The J-Month

After three weeks off from blogging, I have a huge update! (This picture was taken on 6/25/10 -- I don't know how Logan's hair became curly but I love it!) Last month I was worried that the terrible twos had permanently arrived. Thankfully Logan's disagreeable stage only lasted two weeks. He's been a sweetie again since! He hasn't spit since then, either, so hopefully that phase has ended.

The only thing that has been more work is that for the past month he has wanted a bedtime routine. Ever since he was a newborn we've always just put him in his crib when it was time for nap or bed and he never had any problem with that. But now he wants to read a book, then to be rocked, then to be put in his crib with some sips of water, then have his back rubbed, then have his back rubbed "one more time," and then we can say goodbye. Often times he requests the opposite parent that originally starts to put him to bed, so Joe and I have been taking turns. But, that is fine as long as then he goes to sleep which he does and he's been sleeping until 8 am (his bedtime has jumped from always being 8-8:30 to now 9-9:30).In other news, he likes making a sound where he makes his mouth into an "oh" and then waves his hand over it so that it sounds like he's going to start doing a Native American dance. He calls out "Dadda!" when he wants Joe to join in and "Mama!" when he wants me to.

Logan and I make a fun "beep beep" sound whenever we are talking about someone driving a car. Logan always thinks Daddy's work is in the car (since when he leaves the house, he's in the car) so whenever he talks about Daddy at work he says, "beep beep!" and pretends his hands are on the steering wheel as he moves his head with the motion.

He's still an excellent shopper, has always loved sitting in the cart and watching the other people. When we go down the cereal aisle he can pick out his two favorite cereals (Cheerios and Rice Krispies). . .it's even more amazing to me that if I make cookies at noon while he's at his babysitter's and then he comes home at 5, as soon as he walks in the door he grins and yells, "Cookies!" (I know most of you don't find that amazing -- but it's because I have no sense of smell, so being able to do that is like a psychic to me!)

Part of what is making this summer fun is that he is suddenly a chatterbox! He has always been a quiet kid, and he still is around others, but at home with Joe & me he has become Mr. Talkative! One sentence after another! He even told me when I picked him up at Babysitter's last week that Zay was wearing a hat and he wanted one, too (here he is with one after I kissed him on 6/30/10)and that the new baby was there (the two month old sister of one of the boys who goes there has now started coming, too).

There is a boy there who will start kindergarten the end of August, but if he wasn't I would change Logan's days. All of the other kids there are so sweet and happy, but this kid always has a scowl on his face. Half the time when I pick Logan up that boy is in time-out! I don't know what his deal is, but the other day we were leaving and he said to Logan, "Bye stupid." Babysitter made him apologize and Logan didn't even hear him, let alone have any idea what that meant, but I was thinking, geesh if that's how he is the few minutes that I'm there then I can only imagine what he's like when I'm not! I asked if any of the kids have ever made Logan cry and Babysitter said no, that Logan is a little hesitant around one of the boys who likes to act like a Ninja (LOL) but that he just stays away from him rather than get upset by anything.

I remember in the beginning worrying that Logan was going to have a hard time adjusting to the aggressive-ness of some of the boys because he's a pretty calm dude, and at first his face would show a little fear when they'd get rowdy. So I was so relieved when I started picking him up and seeing that he didn't bat an eye when the kids would try to pick him up to carry him to me or run over and start hugging and kissing him roughly, etc. It was very obvious that he had figured out every child's personality and accepted that, in life, some kids will just be more aggressive than him. I still watch for signs to make sure that he still wants to go his two days a week, and that when I pick him up he is still having a blast. If he showed signs that the almost-kindergarten boy was being a bully then I would have already changed his days by now. But since he is perfectly content with this kid, then I will just count the days as a mother :p

As for Logan's milestones. . .he often says "reach, please" when he wants us to get something for him that he can't reach, which is funny to hear from a two-year-old (no problem saying his "r").

He can also count to 9 now. . .but according to my post Our Baby Books, at his age I (aside from this being the month I was fully potty trained), could count to 13, say the entire "Twinkle, Twinkle" nursery rhyme so that everyone could understand, my name and address clearly, and what would have been a month ago for Logan I could say the first 8 letters of the alphabet on my own. So. . .he's still not as verbal as I was, but "they say" that's the difference between most boys and girls. Joe's baby book has him reciting nursery rhymes in what would be another month, though, so maybe in August/September. (As I said in a previous post Logan can do the "this little piggy" one. He also knows all of his colors all of the time now, whereas in the winter he knew them sometimes but not all of the time.)

