Random Pictures

How We Entertain Our Kids :)

Valentine's Day Treats

Logan loved decorating Valentine's cookies. His were piled nice and high with all kinds of sprinkles!

Stop Distractin' Me

It's so fun to watch language development in kids. Sometimes I can't believe how Logan is able to pick up on a word and then use it correctly. Here's one example:

Lately Logan has wanted to sit by me when I'm nursing Lexi. I've told him that that's fine as long as he is quiet so that he doesn't distract Lexi and keep her from eating. Well, on Friday night we decided to have a movie night. We went to the library and picked out a couple of kids' shows that Logan hadn't seen. While we were watching Tarzan that night, Lexi was just crawling around and playing with toys. At one point she came over to where Logan was sitting on my lap, and she started leaning on his legs. His response? Mom, "Lex is distractin' us."

Growing Up

We tried to get Logan interested in the potty for well over a year. When he was quite young, we would catch him getting ready to poop, run him to the toilet, and he'd do his business. We probably thought we were well on our way to potty training our first child. Well, we weren't. Things only got worse. Logan became ANTI in a big way. He HATED the toilet - all of them (the froggy potty, Lightening McQueen seat, etc ). He threw a fit when you even mentioned having him sit on it. Once in a while we'd find success using some sort of bribe, but that was rare. My mom even bought him a whole box of dinosaurs (his favorite thing at that point) that he could get one at a time if he went. And the box just sat in the basement. Untouched. For months.

I had several people tell me to "just wait till he's ready." I thought, "this kid is never going to be ready and we have preschool in the fall. " I remember one conversation in which someone told me that Logan would just wake up one day and want to go on the toilet. This person said, "I know you don't believe me. At all. But it will happen. Trust me."

Well, that person was right! A couple of weeks ago the kids were getting over colds, so we were just hanging around home. I decided to give the potty pep talk one more go. Surprisingly, Logan decided it'd be ok to go on the toilet. He was successful (yay!), and suddenly, going on the potty became sort of a game. Every 20 min or so, Logan would run around saying, "I gotta go potty, I gotta go potty." Sometimes he did and other times he didn't, but that was the beginning of the best potty training experience. Seriously, besides the fact that Logan is nearly 3 1/2, the rest of this experience has been super. Logan has only had a couple of accidents in the 3 or 4 weeks that he's been in underwear. He even wakes up dry from his naps and in the mornings. We finally decided to let him wear underwear rather than Pull-ups to bed. We've only had one nighttime accident (and it happened to be in our bed. Yes, that's the one without a waterproof mattress cover). Not too shabby. We've been on vacation with Logan in underwear, we've been shopping, etc. He's done great!! What a big boy he's becoming! Love that kid!!!

All Kinds of Lessons

I'm guessing it was our experience with swim lessons, but who really knows... For some reason, Logan has made several funny comments lately about having "lessons." I already wrote about the "Noble Duke of York" lessons that he requested. Here are two other Logan "lesson" stories:

Out of the blue, Logan said, "Mom, gum is healthy for your body."

I replied with, "Well, if it's sugar-free, then it's good for your teeth, but it's not really good for your body. You're not supposed to swallow it."

Logan: "I'm not really good at not swallowing it."

Me: "I know."

Logan: "Do you think I could have "take the gum out and put it in the trash" lessons?

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Last night I was lying beside Logan in his bed for a couple of minutes. He reminded me that he has a bit of a runny nose and a cough, but that his ear doesn't hurt anymore. I told him that he probably got the cough and runny nose from me and Lexi because we were sick last week and had bad germs. He said, "Mom, you got to cough in your elbow, like this. Are you not good at coughing in your elbow? Do you need to take coughing lessons?"

Playing Out Real Life

Sometimes Logan starts reinacting our lives with his toys, and it is HILARIOUS! Yesterday we were playing pirates (thanks again, Kaysha, for all the Lego and Fisher Price pirates). Here's an example of our play:

One pirate was telling another to eat his noodles. I played the part of that pirate (aka Logan in real life).

Me: "But I don't want to neat (eat) them. I don't like them."

Logan: "But you need to eat them. They're healthy for you. Or else you can go to your room. "

Me: "NO!"

Logan: "you need to go to your room. When you're done crying, then we can talk. "

Me: "ok. I'm done crying."

Logan: "Do you know why you're in timeout? Because you said "No." You need to eat you noodles. They're healthy for you.

Me: "I guess I could try them. "

Logan: " Just one bite and if you don't like them, I'll get you something else. "

...

We've had similar real life reinactments of swim lessons that are also funny. Besides providing the laughs, it's also kind of neat to see that Logan's really listening.