Clean Bill

We had both of our check-ups since my last post. The surgeon said that everything looks great with his ear drums and they are healing up nicely. the pediatrician said his eardrum look better than she can ever remember seeing them. sounds like we made the right decision.

owen has a favorite word: "hi!" he says it probably 50+ times a day (or maybe that is just in the morning...) hi to the kitty, to mommy, to daddy, to people at day care, to... two cute things with this in the past week are in the mornings when we are getting out the door, he'll go onto the porch and wait for me while i lock up. he'll open the screen door, poke his head in and say "hi" several times. on thursday, jeffy was sitting at the desk and owen comes over carrying his toy phone by the receiver, but holding the receiver out, and was saying "hi. hi. hi. hi." all the way to daddy. it's so much fun to listen to him grow and change.

a bonus since our 18 month check on monday, he's been getting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. yay! oh, and his stats from monday: 25 lbs, 8 oz, and 34" tall. two more inches and we're a full-on three feet tall! that's tall enough to climb out of the crib, in theory. i'm not sure he knows that's a possibility just yet. let's see what we can do about keeping it that way, shall we?

it's a beautiful day here, but we're stuck as my car is getting work done (mainly an oil change, but also a follow-up on the tranny...) no stroller, can't find my key to the shed to get the wagon out, no car seat so even if someone came to pick us up, we couldn't go anywhere. oh, and jeffy's out doing yard work at the tree lot and at his parent's house. loads of fun here. the good news is that i have a baby shower to go to tomorrow for one of my sisters-in-law. she's due in june! yay! more babies!

bedtime stories

last night, as we were doing bedtime stories, mr. "i can do it myself" decided that that attitude extended to reading as well. he would not let me do the reading. he insisted on doing it. at first i was resistant, but then realized it was a great opportunity for him to read to me, even if i couldn't understand him. he was (and is) able to orient the books correctly, and even help tell the story in some places, either through signing or actions. one thing he knows, is that wind blows and he'll blow when the wind blows in one of the two books we read every night.

as for his language, he's saying "please" more than he's signing it these days. it sounds more like, "bee", but in owenese, that's "please". he also had some grilled cheese for dinner tonight. :-) good boy! he's still up at 4ish in the morning, but what can we do? (seriously, folks! what CAN we do?!?!)

sleepless in tacoma with the terrible twos

i hate teething! poor owen is still miserable at night. he'll wake up and whine at least once in the middle of the night. some of it is hunger, some is the discomfort of those nasty molars trying to cut through. a little food usually works pretty well and he'll usually sleep for the rest of the night.

last night, while i was reading a favorite book he copied me and said, "pigeon". It came out more like "pih", but that's close enough. Yesterday, also, he asked specifically for peaches. he got pears because that's what we had open in the fridge. no real complaints, so that's good. i just wish he'd go back to eating something. now he's not even eating grilled cheese or hamburgers or quesadillas. it's pretty much pbj for lunch and dinner. good thing he still likes his fruit.

we have two doctor's appointments in the next week. on wednesday of this week, we go back to the doctor who did his tubes for our two-week follow-up. on monday of next week, we have our 18-month check-up with the pediatrician. our favorite nurse there is pregnant and i can't wait to see how she's growing. i'll let you all know how things go.

tantrums are becoming the way of life around here. the terrible twos have really set in. mommy's phrase when a CFD D C CXN (<--Owen's work) tantrum is under way is, "it's a sad, sad world." i make sure he doesn't hurt himself, and let him throw the tantrum.

MORE words!

This little guy's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, it seems daily. He is now saying "fishy", "daddy" (very clearly, actually), "hi, kitty!", and "peaches". "Peaches" is new as of tonight. He is also doing an equally consistent job of saying or signing "please". A couple of days ago, he started mimicing animal sounds. He can mimic a roar and ee-ee-ee (monkey). What an amazing kid. All this in the last week, since ear tubes. Another thing I'm noticing is that he is starting to copy (or at least try to copy) what we are saying more frequently than he was a week ago.

