Sick day
Owen was sick again today, no urping, but fever and malaise. We noticed that we've never had such an experience of a compliant child until today...so it was fever-induced lethargy...parts of it were heaven! We went out and about and ran some errands instead of church, and he wasn't SO ill that we shouldn't be doing that, but enough that he just sort of went along for the ride instead of trying to run the show as usual :) Further evidence: after a 1.25 hr nap that started when he let me pat his little head while he fell asleep, he woke accidentally (noise in the house) and was screaming very discontentedly; I went and picked him up and he slept another hour in my arms in the rocking chair. WOW. This has never happened before, at least not since about 3 months old.
I sat down to record tonight's bathtime laugh. Owen has this dreadful 'condition' called molluscum contagiosum...it's some sort of virus that is very commonly passed in young children, and it results in small wartlike thingies that spread very easily. Owen started with one little spot on his back, and now he's covered in probably 40 little spots, all on his torso. At least they are hidden for everyday life. They are flesh-colored, and don't cause him any problem; they just look atrocious! Well, tonight Owen noticed one on his side/mid-tummy for the first time. He started peering down at it and examining. He touched it and came over to me and said, 'nipple!'. I said something like no, silly, that's not a nipple, here's your nipples, and showed him the right spots. So he said, 'li'l nipple!' and pointed back at the molluscum bump. I thought it was pretty funny, but then again I spend all day with a 22 month old and Reuel has been working late all week so it's just been me and little man. So the sense of humor may be in an altered state :P
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
I feel like it will be hard to forget last night, but I'm sure I will someday, so I want to record some of it. Feel free to turn away, readers who are squeamish of stomach.
I had a pretty nasty bug that hit me in the lower GI a couple of days ago now and it made for a rather miserable and sleepless 36 hours. I thought maybe I had eaten something bad. Then, last night I heard crying on the monitor, and boy am I glad I looked to see what that was about...I saw Owen sit up and then urp all over himself and his crib...oh no!! He's never thrown up before last night. We rushed to action to reassure him, clean him up and clean up the bed. He was a sweetheart about the whole thing; he was almost intrigued by this new experience, of course exploring his face and jammies and the mess in the bed with his hands (double yuck!) and then he just wanted to cuddle after we got him cleaned up. It seemed to have subsided, so after some rocking and singing I put him back to bed and attempted to leave the room (we have had *really* bad luck with the child refusing to close his eyes as long as we are in the room with him, so even though leaving makes him cry for a bit, it's often better), but Reuel thought this time we should stay with him. Daddy was right, he was urping again within a few minutes. The sheets and jammies routine, take 2. 15 more minutes, take 3. You'd think we'd have figured out not to change them so quickly by now. But you just have this feeling of powerlessness and without having talked to each other at all, I know that Reuel and I were just in action mode trying to help little man as much as we could, even if it was just changing his sheets over and over! After take 3, Reuel managed to get to bed and catch some zzz's and after one or two more episodes that happened on my lap rather than the bed, I got Owen back to sleep...I got him to not cry as I left the room by telling him I was going potty and I would be back, so go ahead and lay down while I go potty. It was a white lie for his benefit. I saw him sit up for a minute waiting for me, and then he fell over exhausted and went to sleep...for about an hour. I woke to hysterical screaming (I was OUT, having not slept more than a couple of hours the night before due to my own viral manifestations) that may have been going on for a while. Yup, more throwing up and Owen getting really upset about it at this point. I went in and he looked at me as if to say, 'Why is this happening mommy?' and I just felt so devastated. It made me realize in an instant what mothers of truly sick children must go through...it's so hard for me to even see him a little sick. He had a working vocabulary of the night's events by now, so he was saying 'towel, towel, towel!' and 'wipe, wipe, wipe!' and 'dirty, dirty!', wanting to get cleaned up. Reuel didn't wake, and I didn't have the heart to invite him to the party, and I was not about to go to the basement myself and get the earlier laundry and try to change the bed, etc. So, now-experienced parent of sick child rudely put a couple of blankets over the wet spot in the crib, mopped up the jammies (not too bad this time, not much in his stomach!) and spent a good long time rocking and chilling. We made it through 3 or 4 more urp sessions. Owen was getting really tired of it and frustrated by the end when it wasn't very productive and just involved a lot of gagging. I gave him some water despite knowing it would probably come back up and he gratefully gulped it down. We finally made it to sleep for the rest of the night by about 1:30am. I laid down on the floor next to the crib and that was the trick to Owen not getting upset about me leaving, but being able to close his eyes and actually drift off. It was hard to believe, but he woke at his normal hour, happy as a lark. When I came downstairs to meet Owen and Reuel this morning, Owen reminded me of last night's 'trowup' happenings and the 'tauw' (towels) that are 'doo-ty'. I know it could have been worse, and I'm very grateful it wasn't. I think we are really spoiled that we hadn't experienced anything like this until now...:O
I had a pretty nasty bug that hit me in the lower GI a couple of days ago now and it made for a rather miserable and sleepless 36 hours. I thought maybe I had eaten something bad. Then, last night I heard crying on the monitor, and boy am I glad I looked to see what that was about...I saw Owen sit up and then urp all over himself and his crib...oh no!! He's never thrown up before last night. We rushed to action to reassure him, clean him up and clean up the bed. He was a sweetheart about the whole thing; he was almost intrigued by this new experience, of course exploring his face and jammies and the mess in the bed with his hands (double yuck!) and then he just wanted to cuddle after we got him cleaned up. It seemed to have subsided, so after some rocking and singing I put him back to bed and attempted to leave the room (we have had *really* bad luck with the child refusing to close his eyes as long as we are in the room with him, so even though leaving makes him cry for a bit, it's often better), but Reuel thought this time we should stay with him. Daddy was right, he was urping again within a few minutes. The sheets and jammies routine, take 2. 15 more minutes, take 3. You'd think we'd have figured out not to change them so quickly by now. But you just have this feeling of powerlessness and without having talked to each other at all, I know that Reuel and I were just in action mode trying to help little man as much as we could, even if it was just changing his sheets over and over! After take 3, Reuel managed to get to bed and catch some zzz's and after one or two more episodes that happened on my lap rather than the bed, I got Owen back to sleep...I got him to not cry as I left the room by telling him I was going potty and I would be back, so go ahead and lay down while I go potty. It was a white lie for his benefit. I saw him sit up for a minute waiting for me, and then he fell over exhausted and went to sleep...for about an hour. I woke to hysterical screaming (I was OUT, having not slept more than a couple of hours the night before due to my own viral manifestations) that may have been going on for a while. Yup, more throwing up and Owen getting really upset about it at this point. I went in and he looked at me as if to say, 'Why is this happening mommy?' and I just felt so devastated. It made me realize in an instant what mothers of truly sick children must go through...it's so hard for me to even see him a little sick. He had a working vocabulary of the night's events by now, so he was saying 'towel, towel, towel!' and 'wipe, wipe, wipe!' and 'dirty, dirty!', wanting to get cleaned up. Reuel didn't wake, and I didn't have the heart to invite him to the party, and I was not about to go to the basement myself and get the earlier laundry and try to change the bed, etc. So, now-experienced parent of sick child rudely put a couple of blankets over the wet spot in the crib, mopped up the jammies (not too bad this time, not much in his stomach!) and spent a good long time rocking and chilling. We made it through 3 or 4 more urp sessions. Owen was getting really tired of it and frustrated by the end when it wasn't very productive and just involved a lot of gagging. I gave him some water despite knowing it would probably come back up and he gratefully gulped it down. We finally made it to sleep for the rest of the night by about 1:30am. I laid down on the floor next to the crib and that was the trick to Owen not getting upset about me leaving, but being able to close his eyes and actually drift off. It was hard to believe, but he woke at his normal hour, happy as a lark. When I came downstairs to meet Owen and Reuel this morning, Owen reminded me of last night's 'trowup' happenings and the 'tauw' (towels) that are 'doo-ty'. I know it could have been worse, and I'm very grateful it wasn't. I think we are really spoiled that we hadn't experienced anything like this until now...:O
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Fun!
