Terrible Twos

they are officially here. it's tantrum city in our house. at least it's age appropriate. i know that owen is frustrated and that makes him angry. "no" is also his most frequent word. he loves to say it, but hates to hear it. i still can't lift him per my doctor's orders from my back injury a couple of weeks ago. makes this time very difficult. last night was interesting, though. he wanted to play with his fridge dj (leapfrog) during story time. i wouldn't let him and took it away. he pitched a good fit. screaming, tears, the whole nine yards. i responded by going to the rocking chair in his room and starting to read books aloud. he eventually stopped having his fit and came over, climbed in my lap, and listened while i read. then we went to his bed, where he told me to sit down by signing "sit" and pointing to his pillow. we read one more story and then i tucked him in.

he's at daycare while i'm at home working on my boards (last release day). tonight the three of us are going to see the wiggles. i wonder how long it's going to take owen to realize who we're seeing once we get there and he sees the stage.

PBR picture

PBR is Pro Bull Riders. we go every year. it was owen's first time going. here's the bug at the pbr last night. he had such a good time. i asked him when we were leaving if he had fun and he said, "Fun!" He was turning heads everywhere we went, too. Everyone thought he was so cute. He certainly knows how and when to turn on the charm, doesn't he? and yes, that's is his own hat.

it was a late night for all of us. the bull riding didn't start until 8:00, but mr. o did so well. he didn't get scared when there were flames and fireworks and loud bangs. once, he turned his head away because the flames shooting from the prop bulls' nostrils was really bright, but he was never scared. :-)

great progress!

Well, I think we've crossed that final hurdle in potty training. Owen is now going potty consistently at day care. Yesterday, he was dry all day except for at nap time. That I can deal with. He even woke up dry this a.m. pretty impressive for not quite 2-1/2. i'm so ready to be done with diapers and pull-ups during the day. we'll take night time as it comes. i'm not so worried about that. it's a whole different set of skills.

my 4th and 5th graders at school are presentign their musicals this week. they've been working on writing musicals based on original folk or fairy tales. i invited the superintendent and the school board last-minuted (friday morning). our sup is coming on monday morning, and the school board is going to try to come as well. they are interviewing for a new sup (the current one is interim and is on the short list). it will be great exposure for my music program, and for the program at my school.

we have tickets to PBR tonight (pro bull riders). owen loves watching bull riding. i think it's the fact that it's fast-paced. next friday night is wiggles. i'm so excited about that!

bad week for mommy

let me just say that having owen is such a blessing. he takes my mind off of the icky week i've had. and oh, what a week it was...

tuesday was a meeting for my national boards. as i'm walking out the door, i slip and fall on an UNMARKED wet floor (as in recently mopped). i managed to twist my left ankle, bruise both knees really good (so good my md requested x-rays of both just to make sure that everything is ok), jammed my right wrist on the floor and the shock from that went through my arm and into my back which is now covered in sprains. i also managed to shatter my water bottle (plastic nalgene-type) which just added more water to the floor, which the custodian just pushed around with the mop to make the floor even more wet. yes, i got the paperwork going the next morning. yes, i went to my doctor on friday afternoon. and yes, the district will be paying for my related medical care for a while. i have two prescriptions for meds, one for massage therapy once a week for four weeks, and directions not to lift, push, or pull anything over 15 lbs. for the next two weeks. yeah. uh huh...

then, once i finally managed to get headed out the door, i realized i didn't have my keys. i knew i had them when i got there because, well, i GOT there. we scoured the place, including going through trash cans, but had no luck. i had to call jeffy, who came to get me. luckily we have an extra set of car keys at home and i had an extra house key in a bag at school.

that was tuesday. i had a program on wednesday afternoon and thursday evening. that went extremely well. it was very well-received. the biggest disappointment was that i was missing almost my entire back row of kids and two kids who were missing had recorder parts to play.

friday was a waiver day and i took a half-day to go to the doctor. the nice thing about that was the fact that i didn't have to do sub plans. all i had to do was put in my absence. jeffy had a doctor's appt 45 minutes after mine. x-rays were ordered for him to check for a bone spur on his heel. we went to the x-ray place together. do we know how to have fun on a friday afternoon or what?

but wait! it gets better (or worse, depending on your pov)! my car has been being persnickety for about the last year. used to be the go-gear wouldn't catch initially when i stopped at a light or stop sign. if i pushed the gas pedal in a little more, i'd have a screeching jump start and things would be ok until i stopped again. i started using just drive instead of overdrive. that fixed for a while, but thursday or friday it started doing that after i turned the car on. i could push the gas pedal clear to the floor and keep it there and nothing would happen. it was scary and frustrating. we took it to a repair shop that is right up the street and they said it was likely the transmission. (also that the transmissions in the car i have were notoriously bad so that was a relief...it wasn't me!) we had the option of rebuilding the transmission or not doing anything and getting a new car. unfortunately, the latter isn't finacially possible right now. we're rebuilding the transmission, which will take until wednesday or thursday. so now, i'm driving a chevy tahoe. it's really big, but i'm getting used to it.

