12/31/07

December 31, the last day of the year. 2007 was a good year for me, and an average year for most. Below average if you had to go to Iraq, or if you had a poor mortgage.

We just got back from our trip to Nebraska to visit my parents. Quite a bit happened while we were there, so I'll just go over the highlights.

Logan was charming. He liked mom and dad, and figured out that he should call them Grandma and Grandpa right away. He played in the living room, but really enjoyed the stairway. He liked to kick balls down to whoever he could get to stand on the landing halfway down. He found and enjoyed playing with the Fisher Price Huffy Puffy train - an old wood train from my childhood. He called it the "coffee choo-choo" because he couldn't quite pronounce huffy puffy.

We announced to the world that Heidi was pregnant with twins on Christmas eve. After all of the presents were opened I handed mom an envelope with the ultrasound picture inside. Mom and dad were so excited they forgot to properly dress up for late services - dad didn't have a tie, and mom wore black jeans. Carol called nearly every day after we told her we were going to have twins.

Logan, Heidi and I visited Kansas City. Stacie and Pierre were visiting along with their two (for the time being) children. We stayed at a nice Mariott by the Plaza, and we saw Brian and Sarah's new house. Logan liked playing with his cousins there - especially with Ethan. We told Stacie and Pierre about the twins - they were both very excited. The next day we went to Crown Center and the Union station before driving back to Lincoln. I think Heidi really liked Kansas City.

Logan liked sledding! It was very cold the entire time we were there, and about six inches of snow were on the ground the entire time. We bundled Logan into his snow suit and pushed him down the hill on a sled. He loved it, and called the sled an "outside chair" before he learned to call it by it's proper name.

The last full day in Nebraska we all visited the Omaha zoo. Heidi was impressed by the Leid Jungle and the Desert exhibit. The aquarium was also pretty interesting, though not as good as the Seattle Aquarium. We didn't see any of the outdoor exhibits - it was still too cold to go outside.

We learned that Paul's mother is sick while we were back in Nebraska. She has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and started treatment on the day after Christmas. We met Paul and Michael at the Children's museum the day treatment began.

The flight back to Seattle was not the most fun I've ever had in an airplane. Logan and Heidi both got airsick due to turbulence. Logan got sick on takeoff, and I had to keep Logan occupied most of the flight - Heidi was trying to deal with her nausea. Heidi finally threw up right after we landed.

12/19/07

Heidi's birthday!

Logan is still sick. He got sick yesterday, and remained sick today. He has a persistant 102 fever - but no other symptoms. He's sleeping quietly right now. I hope he sleeps through the night.

Tomorrow we will fly to Nebraska - and I hope he's healthy enough for the flight.

Tonight we celebrated Heidi's birthday - we went to the Yarrow Bay Grill while Logan stayed with Carol and Bryan. Logan seemed to have a good time. It was strange eating without Logan - I felt impatient for the end of the meal.

12/18/07

Plumbing difficulties abound in my house right now. I just fixed the drain from the sink and disposal. There was a popsicle stick in the U-bend. It was causing other clogs to form, blocking the drainage from the disposal and the sink.

Now I suspect that we have a dishwasher problem as well. I found water welling up from under the VCT tile by the sink. There were no leaks I could find from the other plumbing, so by process of elimination it's got to be the dishwasher.

I'm scared to actually try to fix the dishwasher - time to call the plumber!

12-12-07

Today I dropped Logan off at daycare and picked Logan up from daycare. I also fed him breakfast and supper. It was a Logan-irrific day!

Logan was pretty happy in the morning. He's usually happy when he gets up, and pretty happy through breakfast. When I brought him downstairs he said "hi Chazz!" He usually greets Chazz every morning. I make him a breakfast of cereal, yogurt, juice. He also likes the fruit and granola bars. He likes to sit and eat at a leisurely pace, which means I'm usually late.

By the time I got him to daycare it was nearly 8:30. I ran to the bus stop at 80th and Ravenna. Then I waited. The #72 bus is usually 10 minutes late. When it arrived Svetlana - Logan's "teacher" from last year - got off the bus.

I tried to do work, but the bus was horribly crowded. There was a grade school class going downtown. They all got off at my stop in the bus tunnel.

12-6-07

Logan is getting over his bad cold / flu / whatever. He had very high fevers for two days, along with trouble sleeping, vomiting, and some lack of appetite. It was pretty hard on him - he seemed miserable. Hard on Heidi and myself as well.

Last night we went to Carol and Bryan's house for Hanukkah. It was the second night. We didn't celebrate the first night - Logan was far too sick for festivities. Last night he was much better. We had fun, and Logan played around until bedtime. We stayed in Bellevue because we wanted to leave Logan with Carol in the morning. It was terribly hard getting him to go to sleep - he cried until I decided he was too worked up for sleep. We took him for a second walk, but when we got home he cried again. Heidi finally got him to sleep.

12/3/07

A strange day all around.

Logan is sick. He woke up with a slight fever, enough to where I felt it and kept him home from daycare. He got sicker during the day - 103 fever. He was mostly active and fairly happy, but he was obviously a little run down when the fever rose.

The weather was pretty nasty - we woke up to an extremely hard rain that continued most of the day. The basement has water seeping over the floor and getting into the laundry. The air outside felt warm and balmy - a true pineapple express.

Heidi went to her first ultrasound alone. When she got home we were upstairs changing. Logan had a temperature of 102, but was in an oddly good mood. Heidi came into the room and informed me that we were going to have twins. I didn't know what to think - I felt that we were about to have a million problems that we couldn't take care of. The house too small, not enough money, the cars too small. The possibility of problems with the pregnancy. They are fraternal twins. We don't know much else - other than they are 8 weeks old, and they may be delivered around 36 to 37 weeks. That's sometime in June.

11/30/07

I'm writing on my new-ish Macintosh computer right now. It's 7:20 in the morning, and I'm waiting for Logan to wake up. I can hear him stirring on the baby monitor, and about ten minutes ago he let out a small squeal. I hope he's healthy this morning - I plan on taking him to daycare. He's been mildly sick for the past couple of days. More distressing, he's been waking up in the middle of the night, and not getting back to sleep for hours. It's a return to new babyhood!

It's been very cold lately - in the 30's for the evening walk. Logan has developed the very sensible habit of tucking his hands under his body in the stroller when he's finished with his milk. It would help if he actually wore gloves, but I'm just happy we've convinced him that his hat won't kill him!

Thanksgiving 2007

I'm still recovering from Thanksgiving 2007!

Stacie and Pierre came up from San Francisco with their boys Ethan and Hayden. Karen and Bill came down from San Francisco. Heidi, Logan Chazz and I traveled over to Bellevue from Seattle, and Kimmie, Dave, Mack, Zelda, Sophie, Ezra and Buster came from Sammamish. It was quite a full house on Thanksgiving!

Karen and Bill could only come down for the day. In fact, they left right after dinner. Stacie and Pierre were able to stay the whole weekend.

Logan had a blast, and now remembers all of his cousin's names. He ran around the house, climbed up and down the stairs to the playroom and tried to keep up with his older cousins. He liked to be pushed around in the plastic car in the playroom - I had to spend quite a long time crawling around pushing the car on my knees.

David brought a strange hops tea concoction he has been working on. It's pretty tasty, and mimics the flavor of good beer far better than typical non-alcoholic beverages. He's eager to market it as a drink. I think that if he can get the word out people would really pay for it.