Any suggestions on how to convince a very stubborn toddler that 3:50 a.m. is a bad time to wake up? And more specifically, that 3:50 a.m. is a bad time to wake up Mommy and Daddy? We've had three nights of this mess. It's wearing on at least the two older members of the household. Not fun.

As a side note, Owen turns 18 months old tomorrow. How does Mommy get to help celebrate? I get to go to a meeting for National Boards. Lucky me.

Even MORE words!

Since last evening, Owen has said a new word and a new phrase. The new word is "hi" and the new phrase is "big boy". Both were imitated, but he's never done that before! He said, "hi" twice last night and "big boy" was this morning when I woke him up and asked if he was a big boy. He replied, "big boy!" Yay for tubes! I'm so glad we did this!

Today we're going to the zoo. Wonder what new sounds he'll hear and respond to. Last evening, when we got dinner at our favorite Vietnamese place at Freighthouse Square near the Tacoma Dome, Owen heard a UPS truck start up and he stopped walking, turned, and listened and watched. What a neat thing for him!

Good as new!

Owen came through the surgery this a.m. with flying colors! He is back to normal, and happy as a clam! You really can't tell by looking at him or watching him that he had surgery this morning. He saw me as they were rolling him out, after he came out of the anesthesia, and he wanted nothing to do with the gurney and only wanted Mama. That was fine with me! We went and got breakfast at my old university and Owen ate a ton, as usual. Looks like the zoo is a for-sure thing tomorrow!

Last night we had dinner with some family friends who used to live in Denver. We got home kind of late for Mr. O, so I was only going to read him one story. He didn't want any story last night. He just wanted to go to bed. Took the book from my hand and motioned toward the bookshelf with it (that's where it goes when we're done reading it). I put him in his crib and all was good. He's started doing this a couple of nights ago, except that first time we got up around 2:30, had some peaches, then I took him back to bed with me because that had helped him get to sleep quicker than trying to rock him or just putting him in his crib did. Well, he squirmed his way out of our bed, onto the floor, and walked right over to his bedroom door and waited for me. I put him in his crib, he cried for maybe a minute and then was quiet. After a little bit, I heard him talking to himself, but they were happy and content sounds so I didn't worry about it. I think we might be crossing that hump for the sleep thing. Keep your fingers crossed!

Checking in

We do that tomorrow morning at 7:00. No food after midnight, clear liquids only after midnight (so juice, water, etc.) and NOTHING after 5:00 a.m. Not even a sip of water. Hopefully we will be out by 8:00 or 8:30.

Had lunch with my aunt and uncle today. Owen had melon and fries. He's definately in one of those phases where he doesn't want to eat much. He'll self-regulate so I'm not too worried. It's aggrivating, more than anything - make or order food for him and then he doesn't touch it.)

Uh-oh!

That's our latest word. He's been walking around all morning saying, "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" It's making me laugh.

Owen went close to 12 hours of sleep last night. He woke up briefly at 2:30, but got himself back to sleep, just as I was getting ready to get him (I had taken the covers off of myself and was rolling over to get out of bed when he quieted down.) Sleep is a wonderful thing. Hopefully tonight will be as good or better, especially since he has surgery tomorrow morning and can't eat after midnight.

That's the latest update from our home! I'll post again tomorrow after the surgery and let you all know how things go.

And yet more vocabulary

We went to Portland today (Owen, my dad - who is in town from Denver for the week - and I) to have lunch with my aunt and uncle. While we were there, Owen made yet another sign. This one is "fishy", for the goldfish crackers. He was signing up a storm. Aunt Martha and Uncle Bob really enjoyed spending time with us and watching Owen play. On the way home, Owen was screaming bloody murder as we were changing elevations. I wouldn't be surprised if he has another ear infection come surgery on Thursday. Anyone willing to bet against me?

