July in Pictures

Between the Beaches, Hikes, and Amusement Parks, we also managed to find some time to go fruit picking, where we got some peaches and plums from The Farmer's Daughter U-pick in Brentwood (it's one of the very few pesticide-free places in Brentwood - organic just isn't available there from what we could find.).  RJ loved picking the fruit. 

Logan loved picking up the spoiled fruit off the ground and trying to throw it in our bucket, and running away from us in the orchard.

My big accomplishment of the month was finally getting on a regular exercise schedule.  It's not ideal, but I get about a mile jog in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  I take Logan in the stroller, right after dropping RJ at preschool, before it gets too hot.  I jog the mile, which leads us to a park in the next neighborhood over.  This park also has a fitness course, so I stop at the stations leading up to the playground and get some stretching and sit-ups in.  Then Logan gets out and does his up the stairs, down the slide repetitions, while I drink my water and do a little more stretching while he's at the safe parts of his circuit.  When he's had enough and is getting hungry for snack, he goes back in the stroller with his snack and I finish the fitness course and do some sprints/walking on the way home.
I've tried to do this with RJ on his Skuut bike too and he loves the fitness stations, but I don't get a good cardio workout that way.  At least it's a way to get a little more active more often.  The kids do really like that park.

Also, I finally got my bike fixed (the handlebars were on backwards somehow), and hooked up the bike trailer to it, so that me and the boys could explore some playgrounds a little further afield while I sneak in a little more exercise.  They like the bike trailer and the variety in playgrounds and I like getting more active.

We ended the month with Hannah's First Birthday Party (where RJ wouldn't go inside the giant bubble, but his friend Madeline did).

This same birthday party inspired me to finally take our smoker out of its box (after getting it 6 years ago and moving it twice).  So we've been smoking meat the last few weekends!

For more candid pictures of the kids, click here

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's In Santa Cruz

The weekend of July 16-17, we spent in Santa Cruz, staying the night with our friends Laura and Jesse.

RJ and Logan showed them exactly what kids will get into during an adult-oriented BBQ while Lance and I took turns at some adult conversation.  

Most people marveled at their non-stop energy!






We spent a good amount of time exploring the beach by their house, which had a partially exposed reef in the morning at low tide.

We then drove up to Davenport Beach and walked along the bluffs and down to the beach, which had a really neat looking cave carved out by the tides.

More pictures of us in Santa Cruz are here.

Sunol Regional Wilderness

As part of our busy July, we took the kids for a short hike in the Sunol Regional Wilderness, where there is a creek to splash around in.

Logan looks at a hawk from inside the ergo.

Boys at the Creek

The creek was full of tadpoles swimming around!  RJ loved them!

Excitement was had when a coyote or mountain lion
(couldn't tell which) ran across the trail and feasted
on something, thankfully not us.

We let Logan walk the last little bit of the trail.  We're lucky that he will still tolerate being in the Ergo for quite a while so we can hike to RJ's max rather than his.  We're hopefully going to get out more with him than we did with RJ so that he will be able to go longer distances sooner.  

More pictures here.

RJ's First Dentist Appointment

RJ had his first dentist appointment.  He was not a happy camper about going and it took a little while to get him in the chair (mommy was rejected, daddy, of course, worked like a charm), but he did calm down and then was pretty proud of himself after his cleaning.

This was immediately followed by a walk in the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve,

Lunch with Daddy at DreamWorks,

A trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum,

AND dinner and ice cream with Daddy in Redwood City.

RJ is 4

I realize that you might get a general idea of the kids' development from anecdotes on Facebook/Google+ (and if you're not on Google+, you SHOULD be), but I feel that an update on RJ's general development is in order as well.

Physical Stats:
Height: 43" (95th percentile)
Weight: 37.5 lbs.  (65th percentile I believe. I can't remember but I knew it was between the 50th and 75th)
Teeth: 20, counted at the dentist, no cavities!
Sight: 20/20
Hearing: Normal
Sizes: Currently wearing 4T clothes, 5T pajamas, some shirts are 4-6 or 5T, and we're stocking up on bigger sizes with sales, or second hand opportunities!
Sleep:  ~9pm-7am, no naps at home but ~1hr nap at preschool

