Of course today is also New Year’s Eve so I find myself reflecting on the year so I’ll do a little year reflection in here as well and then go back to the blog: I feel blessed about how peaceful this year was. We didn’t struggle with the terrible twos and overall we survived a year with two pretty small kids. I feel really blessed for how much peace we had and how well both of our boys have done. My health was good and despite some struggles, both kids are really healthy too. Our lives have been so wonderfully stable with our jobs, house and amazing nanny and it is so much fun to just sit back and enjoy. We kept up our good habits – cooking at home, Charles going to gym, and I was able to lose my baby weight. We missed our family who are far away but cherished skype time and encourage you all to get more on our skype schedule. I know that there were many parts of this year where we were tired and exhausted but I feel proud that we found a way to enrich both of our kids life and make sure that this year was a special. Charles and I also did a better job staying connected this year than we did during Logan’s first year. As all parents know, newborns are uber-stressful (and exhausting) and I think we worked incredibly well as a team to give the kids what they needed and have more fun. Also personally this was a hard year because Wyatt ate so often at night for so long and was so uncomfortable eating that nursing him was a real struggle (though bottles were worse). I am so happy to be on the other side of that and have a happy healthy baby who sleeps through the night. I can’t wrap my mind around what an entire year of sleep will look like, but I’m excited to try it ;).
Personality
Logan has a tremendous personality. He is very outgoing and social and extremely loquacious. He likes his routines and he thrives on predictability in his day. When he understands what is happening (and is well slept), he is generally calm, compliant and interested. As a result, we have had very few tantrums in the 2s. In fact, all tantrums were related to missing naps because of travelling. He loves school and gymnastics and seeing his friends and family. He loves skyping with family and is wonderfully connected to Auntie Tina, Mimi Maria, and Auntie Gina through skype. Although Logan is overall an adventurous and happy kid he does have one quirk. I am not sure exactly what to call it but I’d generally say it has to do with strangerphobia and sensory overload. He gets very scared in many situations and will fall apart. Public bathrooms are a nightmare (though not uncommon at this age). He also won’t go on a carousel or wouldn’t even go near Santa. He actually refused at preschool to go into any classrooms that weren’t his own during their Christmas party. Yet he dives into a b-day party at his gym with 35 kids all at least a year older than him and he thrives. He mostly hates adults unless he knows people (though he is willing to get to know people if they aren’t too in his face), but he loves kids, especially 5 and over because they talk more. This quirk can make some circumstances a little rougher (travelling is much harder as a result), but he does great with his normal routines and really does well when we can explain things ahead. He had a lot of doctor appointments recently and he did great when we explained ahead what would happen. He can be so patient and understanding as long as we treat him with respect and let him know we are understanding what we are asking of him and how hard things can be. His sensitivity is interesting as a mix to his outgoingness. Overall it makes him very compassionate and empathetic and since it doesn’t get in the way of his life, I am glad to not try to push him out of his comfort zone.
Preschool/My gym
Logan has been involved in a class at mygym since he was about 1.5. However this year he went up two different levels (he has been in 3.5-4.5 year class for a few months). Given his social skills and physical ability he tends to fit in with kids that are at least a year older than him. This means he is now in a drop-off class (though this change happened after the pre-school prep class).
Logan started preschool prep this year in the spring. It was a new 2 hour class that they started for kids his age to work on drop-off classes of a longer length. We really love it. The teachers at mygym are AMAZING and kind and it has a great mix of crafts and learning with physical gym activities. The ratios are also great with 2 teachers (or sometimes 3) for 8 kids! We partially chose this class because we knew Logan has separation issues and we wanted him to work on it. It was rough at first, but he did great and he now loves his drop off class. He has gym on Wednesday and Thursday and the same teachers for both and he loves it.