On Thursday, June 17th we went over to my friend Lisa's to meet her new dog Clover and for Logan to play with her 3.5 year old and 19-month-old daughters. Logan was kind of shy but happily enjoyed watching the girls and playing with the dog, and we ate a yummy lunch. On our way home we stopped at the park and then Logan took his nap.

On Friday, June 18th we went to Brooke & Kaelyn's house for lunch, and Logan enjoyed blowing bubbles before he & I went on our first road trip by ourselves!In Summary - Logan's 2nd Year, I had written that I had finally gained the courage to drive to Iowa with him (which is a 3 hr trip). Joe's mom had offered to watch him while I went to visit my friend Heather (who I've known since 1990) who I hadn't seen since she visited me in August of 2008 (Logan was 4 months old).

It started off well - I almost forgot Logan was in the backseat! We left Brooke's house and Logan was so quiet, he just stared out the window for a half an hour! (And I received a text from my friend Andrea who had a baby girl that morning! Ashton joined brother Drew who will be three in August.) In my rearview mirror I saw Logan start to nod off (we had purposely left at his nap time) but his head kept drooping forward and that prevented him from sleeping. I was like oh no! I was driving my old car -- the one that has the new carseat that we started using in May. Logan has only used it when Joe drops him off at Babysitter's so we'd never nap-tested it before. Unlike the carseat that is in our SUV or the carseat that we had prior to the new one, this one only uses the regular seatbelt. That means there is no major straps keeping his body up (when his head fell forward in the other carseats his body would stay in place). Also, the other carseats have head-rests on the side so that he could lean against them and sleep; the new one doesn't. So Logan started crying because he wanted to sleep but couldn't! I thought it was going to be a LONG drive.

However, after about ten minutes of crabbiness he completely changed. Maybe he understood when I explained to him that we had a long way to go and that it was just Mommy so I'd appreciate it if he didn't cry :p He never watched his DVD player or played with toys, but he liked the radio, and so for the remainder of the trip he was happy! He liked pointing out big trucks and motorcycles. . .we had a snack at one point. . .and he and I had fun chatting back & forth with each other. Then, I couldn't believe it - at TEN minutes from Joe's mom's house I looked in my rearview mirror and Logan fell asleep! Even though he had fallen forward, he was sleeping! I tried to drive those last ten miles as slow as I reasonably could, but I told my mother-in-law when we got there that he was probably going to need to go to bed early that night because his nap had only been 15 minutes. But he had so much fun at her place that he stayed up until almost 10 pm!

Meanwhile, I drove another hour-and-a-half to Heather's house. Her husband grilled out beer brats and cheddarwarst and we had fun getting caught up since, aside from her visiting me two years ago, I hadn't visited her since her wedding in Sept. '06.

Heather moved to my town in 4th grade. We were first introduced in the hallway at school, and remembered each other on the first day of 5th grade when we were in the same class. We became instant friends, and even after junior high when we had a couple of years of drifting apart, we hung out in high school and she's the only person from my graduating class who I have kept in touch with (my bff Sarah who I told the story of in Have A Happy Thanksgiving moved away in high school). Heather was a bridesmaid in my wedding in 2003 and I was a bridesmaid in her's in 2006. (She now lives a couple of hours away from our hometown.)

Top pic was taken in 1991, Bottom pic was taken in 2002On Saturday, June 19th Heather made breakfast and for lunch we had leftovers from supper, then went over to her sister's house to meet her baby boy that had been born a week-and-a-half before! Amey is 4.5 years younger. . .so I can remember her as a little six-year-old tagging along when I'd stay overnight at Heather's house for slumber parties! She has always been the complete opposite of Heather. Not only in appearance (Heather is short and brunette, Amey is tall and blonde), Heather is quiet and straight-laced, Amey is an outgoing "tell it like it is" person who had a couple of wild years in high school. Although they are the best of friends now, there were a few years where they did not get along. In fact, Amey moved out of her parents' house at age 16 to move in with her boyfriend in another town. But, believe it or not, that turned out to be a good thing! In our town she was in with the wrong crowd and was failing school. At her new school she stopped drinking, smoking, and doing drugs and graduated with a solid GPA and was on the homecoming court. She and her boyfriend broke up around that time and she started dating her now-husband (the cousin of Heather's husband - that's why they all live in the same town). . .they were just married last fall after 7 years together and found out on their honeymoon that they were expecting their first child.