Pierre and Dave set up a projector in the playroom. They played Wii as well as movies on the projector.

It was a fun weekend. By the end of the weekend I was really tired! On Sunday I worked most of the day on the CBS Daycare plans, and had a meeting at 7:00 to show them to the folks at CBS. The meeting dragged on until 10:00!

11-12-07

This weekend we went up to Vancouver BC to visit my sister and her husband. We drove up late at night, while Logan was sleeping in the backseat of the car. Heidi picked me up at the LIHI charity auction at around 8:00. She parked in front of Vaughn's and gave me a call. I had to leave right after the meal, while the auction was still going on.

We didn't do very much in Vancouver. We walked around on Saturday, and went to Granville Island. Logan had fun in the Kid's mall, and Chazz had fun at the dog treat store - though he had a tussle with a dog whom he thought was going to get his treat!

Sunday Bill and Karen had guests over for brunch. I felt like I wasn't terribly social, but I had to follow Logan around most of the time.

On Monday I turned 37. It was a normal day at work, without very much introspection. That night Heidi Logan and I went out to eat at the new Tutta Bella in the Paul Allen financed high rise at Dexter and Westlake. At dinner Heidi told me what I had suspected from a phone call earlier in the day - she's pregnant. Kid number two is on the way - hopefully and knock on wood.

10/31/07

Halloween! This was Logan's second Halloween. It was a cold and clear night, though it was foggy most of the day. About ten groups of kids come to our front door. Chazz barked at each group, until we opened the door and he realized they were kids. Logan just stared. He didn't seem bothered.

One thing that did bother logan was our jack-o-lanterns. We used flashing bike lights instead of candles. Logan didn't like that! He wanted to take the flashing lights out to play with them. He got upset when I didn't let him.

He was tired and cranky towards the end of the evening. I was going to take him around trick or treating, but he was too tired and he didn't seem to want to go. He had a little "outfit" - basically a hard hat and some tools. We had a hand me down superman outfit, but Logan didn't like it and wouldn't wear the cape.

10-20-07

Tonight we're going to baby sit Ezra and Sophie while Kim and David go out to Tilth.

I heard from Carol that Pierre has quit his job with the elections commission in San Francisco. Evidently the stress of both Stacie and Pierre working demanding jobs with long hours was really starting to take a toll.

At the University of Nebraska coach Osborne is now the athletic Director. There were three really disappointing football games in a row, ending with Oklahoma State demolishing UNL at Memorial Stadium. Now Tom Osbourne is going to be watching coach Callahan. I suspect Callahan will probably be fired. I also expect that the team will improve a bit for the rest of the year.

10/16/07

Logan was briefly sick over the weekend. I first noticed how warm he was on Saturday afternoon when I woke him up from his nap. He had a fever of 102 (101) degrees! He didn't seem sick - he played, laughed and ran around like he had plenty of energy. On Sunday he really wanted to run around and have fun outside, even though he had a temperature that fluctuated between 99 and 102 degrees.

On Monday I stayed at home with Logan. He seemed to be over his illness, and was having fun most of the day. We went to Swanson's nursery before lunch, where he ran around while I bought expensive plants. He stomped in puddles outside, and he looked at the early displays of Christmas ornaments inside the greenhouse. There was a neat little "pumpkin maze" made out of hay bales and stacks of pumpkins. Logan liked it.

Last night Logan went to sleep with a stuffed animal for the first time. He went to sleep holding Dusty the dragon, our old friend from hiking a year ago.

10/10/07

Logan is playing the harmonica! Heidi bought a harmonica to play for Logan, but Logan has figured out how to pick up the harmonica and blow into it.

Logan is also blowing bubbles. We have a bottle of bubble soap and several .. err ... bubble rings? Well, if we take the ring, dip it into the soap and hold it up Logan will happily blow bubbles. He loves watching and popping the bubbles.

Logan LOVES his brown fleece columbia coat. He'll wear it all day long, if we let him. Sometimes he cries and throws a fit when we take the coat off. He often wants to sleep in the coat! One night when I was putting Logan to bed and I had him on the changing pad I tried to take his coat off. Logan shook his head, said "nooooo!" and tried to hold onto the coat. He got to sleep in it that night!

10/9/07

Last night I installed a new dining room light to replace the one that Logan broke. It was a pretty simple operation, and was accomplished with a minimum of cursing. The fixture is from Pottery Barn, and looks just fine in a restrained quasi-historic way.

Logan broke the old light fixture in the dining room. I was holding Logan up to he could reach the fixture, and he grabbed the glass bowel. The bowel instantly fell to the table and broke. We were living with the fixture with bare bulbs for a number of months before I finally bought it's replacement.

10/7/07

Logan woke up early in the morning, crying and scared. I think he must have had a bad dream. He wouldn't go back to sleep in our bed, and he didn't want Heidi to hold him. He calmed down when I held him, and he pointed out of his room to the stairs and said "that way." We went downstairs, and over to the front door. He looked out the door quietly for a short while and then I took him back over to the couch. He slept on my shoulder for about an hour, and then I dressed him and fed him breakfast.

10/2/07

Logan has been using more and more words. He's doing a pretty good job of communicating - I think that his ability to use language greatly out paces our ability to understand him. However, we can't help but understand one of his new words: "poopie." He clearly knows what it means, and he uses it to describe passing gas and actually pooping. Unfortunately, he also uses it to describe other people passing gas. Just last night he pointed at me accusingly and said "poopie!"

Our daycare just moved to a new building - it's attached to the Temple Beth Am. I took Logan there for the first time Monday morning. Getting into the parking lot was a chore - the whole place was packed with kids walking to or getting dropped off at the University Prep school next door. When Logan went into the building he was happy - until he saw some of the people from daycare and realized where he was. Then he was pretty unhappy! He was still crying when I left.

9/24/07

We got a Certificate of Occupancy for 415 10th Avenue this Friday.

Logan is sick. This Saturday night he had a terrible sounding croup cough. I woke up instantly when I heard it, and recognized it right away. I was really worried that Logan was having trouble breathing, and that he would need to go to the emergency room. However, nothing of the sort happened. Logan's breathing eased up and he went back to sleep. The cold is hanging on today, and it's getting worse in some ways - a stuffy head and a fever - but he doesn't have a croup cough anymore.

Logan is starting to count - sort of. I've often counted when I lift him up into the air. I'll say "One, two, THREE" and throw him up into the air. Now he's started to say "One, Two" and wait for us to say "Three." Then he runs around yelling "yeaaa!"

9/21/07

Tonight is the beginning of Yom Kippur. Tomorrow I'm going to fast. Fasting itself is not a big deal, but not drinking coffee IS a big deal. I'm looking forward to a day with me having a pretty bad mood ... which is all part of the magic of Yom Kippur. You're supposed to suffer a little bit.

I met Logan and Heidi at the aquarium for lunch yesterday. Logan was in a poor mood until he started eating. THEN his move improved quite a bit. Logan's been much happier since one of his canines poked through his gums on Tuesday. He's sleeping well and in a much better mood.

I replaced the backyard gate this week. I did it pretty quickly, and now it looks and works wonderfully. I can't believe we suffered for so long with the old crappy gate. It would never close properly, and was perpetually sagging and rubbing up against the fence posts. The new gate feels sturdy, and weighs about twice as much.

