"Sleeping" according to Logan...

I've been documenting every time I go by Logan's room at night and find him in some crazy sleeping position.  This kid rarely sleeps like a normal person in his bed, he's always twisted some funny way or he has fallen asleep in the midst of reading.  They are too good not to share :)  

In his own words, this is Logan describing these pictures of his sleeping positions...

"why does it look funny.  cuz I'm laying under a book.  I'm laying there and I'm just hiding."

"that one looks funny because look at me, I am just doing something wrong..."

"Cuz look at me I'm just laying on my big pillow"

"it looks like I'm laying different..."

"haha I'm laying under a book... look my belly button haha"

"why am I laying under a book?  that's why, I'm hiding"

"I have no idea.  I'm laying funny because look at me, I'm laying in books!"

"that one doesn't look funny.  I'm just laying and closing my eyes."

"I'm hiding under pillows, that's funny!  I'm funny because look at me!"

"me and daddy are laying together.  Look 1,2.  Two of us."

"haha...uh...cuz I'm laying that way and that way (shows horizontal with his hands) on my bed.  What are my arms doing?"

"I am laying haha, one feet, look at my picture haha.  Cuz look, I'm just doing that funny, look I'm about to fall down of my bed."

"I'm laying on the floor because Auntie Panda is here"

Logan's answers version 4.0

Time for the questions to see how much Logan's answers have changed...

1.  What color is your hair?  Brown

2.  What color are your eyes?  Blue

3.  What is your favorite food?  Pizza and ice cream

4.  What song do you like to sing?  Everything is awesome and the Star Wars song

5.  What are your favorite desserts?  Ice cream

6.  What is your favorite color?  Orange

7.  What animals do you like?  Sharks

8.  What books do you like to read right now?  Star Wars books

9.  What do you like to do with daddy?  Go in the garage and play

10.  What do you like to do with mommy?  Go to the toy store

11.  What is your favorite movie?  Lego movie

12.  What shows do you watch on TV?  Clone wars

13.  What is your favorite store? Toysrus

14.  Who are your friends?  Amirah, Emily, Molly, Paige and Patrick 

15.  What do you like to play inside? Star Wars 

16.  What do you like to play outside?  Ride bikes

Logan was very straight and to the point answering the questions this time around.  And I'd say I would have answered similarly for most of his questions.  His favorite foods are most definitely pizza and ice cream.  The two usually go together since our favorite pizza place, Lucky Pie, just happens to be next to the awesome ice cream shop, the Sweet Cow.  Once he is of age, he will surely appreciate how well beer fits into that scenario as well ;)  Logan loves to sing the song from the Lego movie, Everything is Awesome.  Too bad he doesn't know much of the words, but he just throws in whatever he thinks is awesome and it somehow makes sense in the song.  Logan does like the Star Wars theme song too since he has a stuffed dog from build a bear that plays it, he generally hums it starting off then branches into something entirely unrelated.  Humming isn't for everyone right.  I'm not sure Logan has a favorite dessert as he will eat ANYTHING sweet.  He's all for chocolate, vanilla, ice cream of many flavors, cookies, candies etc.  Sorry for that sweet tooth buddy, just keep brushing your teeth :)  Logan lately will constantly remind us how his favorite color is orange.  Anything he sees that is orange he always points out, "oh look ____ is orange, my favorite color".  And he's stayed pretty true to Orange being his favorite color this year.  I think Logan generally likes all animals fairly equally, there's not one that he is all about, but sharks would be a good answer for this time.  He got a submarine toy for his birthday and so he's into the ocean world right now.  Logan likes to read a lot of different books, but lately he has been more into comic books and at the library there are several Star Wars comics that he really enjoys.  There are also Lego Star Wars books, Sticker Star Wars books, Angry Birds Star Wars books, the original Star Wars books, the Clone Wars Star Wars books... so yes, Logan likes all that "Star Wars books" encompasses!  Logan does love going in the garage when Dom is working out there and playing around.  He likes to pretend to drive our cars or build "robots" with spare wood or play with his small tool box.  Of course he loves to go to the toy store with me, who else do I go there for haha.  Lego movie is Logan's number 1 movie right now and I think it will be for awhile considering his affinity for all things Lego.  It is a cute movie and of course, has a great song he enjoys as well ;)  Logan watches things mainly on Netflix so he does enjoy the Clone Wars show, of course because it's Star Wars!  He also enjoys SuperWhy, Lego super heros, Lego Atlantis, The Superhero Squad, Transformers: Rescue Bots and the Leapfrog shows.  Has Logan's favorite store ever not been the toy store haha maybe once he is a teenager this answer will change ;)  Logan has met a lot of new friends at school and each week he will talk about playing with somebody different.  The first few weeks of school it was all boys he would talk about, then the last few weeks he has been all about the girls: Amirah and Molly are the latest.  He says he loves Molly.  So Cute.  Emily is his friend from summer camp and even though she's not in his class this year at preschool they still had a play date together.  Paige and Patrick are our neighbors that he loves to play with at the park.  Logan got a lot of Star Wars toys for his birthday so he definitely loves to play Star Wars inside.  Either dressing up as clone troopers or playing with his little Star Wars action figures, he especially likes the AT-AT's.  Logan has gotten a lot of play time at the park in lately since the weather has been awesome and he has had a lot of neighborhood kids out and about to play with, he does ride his bike there and we take it around the neighborhood sometimes.  He is a whiz at the strider but we got him a pedal bike for his birthday and although he could do it and has a few times, he needs to work on his confidence before he can do it all on his own.

