Momo! Big Momo!!

On our second day in Canada, we decided to take Logan to the Vancouver Aquarium! He had an absolute blast and Jason and I had a blast watching him run from fish-tank to fish-tank shouting "MoMo!! Big Momo!! Ooooh woooow! Momo!" the whole day. It was hilarious and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely! For those of you who don't know, Momo is Nemo, as in the fish from Finding Nemo. Only, in Logan's mind anything except for Turtles and Sharks that swims in the water is a Nemo - so it made for a pretty exciting afternoon at the aquarium because he thought he was surrounded by his little buddy from the movie!

My cousin and I took Logan to the zoo back in January, but he wasn't as in to it as he was the Aquarium. I'm not sure if that's because he's a few months older now and understands things more, or if it was just a better time of day to take him, but whatever the reason he was ecstatic from the moment we entered the Aquarium and he was tuckered out by the time we left...the pictures and videos below speak for themselves!

The Momo's in this tank were as big as Logan!

So excited to "touch" the Momo's!

Touching the fish!

The aquarium had a whole toddler section that was ALL ABOUT CLOWNFISH (that's what Nemo is) when we got to the end where they actually have a tank of clownfish (round area in the upper right) Logan wanted NOTHING to do with it and instead wanted to sit in the cubby...huh?

Large aquarium with many many different fish

Otter!! He looks cute and innocent here, but a few minutes after taking this picture Jas realized the otter was attempting to be VERY innapropriate with that tube which we're pretty sure he thought was his girlfriend...naughty otter!

Logan and Daddy (I have no idea who Jason is mean mugging here...)

Final tank with SHARKS and TURTLES!

His best attempt to "Stop and smile for mommy!" I'll take what I can get

SOMEONE wasn't up for picture time on our way back to the house...

There's that smile!

Oh, Canada!

We Made It! We Made It! We Made It!

It's been a long day but a good day and Jason and I are relaxing in our new "home" while our baby sleeps in the master bedroom and we enjoy a cocktail (or 2) in our lounge chairs before we get ready to take a dip in the hot tub...life is gooooood.

Our day started early - 6am for Jas and I to get ourselves ready and do some last minute packing. Logan woke up at 7 and our chauffeur, "Uncle Huy", arrived promptly at 8:45 to take us to SFO for our 12:15 flight to Vancouver.

We arrived in plenty of time (Which was a blessing in my mind because the airport stresses me out), and boarded our plane after eating a delicious lunch with no problem. Logan did fairly well on the plane, and thanks to a kind woman who was across the aisle from us, he did better than he would have if it was just up to Jas and I to entertain him. This very kind woman took a liking to Logan and once we hit our cruising altitude, she handed me her iPad (!!!) and told me there was a fun kitty cat game that her grand-kids love to play and that Logan was welcome to check it out. This game provided HOURS of entertainment for our little laubster - literally. One flight attendant kept walking by us and just laughed that our child had been laughing for 2 hours straight. Hilarious. He definitely had moments of TODDLER-TIME (pouting, shouting and some minor screaming) but for most of the time, he was either watching the kids cartoons on the monitor in front of him (go, AirCanada for having one of Logan's favorite cartoons, Caillou on their TV Show rotation) or laughing hysterically at Tom the Cat on the iPad.

We landed at 2:30 and made it easily through customs. The customs area was divided into two sections - the first for Canadian citizens and the second for non-Canadian citizens. Jason joked at one point that he was going to leave Logan and I to fend for ourselves in the Non-Citizen line and use his ID from when he was 7 to get himself through customs faster in the Citizens line...that theory lasted all of 2 seconds ad he joined his wife and child in the longer line. :) .

We grabbed our 2 large suitcases, 2 medium suitcases, 1 Pak-N-Play, 1 carseat and 1 toddler and made the long walk to the Enterprise shuttle. Once there, we hopped on board and took a 5 minute drive to the rental car office. We were all set to rent a minivan which I was SO excited about (Do not read sarcasm there as I am genuinely excited about the prospect of driving a minivan one day) - but Jas was easily persuaded into renting the fully loaded Ford Edge for the same price...hurumph (At least he asked if I would be crushed if we DIDN'T rent a minivan before jumping on board with the nicer car). Our first stop was Starbucks (of course) as both Jas and I were exhausted and feeling the need for a pick-me-up...nevermind the toddler in the backseat who was 4 hours past his nap and in a state of absolute delirium...he probably could have gone for an iced Americano too...if only he'd known how to ask for one...It was at this point that Jas and I had the same thought at the same time: "Aren't you glad we aren't in Italy? Can you imagine feeling this tired and having to communicate in another language while driving on the other side of the road and having absolutely no idea where you are going?" We are probably the only 2 people who have ever said "Aren't you glad we aren't in Italy" in their lives...That's why I love him...we're meant to be!

