Mark's Birthday & Mother's Day

For Mark's birthday this year, we mainly ate lots of dessert.  Mark had been starving himself for a couple months in preparation for his big climbing trip to Smith, so we had a lot of dessert to catch up on.  Also, we went to the Rockies game.  We didn't have the best weather.  It was pouring on the way there, but by the time we got to the stadium it had stopped, and we stayed mostly dry. 

Kenny has taught Logan that his favorite team is the Rockies, and his favorite player is Cargo.  His second favorite player is Chipper.

Logan was only mildly interested in baseball.  He was mostly interested in the big bag of M&Ms Daddy brought.  And the escalators.



Birthday cupcakes at the game


The next weekend was Mother's Day.  I was treated extra nicely this year since Mark had just gotten back from his climbing trip.  I got blueberry french toast and chocolate covered strawberries in bed! Plus dinner by Kenny, dessert by Mark, and 2 sets of flowers.  It'll be hard to top that next year.  We had dinner with Ginny, and spent a fair amount of time explaining to Logan why it was not just Mommy's day, but Ginny's day and Grandmas' days too.  I think he got it.  Sort of.  He did want to send pieces of cake to his Grandmas.

Mother's Day dinner with Ginny & Logan

Tiny Town train.  This is the "amusement park" 5 minutes from our hosue. We decided to go crazy and bought a season pass!  This will be Mark & Logan's activity this summer when the baby comes.

Connecticut

We got to go back to Connecticut for a long weekend at the beginning of May. We left Colorado in a May 1st snowstorm and landed in beautiful spring weather in Connecticut. The daffodils and forsythia and that pretty pink flowering tree were all in bloom and the trees were just starting to get their leaves. It was even warm enough one day for Logan to swim at the beach. He may get the award for first in the pond this year. Logan, like every kid, loves water. He was the only one to venture in, but he kept saying "Come on in guys, the water is great!".

The beach

Kenny & Logan pretend fishing

Logan loved his Uncle Andrew. He was quick to introduce him to visitors. "That's MY uncle Andrew. He's big!" He is big. Logan followed him around the yard as Andrew cleared out the pond in the backyard and got the waterfall running, and they raced around playing Sporticus and climbing on the boulders in the backyard. The pond was great entertainment-- there were about 20 frogs living in there, including a giant bullfrog.

Logan and his big Uncle Andrew

Logan, Kiera, and Uncle Andrew

Bullfrog in the pond

Logan got in lots of good grandma time with legos, books, and bubbles. We hit all the requisite Newtown sites-- Trinity, flagpole, overlook, Dickinson, General Store, meadow, pond. The house is going on the market, so this may be one of our last trips. I'm sure I'll be one of those people that drag the kids back to the old neighborhood every chance I get. Of course, that may not be that often seeing as we live 2000 miles away.


Legos with Grandma

Chasing bubbles in the front yard

Logan & Grandma

The meadow

We also happened upon Southford Falls one day, on our way home from visiting Uncle Andrew at work in Oxford.  Its only about half an hour from our house, but its not really on the way to anywhere we usually go, and I can't remember ever having been here before.  That day though, it was on the way home, and it seemed like a nice place to stop.  There was a sign pointing to a covered bridge, so we hiked down there, and then I realized this was the same spot my dad  & I had been in one of my favorite pictures of us from when I was about Logan's age.  It was a fun discovery. 

Logan walking through the covered bridge at Southford Falls



My dad & I circa 1981 at the same covered bridge

Logan looking for pirates through his telescope stick

Also of note was that Logan figured out how to climb out of the pack and play on this trip.  That made for not so restful nights as he ended up in bed with me, and fell out of the bed a couple times.  I thought we were going to move him to a bed around now to make way for the new baby, but I'm liking the crib more and more.  He still hasn't climbed out of that. The confined-ness of it is very... restful.  I think the baby will be just fine in a bassinet or pack and play for a few extra months. 

The end of winter-- I hope

Spring in Colorado is such a tease. We get sunny days in the 70s, followed by a foot of snow the next day.  Here's hoping this week's snow was the last!

Skiing around the yard

Logan was a big fan of the going downhill on Daddy's back

Logan cruising with his friend Arbor

The elk herd has been in our neighborhood for a few weeks now.

