TJ and Melissa

Food for Thought

http://aholyexperience.com/2008/07/when-bad-things-happen.html

Happy August!

Hey, did ya'll notice the TWO, count it ONE TWO 2! DOS, DUX, EE, II, 2 videos that we posted last week?  Yep.  Found the charging cord for the video camera.  I know the videos are old, but they are posted and that is a start.  We taped Logan doing some crawling this weekend and we are going to put together a film of him truckin' around the house.  You know, chasin' cats and hunting down weird crumbs on the floor.  His typical M.O.  Why does he always crack his head when I hold the camera?  I was taping him crawling towards me this weekend and right as he got to the spot RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, his hand or something stuck and his face planted.  He has a nice bruise on the underside of his chin now.  I'm such a bad momma. 

Speaking of Momma.  Logan now says it, and means it.  He says Mama all the time.  Not like at the couch or window shade, but to ME.  AT ME, ABOUT ME.  He practices it first, like whispering it: mmaaahhhmaahhhhh, then he goes for it MMMMMMMMMMAh MMmmaah!  Heavy on the mmmm.  It makes me smile from ear to ear. 

Logan chases the cats with fervor.  He even meows and hisses at them.  It is hilarious.  We have to get that one on video.  You just never know when he's going to do it.  He doesn't really meow but more or less grrrrrrss at them and makes a hissing noise at them.  We had a scare on Saturday.  We had 10 people over to our house for a "Fantasy Football" Draft.  If you don't know what that is, it is sorta lengthy to explain, so ask someone who is really really into sports and they can explain it.  Or even Google it.  So, we had people over for the Draft and then TJ and some of the guys played poker after words.  A few of the guys smoke, so they were going in and out of the house a lot.  Sometime Saturday morning, TJ and I realized that we hadn't seen Cody in a while.  Like at all.  We looked EVERYWHERE around the house.  That cat is topping 20 pounds, so there aren't many places that he can squeeze his fat furry butt into to hide.  We then moved to searching outside.  TJ was panicked.  We looked around our block about five times before we called it quits and headed back up to the house.  I noticed when I did my scan of the staircase, the favorite hide out for escapee cats, that the 4th floor front door was ajar.  I know that they moved out and people were cleaning etc up there.  I wondered if he snuck up there thinking that he was home.  The cats usually go up the stairs and stop and meow at the landlady's door and she comes and lets us know that they are up there.  It's happened maybe three times since we've lived here.  Anyway, after we looked everywhere else, we knocked on the open door, yelled "Ahnyahasayo!" and went on our search after we realized no one was there.  Low and behold, Cody was there.  He opened up the bathroom sink cupboard, just like at home, and was sleeping under the sink.

Logan is getting his fifth tooth this week.  It is the tooth next to his left top front tooth.  What is that one called? Not the pointy incisor, but the one in between?  Whatever.  You know what I'm talking about. He has been cranky and very sleepy.  I didn't know that sleepy was a teething symptom, but this time it is.  And the drool!  It's crazy how much drool comes out of that boy's mouth.

In other news, we finally got a new car.  The old one is long gone.  It is history, and may even be filed away in a part of our memory that we try to forget like a bad dream.  We'll be having PTSD over that hoopty for years I'm sure.  We now have a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee.  It is very nice and a great improvement.  It has things like: windows that roll down and up, air conditioning, windshield wipers that don't just smear the rain around, interior lights that work, a rear windshield wiper that wipes, air conditioning (what? I already said that one?), it smells nice, no giant dents from where cement trucks plowed into me, no exhaust leaking into the car asphyxiating us all, a CD player, and air conditioning! Oh, and it's blue.

Peekaboo!!

Logan Peekaboo from Melissa Staudacher on Vimeo.

Bad Mommy

Bad Mommy from Melissa Staudacher on Vimeo.

9 months

I got to thinking this week, to Logan, I am Wonder Woman.  I have the ability to fix all, big and small, to make it all better.  I know there will be a day when I no longer have this ability.  I dread the moment when he doubts what I can do instead of wondering if there is anything I can't do.  It is sort of cool, this power I have to make things all better.  Daddy doesn't really yet have that power.  But when I scoop Logan up in my arms, the tears stop almost immediately, and he clings closely, relaxing almost instantly.  He has faith in my "perfection" despite my many faults.  How old will he be when this wears off?  I dread the day that happens!   He seems to be growing up so fast, and I am trying so hard to remember every moment because I know that before long, he'll be all grown up - a big boy and not a baby anymore!  I'm grateful that my mistakes are mostly forgotten and the good stuff is sticking with him. 

