Home, for less than 24 hours

It doesn't really look like Logan missed me that much, does it?

Mariners Win!

Bases loaded, 2 outs, 2 strikes, bottom of the 9th. Sweet hit by Ichiro. An awesome way to end the game!

Go Mariners!

Surprisingly, enjoying the conference (although only the second day in so we'll see how I feel at the end of the week) - meeting many hard core drunk-from-the-cool-aid Microsofties.

My boss and I took the evening off to do a little shopping and then met up with our colleagues at the ballgame tonight.

Cheering for the home team since I'm surrounded by a bunch of crazy drunk Canuck fans (it's the Mariners vs. Blue Jays). ;-)

On a Baking Roll!

I recently bought a Kitchen Aid 5-quart stand mixer since I've always wanted one to help with my baking and who are we kidding, they are also so goddamn sexy sitting on your counter top! ;-)

So, I made another batch of cupcakes on Friday (carrot cake with the leftover cream cheese frosting I still had), this time with the mixer rather than by hand and OMFG what a difference a mixer makes! I didn't know what to do with all the spare time I had, let alone how much BETTER it is for me and my back/shoulders! (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)

I brought the cupcakes for dessert both Friday and Saturday night when we visited the Hicksons (the Jodoins also joined us last night), playing board games while we ran ~6 (!!) loads of laundry since our washing machine is still broken! Ugh. It's amazing how much more laundry you accumulate with a toddler. Thankfully we have extremely gracious, tolerant, understanding and giving friends. Thanks again Kim and Nathan!!

This afternoon I catch a flight to Seattle for a conference all week (this will be the longest I've been away from Logan!!). I get back Thursday night and then we three will hop on a flight to San Diego on Friday for (Eric and) Jill's baby shower. Which means the next week is going to be a little crazy and most likely sparse on the blog front.

Hope everyone has a great week!

I am Doggy...

Hear me BARK!

Because all Moms should carry their diapers in style

Now I can get rid of some of the more boring (or straight-out-of-the-hospital-ugly) diaper bags! Woohoo!! :)

El Futbolista

About a week ago, Logan's Abuelita Riedy surprised him with a yellow kid's soccer ball in the mail when we got home. We, of course, opened it up right away (surprise boxes waiting on the doorstep are always exciting for Logan and Mommy) and Logan LOVED it immediately.


He wouldn't put it down! He kept throwing it across the room to me and kicking it all over the house.


It is the toy in the house at the moment and couldn't have come at a better time. What a hit! :)


Muchas gracias Abuelita Riedy!!

Cat and Logan

Jon's sister Catherine just posted an awesome recounting of her babysitting experience with Logan last weekend. I wanted to share it with all of you - especially since she included some great videos of him playing outside!! You can see a potential basketball star in him. :)

Thanks again Cat! I'm so glad you and Logan got to spend some quality time together. :)

One of THOSE Moms

Help me now, I think I'm becoming one of those Moms.

Tonight, I ground up some peas and mushrooms and slyly added them to Logan's applesauce when he wasn't looking, because I'm so sick and tired of my son (you know, the one who's mom is a veggie!) refusing to eat vegetables.

And, when the little turd STILL refused to eat them (because somehow he just knows when vegetables are near his mouth), I literally found myself using Kix as bargaining chips for every mouth of applesauce.

Amazingly, it sorta kinda worked. He wasn't happy about the arrangement - he clearly wanted Kix and only Kix. But, he immediately caught on that I was only going to give him one after he opened his mouth nice and wide for a spoonful of applesauce (which kills me, really, since he normally gobbles up applesauce!!).

It was an exhausting ordeal but I was determined and made him finish the entire bowl just because I could. The minute we were done and I cleaned him up and let him down from his chair, he ran begging for Daddy.

Because lately, Daddy is très cool and Mommy is the mean one who not only tries to pass peas and mushrooms for applesauce, but bargains Kix for each bite on top of it. THE NERVE.