It took us about 1 hour to get through Vancouver traffic and to our new home...all the while Mr. Logan was in the back seat either hysterically crying, or laughing to himself...the kid was beyond help by this point.

We got to the house and instantly fell in love with our new home (Sorry, no pictures yet!). The woman who owns the house helped us get settled and showed us around. The view is unbelievable and the size of the space is just perfect for our family of 3 and the few visitors we'll have throughout our stay. And a side note to my Mom and Dad- our host and hostess here in Canada (The couple that owns the home we're staying in and lives upstairs) is NOTHING like the woman whom we rented a basement from during Expo '86...Liz is delightful and i have complete confidence that she will give us privacy and we won't hear a peep from her unless we need to...I don't anticipate having to leave in the middle of the night on THIS trip to Canada! Hahaha!

We learned today that the Nanny Agency we contacted to set up some childcare for Logan so Jas and I can have some nights out together while we're on vacation confirmed all EIGHT of our dates so we are ELATED that we get EIGHT DATE NIGHTS over the next three weeks (And that's not even counting the 1 or 2 nights we'll get while my Mom is here!) I kind of can't believe I get that much alone time with my husband and I'm absolutely giddy over the thought of it!

Tomorrow we're going to hit up Stanley Park in Vancouver and take Logan to the Aquarium - he's going to be in heaven since we just saw they have an entire exhibit on Clown Fish...aka NEMO!!!! Or as Logan calls him, MOMO!!! It appears to be geared towards kids Logan's age or a little older, and there is a ton of hands on stuff so he's going to have a blast.

Jas and I are so excited for the next 3 weeks and feel so blessed to be able to take this time together and enjoy our little family.

More updates to come! Stay tuned...

"Kai's House"

So tomorrow is the big day...I'm not sure if all of you have heard, but I GOT A JOB!! It's a bit crazy, I know, but it just kind of fell in my lap and I just couldn't turn this opportunity down. I'll be working at The Bridges Golf Club as an assistant banquet coordinator! Some of you may be asking why The Bridges Golf Club sounds so familiar, and it's because that's where Jason and I got married a whopping 2.75 years ago!

To make a long story short, I'll just say that when I was planning our wedding I definitely fell in love with the whole wedding & event planning process and realized that I would much rather have that as my career than a Project Manager for a construction company. Without really know where it would get me, I emailed the main coordinator at The Bridges when Jas and I got back from our honeymoon way back in 2009. I told her to just keep me in mind if any job openings came up, as it was our plan to eventually move up North. We kept in touch here and there throughout the years but she never asked me about any job positions until January of this year - which is just one month after we moved to San Ramon (2.5 miles away from The Bridges to be exact)! When she emailed me initially, she said that while she would have to go through their standard hiring protocol of posting the job position online, she wanted to see if I was interested first because she thought I would be perfect for this job...my jaw hit the floor at that point. Of course I told her I was definitely interested and couldn't wait to hear more. About one month later, she asked me to come in for an interview with herself and the catering coordinator. I did just that, and when I left, I felt like I had gotten the job! It didn't seem like they had interviewed anyone else, and from the way the gals were talking, it didn't seem like it was in their plan to talk to anyone else! Could this really be happening!? Then about two weeks after my interview, I got an email asking me to join their team! I couldn't believe it and I am so excited! So it's a part time assistant position that only requires me to work 9-5 Fridays and Saturdays. I'll be helping out the two coordinators with anything they need as well as giving tours of the venue to potential clients, writing contracts for events and answering phones etc. It's such a great position for me at this time. I really wouldn't want any thing more that would keep me away from Logan right now so it's just absolutely perfect.

