New baby pictures

Well, actually, the new baby sort of looks like an alien right now, but the tech got some pretty good shots. It was a great set up compared to the small room at the hospital for Logan. It was a large room with a like 32" flat screen on the opposite wall, so we could all see what the tech was seeing on her computer monitor. I had to sit with my hands behind my head to see the monitor. Apparently, the baby was in the same position. You can see the face and the small circles on the side of the face are the elbows. We were both chillin'...or maybe chilaxin'.

Here's a look at the profile of the baby. You can almost see the Flachman lips!

Grandma came with us to see the ultrasound. It was great to have her there, especially since she changed Logan's very stinky diaper. Sweet!

Fat dog

It's a good thing we go on an hour long walk most days - Logan has become Bug's favorite source of sustenance. Here Logan is feeding Bug some graham crackers - a food that they both love. Logan just thinks it's hilarious.


Shane was in charge of feeding that day, and I was resting on the couch (what a nice hubby - to let me sit down for a few minutes). Anyway, from the living room, I heard what started out as giggles and turned into belly laughs. I went into the dining room to see Bug eating off the floor and Logan's torso leaning over the high chair, and his sides heaving with laughter. When Logan realized that I was there, he looked at me and grinned. I'm not sure if it was a mischievious grin or not, but you never know with this one...

Anyway, enjoy this little video, I caught some of the feeding of the dog.

Like old times

Today the "Houston girls" (Silvia, Alia, and I) met up with Maria at the La Madeleine in Clear Lake. How fun was that?? Maria had come to Texas for her good friend Marti's wedding, and happily, was able to schedule her flight from Austin to Caracas through Houston for a LONG layover.

The highlights:

- Alia's haircut. Seriously, she went from LONG ringlets to short Parisian hair. WOW! But it looks fabulous (of course, Alia can look nothing but fabulous).

- Maria's crazy life in Caracas. Maria, the amazing human scale who can tell if a bag is overweight just by lifting it, has now traded "smuggling" coffee into the US for UHT and powdered milk into Venezuela. Maybe soon she'll open a trading company. She also has her "Target" bag, full of OTC meds and cleaning supplies that are not available in Caracas.

- Silvia and Edwin's moving headache. Seriously, just a few days after they moved in, they evacuated to the west side to miss Hurricane Ike. Silvia said it was hard, because she wasn't sure which box contained their clothes! Apparently, where they stayed had more damage than they did at their house.

- Karen finally told everyone that Flachman Baby 2 is due in April. You know, nothing like waiting until you're halfway through.

- As we were leaving, Alia was chasing little Emily around to get a goodbye kiss. Emily thought this was GREAT fun after the initial shock.

Anyway, it was so wonderful to see the girls again. It'd been about 2 and a half years since we'd seen Maria, and several months since seeing Alia and Silvia. What a wonderful time!

Industrious day

Well, today I feel like I got a lot accomplished...well, except that I'm going to go to bed with a dirty kitchen, but what's new.

During Logan's first nap, I made two lasagnas (one to freeze and one to eat later this week), got the baked chicken fajitas ready for tonight, and chopped up all the ingredients for minestrone soup, in addition to doing my Bible study and about 4 loads of laundry (all of which are folded, except that whites that are in the dryer). I also was able to clean the kitchen which was great.

Then Logan got up, and we hung out for a while...you know, played the whole, "I'm going out the doggy door" "No you're not" game. Great fun. Actually, we danced around the house, which always makes him laugh. At one point we were listening to The Cranberries song Zombie, and Logan started bouncing along to the music as he was holding on to the windowsill. Hilarious. He ate his baked ziti pretty well...fed about 1/3 of it to the dogs, and ate most of half a banana. He held the banana out close to Bug's nose and *vump* it was gone. Logan looked at his hand and then the floor like, "where's my banana?"

Logan's next nap I started making english muffins, because we're all out. I've decided to make them because I'm sick of paying almost $5 for them at the grocery store. So I can make 2 dozen in one day, and they'll last Shane about 2 weeks. But I can tell you why people don't make their own - they have to rise for like three hours in two different time segments. Then you "bake" them on the griddle on the stove. Like I have anything else to do...ha!

So yeah, now all I have to do is get up early in the morning to clean our bathroom before Shane gets home. Guess I'd better head for the sack...after I do my 20 minutes of pre-bed rituals...

Logan wants to be like Daddy

Logan, I think, has decided that he wants to be like Daddy (okay, there are some interjections that could be made here, but this is a family blog - rated G - and not "G" is for Gutter).

ANYHOW -

The other day, after Logan aka Mr. Crankypants, went to bed at 5:30 and woke up at 9:30, he stayed up for about 30 minutes and hung out with us. He sat on the couch, and crawled over right next to Daddy and sat down almost on top of him (okay, this is something that I do, but whatever). Then he found "his" controller for the PlayStation, and the two of them sat down and "played" Resistance 2 for a few minutes. They even had the same expression at times.

Then today, Shane was hooking up some sound equipment, and Logan, who has now learned to climb up the step stool, wanted to "help". He wanted to be wherever Daddy was...including on the step stool - at the same time.

