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@raisingwolverine
I’m not here to blog today
I'm not here to start blogging on this page again persay. What I'm doing today is starting up a vlog instead. I'm not sure of how often I'll post or what I'll talk about (although it'll likely be nerdy stuff like Star Wars, Lego, and Apple), but I'm trying something new.
The first vlog is up on YouTube now.
When Did Cows Grow Giant Horns Dad?
I work most days of the week. Many days I am gone before my son is awake. When I get home, I have about two hours to spend time with him. It doesn't ever seem like enough.
The other day I came home and I walked up to the door and I could hear him shout with excitement from the other side of the door. Actually, I should say the other side of the window. He was standing on the couch, messing with the blinds and happened to see me walk up. It was kind of a rush. Then I walked in and he ran over wanting me to hold him.
I've been trying to make those last two hours of the day count. We have these dinosaurs that we play with. There is a Tyrannosaurus and a Triceratops. I've recently taken to chasing him around with them. The Tyrannosaurus makes a standard roar sound (very similar to the roar that Rex in Toy Story does) while the Triceratops has taken to mooing like a cow. I figured that an herbivore should make the sounds of a similar creature from our day and age. He loves these dinosaurs. We roll around on the floor as I make dinosaur noises (mooing is standard dino vernacular here now) and tickle him. Sometimes when I'm not paying attention, he'll run up with a dinosaur and attack me. The Tyrannosaurus seems to be his favorite to attack with, while he has the most fun being attacked with the Triceratops.
It has been almost two decades since I had this much fun with dinosaurs, being able to share that excitement all over again has been an extremely rewarding experience as it has helped me make my memories stronger while creating entirely new ones that he'll remember for years to come.
I figured I'd post a quick picture with the post. Logan and I were playing at the park and this gem popped up that looks like he's getting ready to clock me.
So Many Updates
There have been many accomplishments in Logan's life since I have last taken a moment to record them on this site.
Steps.
Logan has learned that he can get almost anywhere, if he psuedo-walks there. He isn't quite at the stage where he is standing on his own and walking around, but he has learned to pull himself up and maintain his balance; sometimes he even throws a few steps in for good measure. I'm not quite sure if he is trying to learn to walk or to climb first. He has no shame when it comes to stepping on the parent that is sitting on the floor closest to him if it gives him the boost to scoot himself up on the couch or coffee table. Unfortunately he hasn't learned to handle rapid changes to his footing and many times just ends up on the floor or hanging upside down in some contorted version of himself. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a rapidly approaching problem as he learns he can stand on the dog to get over the baby gate (partners in crime have to start working together somewhere).
Show Time.
Since Logan was little, I would put movies on for us to watch. Months ago he was so little that there was no reaction, now he will sit with me on the floor and watch shows and movies with me. We've been digging Sesame Street.
Mine.
Logan has grown to appreciate my Apple devices with such ferver that I don't think I'll be allowed to use them while he's awake anymore. I pull out the iPhone, "Mine." The iPad, "Mine." The computer, "Mine.". Of course the words are mine, but the tantrums are his. It is impressive how much a kid will scream when you don't give them what is "Mine. Honestly, I'm not too concerned, he'll get older and he'll learn what's his and what isn't. It's all part of growing up. I am excited that in a few years (or maybe months) we'll be able to sit down and learn from the various learning apps that are available. For now, we'll still to Seuss.
Play Time.
Logan loves to play. He has regularly scheduled play time with some kids at the local library when he gets a chance to go. He also builds forts with mom and plays fetch with the dogs. He is such a happy kid (in between iPad tantrums). I've been having a blast with him. Today we played with blocks, the other day we played Skyrim. We take care of each other.
Smiles.
Imagine a shark coming out of the water. Now imagine it with less teeth. Now imagine a 1o month old. Now imagine the shark. Now imagine it's smiling and lunging at the same time. You've just been headbutted. Logan has aquired the most cheesy smile I've seen in some time and his newly minted teeth make it even better. You just have to be careful, most of the time he throws his head back, but sometimes there is a recoil and you take a headbutt to the mouth.
Dancing.
Star Wars should never have made a Dance Central spinoff. However, while watching a YouTube video of Han Solo ruining his image, Logan decided he needed to dance too. Along with other tunes he's got his father's rhythm (or lack thereof) down. I'm not sure what Mom has him listen to when I'm gone, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the prescribed metal from his Logan's Metal playlist (which is currated by me in all of its awesomeness).
Closing Remarks. It is crazy how in less than a year this kid has come up from lying around doing nothing to touching and riding everything in the house. It is one hell of an impressive feat. I'm going to go practice my family member climbing skills now to keep up.
Electricity
I have come to the realization that every post on this site may have quite some time in between it and the previous one. Pushing through the excuses, I've come to provide another update. Logan has learned to crawl and explore the world. He chases the dogs around the living room, and he will also hunt down toys (usually belonging to the dogs, he leaves his alone). However, his favorite item to find is the electrical socket. Yes, you read that correctly, my son thinks it is completely appropriate to start playing with electrical sockets and anything hanging out of them. Luckily for us, we chose to childproof the sockets long ago, but we are still at a loss for the cables that he seems to find. He likes to pull them and chew on them. We would prefer he doesn't do that as they are usually attached to something like the floor fan, or a laptop that is set on the table up above. Anyways, I'd better check on him, he's probably on a covert mission to hide the dog toys in the wiring under my desk.
