2007 Year in Review
It's the end of the year; a time of reflection on what we've been through as a family, me as a mother & Logan as an ever growing boy. There have been lessons learned, highs & lows, but we've made out OK in the end.

January started off with Logan learning new skills like making "Indian sounds", asserting his independence & developing a love for cartoons like Little Einsteins & "Blast Off!". He ran around everywhere he went, making friends in MOMS Club. He said "dada" for the first time, got his first hair cut & had his first birthday.
Bill was promoted to Sales Manager at the small town gym & loved every minute of being able to spend time with the family & build a special relationship with Logan. I was worried about Logan sleeping too much & making sure he ate healthy foods when we went out to eat. Most importantly, we were really getting the hang of being parents & our marriage was growing stronger as we evolved.

"Today I realized how painful & difficult this evolution is. However, it dawned on me that nothing good in life comes easy. The most wonderful things in life take blood, sweat & tears to obtain. It takes heavy digging in the trenches; the real hard work. I got a surge of joy & excitement knowing that right now, at this moment, we are facing those challenges head on. The end result is going to be beautiful."

February began with Logan's one year check-up. He was a growing boy at 28 3/4 inches long (20%) & 20.4 lbs (16%). He had some vaccinations & broke out in hives eating breakfast afterward. This was our last month for breastfeeding & weaning was a very easy transition for the two of us. February was also the beginning of Logan's picky-eater phase. Being the active boy that he is, he learned how to dribble a soccer ball in the living room, got his first black eye & fat lip. He started to say some new words & was able to identify all of his favorite animals.
Bill & I went on our first date as parents while Logan stayed at a friends house for the first time. It was a great night for all of us. We returned the favor & babysat for our friends, where Logan had so much fun entertaining his guest. This month I started up Virtual Fitness & the cyber-training program, which began with great success. And the family drama increased with a conversation with Aunt Ju-Ju that ended up with Bill asking her to leave. While this conversation was very stressful, it was a big point in the growing strength of our marriage & Bill supporting us as a family.

March was a really good month, full of fun & happiness. Logan learned how to dance (by spinning around in circles & making himself dizzy) & belly laughed while playing with Buddha. With the weather warming up, we took wagon rides to the park & went on Easter egg hunts with The Club. March brought birthday fun for both Bill & I (29 & 27), where Bill got his birthday wish for a backyard grill & I got a wonderful massage. We were thrilled to have my sister, Aunt J & her boyfriend, C visit us for a few days. Logan had so much fun with them & so did we. There was a birthday dinner at a hibachi grill & a yummy breakfast feast, where we discovered Logan's garlic allergy.
This month brought monumental milestones for Bill & myself with the completion of marriage counseling & confidence on how to deal with his family. Personally, I had a breakthrough on healing from my childhood pain.

April started our legal woes by being served for a lawsuit against our insurance company. Alog with court dates, there were continued conversations with Grandma L, as she still had been trying to cut me out of my own family. Logan began acting terribly & had his first time-out. In spite of all of the stress & difficult days, I was still able to have an attitude of gratitude, thinking about "pajama moments". I started working out in the gym again, walking 20 miles a few times a week on a near by park trail & started training my photographer friend as well.
May was a very challenging month in the way of parenting. Logan had hit his Terrible Two's very early. There were many time-outs, nap resistance & the first time we had to leave a full cart of groceries at the store because of a meltdown. There was screaming & food throwing & I learned to never wake him up from a nap unless it was an emergency. We continued to focus on learning more baby-signs & that seemed to have helped. We taught him how to clink sippy cups for "cheers". He also turned around to a forward facing car seat.

It was a busy month for me as I got the walking group organized, co-ran the babysitting co-op & was voted into the Membership VP position in MOMS Club. There were fun nights out with friends & much needed breaks. I also started my cooking competition hobby that month. The biggest realization for me was when The Clock started ticking very loudly on Memorial Day weekend (the 2 year anniversary of finding out I was pregnant with Logan) & I really began to consider having another baby. However, the conversations with Bill didn't go very far as he wasn't on the same page & was content with Logan being our only.

Memorial Day weekend was busy with family visits. Gramps & D came down to see us & spent time with us at the park & eating out. The last half of the weekend was spent uncomfortably with Bill's family as they pretended like they had never cut me out of the family. Again, Bill & I continued to be a strong, united front & our family bond brought us closer.

In June we did nothing but eat. I was entering as many competitions as I could, making yummy deserts for baby showers & hosting tasting parties. It was an exciting summer month as we ran through the sprinklers in the back yard, learned to color, Logan went down slides by himself & we checked out neighborhood yard sales. Logan's communication skills continued to grow as he told me "go" when he wanted to go outside & called "Ya-Ya" when he looked for Bill. His sign language knowledge grew & he was able to let us now what he wanted more easily. Logan also had the flu for the second time this month & before that, was only taking one nap a day.
Bill & I celebrated out 8th year anniversary. It was a very special anniversary as we almost didn't make it. We worked very hard to stay together & to work through the family turmoil as a team. This month we found balance between family life, work & friends by coming to an understanding about having our guys/moms nights out.

"It's nice to look back & say, 'look at what we lived through!' I guess it's like climbing Everest. It can be absolutely hellish getting there & only the strong survive. But once you're at the top, it's the most beautiful, life changing experience ever imaginable."

