Dear Logan....

Dear Logan,

Your favorite food is homemade Split Pea Soup. That's awesome.

Love, Mommy

OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!!!!!

Ok so you remember my post about the spider in the Congo?
http://myprojectmommyhood.blogspot.com/2009/07/good-bad-and-ugly.html

Well, the situation I had this morning might as well have been a 5ft spider encounter. I reacted the same as if it was!

I was the first to take my long commute to work - you know, from upstairs to downstairs - and immediately spotted the intruder. A HUGE black spider on the ceiling in the living room. He seemed to be either napping, or plotting his evil attack on the household - probably the latter - so I took the time to plot my own plan:

Step 1 - watch the spider
Step 2 - make sure he DOES NOT MOVE
Step 3 - wait very patiently for Brian to come downstairs to take care of said spider.

Brian came downstairs and I pointed out the spider and asked him to kill it. Well, that is where the plan went TERRIBLY wrong. What I should have done was give Brian a step-by-step action plan on how exactly to remove the spider, because as we know, they are known to ATTACK! Sadly, I did not give an action plan, and instead watched in horror as Brian stood on the couch and end table, teetering and reaching to get the spider when the beast JUMPED OFF THE CEILING, TRIED TO EAT HIS ARM, LANDED IN THE OVERSTUFFED CHAIR, and went missing. Did you hear that? IT IS MISSING! I yelled at Brian as if he had just lost our house and life savings in a poker game (sorry honey, really, I'm sorry) and made him scour the area for the missing intruder. He is nowhere ot be found. Brian of course had to leave for work, but I have to stay here!!! The first thought in my head was to EVACUATE, but I just can't do that! I have kids to care for! Do you think one of them will kill it for me when it shows its evil face - guns a blazing?!

That's my boy!!!

This afternoon, when I was about to reinact that scene from Overboard where Goldie Hawn is glassy-eyed and going "ba ba ba ba ba ba ba", Logan made me stop and realize, again, that it is worth it!

We have a sofa table near the front window of the living room that has a few picture frames, and a small glass Kate Spade candle and candle holder. Logan often has a fascination with picking up the candle holder and practice putting the candle in it.... well, he knows better, people. Really, he does. I caught him red-handed and asked him nicely to please put it back. Well, he DID! But... that is not the amazing part. The amazing part is that he put it back, turned to walk away, caught the object out of the corner of his eye, turned back around, and ADJUSTED THE CANDLE HOLDER so that is was in the exact spot it should be - about one inch from where he had it. He was satisfied with the new placement, and went on to play.

Yep, if it were ever questioned, he is my son. Call it OCD, call is pure awesomeness.... whatever. Now there are TWO of us! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Back Off, Elmo!!

Tonight I was in the shower, Brian was mowing the lawn, and Logan was quietly reading a book and working on a puzzle in our bedroom. He realized he was a couple puzzle pieces short, so he went over to the basket that had the pieces, reached in, and UH OH! - woke up that crazy talking Elmo doll! Logan FREAKED out, backed up about 4 feet saying "Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, uh oh... I NEED MY FOOTBALL!". He ran over to the bed, and reached up saying "I NEED MY FOOTBALL!" (side note: His football is his security item. It is a little terry football rattle that he adores). I got out of the shower, gave him the football and asked him if he wanted me to take care of Elmo:
Me: Logan would you like me to put Elmo away?
Logan: Uh Huh!
Me: Do you like Elmo?
Logan: nooooo
Me: Should I put him in the closet?
Logan: UH HUH!

***

Earlier tonight, after dinner, Logan pinched his finger on the buckle -
Logan: OOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWIIIEEEE!!!
Me: Oh no! Did you pinch your finger?
Logan: (whining) UHHHH HUUUUUHHHH!!!
Me: Oh! Does it huuurrrttt!!??
Logan: (Crying) UUUHHHH HUUUUUHHH!!!
Me: Should mommy kiss it?
Logan: uh huuuuhhhh....
Me: (*Kiss* the owie)Is that better?
Logan: Yep.

I have no idea where he got his dramatic nature from... Brian I assume....

Lions, and Tigers, and... funnel cakes?

Today we went on our family "Daycation" (like that one Brian?!) to Des Moines. We started our day with a picnic lunch at the park near the zoo, then wandered in to see the animals! My personal favorite was the Giraffe exhibit. Logan seemed to enjoy the petting zoo, and I believe that Brian most liked the ginormous Bull-type-animal. It was not a bull, but rather a bull-type-animal that I believe is on steroids. As we walked away Brian did whisper to me "Hey did you see his - ".

Today was pretty much the first day that Logan took my hand and walked around with me, hand in hand, for an extended period of time. He grabbed onto it so tightly, and we walked around all looked at all the animals. This was probably one of my most favorite moments thus far as a parent.

After the zoo, we met Ben and Stacey at the Iowa State Fair! Not only was it ridiculously packed, hot, and stinky... it was also pouring rain at times. Ick. Regardless, I am SO glad that we went, and even more glad that we got to spend some time with the Heggen's. We miss those guys.