Well, this week we all seem to have a case of the crud.  It is a bit of a stomach flu, making you feel nausious, tired, cranky and sleepy.  Not fun.  Logan has been especially clingy because of this.  That can be extra annoying taxing if you also feel icky, like I do.  I've had my hands full taking care of Logan and my other big baby, TJ.  To make matters worse, we've been having to come in at about 5am all week for various events.  A urinalysis, PT, PT Test, training, and gigs.  Throw in our land lord deciding THIS was the week she wanted to fix the major plumbing issue between our masterbath and the 2nd floor's masterbath and you have a long week.  If our parents remember, the pipes in both of our shower style bathrooms leak down through the ceiling into the 2d floor.  Big problem.  At first they thought it was the showers.  They recaulked the showers.  Then they thought it was the sinks.  Well, those had bad piping, remember Dad? But those weren't the issue either.  Now our masterbath room is demolished.  They took a jack hammer and tore up our standing shower floor and completed it by digging a trench along the doorway leading into the laundry room.  I need to take pictures.  Ugh.  They also took my sink, complete with cupboard, vanity and mirror off the wall, propped it up against the linen closet door making it impossible to get into the drawers or into the cabinet.  I wish they had told us they were going to be this extensive.  I would have gotten a few more things out of the bathroom.  Like Q tips and more toilet paper.  They also dug a trench behind my washing machine in my laundry room.  We can't give Logan a bath; that's in our master bath.  We can't do laundry. (Don't worry, we haven't resorted to turning our undies inside out and backwords....) Annoying.  They said that it would be only a few days.  At the rate they are going, I doubt that things will be "right" by Monday.  The tile is decimated, my hardword is history.  This is not going to be right for a while.  And!  AND!  Monsoon season kicked in full blast this week.  Miserable.  I'm pretty glad we gave in and got our driver's side window fixed a couple weeks ago so it wouldn't get us all wet when we drove.  The best $60 we've spent in a while!

On the up! Logan is getting bigger and bigger and cuter and cuter.  This past week he turned 9 months old.  Time has flown by!  First, his "Rock Star" laugh has morphed.   He has this big belly laugh and squeel! that is so freakin adorable.  He squeels when TJ blows raspberries on his belly or neck.  Logan is getting pretty fast at crawling. Although he looks a bit like the Hunch Back of Notre Dame when he tries to go fast.  We lost the charging cable to our video camara, or else we'd video it.  Maybe I'll try with my cell phone or something.  We shamefully, I know, call it his retard crawl.  Our babysitter, Rachael, the first time she saw him crawl like that bluntly said, "He crawls funny!  It's soooooo cute!!"  (She's 15.) Logan likes to be "chased" around the house and he squeels if you goose him and exclaim, "You better crawl faster!  I'm going to get you!!" This of course means that you have to crawl as well.  I honestly don't know how he does it.  Crawling on the hardwood floors kills my knees. Maybe that's why he does the retard crawl.  The boy's hair is pretty much settling on being strawberry blonde, I think.  You can see by these two pictures that it looks awefully orange!  It isn't really carrot top orange, but more brown-ish dirty blonde red.  Cute.  It is long enough now that it doesn't stick straight up like alfalfa anymore.  THANK GOD.  We felt like we as parents finally accomplished something!  We have gotten Logan to stop crawling up onto the cable boxes, stop crawling after the cats behind the couch, and stop pulling himself onto the piano bench.  These were all no-nos, and everytime for the past, FOR-EV-ER we have been telling him, "No, not for Logan.  Get down.  Don't go there."  He finally stops, turns around, doesn't have a hissy fit, and comes back to us from the off limits place.  Woo-Hoo! Now we just have to be consistent.  Oh!  This week Logan did another cute thing. (Tell me it isn't so!  Not him!)  He bit me when I was feeding him.  It happens.  It isn't that horrible, but I do flinch and yelp when it happens.  I cried, "Ouch!" and he sat back.  I stuck my bottom lip out and told him it hurt.   He looked at me like he usually does.  But instead of crying because I scolded him a bit, he got a weird look.  He cocked his head and leaned up to my face.  He grabbed my cheeks with his fat little hands and kissed my stuck out lip.  TJ happened to witness the entire event and even teared up and said, "Oh my gosh!  He just kissed you because you had an owie!"  Feel good Hallmark family type moment I tell ya. 

