Happy First Birthday Logan

To my baby boy on his first birthday:

My dear special Logan Alexander. One year ago today at 7:49 a.m. you entered this world. It still feels like yesterday.. my big belly, an IV that took way too many attempts to start, a C-section and you were here. You looked just like your brother Brenden as you drew in your first breath and screamed your little head off. That is the only time in your life that I will ever find your screaming music to my ears LOL! You were a good sized baby at 6lb and 14oz. You had a full head of stick-straight dark brown hair. Who would have known that it would all fall out and this blond curly hair would emerge in its place. And you LOVE hair, you love to stroke your own hair when you are sleepy and to hold my hair when I rock you and to pull all of your friend's hair at daycare!

You are so different from your brother, but in a wonderful way. You are wild and rough and SUCH a little boy. You love to tackle and destroy things. You climb on everything and DANGER is your middle name! Your nicknames are things like Loganator, Godzilla, Logan the Destroyer, Maximum Destruction, etc. You are LOUD and your crying makes Brenden's fits seem like a whisper. You are a lover and a hugger and the daycare is constantly telling me how someone was in your classroom just to take advantage of your willingness to give everybody hugs.

If you could skip the age of 1 and go straight to age 2 I think you would. You SO want to do everything your brother does. You are walking a good 2 months sooner than Brenden because you want to keep up with him so badly. You are having a tough time transitioning to solid foods but you have a touchy gag reflex that makes textures icky for you. You are stubborn and like things your own way and make your opinion about it known! You HATE getting your diaper changed because that means you have to sit still. You smile and make silly faces and point at everything. You fake sneeze and say "aahhh - doo!" and bob your head up and down. You like to dance along with the Wiggles with you brother. You are fully capable of climbing all 3 stairs on Brenden's slide, getting to a sitting position, and sliding down. We keep pillows all around the slide because it doesn't always happen in that order!

You have grown up so fast and somehow it seems like you transitioned from baby to toddler overnight and I'm not sure how that happened. I must have blinked at the wrong time. You continue to amaze me every day and make me smile. My heart was full when I had Brenden, and now with you, its overflowing. You are a great brother and son. You are your own individual and I love it! I just assumed that you would be exactly like your brother but you have proven me so wrong. I wish you the very happiest of first birthdays! Thank you for bringing so much joy to my life and would you mind not turning 2 quite as fast as you turned 1??!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Logan!!

- Mama

*** And I might as well update on Brenden...

He is potty training now and is about 50% of the way there. Some days are better than others but I am proud at how much effort he is putting into it. He gets gummy fruits (called potty fruits) when he goes potty and its so cute to see him run out of the bathroom saying "I go potty! I did it! I get potty fwoot!!" He is so proud of himself when he goes. He says the funniest stuff to us all the time. The other day I poured a soda and when he saw the fizz he told me my cup was raining. How cute!

Other famous Brenden quotes

B: I go potty (in the car)

me : did you go potty just now?

B: yes I pee pee on robot

-- he has pull ups with a robot design and we tell him not to pee on the robot lol

-- one day he didn't like how stiff his pull up felt in the crotch area so I asked if he needed me to shake the pull up out a little to make it softer. I grabed the sides and gave it a good shake/wiggle just to loosen it up. Now when we are out in public he grabs his crotch and says "Mama shake it out??"

B: I toot! (pass gas)

Me: no you did- (TOOT, giggle)- n't

-- guess it was a warning and not a declaration

--Brenden likes things in increments of 5 - five crackers, five monkeys, five cookies.. five is a good number. He stuck his hand in the box of cereal and pulled out a giant fistful and said "wow, thats a lot of fives!"

-- for some reason one day he pinched my chest and I told him no, that was not nice. So now he waits until we are out in public to grab my chest and say 'Nooooo pinching!!!" Yes Brenden, that is correct, no pinching!

I could go on and on but most of what he says is just funny to me :)  Its just so fun to watch how his brain works and how he translates that into words. He thinks birds that make squawking sounds are monkeys, he thinks any triangular shape on a building makes it a castle,etc.

Logan is getting a bounce house for his birthday. I can't wait to post pictures of the boys playing on it!! The birthday party is this coming weekend, but unfortunately being born so close to labor day means most people are on vacation the weekends before and after your birthday. Logan is such a happy kid he won't even care.