Week 26 & 27 12/18-12/29 Christmas!

Please click on the photo to see more pictures

Vacation was great, but it was nice to come home to a housefull of Christmas decorations. Logan got to go to Grandma Ginny's daycare on Monday and Wednesday. Santa Claus made an appearance on Wednesday to hand out gifts. Logan didn't seem to mind sitting on Santa's lap and even gave his beard a few tugs. The present, of course, immediately got the taste test and seal of approval. We spent the rest of the week running around doing last minute shopping. Logan is still fighting his cold and ended up giving it to me, so both of us spent the weekend with stuffy noses and the coughs. It's a bummer that he didn't feel well for his first Christmas.

On Friday night, we went over to Nate and Raechel's for the Ferrell Family Christmas get-together. Everybody got lots of great stuff. On Saturday, we went to Clawson Steak House with the Cusick side of the family. Alex's grandparents take everybody out to dinner every year and then we all go back to their place in Berkley to hang out and play cards. Ginny and Roger spent the night at our house so they were here for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. My parents came down on Christmas Eve to spend the night. Mandy, Grandma and Grandpa also came over for Christmas Eve dinner.

I got up on Christmas morning with Logan and we made a big breakfast for everybody. I'm sure we won't be able to put off present opening until after breakfast next year! Logan got the hang of ripping the wrapping paper pretty quickly. He had a bit of a meltdown and had to take a quick nap in the middle of opening presents...I think he was too overloaded with all the great toys he got! Both sets of grandparents hung out for the rest of the day and we watched a few movies.

Overall, it has been a great Christmas. We're celebrating with my side of the family next weekend over New Years. Logan has gradually been getting better at eating solids over the past few weeks. He has tried applesauce, green beans and peas so far. It is funny because sometimes you can't feed him fast enough and he has no interest at other times. He has started sitting up better and can even stand with a little bit of assistance. He continues to do well on his stomach and you can tell he is working on crawling. He has also started to give lots of kisses and hugs. His kisses are hilarious because he will grab the side of your face(or hair..or ears) pull you in and give you a wide-mouth open, sloppy, wet kiss. We got some good pics of him getting some of the fam.

Week 25 12/9-12/17 Vacation!

Please click on the photo to see more pictures

Well, nobody can say that traveling is stressful until they've tried to do it with a 6 month old! But, I must admit that things worked out a lot better than I expected. Alex had to use some vacation time before the end of the year and we found a really good deal on a 4.5 day cruise to the Bahamas. So, we called up my parents and convinced them (we really had to twist their arms!) to go with us. So, we flew into Ft. Myers on Saturday morning and stayed for the first weekend at my parent's place in Punta Gorda. Logan was great on the plane and slept most of the way. You could tell his ears started to bug him a few times, but nursing really seemed to help clear them out for him. Then, we went over to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my aunt and uncle on Sunday. They just bought a new condo on the 28th floor of a luxury high-rise development. The views were unbelievable! Then, Alex's Grandma and Grandpa Swords were able to come up from Green Acres to meet us for lunch on Monday. It was great to see them and we were thankful they were able to meet us on such short notice.

Then, we jumped back in the car and headed over to Miami on Monday afternoon to catch the boat. We were a little leery with all the sickness outbreaks on cruise ships lately, but Royal Carribean did a nice job of trying to reassure everyone. There were hand sanitizer stations everywhere and they gave free doctor's consults to anyone that was feeling under the weather. So, we made sure to have our sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, and jumped on the ship. The first night at sea was a little rough, but Logan didn't seem to mind the motion of the boat. We set up a little bed for him on the ledge by the porthole in our room. It worked out perfect. Tuesday, we docked in Nassau, Bahamas. We walked around to some of the little shops in town and spent the afternoon by the pool onboard. We were bummed that the ship didn't have a kiddie pool, but we were able to sneak him into the hot tub (it was only warm like bath water) for a little bit in the afternoon. It took him a little bit to figure it out, but he enjoyed his first time swimming. He was pretty good at floating on his back and liked to splash at Daddy.

We spent Wednesday in Coco Cay, a private island with tons of sandy white beaches that Royal Carribean owns. Logan loved playing in the sand, but didn't care for his first dip in the ocean too much. We think it was just too cold for his little tootsies, but we had fun taking his pic with his Santa hat on at the beach. Logan took a nap in his stroller for a while (I swear that kid sleeps better outside). My parents kept an eye on him and Alex and I went for a walk around the island and played a little bit of volleyball.

We were in Key West on Thursday. Originally, Alex and I had wanted to try to get some more sun since the week had been mostly overcast up until then, but it was still cloudy. So, we decided to do a train tour of Key West. It turned out to be a great tour and we were both really glad we decided to do it. Then, we all walked around Key West and did a little shopping on Duval Street.

Night life on a cruise is a bit different with a 6 month old, but we still had a great time. We enjoyed dinner in the main dining room every night with my parents and went to most of the shows. Logan liked to watch all the colors and hear the music, but usually fell asleep during the show every night. Alex and I went to bed early a few nights too to catch up on some much needed sleep. It's funny the things you appreciate the most when you have a baby!