now, i want you to think (or read) back to what my restrictions are for my back. do you see a slight potential issue here with a certain short person getting into a very tall car? i think i'm going to try to teach him to climb up on the runner boards and then into the truck. that'll help my back quite a bit.

tonight at the rental car place, owen was impressing quite a few people. a gentleman in front of us heard owen counting (as he was bouncing and watching himself in the mirrored window) and asked me if he was counting. i said he was and that he can count to 20 and backwards from 10. the gentleman replied that owen in a very intellegent little boy, especially for not quite 2-1/2. then, owen was playing a little while we were getting the car rental taken care of. he'd go to a chair, climb up in it, sit for a second, tell me that the chair was black (chair! black!) then he'd come back to me and start all over again. THEN, he noticed a little girl, probably 6 or 7 years old, and started flirting with her. she was flirting back. this caused one of the employees to laugh. i think it may have made her day. she took such delight in watching owen and the little girl. i'm so glad that owen knows how to behave when we're out in public. never once did i have to go chasing after him today. it was rather nice, actually. i guess he was finding enough to entertain himself so he wasn't getting bored and playing his own games. he also made us proud at dinner tonight, too. i love that he's getting better at staying near us when we're out and about. that shows that he is growing up, which is what he should be doing.

this morning was so funny with owen. it was about 6:30, he had been up since 5:30 (ugh!) and i was still in bed. he comes in to try to wake me up. one of the things i hear is, "time (to get) up!" then he gets right in my face and says, "wake up!" i didn't open my eyes until he kissed me on the lips. the little bugger knows the best way to wake up mommy! granted, i use that technique on him as well. what a sweet little boy we have. like i said at the start of this post, what a blessing he is in our lives.

a-b-c-d

that's what we heard coming from his room at about 6:30 this morning. how fun for him to wake up singing. now he's singing and dancing along with "annie oo" on his leap frog fridge dj. he loves that thing! it's what he woke up with yesterday morning. he loves singing along with that song. he'll dance while he's singing. it's great fun to watch.

the news

i got the ok from my little sis last night. her boyfriend proposed yesterday. she accepted. i'm so excited for both of them. marcus is a wonderful man. it's such an honor to have him as a part of our family now. happy tears are falling. her ring is absolutely GORGEOUS. as matron of honor, i'll have to take care of the bacelorette party, so i've started thinking some. dunno what we'll do yet, or even when it'll be. they don't have a date just yet.

HP:HBP

gotta love the internet. i just learned when the next harry potter movie is coming out. november 21 of this year. fabulous!!!!! i find it very hard to believe, however, that voldemort will not be in this one as an adult. there are two younger versions listed in the cast, one is played by ralph fiennes' nephew, hero. i guess we know what jeffy and i will be doing that night, huh?

i am getting jeffy to the theater (not the movie theater, a proper theater) in april. we're going to go see cabaret. we got gift certs from my mother for christmas a couple of years ago and so now we're using them (they're good for three years). i'm getting jeffy to go by telling him that there will be scantily-women on the stage. my m-i-l and s-i-l have season tickets to this theater so we're going the same night that they are. the plan is to meet for dinner up there and then go see the show. we're in the balcony, they're on the floor, but that's o.k.

i have some really exciting news to share, but i'll have to wait until i get the ok to share it from the person it's about. i'm over the moon with excitement!!!!!!

o's latest funny thing is closing doors or leaving the room and saying, "bye mommy! love you!" he did that quite a bit on saturday when was on the couch. the front door was open (screen closed and locked) and he'd act like he was walking out the door, closing it behind him and everything! he even tries it when i'm trying to get us out the door in the morning. it's a great little game, except when we're running late like we were this morning.

he's also starting to sing along with songs on his fridge dj (leap frog). it's great fun to listen to. he'll get bits here and there. he's having a blast. i've discovered that he'll fixate on one particular song for a little bit and then move on to another. pretty typical for kids his age, actually. this afternoon, he echoed the ABC song and matched nearly every pitch. he's got a good ear for such a little guy. of course, being a musician, i notice these things. ;-)

this morning was really funny. owen managed to take care of all of the little pottying bits (short of taking off his diaper and turning on the faucet to rince out the potty bucket) all by himself. that included getting his pull-up on and almost pulled up. he also asked me for fishes this a.m. while i was getting my lunch and breakfast ready. i told him no, but he found a bowl, got out the goldfish, and helped himself to a couple of handfulls. then he put the box (big, milk carton type) back in the cabinet and sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor to enjoy his work. what an amazing kid. blows my mind!

