Christmas 2008

this was a good year for christmas. owen totally got the opeining presents thing. the funniest part was on christmas eve at my in-laws where he told us it was time for birthday cake after presents had been opened.

last night at dinner, owen ate just about everything i put on his plate, including the ham. granted, we had to use ketchup to get him to eat the ham, but it works and i'm not going to complain. i'd be stupid to do that!

i'll post pictures when i get my camera back. i left it at the in-laws' last night. someone had been up for too many hours and needed to get to bed. we tried a nap in grandma's room, but he ended up just stripping himself nekkid and running around the room. today we are having dinner with my dad and deanna (his lady friend).

owen loves all of his puzzles and books, his violin, and his train table that santa brought. santa brought me harry potter and the philosopher's stone - the british version of hp book 1! very cool!!!

Simon is Owen's friend from mom and baby group when they were infants. Delia is Simon's baby sister. She's 9 months old.

Snow (still)

i decided today, after spending the day playing in the snow, first with owen and then with our neighbors building a snowman, that this is wonderful weather. it is beautiful, peaceful, and reminds me of my childhood in denver. we were invited out to a friend's house this afternoon to play in the snow. owen went sledding for the first time and had his first snowball fight with his friend, simon. i'll put pictures and video (hopefully) in a new post once i'm done with this one. people were being really smart on the road, too. it took me 30 minutes to get there, and it usually takes 15 or 20 so that's not too bad. it took a little longer to get home, but the weather was getting bad again so the roads were sorta icky. not a problem. owen fell asleep about 2 miles from home, which meant that he only had a 5 minute nap. he's down now, trying to talk himself out of his room. fat chance! he's using every trick in the book. potty, water, milk, "my get out?"

i found myself really enjoying the snow tonight. i've been sitting on the couch in the living room, with only the christmas tree lights on, looking out the window at the snow falling. we're supposed to get 2-4 inches tonight. that's on top of the 6 or so we already have. i also put on muppets christmas carol tonight. i was talking with my godsister, suzanne on fb and she and i started quote in lines back and forth. we got even the obscure ones! if we were off, we were pretty close. it was sad, but funny all at the same time. d, her hubby, was wondering what she was laughing at. if jeff had been here, he would have wondered the same thing. i had an advantage as i was watching the movie as we were quoting.

i hope tree sales are going well, especially with the snow that's been coming down lately. i also wonder what time jeff will be getting home tonight. it's 8:00 now. i'm not really expecting him for at least another hour at the very least. with these roads, it could be longer. the one problem with living here is that we don't have the infrastructure to deal with snow when it happens. sand and deicing fluid, yes, but plows? i'm not really sure. i've actually only seen one in the last week.

the one thing i'm really worried about right now is that the snow on the power lines that run over my car doesn't snap the lines. that could be bad. unless my insurance pays for a new car, if that's what needs to happen. it's the only bad part about not having a garage.

snow pictures part II

He wasn't too sure about going off of the snow. Last year Owen stopped dead in his tracks before he got to snow. He refused to walk in it. Scroll down to see the difference a year makes.
Walking in the snow! I decided to get him out in the snow while it was still snowing last night. He did pretty well, don't you think?

Close-up!

Pictures

What a ham! He even counted to three before the picture to tell me that he was ready.

Cheese! As you can see, the tree goes floor to ceiling. Those are 9' ceilings!

Taken from the front porch.

The snow is piled half-way up the letters and numbers on my license plate

Oh the weather outside is frightful

and there's no delightful fire here. no fireplace for the fire... but the christmas tree is so delightful. it's snowing for the ?th time in the last week. it's been snowing for the past 4 hours or so. i'd guess that we have between 1 and 2 inches of new snow. they were predicting up to 8" tonight from this new storm. i'm just glad that this is winter break, less school that we'll have to make up at the end of the year. so far we're at 2 days to make up. i wonder how much more we'll have when it's all said and done.

i need to get pictures of owen in the snow and in front of the tree. i'll post them when i get them.

i got an hour of total freedom this morning. jeff took owen to the lot while i did some last -minute shopping for both of my boys at target, then i picked up owen at the lot and we went to eddie bauer where i spent the gift card i got from my mom and jim for my birthday. i bought a skirt, sweater, and turtleneck. i went over the amount by 14 cents. not bad. i was so excited to buy mediums and a size 10 on the skirt - and have nothing be too tight!!!!!

can't trust him...

...any farther than i can throw him.  yesterday was my birthday.  jeff has a tendency to pull things over on me on special occasions.  earlier this week he informed me that i would be getting my present from him at dinner.  he also said that we were going to have dinner and then either go to a movie or dancing at mccabe's.  well, there aren't any movies that look decent right now and we couldn't have gone dancing as late as we would have wanted with our sitter. when jeff got dressed to go out last night, it wasn't for dancing.  as we were driving, i started to get suspicious.  i knew that bill engvall was playing at the dome last night.  jeff put on one of bill engvall's cd's in the truck on our way to dinner.  also, there was no box that got brought into either the truck or  into the restaurant.  i was right!  the show was great.  turns out bill engvall's daughter is a senior at the same university i went to, here in town.  it's cool to have that local connection to him.  

as we were leaving the show, it was starting to snow.  there's only a dusting right now, but that's ok.  i'll take whatever snow i can get!  when you live here, that's what you gotta do.  

relief!

at least somewhat.  many things have either resolved totally or are close to resolution right now in terms of my stress level.  

1.  concerts at school are over, with one more at the local church next friday, but that will be fun!

2.  Lou update:  all brain function is normal.  He meets with the neurosurgeon tomorrow and barring anything different from the NS, all of his strokes have been caused by an irritation of his brain by some of the left-over blood that had leaked and caused his surgery on thanksgiving.  not all of the blood was drained, and what was left was expected to be absorbed by his body.  i guess it was basically making his brain itch (michele, you can correct this if it needs to be corrected.)  when i talked with my mother-in-law this evening after my concert, she sounded so relieved and relaxed.  

3. tree season is nearing an end, and we finally have our tree.  it needs to be decorated, but it's in the house.  this is a long month.  

4.  i found a sitter for saturday night so that jeff and i can go out just the two of us for my birthday.  i used to babysit this girl years ago.  now she's taking care of my child.  to every thing (turn, turn, turn) there is a season, huh?

one more full week of school before christmas break.  mom has chemo (#3 of 4) a week from today.  i'm so ready for break!

more stress

my father-in-law has had a very rough go of things these last two weeks.  last weekend he had surgery (on thanksgiving) for bleeding on the brain.  last night he was readmitted to the hospital after suffering a stroke.  luckily, my brother-in-law, aaron - a medic - saw the whole thing happen and got him to the hospital right away.  while at the hospital, he had a second stroke.  the first stroke was most likely a TIA (mini-stroke), and aaron is suspecting the second one was too, judging by what Papa was doing last night following both.  he's in the hospital being observed.  

jeff has been working 12 hour days at the tree lots with no break at all.  hopefully, he'll be able to take a good portion of today off.  he sounds like "an old woman lounge singer" right now (those are his words, not mine.  i'm guessing this is the last year for trees.  

four eyes...two of them pink

owen was exposed to pink eye at daycare yesterday. i woke up with it this a.m. when o got up from his nap just a few minutes ago, one of his eyes looked pink and had a little bit of goop in it. the good news is that we already have meds here and they're on board. between the two of us, we have one good left eye (me) and one good right eye (owen). what a pair!