So along with tomorrow being my first day at a new job, it's also the first time I'll be leaving Logan for more than a couple hours since quitting my job last November! I'm definitely feeling some apprehension about leaving my little laubster, but I think we found a great woman to watch him so I know once we get into a routine all will be good. The gal who will watch him just on Fridays (As Jason will watch him on Saturdays) is a gal form my Mom's group. She has 1 son a little older than Logan and his name is Kai and then an 8 month old daughter named Evie. They live in Danville, just about 15 minutes away. Logan and I have gone over to their house twice to est things out. The first time was just for a couple hours to make sure the kids all got along, and the second was in the afternoon so Logan could eat lunch over there and take a nap there (I put him down for the nap so he could be ok with everything). Both times went great. He did end up napping the second time, but it took some time to get him to go down and he only slept for 1 hour (As opposed to his regular 2 hours). The gal watching him really seems great though. She's a former preschool teacher and she has her masters in nutrition so she's really into feeding her kids healthy food which I love! Kai and Logan got along great, and I think that everything will go just fine...I just have to get over leaving my little munchkin tomorrow morning!

All day today I've been prepping Logan for tomorrow (aka prepping MYSELF for tomorrow) and have been telling him that he's going to spend the day with Kai and Kai's mommy and that his own Mommy won't be there with him. Periodically throughout the day I would ask him where he's going tomorrow and got a very sweet "Kai's house" response...I finally caught a video of it this afternoon (Ignore the first part as something settled in our trash can and made a loud noise that startled Logan a bit...and he thought either a cat was in there or Elmo...who else?), enjoy!

1, 2...1,2,3,4!

A couple days ago, Logan and I were having a major jam session - I was pretty sure our neighbors were going to call the cops because we were just getting down and it must have been SO loud! Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but we DID annoy the cats with our intense drumming skills. While I thought we were just having a fun time pounding away on some drums, Logan was apparently busy soaking up some information I was giving him. Each time I would start drumming, I would count it out (ya know, like drummers do) with a "1, 2...1,2,3,4!!" and then start drumming...well, look what I caught Mr. Logan doing this afternoon (Listen carefully at the beginning of the video)....

Starting With The Man In the Mirror...err...iPhone

Logan sees himself every day...our closet doors have mirrors on them and he literally plays with them every single day. So seeing himself shouldn't really be anything new, but when he sees himself in Mom's iPhone, it's a whole new hilarious story...     

Ducks, Frogs and Cows! Oh My!

Logan and I went on a nature walk today and it was SO much fun! I loaded my little buddy in the stroller and we walked on the neighborhood sidewalk for about 10 minutes until we got to a walking trail/path, then I let Logan out of the stroller and had him lead the way! The trail was fenced in on both sides, with houses to the left of us and a creek to the right. As we were walking we heard birds chirping, saw rocks and flowers, and even encountered a REALLY cool sighting that Logan just could NOT stop talking about for the rest of the day (See video below).

We also heard a frog "Ribbit" in the creek which was quite exciting for our little explorer. Our final destination of the walk was an awesome park, that is literally 10 minutes from our home, but I wanted to get out and explore the neighborhood so we ended up going the long way and were out and about for 2 hours! It was awesome! When we rounded the corner and Logan saw the park he was beyond excited! I'd been telling him all morning we were going to a park, but I think he was beginning to lose hope after about 20 minutes...

There are cows all around us here in San Ramon (Which is TOTALLY weird to me), they just sit up on the hills and Moo from time to time...well, right around 12pm today the cows started MOOing up a storm! I looked to one of the hills and sure enough, there were the cows Mooing like crazy and RUNNING! I've never seen a cow run before...they always just wander or stand there...I honestly didn't know they had the ability to run (I know - stupid statement, but I'd just never seen a cow move faster than a shuffle before). Hearing the cows so close and so loud also excited Logan and he started Mooing right back at them! Hilarious!

We got home and I made Logan lunch then put him to bed for a 2 hour nap - YES! He woke up, we ran a quick errand then came back home for some play time before dinner! Jason will be happy to know that I put up some color posters in Logan's play room so I can start working with him on his colors - I've been MEANING to do something like this for quite some time now, but haven't gotten around to it for one reason or another, but we started today and we'll continue for as long as we need to!

