Spaghetti Face!

These pictures are actually from about a month ago and I forgot to post them. Logan LOVES spaghetti and I finally took that plunge of stripping him to his diaper and letting him feed himself! We of course took this experience OUTSIDE on the deck so the mess was not in the house. It was pretty comical when I took him out of the high chair - he was COVERED in spaghetti.. just covered! We had a pool blown up and full of water and put him in there to clean up a bit, but still ended up needing quite the bath that night. ENJOY!

Old School Lindsey...

So back in the good 'ol days of Tecumseh High School I was the National Anthem girl. Not to say there weren't others who sang it - of course there was. But - from 8th grade through graduation I sang it A LOT - like 200+ times a lot. HA! Yeah - I was that girl - little miss school spirit! I couldn't fit in the cheerleading uniform so I figured this was the next best thing, right? haha - okay - well it made sense 10+ years ago.

While doing all that I did a lot of musical theater and my last horrah on the stage was as "Hodel" in Fiddler on the Roof back in 2005 at the Croswell Opera House! I would be majorly lying if I said I didn't miss it. I REALLY miss singing and performing and all the fun and preparation that goes well it. BUT - being with Nathan and Logan is by far more important to me these days. Maybe someday I'll get my dancing shoes back on and go out there. We shall see.

In the meantime - I was asked by my mom who was asked by some guy who is involved with this organization to sing the National Anthem at a local minor league team's game. My mom must have caught me on a good day - because I agreed without fighting her on it. I must say I was by far more nervous than I have been in a loooong time. I think it turned out okay - considering I last sang it at a college hockey game in like 2002 or 03. There was definitely some strain on that last "FREEEEEEEEEEE" but oh well - what can I do? They must have liked it enough to ask me back for 5 games next season.

So here you go - for listening pleasure... or not! :-)

Everybody say, "Jump Jump!"

On Friday I was showing Logan how to jump, but actually launching this big butt into this air and down again. Logan loved it! Soon after whenever I ask him to jump this is what he does:

Yes, the jumping looks a lot like his dance moves, but hey - he gets the idea of bending his legs and then straightening them. I'm sure he will leave the ground eventually! And as you can see - every time he does it - it always ends with an applause... even if Mommy or Daddy aren't cheering. He loves to cheer for himself! And then BAM - running to Daddy! (By the way - he is a MAJOR daddy's boy right now... like MAJOR!)

Oh and as you can see he is holding his wooden spoon. Why might you ask? Well if you aren't on my facebook you may have missed the status update that said the following:

"Lindsey Wolfe wonders if it is bad that the closest thing my son has to a "lovey" is a wooden spoon?"

It is the first thing he picks up in the morning and RARELY lets go of it. We take it in the car to daycare, we take it in the bathtub, many nights he won't take his bedtime bottle without holding onto it... the boy loves his wooden spoon! He really likes to take it into the half bath downstairs and bang on the trash can which is metal. That is lovely. I closed the door to the bathroom today and when Logan discovered it I was blessed with being able to listen to him scream and stomp his feet outside the door. I have no idea where he gets this attitude?! Really I know! ;-) HA!

Fun at the park

On Sunday our church held a bunch of regional gatherings for different parts of the community. The church is pretty big, but it allows you to meet people from church who live close to you. Our next door neighbors go to the same church and they hosted the get together at a park up the road. It was a great time! Logan didn't sit still to eat any dinner and finally by 6:30 (a hour after his dinner time) we convinced him that going home to eat was a great idea. He of course ate his dinner like it was the last supper! Good gosh that boy can shovel it in!

I digress...

While we were there Logan was LOVING the play ground. We took Logan to the same park Labor Day of last year when he was about 3 weeks old and captured these pictures:

Yesterday - Nathan took Logan over to the same play structure (different slide) and they went up and down... up and down... Finally Logan decided he didn't need Daddy to hold him as he went down. If this boy went down the slide once - he went 20 times. All by himself! (Daddy of course placed him at the top of the slide!) Can't you just see the pure joy that Logan is feeling! He would hold on to the sides and scoot his butt forward little by little - giggling the whole time of course. And then let go of the sides and squeal the whole way down! Granted - most of the time the momentum sent him to his back and he slide down on his back, but he loved it all the same!

It amazes me to see Logan learn things - even the simpliest things - like going down a slide. He just is such a light of joy and wonder for our lives. This next year is going to be an even bigger explosion of learning and we can't wait!!

My little Evel Knievel

Logan really loves his ride on toy from my his great aunts and uncle. He loves to get on and off and on and off. You can put a push thing in bhe back and push him around. He also enjoys that. But lately he has another favorite thing to do with it...

Thankfully the boy has very very good balance and has only fallen off once... oops! Typically he will laugh and then sit back down (only to quickly stand up again.) Got to love a baby dare devil!

One year old... then and now!

Okay I think this will be my last "Logan is 1 post!" Yet - I make to promises!

