Eight.

Today, my sweet Logan turned 8.



I feel like birthday posts are getting increasingly harder to write without becoming redundant. I mean, I could write mushy gushy mommy brags all day long because my kids are just plain awesome, but I won't. :)

Pretty much everything I wrote last year for Logan is still true. Doing amazing in school, great brother, kind, sensitive, sweet. He's an awesome kid and I couldn't be more proud of him.



So instead of copying and pasting from last year, I thought I'd do an interview with him.

• Favorite person in the whole world? "My mom" (awwww!)
• Favorite color? "Orange"
• Favorite TV show? "Teen Titans Go"
• Favorite sport? "Soccer"
• Favorite book? "Mark of Athena" (in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series)
• Favorite food? "Burritos"
• Least favorite food? "The chicken you make" (gee, thanks buddy--I make a lot of different kids of chicken dishes...)
• Best friend? William
• What do you want to be when you grow up? Logan said "I don't know" so Lorelai chimed in and said she wanted to be a princess when she grows up. For what it's worth. :)
• What are you really good at? "Soccer"
• What would you buy if you had $1000? "Magic (The Gathering, like Adam collects) cards and a phone"
• If you could have one wish what would it be? "To have super powers, like to be able to control the wind."

This year, we had a small birthday party at our house with his local cousins and three friends from class.



He got a new bike (a day early, since Lorelai ruined the surprise, ha!), some books, and a birthday trip to Frankie's Fun Park today.






We played arcade games, rode go carts, did the batting cage for the first time, and played putt putt.









Happy birthday to my (not so) little Logan! I love you more than words.

2nd and 5th

We're about a month in to Logan's 2nd grade year and Aidan's 5th grade year, and so far so good!



I did end up meeting Logan's teacher and she seems really great. Very communicative with the parents and enthusiastic. I love the program she's using for classroom behavior (ClassDojo) because I can see throughout the day exactly how Logan is doing. What's also kind of cool is that Logan's 2nd grade classroom is the classroom I was in for 2nd grade many years ago. :)


Happy about school, mad about the camera in his face :)

And it turns out Aidan did have a friend in his class from last year, we must have just missed him on the roster during open house. Regardless, he's easily made more friends like I knew he would. And he loves the setup they have now in 5th grade where his class is paired with another class and they swap teachers for different subject areas. One does Social Studies/ELA and the other does Math/Science. He likes both teachers and is doing well with his testing so far.


Aidan started off the morning with no sling because his arm was feeling much better, but worried about the bus and worried people would bump into him, so he ended up wearing for the first couple days of school. He's been sling-free ever since.



After what seemed like a bad start to the year, things are really looking up and I couldn't be happier.



PS: 90% of the pictures I took with my good camera ended up completely blurry and unusable, and I'm so mad I don't have a head to toe pic of Aidan for his end of the year side-by-side. GRRRRR! At least I thought to also take a couple of pics with my phone, otherwise I wouldn't have a single picture of the kids together.

End of 1st and 4th...Summer Break begins

Aidan and Logan had their last day of 1st and 4th grade on Friday.



Thankfully, it was a school year without much drama. After the issues we had with Aidan's 3rd grade teacher, I was hopeful we'd made the right decision not to loop with her. And for the most part I do think it was a good decision. We had a bit of a scare with math when things just weren't clicking for a while there and he wasn't testing well. At all. But magically, something clicked at the end of the 3rd quarter and he ended up on the A/B honor roll for the year, and did well on both EOG tests. He's a really smart dude who reads like it's his job. Such a bookworm--I love it!


It's beyond me why Aidan looks so much happier on his first day of school than his last...


And Logan. Bear with me as I legit brag for a minute. He's so smart. Even though he doesn't love to read as much as Aidan (yet) he's reading well beyond a 1st grade level. He's naturally good at math like Adam, and was even talking Aidan through some math logic on a few homework assignments. He's now in the AIG program where he tested in the 98th percentile for math.



