Technical Difficulties

With all of the advancements in technology and its rapid evolution, I have realized how easy it is to go from tech-savvy to tech-stupid (I now fall into the latter category). And how replacing one piece of technology can quickly turn into a landslide of "needing" to purchase other new technology.

My wonderful husband informed me that the digital camera we bought in 2006 (the one I feel super duper comfortable using and downloading pictures from) is ancient and really needed to be upgraded. So he found a great deal on a truly amazing camera that has the abilities to turn any photographer into Ansel Adams. "What's wrong with that?" you might ask. Well, this new camera requires a certain computer speed in order to download pictures (this century), which my 2005 laptop is evidently unable to handle without blowing up! So I thought I could navigate around this difficulty with our other new technology -- our phones. My phone takes great pictures so I thought, "I will just take pics on my phone and upload them to the blog. Easy-peasy!" But not so fast, unless you have a Facebook account (which I don't and won't...ever...so don't ask me...), you can't post pictures to another blog site (Really is there anything Mark Zuckerberg doesn't own at this point?). So my only option was to beg my husband to burn a copy of the pictures to a disc (which during football season is a tall order), put the disc in my "abacus" of a computer, and then find a free moment to blog (which gets us to today!).

There has been another technical difficulty to posting sooner than today...Technically, I'm pregnant! Although I'm sure my first trimester was still light years better than a lot of women's, there was some not so fun nausea and fatigue...oh the fatigue!!! Working full-time, chasing after a very active toddler, and growing arms, legs, etc., and dealing with two rounds of Logan and I getting sick (thank you playdates!) has made me one pooped mama. Although I love you who check out the blog to see what's going on with our family, sleep took precedent over blogging. But now that I am 17 weeks along and into the second trimester, I'm getting some energy back and thought I better make use of it while I've got it!

Here are pictures from October and Logan's Halloween / Fall fun. I promise to post Thanksgiving pictures before Christmas!! ;)

The Dog Days of Summer

Can it be that we have already arrived at September? I remember when summers used to last a lifetime. Now, they go by in a blink. Looking through the pictures of our summer, it seems we packed a lifetime of adventures into a blink of the eye.

The summer began with Logan learning how to sit "like a big boy" on Logan-sized chair (his favorite being his rocking chair), a trip to Grant's Farm for Father's Day, and daily adventures with Dad to the local library.















I taught my first class as "professor" over the summer. When class ended, we traveled to the East Coast to visit with Logan's great grandma, great poppa, David's parents, brother and fiancee, aunts, uncle, counsins, and my brother, sister-in-law, and Logan's counsins, Ella and Ben (Phew!). Yes, there were a lot of people for Logan to meet!
Logan enjoyed dance parties with aunt barbara (he even tried to have a dance off with David's cousin, Brian, and uncle Bill!), playing with great grandma's answering machine just to hear it say, "you have no new messages" five billions times, and giving "high fives" to all. David got a chance to sneak out one evening to watch the Baby Yankees play ball with Jason, Cat, and Grandad.














Then we hopped in the car and drove to Conneticut to visit with Mike, Jen, Ella, and Ben! We thought that when we left St. Louis, that we would also be leaving behind the ridiculous heat, but we were sadly mistaken! Thankfully, there was a beach nearby. Logan got to go into the ocean for the very first time.....and he loved it!!! I can't get him to sit in a baby pool or his King Crazy Crab pool, but give the boy a seemingly endless body of water and he's all about it!




















After visiting with my side of the family, we drove back to Pennsylvania. We went to an amazing outlet mall in the Poconos, where Logan made a friend without even trying (what can we say, he's a "babe" magnet!)!

We capped off our trip with a fun afternoon at the local park (Logan sure does love his wheels! Whether they are on a car, a shopping cart, or playground, he's sure to find them!).
Eventhough we all got sick upon returning to St. Louis (darn those airplane bugs!), we really enjoyed being able to spend quality time with the people we love whom we don't get to see very often.

With that said, how come noone told me that when you become a parent, you need a vacation after you go on vacation?!

The Adventures of Logan, King Crazy Crab, and Friends

In the past month or so Logan's personality has really been blossoming (a psychological growth spurt if you will). He likes to dance (especially to reggae. I guess he's trying to tap into his inner rastafarian! He could totally pass!), he loves books (I now know all of his favorite stories by heart. Which comes in handy when you are really tired and can't see straight to read the words!), he is a total ham (It's not uncommon to look in the rearview mirror of the car to see Logan putting random toys and water bottles on his head for a laugh), and he can't contain himself when it comes to splashing water (And I mean anything he can get his hands into...water fountain, sink, cup, tub, pool, dirty stagnant rain puddle...).

Here is a little showcase of Logan with / doing some of his favorite things.
Logan playing with his new King Crazy Crab pool.

A boy, a good jam, and a sweat bike (thanks Uncle Mike, Aunt Jen, Cousins Ella and Ben!)

Let me introduce you to my toys...

Logan vs. the Easter Bunny

What is the difference between the Easter Bunny and Logan?

