Eight Months Old

Adam turned eight whole months old today!  Well, actually, two days ago.  Sometimes it's hard to get a picture on the actual exact day...but we're within 48 hours, so I think we're good.  I posted the picture at the bottom of this post on my Facebook page because he's smiling, but the picture to the left is really my favorite.  Adam smiles so much, those are the photos I usually share - but he is also quietly sweet so much and that is hard to capture in a photo.  But the photo to the left seemed to capture it really well.  Just content, sweet and cute.

Adam is 8 months going on about 5 years...He wants to do everything he's not technically ready to do yet.  He'd prefer to eat lasagna over pureed apples...He would rather play with Owen's toys than his...He would rather run than crawl...He wants what he wants when he wants it! 

He is teething like crazy and it seems to bother him a lot more than it bothered Owen.  Tylenol has become his best friend.  His bottom front tooth came in about a week ago and you can see the white of one of his top teeth coming in too.  I can only assume that since one of each (top and bottom) is coming in, the matching two aren't far behind.  That has been causing him to be pretty darn fussy during the day and waking up at least twice a night. 

He is crawling like a madman, but isn't pulling his tummy up off the floor.  I think he looks like one of those baby turtles that are making a mad dash to the ocean...he's all elbows and knees!  But even doing an army crawl, he is really fast.  It only takes him a second to get from one room to the other.
Since he's mobile, he's into everything he can reach.  Trying to get behind the TV is a favorite game.  It used to be his brother's favorite game too!  The only thing that can keep him sitting in the same spot for very long is a bath...he loves his baths.  Loves to splash, splash, splash...and suck on washcloths.

He loves his Mama...I can't be in the room without him trying to get to me.  He actually only says "ma-ma-ma-ma" when I'm around but it's the noise he makes only when he wants something.  I'm not counting it as "mama" yet until he says it only about me and when asked! 

He is eating all the food Nana has been making for him.  He's tried peas, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, apples, peaches, spinach & sweet potatoes, green beans & onion and he eats at least 2-3 servings of this "baby food" every day.  He has also had a few Baby Mum Mum crackers but those have been a little problematic.  He's gagged a couple times and they are really messy.  His favorite though, is oatmeal cereal.  He loves it and gets annoyed when we mix it with anything.  But his absolute favorite is adult food.  He has eaten hot dog buns, Kentucky Fried Chicken (chicken and mashed potatoes/gravy) and lasagna.  If you give him a tiny bite of anything you are eating, he starts bouncing up and down and begging for more.  If he could just chew and not gag, we'd be just giving him everything we ate!

The other day, we gave him a sippy cup full of water and in no time, he was drinking out of it.  He drank at least half of the water we gave him.  This was pretty cool because it took Owen a long time to figure out how to drink from a sippy.  Hopefully Adam's transition will be much faster!

And sleeping is going well.  He is going down between 7:30 and 8pm and on a normal/good night, waking up around 3am for a bottle then returning to sleep until 8am.  I bounce him on the ball and sing "You Are My Sunshine" until his eyes get heavy and then put him in his crib.  No crying at all!  Oh, bootcamp...You are so worth it.   On a good day, he takes two 1.5 - 2 hour naps during the day.  On an off day, he takes 3 shorter naps.  These days are split pretty even right now but nighttime has remained pretty consistent.

Other than that, he's just the sweetest little boy.  He definitely is in love with his big brother. Lucky for him (and us) Owen loves him just as much.  He is starting to annoy Owen a tad now that he can crawl over to whatever Owen is playing with and try to grab it, but overall Owen is just sugar sweet to Adam.  Owen insists on being the one to open the door when Adam wakes up and it melts my heart to hear "Good Morning, Mister!" coming out of Owen's mouth.  He also showers Adam with hugs all day long and loves to make him laugh.  It's so great to see that they enjoy each other.

Happy 8th Month Birthday Adam - We love you!

Bathtime Buddies

I have been bathing the boys together for about a month now...Ever since Adam was able to sit up without support for an extended length of time.  It definitely speeds up bath time doing it this way...and to be honest, Adam is now getting baths more than once a week since I can knock them out at the same time. 

But for the last month, when I see them in the tub I think to myself, "this is so cute, I should take a picture."  But because I'm usually bathing them both together when Steve isn't home (he usually takes bath duty) I never think to bring my camera upstairs during the mad rush to get them both upstairs, undressed, locked in the bathroom and into the tub.

But tonight, Steve was home and he was able to provide me with my camera once they were happily playing away.  And fortunately, I was able to capture the first time Owen shampooed Adam's hair.  You can see in Adam's face how much he loves his big brother.  And lucky for him (and us) the feeling is completely mutual.  Owen loves his little brother too.