His name is Cason and he was adorable, of course! His first week-and-a-half was super easy, I couldn't believe it when she said that every single night he'd been sleeping from 10 pm to 6 am! And, during the day he only breastfeeds every 4 hrs but had no trouble gaining weight, so it's been no problem for her (she's so comfortable already that she just whips it out, LOL). That's a far cry from Logan who nursed every hour (and was losing weight) during those first two weeks and had his nights & days mixed up so, while he slept all day, he'd wake up a lot at night. I told her, heck I'd have another one right now if I could be guaranteed that! :p

She and her husband joined us for supper over at Heather's -- Heather's hubby made beer can chicken which I'd never had before but it was good. We watched a movie -- oh, and speaking of TV, I couldn't believe it when I learned that a guy who I remember Heather talking about when she dated him in 2003 (because he was a meteorologist in the same city where I had my first TV news job the year before) was on a Dateline episode that I watched a few months ago!

Usually Joe and I watch shows like 48 hrs Mystery or Dateline specials together, but that particular night I had been doing the eliptical machine so I watched it by myself. It was about an anchorwoman who had been murdered and they felt it was by either a man she had broken up with or a man who wanted to date her but she had turned him down. Heather had the TV on in the background and heard a name that she thought sounded familiar. When she looked at the screen there was the picture of a guy who she had gone on a few dates with 7 years ago: one of the men suspected of murder!!! Heather had stopped dating him because he moved to the city where he ended up working with the anchor who is now dead. (The story actually took place a few years ago.) How creepy is that?!!!!!

Anyway, the weekend was fun and went fast. I left on the morning of Sunday, June 20th. I picked up Logan at my mother-in-law's house and took him to my mom & stepdad's. At first Logan started crying -- usually he doesn't cry when I drop him off anywhere/with anyone but I think he was worried that after me leaving him all weekend at Sandi's that now I was just going to turn around and leave him again. So we all went to the park and then when he'd warmed up to my parents, I left with my stepdad to have a Father's Day lunch in Ames (where I went to college).For supper, I went over by myself to my dad's house to celebrate Father's Day. As I wrote in Weekend In The Country, my brother was back, visiting from California for his 5-year class reunion and also his stepsister's wedding (he was his senior class president so he was able to organize/schedule his reunion for the same week as the wedding). So Jacob, my dad, and I all went out to eat for steaks. (As written on my dad's side genealogy post that I wrote back in March, earlier this year my stepmom got a job in Michigan where they bought a house a couple of years ago so that's why she wasn't there.) It was a nice evening so we rode in my dad's boat and then watched a movie.On Monday, June 21 I went to an appt. and then when it was Logan's naptime we headed back to Omaha. I was hoping that since he'd figured out at the end of our first trip how to sleep that maybe this time he would take his nap in the car. Nope. He cried again for ten minutes but then was happy until we were about a half an hour from our house. He started crying again but five minutes later fell asleep. Once again, though, it was only for 10-15 minutes. He woke up. . .and then shortly after that we were home. It could have been a lot worse -- it really wasn't that bad considering he went both of those days without an adequate nap. But of course it's still easier on my own at this point, so I don't think I'll do it again until next year.

About an hour after we arrived home, Joe walked in the door from work. Logan was excited to give him a gift he had made at Grandma Sandi's. He told Joe before he even opened it that it was a rock :-) He also gave Joe a card I'd bought him with a gift card to Game Stop. Joe had no trouble finding a game. . .he's been glued to it ever since :p He enjoyed having the weekend to himself, he really didn't do anything, other than mow the lawn and get his haircut. (Here is Logan with the rock he made for Joe, he was so proud of it!)Wednesday, June 23rd we went to Logan & my first College World Series baseball game! I had been wanting to go ever since we moved to Omaha in April 2003, but Joe is not a big baseball fan so even though he went once with a friend in '04, we hadn't been together. I told him I wanted to go this year since it was the last time for Rosenblatt Stadium. It was gorgeous outside that evening, so when Joe got off of work we drove there. . .of course it was packed so we had to walk for a half an hour. I couldn't believe that I didn't bring Logan's bag with me. (Seriously, we had nothing for him.) When I realized that our line was another hour I thought we were going to regret going! But thankfully Logan did really well, Joe held him for 45 minutes and Logan didn't make a peep. At that point he got down and played a little on the ground but never complained.

I yelled at a couple of 12-year-oldish boys, though :p They were cutting in line and everyone was glaring at them but not saying anything. So I went up to them and told them that they needed to go back to standing behind us. They actually looked scared to death of me and did go back to the spot behind us!

By the time we got into the stadium it was standing-only but that worked out best for Logan because he wouldn't have sat through a whole game anyway. It was TCU vs Florida State (TCU won). We watched a little bit, but for the most part just walked around under the bleachers and also had supper (the classic hot dog). The people at our table thought it was funny that Logan tricked Joe into giving him the bigger portion of the hot dog while Joe had to eat the small one.On Thursday, June 24th Bella & Cosmo got groomed and they had their yearly vet appointment on Friday, June 25th. I still can't tell whether Cosmo's cancer is back or not -- some days he acts fine and then other times I wonder -- but we chose not to do any tests at this time.

