Logan is THREE!

I have no idea when my last Logan update was, but I'd say he's probably way overdue.  We haven't had as many major milestones with this little guy - not like his brother.  But he's definitely done a lot of growing up in the past few months.

For starters, he is a GREAT big brother.  He plays with Brayden, and is extremely protective of him.  At the same time, though, they fight like anyone might expect brothers to fight.  Logan is possessive of his toys and doesn't like when Brayden is playing with something that belongs to him.  Of course, it's perfectly okay for him to play with Brayden's toys though :)  He has a temper that can compete with that of his brother, but in the end Brayden's will always win.  Logan is a three year old, so with that comes temper tantrums for a variety of silly reasons.  He spends quite a bit of time on our bottom step in time-out, but that consequence isn't very consistent depending on who's watching the boys, so it's not as effective as I'd like it to be.

Logan is a somewhat picky eater.  We often find ourselves fighting with him to finish a meal.  He goes without dessert more often than not (though it's not offered every night either).  I get really annoyed when I have to feed him to get him to eat.  He just has so many more important things to do than to sit down at the table and eat, I guess.  His current favorites are pierogies, spaghetti-o's, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  He still loves to drink milk.  He asks for Cheerios and orange juice every night before bed.  He's such a creature of habit, just like his mommy.

Our biggest accomplishment lately has been potty training!  I'm so proud to announce that this little guy is officially trained!  I had started trying to get him trained at the beginning of the summer when I was off work, hoping that he would definitely be done by the time I went back to school and Todd's dad wouldn't have to deal with it.  We had no luck throughout the summer, and I was pretty discouraged.  Then, one weekend in September I decided we would try big boy underwear just for a day to see what happened.  We had one accident that morning, while shopping at Target.  I explained that we wouldn't be able to stop at the library after we finished shopping because we had to go home and change his pants.  He was pretty disappointed, and has only had a handful of accidents since then.  We had a period of a few weeks with poop accidents, but he's since gotten the hang of that too, and we've been accident free for about three weeks or so (knock on wood).  I'm so proud of my little man!

TV has, unfortunately, become a huge part of Logan's life lately, and he will surely let you know if you are interfering with one of his shows!  Among his favorites are Dora, Bubble Guppies, Team Umizoomi (my personal favorite), Backyardigans, Olivia, and Blue's Clues.  I'm not really crazy about Olivia or Blue's Clues, but they are all that's one during the hour between Brayden's bedtime and Logan's bedtime, so he watches them.  I guess it could be worse.

I'm starting to teach Logan how to spell his name, and he has the first three letters down.  He usually says L-O-G-M.  He can recognize a lot of the letters of the alphabet, but not all yet.  He is starting to recognize numbers too.  He knows several shapes and all of his colors.  His vocabulary is ridiculous, and I often find myself asking, "Where did he learn that word?"  Papa does a great job baby-sitting, and I know Logan is learning a lot from him.  For that, I am so grateful.  The three of them (Papa, Logan, and Brayden) are three of a kind and it's so great to see such a great relationship blossoming between them.

I feel so lucky to have two wonderful little boys.  I don't always feel like I deserve it, but I'm definitely counting my blessings these days!

Hap-pee News!

If you saw my Facebook page, you probably already read the news, but Logan peed on the potty for the first time tonight!  He was trying so hard to pee that he even squeezed out a little poop to go with it!  Way to go little guy!

Here's the story:

Logan was getting a bath, and at some point during the bath he told me he peed.  I asked if he peed in the water and he told me yes.  This totally grosses me out by the way, but I know it happens, probably on a daily basis.  At the end of the bath, we were cleaning up the bath toys, and Logan was standing up in the tub.  He told me he was going to pee in the water, but I didn't believe him.  I figured he had already done it and that was it.  But sure enough, a few seconds later, he started grunting and squeezing (I was afraid he was going to poop instead of pee) and he squeezed out some pee!  I had no idea the kid could pee on demand like that, but I figure he drinks so much milk throughout the day that he probably has an almost-constant stream of pee coming out of him anyway.  I let him finish, again thinking how gross it was that he was peeing in the tub, but I didn't want pee on my bathroom floor either.  I dried him off, and then he asked me to pee on the potty.  I told him I thought he had squeezed all the pee out, but I would let him sit up there anyway.  I sat him backwards because he's so little and I didn't want pee squirting all over my bathroom on the off-chance that he went again.  After a few more seconds of grunting and squeezing, he did it again - this time in the right place!  I was amazed!  And like I said, he squeezed so hard he even got a tiny little poop out too.

I have mixed feelings about this whole experience.  I'm so proud of my little boy, and he clearly was too.  But I'm not sure this is something I want to take on with a new baby coming in six weeks.  I hadn't planned on starting potty training until closer to next summer, when it wouldn't be an added responsibility for my father-in-law/baby-sitter to have to deal with.  Logan isn't even two yet, and I really don't know that he's quite ready at this point.  I'm not ready to deal with a child who has to use the bathroom at inconvenient times, such as when we get in the car to go somewhere or in public places.  (I'm totally repulsed by having to let my child use a public toilet, but I just think thank goodness he's a boy.)  But I guess, as with most parenting, I don't get to decide when my child reaches this developmental milestone.  We are going to get out his little kid potty this weekend and set it up for him.  I figure I'll let him try before bath/bed each night and whenever else he asks to go on the potty.  I'm not going to push this issue very hard right now, though I am excited for the day that I will only have to buy diapers for one.