Logan's 1st Haircut

Yes - I did it. Everytime I mentioned getting his haircut (since he was about 8-9 months old) all I heard was 'nooooo, don't cut those beautiful curls'. Well, I didn't want to either - the kid has GREAT hair and if he were a girl (sorry Logan if you read this in later years) I wouldn't touch it...it would be in a cute barrett or have a hair tie in there. But he's not - he is an adorable little boy.

When I was at the supermarket just before his birthday (in the deli section, of course...the only place I EVER get asked if he is a boy or girl by some old lady) and one of the free sample gals ooh'd and ah'd over him....then proceeded to ask a dumb question: Boy or Girl? (Are you freaking kidding me??? He has such a boy face and is dressed in manly colors...seriously!) I maintained my cool despite what I was thinking and said 'boy'. Then she oogled over his hair and said 'oh, you're not going to cut these gorgeous curls, are you?'. I laughed and said, not yet, I want to cut his hair, but get flack anytime I mention it. Inside I thought yes, for sure now I am...you just asked me if he was a girl!?!?! And I am certain it is because of his fantastic head of hair. Silly woman.

So that was the driving point. That and when it was windy, his bangs would blow in his face and in the bathtub, when water is poured over his head the back really goes further than you'd think. It was time.

I asked my Moms group of a fun kid-friendly place to go for his 1st haircut. I wanted it to be a fun experience...and I got it! They suggested KidSnips. We went there this morning after meeting up with a few of my Mom friends at Starbucks. As I was right next door, I didn't want to wait any longer...even though I knew his naptime was overdue.

When we walked in we informed them that this was Logan's 1st haircut (I had read on their website that they do something special for their 1st one). Miss Kathy was Logan's hair stylist. He first got to pick out a movie. Knowing that we really don't watch tv much, I just chose Elmo - he has seen it at a friend's house before. As his DVD was getting popped in his own private tv, I sat him down in a blue truck and 'seat-belted' him in. Haha....I loved it so far!

Miss Kathy put the drape around him and I told her that I wasn't ready to cut off all the curls, but I needed a definite trim. I showed her his crazy bangs, overgrown sideburns and long back. She understood and went to work as I snapped pictures. I forgot my 'good' camera, but had my iPhone and luckily the lighting was good enough so the pictures turned out. She made the first cut and promptly stopped what she was doing to put it in a ziploc baggie for his scrapbook (love it!). She sprayed his head and went to work. He did great...yes, he looked here and there and everywhere, but she never missed a step. I think hair stylists are talented, but it takes extra patience and precision to snip a toddlers hair. This is where the movie comes in. Logan would look at the video, but then he wouldn't care. She combed his hair and he wanted the comb - so without blinking she gave it to him and grabbed another one out of the drawer. Great! Granted, it lasted for about 45 seconds to a minute, but it worked.

Towards the end of the haircut he started getting antsy and wanted me to hold him. So I tried to entertain him with toys and a hug from me just long enough until Miss Kathy was done. Perfect! Then Miss Kathy brought out her cleaning brush and tickled him with it and then took his picture (which they printed 2 copies there on the spot for us...how great!). Miss Kathy then gave him a blue balloon and tied it to his wrist. He thought it was cool until he tried to get the balloon and well, it floats, so this frustrated him a bit. I was filling out a form and trying to gather our things and help him with the balloon. Then Miss Kathy told us that he could pick a toy from the Treasure Chest and a sucker...how wonderful! Logan immediately picked up a tiny kaleidescope, which I put back since he has zero clue. Then he whipped a bouncy ball across the store...I picked that up and put it back as that would drive us and Buddy crazy and is a choking hazard. I ended up picking out a little cardboard airplane that you put together (2 step process I believe)...I think it will be perfect for him and Daddy to do together later (when Buddy is outside). He picked a sucker out as well. We went to the cashier to pay and the presented us with a "First Haircut Certificate" with the tiny plastic ziploc baggie of his lock of hair stapled on and a picture of his 'after' shot stapled. They gave us an extra copy of the picture as well. They wrote the date and name of the stylist on there as well. What a truly great idea. I have it all ready to go in his scrapbook!