The 415 10th building, which I have been working on for almost three years, is almost finished. The final inspection should take place today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, since we really do have to pass the inspection so the DESC can start moving furniture into the building.

9/14/07 - 10:00 pm

Logan is mega-teething tonight. He has three teeth coming in at once. He's got a small fever, and he's not feeling very happy. Poor little guy! There's not much we can do, besides giving him orajel. And we can't find any.

9/14/07

Yesterday was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

Heidi and I took Joshua Harvitz to a service for people with disabilities at Temple De Hirsch Sinai. Josh is Heidi's second cousin once removed (I think.) He is about my age. He nearly drowned when he was very young - around 2 or 3 years old - and has been severely disabled ever since. He's in a wheelchair, and has very little motor control. He has extremely limited speech. I don't know how much he understands, though I often suspect he understands more than most people think he does.

Sadly, Logan was alarmed by Josh. Josh occasionally makes spasm like movements and shrieks when he's excited. Of course, he was excited when we picked him up. Logan started to cry immediately. He cried during the car ride to Seattle, and was still upset when we arrived. By the end of the service both Logan and Josh were calmer, and the ride back was crying free.

I hope that Logan will get used to Josh (and vice versa.)

9/12/07

Today was a pretty ordinary day, though we're all still getting used to the new school year schedule.

This morning I got up, got ready and woke Logan up at 6:45. Heidi left right before Logan woke up. I've decided to wake him up gradually, going into his room and bustling about in an attempt to get him up without startling him. Usually it works pretty well, though he takes a long time to fully wake up.

This morning he was pretty happy. He had a nice breakfast of Kicks cereal, yogurt, grapes and juice. Finally we went to daycare. He was perfectly fine until I got him into Room 3, when he started to bawl. He cried so hard he nearly gagged himself. I left quickly - I thought that long goodbyes may cause him to be more anxious.
When she picked Logan up Heidi heard that he had calmed down about five minutes after I left.

9/11/07

I'm typing this at work, and about ready to go finish the Punch List for the 415 10th Avenue building. All afternoon I'll be going into units and checking for construction items to finish. I'll have to say that the building is looking good. I hope it's fine when we're done.

9/9/07

Today Logan, Heidi, Chazz and I hiked into the Commonwealth basin. It was a picture perfect blue sky fall day, and the forecast called for the high to be around 75 in the mountains. We set off fairly early and drove up to the Commonwealth campground parking lot just off of I-90. It was already packed when we arrived and started to hike up. About 50 feet from the trailhead we ran across a side trail - the abandoned trail down from the Basin that was mentioned in most trail descriptions. We decided to go up the "official" route, which coincided with the Pacific Crest Trail for the first 2-3/4 miles.

The trail up was lovely - at about 1.75 miles we broke out of the trees and entered a series of rockfalls with wonderful views of the basin below us and the surrounding mountains. Cool breezes were flowing off the mountain tops, down the rockfall channels. It may have been 50 degrees in spots along the trail.

At the fork in the trail we went left and down into the basin, while the Pacific Crest Trail climbed to the right. We passed the intersection with the old abandoned trail. After another mile we stopped and had lunch in the basin.

The basin was a wonderful spot for camping, eating lunch or picking blueberries. It's criss-crossed by small streams and has several large meadows. We turned back when the trail started it's ascent of Red Mountain.



On the way back we took the abandoned trail for a fast way down. We filled Logan's snack cup with blueberries - he ate till his face turned purple. The old trail was still traveled and in good shape.

After we got home I came down with a bad head cold. Totally worth it, though.

8/29/07

We went down to San Francisco last week to visit Heidi's sister Stacie and her family. Heidi left on Wednesday morning and flew down on Southwest Airlines with Logan. I followed them on Thursday evening. I got into Oakland at about 8:30 and took the shuttle to the BART station near the airport, and rode BART to the Glen Park station. I got to Stacie's house around 9:30, after Logan was asleep.

The next day we went to the Discovery Museum. It's located just over the Golden Gate bridge in an old coast guard base. The old clay tile roofed barracks have been converted to a series of children's museums. Each building has a different theme. The grounds between the buildings contain play areas. Logan had a blast playing with his cousins Hayden and Ethan. I think Logan's favorite areas were a "salmon stream" and the toddler's play area. The toddler play room had places with water bed like floors which he "swam" on. He also had fun watching a backhoe working near the museum. There was also an exhibit about cowboys, where Logan got to wear a cowboy hat.

The next day we went up to Sanoma. Heidi's parents were in the area for a wedding, and we went up to meet them for the day. When we got there Stacie announced that she was pregnant. Carol and Bryan were very surprised - and very happy.

We met at "train town," a small amusement park that features an extensive scale train ride and other small rides. We went on the train ride, which was pretty interesting although sort of crowded and uncomfortable. Logan and I also rode the carousel, which Logan really enjoyed.

After lunch I visited the Sanoma barracks and mission, a state historical site. The were built in the 1830's and housed a small Spanish garrison which was captured by Americans from Sutter's fort. Sanoma was where the Bear Flag was created and where California became - for a short time - an independent country.

We stopped at a winery on our way back from Sanoma. It was not nearly the fancy experience I had imagined!

8/2/07

I'm super busy right now. I'm working on a building permit and a design review presentation for the 424 Minor Avenue Project. At the same time! It's really eating into the time I have to be with Logan and Heidi.

The building permit is due on August 8, the Design review presentation in on August 15th, and after that the 415 10th building will finish construction. There are too many little problems to track right now.

Last night Heidi and I briefly rode in the bicycle protest for the Stone Way bike lane. I spoke to a journalist while we rode along - and I got quoted in today's Seattle times. I haven't read it yet. Hopefully, they didn't make me sound like an idiot.

7/21/07

My parents came out to Washington and BC to visit both me and my sister. They drove their shiny new Honda Accord out through Yellowstone park. They were able to visit us several days before traveling up to Vancouver where they got food poisoning. We think they got it at a restaurant called the Sand Bar which is located on Granville Island. We've eaten there many times. It seems both of my parents ate the clam chowder and a salad.

We traveled up to Vancouver on Friday night. We arrived to a quiet townhouse - Bill and Karen were out at the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book release party at Chapters - and we got ready to go to sleep right away. We heard my mother throwing up in the bathroom.

The next day we stayed around the townhouse. Mom and Dad were tired and sick. They mostly slept or rested on the couches. Logan was restless and wanted to get out of the house. He loves the living room deck which overlooks false creek and downtown Vancouver.

Karen fixed a delicious salmon dish for dinner. Mom and Dad sat and watched us eat. After dinner we got ready and left for Seattle.

7/15/07 Backpack

Our very first backpacking and camping trip with Logan! The lake is just to the north (on the other side of Highway 2) of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, underneath Bearing Mountain. We hiked two relatively flat miles on a lovely and well maintained trail to the lake. The trail winds through old growth forest, past many enormous moss covered boulders and over a medium sized stream. The campsites were pretty crowded - there was a group at nearly every one.

The lake is fairly small, but picturesque. Bearing Mountain towers 4000 feet above the lake with twin peaks and shear granite cliffs.

Logan loved the hike, and once we got there Logan had a lot of fun. He waded in the lake and walked around the campsite. He was fascinated with the fitful and smokey campfire Heidi coaxed out of the damp wood. He thought the tent was really fun - he crawled in and out of it, and shook the tent poles.

