Halloween Eve

It’s October 30th and we’re gearing up for the Halloween festivities. Nana came over to help carve pumpkins and she brought cookies for Owen to decorate. Owen was excited to wear his eye protection. Decorating pumpkins is serious business. Just kidding, but it made for a cute photo-op!

 Owen started out a little slow – he didn’t quite see the fun in pumpkin guts. But once I gave him a special spoon shaped like a shovel and put a few scoops in the bowl, he got into it. He wanted to scoop pumpkin seeds out and then back into the pumpkins. He was very tidy about it too! Any seeds that spilled over onto the floor, he meticulously picked up and put back into the bowl.

While Dada was carving, Nana took Owen into the dining room to decorate cookies. He did such a good job! He was very careful with the knife spreading the icing and then he LOVED the shaking of the sprinkles. Dada actually had a great idea for the next time we use sprinkles – tape all the holes except for one so they come out much slower. Brilliant!

I was ready to let him go to town with eating the icing, the sprinkles, the cookies – whatever he wanted to do. He tasted everything, but he wasn’t too excited about taking more than one bite of each. You would think that maybe he doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, not true. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s recap.

I did the obligatory seed roast and we found out that Owen loves him some pumpkin seeds. They are kind of a weird texture, but he can’t get enough. Must be because they are just “salt vessels” which is why I like them. Anything covered in butter and salt isn’t that bad.

Ok, I think we're ready…until tomorrow!

It's Playtime!



Someone got his very own playset!  Owen is the proud owner of a pretty awesome playset put together bolt by bolt by Dada.  I was shocked at how well he climbed up the ladder – I thought that was going to be too tough for him, but he did it with no problem.  Everyone come over and play with us!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is on television, so that must mean it’s October. Time for the annual trip to the pumpkin patch!

This is our 3rd year visiting Carpinito Brothers. I suppose it is a good time for a “then and now” photo journey. Comparing Owen’s first visit to this year’s, it looks like he’s starting to enjoy himself a bit more.

This year was a little less exciting than usual, mainly due to the heavy rain that has been coming down for the previous week. It was a beautiful day today, so we decided to make the most of it and pick out our Halloween pumpkins. However, as soon as Owen got near the u-pick area, his foot stepped down into a 6 inch deep pile of mud and completely covered his shoe. That was it for me, we were picking out our pumpkins from the parking lot. So, no cute pictures of Owen running through the fields of pumpkins this year.

We did do the obligatory tractor ride which is Owen’s favorite anyway. A funny moment happened while we were riding…I was sitting in the front with Owen and we were watching the huge tractor wheels rolling through the mud. I think I may have said something like, “Pee-yew! It smells like poo-poo (fertilizer)!” Owen locked on to the poo-poo statement and looked down at the mud in amazement. The next day, I asked Owen, “Did we ride a tractor yesterday???” And he answered, “Yeah! Bubba ride tractor! Bubba ride tractor in poo-poo!” Oops. My bad. But he is getting really good at recalling previous activities and using his words to remember and describe them!

After the tractor ride, we picked out some pumpkins and got out of the mud-fest. We still have yet to do a corn maze, but maybe next year!

The Little Gym - Beasts

I’ve been procrastinating writing this post because I feel like I need to put a ton of pictures up in order to give you a visual idea of what Owen’s gym class is like. Making pictures look good on the blog is kind of hard. But here goes nothing.

Owen is LOVING The Little Gym. I’m so glad we decided to enroll him and my only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner. But it seems to be the perfect blend of play and structure for him.

The “structure” is really suggested structure. The instruction is to let your child roam and do whatever he/she wants to do and when they decide to join the group activities – really praise them for it. Otherwise, don’t worry if they are running like a banshee through the gym during group activities.

The first few weeks, Owen never joined group. But he always watched with interest. Lately, he has been joining more and more. Each week, he joins in a little bit more. This particular week, he joined the morning group activity (sticks) for the first time ever.

One of his favorite parts is putting things away, which I think is a major step in the “structure” arena since putting fun toys away was really hard for him in the beginning. Now he knows, when he puts the “shakers” away, it means it’s time to run around. When he puts the “balls” away, it means it’s time for bubbles. When he sits down and sings the goodbye song, it means it’s time for stamps on your hands and feet. He’s really grasping the transition piece of the class and the fact that the last 15 minutes of class are always the same activities, it gives him some expectations and anticipation as to what is going to come next.