Weekend Update

I'm exhausted and not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow. So, just a quick post before I go lay down and ice my back. ;-)

• I worked from home on Friday mostly so I could get some grocery shopping done during a break, to prep for baking cupcakes that night.
• Nathan stopped by Friday night to hang out with us and play Dominion (a new card game Jon got) once Logan went to bed.
• We discovered our (practically brand new!) washing machine broke - so Jon spent Saturday running errands, including buying parts to fix the machine and composite decking (for a deck we're going to build just outside the doggy door), while Logan took one of the longest naps in history (~4 hrs, 20 min)!
  
• Saturday night, Jon's sister Catherine came down from the city, last minute (since our sitter we had lined up couldn't make it after all), to babysit Logan while Jon and I met up with the Jodoins, Chouns and Hicksons for a quick dinner and long wait in line (but we were first!) for the new Harry Potter movie. It was good - but I haven't read the last of the books yet so I can't comment on how it compares to the book.
• This morning we got up bright and early to head to the East Bay for our friend's Eleanor and Audrey's 3rd Birthday Party. Logan had a blast at My Gym; the hit was toward the end when he got a turn zip-lining across the room. :) Here's a quick video I took of it! (notice the excellent background music they were playing! hehe)
  

• We took off about noon to try and get Logan to take another long nap, but weren't successful, as he only slept an hour (aiiieeee!!). Jon worked on the washing machine while I frosted the cupcakes in preparation for the next party we had scheduled.
  
• About 4pm, we three and my parents headed to the Paluska's house on the "West" Bay (San Carlos), for a laid back BBQ and play date with their kids Lucas (age 5) and Margot (age 2.5). We had an excellent time and the cupcakes were a hit!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and stayed as cool as possible in all of this heat! Yowza.

Chocolate (with chocolate chips) cupcakes and cream cheese frosting

Delicious.

Potty Time!

I noticed Logan trying to poop this morning so I offered to sit with him on his potty. He was agreeable - so we stripped him down (it's a laborious process trying to get a kid who's pooping, to stand there and lift his legs while you first pull down his shorts, take those off, and then try to delicately undo his diaper without making a mess!) and he promptly sat on the potty while we read a couple of books that I recently got for him.

He finally seemed to have enough (hadn't gone pee nor poop) and stood up saying he was all done. Just as I was getting ready to put a diaper back on, he peed a tiny bit on the floor. Whoops! So, I put him back on the potty to sit a bit longer. We sat there for a good 15-20 minutes reading those books from cover to cover a hundred times. But, he loved it and didn't seem to mind (he especially likes the "flushing" button on one of them). Toward the end, he looked at me with a funny face and started grabbing for his penis, saying pee pee and potty. I thought he was finally understanding the stories from our books - but, he stood up and lo and behold, there was a bowl full of pee in that potty!! WOOHOO!

It was exciting for both of us - I clapped, told him what a great job he did, and he helped me flush it down the toilet (another part of the process he thoroughly enjoyed).

I figured I wouldn't push my luck with the pooping part and just called it a day with the potty adventures. So, we cleaned everything up, put clean fresh clothes and a diaper back on him, and went about playing in the house.

Only, about 15 minutes later, he started trying to poop again. I asked him if he wanted to go back on the potty, but he shook his head and said No. I said, are you sure? I can come with you if you want. So, he grabbed my hand and we went back into the bathroom to sit on the potty once again. He hopped on and off several times, not really sure about the whole ordeal. But finally, during one of the last "hops" back on the potty, he did a final grunt, looked up at me with an "uh-oh!" and immediately stood up.

He had pooped! He seemed a little shocked at first, but then super curious to see the results of his efforts. ;-) Even trying to touch it! *sigh* Once he realized it was a good thing to poop in the potty, he got very excited and smiled and clapped and yelled "Yaaaay!". And, once again, helped me flush it down the big toilet (and then proceeded to flush, and flush, and flush, and flush, until I had to redirect him to something else).

