Chelsea Salomone

Have you seen that movie The Break Up? Do you remember the scene where Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are sitting around the dinner table with her family, and her very effeminate brother breaks out in a capella? The whole family chimes in- some singing scales, some tapping on the table and others mimicking various instruments. Vince Vaughn shifts in his seat uncomfortably while her brother urges him to join in, "Skiddly doo dit dat, beep bop mop. Come on, Gary. Bop bop. Come, come with the kick drum!" he chides, never missing a beat. "Gary, come, come!" And Vince Vaughn just sits there still and uncomfortable and unsure of what to do.

Okay, this is my life. Except I'm not Gary, I'm the brother. 

Logan and I will be driving down the road and it never fails- he pulls out his latest trick from his repertoire, which is SCREAMING when he's bored. And when he's bored in the car, the only thing that will stop the screaming (besides food) is if I turn on his CD from music class. And what will stop him from screaming even longer- is if I turn his CD to the song "Mississippi Cat" and give him a jingly ball (let's call a Spade a Spade here and admit that jingly ball is really just a cat toy) and sing along to the CD. Over and over and over and over again. 

I wish you could see it, we're like a circus on wheels...zipping down the road, Logan's jangling his jingly ball in the back seat, me chanting along to the jazzy rhythm in the front seat, "Hey who's that? A Mississippi cat! M-ISS-ISSI-PPI! Bing a bang, bing a bang a, bing bang bong! Ding a dang, ding a dang, ding dang dong. Come on Logan! Sing with me now! Bing a bang, a bing a bang..." 

And that, friends, is my life. 

I swore I'd never drive a mini-van and listen to Raffi. God laughed at me and said, "I'll do you one better. I'll give you an SUV and kid who throws toys and snacks at your head when you drive and forces you to sing jazzy little dittys all the day long!"

If Mississippi Cat could just stay in the car, I'd be more okay with it. But no. I'll be sudsing my hair in the shower and find myself tapping my foot, humming, "Ding a dang, ding a dang, ding dang dong." or I'll be trying to fall asleep at night and my brain will relapse into, "BOP! BOP! Hey who's that? It's a MISSISSIPPI CAT!"

Damn you, Mississippi Cat. Damn. You.

Yesterday Falon & I went to the Arboretum for a picnic and more pumpkin patch pics.  (Say that five times fast!)

This picture of Falon is just ridiculous. She looks like she belongs on the cover of Better Homes & Gardens!! You are gorgeous, my friend!

A little wine and cheese on a Tuesday morning, don't mind if we do!

My boy likes his food. Leftovers on the lip never hurt anyone. 

Another magazine shot:

Falon is so thoughtful! She brought cupcakes for dessert to celebrate my birthday, and even Facebook messaged my mom to see what my favorites are. WOW! I have the kindest friends!!!

"That's absolutely riveting, Falon! RIVETING!"

"Now, Election Day is November 6th. Is that correct? How are we feeling about things, Falon?"

"COUGH. COUGH. Pardon me ladies, I'm going to excuse myself and go sing some Mississippi Cat over by the flowers."

No smiles for mom 

But plenty of mulch digging and tasting. YUCK!

I mean really, can she be any cuter? The scarf just kills me!!!!!

I pushed aside my fear of Salmonella and we even let the babies touch a couple of the animals in the petting zoo. My camera was on some weird setting so the color in these pictures came out awful, they look a little better in B&W. 

Seeing him laugh and squeal at the pony was priceless!!!!

On our way out the door we ran into my friend Kari who was there on a field trip with her daughter Ella!! Crazy!!

Logan plays it cool with the older ladies.

Logan Nicholas~ I could eat you up!!!!

Each month I find myself slipping a little further behind on Logan's monthly posts. And I won't even tell you how behind I am on his baby book :/ At least I have the blog to look back on with updates and pictures though! 

Logi turned nine month old on September 20th, and here are some things (okay a lot of things, I apologize!) I want to remember about this age. If eight months was the sweet spot of babyhood, nine months is something else altogether. It's still sweet.....but it's also the start of toddlerhood, perhaps?

9 months old is an adorable age, but a challenging one as well. 

Rather than a smiley picture of him in the blue chair, I feel like this is more appropriate:

HE IS INTO EVERYTHING! And quite opinionated.

If left alone for more than about 15 seconds you will find him with a random, odd smelling wet spot on his head, eating Lexi's dog food, eating mulch, grass, or the caps of door stoppers. 

