Dear Logan,

You are 13 months old! Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of photos from the last few weeks, but I wanted to write down a few things to remember about where you are right now.

Since you turned one, we switched to whole milk, and we’ve almost gotten you away from the bottle! You love your sippy cup after we finally found the right kind. The Tommee Tippee brand really works for you! You drink the milk along with your meals now instead of getting your bottle after finishing your food. The only bottle you’re still having is the one at night right before you go to sleep. We are planning to transition that to a sippy cup and then take it away completely, but I know that is going to make for a rough few nights!

That cuddle time before bedtime is my favorite part of the day. After dinner, we give you a bath (it’s been hit or miss lately if you like your bath or flip out and stand up crying the whole time!), and we play for a little while. Then, you get a little fussy to let us know that you are ready for bed. You and I snuggle in the chair in your room as you drink your bottle. When you finish, you hand it to me and then you turn over and reach for my shoulder to nestle into. Sometimes I stay there holding you for longer than I should… long after you’ve gone to sleep. But, I know I won’t always have this cuddle time, so I want to enjoy it while we can. Thank you for letting me cuddle you.

Your little personality is so sweet! But you are so strong-willed and determined, and that’s growing every day! You sure can give some dirty looks when you want to. And that left eye brow… it’s just like your mama!

When daddy takes you to school in the mornings, you carry your lunch bag from the elevator to your classroom, and then you help him put everything away. When I pick you up, you really want to help me carry your carseat, but I quickly send you to get your lunch bag and you run off to get that!

Speaking of running, you are such a good walker that you almost run sometimes! You are in a hurry to get so many places!

You are into everything, and we really need to get some childproof locks for the kitchen cabinets. It’s funny though because we let you play in the tupperware cabinet, and you know it’s ok for you to go into that one. When you open the other doors, you get the devilish look like I know I’m not supposed to be in here, but…

Lately, you’ve tried to climb stairs. Such a determined little girl! We are trying our best to keep you away from those because the only stairs we have are outside, and since they are on concrete, that worries me! You know me and worrying.

You love to talk! You get that from both your mama and daddy. The only real words you say are mama and puppy (which sounds more like pup-pup), but you babble ALL the time! I don’t think we have too many silent moments with you!

You love, love, love to read. And you know what books are what. For example, we’ll say, “go get your Frosty the Snowman book,” and you go get that one. You really love Frosty the Snowman!

You still have just two teeth on the bottom. But that doesn’t stop you from eating anything we give you! We’ve had pizza a few times this month, and we have to try and load your slices with veggies to get you to eat them. You loved pesto pasta with chicken last week! I’m so glad you love the fancy food! You still have oatmeal mixed with fruit most mornings for breakfast (sometimes, we’ll have scrambled eggs or our Saturday bagels) and milk in your sippy cup. You have a mid-morning snack of fruit, Cheerios and water. Lunch is a variety of things with a sippy cup of milk. Your mid-afternoon snack is yogurt and water. Dinner is whatever we’re eating and a sippy cup of milk.

I’m not sure how much you weigh, but you’re still wearing 12 month and 12-18 month clothes (which are a little big). Shoes are size 3, and Pampers diapers are size 4.

You are so fun right now, and I know that I’ll say that at each stage. A friend told us a while back that the best age is the one you are right now, and that’s so true. I love every minute I get to spend with you, even when you’re not so happy. I love you so much, my sweet baby girl!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. We took weekly photos of you each week until your first birthday. See them all here. From now on, we’ll take monthly photos to see how you grow and change!

Dear Logan,

On Saturday, April 14, you turned one! The last year has gone so fast, and it’s hard to believe that you went from a tiny little baby who depended on us for everything to a very independent girl who walks and wants to do things by herself!

Your little personality keeps developing more each day. In the last few weeks, you’ve come up with this little fake laugh. It’s hilarious, but we have no idea where you got it from! You are such a happy little girl. But when you’re not happy, you are definitely not happy. You know what you want, and you want what you want, as your daddy says about you. You love to giggle, and it’s the most precious little giggle.

You are such a helper! You love to help daddy pick up sycamore balls in the yard. From just watching him, you learned to pick them up and put them in the wheel barrow.

