9 Months 9 Months 9 Months!

This guy is 9 months.

How do babies learn so much in such a short amount of time? I wish I recorded more of what Logan was doing at what stage prior to the 8 month mark but when I noticed that I didn't take note much I decided that I would do this more. So this is all about Mr. Logan's amazing baby accomplishments.

This guy loves to babble Dadada (the most... this is #1), but will also do Mamama and something that sounds somewhat like "geek". Perhaps he already has a read on his parents. He also does "Ya" and "Hi".. intentional? we like to think so...

Just before the 9 month mark he also started the wave. I noted for the first time that it was intentional when we were at a friends place and there were construction workers in the backyard and he waved at them!

At 6 months Logan got his bottom 2 chompers and it took another couple months until the next ones came through... Logan likes to spice things up in life... he didn't get the centre top two, but the ones beside the centre. I took this picture end of May so they are in much more now but getting a picture of teeth is pretty much impossible! The top centre ones are just starting to break through now... 9 months and a week!

All these new teeth will help with all the new chunky solids hes been having... cheerios (his favourite), toast, muffins, pasta.. hes tried all these! Still working on the pasta taste buds...

Logan's been sitting up for a few months now... but having the stability to stay in the shopping cart is a new thing! He is now officially a  shopping cart baby which makes grocery shopping much easier (this is Canadian tire though!). We were the people with the stroller and cart before.

Oh standing? No big deal for this guy... He can hold on to his crib, the edge of the bed, the playpen and stay stable for over 5 minutes. Its just the moving the feet part he has to work on... He gets so proud of himself when he can do new things!

He is on the verge of crawling now.. he gets on his hands and knees but goes backward. Even if he tries really hard to go forward. He's got the motion of going from on his tummy back to sitting from all his crawling tries too! He hasn't figured out yet how to get up from the laying on his back position yet which is great for sleeping. He's always in the same spot!

He also eats 3 meals plus at least 2 snacks a day. Like a beast!! He loves his food.

And when hes really excited he opens his mouth wide! This is also how he gives kisses!

We love our big man.

Starting off the Summer!

We have crammed in lots of summer activities already and it's just June. I think the beginning of the summer feels long because the nice weather started so early, but it's going to fly by! At least I get the whole summer off to enjoy with Mr. almost 9 months old.

We celebrated Cadences 2nd birthday the first weekend of June. It was a beautiful day and Chels had set up a bunch of water activities for the kids. Logan especially loved the water table and the pool. He's going to be pumped to go into the new kiddie pool we have for him! He even had a mid party nap in his friends crib. He's so generous giving his parents an hour to have a drink.

And on Cadences actual birthday, Logan and I went for with some birthday balloons for some birthday activities. First we did finger painting with the paint made of flour and salt but because Logan wanted to eat it in handfuls, we switched to this safer food activity: coloured ice cubes which melt in the yogurt (for finger painting) and cheerios (Logan's favourite!). I figured this was less likely to create barf.

These messy kids!

I had a great idea for Brooklyn and I to go hiking... something we haven't done in a bit. Then I went on the tourism London website to see what was going on and found that Nature London had a "nature walk" just behind Windermere at Adelaide. What they clearly meant was birdwatching. We went birdwatching.

As you can see, we were a couple years younger than the average birdwatcher but we tried to fit right in... binoculars and looking up in the trees. I even learned a couple new bird names. I forget them now.... But at least now I can say that I've been bird watching.

I have been wanting to try the Komoka hiking tail for a while and we went to give it a whirl the day after Cadence's birthday. But the problem was... we thought it was going to stop raining by the time we got there. It didn't. So we ended up waiting in the car for about 15 minutes while it continued to rain. Logan didn't seem to mind as long as he could be the driver.

So we tried again this past weekend on the Sunday and had success! The picture under here is from our Komoka hike. It's a nice one. But we only got about halfway there then headed back because it was some kind of meal time for Logan (its all about the baby's schedule). We will definitely go back sometime this summer to do he whole loop. I'd love to do more hiking this summer. It's actually an activity Logan likes! He is getting a little heavy for that carrier though...

 We also accomplished a front garden over the past couple weekends! The hard part was done by Aleksy and his brother the first weekend of the month where they dug out the garden, laid some fresh soil and planted a big red maple tree out front.