I know academics aren't everything, but I'm glad both of them at least started out elementary school doing so well, setting a good academic foundation for them to build on. I know we're bound to hit more speed bumps along the way like we did this year with Aidan and math, but success early on shows them that even when things get tougher, they have proven the ability to do well.

I'm so proud of both of them!


Of course Lorelai had to get in on the action. I'm proud of her too, of course :)


And now, on to our (much too brief) summer break. I haven't done a bucket list for this summer, but hopefully we can still make the most of it anyway!

Spring Fever

The weather has finally been mostly nice lately, so I've got a bad case of spring fever. I wish it was the kind of fever that makes me want to clean...but in reality, it's the kind of fever that makes me want to spend all kinds of time outside. And um, doing anything except blogging, apparently.

Aidan and Logan are out on their 3-week (minus 2 snow makeup days) intersession from their year-round school, so I took last Friday off to just hang out with them. It was one of those perfect days where you're exhausted at the end of it, but smiling like a loon 'cause it was just that wonderful. Maybe my bar is low because we didn't do anything all that exciting, but it was crazy productive, and the best part was that it was quality time with them and only them--a rare thing these days.

After dropping Lorelai off at daycare, we started off the day bright and early with a trip to Target for some Starbucks and shopping. They browsed their stuff, indulged me while I browsed my stuff, we smelled candles for a riduculously long time and cracked jokes about the ones that smelled horrible.

Our next stop was Petco, at their request. Adam's not on board yet (um, at all) but the boys and I are really interested in fostering cats through the Independent Animal Rescue after talking to the representative for a long time. Seems like a good way to introduce the kids to the responsibility of having pets without the immediate life-long commitment. We'll see...

Anyway, then we hit up Michaels to browse and ended up with the makings for jewelry instead of the makings for a spring wreath like I'd intended, oh well! I like my two new pairs of earrings better. :)



Our last stop was Walmart, where we loaded up some other stuff we needed, as well as flowers and vegetable plants, because on a whim, we decided to plant a garden. It's been four years since we've had one (it didn't do so well the last time--basically never got watered since I was very pregnant with Lorelai that summer, oops!). The boys are really interested in helping, so it seemed like a perfect thing to do. We took turns hoeing the garden (but let's be real, I did most of it), potting plants and watering. Hopefully we'll have our very own strawberries, tomatoes and peas soon! And zucchini, if I can manage to find a plant.



To cap off our day and take a "break" from the gardening, we took a jog down to the neighborhood playground where the boys played for a while. On another whim, we decided to finally--after 11 years living in this neighborhood--walk the nature trail that winds along our neighborhood creek. I figured if I was going to do it at all, it'd have to be now, before the snakes all wake up to come "play" and the foliage fills in too much. It was such a great walk! Of course I had to grab a stick for protection just in case, because we all know how I feel about snakes...

We jogged (well they jogged--I did some HIIT sprinting/jogging, go me!) back home and played outside some more until Adam got home with Lorelai. At the end of the day, the boys and I were filthy and tired, but so proud of all we did, and the fun we had together. And bonus for me--I logged some serious calorie burn with all the activity, since I only sat down to drive and eat the entire day. And hoeing is seriously hard work. :)

Sometimes I cry because I'm so happy

The other night, I checked on each of my kids before I went to bed, just like I always do. I took a snuggly sleeping girl to the potty, and gave each boy a kiss and fixed their covers. And as always, I whispered in their ears how much I love them, how amazing they are, and how lucky I am to have them.

I always hope that my loving words will make it into their subconscious or their dreams or something. I don't know. But that night, by the time I made it back into my bed, I was literally in tears (and I may or may not be in tears again as I write this). At that moment, I was so overwhelmed with the love I have for those 3 special people.

I cried to Adam, marveling about how happy I am because of them. How much I love and cherish our family. How awesome our kids are. How did we get so lucky to call them ours?

What a good feeling.