And you love to gather leaves. Only yellow leaves. And you put them all in your right hand and walk around the yard picking up more and adding them to your collection. Lately, you like to pick up bark as well.

If we could spend the whole day outside, you would love it. The first thing you want to do when we get home from school is go straight to the backyard. You definitely didn’t get this love of the outdoors from your mommy! Most nights when daddy gets home, you play outside with him while I get dinner ready.

We had your first birthday party on Sunday, April 15 because unfortunately, mommy had to work on your actual birthday. {It was a wonderful party, and I’ll post photos soon.} The theme was hot pink and black polka dots and ladybugs, of course… because you are our baby bug! How are you already one?! On the day of your party, you helped daddy put beer in the cooler. It was so funny to watch! You leaned down to pick up the bottle from the box, holding it by the neck of the bottle, and handed it to daddy to put in the cooler. I have no idea how you learn to do these things! We know you must really watch everything we do, and you’re really taking it all in!

You are such a good eater. But getting you to eat your veggies has gotten a bit tougher lately. I am having to get creative because you will put food in your mouth, realize there’s a piece of broccoli hidden in the pasta, spit it out and separate the pieces and then put the pasta back in your mouth. Smart little girl. You really want to eat what we are eating these days, so it’s a little easier to not have to make a separate meal for you. You even ate pesto pasta the other night! I love that your little taste buds like the fancy foods!

And you love to have a taste of ice cream every now and then…

As of April 30, a couple of weeks after your first birthday, you only drink whole milk. No more formula! It’s made bottle washing and making a whole lot easier. {Update: We are now working on switching from bottles to sippy cups. You’ve made the transition at dinnertime, and now we’re working on lunch. You still drink a bottle with breakfast and right before bedtime, but we’re slowly getting there!}

We bought you a little kitchen a few weeks ago to put in our kitchen in place of the Exersaucer-turned-activity table that you have outgrown. You just love it! Look at that sassy little girl! 

Here are a few of the photos from your one-year photo shoot. I wasn’t very happy with how they turned out, but we did get a few cute ones.

I made this hot pink tutu and the cake for you in hopes of some cute photos of you smashing the cake. I love the sweet look on your face in this photo.

But you were completely not interested in the cake!

You go to sleep each  night between 7:45 and 8 p.m., and you wake up between 6:30 and 7 a.m. We are thankful that you sleep the whole night! Sometimes, if daddy and I have gone out to dinner and weren’t home to put you to bed, I love to pick you up and cuddle you for a few minutes. Thank you for letting me cuddle you.

You still wear size 4 Pampers diapers and size 12 and 12-18 month clothes. And you’re still in size 3 shoes. We went to your one-year check-up on the Monday after your birthday, and you are a perfectly healthy girl! You weigh 19 lbs. and are 28 inches. Still our tiny girl! And you have two teeth — just the bottom two!

I love you so much! Happy birthday, my sweet baby girl!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. We took weekly photos of you each week until your first birthday. See them all here. From now on, we’ll take monthly photos to see how you grow and change!

Wow, Logan is 50 weeks old! Only two weeks until she’s one! Where has the time gone?

The big news is that Logan got her first tooth on March 29! It was crazy that she’s walking everywhere and eating everything but still not a tooth! Until now! Thankfully, we haven’t noticed anything really different that would indicate teething (no sleepless nights, no real fussiness…). It’s her bottom front right tooth. I noticed it on the night of March 29 when I was feeding her dinner. She was eating cottage cheese, and at first I thought it was just a little piece of the cheese. But it never moved as she chewed. She doesn’t let us stick our fingers into her mouth very easily (think lips tightly pursed if we try), so I had to wait until she drifted off to sleep in my arms that night to confirm. Yep, a tooth! Ryan was in Seattle for a boys weekend with his college best friends, so he wasn’t here to get excited with me. But I was so excited! Our baby bug has her first tooth! Now I wonder how long it’ll be until the next one comes in…

She’s looking at me in this photo like, “really, you’re still taking photos?” After the 52-week photo and one on her official one-year birthday, we’ll move to taking these photos on the 14th of each month. I still have to figure out what background to use. I plan on making a quilt with all this fabric and I thought that might be a good background, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. We’ve been spending all of our nights getting ready for Logan’s first birthday party! So, we’ll see. Any suggestions?