After dinner Heidi put Logan to bed. Logan cried for half an hour, but then went to sleep. I stayed out of the tent, put out the fire, and sat around with Chazz. Once it got dark I shoved Chazz into the tent and went to sleep. Logan slept better than I did - I woke up and checked on him repeatedly. In my half awake state I was really afraid something bad would happen. The only bad thing that actually happened was that Chazz got up at 4:30 and woke up Logan.

When we got back to the parking lot the next morning Logan shouted "car!"

While Heidi was washing our pans I saw a hiker coming down the trail with his son. He had been up the trail from Barclay lake to Eagle Lake. He said the trail after Barclay lake was rarely traveled and hard to follow. It went up steeply, then through "paradise meadow" before reaching Eagle Lake. There's a fisherman's cabin up there. Could be an interesting Hike for the future.

7/4/07

7/4/07

Logan watched fireworks for his second Fourth of July.

We put Logan to sleep at 8:30 - around his normal bedtime - and we got him up again to go see the fireworks at 9:30. It was a warm night for the 4th, and he slept soundly in his stroller on the walk down to the park. When we crossed 50th the crowds of pedestrians started to become noticeable - big groups of people were leaving their parties and streaming south to see the fireworks at the lake. We arrived at Wallingford park and immediately set up in a spot that turned out to have no view at all. Logan woke up after a particularly loud illegal firework went off in the nearby wading pool.

When the Lake Union fireworks finally started we quickly moved to a spot where we could see it. Logan was excited - he pointed at the explosions of color and shouted "Dat! Dat!" He also loved watching the planes flying overhead, and pointed those out as well. He was a pretty happy and pretty tired baby.

7/2/07

On Saturday we hiked up Dingford Creek. The trail is in the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie river, up a long, winding and bumpy road. The trail itself was pretty, but ultimately unsatisfying. We could hear the creek throughout the hike, but we could only rarely see it.

Last night Carol and Bryan came back from their trip to Scandinavia and Russia. They visited Denmark, Sweden and St. Petersburg. Heidi picked them up at the airport and took them back to their house, and I went over to meet them at around 6:30. We decided to go out to a Thai restaurant, where Logan squirmed and squealed during the dinner.

After dinner we went back to Carol and Bryan's house, and Logan was walking around like crazy. He was really excited and energetic.

6/27/07

Today is a humid, brooding day. My throat is vaguely scratchy, my ear vaguely hurts and I'm tired, tired, tired.

Tonight we have a Zoo Tunes concert to attend with Kimmie, Dave, Ezra and Sophie. Hopefully Logan will be well distracted. At the Zoo Tunes concert last week Logan was quite restless, and wanted to spend his time walking.

Last night Logan seemed particularly talkative. He said "ball" "wa-wa" for water "twinkle" for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he said something that sounded like "What's that?"

6/25/07

One of Logan's favorite words is "dat." We think it stands for "that." He uses the word when he wants you to get something for him, or when he wants you to notice something. He points and says "dat!" At dinner Logan sits in his chair and occasionally points at what we're eating, saying "dat!" That means '"hey, give me what you're eating!" When we're going for walks he points up in the air at airplanes flying overhead and says "dat!" If he want's you to go get a toy, or take him over to the wagon he points and says "dat!" If he's really eager, then he says "da da da DAT!"

6/22/07

Logan has a new favorite toy - the click and clack alligator walker. It's a brightly painted wood walker with four wheels. There's a handle bar for Logan to hang on to, and there are three wood alligators that clack their mouths open and shut as the walker rolls along the floor.

This morning after finishing breakfast Logan went right to the walker, stood up and started to walk. And walk. And walk. He went around and around the couch, into the kitchen, and then around and around the kitchen island. He was zooming around the house smiling.

6/18/07

Logan visited the zoo yesterday.

It was also father's day. We decided to go to the zoo in the afternoon. Originally I had wanted to go for a hike or a bike ride, but the weather didn't cooperate at all. It was a cool and drizzly day with a dark, overcast sky.

Logan was scared of the elephant. We walked down to the elephant pen, past the memorial to the recently deceased adolescent elephant. We saw one elephant sitting outside in the drizzle, eating straw. Logan stared at the elephant until it took a step towards us. Then he wanted to get away! I was holding him, and he squirmed around in a way that made it clear he didn't want to be close to the elephant any more.

We saw a male lion roaring. It was an interesting noise - more rhythmic and repetitive than the noise I've heard on television. Logan was entranced.

Logan's favorite place was the "northern trail" - the part of the zoo focusing on north american animals. More than anything he loved looking through glass at salmon swimming in a simulated stream. He pounded the glass, talked and shrieked in delight and walked up and down staring at the fish.

6/14/07

Logan loves to walk around the house, but he doesn't walk very far on his own yet. Instead, he likes to hold on to one or both of my fingers. Often he''ll walk around holding my index finger with one hand and a broom or Chazz's dog dish in the other. We walk in circles around the kitchen island, and we walk back and forth between the living room and the kitchen. Usually Logan will want to go outside. If he can't go outside he'll stop by Chazz's dog door and poke at the flap with whatever he's carrying. Most of the time while Logan's walking with me he'll be "talking" - a series of singsong sounds.

This morning while Heidi was holding Logan she thought he felt "hot." Meaning, she thought he may have a fever. I felt the back of his head and his armpits - he didn't seem at all "hot" to me. He also wasn't acting sick - he was happily playing around with his toys. Hopefully he's doing well tonight.

6/6/07

Logan loves out backyard. When he is "walking by holding onto my index fingers Logan will usually steer me through the kitchen and up to the door to the backyard. Then he'll indicate he wants out. He'll point at the doorknob, or stick his foot into Chazz's dog door. Sometimes he throws a little fit if I won't let him out.

When he's on the porch Logan likes to throw balls, move up and down the step in the porch level, play with the recycling or investigate the grill. Sometimes he wants to go out into the yard. Usually he wants to see the storage shed or take a ride in his red wagon. Sometimes he is happy with investigating the garden plots. Last night Logan rode on our "horse" - the plastic horse on a spring that Chris Behan rescued from a habitat for humanity project he was working on. Logan also stood up in the wagon while I pulled it around the yard.

6/5/07

Logan is standing, but not yet walking.

Logan loves to be upright. He wants to walk around the house. He grabs on to my fingers with his little hands and walks with my support around the house. I just have to keep up with him and avoid stepping on his tiny feet. "Walking" with Logan can be pretty hard on the lower back, especially when he walks and walks and walks without wanting to stop. His has quite a tight little grip, and he can "steer" me with his feet. He's very determined sometimes - it's hard to steer him away from somewhere he wants to go. His usual goals include Chazz's stainless steel water dish, the door to the back porch, the stairs or the kitchen.

The other way that Logan can walk around the house is to push a walker or a chair. The walker with it's endlessly repeating songs used to be very annoying. Logan would push it in a straight line until he hit an obstacle, and then he would start to cry in frustration. I followed him around to steer him away from dead ends and quickly remove toys from his path. Now he's more able to steer his walker himself, and he seems to understand how to avoid dead ends.

Logan has managed to "stand up" on his own several times. He can stand on his own for up to 10 seconds, but he isn't truly walking.

Last night we went to the PEPS meeting. It was at Wendy and Dave's small house, just off of Aurora Avenue. I think there were five babies there, all crawling and playing and none really walking. Clive is the closest to walking upright without any help - he took about four steps last night.

