he walks (well, he runs, actually)

Logan began walking a couple of weeks ago. As you can imagine, almost all of the pictures that I have tried to take are blurry. Let's be honest..most of the pictures that we tried to take of him before he started walking were blurry! He now zips around the house, collecting treasure and hiding it everywhere. Trouble is, he won't answer me when I ask him where he has put things (like the remote). He doesn't respond to water torture, as he rather enjoys the water and will do anything to prolong his aqueous adventures.

One of his favorite activities is taking his toys for walks/runs around the house. We have to now watch our step when we walk into a room where he ahs been, as he tends to set up booby traps. You should hear him giggle when one of us windmills our arms to avoid falling. OK, I'm not sure where he gets that!

He has also gotten very good at crawling under things to retreive objects that have fallen. Now he has exponentially increased the number of places where he can hide his booty!

In response, I have begun excercising to increase my fitness level and stamina. I run, usually, up to 3 miles. I have been considering a triethlon. I now have these funny shoes, we'll see if they help. I got them at Ross for a very good price--they are supposed to be specially-made for running.

I also got a one-piece bathing suit (which I will not demonstrate just yet) and some funny goggles. Since I wear contacts, I haven't done any serious swimming in years. Yesterday, I swam 150 meters and ran 2 miles. I can tell you right now--if I do sign up for a triethlon, I have a LONG way to go! By the way, I wonder if it is advisable to actually own a bicycle before signing up??

Anyway, if these don't work, I can always put them on to scare intruders!!! If they happen to fall down laughing, at least they will be within reach so that I can kick them!

and a birthday...

For Logan's first birthday, we took him and got some professional portraits done. When he is at home giggling and playing I am apparently not allowed to bring out the camers. Logan turns into the "Very Serious Boy." Somehow, the photographer managed several poses with smiles. As you can probably guess, I ended up ordering several poses with smiles! This is one of my favorites, since this is what he does to all stuffed animals within reach. See how cuddly he is?? (now is your opportunity to coo...)

Later that day, we let him eat cake! It started rather delicately. He dipped a finger here and swirled some frosting there. But once he discovered that the fugurines could be removed from the cake--the game was on! He used his figurines as tools to scoop up more and more frosting! The glob at the right side of the picture is actually a Fisher Price Little People Farmer! Pretty amazing, huh?!

Remember that sweet, cuddly, precious child who loves stuffed

animals? His evil twin appears when the cake is taken away!! In fact, this is the twin that appears when the Little Prince is told that he can't have exactly what he wants at exactly the instant that he wants it. We're working on that. Fortunately, Rosemary doesn't drop her baby off very often!

January brought us lots of visitors...

Mid-January saw two of our very favorite people passing through San Antonio. Marie and Ronnie went on a cruise that ported in Galveston. Before they went back to Idaho, they stopped in for a few days. We were so very happy to see them and spend time with them and their visit passed so very fast!

Of course we went to the Alamo and the River Walk. We really enjoyed it and had great weather, if it was a little cool (it was still a darn sight warmer than it was in Idaho!). Hopefully, they will return soon!

The weekend following Marie and Ronnie's visit, my mother came to visit. Get this--she brought her knitting! As if Logan would allow her to hold something so colorful and fun and not share! Her trip wasn't nearly long enough, but we squeezed in alot of stuff! Logan was dragged to the Mission San Jose and to eat puffy tacos. We lugged him to the Alamo and had lunch at the Riverwalk. He was pretty wiped out by the time her visit was over--we lost count of how many people asked us if we realized that he had thrown a shoe! (yes, we realized it, yes, we caught the shoe, no we didn't think it was that important to put the shoe back on!)

The Visit, Part 3 -- hanging out

Logan does not sit well for "posed" pictures. At least in this family picture, we all look happy, if not focused! For those of you who have never tried to pose a family picture with an 11 month old baby (or for those who have forgotten) cruise over to my Flickr gallery to see the progression from bad to worse!

To his credit, Bonnie, Dad, Logan and I had spent the day at the zoo and then lunch at Red Robin. He hadn't had a nap and he was still the mostly happy baby that I know.

