'Tis The Season!

*Since this is so long it will be all that I post for this week! Feel free to come back when you have time, or read a little each day -- this is two weeks worth of posts in one. Now that my computer's fixed I can return to writing shorter posts again after this one!

Two months ago I stopped doing updates, but since my computer was broken I am making an exception today. . .

As I wrote in Have A Happy Thanksgiving, my friend Sarah visited from Seattle Nov. 21-25th. I left off blogging with Monday the 23rd. . .that day we went shopping, she is a fan of Sephora, too (her roommate has bought so much stuff from there she is a VIP member and they recently went to a Sephora party, how fun!) so I bought some cleanser and moisturizer since all I'd bought until then was their awesome Cover Fx foundation set. No more convenience store skincare for me (I've always used either Neutrogena or Clearasil), now that I'm turning 30 in TWO weeks I am only buying ALL of my products from Sephora from now on!

That afternoon was when Cosmo had his stitches removed. He healed perfectly, we couldn't ask for his cancer situation to be any better. Right now he's the same Cosmo I've always known.

That evening Sarah and I went to the movie theater (which has always been one of my fav things in life to do, but even more so now that I don't get to go very often as a mom to a toddler). We saw Couples Retreat which was really funny. For supper we had met Joe at 370 Grill.

On Tuesday the 24th Sarah suggested we get facials so we went to the salon & spa where one of my friends, Stacy, works as a hair stylist (the #1 spa in Omaha). This was my first time there but not my last! I was so impressed with how super friendly everyone was and I LOVED my esthetician. I'd never gotten a facial before; the esthetician recommends everyone get facials once a season (4 times a year) and she also does waxing. Sarah has an esthetician in Seattle and has everything waxed which my lady of course wants me to come to her regularly for as well (she gave me a free brow wax - the only time I've ever had my eyebrows waxed was when I was 16 so that I could start plucking. But she told me we should never pluck our own eyebrows, she thinks I need a new brow design which I agree, so as incredibly hard as it's been the past two weeks I have been letting them grow out so that I can go back and have her re-design them)!

The esthetician was so carefree. . .she's been doing it for 35 years and used to work in L.A. on models and actresses. So, since I've been pampering myself for the past year-and-three-months by getting massages every two weeks (well sort of, I last went to my massage therapist the week before TG and will be going to her again this Thursday), why not add an esthetician? :p For six years I got my hair high lighted or colored every six weeks but haven't been to the salon since this past July because I'm giving my hair a break. I also tanned five summers ('03, '04, '05, '06, '08) but now I'm too worried about skin cancer. So, next up is to try a pedicure! (I've gotten manicures 7 times in my life, 5 natural and 2 acrylic, but have never been impressed so I just do my own nails.)

Stacy has Monday & Tuesdays off so we didn't get to see her, but we are considering going back for my birthday and doing the full spa package: A heavenly day including an aromatherapy steam and shower, a full body massage, facial, spa lunch, pedicure, manicure, hot paraffin hand or foot treatment, hairstyle and makeup application. 6 hours. Obviously it's expensive, but it'd be a once in a lifetime experience and what better way to celebrate the big 3-0?! I am so excited that Sarah is going to be back AGAIN for Christmas. Since moving to Seattle in 2004, she's only made it back once a year and never for the holidays. But this year she got a new job and was able to come back three times! Her parents live in Ottumwa, IA so it works well for her to fly to Omaha (cheaper than Des Moines, Iowa) and then Joe & I can visit our families in Des Moines where she meets her parents who take her the rest of the way to their place. That's what we did on Wednesday, November 25th.

When we arrived to Joe's mom's house, Logan was napping (it was 2:30 pm). He had spent Sat thru Sun at my mom and stepdad's, and then Sun thru Wed at Joe's mom's. Unfortunately this was the first time that his visit didn't go flawless. Ever since his first time away from us in March at 10.5 months old, he has been perfect for his grandparents. Never fussing, eating & sleeping well (and for longer than at home), and not showing any signs that he missed Joe & me. But this time (at 19.5 months) he woke up in the night once at my mom's and once at Joe's mom's. There had only been one other day since Logan turned 9 months old in January that he has woken up in the night - but that was only for 90 seconds so all I'd had to do was pick him up, bounce him a couple of times, and then put him back in his crib. But this time all grandparents had to hold him so that he would sleep the rest of the night!

