Justin's Graduation

Justin graduated today with his MBA. He has completed all the classes for the MBA but he decided to take 2 more to get an MBA/GM, so he isn't really done, but graduation was nice and we actually got some decent pictures this time.

We went to Cheesecake Factory afterward and I asked the waiter if they had a kids menu. He said no, but explained that they do offer chicken strips, mini pizzas, and mini burgers for kids. When we were getting out of the car Logan said "burger" a couple of times, so I decided to go for the mini burger. This is what we got:

Yeah, he got a kid-sized burger, but he got 4 of them!
(p.s. He looks huge, but he's sitting on a booster seat.)

And Tolan got to nibble on a french fry.

Those were the good pictures of the day. Here are the funnier ones:

Tolan giving a death stare

You mean I have to eat all of these???

Logan's Tag

Logan got tagged like a week ago, but I haven't had a chance to post it yet. So, finally, here's Logan's tag:

1. Logan loves cars, trucks, motorcycles, construction equipment - anything with wheels pretty much. He got a new shirt with a bunch of trucks on it one day and I told him we had to wash it and then he could wear it the next day. I thought he would forget. First thing he said the next morning was "TRUCKS!" and ran for the closet to get the shirt and then he pointed to his shirt all day long reminding me that it had trucks. It still remains a favorite.

2. Logan loves sports. Ball was one of his first words and he still loves them, but now he can differentiate between all the different kinds. We can't go anywhere near the balls at the store without him leaving kicking and screaming. One day we got him a new full-size basketball and he insisted that he sleep with it for several days afterward.

3. Logan loves music, especially guitars. Justin plays the guitar, so I think that has something to do with it. We got him his own kid sized guitar for Christmas, which he does like and can strum on surprisingly well, but he still prefers Daddy's ukulele. If theres a band or anything playing on tv he has to have his guitar. He also loves to dance, which I haven't been able to catch on video, despite several attempts. His favorite song is the ChaCha Slide by Casper. The song starts out with a beat and the guy says "funky! funky! funky!" So when Logan wants to hear the song and dance to it he will bounce his head and say "funky! funky! funky!" - except that he's 2 so he doesn't say it quite right and he leaves out the 'n.' We are just hoping that he doesn't want to hear the song when we are out in public.

4. So far all of Logan's favorites have been pretty typical for little boys. As far as I know this one isn't. Logan loves clothes. "Shoe" was his first word. He gets excited about new clothes and shoes and insists on picking out his own clothes every day. He also likes to change his clothes several times a day. I have heard moms of little girls complain about this, but I've never heard of any other boys that love to change their clothes. He also often insists on wearing different hats, shoes, jackets or other accessories - even when it's hot outside.

5. Logan is obsessed with XBox. Justin has a 360 and he really doesn't play that much, but you would think that he plays for hours every day based on how much Logan is obsessed. As soon as Justin comes home from work Logan is all over him, "xbox! xbox! xbox!" And if Justin does play, Logan has to have his own controller and headset (some old headphones) just like Daddy. He also will run as fast as he can in a little panic to find whatever toy he has that will match the game - if it's a basketball game he must have a basketball. If its a racing game, he must have his car. If it's a golf game, he has to have golf club, ball, and a hat just like Tiger Woods.

And I tag Carter W.

Tolan, 8 months old

Tolan turned 8 months old on April 12, but I forgot to take his 8 month pictures. So they're a little late, but here we go:

6 months

8 months

I've also been noticing that he looks too big for his carseat already, but I knew the weight limit was 22 lbs, and I don't think he weighs that much yet. But his feet do hang out and his head is at the top of his carseat, so I went and looked up the height limit. It's 29 inches, so I got out the yardstick and looked at 29 inches and thought, "no way, he's not THAT big." Then I lined him up with the yardstick on the floor and yep, he is! Time for a new carseat! Logan was in that carseat well after his first birthday and Tolan is only 8 months old!

Change

This past Sunday I was released from being the Primary Secretary and was called as the YW 2nd Counselor - so instead of assigning talks and prayers this week, I suddenly find myself in charge of planning a service project for next week, a fashion show that's in 2 weeks, and an overnight beach trip for a couple weeks after that! I am sad to leave Primary, and YW is apparently going to be a lot more responsibility, but I'm still excited for the new calling.

