Logan Family Snug

Anika's Suzuki Guitar Recital 2012 Jan 28

2012-01-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

Anika excels at another recital. Good tone, great poise, and nice use of dynamics. She also received compliments for her outfit, kudos to Jennifer who made the nifty pants!

Close encounter

2011-12-03T11:45:00.001-08:00

Anika & Rayna meet Ka, Dave's ball python.

Meadow Minuet

2011-11-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Anika's rendition of Meadow Minuet for her Suzuki Book 1 graduation recording.

Remember

2011-11-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Anika will remember, remember the 5th of November as a sparkling good time. No effigies were harmed in this particular celebration. Another fine photo by host Alex.

Rayna starts guitar lessons

2011-10-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

Rayna after four weeks of Suzuki guitar, exhibiting fine form during her lesson earlier this week at California Conservatory of Guitar. After we finished one of her daily home lessons tonight, she said "Dad, I want to learn Bach Tanz" - a song I had been helping Anika with earlier in the evening. I told her she could get there in about a year, but that we needed to finish Twinkle, Twinkle first :-)

Anika's 7th Birthday

2011-09-29T02:26:00.000-07:00

Anika tests a hoop before applying her rainbow color scheme with electrical tape

We held a hula-hoop making party for Anika's 7th Birthday. The kids loved it. Thanks to my cousin Melissa for sharing her "recipe": 100 psi 3/4" irrigation tubing, 3/4" connectors, pvc cutter, electrical tape and a hair dryer. Cut to length, heat ends, jam on connector, decorate to suit. These pictures from neighbor Alex who took much better photos than mine.

The finished products

New triple meets new house

2011-09-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

We finally unpack the Bike Friday Triple and introduce it to our new house. The inaugural trip today was rather short - four blocks to the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, many future adventures beckon.

Rayna Rides

2011-09-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Rayna rides w/o training wheels

And again!

Logans on the move

2011-07-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to soon be relocating to a home in downtown "Old Mountain View", situated on a cul-de-sac four blocks from Castro St. We will be able to walk to the library, parks, farmer's market, pool, book store, restaurants, performing arts center, and gymnastics club. Jon has a 8 block walk to the train station, where he can catch a shuttle bus to work. Neighboring houses have roughly a dozen kids aged 4-8, and great people, including some long time friends of ours. Slightly bittersweet to be leaving the house where our girls were born (literally), but really couldn't have asked for a better new situation. A modest down size in living space (long desired by Jennifer) will be accompanied by an enormous upgrade in quality of life.

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Storytime with Anika

2011-07-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Anika reads Seuss to Rayna before bedtime.

Game Day

2011-05-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

During Mom's afternoon at knitting, the girls and I enjoyed game time. Rayna always runs to get her dragon cap in order to play a Dragonborn Wizard in Wrath of Ashardalon: A D&D Boardgame. Anika prefers an Elf.

We also played Chateau Roquefort. Anika groks both games, Rayna just enjoys being part of the action. Rayna's first choice of game would probably be Dwarves&Dice or Gobblet Gobblers.

Daddy-Anika time

2011-05-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

Popcorn from the air popper: $1
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone on Blu-Ray - $9
Cheeseburgers, fries and shake @ In-And-Out - $12
Saturday afternoon date with my oldest daughter - priceless

Test Drive

2011-05-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

Test driving a Bike Friday Triple. Based upon the Logan ladies' reaction, one of these may be in our future. Thanks to the Berkeley family who let some strangers take their treasure out for a spin.

Anika's 2nd Recital: Perpetual Motion

2011-04-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

Anika's Recital, 30 April 2011

Anika rides!

2011-02-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

Anika's first ride without training wheels

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T20:22:00.000-08:00

The rainbow fairies, in new dresses made by Jennifer.

Rayna clutches a doll crocheted for her by Anika, who worked on it for months.

Favorite Photos of 2010

2010-11-27T10:36:00.001-08:00

Some of our favorite photos of 2010.

Anika's First Guitar Recital

2010-10-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

Anika performs Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Theme at the Longay Conservatory of Guitar (Oct 16, 2010).

This was after 20 weekly lessons and daily practice with Dad (who also fingers a mean Twinkle). Accompanying is Chris Mallett, her Suzuki guitar teacher.

Some subtleties of the performance for those unfamiliar with the Suzuki method:

Good posture: tall back and straight wrist
Dynamics: piano (soft) to forte (loud)
Color changes: Creating differences in tone by varying position of the right hand
Tempo: Steady pacing of the melody and followed the teacher's cues for a ritardando at the end.
Confidence: Repetition of the process of bowing, sitting properly, preparing to play and emphasis on high standards of performance during practice gave our daughter the confidence to perform in front of a good sized audience.

Suzuki Guitar Home Teacher

2010-08-03T04:07:00.001-07:00

Jon makes it onto the refrigerator. Anika loves her music lessons with Dad.

Anika & Rayna working together

2010-08-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

A little cooperation creates more fun for the girls during a Happy Hollow visit July 3 2010.