I still feel like we're miles away from potty training - but it also felt like a small amount of progress, so I'll take it!

Mini Popsicles!

A perfect size for our little guy. Love 'em! :)

Get down, get down!

What I was actually trying to capture was how Logan tucks his juice
cup on one side of his seat and his book on the other. So cute!

It just so happened he was also gettin' his groove on, singin' and
dancin' at the same time. ;)

Last of the Chemotherapy

Lola had her last chemo treatment today! (pictured here with her "badge of completion" bandanna from the clinic) It's been a long ~7 months but she's done super well this whole time! The cancer has been in remission during most of the treatment program and we've been really pleased with how she's handled it all.

She goes back in to see her oncologist in 3 weeks (and every 3-4 weeks for the next few months) to keep a close eye on her lymph nodes as we take her off chemotherapy. Here's to hoping all continues to look good and we have a few more years to enjoy with our crazy Lola monster! :)

Wicked

Just finished seeing an AWESOME show (Wicked), courtesy of my parents, up in the city (literally right before I took this pic they turned the lights off to the theatre sign - damn!)

Jon and I had a magnificent 5-course dinner at Cortez restaurant which is at the Hotel Adagio where we are staying the night. Our first mini "staycation" if you will! Yeehaw!! :)

Note to Self.

Don't let your son eat PB&J around the shiny new car.

19 months old

Month after month, Logan's own personality shines through. We absolutely love every minute of it. Even, I would say, during the most trying of times. I keep thinking one of these months I'm going to give up on the monthly updates. I can't possibly keep this up forever.

But, Logan changes SO MUCH each month, that it's impossible for me to quit the habit. This past month has been no different.

One of the first things Logan started picking up was combining words to make short 2-word sentences. Nothing fantastic mind you, but still a development in his speech. Primarily he tacks on anything to "bye bye". So, when Daddy leaves in the morning (which he gets extremely upset about), it's "bye bye Daddy" followed shortly by "bye bye car" as Jon drives away.

When he's playing and he throws the ball across the room he'll say "bye bye ball" or if the dog walks out of the room he says "bye bye dog". You can see him taking in every little piece of his environment and stitching it all together in his mind - as he says the words "bye bye" he's pointing at the object, or waving good bye, or blowing a kiss. It's all been stored in his head for some time but he's finally able to put it all together for us to see. It's truly amazing.


He often gets these serious, contemplative or stern looks on his face as he works something out. Wheels are turning at top speed inside that little big head of his. And, I don't think it stops once he goes to sleep. I've never been in his room to witness it directly, but I am almost positive he's taken on Mommy's embarrassing habit of talking in his sleep. :)

Often times we can hear an "Uh oh" or an "Oh no!" coming from his room late at night. Jon and I look at each other with our hands ready to ro-cham-beau who gets to get up and put him back down. When not 2 seconds later, it's dead quiet and we hear the heavy deep-sleep breathing from the monitor. He's done this at my parent's house too and we're all pretty sure by now that he's dreaming and talking in his sleep.

When he's not talking, he's inspecting his body parts with keen interest. He's discovered he can purse his lips to kiss now (instead of the wide open mouth he used to grace my face with) which is absolutely adorable. He's so delighted with this new technique that he insists on showering you with kiss after kiss after kiss after kiss. You'd think you couldn't get enough of baby kisses. But actually? You can.

He's also learning to blow - it's more of a sputtering mess of a blow - but it's a blow nonetheless. He tries it when he's drinking juice, water, or eating his spaghetti. But he also will do it when he's sitting in his car seat, bored out of his mind no doubt, and with a single index finger held upright, will practice blowing on the tip of his finger. This is also super cute. Until he tries to blow in your face.