The Easter Bunny eats carrots. Logan eats carrots. The Easter Bunny hides eggs. After Logan found all of his plastic eggs with little treats in them, he successfully hid them for Mommy and Daddy to find over the course of the next several days! The Easter Bunny hops. Logan loves to say the word "hop" over and over again and watch as Mommy hops for him! The Easter Bunny works solo. Logan has an army of stuffed bunnies just waiting in the toy bin to do his bidding. So you see, there is very little difference between the Easter Bunny and Logan!

Not only was Easter this year tons of fun for the reasons explained above, Grandma and Grandpa V came to visit for the latter half of Holy Week! And wherever did Logan get such a fine Easter suit, you say? Well, Gram Kvidahl custom made it for her favorite grandbaby!

Just Showing Off

Logan has been working on walking for a few months now. First he would push a large box around (if only they could stay amused by such little things forever!) and cruise the furniture. Then he "graduated" to pushing his mail cart, which he loved giving all his stuffed animals rides in, around every square inch of the house. But now, he finally seems to have it down! Here's a video that you might have to tilt your screen on its side to get the full effect (I didn't know that unlike pictures, videos taken on the camera lengthwise cannot be rotated. Sorry.)!

Once Logan moved from his cradle to the crib, the cradle became a great place to keep his toys. Being a fearless 14 month old, he discovered the joys of falling face first into his toy bin and hanging out for a bit with his buddies. Last week, Logan learned the unpleasantness of falling face first out of his toy bin. So the cradle moved to storage, and fabric bins now take its place. But before we made the transition, we made sure to catch Logan "in the act" one last time (this one is right side up, I promise!)!

Carpe Parkum -- Seize the Park!

Every once in a while in St. Louis, Mother Nature throws a curve ball and gives us a day or two of unseasonable weather. Last weekend was one of those times. With the temperature topping out at 70 degrees, we were able to forget (albeit temporarily) that we are still in February. Not knowing how much of a respite Mother Nature was going to give us from the coldest St. Louis winter on record in decades, we decided to take full advantage and go to the park....so did many other families!

Having never been to the park when lots of little people were around, Logan was at first a little scared and a lotta skeptical. Eventually he warmed up to the playground and we were even able to get a few smiles captured on camera.

Long time..No Blog...

Okay, so I've slacked off (I prefer the term "taking a sanity break, because my son is finally sleeping through the night predictably and I can now catch up on 10 months worth of sleep deprivation" thank you very much!) with the blog the past couple of months. We've been in the midst of learning how nutty the winter season will truly be for the St. Louis Kvidahls from here on out. To demonstrate that I had very good reasons for not getting around to updating the blog, here is a summary of what we've been up to...

DECEMBER -- CHRISTMAS

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. That might be true. But, these beautiful family photos do not tell the story of the absolute hell that broke loose mere hours after they were taken.

Later that day, Logan began showing signs of being sick. I will spare you the details of how little ones seem to be germ bumblebees who easily and quickly "pollenate" everyone with whom they come into contact. But, I will say that when people say "s**t happens", they conveniently neglect to add how much or how often!

JANUARY -- RECOVERY FROM 2010 AND MOM'S BIRTHDAY:

You know you've had a tough year when you force yourself to stay awake until midnight on New Year's, just so that you can say "So long 2010" and "Thank God 2011 is here!" We stayed up until exactly midnight before completely crashing and closing the chapter on 2010.

The beginning of January was mostly recovery from everyone being sick and getting back into our usual routine. At the end of the month, it was my birthday. When you are a mom, your birthday quickly joins the ranks of lesser holidays, like "Boxing Day" -- especially if your birthday is within 10 days of your child's! On the other hand, the cool thing about having a birthday when you are a mom is that you get cute cards from both your husband and son (okay, this year the cards were store bought, but I have high hopes for homemade cards in the very near future!) and who doesn't love cupcakes at any age?
FEBRUARY -- CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE?

February is officially my favorite month. Some might guess it's my favorite because it is the month of Valentine's Day. Nope. February is the month when I get to celebrate my two favorite guys!

David's birthday came on Groundhog's Day (I have to tell it like it is...the groundhog came first unfortunately!). Though Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow, telling us that Spring was soon on its way, you wouldn't have known it by the 8 plus inches of snow and ice combo we received the night before. But, it gave us a snow day off from work to enjoy David's birthday and pick up Gram Kvidahl from the airport! Logan and I baked an angel food cake in celebration.

THE MAIN EVENT --LOGAN'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Since Logan was born on Super Bowl Sunday, we thought we would celebrate his birthday on Game Day! Gram Kvidahl, Grandma and Grandpa vW, and Logan's Godmother and her family were in attendance. The biggest highlights of the day (aside from the company of course!) were eating cake for the first time, playing with balloons, and once the sugar from the cake kicked into gear, climbing as fast as possible in and out of a playtent bus that Godmother gave Logan (so fast that mommy couldn't take a clear picture of the fun!).

And that is the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. Stay tuned for "Tales of the Toddling Logan" coming soon...