on around him and understands more and more each day. 

Language Arts: 

Logan has some words now, which is very exciting.  I can usually understand him, despite his non-traditional pronounciations, but we're not yet where anyone else not familiar could understand him.  Here are the words and "words" I've documented.

booze = boobs, meaning "I want to nurse"
dahr = car
dah = dog
dat = cat
momma
dada/daddy
ah - dey = "RJ"
doh = window
dohr = door
dass = grass
bah = ball
dup = cup
duice = juice, meaning milk or juice
nat = snack
bah = bar, meaning breakfast bar or generically, snack
bassss = glasses
bass = glass, repeated after I told him he couldn't throw a glass bottle
dutsh = truck
baby
bot = box
dehn = train
di-door = dinosaur
dose = nose
yeahr = ear
deet = teeth and feet
dighs = eyes

djah = arm
peisss = penis
bus
dat-doh = motorcycle
bibane = airplane
dot-dee = helicopter
bite = boat
bop = book
dorse = horse
fah = frog
baff = giraffe
bop-bay = elephant
dut = duck
boo = bird
di-biss = octopus
diss = fish
dah-puh = diaper
duse = shoes

There are more, but since he's picking up speed with vocabulary, I probably will stop documenting like I did with RJ.

Emotional/Behavioral

Logan is mostly a sweet little toddler who is very easy going and often hilarious.  However, he has developed some limited intentionality as well as having expectations about things, both of which often leave him frustrated, but without the words to explain what's going on.  Toddlerhood can be a bitch sometimes!  So Logan has resorted to shrieking, occasionally tantruming, and most recently hitting when things don't go his way.  Up until the last few months, he's been happy with whatever toys were RJ's cast offs.  He was perfectly happy playing with Sally and Flo while RJ played with Lightning and Mater (all characters from Pixar's Cars if you for some reason don't know what I'm talking about).  Not any more.  Now he goes after the favorites and throws a fit if you try to swap it out with another car.  Luckily, we have 6 different Lightning McQueens and he does not yet know the difference between Dirt Racer Lightning, Regular Lightning, Wet Lightning, Dragon Lightning, etc. But clearly there are sharing issues (for both kids, since RJ is still working on his sharing skills).
Logan is still a little shy around strangers, but generally enjoys the company of people, both familiar and not. Logan was recently invited to join RJ's Thursday co-op and has handled the separation from me without a fuss at all.  In fact the first time I left him there, I had to chase him around trying to give him a hug because (I think) he thought I was going to take him back home with me and he was having fun with the big kids!  I do wonder if he would've been as easy to separate from if he was unfamiliar with our friend's houses or if RJ wasn't there too.  

DeLancey Family Spring Travels Volume I: Overview and Prelude to Montreal

This post is first in a series describing our three weeks of Spring Travel. In these posts, I am sure you will see just how insane adventurous we are in traveling with two children under the age of 4.

Overview:
We traveled from Home --> Manchester, NH --> Montreal, QC --> Quebec City, QC --> Burlington, VT --> Boston, MA --> Pittsburgh, PA --> Buffalo, NY --> Home

And why, you ask?

Back in July I learned that the Society of Research in Child Development Conference was in Montreal. While I am not working at the moment, this was something I committed to with my last grad student as I was finishing up. Also, when your name gets attached to something, it's good to have some oversight in case of a return to academia in the future.

Also, I want to open my own laboratory preschool, so attending the International Association of Laboratory and University Affiliated Schools Conference in Pittsburgh - directly preceding Spring Carnival weekend - was a damned good idea for me to get some ideas.

These conferences were a couple of weeks apart and we really miss our friends in Boston, so we stopped there on our circular trip.

But that's boring stuff. Let's move on to the trip.

1 week prior to takeoff: I received an email from my graduate student stating that she had a family emergency and that I never got feedback to her about the poster. (except that I did - 3 weeks prior). So, 1 week before the conference, I had to complete the poster and get it printed. This was frustrating because it took vital time away from planning the fun parts of the trip. So we sort of ended up winging it.

2 days prior to takeoff: Logan jacks up his leg going down the f*#&ing slide at the playground. We spent the day visiting the pediatrician and getting X-rays, only for them to tell us that it doesn't appear broken, but infants sometimes require a few days for the bone to split. WONDERFUL. Logan was miserable and frustrated, wouldn't walk, but still tried to climb everything in sight, leaving me with not a lot of time to pack.

