Christmas Party Fun

Our Saturday night, we hosted some friends at our place for some Christmas cheer! We made some munchies, had some drinks and invited a bunch of people over. I didn't take too many pictures but a good time was had by all. The food all disappeared as did much of the drink. It was great to spend some time during the holidays with so many of our great friends...thanks for making it a great night!

Here are pictures of some of the younger party goers...

Hannah examining the tree.

Trying to get a good picture of Logan and Isabella...

This is the best we got...this is Bella's "smile" and Logan's typical serious face. Bella has a cute smile but this is the result when she is asked to smile. Logan is 4 months younger than Bella but quite a bit taller and heavier....don't they make a cute couple?

Logan, the morning after :)

I almost forgot! Logan took his first little step at the party! He's been standing on his own for the last couple of days and in the middle of our living room on Saturday night with every one watching he picked up one foot and took a step. Everyone cheered for him so he promptly sat down and started clapping! It was so exciting! We should soon have a walker!

Christmas Prep

We've been busy lately getting ready for Christmas. Finishing up shopping, cleaning the house, wrapping gifts and just generally getting in the spirit.

Logan's taken a huge love for the Christmas tree and loves to "pet" it. He's pretty good at being gentle since he practices with the cats so when he gets close to the tree, we just say "gentle" and he taps it lightly.

Happily petting the tree!

As a wedding gift, Scott and I received a kareoke machine from some friends who I used to frequent a kareoke bar with in University. It's been out recently to play Christmas music on since we don't have any sort of stereo in our living room. It's got a couple of red lights on it which Logan is so drawn to. Our neighbours probably wonder what we're doing since he's always turning the music up and down. As soon as I turn it on, he crawls over, sits in front of it and rocks back and forth, or "dances" and plays with the volume...it's way too cute.

Turning up the volume.

Big smiles.

Scott got one of the mics out this weekend and spent some time "singing" along with the music...Logan was quite amused but didn't want to use the mic himeself.

We had some friends over on Saturday night for a Christmas party (post and pictures to follow soon!) so Logan helped his dad get the drinks ready.

We used snow to keep the beer cold in the cooler, it worked great!

Quiet Weekend at Home

In anticipation of the upcoming busyness of the holidays, we were lucky to be able to have a nice quiet weekend at home. We had a few things to do but for the most part we were able to just hang out inside.

On Friday night my mom came over to watch Logan while Scott and I went to his work Christmas party. Logan had a good time with my mom and went down to sleep without any problems for her. This was only the second time someone other than Scott or I have put him to bed, so that's a great success! The only other time was back in May when Scott took me to see Dirty Dancing for my birthday. Mom got Logan to sleep eventually but I think she would agree that this past Friday was much more successful.

The Christmas party was a good time - it was at the Flying Dog which brought back some pretty good memories for me of my university days!

On Saturday we went out to the mall to have Logan's picture taken with Santa Claus. He'd had a couple of experiences with Santa so far that were ok, so we thought we'd give the mall a try. He didn't cry but he wasn't really that impressed either.

Here he is with his typical "serious" face (it's poor quality because I scanned it from the original)

For comparison sake, here he is last year with Santa.

That was all the excitement of Saturday, really. We ran some other errands trying to finish up Christmas shopping and just hung around the house. I did get some Christmas baking done after Logan went to bed, I still want to do a bit more but I got a good chunk of it done.

Logan spent most of Saturday pushing his "car" around the house. He isn't walking on his own yet, but he spends close to all his awake time trying. His "car" goes pretty fast on our hardwood floors, it's funny to watch him keep up as he walks/runs behind.

Today (Sunday) was more of the same. We did make it to church this morning and Logan made it through the whole service in the nursery! He did cry when we dropped him off but the report was that he was quiet happy for the rest of the time playing with the toys and the other kids. We were pretty happy that he made it through the service, hopefully it will continue to go well.

We spent this afternoon hanging out at home again. We had planned to head over to Waterloo Park with Cindy and Behrouz to take a look at the lights tonight, but that plan was rained out. Hopefully we'll be able to reschedule sometime soon!

Anyways, here are some pictures of our afternoon.

"Walking" with the stroller.

Logan is starting early in terms of "hogging the remote".

I thought this was pretty funny. Logan climbed in this basket and got a little stuck. I guess it was smaller than he thought.

Scott spent some time pulling Logan around the rec room on a blanket. It was quite a hit.

Whee!

