Garbage trucks

Logan had been into diggers, dump trucks and garbage trucks for quite some time now.  His favorite book is "Things That Go" by Richard Scarry.  His favorite day of the week is "garbage day" Friday.  His favorite videos on YouTube are different models of garbage trucks coming by to collect garbage.  His favorite thing to do at the park is digging in the sand pit (or wood chips area).  Because of Logan I am now noticing diggers everywhere we go as well!

Pony ride

Logan has done something that neither of his older brothers have attempted before: go on a pony ride!  We were at Lemos farm for the first time, and after watching other kids on the pony ride Logan was eager to try it himself.  During the ride he was happily looking around and saying "hi" to the ponies around him... no fear at all, a natural!

Vocal

Logan is talking up a storm these days and constantly picking up new words from the older brothers (or us).  At the playground when he sees somebody else's toy he would go up to say "share", but it's his own toy then very quick to say "mine".  He's also quick to say "sorry" but not sure if he means it yet.  Usually when he's getting into trouble he knows it and does it with a grin on his face.  "Not fair" is a new term that he picked up whenever he's upset about something.  We've also been hearing a lot "go away"s which is really not good.

He's also getting into songs and extremely picky/bossy on what song we play in the car.  Most of his music taste is influenced but the big brothers again.  "Let it go", "Everything is awesome", and "I like to move it" being current favorites.  To our surprise he took a liking to "Yellow submarine" by the Beatles, making James a very happy dad!

Miso soup

James and I went out for a rare dinner just the two of us plus Logan.  Little guy loved the miso soup and scoffed the whole thing down in no time.  Note to self to make some at home one of these days.

It was a really nice "quiet" dinner without the older brothers.  Both James and I really enjoyed Logan's company!

Logan and wagon

I brought Logan with me to pick up Evan last week and he really enjoyed playing in the "big kids" yard.  Logan got a chance to drag a wagon around for the first time.  It was pretty big and heavy but Logan managed to figure out how to push/drag it around.  I had trouble getting him to stay on the foot path since he kept wanting to drag it up the grassy hill.  Eventually he figured out it's easier to stay on flat surfaces :)

Big brother Nathan

Logan and Nathan have a very special connection.  He trusts Nathan to take care of him and when Nathan is upset Logan often starts crying too.  I love this video of them going down the slide together.  This was at one of Evan's friends' birthday party.  Nathan took care of Logan in the "big kids" play area.

18 months

Logan's last weigh in at doctor's for 18 month check up was so low they measured him twice to be sure!  He grew in height but weight stayed the same as 15 months.  I think it's likely caused by him been sick several times in the last few months.  Hopefully will bounce back soon!

Logan's daily routine these days is to go to the Los Altos library in the morning with Wai-gong, fall asleep in the stroller on the way back (sometimes even on the way there).  After his morning nap, nanny Sarah arrives and feeds him lunch.  They also like to listen to music and sing songs together (“泥娃娃” is Logan's favorite right now).   After playing in the house for bit, it's off to the park again to watch kids playing baseball (baseball season just started) and also play in the sand (“沙沙”).  He often falls asleep on the way back from the park for a late afternoon nap.  When I come home the first thing he asks for is usually “奶” (amazingly still going at 18 months).  I don't think he's getting much these days but mostly for comfort and he way of asking for "mommy time".

Some other favorite activities:

- Watch garbage trucks (both real ones on garbage day and on YouTube)

- Bath time (likes to have a bath with Nathan, more fun)

- Dancing (especially during music time at the library.  Maybe it's time to try Music Together class)

- Books ("Here Comes the Garbage Barge" was his favorite book for a long time.  James recently learned the Chinese word for book “书” from Logan)

- Vacuum/sweep (We recently got a hand-me-down toy vacuum and Logan absolutely loves it)

- Talking up a storm.  I am constantly surprised by how much Logan is able to communicate.  I think he's picking a lot from the two older brothers.  Both Nathan and Evan love to teach Logan.  Just yesterday Evan was testing Logan "How do you say 'Elephant'", and surprisingly Logan managed to repeat after him.  He's definitely transitioned from single syllable to multi-syllable words now, e.g., "daddy" instead of "dada".  He's still calling me "mama" which I prefer to "mommy" :)  He pronounces "Evan" really well now, but "Nathan" often sounds like "all done".

- Favorite foods: bread, strawberries, beans, nuts, pasta

Another exciting development is more teeth coming in.  He has had 8 teeth for the longest time but in the last few weeks we 4 new ones on top and at least 2 on the bottom coming through... yay!

One recent challenge is it becoming increasingly hard to get Logan to eat a proper dinner. Sarah's trick is to give him a toy to play with but that doesn't always work for me.  Letting him feed himself is a hit or miss since it could get really messy really fast.

(picture)

One method that's proven to work every time is to introduce some competition - have Evan or Nathan eat a couple of bites of Logan's food and Logan will immediately want to eat too.  I took a cute video of Evan and Logan at the dinner table today (everybody else has eaten and these two were keeping each other company).