A Dog Only A Bubba Can Love

It's no secret that our dog drives us crazy.  She barks constantly, she can't walk on a leash, she's so wild that the boarding place we left her at had to give her a sedative in order to take her on walks, she sheds like crazy, she jumps on anyone new who walks in the room, and she stinks. 

But Owen loves her.

Three, Three, Three - Owen is THREE

It's official.  Owen turned three today.  I have a three year old.  Owen is three.  I know when he turns 18, I'll look back on this day and reminisce on how little he was.  But right now, my only frame of reference is the last 3 years and today, he's the oldest he's ever been.  It's amazing to watch him grow into this little smart, funny, fun, opinionated, sensitive, loving, caring little boy.  He's perfection.

So like every year, we did a family celebration on his actual birthday and then the big party will be this weekend.  This year though, Uncle Michael - Owen's birthday buddy - was here to share in the celebration! 

So maybe we should start with the differences between this year and past years.  This year, Owen has started understanding what a "birthday" is and was looking forward to his.  However, he only associates birthdays with "cake" so really he was just looking forward to cake.  But we've been talking about his birthday and what day it would be and what we'd be doing for the past few weeks! 

So past birthdays, I decided on what the cake would be.  His first birthday, it was a purchased big cake with a lovely number "1" on top and Owen got his own personal Elmo smash cake.  Last year, I decided to attempt a choo-choo cake and it actually turned out pretty cool.  With last year's cake success, I decided to offer Owen a few choices of what he could have this year and he chose a garbage truck cake.  I found a Wilton Cake Pan in the shape of an 18 wheeler on eBay (they stopped making it in the 80's) so I figured I could use that as my base shape and just cut off pieces of it in order for it to resemble a garbage truck.  So that's what I did and it seemed to turn out ok - Owen immediately recognized it as a garbage truck and that's all I'm really going for.

The morning of Owen's birthday, we opened presents.  I had Steve videotape it but I did a terrible job taking pictures because I was helping Owen open while also entertaining Adam.  Sometimes pictures just don't get taken.  But afterwards, I was able to take this cute one of Owen playing with his new fireman dress up outfit (no pants.)  In this picture he is trying to put out a fire in the fireplace using a fire extinguisher.  One of the main reasons we got him this outfit is because he had a cheap plastic fireman hat that was broken AND he has a new fascination with fire extinguishers.  This set came with a hard plastic hat and a pretend extinguisher.  Perfect!

Another difference from past years was that I chose our "birthday fun activity" which was the Woodland Park Zoo for his 1st birthday and Remlinger Farms for his 2nd.  This year, we left it up to Owen.  However, since present opening was first thing in the morning, he decided for the majority of the day that he didn't want to go ANYWHERE and he'd prefer to stay at home and play with his new toys.  Since it was his birthday, it wasn't like we could really argue with him much about it.  At least not to the point of forcing him into the car?!?!  Luckily around 2pm, he got bored enough with the toys that he was ready to leave.  So we got ready and since Owen is now officially three, it seemed like the appropriate time to start shaving.  I have cuter pics of Steve actually "shaving" with Owen but both boys are shirtless and I just feel bad about posting shirtless pictures of Steve to the blog.  So this one will have to do.

Owen was told in the morning that he could choose anything he wanted for his special day.  My suggestion was Northwest Trek which none of us have ever been to, but I hear there is a "tram" that you ride through the park.  I figured it was train-ish enough to be cool for Owen, plus the animal thing.  Owen had said the night before he wanted to do Remlinger Farms (steam train.)  But since he took so long playing with his toys, by the time we were ready to go I had to provide some local options that would give us enough time to be back for the birthday dinner.  He chose to ride go-karts at Pt. Defiance.  Since it was a hot day, we decided to stop on the way down and get Frappuccinos at Starbucks.  This was also a first for all of us (seriously, I've never had one) and Owen was pretty excited at first but really only took about 3 sips.  Not his favorite (I feel like I should mention here that he did not have coffee in his -- this should be assumed, but I'll clarify just in case.)  This was also Owen's first time drinking a frozen beverage in the car.  I was a little nervous, but he did a great job!  After the smoothie, both boys had a sugar crash.  You would think this photo was taken after the go-karts, but nope - it was on the way down.  I almost wanted to just skip them altogether and drive around for an hour to give Owen his first nap in months.  But it's his birthday - and karts must be driven.