5/8/07

This is the time of year that you start to realize how far north we are in Seattle. Every day is four or five minutes longer than the day before - in a week you can see the difference in the daylight. The sun swings into the northern sky late in the evening, washing the north faces of buildings with direct sunlight.
Last night we ate outside on our back deck. The sky was blue, the weather was warm, and the sun was streaming into our backyard from the north. Everything seemed perfect.

5/6/07

Yesterday Logan, Heidi, Chazz and I went on a hike at Tiger Mountain. We also brought Sophie along. Sophie went on a very short hike with us at the Living Desert in Palm Springs, and she said she wanted to go on a hike with us again. We invited her to come with us to Tiger Mountain. She was quite a hiker – we walked three miles and she barely complained! In fact, I think she really enjoyed it. We walked on the Swamp Trail, the Adventure trail and the Bus trail. Trails at Tiger Mountain all have spiffy names. They’re also pretty well marked. Most of the Mountain is really more of a park than a wilderness area, though parts of the Mountain off the beaten path are pretty wild.
Logan loved having Sophie along. He was happy to see her as soon as she got into our car. During the hike Logan stayed awake the whole time – and he also didn’t complain. He had fun sitting in his backpack - I gave him a couple of sticks to play with, and he happily poked me in the ear and hit me on the head with them the whole hike.

Today we all went to the big plant sale at Meridian Park. The sale benefits Seattle Tilth – an organization that provides educational resources for organic gardening. We bought about ten plants – tomatoes, squash, peppers and other hard to start plants. Oddly, they didn’t have any strawberries. We planted them today, while Logan played in the yard. I think he spent most of the day outside. It was warm-ish, but not sunny.

5/4/07

Logan tried peanut butter today. It looks like he’s not allergic to peanuts!

We’ve been trying to feed him peanuts for half a week now. We tried peanuts in noodles and peanut sauce on tofu. Both times he really didn’t care for the food, and didn’t eat any of the peanut laden foods we were trying to feed him! I thought he might dislike peanuts, but tonight when I gave him some bread with peanut butter on it he eagerly ate it.

Tonight it was bright and sunny when we went on our evening walk. Logan was happy. He babbled a nonstop stream of proto-words in a happy singsong voice. And he pulled my hair occasionally. We walked by the new corner store twice. The streets were full of people taking advantage of the nice weather.

Logan's Birthday 4/20/07

Logan's first birthday was a quiet affair. He was getting over a mystery illness he came down with right after the plane flight back from Palm Springs. It was nearly identical to his previous week long fever - he would get a fever every evening at around 5:00 or 6:00, and get better by the next mid-morning. A frustrating, drawn out illness.
By Friday he was better, so we had a party for him Saturday evening. Quite a few people showed up, including Kimmy and Dave, Bill and Karen, Carol and Bryan, John and Carol Methot, Chris and Kelley Nelson. Logan was pretty excited - especially since there were so many children at the party. Logan loves playing with the "big kids" - especially his cousin Ezra. He played inside, outside, in the living room, in the office, in the kitchen. He was crawling everywhere with a big smile on his face.
When the time came for the "cake" we lit a candle on a cupcake and gave it to Logan in his high chair. We sang happy birthday while Logan tried to grab the candle. Once we removed the candle Logan got right down to the business of shoving the cupcake into his mouth. He started by grabbing the frosting, and by the time he finished eating his face was covered with white frosting. He looked a bit like a garden gnome.
At one year Logan clearly knows some words (mom, dad, Chazz, done, no etc.) and can say a few of them. He can sign done. He waves. He's crawling. He plays ball - throwing a ball to you when you throw at him. He loves putting lids on jars or on bottles. He can stack some blocks and he can pull himself up. He climbs up stairs, but not down. He's eating finger foods. He's pulling himself up and walking while holding onto furniture or a walker.

4/13/07

We went on a trip to Palm Springs with Heidi's family this week. We stayed in the Hyatt hotel in Indian Wells, in four separate rooms. Brian and Carol had one room, and each of their three daughter's families had one room. Heidi, Logan and I stayed in a room on the third floor next door to Stacy and Pierre.

Most every day was warm and sunny, and most every day we spent most of our time at the hotel pool. Logan really loves swimming, and he was always excited to go down to the pool. Actually, there were seven swimming pools scattered around the patio at the Hotel, including a hot tub, a wading pool and a pool with a slide. Logan's favorite pool was the baby wading pool. He would jump up and down while slapping the water with his hands for hours. He also wanted to throw balls, stand at the edge of the pool and "walk" through the pool while holding my hands. He loved playing in the water. He got a giant purple dinosaur float toy while we were there - he could sit in the float toy and splash the water. Sometimes while we were in the pool I held him like he was swimming. He kicked his legs and paddled, almost like he knew what to do.

We went out to eat with the whole family every night. The first and last nights in Palm Springs were the most eventful. The first night was the last night of passover. Heidi and I had to basically stick to eating vegetables for the evening. The last night was scary. Logan had a reaction to something he ate - probably hummus. Heidi noticed logan rubbing his eyes at the table. I took him into the bathroom to clean his hands and eyes. He continued to rub his eyes and cry, getting more and more agitated. Finally Hieid noticed Logan was getting hives on his face, his arms and his legs. We took him outside for Heidi to nurse. I called Logan's doctor, and the on call physician told us to get some Benadryl and make sure he didn't have trouble with his breathing.

After a couple of hours Logan was mostly back to normal. It was a frightening experience, and I think I was close to panic when we first realized Logan was having an allergic reaction.

4/3/07

Logan was sick for the first night of Passover. He’s had diarrhea and a fever for the past two days. He became sick on Sunday afternoon. I was taking care of him while Heidi was out shopping when I noticed he was hot. I took his temperature – it was 100.2 degrees, which is right on the borderline of a fever. The next day he was slightly warmer, and he was having diarrhea. I stayed home with him. We played with toys, though he wasn’t nearly as energetic as he normally is these days. He slept on my lap for several hours while I watched bad TV.

Heidi took him in the afternoon. That evening I went over to Heidi’s parents house in Bellevue for the Seder. Logan was OK, but got worse as the night went on. By the end of the Seder (which was hurried for his benefit) he was very warm – 102 degrees at least. I was also feeling bad – I had no appetite at all.

Today he seems better – especially tonight. I'm beginning to think that either I have very poor luck with passover, or I have some stress reaction to big dinners at the Leyton's house. The evidence against that is that I've had some very fun Thanksgiving meals there. Maybe it's the Matzah.

3/28/07

Heidi has a much easier time getting Logan to sleep than I do. She has a secret weapon: breast-feeding.

I used to get Logan to sleep by giving him a bottle in bed. He used to fall asleep while drinking, and would sleep soundly enough that I could move him into his crib.

That's not working anymore. Logan isn't willing to just take a bottle and drink until he goes to sleep. Often he grabs the bottle and drinks, but stays wide awake. Sometimes he doesn't want to drink at all - especially if the milk is warmed.

So, instead of feeding Logan in bed I now have to rock him to sleep. He doesn't like it very much! He cries and tries to push away from me when I start. Eventually he gives up and quiets down, resting his head on my shoulder and breathing deeply. When he finally gets to sleep he seems to wake easily while he's still in my arms, but if I can get him into the crib without waking him he sleeps pretty well. Unfortunately, transferring him from my arms into the crib is pretty perilous. He usually wakes up on my first try. Then it's more rocking and singing lullabies until I get the courage to try again.