Unfortunately, on the day we picked him up at Sandi's, a couple of hours after he woke up from his nap I noticed that his cheeks turned bright red. He'd been playing with the five year old girl Sandi babysits so I thought maybe he was just hot (here is a picture of Logan playing with the little girl, Roxanna - she picked him up and put him on the couch and he just sat there like a rag doll, haha).However, when I felt him he was burning. Never in his 19.5 months had he had a fever (they say anything 100.5 + is considered a fever and anything 105 + is required doctor/ER) so I knew even before I took his temperature that he had one. It was 102.5. He was acting fine (and had been happy for the grandparents' that week), but it was scary since it was our first experience with a fever. I put cold washcloths on his forehead and was glad it went down to 99.5.

However, then he wouldn't go to sleep in his crib. Once again, it was a first for his 19.5 months. Never have we had any trouble (even as a newborn) getting him to sleep in his crib. He's always loved going to bed - he usually requests it, never has required anything from us to relax him or get him ready, and never cries when we put him down and leave the room. Obviously I like that much better to the screaming he kept doing that night! After numerous attempts to no avail, we put him in bed with Joe & me and thankfully he did sleep (rare, as he's only co-slept with us 3 or 4 times in his life - all at someone else's house - because our presence usually makes him MORE awake). Joe and I both didn't sleep very well though because of Logan being between us, but Logan slept until 8:30 am (what he'd been doing for a couple of weeks) so we had great quantity of sleep even if it wasn't great quality.

On Thursday the 26th he seemed back to normal so we drove to my mom & stepdad's for Thanksgiving lunch. My stepgrandparents, step aunt & uncle, two cousins, and maternal grandmother and aunt were there. Logan had hardly eaten anything all day so I was disappointed that he didn't eat any of the TG food but figured it was probably due to his recent picky phase. He was super tired so we put him down for a late nap and when he woke up, 4 hrs later, his cheeks were bright red again.

It was time to go over to my dad & stepmom's lake house for Thanksgiving supper so we drove the poor little guy over there (my stepsister was visiting with her husband and three kids; I hadn't seen her since my wedding 6.5 years ago so that was nice. She lives in Michigan where my other two stepsiblings, Matt & Mike, also live with their families). That's where we noticed Logan was burning up again. He had some yogurt but still not much else so I knew then it was because he was sick. The whole day he'd been a little sweetheart and was showing no other sign of being sick, but when we took his temp again it was 103! He fell asleep in the car on the way back to my mom & stepdad's where we were able to place him in his crib where he slept thru the night.

On Friday the 27th he was coughing and still had the 103 degree fever, so I called my old pediatrician's office that I went to from birth until 8 years old (he's still in practice!) because I wanted a doctor to check him out. At first they were going to have him come in, but then called back and said just give him Tylenol every 4 hrs and if the fever wasn't gone in 4-5 days then take him in. They said it could be his 2-year-molars already, even though his last 3 teeth haven't come in yet (there's been nothing since June when he was 14 months old despite showing signs for two months).

We'd already given him one dose of Tylenol so we continued, but called Logan's regular pediatrician in Omaha just to get a second opinion. They were closed but a registered nurse called me back and said the same thing. The Tylenol did help - his temp kept going down, but as soon as it wore off his temp would rise again.

Joe went back to his mom's house that afternoon because his sister and her husband and one of their daughters were there. . .meanwhile, I was at my parents' house with Logan who was not wanting to take a nap. It was hard to see him act like a different child. Our plan was to take him to the doc as soon as we returned to Omaha.

So Sarah met us back over at my mom and stepdad's on Saturday the 28th and we left around 10:30 am. Logan didn't nap in the car (it took us forever to get him to go down that day, too - I think it was 4 pm for just an hour, whereas usually his naps are 2-3 hrs around noon) but when we got home he was acting like he'd been normal all week!!! So we stopped giving him Tylenol that afternoon and were so relieved that his temp never went back up! It was like he just wanted to come home, poor guy.

Here are two pics of him last year - his first Thanksgiving - we went to Colorado to visit Joe's sister's family (the other two babies are Joe's nephews daughters - that reminds me: the one on the left is going to have a brother or sister in July! Joe's oldest nephew just returned from Iraq in October so they didn't waste any time for baby #2, haha! The girl on the right has had a brother for already three months!) and Logan felt snow for the first time:I've always been very gradual with him in all situations because I think that's the best way to avoid stress and trauma for kids. So each trip he takes is a little longer than the last. This was the longest he'd been away from Joe & me (101 hrs opposed to 96 a couple of times) but I don't think it was that rather it was the longest time away from home of his life (he was in Iowa for a full week, whereas even our Colorado trip last Thanksgiving wasn't for that long). I've never reached his "max point" in any area of his life before - but I did with this. So it's a good thing we haven't taken a real vacation yet with him because I don't think he's ready. Maybe he will be after this experience, but we won't test it until the summer when we plan to visit my dad & stepmom's new summer home on Lake Michigan.