A day of firsts

2010-05-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Sun 2010 May 2) was a day of firsts

First Gilroy Gardens trip of the year.
Anika's first rides at the front of a roller coaster (Quicksilver & Timber Twister)
Anika typed her first text message (on Daddy's phone)

The girls get ready for the balloon ride.

Happy Hollow: Frog Hopper

2010-03-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Anika & Jennifer discover the mighty green machine @ Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, newly renovated for 2010

Happy Hollow carousel

2010-03-29T09:06:00.001-07:00

> Anika rides the Happy Hollow animal-themed carousel.
>

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Grrrr!

2010-03-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

Dad has just finished pretending to be a Minotaur chasing the girls in the maze at Happy Hollow. Anika & Rayna react by mimicking Dad.

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Super-Mom!

2009-10-24T20:13:00.001-07:00

Jennifer packs two kiddies after a long day @ Gilroy Gardens.

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Raynaerobics

2009-09-17T20:08:00.001-07:00

Rayna gets an early lesson in fitness

Goodbye, Roooooby Tuesday

2009-09-17T20:06:00.001-07:00

The Logan ladies take on the Stones

Chop!

2009-09-07T10:44:00.001-07:00

My dad, for one, will never believe I was splitting logs without documentary evidence, so here it is.

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Uh-oh!

2009-09-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

I caught Rayna at the end of this adventure, so it's a little hard to tell what she's up to. She had gotten some toilet paper, wet it, and was ripping chunks off and chucking them at the mirror. Good fun!

Anika's First Swim

2009-08-11T23:37:00.001-07:00

Anika's first swim without a swim vest.

TiVo Family BBQ 2009

2009-08-09T15:50:00.001-07:00

Anika & Rayna get their faces painted at TiVo's annual barbeque Aug 4, 2009. Other highlights were parrots, Dad test-riding a Segway, and an enormous slide.

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Curious George

2009-08-01T16:57:00.001-07:00

Anika & Rayna enjoyed the Curious George exhibit with Dad today @ the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. After this picture was taken, Anika whispered to Daddy: "It's just a person dressed in a Curious George costume". Yes, Anika is very curious!

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First week in NY

2008-06-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

One of the things we did at the beginning of our stay was go to a local place called the "Sandbox" which is basically an indoor play area for the kids with play cars, houses, dress-up, bouncy houses, "sand" box, etc, etc.

I love this shot of Anika fresh down the slide, cheeks all flushed from all the running and jumping (I tried, unsuccessfully, to get rid of the red-eye)

There was an under-2 area that Benjamin and Rayna enjoyed.

Rayna loved the little bouncy house in there!

Auden getting ready to zoom down the roller-coaster (at one point I got on one, too, and we raced. :)

Anika playing air-hockey with Uncle Illy.

Rayna finally gave in to her exhaustion.

This shot gives you a little perspective on her choice of napping spots. She was one tired cookie!

A few shots from our camping trip to Keuka Lake state Park...

Spectacular miss

2008-06-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

About a week ago we went over to the house we are now renting to meet the owners, have dinner with them, get a tour of the house, etc. At one point I realized Rayna was wet and took her to the potty (for those that don't know, we practice EC... if you don't know what that is, or want to know more you can check out http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/). As is my practice, I went to pull down her pants and trainers together with one hand while cradling her in my other arm. Partway through that maneuver I realized that she had actually pooped in her pants, not just peed. So I pulled her pants back up, stood her up and had her hold on to the edge of the toilet while I tried to carefully pull down only the (brand new, freshly lanolized) longies so as not to soil them. I was actually successful at this part and even managed to (mostly) keep her from reaching in and playing with the toilet water at the same time. Then the fun began...

I pulled down her trainers, trying to minimize the spread of poo down the legs (futile effort), and once they were off picked her up and held her over the sink to wash her off. Got the water warm... getting all clean... all of a sudden I realize she's hyperventilating a little, shaking, and looking very distressed- cues that I've come to know as "I really, REALLY have to go!!"- and I remembered that I had never offered to potty her. Oops!

Shifting the way I was holding her, I headed for the toilet just as a stream of poo came shooting out of her like a high-pressure hose. We get to the toilet... and there's a reducer on it. I can't aim her in the tiny hole the way I was holding her, so I try to turn around to get her on it the other way. After she was done I took her back to the sink for round two of clean-up and then put her on the floor as far away from the mess as I could and began yelling for Jon. Turns out he was on a conference call for work. He shows up at the door to the bathroom and (not knowing the circus that has been going on inside) asks nonchalantly, "Do you need help? Do you want me to get Andrew?" I'm not sure what I answered, but my brother showed up a few minutes later and I asked him to take Rayna and get some pants on her, please.

Once she was out of the room I turned to cleaning up the floor... toilet seat... reducer... sink. When I bent down to wipe up the floor I noticed that there was poo all down the front of my carrier (and of course it's the only one I have with me and we're leaving to go camping the next morning). I moved to get the carrier off and found that it was also all down the arm of my sweater. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I took off my sweater, too and tried to rinse off that and the carrier in the sink. Then I rifled around under the sink, found some Pine-sol and scrubbed the bathroom.