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!

we're officially done with the pt. owen slept in underwear last night and stayed dry (and asleep) all night long. he also stayed dressed the way i put him down. i've basically decided that he doesn't like the feel of pull-ups any more, hence taking them off at night. now that he can stay dry all night, it's not an issue! i'm such a proud mama.

it's looking like o won't be going to school tomorrow. he's got a temp of 100+ i have a waiver day tomorrow and need to go to my morning session, but will likely take the afternoon off to stay home with owen. jeff will take him to the lot in the morning for a couple of hours.

going commando!

that's what owen did last night.  this in and of itself isn't new.  it's the exact reason we've been putting a duct tape belt on him every night.  last night, however, he woke up at 4:30 and started fussing.  when i finally heard, "mama!" i got up, figuring that he had taken off his pull-up and wet the bed (i hadn't put the tape on last night.)  i was only half right in my assumption.  not only was the bed dry, but he was too, and the pull-up was on the floor.  we quickly went to the potty and climbed into bed.  we're testing with underwear tonight to see if we can make this work again.  i'm seriously thinking that we are totally done with potty training!  and it's only taken us  11 months!  lol  he went through a 3 hour nap yesterday (sunday) in his underwear, too.  no problems!  way to go, mr. o!

An unstandard Thanksgiving

boy, has this been an interesting weekend.  filled with the wrong kind of excitement.  thursday morning, we get a phone call from my mother-in-law saying that my father-in-law is in the ICU at the hospital with bleeding on the brain.  he had been in the hospital since wednesday night and  was going to be going into surgery thursday.  we got dressed and headed over, first dropping owen off at jeff's sister's house (she has two little ones so wasn't going to go, plus her husband had the car seats in his car).  when we got there, papa was in good spirits, and about 95--97% himself (aside from being a little grumpy and drugged).  surgery was scheduled for 11 a.m.  the took him a little before 11 and we got to walk nearly to the OR with him.  they told us to expect 6 hours from the time he left his room until he got back.  as it was thanksgiving, we were the only ones in the surgery waiting room.  around 1:30 or so, maybe 1:45, the doctor came in and told us that everything had gone great.  papa was in recovery and would be back in the ICU between 2:00 and 2:15.  three hours was so much better than 6.  needless to say, dinner that night was cancelled.  we went to jeff's sister's house for shrimp fajitas.  they were quite yummy.  

papa was moved from the ICU to a regular room friday afternoon and came home last night, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.  we are all very thankful for him this year.  if the bleed had been quick instead of over a period of weeks, we'd be planning a funeral.

owen had a first at dinner last night.  he ate some of everything on his plate - turkey, stuffing, baked beans, green been casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a roll.  the turkey, stuffing and green beans had ketchup on them, and he thought the turkey was chicken (misled by mommy, but it worked!)  he also had apple pie for dessert.  this has been a very long road getting owen to eat what the rest of us are eating.  i think we've finally made it.  it was so exciting last night to see him eating what was put in front of him.  

we are now in tree season.  papa can't do much but take money and walk around the lot this year, per doctor's orders, so jeff has stepped up to the job of running the lots on-site.  he's been doing this most of his life, so he's ready.  the tricky part will be convincing papa that the lots ar in good hands with jeff and his brother, scott.  we're wondering if this might not be the last (or second-to-last) year of trees.  jeff wants to do it one more year after this year to make it 30 years of selling trees.  time will tell.  it will be nice to have my husband back this time of year when they finally do stop doing the trees.

Where were you

45 years ago this weekend?  As for me, I wasn't even a consideration.  I'd love to hear from those of you who read my blog and are old enough to remember back that far what you remember about November 22, 1963.  

350

this is post number 350.  yahoo!

owen is too smart.  he just took one of his alphabet puzzles and spelled the word "house".  it was very intentional, because after he got all of the letters out, he said, "h-o-u-s-e, house."  oh, dear.  

see my other blog for an announcement.

check-up

owen had his 3-year check yesterday.  he's doing great!  he's 40.5" and 35.5 lbs.  as the doctor (dr. kreg, according to owen) put it, he's the size of your average four-year-old.  (95+% for height, 75% for weight.  i remember when he was under 50% for weight.)  he got two shots, which he hated.  he watched our nurse (who we both adore) poke him for the first one and screamed bloody murder.  she got the second (and last one) done quickly and were were ok.  i'm glad we only have to do this once a year - and that with an october birthday, he can get the flu shot (which was one of his two shots) at his check-up.    he has a very snotty nose right now and his ears look great!  yay!  i think we've outgrown the need for tubes.  that makes me a happy mommy.

swimming lessons continue to go very well.  last night he not only jumped off of the side of the pool, he launched himself off at me, swam the 4 feet to get me, then preceded to swim across the pool with help from mommy only to come up for air.  he's got the propulsion thing down.  he's floating on his back with me supporting his head with only one hand.  he wasn't doing that a week ago.  he's also was doing the arm part of the elementary backstroke (chicken-airplane-soldier) yesterday for the first time.  he spent nearly all of the free time jumping off of the edge, swimming to me, then swimming back to the edge to do it all over again.  he is amazing.  he was also the most vigerous splasher in his class.  he's gone from being one of the least-accomplished kids in his class to one of the leaders.  he loves swimming.  maybe he's the next michael phelps!  

Halloween

orange for the holiday!  

owen went trick-or-treating for the first time last night.  we started out at a street of treats in our city, which was fun.  owen sorta got the idea there.  then we had dinner and headed over to grandma's some of owen's cousins were there and they ended up all going out trick-or-treating in that neighborhood.  owen came back with a total haul.  his pumpkin was just about full.  they had a blast.  i enjoyed some peace and quite (and jeopardy) with grandma while they were out.  

today is a party with play group.  i'll try to get pictures and post those.

owen nearly lost trick-or-treating this year.  he is every bit of three.  two nights ago, it took us an additional 20-30 minutes to get home from swimming lessons because someone wouldn't leave his seatbelt alone.  he kept pulling the shoulder strap away from his body.  we didn't leave the lot at the Y until it was staying where it was supposed to.  then, as we got off of the freeway, he started doing it again.  i pulled into the center turn lane two blocks from home and stopped the car.  at some point, the guy whose house we were in front of came out to check on what was going on.  i told him that everything was fine and that my son wasn't sitting the right way in his seat belt and that we weren't moving until he was.  the man seemed convinced that everything was ok.  before he went back in, he told me, "good job, mom."  needless to say, owen went straight to bed when we got home.  if i had had my cell, i would have called jeff to come pick up owen (walking, most likely) so i could drive home.  my other thought was just walking home with owen and going back to pick up the car after he was in bed.  i finally just ended up winding the seatbelt around the guides and going from there (we can't pull our seat belts out all the way and have them lock.  i really hate that!)

three words

owen now knows how to spell 3 words.  "hat" was added today at the word whammer.  i asked him tonight (after watching him spell that word earlier in the day) if he could spell "hat".  he grabbed the A, put it in the middle, then the H in the left slot, and finally the T in the right slot.  all very deliberate.  he is very close to reading, that's for sure.  school will be a very good thing for him next year.  he also saw the word "open" in one of his books and got excited because he knew what it was.  

older pictures

These pictures are from various points in the last several months.  Pictures from the birthday will be posted when I get them on the computer...