Here’s Logan at 50 weeks old on March 29, 2012…

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

It’s getting harder and harder to get a good photo of Logan each week! She doesn’t want to sit on the fabric, and by the time we get around to taking the photos at night after work, dinner and bathtime, she’s pretty much done. I just love her little profile in this photo. Those cheeks still get me! They aren’t quite as chubby as they were a few months ago, but they are still so kissable! And you can just see that little buddah belly she’s got going on. If only she would get taller, that little belly would go away because she has no fat anywhere else on her body (except for a precious little roll at the very top of her legs!). (I’m kidding when I say I wish the belly would go away. She’s very healthy and eats well!)

One of her favorite things to do is to open the cabinet in the kitchen where we keep the tupperware, and she pulls them all out. Recently, she’s started stacking them… like she’s doing in this photo. And this week was the first week of spring… so the butterflies fit perfectly!

Here’s Logan at 49 weeks old on March 22, 2012…

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

The week of Logan’s first St. Patrick’s Day! We went to our local St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and she loved it! The family beside us had a little black dog, and she kept staring at him. I guess she thought he looked like Rose! Logan also loved the Chick-fil-a cows, of course! It was a beautiful day for a parade!

Here’s Logan at 48 weeks old on March 15, 2012…

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

Logan’s legs are getting stronger every day as she’s walking everywhere! She started walking around Feb. 27 (10 and a half months old). Our lives have definitely changed because she is always on the go! And now, she can stand up from just pushing off of the floor instead of pulling up on a chair or the wall (that started around April 2-3). This picture shows that she was just starting to figure that out. She couldn’t quite make it up back in early March, but she was so close!

Here’s Logan at 47 weeks old on March 8, 2012…

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

Logan loves to read! When we say, “where are your books?”, she looks directly at the two places in her room where we keep her books. She’ll go get a book and bring it back and climb into one of our laps to read the book. It’s amazing how much she’s taking in and observing beyond what she can verbalize at this point. This book is one of her favorites. We love Karen Katz books, and this one is “Daddy Hugs.” We also have “Mommy Hugs,” and it’s funny because Logan only lets Ryan read “Daddy Hugs” to her and only I can read “Mommy Hugs.” We hug her with each page (and I give her kisses too!). It’s my favorite book to read to her. We read so, so many books. I love buying new books because she gets excited but also because I get tired of reading the same books over and over again. I think we are going to acquire quite a collection of books!

I love this photo because she seems so excited about the book. And you can see her precious long eye lashes. I always laugh when I think back on the first few days after she was born. My sister Ashley said that her eyelashes were slowly “unfurling.” I thought the word was funny, but they really were slowly unfurling, and now she has the most beautiful long eyelashes!

Here’s Logan at 46 weeks old on March 1, 2012…

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

We’ve had to start using props to entertain Logan on the fabric. Otherwise, she either scoots right off the fabric to try and grab the camera or she just tears the fabric off of the oven where we have it taped. Smart little girl! My mom gave us this little cat for Christmas. When you turn him on, he chases you singing a song that has a word that sounds quite inappropriate. I won’t say what it is, but I’ll just say you would think the manufacturer would have focus groups test out the toy and what the words sound like before selling it to children! Regardless, Logan loves to grab the cat and turn him sideways so he can’t chase her anymore. And Rose. Rose is quite scared of this cat! She runs away, and most of the time, she runs into something trying to get out of the cat’s way. It’s hilarious! Is it bad that sometimes we turn him on and point him in Rose’s direction?

Here’s Logan at 45 weeks old on February 23, 2012…

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

Wow, I’m behind at posting Logan’s weekly photos! Life has gotten so busy now that Logan is walking everywhere (even running sometimes!). We have taken the photos every week, but I just haven’t gotten around to editing and posting them. Story of my life, right? So, here are a few…

Here’s Logan at 44 weeks old on February 16, 2012…

 

Ryan and I are taking weekly photos of Logan until she turns one, and then we’ll compile them into a photo book so we can document how she changes and grows over her first year. Want to see how Logan changes each week? All of her weekly photos are compiled here.

Dear Logan,

Here I am, late again! You were 11 months old on March 14, and time is just flying by. I cannot believe that in a couple of short weeks, you will be one!

