Beautiful Mommy

Recently, a woman I know told me a story about her 8 year old son that melted my heart.  He came home from school and asked her about a dance at school.  She said she asked him the week before if he wanted to go and he said, 'no' so she threw the information away.  A small disagreement followed with him denying he didn't want to go and she insisting that he had said no.  As she got more fed up with the argument she noticed that he was getting quieter and quieter and finally she asked him what he wanted.  He said, "Would you like to go to the dance with me tonight, as my date?"  She melted and of course, went to the dance with him.

Today Owen and I went to the park with Katie, Eden and the boys.  When we were done, I was loading Owen into the car when I heard two older boys walking behind us.  They must have been about 7 years old or so...One of them said to the other, "You like pretty girls."  The other's response was, "Nooooo!  The only pretty girl I like is my mom."  I looked at Owen and told him, "You better think I'm pretty when you are old enough to know what pretty is!"

I think my biggest fear is that Owen will grow up and want nothing to do with me.  He doesn't have to think I'm pretty, but hopefully he'll always enjoy my company!  But I am secretly hoping I get to be his date to an Elementary School dance.  :)

Took this photo tonight.  Maybe this will be his outfit for Prom:

Here Comes The Sun

Last Sunday, the weather was gorgeous. It’s been a long, wet and cloudy winter so a few days of sun and sixty degrees was too important not to let go to waste. Steve was at work and we had just done the zoo a few days earlier and I decided we needed a little Puget Sound action, so we hit the boardwalk down in Redondo. This time, I didn’t bring the stroller and figured I’d let Owen walk as much or as little as he wanted down the boardwalk. Since the boardwalk is fenced on both sides, Owen can only go up or back (easier for me to keep him where I want him to go!)

Owen was a champ! He RAN the entire length of the boardwalk which is ½ mile! Then he ran about ¾ of the way back until he decided he wanted to be carried the rest of the way. I knew he was tired because THAT had never happened before! But, since Owen likes to run a little forward and then a little backward, if you count all the backtracking he did – he definitely ran a full mile himself. We stopped at the playground for another 30 or so minutes before we had enough and called it a day. Owen had a great time…This walk is under the flight path, so we get to watch airplanes – the road next to the boardwalk is big for cruisers so every 5 or so minutes there would be a motorcycle which is another favorite – and between those things, we got to pet the majority of the dogs (aka: “woofs”) who passed by. The walkers on the route thought Owen was adorable (of course.) The only negative thing I can say is Owen favored the traffic side of the boardwalk where only a guardrail separates him from the cars and that made me extremely nervous, but all-in-all, a great day!

Some pics are below – these were taken on my cell phone so the quality isn’t great but you get the idea! The first is of Owen running down the boardwalk and the second is him looking down at the beach and really wishing I would let him down there.

Bath Time Fun

It's hard to keep a blog and a Facebook account. I don't want to repeat myself in either one, but since I'm using this blog as a pseudo baby book - I guess I have to duplicate the really good stuff. I took these photos of Bubba in the bath tub the other day and they turned out better than I expected.  They are some of my favorite pictures of him to date...

On The Verge

All my friends have said that their children experienced a major language explosion at 18 months. I think Owen is right on the verge of his own…

Lately he’s been trying to say more sounds “Mooo” for cow and “Baa-ah-ah” for sheep. But he’s also signing and speaking more instead of whining when he wants something. It seems like he understands that talking will get him further than whining and he’s trying harder to tell us what he’s thinking. Another thing I’ve noticed is he is getting very good at understanding what we are saying. Simple instructions like, “Go get bunny” result in him running for bunny even if it’s in the other room. Today I said, “Let’s get in the car!” and he ran for the garage door. And finally, he’s starting to expand the meaning of words he knows to related things even if the word is wrong. Example, he says “daa” for “down” but now he’s using “daa” for “up” as well.

Steve took an adorable video of Owen playing outside in our backyard with Charlie the other day. It’s too long to post, although Owen’s favorite thing to do right now is to watch the video on the camcorder (he sits in your lap while you hold the camcorder) and when it’s over, he signs “more” over and over again. The video is 5 minutes long so it can kill quite a bit of time! Anyway, Owen is playing with Charlie and he’s trying to say “CHARLIE!” but it comes out like “Daaaa-SHEEEE!” So cute. And the other day Nana played catch with Owen and counted to three before he through the ball. Now, every time he throws the ball, he counts to three. It sounds like, “doo, doo, DEEYOOUUUU!” We took a video to remember this time because I think it’s only a short while before he perfects more and more of these words that only we understand. Part of me can’t wait until he’s talking more and part of me doesn’t want to let go of the “Owenese” that I’m becoming so fluent in.

Here he is, counting to "three."

Happy Half Birthday, Owen!

