Goodbye to good friends and hello to new games

12 November -
All night long last night Mom had to deal with a Delenn that insisted on
being held or the heavens above would hear of it. This has carried on
into today and for some reason within minutes of Momma putting the babe
into her bassonet or pram or chair or ground, the wailing starts to
commence. As this blog is being written, Delenn is back in bed and
okay, but it's only been a few minutes. Let's just hope and see if the
misery wormhole has now passed on by us. Yep, only a few minutes later
and she was back up, but then the evening was much more pleasant as she
slept through most of it. Delenn tends to wait until Mom's bedtime to
get all fussy and seemingly enjoys her sleep more when physically with
Momma.

Logan's swimming lessons this morning didn't turn out to be the grand
event Daddy hoped. Instead, it was cold, rainy, and windy. All
miserable conditions to hop into a pool and listen to Daddy and the
teacher tell a 2 year old boy what to do. Logan put up with it until
about the last quarter of the class when the teacher, Bettina, tried to
take him from Daddy's arms and put him through a hoop that was partially
submerged. From then on all Dad had was a wailing and blabbering kid
plastered hard in a death hug around him. Logan's face wouldn't even
come out from Dad's shoulder area. Immediately after class Dad tried
to pry the frigid and teeth chattering child off him as fast as he could
in an attempt to warm him up with dry clothes. It took some doing, but
eventually he succeeded. A bit later the teacher popped by to check on
Logan and see if he was okay. Logan quickly grabbed Dad's leg and
huddled under and behind it. Only with Dad's prodding to say "I'm
okay" did Logan shyly lift his head and indicate his good health. Guess
the kid is getting more and more shy around folk, or perhaps this was
just a one-off event.

After swimming lessons we joined up with Melissa and Bradon at the
Telegraph Station (rather than continue the fun at the frigid pool).
There the boys spared no time in reaquainting themselves with getting
wet yet again by hopping in to the still-remaining water from the Todd
river. Down to the skivvies and pushing their dump trucks, they then
plowed around the park grounds picking up cicada shells. Well, actually
Bradon would point them out, but not touch them. Logan would actually
pry them from the trees and ground and place them into his dump truck.
By the time Daddy got up to the truck to take a look, there were about
20 or so collected. And to Dad's surprise, Logan got himself a few LIVE
cicadas that were still crawling around trying to get out of their
shell. Logan obviously hasn't quite reached the age where these things
are a bit yucky to the touch for him... yet. Heck, he enjoys prying
pieces of the cicada shell remnants apart and occasionally even putting
some of it in his mouth, much to Dad's displeasure.

In the evening we went to dinner with some friends, Austin and Shelly,
to give Logan a chance to play with Bradon and the rest of the Lynch
family for the last time. They all had a good time, including four year
old Alexandria (Alex for short). She was funny and kept calling Logan
"Baby Logan" which is strange to hear when we've got a baby Delenn now.

13 November -
In the morning Logan has been learning to say "Good morning" before his
normal yelping "Up Daddy or UP MOMMY!" He's also helping to take off
his pajamas and then gets himself a shirt from his drawer to wear.

We then headed over to Melissa and Jesse's pad to help them load up and
head on their permanent journey back to the States by going to the
airport. We had a fond and tearful bye bye send-off at the airport with
many of their friends there as well. Logan will not know it or realize
it, but he'll be hurting quite a bit with the departure of his good
friend Bradon with whom he played so well. We wish the Lynch family an
extremely joyful and fulfilling future in their further adventures back
in Texas and hope to see them again someday.

During naps, Logan made Dad laugh. This was because Daddy was picking
Logan up and putting him into Dad's lap, all the while slightly shaking
Logan around in doing so causing Logan to blurt out, "Stop wiggling me!"
After naps Dad and Logan played a fun game called Caraboo in which you
must match letters, colors, numbers, or shapes to open a box and get
magic balls that will eventually open a treasure box. Logan really
enjoyed the game and did pretty well at it, even considering his limited
attention span.