So, since he seemed better, Sarah and I went to see another movie! If you haven't seen The Blind Side yet, I highly recommend you do!!! It was sooooo good. I can't wait to buy it on DVD. . .or even go to the theater again so Joe can see it. What an awesome true story!

It was kind of creepy on our drive home, though - I pulled into my driveway and a car followed me! Their lights were on because it was dark and so when Sarah and I got out of my car we looked at the other car but couldn't see anyone (except that it was a convertible). They just sat there in my driveway while we were in our garage. I kind of looked at them like, hello? But nobody got out or anything. So Sarah pressed the garage button to close and they left. Weird.

We spent the rest of the night having girl talk. . .but unfortunately, Logan wasn't back to normal with his sleep so he was up for 90 seconds in the night and then wanted up for good at 5 am! Joe had taken Sarah to the airport at 3 am on Sunday the 29th so he was sleeping. At 5:30 Logan was ready to go back down; however, just as I was falling back asleep he woke up again! The first time he hadn't eaten, but this time he did. So I put him down again at 6:30 and he fell asleep. . .but woke up again a few minutes later - I think whatever had been making him cough off and on was in his chest and making it hard to breathe. :( He never had a runny nose so the congestion had nowhere to go.

I took him to the bathroom, closed the door, and turned the shower on hot without the fan. Pretty soon the room began to get steamy. . .I've heard/read that helps babies/toddlers when they have phlegm in their chest. I'm not sure it did anything. . .he only coughed a couple of times but he didn't mind, so I had nothing to lose. When I became unbearable, we left.

By then it was after 7 am and he seemed ready for bed again - this time he slept until 10 am. Ever since then, the past nine days his sleep has been back to normal (taking his usual naps, going to bed/waking up at his regular time, and sleeping full nights without crying -- although every now and then he's still having a nightmare as I mentioned in my post Poor Pup, where he cries a "different type of cry" in his sleep but doesn't wake up).

Except, that even though his fever, sleep, and his cough were normal by Sunday - he had an attitude going during the day until Wednesday! For example, he was throwing temper tantrums because he didn't like THE WAY I WAS SITTING ON THE COUCH! Worst of all, he began hitting the dogs!!! But, instead of worry that he was turning into a sociopath, I remembered from back when I used to watch Dr. Phil : kids act out because they can't communicate. It was very clear to me this was the case when I told him "no" to something and he walked over to me from across the room just to hit me. I hugged him and said, "I love you and we don't hit those we love."

It helped to remind myself that we are nearing age two when, just like how Logan developed physically & intellectually in the womb, as an infant, and now as a toddler. . .there's just no avoiding the "terrible twos" because they HAVE to happen developmentally. . .it's not his fault, he has no choice in the matter, it's just like crawling, walking, talking - his body and brain do it for him.

It was interesting to see this clearly that Monday or Tuesday when he was really getting upset at a lot of little/minor things, I kept walking away from him and after a couple of minutes each time he'd stop his temper tantrum and run to me and hug me. It was like he was apologizing because he knew he was being difficult and didn't want to be - but couldn't help it! But I do admit I yelled at him once because he kept smiling at me as he was doing bad things! I've only yelled at him 4 other times in his life because I don't like doing it (as you can see from my profile I'm a "soft mom" and proud of it, no spanking for me, either) but those other times he had cried - this time he laughed and kept disobeying. So Joe got mad at me and told me I can talk to him like that but never to Logan again. Actually he's wrong, I mustn't talk to either of them like that again.

Anyway, so I knew the traveling week had been too much for him (especially since he was also really clingy and wanting to be held a lot, whereas that has never been his style, either, although I am appreciating that he is still super affectionate every day!) and so I canceled his day at Babysitter's on Tuesday, December 1st so that I could spend every second comforting him until he was secure again. It worked. Wednesday, December 2nd he had a temper-tantrum-free day and has been calm, happy, and obeying since. In fact he's been better than ever! Whew. I'm sure I'm not the only mother who gets glimpses from time to time of how awful their kid could be if a certain behavior was constant!