Favorites
Favorite Food: Sugary Sticky Crap (which I don't buy, but he seems to always manage to acquire!), Shrimp, Sushi, French Fries, Chocolate Milk, Ice Cream, Carrots, Broccoli, Chocolate, Spaghetti with Meatballs
Favorite Drink: Horchata, Hot Chocolate
Dislikes: Cheese, Orange Mac & Cheese, lettuce
Favorite Book: Whichever one is the newest usually.  Currently "Peaceful Piggies Meditation"  Also, Magic School Bus series, Berenstein Bears, Beatrix Potter books
Favorite Toy: Dinosaurs, Sea Creatures
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Outdoor Activity: Riding his Skuut Bike
Favorite Indoor Activity: Playing with Dinosaurs
Favorite Sport: Football ("Go Steelers")
Possible Future Occupations: Paleontologist, Chef, Daddy
Favorite TV Shows/Movies: Dinosaur Train, Caillou, Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That, The Magic School Bus, The Land Before Time movies

Fine Motor Development
RJ can write most of his letters in their capital form, and some in their lowercase form.  His drawings become increasingly complex by the day and since it clicked that he could draw faces and draw things that he could cut out and use as toys (stingrays, sharks), his drawing output has increased exponentially. He is getting better at buttoning and unbuttoning clothing and working snaps and zippers, but often still gets frustrated and asks for help.

Gross Motor Development

I am really impressed by RJ's balance on his Skuut Bike.  He picks up his feet and zooms along for longer and longer distances every day.  He's even more advanced than he was when I filmed him in late June and early July!  He can stay upright on his rollerblade trainer skates too.  He is also taking his gymnastics class, where he has mastered the forward roll and walking along the beam, working on his bar skills and backward roll.  He is constantly in motion and we are working on his body awareness in space because he is seemingly oblivious to where his body is at any given moment, which frequently results in Daddy being kneed in the groin or me getting elbowed in the boob.  He can pump his legs when swinging and can climb almost anything on the playground now.  We are working on ball skills, mostly because we just haven't pushed him playing with balls all that much. RJ will be taking a session of swim lessons next week and already likes to blow bubbles in the water.  We might try soccer in the fall after his session of gymnastics ends.

Cognitive Development
RJ fully engrosses himself in thematic study and while I have been selecting our themes for the past year (transportation, dinosaurs, ocean), he is now taking the reigns and asking to learn about things that interest him.  He is now learning about bees since he was interested in the bees that pollinate our "bee tree".  We go to the library and pick out books on his topic, and read them and he asks me to look up answers to questions that I don't know the answer to, such as "What do baby bees look like?", on the computer.  His curiosity is intense and he asks questions pretty much non-stop through the day.  He seems to have a preference for learning about animals, even though just a year ago, it seemed that all he would ever love was transportation!  I really enjoy teaching RJ because he retains the information so easily and because he loves demonstrations and experiments (such as when we cut up grass in the back yard, put it in water and then poured it over a sponge, so he could see how baleen whales eat!).

Language Arts:  It is clear that RJ's mind is always working.  As he plays, the animals or cars or whatever have intricate conversations and elaborate story lines, which often come out in made-up songs!  At bedtime, we read a book and then RJ makes up a story jointly with one of us (usually Daddy).  His stories are often off the wall imaginative, but do have a beginning, a middle, and an end, a structure which has impressed his teachers at school when he managed to get his whole class telling stories during circle time!

RJ is highly motivated in language arts skills, as he speaks mostly like an adult with a few occasional pronoun or grammatical quirks, and is constantly rhyming real and nonsense words, telling us when something rhymes, what letters start a word, or making up his own words (mostly as silly names for characters in his play).  He never stops talking and/or singing songs, which is not ideal when we want to try and encourage Logan to use words, but we are working on teaching him to talk to Logan rather than talk around him, which helps.  On the plus side, RJ has taken interest in independently "reading" picture books to Logan, where he does a good job of teaching Logan how to name things.  In terms of his pre-reading skills, he recognizes all his letters in capital form and many in lowercase form, and with help can sound out some words.  He has an uncanny ability to decode what Lance and I try to spell over his head too.  Our days of spelling to each other are numbered.  Perhaps we need to start speaking French or Spanish, until RJ picks that up too.  He does occasionally ask me how to say something in other languages, and when we visited Quebec, we taught him a few key phrases, which he has since forgotten most of them.