Steve took Owen here one time before today, so when we arrived I was ready to sit and watch them in action.  They had lovely little benches right next to the track that seemed perfect to sit in the sun and smell the fumes of the go-karts.  We asked Owen who he wanted to drive with first and to my surprise he said, "Mama!"  I'm not a huge go-kart fan and I'm definitely not the best go-kart driver, but I took one for the team in the name of Owen's birthday.  My overprotectiveness was a little disappointed when I saw that they did not provide helmets?! But maybe these cars are un-flippable. Who knows.  I was driving slowly and safely enough that my car would have never flipped.  But also kind of fast.  Fast enough that Owen thought we were going fast and isn't that really the point?

I like how every picture Steve took of me, I'm screaming.  I think it helped me drive.  I also like to think that Owen thought I was saying "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"  instead of what I was really saying.  Steve did a much better job at not getting lapped by the other drivers and Owen did two turns with him back to back, so I think the trophy goes to Steve.

Once Owen had enough fun, we headed back home for the birthday boys dinner.  The fun part about having a baby is that you get to opt-out of most things that require extra effort.  So Michael, Kelly and Audrey and Nana came over to our house and brought food with them to grill on the BBQ for all of us.  Nana found some special pickles called "Bubbies" for Bubby.  He loves pickles so it was very appropriate.

Then Owen opened his gifts from Nana and the Steffen family.  He got some really cool stuff (as usual!)  Here he is trying out his brand new sleeping bag that he received from Michael, Kelly and Audrey.  Audrey had to show him how a sleeping bag works...we aren't what you would call "outdoorsy."  Or "sleepy in any beddy that isn't yoursy."  Owen is getting a big boy bed for his birthday in a couple weeks...Should be interesting!

And Nana gave him the COOLEST garbage truck.  Yes, he now has five garbage trucks...but this one is the BIGGEST and therefore it's the COOLEST.  I can't explain his obsession with garbage trucks and trains...but it borders on OCD.  Every night I put away his trucks and I move a couple of the five into a separate room thinking that if they are out of sight, maybe they will be out of mind.  Every morning, he pulls out every garbage truck he has and finds any of them I have hidden.  If by chance, he stops playing with one for a few days - garbage day is on Tuesday and on Tuesday, he pulls out his entire fleet.  The kid is garbage truck crazy.

After presents was dinner and after dinner was CAKE TIME!  Cake time is the best time.  It's what Owen had been waiting for all month.  This year, I let Michael replace me as the assistant candle blower outer...it is, after all, his birthday too.  Bet he never thought he'd get a garbage truck cake for his thirty second birthday!  He seemed pretty stoked though!  Also, I should probably note that we are all wearing birthday hats because Owen loves them.  In this buildup to birthday, he had been pretending like it was his birthday and singing himself the happy birthday song and every time, he found something that could be used as a birthday hat.  So I made sure they were part of the real deal day!

Happy Birthday Owen!

Double The Cute

Most of the time, I feel like juggling two kids is kind of...tough.  A lot of divided attention, focus, effort, etc. etc. etc.  A few months ago, I posted a video to illustrate the "rough" times of having two children. 

Tonight was a lesson in how two kids can double the cuteness.  Enjoy!

PS: You'll also get to see Adam's new fascination with his finger up his nose.  He does that when he's about to fall asleep too.  I think he's picking up bad habits from his big brother...

You've Got Sand

About a year later and we've finally completed the kids' playset.  Meaning: we added sand to the sandbox.  Owen may never swing again.  Adam hasn't tried it out yet because as I told Owen, "he'll eat it."

Race Car Rear Ends

Some of you may remember this video of Owen we took when he was six months old. This was pre-blog time, but I did post it to Facebook because I thought it was HILARIOUS (as you can hear from the video.) It's probably one of our most favorite family videos...



So, tonight we decided to recreate the moment with Adam. He didn't seem to enjoy it *quite* as much as Owen, but I think it was circumstantial...It was right after I got home from work, so he wanted Mama to play with him and not laugh at him.



And we couldn't recreate the moment with Adam without trying to recreate it with Owen once again...He definitely seemed to enjoy it just as much as the first time! I know I sure did.

Test Drivin' The Trailer

Michael and Kelly came over today to test drive the Burley Bike Trailer...Audrey was STOKED.  Owen was less than impressed...

Broccoli Recall

Adam has been enjoying his veggies the last few days.  Still acts like fruit tastes like lemon juice (SOUR FACE!) but loves his carrots and sweet potatoes.  Uncle Michael and Aunt Kelly told me they had Audrey eating steamed broccoli at this age and since she is the poster child for non-finicky eaters, I thought Adam could give it a try too. 