And finally - the penis. Ohhhhhh, his penis. He can't get enough of his penis. I'm starting to wonder if he's actually - gasp - taking some pleasure in it! But honestly, I think he's just fascinated and curious. To the point that, he will throw a mad screaming fit, full on crocodile tears streaming down his face fit, the minute you move his hands and start to cover that little pecker up with a new fresh diaper and pants. At first he'll say "bye bye" and wave - but the minute he realizes it's gone for good - LOOK OUT.

I'm becoming the diaper changing ninja master. Out of necessity.

There are a couple of personality traits that Logan has inherited which, I want to say annoy the hell out of me, but are still too new to really bother me. In fact, I often find myself laughing with glee at how hard he's trying to manipulate me. It's just flat out entertaining! I usually have to stifle the laugh - since I really don't want to encourage the behavior - but it definitely is hard.

Like, the time he slipped and bonked his head on the edge of the couch so loud that I'm pretty sure our neighbors heard the thud next door. He didn't look fazed at all. Until, that is, I looked down at him and asked "Are you ok?"

Boy was THAT the wrong question to ask (and yes, Mommy has since learned).

Because, the minute Logan realized hey wait a minute. What the hell just happened there? He then paused for about 4 seconds, allowing the thought to process no doubt, before he scrunched up his nose, put on the best frown he could possibly muster, and then proceeded to FAKE CRY.

I looked at Jon and said - ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

And we both looked at Logan and said - ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

And Logan, trying his best to cry, even tho he had no tears to show for it, looked up at us with the biggest puppy dog eyes and the most pathetic whiny "cry" (it really was more of a whine) we've ever heard, actually smiled a little. Smiled. As he cried.

My 19 month old son tried to pull a fake cry on us!

The other trait he picked up a few months ago but has really perfected this month is his ability to question. He doesn't even know how to say "why". OH GOD HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SAY WHY YET.

But, he has THAT LOOK. You know the one. That one with the devilish up-to-no-good-and-I'm-going-to-test-my-boundaries look. You can see it in his eyes. And that look often accompanies a smirk.

A SMIRK.

On my 19 month old son!


I tell my friends and coworkers stories of how Logan will pick up an object. A ball, or perhaps, Mommy's breakable Maneki Neko. He'll cock his arm back, ready to launch that thing across the room. And he'll just wait. He'll turn his head toward you and look you straight in the eyes. And he'll wait.

He'll wait for you to say "NO" as firm as you possibly can. Or, if you're thinking clear (and fast) enough, you might even throw in another couple words like "NO THROWING" or "Put that down" or "Logan please do not throw Mommy's things". It doesn't really matter. Because, he's already made up his mind. In fact, he probably made it up 5 minutes ago when he walked across the room fixated on the object he was going to pick up.

And in about 3 seconds, you see the glint in his eye and the playful upturn of his lips as he continues to stare you down, eyes locked on yours, while simultaneously throwing that object across the room.

So, I tell this story to my friends, all the while laughing myself while they laugh with (or at?) me. Because, we all know what they're going to say next.

So you're telling me, your little boy isn't listening to you? You mean, YOUR SON is acting on his own volition and couldn't give a damn about what you say or direct him to do? YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, Logan's starting to question authority?

WOW. No idea where he gets that from. In fact, never saw that one coming at all.

NEVER. IN. A. MILLION. YEARS.

Doggy Door Installed? Check! (finally)

I wasn't thinking clearly enough this morning to take the "before" pics. So instead, you get the "in progress" pic (with Iz making the final inspection):


And the "after":


Yay!! I don't think I need to remind you how great this will be for Odin, Lola, the cats, and us.

The coolest part of this project is, our contractor (who is a long time family friend of ours), did the work for free! He came over last night to talk with us about the project and toward the end of his visit we all had our iPhones out chatting about them. Mundo mentioned he's been frustrated because he can only receive, but never send, email from his phone.

Jon grabbed the phone from his hand with a "Let me see" muttered under his breath, disappeared into his office and 2 minutes later, voila! All fixed.