A bit later there was yet another farewell dinner and party. This time
for a airport fireman friend in town (funnily enough named Peter Sparks
and his Ukrainian mail-order Bride Inna). They're moving down to
Tasmania where Peter will continue working at the Launceston airport
fire station. The party was held at Yvonne and Trevor's house...
friends from when we first came to Alice Springs. They own the local
Penny Farthing Bike shop in town. Many other friends we hadn't seen in
a while were there too. This included Eddie, an 80 some-odd year old
man who still ride his bike often all around. A few years ago he still
would outdo many other bike riders in races. He's of Dutch origin and
rode 500 kilometers on a bike from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon wearing
only dutch wooden clogs. Dad has also ridden his bicycle 500 kilometers
to Kings Canyon before (took 3 days, camping 2 nights), but Dad wore
normal shoes.
At the party Logan enjoyed swimming in their pool and wore a funny pink
floaty borrowed swimmer that we'll have to use for bribery purposes in
the future. He also did a lot of running up and down their steep
driveway with a soccer ball (throwing it up and down). He actually did
surprisingly well playing with all the other children who were easily 3
times his age. There was also a huge black dog (believe it was either a
mastiff or a great dane, but can't remember which one is bigger) The
dog easily was 4-5 times Logan's size and was too intimidating for Logan
initially, but as the evening wore on Logan got extremely chummy with
Ebony and patted and pulled on her. He even got a short horsey ride on
Ebony once. There were also a number of two wheeled scooters at their
house and Daddy was impressed when Logan kept still and placed both feet
on, one in front of the other, and let Dad steer him around their patio.
Daddy was also really happy that he got to hold Delenn for a
considerably long while at the party as she slept through most of it.
As a going away gift for Peter and Inna, Dad and Mom gave them Hot
Chilli Wine. It is made in Australia and the producers of it are the
only ones in the world to make wine purely out of chillies with
absolutely no grapes whatsoever. It truly is a unique taste that starts
sweet and lingers a bit spicily afterwards!

14 November, Monday, Summary of events:
Logan got out of crib for first time on his own, little sneak.
Has been taking off his pajamas and putting on a shirt. Still won't go
poos in the potty.
Played games like Caraboo again as well as Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Played with Dad as we made a castle/fort/dark tunnel
Played outside on his own making pretend food to eat out of sand.
Liked reading books a bit on his own.
Got in trouble for hitting Delenn when he wasn't getting pancakes for lunch.
Pushed and steered his bike (from behind) by himself all the way several
blocks to get mail from the demountable and back.
Did his ABC puzzle completely by himself while we were talking to next
door neighbor Noel.
Delenn projectile spewed Mom's just drunk milk all over Mom and then
after handing her to Dad, did the same to him.
Delenn slept better last night and didn't need a feed until around 1:30
or 2 AM from earlier in the evening.
Last couple days she's been letting Dad hold her for much much longer
(as much as an hour or two at a time until Daddy puts her in her bed).
She prefers to hear voices and be looking around (i.e. from an upright
position either over your shoulder or facing forward away from you on
your chest.
She also seems to be much more at peace when she's outside.
Again, she also really likes to be on her side.
Delenn really looks as though she's gonna be a blondie. Hope that
doesn't mean she goes through all her life with the stereotypical
insults for a dumb blonde :-)
Logan got to hold Delenn today as he actively wanted to do so. He did
very well with her and enjoyed it for the 5-10 minutes he had her.
Immediately after Mom got her back, Logan grabbed a toy for Delenn and
gave it to her.
At the demountable Logan said "Thank you very much, Daddy" without
prompting when Dad opened the door for Logan.
At bedtime Logan actually asked to have his teeth brushed and to be read
stories without us even having to say anything.

15 November, Tuesday, Summary of events:
Logan is getting up and climbing out of his crib on his own every day now.
Last two to three days he's been getting up late, about 7:30 or 8 AM, on
account of later nights out socializing for engagements with others the
last five nights.
Naptime hasn't occurred the last couple days probably because of this.
Tonight we all went over to dinner at Carl and Janet's house where they
used Dad's projector to show pictures to everyone from their latest
Thailand vacation. Logan loved playing foosball with the other kids
even though he couldn't even see over the table's lip to see what was
going on, but he loved playing and turning the dials with Mom.
Delenn is more and more a sleeper in your arms baby and can take a
pacifier from Daddy only (Mom doesn't need one)

16 November night - 17 November morning
Logan was inconsolable at 12:30 AM so Dad put Logan in bed with him. At
4:30 AM Logan got back up and put himself back in his own crib and went
back to bed. At about 7:45 AM (yes, he's STILL getting up on the later
side of the morning now, woohoo!) Logan got up out of his crib and
started playing around. He checked out the closet, fiddled with the
baby monitor, and got himself a bit into trouble getting up on to the
back of the chair trying to reach and touch one of his hanging ceiling
stars. Then he settled down and read himself a few books and turned
the pages with a bit more dexterity than normal. Finally he was willing
to take off his pajamas and put on a shirt so he could go out of the
room and sit on the potty with Daddy before having breakfast.