Then this past weekend, while the Logster was with his Nana and Dziadek, we planted in the garden and put down the mulch. I even helped. I put in the hostas. I am not a gardener. Unless we have a veggie garden which would be exciting for me, I don't have much interest in flowers and plants. We chose a low maintenance garden which is simple but dresses up the front a bit. The hydrangea tree will definitely help spruce things up!

Voila! Complete!

Spring 2016 Family Photos: May 28th

We got our family pictures back! We did our family photos at an apple orchard in Port Stanley a couple weeks ago. I am super happy with the way they turned out! Lots of good shots. She sent around 25 pictures (even though I paid for just 10!) and here are some of the best ones:

This one was one of my suggestions and one of the favourites!!:

This is my other favourite:

The goober monster did not want to smile much during the photoshoot no matter how ridiculous our dancing was or how shiny the photographer's bangles were! The most smiles were when he was on Aleksy's shoulders because he was pulling his hair! 

Kickin It Kincardine Style

Last weekend was one of the best. We had such an awesome time at our friends Zac and Sam's new place in Kincardine. It's an amazing cottage style lake house that's basically on a street with a bunch of summer homes! I cant do justice to try to describe it but i will try... massive windows (like a 30 foot ceiling!) overlooking their huge yard, just 5 minutes from the beach but also with sand dues and a river behind their yard. I love to be outside and so does my baby... we were such happy campers after that weekend!

We left for Kincardine on Saturday after our family photos. It wasn't ideal for driving because our family photos were in Port Stanley and then goober monster was car bound for over 2 hours while we made it up to Kincardine! After a mandatory stop at Shaws in Port Stanley for ice cream lunch, Goober slept for the majority of the car ride up.. or was super happy. It was such a relief because we had just switched his car seat from the baby bucket to the big seat so he wasn't used to the car seat and his little head was bobbing forward because it isnt quite as reclined. But it all worked well and we got to Kincardine just before supper time!

When we got there, we got a tour of our friends amazing place... so big and beautiful. I seriously have to note the toy room. Best toy room ever with so many stations.. dress up, jurrasic park, tool bench... you name it! Scarlett and baby William on the way are lucky kiddos! After some time playing in the ball pit (Logan loves his ball pits), we headed outside so Scarlett and Logan could play with the water table. t was such a hot day so it was a good cool off too. This is Logan getting soaked.

And Scarlett and Logan getting soaked. Logan's dress clothes from the photoshoot were mostly off by this time except his blue khaki shorts, which he drenched. But had an awesome time doing it.

We need a water table this summer for our backyard! We have a little pool but I think Logan and his many friends would have awesome playdates with a water table too. I have been keeping my eye out for used ones for slae!

These 2!! Scarlett let us know this chair is for baby William... but they could sit in it for a picture!

After some water table shenanigans, we headed inside for supper (that summer chicken salad with the assorted fruit was seriously delish!) then we couldn't wait to walk to the beach.

And it was only a 5 minute walk to the beach! I actually would like to move in with Zac and Sam for the weekends. 5 minutes from this beach and not to mention the river in their backyard (and sand dunes!). I would never be inside in the summer! Scarlett is all over it. It's basically her beach.

On this night, Logan stuck his little toes in the beach water for the first time! The baby likes him some beaching so we'll have to plan a day trip to the beach soon! We even prepared by buying a pop up tent shelter!

And Mr. Logan went down and slept pretty well that night but was up bright and early before 7am, which made us regret the last couple drinks (I think it was 1am when we went to bed. Why doesn't it seem that late when I write it here?). But the company is so good!

The next morning, we went for a little walking adventure to the nearby park where Scarlett played and bubbles were blown while Logan went down for a super late morning nap in the stroller. Normally Logan is down 1.5-2 hours after he wakes up but he was way too excited to be outside that he slept for maybe half hour in the stroller and it was after 10 when he fell asleep!

He woke up right as we got to the beach. He must have not wanted to miss it.... This is right after he woke up. Beach cuddles!

This happy boy with his toes in the sand!

And me and Sam (at 25 weeks with her little boy!). We have to get our "couple" picture taken every so often. Started at Kincardine weekend 2012!

This was such a good weekend that we basically made plans to go back while we were leaving. And Logan slept the whole 2 hours home!

May 2-4 Camping and Weekend

We had such a good May 2-4 weekend. It makes it so much more enjoyable when the weather is nice! We had been planning our annual camping trip over the long weekend with Al and Steph for a while. This year, we only did 1 night where as usually we go for 2 nights of the weekend. We thought 1 night is actually very adventurous with 8 month Logan plus the other 3 and 1 year old kiddos in the same trailer! New parents living on the edge... Our plans were made for the Saturday night so I spent Friday night hitting up food and drink stores after my gym classes and we headed up Saturday morning after Logan's morning nap!