Saturday, June 26th we took Logan to two Splash Pads for the first time which was fun. He was hesitant, but after awhile of Joe & I carrying him around the water, he did go through! :-)That day I also bought Logan's big boy bedroom stuff! We don't plan to move him for another couple of months, but we can start decorating now :-) It's cars, trucks, planes, and trains. . .his favorite things. I didn't even realize until I bought them that was Joe's childhood bedroom, too! (I was walking down the aisle of Target and chose everything spontaneously because I hadn't seen anything over the past several months that appealed to me, so I didn't even know what theme he was going to have.) I also bought curtains for our guest bedroom which means that after Logan's new room all I have left of our house to decorate is Joe & my bedroom and then I will finally be done with our house after three years of living here come August 29th!

On Sunday, June 27 we flew Logan's first kite! You might remember that our friends Matt, Stacy, and Jaxson bought him a Sesame Street kite for his birthday so we finally got that out and had a great time over at the school. By the way, Stacy is ready to have her baby any day! She is due on July 16th but was 3 cm dilated at her 36 week check up so it is likely she will go into labor before her due date! I am so excited for her, it has been a rough month. She is my friend whose mother told her Memorial Day weekend that she has cancer. Unfortunately, she is having to go through chemo. Her mom is so nice and they are so close, I pray that the round is quick, successful, and that is all she ever has to deal with forever.When we came home from flying the kite, Joe & I didn't notice that Logan was hiding a rock in his hand. I went to find him and he was drawing on the wall with it! I was shocked because he's never done anything like that before. I told him that was a big "no no!". . .and so then he proceeded to show me that there were at least a dozen more marks in every area of our house! I was glad that he felt safe to "confess" so I didn't want to put him in time out, so hopefully he still got the message not to mark on the walls again. Luckily, all of the lines came off.

On Monday, June 28 Brooke & Kaelyn came over for a playdate. It was a nice day outside so we sat on the driveway and chatted while Logan drove around his big wheel.

While Logan was at Babysitter's on Tuesday, June 29 I had a hair appt. and on Wednesday, June 30 I had my eyebrow wax. I won't be mentioning on my blog when I have appointments anymore, just like how I stopped with my therapist's last fall or winter. (By the way, she moved to a new location in May so I just returned in June after two months off, I love being back, she's great.) Although, I guess the change on my blog won't mean anything after August because I have decided next month will be my last of Memories As A Mom. I will keep this site up forever because I still get hits to old posts and also that way I can use this account to continue to leave comments on your blogs. Plus, if I want to do a sponsored post or write an update once a season, I will. But, it was three years ago August that I got pregnant with Logan which are the first posts that I copied here, so I felt it will be a good time to "close up shop." So anyway, the last appointment I'll mention is that on the evening of Thursday, July 1st I had my monthly massage.

My massage therapist is the one who got me into Melaleuca. I hope it works out because my magazine job fell through. I really thought it was going to "be something" since it actually fell into my lap (rare) after I wrote my March post titled Follow Up and fit with what I was looking for as a new job. Not to mention, I was excited that I'd get to go to celeb parties in L.A.!!! Instead, I completed the editor's assignments for their first issue that came out this month and was not even told that my work was not going to be published. I sent five e-mails to the editor who had hired me (to two different addresses) asking her if she had received my work. I heard nothing back. I have never been rejected when it comes to freelancing before -- but I am a big girl, I can take it, so if it's not the right style or you don't like it, just tell me! After five ignored requests (and a month-and-a-half since the last one), I have had no choice but to assume I won't be getting paid. (I was never given a phone number.) But, if they're that unprofessional then I'm better off. So, it's back to square one when it comes to my "career." Am hoping to do my fiction-novel-writing-retreat for real this time the end of August. . .

On Friday, July 2nd Logan and I spent the day making Joe's birthday cakes! As I wrote on Happy Birthday, Joe! I made his cake the first year we got married but had just ordered from Dairy Queen ever since! So I decided to use up the box mixes that I had in my pantry: strawberry with strawberry icing and red velvet with white icing, as well as white confetti cupcakes with chocolate icing! Joe came home early from work as we were icing the last cupcakes so he got to design a couple, too. (Logan picked out the "balls" table cover, plates, and napkins!)Joe's mom arrived that evening, as is tradition. She offered to watch Logan while Joe and I went out to eat to Roja. When we came home we played outside with Logan and then went to bed.