We had a great time going to the aquarium with Nathan and Sara yesterday...on their membership pass for free, no less! Owen is a fanatical fan of fishies (whee-shees) whether in books, at Petsmart, or in the pediatrician's office, and as expected he exploded in squeals of delight and faux run-on sentences at his excited high pitch when he saw the first giant whee-shee tank. He especially liked the tropical tank with bright colored specimens, and the touch-tank where he could handle (aka attempt marineicide) the sea stars and horshoe crab also ranked highly. He liked the penguins (peh-buens) , but was more fascinated by the aquarium staff cleaning their rock formations than by the peh-buens themselves. The black light near the top level that caused his white sleeves to glow was a major hit, and he would run in and out of the light to see the effect. The sea lions, my personal favorite, didn't hold his attention for a moment. Pictures below!
Owen is getting fantastically good with his letters, almost as good as with numbers. These early reading skills are confusing, now that I see them through his eyes. How do you know when O is zero or the letter O, a capital L looks like a 7 upside down, and turn over a capital U and it's a small n. Not to mention colons and semicolons share so much with lowercase i that they get labeled as such routinely. Owen's favorite letter activity right now is to play with his bathtub letters...stick them to the tub walls, to his tummy, identify them all as they float around him in the tub like he's in a giant bowl of alphabet soup. We have had extremely educational baths lately! Baths had been the source of major tantrums until I discovered the concept of transitioning upstairs with an object. It goes like this: 1. Carefully avoid using the word bathtime. Don't mention that it's coming, don't mention why you might want to go upstairs. 2. Say, "Owen, what do you want to take upstairs tonight? Should we take a book or a toy?" 3. Having bypassed the concept of quitting playing, Owen excitedly hunts his object of choice and happily heads for the stairs on his own and practically jumps in the bath. I am amazed at the enormous impact of subtle changes in language choices. Now I just have to remember to take something from his room downstairs every night because it's getting rather crowded up there!
The little man has started climbing much more lately...that wasn't one of his top skills for quite a while, but he's getting better, which is somewhat harder on me :) He has really grasped the concept of using a stool to help him get a leg up to where he wants to be. He hasn't really grasped what makes a stool functional . So, sometimes he'll go and grab a newspaper, or a dish towel and put it on the ground and attempt to use it as a stool...umm, need a little more than 1/2" elevation there Owen. Of course, he has about 4 useful stools scattered around the house that he knows how to go and get, but he is like his mother in this way. Why put in the effort to getting the 'right' tool when there might be something within arm's reach that I can use instead to get the job done? Reuel and I have labeled this ATT (available tool theory) in the kitchen, where I shun as many extraneous, cluttersome gadgets as is reasonable, and this is no doubt the root of why I can remember flossing my teeth when I was a kid with strands of my hair after eating popcorn rather than going and getting floss that was 3 rooms away. Gross!
Vocabulary is pretty much impossible to catalog these days because it's exploded too much. But there are a lot of funny and cute usages that pop up during our days. Owen has taken to saying 'Later!' when someone is leaving (including Daddy in the morning). His use of the affirmative 'uh-huuuh' in response to questions is ubiquitous. At night before putting on pj's we put 'grease' (aquaphor ointment) on his dry skin spots including his 'bummie' by his request, and he makes eye contact with me, uses very serious eyes and reminds me to use only a 'li'l bit mommy'. (We just bought the jar of ointment with a wide-neck opening rather than the tube, and there were a few incidents where Owen got more than a li'l bit.)