We actually have the cutest camper in the world. Logan was so excited to be in the go pod when we first got there and played for a bit/stared at Colton and Chase play or a bit when we first arrived. It was a lot to take in for an 8 month old. He loves being outside and he loves watching toddlers/older kids playing. So this was jackpot for Logan. He was instantly entertained.

We camped at the Pittock conservation area in Woodstock this year. I was surprised how nice it was. Our campsite was right along the water and lined with trees just before the water!

We finally got the baby seat for the bike all ready to go for Aleksys bike and brought it camping with us. There is 1 baby helmet available at good ol Canadian tire and both Logan and his buddy Chase have the same one. How cute are these 2? All ready for a bike ride almost immediately after we arrived. Colton was dying to ride his bike. He has a 2 wheeler with no peddles and just scoots around faster than anything you would imagine with his legs! He's the bravest kid ever too... no fear on that bike!

This was Logan's first time on the back of the bike in his seat. With Logan, we never really know what hes going to like or hate. Its a total gamble. He hated the baby sled like it was torturous. But we were hopeful that this would be successful because we did drop some money on his car seat, the mounting device and helmet. And thank goodness he loved it! So much that we forgot that his bottle was long overdue during the bike ride.

I could buy all the toys out of toys r us and wal mart and Logan would still choose a bowl and spoon or this... his new thing... a shovel. You can see the awesomeness behind our campsite in this picture.

Our friends Chels, Warren and their kids joined us after lunch. We went out for a group walk. As you can see our families have grown significantly over the past 3 years... This is what a ridiculous amount of space we take up! Actually between all our kids (we are cheap contributors) there are the same number of children as adults: 6!

After our walk where Logan was able to get some nap time in, we started up the camp fire and supper. Chicken, hot dogs, and potato and garden salads (my potato salad took a full day to make...). Look at our cute mini campers!

And Colton only fell in the firepit (when there was NO fire!) once!

This was right behind out campsite.. a little trail along the water where we checked out the water with Mr. Logan. It was so easy to entertain Logan during this camping trip... he was happier just being outside and there were new things to see everywhere. Plus his friends love hanging out with him too!

He ended up crashing for the night around 8:30-9pm. He was a little unsettled during the first hour while his buddies also went down and again when we went to bed at 12:30am but he settled himself and for this one night, I also gave him his soother (we stopped giving it at night in April because he would cry for it every half hour). He slept beside me in the pull out bed, while his friend slept in the playpen and his other friend with Steph in bed. The Dads were in the tent with the dog. I still feel like we got the short end of the stick somehow...

Mr. Logan was the first up for the day at 6:45am, but very soon after his friends were also up. All playing together in bed in the morning.. I love this! This is the bed where Logan and I slept! He had the safe corner beside the wall...

After an awesome sausage and egg breakfast, we headed home just when it was nap time for Logan. Even though it was just a 45 minute drive, we didn't want him to be cranky being constarined to his carseat so we planned the drive home with nap time.

And when we got home, we prepared for our Burlington visitors who stayed the night on Sunday: Nikki and Jon Jon. Before they arrived, we were able to sneak some cleaning in, and a neighbourhood bike ride with Logan! The holiday Monday was a gorgeous sunny day. When Nikki and Jon Jon arrived, we went for a walk (where we saw a random block party and also the baby ducks in our neighbourhood pond!) and sat outside while we bbqed supper. Mr. Logan went to bed at his regular 8pm time and we stayed up looking at our old Dominican pictures, reminiscing about our awesome vacation together 4 years ago!

And Monday was Steph's birthday so we went over to see her new place and have birthday pina colodas on her new patio!

May Weekending

This past week has been anywhere from 5 degrees and freezing to 25 degrees and sunny. I try to take advantage when I can. On Friday, my Mom group friends had a girls night planned so my usual Friday night routine of going to my Power Barbell and step classes was a no go. Well... I actually could have made them but I got my hair cut earlier in the day and I didn't want to ruin my hair before going out!

And when you know you don't have to work out, it's sunny out, the baby goes down for a nap at 3pm, and there's a cold beer in the fridge... you crack it and enjoy the sun while you can!