Delenn slept reasonably well. Reading in a book, we found that babies
between 4-6 weeks old suddenly have a major growth spurt. One such
change is the much improved ability to see and that they are suddenly
opened up to the world around them rather than secure in their 'limited
vision' world that makes them feel somewhat as if they are still in the
womb. Evidently changes such as these have caused many a mother to have
to hold their babies almost non-stop for between 1 day and 1 week,
depending upon the active nature of the baby. This is perhaps why
Delenn has suddenly become a bit of a hellion in needing this, so we can
only hope that this is a phase that will soon come to pass.

Mom headed off with the bubs to the town pool for a bit of fun.

17 November mid-afternoon
While Dad was out getting bricks for Mom (so we could continue laying
down a path on the side of the house) Mom attempted to get Logan down
for a nap. It was really rough going because Mom kept getting
interruptions from various folks. There was a couple phone calls, a
couple arrivals from the mail man and package delivery man. Also, there
was Peter and Inna, who were just heading out to drive south on their
big move to Tasmania (where Peter Sparks will be working as a
firefighter). They stopped by to give Logan a fantastic gift of a super
fancy Thomas the Tank Engine Big Big Loader track set that does all
sorts of things. Of course Logan wanted to play with it while they
were visiting and afterwards during nap time, but Mom had to do her best
to keep him from it. Oh, just before Peter and Inna showed up, Delenn
did a rather large number in her pants. Then Logan immediately did so.
Then the door bell rang and Peter and Inna came in. Liesl tried to tell
them that Delenn would start crying momentarily because of a dirty
diaper, but they still acted surprised by her sudden fits of anger when
they held her and so Mom whisked her away to get her changed. Logan
intervened and jumped right up on the changing table to get changed
first, which Mom did. Peter commented on just how easy this whole
child-rearing thing must be (based on the few minutes they were visiting
and the fact that Logan was so willing this once to get changed)
:-) When Peter and Inna have kids I think Peter will be in for a bit
more of a rude awakening then he thinks. Anyhow, finally it all
settled down and Mom was able to get Logan down for his nap.

18 November
In the morning Logan and Mom and Delenn went to PlayGroup and played
well with Nicholas and Holly. Logan made a turkey out of his hand as
prep for Thanksgiving and stencilled a car and dog.
Just as Bradon did to Logan last year, Logan got on Nicholas' case when
Nicholas doesn't talk in meaningful words to him. Nicholas hasn't quite
got the talking thing down yet and so Logan gets frustrated when
Nicholas says nonsensical words to him.

Delenn continues to give Mom little chance for a break from her. Daddy
has been getting really good at giving Delenn a pacifier and calming her
down to keep her in his arms for long enough that she can be put in her bed.

Naptime and Dad tried singing Logan all sorts of songs, but Logan
usually responds with "Not that song please" and Dad gets exasperated
trying to find a song he feels like listening to. One song was "Rise
and Shine and Give God your Glory Glory". In that case Logan's
response was "No girly girly song please."
A little bit later Dad heard Logan say, "I'm rubbing myself." Luckily
he then followed those words up later with "I'm rubbing my eye Daddy."

We have been continuing the potty training for Logan and so no pants are
generally worn at home, even through our meals. Only problem with this
is that Logan tends to touch his privates a bit more than we'd like,
especially when he likes to also play and touch his food quite often as
well. Mommy and Daddy have been telling him to only touch there when
using the potty. So Logan then gets reprimanded at the dinner table
for touching his privates, but he'll then respond with the words "I
don't touch my wee-wee except on the potty." A lot of times he puts a
good deal of stress and emphasis on certain words to make it seem so
completely serious, yet by doing so he makes it all a bit comical.

At bedtime, Daddy left a boy in his crib after reading, singing, and
saying goodnight. Dad also left the door open, which is why he thought
Logan was okay with his having left the room and not crying for once.
Well, a few minutes later, while Dad and Mom were talking in the living
room, we suddenly heard a gleeful exclamation of "PEEKABOO!" from our
boy coming out of his room. This was the first time Logan has ever done
anything like this before (leave the bedroom on his own after being put
down at night) and it caught us unawares. Mom and Dad were desperately
looking for a pillow or cushion or something to hide our laughter and
smiles while chiding Logan at the same time for getting out of bed.
Poor kid's excitement was suddenly turned end over end when he was
quickly placed back in his room and he became a heart-wrenching
inconsolable kid with a river of tears.