Glimpses

Every now and then, I catch glimpses of Aidan and Logan that transport me back in time to when they were little.

Just yesterday, Aidan cocked his head to the side and gave me this exact same look. In that split second, he was 4 years old again.


October 2008

And Logan with his puppy. Oh, that puppy. He's been attached to this thing since he was a baby. And to this day, he still likes to sniff/rub it against his lip when he's upset or tired. Every time I catch him doing it, he looks like a toddler to me.


(Left) almost 2; (Right) 15 months


In those glimpses, I feel sad that they're not so little anymore. And then I feel guilty—as if them being older is a bad thing. It's not a bad thing, just very bittersweet. I love who they are now and who they will become, but I'll always be incredibly nostalgic and miss the time when they were my sweet, snuggly baby boys.


(Left)Aidan, 10 months old, 2005; (Right)Logan, 9 months old

Jinx and vomit

I probably should have knocked on wood after I wrote up such a lovely birthday post for Logan, talking about how he had turned a corner with the meltdowns and was handling his feelings a little bit more appropriately. Either I had totally selective memory while I was caught up in my birthday nostalgia, or I totally jinxed myself.


I wrote the first half of that post the day before his birthday, but by the time I had written the rest and was ready to post, he was already proclaiming his day ruined and he was having the worst birthday ever. Dramatic much? And this is what happened when I dared to ask for a photo with the child I birthed from my loins 7 years ago on that day.


How dare I?!?


Unfortunately, during a total cluster of a time trying to get a tantruming Lorelai down for her nap, Logan got yelled at (not by me! Orange Rhino FTW!). And even though I tried to calmly remedy the situation, it spiraled out of control. He stormed up to his room, said he was going to throw away all his presents, and said all kinds of hurtful things to me like "you don't love me! You never love me!" It was certainly nowhere near as bad as his temper tantrums have gotten in the past, but it was extra hurtful because it was on such a special day, and I truly, honestly, was nothing but sweet and comforting to him when he got upset. (Side note: I'm giving myself mad props for not having any kind of mental breakdown or screaming match from all of the tantrums going on. Deep breaths...)

On the plus side, he came out of it fairly quickly, and was all better by the time his cousins came over so they could enjoy some quality time eating pizza and brownies and playing Skylanders on the Wii.

But...BUT! It wasn't all sunshine and birthday unicorns from there on out. By 9pm, he was writhing in pain on the bathroom floor with a horrible stomach ache, and then proceeded to puke up his entire dessert. Because of course. Of course Logan couldn't have been spared, on his birthday no less, from the vomit that has plagued our house for what was now the 3rd weekend in a row. First Lorelai, then Aidan. I should have seen it coming for Logan from a mile away. Sure, I think it had much more to do with the 3 chocolate donuts, a few slices of pizza and one monster-sized birthday brownie he scarfed down over the course of the day as opposed to whatever Lorelai and Aidan had. But still. 3 kids, 3 weekends of puke. Lovely.

We're all better now, so if Adam and I can make it through this weekend without either of us throwing up, maybe our "lucky" streak will be broken. Fingers crossed. Toilet bowls thoroughly cleaned, just in case. :)


PS: I have to say that I really do think Logan has turned that corner. And no matter what this post sounds like in my effort to document our reality--both the good and the bad--I meant every single heartfelt word I said about him. Just in case that didn't go without saying.

PPS: For the record--he done went crazy again this morning when I asked him to be more helpful like Aidan. Apparently what he heard was "I hate you, Logan." Sigh. 

Seven.

Happy 7th birthday to my sweet, charming, shy, funny, friendly, sensitive, crazy, athletic, smart, loving Logan.



I don't want to jinx myself, but I kind of feel like Logan has turned a corner in this last year. The meltdowns are less frequent and less intense, which is a huge deal. He's still sensitive and gets his feelings hurt pretty easily, but he's learning how to handle that better. And his teacher told me the other day that he was really "adaptable and go-with-the-flow." Say what?! Music to my ears, for sure.