Potty Training: Part 3

It's only been 4 days since the first time Logan went on the potty and today was our first accident-free day! He used the potty every time, #1's and #2's. We even went to Justin's softball game and to Costco and came home with a dry pull-up. He made it through church yesterday and all through the night too. So we are doing very well!

Gratitude

Over the last 2 weeks I participated in a gratitude study. This was a project for someone for school. I was supposed to express gratitude (preferably out loud) in moments of parental stress with the theory that having more gratitude in your life will reduce your stress. I was also supposed to keep a daily tally of each moment of stress. The woman who conducted the study just sent out the statistics from the study.

Her results showed that there was a steady and significant decrease in stressors (53/2%). That was with an average of 31.4 participants each day.

That's the main statistic & I won't bore you with the rest, but it was an interesting study. As for my personal results, I was glad that I did it. My numbers did show a decline, but with kids (or anything in life) you will never not have any stress. The main thing was that I was able to handle the stress better. I usually ended up expressing the gratitude just in my head, but stopping and actually doing that really flips a switch and allows you to handle the moment with out overreacting. There were still moments that I remembered what I was supposed to do, but didn't do it anyway b/c I just wanted to be mad about whatever it was. After those moments were over I of course realized that they weren't as bad as they had seemed in the moment. I also found that if I allowed myself to skip the gratitude in a certain situation, it was usually downhill from there with other situations that followed. So it was interesting and helpful and something I will continue to try and keep up with. So if you are feeling stressed and feeling like you bark at your kids all day, it might be worth a try.

Adventures in Potty Training: Part 2

Tolan came down with a fever this afternoon - 102.6 - so that kind of threw a wrench into my potty training boot camp. So we had a sort of watered-down version of what I was supposed to do from the book. However, I am happy to report that we had success! I am totally amazed and so happy with today's progress. I'm sure we will still have accidents, but I feel like we have had a breakthrough.

Tolan wanted to take a nap at 8:30 this morning - so I should have seen the fever coming. Anyway, that nap allowed me to start Logan out with about 2 1/2 uninterrupted hours of potty training. Logan resisted at times and I wanted to give up at times, but I just toughed it out and kept going. About 2 hours into it - he did it! He wet the potty and I hate to admit that that was probably one of the most exciting moments of my life. Logan and I were both so happy. He had to go again about 20 minutes later and he told me, so we went and he wet the potty again! After that I figured he was emptied out and Tolan had just woken up. So we took a break for Logan to take a nap.

After his nap he had 2 tiny accidents (not enough to have to clean up the floor or anything). I think those little accidents were just leading up to going in the potty. They were such minor accidents that I think he knew he was starting to wet his pants and stopped, then held it in, b/c the third time he told me he had to go and then it was a lot - in the potty though! So now he gets it. And we'll just keep going from here. I'm very pleased though. So I'm sure if I had followed the book exactly and been more available to him the rest of the day it would have worked even better. But I feel that I definitely got my 6 bucks worth.

For anyone interested, here's the link to where I got it. It looks a little infomercial-ish and I was a little skeptical, but I figured "$6? That's a lot less than another pack of diapers!" http://members.aol.com/pattispages/pottytraining.html

So I'll keep you posted to see if it sticks over the next few days.

Adventures in Potty Training: Part 1

Part 1 only applies to the blog - we've been attempting this off & on for a while. I said from the very beginning that I had no idea what I was doing when it came to potty training. Logan shows most of the "signs" that he's ready to train and we've had a potty for him in the bathroom for quite a while now & he has never been opposed to sitting on it - he seems to like it actually. I've read & heard bits & pieces of potty training tips and advice here and there and a few months ago we tried it out and just put in him underpants and ran him to the potty every time he wet his pants - trying to make the connection and teach him what was supposed to happen. I even tried demonstrating with a doll. Well I gave up after a couple of days of cleaning up mess after mess and figured he wasn't ready yet.

Now its a few months later and I wanted to try again b/c with Tolan in diapers too, most days I just feel like a one-woman diaper assembly line. So I decided to try a little different approach this time. We made it official and took the diapers out of the cabinet together and packed them away (but still accessible to me for him wear at bedtime) I also presented him with a fancy chart that I had made with stickers for progress and decorated with baseball stuff to make it cool. Then we had the doll (which I had put into a diaper a few weeks ago) take off the diaper and use the potty (with much excitement & praise from me) then we put underpants on it, praised it some more and gave it a piece of candy. Then I explained to Logan that if he used the potty too, he would get some candy and a sticker for his chart, just like the doll. Well, he just thought all that was great! He loved the chart and thought it was funny when I praised the doll & gave it candy. But let's face it, it was pretty ridiculous. Justin even admits he was sad to have missed the whole charade.