another step

owen took a big step in potty training today. as he was sititng on the potty this a.m. (and had been for longer than usual), i asked o if he was done. "nope!" was his reply. when he finally stood up a couple of minutes later (after putting on his own pull-up with minimal help in guiding the first foot into the correct hole) i noticed that not only had he peed in the potty...but he had pooped too!!!!! guess he wasn't lying about not being finished! yay owen!!!! now, if only he would start going at day care....

as for me, i'm feeling much better now. i went to work yesterday and did just fine. still a bit sleepy in the evening, and not a full appetite yet, but doing sooooo much better. actually feeling human!!!!

sick mama

i am finally feeling like myself again for the first time in about four days. this weekend i got home on friday and immediately got into my jammies. i stayed in my jammies and on the couch until this morning when i got up to (try) to go to work with the exception of about 4 hours on saturday. igot up this a.m. to see if work would be an option and quickly decided that it wouldn't be. i had a minor fever (just over 100) and was really woozy. i took owen to day care (thank god for that!) then went into school to do sub plans for the sub i didn't think i'd get (and didn't get). it's been a third day in a row on the couch.

i jsut picked owen up from day care and he's now watching elmo's world on dvd. gotta love sesame street! this dvd even has some older clips on it. very cool!!!!

flashback

to when my sister was owen's age. she is about 2-1/2 years younger than me. my parents were converting the nurwsery into her big girl room so she stayed in my room in her crib for a night or two. that was a long and frustrating night for everyone but michele. it was fun for her. she spent a good deal of time doing one of two things: turning the light on and off in rapid succession, and throwing her beloved "raggy" out of the crib then crying "raggy! raggy! raggy!" so that i would have to get up and get the doll for her. that game got old really quickly.

well, tonight (and past nights, actually), owen has requested his teddy after i tuck him in, then immediately throws teddy out of bed and fusses for him again. it was just tonight that i made the connection. the funny thing is that owen has the ability to get out of bed and get the teddy on his own. another change is that unlike when i was 4 or 5, i won't play the game but once. now teddy just stays on the floor or on the far side of his bed. lesson learned, huh?

a step forward

i think we may have figured out how to get owen to go potty someplace other than home. turn him around on the potty. we are three for three with that method in the last three days. all we have to do is take off one shoe, then slip that leg through his pant leg and out of the pull-up, then put him on the potty facing the back and he goes as easily as he does on his own potty at home. i'm definately going to tell day care about that tomorrow. i hope this works!!!! now all we'll have to do is to get him to realize that he needs to stay dry and only go pee in the potty. oh, and that buggery pooping thing, too...

today was a family field trip to cabela's. there is a new one open about 30 minutes south of here so we went. owen loved the animals, particularly the fish. he kept telling me, "look! fishies!" it was a riot and enjoyed emensely by the people around us in the aquarium. he also liked looking at the stuffed animals (and by stuffed, i'm not talking plush...) on display. we found several animals from one of his favorite books (baby bear, baby bear, what do you see?). he also liked trumpeting at the elephant and roaring at the lion and the bears. and my favorite part of cabela's was the chili - it's beanless!!!!! that means i can eat it!!!!! if i had known that, i would have had chili on my buffalo brat at lunch in addition to the shredded cheese. highly yummy!

i saw the funniest things at cabela's, mostly being the girly camo in the kid's section (ruffles on the hems, dresses, bows at various places). i also loved the camo onesies. my thought on that was that any poop or whatever that gets on the clothing won't show up! lol.

An understanding

it's a four-day weekend (yip, yippee yippito...) and owen has really shown me some great understanding. this morning, he was working at his pegboard when i tossed the last piece to him. he then grabbed a couple of pieces and threw them (hard) at me. i told him, "no!" he did it again. then i told him if he did it a third time, he'd go into time-out. he picked up the pieces and put them away. i rewarded him with a big hug and a thank-you for minding so well. then while he was eating lunch, he started eating his apple sauce with his hands, spoon just laying there. i told him that if he didn't use his spoon, i'd take the applesauce away. he got that too and immediately began using his spoon. what a smart boy! oh, and when i went in to get him this morning, he looked at me, said, "hey, mommy! potty?" know i don't know if that means he knows we go potty first thing in the a.m. or that he had to go potty or that he had just gone potty. or all three. (he had just gone potty and his diaper leaked...sheets are currently in the drier.)

still not going potty at day care. it's rather frustrating. any advice from a post-potty training parent on what to do? i'm thinking reverse psychology right now. he won't go anywhere but home, unless he has his own potty to go on.

colors are mastered. he'll constantly tell me what color things are. m's especially. :-) and he just counted down (quickly) from 10-1. i'm ablsolutely amazed at this kid.

tag

so my friend kelly, who i know from an e-mail forum i'm on, has tagged me. here are the rules to this game of tag:

Link to the person that tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Check out Kelly's blog here. Now I'm supposed to post six non-important things/habits/quirks about myself so here goes!