March 30: The flight to Boston was OK (flights to BOS were a TON cheaper than flying directly to Montreal and we needed a car for the duration of the trip anyway), but it was the ride to the hotel in Manchester, NH that was eventful. The idea to stay in Manchester for the night was, in theory, brilliant. We landed at 10pm local time and got the rental car. The idea was that the kids would pass out in the car on the way up to Manchester, which would get them closer to East Coast time.

FAIL.

Instead, since we somehow forgot to get Lance food on the plane when we got food for me and the kids, he was hungry. But of course NOTHING was open outside the airport. Finally we found a late-night McDonald's (somewhere near Malden, MA - hi Justin & Saru!) that only had a drive thru open. We got the food and figured that we were in the clear and that the food would help RJ get less cranky and fall asleep (RJ often gets cranky when he's hungry and he was due for a snack based on when he last ate). Except that RJ was really upset because he was carsick. We parked about a millisecond too late. Puke was all over his jacket, the carseat, and the seat of the rental car. And he did NOT want to drive ANYWHERE. There were hotels in sight, but not ours, which was still far away in New Hampshire. I have to plug the Earth's Best Baby Wipes at this point, because they played a large role in our cleanup effort. They are actually a little soapy and pretty thick. I use cloth wipes at home, but usually use Seventh Generation, Full Circle, or Lansinoh wipes in the diaper bag. These were at Babies R Us when I picked up the G-diaper inserts for the trip and BOY was I glad I picked them on a whim!

After cleaning up in the freezing cold parking lot, we finally convinced RJ to get back in the car and Daddy promised to drive slow so he wouldn't get sick. Thankfully, it worked and we made it to Manchester, where our kids proceeded to keep us up til 2am. So much for moving to East Coast time, as we were on Hawaii time! We almost missed the complimentary breakfast (thank you wonderful lady who hooked us up with more food than we could possibly eat after breakfast ended!), and Logan was still in a lot of pain after 3 days, when the pediatrician told us that if it was a sprain he should feel better in a few days.

So, Next stop:

The Elliot Hospital Pediatric ER to get another X-ray

Several hours later, we had a CD with Logan's X-ray, which still showed that it was not broken, and Logan was splinted in what was termed a "half cast" or "soft-cast", meaning that I could take it off for bath. Or, as it turned out, he could crawl out of it unless it was heavily taped to his sock.

We got back to the car and realized that my phone battery was dead. I plugged it in to the charger and even after it charged, the screen wouldn't come on. A visit at the local Verizon store confirmed that yes, the only phone that we added the international plan to, died hours before leaving the country and of course there was NOTHING they could do because we didn't have the insurance and I wasn't due for a new phone until November. Since buying a new one outright was not an option, we were about to go on the trip the old-fashioned way - WITHOUT smart phones (insert scary music).

So with a broken kid, a whiny kid, discouraged adults, and a broken phone, we drove up to Montreal much later than expected. And like clockwork, once getting into Quebec and clearly on a rural highway through small-town Quebec, RJ announced that he had to go potty. And of COURSE the kid had to take a shit. We thankfully found a completely French Speaking diner that let him use the potty and Lance managed to buy a piece of pie with American Dollars because he didn't just want to let RJ take a dump in their potty and run.

We got to our hotel and the kids had yet another late night.

And my poster presentation (my grad student did end up cancelling her trip to Montreal due to her family emergency, so I was stuck presenting her work as well as creating the poster of it) was of course at 8am the next morning.

Stay tuned for Volume 2: Montreal, QC.

Logan's First Hair Cut

Logan was growing a little mullet, so we figured it was time for his first haircut. I was a little apprehensive because he had the cutest little curls, only in the back (of course), but I also don't like mullets and it will grow back, hopefully with more on top, so that it's not a mullet!









So, it was off to All About Me Kids Salon in Livermore. For your viewing pleasure here is Logan getting his hair cut in Thomas the Tank Engine.














He was surprisingly good for the whole thing - even the clippers!