Miss Kathy making the 1st cut while Logan watched Elmo in the blue truck

Here you can see the tv he was watching...and Miss Kathy putting the 1st lock of hair into the ziploc

Sitting like a good boy...with the extra comb

He was getting whiny here, with his signature 'oooo' face when he is fake crying

Almost done...

Logan with his blue balloon (if you see his face, he shows his frustration a bit since he can't actually grab the balloon)

His Certificate for the scrapbook

Front...AFTER

Back...AFTER (there are still a couple small curls and it does curl under)

Logan turns ONE!!!!

Thursday, 11/5/09, was a BIG day in the Battermann Household. Logan turned ONE!!! Ah, where did the time go! I was in the store the other day and somebody said 'before you know it he'll be 7, then in his teens'.....ack! Time flies by fast, but please don't put my baby in his teens already!!

When Logan woke up around 8ish, John and I went and got him together singing Happy Birthday to him. He was very excited (but moreso because he is a happy baby in the mornings...and we were both there). We all headed downstairs and I made his favorite breakfast - blueberry pancakes. He ate 3 of them!!!! He ate on his new 'Special Day' plate that my sister made him. (Before you see the pictures, I suppose I should apologize for putting him in Christmas-like pj's...I guess it was time to do the laundry and these were available!)

After we sang him Happy Birthday...wondering, okay, what's up with you two this morning?

Aunt Dawn painted Logan a Special Day plate. He ate his 3 blueberry pancakes on it (naturally halfway thru he got curious about the plate and started lifting it up...as I'd like the plate to see more special days, we put the pancakes directly on his tray).

OOOhhhhh....how did they know this was my favorite breakfast???

YUMMY!!!!!!

ALL DONE! (notice the clean plate)

After breakfast we had him open a couple toys, which he loved playing with. John left for work and shortly after Logan went down for a nap.

Opening his Elmo Remote Control (naturally, while he plays with it, nothing compares to the 'real' remote that Mommy and Daddy use...despite the amount of decoys that are placed around the family room).

Wow...look at all these buttons!

Next...a Tonka Cushy Truck and makes noise...very cool.

Logan and Buddy watched as Daddy showed Logan what you do with it...

Naturally, this enticed Logan to get down and try it himself. He now zooms this car all over the downstairs. He tries to lean on it sometimes to zoom it and because it is a small and 'lightweight' truck it tips over. :)

At his exact birth time 10:26am, he was sound asleep. I reminisced over all that had occured and how long it took for us to finally hold this handsome baby boy in our arms. At this time last year, I had just gone through a day of labor, hours of pushing and a bit of pain. I got to see Logan for about 3 seconds and then I spent a half hour getting all stitched up, while John and Logan bonded. I finally got to see my baby boy and it was love at first sight. I got to hold him right away and he looked right at me. I was able to breastfeed right away, which was suprising to me - I don't know when I thought that would kick in, but apparently right away! Then I got to watch Logan get his feet stamped...and then poof, they let me hold him while I was wheeled up to our new room where we oogled over him for the next several days (and year). I can't believe that was already a year ago. We still look at him in amazement and comment what a great child he truly, truly is. A pure blessing from God.

For lunch, Logan had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (for the 2nd time...I completely forgot that peanut butter is a no-no until 1 year old...when he was 9.5 months old). He thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich.