He's doing amazingly well in school. Blowing his assessment scores out of the water, in the top learning group for each of his subjects (reading, spelling and math) and really seeming to enjoy it. When I asked him if he was raising his hand in class to participate, he said yes. When I asked if he got the answer right, he gave me a coy little smile and said "I always get the answer right." I love seeing that confidence coming from him.

He's still so good with his sister, loves playing with Aidan, and makes friends left and right. He's maturing right before my eyes, and I love seeing this glimpse of the man he could turn out to be.



Some other things I want to remember about Logan at age 7:

• He's into Skylanders and Pokeman, making a beeline straight there with no hesitation when birthday shopping with Grandma and Grandpa. He's also into Legos like his brother, and they're still saving up for the Death Star together.
• He likes reading Flat Stanley, Captain Underpants and Frannie K Stein books. He's got excellent reading comprehension and reading fluency (MClass level K; goal for beginning of 1st grade is E), but he still prefers to be read to at home.
• He's much less inclined to spend his allotted technology time sitting on the couch watching a TV show--he'd much rather watch Adam play his League of Legends computer game.
• He's still super athletic, although we don't have him in any organized sports right now. I think we might try basketball this winter.
• He's a whiz at arcade games, just like his dad.
• He can seriously chow down on some food. I swear, he eats burritos and bananas Conehead style!

*******

I totally dropped the ball this year and didn't plan any kind of official party. Instead, his special request was to have breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts and go to Adventure Landing to play some putt-putt and arcade games.



We had a great time, just the five of us (ahem, no matter what Logan says to the contrary after his feelings got hurt during a Lorelai tantrum...). And tonight we'll have a pizza party with Grandma Ellie and cousins Shaun and Raina. Low key, but enjoyable.



To my Logie-lou, I couldn't be more proud of you if I tried. You're an amazing person, and I'm so excited to continue to watch you grow and learn. Tonight at 5:40, I'll hug you tight and remember the moment you came into this world and into my life, changing it forever for the better. I love you more than words.


Cheer up, buttercup! It's your birthday!

1st and 4th

After a fun but always too short 5-week summer break, it was time to head back to class today for Aidan's first day of 4th grade and Logan's first day of 1st grade. (Insert cliche but oh so true comment about how time sure flies...)



We went school shopping yesterday (nothing like waiting until the last minute!) and packed their backpacks full of supplies. What is it about fresh supplies that's so exciting? I don't know, but we were all excited and ready for the first day.




Aidan was a little upset that none of his friends from last year are in his class this year. Apparently we were the only ones who opted out of looping with his teacher from last year. I'm slightly concerned that we made the wrong decision because I didn't get warm fuzzies from his new teacher. But only time will tell. Aidan did say that she's really strict, so what I'm most worried about is that he won't connect with her. And maybe he'll be resentful that he didn't get to stay with the teacher he loved last year and it'll affect his motivation. I don't know. But I'm really trying not to stress about it yet. Trying and failing, for the record. How could I not stress about it when the first thing he said to me when I got home was that "it was a sad day." Because of the friends thing, and because he dropped his sandwich at lunch and couldn't eat it. Breaks my heart. I SO want him to have a great year and nurture the love of school he's had in the past.

As for Logan, he didn't get the teacher we hoped for—the one who Aidan had in Kindergarten, and who my sister had back in 1991(!). But the teacher he has seems nice, and Logan said he likes her. Plus, he has two friends from his class last year, so that helps tremendously. At least I don't have to worry about Logan (yet...).



And this little girl. Bless her heart, I think she's a little jealous of the boys getting to go to school! From school supply shopping where she had her very own book bag and princess crayons picked out, to first day of school photos, she just HAD to get in on the action. Only two (yes, TWO) years until her first day of kindergarten. Hold me.