Not really the way to impress our hosts. Jon and my brothers and sisters all cracked up when I recounted the events to them. None of them had any idea that this was going on, and they said they doubted our hosts did, either (although they threatened to show them this post if I blogged about it :)

Recent Pictures

2008-05-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

Anika and Ruby on the big slide at a street fair in town

Anika getting brave on the spider web at the park (usually she stands on the bottom and bounces up and down). She's the one in the middle.

Rayna loving the banana peel she scrounged

Anika and Ruby saying good-bye. We went out to dinner at Chevy's to squeeze every last possible moment out of the last day we would see the Bradfords until our return home in July.

An Apple a day...

2008-05-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

So we are trying to get through the never-ending list of things do to before heading out on our big trip. One of my errands today was to go to the Apple store and finally get the recalled (or so we thought) battery replaced. When we arrived- me, Rayna strapped on my back, and Anika- I explained what I needed. The woman I asked turned to a co-worker and asked if he knew how to do it. He said that I would need to have that done at the "Genius Bar" and that you need an appointment for that. I asked how to go about making an appointment, and when I could get it done. He said there were five people in front of me and the wait would be 45 min to an hour. I said that was fine. He seemed to be a bit surprised at that and after trying unsuccessfully to get me to make another choice he took my name and email address (not sure how that would help them since I was physically in the store and they had my computer...?). I asked if I needed to wait in the store or if I could walk around outside with the kids (there's an awesome toy store about a block away and I figured we could easily pass an hour there). He again seemed a little flustered so I said we would just wait there. He started to ask if I could carry my computer with me, but thought better of it when he noticed how loaded down I was already and said he would hold on to it.

Anika and I began wandering through the aisles looking at random ipod accessories until Rayna got a bit fussy. I found the quietest place I could (in the back corner by the software boxes) and took her off my back to nurse. Of course then Anika wanted to, too. Rayna was excited to be free and began pulling boxes off the shelves and trying to eat them, so she won a trip back on my back, much to her dismay. We then went over to the children's area and I tried to help Anika with the demo games. Over the Genius Bar there is a display where they occasionally post the list of names of who they are going to help next. They list 12 at a time, and I noticed that my name wasn't on it. I said something about that to the man who originally helped us. He said that my name wouldn't be up there, that I was essentially like on stand-by at the airport. They had to help the people who had appointments, but they would try to fit me in somewhere. That sounded a whole lot different to me than "There are five people in front of you and the wait will be about an hour" especially considering that it also said on that same board that the next available appointment was at 5:15 pm (we got there at about 9:30 am). I must have looked particularly distressed because he said that he understood my situation (meaning being there with two small children) and would mention it to the powers that be. (This man really was very helpful... as much as he could be, anyhow. He even figured out how to make the demo computers louder when I was having trouble hearing them to help Anika. I'm not sure the rest of the store appreciated the Dora theme at that level, but... :)

By this point Anika is starting to get a bit crabby and I couldn't help her a whole lot with the programs because she was down at this low table and I had Rayna on me. Rayna, for her part, had had it and was getting more active and vocal... and not in a good way. Finally I took her off my back and sat at another of the low stools at the computer next to Anika's with Rayna on my lap. She began drooling on the table and banging on the keyboard, screeching in utter delight. Wouldn't you know it, within about five minutes they had time to fit me in! Coincidence? You decide. :)

Fun With Spelling

2008-05-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

Anika loves playing with words- learning how to spell, rhyme, etc. Today we were on the way home and she said, "Let's do Christmas tree." I asked if she wanted to figure out how to spell tree. She replied, "Christmas tree" rather emphatically. I told her that "Christmas" was a bit tricky, but we worked through it. Then I asked her to try tree. She said that she knew how it started- "c". I was perplexed because she really is very good with her letters and I thought this would be a gimme. As I started to say no, she came out with "h?", a little less sure of herself this time. That's when the lightbulb went on for me. All this time she has thought that the word was "ch-ree" and really, if you say "ch ree" and "tree" out loud, they pretty much sound the same. I was trying to explain to Anika how fascinating I thought this was (in addition to the fact that I was impressed that she understood the concept of "ch"), and how interesting it would be as she learned to read that some words might not be what she thought they were. She replied, giggling, "Yeah, like I could make cat A-C-T." Obviously that's not quite what I meant, but I was once again impressed that she was comfortable enough with the spelling of "cat" that she would mix it up and make a joke of it (such as it was).

Launching the Logan Family Snug

2008-05-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Logan Family Snug!

As Jon put it, the peer pressure to get a blog was overwhelming now that both sets of siblings are posting that way. I figured that since I stink at getting picture updates out, this might be a way that I can keep up. Plus, since I also stink at baby books, scrapbooks, journaling, or anything of the sort, it may be a way to keep memories alive for us as well.

As for the name, oftentimes when Anika sees Jon and I hugging she will excitedly ask for a "family snug" (her shorthand for "snuggle"), whereby Jon and I will pick her up together and we'll all enjoy a few moments of pure happiness.

So, welcome. I hope you enjoy your peek inside our snug.