Throw it back
Today was pretty neat. I was lying on the floor with Logan and Christina asked me to feed him. I started to feed him his bottle and he decided that he was going to grab hold, and throw back that bottle himself. He hasn't really held his bottle before, so it was pretty neat to see that happen. On top of that, he's been sitting up on his own. He has been playing with some toys in his bouncer and having a blast there. However, when we throw in a toy (like his new dinosaur) which is not attached to a device that holds him up, he will promptly reach for it and fall flat on his face. He's graceful, just like his father. In a few days, he will get to meet his new cousin Naomi. I have yet to see her either. We are pretty excited. If it is anything like his visits with his cousin Riley, it should be eventful and there may be some ear pulling like every other baby on baby visit (okay, we'll just call them a battle royale). Let's just say that the older one tends to try to pull the ear of the smaller one. We'll see if Logan takes initiative (he already pulls on our faces, who's to say he won't go for someone his own size!). Let the games begin.
Picking up the lingo
Logan has been doing quite a bit of vocalization over the last few days. He's recently started to scream out something that sounds like it could be "Mom". Sometimes he'll do it on demand, but only if he's already been saying it. I bet he's done this at least 50 times so far, but I haven't really been counting. It's just nice to see progress. On a separate note, if this was a competition, Logan has said "Dad" once. This was of course, undocumented, and while I wasn't present. Christina swears its not a sympathy count (placing me at a firm 1 mention), so I'll take her word for it. I think I can come back from the back of the pack though. Only about 49 more "Dad"s to go! Outside of speaking, Logan has been doing a lot of laughing. He seems to laugh at the smallest things. Today he was propping himself up, not crawling, but doing some push ups in attempts to push the world down, when I decided that it would be a good idea to try to show him how to crawl. So I dropped to my knees and started crawling around. Apparently I'm doing it wrong, or look really funny doing it because he though this was the funniest thing ever. So I spent the next half hour crawling around the floor, and he laughed until he could no longer hold himself up in his push up position. Luckily for us, Christina was quick about getting the camera and getting some video of part of the shenanigans. Other things make him laugh too. Christina likes to jump around in stores during the waning hours of the evening (for Logan, this means sometime just before 7:00pm; he's an early dreamer). I've noticed that when she stomps her feet and makes noises at him, that her upper body doesn't move, just her feet. It makes me laugh knowing that the feet stomping is really for her, Logan just likes that she's really excited about interacting with him. We've been having a lot of fun laughing and talking. Logan has already told me he's interested in saving gorillas in the Congo, and he's always been concerned about how Kosovo is doing since they had their conflict. Of course, I made all of this up, but he sticks with the guesses that I make to his babbling.
Logan causes a traffic jam in the living room!
Nearly Mobile
It has been a while. A lot has happened in a few short weeks. As I write now, my son is learning how to crawl. Actually he is sleeping, but over the last few days he has been taking strides in an effort to propel himself into the world. It all started with rolling over. According to the doctor, he was doing it the hard way. Apparently, it is much easier to roll from your stomach to your back. Logan decided that he wanted to rebel. Now he has control of rolling direction. Now I have nostalgia of Peppy from the old StarFox games yelling "Do a barrel roll!" as he rolls from the left to the right, from back to stomach and back again. In addition to rolling; he has now gotten to a point where he will pull himself forward. With this forward momentum, you'd think he would protect his face, but I think his head is a little bigger than he'd like to travel with. In time he'll learn to think light. For now he just low crawls, face dragging and all. As of the last time I saw him do his face scoot, he was only moving a few inches at a time. I'm expecting in the next few weeks he'll be scooting through the house in sting bug fashion; butt in the air like he just doesn't care! So we have rolling, scooting, and we also have grabbing. If there ever was a time I wished I didn't have facial hair is when I'm within his grasp. He has been fairly good at catching chunks of my hair when I am nearby. Luckily he also uses his grabbing for good. His pacifier (I refer to it as 'the green thing') and his toys are now much more accessible. In fact he reached for and acquired his green thing the other night. On his own, assistance not required. That's right, I'm raising a professional green thing handler. Recently, Logan's cousin Riley came by for a visit (she even brought her parents along). During the visit I noticed that he was much more responsive and was actively enjoying communicating with someone closer to his age. She even kissed him a few times on the head (I thought this was impressive for a 10 month old). For a while they laid down together holding hands too. Isn't it crazy that these types of body language can be relayed at less than a year old? To wrap up, I wanted to provide an update to my content on this blog. I'm looking to split up the content. While I am horrible at committing to writing anything, I am going to try again to write on this blog. Hopefully two times a week. There will be a change though. Pictures will now be posted on my other blog Snapshot Wolverine. This way I can semi-commit this blog to real life stories and thoughts, and pictures can be uploaded at random without any expectation of frequency.