This fall Logan started actual preschool at Kindering in Bellevue. We toured 2 schools and Logan really loved this school. It is a beautiful school and is interesting because there is a mix of special needs and not special needs kids in every class. Each class has 3 teachers, 1 speech educator, 1 occupational therapist and one aide. He really loves going to school and has made some good friends there. This school focuses on social interactions which is the right counterpoint to Logan’s morning “school time” with Julia where they work on his learning.
Logan will have to stop at Kindering when he turns 3.5 (the special needs kids leave at 3) so he will have the summer off and then we’ll start a new school in the fall. We are looking at a co-op style school that will continue the same high adult to kid ratio and focus on social interactions. All the studies I have read said that the purpose of school in the preschool age is really the social and interpersonal stuff.
Friends
Logan has some good friends and his friendships can definitely get deeper now as he communicates more. However, he still gravitates towards kids around 5 and older. He still prefers girls but will make friends with boys too (I think generally 5 year old boys are less interested in young boys than 5 year old girls). We did a good job the first half of the year (especially with Julia’s help) to have lots of playdates. However, when everyone started preschool in the fall the schedules got complicated and we have struggled to get good play dates. We need to continue to work hard to make this happen. He still has 4 structured events per week though so he gets plenty of socialization. At preschool his bestie was a new friend Mason who he befriended his first day at school. He just graduated though, so he’ll be missed by Logan. At mygym his best friend is Jaymie who just turned 5 (so is his favorite age).
It is fun to watch Logan make friends better as his language and social skills develop. He is still nervous about starting interactions with people. He will play but he doesn’t know quite how to introduce himself. He is also taking his social skills and deepening his relationships with adults. Of course with us he can connect deeply. But we can see him connect more with our friends (Chris and Mo are favorites) and his family via skype.
Brother
Logan and his brother get along amazingly. Logan was not terribly interested in Wyatt at first but acted out his feelings and named his baby Wyatt and he would take care of his baby while I took care of his. Since Wyatt has gotten more mobile and more interactive Logan has bonded more. He is really interested in playing with him and wants to boss Wyatt around (sweetly) to get him to play games. He is so elated when Wyatt plays along. Of course Wyatt has the attention span of a 13 month old and will only do something a few times before he tires of it.
Logan is also really sweet and looks out for Wyatt. He will tell us if he does something he shouldn’t or if he goes somewhere he shouldn’t. He is very concerned about closing doors to keep Wyatt where he is supposed to be. It is very sweet how he looks out for him. He also really likes him to come play in his crib with him.
Overall they are so sweet together and they really love chasing each other and playing together. Seeing them together is so wonderful and I am so glad to see how much Logan gets out of having a brother (since at first it feels like just like we are taking away from him).
Food
Logan has become a much pickier eater (shocker since he is a toddler after all). He eats far fewer veggies and fruits than I would like but still does okay on protein. This year he has many feast or famine phases and he has some weird tummy stuff in the summer than caused him to not gain weight most of the year. He is gaining weight again now but I think the total on the year was 5 lbs ish. That is fine at this age and he has leaned out in a good toddler way (though I think he is still pretty high on the percentiles).
He has been less adventurous overall in sharing with us but we have been trying to get him to try more with some mixed success. Of course he will gladly try anything sweet or bad for you, but they can recognize a veggie from a mile away. Overall I think he eats healthy enough for this phase of life. His favorite foods are pizza, pretzels, rolls, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, quesadilla, bagel, and sweets (cake, muffins).