I certainly wouldn't mind any positive thoughts for a good school year for the both of them. School is just so important, and they have so many years left of it, so I'd just hate for and bad experiences to change their whole attitude about it, know what I mean?

But like I said, time will tell.

School's out! Finally!

Friday was the last day of school, woohoo!

I can't tell you how excited I am that this school year is finally over. Not gonna lie, it's been stressful. More than double the homework between the two boys (Aidan just had SO much), plus projects, Aidan's first year taking EOGs...it's seemed like one LONG year.


Are you serious? Are we really done?!


But both Aidan and Logan were champs and made it through with flying colors. And good grades. :)


The fine print: technically these last day photos were taken on 6/6, thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea raining out any potential photos on their actual last day. Score one for mom for thinking ahead though!

Another dramatic transformation for Aidan. Maybe it's just the hair. :)


I can't believe the progress Logan made this year. Sometimes I forget he was only in Kindergarten, and didn't even know how to read or spell at the beginning of the year. I did have high hopes for him since he's one of the older Kindergartners (missed the cutoff by 1 week) and he proved me right. His reading level (mClass level I) is on level for end of 1st grade, he's good at and enjoys math, he's done some impressive creative writing, and his teacher said he was the only one in his class to get all 12 questions correct on test of analogies for AIG screening. That was only one part of the AIG screening so we won't know until after more testing next year whether he qualifies, but we'll see! Regardless, we're just so proud of how far he came. The transformation is nothing short of impressive.




And Aidan. Oh, Aidan. Despite the, um, issues I had with his teacher...he did great, as always. A Honor Roll in the first and last quarters, and A/B Honor Roll in the middle two quarters. He studied hard all year, and hopefully rocked his first-ever EOGs. (Grades don't come back until October because it's a new set of tests so they have to analyze the results.)



Gotta be honest, my frustrations with his teacher have been a huge part of what's made this year more stressful for me. Thankfully, Aidan was mostly insulated from that. He never saw me get stabby over the numerous overly!!!! exuberant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! emails with bad grammar (exhibit A, exhibit B). He genuinely liked his teacher. For that, I'm so grateful, because having that connection with her helped motivate him to work hard and succeed. Despite any of her other faults, I give her the utmost credit for her enthusiasm for teaching and affection for her students.

The unfortunate complication is that we were offered the "exciting opportunity" to loop with her since she's being moved up to 4th grade (can you believe it?!?). He really wants her again, but Adam and I just can't do it. My sanity can't handle reading another dreadful email, and I don't want any more project grades to suffer based on her lack of expertise (or basic logic) when it comes to rubric grading. I feel bad that we're denying Aidan this opportunity, but I'm looking forward to starting fresh. As far as he knows, we're parting on good terms, and that's all that matters.

Now that Kindergarten and 3rd grade are behind us, we can all focus on a glorious (but waaaaay too short) 5 weeks of break enjoying our summer. Summer bucket list-making is in progress and I can't wait!

Wacky Tacky Wednesday

Over-sized polka dot shirt, green tank top (so people "don't see my nipples"--what Lorelai literally said this morning), floral skirt, blue reindeer socks and mismatched pig tails. NAILED IT.



In my opinion, I think we topped the tacky from last time. Although...this morning Adam's ONLY comment was about her hair. So maybe it's not as heinous an outfit as I thought? Or maybe she's just totally on trend with all the pattern mixing. ;)

It's Week of the Young Child at daycare, so in addition to today being Wacky Tacky Wednesday, there was also an ice cream social this afternoon. It was perfect timing since the boys were out for early release and could join us. Pretty sure they ruined their dinner with two bowls of ice cream each, but they were sure happy to eat and get to play on the baby toys.



And then we played with inchworms, because apparently that's what we do now.



Lorelai was extremely eager to show her friend the inchworm the Aidan found.


Hope everyone's Wednesday was slightly less tacky, but equally awesome.

