Happy Birthday Logan

Today started like any other...Logan ate his cereal, as usual...



...but he was allowed to have gold fish, too -- for breakfast?! This must be a special day!


It's true. Our baby boy is 1 year old today and if giving him gold fish for breakfast makes him happy, well, then that's what he's going to get! And then...what?! Mommy and Daddy aren't going to work today? Surprise, we're all staying home and celebrating!




He got to ride forward-facing in his car seat for the first time today!!





We went to visit our caseworker from the adoption. She hasn't seen Logan since we signed our papers back last October 1. We took her some flowers and visited with her for about 45 minutes. I took my camera, but I forgot to take any pictures! We were too excited to see her and we had too much to say about our little boy!!

Then, we went for a special birthday lunch. This is Logan trying to decide what to order (or trying to figure out the puzzles on the page).



No, silly -- this isn't Logan's lunch! Well, he did eat some of the bun and some french fries (thanks to his daddy). That probably explains why he was spitting up all evening -- "No fries, dad!"

(do you see that little hand reaching for the plate? I didn't even notice that until I was proof-reading this post -- how funny!)

What's a birthday without doing Logan's favorite thing -- being silly with his dad:


This is Logan knock, knock, knocking on daddy's head...to see if anything rattles (hah!)

Oh, dad, you know he loves you!

How about some kisses, just to prove it!



And since he was giving away kisses, mommy had to get some!





How about some family shots (sorry these aren't that great -- we were taking them ourselves)...





Oh precious, baby boy! There are so many things that we want you to know. We love you so much. You are the answer to so many prayers. You make every day bright and joyful and exciting and fun. You are such a good little boy. We are so happy that God blessed our lives with the honor of being your parents. You have an amazing story already in your first year. Our prayer is that you fall in love with Jesus Christ and live a life that is a reflection of Him. We can't wait to see the wonderful ways that God will work through you in your many years to come!

52 Wonderful Weeks

Bye-Bye Bottle

The hardest part for Logan about giving up his bottle was deciding which sippy cup to use, and even that wasn't that difficult.



So there you have it, folks, just like that (literally), Logan is done with his bottle. We've had this in mind for several weeks, so we've been giving him milk in his sippy cup and he wouldn't take it that great for us. At the babysitter's he did fine. Yesterday evening, we didn't give him a bottle at all. When I dropped him off this morning, I told his sitter that, and she said, "he'll do fine whenever you decide to make the transition." I said, "How about today?" And so it was. Logan didn't have a bottle at all today, drank out of his new sippy cup and went to sleep without incident. Leaving mommy to wonder -- what on earth did I ever do to be blessed with this child? Certainly, it's nothing I did, but can only be a wonderful gift from the Father. Don't get me wrong, I'd love Logan to pieces even if it took 3months to ween him off the bottle. But seriously -- this was a breeze. If only potty-training will be this easy, we'll be all set :)

51 Weeks

You can almost see this...Logan is holding up his #1 finger...since he will be 1 in just 8 days!!!


Oh no...not more pictures!

Notice

Notice that Logan loves gold fish so much, he can't get them into his mouth fast enough, and some inevitably end up on his chin.


Notice how Logan's hair is getting so long in the back, it curls up every once in a while!


Notice how Logan's face is already starting to clear up from his new vitamins.


Notice Logan's new thing -- gagging himself.


Notice Logan eating gold fish...lots of them!


Notice how silly Logan is!


Logan received his first birthday present today. It was from Great Grandpa and Grandma J. The box was full of books and clothes. Logan was so excited! Thanks, Grandpa & Grandma!!

Catch Up

We've been busy. In addition to our regular work and Zeb's regular class schedule, I've been teaching an online course, and Logan continues physical therapy. We've done some traveling, visited some festivals, and went to the doctor for a new plan for Logan's skin break-outs. Logan continues to take steps and walks across the room while holding on to his push toy. I think the most unassisted steps he's taken at once is about 10. He has been eating new things...lots of cheese and bread, some meat, crackers and pretty much anything else that is soft enough for him to try. He's also making the transition from formula to whole milk and practices drinking from a sippy cup or a regular glass. As this picture indicates, he's also been busy growing more hair!!




Logan continues to make us laugh. He will now, occasionally, start laughing when we laugh. There have been times where one of us will say something funny, the other will laugh and Logan will have a "delayed" response and laugh later. He's like the stereo-typical blonde in the group who always gets the jokes about 10 seconds later than everyone else. That of course, makes his daddy and mommy laugh even more until the three of us are just laughing hysterically.

He's also been holding his breath and "freezing" for a couple seconds to get a laugh out of us. It works.

We are just loving every single minute. I can't believe he's going to be 1 year old in 10 short days!



He's actually sleeping in the above picture. After I took it, I realized his eyes were opened, but he does sleep that way sometimes.

50 Weeks

Oh Logan -- so sweet, yet so ornery. He's such a boy. He can make a barking sound now. It comes out more like a "ahh, ahh" but he does it when Charlie starts to bark. And today, when I asked him what sound the dog makes, he did it. So cute.

He is also quite the conversationalist. Especially at 3:00 a.m. He's been waking up and just talking up a storm....so much to say, I guess. When I respond to him, that really gets him going (not at 3:00 a.m. -- I ignore him then), but during the day when he talks, and I respond, he gets so excited. I imagine he's thinking "She really knows what I'm saying -- this is great!"

He keeps us smiling - every single day. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I just have to think of him, and everything seems better.









This is his "Oh NO" pose. We've tried and tried to get a picture of it, and this is the best we could do so far.