In Helena for the family reunion.  This is the carousel that was right by the hotel.  

Owen's saying, "Cool!"  and giving it two thumbs up.

This is O's suit for my sister's wedding.  He is absolutely darling in it!

He's jumping on our bed in this picture...

With Aunt Suzanne and "Umpa" (Uncle) Jeff in the Denver airport.  

Notice that both boys are two-fisting it with the ice cream...

Playing the violin at the instrument petting zoo at the farmer's market in July.

With Daddy at his first drive-in movie.  We saw Wall-E.  

I wasn't too impressed with it and we were too far from the screen 

for Owen to realize what was going on.

we survived

well, here we are in year four.  new year, new color.  

owen was a champion the last couple of days.  last night was our friends birthday party.  owen had a blast, as did everyone else.  the pizzas were a hit (yummy good!), so were the cupcakes.  we had 7 kids total (two under a year, three who are 3, a 4-year-old and a 5-year old), plus assorted and affiliated adults (me, jeff, katie and rob, faye, eileen and her m-i-l pat).  owen got a really cool puzzle, that is actually a set of 20 word puzzles, money in his "beer and pizza" account (read:  college fund), and a hulky-pokey incredible hulk toy (think along the lines of tickle me elmo).  

today was the family party.  there were a total of 21 of us in our tiny house.  our family is loud.  add in windows that don't open (or cold weather so you wouldn't want to open the windows), and it gets really loud.  there are 7 kids in o's generation.  he's smack dab in the middle.  we had asked the family for clothes since owen has a gajillion toys and no space for more.  they happily obliged.  we basically have his entire winter wardrobe.  all size 4T (and they fit!)  we might have to buy a few more items - more jammies, another pair or two of jeans, and maybe a nice pair of pants to match his dress shirt/tie that he got from grandma joanne.  he also got an alphabet puzzle and a black and decker toy power tool set.  from daddy and mommy (in that order...) he got a cars slot car race track.  i had nothing to do with it, but i love it!  jeff's going to attach it to plywood so we don't have to keep setting it up and taking it down.  owen loves it.  at one point tonight, he was watchign it and yelling, "go cars!!!!  go!!!!!!!!  go!!!!"   total hit.  he thoroughly enjoyed being sung to both last night and tonight.  he got a cool backpack, plus two foam puzzles in trays from my mom and jim.  

he's in bed now.  in brand new jammies.  

Progressing

three years ago right now, i was in labor at work, but didn't realize i was in labor yet...

owen had a big day yesterday.  first, we had our 18 month check with the ent for his tubes.  he looked in owen's ears and told me that both tubes are out of the ear drums, but still in the ear canal, and both ear drums have closed up nicely (there may still be a small hole in the left side, but it's inconsequential at this point.) so that means that the fact that i forgot owen's ear plugs for swimming lessons on thursday isn't a big deal.  the dr. told us that we can be done with the ear plugs (thank goodness!  i was getting tired of using them, but knew we needed to.)  the only problem with our appointment yesterday was that owen did not cooperate with the guy giving him the hearing test.  o wanted the doggie that was in the room as a visual/auditory reward and to bring the young kids back to looking straight ahead during the tests.  he was pitching a fit because of it.  we go back in 3 months to recheck his hearing.  hopefully he'll cooperate better then.  i'll make sure he has eaten a full breakfast that morning.  i think that had something to do with it yesterday.

the other big step owen took yesterday was starting to pee standing up.  just like daddy!  i think our little experience at 5 mile drive did it for that.  he's great at aiming, and just needs to learn to put both the seat and the lid up, not just the lid.  actually, that's how i figured out that he was going standing up...the seat was covered, front and back.  what a big boy!  

my mom and her fiance ("dude" to owen) are here for owen's birthday tomorrow (3!?)  last night my friend faye came over to babysit while the four adults (me, jeff, mom and jim/dude) went to dinner at the space needle.  i'd never eaten there before.  we had a gift certificate from an auction last year for dinner for four that had to be used by the end of this month.  we toasted to time together, jeff's new job(!!!!), to battle (mom's cancer), and to owen, the reason we are together right now.  it was fabulous.  i tasted a little bit from jeff's plate and a little bit from jim's and at nearly everything from mine.  it was so yummy!  the restaurant revolves so you get a 360-degree view of the city.  we were looking out over elliot bay and the sound at sunset.  it was gorgeous!  we made it around 2-1/2 times (a full revolution takes about 45 minutes).  the company was wonderful, the food was fabulous, and the service was excellent.  i loved being treated like a lady by our waiter.  we spent some time reminiscing back to three years ago.  mom was a god-send at night - she spent three nights with owen on her chest so jeff and i could get some sleep.

as i mentioned in the last bit, jeff found out yesterday that he got a job.  it's swing shift (3:30-midnight) m-f.  he starts on monday.  yay!!!!!  it's been a stressful six months since he lost his last job. 

owen turns three tomorrow. yesterday marks 4 years since we lost jacob.  every time i think of that, i also remember that if we hadn't lost jacob, we wouldn't have our wonderful owen.  we went to the children's museum in olympia yesterday and owen had a great time.  he loved the produce area and the water table.  he pitched a huge fit when we left.  guess he wasn't done.  we had lunch at a pizza place on the way back.  owen once again shined at lunch.  he is such a good kid when we're in public.  makes me proud.    

we're having two parties this year.  today is the friends party.  brendan, peter, carlie, josh, mariah, and michael are all coming.  that makes three boys owen's age, plus their siblings.  peyton might come too (bren's sister, she's 15 months old).  tomorrow will be family.  that's 21 people, including the three of us, plus mom and jim.  the kids are making their own pizzas tonight (using biscuits) and tomorrow night is burgers and dogs.  i'll try to get pictures and post them later.  

oh, dear...

but i mean that in a very good way.   j and i are in trouble, though...

tonight owen and i were doing his alphabet puzzle (upper and lower case letters that fit into slots).  as he was putting the letters in their places, i was asking him what each letter said.  for the most part, he could tell me.  this i knew was in his abilities.  the next thing i tried was giving him a letter sound and having him show me the letter, which quickly progressed to making short words based on phonetics.  he did amazingly well.  i just sat back and watched as he quickly found the correct letter.  there are a few he has trouble hearing the difference between, but for the most part, they are very close in sound (long 0 and r for one)  other words were spelled phonetically (cat/kat).  he really has this pretty solidly.  we did it for 5-10 minutes, at which point he grew tired of it and started playing with his blocks.  oh, and he knows how to spell/recognize two words so far.  owen and open.  

in 6 very short days, my baby will be 3 years old.  i marvel at all of the things he can do now that he couldn't do a year ago.  yesterday as we were going to j's sister's house to watch the football game (ugh...our team didn't even show up.) o saw an "open" sign.  he spelled it out for us.  i asked him what it spelled and he told us.  "uh-oh" i thought.  other skills that my almost-3 year old has include good verbal skills and the ability to tell us what he wants and be understood most of the time, he is sleeping in his big boy bed without rails, going potty all the time (save sleeping times), we can have a conversation with him, he likes playing games, and will talk on the phone with people.  he can count past 30 (and to 10 in spanish), recognizes all of his letters (upper case, lower case, and sign language), and generally blows me away with all of those unexpected things he does.  i can only imagine where he'll be in a year. 

fifteen, ten, and twenty-five

this is a diet post.  

as of this morning, i have lost 15 lbs, with 10 more to go before i reach where i was when i got pregnant with owen.  25 more lbs. to go before i am at my goal.  once i'm there, i will allow myself a 5 lb. window for some wiggle room.  i don't ever want to be above 140 and not be pregnant again.  i was so excited to step on the scale and see it at 160.  i honestly couldn't believe it.  granted last week was that week.  i'm hoping not to gain too much this comign week when i'm in denver/keystone, co for my sister's wedding.  

