So today mommy is taking over the reigns for just a moment in order to reflect on my second year of life, which is leading into the third on July 6, 2007. Strange how fast time flies by...

So, Logan you are almost two years old. This was a wonderful year. You have blossomed so incredibly much, and I am so proud of the little boy you are becoming. At the start of this year, you were not walking yet, or talking yet, or doing much of the things that you are doing today. At 13 months, you began to walk, and now, you are running. And most of the time, you are not running to me, but away from me, asserting your independence. My heart hurts a little, but it is good. You need to spread your wings, but please, don't spread them too far my sweet one.

You are now talking so much. Before, it was a little bit of mama and a little bit of dada, but now it's a whole lot of that, and a whole lot of hello, please and thanks, Pepper and Ginger, Get down!, Quiet Dog!, Whatcha doin'???, alright nah, alright nah... Wow, what a vocabulary you have established. You are learning more each day. You repeat a lot of the words I say. This is scary in some ways, as I have the worst road rage, and as I was screaming for the car in front of me to "GO! GO! GO! GO!" you repeated with all of your heart the same words. Thank God I wasn't cursing at that moment. Many mothers will say that there will come a time when I will want you to be quiet, but Logan, I do not want you to ever be quiet. I want you to talk and always talk to me, no matter what. Don't ever STOP talking to me. When you do, I'll know that something is wrong.

I know what you love so much too. I know you love to be outside. You love to look at animals, birds, cats, dogs, and fish. You love watching airplanes fly over head. You love being in the water, whether it is in the pool or in our bath tub, you love water. You are not scared, you will put your head under the water. You are brave and adventurous. You love to dance and sing. You love Elmo. You love daddy, Papa, Nana and Casey. But most of all, you love mama. You love the soft skin of my chest to rest against the soft skin of your cheek at night, so you can hear my heart beating softly beneath your face, and you fall asleep this way. Some people will say it is wrong to hold you until you are asleep, but there will be a day when I cannot do this anymore, and believe me when I say, I will always cherish these moments.

There is a journey that came to an end just recently, and that is our breastfeeding journey. I never thought I'd be "that" mom who was labeled and extended breastfeeder, but I was! You almost breastfed until you were two. It has been three weeks since we last nursed. I miss how easy it was to put you to sleep by nursing you, but I'm glad the journey is over. I know that I gave you the best start possible, and I continued to provide you comfort. It is because of this that you choose to rest, skin to skin, on my chest every night to get to sleep. You have traded nursing for something so much better in my mind, cuddling and sweetness. I love you.

I feel guilty too. I had to go back to work this year, shortly after you turned 18-months-old. I went back to work full-time, and nana takes good care of you while I am away, but I am so guilty. I get less than 3 hours a day with you during each week-day, and it is killing me. I can't take as many pictures, and I can't get as many hugs and kisses, and I miss you so much! I am missing major milestones here, and I can't stand it. How did daddy do that? I was so lucky to get the time I did with you. I hope you still love me as much.

And so, I think it is time for me to wrap this blog up. It's almost your birthday little Mangel, and remember, you will always be my Mangel. I love you so much my heart hurts. Keep thriving, keep being brave, and keep loving me the way you do.

Love,

Mommy

Okay, so mommy apologizes one more time for not updating my blog before now. She has been very busy. Mommy started working in February. She is gone a long time from me, but she has been very happy. Daddy and her smile more, and I think that we're doing better in the money dept because I seem to be getting more clothes, sippy cups, and toys (heehee).

Mommy works as a Medical Transcriptionist (whatever the heck that is) for Coastal Pathology Laboratories. She is doing really well and gets lots of feedback from her coworkers (positive feedback). I'm so proud of her!

Since then, we've done lots of fun stuff too. I went on an airplane for the first time (so did mommy!). We went to Utah to visit with auntie Hillarie. While I was there, I saw snow for the first time. I didn't like it. It's wet and cold and hard to walk in.



I had a fun time there though. After that, on the weekends, mommy and daddy and I do a lot of fun things. Just recently, we visited the Aquarium here in Charleston. There are a lot of fish there, snakes and turtles. Here are a few pictures.

