long day - what a story!!!

which turned into a very long night. we were to fly home at 7:00 p.m. on the 27th. well, as luck would have it, there was another major snow storm in denver that day (on top of the one on Christmas). i set up text alerts to my cell phone from our airline when we checked in at my mom's house. gotta love that online check-in thing. :-) anyway, on our way to the airport, we see a dozen cars along the side of the road, four tow trucks waiting in the median along pena blvd., and one emergency vehicle also waiting in the median along pena. (for those of you who aren't familiar with the denver area, pena blvd. connects the denver airport with I-70 which runs through the north end of denver.) luckily, we made it to the car rental place in one piece and got all of our stuff unloaded. we got onto the shuttle bus and as we were pulling into the drop-off area, my phone went off. it was the first alert telling us that our flight was delayed by 20 minutes. four minutes later, i got the second alert adding an hour to the initial alert. the next alert (20 minutes later) added 1 hour and 15 minutes to the second alert. the last alert came about 2 hours later and delayed us until 10:22 p.m. then on the reader-board at the gate, our final departure time was slated for 11:22 p.m. it was 12:17 on friday morning by my watch when we finally took off. this time is significant, but i'll get to that later.

so, we get to our gate knowing we will have to do a fair amount of waiting. we find a couple of seats by the window so owen can look out at the airplanes and snow (both new words from our trip). jeffy and i take turns walking around with him and jeffy even takes him to the neighboring concourse to play in the play area they have there. while my boys are going to play in the play area, the gate agents come on over the speakers (there are two flights' worth of people waiting at this point, both planes are delayed in leaving their origination point) and tells us that they have vouchers for us for food. all we need to do is bring up our boarding passes so they can mark who has received the voucher and who hasn't. i called jeffy and they came back. i got the vouchers and went to get food for owen and me. he ate his apples and then his nuggets. i didn't really care as long as they both got eaten. (everyone involved with that whole situation - both airline personnel and passengers - was so easy-going. there really were no problems to speak of aside from the delay in our flight, but everyone knew that it was noone's fault and we all just rolled with the punches.)

at a couple of points during the wait, owen was getting really restless so we pulled out the portable dvd player and watched elmo. don't you just love modern technology!? i sure do. we invited the little girl who was sitting behind us and her mother to join us (girl was not quite 2). earlier in the evening, owen had seen this little girl, gone up to her and given her hugs and kisses. it was very sweet. her mom even managed to get a picture of owen kissing cassidy (the little girl).

anyway, our plane finally leaves Seattle (it was a round-trip thing for the crew), which was announced over the speakers and greeted with much joy on our part. when it gets here, they tell us that they are going to try to get us all on the plane as quickly as possible so as to get us back to seattle as fast as possible. owen is counting people getting off of the plane. when there was break in the stream, he'd ask me, "where's the (insert appropriate number here)?" then when the next person came off of the plane, he'd pick up right where he left off. once he got to 10, he'd start over again, even counting backward from 5 at one point. i'd say that's really good number sense for 2 years old. asthe people are getting off of the plane, some of the people waiting to board near me notice someone behind the wall behind the desk put his hand over his mouth in an "oh " sort of way. said individual then makes an announcement that our flight might still be cancelled due to the length of time the crew has been on duty and that we needed to get everyone on the plane ASAP. well, this prompted a mini rush. "wait!!!" says he, "listen to your gate agent for directions." i'd say we did a wonderful job of getting everyone on and seated in record time. they got the doors closed and secured as soon as the last person was on board and the numbers check was done.

at 11:40 p.m. the head flight attendent then came on over the speakers in the plane and told us that in order to get to seattle that night, we needed to have wheels-up by 11:17 seattle time, which translates to 12:17 denver time. (this is where that time i mentioned earlier comes into play. do you remember what it is?) we sit in front of the gate after push-back for 10 minutes, then move to de-ice which gets done rather quickly, but still takes up several minutes to do the entire plane. we hit the runway and do a bit of taxiing, all the while people are looking at their watches and decideing to go with the watch that is earliest. in our row, that was mine. noone thought we were going to make it. there was a huge applause when the captain came on and told the flight attendents to prepare for take-off. we made it off of the ground with maybe minutes, but likely seconds to spare. the official time of our take-off according to the airline website was 12:20 a.m. once we were airborn, we were fine. we landed in seattle at 2:45 a.m. and didn't get home for another 45 minutes to an hour. i honestly didn't think that i was going to be waking up in my own bed yesterday morning.

