Logan over the last 3 months

Wow - I have gotten lazy on blogging.  Poor Logan.  So, what's up with our little boy.

First, he is obsessed with the baby.  He loves to rub my belly all the time.  He always wants to "talk" to the baby, which mostly consists of pulling up my shirt and then rubbing my belly, sometimes accompanied by saying "It's okay, baby, it's okay".  He talks about the baby a lot and will pretend to put the baby asleep.  He has started to ask if the baby is coming in 2 minutes (which is his general expression for time).  Hopefully, he will like the baby after it is born as well as he does now!

Logan has been extremely attached to me lately.  He doesn't want to go anywhere without me, though if Katsu is there and I have to go out in the evening, he is usually okay with it.  He ends up in our bed every single night - half the time before we even go to sleep!  He won't go to nursery any more.  He usually falls asleep in sacrament meeting and then wakes up right when it's about over (well, technically he falls asleep in the car ride over).  I hold him the entire time, which is pretty exhausting/hot this late in pregnancy, but it is much easier only having two boys to deal with instead of three.  He usually is pretty groggy when he wakes up from a nap and it takes him about 30 mins to really wake up.  But this Sunday, he opened his eyes, looked right at me, and said "I not go to nursery".  He will wake up on Sunday morning and say he is going to Relief Society with me.  Occasionally, Katsu will try to get him to go to nursery but he just screams.  I don't think it's worth pushing it, but I won't reward him for not going to class, so he has absolutely nothing to do - no books, no toys, nothing.  But he will sit quietly and still for pretty much the whole 2nd half of church - he must really not want to go to nursery!

Speaking of naps, Logan still takes them!  Yay!  My longest napper yet.  I lay down on my bed with him every afternoon around 1 and he will sleep for an hour and a half or so.  Sometimes he is pretty resistant, but lately he has asked to take his nap and is ready to sleep.  Hopefully, this continues for a while.  If we have been swimming in the morning, sometimes he sleeps a long time which is really nice!  He sleeps at night from about 8 or 8:30 till 6:30 am usually.

Logan finished up his Friday morning preschool class.  He liked it mostly to the end, but the last month Katsu was out of town to Japan and I was not working, so I would drop him off and he did not like that at all.  I don't know if it's because he knows that I am not working if I drop him off or if it is because I don't have M&Ms ... hard to say.  He asks every now and then if he has preschool and I am hoping he will like his class in the fall.  He will be going 3 morning a week - mostly because I really need him in class on Fridays when I will be teaching, and it works out since I teach MWF as well.  He is definitely excited about the playground they have just for the 2 year olds.

Logan talks really really well now and in complete sentences.  Occasionally I can't understand what he is  saying, but usually just when I don't quite know the context of what he is talking about or it's something very unexpected.  He is always saying funny things - this is one of my favorite ages I think, because you finally get to know what they are thinking!  He is definitely on track for language development.

Logan has a long attention span and is also very good at playing by himself.  He will play by himself for quite a long time.  It's cute to watch his make all the little characters talk to each other and play.  He likes to play army (mostly because the boys do) and make guns with Trio blocks, but he also really likes to race cars down race tracks and build big train tracks and race trains along them.  He also very much likes to read books - he likes to read Arthur books (not sure why - they are pretty grown up for him) and Clifford and Thomas and Curious George.  But pretty much anything.  He really loves going to the library and storytime, though I'm not sure how much he actually likes storytime when we are there.  He is pretty clingy and doesn't want to participate much.  But he loves to go to the library - probably because we went so much with the preschool being right next to the library.

Logan loves to play outside.  He likes to ride on his tricycle, but usually still doesn't pedal, but does it with his feet.  I think he can coordinate pedaling now or at least is starting to, but it's a lot more work than scooting with his feet.  He wants to learn to ride a bike, but I don't think he is really ready.  He really likes to draw with sidewalk chalk - mostly monsters and things like that.  He loves to play in the sand and on the playground.  He likes going to the pool.  I stick him in a lifejacket and a ring and he is pretty much good to go, though he doesn't have the greatest mobility.  But I usually try to take a little time without anything on so he can practice swimming.  He still doesn't really have the whole holding your breath thing down, so we can only do so much but he likes to sit on the steps and retrieve rings or to do Superman (on his tummy, arms out, legs kicking).  He thinks I'm crazy when I try to get him to back float while I hold him.

