Happy Sunday (Literally!)

Upstairs Bunny, Meet The Easter Bunny

A quick shopping trip to the mall today with Nana resulted in an unplanned visit with the Easter Bunny.  While Owen and I were waiting for Nana, we strolled by the Easter Bunny photo booth.  I was wondering how Owen would feel about The Bunny this year (as you can see to the left, he loved him last year!) 

When Mr. Bunny walked up to his throne and waved at the kids, Owen's eyes lit up almost like he recognized him.  He was already holding his beloved bunny, so I took the opportunity to make the connection with him.  "Look, Owen!  There's the Easter Bunny!  He's just like YOUR bunny!  Do you want to go say hello to The Bunny?"  Owen made it clear that yes, he did want to go say hello.

I was so happy that we got a picture of Owen with his Upstairs Bunny on The Easter Bunny's lap.  Although it doesn't look like he was quite as happy as last year, he could have stayed on that Bunny's lap all day long.  He was a little disappointed when we left. 

Bunnies are A-Ok with Bubba!

19 Months - Video

Here is Owen performing his letters and numbers for me in the bathtub.

I realized after I filmed this first run that I should have put me with the letters/numbers in the foreground, but of course when I moved in front he became much less interested in playing along. So you'll just have to imagine I'm holding little blocks up behind the camera with the letters on them.

Enjoy!



If the video doesn't play, you can see it here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/schlaura/Owen19Months#5453167733382175986

Expanding Our Culinary Horizons

Tonight was Owen's first Chinese dinner cooked by Nana.  On the menu: Foil Wrapped Chicken, Egg Rolls, Hot & Sour Soup, Mu Shu Pork, Mongolian Beef, and Fried Rice.  The guest list was Owen and me, Nancy and Joe, Kelly and Finn, Andrew and Eleanor, and of course, Nana.

We found out that Owen loves Chinese food!  Not surprising since so does everyone on both sides of his family...He ate 3 foil wrapped chicken; he ate all the pork and tofu out of my soup; he ate some of the pork out of the mu shu; and he ate a ton of the mongolian beef.  Still not a fan of rice, but oh well.  He also loves mango ice cream, but who doesn't - really? 

I brought my camera with grand intentions of getting lots of pictures, but at least one of Owen and Finn together.  As always, when I'm single parenting at a house where I don't want Owen breaking everything in sight - there is no time for pictures.  I managed to get a couple of Owen playing with his water table (note to self: bad idea to bring a water table without a change of clothes.)  And a couple of Finn being a cutie pie.  Imagine little Finn sitting nicely on the floor as he is in this picture with Owen hovering above him in his high chair screaming, "BABY!  BABY!  BABY!  BABY!" at him.  Poor kid! 

Leftovers tomorrow!

First Kiss?

Owen attempted his first non-family kiss today.  Katie and the boys came over to play with Owen and at one point, we looked over and saw this:

Mac standing by the coffee table zoning out watching Sesame Street and Owen standing next to him, but his face getting closer and closer and closer and closer and closer to Mac's face.  He was trying to kiss him and Mac was either oblivious or pretending that it wasn't happening.  I think Owen finally landed a kiss on Mac's cheek, but I think he was a little confused why Mac wasn't as reciprocal as Mom and Dad usually are!

I never pictured Owen's first kiss being with an older man, but maybe since it wasn't a lip lock, we won't really count it.  :)

Mountain Bunny

And for a rare post that is not an Owen update...

If you have ever been with Steve or me in the presence of a Korean, you may have heard them laugh at our last name. Apparently, “Santoki” is the name of a very famous children’s song in Korea – think popular like, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” popular.

FYI: Santoki means “mountain rabbit” in Korean.

I found a YouTube video of the song with animation and an English translation. Enjoy!

Brainy Baby

Owen is so smart.  S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T. 

Those of you who are Simpson's fans, that was for you...I feel like I need to update the last post since we have made major progress over the last week or so.

• Owen now knows all his numbers 0-9.  When asked, he points to each one in his number puzzle correctly (and we mix them up so he's not just memorizing the order!)  He can only say three of them though..."wuh" for one and "two" and he says "oh" for zero since I don't feel like confusing him yet on the difference between the letter "O" and the number "0."  I'm sure that kid at the zoo last summer would correct Owen if he heard him..."That's NOT a monkey, it's a GORILLA."  Little snot.
• He also knows that one finger up is "wuh" and two fingers up is "two."
• He knows most of the letters that end with "eee" -- B, C, D, E, P, T and of course he knows "O."  He also knows F but he makes the "f" sound instead of saying F, "ffffffff."  He is most firm on D, B, F and O.  We're working on G, but the block for G shows a pictures of a gorilla and when he sees it, he makes a gorilla noise instead.
• He has started saying "Mommy" and "Daddy."  When I sing the C is for Cookie song now, I have to sing M is for Mommy and he will repeat the 'Mommy' part, D is for Daddy (repeats the Daddy part), N is for Nana (repeats the Nana part) and B is for Bubba and he points to himself.  So freaking cute!!!
• He knows most of his body parts:  eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, hair, head, face, belly button, hands, feet, fingers, toes and of course, "boobies" and "pee-pee."
• Animal noises are "woof" for Woof (dog), "uhh-uhh-uhh" for Ooh, Ooh, Ooh (gorilla/monkey), "oooh" for Moo (cow), "ah-ah-ah" for Baa-Baa (sheep), "ee-ah-ee-ah" for E-I-E-I-O (farmer), a raspberry noise with his lips for horse (which is also the same noise for "cold") and I think he might be trying to say quack quack, but I'm not sure yet.  He is squeezing his own cheeks with one hand and saying "wah-wah."  I can only guess this is duck, but I'm still not sure.  That is probably the most frustrating thing right now -- we are so eager to hear him use these words and start communicating verbally, but sometimes he is very specific in how he says something and we have NO IDEA what he's saying.  It kills me!
• New words:
• "Empty."  He says "dee-dee."  He's been using this for a while but it's really fascinating how lately he has expanded the meaning from empty food holders and cups to the back of his trucks and the bathtub after it is drained.
• "Stuck."  He rides his little push truck around and sometimes he gets himself stuck on something.  When he gets frustrated I always try to explain why he's frustrated, so I am often saying "are you stuck?"  All week he's been saying "ah-DUCK!" when he is stuck or when a toy gets stuck somewhere.  It's so cool!

