Ft. Lauderdale

We spent a long weekend in Ft. Lauderdale this past weekend. It was Logan's 9th flight in his short 9 months of life. He's a seasoned pro. Barb and Mike (Grandma and Grandpa) and cousin Keegan flew in on Friday to meet us. Mike and Shane went to Promise Keepers while the little boys, Barb and I hung out. We really had a great time!

Logan got to go to the beach, which he loves. He made a beeline for the ocean, but when he got there, realized that the waves were a bit larger than the ones in Galveston. So after getting his clothes completely soaked, he decided to content himself with playing in the sand. Yeah, we ended up buying him a new outfit...it was either that or wear only a bib the rest of the night.

This was also Logan's first time in a swimming pool - I know, amazing, but he's only been in brackish / salt water before. Once he got used to his little innertube Daddy bought him, he was "kick, kick, kick"in' all over the place. He'd try to use his hands, but would splash himself in the face and he'd suck in his breath. But he could sort of swim to you. He even "jumped" (well, it was more like fell) from the side of the pool into Daddy's arms.

On Saturday, Grandma, the little boys, and I went to the beach after running around in the minivan in the rain for like 2 hours. Good thing it had pretty good gas mileage! We paid $10 to park near a play structure, but both boys were going ballistic in the van. Think it was the best $10 Grandma had spent in a while!

The boys enjoyed the swings, Keegan loved going down the slides, and Logan enjoyed getting sand ALL over himself. Grandma shared an apple with the two boys, and Logan was able to bite the flesh off the apple. He also tried to climb Grandma when she was holding the apple so he could get more. Greedy little bugger.

We picked Grandpa and Daddy up from Promise Keepers later than I was anticipating. That, having very little sleep, and Logan screaming in the back of the van did not make me a sweet wife when they finally got in the van. I like to think I was a pop-quiz of all the things Shane learned this weekend. And yes, he passed with flying colors. What an amazing man. He didn't even try to move on to the roof, like the writer of Proverbs says...

But overall, it was a wonderful weekend, and happily, we got on the flight on Sunday. Of course, Shane had to give his seat up due to the new CS2 system, but that's a story for a different time. He did enjoy talking to the flight attendants, though.

I'm a BIG boy

Logan went to see Dr. Thomas today for his 9 month check up. He loves to see her, because she has a sweet high pitched voice. Plus she gave him two tongue depressors to chew on...yup, she's a keeper!

Anyway, Logan is still tall and skinny (must be from the grandparents). He's in the ~98% for height and 24% for weight. You wouldn't think that this was the kid that ate one hole jar of baby food, and then followed that with 6 oz of applesauce and like 5 oz of formula. Little piggy there.

But the poor little guy got two shots today, the flu vaccine and something else. The flu vaccine was highly recommended by the doctor, as there is no treatment for kiddos under two for the flu virus (Tamiflu is for 2 and up). So anyway, he's been hopped up on Tylenol. Yummm, cherry flavor. (no worries, I only gave him one dose before bed)

Logan is pulling up on everything and tries as much as possible to stay on his feet. He's even gotten proficient at pulling up on the wall...don't ask me! He'll cruise around the table - grabbing from chair to chair. Super cute. Exersaucers are no longer for sitting in, but cruising around. He also loves to walk when you hold his hands, and he steers pretty well.

His other "big love" right now is brushing his teeth. He'll let me brush his teeth (four of which are in and two more are coming in on top), and then I let him sit on his bottom and "brush" while I brush my teeth. Really, he ends up chewing on it, but it's the concept I'm trying to teach...

The aftermath

So our power went out on Friday at 9:30 pm, and we got power back on Monday at around 9:30 pm. We were so lucky! We were hanging out with our neighbors at Hope and Phil's house (who had just come back from Austin with groceries for us, and a generator for them) when the power came on. Awesome. Of course, there are still places in the Houston area without power. AND apparently, there are power crews down from Saskatchewan, Canada (go Corner Gas people!).

Also on Monday, Shane's Little Brother (not biological, but from the Big Brothers / Big Sisters program) came to stay with us. William stayed until Friday, when his house finally got power. He's out of school this week as well, but his mom has a big list of clean up items for him to do this week. Of course, in typical guy fashion, William and Shane sat on the couch and played their Sony games - William playing Madden on the PSP and Shane playing some silly Japanese game on the PS3.

Logan liked having William around. He thought it was fun to have another boy around. I'm hoping that Logan doesn't take a vacation from personal hygiene like William did. In the whole 5 days he was with us, he took 1 shower and brushed his teeth once. Maybe it's a teenage boy thing - Doug also tried the whole not showering thing when we were in Cincy once.

Here are all three boys...aren't they cute?


Things in Houston/Galveston keep progressing, but it's going to be a long time before we can get back to some semblance of normal. The Texans are playing their first home game at Rice Stadium. Parking is going to be atrocious! It looks like the Spot survived Ike, but we'll have to wait until Galveston is open to go get a burger. Only residents are allowed, and then only for a look and leave.

