Happy 1st Birthday, Logan!

Today was all about Logan and Elmo. The two shared the spotlight as Logan celebrated his birthday with friends and family; and Elmo set the theme for decorations, cake, gifts, cards, gift bags, and balloons. Logan's first birthday party was at our home. It was a pool party and the weather participated providing a nice sunny day, perfect for swimming. Logan had no problem attacking the smush cake. He almost ate half the cake before we had to take it away. After that, he swam for a bit and then opened all his gifts. Despite missing a nap, Logan was the life of the party. He played with all of the kids, had his share of food, and was overwhelmed by the number of gifts he received. For some pictures of his birthday party, click here.

Logan's First Haircut

What's more magical than a baby's first haircut? A first haircut at Disney's Magic Kingdom Barber Shop. Yesterday, Logan made the adventure via the monorail to Main Street in anticipation of the moment where he trades in his baby blond curls for a pair of mouse ears as he begins his transition from baby to toddler. What is so special about the experience at Disney?

Before:                                             After:

First, there's the personal service. There are only two chairs in the Barber Shop and since we arrived at 5pm (closing time), they locked the doors behind us and closed all the shades. Then there was the special seat pad for children. He was welcomed by loads of Mickey stickers and magically the Barber cut his hair without him even knowing. When it was all over, Logan received a certificate, extra stickers, a lock of his hair with pixie dust, and a pair of mouse ears that reads "First Haircut". And, when it was all over, Logan got to ride on the carousel and It's a Small World. Click here for more pictures of Logan's Disney Adventure.

Logan turns 11 months old!

Another month has passed and we just can't believe how much Logan has grown and developed over the past 30 days (or more like 37 days). Once again we have to apologize for our busy lives and late posting of his monthly entry. This was definitely a busy month topped off with a trip across the country to show Logan what California has to offer.

As many of you know, this month marked the beginning of Logan's Summer Vacation from daycare. He is home for the summer so it is up to Stefanie and I to continue to teach him new things and entertain him. In terms of new tricks, he has discovered Elmo and several other stuffed animals. He will grab onto a stuffed animal and give it a big hug. He is still crawling as fast as ever and standing up while holding onto objects. He figured out how to play with the dogs and absolutely love them. In next month's blog, you'll even learn that he now says "Delila" (the name of one of our dogs). If you ask him where his head is, he'll respond by touching his head. If you ask him where his nose is, he'll respond by touching his head, so we'll be working on this next month.

Being that he is on summer break, he is spending a lot more time in the pool. We bought him a couple rafts and he loves to float in the pool and splash. It is still a contest as to whether he likes the pool or the bath more. He is a true native Floridian when it comes to his love for water.

As you can probably tell from the 11 month pictures (click here to view), Logan has had no problems in the eating department. He is definitely starting to develop a taste for things that he likes and dislikes. He loves yogurt, but hates watermelon. He loves chicken, but needs to be in the mood to eat hamburger. Regardless of the food, this boy eats a lot. He finishes entire kids meals including the kids meal (plus side and drink) at Subway.

Talking about drinking, it is a rare day that he uses a bottle. It is now sippy cups and straws. He is having a tough time adapting to the straw because he doesn't realize that he needs to swallow and he thinks he needs to tip the cup. He is getting better every day, though.

Let's talk speech next since Stefanie is a Speech-Language Pathologist. Logan can now say "da-da", "da-ddy", "ma-ma", "mo", "na-na", "ba-ba", "th-th", "et", and a couple others. He even says some of these on command. Beyond the spoken words, he also learned sign language for "more". We are trying to also teach him the signs for "all done", "ball", "daddy", "mommy", and "kiss".

The California trip was great. If you want to see how much fun we had in California, click here. If you want to hear all about it, read on. We went to California with Logan's Mimi and Poppi (Stefanie's parents). Stefanie's father's brother lives in California and Stefanie's first Cousin Stacee is engaged to get married this summer to her fiance Scott.

We made sure that Logan had his own seat on the plane for this trip. We knew with the long flight that he would be better in a car seat. It was a good thing because he had just cut two teeth the night before and had a low grade fever. He did great, though it took him a while to settle down and go to sleep. We started our tour in the LA area where we saw the Chinese Grauman Theatre, Rodeo Drive, The Grove, The Famer's Market, Santa Monica Pier, Redondo Beach Pier, The Hills, and some of Stefanie's long lost relatives on her father's side.

After a couple days in LA, we headed to the San Diego area where we went to the Zoo, La Jolla, The Cove, Hotel Del Coronado, and spent some time with Sumner's brother Ivan, his wife Fern, and daughter Stacee. Logan also met Scott and Scott's family at a barbecue at the Cohen household.