Friday night we went to Forrats in Byron for wine and chocolate fondue. It was weird without the kiddos but so nice to be able to pay attention to full conversations without our little interrupting people! Plus the fondue was so good. I also didn't leave empty handed since they had chocolate covered licorice (I never say no to those), chocolate covered dried mangoes and coconut clusters. All gone by Saturday.

On Saturday, we headed to Kitchener for Maiko's Mario 4th birthday party! There was Mario everywhere... the walkway, the entrance, the living room, dining room... So awesomely decorated And that cake...

Thank goodness Logan was a happy little man the whole time he was there. Although we was a little afraid of the 4 year olds running about at first. After the best food (always at Tabi and Dons), multiple pieces of cake and donuts, we left earlier than we ever have at 8pm. This is a huge life change... usually we are there until midnight or sleeping over and having drinks!

Even 8pm was way late for us.. Logan's usually down by 8-8:30pm. But he went straight to bed when we got home around 9:15pm and woke once in the night. Probably because we changed up his routine and he didn't have his usual, oatmeal, bath, story, bed. He's been really good at sleeping through the night the past month. He sleeps through the night about half the time now!

On Monday morning, we had some visitors at our place. Aleksy's cousin and her little girl Daniella came over and we we took a stroll over to the park... because all 3 year olds love our awesome park!

Logan had some swinging time. This little dude is getting so big that the baby swing is not so big for him anymore!

After spending a good amount of time at the park, we headed home for some lunch (sharing my smoothie love!!) then bubbles outside in the backyard.. oh and some glamour shots!

Amanda brought her amazing camera and took this picture.. my favourite of me and Logan.

And this sweetness... the cousins checking each other out! Between bubbles... the bubbles were more exciting then posing for photos apparently..

And yesterday our not so little goober monster turned 8 months. This is going too fast..

At 8 months this guy has developed such a personality (I didn't know it started so early!). He is a cuddly guy who now gives big wet open mouthed kisses... loves to cuddle/bite my shoulder when he hugs me... and can be quite aggressive... kicking his legs and biting while showing affection (because its such intense love!!).

Logan can sit up on his own since 6 months and now eats bits of muffin, peanut butter and toast, shredded cheese and all pureed veggies and fruits (this guy has been introduced to so many... even papaya!). His favourite in banana, yogurt and applesauce. He says "Heya", "Mamama", "Dadada", and "Bababa"... among other babbles that we pretend are words (or are they?).

His smile is the brightest smile in the world and he's a happier baby with every day that passes (unless his teeth are coming through... then watch out!).

Our favourite is that his exciting face is the face that looks like he's going to eat you... or destroy you. One of the two. We love this little person to pieces!!

Mother's Day as a Mom!

My first Mother's Day was pretty awesome... and busy!

On Friday, I started the weekend off with awesome weather and a downtown walk with a couple friends and their babies. I had to go downtown anyways because I needed to pick up my running shirt and number for my Mother's Day run!

We took a few pictures in the park downtown and I have to share my Logan loving the sunshine in his little sunhat and shorts! Logan isn't phased by the grass at all... bring it on!

We decided that because the Spring blossoms don't last forever that we would have a mini photo session in the park! Got a lot of awesome pictures of us and our cuties.

My Logan and me. After walking the trail toward the Children's Museum (Logan had some cranky in his pants and required the baby carrier for some of the walk. This is what happens when I forget his soother. For the second time!!), we headed back downtown and had some frappucinos outside. Plus they were half price. Score!


As always, my Friday evening consisted of my power barbell class, step class and some wine!

Saturday, we had a baby free evening and Aleksy and I went to supper at the Crossings pub while Auntie Steph watched the goober. Seriously delicious food there... and we had a groupon t make it a deal. It's all about the deals.

We also did A LOT of shopping this weekend!

On Sunday morning, we headed to Springbank park for my 5k run for Ovarian cancer. It started at 10am and we arrived just shortly before. I ran with Aleksy's cousin's wife.. my cousin in law? We did a run together the week before that was over 7 km so we were prepared and smashed the 5k out in half hour (ok... 32 minutes)! A great start to my Mother's Day! I also got a pretty pearl bracelet from my boys.

Aleksy and the goober man were both there to cheer us on and waited at the finish line for us! This is after the race. He was so happy and mesmerized by all the runners.

After a quick change, we then headed to brunch downtown at the Morrisey House with Aleksys family (and it was clearly my day because they were serving breakfast at noon) and right following that we had a turkey dinner back at our house for my Mom. The beauty of having temporary family roommates is that my sister cooked up the turkey and stuffing while we were out all day!