Happy Birthday Logan!

My baby is ONE! I can't believe I have a one-year-old. Then again, my life plan (according to my sixteen-year-old self) had me with two to three kids by the time I was 27 so... maybe I can believe it. But still, I feel like I'm 22 so it seems crazy.

Tyson suggested we reenact Logan's birth in celebration of this day (kinda like the nativity story) but I didn't feel like staying up all night or fake pushing a baby out so I vetoed that plan.

I wouldn't mind walking down memory lane a bit though. Take my hand and walk with me, will you?

Here he is all shiny and new.

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

 Seven months

Eight months

 Nine months

Ten months

 Eleven months

Twelve months

Sigh.

Love this kid.

Whenever I look at him I think, how is it even possible that this child lived inside me?

Then I remember.

It's possible.

Happy birthday my darling boy!

Still here

Hi!

We're still here, just busy these days.

Well, busy/sick which is never a good combo for blogging.

I'll make no promises because I hate it when people say stuff like "I'll blog tomorrow!" and then don't but I guess I can pretty much guarantee that I'll blog again... at some point.

Until then, you should check out my brother's blog if you haven't already. http://thisisnotacreativetitle.blogspot.com/ It's pretty entertaining, I think you'll like it.

I've got the blues

So blogging hasn't really been a priority lately I guess. Sorry about that. Here's what has been a priority lately.

Remember that one time when I painted my bathroom and vowed I would never paint it again because painting bathrooms stinks and what was I thinking trying to paint behind a toilet pregnant anyway?

Well, I should have made that vow before I picked a crazy blue color to paint the bathroom. It seriously matched the painter's tape. See?

Before before:

Bright blue before:

Now before you look at this next picture and think to yourself, "what was she smokin'?" just know that I like this one a lot better.

Because yeah...

the new color?

It is also blue.

Blue, but different, right? The old blue is a matchy matchy with the painter's tape blue and this blue is a storm cloud rolling in blue. And I like it.

Which made painting behind the toilet a lot more bearable.

Ok, not really. Not being pregnant made painting behind the toilet a lot more bearable.

So that's what we've been up to lately. What about you?

A perfect moment

Logan and I had just finished our lunch of quesadillas, yogurt, pureed veggies (ok, maybe I didn't have that), raisins, and peaches. I gave him a graham cracker to round off his meal and got myself one of the truffles from Tyson that I've been hoarding since our anniversary.

And Logan and I leaned back in our respective chairs and enjoyed our sweet treats in a beautiful silence.

Or at least silence plus the sound of an 11-month-old chewing a cracker. Close enough. We looked at each other and smiled and I reveled in our shared joy.

Then Logan threw his sippie cup on the floor and life began again.

I've been trying to focus on these moments as we're entering a stage of fits and tantrums. He doesn't understand why I won't let him crawl down the stairs, play with scissors, or stick his finger into a socket (don't worry, I bought plug covers).

It's become a new adventure of trying to understand each other, through mostly trial and error, and enduring to the end.

On a positive note, I have never appreciated the blessing of naptime as much as I do now.

Staycation, all I ever wanted

I decided a few weeks ago that I wasted too much time playing spider solitaire. I started thinking of all the things I should be doing while I was sitting on my bum being lazy. So I did it. Walked away. Cold turkey.

Now I play Mahjong.

Anyway, as you know, we just celebrated our 5 year anniversary, and while a romantic dinner which included broccoli being thrown at our heads and picking cheerios up off the floor was nice... we thought such a special occasion could have probably used a little more pizazz.

Speaking of pizazz, our first anniversary Tyson took me to Snowbird where we spent the night, ate at a delicious bistro, rode a tram to the top of the mountain, did a zip line, and alpine slide. Way fun.

This year our gifts to each other included a door stop and towel bar.

So, you know, things change. I'm not complaining though. Now I don't have to drip all across the bathroom floor!

Ok, where was I? Pizazz. We needed more of it. So we decided last minute to go to the beach.

Too bad no one told us there was going to be an 800 team volleyball tournament there that weekend and it would be nearly impossible to find a hotel room. But, by calling 12 hotels and spending more money than we were originally intending (whoops!) we were able to finally secure a room right on the ocean at Cannon Beach.