Oh, there's so much to write. But enough for now!
The giant sea tank with rays, sharks, fish, sea turtles (one which is 560 lbs!)
Both boys liked finding brass penguins around the aquarium
Chatting about the specimens
Sea lion tank outside.
We had a great time going to the aquarium with Nathan and Sara yesterday...on their membership pass for free, no less! Owen is a fanatical fan of fishies (whee-shees) whether in books, at Petsmart, or in the pediatrician's office, and as expected he exploded in squeals of delight and faux run-on sentences at his excited high pitch when he saw the first giant whee-shee tank. He especially liked the tropical tank with bright colored specimens, and the touch-tank where he could handle (aka attempt marineicide) the sea stars and horshoe crab also ranked highly. He liked the penguins (peh-buens) , but was more fascinated by the aquarium staff cleaning their rock formations than by the peh-buens themselves. The black light near the top level that caused his white sleeves to glow was a major hit, and he would run in and out of the light to see the effect. The sea lions, my personal favorite, didn't hold his attention for a moment. Pictures below!
Owen is getting fantastically good with his letters, almost as good as with numbers. These early reading skills are confusing, now that I see them through his eyes. How do you know when O is zero or the letter O, a capital L looks like a 7 upside down, and turn over a capital U and it's a small n. Not to mention colons and semicolons share so much with lowercase i that they get labeled as such routinely. Owen's favorite letter activity right now is to play with his bathtub letters...stick them to the tub walls, to his tummy, identify them all as they float around him in the tub like he's in a giant bowl of alphabet soup. We have had extremely educational baths lately! Baths had been the source of major tantrums until I discovered the concept of transitioning upstairs with an object. It goes like this: 1. Carefully avoid using the word bathtime. Don't mention that it's coming, don't mention why you might want to go upstairs. 2. Say, "Owen, what do you want to take upstairs tonight? Should we take a book or a toy?" 3. Having bypassed the concept of quitting playing, Owen excitedly hunts his object of choice and happily heads for the stairs on his own and practically jumps in the bath. I am amazed at the enormous impact of subtle changes in language choices. Now I just have to remember to take something from his room downstairs every night because it's getting rather crowded up there!
The little man has started climbing much more lately...that wasn't one of his top skills for quite a while, but he's getting better, which is somewhat harder on me :) He has really grasped the concept of using a stool to help him get a leg up to where he wants to be. He hasn't really grasped what makes a stool functional . So, sometimes he'll go and grab a newspaper, or a dish towel and put it on the ground and attempt to use it as a stool...umm, need a little more than 1/2" elevation there Owen. Of course, he has about 4 useful stools scattered around the house that he knows how to go and get, but he is like his mother in this way. Why put in the effort to getting the 'right' tool when there might be something within arm's reach that I can use instead to get the job done? Reuel and I have labeled this ATT (available tool theory) in the kitchen, where I shun as many extraneous, cluttersome gadgets as is reasonable, and this is no doubt the root of why I can remember flossing my teeth when I was a kid with strands of my hair after eating popcorn rather than going and getting floss that was 3 rooms away. Gross!
Vocabulary is pretty much impossible to catalog these days because it's exploded too much. But there are a lot of funny and cute usages that pop up during our days. Owen has taken to saying 'Later!' when someone is leaving (including Daddy in the morning). His use of the affirmative 'uh-huuuh' in response to questions is ubiquitous. At night before putting on pj's we put 'grease' (aquaphor ointment) on his dry skin spots including his 'bummie' by his request, and he makes eye contact with me, uses very serious eyes and reminds me to use only a 'li'l bit mommy'. (We just bought the jar of ointment with a wide-neck opening rather than the tube, and there were a few incidents where Owen got more than a li'l bit.)
Oh, there's so much to write. But enough for now!
The giant sea tank with rays, sharks, fish, sea turtles (one which is 560 lbs!)
