Two Firsts

I already posted twice today, but I forgot to tell Tolan's first from yesterday and then Logan had a first today too.

Tolan took his first steps yesterday! He took one step 4 separate times and today he managed two steps. I wouldn't call it walking yet, but that's progress! He won't even be 10 months old for a couple more weeks.

Logan has been speaking baby sentences, but today he spoke a completely grammatically & phonetically correct sentence. He walked right up to me and said as clear as day, "I want candy." What a great first sentence! He didn't say it again until I was telling Justin about it, then he kept saying it over & over.

"Fire! Itchy!"

This is what Logan has been saying all day after being attacked by fire ants at the playscape this morning. He was happily admiring a flower he had just picked when he just started screaming! At first I thought he had been stung by a bee from the flower, but then I remembered that we are in Texas, and that means fire ants!

You can't see them all in the picture, but I counted 22 on this foot. Just one on the other foot. But he was wearing his crocs, so they crawled right up inside! He seems to be handling it very well now though.

Going to the Pool

Since we are going to Canada this summer, and will be living on a lake for a week, we thought it would be good to practice being in the water a little before we go. Although he was born in Hawaii, and we spent many days at the beach, Logan has never really liked the water - besides the "ta-tub" (bathtub). Since he doesn't really like it, its hard for me to take both of them to the pool by myself. Justin was off for Memorial Day, so we went.

Logan asks to go to the pool and gets excited when we are getting ready, but when we actually get there, he clings to us like a leech. Maybe he does like it, I don't know. He keeps saying, "pool - have fun" So we'll have to go back.
Although he doesn't look like it here, Tolan does like the water. He has sunscreen smeared all over his face & through his hair, so he's not looking too happy. But he had a good time floating in his boat.

Adventures in Potty Training: Part 4

Just an update on the potty training since a couple of you have asked me how its going. It's going really well. Logan likes to go on the big potty most of the time and usually insists that he do it all by himself. Pretty good for a 28-month-old boy! He will literally push me out the door, say "back" as in "come back later," and then shut the door in my face. So at home its going very well. He's only gone outside of our house once, and that was on the mini toilet in the nursery at church. So we still put him in a Pull-up when we are out. Sometimes it comes back dry, sometimes it doesn't. So that's the next step I guess, to go Pull-up free in public.

A post is always better with a picture, but I doubt you want one of Logan on the toilet, so here's one of them in their new summer jammies.

I love when Tolan makes this face. I'm glad I was able to get it on camera b/c it cracks me up when he does it.

A Night in the Closet

Well, its Tornado Season, and I hate tornado season. Last night we had some serious storms. I was out doing a couple errands after Young Women's. There was a lot of lightning, but it wasn't raining or anything and then Justin called me and told me to come home right away. I had no idea what was going on. At home on tv they were calling for severe thunderstorms with golf ball & baseball size hail, which were very likely to produce tornados and the worst part of the storm was headed straight for Pflugerville (that's where we live).

Last year we designated the closet under the stairs as our tornado closet. We keep it cleared out with the exception of some jackets, shoes and our 72-hour kits. They were really being serious about this on the tv, so we got the kids out of bed b/c if they said there was a tornado I didn't want to have to run up and get them out of bed before going into hiding in the closet. So we had the kids only for a couple of minutes when they put a little animated tornado icon over "Pflugerville" on the map and said that radar was showing a funnel cloud forming about a mile and a half NE of downtown Pflugerville. That's exactly where we live. So we got in the closet.

Tolan thought it was great, he was laughing and squirming and Logan was totally freaked out. Justin couldn't get over how hot it was in there and I couldn't believe we were actually in the closet. We weren't in there very long b/c it didn't even sound like it was raining and we definitely didn't hear a tornado. So Justin got out to check the tv and the storm had already blown over Pville, and was now weakened with much less threat of a tornado. So we got out and put the kids back to bed.

I feel kind of silly about the whole closet thing now b/c nothing happened at all, but what can I say? They were telling us to take cover. If nothing else it was a good opportunity to think up all those extra things I should have in our 72-hour kits, but that we don't. (Diapers, bottles, formula, etc) And it was also a good reinforcement in my brain that I should have bought that weather radio I almost bought just days before. I seriously had my hand on it, and then decided to spend the extra $30 "next time." Sitting in the closet without any idea what was going on outside made me really wish I had bought it!

Going Green

I usually get groceries at Wal*Mart, and I have been using those recycled cloth bags for a while now, but I felt like I was the only one in the world doing so b/c I have never seen anyone else at Wal*Mart using them. Well today I changed it up and got groceries at HEB and almost everyone was using cloth bags! I was surprised. "Attention Wal*Mart shoppers!" I guess WalMart-ers haven't gone green yet. I wonder why such a difference? Do you use them?? Click yes or no on the poll to the right.

Inflatable Wonderland

Tolan turns 9 months old on Monday, and we went to his well-check yesterday. FYI, he is 20 lbs 11 oz, which is 50th percentile and he is 29 inches which makes him 75th percentile for height!

Since we had the car for the day and Thursdays are half price at Inflatable Wonderland, I decided to take Logan. He had never been before and was scared at first. He was crying for Daddy and refusing to go near any of the giant blow up things. I didn't notice at first, but it probably didn't help that I had parked our stroller right by the one with a giant shark's mouth for an entrance. Anyway, after a while he saw that other kids were having a great time and was being lured in by the one with blow-up basketball hoops inside. So he did give in and ended up having a great time. I could hardly keep up with him running between all the different inflatables (I had to follow him around b/c he's still little and needed a boost to get into most of them). Unfortunately, I forgot the camera.

5K Walk

University of Phoenix sponsored a 5K walk/run this morning for NFPA (National Foster Parents Assoc), so we went along with Justin and did the walk. Well, okay, only half the walk. 5K was 2 laps around the park and Logan was refusing to sit in the stroller for the 2nd half. We still had a good time though.

Justin with a couple of other UoP employees

They also had some horses there for the kids to ride (for free). Logan was interested, but I thought he would be scared once we actually went up to the horse. Nope, he reached right out and petted her face. This one's name was Glory & she is 22 years old!

After we walked they were letting kids ride, so Logan took a turn and again, was not scared. He loved it!

After his turn was done on the brown horse he was mad and started to cry. He wanted to keep riding! Lucky for him there weren't very many kids there and he was able to take a ride on Glory.