4 years old!

Logan is 4! The last year has been a big change for him. He definitely doesn't feel like a toddler at all, he's a preschooler and a smart one!  3 was definitely his more challenging year, 2 was easy breezy compared to 3 ;). Over this year he has become much more independent and confident in himself. He goes down slides at the park without fear anymore. He will glide on his strider bike, fall off, cry, then get back on.  He will let you dump water all over his head without having a complete meltdown at bath time. He will transition from one activity to another without warning and without all the hullabaloo he used to give us. He can identify letters and their sounds and is getting better at writing them. He will help in any way when mommy asks for help with Fiona. He is trusted to stay put in the toy aisle, the library train table, the park next door etc. while mommy or daddy walk away for a bit. He can get a snack or even a bowl of cereal all by himself. He can sing along to songs and actually remember the lyrics. He can hold a conversation with adults about fossils and how they're made from sedimentary rock, tornadoes and how they're rated on an EF scale, volcanoes and how they erupt. He will read books quietly by himself in bed before he falls asleep...ok most of the time that's true.   He is so grown up now. He's to the point where you know he's always listening to what's going on around him and always questioning the world. His curiosity and eagerness to learn is at a high and his retention for facts and just random instances is incredible. He continues to amaze me and I love watching him grow and learn and see him figuring things out in his head. While we have always known he was one smart cookie and the kind of kid that will always have something to say, it's fun to see where that leads him now. 

At Logan's 4 year old check up he was 41" tall which is the 66th percentile and was 37 lbs. which is the 60th percentile. So he's a little bigger then average but not by much. They did an eye test and while Logan said most of the pictures he saw they said he tested at 20/30 which is pretty normal at his age. He passed the hearing test with flying colors so no pretending he didn't hear me when I ask him to do something ;). Overall he is the healthy usual four year old: won't eat his veggies, can't sit still at the table, sometimes scared of going poo in the potty, starting to not need a nap everyday, and constantly asking "why". 

Our big four year old ready for picture day at preschool 

Welcoming Fall in Estes Park

That look!  He's up to something!

