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Celebrate EIGHT!

How did this happen? It seems like just yesterday that someone placed this sweet, five-pound baby in my arms. With a smooshed up face and an early arrival, she came, bringing a whole world of wondeful to what had been a difficult 36 weeks. She was promise that things would be more than okay. She delivered motherhood to me on a silver platter with coo's and grunts and cries in the middle of the night. She whispered all the secrets of parenthood to my ears in the twilight hours; uncovered instincts I never knew I had and instilled and a magnetic pull to her so strong that I knew made her my priority for the rest of my life. All these enormous feelings were revealed by the smallest of people, when our eyes first met.

Now she is eight years old! The "baby" in her look is all but gone, replaced by broader shoulders and a slight maturing of the shape of her face. She has her own interests and is her own self, no longer completely molded by her Dad and I, the activities we choose or the pals we place in her life. She is Logan Olivia Anderson, eight years old.

Logan is as smart as whip, devours books so quickly that I can't keep our already vast library stocked for her. She's considered Academically Talented at school, has perfect grades and loves to write. She thrives in art class and can sit for hours creating out of things one might toss in the trash. Logan loves music and has a beautiful singing voice which she proudly displays with a local choir group. She's is blessed with amazingly talented teachers that are training her both vocally and musically. She's a Brownie and she loves that, too.

She's a friend to all with a sweet disposition and empathy for those in need. She cries, at some point, in nearly every movie she watches and is incredibly sensitive and insightful. She is a caring and loving big sister to Riley and Finn and they adore her.

Plain and simple, this eight year old girl of ours is fabulous. What lucky parents we are!

Okay, enough of my love fest. Here are some pics from her celebrations...

Family Time

On the 26th, we had big plans to go to see A Christmas Carol as a family. Instead, mother nature dumped a foot of snow on Oswego in record time and we decided against our limited movie theater travel plans. It was a gorgeous snowfall. The kids and dog got out to play in it and it seemed to never stop. When we made the call to stay home, we had a houseful of disgruntled kids (like that had any right on December 26th) and needed a plan of action.

Our first attempt was an on-demand purchase of Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. As Mike and I cackled outloud, the kids made faces at each other as if to say, "What's so funny about this?" About half-way through I had an idea. We pulled out twenty or thirty old video tapes of the past eight years and hooked the camera up to the TV for some home movies.

I had eight or so tapes that weren't labeled, so I grabbed those first. As soon as we popped one in, I knew I was in for it. I nearly sobbed through the first hour, so shocked at seeing how Logan and Riley had grown, marveling at Riley's two year old performance of "Kiss the Girl" and instantly recognizing the undeniable sweetness of Logan's personality that remains the same so many years later. Babies' births and first cereal feedings and bare feet in spring mud were all over the screen. We even saw Maggie, our fifteen year old cocker spaniel wearing the red sweater she needed to keep her warm that last year and Harley, and her enormous, loving presense. I couldn't move from the TV.

It's that old cliche "They grow up so fast!" But it's true. In an instant I knew that there were really only four people that mattered and I had no need to worry about anyone else or the holiday stress that buries all of us this season. We spent the rest of the weekend enjoying each other, the way we should every day.

On Sunday, Mike and I took the kids sledding. We had a ball, all of us diving in and sucking up the two hours of constant laughter and fun. For our finale, we went back to the car for some G-rated (as Mike put it) tailgating of hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. It was life as we want it, real "in the moment" stuff - traditions in the making.

As we move into 2010, a new decade, there are a few lessons learned from this one. First, we need a new camcorder - I can't support this new hobby with the hours of needed rewind time on the current model!! But seriously and most importantly, Mike and I will find ways to enjoy the short window we have with these amazing little blessings we call our kids, in spite of everything that's going on in life. Now that we've seen those videos, we know our time with them will surely be gone in the blink of an eye.

The Funniest Moment - EVER!

Our family has been blessed by new arrivals to our neighborhood this summer - the perfect fit for those of us that already pal around together. Jennie and Scott have come from Scotland to Oswego - we're still wondering how they ended up here - bringing with them loads of laughs, music, friendship, a killer accent and two adorable kids. (One is Finn's age and they have regular playdates which makes this mom's world a whole lot happier!)

