Life With Logan.....

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Swim Lessons, Warm Weather, First Post Placement Visit, Moving....YES WE HAVE BEEN BUSY!!!!

Hello to all of our friends and family! We hope that you are all doing well and enjoying some warmer, spring weather, just like we are! By the title of our post, you can see that we have had a lot going on. First, Logan has started his "Mommy & Me" Swim Lessons at the YMCA. We've only gone twice, but he is definitely a fan of the water. The mother of one of the children in the class is actually from Russia - what a small world!!! Next, the weather has finally decided to warm up and we are taking advantage of every minute outdoors that we can. As I have mentioned before, Logan LOVES to be outside and gets pretty upset when it's time to go in. So, we have taken many walks around the neighborhood, gone out to feed the ducks and enjoyed a couple of trips to the local Peninsula Town Center (outdoor mall/restaurants) that recently opened near our house. This weekend they are saying it will get up to the 70s, so we are planning a trip to the zoo. Pictures to come! We have also had our first post placement visit from our social worker. For those of you who do not know, it is required that our social worker visits us and writes a report at the 6 month, 1 year, 2 year and 3 year mark to see how Logan is developing and adjusting and how we are adjusting as parents. This report (along with pictures) is sent to the officials in Russia. It's hard to believe that we have already been home for close to 6 months. But, the social worker was extremely pleased with how well Logan is doing and the visit was easy and quicker than we thought it would be. Lastly, we will be moving at the end of June. Dennis is getting transferred back to the Recruiting Command and we will be back in NOVA. We are looking forward to being closer to family and friends. So, this week our house was listed to rent out and we are hoping we get GOOD renters, quickly! That about wraps up what our life has been like lately. Since we are approaching our "6 months home" anniversary, Nicole has found a great website (onetruemedia.com) to organize all of our photos we have taken since we began this journey. Some pictures, you have already seen on our blog, but some pictures will be new (and we also included some video). We have posted the "montages" below if you would like to look back on our journey with Logan. It's amazing to see how much he's blossomed and changed!!! ENJOY!!!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Quality Family Time

We have been enjoying the weather and some quality family time, lately. The snow has finally melted, the sun has come out a few days here and there and we have had some warmer days that we have enjoyed. But, it seems as if the cold is back this week, along with rain! But, that hasn't stopped us from enjoying every minute. We celebrated Dennis' birthday on Wednesday (having Logan here made it EXTRA special). We are grateful for Dennis' parents who came down to babysit Logan on Tuesday, while our usual babysitter had an appointment and we are both running low on leave from work. Logan had a blast spending the day with his MomMom and PopPop - and I know they enjoyed every minute of it, as well. Dennis and I had our first "date night" since we have been home with Logan. It was nice to go out, just the two of us, but at the same time we both missed having Logan with us and couldn't wait to get home to him. Here are some pics of the fun we have been having lately.....

Logan enjoying some of Daddy's birthday cake - can you tell he liked it?!!?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!!!

The Candygram birthday card that Mommy and Logan made for Daddy

On the trail at the aquarium - this has to be one of my favorite pictures of Logan - he is just too darn cute!!!!

SHARK ATTACK!!!

Daddy and Logan amazed by the fish - love this picture!!!

Mommy and Logan having fun at the aquarium

Logan touching a horseshoe crab

Exhausted from a fun-filled day of sea creatures :)

This is Logan's yucky face - he mainly does it when we tell him not to touch the trash can - YUCK!!!

Enjoying the nice weather and learning some golf tips from Daddy

This child LOVES to be outside - he cries whenever we bring him in

One of his favorite things to do - take the food off of the pantry shelf, line it up on the floor and then put it back...

Our weekend trip to NOVA to visit our family who had been snowed in for over 1 week. The amount of snow they had is hard to even imagine...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Celebrating Love

Happy Valentine's Day (a little late) to all of you! We spent the weekend in Northern Virginia with our family, who we love dearly. Logan is loved more than he will ever know. The love for a child is something that you can't describe - you just have to experience it for yourself and that was something that we were so happy to celebrate this Valentine's. Logan is the best gift of love that we could ever ask for!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Home 4 months

Today marks our 4 month anniversary of being home with Logan. It's funny all of the days we now celebrate or remember now that we have a child. Logan also turned 16 months yesterday. I have posted a "month-by-month" photo review since we first saw Logan...

8 months old - first day we met Logan (June 18, 2009)

11 months old - Court Day (September 15, 2009)

12 months old - Moscow, Russia (October 8, 2009)

13 months old - playing with his toys

14 months old - at home with Daddy

15 months old - bringing in 2010

16 months old - getting SO big

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!!

Well, we are down here digging ourselves out of the biggest snow storm that the Hampton Roads has seen in a decade!!! We got hit with the snow on Saturday, followed by sleet, then more snow on Sunday. It closed the schools down for 3 1/2 days (which Nicole didn't mind because she got to stay home with Logan). But, just as everything is beginning to melt away, they are calling for more this weekend. So, maybe the groundhog is right - 6 more weeks of winter!!! We will wait and see....