As soon as we got there (after spending a torturous hour and half in the car with a baby who would not sleep) we went straight to the beach to have lunch.

My first order of business (after trying to roll the stroller across the sand, um, no) was to immediately nerdify myself by rolling up my pants and rolling down my socks. Logan didn't even have the decency to pretend my legs weren't blinding him.

I look forward to the day when he makes fun of me/pretends I'm not his mom.

We wandered around town for awhile after that then called to hotel to see if we could get into our room a little early. I made sure to have Logan near the phone so they would understand how desperately we needed to get him down for a nap. His screams were heard by all and we got in.

Ah, the view!

I danced and sang on the balcony for a good 10 minutes before I remembered that I had to chill out and put Logan down for a nap.

After nap time we hit the beach! I'm sure you can imagine Logan's reaction to the water, although he did enjoy "walking" around on the sand. I about cried too though when the waves hit my feet and they went numb. Warm air does not equal warm water, especially in the northwest.

Tyson was excited to get in the water though. After his skim boarding success in Michigan...

...he wanted to get one of his own for the water here.

I didn't get a picture of it, but he actually did really well. Didn't even fall in once. The fear of hypothermia would make me a better skim boarder too.

We were excited the next day because low tide coincided perfectly with Logan's awake time before his first nap. There were some tide pools around Haystack rock that we were excited to explore. Mostly I wanted Tyson to distract a ranger while I touched a starfish.

If only I had a mermaid costume. The rocks behind us were perfect for luring mortals into the sea with a song.

And with that...

Our vacation abruptly ended.

We intended to walk around town after Logan's nap, exploring and getting food before heading home around the time Logan would be ready to sleep again. Unfortunately it was so crowded we couldn't find parking anywhere and before we knew it we were out of town. That wouldn't be such a problem except that traffic was so bad coming back in that we would be in a jam if we tried. So we headed to Seaside about 10 minutes north of Cannon Beach.

4 miles outside of Seaside the traffic stopped. We couldn't get in there either!

And that's how we accidentally left our vacation four hours early.

Logan was thrilled that we waited for him to nap, only to strap him into his car seat immediately after. We did our best to pacify him with graham crackers and Wilson Phillips.

"someDAY someBODY'S gonnamakeyouwannaturnaroundandsaygoodbye-eye!

'til then smphdifhaoifjiemafeagnlpurphyaieh make you cry!"

Overall, staycation was a success!

Michigan, the final chapter

If there was one thing that Logan did love about our trip to Michigan, it was the water park. This has opened up a whole new interest in the world of water for him including the sink, hose, and washing machine. The day he discovers the toilet will be a turning point in my life I'm sure.

While we were at the park we also took him on a slide for the first time, let him swing, and even gave him a taste of flavored ice.

Not gonna lie, blue raspberry was the favorite of the day.

My mom's comment when she saw this picture was that you can tell who the parents of a baby are, and who the single college student is just by looking at our eyes. I guess that even a sugar rush can't erase all the tiredness.

A great thing about going home (besides seeing my family of course) is seeing friends that I haven't seen in forever. Chanda and I haven't seen each other in, oh, about 10 years? It was so fun to connect again. And seriously, what are the odds that we would have our first babies within ONE DAY of each other?

Logan thought Kalyn was great.

Unfortunately his "drool here often?" pickup line was ultimately...

rejected.

Guess she knows his weakness for crawling.

Our trip ended with a fireside that Adam spoke at which was all about his mission. We saw pictures and videos from his time in Taiwan and heard more stories.

There was a great turnout and the cake was delish!

And with that, we finished up our trip and headed back home.

Cinco!

A friend came up with a ploy,

to set up a girl and a boy.

They went on a date

and man, it was great!

To be with each other was joy.

It didn't take long to see,

that together they wanted to be.

So within 6 months time

they said you'll be mine,

And wed for time and eternity.

Happily ever after began

while away went the honeymoon tan.

School and work were both hard,

but their love was not marred.

Of wedded bliss they both were a fan.

School ended and real life came,

and then nothing was much the same.

New house, job, and place,

they needed more space,

for a new player was joining the game.

And now they're a family of three,

the major change being more pee.

For things only got better

with their little bed wetter,

who joined their five year anniversary.