boy, what a story this is. owen was such a trooper. one woman told us as she was passing our row during the boarding that owen was the best behaved child in the waiting area and that she could tell that we really work on his behavior. what an ego boost!!! we thanked her very much and i turned to jeffy and told him to give me a high-five. he asked what for. i told him that we're good parents. it's so nice to get that confirmation from strangers. owen slept most of the flight. all but the last 30-45 minutes, during which he cried and just wanted out. i did what i could to help him understand that i couldn't get him out just then. i'm not sure he understood. as soon as we were on the ground in seattle and the plane was taxiing to the gate, i took him out and just held him. he was fine from that point on. fussed for a couple of minutes when i put him in his bed when we got home (he was in jammies before we got on the plane...lucky boy!) and slept until 9:30 yesterday morning. i think we're getting close to being back on a normal sleep schedule around here.

tomorrow is christmas take 3 at jeffy's parent's house with all of his siblings and their kids. that will make 19 people in all. two of the people will be in arms of adults for the majority of the time as they are 15 days old and 6 months old. should be fun!

i'm dreaming

of a WHITE Christmas!!!!!! and i don't have to dream. it's been snowing since before we got up this morning. and it's 3:00 p.m. i'm guessing there's at least a half a foot of the white stuff out there. how marvelous!!!!! last night i was totally resigned to having a white christmas being dependent on which side of the street you lived on. nope!!!! my UW galloshes (did i spell that right?) don't keep anything warm. there has to be something between the galloshes and my skin if i have a prayer of keeping my lower leg warm. when i went out to get some things from the car earlier this afternoon, i jumped into the area where the plow had pushed snow and it was up to my mid-calf.

owen has figured out how to open presents. he practiced some last night at my dad's, then again this morning at my mom's. his favorite presents so far are a toy cell phone, and his cool big nubby ball. it's slightly smaller than a playground ball and inflates and deflates quite easily. i'm not sure what my favorite present is yet. maybe my iPod nano. it's green. :-)

oh, and santa claus. we went to see santa on sunday after church. we waited in line for two hours. owen was such a trooper. he did just perfectly. until it was time to sit in santa's lap. then he decided enough was enough. nuh-uh. don't wanna, mama. huge fit. CLUNG to me. so, i sat down next to santa with owen on the opposite side of me. we managed to get a few pictures on our own cameras and also (had to) buy a package from the people there. quick question: why, when i tell people owen's name do they think i'm saying olan? i think i'm speaking clearly... it happened when we were at the front of the santa line.

tomorrow i go to get my hair done by a gal we've been going to see since i was 9. i try to get a haircut from her every time i'm in denver. it's nice to catch up with her and she always loves seeing owen. we're also seeing some friends who are either current or former colleagues of my mother.

owen has several new words/phrases as of the last couple of days: thank you (as opposed to "mmm-ah!" like he's blowing a kiss, which is how he signs it), santa, snow, what's happening? (tonight to me and my mother as we were frosting/decorating cookies), more dessert (again tonight as we were eating chocolate fondue...which owen loved as was indicated by the entire lower half of his face being covered in chocolate.)

(update: it's now 8:50 p.m. and it's still snowing. )

safe trip

we made it to denver easily, though it took nearly all day from the time we left our house until we arrived at my mom's. owen was a pro on the plane...until he decided that he wanted out of his car seat about 30-45 minutes before we landed. then he fell asleep about 20-30 minutes before we landed. wouldn't you know it! he fell asleep in the car between the airport and my mom's so he got a little bit of a nap yesterday.

as for his nap today, i put him down, he didn't want to be down so he got up and played. then he let himself out of the room. i've known for a while now that figuring out doorknobs was just a matter of time. he had the concept figured out (hold the knob and turn) but didn't quite get the fine mechanics of it figured out. until today. just as jeffy and i were leaving to go do some shopping, my mom comes out on her balcony to tell us he had just opened the door and walked out of her room. oy.

our rental car had 3 miles on it when we got it. how cool to get a brand new car to drive! it's a 2008 jeep grand cherokee. i like it, but jeffy's a little cramped in it. guess we can cross that one off of our possibility list when we go looking for a new vehicle sometime in the relatively near future (like in the next year or so, or when my car dies, whichever happens first)

o had bacon at breakfast this a.m. it's a first. he's getting amazingly good at using his words to ask for "more please" sometimes, "more" just means "some", like when he hasn't had any yet. the question of late is still "what's that?" even when he knows what it is. he's getting to be quite the parrot. it's so cool!