Here are the photos from his first steamed broccoli attempt.  It basically went: bite -- gag.  And I have the photos to prove it.

We'll try again in a couple weeks...

Typical 2nd Child Syndrome

I am trying my hardest to keep things "fair" between my two kids.  If Owen got it (hand painted bedroom wall, day-by-day calendar, baby book, etc.) then Adam should get it.  But I think I'm failing at the sheer number of photos taken.  Owen had a million pictures by the time he turned one.  Adam has a small fraction of that.  So I'm going to try and take more since I've been seriously lagging lately.

Here is one from today.  It's a little blurry, but cute.  Adam loves shoulder rides on Daddy!

I Love To Singa!

Both my kids have certain songs that when Dad sings them, their faces light up.  Owen has had a million.  Currently, it's "Wags the Dog" by The Wiggles...When he was a baby, it was Michael Jackson's, "ABC." 

Adam's favorite is "I Love To Singa!" from the old Merrie Melodies cartoon.  Today the boys watched the whole cartoon on YouTube.

Here is the entire cartoon if you don't remember the song...

The Wiggles In Concert

There are so many times as a parent where you feel like you've completely failed.  Like the time I sent Owen down a huge multi-bump slide by himself and he cracked his head while I watched helplessly at the top of the slide.  Or the time I gave him massive rug burns on his forearms by playing a "crawl away from me and I'll pull you back" game.  Just to name a few...So far, there are fewer times where you feel like a rock star.  However, tonight I RAWKED as a mommy.

A few months ago, I heard one of Owen's favorite TV shows, The Wiggles, were going on tour.  In order to get the presale tickets code, I subscribed to The Wiggles Fan Club for a nominal fee and was able to order concert tickets at the very minute they went on sale to the fan club subscribers.  And it PAYED off...and by that I mean, we got 2nd row center for a hefty fee. 

Fast forward to the last couple weeks where I have been feverishly Googling the details about the concert and found some insider information...Apparently, those "in the know" are supposed to bring signs for The Wiggles to read aloud, a bone for Wags The Dog and a rose for Dorothy The Dinosaur (she eats roses.)

So I bought a bone, and a couple roses and made a sign...I wanted to make sure we came prepared!

And here's how the night went down...

Owen has been waiting and waiting and WAITING for this concert.  We've been telling him that The Wiggles are still on TV but someday they would come here in their Big Red Car.  Today, we told him - They are coming today!  He was ready to leave as soon as he woke up.  But he managed to wait the whole day until Nana arrived around 3pm when we told him we were going to dinner first.  His immediate response was, "I don't WANNA go to dinner!" But, he was ok with it once he was told that The Wiggles weren't going to be here until after dinner.

Where should Owen go to dinner before the big concert, you ask?  Well, my idea was the Choo Choo restaurant (Spaghetti Factory.)  We pulled in to the parking lot and before we could even find out that the restaurant was closed, Owen was already asking if he could go to the Butterfly Restaurant (Rainforest Cafe) instead.  So, we made our way over there.  It's easier to stomach bad, overpriced food when your child LOVES it.

After dinner, we drove up to The Paramount in Seattle.  Owen had to have Wag's bone and Dorothy's roses in his lap at all times.  We got to the theater and into our seats and Owen was in a trance.  He snapped out of it long enough to share one of his roses to the girl in the seat behind us who didn't happen to bring one (her 3rd birthday was on 8/25.)

When the show started Owen was all business.  There is no dancing or singing with Owen during these concerts...He just likes to take it all in.  But I know he was amazed at seeing his TV idols live and in person.  We were all a little bummed that two of the idols were missing...Greg (yellow shirt) quit the "band" a while ago and was replaced by one of the backup singers "Captain Sing-Alotta-Songa" who is now Sam and Jeff (purple shirt), who had heart surgery 6 weeks ago (Murray (red shirt) explained to the kids at the beginning of the show what a "pacemaker" was...kind of a heavy topic for toddlers, but we went with it.) 

I wasn't sure when we were supposed to hold up our signs...I didn't want to be the only one doing it!  But one of the first few songs was about Wags the Dog and since our sign was about Wags, I decided to hold it up.  Anthony (Owen's Favorite Wiggle) read it aloud right away and had Wags thank him for it -- the first specific audience mention during the show was to Owen!  Then, he came down to collect a few bones from audience members and he took Owen's bone from him and said again, "Thank you, Owen!"  Owen was in major awe.