1. I have to eat my M&Ms in rainbow order, with brown before red.
2. I love learning languages. To date I have studied, either formally or informally, Spanish, French, German, and American Sign Language. I also love watching my own child's language acquisition.
3. Teaching middle schooler is my biggest challenge this year.
4. I'm learning to make the knitted slippers that my grandmother used to make.
5. I play my great-grandfather's violin.
6. I've been to 32 states, two continents, and seven foreign countries. I hope to travel to all 50 states with my family over the years and return to Europe.

So now it's my turn to tag people! Let's see here. I'll tag...
Katie
Michele
Erin
Suzanne
(I'm supposed to tag six people, but I don't visit that many blogs so I'm stopping at four.)

Let the game of tag continue!

such a big boy!

o is sitting at the table right now eating his lunch (pbj and apples, with milk in a regular cup so far) and he is sitting there not in his booster. he's able to reach things just fine. i can't believe how big he's getting and how fast! (he just said, "eatin' apples!")

munchkin boy did somethign this morning he doesn't usually do - took a mid-morning nap. he was so stinkin' tired that he didn't know what he wanted and he was picking things up just so he could throw them across the room. i very calmly picked him up, told him he need some time to cool down in his room, put him on his bed and told him he could do what he wanted in his room (play, read, nap, etc.) and then i walked out, shutting the door behind me. he cried pretty hard (and boy, was it a tired cry...) for about 10 minutes, but then as i was getting ready to jump into the shower, it got quiet and i knew he was asleep. i let him nap for about an hour or an hour and a half. i'm not sure if he'll nap this afternoon, we'll play that one by ear. i was able to take the opportunity to get some previewing done of materials i finally received this week from the district (it's only the beginning of second semester!) for my middle school class. yes, you read that right, i was teaching middle school - my least-comfortable age - with no materials. i'm more than slightly frustrated that the request i put in last september or october took until january to be ordered.

potty training continues. no success yet at day care, but he did go potty at jeff's sister's house last sunday during the superbowl. we brought our own potty with us. it worked.

t day?

owen is in real underwear today. we're going to see if we can lick this potty training thing today. so far, he's gone once right when he got up (that was about a half hour ago). i'll try to post updates as the day progresses. i would love to be able to send him to daycare in underwear on monday (and with underwear). once he gets trained at home, we will need to get him going other places. he still hasn't gone anywhere away from home...

wish us luck!

and this diagnosis is...

rotavirus. i got a call from daycare at 9:45 saying he'd had diarrhea three times already. i went to get him, called the doctor, and took him in at noon. he can't go back to daycare, even though that's where he got it, until after (1) his fever is gone for 24 hours and (2) the diarrhea is gone. i'm a little frustrated, both with the daycare bit since he got it there, as well as with the fact that he has such a rough time in winter. unfortunately, i can't do anything about either of those things so i'll be frustrated and let it go.

he's napping now but has also gone potty for me twice today. going potty is a good thing - it means he's hydrated. i love that owen can communicate now. he told me after he went potty that he wanted to go take a nap. he didn't want to wash his hands (i made sure he did that anyway.) he can also tell me when he wants something or more of something.

it's up!!!!

go here: http://www.ergobaby.com/testimonials

scroll down to August 2007

getting it?

i think owen may finally be getting the potty thing. he's gone twice in the last 90 minutes or so. neither time was a bunch, but he went. i'm setting an alarm to remind him to go every hour or so. he's also in pull-ups today. i've discovered that they now have velcro along the sides, which means that they can be re-used after the sides have been opened unlike the older version i was expecting where once the sides are opened, that's it. very cool!

we drove up to everett today for the second time in as many days. i left my camera at owen's godparent's house. we also took up the jerky we intended to give them yesterday. i told eileen when i called this morning that i was willing to pay a ransom on my camera. we had a nice drive up, nice visit, and a nice drive down, complete with a stop at daddy's work to get the credit card for go-go juice for the car.

owen didn't get much of a nap today (30-45 minutes in the car on the way home from everett). he's nodding off right now while we're watching the news while waiting for dinner to be done cooking.

we are going to the wiggles in march! my b-i-l works for ticketmaster and was able to get us good seats (row 15 on the floor with an aisle seat!) i'm so excited! owen doesn't get what's going on yet, but he'll get it later on. it might not happen until we walk into the arena and he sees the stage, but he'll get it and be excited.

sunday

that it is. today is very busy. we're going to church (i think), then to the baptism of owen's godbrother, Michael. everyone is so excited that michael is here. we didn't think his parents would ever be able to have children. he was born on december 27. after that, we are going to jeffy's mother's birthday celebration. that's for dinner. i think we'll take comfy clothes to change into after the baptism. family get-togethers are fun, but noisy and draining. there are currently 12 adults (two generations) and 7 kids, ranging in age from 11 years to one month old. owen is right smack dab in the middle of that group.

as for my "taking more than one" comment yesterday - it happened this morning. owen got up with a very (very) full diaper, but still managed to go potty a little bit. he got his m, but it ended up being plural. i hope owen goes potty while we're out and about today. that will make things really nice and much easier. and it will be one step closer to being potty trained.

oh, and elmo got a bath yesterday. we were drawing a bath for owen and he decided to put his tickle me elmo tmx into the tub. jeffy was closest, but not paying attention. luckily (or not - depending on your opinion of elmo), elmo still works.