There was even one time when I had to just let him cry himself to sleep because he was going spastic with us. If you read my posts a year ago then you know I'm not a cry-it-out-method mother. I can count on one hand how many times in Logan's 19.5 months he has cried himself to sleep (and those times were between 5-10 minutes). Even though my posts were about "not in the first year" - 19 months is more acceptable than 19 weeks - it still is something I will only do if there is no other option. So I'm glad I have my Logan back! Here he was today being silly:Due to his crazy week, we never got around to going to his doctor's office for the preservative-free H1N1 vaccine. Now I feel we might as well just stick it out, since we're halfway done with flu season. I'm hoping that flu is getting extinct now.

Logan returned to Babysitter's on Thursday, December 3rd (just for the morning - we're still waiting until December 16th to change to one full day a week) and I spent every other hour that week Christmas shopping. Logan is an excellent shopper, so as long as we went from store to store, he was happy - which meant I was productive! Usually it takes me several stressful weeks to complete my Christmas shopping, but this year I did it in one fun week by Sunday, December 6th (and my cards went out in the mail last Thursday the 3rd). I am not much of a shopper the rest of the year, so during Christmastime I tend to find all kinds of things for myself, too. . .this year I bought myself some Uggs which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I have been wearing high-heeled boots since my freshman year of college - every day except in the summer! But, since having Logan I don't care that I'm only 5'2.5," I just want to be comfortable. So finally now I am!On Friday, December 4th when Joe got off work we went to Romeo's for Mexican food & pizza. It was "okay." We've only eaten there one other time (when we moved here in 2003) so now I know why we didn't go again, although there are worse places, we probably won't go again for awhile.

I rented three Christmas DVDs at Blockbuster on our way home and enjoyed watching them over the weekend (my fav was Christmas With The Kranks) as I drank hot chocolate and we turned on our fireplace for the first time this winter. :)

We had put up our Christmas decorations and tree on November 29th (the day after we got home from our TG trip) as we listened and sang to Christmas music. Here are a few pics of putting up a couple of the decorations:It was so much fun. Logan LOVES the lights!!! He's done really well with all of the decorations. I told him when I put them out not to touch and he hasn't. Much easier than last year when he started crawling and there was no stopping him!

Unfortunately, Joe hasn't gotten around to putting any outside on our house this year. I bought two candy canes that light up, and we have two trees that are lighted in two windows, but that might be it for the outside this year. :(

On Saturday (December 5th) we went to the mall and Logan sat on Santa's lap. You can see his hilarious pic in my previous post, Santa 8 Mos Vs 19.5 Mos. I had been telling him all week that he was going to meet Santa (and showing him last year's pic and Santa decor we had around the house) but I had a feeling he wasn't going to like it. Everything went well until it was his turn. He had happily watched all of the other kids and Santa from afar - but when the girl in front of him went he put his head on Joe's shoulder and looked at us like, "oh wow I realize what's about to happen, uh no thanks."

Sunday (December 6th) was my paternal grandmother's birthday - she turned 96!!!

Otherwise, Joe just spent the weekend fixing our computer. Thankfully, he backed up everything (my entire life is on here) and we still had our laptop, but the laptop is his, the desktop is mine. Not only do I not have anything on the laptop but it's just not comfortable for me to work on. I can't be on ANY laptop for very long before I get a headache, whereas our desktop I used to spend 8 hrs writing on before Logan was born and had no problem. We've had it for 4 years-4 months so I wasn't expecting it to break - the computer we had before was Joe's when he went to college and still worked well, we just decided to upgrade after 7 years (and gave it to my aunt who is still using it now at 11 years old). Same thing with my old one - I got it in 1998, the year I graduated high school, and used it until 2005. Now it sits in our basement but could still work, it's just out of date so it got frustrating to use. We bought the laptop in 2009 so if the desktop broke we wouldn't be replacing it for quite awhile so I'm so glad Joe was able to fix it! But I can't use Internet Explorer anymore so I've had to get on board with Mozilla Firefox. I never argued with any of the reasons why it's supposedly better, it was just my aesthetic preference when viewing webpages such as my blog. But since most people use Firefox I guess I might as well see my blog like everyone else! I'm adjusting better than I thought. . .I guess if it means saving my computer then I can like it!Needless to say, I spent yesterday (Monday, December 7) getting caught up on everyone's blogs. We also had our second snowfall of the year. This time it is appropriate (whereas in October it was upsetting) and since I'm done Christmas shopping and don't have to drive in it, I very much enjoyed today (Tuesday, December 8) feeling cozy in my house as I watched the snowflakes through the window. :) I decided not to take Logan to Babysitter's this morning which was a good idea because Joe's office told them to go home early because the roads were getting back so he left work at 1:30. So Logan will either go Wed & Thur mornings this week or Thurs & Fri for his final mornings, depending on how the weather is tomorrow (it's still snowing and not expected to stop all night, I think we have about 10 inches so far). Here Logan was watching Joe use the snowblower this afternoon:Now that I'm caught up I can start recording Logan's memorable moments again. For those from the past couple of weeks: at my parents' house he can open their doors (they have the handles instead of the knobs which we have at our house; he's probably been able to do it for a couple of months I just haven't been there to see!) and he can reach all of our counters now which means he can pull everything off (before he could stand on his tip toes and reach his arm up to pull the things closest to the edge but not see what was there. Now he can see everything and it's no big deal to him to just take it all off)!