I'm calling it done!

potty training (at least during the day) and owen is done.  officially.  he has told me several times today that he had to go, once included pooping!  it's unreal that we're done.  and it's only taken us nine and a half months.  he's such a big boy!!!!  i really can't believe we're finished!  "follow the child" really works.  

jeff is working at the fair tonight.  last night this year for that.  owen has emptied an entire sheet of stickers from the Highlights for Children magazine thing we go onto jeff's side of the bed.  won't daddy be surprised?  ;-)

o and i are both sick.  my cold is getting started and i'll need medicine for this week, not to mention for on the airplane tuesday night.  in one week, marcus will be able to yell, "hey, wife!" at my sister.  i could really use someone to take care of me tonight instead of being the care-giver.  alas, i'll take care of myself after owen gets to bed.  

guh-aa-puh

that's what owen did this morning at his fridge phonics word whammer.  sounded out his first word, totally unprompted.  i was amazed.  that's two major things within about 12 hours.  

tonight was the first swimming lesson for the session.  jeffy took owen in today, and owen cried and clung the entire time.  hmmm...sounds like the the first lesson last session.  hopefully thursday will be better.  

i found out today that as of next week, i will no longer be traveling between my two current schools on tuesdays and thursdays.  i found out via an e-mail sent to the entire staff explaining the new classrooms and the trickle-down effect that would be creating at my second school.  i have no official word from the district on anything.  in fact, i was the one who informed my principal at my main school.  i e-mailed her to ask what she knew and her response was, and i quote, "HUH???????"  we'll see when i find out anything at all.  the principal at my second school advised me to stick around at my main school on tuesday if i don't hear anything from the district.  maybe i'm missing something, but i fail to see how switching things up like this after school has started is the best thing for the kids.  i get that smaller classrooms is good, by how can switching whole teachers' schedules (and in this case, there are two of us who are being affected.)  we'll be essentially a month behind with our new assignments, which is detrimental not only to us but to the kids as well.  i'll be starting all over again next week with a new group of kids.  getting expectations established, routines, etc.  at least my main assignment won't be changing, unless it goes from .8 to 1.0 (that would be 4 days a week to 5 days a week).  it's frustrating to say the least.  this is the worst possible week for the switch to be happening, too.  i'm out of town w-f of next week for my sister's wedding.  guess a sub will have to do the new stuff for day 2.

HE DID IT!!!!!!!!

And yes, I'm shouting!!!!!!!  Owen FINALLY pooped in the potty - and he initiated the whole process on his own!!!!!!!  I wonder how close to being totally trained during the day we are?  Time will certainly tell. 

swimming lessons - session 2

owen is in advanced kippers.  lessons are t/th 5-5:30.  guess i'll be taking a snack for him after daycare those days.  we'll come home hungry, that's for sure.  speaking of daycare, owen has been dry all day, save for one mini-accident.  i took him potty right before we left daycare today and it worked!  what a great kid!

growing up

the fair was great.  owen loves the rodeo.  and scones.  neither jeff nor i could finish a scone without out being mooched off of.  that's ok, though.  we didn't take any sort of restraint for owen.  we barely even used the straps in the wagon.  owen did a beautiful job of staying nearby and walking with us, holding hands or staying within a foot or two.  i am just in total awe.  he also told me once today that he had to go potty.   he got a sample of fudge for that success.  the lady who was sitting next to me at the rodeo today asked owen how old he is.  he put his finger to his lip, had a pensive look on his face, and then answered, "two." and held up two fingers.  she asked how close to three he is.  i'm amazed that he will be three in one month and five days.  how in the world did that happen?!  when did that happen?!

he's asleep now, fell asleep during lullabies at the end of story time tonight.  I think he fell asleep during the second verse of the second song.  all i know is that all of a sudden, his head turned to the left and that was that.  he woke up very slightly as i moved him more to the middle of his bed, but went right back to sleep.  what a good boy!  i'm not sure i've ever had him fall asleep during stories before.  granted, two days with maybe a total of 20 minutes of napping will make any little boy tired.  

the first week

so glad it was a short one, at least with kids.  i've come home fully exhausted each day this week.  last night i was actually in bed (but not asleep) before owen.  i've seen all but one of my classes (i think...)  my annual favorite is last.  i've already had to call and have one student removed from my room.  this kinder decided that because i wasn't letting him yell (disruptively - not over-enthusiastic singing), roll around on the floor, and was actually trying to make him follow directions, that he would kick me in the leg as he was sitting next to me.  i was monitoring but not verbally acknowledging his undesirable (and attention-seeking) behaviors in the hopes that he would stop when he wasn't getting the kind of attention he wanted.  i called the office and told them that this student had kicked me and therefore needed to be removed.  our principal came up to get him.  that was another ordeal.  as he left, it was kicking and screaming.  

currently, the bug is standing on the arm of the couch, counting down from 3, then jumping onto the couch.  he certainly is all boy, isn't he?  today we're going to the puyallup fair and the rodeo.  jeff  went to the opening day and parade yesterday.  while i was at work.  the bum.  

first day

it was a good first day.  kids were singing beautifully!  they remembered a bunch from over the summer.  3:00 came (our dismissal time until this year) and it felt quite odd to be in the middle of class.  owen had a great day at day care.  stayed dry all day...until we got into the car, that is.  the lesson learned from that is to take him potty as soon as i pick him up.  

my mom had surgery today.  two weeks ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  her lumpectomy was this afternoon and was a success.  i spoke with her not too long ago and she sounded great. 

i'm about to crash here.  being awake for several hours in the middle of the night was not a good thing.  thank goodness jody across the hall had coffee (as usual, actually).

we won a battle of wills with owen tonight.  we made grilled cheese (velveeta) for dinner.  he refused to eat it.  demanding, "pbj!" the whole time.  we told him that he needed to eat the grilled cheese.  he refused until just a few minutes ago when he decided to eat it.  he's finishing the last bite as i type.  score one point for the parents.  

too early

it's 3:50 by my computer clock as i begin writing.  that's 3:50 a.m.  way too early to be awake. between the first day of school today and some stuff going on in my personal life (more details on that at a later date) it's an early morning.  not by choice, though.  i could very easily be asleep right now.  i'm wishing i were asleep right now.  