Chocolate breath

Just an update:

Owen's croup is much better. He's barely coughed today, and didn't wake up coughing at all last night (or if he did, I didn't hear him). His cough sounds much better as well. He spent two days out of daycare this week, but went back Wednesday-Friday.

Potty training continues. Slowly. He's gone twice today :-) he's really getting to be such big boy. I let him pick out his own m from the baggie. he gets mad when i take the baggie away, but he is learning to deal. i'm sure it's just a matter of time before he takes more than one.

he's also turning into a parrot (or have i already said that?)

a barking seal

guess what that means? croup. we went in yesterday after his cough changed from normal to seal-y. he's been home from school two days. i stayed home yesterday, jeffy stayed home today. owen is back to his normal self today, which is good. that means that both of us can go to work tomorrow. he has almost coughed himself hoarse, poor kid. it's been a rough couple of days, between the fever, 105 on sunday afternoon, 103 at 2:30 a.m. on monday - both times we gave him motrin and it responded very nicely, and him coughing, it's been hard on mom too. his breathing is still a bit labored, but it's ok. i'll be glad when we're through this.

i had a meeting after school tonight. i've been home maybe 30 minutes. not too long after i got in, owen took my hands, looked at me and said, "atee atee" and then dropped to his knees. he was asking to play ring around the rosie, which we did multiple times. must be somethign he's learned at daycare.

when we were at the pediatrician's office yesterday, she was asking me questions about how owen was doing. he started readign off the letters on the label on the examining table. she stopped and looked at me in surprise. she asked me if he was trying to read the letters. i told her he was reading the letters and that he knows most of his alphabet. then i told her that he can consistently get his shoes on the right feet. she was amazed. as we were walking out, we saw his old pediatrician. she was there with her two children doing some "official business". it was so nice to see her! we miss her, but we love the new doctor, too. she was also very amazed at his skills and agreed with me that we are in for a wild ride with this kid. when kids as smart as owen get bored, they get in trouble...

it's official!

no, we're not trained yet, but he's gone twice for me today. and the second time he went, it was easily within 30 seconds of sitting on the potty. it wasn't all that much (and he went twice that time, once with the spash guard on, once with it off...gotta learn to tuck himself in on the potty) but he went! he was rewarded with the m. i think he's getting the concept. i wonder if getting him trained by the end of the month is within the realm of possibility. it will be interesting to see when he starts going potty other places. he's spending the night at jeffy's brother's house this saturday night. i wonder if he'll go there. he loves his potty book, too. made me read it four times tonight.

training camp

well, i think we're officially potty training (knock on wood). we were out shopping today and i asked him if he had to go. he said he did so we went. i pulled out his portable potty seat and put it on the big potty. he sat for about 5 seconds, then told me, "all done potty". didn't do anything in the potty, but in september when he first started peeing (briefly) on the potty, he wouldn't sit on that seat. this is definately progress. he also has started saying, "potty" or "more potty"...did that for 5 minutes straight when we were in the car.

i just found out that owen's favorite group is coming to the tacoma at the end of march. too bad my friend katie can't go with me (she'll be a week away from her due date with her little girl.) i'll have to keep an eye on tickets and see if jeffy can work anything out for us since he works for ticketmaster.

ready to go?

owen is really growing up. he is starting to accurately tell me if he's poopy or not. if he says, "yes" when i ask him, he's usually telling the truth. however, he sometimes will tell me he's not even if he is. tonight i asked him if he needed to go potty, to which he replied, "yes." we went into the bathroom, he sat on his potty, got up, i asked him to sit down again while i got his jammies (it was bath night), when i came back in, he again stood up and i again asked him to sit back down so i could go grab his ear plugs from my room (still in my overnight bag from our trip) and when i got back into the bathroom, he stood up, said "all done potty" and he had peed in the potty! one m&m when he pees, two when he poops, three if he does both. (hey, it worked for me when i was little!) my hope is that he is basically potty trained by the time we go to omaha in may for my sister's graduation. i'm thinking that'll be a real good possiblity.



his vocabulary is growing exponentially on a daily basis. his memory is also amazing. during stories tonight, he asked, "where neena?" (sheena - his aunt who just moved here from upstate new york in september.) i asked him if he wanted to call her and he said he did. so we did. she loved it!