I then let him open up his gifts of clothes. He had a great time ripping each article of clothing out of the box, but was otherwise un-enthused. :)

The afternoon was spent playing with new toys (we stayed indoors as he had just broke a 3-day fever the day before). As we were leaving for vacation the next day, we dropped Buddy off at our friend Abbey's house and played with her kids for a few minutes. Then we met John for dinner at Chili's. Logan had on his Birthday Boy shirt and received a few smiles from other customers. During the course of his meal, Logan threw a couple crackers and his sippy cup a few seats down from us. It was really the first time he ever 'acted up' in a restaurant and it was just fine. We ate and left (didn't linger much), but I consider ourselves lucky that we can take him out (some of our friends babies don't allow them to do so). We came home and he opened up the rest of his gifts. He got some very cool things (of course, I picked them out).

Daddy was excited for Logan to open the gift directly in front of him...a basketball! Logan thought it was cool too, especially when Daddy dribbled the ball.

The Birthday Boy with his Birthday Mom (2 days later)

We got him Cookie Monster slippers. He was tired, so this is more of a pained smile...but he didn't want to walk in them much because he just wanted to play with them!

As it was already past his bedtime, he quickly got a 'birthday bath' and went to bed. He had a great day and we couldn't believe that we were already celebrating his 1st birthday!

Thinking back on a year, here are some wonderful things our little guy can do:

My little guy can crawl, sit, stand and walk; he easily drank from a bottle and recently switched to a sippy cup without much trouble; he breastfed easily, drank formula without a problem and recently switched to whole milk with no trouble at all; he smiles like crazy; he is sooo strong - he does chin ups on the gate..about 5 inches off the ground; he LOVES cheese...it is our definite food that never is rejected! He also loves any flavor yogurt, blueberry pancakes, oatmeal, turkey, cheese, mac 'n' cheese and grilled cheese. He does not easily try new things and is hit or miss on if he will like it or not. However, he does not spit something out if he doesn't like it, he will just continue to push the spoon away if you try again. Speaking of which, he has held a spoon, but does not feed himself just yet. His fine motor skills never cease to amaze me! If I put a bunch of cheerios or cheese, etc. on his plate, he will take his thumb and forefinger and pick up a piece one at a time and very carefully place it in his mouth (which will be open almost the entire process). He has never (that I an recall) picked up a handful and shoved it in his mouth...he is very careful with one at a time. This shows on puzzle pieces as well - he very acutely picks up each piece. Logan still takes 2 naps, which is wonderful. He falls asleep SO incredibly easy in the car, which is good and bad. It is great because he is rides so well in the car, he transfers well from the car to the crib and even if he sleeps for 5 minutes, he seems refreshed once awoken....which is why it can be bad too. If I run to Target, which is 5 minutes away, it seems that he can fall asleep during that time and I feel badly waking him up. But again, he doesn't complain - that old rule of 'never wake a sleeping baby' has never applied to us and we are so thankful for that. Logan has only ever not slept through the night when he was hitting a new milestone (sitting, crawling, walking). It would usually last a couple times a night for almost exactly 2 weeks. Sometimes I would think this is crazy....but then I would have some friends and family remind me that 2 weeks is nothing...considering many kids don't sleep through the night until several months old (if they are lucky)...he has slept through the night, well, always. Logan says 'mamamamamama', but unfortunately it doesn't necessarily mean 'mom'. He can find a 'nose', when we say 'All done' or 'so Big' he puts his hands in the air. He signs for milk and is working on more signing. He LOVES to look at pictures of himself - a big smile comes across his face! He gives kisses and more recently tight hugs.

Wow, what an amazing child!!!!! We love him so much and pray he has such an amazing life!

Logan's First Fever

Logan has had a couple of colds in his short little life, but this past week he had his first fever. As we had been planning for his 1st birthday party which took place on Halloween, we had a lot going on. Days of crappy weather before his party; the day of his party it was chilly (48 degree high) and mostly cloudy (even though the weatherman said it would be mostly sunny...liar). While Logan was in a nice warm monkey costume made by his Grandma and covered in blankets in his wagon while we went to and fro through the zoo....it was still cold. I came home that night with a low grade fever which turned back into a terrible cough and then a cold (I am almost over it all though). I blame my sickness on the stress of planning this great party and lack of sleep (from the stress of planning this great party).