Last night was the first night I was alone with Logan for about three months. Heidi's soccer league started again - they took winter off. So, it looks like I'll be rocking him to sleep every Tuesday!

March 27 2007

Logan is crawling around the house.

I wish I could say exactly when he started. Heidi and I had been waiting for Logan to start crawling for several months. I was worried about it - why wasn't he crawling? Was something wrong? What did it mean? I remember we went to a couple of PEPS group meetings where Heidi and I sat nervously looking at all of the other kids crawling around while Logan sat in one spot.

Anyway, with all of that you would think we would have made a big deal about Logan crawling. Or that I would at least have memorialized the moment with a post. No such luck! It just happened one week. At first he was leaning over on his hands to grab toys, and that evolved into crawling over the course of a week and a half. Th magic moment came when Logan figured out how he could go from sitting to crawling and back to sitting. He's always hated lying on his stomach - he just needed to figure out how to get out of that position.

So now he's crawling. He goes from the living room to his favorite rooms - the bathroom and the kitchen. Doesn't want to try the stairs yet, and he seems to stay out of the study.

Babyproofing is now the order of the day. Gotta get on it. I've put a magnetic lock on the kitchen sink doors, and I've placed a barrier in front of the laundry chute. That's it for now.

Visits

Mom and Dad Visited last week, and Ted visited this week. Two weeks worth of visits!

Sadly, I was pretty sick when my parents visited. I seem to have caught Logan's fflu. I was tired and cranky most of the time, and at least once each day I was shivering with fever. On th bright side, my parents got to spend some quality time with Logan, even though I didn't see very much of them. They brought the Honda out, as a replacement for my lost Subaru.

Ted came to deliver a helmet and a gauntlet to the Seattle Art Museum. He installed the two items on Friday and then spent the weekend in Seattle. He said that the expanded galleries are a huge improvement for the museum, and now I'm looking forward to seeing them. While he was here We went out to "serious Pie" - the new Tom Douglas pizza restaurant - and we also had dinner at Doug's. Doug wanted to show off his collection of antiques to Ted - probably the only person he's had over who can really appreciate the pistols he's collected.

3/6/07

Logan has been very sick the past two days.

I've found that it's very stressful to deal with a sick baby. I know that sounds a little trite, but the hardest part is to think clearly without emotions getting in the way. I feel distressed, and more than a little scared when Logan is really ill. Today Heidi stayed home with him while I was at work. I called and found out that he had a 104 degree fever during the day. It went down by the time I got home, but I was so worried at work that I felt sick to my stomach, and was basically unable to get anything done during the day. I hope it isn't always this stressful - that I'll get used to worrying.

Tongiht he's got a 100.7 fever - much lower than this afternoon. I hope he'll be better tomorrow. I'm taking care of him during the day. Hopefully, he'll be happier than he was today.

2/26/07

Melissa Martin, a friend of ours from the co-ed soccer team Heidi and I used to play on, gave us a mirror for our housewarming party. It's a small mirror in a decorative metal frame. The frame is maybe six inches wide and is gold colored with a random pattern of dark "spots". The spots are slightly indented in the metal.

Logan has always loved the mirror. We put it at the bottom of our stairs, in a place where you can look into it every time you walk down. Logan used to be fascinated by the image in the mirror - who was that baby? Now he seems to know that the baby in the mirror is him. Now he likes the texture of the mirror frame. He loves to touch it.

Every time I come down the stairs with Logan I take some time to let him see the mirror. Unless he's asleep, or I'm in a hurry. He loves grabbing it - sometimes I hold onto it to make sure he can't pull it off the wall!

2/24/07

Logan has had pink eye!

We noticed some pus in Logan's eyes the first day we were at Mount Baker. The problem got worse - it spread from his left eye to both eyes. And the amount of yellowish mucus increased. The gunk glued his eyes together while he slept.

The doctor advised us to put a warm, wet cloth on his eyes to remove the discharge and to encourage blood flow to his eyes. We also got some medicated eye drops to use. However, holding the cloth on Logan's eyes was easier said than done. He did NOT like it. He could cry and thrash his head back and forth, defending himself with his little hands. To keep the cloth on his eyes we had to hold down his hands and his head while he wimpered and cried. Also, the eye drops were not appreciated by Logan. To get a driect hit on his eye both heidi and I had to hold him down. Heidi would hold open his upper eyelid, while I pulled his lower eyelid down as gently as I could manage.

Fortunately, the eyedrops worked fine. The discharge cleared up by the second day, and he seems completely fine now.

February 19th 2007

We came back from our Mount Baker weekend today.

We spent the weekend in a four-bedroom cabin near Mount Baker. Bill and Karen and Jen and Ben and Indie Olsen stayed with us, along with Jen and Ben’s dogs. The cabin was an old fashioned little building with no dishwasher and a crazy spiral staircase.

On the last day of the weekend Heidi and Logan and I left the cabin and went to the Hannigan Pass trail to ski. It was the first time we used the Chariot. It was easy to set up, and Logan seemed to enjoy riding in it. I towed Logan behind me, and we skied along the trail until it ended at an old collapsed bridge. It was a nice day – warm and drizzling very slightly. Logan was asleep by the time we turned around. On the way back to our car we passed a woman with two dogs, a pit bull and a rottweiler. The dogs seemed friendly, and were happy to meet Chazz. The woman with the dogs said “Lots of heavy panting going on.” After a few minutes the woman’s rottweiler showed up again. He came running up, happy to see Chazz and seemingly content to follow us back to the car. I decided to ski back and find the woman – but I couldn’t catch up with her. She hadn’t stopped, or even slowed down. I finally turned around after speaking with a family that had passed the woman. They said she wasn’t worried, that her dog ran away all the time.

After we loaded our wet gear back into our packed car and left for home we were startled to see the rottweiler standing in the middle of the highway. He had gone back to the parking lot and was chasing cars. Heidi stopped, and wanted to put the dog in our car. Chazz wouldn’t allow it – he growled and barked as soon as he saw it. Heidi took the dog and walked back to the nearby ranger station while I drove the car there. We left the dog with the national forest personnel.

2/14/07

Happy Valentine's day!

Last night I had to take care of Logan on my own. It was the first time I was home alone with Logan for an evening for a long time. I used to take care of him every Tuesday when Heidi played soccer on Tuesday nights, but her team hasn't played any games over the Winter season. I think the last game Heidi's team played was before Christmas.

Logan and I played around with blocks, with balls and for a short time I got him to lay on his stomach. I still want to try to get Logan to crawl, thought it seems like he would rather avoid it altogether. It's hard to keep him on his stomach - he usually gets pretty upset about being on his stomach after a minute. It can ruin his whole mood for a while.

I fed Logan a pretty big meal for dinner, including tofu, melon and yogurt. Chazz was constantly on the lookout for bits of food, and has started to get pretty aggressive with Logan at mealtime.

Getting Logan to sleep was pretty difficult. He used to fall asleep while drinking from a bottle. Not anymore! He drank his bottle quickly, and then got upset that his mother wasn't there! I was pretty frantic for a while - I tried to heat up another bottle and then he refused to drink! Finally I rocked him to sleep.