I'll get pictures of the tore up bathroom.  I"ll try and use my phone to take video of the retard crawl.  Oh, did I mention that Logan chucked my cellphone, sending it flying through the air and slamming it into the floor?  The slide won't slide.  It goes up to the 3 4 5 buttons but no higher.  If I wanted to dial anything with a 1 2 or 3, I'm out of luck.  So I got a new phone.  It is ALMOST the same number as my old phone number.  If you take a look at my old number, you will see it is formatted like this: xxx-xxxx-xxxx.  Right?  Well, everything is the same except you'll take the 8699 and change it to 2215.  So, it now is: xxx-2215-xxxx. Confused?  Shoot me an email and I'll send you the full number. 

ZZZZzzzzzZZzZZzzzzz....

In case you had a bet going, neither of us were right.  Logan slept through the fireworks only to wake up during the last minute or so of them.  He looked around like, what the heck is going on, and by time he decided to freak, they were done.  He didn't even get a chance to cry.  He was like, "WHAT THE HECK!!! AHHhhhh oohh.  Oh.  Never mind."  It was more in his face and not even a peep had a chance to escape his lips. 

We had a barbecue on the 5th.  It went well.  All of the beer was drank, and the food snarfed down.  Not a leftover in sight!  Sunday we relaxed and even though it was a "4-day" weekend for us work wise, TJ and I both ended up on the duty rosters.  Back to back.  How bizarre.  He had it Monday, 24 hours, and I picked up with duty today, Tuesday, 24 hours.  I was also supposed to have it on 5 July, but we got a friend to switch duty with us so I wouldn't have to pull 24 hour duty twice in the same weekend.  Funny how the rosters managed to align like that.  It happens.  I'd rather it happen now then at Christmas or something. 

Welcome back to the Staudacher's.  They just got back from an orchestra trip to Ireland.  I'm jealous!

Happy 4th!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July! We are planning on bringing Logan to my concert here in Seoul tomorrow night.  TJ will be down south doing another concert a few hours away while I'll be singing in the one here on post.  I plan on dropping Logan off with a friend and she'll bring him when the concert starts.  I'm only singing one song, so I can go hang out with Logan for most of it.  TJ and I have talked about how the fireworks will effect Logan.  I'm convinced that he'll be scared silly by the bangs.  TJ thinks he'll love to look at them.  We'll see who's right tomorrow!  That is unless it gets rained out.  Monsoon season is upon us.  Wouldn't you know it that the motor on our driver's side window broke.  The window fell out of the track so it is very reluctant to roll up correctly if at all.  We've been looking to get a new hoopty anyway, but this is just the icing to that cake.  Our efforts are stepped up a bit now. 

Logan.  What a great kid.  I can't tell you how awesome this little guy is.  I sit at work and wonder what he is doing.  He is so fun and cute and entertaining!  His crawling is up to high speeds.  He goes so fast!  He pulls himself up to a stand and cranks because he can't figure out how to get down without falling still.  He's "cruising" along furniture and tables like a pro.  We bought cushy little edge guard things for all of our tables.  Also we bought the things that go in drawers and cupboard doors to prevent him from opening them.  He's very good at that.  Thankfully he isn't interested in the toilets yet.  Ick.  I've seen toilet "locks" to stop him from splashing around in them.  He's boycotted the baby food again.  He likes "solids" like finger foods.  Noodles, fruit bits, cookies, bread, green beans are all still a favorite.  Logan will even throw a fit if you don't let him hold his juice box when he's drinking.  He wants to do it himself.  Things always get a bit messy because he wants to do it himself, but it is so cute watching how proud he is after he manages to get the straw in there and drink some.  He loves apple juice! We give him Mott's Tots, which has less sugar then other juices.  Even then we only let him drink half a juice box a day.  Logan has mastered clapping this past week.  When he is excited or happy, he claps.  When he sees other people do it, he does it.  When we watch a game show on TV and the audience claps, he claps.  In the car he sings along with the radio and if I sing a song he likes, he sings along.  Very cute.  This week he also started calling TJ "dad".  Not daddy or dada.  Dad.  What's with this kid?  Oh.  Still no Mama.  Sort of an Ah-ma.  Sometimes.  Very sad.  If you say, "I love you, Logan!" he'll mimic you back, "aaaiiiiiiiuuuuuuufffffffoooooo"  and I know he doesn't really know what he's saying.  He has dropped saying some of the more popular words of previous weeks like duck.  He'll say it every once in a while unlike before where he was so excited and said it all the time.  This week he wants to say "Air!" all the time.  He loves the air conditioners around the house this week.  Maybe because it was pretty stinkin' hot this week and Thess doesn't use the AC.  Something about she likes the heat.  Whatever.  TJ and I don't like the heat so much.  Logan does this hilarious laugh this week.  Oh my gosh.  Crazy.  He opens his mouth all the way, scrunches his nose and closes his eyes and does this snort/hyperventilate thing.  Heavy, fast, hard breathing with snorts. It is so funny.  We got pictures last night.  I'm pushing TJ to get those pictures up ASAP. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!  Enjoy the fireworks, enjoy the food, enjoy each other!!