Logan had his 1 year appointment today. He didn't get his 9 month vaccinations since they were out so they were going to play catch up and wanted to give him the Hep A, Hep B, Polio, MMR and Chicken Pox... that just seemed like A LOT to us so we just did the first three and will do the MMR and Chicken Pox during a nurses visit in a month. That made me feel better! Logan did great with them as always... two tears and by the time daddy swooped him up for some lovin he was good to go! The nurse kept saying what a brave boy he was. :-)

Logan weighed in at 23 pounds even and was 30 1/2 inches tall! (55th (ish) % and 75th (ish) % respectively.) He really is more tall than skinny - he just has a mega pot belly!

The doctor says he looks fantastic... DUH! :-) He was so happy and friendly and just having a good old time. Nathan was able to go with us which is nice. I try to have my mom come with me because trying to wrangle him and listen to the doctor just is not an easy task. It was the first well baby appointment Nathan had ever been to so that was a good time.

So in honor of his 1 year appointment we are going to do a little Then and Now picture extravaganza of sorts!

THE SWING!

THEN!


NOW!




THE CARSEAT!

THEN! (this was during his carseat test when he was 5 days old getting ready to leave the NICU - under the blanket all the wires are hidden. They put them in their carseat for an hour all hooked up to make sure they can breathe and everything before they let them go. I remember when we sat him in there the nurse, Nathan and I all busted out laughing because he looked so pathetically small!)

NOW! (armed with a hammer and shovel... always prepared for anything!)

This is on our way home from the NICU - he could barely been seen out the side of his seat!

THE BOUNCY SEAT!!

THEN!

NOW! (the seat is like parallel to the floor now! HA! - he hasn't been in the seat in months and months!)

THEN!

NOW!

No difference at all right?! haha! Can't believe how big this sweet boy has grown!

The Birthday Boy! Part Two!

Logan's 1st birthday party was this past Saturday morning. As the weather people predicted... rain... rain... and more rain. Maybe it was God's way of telling me that all the obsesing I did prior to the party was NOT needed and in the end it is just the family and friends and good food and being together that matters. Go figure... I'll have to keep that in mind. :-)

We had my aunt and uncle's two 10x20 foot tents and that helped a lot. We had set them up Friday night for shade purposes, but Saturday morning we moved them because of the rain. It worked out well. The deck we built in June is 14x20 so we moved one of the tents onto the deck and then one just off the deck. My uncle also put a tarp over the step Nathan built so people could walk from one tent to the other. We also moved our cars out of the garage and used that space in addition to our family room where all the food was!

Worked out well. Here are a bunch of photos!

Logan was not pleased that the sun we ordered had not arrived for this party.

But... he was still REALLY excited for his party and everyone arriving!

This was our outdoor set up. You can see on the grass the mini- picnic table. My dad BUILT THAT!! It was my parents gift to Logan. I am totally in love with it. My dad is the best.

Speaking of my dad - here he is also playing the part of the grill master with all the hotdogs and stadium brats. Can you see the rain falling in the background? Crazy!

Here are the cupcakes my mom, aunt and myself made on Friday. With the beach theme we used crushed graham crackers to make the sand. I also made buttercream frosting (recipe curtesy of an old high school friend found again Joanne) that I dyed blue. We used gummy sea turtles, sharks and life savers as well as some drink umbrellas to decorate our beachy cupcakes. Everyone said they tasted good so that made me happy.

My brother was able to enjoy a little of the rain off an umbrella. :-)

Happy boy with his GrandmaNana

This is a chair Logan's Aunt Tina made him! How great is this?! So pretty!

Logan has really liked his ride on toy from his Great-Aunt Me, Great-Uncle Frank and Great-Aunt Kay! (side note: Sunday we totally jacked up Logan's afternoon nap/dinner and he was a meltdown mess. The only way to get him calm enough to eat was to push him in a circle through our kitchen, dining room, living room and every time he made it through the kitchen he got a bite of food. After about 20 circles he had eaten his dinner! Whatever works sometimes, right?)

Nathan even enjoyed my buttercream frosting... curtesy of his father.

Logan LOVES this corn popper toy he was given by his cousin Allison (Nathan's cousin). He shared it with cousin Piper. If we had a dime for every "pop" we have heard since Saturday - the party will have been paid for at least twice over!

My beautiful neice Piper - she is three months older than Logan. A total princess!

What a cute boy? This is Tommy - our nephew!

Our other nephew (on Nathan's side) Liam - he is 5 months old! A doll!

And now... TIME FOR THE CAKE PHOTOS! (Logan barely got anything on him... it was all mommy and daddy who put his hands IN the cake for him.)

The only picture of mommy, daddy and Logan from his birthday party.

Our sweet birthday boy... Can't wait to see what the next year brings with this amazing child of ours! Hope you enjoyed his pictures.

I do believe tomorrow's post will be a then and now! Should be pretty funny... just you wait!