So after about 2 days of this, the candy was completely forgotten b/c we never got that far and the chart was just a distraction. Every time he sat on the potty he just got right up again to look at the stuff on the chart. We were still cleaning up mess after mess and Tolan was just crying outside the bathroom door while I had Logan sitting on the potty and rinsing out the underpants. I just kept thinking there has to be a better way! There's no way I can do this over & over for weeks, months, whatever. It's exhausting and frustrating, probably for Logan too. We did seem to make some progress though - he did start heading to the potty on his own and tell me "potty" (after already being wet). But we weren't making the connection to go to potty before the wetness and I had no idea how the help him make the connection either. Maybe if I had more patience and toughed it out a little longer he would get it. I don't know, but I couldn't see myself going on like this, with poor Tolan crying at the door and I still wasn't sure I was doing it right.

Justin & I recently took 2 different personality tests, you know, with the different colors of personalities, etc. And I already knew this about myself, but they both said that I like things explained and laid out step by step, and I felt like this is what I was missing with potty training. I wanted to know exactly what to do. So I went in search of a book and ended up downloading one for $6 off the internet. According to this method, it should not take weeks or months and it does tell me exactly what to do. So I'm all ready to try Potty Training Part 2 tomorrow. I have a couple of concerns with the method, but I'll just try it anyway and see how it goes. Wish me luck & stay tuned!

Cake

I made this cake for the Relief Society birthday dinner a few weeks ago, but just got the pics today. Of course my camera decided not to work that night, but luckily our RS President is one of those people who always has a camera and was able to take some pics for me.

The top layer was chocolate & the bottom was a butter cake. I was afraid it was too much cake, but it was all gone by the end of the night.

Now that Tolan is crawling, he gets away from me once in a while and I often find him in the office looking out the window. I couldn't decide which of these was the best, so I posted them all.


Logan is a free man and gets away from me all of the time. He is also very often found in the office. Today I caught him jammin' on his little guitar with a little amp & everything!

iPodder

Justin is finishing his last paper ever for his MBA as I am typing this. We are so glad that he's done! Commencement is a few weeks away and his graduation gown & cap and everything came in the mail today. He took it out and tried it on - the usual black gown. Logan was watching of course and said, "Potter!" We have no idea how he knows Harry Potter! We haven't read any of the books. He's never seen the movie, and we don't have any other Harry Potter paraphernalia around the house. He picked it up somewhere though. Who knows, it's amazing the things he picks up. He does know what an iPod is, so the funny part was when he tried to say Harry Potter all together and it didn't sound like "Harry Potter," it sounded more like iPodder.

Hail

We don't get snow very often in Austin, but we do get hail! We snapped these first thing this morning and it was all done in about 5 minutes.

Logan thinks its hilarious when he puts the laundry bag over his head and walks around blindly. After he was done doing this yesterday, Tolan decided to try his version of this game and crawled inside.

On Wednesday we went to Benihana for dinner with Justin's team (from work). Here are a few of the pictures they took that night.

Giving in to the Blog

So we've had our other website www.babyhomepages.net/babyshook ever since Logan was born and even after the blog rage began we've just kept it b/c that's what we had and that's the web address everyone already knew for us. There are things I like about our babyhomepages and things I don't like. I don't like their backgrounds and I don't like that I can't tell a whole story along with a picture. I can only write a sentence or two.

But I didn't want to get a blog b/c everyone has one and they don't seem to just have a picture gallery or anything, which is one thing I like about our other page. Plus, I didn't think that I had enough things to write about for an actual "blog." But I love looking at other people's blogs. I tend to get a little bit consumed by it sometimes (esp. when they have links to other people's blogs) and I keep finding myself wishing that we had one. I also keep thinking of things I could have written about during the day. So when I found out that blogspot was FREE (Babyhomepages = $18/year) and that our babyhomepages expires in May, I figured now was a good time to transition. So here I am. I've given in. I have a blog.