July was hard. I got sick with the flu & really questioned if I could live with HG again & be a good mom to Logan. I thought I had changed my mind & was sure I couldn't deal with another pregnancy again. Then we discovered Bill's wages were being wrongfully garnished. We had to sell our appliances that we moved with us to pay the bills & I began interviewing attorneys to stop the judgment. We had our sit down with Bill's mom & buried the hatchet.
We did have a good Independence Day & watched fireworks with friends. We taught Logan how to flex his biceps & he ran around the house with a bucket on his head like he was pretending to be an astronaut. This was the month that my photographer friend asked me to be on the reality TV show with her, too.

Whew! August was crazy! Logan had his 18th month check-up, weighing 25 lbs (25%) & measuring 33 inches long (75%). He had been checked out for Toddler's diarrhea & we had to take stool samples at home. There was a big discussion about vaccinations (which we didn't do at this time) & we were on the road to seeing an allergist for hives & eczema. This month he had a language explosion & continued to increase his signing vocabulary. He knew the names of all of his body parts. He played hard at the park, rolled around in the dirt & ran through puddles in the rain at a local festival. Bill completely buzzed off all of Logan's hair & to make for an even more exciting month, Logan got his head stuck in the slots of the deck at playgroup. We had to grease his head up with butter to get him out.
It proved to be a difficult month with the continued lawsuit & trying to find an attorney. There were many sleepless nights & frustrated tears. I was given new hope & became optimistic after listening to Pato Bantan singing about "stay positive". I kept hanging on through attorney appointments & breast exams to find out about a lump on my right side that turned out to be non-cancerous. I had pizza & beer parties with friends & grew closer to my photographer friend & my massage friend. My first posts from Virtual Fitness were published by Reuters, FOX News, iVilliage, Houston & Pittsburgh news channels, too. And...The Clock started ticking loud again.

"Live the life you love, love the life you live
and no matter what the crisis is.
When there's life to live, and there's love to give
why should you be negative?
You got to stay positive!"
-Pato Banton

September was when Logan went to his first birthday party. He had so much fun, running, playing & jumping in the bounce house. It was the months of transitions, too as we got rid of the binky (cold turkey) & moved to the toddler bed (unintentionally). He also continued to get rashes & hives & we think he had roseola at one point.
I continued cooking & baking for parties, clubs & competitions & also started my bargain hunting hobby. I helped the club organize a fund raiser for The Komen Foundation to help repay them for helping me out with the ultrasound they paid for. I also got my hair cut (the first time since Logan had been 3 moths old) & we had our family photo shoot up in the mountains with my friend - where Logan was throwing the biggest temper tantrums ever & the same day that Bill found out his grandmother had passed.

Bill left the small town gym as they were treating him terribly & we were then involved in yet another lawsuit to get money back that they were illegally deducting from his paycheck. Not more than a day latter, Bill got a new job - one that he loves. This new job made him more open to the idea of having another baby.

October is when Logan learned how to do crunches, play the recorder & began his infatuation with matchbox cars, Yo Gabba Gabba & SpongeBob. Nap times were horrible for us since the toddler bed transition & temper tantrums were driving me batty. I was able to get a better handle on things after reading The Happiest Toddler on the Block. Logan decided that this would be a good time to start shoving peas up his nose & I had to learn how to do the "nose maneuver" to get them out. We saw his allergist for the first time & found out about his egg & garlic allergy.
We went to the farm & had fun at the petting zoo & playing in the corn sandbox. Logan stuck a corn kernel up his nose that resulted in us taking him to the doctor the next day to get it out. We had a great time trick-or-treating at another farm & Logan was the cutest kid ever in his puppy dog costume. We were visited by our good friend, A for a few days & I made the most delicious pumpkin bars ever. There was a really fun poker night with The Club & the follow up to the filming of the reality TV show.

November made me realize that Logan is no longer a baby & maybe not even a toddler, but a little boy. His love of music made for fun car rides & afternoon dance sessions at home. This month phased out sign language completely & he relied only on his words (& screams). My favorite moments were when I tucked him in in the middle of the night & he would wave 'night-night' to me in his sleep. It was a huge relief when we finally figured out his vaccination schedule & he was such a trooper through all of the allergists testing.
There was a little family conflict with Grandma L & the Christmas cards, but Bill & I were able to understand that that's just how she is & we stuck to our guns as a family. I think we realize we'll always have to deal with her & things will never change, but the most important part is that her behavior will no longer effect our family.

This was a month of patience, as I was late & we thought we were going to see another positive pregnancy test. Even though it was a surprise, it was very disappointing to get a negative test. It was so disappointing to Bill that after months of saying Logan would be an only, he changed his mind & we were on the same page to start trying again.

December brought us a non-stop talking kid. "Eat, eat, eat, milk, milk,milk, daddy, daddy, daddy... " He went bowling for the first time & was happy as a clam. He constantly says the cutest things - it's his saving grace to make up for the temper tantrums. I was filled with hope when there was a breakthrough with the lawsuit & having our story investigated by a local TV news reporter. We had an amazing time Christmas shopping & a relatively peaceful Christmas. It was a blast watching Logan open his presents, getting excited about his new toys. At the end of the month we were slightly disappointed by another negative pregnancy result, but we aren't worried yet.


It's been one roller-coaster of a year. Many good times & some bad, but we're better & stronger than ever. I'm proud of how we've dealt with what life has thrown our way. I can't imagine what 2008 will be like or the people we will become.

All I know is that we will be alright, no matter what happens.