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!

one more to go

teeth, that is. owen now has 19 of his 20 teeth cut through. we're waiting on the bottom left 2-year molar. this bout of teething has been pretty easy, relatively speaking. i'm glad we're done for several years now, at least with him.

jeffy and i think we heard him open and then close his bedroom door last night when he was supposed to be sleeping. we know his door closed, and i'm pretty sure i closed it all the way behind me on my way out after i tucked him in. we may need to purchase some more safety paraphernalia (that's a funny spelling for that word, but it's right!) here in the next few days. we'll see how owen does with this new skill. if he stays in his room when he's supposed to be there, we'll leave the doors as-is. if he continually escapes, we'll put the doohickies there to keep him from turning the knobs.

this weekend, as usual, i was totally blown away by his new skills. this time, he has shown that he can correctly identify most of the numbers, either by picking them up and telling me what they are, by telling me what a number i point out or hold up from his puzzle, or by correctly grabbing the correct puzzle piece when i ask for a certain number. the only ones he doesn't yet say without prompting are zero, seven, and eight. when he counts to 10, he gets 1-6, then 9, 10. he's learning so much so fast. i love watching this process! it will be interesting with the next one when he or she comes to watch and see how he/she is different from the big brother.

thanksgiving is this week. i have one more day plus a half day of work. kids leave at noon on wednesday, we get to leave at 12:30. my dad gets in on wednesday afternoon and stays until sunday evening.

sounds and sentences

"Where the ball?"

this was owen's sentence tonight. i threw a ball with suction cups at the window. it bounced off and stuck to one of his books nearby. he didn't see where it went so he looked at me and with upturned hands aske the question.

"Bee buh". that was just a few minutes ago at the fridge. he held up the capital B from his fridge phonics set and said the name and sound, then put it in the slot for the letters. amazing! absolutely amazing.

i have a small update on the chicken pox. no, he doesn't have them...yet. turns out the infected child was there a day with just a few pox on his tummy and they were suspicious but not sure. he came back the next day (Thursday) and it was a definate yes. IF owen doesn't have the chicken pox by the 26th, he'll be getting the second shot of the vaccine along with his flu shot. so, we should be done with the chicken pox with him by the end of the month one way or the other. i'm taking bets on whether or not he's gonna get the chicken pox. anyone want to make a wager? i say he gets sick as he seems to get everything that goes around day care.

i have a soprano metallophone at school that had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day today. in my last two classes of the day, it had bars (accidentally) kicked off, was jumped over, and used as a step. the two children who did the latter two things are off of the instruments for quite a while, possibly forever. i will make a laminated paper diagram for them to use with their fingers from now on. the girl who kicked the bars off was just shifting positions (from sitting to kneeling) and didn't mean to do it. she fixed it right away and did beautifully the rest of the time. ugh. saddly, the children who jumped over and stepped on (!) the instrument didn't surprise me at all. too bad for them, huh? no skin off my back, though.

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.

waiting

to find out which 50% owen is in. we had a note sent home from day care today saying he has been exposed to the chicken pox. he got the first shot of the vaccine a year ago. i talked with a nurse and she told me what to look for and said that he has a 50/50 chance of getting it and wished us luck. the way i'm looking at it,he either gets chicken pox and we're done with it or he doesn't get it and we finish off the vaccine (2nd dose of the vaccine) and we're probably done with it. i think i'd rather he not get it and get the second dose of the vaccine - that will mean no missed work - but we'll have to wait and see. i really hope he can hold out until thanksgiving week. it's a short week of school (2.5 days) so it could be a managable thing. keeping my fingers crossed...

owen's speech is really improving lately. he's becoming more understandable more often. apple went from "at" to "appo". "pizza" is very clear. "dinosaur" is "di-doe". he's also counting to six and knows at least three letter sounds - b, d, m.

school is continuing to go well, we had our veteran's day assembly today and my choir sang. they had two weeks to learn their two songs (all but memorized!) and also to learn the poem "In Flanders Fields". they did such a wonderful job. i am so honored to be their teacher and directress.

i was supposed to have a release day yesterday for my national board process. "supposed to" being the operative words. turns out it was one day too early for finance to finalize approval for all of our release days. i'll still get the day, just on another date. more on this on my national boards blog.

tomorrow i drive to shoreline for a 7 p.m.-10 p.m. workshop, which continues on saturday all day. i'm not going to make the drive home on friday night. instead, i'll be staying with some friends in everett for that night. it will be a much better drive than coming all the way back home and then back up there again.

i am so ready for christmas break. i need the down time from work. i also need time to recoup from the cumulative hours of sleep i'm losing by a certain someone being up way too early and starting to play in his room. i get to stay in bed, but i'm still awake and losing sleep. the other day, he didn't nap at all at daycare. instead he was awake and trying to wake up his friends then quickly jumping back to his mat. what a little imp!