Sunday night Logan felt warm and his fever was around 99.6. We gave him some tylenol and sent him to bed. Monday he awoke with a fever of 100.6. We have a temporal artery thermometer, but we quickly found out just how inconsistent it can be if done on a different part of the forehead. So we went back to the digital thermometer under the armpit. I have heard that this temp may not be super accurate, but it can get you a really good guess-timate (in the meantime, this is how his doctor's office takes the temp, so it must be accurate enough as long as it is held in the center of the armpit and his arm is held down). Anywho, that is the method we continued with for the next couple days. We gave him more tylenol and checked it after lunch (tylenol lasts 4 hours). His fever was now 101.1.....more tylenol....which would help during the 4 hour window. I gave him a warm bath to cool him down as well. He didn't last in there too long as it was not its normal 'hot' temperature. His fever was 102.2 before bed. Poor little guy. By this point I had learned that alternating tylenol and motrin works better. Motrin is better at reducing the fever, but can be more harsh on his stomach, so it should not be given solely. Okay. So John picked up both meds on his way home. We gave him motrin before bed and checked him 2.5 hours later when we went to bed - his fever was down to the 98's - great.

Tuesday was more of a repeat of Monday. Besides having a fever and having glassy eyes, his only other symptom was that he would click his throat (as if he was trying to itch it...interesting how this reflex just comes naturally). He was drinking wonderfully; eating - eh, not so stellar, but he would eat; played just fine; and took really long naps - 3 hours! So I knew he wasn't feeling well, but he didn't show any other symptoms of feeling terrible, so we didn't call the doctor. I said if he woke up on Wednesday with a fever we'd call as we are going out of town soon and I needed to make sure he was healthy.

Wednesday....101.1. Okay, I called the doctor and got an appointment for 11:20 with our favorite doctor, Dr. L. I gave him some motrin and put him down for a nap and when I was ready to go, I woke him up. He was sooooo sweaty. Of course, this means that he is breaking the fever on his own. Oh well, I still wanted to take him to the doctor just to be sure there isn't some other infection. (by the by...since he was so sweaty, his hair was soooo curly....love it!)

Since I had given him motrin, his 'fever' for the doctor was non-existent...97.0 to be exact. They weighed him (22 pounds 14 ounces) and checked him out. Breathing good. Eyes good. Nose good. Ears good. Throat - aha! Sore throat. He had some blistery looking things so he tested him for strep which was negative. He said normally it is negative, but we just wanted to rule that out as if it was strep he would need an antibiotic. He said to just keep doing what we're doing.

I actually learned something. Dr. L said that since he was completely fine other than 'having' the fever, to not give him tylenol or motrin. Apparently all his body knows to fight off an infection is to have this fever. By giving him medicine to reduce his fever his body can't fight it off as fast - it just masks the symptoms. The only reason to give him medicine for 'just' a fever is if the fever is making him cranky and not feel well. Logan was never really cranky with his fever so we could've gotten away with not giving him meds and who knows, he may have broke his fever sooner than later. It was a pretty fascinating lesson for me. I don't want to give Logan medicine if I don't have to...and the doctor and nurse said that they are trying to educate people more on this as we have been 'taught' from the past that as soon as you are sick to take medicine. The truth is, a lot of it has to run its course....fluids and rest really are the best ways to get rid of viruses. Now if it is not a virus and something like strep, then an antibiotic may be necessary. So I wanted to sahre this with whomever reads it. Hopefully I made sense.

As of tonight, the last time we gave Logan medicine was at 8:30 AM...and he is fever free and no more glassy eyes. Yay. For his actual 1st birthday tomorrow, he will be healthy!

Carter's Follow Up Ultrasound

We had our follow up ultrasound today to ensure that the placenta previa is out of harms way. I figured it 'had' to be out of the way since I had been doing more lifting than I should preparing for Logan's party and such.....and if any bleeding was going to happen, it would have.

