Today is Logan's 11th birthday. It's been a pretty good one, from what I can tell. He started the day with a donut cake made by Ed and Haley. Chris and I did our tradition and took lunch to him at school.  We sat and ate with him and his friends, which is always an interesting experience. After school, Logan came home and played outside with Declan for a while. He requested chicken pillows, mashed potatoes, and peas for dinner...kind of a carb overload, but it's a special day. Right? Right. He's asked for mashed potatoes and peas for his birthday dinner pretty much since he could talk. 

His pre-teenishness has been showing itself a lot lately. He is finding more and more enjoyment out of being alone in his room, listening to music and reading. Many days he carries his phone around with him, blaring whatever music he needs to be listening to at the moment. The other night we had a bit of a "disagreement" over something where he ended up getting super emotional and pretty much stomping off to bed because he was tired of dealing with me. I wasn't a fan of his at the moment either, so it kind of worked out.

However, he's still the Logan we know and love. He is always concerned more about others' feelings than his own. He's shy, observant, thoughtful, and amazingly creative. He loves to write and draw, and I love seeing the stuff he produces. He's funny and really great company to have around. 

Because we had lunch with Logan, we also stayed to have lunch with Dex. He was so happy to see us, which of course makes me so happy. The three of us sat on one side of the table and a couple girls from Declan's class sat across from us. They were adorable and pretty great conversationalists for 9-year-olds. 

We were sitting there chatting, and Caleah, one of Logan's friends from way back in Kindergarten was sitting behind us and talking with us a little. Declan leaned forward to the girls at our table, put his hand up and whispered to them, "Don't tell her I said this, but Caleah used to have a crush on my brother!" Oh.my.goodness...the reactions from these girls! It was entirely what you might expect from the 4th grade set. They burst into giggles, covered their faces, and hunched over their lunches. They laughed and laughed and laughed. If I had been watching this scene play out in a movie, I would have thought they were overdoing it. But nope! This was real life, and I couldn't believe how scandalous they found this news to be. Throughout the rest of the lunch, one of the girls kept saying, "I can't believe she had a crush on his brother!" and would have a mini giggle-fit over it. It was pretty awesome.

Throughout our whole time eating lunch with the boys, several of their friends that we've gotten to know over the years came by to say hi and give hugs. It made me so happy. I know it won't be long before it's super uncool to be seen with your parents or your friends' parents, so I'm enjoying it while I can. 

Memories of a Cast

Logan broke his elbow.  Good times.  

Frankly, I think this is just a great image showing Logan's style.  

And here's the shower prep required to keep the cast dry.  We may have gone overboard.

Quotables

"I trusted you, bone!" - Logan, talking to the barbecued rib he was eating.  The meat was so tender and beautifully cooked that it fell off the bone before Logan could take a bite.

"We live on a muddy planet." - Logan, said with a shrug when asked why his hands were so muddy.

"Boys will be boys." - Declan, when asked why he left his dinner dishes on the table instead of taking them to the sink to be washed.

"Things get old, right?  Well, that's what happened to me with deviled eggs...they got old." - Declan, explaining quite matter-of-factly his vote against me making deviled eggs from the dyed Easter eggs in the fridge.  (No explanation regarding his vote against egg salad, though.)

Declan has never been a lover of school; Logan has.  As much as Logan can find excitement in spending time with his friends and learning new things and being a part of the various activities they do, Declan finds dread in having to go five days a week and having to sit still and do what he's told and the unsatisfactory ratio of classroom time to recess time.  However, this year he's been doing so much better dealing with it all and while he's never happy to go to school, he's been doing so much better with just sucking it up and doing the work.  In fact, he's becoming quite the reliable student who seems to find value in getting his work done so it's done rather than putting it off to the last minute (*ahem, Logan*) or just plain forgetting about it and not getting assignments finished (*also ahem, Logan*).

Each month their school gives awards to one outstanding student in each grade based on his/her performance in a specific area.  December is the "Joy of Reading" month and last year Logan won it for second grade.  Logan has always been a reader - so much so that we frequently get complaints from his teachers that he would rather spend his time reading than following the assignments with the class.  His teachers have to take away his books at school because he gets so enthralled in them that he doesn't hear when it's time to put them down and move on.  Declan likes reading okay, but he doesn't love it like Logan does.  I've stopped trying to encourage it so much because he doesn't love it even though he is well above grade level for it.  Some people just don't enjoy reading, I guess.  Weird.

Anyway, as this school year has developed it's become clear that Declan's unlove of reading may be because we've been giving him the wrong things to read.  As it turns out, he is probably taking more after his daddy than I realized when it comes to books, in that he can totally get into non-fiction and doesn't seem to give much of a rip about fiction.  He'll listen excitedly as Logan tells him about whatever fiction books he's been reading, but when given the opportunity to read them himself, Declan always says no thank you and says he doesn't like reading.  But he brings home books from the library that are focused on boring subjects like World War II and how electricity works and he's freaking excited to tell us what he's learned.

As this non-fiction lightbulb was slowly dimming on in my head, we got a letter in the mail.  Declan also won the December "Joy of Reading" award from school for the 2nd grade!  I guess I should have been paying more attention to his context clues in regards to reading, but now that I know what he likes I can help encourage that a bit more and see if he can foster an enjoyment that he's not aware he has.  Our whole family went to see him receive his award in his classroom and learned that whenever he has free time in class, he goes to the books at the back of the room and I guess is stuffing himself full of knowledge about science and technology and history and whatnot.  Totally weird.

Snowball Fight

New Year's Eve brought a small snowstorm that gave us enough accumulation on the ground for a good little snowball fight.  Since we didn't have much snow to speak of last year, it was especially exciting.  AND Daddy and Haley were visiting, so all of us went outside and enjoyed the weather.  I didn't stay out too long since I was still only a week post-surgery, but the day culminated with Daddy, Haley, Logan, and Declan building a small snowman in the front yard.

Chef Declan

For Christmas, Declan got a kids' slow-cooker cookbook from Aunt Andrea and Uncle Matt.  Today I told him he was in charge of dinner.  He whined a bit about it initially, but I sat down with him and we picked out a recipe.  He chose a Mexican casserole kind of deal.  I put an apron on him and all I did was cook the meat  and otherwise play runner.  Declan took the reins, read the recipe and guided me through what he needed.  He put it all together as I did my best to give him tips over his shoulder.  Somewhere in the middle of it, his attitude totally changed as he decided this wasn't so bad!  The last step was to turn the crock pot on low and let it cook for a few hours.  Declan turned to me and said, "Wait.  It just cooks in there?!"  I said yep, he was all done!  He stepped off the chair he was standing on.  "I like being a cooker!  I think I'll just cook dinner every night!"

The Not-Quite-Naked Chef

When it was finally dinner time, we all sat down and enjoyed our meal.  Everyone thanked Declan for cooking such a delicious dinner and he just sat there and beamed, so proud of himself.  Some comments he made while we were eating:

"Actually, I'm getting thanked five times because I thank myself for making it and I thank myself for choosing the recipe!"

"I think I want this for my birthday dinner and I don't even need help making it since I already know how."

"Logan, if you want this for your birthday dinner, you just let me know and I'll cook it for you!"

So, we may have a little chef in the making.  I'm happy it was such a success for him.  He didn't even notice the deviously included green chiles that he would have otherwise zeroed in on and used as an excuse to refuse to eat the whole meal.  

What if?

"What if there was a Beverage Lord of the Rings, and Mount Doom was Mount Dew?" - Logan