owen is growing up so fast.  in just one short year, he'll be getting ready to start at my school.  i've had people ask me already this year if owen is coming to my school this year.  i'm glad for his october b-day.  he's not ready for formal school just yet.  i'll bet that in a year he will be.  last night we played a board game for the first time.  it's based off of two of his favorite eric carle books.  it's a matching game, which he easily mastered.  remember playing "memory" as a child?  it's basically the same thing, but you have to pick the cards up and match them to spots on the game board.  we played three times.  the first time was just to show him how to play.  the second and third times were for real.   he legitimately won both of those times.  then i brought out the pink material (part of the montessori language materials, three letter phonetic words to match to pictures, mounted and laminated on pink paper) to start on.  i got a large set of that material from one of the teachers at school who is replacing it with newer pink material.  she asked me if i wanted it to bring home for owen.  of course i said yes.   i think i'm going to get the book from her and see exactly how i'm supposed to be teaching this work to him.  i have some ideas, but i want to make sure they're appropriate before i get too far in to it.  we're going to start with initial sounds, i think.  put out three pictures cards that start with different sounds (pin, dog, box) and have him figure out the first sound and then find the word card to match.  he showed some interest last night. i'll follow his lead, though.

ok.  i'm yawning again.  i think i'll climb back in bed and try to get a little bit more sleep.  the alarm goes off at 6...i need to be able to get up then.

resolution

my computer fixed itself.  i restarted it last night, just to see and i only had 18 song copies and 4 application icons added to the desktop.  this morning, nothing new was on there.  i wonder what caused the glitch.  

we're going to northwest trek today with faye and her kids.  it will be fun.  i woke up sad this morning because after today, summer vacation is over.  :-(  it went too fast.  the next two weeks will be spent getting ready in varying capacities for school to start again in september.  

Bursting with Pride

i'm amazed at owen.  tonight he actually floated for several minutes holding on to nothing but a pool noodle.  i was absolutely amazed.  he was totally relaxed for the entire swimming lesson.  no clinging at all.  i am amazed at how much more comfortable he is in the water after just two lessons.  i watched him, almost in tears of pride and joy as he was floating around.  jeff was there with the camera and got it on video.  i need to check with a couple of parents at swimming lessons to make sure it's ok that their child is in the shot (only for a very brief time) before posting it.  i'll try to post the one still picture jeff got of the two of us tomorrow.

completely unrelated:  my computer is driving me absolutely crazy.  i subscribed to a new magazine for school, which comes with songs for the kids to play on recorder.  part of the subscription that i got includes rights to download the entire magazine and songs.  i downloaded the songs without a problem.  they showed up on my computer in two zip files.  yesterday i tried to transfer them to itunes.  they wouldn't just click and drag from the zip files to itunes so i copied them to my desktop and then from there to itunes.  that worked beautifully.  they're in itunes and play.  i'm happy.  until my computer decided that it doesn't want to stop copying the songs to my desktop.  i seriously have 90 new icons on my computer each time i boot it up.  i'm about ready to add ventilation to our living room by throwing the computer through the window.  i've talked with my b-i-l in vt and he suggested deleting the files from my computer so that there was (in theory) nothing for the computer to copy from.  yeah, right.  that hasn't worked.  i've asked members of an e-mail list i'm on for suggestions and will read those in the morning.  any suggestions?

disappointed

i was so bummed tonight when we got to the Y for o's swimming lessons and saw the sign that said that the instructional pool was closed until further notice (likely tomorrow sometime.)  that meant that we didn't have swimming lessons tonight.  we'll go again on thursday.  hopefully nothing closes the pool then.  

tomorrow is our last day for play group this summer.  owen starts back at daycare on monday, i start back to work on monday and jeff starts his new job on monday (though he starts his training tomorrow.)  

faye and i went out tonight, just the mommies.  no one under 20 and/or a male was allowed.  we went to get ice cream.  it was super yummy and so nice to get out without the kids.  faye wore a shirt that said, "escaped mom...don't tell anyone you saw me!"  i so want a shirt like that!  it was so true tonight.  we considered going to see a movie after ice cream (she had gift cards for that) but i turn into a pumpkin at about 10 so going to a movie that started at 9:45 just wouldn't work.  even the hour out was nice.  

owen and i finished his 10 books for the summer reading program at the library.  we'll go on thursday to see the petting zoo and turn in books/get his books tallied and get the goodie bag.  friday we're going to nw trek with the kids.  that will be fun.  faye has a big enough car that we can all go in hers (all 5 or 6 of us, depending on where paige is when we go.  

it's working!!!!

i had my dress fitting today for my sister's wedding.  i took a small gamble when i bought a smaller dress than i tried on.  when i picked up my dress about a month ago, it was tight between the bottom of my rib cage to my knees.  i was afraid to move too much in it because i didn't want to rip the seams.  well, when i tried it on today at the store, not only was it looser everywhere but my thighs (and it was only slightly tight there), but we're not even going to hem it.  it fits perfectly!!!!!  what a change in my personal attitude from when i tried on dresses for the first time (and none of them fit properly, some because i was trying on dresses several sizes too large) and from today.  everything is looking great!  i know that if i keep up what i've been doing, the dress will fit beautifully at the wedding at the end of september.  oh, and not having to spend the money on alterations is a wonderful thing, too.  i'm really excited to see what results i have on the scale tomorrow.  i have been slightly discouraged by not losing as much weight as i've wanted, but putting this dress on helps me to see that things are toning up regardless of what the scale says.  i'll take toning over weight loss at this point. with toning, though, the weight loss will come.  :-)

fishy!

the difference between tuesday night and tonight is black and white.  owen was a different child in the pool tonight.  he was wanting to be dunked...went under something like 20 times (i honestly lost count!)  he wasn't clingy, and loved swimming lessons.  he clung to me for maybe 1 minute at the very beginning.  he was launching himself off of the wall at me from a sitting position (didn't want to jump today.)  he seemed so comfortable in the water.  loved having water poured over his head from a colander.  amazing.  i'm excited for tuesday to see how he does then.

swimming lessons

owen did great.  there were lots of games and singing.  the teachers (yes, plural) are great.  by then end, owen was kicking up a storm as we moved around the pool, he was even getting into the splashing games.  the one thing he did really well was climb out of the pool.  i set him holding on to the edge and let go.  he climbed right out.   he won't jump in to me yet.  he also didn't like doing the alligator slide (sliding into the pool on his tummy).  in time.  bubbles are blown above the water level...but he has the right idea.  we go back on thursday.  it will be good to have lessons twice a week.  

race cars!

1.  front side 

2.  peek-a-boo!