It was confirmed that the previa had moved upwards as expected. Phew. This meant I was cleared for travel (we were leaving in a few days for my cousins wedding in SC)...it meant I am out of the woods for a possible hysterectomy due to the previa....it meant all restrictions were off....it meant I didn't have to worry in the back of my head all the 'what-if' scenarios. It was a good news!

Also, it was confirmed that Carter still in fact is a BOY! We had her take more pictures of him, but the 3 she took were exactly the same and a little blurry...not stellar. Soon we will schedule our 3D/4D ultrasound pictures and we will get some good ones. Here is the picture she took: It is of his head and a little hand going upwards towards his mouth...it was very cute watching him move around. (And he is still a VERY active baby!!!!!)

Before we went to the appointment (John came along as he never wants to miss an ultrasound and he was helping keep Logan entertained) we discussed the flu shot (seasonal and H1N1). Before we were both against Logan and I getting these shots. However, after seeing how Logan and I both apparently have somewhat crappy immune systems and we decided that if they offered, we would do it. The H1N1 was confirmed in our church and several of my Mom group friends have a family member (distant or close) that has it. Schools were closing down all around us because of it and two teenagers around our area died from it (so extremely sad)...it just was proving to be as big and ugly as it was made out to be. So when the doctor highly recommended that I get both shots, we agreed. They had just run out of the seasonal shot that morning (naturally), but had the H1N1 available. I got the shot as Logan watched in amazement. My pregnancy has been pretty easy (again) which I am very thankful for...no need to mess it up by getting an icky flu at which I am high risk for the H1N1. If they have the seasonal one next time I go in, I will get it.

And that sums up our appointment. When people ask when I'm due and I say Feb. 4th...it sounds SO far away - it is NEXT year afterall....but when you think that I have just over 10 weeks...it is pretty close. I figure after my next appointment, I will start going every 2 weeks. It will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, the New Year and poof....it will be here before you know it! We are so excited!

Logan meets Nana and Aunt Philly

Logan met my Nana (Dad's mom) and Aunt Philly (one of my Dad's sisters) earlier in October. It was so nice to see them. We unfortunately don't get to see them as often as we'd all like, but it didn't matter with how fast Logan warmed up to both of them! I drove down on a Friday to spend the day with them....just us and it was so nice. Both Nana and Aunt Philly were playing with him and trying to make him laugh...and on the floor watching him take a few steps or crawl super fast! It made me so happy that he didn't shed one tear - I was even able to leave the house for a half hour to go get my nephews. He played with them the whole time.


Then on Sunday the whole family got together for dinner. It was a bit more hectic as there were a lot more people, so we were again really thankful that we got some 'alone' time with them on Friday. We hope to make a trip out to PA next year to visit with them....and introduce them to Carter. :) Here are some pictures:

Aunt Philly showing Logan my Mom's cool lightbulbs

Aunt Philly, Logan (in his Steelers outfit, naturally) and Nana

Nana and Logan

My sister, Aunt Philly and I

Carter...he's a wiggler!

Carter is just a wiggly little fellow. I think he is moving around much more than Logan did in my belly. We'll see if this continues, but I do think that I feel him more than I did with Logan - randomly throughout the day, quite a bit at night and in the mornings...and I still love feeling every movement - it just makes me smile, even when it is 3am and I've gotten up to pee and I can't fall back asleep right away. I've not once feared that I hadn't felt him move around enough. We'll see if this continues and is how his personality is when he's out in the real world.

Halloween Pics

Since we are hosting Logan's 1st birthday party at our local zoo on Halloween, we thought it only fitting that for Halloween Logan should be an animal. Knowing which animal wasn't too hard considering that Logan already seems to be a climber...so he's a Monkey! My Mom has typically made her grandkids costumes, so we found a cute monkey pattern and altered it a bit to our liking. She did an excellent job, as always. Logan is the cutest monkey I have ever seen!