Kayaking at the Erie camp out 

Showing what a Popsicle in summer can transform a boy into ;)

May the FOURce be with you

9-14-14 gave us a 4 year old this year!  Can't believe he is 4 now, that seems so grown up. Our little man asked for a Star Wars birthday party this year, so Pinterest and I got to work. I had fun making most of the decorations and learning a thing or two about star wars in the meantime. Luckily Dom and my mom were recruited for help getting ready too! Logan came down from "nap time" to see all his decorations up and as he was walking down the stairs his mouth dropped open and he just said woooooooow!  I consider that a victory :) We decided to just invite a few kids over and keep it small this year plus uncle Erick and granny Mo, which was a marvelous decision if I do say so myself. So Logan invited his cousins Ella and Riley and our neighbor Paige and Logan's buddy from down the street Patrick and his sister Tatum. The kids came over and got to wear Jedi robes and have Princess Leia buns if they wanted then they each got a light saber made out of a pool noodle. Then they went to town beating the crap out of balloon storm troopers with their light sabers. It was total chaos but they loved it. We ate some dinner, pizza, the birthday boys favorite, then we had to open presents because Logan couldn't help himself any longer. He tore through those presents like a true Maes and then wanted to open every box right away too :) he got a lot of fun toys and lots of Star Wars stuff so he was on cloud 9. After presents we had cupcakes, vanilla with vanilla frosting per birthday boys request (he's been choosing vanilla over chocolate these days!) and sang happy birthday as Logan blew out Darth Vaders light saber candle. The kids ate then played with the new toys and Logan dressed up in one of his new clone trooper costumes until we were ready for the Death Star piñata. We took it over to the park next door and let the kids try for awhile until finally I got to swing at it for them and then the candy rained down and all was well. After that the party slowed down and Logan was engrossed with all his fun new toys for days!  He had a lot of fun and it was more fun for us this year to see the excitement and see Logan in the birthday spirit. Happy fourth birthday to our favorite little guy, he makes my heart so happy and I can't wait to continue to watch him grow!

the Jedi and princess Leia robes I made

 the death star pinata (a baseball pinata spray painted and decorated)

 the R2D2 cups we drew and the lightsaber napkins

 The clone troopers the kids got to hit down with the light sabers

 lightsabers out of pool noodles

 the birthday boy!

 Fiona was a little R2D2 and Logan had his Vader shirt on

 the kids giving me their jedi poses ;)

 ready for cupcakes!

 Happy Birthday Logan!

 time for some dress up!

 We had fun celebrating with Granny Mo and Uncle Erick 

 our little fam

 Logan's present from mommy and daddy was an Ironman pedal bike :)

7 months

Here we are again, another month has flown by.  We had another busy month, I guess this is what summer is all about!  Little girl is getting a little bigger, 15 lbs. 9oz. and 26.75 inches long.  Over the last month Fiona has become all about mommy, she's been super attached to me lately and is always looking for me when she's in someone elses arms.  She doesn't really have stranger anxiety, she just really loves me :) haha.  Speaking of loving, she is still all about bottles- beer bottles, water bottles, cups in general...she just wants nothing to do with her actual bottle anymore.  Since she refuses my milk in her bottle, we tried different sippy cups but she will just not have it, so that means that I have to stick around for feeding times and can't drink too much...bummer.  Hopefully she will get over this new found quirk soon.  Fiona is an expert at rolling both ways now, she will use that and kicking her legs while laying on her back to get her from one toy to the other, not quite as effective as log rolling or army crawling but she moves little by little until she gets frustrated.  She knows how to get around better in the walker now too, still no speed demon by any means and she can't purposefully propel herself to where she wants to go but she can get around the kitchen better now.  Fiona loves being outside and we've been spending a lot of time at the park these days, she plays happily in her stroller and watches the big kids or she loves to swing in the baby swings too, it always puts a big smile on her face.  Unfortunately Fiona's night time sleeping and nap times have gone downhill this past month.  She started waking up multiple times throughout the night and wouldn't go back to sleep unless we rocked her or I fed her.  That became exhausting and we tried having her cry it out but she went on for 3 hours before I couldn't handle it anymore and went in and got her.  It's so much harder to hear her cry then it was with Logan since she doesn't do it as often as he did!  Here's hoping we get this figured out soon!