All in all, we all had a good time and got to see a lot of California, but there is never enough time to see everyone and everything. We'll have to come back again next year. Talking about next year, by the next blog post, Logan will be 1 year old. We're hoping that we will be able to report that he can walk and knows the difference between his nose and his head. We're also hoping to report that more teeth have come in. Other than that, I am sure there will be pictures from his birthday party and news from his 1 year doctor's check-up.

Logan turns 10 months old!

It was another busy month for Logan as the school year begins to come to an end. Hard to believe it is almost summer again. In another couple months, we'll be celebrating Logan's 1 year birthday. My, how they grow up so fast. Logan is in full crawl-mode. As his doctor said at his late 9 month check-up, "he is now dangerous to himself and others." Whatever happened to the Logan that would sit in one place and play with his toys? Now he is all over the house and into everything including opening and closing doors, pulling air fresheners out of the wall sockets, and pulling the white things off the door stoppers.

Those teeth that started coming through in Month 9 are now very noticeable. Now there is nothing that Logan will not eat including green beans. Some of you may remember that he hated the green bean baby food. His favorites are probably macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and grilled cheese. Of course, this great eating has led to some weight gain. Logan is now 22lbs which means he is already growing out of his 12 month clothes.

It was an exciting month for Logan, though the pictures probably don't do the month justice. He went to 2 birthdays; went swimming; met some new friends like Parker and Aidan; attended a music class; and had his first melt down at a restaurant. This was also Stefanie's first Mother's Day since Logan was born. Brian snuck Logan out of day care for the afternoon to get some pictures taken for Mother's Day. As soon as those are available, we will put a link on the blog. Also check the blog next month for some of Logan's summer adventures including a family vacation.

For pictures of Logan this month, click here.

Logan's First Passover

Yesterday, Logan attended his first Passover Seder and he did great. Now that Logan is eating table food, he couldn't get enough of all the different Passover foods like matzah farfel, matzah farfel muffins, matzah balls, brisket, and matzah. He even had matzah brie for breakfast. Considering he didn't get to sleep until almost 10pm, Logan was a trooper and stayed at the table during both parts of the seder. He only took a small break after the meal to play with his new toy. Logan is seen in the picture above wearing his brand new "I love Matzah" bib and wearing a yarmulke.

Logan Turns 9 Months Old!

This was a big month for Logan. His month started with a trip to Ohio (see the blog entry below) and continued with a trip to Boston and a couple trips down to South Florida. He got to meet several new people this month (mostly family, but some friends) and got to see some people that he hasn't seen in several months.

The most important developments to note are that he now has a tooth coming through and last week he started crawling. We have been waiting for the month where we could announce that he was finally crawling and we figured that it would probably happen around the same time that he cut his first tooth.

Although teeth are not necessary for eating real food, his appetite matured around the same time he started to get his first tooth. There is nothing this kid won't eat. In the short time that he has been eating table food, he has already tried (and inhaled) beets, avocado, green beans, matzah, chicken, hamburger, turkey, cheese, bagels, crackers, cheerios, matzah balls, tzimmis, bologna, edamame, french toast, matzah brie, pancakes, potato pancakes, brisket, and macaroons.

From this month's pictures, you'll see that Logan is really growing. He missed his 9 month check-up due to an ear infection, but he did weigh in at 20 lbs. What you won't see from the pictures is the way that Logan has started to copy us. If you clap, he will clap. If you make a rasberry, he will make one. If you click your tongue, he will click. If you say "da-da-da", he will do the same.

For this next month, we are looking forward to further advancements. Maybe he will start to pull himself up to the standing position. Maybe he will add more sounds to his vocabulary. We'll have to wait and see. Check back next month for updates. In the meanwhile, click here to look at pictures from this month.

Logan flies to Logan Airport

Although Logan was not named after Logan Airport, many have joked about the connection since Stefanie grew up in the Boston Area and continues today to be a fan of all the Boston teams. With 3 round trip flights under his belt, it was only a matter of time before Logan made his way to Boston.

The main reason for the trip was to attend the wedding of Beckie Osborne and Andre Gray. Beckie is Stefanie's long time friend from high school. For pictures of the wedding, click here.

Logan did not attend the wedding, but he sure enjoyed his trip to Boston. which included meeting his cousins Drew, Aaron, and Hailey for the first time. He also got to meet his great aunt Fern and great uncle Ivan for the first time. While in Boston, he also saw his cousin Andrew again and had the pleasure of meeting his new fiance.

Luck would have it that on Saturday Logan got to go to his cousin Aaron's first birthday party. He got to spend some time with kids his own age and spend some time with family. Many of the pictures from Boston were taken at the birthday party.

Although we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott, the hosts of the weekend we really Debbie, Gary, and Gary's parents. We got to enjoy two wonderful authentic Greek meals and Logan enjoyed every bit of it. For pictures of the weekend, click here.