3.  back side 

4.  embroidered name

that's owen's new thing.  day care lost his blanket last year (grumble....) so i'm making him a new one, one that'll be better for the big boy owen is becoming.  we went to the fabric store yesterday so owen could pick out his own blanket fabric.  the first one i showed him was race cars.  he loved it.  we wandered the stacks a little more and i found other patterns i thought owen might like.  every time i suggested something else, he said, "no!" and clung onto the bolt of race car fabric tighter.  race cars it is.  i found a nice red with a very subtle marbling for the back.  i also got thread and blanket binding.  i just need more binding....guess we're heading back to the store.  i got everything set up last night, including embroidering  owen's name on the red so it doesn't get lost.  i'm hoping to get the sewing done today or tomorrow.  i don't imagine it will take too long. i'll need to set up the pins for quilting (simple squares).  i'm actually quite excited about this blanket.  i'm no expert seamstress, but this is easy enough.  and it's going to be a very cool blanket.  

swimming lessons start tonight.  they run for 4 weeks.  i hope owen doesn't freak out when we get into the water tonight...i'll try to post an update tomorrow.

we're watching little einsteins on playhouse disney right now.  owen just sand part of the theme song.  he cracks me up.

clarity

i have noticed in the last few days that about 90% of owen's speech is clear.  i wasn't sure if it was me being used to his speech or if it has really been getting clearer.  i asked my friend faye to listen today and see what she thought.  it's not me.  since her daughter's first birthday party on the 18th, his speech has cleared up significantly.  i really love this.  and to think that i was starting to wonder if his speech level was within normal limits for his age a month ago.  (i was comparing him to some of his buddies who are already 3.  i know you're not supposed to compare your kid to others, but it's hard not to...)

we went to lunch at aunt cissy's restaurant (she's the manager, not the owner) today.  grandma and cousin kaitlyn were there, as were aunt samara and uncle aaron.  the fact that all of us were there at the same time was total coincidence.  mare and aaron planned to meet each other, but not the rest of us.  grandma and katie came together (cissy is katie's mom).  we were there on our own, initially, as well.  owen ate nearly all of his lunch.  it's so nice to not really have to worry about that much any more.  i've almost forgotten the issues we had with him earlier in his life. 

daddy's working with his dad at his brother's place again.  i'm not expecting to see him until saturday.  :-(  we miss him when he's gone.  at least he has next week totally off (papa's in reno for hot august nights next week.)  we'll have all next week to enjoy family time before jeffy starts his new job with training on the 13th and the job itself on the 18th.

trip and counting

the trip was good. uneventful. no real adventures in driving with jeff-n-steph, short of getting slightly disoriented going to my great-aunt's last night. owen was so good these last few days. i was somewhat worried about how things would go at my great-aunt's, but he was good as gold. i told him that he couldn't touch any of her stuff unless she said it was ok (most of it's breakable). he remembered until this morning when he picked up the small wooden kitty that was on the window ledge in the kitchen. he ate most of the food she served. :-) (we told him the goulash was lasagna...it worked!) i am so proud of him, he is so well-behaved. just an amazing little boy.

then today as we were getting ready to head out of town, he started counting and i listened in amazement as he went past 24 (his high from sunday) and 26 (his high from yesterday) and made it all the way to 20-10. now to convince him that 20-10 is really 30. however, he definately has the concept of how counting works. i cracked up so hard when he said, "twenty-nine, twenty-ten". he's done it every time since then because i laughed so hard. once he figures that each 10 is something different, he'll be counting to 100 and beyond in no time!

owen's latest new phrase is: "Cool!" said with two thumbs up. he did it at the carousel in helena, while daddy was power washing the truck, and on command. it's quite cute. his speech is becoming more and more clear these days. i'm loving it.

6

years ago today i married my husband!

and an undisclosed number of years ago my mother was born. (happy birthday, mom!) as a birthday "present", we called this morning and owen said, "hi gamma! happy to you!" until today, he has always called her mah-muh. this was his first time calling his gramma "gamma".

we're in helena this weekend for a family reunion on jeff's side. his mother and grandmother are her eas well (along with his dad and step-grandfather). owen is loving seeing grandma, papa, great-grandma (he can even say it and recognizes her!) and porky (great-grandma's husband) every day. the reunion is over after lunch today. we're going to be spending the afternoon with my aunt and cousin who live here. we also might try to go to the carousel that's right by our hotel.

we went to the rodeo last night. owen, of course, loved the whole thing. they had the craziest thing: teams of 4-5 people trying to do the following:

1. catch a cow which was released from the bucking shoots (the cows had on halters and ropes to make them easier to catch and hold...)
2. milk her (quantity didn't matter, just one successful squeeze worked) into a cup
3. take the milk to the judge.

it was incredible to watch. lots of fun, too.

off to the carousel and then to the reunion site again for lunch.

Anniversary

Sunday is our 6th anniversary. I told Jeff that I wanted tickets to go see Phantom when it's in Seattle later this year. We got 'em. :-) He's never seen it, and is going somewhat grudgingly. I've seen it twice and love it. At least I know there won't be any surprises like there were in Cabaret. It will be a great night. We're going on October 4. :-) Hopefully we'll do dinner beforehand as well. Gotta find a sitter for the bug, too.

I got my contacts checked (for the second time) today. They changed the solution I was using last week and it's better, but my eyes still aren't equal with my lenses in. I go back next Friday to get things checked and get a new Rx for my right eye.

Owen continues to do well. He has two new phrases: "Feet off the table!" (used at random times) and "Oh, man!" (used appropriately.) The things that come out of my babe's mouth really make me laugh sometimes. Along with "Watch Tigger Pooh!" when i turned off the TV this a.m. He got over it.

Think about the following phrase in terms of how funny it would have sounded even 5 years ago: I went to school today to get the cord to hook up my iPod to the DVD player so that Owen can watch his podcasts while we're driving this weekend. Technology is amazing, isn't it?

a vent

This has nothing to do with Owen or his growth. I'm tired of how jeff has allowed himself to be taken advantage of by his father when it comes to chores and odd jobs. Whenever something comes up, it seems that it always falls on Jeff to do. I don't know if he feels duty-bound to say "yes" or what. This time it's taking care of someone else's mess at the tree lot. Last year, there was a bunch of brush cut down by a guy who knows my f-i-l. It just got left there. Now, the city has basically given the owner (not my f-i-l) until close of business tomorrow (he received notice two weeks ago) to get everythign cleaned up. Once again, it's fallen upon Jeff to take care of figuring out how to do that. Then, when he comes up with a solution, it is shot down by his dad who, unknown to us, came up with another solution. Jeff was anticipating just being able to stop by the lot to pick up his chain saw this afternoon around lunch time. It's now 10 of 7 p.m. and he just got home. Good news is that the work is done now. No one else in the family gets dragged into this stuff - ever. Can you understand why I'm frustrated?

Weight Loss

I'm down 5 lbs. Exercise works! 35 to go till I reach my goal weight.

Day 3...

...and he kept his underwear dry all day long! We did, however have two solids to clean up but they were at times that I was anticipating so I know he's controlling that aspect. This is the first day he's been in underwear that he has made it all day without a wet accident. it's so freeing to not have to worry about pull-ups for most of the day. pottying is so much easier than diapering!!!! way to go, o!

i've made it to the gym three times this week to exercise, plus once with owen to go swimming. i'm hoping to make it at least that much next week. today was fun - it was our whole extended family there, save my b-i-l who is in china for the next month to help get things up and running for the olympics. today i did 30 minutes on the bike, which equaled 5.25 miles, including my cool down which i started once i reached the 5 mile mark. we'll see tomorrow what my weight is.

all day long

that's what owen did yesterday. managed to go all day long in one pair of underwear. then he had one accident at 7:00 p.m., which is close enough to bedtime for me. he also had a pull-up on at nap time. good thing too. today is day 2 in underwear. wish us luck!

one down!

i am comfortable now in saying that he's pee trained! if it weren't for that other part, we'd be done. he even went all night (10 hours!!!!!!!) and woke up bone dry. he's still holding the poop in...gotta start pumping in the juice. i know he has to poop right now, but i'm guessing he's a bit constipated.