Both boys liked finding brass penguins around the aquarium
Chatting about the specimens
Sea lion tank outside.
Friday, March 6, 2009
We had two lovely midweek lunches with Reuel's Aunt Molly during her recent visit to the great barren north, and this week we went to Chuck E. Cheese (Duck-ee! in Owenese) after our scrumptious bowl of soup and panini at Panera. What a treat. Owen enjoyed himself thoroughly, although for the first time he was quite intimidated by the thought of getting close to the giant, tacky, mechanized, singing creatures. I have always been surprised that he wasn't more upset by them in the past. I guess the previous visits when he was littler when mommy would use the tokens to play skee-ball stuck with Owen because he was very excited to find the 'balls!' and throw them around the room (rather than up the ramp). Aunt Molly helped him figure it out. He also discovered the slide and said a hearty 'Whee!' each time he flew down.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Precious Moments
More language ability means more adorableness in general. Unfortunately I forget to jot down a note about most of the cute episodes, but here are a few recent ones.
Owen loves sledding. When we're outside he'll plop himself down on the sled onto his belly and say, "Fas! (fast)". Daddy taught him this...Reuel proceeds to run, pulling the sled behind him, and then stops and whips the sled around 180 degrees and Owen feels some G's...he's learned to hold on (rather than getting thrown off as happened the first two times!) and he shrieks in excitement. He loves it! Once the sled stops Owen says, "Good! Good!" and braces himself for the next round.
Sometimes when Owen puts on a hat, his kid-sized work earmuffs, a pair of googles or glasses (he loves dressing up in all of these things), he'll look at me and say, "Cool." As in...Mom, I am so cool.
Owen is better able to answer yes/no questions now about what he wants/doesn't want and this sometimes helps to evade potential tantrums. Lately, whenever his answer to a question is yes, he says, 'Mmmm' or 'Nnnn' while modulating the tone of his voice quite dramatically. Owen, would you like to go to the library? 'nnNNNnn' Did you have fun playing with your friend? 'MMMmmmMMM!' It's time for a bath. 'No WAY!!' Would you like to have a bubble bath? 'nnNNNN!' It's hard to write the sounds, but you can imagine.
I found Owen in the kitchen yesterday, up on his stool, butter knife in hand, standing in front of the butter dish and surrounded by the shreds of a wrapper from a stick of butter. He had fished a new stick out of the fridge, unpeeled every last bit of paper, put the stick on the butter dish, and had thoroughly stabbed it with the butter knife. When I found him he looked up at me and shouted, 'Buh-ber! Owen!', while poking himself in the chest with his greasy fingers. Yep.
In the crib today for a nap, and soon without pants, Owen spent the majority of his 'naptime' talking. At one point he sounded a lot like an airline stewardess saying, 'Hi! Hiyee! Hiya! Hi! Hello! Helloooow! Hi! Hi! Hiiiiyee!' followed by 'No way! No! No! No Wayyyyy! Hi! Bye! Bye Bye! Hi! Nope! See ya!' and then a round of counting from 1 to 9. It's tough to be stuck in your crib with no toys.
Today I had my first experience with my child sharing a little bit about his day with me, unprompted. We went to our mom's program at a local church, where Owen spends about 1.5 hrs in the toddler nursery. He dislikes going very much, but lately seems to have had a fair time once I go to pick him up. I told him how proud I was of him for playing like a big boy, and asked if he had a good time, sang some songs, played with toys, etc., then we got in the car. About 15 minutes into our trip home, having been quiet the whole time just listening to a CD, Owen starts to talk...
Owen: "Guhl (girl)"
Amy: Girl. Was there a girl in the nursery today? Did you play with the girls and boys, Owen? It's fun to play with friends.
Owen: "nnnNNN. Guhl. [pause] Pull."
Amy: Pull? Did you play with toys? Did you throw some balls?