Logan loves to go to the beach.  He asks to go to the ocean pretty regularly, but we've only been once this season so far, but he loved it.  When he got tired, he came over and sat on his chair and just feel asleep, so he will even take naps on the beach.  He likes to get in the water if one of us is there and he also likes to build sand castles and just enjoy the water.  He loves the aquarium, too.

Logan throws fits, but I don't think they are too bad.  I mostly ignore them and I think they are pretty mild for his age.  He will scream or say "no no no" for like 10 minutes or so, but then he'll eventually get over it.  He is pretty good at being distracted and to some extent negotiating with him.

We had a pretty failed attempt at potty training.  I waited till preschool was done and we spent a week trying, but Logan did not have one success on the potty and I decided we might as well wait.  We might try again after the baby is born.  I am pretty sure he doesn't need to be potty trained for his preschool class, so I guess there is no reason to sweat it, though I am pretty tired of changing his diapers.  Sometimes he'll tell me to change him, but often he will hide and I will have to find him and figure it out.

Logan went to the dentist.  He allowed them to clean his teeth and put on fluoride, but he was pretty unhappy about it and kept closing his mouth and almost biting the hygienist.  Afterwards, I kept telling him what a good job he did, so he will be encouraged and do better next time.  But he always said, "No, I cried".  I guess there is no fooling that boy - but I hope he doesn't feel bad that he cried - it's pretty age typical for going to the dentist.

Logan still is a big boy and still loves to eat.  I moved him up to 3T clothes yesterday, at least in shirts, because all the 2T is getting too small.  He will eat all the time if I let him.  He is pretty good about getting what he wants out of the fridge or pantry and bringing to me to open or cut or whatever.  He is also good about cleaning up his things and putting them where it goes if we ask.  He usually throws away his trash unprompted.  He also will say please and thank you unprompted most of the time.  He generally is pretty helpful.

Logan loves to go places and is always asking to go places, especially the ocean.

Logan is basically a happy boy.  He wakes up with a big smile on his face and is generally pretty happy and pretty easy to get along with.  He throws some fits and makes some messes and sometimes drives me crazy, but he is pretty happy and easy to get along with.

Fun Things In April:

- General Conference - the boys probably paid attention to all of one session but they still really enjoy this tradition.  Logan liked the special snacks but was otherwise pretty oblivious
- Soccer & Tball - watching lots of games.
- PIRATE FEST.  We went to a soccer game and then went to pirate fest.  We bought some tickets for bouncy houses, but didn't have time to do everything, so after another soccer game and some Sonic (with free coupons from Pirate Fest), we went back to Pirate Fest.  It was so fun - all the bouncy houses and the fun carnival games, and we watched a BMX bike show and I feel like we ran into everyone we know.  Greenville is really a small town in some ways.  The boys can't wait to go back next year.  Logan couldn't do all the bouncy houses because he was too small, but he enjoyed what he could go on.
- Our traditional Easter activities.  We did a little more low key this year.  The boys' favorite for Palm Sunday was watching the Skit Guys skit on Palm Sunday on You Tube.  They thought it was the most hilarious thing ever!  We also had all our traditional food (passover dinner with real lamb this time, our Jesus dinner with traditional foods, hot cross buns, resurrection rolls, and the traditional ham dinner).  Andrew wanted to have EVERY single food on the list for our Jesus dinner, but it wasn't quite possible.  We also tried a symbolic dinner one evening while reading through a couple chapters in Mark where each food was symbolic of something in the story.  The kids really enjoyed it so we will have to do it again!
- Spring Break started on Good Friday, so Katsu took the day off and we went to the zoo - it's about 2.5 hours away, but the drive really didn't seem that bad.  Andrew and Logan LOVED it!  Andrew was a little sad we missed one of the animals, but it was such a long walk around the zoo (I think they had like 5 miles of walking within the zoo).  We brought a lunch and had it half way and thankfully there was lots of places to play for the kids near the end, too.  It was a nice zoo in a woody setting.  We all really enjoyed it.  I think Seth wasn't feeling very well - he started complaining as soon as we got there.  He got sick over spring break and we ended up staying most of the week at home.  Logan still keeps asking to go back to the zoo.  We will probably try another one in Virginia in the fall when it's cooler.
- Easter - we had two egg hunts.  One at church on Saturday (I was so glad because the boys are so sad that most of the church or community egg hunts here are on Sunday right during church).  The boys got tons of eggs.  Then, we had an egg hunt at home on Sunday morning.  It was a lot of fun - if the weather was better, we might have had it outside, but it was a pretty wet and rainy weekend.
- Gardening - we spent a lot of time in April getting our garden ready.  The boys are always excited when new things grow - to watch the daffodils and tulips pop out or new strawberries to start growing.  Logan loves to pick up strawberries or pull out radishes - we just has to make sure he is harvesting things that are actually ready.
- Spring Break - we all ended up getting sick with colds, so it was a pretty boring spring break.  We were going to go out and do things, but unfortunately, we mostly stayed home and watched way too many  movies.  Oh, well.  Next year, we'll do fun things!
- Family Fun Day - after the last soccer games, Katsu and the boys went to the ECU family fun day at a big recreational facility they have north of the city.  The boys had a blast - I won't get all the details right, but they played games, bounced in bouncy houses, and went canoeing and got quite wet.  They had lots of yummy snacks, too.  A great way to end the soccer season.