That's all for tonight...

Christmas Party Fun!

On Sunday, Logan and I went to the the kids Christmas Party at the Navy Club in Waterloo. Scott and his brother used to go when they were kids so it's fun to let Logan carry on that tradition.

Eric Traplin was there and entertained the kids with his singing for about 45 minutes. Logan sat with his grandpa and I and loved the whole thing, he was clapping and dancing away the whole time. He used a bubble machine in one of his songs and so I took Logan over and he was happy with all the other kids popping the bubbles.

Here he is mid-clap

Logan spent quite a bit of time playing peek-a-boo with grandpa from behind the chair and under the table cloth....if you're wondering what to buy him for Christmas, it seems as though he would love a chair or a table cloth!

Playing peek-a-boo

After Eric Traplin was done, we had hotdogs and french fries for lunch which Logan gobbled down and then his grandpa took him on a tour of the Navy club and to meet some of his friends.

Here are Logan and grandpa checking things out (Logan got pretty warm and had really rosy cheeks for most of the time we were there!)

After lunch Santa Claus arrived to give out gifts to all the kids. Logan had seen Santa once this year already at a daycare party and apparently quite liked him. This time though, he wasn't so sure. He did sit on Santa's lap but didn't want to be too close at all.

Santa's arrival

The best picture I got of Logan with Santa.

Logan received a really cool muscial train from Santa. It is battery operated and plays music as it travels around the little track that it came with. I didn't let him take it out of the box but at the Navy Club but he sure tried and dragged it around with him for quite a while.

Opening his gift

"Whoa, this is cool!"

Dragging it around with him

It was a really fun (and tiring) morning for us. And it was great for Logan to spend some time with his grandpa Miller. Scott had bowling that morning so unfortunately he wasn't able to be there with us.

After the party we went home and Logan had a nice long nap. Once he woke up we headed over to the bowling alley to watch Scott play his last game. He had an ok tournament and ended up making the Mixed Team to represent Grand River at the Ontario Open on the Easter weekend! Logan had a great time at the bowling alley pushing a chair around while daddy bowled...I think he'll be walking soon!

A Visit to Norwich to See Santa

Yesterday we headed to Norwich to take in the annual Santa Claus parade. We had to skip the parade in Kitchener since it was raining on the day it was held, so we thought we'd take advantage of the parade that Norwich had to offer.

The parade started at 11am, we got to the street about 1 minute after 11am, took in the 15 - 20 minute parade and took the short walk back home. It was VERY cold out, so maybe it's better that the parade was so short!

All bundled up and waiting for Santa.

"Rock and Roll" Santa

Ok, so maybe the Norwich Santa Claus parade isn't the best...but I got a couple pictures and Logan definitely doesn't know the difference.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at my mom and dad's place. Scott drew up some plans to build a mantle around the new fireplace in their basement, Logan took a very short nap and mom and I chatted.

Here's Logan trying on Grandma's earmuffs.

My mom bought Logan a new toy to go on his highchair, one to keep him occupied during meals. I remember when my brother Scott had one and he always had fun with it. So we tried it out when we got home...we learned 2 things.

1) Don't put it on Logan's tray until AFTER he eats, otherwise he is too distracted.
2) Maybe Logan is a bit too strong for it, since he repeatedly pulled it off the tray.

Nevertheless, here are a couple pictures of him playing with it.

Checking it out.

He loves it!

We have managed to decorate the Christmas tree, I just haven't taken a picture yet, hopefully soon!

Christmas Tree Hunt

Today I took off work early, we picked Logan up at daycare after his nap and headed out to get our Christmas tree! I couldn't imagine Christmas without a real tree and it was fun to take Logan out this year to get the tree too.

I took a lot of pictures so you can see how it went in pictures...which are much more exciting to look at than words are to read.

Here's Logan in his "sled" - they cut barrels in half to act as sleds...Logan had some issues sitting up in it because he kept slipping around.

In pursuit of the "perfect" tree.

The chosen tree with an unimpressed child.

Cutting down the tree.

This sled is fun!

Dragging the tree out.

Yummy cookies and apple cider..look at those rosy cheeks!

Logan and Mommy

Logan amused himself while we were inside getting warm by walking around this garbage can. He did it several times before he decided he should try and bite it...gross. That put an end to the walking and then we left.

Waiting to put the tree on the roof of the car.