i received word on monday from the backpack people. owen and i will be in the 2008 calendar! immediate family will be getting calendars for christmas, among other things. we get 12 free. :-) i've asked about purchasing more. they're thinking about selling them and will let me know when they decide. i'll let you know as well. :-) i'm so excited! i'm a calendar girl! owen's a calendar boy!

chatterbox

owen is a real chatterbox these days. he can count to five (both in words and on his fingers and the words match the fingers!) this morning it was "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, wake up jeff!" this as i was trying to get back to sleep at 4:30 after giving him some meds for his cough. it was pretty funny. "dinosaur" is also a new word in our vocabulary!

he has taken a liking to our organ of late. he can climb up onto the bench, usually by climbing over the sofa arms. he loves it! i've been in contact with a friend of mine whose son is a concert organist asking her if this is how jelani got started. it is. :-) if owen is still interested in playing something, i might start him out on violin (since i play) sometime after he turns three. piano maybe as he gets older.

favorite toys currently are the leap frog fridge phonics set he has (drives daddy nuts!), his legos, and his giant pegboard. all of them are birthday presents.

poor thing is hacking away right now. i've given him medicine but we are still waiting for it to work.

He's 2!

This is a couple of weeks delayed. Sorry I got busy between when I started it (on the 15th) and today (the 23rd)...

I'm just absolutely amazed that my little boy is two. The weekend was wild. My mom got here on Thursday afternoon, met me at day care to pick up Owen. That evening we went to her cousin's house for dinner (I've never met this cousin, and it was a really nice evening.) Owen behaved himself royally. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and well-behaved little boy. (That said, he just threw a tantrum because I took him out of the bathroom where he was playing with the soap...) It was pretty late when we got home and Owen went right to sleep.



Friday was his actual birthday. I had a workshop in the morning in Seattle at the UW so Gramma took him to the Seattle Aquarium in the a.m. We came back down for lunch and then took O to his check-up. He is (drum roll please) 36.5" tall, which puts him in the 95th percentile and he weighs 31 lbs (8oth percentile!!!!). This means he's still getting taller and is putting on decent weight. He is still mister skinny-butt, but he's a tall mister skinny-butt! We went to dinner that night at Chuck E. Cheese. Never again will I go there on a Friday night. It was way crowded and I got over-stimulated. I can't imagine what it was like for Owen.



Saturday was a take-it-easy sort of day. We were getting ready for the birthday party that night. Jeffy helped a huge amount by taking Owen out of the house and running a couple of errands. That was probably the most helpful thing he could hsave done since I kept trying to put Owen's toys away and he kept taking them right back out. There ended up being five fewer people than we were planning on, which still put it at around 25 people here, and Owen again got pretty overwhelmed. A quick walk around the block helped him cool down.



I really didn't get to enjoy the party on Saturday because I was too busy dealing with the chaos of 25 people in our house. Not sure what I can do to change that in the future since most of the people were family and you can't easily not invite in-town family.

He can count and a social commentary

well, just a little bit. he counts to two, but he starts with one! not too long ago, he thought counting started at two, not one. tonight, he very clearly was counting, "one, two! one, two!" i'm constantly amazed with how smart he is and how much he learns every day. it would be interesting to go back and count how many times i've said that in this blog. anyone up for the challenge?

another amazing thing to me is that owen turns two in a week. when did that happen? can it really be that two years have passed since he was born? we have a huge party planned for saturday of next week. by "huge", i mean in attendance. jeffy's entire family (all 18 of us, my mom, owen's godparents and their two kids (four more), plus my friend faye and her family (five more). that makes 28 people in our home. our house will be busting at the seams, but it will be fine and fun. two of the attendees are just a few months old, one is just over a year, owen and another are two, then there's a 3 year old and a 4 year old before we get to the older kids (ages 7-11) and the adults.

owen got a hair cut the other night. it looks very nice if i do say so myself. i'm really getting the hang of it. three different attachments were used, all on purpose. i did it after his bath and it looks so much neater that it was. he was getting pretty shaggy by my standards for him. i don't like seeing his hair flopping over his ears. he looks much better with the shorter hair. after his haircut, he got a few m&ms. if you look closely in the pictures, you can see the left-overs of the m's on his face.

now for the social commentary. while i am disappointed that marion jones has used steroids, i am very impressed and find it quite refreshing that she is owning up to it and that she appears to be willing to take whatever consequences come her way. in today's socitetal norm of "i didn't do it and i'll never 'fess up." it's very important that our kids see that it is better to take responsibility and face the music than to continue lying and get away with illegal things. this is a quality i am trying to instill in owen and also in my kids at school. i always acknowledge when a student owns up to something, even if it means getting in trouble.

the weekend is here. i have a workshop tomorrow in fway then jeffy and i have tickets to a concert here in town. the highlight for me will be beethoven's 4th symphony. owen is spending time with grandma and papa and then is coming home for bedtime with grandma. sunday will be our usual family day.