He enjoys pulling everything out of the cabinets, climbing the stairs, and loves trash cans, electronics, Lexi's water bowl and basically everything he's not supposed to play with.

He can push doors open and closed, say Mom (MUM), Dad (DAHT) and Hi. He claps and walks behind his push toys. In a group he's not shy, but he's not super social either. He's more of a careful observer, and people always comment that he is watching what's going on very carefully and figuring out the world. True.

He can shake his head NO and throw a pretty impressive tantrum when he's mad or not getting his way. He really is a sweet, sweet lovey baby. He loves to give kisses, pats, and snuggle in your lap with books. His temperament is generally happy, laid back, and easy. BUT- he's just curious and very busy right now, which can be so tiring!

He is such a ham and keeps Nick and I constantly laughing. He entertains himself (and us!) by making all kinds of silly noises- clicks, raspberries, babbles, squeals.

At the dinner table he loves to be the center of attention. LOVES IT! He will make silly faces over and over again just to make everyone laugh. Then, he will let out this big fake laugh at himself which makes us laugh even harder.

If he wants someone's attention in a restaurant or out in public, he has known to go into a coughing fit until they look up at him. Oh boy.

He pops right up into standing position if he has something to hold onto and cruises around the furniture. In his bed, he will stand up and jump up and down, which he thinks is great fun! Still no teeth!

I have to include at least one posed, decent looking shot of my ever growing boy!

Weighs 19.5 lbs, size 9-12 month clothes, size 4 diaper.

And loves to eat!!!

He holds his sippy cup and feeds himself bites of table food, Plum pouches, Puffs and blueberries. Speaking of blueberries- he is obsessed. He typically goes through a carton in 3-4 days by himself, no joke. He cannot get enough of those things! 

Still nursing 4-5 times/ day but for a few weeks he was not interested in nursing or taking a bottle. He would snack for about five minutes and then wiggle out of my lap to go explore. I just kept feeding him any time I could get him to be still long enough to eat. But then he was waking up in the night hungry so I had to start doing a dream feed, newborn style, with him around 10:00 so he would get enough milk. That worked and he started sleeping through the night again.

Luckily, that phase passed and he's back to nursing well during the day and sleeping through the night. 

Still a great napper, takes two long (2 hour +) naps during the day, but it's no wonder after being so active when he's awake. I definitely need that down time too!

We still feel so blessed he's ours every single day and love him to pieces!

Here are two short video clips, the first is of the fake cough and the second is of him making faces at the table to get us to laugh.

Good morning! 

Last night after we put Logan to bed Nick asked if I had anything specific in mind I wanted to do today for my birthday. 

Keep in mind this was after we spent an hour and a half trying to hang six pictures above our bed just like so. 

I hate to double dip from Facebook, but here is what I posted regarding this event:

Forget extensive pre-marriage counseling. Just give couples a hammer & some nails and tell them to hang six pictures above a bed together. I promise you, some would not make it. We almost didn't.

And that's true and that's a fact, and that's all I'm going to say about that. 

Except I still feel like something is missing above our bed. After all the moving and rearranging and pulling out nails and shifting it just a little to the right- it's still not doing it for me. Maybe we need more pictures up there? Maybe those pictures don't look right after all? What do you think? And please some one, give me some suggestions for throw pillows!

Anyway. I digress. So Nick asked if I had anything in mind for my birthday and I said, "Do I have anything specific in mind? Is the Pope Catholic???" Then I pulled open the handy, dandy note I had created earlier that day in my iPhone titled THE PERFECT BIRTHDAY AGENDA should such a question arise. 

I'm not H.M. Not one little bit.

My list went something like this:

Last year my 29th birthday fell on the exact day I was 29 weeks pregnant. 29 weeks at age 29! So I guess this year the theme could be "30 Minutes of Sleep on Your 30th Birthday??? " It wasn't that bad by any stretch but it just goes to show my 20's have really, definitely come to an end. My 30's have the promise of being my best decade yet!

My mom posted a couple of baby pictures of me on FB along with a sweet birthday message and I just had to share because I was excited!!! Excited about the message but mostly.... about the fact that Logan might not be 99.7% Nick after all!!!! Take a gander, will you?

Logan is that you??

This reminds me of Logan's "puppet face."

I feel like this one could be Logan!

But to be fair- here are two baby pictures of Nick that I have on my computer. When Logan was younger especially he looked a lot like this! Maybe he is a mix of both of us!