Overall, Logan was a big hit on the cruise. Lots of the staff knew him by name and our head waitress, Vilma from Lithuania, actually took him around to all her tables on the last night when we had him dressed up in his Christmas outfit with Santa hat. It was nice because we were able to eat our dinners uninterrupted and we always knew where they were from the "oohs" and "awes". Quite a crowd collected too when we were having his pictures professionally taken. My dad joked around that we should have charged admission. We tried to have family pics taken when we were all dressed up for formal night, but Logan decided to puke all over his outfit in the middle of them which the photographer caught on film. Even though it was pretty funny, we decided it wasn't worth the $19.95.

We deboarded the ship on Friday morning and headed back to Punta Gorda. We took Logan swimming a few more times at my parent's place. By the second time, he had already learned how to kick his legs and reach out his arms...it almost looked like the breast stroke..sort of:) There was a floating ball in the water that he did his best to try to grab. We can't wait to start swimming with him more back at home. Overall, the weekend was relaxing and we headed home Sunday night. Logan was great and slept almost the whole flight home.

So, there were quite a few "firsts" this week...first time on a plane, first time on a boat, first time on a cruise ship, first time to the beach, first time in the ocean, first time swimming, first time out of the country, first time to Florida...and first vacation (besides camping)!

Week 24 12/1-12/8

Please click on the photo to see more pictures

Well, I am officially WAY behind with my blog postings. So, I decided to work on three separate posts for the past three weeks since they were all jam-packed with so much stuff. The first week in December was spent trying to get ready for vacation and Christmas. I played in a tournament on the 2nd while Alex and Logan spent some quality time together. Then, we all worked on putting up our Christmas decorations on Sunday. It was pretty weird (but nice) decorating outside in a T-shirt! Too bad that weather couldn't last all winter! I love Christmas decorations and it was fun seeing Logan's reaction to the lights and shiny ornaments. I'm sure next year will be a bit more difficult when Logan is mobile!

Grandma Ginny came down on Wednesday morning to keep an eye on Logan and then the three of us went shopping in the afternoon. Logan discovered that he loves to play with water bottles and was actually pretty coordinated getting the opening to his mouth. We bought tons of stuff and Ginny came back down on Friday to spend some time wrapping everything up and to take us to the airport the following morning. Then, Grandma and Grandpa Cusick came over for dinner and we got some cute pics of Logan in his Santa hat and booties. Alex got back from Battle Creek late on Friday night (shortly after I finished most of the packing of course) and we finished getting ready for the early flight to Florida on Saturday.

Logan has really started to interact more with Cody and Calley. He'll watch them intently from wherever he is in the room and loves to get kisses from Cody. He'll giggle and do his best to "pet" them. Thankfully, they're both very tolerant of him. He has also been learning how to make more sounds and will often yell for no apparent reason. It's pretty cute...as long as you're not in the middle of the store:)

Week 22 & 23 11/18- 11/30

Please click on the photo to see more pictures

Grandma and Grandpa Ferrell came down to stay Friday through Saturday(17th-18th). They brought down Connor and Kyleigh to sleep over and help watch 'Peanut' while Alex and I went to play in a volleyball tournament on Saturday. Saturday went well except we found out that Logan's digestive system doesn't like it too much when Mommy eats Hungarian sausage. He was one gassy baby! Sorry Grandma and Grandpa!

Sunday, Logan came down with his first cold. He had the standard runny nose, congestion, and cough. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday just to be on the safe side before we went to Fort Wayne for the holiday. The doctor said his lungs and ears looked OK, so we should just let the cold take its course. We elevated the end of his crib to help with the drainage and bought a vaporizer, but he has still had some pretty rough nights between the cough and congestion. We have to take him back to the doctor again tomorrow since the cold is going on 2 weeks. I'm not sure if I hope it's something else so they will give us medicine or if I hope it's still the run of the mill cold. I just hope he gets better soon!

We went to Doug & Nicole's in Fort Wayne on Wed, the 22nd for the Thanksgiving weekend. My sis and the fam also went to stay, so they had a house full. My parents are down in Florida so they enjoyed their turkey in the 80 degree weather with other people in the RV park; it was weird not to see them at Thanksgiving, but they will be back around Christmas time. Alex's parents went to West Virginia to see Roger's family, so we didn't get together with his fam for the holiday. John and Christi (Nicole's parents) hosted for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday AND a second one on Saturday when Amy and Nick(Nicole's sister and boyfriend) could be home. We had a great weekend except for Logan's cold. It was nice to be able to hang out and visit for 4 days and we definitely ate WAY TOO MUCH. But, I guess that is what the holidays are all about.

We got together with Alex's grandparents this past Wednesday for dinner. Then, they watched Logan while we went to volleyball. They've helped us out a few Wednesdays now which we really appreciate.

Logan's sleep schedule at night has regressed, but we hope that his cold is causing the problems and he'll start sleeping longer when he feels better. He has also tried both barley and oatmeal cereal and is eating 2 tablespoons twice a day. He seems to like both, but he is still very messy when he eats so he's probably only eating about 2/3 of it. Logan loves playing peek-a-boo and singing interactive songs like "The Wheels on the Bus." He has also started noticing the dogs more and likes to reach out and pet them. Kisses from Cody also puts a big smile on his face. He seems to be happiest when he is interacting with one of us and is quick to protest if he is left to play on his own. We're working on getting a good mix of both.