A new approach

after two consecutive nights of being up with a certain short person in our home in the way too wee hours of morning, i've taken anew approach to bedtime. he can play a little bit after i tuck him in, but i set a timer and then go back in when the timer is done to make sure he's in bed. last night took three total tuck-ins. same thing so far tonight. he was asleep by 9:00 last night and slept clear through (yay!!!!!) and tonight he's down (after my second time of stopping the reading/playing/whatever) and i'm still listening to see if he gets up again.

i think we have a new favorite food. pasta. as long as it is coated in sauce, he's good. last night was chef boyardee. tonight was real pasta - buitoni tortolloni with a fancy carmelized onion and garlic tomato sauce. he gobbled it up! sweet!!!!! then at the mall he tried a bite of teriyaki chicken and thought that was pretty good, too. yippee!!!!

christmas break is officially here. we kicked the first group of kids out at 11:20 and the second group out at noon. teachers got to leave at noon-thirty. i met my friend katie for lunch (had to change the venue due to zero parking at our first choice). it was really nice to just sit and talk and not have to worry about little boys getting fussy or bored.

and the neighbors are officially gone. there is a pile of their stuff on the curb (public property). if they set foot onto the property, they're tresspassing. many of the immediate neighbors know this and will be keeping an eye on things over the next week or so. they apparently did some major damage inside the house (kicking in all of the doors, for example) prior to leaving. hopefully, we're done with them for good. good ridance

seven!!!

finally! seven is added to his counting. it sounds like "doo-duh" but it's constant. now he can really count to ten! next we're going to start on the next ten...

other new words include something that resembles "barbecue" - his favorite sauce.

i am so blasted tired right now. owen bonked his head last night right before i tucked him in. i was up at 4:30 this morning and poked my head in to check on him. bad choice. he was wide awake and standing up on his bed. he saw me and it was all over. i brought him back to bed with me. he got back to sleep. lucky him. glad i only have one more teaching day left before break. wednesday is a half day, kids go home at noon, i'm out at 12:30 and then meeting my friend katie for lunch and shopping before we go pick up our boys at daycare.

tree season is almost over for the year. i am so glad!!!!!

pre reader?

i think owen is getting ready to take the next step toward reading. we went to see his new cousin, eric, on saturday afternoon. on the way back to the car, he stopped us and touched every letter on the tailgate of a truck, saying each letter as he touched it. what a smart little boy? any bets on when he starts reading?

we had a battle of wills at dinner tonight. i wanted him to eat more mcnuggets before he got more apple dippers but he wanted the apples. he tried whining (didn't work - i don't understand whine.) so i offered him bbq sauce to have with his nuggets. success! he ate the rest of the chicken and then i gladly gave him his apples to finish.

muppets christmas carol is over. bath time!

A new phrase

"stop bugging me!" that's the new phrase. i'm not sure where he picked it up, but he certainly has heard it somewhere. it's pretty funny. he even knows how to use it appropriately.



a week from tomorrow is my last day of school for the calendar year. but who's counting? it's a half day so i might take the afternoon to do something for me. like a nice lunch, either alone or with a friend or two. (katie? you wanna?) thursday will be spent getting ready for our trip.



we had a rough night last night. o was up in the middle of the night for 90 minutes or two hours coughing. poor kid. that also means that mom and dad were up. not good for any of us since jeffy is working two jobs (reg job and at the tree lot) and i had a video taping session for my national boards to do this morning. i got up since i am working fewer hours at present.



speaking of hours working, owen is really missing his daddy (and so am i). this is a rough tree season for us because owen isn't really old enough to understand why daddy isn't home ever. the good news is that jeffy gets thursday off for my b-day.



time to get the little one started down to bed.

Red Letter Day

in so many different ways!

first, the ways pertaining to our little boy. we are officially done with teething for several years with owen. he cut his 20th tooth today. :-) i'm so glad! i never thought he'd get all of those chompers. isn't this an amazing picture? how did i get so blessed to have this kid as my son?

he is also turning somersaults on his own. quite the fun thing to watch. i'll try to get it on video and post that one of these days. he bends himself in half, puts the top of his head on the floor and pushes himself over with his feet. all of this and he's just two!

as for some sorta-old news, we finished up the antibiotics for an ear infection this a.m. this is the first infection he's had since getting his tubes in in april. i knew there was trouble last monday when i got him up and there was dark-colored discharge on his pillow and in his ear. luckily we had an appointment that afternoon to get his flu shot and his chicken pox shot (how often does it work out like that, huh?) so i had the doctor look at his ear while we were in. great timing, if i do say so myself. he got really good at letting us do his eardrops. in fact, he even would remind us (tried to do that tonight but i told him that we're done!)

now for the other thing. we have some icky neighbors. as of tomorrow, they won't be our neighbors anymore. :-) yahoo!