In the last month, you started walking! You’ve been taking a step here and there for a while, but you’ve recently decided that you were ready to walk everywhere! Somewhere around Feb. 27 is when everything changed and you were walking like crazy! At first, you would take a few steps to me or your daddy. But now, you’re going anywhere you want! Turning around… walking sideways… you’re getting more steady on your feet every day!

Oh, your little personality. You are quite a strong-willed, determined little girl! And I know you got that from me, as my mom said I was just like you when I was a little girl. You can have quite a temper too. You always want to do things by yourself, and if we try to help you out, you flail your arms up and down like you’re trying to say, “I can do it myself!” Recently, you’ve started arching your back, throwing your head back and making your body really stiff if we try to help you with something or ask you to do something you don’t want to do. Oh goodness.

You love to open and close drawers and cabinets. One of your favorite things to do is to open the cabinet where we keep tupperware in the kitchen and the cabinet where we keep extra diapers and wipes in your room and take everything out. Sometimes, you’ll even put it all back away for us. You love to do that same thing with your baskets of toys. You’ll take everything out and put them all back in again. 

You love to read! We read so many books to you, and you really seem to be paying attention to the page and not trying to just flip the pages. You are really taking everything in!

You’re still such a good eater. You love chicken, which I’m so happy about! I craved chicken sandwiches (mostly Chick-fil-a) when I was pregnant with you, and I was worried that you would HATE chicken, which would be bad in our family! But you love it! We buy a rotissierie chicken at the grocery store each week, and you eat lots of the white meat! You also love kiwis, bananas, apples, peaches, pears, avocado, yogurt, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, cheese and above all else — anything with carbs! You love bagels, bread, pancakes… but we try to limit the carbs that you get and keep them mostly whole wheat. You eat so many things that I can’t think to list them all here! Recently, you loved lasagna florentine (made with ground turkey and spinach) and spinach quiche. I think hiding veggies in other foods may be the way to go because you’ve recently stopped wanting to eat steamed veggies.

Daddy let you have a lick of strawberry ice cream, too. Just a small lick. But you loved it!

You drink five bottles a day — 2 ounces with breakfast (oatmeal with fruit mixed in), 4 ounces with lunch, 6 ounces in the afternoon, 3 ounces with dinner and 6 ounces at bedtime. We’ve been working on getting you to drink water from a sippy cup with your morning snack of fruit and cheerios, but you like to chew on the cup more than drink from it. We’re still trying to find a cup that works for you, but I think we may need to put formula in it instead of water to see if it’s just the water that you don’t like. So far, you haven’t tasted juice — we’re trying to keep in that way as long as we can!

We went to the zoo for the first time this month. You loved looking at the big animals.

And you cheered on runners at your first marathon — well, the first marathon you watched! My cousin Margaret Ann ran the half-marathon, and we cheered her on!

You also went to your first parade on St. Patrick’s Day! The family beside us had a little black dog, and you were more interested in staring at the dog than watching the parade! We think you thought he looked a lot like Rose.

<photos coming soon!>

Speaking of Rose, you are becoming such good friends! When I pick you up from your crib each morning, you are always so happy and I just love to hug you. But then, you want to lean down and rub Rose. It’s really cute. We’ve been working on saying “Rose” and asking you what sound Rose makes — “woof woof”! You stare at my lips trying to take in what I’m saying. I know your little mind is processing it, and before we know it, you’ll be saying “Rose, woof woof!” and chasing her around the house!

A couple of weeks ago, you had hand, foot and mouth. Most of your class had it, and you were out of school for four days. It was one of mommy’s busiest weeks at work, so thankfully, your daddy took two and a half days off and Grammy spent a day and a half with you. It was a very mild case, and you were back to yourself in no time! We pray for your health every day, and I’m so glad that you’ve been really healthy since you were born.

You are wearing size 4 Pampers diapers, and your clothes are mostly size 12 months with a few 12-18 months. They are all still pretty big, but since the weather is getting warmer, we are excited for you to wear your new spring/summer wardrobe! We bought you some precious little Stride Rite shoes in size 3.

We love you so much! This last year as flown by, and we are really enjoying spending as much time with you as we can. Happy 11 months, my precious baby bug!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. We are still taking weekly photos of you so we can see how you grow and change each week! See them all here.