Owen: "Pull. Pull. Eya (hair)"
Amy: [looks in rear view and sees Owen gently tugging his own hair] Did you pull the girl's hair, Owen?
Owen: "nnNNNnn."
Amy: [restraining snickers; normally horrified, but amused by this retelling] Owen, that's a no-no. Remember we can give hugs, or kisses or high fives or we can share toys together but no pulling hair. You gave her an ouchie and made her cry! We need to play nice with the girl!
Owen: "Pull! Guhl."
Aye, aye, aye. The saga continues. I was just beginning to think that he only did this around me and it was about getting my attention. I guess it's bigger than that. Little girl hair is especially appealing, but Owen is fairly equal opportunity about his victims. Sigh. In any case, I was thoroughly amused and in love with my little man sharing his experiences with me. Now begins the struggle to restrain my instantaneously reactionary nature!
More language ability means more adorableness in general. Unfortunately I forget to jot down a note about most of the cute episodes, but here are a few recent ones.
Owen loves sledding. When we're outside he'll plop himself down on the sled onto his belly and say, "Fas! (fast)". Daddy taught him this...Reuel proceeds to run, pulling the sled behind him, and then stops and whips the sled around 180 degrees and Owen feels some G's...he's learned to hold on (rather than getting thrown off as happened the first two times!) and he shrieks in excitement. He loves it! Once the sled stops Owen says, "Good! Good!" and braces himself for the next round.
Sometimes when Owen puts on a hat, his kid-sized work earmuffs, a pair of googles or glasses (he loves dressing up in all of these things), he'll look at me and say, "Cool." As in...Mom, I am so cool.
Owen is better able to answer yes/no questions now about what he wants/doesn't want and this sometimes helps to evade potential tantrums. Lately, whenever his answer to a question is yes, he says, 'Mmmm' or 'Nnnn' while modulating the tone of his voice quite dramatically. Owen, would you like to go to the library? 'nnNNNnn' Did you have fun playing with your friend? 'MMMmmmMMM!' It's time for a bath. 'No WAY!!' Would you like to have a bubble bath? 'nnNNNN!' It's hard to write the sounds, but you can imagine.
I found Owen in the kitchen yesterday, up on his stool, butter knife in hand, standing in front of the butter dish and surrounded by the shreds of a wrapper from a stick of butter. He had fished a new stick out of the fridge, unpeeled every last bit of paper, put the stick on the butter dish, and had thoroughly stabbed it with the butter knife. When I found him he looked up at me and shouted, 'Buh-ber! Owen!', while poking himself in the chest with his greasy fingers. Yep.
In the crib today for a nap, and soon without pants, Owen spent the majority of his 'naptime' talking. At one point he sounded a lot like an airline stewardess saying, 'Hi! Hiyee! Hiya! Hi! Hello! Helloooow! Hi! Hi! Hiiiiyee!' followed by 'No way! No! No! No Wayyyyy! Hi! Bye! Bye Bye! Hi! Nope! See ya!' and then a round of counting from 1 to 9. It's tough to be stuck in your crib with no toys.
Today I had my first experience with my child sharing a little bit about his day with me, unprompted. We went to our mom's program at a local church, where Owen spends about 1.5 hrs in the toddler nursery. He dislikes going very much, but lately seems to have had a fair time once I go to pick him up. I told him how proud I was of him for playing like a big boy, and asked if he had a good time, sang some songs, played with toys, etc., then we got in the car. About 15 minutes into our trip home, having been quiet the whole time just listening to a CD, Owen starts to talk...
Owen: "Guhl (girl)"
Amy: Girl. Was there a girl in the nursery today? Did you play with the girls and boys, Owen? It's fun to play with friends.
Owen: "nnnNNN. Guhl. [pause] Pull."
Amy: Pull? Did you play with toys? Did you throw some balls?
Owen: "Pull. Pull. Eya (hair)"
Amy: [looks in rear view and sees Owen gently tugging his own hair] Did you pull the girl's hair, Owen?