Gone fishin'

Aidan and Logan are on break from school, so Grandma and Grandpa took the opportunity to have them over for a highly anticipated sleepover last week. Those are always the best kinds of sleepovers, because they get spoiled rotten. It's no wonder they ask to go over there on a regular basis. Man, do those kids love their grandparents and the feeling is mutual for sure. :)


Left: with Grandma at Logan's pre-k graduation, June 2012. Right: with Grandpa, Easter 2009.

Logan has been wanting to go fishing for a while now, and Grandpa even got him a fishing pole for Christmas. With the luck of good weather on their side, they were finally able to put the new pole to good use on their very first fishing fishing trip!

It sounds like they had an absolute blast on their day out. Aidan caught a huge catfish and a small bass, and Logan reeled in a couple of small bass as well. They even baited their own hooks with worms. They talked about the fun the had from the minute they got home to the minute they went to bed. They couldn't even pick a favorite thing about their day because it was all just so awesome for them.

I'm so glad they had this opportunity. I told them they were so lucky to be able to spend such quality time with their grandparents and they'd cherish these memories forever.

I'm also glad the grandparents were the ones to volunteer for fishing duty. I mean, I was a fishing pro (ha!) back in the day, and I may have even hooked my own worms...but to be honest, the thought of touching worms and giant catfish kind of gives me the creeps now. Clearly I've lost my edge :)

And because I don't have any pictures of the boys fishing (you can tell the grandparents aren't bloggers because they were having too much fun to take pictures, ha!), I'll leave you with this evidence of my fishing prowess back in the day. And this wasn't even the time I caught a huge trout with my Mickey Mouse fishing pole when I was 5. I only brag because my parents tell me they didn't catch a single thing. Ha!


True story: this um...lovely (?) picture is currently *still* hanging on my mom's refrigerator. I was maybe 10 or so? With an awesome sense of style, clearly. #throwback

Question: were Mickey Mouse fishing poles the "it" thing back in the 80s or something? Did anyone else have one? Adam told me he had one as well, but it met an untimely end in the ocean. Or maybe we were soul mates before we knew it based on our mutual love for our Mickey Mouse fishing poles? Ha!


Linking up with:

The other injuries

While we've never had an ER visit for any of the kids up until this weekend, it's not quite accurate to say that we've been accident-free up until then.

In July 2009 when Logan was 3.5, he somehow fell off a bike and into the bike petal at daycare and basically had a puncture wound right next to his eye. The director called me in a panic because she just assumed he needed stitches and just knew I'd need to get him to a doctor right away. It was gross and scary because it was a gaping wound so close to his eye, so I admit to freaking out a little lot.



I took him straight to urgent care where they cleaned him up, but they almost sent us to the ER for stitches, since urgent care doesn't do the sedation required on pediatric patients when stitches are required. Fortunately, they were able to use dermabond (lots and lots of it) to close the wound, so our ER bullet was dodged that time.

Almost a year later when Aidan was in kindergarten, he was playing outside and gashed his scalp open on a nail (or something??) underneath the playset. His teacher called me in a panic because she couldn't get it to stop bleeding. By the time I got there, the bleeding had mostly subsided and I got him right to urgent care where he got two staples in his head to close the gash. After the incident with Logan, I wasn't quite as freaked out over this wound, since Aidan was a bit older, not super upset about it, and I just know that scalps tend to bleed a lot even on fairly minor wounds. Calm Mommy award goes to me on that one. :) It still turned my stomach to look at it, though.

But Lorelai still wins the dubious prize for causing the biggest parental freakout (I guess she wins that award x2 if you count the pregnancy scare I had...little stinker!) because of the nature of her injury and the unknown that's involved with head injuries. As much as I cringe to think about blood, etc., I'll take a superficial wound over possible brain damage any day.

But note to the universe: that is most definitely NOT a request for more injuries. Let's see if we can go at least another 2.5 years before we see another ER or urgent care. I need time to replenish my insurance health fund after what I'm sure will be a large ER bill...

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