Health issues
I don’t want to spend long on it but the beginning of Logan’s year was somewhat plagued with mild asthma, which once we figured out was pretty manageable. The end of the year had a really bad run of UTIs (after a year of minor issues with his foreskin). This was our hardest experience yet in parenting. Logan is a sensitive but strong kid and this didn’t serve us well. Overall we got him better and we have a path forward. For now, in addition to some specific creams to hopefully help, we have been asked to try Logan on a gluten free diet. The theory is that an irritant in his body might be contributing to his propensity for these types of infections. We are two weeks into that, so we’ll see how it goes. So far he is in infection free (but he had been for two weeks before we switched too). I think it will be clearer when we reintroduce gluten after 3 months to see how his body responds. I hope he isn’t gluten intolerant since it is more work for him (and for us to make sure he doesn’t feel left out), but he is in the right household for this. We had an amazing gluten free Christmas Danish, coffee cake, lasagna, crescent rolls, kettle corn, pizza, birthday cake, etc. Overall I think we did pretty well and he isn’t missing out too much. The hardest part is going to be sending him to school and mygym with his own snack and hope he doesn’t eat someone else’s food. Logan has been through so much and I hope that he doesn’t have a recurrence of UTI anytime soon. His last doctor said the odds aren’t in his favor and estimated a 20% chance that he won’t have future problems. He has a good memory and he thinks about his penis issues a lot. Just tonight Wyatt crawled into the bathroom when he was using the potty and he said “Wyatt is so happy it doesn’t hurt when I pee.” Overall we are in a good place now and we really like our doctor. I hope this is the end of it, but if it isn’t I think we will be able to move forward in a way that helps him most, even if that means a circumcision.
Big boy
It is fun as Logan turns 3 to look at all the “big boy” things Logan does. He is fully potty trained during the day. I think he could be potty trained at night but we haven’t quite tackled it yet since he isn’t super interested in peeing all on his own at night. We tried waking him up at 9:30 pm for a bit and then he would wake up dry but he is like his dad (who doesn’t like waking up from sleep) and some nights he would refuse to go. So now he wakes up slightly wet and he pees in the morning. Overall not a problem that needs fixing yet.
Logan eats super well on his own with utensils. He doesn’t need bibs, he sits in an adult chair and he drinks out of a normal cup. He is clean and does a good job.
Logan can dress himself but often he likes if we do it for him. Same deal with shoes and coats. He takes everything off on his own quickly but takes longer to put on and often we are in a hurry.
He does pretty well at brushing his teeth and is now good at not swallowing his toothpaste so we have switched to fluoride toothpaste. He has all of his baby teeth now so hopefully we can take good care of them.
He is also a good helper in the kitchen and skilled at many things.
His probably only baby thing left (besides his nighttime diaper) is that he still sucks his thumb at night. We will need him to stop doing this at some point.
Reading/Writing/Understanding
Logan knows all of his letters and numbers. He also knows their sounds. He can count well (though is often impatient with it). He knows his colors and shapes (obviously) and he learning the meaning of the days of the week. He is also very interested in smells. He can identify many things by smell and asks to smell every ingredient we cook with and everything we eat. He is getting more interested in coloring (and markers are his favorite). He also likes work books and will do good school work. He is generally less interested in crafts than some but Julia has come up with some great activities that he has really loved and he does neat crafts and school and gym. He also loves playdough and pretends he is cooking in the bath (or when playing his favorite iPad games). He has learned a lot and it is fun to see him peace together things about his life and day. There are some funny moments though where he still doesn’t quite understand the difference between nap and bed. I think it is worse when Julia isn’t here so there is less difference between the two.
Overall he is the sweetest little boy. He acts more like a 5 years old than a 3 year old so although it is significant that he is turning 3, he already acts much older. I can’t say enough how glad I am to be his mommy and how much I’ve grown and changed as a person in this important role. Obviously being a mommy is hard work and rearranges your life and priority, but more importantly, Logan’s zest for life and attention to detail has made me hoot for joy when I see a snowflake, perk up when I see a cement mixer, and point to the air when I hear and airplane. I think I see and live so much more than I did before kids. I know some of that would be true with any kid, but Logan’s pure enthusiasm for life is so contagious and so wonderful. I can’t wait to see what he will be like over the next year.
Here is a year of pictures. starting December 2014 through December 2015. A lot are in the kitchen because these are all from our real camera and we take it out most when cooking!
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