Another first today, Owen was the class demonstrator for last week's "skill of the week."  It was backward rolls and Owen had been practicing at home.  He normally tries to stay fairly far away from the teacher (Miss Shannon) because I think he's worried she is going to make him do something he doesn't want to do.  However, this week - he was playing on the ramp when she came over and asked if he wanted to do the roll.  He let her spot him and he did it perfectly - including putting his hands in the right position by his head which shocked Miss Shannon.  He was SO proud of himself and while I was behind the kids shooting pictures - he finished his roll and stood up to applause and immediately searched the room for me.  He was saying, "Mama?  Mama?"  I said, "Good job, Bubba!" and when he saw that I had seen his big stunt, he beamed and immediately sat down with Miss Shannon to do it again.  My heart just swelled seeing how the first thing he thought of after his big proud moment was me and making sure I saw it.  Usually, I feel like I'm his puppeteer and he can't wait until I just leave him alone. 

Finally, I always talk about how tall Owen is. Here is a fairly good visual of what I’m talking about. Owen’s class is for kids 19 months to 2 ½ years old.  I swear he's not in the wrong class!

I'll end the post with the same song that we sing at the end of class right before stamp time.  It's pretty catchy! 

Bye Bye Beasties, we'll see you soon

we'll see you soon, we'll see you soon

Bye Bye Beasties, we'll see you soon

Bye Bye Beasties

Bye Bye Beasties

Bye Bye Beasties

Bye Bye Beasties

It's time to go on home!

Eating Bugs

How do you get a kid to eat mac and cheese after he's decided he doesn't like it anymore?  Make it with bug shaped pasta.

Emergency Vehiclepalooza

Yesterday we went to Gig Harbor to attend some sort of Emergency Vehiclepalooza.  I'm not sure what the occasion was, but it was boy heaven.  It was actually a great event - the people who ran it were so friendly and they really encouraged kids to get in, on and all over the different vehicles.  Owen got to sit in an ambulance, fire truck, police car, ATV and motorcycle (we skipped the bomb unit truck.)  They also had bouncy houses which were staffed and no "big kids" were allowed in at the same time as "little kids."  It really seemed kid focused and well run.  Owen's favorites were probably the motorcycle and ambulance.  He got in the back of the ambulance and wouldn't get out - he even asked to be seatbelted into the worker's bench!  It was a perfect day for Owen!

We Can Never Get Rid Of Our Dog

Maybe A Few More Bottles For Bunny...

Apparently I spoke too soon.  Owen has been asking for his bottles again and I've been giving them to him in the name of calcium.  He had a cold last week and I'm wondering if his throat was bugging him or something else related to the cold made him refuse the bottle?  Anyway, the retirement age for the bottles has been increased, so please ignore my last post until further notice.

No More Bottles For Bunny

I saw this book titled, "No More Bottles For Bunny" while shopping at Ikea a few months ago.  I actually broke down in tears while reading through it, imagining the day when we would have to take away Owen's bottle.  Steve looked at me like I was a crazy person.

Well, after months of worrying whether Owen has been on bottles too long and how to get him to drink milk if we decided to take the bottles away - Owen has weaned himself.  Yesterday, he refused both his nap bottle and night bottle (he has decided he really dislikes milk and therefore has no use for a bottle full of it) so today was the first day we didn't offer one to him.  He could care less.

Retiring the pacifiers on the other hand, will probably be a harder transition.  Here is a picture of him tonight before bedtime (the photo was blurry so I used my creative geniusness to make it look like a painting.) 



First Weekend Away

Steve and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary last weekend and spent our first night away from Owen. I was nervous (of course) but getting these cell phone pictures of him throughout the evening made it much easier. How can you be worried when every picture of him shows him with a huge smile???

So how do two wild and crazy parents spend their first night away? By eating dinner at 4pm, watching two comedies on pay-per-view, ordering room service dessert and falling asleep earlier than we do at home! As luck would have it, we were awakened early in the morning by the toddler and baby staying in the room next to us. At least we could stay in bed and listen to their parents tend to them!

I know Owen had a great time with Nana and I hear that Nana had a great time with Owen. Perhaps we won’t wait another 2 years for our next weekend away?

Organic - Paying For Bugs or Healthy Choice?

As you know, I never need an excuse to shop. However, there is a new internet phenomenon happening now called “Social Shopping.” I subscribe to quite a few of these sites which generally feature one big deal per day. Some examples of these sites are: MamaBargains, Baby Steals, Living Social, and the king of Social Shopping sites, Groupon. I’m not as bad as Josh Stevens – the man who lives entirely off of Groupons. But I might be getting close.

Side note: here is an interesting article about Groupon – how the company went from a value of $0 to 1.35 BILLION in only 18 months. And where Social Shopping may go from here.