I took him to get his professional pictures done and while he wasn't dishing out glorious smiles like usual, we still got 2 great photos. :)

Just before we arrived to the studio, I swung by Target and bought a few bunches of bananas as a prop (which I now have a lot of banana bread to make!). You'll see in the second picture he posed with all the bananas in his full costume. In the first picture the photographer (whom I have started requesting since she always seems to have a cute idea) suggested peeling open the banana and seeing if he'll take a bite. Great idea! I peeled the banana and gave it to Logan to hold...he just looked at it....so I put it in his mouth - he took the bite and she took the cutest picture...then he threw the banana down (so it was a good thing she got the shot!). We also tried a picture of him standing, but he kind of had a blank expression on his face....although he looked SO BIG standing by himself. Here are the pictures (I took a picture of the pictures on my dining room table, so that is why there is a brown border):

Quarantine

Whew...I haven't blogged much lately.

Starting last Monday, my family has been sick. Logan started Monday with a few sneezes, which on Tuesday turned into a crazy head cold. Then on Tuesday I coughed a few times and by the evening my throat was hoarse from coughing and I just felt 'blah'. By Wednesday...yep, it was a chest cold. Thankfully I have the runny nose and sneezing...but oy, did I cough. Everyday around 3pm it would get worse and worse and by evening I would sound terrible!

So Logan and I stayed indoors...which is just not what we do - we are very much usually out and about. Every so often Logan would grab my finger and bring me to the front door or garage door and hit the door as if to say, 'come on, let's go somewhere'. He would be sad when I'd tell him no. But I didn't want to spread our germs, nor did I want our already 'down' immune systems to pick up anything else.

Sunday we were finally feeling good enough to go out and we met up with my parents and Grandma at a restaurant so they could give Logan his Halloween costume (my Mom made it). Sunday I also found my 'approved medicine' list that I can take while pregnant and I realized that I can take Robitussin...yay! So I enjoyed a drive out to get some. By Tuesday Logan was doing so much better and I was pretty well contained so we went to the library to play. Tuesday, John started with the cold...ahhh!!! He came home early from work so he wasn't spreading germs and he worked from home Wednesday for the same reason. So finally, today, Logan is completely done, John is pretty much done and I for the most part am done....at night I still have a bit of a tickle in my throat, but nothing like it was this weekend.

Schools in the area are closing due to illnesses, including our church's school. The Swine Flu, regular flu and colds are overtaking the nation, so it seems. So we are washing our hands constantly and trying not to go to many germy places. Here's to hoping we stay healthy!!

Pre Birthday Celebrations

Logan's 1st birthday party was on Halloween (just 5 days before his 'real' birthday). Unfortunately a few of our good friends couldn't make it, but they were so kind to throw him a special one-on-one birthday party. We have such thoughtful friends. :)

Kathy and Maddie accompanied Logan and I to the zoo to do a 'dry run' of his birthday party about a week and a half ago before the 'real' thing. They brought Logan's birthday present to the zoo. Here are some pics:

Maddie giving Logan his gift:

Logan opening his gift:

Logan and Maddie staring at the fishies...

Logan and Maddie sitting next to a 1300 pound real pumpkin

Our next pre-birthday celebration occurred with Cassie & Erin. We were actually celebrating Erin's 3rd birthday from earlier in October as well.

Logan opening one of his gifts:

Maracas!!! Ole!

We even sang Happy Birthday and ate a cupcake!

Yay!!!!!

SO Big

Logan Walking Some More...

Man in training...walking for the bait of a remote control.

Logan Walking

Logan has mastered turning around from an object to walk towards another. Yay!!!