Here I am with a big scary snake. There wasn't any glass between us either (wink wink).



Here I am with a giant turtle and my daddy.



And here I am with a gigantic frog on a bench. If you look, you can see the Cooper River Bridge.



This weekend, daddy and mommy took me to the zoo. I went last year too. Here are some comparison pictures.

Here I am, sitting on the monkey a year ago:



And here I am now:



Here I was on the elephant last year:



And here I am now:



Here I was sitting in front of the tiger last year:



And here I am now:



I'm such a big boy! The zoo was fun, but mommy got cranky. There were a lot of people there. She remembers that last year, we went on a Monday and this year we went on Sunday. It was really really crowded.

Well, that's all for now. I hope that I come back soon to talk to you!

Okay, so mommy apologizes again for the delay in posting more pictures!! She has been super busy. A lot has happened since mommy last blogged... I mean since I last blogged.

Carter and Miles moved away. They left us on Friday. Mom got sad at Breastfeeding Support Group on Thursday because silly ol' Courtney cried. Then, Amber, Pono, and Miles came over to take a funny picture underneath Nana's Tree. It was cute b/c they dressed up funny. Then, mommy kissed Miles one last time and said goodbye to Amber. It didn't seem real.

Mommy finished up with school this Saturday! She was happy with all of her classes except for her Psychology class. She did not feel like she did well on her exam. Maybe instead of playing Harvest Moon at night (I see you mommy), she should of studied for her exam. She said she was "burned out", but I didn't smell anything...

Anyway, here are the latest pictures of me.

Mommy took me over to Nana and Papa's house to attempt a Christmas picture for the Christmas Card. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out right, but here are a few cute ones:



Mom was being a dork the other night, and decided to hitch my pants up high. I look silly:



Playgroup Monday was weird. I looked around and thought... Where is everybody?



Katy and Anna ended up showing up (phew! I wasn't all alone!). Katy gave an obligatory pose for the camera:



Then, later on she was silly and pressed her face up against the glass!



I took over steering the ship. Ahoy maties!



COURTNEY!!! DO NOT LOOK!!!! THIS CREATURE CAME BECAUSE HE SENSED YOUR PRESENCE.


Sorry Courtney, mommy made me do it.

Anna shared her balls (heehee) with us. Here she is, getting caught off guard by mommy!



Later on, the girls were crazy in the parking lot. It was like babies gone wild out there! I just sat there and ate my cheese nips and looked at those crazy broads... (heehee)



Well, that's all. Maybe now that mommy's done with school, she'll help me post more. Although she did mention something about work...

Alright, I apologize again for waiting so long to write again. Mommy helps me with this, and she's a student (whatever that means), and she's super dooper busy! But... Miss Amber reminded her that we needed to update my blog (thanks Miles! I knew you were behind it all). So, we've got some exciting things happening! I got my first haircut, I had my second Halloween, I took my first trip to Busch Gardens, I visited my great grandmother, and my friend Miles turned one and started to walk! PHEW!!! That's a lotta stuff! So, here are some pictures. I am sorry to say that I didn't get any pictures with my great grandma. Mommy and her gabbed the whole time, and then mommy forgot. I've got memories though. Also, I had to miss Miles's birthday party. I was bummed. We hung out on his actual birthday though :)

So, on October 20, 2006, I got my first haircut. I didn't want to tell mommy that I wanted it cut, but it was getting annoying. It was flipping up, and it always got food stuck in it. Mommy is strange, she kept some of my hair... (ew!)

This is me before



This is me after... I'm very handsome!



I had my second Halloween. Here is me on October 31, 2005, my first Halloween:



Here I am on October 30, 2006, and my very first Halloween Party. From the left there is Yoda my Arch Nemesis (Ben-jammin), Monkey-boy (Quinn), Darth Vadar the greatest villian of all time (or me heehee), a beautiful Lamb (Katy), Superman (Miles of Smiles), and in the chair, Frosty the Snow Man (or Cahtah (heehee)).



