Elmo & Logan

Logan's birthday was a blast! It went way too fast, I felt nostalgic when it was over. My grandparents came all of the way from Eastern Iowa (stepdad's parents), as well as my mom & stepdad, dad, and Joe's mom. Even though we had decided not to do a kiddie party this year, Logan's friend Jaxson (and his parents/our friends Matt & Stacy) joined us since he turns two six days after Logan.

The theme was Elmo as planned. . .so we gave Logan an Elmo Encore Live which he'd been wanting since last fall. He almost didn't get it. Last month I went to Toys R Us and Babies R Us and saw they were out and not planning to get anymore! Then I went to two Wal-Marts and two Targets - same thing. I was worried that I was going to have to order it when it already was a bit expensive in my opinion ($60). But then Brooke texted me one day and said she saw it at another Wal-Mart. So the next day I went there and was so happy to get it. I had told her and Stacy about my exhausting week of looking for it, so I was appreciative. Well then Stacy texted me a few days later and said she saw it at Kmart for $45! She said she'd put it on hold for me, but I was so sure something was wrong with it, however we went that night and it was in perfect condition. So I decided to buy it and take back the Wal-Mart one. Imagine my surprise when the Kmart checker rang it up for $22!!! We saved more money than we spent! Logan has been glued to Elmo's side ever since Sunday morning when we gave it to him. I had put together a DVD like last year (almost 25 min!) of Logan's pictures from the past year with music, so that played on the TV, and we ate sandwiches from a yummy deli here called Little King, veggies, macaroni salad, Doritos, Ruffles with french onion dip, tortilla strips with a seven layer (bean) dip, and wheat crackers. Drinks were Cherry Coke, Diet Pepsi, and 7-Up. Cake was from The Cake Gallery (of course, only place I've ever bought cake since living here because it's so good) - my first time for chocolate but not the last!Logan received great gifts from everyone, including a sandbox from my dad & stepmom so that was the activity after food, presents, and cake. Logan had never played in a sandbox before so at first he was a little scared! But Jaxson showed him how it's done, haha. By the end, Logan was having a blast in it! I think we'll be spending many summer days there. . .and I probably won't be able to get him to come out! :pLogan has been in a terrific mood since then because each hour is like Christmas morning! He spends most of his time at his new play table that Grandma Sandi gave him for a Thomas The Train Set that she got him.

The next day, Monday, April 19th, Logan had his two year check up and kept his tradition of never crying during shots. He doesn't even flinch which makes it very easy on Mommy and Daddy. Also no fussiness or side effects in the following days.

He had his last polio and first Hep A vaccine. We debated about whether to ever do Hep A at all (only transmitted by eating an infected person's poop), but decided to due to the possibility of food poisoning. There's only one other Hep A dose - in a year - so he'll be done with that at age 3. In the meantime we'll come back in six months to do either the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) or Hep B (in case he ever needs a blood transfusion). But that's all that's left! He'll be caught up on vaccines at his three year check up since there are 3 doses of Hep B given two months apart. (We don't plan to ever give the chicken pox vaccine.)

For size, he's 36 inches tall which is still the 90th percentile for height and he weighed 28 lbs, 4 oz which is still the 50th percentile for weight. His doctor said this is the age they can predict at a 90% accuracy a person's adult height which is 6'1" for Logan. That seems a bit tall to me considering I am 5'3" and Joe is 5'9" (our dads were both 5'11") but my paternal grandfather was 6'2" and my dad's brother was 6'4" so I guess it's possible! My prediction is either 5'11" or 6'0'. This was the first time they didn't take his clothes off or give us any pamphlets to take home. He was excellent through it all (loves our pediatrician) and especially enjoyed getting to keep the tongue depressor :p

Our doctor told us that because he's a boy he could care less whether Logan's potty trained (daytime) until he's three-and-a-half years old. We took another break the past month because after the last time I blogged about it on March 9th he still didn't go #1 in the toilet and seemed to lose interest again. I think it's best to take breaks so they don't feel pressured because it's always been something that he wants to do and he takes the initiative, which is the main thing. Stacy said Jaxson is the same way as far as going back & forth but not being truly ready yet.