The day after Thanksgiving he called my stepdad "Grandpa" which was a sweet moment! He now says "Grandma" whenever Joe's mom calls on the phone, as well as when my mom & stepdad sent pictures this week (they got some professionally taken with him for their Christmas card). He says about 75 words on his own regularly now, including his name. His favorite words are "ball" and "football" - he literally says them every few minutes.

It was funny that night when Joe & I co-slept with him he was talking in his sleep. He'd say "uh-oh" and "baby" repeatedly, we had to try really hard not to laugh! A couple of times I peeked through my eyes to see that he'd sat up and pointed to Bella and Cosmo who were also sleeping in the bed at Joe's mom's house and he happily said "Bella! Cosmo!"

From now on I'm only going to mention his sentences now. . .this week he started saying, "I love you" which has to be the best sentence ever!!!!

Something else cute -- he wants to dip his food now in sauces, cheese, ketcup, etc. This started when he saw Joe & me dip our chips in salsa a month ago. Now he HAS to do the same thing. . .it's funny to watch a 19.5 month old dip.

One day I was talking to Joe as I was making supper and opened the refrigerator, got something out, closed the fridge and returned to cooking. Joe started laughing and was like, "Did you just see what Logan did?" I knew Logan was hanging around me but I had no idea that while I was getting something off a top shelf, apparently he'd opened the cheese drawer down below, took one of those American cheese slices out, and was unwrapping it to eat! The sly little thing!Good news is that his picky food phase has improved A LOT!!!! I don't think he'll ever go back to just eating anything and everything like he did during his first 18 months, but now he is not resisting or complaining about food except vegetables. He's even eating meat every single day as if it's always been his favorite - when his entire life that's been the ONLY thing he wouldn't eat! (Although it has to have spices or sauce on it. Until now I've never put any type of seasoning or extra flavor to his food but that's not something that is realistic for life so I figured it was fine to start now, except I don't on vegetables because Joe & I eat them plain.)

I've found that he eats vegetables as long as I mix them with other things. At first I was worried because he went from eating vegetables 3-4 times a day to none, but now he's eating them once a day so I can live with that rather than none. Especially since (despite pediatricians recommending 3 meals + 2 snacks a day) he has eaten every two hours for the majority of his life, but now is only eating three times a day. He's also only drinking about 12 oz of milk a day when ever since he turned a year old he's been drinking 16-20 oz. So once we got over the hardest couple of weeks when he was hardly eating at all (he didn't lose any weight, he's 25.5 lbs, probably because he's eating more in his three sittings than he used to), it's now the easiest time I've ever had with him food-wise because our life actually doesn't revolve around eating for the first time in his 19.5 months! It must be because of what I'd heard about his age group not needing as much anymore. Thank goodness because that was exhausting!

The only thing is he's always thought that he needs to finish his plate for some reason. So even when I can tell he's full he still never acts like he is. Today he had his first hot pot pie which brought back memories from my childhood (they were one of my favs).

In conclusion, he is obsessed with counting. I've written here before that a month and a half ago he started pretending to count to three despite Joe & I not really teaching him. Then a couple of weeks ago he was literally counting things correctly and saying "one two three." Now he's able to count to four and he spends hours organizing his toys and counting them (after the number four he says inaudiable numbers), as well as the stairs and anything else he can see. He's still a quiet guy (he's a total ham/comedian/loves making people laugh, as you can see from this photo I took at my parents' house over TG, but I can tell is not going to be an outgoing/life-of-the-party type, he's starting to show a little shyness although not really with kids - just adults) --so no surprise, I've been able to tell ever since he was a year old when he began showing an interest in mechanical and electrical things that he takes after my husband in the brain/interests department. My husband majored in computer & electrical engineering in college. His favorite subject was math and physics. He's a quiet guy. I was a chatty toddler and hated math. My major was journalism & mass communication. Aside from balls, Logan loves numbers. So it will be interesting to see how this applies to his life as he gets older!