Owen officially turned a year and a half on the 24th of February.  To celebrate, we got out the big boy potty to let him get comfortable with it before we start potty training.  Our doctor told us that in Europe, they start potty training at 12 months...he recommended thinking about it at 18 months.  My maternal instinct says Owen isn't even close to being ready yet...Take a look at the pictures and decide for yourself!

Mr. Bear seems to get the concept a little better than Owen...

To be continued....

Friendly Skies

More pictures from the airplane park.

Owen's Words - 17 Months

From 17 Month Words

He's mugging for the camera, but you get the idea.  The day after I took this video, he started saying "Hi" on command.  It's on the list for the next video!

What's That Smell?

Not to keep whining about my cold, but...

I have let Owen walk around with a poopy diaper for who knows how long on multiple occasions over the past week.  When O has a load in his drawers, you can smell it from across the street.  It's so bad, that I no longer throw his poopy diapers in the Diaper Dekor because nothing can contain the stink.  All poopy diapers go in a trash bag in the garage.  But lately, I have completely lost my sense of smell (and taste, but smell is what is important here.)  Our house could smell like a garbage dump and I would have no idea.

Today, I took O out on some errands and stopped to gas up my car.  The pump fell out of the gas tank and spilled gas all over the ground.  I carefully picked up the pump and put it back and then smelled my hands, assuming they would reek of gas.  Nope, smelled fine.  I got in the car and thought it would reek of gas from standing in the gas puddle and possibly splashing onto my pants.  Nope, smelled fine.  I went about my merry way and even got a snack that I shared with Owen.

Not until later did I realize, if I can't smell Owen's atomic poopy diapers - why would I think I could smell gas fumes?  Is it possible to give your child brain damage from driving him around with gas soaked  clothing?  What about sharing a cookie and touching it with gas covered hands?  Crap, no wonder he was so mellow tonight.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

I think the whole Santoki family has been in a funk for about 2 weeks now.  And not the funkadelic kind of funk...more like sick, tired and cabin-fevered.  Owen had a yucky cold for about a week and the day he got over it, he passed it to us (not the kind of sharing we like to encourage.)  I think this is the first cold we've inherited from Owen (I could be wrong, but I think so.)

Anyway, we've been stuck at home because of sickness as well as rain.  I used to love the rain, but that was when I could curl up on the couch and watch movies all day/night.  Now, with a toddler who needs to roam and romp, the rain can get very frustrating.  So when the clouds broke the other day - even though I wasn't feeling well - I thought, "Let's just go for a walk.  I can wear my pajamas and you can look at airplanes."  As I looked at the clock, I realized it was close to quittin' time at the elementary school up the street.  So we hurried up the road to try and spot a bus or two (or as Owen calls them, 'Bees'.)

Sure enough, there were two 'short-busses' already parked in front of the school.  Owen was so excited to get such a close look at some bees.  His favorite part were the tires.  And then, the big bees arrived one after another.  Owen was in BEE HEAVEN.  He ran up and down the loading area looking at each one, then got to watch all the little kids as they lined up for each bee and were guided in by some of the older children.  Actually, there was kind of a sad moment when Owen took a liking to one of these guides.  She was a lovely 5th grader wearing a bright yellow reflective vest.  Owen looked at her like she was an angel.  She looked at Owen like he was in the way.  He kept saying "Hiiiieeeee!" and she ignored him.  Poor Owen.  Aside from that little downer, the rest was awesome and free entertainment.  Gotta love it.

Today, we spent another full day indoors and as usual I was scrambling to find something entertaining and out of the box for him to do.  I remembered that we had a Mr. Potato Head in the garage that our neighbors had given to us long ago and I had put it in a holding area until I was sure he wouldn't eat the pieces.  I brought Sir P.Head inside and Owen loved it.  I don't think he "gets" it, but he loved putting the pieces in and was actually pretty good at it!  He was very anti-feet, however, and very pro-ears.  But then...he found...the glasses!  He wanted MPH to wear them, he wanted to wear them, he wanted Mama to wear them, but in the end, he really wanted Ernie to wear them.  I took a 5 minute video of him putting the glasses on Ernie, taking them off, putting them on, taking them off.  So cute and again, free!

Sickie McSickerton

It sucks when your kid gets sick.  It sucks for them double because they can't take anything!  It has been 48 hours of mucus at our house.  Today, I actually found Owen wiping his own nose after he sneezed with a tissue he found on the floor.  Poor Bubba.  So since we were housebound for the 2nd day in a row, I decided to take a photo diary of our day.  Here it is.  You'll notice it involves a lot of cushions - for climbing and for resting.  Pacifier and "upstairs bunny" are not optional on sick days.  Since he doesn't have a comfort food yet, Mom allows unlimited Elmo...hence the far-off gaze in most of the pics.  But how else do you get a toddler to rest???