Sand

We figured that since Logan enjoyed the dirt so much, he'd also enjoy a sand box. As soon as we walked out back to show him he said, "oooohh." But then he wasn't so sure. Didn't take him long to warm up to the idea of playing in it, but we still can't get him to step in it. You know, I want him to jump in there and start digging around. Oh well, I'm sure that will come soon enough and I'll have sand everywhere! Just another reminder of how very blessed we are. We love everything (well, almost everything...the "terrible two's" we could do without!) about that little boy.

He really is growing so much. He "gets" things more now. For instance, the other morning, his hair was sticking up. Zeb and I were laughing at it and he first got a defensive look like, "why are you laughing at me?" Then we said, "Logan, your hair is standing up" and he started feeling the top of his head. Then, he was laughing, too. I'm glad he has a sense of humor and can laugh at himself. He wouldn't survive in this family otherwise :) Many people say that Logan looks like us, and I would agree. But more importantly, I believe that Logan is like us. It becomes more and more obvious to me that Logan is looking to us to shape his personality. Although we feel so inadequately equipped to mold an innocent little life (seriously, does the world need another person who acts like me or Zeb?!), it serves as a constant reminder that we must look to Jesus and the Word of God so that our actions would bring glory to Him and pray that is what Logan sees in us. And of course, the being able to laugh at himself....'cause we do a lot of laughing at him!

Love that boy!

Dirt

Logan loves to play in the dirt. He was quite content to play in the dirt for a while. He would dig and carry the dirt from one area to another. He was also digging for rocks.

He found some big rocks and carried them over to daddy to build....something....

I love this next picture with Logan showing how strong he is...and his eyes crossed...

And of course, somehow, dirt ends up on his face. I just love watching him explore outside. As soon as we get home in the evening, he says "side, side," and walks to the back door. It was pure torture to him that we made him eat supper last night before he played outside. I guess he just feels like there is so much to explore, he doesn't want to waste any time at all. I'm loving summer this year!

Sunday School

Logan went to Sunday School this morning! When the first song started playing, although it was a new song to him, he started singing along...."ooooh, ooooh." Then, when they started counting the Bibles out loud and saying "One, two, three," he looked around like, "I can do this!" He was laughing with the other kids, clapping along and watching all of them. He sat pretty well for the most part.

When the group broke up to go to individual classes, I was going to take him back upstairs because I didn't figure he would color and sit still during class. Well, turns out the littlest kids were short a teacher, so I stayed and helped the other teacher and Logan got to be in class. He colored (picture above...I will keep this forever) and he sang and played. I really think he enjoyed it. At our church, the children have to be two before they can go to class, so he just has a few more months and then he'll be able to go full-time. It was a nice change of pace for him (and me) this morning. It's difficult to keep an almost 21 month old occupied during Sunday school and church service!

I can't believe that my little boy is getting so big, but it was pure joy to see him interact with the other children. He LOVES kids!

The Faker

The Thinker

Since When?

Since when do I have a son that will sleep on the couch?! Doesn't he have to be like 15 before he does that?! Well, this little boy would have rolled right off, so I didn't leave him there long!

Happy Father's Day

This is Logan and Daddy last year on Father's Day....

Chicago -- Part II

On Friday morning, we went to the Field Museum. Since Logan wakes up bright and early, we were some of the first there. HE LOVED IT. We tried to give him a little more freedom than we usually do, by letting him explore by himself (of course, we were watching). But he ran from exhibit to exhibit, each time saying "oooohhhh," with interest. Here he is running around (he must have known it was in a big place and we had a lot to see!)

We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

We went back to the hotel and took a nap. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the three nephews asleep...yes, Drake is sleeping in the chair like that.

Logan still has crazy hair. I know, I know. I need to get him a haircut...give a mom a break, okay?! It's going to be sooooo difficult for me to get his haircut!

Logan absolutely loved spending time with his cousins. Family is such a blessing and I hope that Logan grows up knowing & feeling this.

Logan has some big shoes to fill.

Love this picture....

We had so much fun in Chicago! I hope the boys had fun. I would love to be able to spend a week in that city...or more...I love it there. There's just so much to do and every time we go back, we want to visit our favorite spots and never have much time to try new things.

