Big skills!!!

Owen now helps get himself dressed. I'm absolutely amazed at the consistency of the second skill I'll mention. The first thing he can do is get his socks on. Usually, though, there is at least one sock with the grabby bits on top instead of on bottom (he won't slip if he's walking on the tops of his feet - lol!!!) the second, and to me most amazing, skill is putting on his crocs. 9 times out of 10, they're on the correct feet. he did that yesterday morning and jeffy thought i had put his shoes and socks on. nope. little man did it himself. today he got on his socks (both upside down) and one of his crocs - left one on the left foot. incredible. i wonder if this will transfer over to other types of shoes. time will tell. the way i'm looking at it is that once or twice would be accidental, consistent occurence is intentional. one more think owen likes to do now is feed the cat. he'll come into the kitchen and sign and say "more" and i'll open up the cupboard so he can get the food out for max. he's gotten really good at understanding "all done" and putting the scoop back in the bag and closing the door. he's turning into a great helper!

at church yesterday, owen was eating cheerios and at one point acted like he was done by "closing" the ziploc bag. jeffy tried to take it from him (he was done, right?) and owen looked right at him and said, "no-no daddy!" then i tried to take it and he told me, "no-no mimi!" i had to cover my mouth to stiffle the laughter. very cute. the other new thing is, "night-night mimi" (or whoever he is saying goodnight to). so cool!

this morning we had grands cinnamon rolls for breakfast. once owen finished his, he immediately asked for "more!" he got a banana instead. no complaints from said short person. if you'll look at the picture, you'll see the green turtle cup. it is not a sippy cup. this is the first meal at home that owen has not used a sippy cup for his drink. on his first attempt today, he didn't realize that a lot of liquid would come out and he spilled a little bit. after that, he took good careful sips. there was a little bit of drippage, but nothing major and he never once turned the cup upside down so i'm not even worrying about it. it's all a part of the learning process.

after breakfast was a much needed bath. after the bath was a much needed haircut. call me old-fashioned, but i really prefer his hair shorter rather than longer. i just think it looks neater when it's shorter. that, plus it's easier to trim it shorter than longer. i really hate hair flopping over his ears and into his eyes (or even close to his eyes). i finally today wrote down which settings i'm using for his hair cut. that way i don't have to guess. here are the before and after shots. he didn't stay too still for the after shot. the decision i've made for after haircuts is that owen gets as many m&m's as he is years old. so that means that he gets two m&m's after each haircut this year. some may call it bribery. i say, "whatever". ;-)

the workshop this weekend was a blast. i had a great time visiting with my friends and their two kids on saturday morning. i also ended up buying my own dulcimer. actually, it's a kit. the body is made of cardboard, which i will need to paint before i can get the whole thing put together. if i find i'm using my cardboard dulcimer a lot, which i think might be a possibility, i will at some point go and get a real wooden one. however, i would spend ten times what i spent this weekend for a wooden one so this really is the way to go to see if i'll really use it. if not, we're out $35 and owen has his first real instrument. i think i'll let him play it a little bit regardless. i have to decide what color i'm going to paint my dulcimer's body and make sure we have the appropriate kind of glue. i also need to get the strings, tuning mechanisms, and a few other things that were supposed to come in the kit but didn't. luckily the gal i bought it from lives just a few blocks from my school. that means about 10 minutes from our house. should be easy to get the stuff. i sent her an e-mail yesterday letting her know i was missing some stuff. at least i can get started on the painting. :-)

this morning jeffy was so funny! at a little after 6:00 a.m., he all of a sudden rips the covers off of me. i ask him what he's doing. he says, "you forgot to set your alarm." i reminded him that i don't have to go to work today. it was then that he remembered that it's veteran's day and apologized. very sweet and very funny.

i think we'll stay in most of today as it's looking to be a very blustery day.