Anyway, I like social shopping. I like the one time only, deep discount, method of getting you to try something new. Last week, I signed up for a free trial order of organic produce delivery from Full Circle Farm. The offer was $16 for a $35 order of produce. I figured, I spend $16 on produce at the store so this is worth it. If I like it, I may think it’s worth the extra $$$ to get it delivered.

Another side note: we live in the heart of Amazon.com country. About three years ago, Amazon started a pilot program called “Amazon Fresh” where they offer grocery delivery in select areas. As far as I know, this service has been very popular (many of my co-workers use it) but we don’t live in a delivery area and so I have been unable to try it. I am a devout Amazon Prime user, and I suspect I would adopt Amazon Fresh immediately if I could use it – but for now I have to wait. This produce delivery might be my fix until Amazon expands a smidge more into the South Puget Sound area.

Today, my first order arrived. The service is pretty nice – they email you on the Friday before your order is delivered to tell you what they are planning to send you. You then have the option to substitute items if something doesn’t look appealing. You also have a global “never, ever ship me this” list where they won’t even attempt up to 5 items. This delivery had quite a bit of greenery (like chard) and I substituted for things like tomatoes and potatoes for my first order. I figure, let’s start out with most of things I am familiar with and a splash of something new and we can get adventurous later. I don’t want this “trial” to fail just because I didn’t like the veggies.

Here are the items that arrived today:

• Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 each - Washington Growers, Washington.
• Red Beets, Organic - 1 bunch - Full Circle Farm, Carnation, Washington.
• Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each - California Growers, California.
• Bunched Carrots, Organic - 1 each - Full Circle Farm, Carnation, Washington.
• Red Radishes, Organic - 1 bunch - Full Circle Farm, Carnation, Washington.
• Cucumbers, Organic - 1 each - Washington Growers, Washington.
• Yukon Gold Potatoes, Organic - 1.5 pounds - Washington Growers, Washington.
• Yellow Onions, Organic - 2 each - Washington Growers, Washington.
• Dapple Dandy Pluots, Organic - 4 each - Tiny's Organic, East Wenatchee, Washington.
• Nectarines, Organic - 3 each - Stemilt, Wenatchee, Washington.
• Tosca Pears, Organic - 4 each - Washington Growers, Washington.
• Gala Apples, Organic - 4 each - Washington Growers, Washington.

To try and give myself another leg up on trying to like this service, I washed all the fruit and vegies this afternoon and stored them clean. Wow. Good thing they aren’t charging me by the weight because there was probably about a half pound of dirt on these things. I may have to buy a vegetable cleaner brusher thing if we keep this up.

I washed them while Owen ate his lunch. I think you all know that Owen only eats vegetables in pureed form. Well, I handed him a whole raw carrot and expected him to take one bite and hand it back to me as usual – but he ate the whole thing! He called it a “crunchy” and when he was done, he asked for more “crunchy!” That may have been worth the 16 bucks right there. I also sliced up a radish and gave it to him, calling it a “chip.” I thought I had it in the bag until I discovered that radishes are spicy as hell! Oops! Sorry Owen! But, he did eat an entire Pluot and an entire Apple for dessert. Steve and I are having roasted beets and sautéed beet stems for dinner.

So to summarize: our family, who eats very little veggies, consumed about 4 pluots, 1 apple, 2 carrots, 4 beets and a handful of beet greens today. And Owen ate his first full serving of non-pureed vegetables. Pretty good, I think?

First Trip To The Dentist!

I have to admit, I was dreading this day...After Owen's last visit to the doctor and how traumatic that was, I mentally prepared myself for a big fight and a lot of tears.  I hoped that Owen might do a little better since this is a different location and he actually loves toothbrushes and has a current obsession with toothpaste. I was careful to not use the "d" word (doctor) and told him we were going to go get a new toothbrush! He was all for it.

We made the long trek up to see Dr. Thoa at Pacific Dental Care in Issaquah. I really should find something closer to our house, but Steve and I have been going to this practice for years and we really like them. This was our first experience with the pediatric side of the practice and it was awesome!

There is a big sign with a cartoon little girl holding a gigantic toothbrush in the front of the office - when we walked in, Owen's eyes lit up. "See! Toothbrush, Bubba!" He was excited to go in and get one (especially if it was going to be that big!) He did fine in the waiting room with all the fun new toys. Rhonda, our assistant, called us back and showed us the exam room. The room was decorated in a jungle theme. There was a big butterfly on the wall and Owen was excited about that. To my surprise, he didn't run screaming out of the room back toward the toys - he kept asking for "toothbrush?"