You can't visit the State Fair without partaking in some fair-food-eating. While we chose NOT to sample the chocolate covered bacon or deep-fried Twinkies, we did enjoy some cheese curds, BBQ pork, chocolate ice cream, and a bite or two of strawberry shortcake. Yum. Logan had a great time, and really took a liking to Ben! They seemed to hit it off, and Logan was even reaching for Ben to pick him up and throw him up in the air. Logan eventually fell asleep in the stroller, so he missed most of the animals, but he did get to see and hear all the crazy chickens and roosters - especially that all white one with the cotton ball head! Hey, anyone know why some of the chickens lay pink eggs? Anyone?

When we got back into town we went straight to Red's to grab some dinner. Poor Logan was STARVING, but that didn't hold him back from being entertaining at the restaurant. He started the dinner by grunting, turning red, and announcing "I poo poo'd". Awesome. Then he proceeded to eat a bite of food, and shake his head uncontrollably. Then he would look around the room and catch the eye of anyone that would look back at him, smile to grab their attention, then reach out to Brian or me with pucker faces to give us a smooch - just to showcase his cuteness. What a ham. He really captured the attention of one couple, and they couldn't stop watching him the whole time. When we left, the woman said, "you have quite the sweetie there". I thanked her and said, "We are pretty lucky".

I do have pictures of the day, but lets face it, I'm beat! Pictures will just have to wait.

"Meeeeooookkk"

Logan just got up from his nap a little while ago, and when we got down stairs he was all "Mommy, I want meeeeeoooookkkk, mommy". Now for those of you who don't speak toddler, Logan was requesting some milk. Clearly, I don't move fast enough for him, because he was impatiently waiting for me in front of the fridge - one hand on the handle, while bouncing up and down saying "meeeoookkk, meeeeoooookkk, meeeeooookkk" in a slight whisper. I got him the milk and he took it into the living room, lifted up the seat of his fire truck, tossed in the cup, closed the seat down, looked at me and is all "mommy? Where's my meeeeooookkkk mommy?". Hmmm.

Then he got a ball, threw it to me and says "good throw mommy. good throw MOM".

Thanks honey.

Dear Logan,

Dear Logan,

Sometimes when you run REALLY fast your cheeks jiggle. They literally bounce up and down. I adore you.

Love, Mommy

Shouldn't have done the math

I was changing ANOTHER poopy diaper this morning and thought to myself hmmmmm.... I wonder how many diapers I change in a day? A week? A month?

So, here is the math:

Monday-Friday 7:30-5:30, on average, I change 14 diapers a day. That is 70 diapers a week. That is over 300 diapers a month. That is not including the diapers I change "after hours", because, as you can imagine, my job does not end at 5:30pm!

AND, I have two more kids starting this month. So add another 8-10 daily diapers to that. Oh... my... goodness....

The moral of the story ... I should not have done the math.

Yawn.......

Logan took the opportunity to take a little snooze yesterday while running errands. I looked in the back seat and noticed that he tipped his hat to cover his face while he slept. I had to take a pic due to the cuteness, but when I lifted his hat, I saw this sweet and squishy face...

A little light reading...

Logan and Alanna are seriously BFF's. It is not only adorable, but super convenient! Twice yesterday I heard complete silence from the other side of the chair, which, with toddlers, is usually NOT a good sign! But with these innocent little sweeties, I had nothing to worried about! Both times I found the cuties reading together. At one point they were sharing a book and "reading" the pages aloud to one another. Oh... the cuteness.

Later in the day the energy level picked up a bit and they took some laps through the house wearing my shoes. They loved it.

Oh... the poop.

I must warn you, if you have a weak stomach, stop reading this now. Just click close. Just don't do it. Also, if you don't have kids yet, and don't want to taint your view of the rainbows and butterflies that is parenthood, well, then you may not want to read this either.

OK, everyone gone?

Well, for the two of you left reading this, I will tell you about my "crappy" day. Pun completely intended.

One of my little daycare sweeties was hanging out playing after snack this morning. I was going about my business doing the normal routine of cleaning each child before removing them from the chair. As I am removing the last kid from the table, I glance over at the little girl laying on my carpet ... with POOP ALL OVER HER LEGS!! Did you hear me? POOP ALL OVER HER LEGS!!!! It was like the scene from a horror movie - like cue the knife stabbing music right at that moment - as I look around the room and see poop on the firetruck, poop on my wood floors....s Oh God.

I pick up the poop covered child, and somehow with super strength wrangle the other 3 kids to safe spots and began to de-poo the poor girl. She was unphased, by the way. I am glad about that because a poop-covered, thrashing child is the only thing worse than a poop-covered neutraly charged child.

I begin operation bleach every freaking thing in my house - starting with my white shirt that I am WEARING that is COVERED in POOP! Oh God.

Then I moved to the wood floors. Bleached those. Then to the poor firetruck. Bleached the heck out of that. Then vacuumed the floors, inspecting every inch for poop. Then I just couldn't stop there and decided I better bleach every toy that was on the floor - just in case a poop particle landed on it.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I do not normally use bleach! I use all natural or homemade cleaning supplies, so the fact that I basically bathed in bleach HAS to show you the severity of the problem here.

Well, the afternoon has to be better than this. Currently, all the kids are sleeping - excpet for my son, the music-enthusiast, who happens to be upstairs in his crib singing himself to sleep. Twinkle, twinkle, little star to be exact.

Yep, the poop is worth it.