My Baby is 1!! (Part One)

Where does the time go? Approximately one year ago to the minute (give or take twenty minutes) I was seeing Logan for the first time in the NICU. My L&D nurse Anette snuck me down there (I wasn't supposed to go because of the high doses of Magnesium Sulfate - anti-seizure med - I was on.) But thankfully Anette said there was "no way in Hell I wasn't going to see my son today!" Doctors said I had to stay in my room for 24 hours before I could have him with me. (If he hadn't been an NICU baby he could have been in my room with me for that time.)

Anyway - we made our way down there for our first family photo (Wow do I look like I got ran over by a mack truck... lovely. Ladies who look so beautiful after giving birth can kiss my booty!):

Our sweet boy had a rough start, but came out just fine and dandy with no long term issues what so ever! I'm so beyond thankful the respiratory therapist was able to figure out it was a blood clot blocking Logan's airway. She said herself 5 days after his birth that if she hadn't figure that out we wouldn't be going home with our sweet boy. SCARY. But all those times are behind us. Look at him now! He is the sunshine baby - smiles for all!

On the day he was born I remember knowing how much he weighed, but not how long he was and for some reason I was really grumpy about that. (Chances are I was more grumpy that I couldn't go see him and yet everyone else could go along with Nathan. NOT COOL!) So Nathan and my mom went down to figure that out for me:

Nathan kept running back and forth with new pictures to show me of Logan. It was great. Crazy to think those are little preemie size diapers. Logan was 19 inches long come to find out. He was SKINNY! 5 pounds 3 oz and a decent 19 inches leaves NO fat on a little ones bones! Thinking now that he is a healthy 22 pounds (approximately - will find out for sure what he weighs on Wednesday) and wearing size 4 diapers it is hard to believe this little peanut is my big boy at home with Grandma!



Nathan just sent me the sweetest text message thanking me for our son and saying that he can't believe he is a year already.



Thinking back to when we left the NICU they were explaining how his developmental delays would work... little did they know he would do everything right on schedule or ahead of schedule... you know like walking at 9 1/2 months for example! He walks and talks (5 words or so now!) and he loves with everything he has!



My one year old is a...
... two nap a day loving...
... spaghetti sauce wearing...
... kisses giving...
... corn pop toy pushing...
... squealing with delight yelling...
... spending the majority of night sleeping...
... family adoring...
... all the time smiling...
... tickle monster craving...
... fruit, fruit and more fruit eating...
... picture pose mastering...
... water splash playing...
... LOVE OF OUR LIVES!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Stay tune for birthday post #2 - FULL of birthday party pictures from Saturday!!

This morning we took Logan to Portrait Innovations so Logan could get his 1st birthday photos taken! YAY! Logan's has always had a rashy face and sometimes still gets a fair amount acne on his face and such too. Today we were really happy to his face was pretty clear and looked good so off we went. I didn't think about the fact that he is wearing "fall clothes"... we were given this orange sweater outfit at his little 6 month birthday and all I could think of was him wearing it for his one year! So there you have it! I think they look cute! I love this place and the photographer we got, Hannah, is the same gal that took his Christmas and 6 month photos so that was fun as well. The first 9 or so are prints we actually got, the rest we used for collage prints and such.

Deciding on the pictures was SO hard. They took 127 photos and right after they were done we had to go through and make choices! EEK! I thought we did pretty well. It was hard because he did so darn well with them all. The think I love most about this place is that you pick everything out, pay and then 20 minutes later they have everything printed for you! PERFECT! I'm all about instant gratification! Such a doll baby!

Most of them were zoomed in/cropped for the prints, but these are the original/rough photos.

They always seem to have a special going on where you get a bazillion photos of the same pose for $9.95. We got that special for this picture. I figured we needed something to make it clear he was 1!

If you put this side by side with his 6 month picture - almost the same pose it is amazing how much bigger he is. Looks almost the same... just larger scale! HA!

LOVE this one! We had an 8x10 printed in Sepia tones. BEAUTIFUL! I have a close up like this from his 6 month photos on top of our piano. I have already switched out the new one to put up there.

Such an sweet boy!

Such a mischievous face... had to get it because it was such a great image of his personality.

Love that you can see his little teeth in this!

Pure Joy!

I really like that they encourage you to bring a change of clothes for the kids. Good times!

I thought the bibs and the beach worked well together. The beach works well especially since his birthday party next Saturday is a beach theme!

We used this photo and the next two for a three picture collage to go in our living room. Also decorated in subtle beach decor and colors.

We used this one and the two that follor for a collage to go in his bedroom. I thought it was so cute to see the sequence of clapping! We thought it would be perfect for his room.

This one was used with one of the printed ones for a double exposure. CUTE CUTE CUTE!

We have TONS of photos for family and friends and it was not a crazy cost and our appt was at 10:50 and we had our pictures taken, ordered, ate lunch and had them printed and picked up by 1:15. Not too shabby! The only negative was that Logan's naps were all jacked up today. He is currently asleep in his high chair after falling asleep during dinner! oops!

Happy Weekend!