After his final three molars come in then he starts going to the dentist, yikes!

For our update since my last on Tuesday, April 6th. . .he hasn't really had any "two year moments". . .other than one day he insisted he wear his cowboy boots for shoes and often won't allow anything for socks unless they are his football socks. He also wants to wear his Chicago Bears jersey whenever it's out of the wash.

On Wednesday, April 7th I had a massage (only doing them once a month now) - I forgot to mention the time before I had to get up in the middle (naked) to go to the bathroom, how embarrassing, lol! As if the first time I went to her in Sept '08 wasn't bad enough (I had a cold and my nose kept running so she had to bring me Kleenex) or in 2009 when I fell asleep (woke myself up with a snore)! Thankfully we've become friends so she always makes me feel comfortable.

This time she gave me some info on becoming a consultant for Arbonne. She's a consultant for them as well as for - get this - Moroccan Oil (so I had to tell her my story). As you know if you've been reading since the fall, I have been changing all of my products this year for the first time since junior high (but the only new one I've become set on is Sephora for my make-up) so I borrowed her samples to see how I like Arbonne for everything else. My aunt used to be a consultant and she said their products are still the best she's ever used in her life. If I become a consultant than you'll know that means I like it :-)

That week on American Idol the save was used for Michael Lynche. Last week both Katie Stevens and Andrew Garcia left, which means I was right about Crystal and Siobhan being the last girls. But what counts is if I was right about Lee winning. . . keeping my fingers crossed. . .after whoever gets kicked off tonight there will be six left.

Logan is always funny during American Idol - he gives them about a minute before he says "done!" or he just stares and if we ask him if he likes it he says "yes." The impressive thing is that he's usually right!

Other funny things he's done lately - often times when he sits down next to Joe on the couch, Joe will reach his hand over and pet Logan's head. Well the other day Logan sat down next to Joe and Logan reached over to Joe's head and began rubbing it. :-)

The week before his birthday Logan caught his 9th virus of the year; I won't be counting them anymore - just wanted to see his total for his two years (average is 6-12 per year) and it came out to be: 3 virus' in his first year (all colds, one of those included his only ear infection) and 9 virus' in his second year (all colds except one was possibly fifth's disease and he had his only two fevers of his life which may have actually been teething, never did find out for sure). As usual the cold didn't bother him, it was just a runny nose. But one of the days I was worried I was going to catch it because I kept clearing my throat. So then Logan kept mimicking me, walking around the house clearing his throat which sounded pretty funny. :p

Another night Joe and I heard Logan laughing in his sleep and he said "Mama" as if he was laughing at me so it made both Joe & I laugh. . .am very curious as to what his dream was about :p

Nowadays if either Joe or I say something that Logan doesn't like (typically "no") then he just goes to the other parent, LOL. He did this at his birthday party, as well as all week long when I'd asked him how old he was going to be he kept saying "two!" and holding up his fingers (not necessarily two each time, haha) but of course at his party we couldn't get him to tell anyone. At the end when it was just my mom, stepdad, and stepdad's parents Logan wanted a Thomas The Train flashlight toy that Babysitter gave him for his birthday and I was holding. So I said, "Only if you say how old you are" and he immediately said, "TWO!" I am amazed at how self-sufficient he is. Before he even had his 2-yr birthday I'd leave the room while he was eating and come back to the kitchen and he had cleaned himself up, put his bib where it belongs, taken his dish to the sink, and thrown any trash away! I'm going to remind him of this when he's a teenager and stops doing chores - right now he gets upset if I forget to follow a step, everything still must be cleaned up and put in its place. If I say, "That's okay," he says, "Please?" :p When I'm done with my shower he even brings me my towel!