right now i have a tired boy resting against me. bedtime will be soon. lasst night i ended up jiggling him asleep. (that jiggle-bounce-shake thing) i'll try the same thing tonight, but i'm not sure i'll need it too much.

pull-up count: 3 (1 overnight, 2 daytime).

silly boy!

first of all, owen has stayed dry most of the day AND has gone potty close to half a dozen times. twice, i've asked him if he had to go potty, he either said or shook his head "no" and then ran right into the bathroom to go potty. of course, he waited until nap time to poop...he knows exactly what he's doing. anyway, he was dry all morning. one pull-up from when he got up until nap time.

we went swimming at the Y today. it was owen's first real experience in the water. he did ok. luckily, they have life jackets there for the kids to use. i was real glad that owen had one. and no, they don't just have a few jackets. they have a TON. now, it's 7:00 p.m. and my darling little boy hasn't had a nap today. he refused to take one so we went swimming instead. got us out of the house. how nice it is to be able to just decide "let's go swimming" and then be able to go.

as for my stomach bug, i'm feeling better. have been eating regular food today, just in smaller quantities. though, the pizza tonight was super yummy. as were the garlic twists.

stomach bug

me, not owen. it hit after dinner on sunday and was with me all day yesterday. i'm feeling better today. good thing, because jeff is going out of town for most of the day and tonight. he's going to work on his brother's cabin with his dad. i'm considering having owen sleep in our bed tonight.

i went to the gym yesterday and did the yoga class. it was supposed to go for an hour, but as i found out, it goes 15 min longer than advertised. it was a good class. i did have to sit down a couple of times because i was getting light headed. i made it through the hour but left for two reasons, one is i ended up getting sick in the trash can in the hall, and owen needed to be picked up from the child care. i might try again tomorrow, or we might go swim later this week. owen now has ear plugs to keep in the gym bag as well as water wings. they also have life jackets at the Y.

peer pressure

we gave into familial peer pressure today. after conversations with jeff's family at dinner last night (4th of july), we decided to check out the ymca. jeff's been a member at bally's for 15 years and has been reluctant to give up that membership due to his longevity. however, the y has so many opportunities for our family, including free sports things for owen, free swimming lessons, free yoga and pilates for me. i guess by free, it means included in our membership, but it's still nice. our memberships are active as of this coming monday. i'll be glad to have someplace to go swim, or walk, or whatever when it's not nice outdoor weather or when there will be too may people in my favorite places. i also want to know if i'm doing my yoga and pilates things right. swimming lessons will start the first week of august. i'm excited to have owen finally learn to swim. i remember doing swim lessons when i was little, both at celebrity sports center (what a sad day when they tore that down!) and at creek. actually, i guess the only thing i remember about lessons at celebrity was trying to dangle my toes/feet in the water like the 'big' kids and i fell in. i immediately turned around and grabbed onto the edge - just as i had been taught. the other fun thing will be saturday mornings when the whole family (all 19 of us) will be going to the y. the younger kids will go to the child care area (cousins!) while the rest of us will go and do thigns on the equipment. we'll need to get some earplugs for owen to keep in his swimming bag. oh, and we'll have to get him a swimming bag...i'll need a new workout bag (jeff has ripped my older one with his shotput and discus) and a swim cap. i have my goggles (love those swedish goggles!) there's apparently a program that uses swimteam workouts, but w/o being on the swim team. i may eventually join the team. i loved swimming when i was younger. burned out (in terms of competitive swimming) during my senior year of high school, after peaking the summer between my junior and senior years (58 seconds off of my 400 time over the summer, 9 seconds off of my 100 fly time in one meet - i was the only one in the pool and felt like i was going way too slow so i kept pushing myself to go faster. guess it worked!) i'm ready to get back into it now.

yesterday during dinner, owen told grandma and aunt sheena that he had to go potty. he did, he was dry, and he went. good boy! now if he could only decide to do that all the time... this after being dry most of the day. :-)

puzzles

o figured out, in his usual manner, how to do a puzzle he got from gramma at christmas. it's a 9 piece, jigsaw puzzle, with no border tray. just a regular jigsaw puzzle like big people do. he managed to get, through trial and error, the 8 pieces we could immediately find. he was so proud of himself, as was i. i love watching him work things out the way he does.

Kryptonite

me: no sleep (though the thunder was cool last night. what do you multiply the seconds between the lightening and thunder by to find out how far away it is? i am annoyed, as always, with the squirrels in the attic...don't get me started.)

owen: songs. he will actually calm down when music of any sort comes on. sometimes he'll dance, but it's calm (or at least appropriate) dancing. when he's done, he sits down. they say music calms the savage beast. i guess that applies to active toddlers, too. gotta love playhouse disney in the mornings.

oh, owen got to ride on an old (1960s) international tractor yesterday afternoon. we went to playgroup at ann and simon's and after everyone else had left, ann's neighbor brought over his tractor so that simon could go for a ride. simon's 3rd birthday was on sunday so this was a birthday surprise. the neighbor offered owen a ride as well. owen loved it! ann got pictures, depending on their form, i'll try to get one posted sometime.

Mariner's Game

we went to what will likely be our only baseball game of the season last night. it was the end-of-year activity for my choir (and their families) from school. i think everyone had a great time. it was a great family activity. i know a few things i'll change for next year, but i'll also be more on the ball next year and get started in april. here's one picture of owen playing with bridie f., the daughter of one of our paras and older sister of one of my choir members. the two of them had a blast. she did a great job entertaining owen. :-)



the weather today is cooler than its supposed to be. it's overcast, which keeps the cool of the night in (at least in the summer. in the winter it keeps the warm of the day in and makes it not so cold.) at least we had gorgeous weather yesterday for the game. i took a bunch of pictures to make a poster or something for recruiting next year. i have all summer to do that but i should get it done sooner rather than later.

i got the funniest e-mail from a friend yesterday. the subject was "Brendan (her 4-year-old) couldn't find the pen to his aqua doodle"

The body of the e-mail said this: "so he peed on it!" i read that and just started laughing uncontrollably. knowing this little boy (he's one of o's best friends) makes this no surprise at all. oy. good thing faye saw the humor in it too. she said she was laughing too when it happened.

i've come to a decision in terms of o's potty training. he knows what to do. he just has to decide that going potty ON the potty is what he wants to do. once he makes that decision, he'll be trained in no time. he is showing his control over the issue and is being a very head-strong little boy. that's not necessarily a bad thing. he'll occasionally run into the bathroom after dropping trou and go. did it this morning, actually. in his own time, i guess.

something fishy going on

and we call it owen. we got him a pool from target last week. the pool has a whale slide. owen wasn't too keen on the spout (to keep the slide slippery) but as long as his bottom was wet, he went down just fine. he'd go down the slide, say, "brr! fun!!!" and do it again. occasionally he gave me high five. when it was time to get out, i had to carry him, kicking and screaming into the house. we'll do it again tomorrow, so long as it's warm enough. he's going to have a blast at aunt sheena's on friday...

