Look at him go!

Yesterday, Logan and I made a quick trip out to Jack Brooks Park to go for a swing. What fun! The swing was a bit squeaky, but Logan had a great time anyway. Plus, the weather was wonderful - upper 60's and super sunny.


Here's some video of Logan walking. He takes about 3 to 4 steps and bam - he's down. But he'll stand up by himself for at least 15 seconds before he realizes, "oh goodness, I've been standing up too long. My legs hurt, I should sit down."



Poor kid also has his first case of really bad diaper rash. So he went crawling around outside without bottoms today (in the backyard people, and our fence is fixed, not like our neighbors). He thoroughly enjoyed the pants-less time, and the dogs enjoyed padding after him, sniffing his little bottom.

Galveston - post Ike

I know that we've gotten a lot of calls about whether we had been down to Galveston or not after the hurricane. Please know that the causeway bridge was closed for a long time, and then only open to residents (they were checking IDs). But we finally made it down on Friday, and it was rather surreal.

Just like after any disaster, things look completely different, but somehow the same. It's surreal because you just can't imagine that this is the place you used to frequent. Galveston was, in so many ways, the same. And yet it was so different. (the pictures, you're going to have to click on to get the bigger picture - most were taken from the truck)



On the way down, even before we hit the causeway bridge, we saw boats up next to the highway. It was as if they had beached themselves. Once we were over the bridge, there was a sailboat between the northbound and southbound lanes. There were about 10 boats on the side of the southbound lanes. These were not cheap looking boats either...they were bigger than ours, and many of them were sailboats.



Then we drove down 61st street towards Seawall Blvd. Many of the fast food joints were still boarded up. The Popeye's was roped off and the windows still had plywood on them. The Jack in the Box was "unboarded", but chairs and tables inside were stacked up. I found this interesting because the fast food restuarants were the first things to open around Dickinson (like 3 days after the storm).


Once we were on Seawall, we took a right and went down on 3005. Our favorite kite shop was not flying its kites. We didn't stop to see if they were still open. The drive down to the Pocket Beaches looked like it had snowdrifts on either side, except they were sanddrifts.



We went down to some of the beaches we've gone to before. Here you can see the HUGE sandbags put in front of the houses in an effort to keep erosion at bay (or in the bay).



Much of the beaches was gone. At least 100 feet of beach was gone. This is a house that used to be beachfront property and is now "on the water". According to the State of Texas, this house is now state property as there is no barrier between the house and the water.



We did not see many people living in their houses, but then, we were there during the late morning/early afternoon. There were many people working on moving debris into piles. There were piles of debris everywhere...even on the historical Strand. Speaking of the Strand, it was completely deserted, and all the stores were closed.


On our way to The Spot for lunch, we passed the old fishing pier...half of it was gone. Also, the historic Flagship hotel had a hole in it. Crazy.



But for you hamburger lovers, The Spot is open, busy and yummy (though I have to say the fries were not as good as usual, but the onion rings were so yum). Logan and Shane enjoyed it, and enjoyed Shane's Mountain Dew together.



Please pray for the recovery of Galveston. It may no longer be "front page news", but it's still effecting lots of people as they try to pick up and move on with their lives. Our neighbor works as a teacher in Galveston ISD. Their school is no longer usable, so they have become permanent squatters in another elementary school. She said there is alot of animosity between the two schools, just mainly due to not having their own space. Plus, the kids have lost about 3 or 4 weeks in preparing for their state tests. Just crazy times.

Crazy Kid

Logan is crazy. This morning, he thought it would be an awesome idea to stand in the dog bowl with his socks on. He was very proud of himself, as you can see.

Logan also is a Daddy's boy. This morning, when Shane went to bed, Logan crawled to our bedroom door and was beating on it with his hands and screaming. I picked him up, let him say "night night" to Daddy, and it was all better.

The Roses are BACK!

After being ripped apart by the hurricane, the roses are BACK! And there are more of them than before! How beautiful! Amazing how God allows nature to just bounce back after severe trauma.

Visiting Uncle Doug

On Thursday, Logan and I flew up to Columbus to visit my not-so-little little brother. Logan, of course, is a flying veteran (10 flights in 10 months), and was contantly getting compliments on how wonderful he was. He loves to flirt with the lady flight attendants (you would think he was his daddy's son...). He was so cute on the way back because two older women were sitting behind us, and he was looking really hard at them through the seats as I was buckling in his car seat. So, as I was putting him in his seat, I said, "okay, you can say 'hi' to them before you get in your seat". He looks at them and grins and actually said, "hey". They were just delighted, which made him smile even bigger (and show off his mouth full o' teeth). Such a sweet boy.

Doug picked us up at the airport on Thursday, and for a little boy who is getting some stranger anxiety, Logan did pretty well with him. We went to First Watch for lunch, which was super yum. Then we toured around Doug's neighborhood (there's a beautiful Catholic seminary very close by, and the main street is so quaint and cute). I loved seeing all the beautiful trees. We don't get that in Houston - in fact, a few weeks ago, our Bartlett pear tree was blooming. Not global warming, either hurricane trauma or season confusion (it was really cool right after Ike then warmed back up into the 90s).

Logan enjoyed "helping" Uncle Doug play the guitar. Doug is super good on the guitar, but Logan is still "learning".

Doug was super nice and washed the sheets for Logan and me. As Doug and I were making the bed, Logan somehow crawled into the dryer. He was very proud of himself.

Thursday night, we went to dinner with Chuck, a Dow employee interviewing "the" OSU (not to be confused with OSU - Oklahoma State) students and his daughter Caroline, a sophomore. They were interesting people, and Logan did pretty well, especially since we were there for over an hour. Then the three of us went to Jenny's for ice cream, and apparently Logan is a big fan of the pumpkin. He was not pleased when it was all gone.

