Exercise

Owen would *never* have carried on doing all of this if he'd known I was hiding behind the living room pass-through and taping.  He has become quite a fan of doing our workout video with us.  It is hilarious!  He definitely puts more energy into it than we do :)  My favorite is when he does air punches, but unfortunately I didn't get to capture that in these clips.

http://www.vimeo.com/7655964

Breaking news...

Approximately 48 to 52 hours ago, young Asher Swint discovered his thumb.  At first it was a smacking, clumsy affair.  Unable to make a seal on the thumb and lacking some coordination, the chunklet proceeded to become very frustrated when said thumb would fall out of his mouth just as he was drifting off to sleep after waking in the middle of the night.  But he would not be dissuaded, and practiced intently until late yesterday, when he perfected his aim and stamina.  Knowing the risks of palate malformation and long-term addiction, his parents are not thrilled on the one hand, but on the other hand immensely enjoy the short-term gratification of less crying and more self-soothing at sleep periods.  Young Asher appears to enjoy this new skill immensely and can be found at many moments of the day, awake or falling asleep, sucking away. 

In related news, today marks the 2nd day of Asher's introduction to entering daytime sleep while still awake, in a crib, rather than being placed into a moving swing, already asleep.  On day 1, he was extremely unhappy about this change of plan, and his mother nearly chickened out.  However, her knowledge that there will not be a swing available all day every day on the family's upcoming vacation gave her strength to persist.  Now on day 2, Asher successfully put himself to sleep for nap#1 and nap#2 in 2 and 20 minutes, respectively.  He did not even cry very hard today, thanks to the aforementioned thumb news.  The first nap lasted only 30 minutes, but the second is shaping up to be a decent one.  Key to helping him through this transition has been a very early bedtime and relatively short intervals of wakefulness.  His mother notes that Asher had become an avowed swing addict, and previous attempts to place him in non-moving sleep sites were wildly unsuccessful.  Perhaps the combination of age, the thumb and allowing a solid hour of crying on day 1 were the necessary ingredients.

Aah.  Life has just gotten way easier!

Time Machine

I think I stepped into a time machine back around July and got out today.  I had the weirdest sensation today--sharp and hit-with-a-2x4-esque--that I have two children who have grown up enormously in the last few months, and I've hardly noticed it.  Please, oh please, let me figure out how to not have that feeling *too* strongly when these precious ones are grown and launched.  Owen is really a different kid than he was pre-Asher and when I saw Asher laughing at Owen making faces at him today I realized just how much fun he has added to our family.  Reuel and I don't seem very different...more gray hairs and less sleep, perhaps!

My big boy who can't grow up fast enough, in his own opinion...

And the happy little one (...who just like his brother gets intensely serious when there is a camera lens to examine, but unlike his brother is quite a bit more light-hearted once the camera disappears again!).  Asher wearing a hand-me-down turtleneck and sporting what I like to call the middle-aged-high-school-drama-teacher look:

New videos

For the truly committed, some new videos on Vimeo...visit link to video album on right, or click links below:

Ring My Bell
-captured a candid moment of Owen 'playing with' Asher in the kitchen

Binkytime
-nothing like a brother in a time of need...or even when you don't need.

Ineffective Discipline:  Video Tutorial part I
-how to not follow through

Afternoon with the guys
-long clip, mom and the boys just hanging out at home

Can I brag on my boy for a minute?

We went to pick up Owen from his nursery class at church today (Incidentally, I think that's just the best moment ever--picking up your toddler after a separation. There's nothing like that beaming face running toward me and happy to see me to help me feel that all the effort is worth it. Too bad kids don't keep doing that indefinitely!) . As his teacher was collecting his things for me, she brought over his coloring page with an odd furrow in her brow. Then she hands it to me and says, 'Look at this! This is unusual. I don't know, but I think this is 'something'." And when I looked at it I saw what she meant...none of the other toddlers had drawn multicolored straight-line stripes on their coat of many colors! I think the lesson materials must have had a horizontally color-blocked coat and Owen did his best to color his picture that way. I know it's in poor taste to brag about your child, but hey, it's a blog, and mostly family reading it ;) That, and whatever talent he may have in the visual arena is balanced (and possibly outweighed) by a host of other dysfunctions, especially in the social arena. This child wants nothing to do with going places where other people are, is back to throwing tantrums about going anywhere, and acts out by grabbing whatever toy another child has. Sigh. Well, maybe he's going to be some sort of deep, introverted, melancholy artist :)

Apples

Apples are a big thing in Owen's world right now.  Ever since we went apple-picking this fall and he decided he can eat the peel if eating a whole apple (slices must be peeled!), he would prefer to spend life with an apple constantly in his hand, munching on it in between the other tasks of his day.  Combine this obsession with nearing 2.5 years and becoming *extremely* independent about figuring out how to carry out any and every idea that comes into his mind, and what you get is a boy constantly opening the fridge door, fishing around for an apple, eating part of it and then abandoning it when he gets distracted playing.  And repeat.  I routinely find this scene around the house:

How can his mother let him get away with this?!, you ask, shocked and horrified.  Well, it's only been happening for about a week and I just hadn't decided to put the kibosh on it yet (with Owen, you really have to count the cost before putting down a law, because enforcing it adds a great deal of work and stress all around).  Also, I always thought I was a mom who was watching her kid pretty closely and keeping him from getting into too many destructive shenanigans, but with a new baby in tow, Owen spends a LOT more time on his own than he used to.  The fact that he is 'entertaining' himself and not whining for me is actually a really big step for him.  So maybe I'm a little soft on this because I'm just glad he's not coming in and screeching in Asher's ear while I'm trying to nap him, or yelling 'Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!' every 80 seconds, and I figure I should be grateful for the independence and not hinder it by smothering him with restrictions.  But having sticky apple residue on every surface is starting to get to me so I have enacted some legislation.

In other apple news, a conversation...

Me: [reading a book] "...I like to munch on a crisp apple."
Owen:  I like to munch on a crisp apple!  I love crisp, delicious apples!
Me:  Oh yes you do.  You eat a lot of apples Owen.
Owen:  Mmm!  [pause]  And I love to eat crisp Swedish Fish!

The Lists brought Owen an awesome bag of Halloween gifts--pez, glow bracelets, a bouncy ball, temporary tattoos, and...Swedish Fish!  He had temporarily forgotten about them, but now they are looming large in his mind again.  :)

I found Owen with Asher in the kitchen after I ran upstairs to grab something...luckily Asher still had two eyeballs intact.