And a big day today - he ate black beans and corn for lunch (along with his Chipotle carnitas.)  Eventually this kid WILL eat something besides pork, avocado and mangos!

Oops, I Crapped My Pants

When is letter/number recognition supposed to start?

There is a big, wooden 'O' above Owen's changing table.  He often points at it and makes a "give it to me" noise.  Tonight, he sat up - looked at it - and said "Ohhh."

"HOLY CRAP!" I said.  "Yay, Bubba!  That's an O!"

Fast forward 5 minutes where we were playing with his number puzzle on the floor.  He points at the zero and says, "Oh."  Then, he picks up the 2, and says "Twoooo."

I didn't say anything, I just crapped my pants. 

I tried other numbers, but right now he's firm on zero and two.  He can pick them out of a line up and even when I shuffle them.  Big day!!!

68-94-64

The title of this post is not the dimensions of a large woman (Baby Got WAYYY Back) or my old high school locker combination. Any guesses to what it might be? Ok, I’ll tell you…

Those are the growth percentiles Owen was measuring at his 18 month checkup on Friday. Owen is a big, big boy.

• Weight: 27 pounds, 5.5 ounces (68%)
• Height: 2 feet, 10 inches (94%)
• Head: 48.3 centimeters (64%)

The doctor said Owen is as tall as the average 27 month old! He was wearing a size 3T shirt, which I guess proves the charts must be correct. Steve and I are both hoping he passes the 6-foot mark when he is grown. The doctor said we can’t be sure until he is older, but he’s definitely trending tall!

Owen also had his final vaccine until he is 4 years old. The only shots he will get now is the flu shot once a year. To celebrate the final needle, Owen tough-guyed it hardcore. No tears, not even a whimper. Such a big boy!

What else did the doctor say?

• He can keep eating baby food vegetables (the only veggies Owen will eat) until he is two years old, but keep trying to get him to eat the big-kid kind.
• He can also keep his nightly bottle of milk until he is two, but to also try and get him drinking it out of a different kind of cup. Apparently Owen is only getting 1/3 the amount of milk he is supposed to be getting because he refuses to drink it out of anything but the bottle, and I refuse to give him more than one bottle a day. It’s cheesy yogurt time!!!
• We can start having him sit on the potty if he gets interested in watching us on the potty. So far, we haven’t progressed passed the pictures I posted a few days ago.
• We can give him a gummy vitamin if we think he’s not eating enough fruits and veggies. I’m torn on this one, I may buy some and just try it out.

Check off the 18th Month appointment – we’ll see them again at 24!

First Sleepover Makes Owen Jump UP!

This week, I spent my first night(s) away from Owen. It wasn't too bad - especially since Dad was in charge and I knew Owen was in good hands. But, it did make me laugh the first night as I was walking around the hotel room, I found myself tip-toeing around in the same way I do at home after Owen goes to bed.

I was able to spend some quality time with my niece, Audrey. She is SO cute and SO happy! What a seriously happy baby! She is all smiles and giggles. And Michael and Kelly were nice enough to cook me a yummy birthday dinner of Cheesy Chowder and Sprinkle Cake even though they were in the middle of a busy workweek. I was so happy to get to spend those two evenings with them!

Work was work. I’m glad I went and I made some new connections which is always good. Steve helped me pass the time by emailing me pictures of Owen during their adventures. Most of them just made me smile. However, I opened this video right before a lecture started and it actually made me tear up. I have to explain a couple things before you watch it: This is the theme song from the show, Imagination Movers on the Disney Channel. This is probably Owen’s second favorite show next to Sesame Street. And, Steve took this video on his phone which creates video files in a format that can’t be used anywhere but our Blackberries. I tried to find a program to convert the file to an mpeg format, but the stupid program puts a watermark on it unless I buy the full program. So, ignore the message that keeps popping up throughout the video.

Anyway, we always dance to this song with Owen – this was the first time I’ve seen him do all the “moves” on his own!  If the video doesn't work, you can see it here.  I know it's not really cry material, but imagine watching it when you are hundreds of miles away and really missing him!



And here Owen giving me a live performance of the same dance after I got home.  I'm not sure who taught him the "raise the roof" move, but the butt wiggle about halfway through is my favorite.  We used the real video camera for this, so the picture is much better.  Again, if it doesn't open, click here.