Visiting Kara

We spent a weekend in LA with my best buddy from high school, Kara.  It was fun to have a girls +Logan weekend, and Logan had a ball playing with her.  They played super heroes, flipped pretend pancakes in the yard, put robbers in jail, fought pirates with wrapping paper rolls, and did lots of running and chasing.  We took him to the Santa Monica pier, and he got the biggest kick out of the pigeons. He would run headlong into a group of pigeons shouting "Come back here birdie, come back here" as they flew away, giggling gleefully as they scattered before him.  Then he'd stop, scout out the next flock of pigeons, and start his chase again.  He thought it was the funniest thing, and it was one of those moments where you stop and really appreciate the joy a two year old can bring.  Of course there are also all the 50 other moments when he's refusing to walk, refusing to get in the backpack, refusing to share, refusing to get dressed, refusing to eat, etc etc etc.  But the "come back birdie" moments are the ones I remember at the end of the day. 

Come back here birdies, come back here!

 

Hot chocolate on the pier

Baby girl

Baby's first picture, at 28 weeks.  I think she looks just like Logan.

2 1/4



How Logan sleeps.  4 blankies, 7 stuffed animals, 20 books, trains, electric guitar, bulldozer, drill, hammer, legos, vegetable cutting board set, and cup of water are all must-haves.


At 2 years 3 months, Logan, more than ever, is Mark.  He's demanding and stubborn and in charge, pouts when things don't go his way, and is shy around strangers. He's also smart and funny and sweet and loving.  He has an utter joy of life and need for constant action that is both wonderful and exhausting.

Logan loves pretending.  He likes to tool around the yard fighting pirates off with sticks, hiding from tigers, and throwing "bad marshmallow" pinecones.  He's often in character as a tiger or puppy or Sporticus, a superhero from his new favorite show is Lazy Town.  He gets a superhero running start everywhere he goes by winding up his arms like he's about to throw a ball, lifing his leg, and then taking off.  He loves racing down the little hill behind our house on foot or bike, searching the woods for elk poop, and fixing stuff around the house with his tools.  Its funny to me how different he is from the little girls we know, and how innate those differences are.

Easter weekend

We spent Easter weekend in San Diego with Rob, Julie and Sam. We headed out to JTree for a couple days, for some hiking, bouldering, and tunneling through rocks.  Our trip included a night camping, during which we all actually slept.  I think that may be our first ever non-miserable night camping with Logan. There are a lot of things like this that finally seem easier, 3 months before I turn back the clock 2.5 years.



Sam, Rob, Mark, and Logan hiking in JTree



Joshua Tree

Logan tunneling

  We headed back to San Diego for the rest of the weekend, where our primary goals were to eat and go to the beach.  We managed to fit in Trader Joe's, fish tacos, In n Out burgers, and frozen yogurt at this magical place that let you serve yourself from 15 different flavors with unlimited re-fills and free samples and a giant toppings bar.  Its times like this, when we're so impressed with a big city concept like self serve frozen yogurt, that I realize we're turning into real country hicks. We also made a couple trips to the beach.  Mark got to surf, I spotted some dolphins, and Logan just spent the whole time trying to avoid the sand. We were at the beach in Florida just a month ago, and Logan loved it-- thought it was the ultimate sandbox.  This time he couldn't stand to have sand on him.  When I took his shoe off, he refused to put his foot down in the sand, and when he got sand on his hand he would hold it out to me with this look of disgust for me to wipe off.  Wierdo. He did like playing frisbee.  He makes a big production of getting in his stance, winding up, and it looks like he's going to just nail you.  The exciting part is you never know which direction its going to go and who its going to hit.  He can throw it a decent distance,though. 

Logan, Rob, Sam, & Julie at the beach

We decided to go to a community Easter Egg hunt, along with the rest of southern California.  There had to be a thousand people there.  I've never been to a community hunt before, so it was kind of fun to see the madness of a million kids running after eggs, and they had all sorts of jumpy castles and face painting and arts and crafts stations.  But you had to wait in line forever to do any of it.  I think in the future we'll stick to the back yard...

Discovering Smarties in his Easter Egg

Logan & Sam with their Easter loot

We headed home early Easter morning, and then we got home we had another Easter egg hunt.  You can never have too many Easter Egg hunts. 

Happy Easter!