Before I forget, a few memories from Thanksgiving. We had a great time with the Atlanta Swints. Hannah pulled Owen out of his shell, at least for the first day or two, and I think they had fun playing outside, swinging in the backyard, helping the daddies, etc. Owen got a bit naughty with not sharing toys toward the end. The babyfest was great! Lily, Graham and Asher rotated turns under what turned out to be the most exciting baby gym ever...boy they loved that light up star. Most of the weekend was spent with the grown-ups saying, 'Was that my baby? Was that yours? Who was that? Who's crying?' We discovered that it's not that easy to distinguish your own baby's cry, probably even more difficult when they're genetically-linked cousins! It was so fun to see everyone, and Galen and Melissa were absolute champs about having us there...what inconvenient timing for a trip when it ended up that they basically moved out of there house within days of our visit! The visit with the parents, Deb, Aunt Karen and Rockwell was fab. Great food, lots of coffee, better company! Owen had a great time with the plethora of toys and weather for bike and scooter-riding. It was great to have some extended family for a change! Star Trek and Ice Age were on the basement big screen and Owen enjoyed his first 'real' movie. Traveling home wasn't too bad except for the late night being a little rough on the kiddos. Oh, speaking of late night traveling. Attempting to drive while the kids are sleeping at night is NOT a mistake we are likely to make again :( I guess that works for some people. Owen slept ~1.5hrs, then was up constantly after that (remaining 4 hrs of trip) because he was uncomfy trying to sleep sitting up in a carseat...can you blame him? I felt bad about it, but now we know. Asher slept great, so I guess it could work with little babies.
Well, doing two 10 day trips spaced by only three weeks with a 2.5 and 4 month old might have been a bit ambitious. I don't think we've quite recovered from trip1 yet, and before leaving for trip2 I have to Christmas shop, attempt to do a little something around here to celebrate Christmas with the four of us at home before we leave, host a small group, dr's apptments, nap training, Deb's visiting, I'd like to clean the house this time so we don't come back to chaos, baking, planning a ski trip with friends, and that on top of the normal exhausting round of managing Owen, naps, nursing, meals and laundry. I'm sure it doesn't sound all that bad or abnormal, but with Asher not sleeping well right now, and often only 5 or 6 fractured hours for us at night it just seems like a lot. Complicating life is the fact that ever since we returned from traveling a week ago, Owen has become desperately clingy during the day--like a switch flipped--and jealous of Asher more and more. Every day now I have to put him in his crib while I give Asher 3 minutes of peace and a lullaby before putting him down for a nap or bedtime; otherwise Owen is wailing, tugging on me and begging to be held. He just went down for a nap in a blaze of tantruming because I wouldn't carry him around constantly when we got home from being out this morning. It is really weird. I fluctuate between thinking he has the sweetest heart, and then thinking he has a wickedly spoiled, nasty temperament when he orders us around constantly (and no we don't comply most of the time, and no that doesn't diminish the behavior) and throws fits when he doesn't get exactly what he wants. It's a seesaw life with this boy! I love my two boys beyond words, but it doesn't make the daily existence less trying.
Since I was just in the negative seesaw seat, I will type up my list of cute Owenisms that I've been saving up. Then I'll remember how great he can be!
After days of this newfound clinginess and trying to give him the attention he wants, but not let him think he can be carried all day:
Me: Owen, come here and let me hug you for 2 minutes.
Owen: Okay mommy.
Me (with Owen in arms): Owen, why do you need so many hugs lately?
Owen: I'm a little boy.
Owen is still getting failing grades when it comes to sharing toys. Reuel decided to teach him a coping strategy. He told Owen that when he wants another kid's toy he should go find a fun-looking toy and offer it to the kid as a trade. Well, Owen latched onto this one pretty fast. He'll attempt to trade toys for a food or drink that I've got that he wants, he'll trade Reuel for a toy, etc. A couple days ago I set a small bulldozer on Asher's exersaucer tray for him to look at while he played. A while later I notice Owen has gotten territorial about his bulldozer, but instead of just taking it, he is attempting to put a way-too-big school bus on Asher's tray while removing the bulldozer and saying, 'Here Asher, you can play with this!'
The boys and I went and picked out a tree a few days ago and set it up in the living room. That night after they were in bed Reuel and I put the lights and garlands on. When Owen came down the next morning he stood in the living room doorway and just looked at it for a while with rapt attention and said, 'Dat's beauful!'
Sometimes I 'make deals' with Owen. Probably a bad habit, who knows. For instance, 'Hey Owen. I'll make you a deal. You can read two more books and then we have to take a bath.' Once while we were in Atlanta and Owen was objecting to turning off the TV and heading for bedtime, it went something vaguely like this:
Us: Owen, it's time for a bath
Owen: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, etc.
Us: We can watch something else again tomorrow
Owen: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, etc.
Us: It's getting late Owen, we won't have time to read books if we don't take a bath
Owen: NOOOOOOOOOOO, etc.
Me: Owen, I'll make you a deal. Do 5 jumping jacks and then you can turn off the TV
Owen: [does 5 jumping jacks, turns off the TV and heads for the bath]
I did think he was a little smarter than that, but it has worked a few times for me since then. I have a feeling he's going to wise up really, really soon. There are a few moments where you really feel like there's hope for becoming a good parent...that was one of the few!
Owen thinks the word 'huge' is 'fuge'. As in, 'Wow mommy, that sock is FUGE' (looking at Aunt Liskin's knitted Christmas stockings).
Owen is starting to get parental with Asher. He imitates the tone we direct at him to Asher sometimes. Yesterday I caught him bent sideways at the waist looking at Asher in the exersaucer and saying in a schoolteachery way 'Asher, I used to play in that exersaucer when I was a baby. See that's where I spitted on it!' Later in the day he was eating a rice krispy treat and went over to Asher and said, 'Asher you can't eat this. You can just pretend.' Then he held it up to Asher's mouth while making um, um, um eating sounds.
Owen's a jumper. When he's happy and rested, you can find him jumping. The Christmas tree stand seems to be rubbing the floor or wall in such a way that when the living room floor vibrates it sounds like there's a cricket chirping. Yesterday Owen was jumping, and jumping, and jumping in the living room and said to me, 'I love to jump in this living room. I can make the living room make music!'
Me: Owen, will you hand me those apricots?
Owen: Mommy, we don't want to get cuts, that's ouchie.
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