Fun Things in May
- Jarvis Fun Day  - after going to Seth's T-ball practice, we went over to Jarvis (where Seth & Logan go to preschool) for their family fun day.  Wow - it was really a lot of fun.  It was pretty hot, but we still had loads of fun.  We all got some hot dogs and popcorn for lunch.  Then, the boys had snow cones and cotton candy for snacks.  They played all the games and got tickets.  Much to Katsu's chagrin, no one was convinced to pool their tickets to get a full size basketball.  They, the boys played in bouncy houses - I think they had 4 in the church's parking lot!  And it was all free!  They even got to see a firetruck.  It was really fun and boy were we worn out afterwards.
- Children's Day - to celebrate Japanese children's day, we put out our special wind socks and then we went out for Japanese food for dinner.  The boys LOVED it and have been very motivated to use their chopsticks to eat even more at home.
- Birthday Party for Seth and Andrew - Logan slept through half of it, but enjoyed running around when he finally woke up.
- Swimming
- Fossil Festival - The weekend Katsu got home, we drove an hour to Aurora to see the Fossil Museum and just in time for the Fossil Festival.  We saw the parade and then went into the museum for a quick look before crossing the street and digging in their big fossil pit.  The boys found tons of fossilized sea shells and also about 17 fossil shark teeth.  They loved it.  We went and saw a few of the tents on the way back and then drove home to make it in time to the birthday parties.
- Memorial Day - we went to the pool with friends and stayed a LONG time.  Then, we went to a party at Katsu's coworkers.  The boys went to the park there and also played in water and ate tons of food.
- Botanical Gardens - Logan went and looked at these with me after we dropped off some soil samples.  He was very interested in the little fairy houses.

Fun Things In June:

• River Park North - we went and saw the little nature center there.  The boys enjoyed it.
• Lots of pool visits
• Vacation Bible School - the older boys went to vacation bible school and Logan enjoyed getting lots of time with me to run errands and get ready for baby.
• Picking blueberries - They all went into Logan's mouth by the end, but he loved picking them and loved eating them afterwards.
• Bird sanctuary - he was excited by the playground and running around to see all the birds.   There was a little fossil dig there that the boys loved and found some more shark teeth.
• Beach - Logan always loves the beach
• Aquarium - Logan loved it.  They had a dinosaur exhibit with moving (and one water-squirting) dinosaurs scattered around the aquarium, mostly outside.  In addition to all the tanks inside, we got to see some water birds and crabs in the wild outside.  The boys also loved touching the sting rays and the crabs inside.
• Movies - we have been going each week to the dollar movie at the theater.  Logan really liked the pirate movie we saw the first week, but was not as interested in Despicable Me 2 that we saw this week.  He will sit still and be quiet for pretty much the whole movie, which is awesome.