Although, as evidenced by this picture, Logan might want to be a dog, or as he calls all dogs, a Bug (when he says it, it sounds more like "Bu"; just like ball sounds like "ba").

The doggy door is not just for doggies anymore

Logan has become a pro at working the doggie door. In someways he looks like he's doing yoga. Starts out and then goes over the door in the downward-facing-dog pose. How fitting. Then he gets through and comes up in cat pose.

Check this little video out. Now, imagine having to chase down that little bottom every 5 minutes.

Once Logan gets out onto the patio, he likes to play with the windchimes. They make pretty music, and he likes music (though I still think Chris Tomlin is one of his favorites, he seemed to enjoy The Indigo Girls the other day...must be the acoustic guitar).

Sometimes, if he's really bored, he'll come back inside through the doggy door. Operative word: Sometimes.

Feeding myself (and the dogs)

Logan has been getting really good at feeding himself, as long as things are cut up in bite sized pieces, or they're easy to bite like a banana. The other day, Hope made us some pork tenderloin (which was awesome). Logan really enjoyed it, and of all the things on his plate (notice stuffing and green beans), he actually ate some of the pork.

The stuff he didn't eat, he generously shared with Zoe and Bug by dropping it on the floor one piece at a time. Needless to say, both dogs LOVE dinner time, and take up residence on either side of the highchair. Logan thinks it is SO funny to feed the dogs. A few times, he'll drop something on the floor and just giggle.

The reason God made pockets

Shane was carrying Logan through the store, and Logan put his feet on top of Shane's pocket to help hold himself up. When his foot would slip, Shane would tell him to "find the pocket again, buddy".

Weeee!

Logan likes to "spinny-spin" in the office chair. Look at how much fun he's having!

Halloween!

We didn't go trick-or-treating, but Logan did get to show off his bat-boy outfit.

After working on the fence all day, we went home and changed Logan into his little outfit. Then we took him back to Hope and Phil's house. Shane sat him down directly in front of their door, but the two of us hid, so they couldn't see us out their peephole. Hope opened the door and laughed. Logan was just sitting there, looking up at her. I'm really surprised he didn't crawl off.

Then Levi Sterner came over with his parents. He was a little pirate (arrg). His parents are nice and took him home for his 7pm bedtime.

We let Logan stay up past his 7:30 bedtime to hang out with Hope and Phil until 10:30. He did really well, though he tried to pilfer drinks of Diet Coke off everyone. He also LOVED eating pumpkin pie and did a falling stretch for Hope's piece (future soccer goalie?). Good thing she moved it in time!

Fence building

After Hurricane Ike, the majority of the privacy fences in our area fell down (are you surprised with 120 mph gusts buffeting them?). Anyway, Shane offered to help our neighbors, Hope and Phil, with their 8 ft fence when they first returned from evacuating. Well, this weekend, we actually started working on it. Okay, Shane worked on it and the rest of us tried to help where we could, because, we, like Logan, are MONKEYS!

Here, Gary (Shane's friend from work - notice the goodlooking SWA uniform) and Shane set the 4"x4"x10' posts on Thursday Oct. 30. They were so funny - both had worked the night before, so they were tired, and Gary almost dumped concrete on himself (which would have matched the grease stains on his shirt). Anyway, I drove by on my way to the eye doctor and the scene was two white guys looking at each other, not really working. Funny site for south Texas, since there were no Mexicans in the picture.

Then on Friday, we used the Skil saw to cut through all the nails that held the pickets on to the 2x4s. Basically, we spent about 4 or 5 hours salvaging pickets, 2x4s, 2x6s, 1x2s, and anything else we could use again. Here are our piles after the salvage day. Not that we could have put pickets up anyway - most places are telling you to allow at least 2 days for the concrete to set up.

On Saturday, Shane started framing the fence. There is a top 2x4, and two middle 2x4s, and a 1x6 that is the rot board on the bottom.

He finally had the brilliant idea to put sections of 2x4 under where he was going to put the crossboard. Hope and Phil were excited about this, because they got to use the circular saw and cut the little shuttlecock looking things. Powertools...

Once the framing was done (or at least on some of the sections), he gave Hope and Phil the bradnailer and told them to nail up the pickets. Later, he came back and screwed the pickets into the 2x4s, but this way they were tacked up and easier to screw in place.

Logan had a great time not getting into trouble. He said "hi" to Hope and Phil's dogs, ate dirt (yum), tried to eat wood (a little more fiber), learned to hammer with the top of the hammer, learned that hammers are very tasty, tried to figure out how to use a level, and that fire ant bites don't really hurt (the kids feet are covered with them, but you don't even know that they're biting him - tough guy).

Hope and Phil gave us dinner every night, which was wonderful, because I don't have much left in my grocery account (seriously, why is formula so darn expensive?), so we've had left overs from all that food, and we'll have the pork tenderloin Hope grilled tonight. Then we'll have rice and beans for a few days (heehee). Here are Phil and Logan.

Well, Shane's supposed to finish the fence up today. What a man - he'll probably work on the fence for several hours, then go to work tonight. He's pretty darn amazing, I think.