RJ also got in on the action since it's been over a year and a half since he's had a professional cut his hair. (I usually do it myself, and endure all the whining, crying, and negotiating). I think he really enjoyed getting his hair cut while sitting in Lightning McQueen and watching a Thomas on their plasma. Maybe I need to set him up in his Lightning in front of our TV instead of clearly torturing him in his bathroom.







Both boys got bowl cuts (although Logan's is not as defined as RJ's since he has a lot less hair). She went a little shorter on top than I would've liked on RJ, and faded the bowl part into the short part a little more than I would've liked, but it will grow back

DeLancey Family Winter Travels Volume IV: Winter Activities Edition

We were in Buffalo. So, we played in the snow.

We went Ice Skating with Josh and Zach.

We went sledding down a hill a little too big for RJ at Chestnut Ridge. He was not a fan of sledding there, but Luke and my Mom had fun (and so did Lance, Amy, and I).
We went skiing at Holiday Valley. When RJ got carsick 5 minutes from the resort, we really did not have high hopes for him skiing, but he perked up after a snack and ended up LOVING it. We had to carry him in kicking and screaming to eat lunch. He especially loved the magic carpet. He also tried the tow rope lift later in the day, but had a harder time with that. He loved to go down the hill, but he could not make the "pizza" to stop himself.
Then we found a sledding hill more his speed at Westwood Park. Even Logan went down!
Then the adults played a rousing game of Asshole the night before Amy and Luke had to go home. The next morning, RJ laid on the guilt pretty thick too. "Aunt Amy, why can't someone ELSE teach your kids?"
And on New Years Day, we picked up Grandpa and headed to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, which was great for everyone!

Logan's First Birthday Party

To celebrate Logan's Birthday, we threw a Yellow Submarine/ Ocean-themed party for him. His bedroom is ocean themed (or at least it's supposed to be - I have all my Yellow Submarine characters in there and put all the other assorted Ocean stuffed animals and such in there, but we haven't really painted or decorated). My baby shower thrown by my Child Development Center staff was Yellow Submarine themed because they knew I loved the Beatles and was thinking about having the Yellow Submarine nursery.

I got it stuck in my head that I needed to make a Yellow Submarine cake. Since RJ's First Birthday I have upped my game quite a bit. RJ's first birthday cake was a rectangle from a box (an organic mix, but a mix all the same). RJ's second birthday was a homemade monkey and his third birthday was a homemade Lightning McQueen made from a mold. However, the Yellow Submarine cake is a grand opus of a cake being 100% from scratch and free handed. There was no mold, only me and a bunch of various sized rectangles and circles of devil's food and starlight yellow cake (Betty Crocker recipes) glued together by dark orange chocolate fudge filling (that I made without a recipe). The frosting was buttercream, and I credit Wilton with the recipe to make a nice, smooth, stiff, but not too stiff frosting. Logan's smoosh cake was supposed to be an octopus, sticking with the theme. I think I should've done a side view though - it just looks like a turquoise sun.


And I decided that it was a good idea to make individual chicken pot pies for dinner.

I'm not quite sure why I can't just order pizzas. It would be so much easier, but I like to feed people good food and I like to make it.

However, we made one big mistake in throwing this party. We forgot to take pictures of LOGAN. We took a few of the food, and a couple of blurry ones of him opening gifts, but with taking video, we managed to forget to take stills. Poor second kid. We have video footage a plenty, but we have a backlog (if you'd like video from the last couple of years, bug Lance to find and put the firewire card back in the computer).

Logan did have a great time though - he started really walking across rooms the day before the party, and so he was quite happy getting to show off his new skill of toddling around the house to everyone!

Also, as per tradition from my side of the family, before Logan devoured his cake, we put a rosary, a shot glass, a dollar bill, and my engagement ring in front of him on the high chair tray to see what he would grab first (the "love" symbol started with RJ - who had a heart necklace, which he chose, in his lineup). Like his Momma, Logan went right for the shot glass. Daddy was pretty happy too, since it was a Steeler's shotglass and Logan's birthday (the day after the party) was the day of their AFC championship win.

We hope that everyone else had as good a time as we did at Logan's first birthday party! Thank you to those who came! Logan has been enjoying all his gifts and loved having everyone over! Click here to see the rest of the few pictures we took.

Logan is 1!!

Logan is a toddler now!