We'll keep you posted. I'm going to try to swing by my old apartment in Seabrook. Heard they didn't fair too well.

Hurricane Ike - Part 3

Well, we survived Hurricane Ike!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
It was a crazy storm. The forecasters had been saying that we should expect only to have about 6 hours of the hurricane. Yeah, that was a big pile - it was more like 12 hours.

We started to get tropical storm winds around 7pm. By 9pm we were getting hurricane gusts. Due to the direction of the wind, Shane and I were able to watch the storm on our back porch for a while. That was fun. It sort of felt like we were on the beach in a wind storm - the wind was heavy, but the rain was light like a mist. Quite cooling - which was good, because we lost power at 9:30pm.


At around 3am on Saturday morning, we had a calm spell - that would be known as the eye of the storm passing over. So yeah, we got hit pretty much head on. The crazy thing about this storm is that the front wall of the storm was weaker than the back wall - so the wind after the eye was stronger. This wind was blowing from the back door to the front door.

The direction of the wind after the eye passed created a nice train sound from our back door. Apparently, the seal is not so good. Here's a clip:


Shane couldn't sleep because of all the noise, but Logan and I somehow were able to sleep. Logan pretty much slept through the whole storm.



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
Once the sun came up enough to be able to see by, we went out to look at our yard. Here are some pictures...


Our damage: Two sections of fence were down in the back, a few pickets were out on each side, there were two dents in the gutter on the side of the house from the neighbor's flying plywood, and one loose shingle, and some pretty beat up plants.


The culvert behind our house (all our neighbors' back fences are down)


Our roses and plumeria before the storm:


Our roses and plumeria after the storm:


After assessing the damage in the morning and lamenting the hot sticky weather that refused to let us sleep, we got out and went for a look around the town (which apparently, we were not supposed to do, but we had no way of knowing this, and seriously, have you ever been couped up in your house for that long...padded walls, please).


Here's the boat dock, the day after the storm. Talk about a storm surge with a little rain thrown in for good measure - about 9 feet over normal. Shane was thinking about putting the boat in, but then decided he couldn't make it under the bridge...




There were traffic signals down everywhere with loose wires hanging down. There were trees up rooted. But not quite the senstional story you've been hearing on the TV. It was bad, but livable.




That night, we slept on the floor in the living room on the air mattress. It's like indoor camping! Here is Shane doing his "Lord of the Dance" routine (actually, he's blowing up the mattress). Cute!



We slept next to all our power cords that we ran from the power strip that was plugged into the neighbor's generator. I loved the available power, but got sick of saying, "Logan, NO! Do not eat the power cable!"



SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
We skipped church. Heathens, I know. We truly do have SO much to be grateful for. We were spared a lot of damage (truly, a bubble of protection), our baby was fine (Logan slept more than either of us and was super happy in the morning when he woke up), we had enough food and water (though we didn't have oatmeal creme pies and nutty bars for Shane - subpar eating according to him).




Sunday we got more rain. I'm talking a soaking thunderstorm. We probably got 6 - 8 inches on Sunday...and that's what did most people in. People had roof damage and the Sunday rain got in. Or the bayous, culverts, and retention ponds were full so there was no place for the run off. I was a little nervous on Sunday, because our yard looked like a new rice patty - an occassional green stalk sticking out of the water.

Sunday is also the day that our dear dog, Zoe, decided to be such a neighborly dog. She went out the doggie door and didn't come back in for like 30 minutes. This is not uncommon on sunny days (when she is playing catch with Shane's underwear), but I didn't really understand on a rainy day. Then I figured out that she was getting out of the backyard through the two sections that were down in the back and going off an exploring. Later that day, she and the neighbor's pit bull, Sissy, were chased out of a woman's house three backyards over (and not on our culdesac - on the culdesac facing us!).



So, I'm tired, and I'm going to end this now. Plus, if you've read this whole stinkin' thing - God bless you. You are truly bored and really need to get out more. Seriously, there are some good movies out - I think. Not like I get out much either.

Hurricane Ike - Part 2

So we went back out to the boat dock at around 4:15pm to see how much the water had risen in about 2 and 1/2 hours. Pretty a lot, huh?

As we were driving back home from the boat dock, we saw a BUNCH of cars parked on both sides of the I-45 overpass. I guess if you live in a low lying area, this is a great place to keep your car from flooding. I've just never thought of it.

Also, Shane was talking to Grandma (his mom) on the phone outside today, and Logan thought it was a horrible thing that he didn't take him too. So he decided to try and climb out the doggie door. Daddy came to help once he figured out that Logan was going to land head first on the other side. Still, it was funny...

Hurricane Ike - Part 1

So we've decided to stick it out, or as Texans say "hunker down", while Ike hits Galveston. No, we're not in violation of any mandatory evacuations, as we're on higher ground. Dickinson has issued mandatory evacuations for low-lying (aka. on the bayou) houses, but not us. So, yeah, we should still have emergency services. In fact, there's a firetruck parked on our street (how 'bout that for service...eventhough it's from a different city, Bayou Vista).