Summer Daze

Last week TJ played in a golf tournament.  He had one bad day and two great days of golf, ending with him finishing in 11th place.  He's been working his tail off at work and he really needed the time away doing something he loves, relaxing and not worrying about work.  The weather has been pretty cool considering it's mid-June.  Not that it's chilly by any means; it just isn't in the high 90s with 90% humidity. 

Logan is growing like a weed.  He has officially outgrown all of his 6 month old clothes and is on his way to outgrowing his 9-12 month old clothes.  We had to buy more pajamas in 12-18 month old size because the sleeves on his now are almost too tight to fit his arms through.  We bought him new sandals as well because his feet are too big to fit in his current sandals.  He's getting so big and strong! Everyday he physically does a little more then the day before.  He can pull himself up to a stand without any help and sometimes will even say "Up!" while he does it. He can also stand without holding onto anything.  He still bear crawls.  Crazy to see.  And he chases the poor cats around the house.  What a bully!

This week he's mastered saying "hi!" and "Duck!"  Also he can pretty much clap without missing his hands.  Pretty much.  Maybe next week we'll get 100% contact 100% of the time.  No biggie.  It's cute as heck watching him flail his arms with that big smile on his face.  He also is "giving 5!",  but sometimes he'll hit your one hand with both of his.  I guess a two-fer.  He still hasn't gotten the hang of the wave, but we are really working hard on that.  He shakes his head no, and will even sometimes say a gentle no with it.  He doesn't use no very often, I think because we try not and overtly say No if we can help it.  We give a stern, "Not for Logan", "Not in the mouth" (seems like everything goes straight in his mouth) or "please don't..." or just give him better options to choose from without directly telling him no if we can.  Sometimes we just can't help but say no.  We really are trying to avoid having that word become a fixture in his vocabulary or ours.  Logan has added a couple more words since last week.  He now says, "Wa" when he wants some of our water, which he will drink from our cup.  Not without making a bit of a mess, but still, he does well and I'd say about 75% of it makes it in his mouth and not down the front of him or on us.  He'll also say Wa and point when he sees us filling our glass from our w ater bubbler in the kitchen.  He still says "air" when we go and stand in front of the air conditioner after playing outside. Also, he says "MMm, GOOD!" when he likes something.  Our friends are shocked when they see and hear this.  TJ took Logan to work with him yesterday for a couple of hours while I went to get my hair cut.  Logan had some water and a bit of pizza crust with TJ and a couple of the guys at work.  Logan took a big gulp of water and looked right at our friend James and said, "Good!!"  James was like, "Dude.  Your kid just said good." Yep.  He does that.  He also told James hi when he saw him and told the guys that he thought the pizza crust was "Good!"  Good is his favorite word this week.  Still no "mamma" or "Dadda".  Well, 'cept when he cries. Then it's "AAAAhhhhh-Maaaaa!!!" or "Daaadaaaa!"