More Steps

Tonight after dinner Logan was in the walking mood and we try to take advantage of it as much as we can. The last few nights he will allow us 2 'runs' each inbetween John and I and then he gets frustrated with us making him practice walking and he turns to jello. We don't want to push it since he is taking big steps towards walking, but we are just so darn excited when he does it.

So again, tonight he was in the mood...so we took advantage. We try to hold a toy (in our mouths as it is eye level for him and he keeps his balance more) and lure him to us...tonight it was his small caterpillar/rattle/teether. We started out by making him take 4 steps...he did great. Then Buddy laid down in the middle of our path...so he got sent outside, which he enjoyed and we enjoyed the distraction being gone for a bit. :) Soon after Logan was at 10 steps (his max to date). The cool thing was is that 90% of the time his steps were soooo steady - and he would even stop inbetween to stand and then keep on walking. One time he even was babbling something to me while walking - what a multi-tasker!

Logan was walking in his socks, but on the alphabet foam mat in our family room as it is slippery on the hardwood floor (his socks didn't have any grippers on them). So in order to maximize his walking, we took our symmetrical mat apart and made it like a long runway...slowly he did 13 steps....then 17.....then finally 19 steps!!!!!! All steady! If I would've had more room to scoot back, he could've kept going.

So now that he can walk pretty far once coaxed, we just have to get him to leave furniture and come to us (he did do this to John tonight and once or twice before....but not a lot). He also will stand in you leave him and while he's walking, but if he's leaning on a couch or something, he is not as apt to let go and just stand. I read in my baby book that I took my first steps before I stood, which at the time I thought was odd...but now I see that it can be done.

Anyway, way to go Logan! I did catch a video of him doing 10 steps - I will try to post it later. :)

Apple Picking Pictures

Logan picking his 1st apple...

Logan and Maddie picking apples together. Doesn't it look like he's holding down the branch for her to pick? So chivalrous!

Placing his apple carefully in the bag (later he just took to dropping them or tossing them as soon as it got in his hand).

Logan and Mommy

Feeding the goats

Hello Mr. Sheep!

Playing around on the playground....

And on the benches...so much to explore!

It is funny that they are in the same exact pose...

Sign for Milk

So quite a while back (funny to say that when referring to Logan's life) I started teaching him sign language - simple things like milk, eat and more. When I saw that I wasn't really getting anywhere, I put it on hold. Then I saw my friend Kathy's daughter sign for milk and eat when she was thirsty and hungry. She is 3.5 months older than Logan - so I thought if I just perservere, perhaps he'll get it. I've heard that children can communicate earlier (than talking) by telling you what they want with sign language. It eases the frustration of the child and parent more when they both can tell and understand the other.

So I started practicing milk, eat and more at each meal...there are times I would forget, but I tried. I would show him his milk in the bottle, say milk and do the sign - several times. After about another month or two....last week, he open and closed his hand (like waving hi except with his hand turned sideways). His milk was just out of reach and as soon as I gave it to him he took a big drink. (Sometimes when it is out of his reach and I give it to him he pushes it away, so it was cool to know that that is what he wanted.) The next day he was in his seat and as I was making his bottle, he did the sign. Yay! It looks like he actually has 'milk' down. He doesn't do it all the time, but as long as we're making progress, I will keep on going.

When we were at the library for storytime his friend Maddie did the sign for milk. Kathy said oh it looks like she wants her milk. The teacher was so excited for Maddie - as she has been teaching us a new sign each week in class and was glad to see that some of the babies were picking up on it (although Kathy had been working with Maddie prior to the class). I was commenting on how great it was that Maddie did the sign and the teacher said well did you just see what your son did? Apparently when Kathy said the word 'milk', he did the sign for it. She was amazed at this as well - since he has voice recognition to the sign. I too was amazed as I hadn't seen that part of it, nor knew that the voice recognition to the word was a big step. Yay for Logan!!

Now I need to learn some other signs and get to work on those. Lately we have been working on (still eat and more), ball, book and water. It will be really cool if he does pick up on it.