Tip of the day

Long noodles are fun to play with, but short noodles don't make your kid vomit.

Naming

Logan: Scottish; derived from a place name meaning "little hollow" in Gaelic

I am not sure how many of you know why we named our son Logan, but I thought I would record the story for prosperity. It took us months to come up with a list of boy names. Nothing really struck my fancy, and I think Don was in denial that we would eventually have to choose something. Girl name, no problem. We have a very special one that I picked out a long time ago. As we pondered names and threw them out to one another, Don suggested Logan.

When Don and I traveled cross country together two months after we started dating, we took a northern route. We left in September, and it wasn't unbearably cold until we hit Wyoming. We had planned on traveling across Wyoming and Idaho to visit the Pacific Northwest, but the Grand Tetons altered our course. It was cold in Yellowstone, but certainly still camping weather. When we traveled a bit south to the Tetons the temperature fell below freezing. It was so cold that I crawled our tent and went to sleep in the very early evening. It was the only way to block out my misery, and probably the kindest thing I could do for Don. Our sleeping bags had seen better days and mine was held together with safety pins. The cold had invaded our trip like an unwanted companion who needed to be sent packing.

The next day we discussed our trip plans before we left. Seeing how miserable I was (and smartly considering self-preservation I'm sure), Don suggested that we change course and head south to Arizona by way of Utah. I readily agreed and we were off. We stopped for breakfast in Jackson Hole, saw a tiny corner of Idaho, and headed into Utah. Our whole trip was planned that day, based off an old-ish road atlas. According to the map, Logan, Utah had the nearest campground and looked to be a good place to stop for the night.

When we arrived, the city was so urban compared to where we had previously been that it was disconcerting. But the weather! Oh, the weather was beautiful. When we came upon the perfectly manicured, green lawn campground it was over seventy degrees outside. We pitched the tent, tossed the frisbee around and let the cats out on their leashes. We have wonderful memories of cooking hot dogs over a brick fire pit and listening to music late into the evening. Utah continually amazed us, but nothing compared to our perfect night in Logan.

Now our sweet boy bears the name of our most treasured stop. I think Don made the perfect choice.

Perspective

This map shows where we are in relation to the fires. We are safe and not anticipating evacuations. We are the green arrow on the map. The yellow areas represent mandatory evacuations. The red section is the Harris Fire. The yellow area at the top of the map is a mandatory evacuation for the Witch Fire.

The air in Point Loma (where I work) is much worse than home. The Harris Fire ash is headed that way so it is understandable. Luckily home is not getting any major haze. In the Cedar Fire the ash was raining down like snow. I have yet to see that during these fires, but I am sure those who are getting the fallout from the Witch Fire are getting hammered.

Logan is so bored from being inside and Don's school has been canceled for the rest of the week.

Hoagie did start saying please--it comes out as "pea." He said tweet today and it came out as "twee." So dang cute! And when Don was cooking something in the microwave recently he looked up at it and said "beep, beep, beep!" Also so dang cute. *melty heart*

Again.

I can not believe San Diego is burning again. We are fine and not in any danger other than the air quality, which is horrible. It smells like a very strong campfire. No ash falling from the sky yet, but I am sure it is just a matter of time. It is supposed to be hot and windy (Santa Anas this weekend and through this week) so there is no estimation as to when these fires will be contained. There are eight (!) burning in the county right now. Please send some positive thoughts to the Wild Animal Park, a fire is fast approaching and all the animals, keepers, and staff must be terribly worried and scared. There are also countless horse farms that are affected by evacuations.

I have to say that even though we are far away from the fires, I sure didn't like leaving my house this morning and sending my child off to be with someone else. I hate that Sunshine is home alone.

On a lighter note, I was reading the paper yesterday morning and Logan saw a picture of J.ennifer L.opez. He looked at her and said "Mama!" I told him that was quite a compliment. He looked earnestly up at me and said "yeah!"