We Interrupt the Regularly Scheduled Blogging...

I intended to write more about our trip to Chicago tonight, but I wanted to report that Logan has pink eye again. Poor baby. It doesn't seem to bother him. He's getting some grandma-time, so he doesn't mind!

He's a trooper with the eye drops. The last time he had pink eye, he also had ear infections, so one antibiotic took care of it all. But this time, we have to do the drops. He doesn't like them, but he is still enough that we can get them in.

I was sitting in our staff meeting this morning and noticed that I had something on the sleeve of my sweater...no doubt some food or something Logan rubbed on me at some point. When I was about to freak out (my natural instinct), I just reminded myself that slobber and food on my sleeve is just a reminder of my precious gift. I wiped it off the best I could and went about my day. I love how motherhood makes me crazy and relaxed all at the same time. And even when the little guy is sick, I love being a mom.

Chicago

Do you remember right before Logan was born, we took our nephews to Chicago? You can read about that trip here. I remember thinking about how that trip was the last time we would just be an aunt and uncle, but we'd soon be parents, as well. I wondered how things would change with our nieces and nephews once we became parents.



The past few days, we spent in Chicago with our nephews AND our son. It was so much fun. The boys are great with Logan and he adores them. I was so happy that we were able to take all four of the boys on this trip!

Thursday, we went to Navy Pier and ate at Bubba Gumps. We walked soooo much on this trip, but I enjoyed it (even though I foolishly took cheap flip-flops to walk in!)

Navy Pier

We also went swimming that night. Logan loved it.

I'll post more about Chicago this week, but I wanted to get something on here since it's been almost a week since I've updated...I know some family members who are probably having Logan-withdrawal :)

Bip, No and other Favorite Words

I have a lot to catch up on. Several times a day, I think "I need to write that down" and then the moments pass and moments are forgotten. Logan is very much all boy. He usually wakes us up in the morning by either saying "Mom," crying or chatting to himself. But the other morning, he woke us up by growling. He loves to growl.

He does his "I'm cold" smile (pictured below), which he will either do when he is actually cold or on command. What a good little boy...always ready to perform for our entertainment! (ha!)

"Dude, your girlfriend keeps checking me out!" is what his shirt says -- thanks Aunt Rachael!

Zeb and I were talking about how nice it would be to have an indoor place to take children about Logan's age. When the weather is not nice, this child NEEDS a place to run. We play a game in our house where we will knock on the front door and then run to the other door and knock on that door and then run to the back door and knock on that (and so on). This only works for so long. Logan could do it all day, but I get bored quickly. So, the other night, we took him to Barnes & Noble. He was in heaven! They had a little sitting area and everytime I would bring him a different book, he would start his high-pitched squealing and say "oooohhhhh!" He loved it!

He says the word "Bip" a lot. We have no idea what it means. He says it in the car. He says it outside. He says it in the house. And he will repeat it "Bip, bip, bip, bip." This is the only word (that comes to mind at the moment) that we cannot figure out. I have NO idea what it is! It's not burp or bird; he can say both of those. Any ideas?!
He also loves to say "NO!" Most of the time, I don't think he even knows what he is saying. But it's getting embarrassing. Mommy says, "Logan, let's walk over here." Logan says, "NO!!!" and everyone turns to look at the horrible child who says "No" to his mother. Don't get me wrong, sometimes, he completely knows what he is saying and he is just being bad! But there are other times when he will say it and I know he doesn't know what he's really saying.

Recently, he hates having his diaper changed. He will kick and scream and throw a fit. I really don't know why this is either. Many of his behaviors have me absolutely stumped! I'm just writing all this down so that when our next child does the same thing around 20 months old, I can remind myself that it's just all part of the experience.

Logan says so many other words. We will often just be playing and say, "Logan, say ____," and he will say it! He also loves to sing. Oh my, that is one of my favorite things. It's so adorable. I love to hear him sing.