Mundo has had his phone for about a year and has never been able to get his email to work (even after asking several "computer savvy" friends to help him). He was soooo incredibly grateful he refused to accept payment from me today saying, "Bree, tell Jon THANK YOU. I am so happy he fixed my email and phone, you don't even know. What he did was amazing. We are even, don't worry."

I argued with him for 10 minutes telling him he was being silly, but he wouldn't budge.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. I love it.

That New Car Smell

Picked up the new wheels last night. What a fun sporty little car,
and with a lot of punch! Just what I need. ;)

Picky Eater

Give a boy (who loves fruit!) a whole nectarine and he spends an hour molesting it, trying to peel off every square inch of skin.

And then try to offer your help to peel it and all you get is a polite and boyishly sweet, but adamant "No" (translating to "Leave me alone. I can do it myself Mom!") back. *sigh*

The Fruits of Our Labor

After berry picking Friday morning, Logan took a really long nap (who knew berries and sticks would exhaust a boy?!) before the two of us headed downtown with my parents and brother Kai (visiting from LA for the weekend) for a really nice (late) lunch at Mezcal. After that, we decided to walk off some of the huge meal we just ate and see if Logan was interested in playing in the water fountain at the César Chávez park.


Logan was verrrrrry cautious about touching the water and playing near the other kids. It took a good 45 minutes to just get him to stand near the water and touch it himself. My mom was super patient, taking her time with Logan to introduce him to the fountain slowly and at his own pace (I caught a couple cool moments on video but will have to upload them later in the week).


After getting soaking wet from standing near the fountain, we stopped off at Arena Green, Guadalupe River Park & Gardens since my parents have been wanting to take him on the carousel there. It didn't seem like Logan enjoyed the ride too much - he had a tight grip on the bars at all times and didn't really smile or laugh like you'd expect. Yet, every time the ride was over, he kept asking for more. And, when we finally ran out of tickets and decided to move along (to the playground next door), he got very upset. :( I guess we'll need to make another trip back soon!


We ended the day playing a lively round of Settlers of Catan (our latest favorite board game) with my parents, who have never played before. Surprisingly, my mom was in the lead for the first half of the game but my dad pulled a fast one on us all and beat everyone, out of nowhere! It was loads of fun.


Saturday morning, we met up with my parents and Kai for an early morning breakfast at our favorite joint, Stacks. Amazingly, there wasn't a wait (note to self, apparently no one eats breakfast on 4th of July, probably because they're getting their grills ready!) which was really nice. We all stuffed ourselves silly before my dad and Kai took off to a Giants game.


Jon and I left Logan with my mom for a few hours while the two of us did a little shopping - CAR shopping! We bought a new car, which we are totally excited about and can't wait to start driving. Since we were looking for a specific color with certain options, we have to wait forthe dealership to drive it in from another local dealership in the Bay Area. So, we won't have the car until tomorrow, but we're excited nonetheless. :)

Peekaboo!

The rest of our 4th was spent doing a last minute bike ride (which turned sour when Jon got a flat!) and then visiting with the Hicksons for some water play and BBQ in their backyard. Once the kids went down for the night, the four adults played Settlers of Catan until late at night (did I mention it's our latest fave game?).

Today has been a lazy Sunday - mostly because it feels like we've been running non-stop the last couple of days and work is around the corner. Other than another short visit with Uncles Zane, Kai and my parents, we had nothing else planned. So, I decided to take a stab at making some jam from the berries we picked on Friday. Because we didn't have enough hand-picked berries that the recipe called for, I did cheat a little and supplement with store-bought berries. :) For a first attempt, I think it came out pretty well. The hardest part I struggled with was sealing the jars! Half didn't seem to seal properly. :( I'll be giving those away to family and close friends who (hopefully) won't mind and will help us eat it up right away. ;-)


It was a pretty fun exercise for me, and once I had all the equipment ready, it actually wasn't too hard. Now, with jam galore, you can bet we three will be eating PB&J sandwiches for the next few months. I know Logan, at least, won't mind.

