Owen's Special Day

Today was Owen's "Special Day" at preschool.  Basically, they do "special days" instead of birthdays so the kids who have summer birthdays can have a celebration at school the same as everyone else.  I decided I would ask our friend, Tracy, if she could babysit Adam so the day could be 100% focused on Owen.  I thought that would make it even more special for Owen (and selfishly for me, I would be able to enjoy it more too.)

Luckily, Steve was home today as well so Owen got both Mommy and Daddy!  However, everyone was either sick or on vacation at school so there were only about 5 kids there - but it didn't matter.  All Owen cared about was the "pupcakes" and I drove all the way to Bellevue to make sure he had them for his celebration today. 

He loved his special day.  He got to jump over the candlestick first...held the classroom frog...wore a crown of glitter...got to have "corn" (Pirate Booty) for snack...everyone sang "happy special day to you"...blew out a candle...and ate a pupcake with sprinkles.  Couldn't ask for a better day!

Moody Bunny - Happy Easter!

I have to be honest, this Easter was a little bit of a letdown.  75% of us were sick, an infant made preparing for the Easter Bunny on Easter's Eve very difficult, and to top it all off - we made the poor decision to let Owen eat all the candy and cookies that were in the hidden eggs for breakfast which completely sent him into an unrecoverable tail spin for the rest of the day.

However, for the 60 minutes it took to hunt for eggs and open Easter Baskets, it was pretty darn fun.  Nana was visiting Michael, Kelly and Audrey in Maryland, so this was the first immediate family only Easter.  And, it was Adam's first Easter!  We had been talking to Owen about the Easter Bunny for the last few weeks and I think he *kind of* gets the idea.  Easter morning he woke up and was ready to get all the chocolate he was convinced the Easter Bunny was bringing him.  As we found the first couple eggs and he cracked them open, he got really into the hunt! 

Side note: One of Owen's favorite bedtime books is about a bunny on an Easter Egg scavenger hunt.  After he finds each egg, the next clue reads: "Well done, Bunny!  Hop Hop Hop.  Now off you go to where the ...."  This was playing over and over in my head as Owen searched the house for all the hidden eggs. 

After the hunt, we opened baskets.  Owen got some Thomas trains, a Curious George stuffed monkey, some books and crayons.  Adam got a couple toys and rice cereal and spoons!  He is excited to crack into the box in the next week or so after his four month checkup...Big boy!

After the baskets, Owen melted down.  Steve and I enjoyed our Christmas Eggs.  Owen melted down.  For lunch, I made some Easter Bunny pretzels which I think turned out pretty cute.  We ate them with queso dip and mustard.  Owen melted down.  Then it was nap time and that pretty much ended the festivities.  Hopefully next year when Adam can help look for eggs, we'll all have a better day!

Felipe, Meet Your Competition.

Steve demoted Felipe (our beloved landscaper) to one visit per month in an effort to cut costs.  This means Steve will now have to take on some of the mowing duties.  Owen felt bad for the old man, so he pitched in too.  What a little helper.

Adam, Meet The Sun. Sun, Meet Adam.

Our first day of sun and above 60 degree weather means Adam was able to experience the warmth of the sun on his tiny little body for the first time. I think he likes it.



Mama Kisses

Blanket Surfing

My little grommet.  Looks like he's about to pop up and hang ten, right?  Or maybe he"s just trying to prone out?  I wonder if he's a goofy foot?  Whatever he's doing...he's pretty cute.

My Little Parrot - A Rude Awakening

We all know kids mirror their parents.  Their words, their actions, their emotions.  And we have found ourselves surprised at things that come out of Owen's mouth that are a direct copy of things we have said out loud either to him or to others.  Usually it's a reminder to watch what we say, because he doesn't miss a beat. 

Like my previous post where I felt like I needed to write down cute little Owenese words and phrases before he stopped saying them, now I feel like I should write down funny phrases that he says that I know are a direct copy of things we say to him.  Even if I'm not exactly proud of myself.

- Playing on our new cordless phone and shaking his finger at me: "Just a second, I'm on the phone."

- Taking the computer mouse out of my hand: "Let me check something real quick."

- At a traffic light behind a car: "Goooooooooooo! Arghhhhhhh."

- Calling me from upstairs: "Hey Babe!  Baaayyyyyyyaaaaabe!  Hey Babe, come upstairs!"

To be continued...

First School Photos

Wow.  This is a perfect example of how Owen seems to have aged 10 years over the last 3 months.  His preschool class did school photos a few weeks ago and I have been (im)patiently waiting for them to arrive.  Steve took him to school that day and his report back to me was that "Owen did great."  I have no idea what that means, but I took it to mean that Owen did not trash the photo set and at least sat where he was supposed to sit for the pictures.