Tonight, the weather was beautiful, so we planned to take a walk after supper. We can't say the word "walk" in front of Charlie because he gets so excited and won't calm down until we leave. So, during supper, I whispered to Logan that we would be taking a walk after supper. He yelled out "WALK!" and that blew it. Charlie knew. It was funny because when he said it, Zeb and I both were like, "Nooooo!" and Logan thought that was funny so then he would whisper it and then say it louder. I love when he whispers something, he leans in close, just like we do when we whisper something.

Okay, I'm sure if anyone is still reading this exhausting post, you're ready for it to end, and so it will! We have a very exciting week. And I'm particularly excited that I finished teaching my last online class for a while, so now, I'm just simply working a 40+ hour week...what will I do with all my extra time?!

Dancing

Untitled from Amy Johnston on Vimeo.

Recent Events

So much to report...unless you're a grandparent or other family member, you'll probably be bored by the end of this post...just a warning. Last Friday, we went to our nephew's baseball game. Logan loved it. As soon as we got out of the car and he heard the yelling, he knew he would have fun! After a while, I walked him to the park, but I forgot my camera. There, he played on the swings and in the dirt/stones. He was dropping pebbles over his head and a lot of them ended up going down his onesie, straight to his diaper. Before we left the park, I changed his diaper and about 20 pebbles fell out -- ouch!

A random picture of Logan & his daddy.
Logan loves to smell flowers. I love that he knows how to sniff flowers. It's so cute!

And here's what Logan experienced yesterday...a sprinkler! When my dad announced that he was getting the sprinkler out, I was a little worried. But I've heard that sometimes parents make their children afraid of things that they wouldn't normally be afraid of (believe me, I'm way too overprotective in some ways, but I'm trying to work on that), so I just sat back and watched to see what Logan would do. I figured with one squirt, he would come running to his mommy. As a matter of fact, I had a towel all ready so that I could hold the wet little, scared boy on my lap. But that didn't happen. HE LOVED IT! He kept up with the two girls and played in the water just as much as they did....ALL. BY. HIMSELF. :( No, it really was cute, and was just another reminder that he's growing up!

At one point when the water hit him, he ran out of the stream and said, "I COLD!"

And he also learned to drink from the sprinkler. Seriously -- it's such a joy to WATCH him explore and learn things. I'm amazed at what he discovers!

I included this picture to show his hair...it's getting a little crazy! Eventually, I will have to get it cut, but not yet....

Today, Zeb was fortunate enough to have the day off work. I took a vacation day, and we went to the zoo! The weather was gorgeous! We didn't stay very long, but we sure had a great time! Here's Logan with a snake. He wasn't that interested because we had just passed some ducks, so he was looking around saying "ducks, ducks" instead of petting the snake.

In case you can't tell in this picture, it's a giraffe there that Logan was getting close to. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to pet it, but he did get pretty close!

We have an wonderful zoo in our city. There is soooo much to do! We never go through the whole thing in one day. We usually take one section each time we're there and then hit a few other areas. Today, we spent most of our time in the African Safari. Here's Logan playing the drums. He loved it! I said, "We need to buy you some drums," and a lady heard me say that and said, "we threatened to do that for our grandson," like it would be some kind of punishment. It would be a dream come true for me if Logan played the drums and I could play the piano and we could have our own little family band :)

We rode the train.

Logan in an egg shell...

We finally found a small pool for Logan. We didn't find one with a slide like we were looking for, but we decided this one was probably safer anyways. He absolutely loves it. I'm sure we will get our money's worth out of this!

Believe it or not, this is not even half of the pictures I've taken over the past several days. We've been having such a great time. Logan gets excited over the littlest things and his voice gets really high as he expresses his excitement. I wish that I could remember every little thing that he does, every look he gives me and every thing we do together. It's hard to balance between living in the moment and yet soaking up those moments so that you remember them.

This morning, when he woke up, I brought him into our bed, as I often do if we have a few minutes to snuggle. Zeb was fast asleep, so I was trying to get Logan to go back to sleep, but he wouldn't. We were laying there and I started blinking my eyes quickly. He started it, too, and it was like we were speaking Morse code with our eyelids. It was such a special moment...I just adore times like that....Logan got a good laugh out of our "conversation," too!!! Finally, we giggled enough that daddy woke up.

We had a really great weekend and wish that we could spend several more days at home together....