Logan turned 8 months old this past week.  It's hard to believe that his first birthday is creeping up on us.  He's becoming more and more fun everyday.  If he could stay this age a little longer, I would be so happy.  Everything is new, fun, and exciting.  The only thing that has been slowly creeping in that we aren't so happy about is that he's becoming more and more leary of leaving mommy.   He cries when I leave the room or try and have TJ or Thess hold him.  He's clinging tightly at times and won't let go.   It only lasts for a few minutes, but it's happening more and more.  It really only happens if he's tired or not feeling good from his ears or teeth.  By the way, his two front teeth are all the way in.  And they have a gap.  *sigh*  He's still so cute.  And he smiles so big with his four teeth pushed out for everyone to see.  I guess TJ had a gap when he was little too.  Like father like son.  I'm also proud to announce that more and more often people are recognizing that Logan is indeed my son, not just a carbon copy of TJ.  He's getting my cheeks and chin and smile and! his hair looks like it's going to be dark blonde.  So there!  Ha!  It is much lighter then TJs and seems to be getting lighter and lighter in the sun.  Very cute.  I'm sure I'm missing some things. Oh, he won't go to bed until we read "Good Night Moon" and he gets to point to the mouse in the middle of the story.  We tell everything good night then he falls right to sleep.  Very good boy.  We are so proud and so happy.  Logan has made himself perfectly at home in our family and I couldn't imagine us without him.  Honestly, I don't know what we did before we had him.  He makes us so happy and we look forward to spending everyday with him. 

Scooter

*Admin note: I had a nice long post all written out.  It was witty. It was sharp.  Then the internet took a dump and the whole thing is lost.  All of my hard work is down the drain.  I lack the skillz to save it or find it.  I apologize.  Just know that the following post was much better written at one point. I apologize for my idiocy.

While we haven't posted any new movies, I can hopefully make up with lots of new! Logan news!

He is no longer low crawling backwards, he is honestly truly crawling.  He crawls over, under, around, down and up.  He pivots 360 degrees making anything to the left, right or front or back no problem to get to.  If he can't crawl over it, he barrel rolls it and tries to attack it that way.  He follows us around the house and everyday he sets a new personal best in endurance for how long and far he is willing to crawl.  He can go from lying down to crawling, from sitting to crawling, from crawling to sittting, from laying to standing, from standing to falling on his head, from crawling to kneeling, he can pull himself up to stand next to pretty much anything and tries to climb over said thing and much more.  Logan also has a new trick we call the keg stand that he does while he drinks.  Use your imagination.  It makes a mess. 

Logan again likes solid foods.  We tested the solid foods out on him at about 5 months of age.  That lasted for about 3 weeks before he went on strike and wouldn't take a drop of anything but milk or maybe juice.  Now he is eating lots of things.  Fan favorites are blueberries, applesauce, watermelon, apple juice, apples wedges (now peel free!), raspberry sorbet, sweet potatoes, sometimes bananas, these little star shaped snack things from Gerber, Gerber Biter Biscuits, Zweibak toast and organic pizza crust.  Oh, and Thess said he likes chocolate chip cookies and french fries, but we drew a line in the crumbs and said no more of that silliness. 

This past weekend Logan started to cut his top two front teeth.  It's horrific.  It's taking forever.  His bottom two teeth weren't this much of a pain.  The bottom two came in over a weekend with what I would consider very minimal distress and discomfort.  The two on top?  Different story.  There's blood, there's temper tantrums, screams, throwing of one's head in various directions (sometimes looking a bit like Stevie Wonder), biting, rubbing of the tongue in and out of his mouth which initially TJ thought was a sign that Logan really didn't like him and then there is the low grade fever, sleeplessness and restlessness.  Logan is miserable.  His gums are purple and bleeding with bits of teeth sticking out.  I took pictures.  I'm not going to post them here.  It isn't pretty.  Baby Orajel?  He HATES it.  Thank God for Hyland's Teething tablets, Baby Tylenol and Baby Motrin.  That is the only way we are making through the day.

Logan is also starting to talk a bit.  What is he talking about you may ask?  Well not the usual.  Oh no.  GiGi (kitty), GahnGahn (Logan?), IssaDuck (as in, "Logan, what is this?" "IssaDuck!" when we are in the bath tub playing with his rubber ducks), Ahhhhhn Maaaahhhhhh!!! (I think this is Mama, but he is usually crying his little heart out looking for me to pick him up), oooba (*ahem* uh, boob.  We breastfeed. *sigh*)  Also when we read him his bedtime story, "Goodnight, Moon" he will point to different things on the pages when asked where they are. He knows mouse, kittens, cow and a couple more I think.  He makes me read it to him twice.  Of course Logan won't do anything on command.  It is totally random when he decides to use his words or point to things.  He won't wave, clap or high five, which we have been working on.  Saying Duck?  Not something we've been working on at all.  Last week? He didn't like reading at all.  I was actually a bit worried that he may never like reading.  Then this week?  LOVES IT.  I've learned that with most things Logan will or won't do, it's on again and off again.  He keeps you on your toes.