I went over to my Papa's house the next day instead of Trick-or-Treating. Here I am with my "devlish" cousin, Makayla:



So, on November 5, we went to Busch Gardens. I had a blast. The very first animals we saw were the alligators and the turtles. This turtle decided to hitch a ride on an alligator's back:



This turtle thought the sand was too hot and held it's legs back so they wouldn't touch the sand:



We went and saw the gorillas next. Mommy was acting-a-fool and waving at this one big gorilla. She swears he was looking into her eyes, and then, HE ROLLED HIS EYES AT HER!! She thought it was funny. Here he is:



Mommy snapped my pic with daddy:



They thought it would be fun to put me in this hippo's mouth, but I wasn't having it!



Last but not least, here is a picture of me after playgroup today. We took a walk, and I fell asleep. Mommy says I'm beautiful.

Saturday, my buddy Quinn had his first birthday party! It was so fun, and the day was really nice. We spent most of it outside. His dad made the best chicken. It was juicy and yummy. I was a pig and ate almost a whole breast by myself (I always was a boob man).

Here is Quinn with his cake. He loved it a lot more than I loved mine.



And he started walking... He holds his arms out to keep his balance. Mommy thinks it is cute!



All my friends were there. Miles, Quinn, and I played with Quinn's new bike. It's AWESOME! Ben-Jammin and I played with it alone too. I actually climbed on top of it!







Katy and I played nice... and not so nice!





Miss Courtney held me and tickled me.



Miss Jodi is such a "ham"!!



Mr. Pono is a good daddy. Even though Miss Amber wasn't in town, he still took Miles to the party. That's dedication. Daddy said he wouldn't have done it :( ... He asked Mommy not to take this picture. For some reason he called it "evidence".



But really, Miles and I had a good time. Even if you can't tell from this picture, because I look irritated, Miles really is my best bud!



I think the party wore Ben-Jammin out.



Later, on Tuesday night, mommy took some bath tub shots! This is one of me smiling beautifully! I look so darn cute... Don't you want to eat me?

Okay, so, you won't see many of these, but these are great pictures of me with Mommy and me with Daddy. Mommy hates being in pictures.





Mommy left me with Daddy tonight. She had another one of her "girl's night out" nights. I don't know why she needs this. It isn't like she has a lot to do... Right? Daddy said that tonight was a "nightmare". Apparently, I woke up too many times tonight. Around 5-6 times. It was hard for him. Mommy does it all the time though... I wonder if it bothers her? It might be why she yawns all the time :)

It's been a while since I updated my blog... Sorry everybody! Mommy was just taking some shots of me while drinking from my cup. I feel like such a big boy when I do it. Mommy thinks I look cute!



The holiday of Halloween is coming soon. This is when we go around and get candy from strangers, and Mommy and Daddy eat it all! They are going to dress me like Darth Vadar. I don't know who he is, but Daddy really likes him. I hate the stupid hat that the costume comes with and I cry when Mommy puts it on my head! Here is the picture of the costume, Mommy asked me to tell you to ignore the mess on the floor!



My friend Katie turned one on September 7, 2006. We just went to her party on Saturday. Her daddy came home from Quatar (sp??), which is a far away country that the president (God help us) sent him to. Hopefully he will stay home because he was gone for a long time and I know Katie missed him. She had special bloomers for her birthday.



She really enjoyed her cake. I didn't like eating mine, but she had a blast!



All of my friends were there. Miles loves to sit in the grass.



Ben-Jammin and his mommy posed for my Mommy!



My mom calls her buddies the "Boob Group". Here is a pic of all of us! From the bottom left it's Miss Courtney and Carter, Miss Karah and Katie, Mommy and me, Jodi and Ben-Jammin, and upper left it's Miss Amber and Miles, my buddy Miss Pam, and Miss Heather and Quinn.



We also took a picture with the daddies. From the bottom left it's Mr. Randall and Carter, Mr. Matt and Katie, Daddy and me, Mr. Robert (I hope this is right) and Ben-Jammin, upper left it's Mr. Pono and Miles, and Mr. Daulton and Quinn!



I had a great time at the party. This is mommy's favorite picture of me there!