I sat in the chair and Owen sat on my lap while Rhonda asked me a bunch of introductory questions. Owen was a little squirmy, he wanted to grab everything within reach. I had brought our portable DVD player in with me and that was super helpful during this part because pushing all the buttons he normally covets but doesn’t get, held his attention long enough for me to answer all the questions and actually be able to listen to what she was telling me.

After the question/answer session, Rhonda turned to Owen. He stayed on my lap while she introduced him to all her tools. First, she blew the air on his hands and then his face. He thought that was cool. Then she squirted some water in my mouth so he could see what it was. He let her squirt some in his mouth too (duh – it’s wawa!) Then she showed him her “straw” (suction.) She squirted a tiny drop of water into the palm of his hand and showed him how her “straw likes to eat the water” and sucked it up. Then she put the “straw” into my mouth and then into Owen’s. He thought that was awesome too. Then she brought out her toothbrush (polishing tool) and told him how it liked to tickle teeth. She revved it up and put it on his fingernails to show him how it tickled and he didn’t flinch at all…She let him hold the toothbrush and use it on his own hands.

After he had seen all the tools, it was time to look at his teeth. After a quick discussion about how tolerant I could be with crying (I said, “he can cry – that’s ok – just try to at least see if he has any cavities) it was time to lay him down on the table. I told her that we normally brush his teeth laying down, so that position shouldn’t freak him out necessarily, I just thought that once she put her mask on and started messing with his mouth it would be all over.  I braced myself for battle.

She put a pair of sunglasses on him and had me hold a mirror so he could look at himself. He tried to take those off a few times but not in a scared/mad way – he just doesn’t like wearing shades! But when she let him hold the “straw” he forgot about the glasses. She started by looking at all his teeth with the dental mirror and told me that his lower two year old molars are completely in, his right upper molar is halfway in, and the left upper molar is just starting to poke through. She looked at his gums and said he might end up with a space between his two front teeth when his permanents come in because of the way his gum sits in between them. Then she brought out the polishing tool. Owen let her polish every single tooth!!!! He held the “straw” and suctioned his mouth – he even let her spray water on his teeth to rinse them and he “kissed” the straw (closed his mouth) to rinse.

After the polishing, Owen let her FLOSS HIS TEETH. Ok, who is this kid in this chair?!?! And after flossing, Owen let her apply a fluoride treatment including more water spraying and more “straw” sucking. I was nearly in tears just because of how good he was being!!! I kept kissing him and I think Rhonda thought I was crazy.

Dr. Thoa came in at the end and took a look at his teeth and his bite. She said his front teeth might be slightly pushed forward because of the paci/bottles but she wasn’t too sure because he wasn’t cooperating completely. She said he looked perfect – no cavities – great teeth – great patient!

Owen got to choose a toy out of the treasure box and he chose a little car, but after the appointment I took him to the store to pick out something better. He was far too good and deserved a much better toy than a stupid plastic mini car. One tow truck later, we were headed home.

I’m so proud of Owen!!!

For those who are interested...the final recommendations from the doctor were:

• Try to limit the paci to the crib and the car (although, she was telling me this when she thought Owen was 3 years old - apparently, three is the recommended age to quit the paci.  They didn't believe me when I told them Owen just turned two.  Yes, he's tall!!!)
• They initally started counseling me on taking away the bottle, but when I told him about how he won't drink milk out of anything else - the doctor seemed to think that milk is better than no bottle.  The 3-year age limit is also for bottles.  Give him his bottle before bed but brush afterwards.
• Filtered water is better than tap water even though it filters out the fluoride.  Apparently there is some concern about the lead in the water supply in relation to fluoride.
• A rice sized amount of toothpaste is ok to swallow.  Start using that instead of the training toothpaste.
• Ok for mom and dad to brush at night only, but let him brush his own teeth in the morning when we brush ours.
• Limit raisins and any kind of sticky fruit snacks. 

Nature Of The Beast - The Little Gym

Up to now, I have never done any Mommy & Me classes with Owen. Probably for a couple reasons: my work schedule is tough to work around scheduled play groups and my friends all have children close in age to Owen and we get together regularly enough that he is exposed to other kids. However, now that Owen is walking and talking he is definitely craving that peer interaction and my friends and I don’t get together regularly enough to fulfill his needs. Also, the closest “friend” of his is 6 months older than him and even though that sounds like a small distance, when they are this little it’s actually quite dramatic. So, to try and find some playmates for Owen and to provide him with an introduction to structured activities, I felt like now was the time to look for an organized playgroup for Owen.