Before I go further, let me say that I've received advance permission to memorialize this moment on the blog (if not, I would still be begging to obtain it!) In November, shortly after we started meeting up for happy hour on the occasional weekend, us Anderson's were down at Jennie and Scott's for a few beers on a Friday night. As usual, the kids melded together easily. The girls were working on some sort of performance (ugh) and the boys (HUGE UGH) were somewhere upstairs, having a great time. For a few moments, we were just hanging out- adults relaxing from a long week. And then it happened.

I remember this in such a blur that you'll have to bear with me on the details, but here's the gist of it. Logan comes downstairs with something in her hand. She announces, "Finn and Blair were playing in Blair's mommy and daddy's room and they were playing with THIS!"

At this point, I am looking more at the adults' faces than my beautiful and innocent daughter, who is holding a hot pink twelve-inch penis-shaped vibrator in her hands. Mike's mouth instantly changed into a perfect circle and his eyes nearly jumped from his face. Scott had only what could be called a complete look of horror come over him and Jennie? Well, Jennie moved with the lightening speed only to be found in uber high-budget action movies like Mission Impossible. In a literal blur, she raced to Logan, grabbed the gadget and disappeared upstairs.

I immediately fell into a lump on their kitchen floor, my stomach tied in the tightest knots from the kind of furious laughter that I haven't felt in years, tears streaming down my face. Mike and Scott had similar reactions. After looking at us sideways for a moment, sweet Logan bounded off, onto something else.

When Jennie came down five minutes later (I'm sure the dildo is somewhere in the rafters of their house now) she was horribly embarrassed, but laughing right along with us. After another five minutes of snide remarks by the guys and belly laughs by all, all I could say was, "Well, this has certainly taken our friendship to a new level!"

Later we heard the story of how this fuchsia apparatus, a gift from Jennie's bachelorette party ten years ago, has never even been out of the box. (Uh-huh.) In order to retrieve it, those darn boys had to climb a tall dresser and get it from the box in the back of a drawer.

I guess you can say those boys are determined to ensure that everyone has a good time!

Thanks to my good friend, Jennie, for being the best good sport of all. And for letting me relive this on the blog! There's no doubt we all have a thing or two in the drawers that should stay there and there's also no doubt we'd be 100K richer if we had only had a video camera on!

Halloween 2009

Logan on parade at school - "celestial sourceress".
Riley on parade at school - "Bratz cheerleader".

Our sourceress was under the weather and had her hair straightened for the occasion!

The cheerleader and last year's spidey wait for the bus.

This year's spidey shows off his dance moves at the school party.

Anyone See Mike in This?

People say all the time how Finn looks like his Daddy. I don't think I've ever seen it as much as in this picture from Finn's Blackberry Farms field trip. It's unbelievable!

Time Flies....

Sadly, much has been missed during this last one-month blogging hiatus. I'm glad to report that, from a working standpoint, things are very busy. I actually have my first "on newsstand" article out this month - although it's still a local magazine, but you have to PAY for it. If you're interested and in Chicago, pick up the latest issue of West Suburban Living magazine. If you're more interested in the details of us Anderson's, read on...

Here are the October blog posts that will never be....

"Malfunction Junction" - in a matter of two months, everything is breaking around here. My watch, my sunglasses, our coffee maker, our DVD player (thank you Finn), our first batch of paper shades in our bedroom (they are the only ones left in the house, I swear!) Our iPod is even at max capacity. Just in time for Christmas - ugh!!

"Poison Control - Installment 3" - This is the story of Finn climbing up the shelves in our bathroom last week and chewing multiple ibuprofen. Four hours later, I found orange spit all over my bathroom - I had no idea that he had done this and he was fast asleep. After waking him and listening to his crying and doing much research, we finally determined that he had indeed spit all the meds on the bathroom floor. Yes, this is our 3rd call - for Finn.

"The autumn virus of 2009" - Sick kids, one week of fever, sore throats and coughing and no work time for mommy. Glad to announce everyone is almost healthy around here.

"Miley Cyrus" - Mike and I took the girls to see her - yes, Mike and I. It was a trip and they were more in awe than nutso. It was a good time.

Life is busy. Life is full. Life is good. More to come...