Anyway, we went driving around today and saw some interesting sites. Our boat dock, the parking lot and street included, are underwater. Here are two pictures taken within 30 minutes of each other. Notice the earlier one has poles sticking out of the water...the second one doesn't.

After the boat dock, we went to Bacliff (where I used to live) to a little park that has another boat ramp. The boat ramp was completely underwater. The wind was really whipping when Shane and I got out of the truck.

Notice though, we're not the only ones who decided to stick it out. And they're not even "hunkering"!

On our way back home, we noticed the line for the Dairy Queen. Guess it's the only restaurant open in Dickinson! There were 8 cars in line, and about 4 cars parked in front.

But notice, yesterday was a beautiful day...though it was HOT and HUMID. If I remember correctly, it was like that the day before we left for Hurricane Rita a few years ago. Beautiful but miserable.

I'll try and keep you posted as long as we have power and internet!

Tube baby

Yesterday, we went out on the boat, and Daddy took Logan tubing. They both had a good time. At first, Shane started out sitting in the tube with Logan in his lap, but I hit another boat's wake a little too fast, and popped the two of them out of the tube. No worries! No one was hurt, and Shane broke the fall for Logan and pushed him up to the surface. Shane said it was pretty funny, because he came up and expected Logan to start crying. Logan just looked at him with a confused look on his face like, "what just happened?"

Shane then put Logan in the tube, and he flopped on the back of the tube. I think Logan liked this better, because he actually stood up in the tube.

Little Logan is a total chill-fest. He didn't cry at all out there. What a fun little guy!

Oh, and both Shane and I got to go out. I've finally figured out how to wakeskate (a wakeboard with no bindings, just grippy tape on top - a skateboard in the water). So that was super fun. It's definitely a workout. Uses different muscles to stay on the board, and it's really squirrely (our board doesn't have fins). Shane, of course, is already stellar at wakeskating, and can now turn the board around and ride goofy-footed. He's disgusting like that...

Logan "Don Juan" de Flachman

Yes, our little Logan is quite the charmer (how like a Flachman male). Our neighbors, Hope and Phil, had relatives down this weekend. One of the relatives was an 11 month old little girl named Laraina (I have no idea how they spell it). Here he is below being held by Hope with Phil in the background (someday I'll get an actual posed picture of the three of them).

Shane and I went over to their house after being out on the boat. Logan and his new girlfriend enjoyed passing around a cold water bottle and chewing on the bottom of it. They also enjoyed petting Barney, the little wire terrier.

Of course, Logan has shown that he is a true Flachman. Phil came over with Laraina in the morning, and Logan tried to put his hands down her pants. Then when we went over in the afternoon, Logan tried to French kiss Laraina (he probably wanted to bite her nose, but whatever), and then grabbed her shirt at the collar. Hilarious! When we all started laughing, Logan just looked around at us with those wide blue eyes looking like, "What??"

A man's bath...

Let's just agree upfront that Mommies and Daddies are different.

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let me tell you a little story about Logan's second bath the other day.

I had just finished giving Logan a bath and we went into the office to say "hi" to Daddy. Then somehow, Logan got put on the floor in front of the dogs' waterbowl. Not a big deal, as he plays in it all the time. However, I looked down and Logan was playing with himself and grinning.

Uh-oh.

Yup, the little guy had tee-teed all over the floor. So I was going to whisk him back to the bathroom and just rub him down with his still wet washrag and call it good. But Daddy had other plans.

Logan got to have a nice second bath in the utility sink in the laundry room. That was fine with him, plus, he can stand up in it and not get out. Daddy is so ingenious!

Peek-a-boo - bathroom style

Shane and Logan think it's great fun to play peek-a-boo in the bathroom. And not just the put-the-towel-over-the-baby's-face style peek-a-boo. This is full out daddy-jumps-into-the-bathroom-and-then-jumps-out-baby-almost-falls-out-of-the-bathtub-looking-for-daddy-after-he-jumps-out style peek-a-boo. It was so hilarious. Logan got a good ab workout from laughing so hard, and Shane had a blast working up a sweat jumping around.

Enjoy the video...it makes me laugh!

My crib - my way

On Tuesday, I walked into Logan's room to wake him up from his morning nap. And lo and behold you would have thought it was midnight because it was a full moon! A little white bottom was waving at me, and then two little blue eyes looked up and grinned. He was rather proud of himself...he'd somehow managed to undo the velcro on his diaper and leave it at the other end of his crib. The blue thing in the background is his diaper...

Guess that's the last time he goes to take a nap in a shirt and diaper!

Logan has also taken to chewing on his bed. At one point, we thought he was a termite, but I now have REAL proof that he is not fully human. (Although our pediatrician did tell me that blue eyes are not a recessive trait but a genetic mutation...so he really is a mutant! I think we may just start calling him Wolverine from now on...)