Enjoy the pictures from our nature hike! Ducks, Frogs and Cows - Oh My!

Mommy's Little Helper!

Hunting Ducks

Mom! Did you hear that????

I heard a DUCK!

So sweet...

Taking a break

Not all who wander are lost

Ssshhhh...we're hunting duckies!

Discovering shadows!

Berry Break at the park!

Logan! Quit growing up!!

Deep in thought (And VERY ready for a nap!)

Even after a 2 hour nap, SOMEONE was VERY grumpy when he woke up!

Videos of the Laubster!

Wow, the Laubster Tale blog has been suffering! And to be honest, I'm sure it's not going to pick up any steam until we get pregnant again (No, this is not a post announcing we're pregnant...I PROMISE! We are not there yet!) - but ,to keep those of you who don't have facebook (Are there any of you out there?) I wanted to post a few videos I've taken of Logan over the past little while so you can see what our favorite little guy is up to!

I made these next 3 videos on my iPhone using an awesome (& free) video editing app called Magisto - basically you take several video clips and then choose a soundtrack and the app combines the clips, edits them and adds the music and Viola - you have an awesome video! I love it! In other Logan news, the kid is talking up a STORM. My goodness, I can't even keep track of all the words he says now. My favorite has got to be ALRIGHT, which he says like "Awwhite" it's UH-DORABLE. Despite being as cute as a bug in a rug, he's definitely almost 2...and by that I mean we have entered what has got to be the most difficult and exhausting stage of childhood so far. This past week has been ROUGH - probably the roughest that I can remember to be totally honest (But that's only because, thanks to Mother Nature I have New Mom Amnesia and I don't really remember what those first few weeks were like...if we all remembered those tough times, would we EVER go through it again? Hell to the NO!)Logan is at that stage where he understands enough to assert his independence and can tell Jas and I what he wants, but he doesn't understand enough for me to REASON with him about certain things - or, really about ANYTHING. We get a full on MELTDOWN after he sees me pull the eggs out in the morning and doesn't realize why I can't make them instantly (Apparently my child would like Jane Jetson for a mother). It's a battle - that's where we're at. Both my amazing sister-in-law and good friend Angie have reassured me that this age was their least favorite as well (18-22 months for Angie - so if that's the case for Logan then we're almost home free! Also, Gretchen assured me it's amazing how much change can come in a couple of months - especially once they hit the 24 months mark - PLEASE PLEASE LET THAT BE TRUE!). Now, I probably have a few friends reading this who are rolling their eyes thinking I'm SUCH a wimp because Logan is SUCH a good kid - and yes, it's true, he's AMAZING...especially when he's around other people and other kids - but when it's just him and me, disastrous events are going to happen. Now, I will take some blame for that from this past week because I was not as patient of a mother as I like to be. But as I said before, this past week has been TOUGH. First, Logan was SUPER sick so we were pretty much stuck inside all day each day. We would go on little walks here and there, but Logan wasn't really up for much more than that. We would play i the backyard of course, but it wasn't enough to get either of us satisfied about the outside world. Then, because Logan was sick, he and I had to cancel our trip to Chicago which was supposed to happen this past weekend. Jason's brother Colby graduated from Navy Boot Camp and we were all going to go out for the graduation (along with Baba Laub and Colby's girlfriend Allison) - but Jason still wanted to go (as he should have) so we drove Dada to the airport, waved goodbye and braced ourselves for 4 days on our own. There were quite a few days where Logan didn't sleep well while Jason was gone, and since I NEVER sleep well when Jason's gone, we were both exhausted. From the cabin fever I was already feeling from the week before, I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with Logan's tantrums - and not having Jason there to pick up the slack and help me, it just made everything that much worse. I definitely realized how much I need Jason - and as always, I have no idea how single parents raise children - even if I do all of the domestic stuff at night (Dinner, bath time, bedtime) just knowing Jas is downstairs waiting for me to help me relax, to talk with, to just SIT WITH makes everything better. And to have someone to distract our little Tantrum man is a priceless gift - not having that day in and day out made for some VERRRY Long days (And I think Logan would agree!). So that's where we're at - I'm in the beginning stages of planning Logan's 2nd Birthday party...not a big surprise, but it's going to be ELMO/Sesame Street themed and should be a TON o' FUN!