Ready, set, go

Ah, so many new things in such a short time. Logan has two stools that he likes to carry around the house. The nursing stool is slanted--which makes a nice footstool, but a terrible step stool. However, it light and can be transported easily. The other stool my dad brought with him when we put in the door. It is mine from when I was little (dad made it of course). This is the superior step stool, but is heavier and just a tad too high for him to step up on easily right now. Logan carries the nursing stool into the bathroom to wash his hands and check out the sink, and pushes "my" stool over the tile floor to make mischief in the kitchen or look out the french door windows and fiddle with the door handle and deadbolt. Yesterday he climbed up onto a kitchen chair like he had been doing it his whole life. The stool moving and chair climbing show good thinking skills, but terrify me. He can reach a whole new level of stuff in our house. A VERY unbaby-proofed level I might add. I guess I should have known this was coming, but dang! I was totally caught off guard.

He also has been talking a bunch more, adding balloon (which had gone away, but now is back), backpack, and a few other words I can't think of right now. Overall it is an exciting time for the Hoagie and we are enjoying it immensely.

Here he is at a big-box hardware store, completely mesmerized by the inflatable Christmas display. It was comical how engrossed he was in the blow-up decorations, mostly because one was an airplane. Mind trip! As a side note, did anyone else notice that Christmas stuff appeared in stores last weekend like magic? All of a sudden Christmas exploded everywhere. *sigh* Too early!

Ruined rescue

My morning did not go the way I had planned. On my way to work I saw two little eyes gleaming in my headlights from the middle of a very busy road. Five lanes across, two going north, two south, and one turning lane in the middle. There was a cat (alive) in the middle lane and it was not moving. I made a u-turn and stopped next to the kitty to assess the situation. It appeared to have no external injuries, but it wasn't moving away from me and it was panting heavily. I assume it was hit by a car. I pulled out an old sling, picked up the cat, put it in the back of my car, and headed off to the local emergency vet. I really thought the cat couldn't move its hind legs, as it was pretty limp when I picked it up to transfer it to my vehicle. Can I just state again, for the record, that I thought it couldn't move? Yeah, well, I was wrong.

I pulled into the parking spot right in front of the vet's office and opened the back hatch. Damn if that cat didn't jump out of the car and head into the great unknown. This was bad for several reasons--not the least of which being that the cat was clearly injured--but mostly because the parking lot where it escaped is surrounded by another 5-lane road, an off ramp from a highway, and the highway itself. Ugh. I got a flashlight from the main desk attendant and, with his help, looked for the cat until I had searched everywhere I could access. Even dumpsters. No cat. Turns out this particular emergency vet doesn't even take stray animals, so we would have had to go to a different one, but still. I feel terrible. I can only hope the cat was stunned when I picked it up and recovered on the car ride. I hope it made it's way home. There was no collar or tag, so I don't know if it was a stray or a pet, but it seemed to be in good condition. Please send some positive thoughts to that little grey tabby, who is hopefully somewhere in our neighborhood. *sigh*

Updates

I know, I have been so. very. delinquent. My only excuse is French Doors. They are in people! They work! They look amazing! We also had lots of family in town. Family who told me (ahem, again) that my blogging frequency is, well, pathetic. I think she actually used the word pathetic. Anyway, I am back. So much has happened that I will just do a quick list for now to catch you up...

• Hand, foot, and mouth is gone! It wasn't too bad, as far as illnesses go.
• My Dad is awesome and he installed the doors with our help. We found a problem at the last minute, but Dave the Door Guy solved it last night and we will be stucco-ing soon. Like this weekend.
• We looked into screens for the new doors and one place quoted us $800 installed. Um, I don't think so. Our search continues.
• Oktoberfest was this past weekend and it was so incredibly neat. We are half a block away and it was great to be able to just pop over for a bratwurst or funnel cake (not that we did that, seeing as how those are very bad for you).
• Logan helped me put up a few Halloween decorations. He was very excited to stick stuff on the window.
• New words: done and bum. When he says bum he holds his little toosh. Very cute. He has also been calling Ms. T by her nickname. Go Logan!
• Don and I combined birthday money to buy some patio furniture for the front. We put it together and it looks great.
• My cousin stayed with us last Friday night and we had lots of fun. Logan took to her immediately. We are sad she lives so far away.
• I am going on a kick-ass girls trip in January. Hooray!!! I even booked the tickets.
• My Christmas shopping is almost done. This is a record for me.