Stats

Weight: 21 lbs. 4 oz. (25th percentile)
Height: 31 3/4 inches (90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 47cm (70th percentile)

As you can see, Logan has stretched out quite a bit (going down from the 95th percentile to the 25th while maintaining his high-percentile height). He has lost that big 'ole round behemoth baby look and now his body type is much like RJ's was at the one year mark. He hasn't lost any weight, just plateaued in his gain, which breastfed babies tend to do in the second half of their first year. If he's anything like RJ, he'll creep back up to about the 50th percentile in weight as he builds toddler muscle, while staying at the 90th for height. He is a very healthy one year old!

Motor Development:
We have a walker! Logan took his first steps on December 15, got up to about 8 steps later in December, and then took off across the house the day of his First Birthday Party (January 22, 2011), one day before his actual birthday! He loves walking and gets a big goofy grin on his face when he's toddling along. He is also a climber and enjoys scaling the stairs.

In terms of fine motor development, he excels at grasping tiny objects and putting them in his mouth. Typically these are tiny bites of food, but also cat food, little bits of paper, fuzz, or other random crap he finds. This makes going to the park tiring because I have to watch RJ AND make sure that Logan doesn't eat stones or bark. He also enjoys stacking toys with pegs and stacking blocks (or canned goods).

Language Development:

Logan can sign "all done", "milk" (meaning nursing), "more", and most impressive at this age, "diaper". He also waves good-bye. He babbles constantly and says something that I am convinced is "RJ". Other words:
"doh" which we think is door/window
"dat" which is almost anything. I interpret it as him asking, "What is THAT?", but also could be "cat" since it is sometimes directed at Boca.
He also babbles a ton - dahdahdah, mamamama, babababa...etc.
Logan will also imitate some non word sounds, like squealing, laughing, huffing/puffing, and roaring and cars vrooming. Basically anything RJ does, Logan tries to do too. He also randomly yells when he's mad or frustrated. He squeals when he's happy or excited. Mostly, he's loud.
It's pretty clear that Logan understands a lot more language than he produces (which is pretty typical at this age) because he can follow simple directions (put this in the box, hand me the ___, come here, where's momma?, etc.) I'm sure that normally I model and point while giving these directions, but I've tested some without gestures too.

Socio-emotional Development

Logan is definitely not the drama-queen that RJ is, but he does let us know when he is unhappy by complaining when he's angry with the situation and generally throwing things to the floor that he's unhappy with. He cries when he's hurt or tired, but generally he's a very easy-going kid. He usually has a big goofy grin on his face. He loves being around other kids (people in general too), and smiles and plays peek-a-boo around objects to get attention. He likes to be in on the action, which often frustrates RJ because he practically sits ON his big brother or his big brother's toys sometimes. He also likes to find RJ's favorite toys, wait until RJ puts it down and then speed-crawl or run away with it. He knows what he is doing too - the mischievous look is unmistakable. I foresee that he will be the "class clown" type when he's in school.

Cognitive Development

Logan is doing great with his problem solving. He loves opening and closing things, putting things in containers and taking them out. He is in full-blown exploration mode and fully examines whatever he can get his hands on. He is still my little music man and loves to play around with how to make different sounds with the instruments. Shakers and the kazoo are probably his favorites (and yes he actually figured out how to play the kazoo). New in this area is stacking objects.

Eating

At one year, Logan was nursing 5 times a day (5/6am, 9:30/10am, 1:30/2pm, 4:30pm, 8pm). For breakfast, I usually make him baby multi-grain cereal mixed with whole-milk yogurt and applesauce (or another fruit puree if I have one around). For lunch and dinner, he basically eats what we do, cut up super tiny. If we're eating something not very baby friendly, I still have some baby food that I'll break out of the freezer or cupboard until it's gone, but we aren't going to make or buy more at this point since he loves to eat table food and will grab whatever food is close by and shove it in his mouth. He ate his first California Roll on December 7 and loved it! He also finally started drinking a little whole milk from a sippy cup and we're hoping he'll increase the amount so that I can wean him from the daytime nursing. I plan to nurse him first thing in the morning and at bedtime as long as he wants to, just like I did with RJ.