Logan is continuing to grow and blossom every single day. If he could be outside all day, running around he would. When we took him out to play in the snow this weekend and he just wanted to run around - he didn't care much about the snow itself. So, we would bundle up and go outside for a little bit each day for some fresh air and exercise. He has finally learned to go down the stair safely and not just continue walking off the top step! He still loves to spin the toilet paper roll, so all bathroom doors are closed at our house. He is also learning how fun it is to flush the toilet (maybe this will help when it comes time to potty train). Logan is completely off formula now and our next step is to move from the bottle to the sippy cup. He can stack 4-5 blocks himself (and of course loves to knock them down). He loves emptying out his drawer in the kitchen (with his bowls, cups, etc) and lining them up in the doorway - it's rather funny to watch. He is great at helping us clean up his toys. His communication is still a challenge - he still only says dada and then yells for everything else he wants. We are waiting to see if he qualifies for speech therapy through the city's Early Intervention Program. During our initial meeting we had with them, Logan is above average in all areas except communication (he is right on the border line of below average and average). So, we were pleased to see his development and progress since we have been home with him. Logan also loves to dance to music. His dancing isn't a lot of moving around though - it mainly consists of him waving his arm back and forth, with an occasional head bob and maybe some swaying in there. You'll have to ask him to show you his moves next time you are with him. We are still waiting for his molars to come through - it would be so much easier if they would all just come in at once, right?!?

I think we mentioned that Dennis is getting transferred back to Northern Virginia this summer, so we will be renting out our house until it is better for us to sell. Work is going well for both of us. Nicole is starting a new semester - which means the year is 1/2 way over and Dennis is holding everything down at the training center. We are enjoying the month of February where we have nowhere to travel and can have some good quality family time.

We hope all is well with you and your family. Check out http://adaywithlogan.shutterfly.com for some new pictures (and older pics I forgot to post from Christmas. Love you all!

Monday, January 11, 2010

A Belated Merry Christmas & Happy New Year's From the Merz's

I've always thought that the holiday season was an extremely busy time for us - but it seems like it was even more busy this year. But, I mean busy in a GOOD way. Christmas with a child seems more special. Since our last post at the beginning of December, we continued to enjoy each day in amazement at the new things Logan is learning and doing. We met with our "regular" pediatrician and learned that Logan has increased on the growth charts in each area by 25 or 50% from the time we brought him home. We had a hearing screening done on him, to be told that everything is clear and good with his ears. We made our first road trip to New Jersey to visit with the Maguire family, where Logan met his Great-grandfather and cousins. We got a chance to visit ChristmasTown at Busch Gardens (not with the grandparents since it snowed in NOVA that weekend). But, it was nice to go together as a family - Logan loved the Sesame Street Christmas show, meeting Elmo and seeing all of the beautiful lights and decorations. We spent Christmas Eve, just the 3 of us, going to the Children's Mass and then having a nice family dinner. Christmas morning we drove up to NOVA to spend the day with the King and Merz families. Logan was showered with many gifts this Christmas, that we had to leave some at the grandparents house because there was no room in the car! On December 26th, we had Logan's baptism by Fr Peffley and enjoyed a celebration with family and friends. Then we were off to TX to visit with Nicole's families. We loved seeing Logan play with his cousins Rylee and Jack (just a little younger than Logan). Logan did great on the flight down (of course this was a piece of cake compared to the last time we flew!!). While we were in TX, we were excited to be able to visit the Gladney Center (who we adopted Logan through). The emotion that we both experienced as we walked through the beautiful facility is hard to put into words - there is nothing we can say or do to thank them for bringing us our son - the gift we have prayed for for so long. We brought in the New Year's with the wonderful Hall Family at the Sullivan's house and then headed back to Virginia to get back into our normal routine. Logan came down with a cold the first week we were back. Even though he wasn't feeling well, we enjoyed all of the cuddling that he wanted to do. Now, we are dealing with teething again (his back molars are coming in). So, he's not feeling to well or sleeping through the night. But, we know that this too shall pass. Some new things that Logan is doing now - slowly learning how to safely come down the stairs, giving kisses and blowing kisses, loves to open and close drawers (as well as empty them out then put everything back in), he has discovered the toilet paper and loves to spin the roll so it all falls to the ground, he loves to play peek-a-boo and "come and get me", he can point out animals such as a cow, duck, dog, cat and sheep and continues to be a typical active boy. At 15 months, he is right on track developmentally in all areas except his speech. He continues to only say Dada (we're still working on Mommy), but his babbling and making different sounds has definitely increased. I'm sure it's a matter of time before he is talking up a storm. I guess that catches all of you up on our lives. We hope you and your families are all doing well. I have posted a couple of pictures on the blog, but don't forget to check out http://adaywithlogan.shutterfly.com for more pics. Love you all!!!