2/2/07

Logan and Chazz played a fun game tonight. Chazz would bring over his squeaky ball and would drop it right next to Logan. Logan picked it up and held it in front of Chazz. When Chazz started to reach for the ball with his mouth, Logan would snatch it away from Chazz and laugh hysterically. He thought it was the funniest thing ever. And, in a way, it was pretty funny. Eventually Chazz got the ball back, and would chew on it for a bit before dropping it in Logan's lap again. They played that game for about ten minutes before dinner!

During dinner I tried to get Logan to feed himself with a spoon. He didn't do it all himself, but we got some of the steps together. I was feeding Logan from a jar of sweet potato baby food. I would get food on the spoon and hand it to Logan. Logan would eat off the spoon, and then put the spoon back into the baby food jar. Pretty good for a nine month old!

1/30/07

Every morning I drive Logan over to the daycare. All winter long I've been driving in the dark, but just recently I've been driving in the pre-dawn twilight. It's been less cloudy the past week, which allows the glow of the rising sun to spread over the horizon. Without the cloud cover the mornings have been cold and frosty - I've had to scrape the car windows and let the heater run every morning this week. I strap Logan into his car seat, tuck a blanket around him and put his giraffe toy in his lap, and then I start scraping as quickly as I can. On the drive to the daycare I can hear Logan playing with his giraffe - the legs and neck click, click, click as he moves them.

Last night Logan moved slowly around on his own power as he held himself upright with his arms. He's getting the idea that he can move himself by moving his feet. He's "walking" very well when you hold his hands.

I feel pretty relieved and happy when I see Logan start to walk. I've been worried about Logan's lack of interest in crawling and moving around. He seems so curious about the world, I couldn't understand why he wouldn't want to move.

1/24/07

Last night I went to my first Avalanche Safety Class. I've been thinking about attending a class in avalanche safety for years, but I guess it took having a kid to give me the final push to put down money ($160) and spend the time to attend.

The class was at REI, in the big conference room upstairs. I had to walk pretty fast to get there in time. When I arrived there was a large crowd of people milling around outside of the conference room. People were waiting in line to sign a liability waiver for the field trip. I waited, signed my waver and got my avalanche awareness booklet.

The room was packed, and I had no time to get any food before the class started. Fortunately, the lecture was pretty interesting. The person teaching the class is named Gary Brill. He had a nice multimedia presentation with absolutely gorgeous photos.

After the class was over at 9:00 I had to find my own way home. I walked over to the #16 bus line through the eerily deserted south lake union neighborhood. The bus took me almost all the way back to home, but the bus driver didn't turn on Meridian street from 45th Street. Instead, he turned onto a side street and got stuck at a roundabout. I walked the rest of the way home and got there at 10:00.

It's always a little sad when I can't see Logan during the day. Tonight I didn't get to see him awake. It's funny that I can miss seeing the little guy so much.

So, the other day I was really worried about Logan's lack of mobility. I kept thinking "why isn't he crawling? Is he just uninterested? Is there something wrong?" Today I'm feeling better. He tried to stand up on his own last night (didn't succeed for more than three seconds) and he's pulling himself up from sitting when he can. I just wonder - am I going to be worrying constantly from now on?

1/21/07

Today I went backcountry skiing with my friend Chris Nelson. We climbed up and then skied down Kendall Peak. The mountain is just to the north of I-90 at Snoqualmie pass.

For me, the hard part about the backcountry skiing is climbing the mountain. Skiing down is the fun, easy part. To climb, you need skis with Rondenee bindings (bindings that let you take a normal step) and "skins." Skins are thick strips of fabric with adhesives on one side to stick to the skis and bristles that point one direction on the other side. The bristles get traction on the snow, and prevent you from sliding backwards down the hill - in theory. If you try to go up too steeply you can still slide down. That was my big problem - sliding backwards while going uphill. Turning corners can be tricky. You have to keep one ski firmly down on the ground, pick up your other ski and put it down in the new direction. Then you are usually facing uphill, with your skis in a V shape. At this point I was always worried about sliding backwards. Most of the time I was able to quickly pick up the other ski and bring it around, but a few times I started sliding backwards.

Eventually we made it all the way to the top. I was panting so hard I could barely drink water without gasping for breath. The view was impressive - we could look across the freeway to the ski area, and to the east we could see a large frozen lake. It took almost two and a half hours to get up, but only thirty minutes to get down again. The top half of the mountain was free of large trees, but halfway down we entered a forest of 50-year-old fir trees. It was pretty fun.

When I got back to Seattle I went to meet Logan and Heidi at the Aquarium. Logan was tired by the time I got there. Even though he was very excited to see me he got cranky pretty quickly.

We brush Logan's teeth every night. We have a little toothbrush for him, and he has special baby toothpaste. It must taste good, because he likes it. Usually after I brush his teeth I give him the toothbrush to play with. Tonight, he took the toothbrush, looked at me and started to hit my mouth with the brush. I realized he wanted to brush MY teeth! I let him, and he brushed away for about five minutes. He thought it was funny.

1/19/07

Logan is now 9 months old!!! His birthday was April 18th 2006, and he just passed the 9-month mark. We took him to his 9-month checkup today. Logan's pediatrician is Doctor Mar. His office is in a rambling sixties office building near Greenlake. I had to take the bus up to the office, since the appointment was at 2:30.

Logan was a bit tired and a bit hungry, but he was relatively cheerful for the whole appointment - until he got a vaccination at the end. He's 30 inches long, 21.5 pounds and his head is 17 inches in diameter. That puts him in the 90th percentile for head size and length, and the 50 - 75th percentile for weight. I guess he has to eat more!

Otherwise, Doctor Mar said Logan seemed very healthy. I think he used the word "solid" to describe him. I held Logan on my lap while Dr. Mar looked in his ears, snapped his fingers to watch Logan track sounds, and listened to his chest. Logan went along with this pretty well. He tried to grab the Doctor's glasses, and pointed at his nose.

The Thursday night before the appointment Logan and Heidi had their first swim lesson at the Greenlake Community Center pool. Heidi said that Logan loved the class, and seemed much happier than any of the other kids. I went night skiing that night. It was a strange evening - it was 26 degrees and drizzling. The rain fell on the snow and turned into an icy crust. Needless to say, we didn't stay out all night. Eventually it just started to feel dangerous to ski any more - we felt like we could twist a knee falling in the gloopy, icy slush.

1/17/06

Logan’s had a couple of big days.

Tonight Logan and I played catch! It all began when Logan was sitting on the couch, holding one of Chazz’s balls. He held it in one hand and let it go. It rolled and fell down into my lap. I picked it back up and put it onto the couch. He grabbed it with one hand and waived it around in the air before dropping it back down. We repeated this over and over, maybe twenty times. Eventually Logan was throwing the ball forward so it would bounce off the couch and right onto my lap. He loved the game! Of course, he didn’t catch the ball. We’ll work on that later.

Logan also got to try cut up pieces of green beans for the first time. He’s eating green beans, peas, watermelon and cheerios as finger food. He’s also holding up and drinking his own juice. He does well with food.

Last night Logan pulled himself nearly upright from a sitting position. He was sitting next to the coffee table when he did it. He wanted to look into the coffee table’s drawer, so he grabbed the edge and hauled himself up. He didn’t quite get his feet under him, though. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt thought. He was feeling run down yesterday. He had a head cold with quite a bit of sneezing and coughing. He seems to have recovered from it today.