Classification: RJ has been naturally classifying objects for a while.  He knows the basic shapes - circle, square, triangle and generally understands bigger/smaller.  He typically separates his dinosaurs not only by type, but also by what they eat and lines them up from biggest to smallest on occasion, making nuclear families out of the various sized sets.

Math:  RJ can count to 100 with help remembering the tens.  He can count to 20 independently, and can count objects with a one-to-one correspondence.  He has spontaneously added small numbers of things together (e.g., "1 ball and 1 ball is 2 balls).  Additionally, he is starting to understand the concept of "half" thanks to sharing toys of a certain variety with Logan and cooking activities (which he LOVES).

Sequencing:  He knows the days of the week and knows which days are preschool days. He also knows that his birthday is in June, but his concept of how long a month or a year is is limited at best. He only understands time in terms of the sequence of the day, not at all by hours/minutes/seconds.

Spacial:  RJ is still not very interested in puzzles.  I can occasionally get him to work on one with me, but he just doesn't have the desire to do it.

Emotional/Behavioral
RJ is an intense kid and still working on how to interact with people when he's frustrated or angry, despite his ability to express himself verbally.  His emotions are intense and we still deal with him hitting other people when he's angry or frustrated or not getting his own way, although lately I've found that he says mean things instead in some cases, which is a change of pace.

He also tends to have an oppositional approach to new things, which is frustrating when we are trying to introduce him to something fun and he pitches a fit only to absolutely LOVE the activity afterward.  He is best behaved at preschool, most likely due to the consistent routine.  We follow a routine at home too, because we all thrive on routine, but of course, things always come up.  His behavior is worst when he is out of his normal habitat, but the more I can prepare him ahead of time, the easier things go.  We try not to bribe him to behave, but we do try to encourage him when he is acting appropriately.  In terms of discipline, we are against corporal punishment of any kind, and still using the most natural consequences possible for infractions (e.g., if he takes a toy from Logan, then he can't play with that kind of toy for a little bit; if he doesn't help during clean up time, any toys left go into a basket and he can't play with them the next few days).  We use a cool off time for him to calm down, but we don't typically use time out as a punishment.

Despite his intensity with negative emotions, RJ can also be quite a joy to have around when he's being nice!  His teachers love how kind he is and how well he plays with the other kids.  He also loves Logan very much and likes to kiss and squeeze him, which, while overzealous and not always appreciated, is well-intentioned.

He's growing up fast.  I can't believe he will start Kindergarten next year!

DeLanceys Go to Gilroy Gardens

I've wanted to take the kids to Gilroy Gardens, which is a horticulturally themed amusement park targeting younger children, for a while now.  Even before Logan was born, I wanted to take RJ.  Over Independence Day weekend, we finally sucked up the expensive admission fee and went.  I think it was worth the money, especially since RJ and I got passes so we can go anytime during the season.

Perhaps I should review it on yelp.com too, but I thought this place was awesome.  We started in the temporary dinosaur exhibit, which had animatronic dinosaurs as well as bones and an excavation area.  RJ was a little fearful of the animatronic dinosaurs, but really liked the bones.

RJ insisted on riding the duck/swan paddle boats first despite the loooooong line.  I think we waited for close to an hour (or at least it seemed like it), and while I'll admit that there was some whining, he made a choice to stick it out to get to ride in a "Mr. Mallard" boat, which really impressed me.  We got through the line with periodic counting of all the people in front of us (the line was a big curve around the edge of the pond, which lent itself REALLY well to counting all the people in front of us) and playing I Spy, which was fun because a topiary surrounded the pond where we were waiting.  Then we finally got on our boat and RJ enjoyed being chauffeured around the pond since he could not reach the peddles (It was a good leg work out for me!).


We chose to partake in the Independence Day BBQ picnic instead of eating at the normal park vendors, and it was a good choice - BBQ chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, rolls, ice cream, all you can eat.  After lunch we cooled off in the spray area, but Logan lured us away from the refreshing spray (it was a hot day) because he wanted to ride the race cars and the firetrucks.  He is starting to have his own preferences for activities, which is a sign that he is really no longer a baby!  Then we rode the train around the park when we realized that Logan needed a nap!

RJ and I rode the roller coaster through the redwood grove twice (with no lines!) while Lance walked Logan around in the stroller in an attempt for a nap.  The nap worked until RJ woke him up after the roller coasters.  Clearly he didn't want Logan to miss out on walking through the waterfalls or the pinnacles maze or the water spray area, or any of the other rides!