Sleeping

Logan has made some progress in the sleep department. He CAN sleep through the night and has from 8:30 - 6, but usually he has been waking once or twice (at 1 and 5 or just at 4). He also CAN take a morning and an afternoon nap, but normally one is a good nap over an hour and the other one is a crappy short nap. I think a lot of the crappy sleep lately has been teething related though since he has been working on teeth for the last two months with nothing to show for it.

Teeth

Teeth are the bane of Logan's, Lance's, and my existence. At present he has 6 teeth, 4 on top, 2 on the bottom. He is working on another 6 - he has bulges for the next two on the bottom (these are the most prominent and closest to eruption), and some evidence that he is working on all 4 canines.


We can't wait to see what Logan's 2nd year has in store for us all!

Early December Pictures

We didn't spend much of December at home, but there is some photographic evidence of us being home for the first 9 days of the month.

RJ tried out his new (to him) hockey stick at the park with Daddy.

Logan tried a California Roll for the first time (and loved it). RJ reached across the table and attempted to steal my smoked salmon nigiri in its entirety, so I shared a little of it and he loved it and the yellowtail too. I sometimes can't get him to eat macaroni and cheese, but sushi he will eat without any fuss. (I'm not complaining though - it's an excuse to get sushi more often!)

Co-op was in full swing until the day before we left.
And we managed to get a few of our friends over for a last-minute planned holiday party! We all had lots of fun, and the kids had a cute little pajama party at the end before everyone headed home. RJ of course waved goodbye to everyone in tears. Its hard for the fun to end!


As always, clicking on the pictures will take you to the respective picasa albums (there are two this month - December 2010 and Holiday Party)

Logan's First Thankgiving

For the 9th year in a row, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. It's a good thing that I enjoy making our feast!. RJ and I made our pies on Wednesday. We made a pumpkin pie from an actual sugar pie pumpkin and a pumpkin cheese pie. And, since we were making pie crusts, we made a spinach quiche for dinner Wednesday night too. RJ enjoyed being my special helper and when I took a picture of him, he decided to photo document himself, and filled the entire memory card with pictures of random things around the house. I deleted most of the unfocused closeups of the wall and the cat, but I did save a few of his masterpieces! Logan helped out by actually taking both his morning and afternoon nap, during which RJ and I did our work! When he was awake, he was content to crawl around the floor and be occasionally sprinkled with flour.
On Thanksgiving, RJ watched the parade, Logan played with Lance, and I cooked. Then in the afternoon, when all the food was in a stable holding pattern, we drove over to the Tracy Municipal Airport to pick up our dinner guests, Laura and Jesse, who flew in for the evening from Santa Cruz. This was clearly the highlight of the day for RJ, because he got up close and personal with Jesse's airplane and got to talk to a real live pilot.

Captain Jesse showed RJ how the ailerons went up and down (and what the yoke inside the cockpit did when he moved them on the wing), and RJ got to go around the plane naming the elevators, fin, rudder, and wings before we climbed in for our Thanksgiving ride! Jesse took us up and circled around our house and the Altamont Hills. During our flight, RJ got to wear a headset and listen to Jesse as he went through the safety check and talked about how he was flying the airplane. It was a perfect ride on a beautiful day, and RJ was thrilled. He's been on countless airliners in his three and a half years, but being in a small, private airplane is much more interesting! After landing, RJ got to sit in the cockpit and move the yoke around while Jesse showed him what the instruments did and how to adjust the wings for takeoff and landing.

Then we headed to the house to finish up dinner prep and give Logan his first Thanksgiving feast. We had our free-range turkey, sausage sage stuffing, mashed potatoes, glazed yams, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and homemade dinner rolls. I didn't turn anything into baby food and just cut it all up in to tiny pieces for him to eat himself (we've been doing this a little every day for practice, but haven't done a full meal of finger food). Logan, being the eater that he is, LOVED Thanksgiving. He chowed down and loved every minute of it! I even shared a little pie with him, which also thrilled him since he doesn't normally get any food with sugar added. I think Thanksgiving has the potential to be Logan's favorite holiday so far!

Sadly all good things come to an end, and Jesse and Laura had to fly back, after scaling a fence to get back into the airport to their plane! I wish I had a picture of that to post here, but Lance forgot to bring the camera when he dropped them off.

We hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving too!

(All pictures link to the Thanksgiving album.)