Last night he was up at something near 2:30 so I got up, gave him some peaches and brought him back to our bed to get him back to sleep. He wanted nothing to do with being in our bed. He wanted to be in his own crib. So, I put him there (he climed out of our bed, and went and stood by his door...), he cried once or twice, then quieted down. I could hear him chattering away for a little while, but as long as the sounds coming from his room were happy sounds, I didn't care. He fussed again about an hour later, but quickly went back to sleep so it was all good. I woke him up a little after 7:00 this morning. He's been down now for about 45 minutes. He's been really whiney lately. Wonder how much of it is his ears.

Tomorrow we find out what time to be at the hospital on Thursday. I was told something around 6:30 or 7:00 was likely. That way he can get there, get in and out before he gets too hungry. We'll make breakfast the first or second thing we do when we get home.

Addendum #3

The "firsts" continue. Tonight we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and ordered Owen a quesadilla, which he normally devours. The quesadilla came with an orange wedge and fries (with ketchup). Owen didn't touch the quesadilla, but ate the fries and orange wedge. Now the orange wedge didn't surprize me at all, he loves fruit. He's always turned up his nose at fries, including yesterday at lunch on our way home from Spokane. Tonight, that's all he ate. He dipped them in ketchup and sometimes ate the fry with the ketchup on it, and other times he licked the ketchup off of the fry and re-dipped. I sat there and watched him, flabergasted. He continually keeps me guessing. Oy!

addendum 2

add yet another sign to his repertoire: "all done" (arms spread out wide) sheesh! i'm having trouble keeping up with all of this vocabulary! lol! not that i'm complaining, mind you. :-)

addendum

add to his signs: "eat" and "water" eat was done just now for the first time. water was done this weekend (i knew there was one more thing that i had for gotten!)

we've had an explosion!

but only in the communication venue. this weekend we were in spokane for my great-aunt's 80th birthday and we were staying with some friends. at dinner on saturday evening, no wait. let's back up to earlier in the day. we went to riverfront park and took owen on the carousel. he fussed and cried until it started moving. then he was having the the time of his life. this picture is from after the ride was over. after that, we went to the not-so-little red wagon (see for yourself!) we're just on top of the thing. there is a slide going down and owen went down that on his own as i was in khaki pants for the party and didn't want to get them dirty. while the two of us were up there, i told owen to say, "hi daddy!" and he did! "hi" was new word number one on the weekend.

after the park, we went to the party and had a wonderful time. i saw my second cousins, and it had been quite a while since i've seen most of them. i think the last time i saw all but one of them, it was at our great-grandmother's funeral in 1993. we've all changed quite a bit since then. here's our group picture, with my great-aunt, their grandmother. that's conor, kelly, kjersten, aunt fran, zach, jay, and me. we really enjoyed talking and they had a blast watching owen play.

anyway, back to the vocabulary explosion, at dinner on saturday night, we were sitting around the table and owen was asking for "more, please".i had no idea he could sign, "please", but there he was, signing please! we gave him some teddy grahams (a favorite snack) and he continued to ask for "more, please!" i asked him if he wanted more bears (i signed those two words) and he, being the smart little bugger he is, signed "more bears please" but instead of using the true sign for "bear", owen did the action from the wiggles song, "rock-a-bye your bear", which is a cradled rocking motion. i was blown away. he took (1) what he saw me do for "bear", and (2) what he already knew had "bear" as a part of it and put them together for his own sign. then, as if he hadn't flabergasted mommy enough, he proceded to sign please bear several times, each time getting another teddy graham or two. do you think he understands that he is communicating? do you think he gets this thing? i sure do. oh, and he also said "bear" right after he signed it the first time. so, if you were counting, that's two new signs and two new spoken words all in one day. geeze, kid! keep it up!

another thing he learned to do this weekend is go down stairs on his bum. the funniest part of the whole thing is that when he was coming down the top flight of stairs, he'd do it on his bum. going down the next flight, he would turn over to his tummy and go down that way. too cute!

i'm on spring break, and owen is napping now. we had a late night last night (at jeffy's sister's house playing poker) and didn't get home until around or after 10. owen was up at 6:30 this morning, which is much better than the 4:30 stuff he's been pulling lately. maybe after he gets his tubes, he'll sleep even longer at night! here's hoping!