Here his fatigue is evident. I didn't realize it, but I got sunburned! I still can't get used to the weather here. Just 4 days after Christmas, the high was in the high 70's and sunny! We had a really good time, though. It was breezy and warm. The morning started off cool (high 50's). Logan had his first taste of hot dog--he approves!

If you can catch him unawares, he is much happier. Here, we were hanging out in the kitchen eating pizza (which he loves, by the way). Please notice how he sits with his foot up on the platform of his high chair. I swear that child is a teenager in training!

We spent alot of time in the kitchen playing cards. We played alot of Phase 10, where Dad was pleased to be able to anhiliate me frequently. On the last night of their stay, we determined that it was the chair because I stole his seat and wiped the table with him!!!

Here we tried again to take a good picture of him with Mark. This is as good as it got!

If we don't stop aiming that blasted camera at him, he's going to take his lion and leave!!!

Bonnie and Dad have gone and they are missed. We are looking forward to their return in July! Logan will be 18 months and I will be, um...well--older (40).

The Visit, Part 2 -- Sea World

The day after Christmas, we all went to Sea World to see the Miracle of Christmas protrayed by Shamu. There were alot of people there, but not so many that we weren't able to sit at all the shows. We got there early enough to be able to see them all. The weather was perfect! I got Dad on what he saya is the last roller coaster ride of his life. Thankfully, we didn't wait in line at all. We walked up and got directly on the ride. Otherwise, he may have changed his mind before he got on!

Logan's favorite is the aquarium. He really loves

to watch the fish. Mark's favorite was the beluga/white sided dolphin show because there is so much to see.

My favorite is petting and feeding the dolphins. They are always fun to see. Logan used to like the dolphins, too, but this time some were feeling frisky and they splashed us. Now he thinks that dolphins suck!

Because we were on the move from early in the

day, Logan didn't get his usual naps in. By 4:00

or so, he was worn out! Of course, being King of the Power Nap, he was up and refreshed after about 10 minutes.

The Visit, Part 1 -- Christmas Day!

We decided to hold all the presents until after Logan went to bed on Christmas Eve. In part, this made it really festive and anticipatory. Santa and the elves came in the night and left behind a beautiful tableau of goodies. In reality, I hadn't finished wrapping, Mark hadn't begun and Bonnie and Dad had to unpack their gifts. Nevertheless, if we had placed the packages under the tree there would have been a race betwen Logan and Layla for tearing them to pieces.










We waited until everyone was downstairs before we took Logan down to see what had arrived in the night. It was so much fun to watch him explore. Logan has a surprising ability to focus. Because of this focus, he would play with one gift at a time for a really long time. He got upset when he was interrupted. Consequently, we were unwrapping presents all day. We opened for a while. We ate breakfast. We opened for a little while longer. We took a nap. We opened our stockings. We played with our stuff.



His first gift (and I think his favorite)is a lion that he can walk behind or ride. He took it for a walk all aound the downstairs. He then took his See 'N Say and his Leap Frog Laptop for walks around
the downstairs. That seems to be his patern...examine his toy. Taste the toy. Bang the toy. Take the toy for a walk. If it performs as expected, it is a good Toy and can become part of the group. If it doesn't, he has no use for it and it is placed to the side. Yes, this means that the swing and jumpers are currently out of fashion. While he can still touch and taste these items, he cannot take them for walks around the house.

Christmas Eve!!!

OK, Christmas Eve has finally arrived. My parents got here yesterday with no problems. This morning, while I worked, Bonnie decorated my Christmas tree, while Dad watched and Logan stole ornaments and ran squealing from the room! He was having such a good time. There were several times that he had 4 or 5 ornaments in his hands (with the assistance of the tray on his walker). He is busy, busy, busy! It's a good thing that I didn't try to put anything under the tree early. I'm pretty sure that he would have destroyed the packages at every opportunity. Bonnie and I spent the afternoon shopping and made it to every location on our list and got everything on our list without a moment to spare-we actually closed WalMart. As soon as Logan went to bed, we began the wrapping marathon. I am so greatful that she is helping. I didn't realize how much there was until I started pulling things out! Almost everything is now under the tree and it is beautiful. I can't wait to see what Logan does when he sees it! He has been stealing the paper and bows already. I'll take pictures and figure out how to post them on this thing as soon as I can.