Not much else to report from that week, other than I had my hair appt. on Friday, April 9th. Joe golfed with friends on Saturday, April 10th - and he started playing with his annual league again yesterday. The weather has been awesome and so Logan and I have continued to go to the park and school playground and take many walks outside (he never gets tired of it so it pushes me to get a good workout - I did the same thing last summer but this time I've lost weight because I'm not eating Jimmy John's two days a week. Last summer & fall I had an addiction - every Tues & Thurs before I picked Logan up at Babysitter's I would go through the drive thru for lunch. I didn't think it was unhealthy - I ordered the Pepe which is just ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo - however I learned it has 30 grams of fat so that was 60 extra grams of fat I was eating each week! I do miss it, so I will return on special occasions. . .I'm not a fan of only eating health food, ever depriving yourself, or being obsessive because I wouldn't be happy. I've still been eating pizza once a week (down from three times a week! My new fav pizza place is Johnny Sortino's - ever since we went there for Logan's babysitter's pizza party) and if I really want anything else, I do. Just as long as the majority of the time I'm eating healthy & exercising.) Here Logan is pushing his stroller to the playground:Last week Brooke, Kaelyn, Logan, and I met at the zoo on Tuesday, April 13th which we seem to do every week now for "stay at home mom day" and we haven't gotten tired of it yet! I noticed that every single toddler there had a straw cup! I remember that when I researched about them last year I read that they would soon out number sippy cups, but at the time I hadn't even known they existed :p Well, sure enough, I counted at least a dozen kids using them and didn't see one sippy cup.

Joe took Logan back to the zoo on Saturday, April 17th. The day before, on Friday, April 16th (aside from an eyebrow wax), we had Logan's two year pictures taken at Picture People and had a much better experience than what we had at Portrait Innovations last October. It was the first time a photographer has ever warmed up to Logan before. Usually we go somewhere and they just expect to take his smiling picture. But she talked to him for awhile, played toys with him, and was just very relaxed so we didn't feel like we were being rushed. She also let us know when he was drooling or part of his clothing was out of place so that we could fix it. This, in turn, made us all very relaxed and so we were happy with the photos (and were not pressured to buy anything more than what we always get) and came home with them that night.

I still can't decide what my favorite place has been, though, there are pros and cons to all. Here's my review:

Target: Pro - Let's you see all of the photos that day and you can make collages out of them or other fancy things at no additional cost. Con - You don't get to pick up your prints until 2 weeks later and although you are e-mailed a link to view all of the photos online, they aren't good quality to download to have copies of.

Portrait Innovations: Pro - Let's you see all of the photos that day and also take them home with a CD of every single photo taken. Con - It's the only place we've been two times and the pictures didn't look that professional. I think I could have done a better job. I'm sure they could do fancy things with their printing, but would charge extra.

JCPenny: The exact same pro and con as Target.

Picture People: I already wrote out the pro; the only con was what kept them from being perfect - they didn't allow us to see every photo. I really liked that the photographer took A TON (more than any other place), but we were only allowed to see/choose from 21! They would have done fancy things with the printing, but at an additional cost. And, we were not given a CD nor able to download the proofs from online. However, despite that, they are at the top of my list because it is the experience that counts the most. I liked how we were treated the best and, of course, the way the pictures came out - aside from a cake used at JcPenny's for Logan's one year photos, they were the only place to give him props. We have one more place to try (Wal-Mart) but I'm starting to think there won't just be one place that we go to from then one - I like rotating.

Yesterday (Tuesday, April 20th) we had to take my old car in (the one Joe drives now) because the "service engine soon" light came on. Thankfully a sensor just needed to be replaced - that would have been awful if we found out we needed to buy another vehicle this year!

Next chance I get I'll post Logan's two year photos, then Logan's year in review, and then back to memes & memoir posts!