Check out this hair, it's getting longer and seems to have a little curl to it

Hanging out on the slide at the park

Logan at 7 months on the left in the dryer and Fiona at 6 months on the right in the dryer (thanks mom ;)  You can tell they are looking different now when compared side by side (hello Fiona's darker skin haha) but overall they still look pretty similar as babies

We stayed busy this month with Dom going backpacking with the guys for the weekend, I took the kids to the peach festival in Lafayette and while it was fun and I managed everything fine by myself, it was HOT out there!  Good thing we had a delicious peach smoothie and peach cobbler to cool us down in the shade!

Granny Mo and Craig came in to Denver for a work conference of Craig's so we went to downtown Denver and spent the day with them, Erick, Mike and his girl friend Sarah.  It was fun to explore a little more of Denver, drink some new beer and eat some amazing brussel sprouts ;) and the kids did pretty good too :)

Our little guy started preschool too!  Logan goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings for a few hours and he is loving it and doing awesome.  Meanwhile it's nice to have some time to myself with Fiona and we have started going to baby storytime at the library together on Wednesdays while Logan is in school.  She likes chewing on books, watching the older kids and playing with the balls they get out at the end.  It's nice to just give her one on one time, that's not always easy with Logan around ;)  If we aren't out running errands etc while Logan is at school sometimes we are home letting Fiona nap, so either way, it seems easier to get things done these days, although that few hours goes by so fast!

We also had a busy last weekend of August as Dominic had a triathlon in Boulder on Saturday the 30th and he invited Charles and Andrea to do it with him.  We had a good time watching them and then going to Old Mine afterwards for some pizza and beer.  The Maes' and Amanda came in for the weekend and stayed with us for the Triathlon and Fiona's baptism was the next day, Sunday the 31st.  Auntie Dre also came down and helped us celebrate since she's Fiona's Godmother.  We had the Maes', Dre and her boyfriend Jack, and the Valania's go to church with us Sunday morning.  Fiona ended up falling asleep in church and Logan did a good job at mass considering we weren't in the cry room where we usually are.  After mass, we met in the chapel for Fiona's baptism.  She was awake and happy for the majority of it, she only got fussy towards the end.  She was very interested in the vase that held the holy water to pour over her head, I think that goes along with her bottle obsession haha.  She did good when the priest poured the water over her head and didn't cry, just had some wide eyes :)  Logan was playing off in a pew most of the time but did come stand with us for a little bit of the baptism.  Auntie Dre and Jeff are Fiona's Godparents and it was nice to be able to have everyone there to help us all celebrate.  After her baptism, we all headed back to our house for brunch, mimosas and brewmosas.  It was a fun time!

The great Erie campout was the next weekend and while we all went and spent a lot of time out there, Fiona and I came home to sleep at the house since her sleeping has been all screwed up lately.  Ya, I was not dealing with that in a tent surrounded by a ton of people haha.  Logan had a lot of fun, he got to kayak in a kids pool and he did great.  He tried rock climbing which he wasn't a big fan of getting down from.  We played bingo but didn't win, and he had fun running around with Ella and Riley.  They played the Lego Movie on the big screen at the baseball fields before bed so Logan was of course happy about that!  He and Dom did great sleeping in the tent and Fiona and I met them back there the next morning for breakfast.  I love this event, it is so much fun for the whole family!

We also got to spend time with Granny Mo as she came out to visit for a week for Logan's birthday.  It's always nice to have my mom come, as she is such a big help and I feel like I get a much needed break.  Especially with the crazy sleeping Fiona has been having!  She was nice enough to watch the kids one night while Dom and I went to Boulder and ate at the Med and walked around Pearl Street a bit, it was a nice date night and break from the kids.  Logan had a Star Wars party which we all had fun with (another post to come about our 4 year old and his bday!), I can't believe he is 4!

Oh ya and football started! Go Broncos woohoo!

What a great month we had and my how big our little kids are feeling these days!  I can never say it enough just how fast the time goes when it's measured by the age of your kids!


(Some Thing 1 and Thing 2 pictures of Fiona and Logan, my little goofballs)