I didn't get a picture of the tree on the car and we haven't decorated it yet. We're hoping to tonight still (although it's getting late!). I'll post some pictures of the finished product when they're ready!

Our Little Man

I know that the blog posts have been few and far between but being back at work has really cut down on the time that I want to spend in front of a computer at night! With the Christmas season here though, I'm sure there will be lots to do!

For now, here's an update on Logan!

Logan is now 13.5 months old, about 33 inches tall and 24.5lbs! A far cry from our 7lb at birth, slow weight gainer. He still really likes daycare and seems to be coming up with new things everyday.

Reading the mail after daycare one day.

Lately he has been laughing...a lot. Sherry (his daycare provider) says that she thinks his laugh resembles a billy goat. At daycare, Logan and another little girl close to his age spend a lot of time playing peek-a-boo and Logan just laughs and laughs. Last night when we were playing in his room before bed, he was taking the clothes out of his laundry basket and I was saying "out" and then I'd put the clothes back in and say "in". A repetitive game for me after a while but for some reason, it was HILARIOUS to Logan.

He's a champion crawler now and will walk or "cruise" around any furniture that he can. Just tonight he stood up behind his car that he can push and actually walked around the basement.

Still one of his favourite things to do is listen to music. He bops to the beat, claps his hands, clicks his tongue, tries to snap, or slaps his legs. He is definitely a music man. We recently finished out music classes which we will miss a lot but he loves music at any time of the day.

One of his other favourite pastimes is eating. At this point Logan has tried so many different foods and liked pretty much all of them. THis week he tried clementines for the first time and thought they were great. Here's a funny picture of him trying to eat the peel after he'd eaten the whole orange. He kept trying to take a bite, then would make a sour face and then turn the peel around in his hand before trying again. I think he was trying to find the good part!

Not too impressed with the taste of the peel.

So, he's a pretty fun kid (not that I'm biassed or anthing). Here are some cute pictures from earlier in the week when he was playing with daddy's hat. (The gaping, open mouth look seems to be one of his favourites these days!)

Another Weekend Over

This weekend we didn't have any plans so we really enjoyed just relaxing and spending time at home. Logan came down with yet another cold so it was nice to be able to stay home a bit and let him get well again.

Since Scott will be bowling in the Open Tournament next weekend, we thought we'd head to the bowling alley on Saturday morning for him to get in a few practice games. It was pretty busy at the lanes so Logan was really quiet at first and just sat on my lap. Once he got comfortable though, he was happy to stand at the ball return again waiting for all the balls to come flying back. (I have a cute picture but for some reason I can't get it to upload).

After his nap on Saturday, we went out for a walk in the snow. It seems pretty early to have this much snow that isn't melting but we can't stay in the house all winter. Logan's been out in the snow at daycare already but we haven't seen his reaction yet. He wasn't too sure at first and couldn't really move very well in all his warm clothes...he liked it better in the stroller.

Not too sure

"Can I go back in my stroller now?"

Warming his hands by the fire after playing outside.

The cats love the fireplace! Since we use the fireplace almost exclusively to heat our house, it's on a lot so the basement can get pretty warm. The cats love it and spend most of their time downstairs basking in the heat. Here's a funny picture of Peanut and Cheeto trying to "share" their cat house and be close to the fire. Peanut was in there first and then Cheeto joined her...Peanut doesn't look too impressed.

Today we stayed home from church since Logan is still getting over a cold. We didn't want him to spread it to the rest of the kids in the nursery...not that he stays in the nursery but that's a whole other story!

My parents came over and we all went out for lunch and then Scott and I left Logan here with my parents so that we could go visit my grandma in the hospital. My grandma's had a rough week and has been in the hospital since Wednesday. She's now recovering from a broken ankle among other things. She'll be in the hospital for a bit longer and then moved to a temporary residence where she can be while her ankle heals. We didn't stay for long since grandma was pretty tired but it was nice to see her. Prayers for her ankle to heal quickly would be appreciated as well as for a bed to open in a great care facility for her.

Tomorrow I'm back to work...things are going ok. Logan loves daycare though, so that's great. It's bittersweet but I'm so glad that we found a good match for him. If I can't be home with him, I'm glad that he's somewhere where he really likes it.

Here are a few other random pictures from the weekend.

Who needs a dog when you have a crawling child who eats anything!

Mommy and Logan

This one is for Uncle Scott...Logan loves his basketball net! He's getting really good at sinking the baskets and cheers every time he gets one in.