Gone Berry Picking, Come Back Later

Both Logan and I had yesterday off (Jon had to work - damn start ups, they don't give any days off!). Jon had brought up a great idea a couple of weeks ago - to take Logan berry picking since, 'tis the season! So, I found out about a nice "pick your own" berry farm not too far away that was perfect for us.


The season hasn't produced too many berries for this particular farm and this was the last weekend they were open, so most of the berries were picked over. But it was close (about 25 min drive) and in between home and the city (Jon joined us since it was still a little early in the morning and then took off afterward for work). And, since I didn't know if Logan would really like the excursion, nor did I think he'd really care if we didn't find too many berries, we took the plunge and went.


It was great! Once we showed Logan how to pull the berries off the vines, he kept asking for "more" to pick and drop in the baskets. But, even that was only entertaining for so long. Our always-on-the-move kid was interested for about 20 minutes before he moved onto the next big thing (in this case, finding the perfect stick which he could play in the dirt with).


Unexpectedly, Jon and I enjoyed the berry picking ourselves. :) The Southern in Jon came out, insisting we need to make jam with the berries - although now that I've looked up instructions on how to make jam, I'm not sure we ended up picking enough! So, we'll see - they may just end up in a blackberry cobbler, when Jon's not looking, instead. ;-)


Hope everyone is having a fun and relaxing 4th of July weekend with their loved ones! :)

(Click on any of the pics above for several more from our berry picking morning!)

My Mom, the Pack Rat

I'll start by saying I've seen a lot worse pack rats. But, my Mom is definitely in the camp that likes to hold onto anything and everything. Particularly the stuff with some sentimental value attached. Which is hard for me to explain to my husband, the man with a heart of stone.

I guess I'd fall somewhere in between the two. I definitely have my share of things I want to keep - perhaps forever? But, I'm also known to go on a crazy cleaning spree and shred every last bit of my grad school, college, high school *and* middle school notebooks and papers that have been sitting in my garage, all in one weekend. Without shedding a tear or looking back. Because I'm just crazy like that.

But enough about me, I was talking about my mother here.

I remember when I was young, we'd have to clean out our closets every once in a while to make room for the new toys, clothes and stuff coming in. But, we'd have to make sure and put everything we wanted to throw away in a separate box so that Mom could go through it first. There was no getting past that lady. If there was something that she felt was worth holding onto, even when we insisted it really wasn't useful or cool anymore, she ignored us and hid it away somewhere where we'd never find it and tease her about it later.

The other night we were enjoying dinner together and the topic came up about that day's newsworthy events. Most notably, my childhood idol, Michael Jackson, had died. I have always loved his music, but when he was at the top of his game I was the most impressionable. And, in a rare moment of wanting to fit in with every other teeny-bopper around, I somehow convinced my parents to buy me a rhinestone-studded glove necklace, with MJ's initials at the top (because, you know, you might not know what the glove was referring to).

My Mom, having not yet read my post of the day, commented what strange timing, since she had just found my old necklace while cleaning out her jewelry chest the other day.

And so, instead of teasing her, the conversation went something like:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey Breezy, I found that Michael Jackson necklace of yours the other day.

SHUT UP. You did not.

Yep, I sure did.

Wow, that's crazy. I just blogged about it! Did you know that?

Nope, haven't read your blog yet. But now you're going to have to blog that you found it!

Totally. And, maybe I'll wear the necklace to work next week too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't wear the necklace to work. I'm pretty sure my coworkers might look at me funny if I tried to convince them that it's cool to wear leg warmers, scrunchies, different colored layered socks, and necklaces with a bedazzled MJ glove again. Although, I do get away with wearing my new idol's symbol on my chest all the time, so you never know.


Mom, thanks for digging this out of the attic, or jewelry chest, or wherever you managed to hide it all these years, and dust off the cobwebs of my past. I keep forgetting that sometimes you're right. ;-)

It's definitely fun to relive some of those old memories from time to time. I can't wait to do the same with Logan someday too.