we went to the taste of tacoma today. owen went on four rides: an airplane that went in a skinny oval (think race track) and whipped around the u-turns, a fire truck that went up in the air and back down in a circle (counterclockwise), a canoe ride that went in a (lame) square, and a roller coaster. he loved every single ride. he also went on each ride all by himself. that was a first for us. he had the largest smile on his face that i think he possibly could have during the roller coaster. all i have to say is: we're in trouble. :-)

i was also able to be good in my eating today. i had a chicken and artichoke crepe (with fresh spinach leaves and a light sauce of some sort. it was really yummy. for dessert, i had lemonade sorbet (b&j's) in a waffle cone. now, i know that the waffle cone wasn't the smartest choice, but with as well as i've been doing today, it was ok.

now it's time for my yearly whine. it's HOT and our house gets so stuffy. there is no easy way to get air moving here. it takes two strategically placed fans (one in the front room and one in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. however, that would mean that one of the bedrooms doesn't have a fan in it to cool it down during the day. and we don't have screens on the windows so i don't feel safe leaving owen's open at night. plus, we can't leave them open during the day because the cat will jump out. we have a total of one window that can be left open. the front and back doors have screens on them (thank God) so we can get air in the house. there's just no straight line to allow for air circulation. purchasing an a/c would not be a wise use of money. we only have maybe 10 or a dozen days like this a year. we could get a window unit, but i'm not sure where it could go. the windows in the bedrooms open up and out. it's aggrivating, really.

first movie

we went to the drive-in last night with faye, tim, brendan, and peyton to see WALL-E. to me, the movie seemed like a kids' version of 2001 - not much dialog, and not very interesting to owen (he barely watched any of it). on the other hand, owen fell asleep on me shortly before the movie was over. it was wonderful. he hasn't done that in i don't know how long. i was happy to just let him be asleep on me. he is growing up way too fast. i was looking back at this blog yesterday and can't believe how much things have changed (him, me, our family, things in general) in under three years.

he had his usual energy. good thing we were in the back of the truck. that let him jump around and not be contained in a super-small place. we didn't stay for the second movie, prince caspian. i would have been happy to stay, but jeffy wanted to head home so we did. it was after midnight and he was driving. we can always buy prince caspian when it comes out. the next theater over had love guru and indiana jones. maybe we can find a sitter one night and go back to watch those. they looked much more interesting.

cranky-crabby

but with good reason. we went to northwest trek today, just the three of us. neither owen nor i had ever been. it was a really neat place. at one point, i was within arm's reach of a caribou on the tram tour. we saw loads of animals in natural habitats - caribou, bison, moose, several kinds of deer, mountain goats, big horn sheep, racoons, cougars, black and grizzly bears, foxes, and lots of other things. when we were at the cougar habitat, owen saw the cougar he said, "kitty-max sleeping." he napped on the way home, but that's not his usual nap length. it will be another early night to bed. he slept close to 11 hours last night.

he ate what?

we had our first time back at playgroup yesterday. lunch was crustless salmon quiche. owen inhaled it. granted, it was highly yummy, but i really didn't think owen would even try it. there was no hesitation on his part in eating it. he just started gobbling it up. ann, the hostess, was equally impressed. she's seen his eating (texture) issues in the past. we had lots of desserts yesterday, too. i brought women's bean project oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. another mom brought apple cake and a third brough brownies. only one mom brought anything healthy (veggie tray, which was devoured by the bunch of us).

the highlight for owen, aside from playing with the other boys, was seeing the deer. he thought it was a mule deer (don't be too impressed...it's in baby bear, baby bear what do you see) but was excited to see it, and even tried to chase it. then, the second time we went outside to play, he was looking for it again.

SLEEP!!!!!

he went to sleep by 9 last night. it's 7:51 by my computer's clock and he's still asleep. he was up a few times this morning - singing just before 5:00 a.m. poor babe must be exhausted. i'm going to get him up here in about 10 minutes. for the first time this week, we've all had a full night's sleep.

first full day

today was owen's first official full day in underwear. he did really well. he had one solid accident this morning, two wet accidents this evening and a wet and solid accident just now. however, the accident just now was immediately followed with him coming out of his room, waddling and with his pants wet, accompained by a very sad, "poopie!" we went into the bathroom where we took care of it. he's in his bedtime pull-ups now.

as for today, we were woken up by owen at 3:00 a.m. (day 4 on that one...). jeffy was up with him for, get this, 3 hours. i finally brought him into bed with us between 6 and 6:30, after he got a little bit sick in his bed. he slept for another 3 hours. we went to the zoo this afternoon with faye and her three kids. owen didn't get a nap today because of how much he slept this morning. he was dry the entire time we were at the zoo. now if i could just get him to stop doing two things when he's on the potty: pulling tp off of the roll just to put it in the toilet, and then flushing the toilet multiple times while he's sitting on it. it will come. it's just really frustrating right now.

time for bed for owen.

He did it!

when i dropped owen off at daycare today, they told me he needed more pull-ups. i told them that today was his last day and that they should just make him go potty, that he can do it. well, they did and he rose to the occasion! he had one accident all day long - at nap time. i can live with that. we came home and owen went potty and is now in underwear. that marks the end of living in pull-ups for owen gabriel. now he'll be in pull-ups only when he's sleeping. he doesn't quite have that down yet. like i said, i can live with that for now. it will come.


i'm done for the summer, finally. hopefully we'll go out for dinner tonight to celebrate. (jeffy just got home - we're going out tonight.) the only bad thing about today's work day was all of the sitting...i've aggrivated my back again. good thing i have good back meds!

UPDATE (7:30 P.M.): with two exceptions (nap and about an hour ago) he has been accident-free all day long! an hour or so ago, i caught him pooping...rushed him to the bathroom, but he was done. he was also quite upset about the accident. hopefully that will be not too far away. he even managed to stay dry all during dinner. i tried taking him thirty minutes before we left (nothing), right before we left (nothing), once we got to the restaurant (nothing) and as we were getting ready to leave (finally something!). he was dry so that was good. i was just a bit nervous as time got longer.

DONE!!!!

i am done with teaching for the school year! my last class left at 2:30. i spent the next 90 minutes doing certificates for tomorrow's awards ceremony.

we're getting our faucet fixed this week. it's been thunking for the last several weeks. i can't stand to turn the danged thing on. the thunking drives me nuts.

as for owen, he made some really good progress in potty training this weekend. he spent most of saturday in underwear, with only a couple of accidents. yesterday he was in underwear all afternoon, starting after his nap and going until bedtime. he managed to stay completely dry the whole time! that was 6+ hours. if only daycare could be as on top of it as i am...he went in pull-ups today. didn't go potty at day care at all. thursday is our day to start to finish potty training. he knows what to do on the potty. he just needs to learn that he needs to do it all the time. i don't think that will take too long.

Yay!

Owen just came up to me, said, "potty". I asked him if he had to go and he said yes and ran to the bathroom and went, first a little bit on his little potty, then more on the big potty. I am so proud of my little boy! he's in underwear for the evening, i think. i hope he has a repeat performance!

on another hand, we are having quite the storm right now. very strong winds and driving rain. i was supposed to go walking with faye tonight, but because of the storm and because of a thing at her daughter's school, we're not. that's ok, i did probably 60 minutes worth of cardio/core work today with my prek/k classes.

when i went to daycare to pick up mr. o today, one of the people working at the front desk told me that owen bit someone today. i responded with utter shock. that's not like my boy! then i was told that he was just kidding, that owen didn't bite anyone. boy, would there have been consequences when we got home if he had....

a new food item in o's diet is baby carrots. :-) he loves them now!!!!