Saturday, July 3rd was Joe's 31st birthday!!! We went out to I-Hop for breakfast and then took Logan to the Splash Pad again. He was much more confident his second time around. Sandi had fun playing in the water with him :-)

After Logan's nap we grilled out steak and pork burgers, and Logan had corn on the cob for the first time which I was surprised that he didn't like! We couldn't get him to eat more than one bite (even though he likes regular corn)! Logan helped Joe blow out all 31 candles!For his gifts, his mom bought us our landscaping so this weekend we plan to finally do that (right now all we have are two trees that we planted last year)! As for me, I got him another trip to a Chicago Bears game this fall! :-) While we are there we plan to choose the suburb where we'll live if we move there! (We'd also like to check out the Raleigh, NC area to compare, but the week for that trip will be a last minute decision because it all depends on if the ONE try for baby #2 works this fall. If it doesn't then we'll fly to Myrtle Beach, SC because last year's Chicago & Lake Rathbun trips took the place of my-still-wanting-a-beach vacation, and then we'll rent a car to drive the 3-4 hrs to the area where we'd live. If I do get pregnant then we'll probably wait to go until after the baby is born.)

We had bought firecrackers and fireworks (since they are legal here--Logan loved the couple of weeks that we drove by the "roars" i.e. the gigantic gorillas and dinosaurs that were advertising the fireworks) and so we set those off! It was only my third time (since they are illegal where I grew up) and Logan's first for seeing any since he slept through the main display his first two Independence Days!

On this year's actual Independence Day, Sunday, July 4th, Joe & I kept our tradition of watching ESPN's hot dog eating contest. :-) Our neighborhood was supposed to have a parade and block party but it poured rain all day so it was canceled. Bummer, so no parade for us this year. Sandi tried to leave at 11 am on the 4th but the storm was so bad that she turned around and came back! She picked up a pizza at Hy-Vee for lunch and then she and Joe took a nap while Logan napped. When they woke up the rain had stopped so she left for real that time.

My mom and stepdad had spent the weekend with my grandma in Kansas City and so they stopped by our house that evening and spent the night. That allowed Joe & me to go on another date! (We went to the movie theater to see Letters To Juliet -- SIGH, it was so romantic, it felt like a classic old fashioned love story! Sometimes I'm in the mood for "the stereotype," so I loved it! Even Joe thought it was good; what a sport for going with me when we could have seen Iron Man 2 -- what we were going to see since we thought Letters To Juliet was out of theaters by now and we have Iron Man 1 on high def, but there was one lone theater that was still playing Letters To Juliet!) When we returned to our house we watched more fireworks -- Logan loved them, I think 4th of July is in the running for his fav holiday! (Here he is doing snakes with Joe)My parents left on Monday, July 5th (for lunch Joe and I went to a park for a picnic). That evening Logan pooped in the bathtub for the very first time -- ick! He also kept requesting a beer which we could not figure out (Joe and I don't have any beer in our fridge; as far as we know Logan hasn't learned it even exists)!!!

On Tuesday, July 6th I finally got back into "getting in shape" after five weeks :( I don't have a deadline/goal day anymore. . .just as soon as it's possible!

My cousin who is expecting a baby this October and lost a baby in October 2007 is showing signs that she might go into labor at the same 26-week-time frame that she did with both of her previous two pregnancies. Even though she had her cerclage done early on, she was told she is not allowed to pick up her year-and-a-half year old daughter anymore or do any housework, so she hired a housekeeper and two teenage girls to help with her daughter Mon thru Thurs (her husband is there on Friday because he travels during the other days). I pray everything turns out well like it did with her last pregnancy.

Speaking of pregnancies, Joe's nephew and his wife who had a daughter two months before Logan and a son last September are expecting again! Yes, that's right, they have a 28-month-old, 10-month old, and will have a baby born in January (meaning they'll have three kids under the age of three)! Since his brother is the one who just had a baby on June 30 (which I mentioned in BOR Syndrome), Sandi will have had three great-grandchildren before Joe & I have our second child/her grandchild)!

Tuesday, July 6th was my college bff Christy's birthday. I told the story of our friendship last July on my post titled Our Weekend. That day and Wednesday, July 7th Logan went to his babysitter's. On Thursday, July 8th he went with me clothes-shopping, as I only do once a season, so now I have summer clothes!

I'll end by wishing my brother a happy birthday! Today, July 9, 2010 he turns twenty-three years old! Happy birthday, Jacob!!!!!!! (Thus the title of this post didn't just stand for June & July, but also Joe's birthday and Jacob's birthday. . .it's a J-Month!) Here we are in June 1988 and June 2010 :-)