Owen: "nnNNNnn."
Amy: [restraining snickers; normally horrified, but amused by this retelling] Owen, that's a no-no. Remember we can give hugs, or kisses or high fives or we can share toys together but no pulling hair. You gave her an ouchie and made her cry! We need to play nice with the girl!
Owen: "Pull! Guhl."
Aye, aye, aye. The saga continues. I was just beginning to think that he only did this around me and it was about getting my attention. I guess it's bigger than that. Little girl hair is especially appealing, but Owen is fairly equal opportunity about his victims. Sigh. In any case, I was thoroughly amused and in love with my little man sharing his experiences with me. Now begins the struggle to restrain my instantaneously reactionary nature!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Owen is providing plenty of midday entertainment as usual up in his crib via video monitor. Right now he is pulling his hands in and out of his sleeves saying 'in! out!' and then making himself laugh when he waves hello with his hands in the sleeves. That is funny stuff! Next it appears he is moving onto pooh bear lovey kissing dumbo lovey (they have a history of such brazen PDA) and Mr. Big Bear getting put down in the crib corner and told to take a nap.
Little man's vocabulary has skyrocketed lately, and even more noticeably his pronunciation is really starting to improve. He is starting to self-correct words that he has mispronounced for a long time (e.g., ah-no used to be his word for all done, and now if he catches himself saying ah-no, he'll quickly say 'all [pause] Dun!'). He has also corrected his own name, which used to be oh-oh, and now says 'o-WEN!', with passion and frequency! There are still some entrenched words that don't show signs of changing soon...ee-oh for orange and ee-moh for airplane. But I would be sad if there were no more baby words, so I don't challenge him on those ;) Owen almost constantly narrates the world around him when just he and I are together...add more people and he quickly gets quiet, at least until he has warmed up to them.
Ever since nunu (Grandma Spain) sent him a pack of videos about numbers, letters, colors and shapes, Owen has really been learning a lot of preschool info. The world has come alive with letters! Wow, everywhere we go there are letters to identify! This started out (and still is) very cute behavior, but even his proud mommy tires of getting yelled at in her ear while walking into the grocery store, 'Mama! Mama! Tee! Ess! Tee! Mama! Mama!' Owen hasn't really picked up on those social rules of playing it cool in public, and is just as loud and animated as we walk down the aisle...O! M! A! Three! Four! Five! He gets some sideways glances, but mostly lots of grins from grandma-types :)
We went to the indoor playground last week, and showing off has become a major behavior-motivating factor. Owen was very pleased to sit on the bouncy-thingy and show all the other kids that he knew how to make it bounce by himself. He also wanted to play with/near other kids a lot more than he has before...as long as it didn't involve sharing. Sharing is still Not Fun around here. But knocking over blocks together or throwing balls out of the ball pit together is starting to have some appeal. At least maybe he's not a complete antisocial hair-pulling psychopath... :)
Well, this isn't very exciting material, just some notes. Pictures below of Owen's current favorite outside gear (he pretty much dresses himself and announces he wants to go outside) and dipping into the peaches covered in sugar and cinnamon before they went into the pie crust.
Little man's vocabulary has skyrocketed lately, and even more noticeably his pronunciation is really starting to improve. He is starting to self-correct words that he has mispronounced for a long time (e.g., ah-no used to be his word for all done, and now if he catches himself saying ah-no, he'll quickly say 'all [pause] Dun!'). He has also corrected his own name, which used to be oh-oh, and now says 'o-WEN!', with passion and frequency! There are still some entrenched words that don't show signs of changing soon...ee-oh for orange and ee-moh for airplane. But I would be sad if there were no more baby words, so I don't challenge him on those ;) Owen almost constantly narrates the world around him when just he and I are together...add more people and he quickly gets quiet, at least until he has warmed up to them.