Logan was a trooper though and despite his short nap, rallied for the rest of the day, enjoying the rest of the rides like the round boats, classic cars, and the apple & worm.  I wish we had gotten to visit more of the gardens while there, but I will definitely take the kids back one of our free Fridays.  I can't wait to go during the week when the lines might be a little shorter!  More pictures here.

Independence Day 2011

On the 4th of July, we decided to head to Lake Del Valle, in neighboring Livermore for some fun in the sun.  Apparently, we were not the only ones to have this fabulous idea, as we sat in traffic on the way into the regional park.  The parking lots were full, but we were able to park along the road.  We were lucky, because as we were leaving, people were still coming into the park, but they were carrying their stuff in from 2 miles away in 100 degree heat because the rangers were turning all cars away and the closest parking was two miles away on the twisty road in the hills.  Seriously.  And by "stuff", lets be clear that we saw someone carrying a grill, another with a full sized cooler, and at least 20+ people trudging in with chairs, umbrellas, etc.  We expected the place to be a little crowded, but were a bit shocked that people were THAT dedicated to BBQing at the lake.  It seemed that there were lots of extended families that set up tents and basically camped at the Lake all day long.

We only stayed for a couple of hours so that the kids could get in the water, play in the pebbles, and eat a little snack before heading out for lunch at the Sansar Indian buffet.  It was not a very 4th of July-esque lunch, but it was very yummy and exactly what we wanted.  You might say we were declaring our independence from grilled meat, replacing it with marinated tandoori baked meat.

We did make some burgers on the grill at home for a later dinner though.

And then we bathed the kids (they needed to get the lake water, sunscreen, & pebble dust combo washed away) and headed to a downtown Tracy parking lot to watch the fireworks.

More Independence Day pictures are here.

June Update

We have largely hit the highlights of June, namely Sully's Visit and RJ's Birthday, but I've left some threads hanging from our May update.  I mentioned that May sucked for our health.  June was better for the kids and I, but Lance STILL wasn't better.  The short version of the story is that he was sick again during Sully's visit, got better again, but then got the spiking fevers again just before RJ's Birthday.  He luckily was better enough for RJ's birthday, but still having episodes.  He saw the doctor again, and also shared what was going on with his chiropractor.  The chiropractor talked to some colleagues, adjusted him a different way and since then, no more fevers.


After Lance was all adjusted and feeling better, we laid low for a little while, making sure that we didn't over-exert him and land him back on his ass.  So far, so good.

RJ changed classes at gymnastics.  He is now with a new coach in an all-boys class.  He will be in that class through the end of September at least, at which point we'll see if he wants to stay with it or try something new.  He had a rough time adjusting to the new coach, but seems to like the class now.

He's also been working on other physical skills like his training roller-blades and his new Skuut bike, where he  started holding his feet up the second time we had it out!

Logan is clearly a handful.  Some of the issue is that he imitates everything, without totally understanding it, so that leads to things like toys being thrown in the recycling bin and throwing things down the stairs (which is what I do with the laundry on laundry day).  He has also been enjoying art as of late, but clearly his aesthetic does not quite match mine yet as his choice of medium is not always appropriate.

At the end of the month we took the boys to a get together at the Reichgut's (a family that we're friends with and do our co-op with).  Logan met a girl there and is absolutely in love.  Clearly he has a thing for older women.

We celebrated our own Father's Day a week late since RJ's Birthday was on Father's Day.  RJ decided that we should buy daddy a new car, but his second choice was buying daddy the Move for his Playstation3, which was a lot more reasonable.  Note that when asked, he wanted to buy me snakes and worms for mother's day, but daddy should get a car.  Clearly Daddy gets the love here!
We made Daddy "dippy eggs" and bacon for breakfast (scrambled for the rest of us), basically let him relax the rest of the day and then went out to dinner for Italian food that evening in town.  My restaurant choice kind of sucked - the food was bland and chicken over-cooked.  I guess I should have listened to the two negative reviews on Yelp, rather than the group of positive reviews, as the negative ones were most accurate.
Despite the poor restaurant choice, it was still a very nice Father's Day for Lance, who is a spectacular father for RJ and Logan!  Very low-key, but just like Daddy wanted it.

July looks like it's shaping up to be better in terms of health and fun activities!

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