Friday we had a lazy morning - the boys sat around in their pants, and we watched TV. After a yummy lunch at Panera, we went to the OSU campus and the Barnes and Noble bookstore which is also the campus bookstore. Pretty cool - the Rice bookstore looks rather lame in comparison.

Friday after work, Ashley, Doug's sweet girlfriend came over (she must be pretty, because Logan went right to her - they were buddies by the end of the weekend). Doug, being the super host that he is, made lasagne for us. Yum! Logan enjoyed it as well - he's a big pasta fan.

Then we made our way to Circleville for the Pumpkin Show - a fair-like deal. As it was close to Halloween, and we don't have a nice coat for Logan, he got to wear his cute fleece bat suit over his PJ's. He got many compliments. This fair was pretty darn big, about 3 times the size of the Circus Fair in Peru, with a carousal, two Ferris wheels, a little rollercoaster, and some other rides and games! And it was PACKED. As soon as we walked in, Doug had to get some pumpkin pie. The verdict - not as good as Thanksgiving, but passable.

Saturday, Logan was apparently tired, because he had a meltdown while I was taking a shower. I could hear him two rooms over while the water was running. The boy has some pipes. Doug did his best, but to no avail. I felt so bad for Doug's roommate, Abby, as she was trying to sleep.

Doug also changed his first diaper this weekend. Okay, I cleaned up the mess (because it was a stinky diaper), but Doug put the diaper on the squirming baby. Ashley was nice enough to supervise the novice.

But at least Logan got all of his crying out of his system in the morning, because on the flights home, he was a pretty happy camper (he slept for ~2 hrs on the flight from Nashville to Houston). Even better, Daddy had picked up pizza on the way home - yummy!

I leave you with the one last picture - Logan and Doug at the indoor park at the mall - PandaPony!

Congratulations, Uncle Doug

Well, my favorite little brother now has a job. *sniff* They grow up so fast, don't they?

Seriously, CONGRATULATIONS, Dooger. That's Faboo. We're hoping they send you on lots of business trips to Freeport (partly so you can see the Dow Cows, but also, us - no, we're not the Dow Cows). We'd even take you to The Spot - because they're the best hamburgers.

Now, all you have to do is graduate - which means, PASS!

The Last Boat Ride - Maybe

On Saturday, we went out to the San Bernard River over past Freeport/Lake Jackson (about 1 hour from our house). We're still not entirely sure how the water quality is in Dickinson Bayou, so we thought it'd be a good idea to take pregnant lady and bambino to a safer body of water (thanks, Shane!).

Anyway, we also took Shane's Little, William, with us. What a blast we had! I got to show off my post first trimester body (attack of the skiing whales!), and try out our new wake skis (which we got at 57% off - after season sales ROCK!). The wake skis are a blast! They're like about 6 - 8 inches wide, have booties like wakeboards, and are about 2 feet long, but you ride them like skis. So fun, because you can jump the wake and everything. I also got up on our wake skate, which is sort of like a wakeboard with no bindings and grippy tape on top. You ride it like a skateboard, just no pushing. It's sort of weird to look down as you're going ~20 mph through the water and see your bare feet on the board.

Logan was hilarious when we were out there. He's gotten so mobile, that he'll stand on the back benchseat and cruise from side to side. He loves to watch the skiers out the back, and he really watches hard when Shane or I are in the water. When Shane got in, Logan was screeching and talking at him. He also likes to hit the boat with his hand while he talks and makes happy screeches.

We got in to swim for a while with him, and he's become pretty good at kicking. He's not a fan of the lifevest, because it is designed to flip the baby over to the back, which he does NOT like. But he had a good time swimming in the brakish, though more salt than anything, water. Shane thinks that next summer, we'll have him on trainer skis, which is basically a small surfboard attached to the boat. We'll see if he's ready for it, though he really enjoyed tubing. We won't be out until around June anyway, since the new baby and I won't be ready to get out until then (man, we've gotta get another infant jacket - why don't they just make floating carseats for boats, seriously).

Anyway, we had SUCH a fun day. It was glorious, and not too hot (for a change), and the water was cooler than usual, but refreshing. It was so worth the almost 1/2 a tank of gas it took to get there. Who knows, maybe when Logan and I get back from Ohio, we'll go out again. How fun would that be??

The Escape Artist

Logan has decided to become an escape artist. Okay, there's nothing inherently "artistic" about his escape act, but still. He has decided that climbing out of the tub is great fun. Now, he's gotten good at following instructions to "get back in the tub" or "sit down", but when he's ready to get out, you'd better get your hands over there to help out, or else he's going "kerplunk!"

He still likes playing "peekaboo" with Daddy in the tub. He just thinks that's a riot, even when standing like a flamingo.

Guess I won't be on one of these for a while

We saw this big cruise ship leaving Ft. Lauderdale while we were there. But I guess, due to surprising circumstances, I won't be going on this for a while.

Yup, Little Flachman Baby #2 is due April 20. It'll be delivered 1 week or so prior by C-section.

Surprised? So were we! But now we're excited, it'll just be a tight fit in our 3 bedroom house. So much for an office, I guess. The kiddos will be 16 months apart - not quite as close as the last Beckham two. So far, so good - a few weeks ago we heard the heart beat, and saw the little flutter on the ultrasound. Pretty cool.

Oh, and guess what else? I also got a new camera for my birthday! Logan pulled mine off the counter the other day, and it's now completely busted. Was going to get a big SLR camera, but decided I would use a smaller camera that can fit in the diaper bag more.