1/16/07

Last night - for the second night in a row - Logan didn't want to sleep in his crib. When I tried to move him into his crib from our bed he started to wake up and fuss. Normally he sleeps pretty soundly - even if he wakes up in his crib he goes back to sleep fairly easily. Not last night, though. He was somewhat congested, and had trouble nursing earlier. That's usually a sign that he'll have trouble sleeping. Anyway, we let him sleep between us in bed. He takes up a lot of space for a little baby - he sleeps with his hands stretched out. I think he feels for us with his little hands while he's in our bed, just to make sure we're still there. It's pretty cramped sleeping with him.

This morning when we woke up snow was falling and blanketing the streets and sidewalks. Seattle public schools cancelled classes for the fifth time this year. When we took Chazz and Logan for the morning walk the streets were completely empty, and the stroller wheels picked up clumps of snow.

Logan was born in a year of extreme weather. We've already had torrential rain, an enormous windstorm and many days of sub-freezing weather. If I remember correctly our summer was very hot as well.

1/15/07

I got sick yesterday.
Heidi, Logan, Chazz and I spent the day near Snoqualmie pass. We snowshoed up the commonwealth basin trail. The trail was pretty difficult - steep and winding. And the day was very cold - about 20 degrees. However, it was clear and sunny. The scenery was beautiful - it is one of the best trails I've seen for snowshoeing. Heidi and I agred we could only go out an hour before we turned back. We were worried Logan would get too cold. We used the rain cover for one of his strollers to rigg up a cover for the backpack that would keep him warmer. As it turned out, Chazz was the one who seemed to have the most problems with the hike - his paws were bothering him.
We had lunch at the ski area in the basement "brown bag" room. I had a burrito with sour cream.
After that we went to look at the cabin I had seen for sale online. It was about 20 minutes from the end of the plowed road in a small cluster of other cabins. Sadly, it was right next to the freeway. Not exactly wilderness living.
On the way home I started to feel tired and a little nausious. By the time we got home I was feeling very bad. I went upstairs and climbed into bed, shivering. Heidi brought up Logan and asked me to watch him while she searched for her diabetes stuff in the car - it was all I could do to keep him from falling off the bed! Moments after Heidi came back upstairs I threw up - repetedly - into our garbage can.
I had some hope that this was food poisioning, but later I learned that Heidi's parents were also sick. Now I'm hoping Logan had this first.

1/12/07

Last night Logan threw up in his sleep. When I got him out of the crib I noticed that his head was wet, but it was the pre-dawn dark and I didn't realize it was vomit. Heidi saw it later on the mattress of the crib.
Two nights ago it had snowed, and this morning school started two hours late. Heidi took Logan over to Bellevue for Carol to baby sit. Our daycare was closed for parent teacher conferences - which ultimately got cancelled due to the weather.
That night Heidi and I went out to Bellevue to go to Friday night Services at Temple De Hirsh and have dinner with Brian and Carol. I took the bus out to the EAstgate park and ride and then walked there. It was amazingly cold for Seattle. The sky was mostly clear, with some low clouds to the west. Sadly, the clouds hid the comet that I heard would be visible near sunset.

1/9/07

This weekend I had a pair of ill-fated trips to Snoqalmie pass.

On Saturday I went up to Snoqualmie pass to ski. Brandon came by at 8:00 in the morning to pick me up. We drove up the freeway expecting pretty good snow for a morning of skiing, and when we got off the freeway at exit 47 we were fighting heavy traffic. On the road over to Alpental Brandon began to notice cars coming the other way, and said that it seemed suspicious. When we got to the parking lot we told the bad news by the parking lot attendants - the storm had knocked out the power, and the ski lifts weren't running. We had to turn around and go home.

On Sunday I went back to Snoqualmie pass with Heidi, Chazz and Logan to cross country ski. We rented a Pulk sled for Logan at Marmot Mountain Works. The Pulk sled is a sled towed by a cross country skier. You attach it to a belt around your waist with two long, thin metal poles. You can use it to tow food, supplies or - in our case - babies. I was excited to take Logan on his first ski trip. However, first we had to actually get to the trail. On the way up to the pass we hit a big roadblock. The Washington State Department of Transportation was towing away cars that had spun out on the way up to the pass. We hat to wait about an hour for them to be moved. We slowly drove up the pass, drove over the summit and down towards the cross country trail. Then we hit a second roadblock. There had been an avalanche that blocked our lane. We sat in the car for a long time, maybe two more hours. We had to get Logan out of his seat and feed him. He wanted to play - he had been in the seat for at least four hours by then. I was getting very frustrated, while Heidi was taking our setbacks in stride. Finally, at around 2:30 the avalanche was cleared and we could continue. We got to the parking lot and rushed to get started. We could only ski for about an hour before it got dark. We made the most of it, skiing along a very nice, smooth and flat trail. The sled felt easy to tow, but it must have taken more energy than I thought - later that evening I felt weak and sick from exhaustion.

We wanted to take some time while we were up at the pass to look at a cabin that I found online while looking for a cross country trail. The cabin is probably located close to the freeway, and it seems to not have electricity. However, it's the type of cabin Heidi and I have been dreaming about - rustic, but not too rustic. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to look.

1/5/07

Last night I went night skiing with Greg, Roy and Greg's son Russel. When I started skiing with Greg seven years ago Russel was in grade school. Now he can ski better than I can. It's amazing that he's nearly an adult now.
It was a good night of skiing - there was some new snow at Alpental. In fact, there is now a surprising amount of snow in the mountains for January. I had my first serious wipe out of the ski season, losing both skis when I crashed while travelling on the high traverse from the right side of the ski lift. As usual, we left Alpental at around 10:30 and rolled into Seattle around midnight.
It looks like there will be much more snow in the mountains tomorrow morning. A cold, blustery storm system moved in on Seattle today, rattling the windows in my office with wind and rain. I had to go and visit a new site for a cleint this afternoon. It was freezing out, and I got soaked just walking around the block.
At lunch I saw a cabin on the Windermere real estate site while I was looking for cross country trails near Snoqualmie Pass. The cabin is also near Snoqualmie, and only costs $80,000.00. Sort of tempting, really, but I have a feeling I couldn't bring myslef to part with that much money.

1/3/06

Today Logan finally got his fourth tooth! It's been pushing up through his gums for about a weekjust and today it just barely broke through his gums. Maybe that was the reason he was in as good a mood as I've seen him in a week or so.
I spent the night putting reflective tape on every backpack and stroller I own. Hopefully this makes us a bit more visible - the whole family takes at least two walks a day in total darkness this time of year!

1/2/07

Today was Logan's first day back at daycare after the long winter break. This morning we tried our brave new routine for the first time: we gave Logan some solid food before he left for daycare. Cheerios and yogurt. It's strange that we're so focused on serving him breakfast foods for breakfast. It's not like he knows the difference.

Logan was tired in the morning, and he was tired in the evening when I got back. And he was really, really hungry. He was melting down while Heidi struggled to finish dinner for us. He got his first real meal - mac and cheese run through a blender. He loved it, and at a huge amount. He was also quite thirsty.

A pineapple express passed through western Washington today - warm rain, and lots of it. We had flooding across the city again. We had a record high temperature, and a lot of melting water in the mountains. It's shocking to hear about the erosion and landslides that are occurring in the hills.