Brothers

Hi Grandma,

Our other readers may be tiring of baby pictures and commentary, but we know that you aren't. These are for you.

Logan has been generally happy in his new role as big brother. The transition has gone more smoothly than I expected it to.
He makes occasional endearing comments to Stockton. One of the first was, "It is really hard being a baby. I used to be one, and I know."
Nursing is a very interesting phenomenon to Logan. Today he asked, "Mom, is the baby done milking you?"
While watching the "The Three Little Pigs, Silly Symphony" today, he politely asked,"Will you please turn off that baby's crying?"

Logan usually refers to Stockton as "brother" rather than by his given name.

Stockton usually refers to Logan as, "WAAHHH!" as Logan enthusiastically hugs, kisses, cuddles, smothers, or "helps" Stockton.

We're still working on that.

Trailing Clouds of Glory

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us; our life's Star,

Hath elsewhere it's setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home.

-William Wordsworth

10 Days Tomorrow

Stockton, today is your last single digit birthday. We thought we would document with a few pics. Please, don't grow up too fast.

Welcome to the Family

Stockton Gregory has finally arrived. He weighed 8 lbs. and was 21 inches long. Gratefully, both mom and baby enjoyed a beautiful and uncomplicated delivery.

Summertime Happenings

We hope you all have made some happy memories this summer. Here are a few of ours.

Logan recently suggested and planned a family date on one of Topher's days off.

He chose the dinosaur museum.

Logan attempted to snorkel in the irrigation ditch. It was a bit colder than he expected.

Grandpa and Logan built a trellis for our new blackberry bushes.

Shoes are optional on jobs like this, aren't they?

Logan happily consumed the remainder of his teddy bear treats on the bench outside after his first day of pre-school. His baby buffalo got to accompany him on the first day, by invitation of his new teacher, Mrs. Thompson.

We had a relaxing weekend getaway in Park City with some of Topher's family.

This is Logan and Grandma Karin atop the mountain after a chair lift ride.

Daddy and Logan were all smiles after the Alpine Slide.

We are looking forward to the arrival of our new little brother, scheduled to arrive sometime in the next few weeks.

"Duck" Tape and Peaches

Thank you to the nice eBay seller who sent us replacement tent poles in the mail. The tent poles were arrived as described and in a timely manner.

Much to Logan's surprise and joy, the poles were shipped in a nifty triangular box that provided an afternoon of delightful "duck" taping for Logan, while he fashioned a home for his "baby animals" (the stuffed sort).
While Logan was working on his project, we had the following conversation:

Logan: "Mom, is 'duck' tape the strongest kind of tape?"

Mom: "I'm not sure Logan, but it is the strongest kind of tape I know of."

Logan: "Is 'duck' tape stronger than ducks? If you taped their wings down with 'duck' tape, would they be able to get out and fly?"

Mom: "Probably not. We should not try that, because it might hurt the ducks."

Logan: "What about cow tape? Is 'duck' tape stronger than cow tape? Cows are stronger than ducks."

Mom: "I don't know if there is any such thing as cow tape, but if there is, it makes sense that it would be very strong."

Clearly, we need to take a tour of the furnace room in our basement, discuss the duct system that runs between the walls, and the purpose of DUCT tape.

I just couldn't bear to do it today.

On an unrelated note, Logan is feeling quite protective of me and my growing belly. He insisted on climbing the ladder to pick our peaches.

So I let him.

Thanks for the help, buddy. I really don't know what I'd do without you.

Paper Plates

When I was little, I remember my mom pulling out a stack of paper plates when life got crazy at our house. If there aren't enough hours in the day to keep up, why not sack the dishes? When life calmed down, we always returned to our more civilized dinnerware.

I think her idea was a brilliant one. When I was writing my thesis, we ate on paper every night. Now that I'm in the third trimester of my pregnancy, paper plates are looking pretty good again!

Hope to be back to washing my dishes soon.

Glad THAT is Done

Also glad THIS is almost done.

We are looking forward to meeting our new little brother who is scheduled to arrive Fall 2011.

Spiderman

Logan has never seen Spiderman. I'm not quite sure how he figured out who he is.

Nevertheless, he thinks Spiderman is very wonderful, and he requested a Spiderman face painting for the 4th of July, which his grandma happily purchased for him.

He spent the rest of the day serenading us with the Spiderman theme song, running back and forth from the bathroom mirror exclaiming, "MOM!! CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW AWESOME I LOOK?!!", and doing cool Spiderman moves.

Here he is singing on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru9o3ZmO0QA

He is still wearing the face paint today. I just couldn't bear to have him take a shower before bed and ruin his fun. It was worth the load of laundry to wash the bedding this morning.