Knowing that I can NEVER get Owen to look at the camera and smile - I had just hoped that he wasn't making too much of a goofy face in the picture.  I was blown away when I opened the envelope today at school.  We got him to pose, look at the camera and smile!  And twice since he did it in the big class shot too!  Now please answer me, how is my little boy in school photos?!?!?!?

A Cute Twofer

Can you fit a 2 1/2 year old who is in the 98th percentile for height in the same baby bathtub with his brother? 

Yup.

Rock And Rollin' Over

I thought my blogathon last night was going to be enough to catch me up and give me a blog break for a bit, but when a milestone happens - it must be blogged!  I mean, if it deserves its own STICKER in the calendar, it definitely deserves a video and a bloggity blog.

Here is Adam rocking and rolling over.  I love that both my boys like to do things the hard way.  Both did back to front first - both did it at 13 weeks! 

So far, Adam only does it when he is mad.  You will see that I had to hide behind the couch a little so he would think I was leaving him (otherwise he would just lie there and smile at me.)

Crapstorm

Even though this is my blog and I can swear if I want to - since I am using this as a pseudo-baby book, I feel weird about using foul language in my posts.  However, if there was any day to swear, today would be it.

Also, I would guess that my brother would be surprised at how little I have written about poop in this blog.  He thinks I talk about it too much, so he might have expected me to write about it more.  Well today is the day because it has become extremely blog worthy.

Owen, poor Owen, has been a little "backed up" for a long time now.  About a week ago there was a complete system fail and nothing was coming out for a few days which resulted in him refusing to eat which resulted in a trip to the doctor.  The doctor confirmed he was backed up (or as I like to call it - "constey") and prescribed Miralax. 

We got a few doses into Owen right before Steve left on a four day trip and then the first day I was home alone with the kids - the flood gates opened.  The first day, I was so happy to see that the medicine was working I didn't mind all the clean-up.  Plus, Nana was over most of the day so we were able to juggle diaper changes.  The second day (today) was NOT my favorite.  Owen had a total of four baths today all due to me not being able to contain the "situation" with just wipes.  Adam was not super happy with all the baths because that meant he was sort of tossed to his bouncy seat each time Owen needed a diaper change.  So today was filled with poo, bath, screaming, more poo, more bath, more screaming, again - poo, again - bath, again - screaming, one more poo for good measure, one more bath for good measure, and lots more screaming.  Oh and let's not forget the laundry.

So is this something I should blog about?  Maybe not.  But I had to live through it and now I feel like sharing because it was pretty gross and sharing makes me feel like I didn't go through it alone.

On the plus side, I brought my camera upstairs during Owen's 3rd of 4 baths and got some pictures I really liked.  I love how my camera is so good at freezing water in motion!  And I'm not going to say out loud that the picture of him spitting water out of his mouth is kind of symbolic for the whole reason he was in the bath in the first place.  So maybe sharing these cute photos will distract you from the story a bit.  Maybe.

**PS: You'll notice two big scratches on Owen's face in some of these photos. This is because Owen has been taunting Pearl over the last few weeks with many, many, many warnings from Dad, Mom and Nana that Pearl would eventually get mad and bite and/or scratch him. But, Owen either didn't believe us, understand us, or thought that if she went after him - he'd be quick enough to evade her attack. Not so. She made contact yesterday and he was not pleased. I thought that would teach him to leave her alone but tonight he was back at her. I'm not sure what to do at this point?

Mummy Loves Me

But not enough to put me in seasonally appropriate hand-me-downs.

April Fools!

Today is April Fool's Day and I am so happy that I finally, FINALLY "punked" Steve.  I've never been able to fool him about anything (because I'm a horrible liar) and today I finally did it.

I asked Michael if he could Photoshop a picture of a fake dog onto a photo of Owen's chair we keep in our living room.  He said yes and the photo to the left is the finished product.  I emailed it along with a semi-believable story to Steve.

Steve knew I was having lunch with my friend Rebecca today, so I decided to use her as my lie because I had absolutely no reason to leave the house today in order to stumble upon a puppy and Steve would have known that.

So here is the email I sent to him and that he fell for - hook, line and sinker.

From: Laura S
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 14:28:17
To: Steve S
Subject: don't kill me

Sooooo...Rebecca came over today and apparently Hans brought home a puppy last week and they can't keep it because their cat is going crazy. She brought it over today to show me and Owen was so cute with it, I told her to leave him here and we'll "try" it for a few weeks.  His name is Spikers, but we can change it. :)

He just seems so at home here!!!! Charlie is in love.

Steve called me and after I told him that he got punked, he actually seemed disappointed!  But a puppy is seriously the last thing we need right now and I can't believe he thought I would have taken that on when I can barely handle the living creatures we have now.  I'm preparing for next year's retaliation.  It will probably be a real puppy.