Then, it was Dorothy the Dinosaur's turn and the crew came out in the audience and collected roses.  Sam came over to us and took Owen's rose and thanked him for it.  Then, Owen turned to me and said very softly..."Mom....Was that Greg?"  It melted my heart because he was so wanting it to be Greg but he knew, that was NOT Greg.

At some point, my sign was at my feet and it fell down towards me.  Steve and I both went to catch it and when we looked down, it had completely disappeared.  At first we thought maybe it fell under the people in front of us, but it didn't.  I finally realized that it had fallen between a large crack in the floor to the basement of the theater!  A couple minutes later, Anthony asked the audience if they had any more signs they could read.  THANK GOODNESS I JUMPED THE GUN AND SHOWED OURS EARLY!  Otherwise, all my effort would have been for nothing! 

When the show was over, Owen clapped and waved to the performers.  I had a feeling that even though he didn't show his excitement, we'd be hearing about it later.

On the way home, he melted down.  A 6:30pm show with no nap was going to be tough, so we all understood...and he passed out immediately after his head hit the pillow.

So thanks to me...Owen sat in amazing seats to his favorite singing group.  He was able to give his favorite TV dog a bone he brought special for him.  He got to meet one of his favorite singers who also singled him out to the entire theater.  And, he got to eat a $10 grilled cheese next to animatronic elephants!  Does that make up for the rug burns???

Thanks to Nana, we have some pictures of our evening!  The first photo isn't the best, but it does capture the sign, the bone and the roses. 

Owen's First Photo

Not bad for a first attempt!  Michael might have to pass the torch as the family photog in a few years...

Adam's First Crawl!

You already know how I feel about those "firsts" with babies.  Adam has been able to scoot a bit for a while now...but today I guess I decided he is officially crawling.  You could argue that he's not because his tummy and right arm never leave the ground, but if he wants something in his general area, he's going to get it. 

Funny how with Owen - his first crawl was after my cell phone and the computer.  Adam's is the remote control.  Boys love their buttons.

Potty Humor

Apparently it's funny at any age...

Aunt Debi To The Rescue!

Ugh, hiring a nanny has been MUCH harder than I had anticipated.  We found who we thought was the perfect nanny on paper and she turned out to be...well, how can I say this?  Weird.  Really weird.  Really, really weird.  For example, she decided that Adam wanted to listen to music one day so she took him out to her car to listen to some tunes (rather than just using our music makers in the house?)  Another day, she decided on her own that she would start hard core potty training Owen and put him in underwear without discussing it with me first.  So the first time my little boy wore underwear was not under my watch - but the crazy nanny.  And did he have an accident?  Yes.  But that's not all...when they were playing outside and he said he needed to go, she directed him to pee in the dirt in the backyard.  Now when the subject of big boy pants comes up, Owen completely refuses.  Ummm, what else?  She brought a potato everyday that she baked in the microwave and told me on her last day that she had been cleaning the baking dish with Comet.  Those are just a few of the kooky things this woman did.  So since she was temporary anyway and she decided that she wanted to extend her already planned vacation, I happily dismissed her telling her that we'd figure out another solution. 

We have hired a new nanny who is set to start after the 4th of July holiday.  In the meantime though, Aunt Debi has stepped in to help us out and we are so happy to have her.  Owen is so happy to have Grace come play with him 3 times a week.  Steve took this photo today of the two of them eating lunch.  He titled his email to me "Two Peas."

Owen's First Award Ceremony

We had our Little Gym class today and Owen got his first medal!  I brought my camera for the occasion so you can get a glimpse into how much Owen loves hanging upside down on the bars.  He definitely earned his award! 

It was actually pretty cute...Each kid was called up to the "podium" where they were presented with their medal and everyone cheered for them. Then they took a class photo. He looks so old to me right now, but I know this will be one of those pictures I look back at after a high school sports award ceremony and cry.  Way to go, Bubba!

Brotherly Love

We had a quiet day at home today so I decided to get the camera out and try to get some pics of the kids.  Owen was running around in just his diaper and asked if he could hold Adam in his chair.  I said, "Sure, but let's get Adam in just his diaper so you guys match."  Matching is important when you sit in the same chair.

But seriously, Adam LOVES Owen.  If Owen is in his sight, he is all smiles.  People have asked me how I got them both to smile like this and it was easy.  Owen got to feel like a big brother by holding Adam in his lap.  Adam loves it when he is anywhere near Owen.  Smiles all around!

Baby Feet

I love them!

First Veggies

Adam tasted peas for the first time today.  Note that I purposely said "tasted" and not "ate."  I think pictures speak a 1000 words so here is basically how it went...

Apparently peas are not his favorite.