Ever since nunu (Grandma Spain) sent him a pack of videos about numbers, letters, colors and shapes, Owen has really been learning a lot of preschool info. The world has come alive with letters! Wow, everywhere we go there are letters to identify! This started out (and still is) very cute behavior, but even his proud mommy tires of getting yelled at in her ear while walking into the grocery store, 'Mama! Mama! Tee! Ess! Tee! Mama! Mama!' Owen hasn't really picked up on those social rules of playing it cool in public, and is just as loud and animated as we walk down the aisle...O! M! A! Three! Four! Five! He gets some sideways glances, but mostly lots of grins from grandma-types :)
We went to the indoor playground last week, and showing off has become a major behavior-motivating factor. Owen was very pleased to sit on the bouncy-thingy and show all the other kids that he knew how to make it bounce by himself. He also wanted to play with/near other kids a lot more than he has before...as long as it didn't involve sharing. Sharing is still Not Fun around here. But knocking over blocks together or throwing balls out of the ball pit together is starting to have some appeal. At least maybe he's not a complete antisocial hair-pulling psychopath... :)
Well, this isn't very exciting material, just some notes. Pictures below of Owen's current favorite outside gear (he pretty much dresses himself and announces he wants to go outside) and dipping into the peaches covered in sugar and cinnamon before they went into the pie crust.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
February Fun
Owen as beauty commando. Little man loves my hairband and wears it around the house whenever he finds it.
Showing his well-roundedness, he also adores the jr. tool belt given to us by friends, and filled with real, metallic, miniature tools. The coffee table now falls into the 'rustic' furniture category. Oops.
When it is very quiet, I can often accurately predict that Owen has made his way to the kitchen, assembled his setup of stool, bowl, flour drawer and measuring spoon, and has commenced filling the bowl with flour. He doesn't do too badly. When the fun is done, he runs for his earmuffs because he knows the dustbuster is coming out and it's 'lauwww!' He likes having his tummy dustbusted quite a bit, and it usually needs it.
Today I was doing the dishes and Owen assembled the outfit below and came to tell me he wanted to go outside. Boots, jacket (I had to help get it on right, but he had made a valiant effort), jacket hood on, and daddy's winter hat on top of it. It was 50+ degrees outside today and honestly felt like summer, no exaggeration. We spent the afternoon chipping up the melting ice off the driveway, grateful for the chance to return it to asphalt rather than skating rink status. Owen thought chipping ice with the 'wuhwel' (shovel) was the most fun he's had in a while.
I got out the camera and Owen would stop his chipping to turn around and say cheese, unsolicited :)
Depositing chipped ice/snow at my feet. Thank you!
Owen as beauty commando. Little man loves my hairband and wears it around the house whenever he finds it.
Showing his well-roundedness, he also adores the jr. tool belt given to us by friends, and filled with real, metallic, miniature tools. The coffee table now falls into the 'rustic' furniture category. Oops.
When it is very quiet, I can often accurately predict that Owen has made his way to the kitchen, assembled his setup of stool, bowl, flour drawer and measuring spoon, and has commenced filling the bowl with flour. He doesn't do too badly. When the fun is done, he runs for his earmuffs because he knows the dustbuster is coming out and it's 'lauwww!' He likes having his tummy dustbusted quite a bit, and it usually needs it.
Today I was doing the dishes and Owen assembled the outfit below and came to tell me he wanted to go outside. Boots, jacket (I had to help get it on right, but he had made a valiant effort), jacket hood on, and daddy's winter hat on top of it. It was 50+ degrees outside today and honestly felt like summer, no exaggeration. We spent the afternoon chipping up the melting ice off the driveway, grateful for the chance to return it to asphalt rather than skating rink status. Owen thought chipping ice with the 'wuhwel' (shovel) was the most fun he's had in a while.
I got out the camera and Owen would stop his chipping to turn around and say cheese, unsolicited :)
Depositing chipped ice/snow at my feet. Thank you!
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