We went to two trial classes at two different organizations. The first one was at My Gym. The class was for 23 month to 2 ½ year old kids. I had high hopes that he would enjoy himself with realistic expectations that some of the organized activities might be challenging for him since he’s never done anything structured before. Well, the class was more than challenging for Owen – it was borderline torturous. 60 minute class – 45 minutes of Owen in a full blown tantrum. He did great during free play which is how the class started, but then they did circle time (Owen hated it and wanted to keep playing,) followed by more free time where they pulled different fun toys out to play with for about 10 minutes and then put them away. Each time they put something away, Owen got really mad. After the toys, they brought out swings which are Owen’s favorite – then they put them away. Mad. Then they brought out a zip line toy where the kids were pushed by the teacher in a little airplane seat across the gym. Each kid got a turn and then it was put away. Really Mad. So mad in fact, that the next things the teachers brought out were a big tote of musical instruments and a bunch of ride on toys. Owen was screaming about the zip line and walked over to the teacher who tried to pass out the instruments to the kids and grabbed each instrument out of her hand and threw them back into the tote. He finished his tantrum by taking a big ride on toy over his head (WWF style) and threw that in the tote too for good measure. If he wasn’t going to get what he wanted – nobody was!

So I left there pretty dejected. I nearly cancelled our trial at the 2nd place the following week but I called the teacher first to talk it through with her. She expressed some concern at the idea of having so many temporary toys for 2 year olds and said that in their program they only do that at the very end of class with plastic balls followed immediately by a bubble machine. I decided to suck it up and try again.

The Little Gym was 195% better! Their program is for 19 month to 2 ½ year olds (Owen is officially a Beast!) so Owen was in the middle of the pack age-wise. They organize it so much better with actual instruction to the parents around letting their children roam free instead of forcing them into participation. Owen complained the first day but never really cried. He didn’t like circle time and stayed on the outside but so did every single other child. He did great during free time – did great during the balls – got a little sad when the balls were put away but the bubble machine was a great consolation prize. After the bubbles is the saddest part because that’s when class is over, but the kids get a special stamp on their hands and feet on their way out.

So the first class: Owen did a lot of complaining during circle time and anytime a teacher came near him during free play. He did not want to put the balls away and tried to run away with his when I took it from him. When class was over, I had to drag him out of the gym because he did NOT want to leave – he had no idea what stamps were and did not care.

The second week: Owen complained slightly during circle time, but dramatically less than the first week. He loved when teachers came to him and actually knew how to do the “skill of the week” (somersaults) on his own without help so he was the class example. He was so excited about the bubbles, he helped put away all the balls. During final circle time, he was off doing his own thing and Steve and I were participating in the group when we heard all the moms let out this “Awwwwwww!” We looked over and Owen was holding hands with a little boy named, Huck. Huck was leading him all around the gym by the hand going to all the apparatuses. They got to the rings and Owen tried to lift Huck up by the middle to reach the rings. It was adorable. He was still sad when class was over, but he was also ready to get stamped so we were able to leave easier. I can’t wait to see what improvements are in store for us next week!

I haven’t brought a camera to class yet because I’ve been unsure of how he would do, but after the Huck hand holding, I need to do it. Hopefully I’ll have pictures of class soon.

Our Cup Runneth Over

It could be argued that I “baby” Owen a little. However, I don’t care. I feel no need to rush his baby and toddler years. When he was little, I liked holding him during his naps. I don’t regret doing it and today he’s a great sleeper. Now, he still eats baby food veggies because he won’t eat any veggies with texture. I let him use a spoon for half of it and I feed him the other half (mainly to make it go faster and to make sure he eats most of it.) If I’m still doing that when he’s in grade school, then I will feel bad – but today I don’t.

I realize there are many 2 year olds who completely feed themselves including using a regular cup. This may be anecdotal, but most of these kids are daycare kids – leading me to believe that daycare is ok with letting them pour the contents of their cups all over. But, since Owen only drinks water out of his sippy cup anyway – I figured now would be a good time to start trying to drink out of a regular cup. He is doing great! There are a few areas where he could improve: he definitely drinks less water than when he gulps down his sippy, he likes to put his hands in the water, he will dip his utensils in it and he likes to blow bubbles. But when he feels like drinking it, he does a good job.

There are a few rules/learnings about the regular cup:

• No ice allowed – Ice encourages fishing in the cup with hands.
• Regular cup is only at the highchair. Sippy cups are still ok in the rest of the house.
• Plastic bibs are a must. Preferably with a lip that catches the drips and protects the pants.