conference week is upon us at school. i will be masquerading as a middle school teacher this week on monday, tuesday, and wednesday as the middle school teachers are in cincinnati for a training of their own and it's a cheap way to have classes covered. specialists don't usually teach on half-days anyway so i suppose we have the time available. i could, however, make good use of the time if i didn't have to teach middle school. oh, well. i'll hopefully have a good part of each afternoon (m-w) and tuesday night until about 6 or 6:30. the way things work here in my district is if we work a late night in october and another late night during conferences in december, we don't have to go in the friday of the december conference week. (that usually falls on the friday of the first full week of december.) of course, the year i had owen, that friday ended up being a snow day.

wednesday we will have our 6-month check on the ear tubes and then on friday of next week, we have our two-year check with the pediatrician. i'm sorta nervous about this winter if the ear tubes come out (on their own). we could be facing more ear infections. i'mnot looking forward to that if it happens. we are missing meeting the new pediatrician by two work days. she starts on the 16. owen's appt is on the 12th. we'll meet her later in the year, i'm sure.

potty training has sorta slowed down and that's just fine. he is, after all, just two. we have plenty of time for it. oh, and the baby gates are down in the house now. he tried climbing over the one at the kitchen door this weekend. he's done well with having free access to the kitchen.

too funny!

owen is starting to not want to be separated from daddy. jeffy is making a donut run this morning (mmm...donuts!) and when owen saw daddy getting ready to leave, he (owen) started to throw a fit and cry, just like he did yesterday when jeffy left to go mow the lot. jeffy and i both laughed, jeffy got owen into jeans and his hawks t-shirt and the boys are heading out the door to get donuts. i told jeffy to get owen a donut with sprinkles. owen was so excited to be going with daddy. he was jumping up and down at the door. oh, and he's wearing he seahawks winter coat, too. very cute this morning. we'll watch football all day today, and do some cleaning for the birthday party that's coming up in a couple of weeks.

more stuff on friday

choir practice was fun. before i went, we went to borders and i got a couple of new cd's. one came out on tuesday (brian setzer orchestra) and the other came out a week and a half ago (songs of america - produced by janet reno.) owen and i had lots of fun dancing to the brian setzer orchestra cd tonight when i got home from choir practice.

as we were heading out the door, we noticed the family who lives down the street out with their little boy who is 15 months old so we went over to chat. while we were there, owen started navigating their stairs - WITHOUT holding on to anything! he was so steady doing it. i was totally amazed, almost to tears. he was so proud of himself, probably playing off of my reaction to him doing that. he's growing up so fast!

another new word for him lately is "row". he says it as he climbs up into my lap, takes a finger from each hand into his hands and waits for me to start singing "row row row your boat." then tonight he also said, "clap". i initially didn't understand what he was saying so i asked him to say it again and help me understand what he was saying so he started clapping, then he did "la la la la la". i immediately knew he was requesting "rock-a-bye your bear." language acquisition is awe inspiring.

sick day

for both me and the little man of the house. he has been getting a sporadic fever in response to those nasty two-year molars. they caught it at day care yesterday so he can't be there today. grumble grumble grumble. i have that beginning of the year cold which is threatening to go into my sinuses. i took a personal sick day instead of using a family leave day since i am also sick. i had to go back in last night after dinner (and after calling around to see if owen could go anywhere today so i didn't have to miss work...) to finish my sub plans. I then e-mailed them to one of the middle school teachers (i had my middle school class this morning) and the office coordinator. the latter couldn't open anything initially but the procedures. not the lesson plans, not the middle school project info to give to the kids. i only found this out when i called in to make sure everything made it to the sub. the office was supposed to have the phones on at 7:30. i didn't get anything but the immediate voicemail until 7:50. that was ten minutes before middle school starts. i was slightly frustrated, but everything turned out just fine. he should be done in about 20 minutes.

owen is down for his nap - no fighting, no getting out of bed multiple times. once jeffy gets home, i'm heading out for tgif (aka "choir practice") with people from work. he knows this, so i hope he hurries home tonight. i'll be upset if he doesn't get home in time for me to make it out. we're going to the waterfront tonight so it's going to be yummy.

one of owen's newest words is "tractor". he says it pretty clearly. i know grandpa will be happy with that one! ;-) he can also point to a picture of a tractor and correctly i.d. it. granted, most big machines are currently "tractor" but he'll get it right eventually. kids tend to over generalize anyway.

i am amazed that my little boy will be two in exactly two weeks. where has the time gone? i look at the quilt and his hands on the quilt and then at his hands now. it's incredible how much has changed in the last two years. two years ago, he relied on me for absolutely everything. now, he is somewhat self-sufficient. he is communicating his needs to us in a pretty effective way. he his gaining new words daily. this morning we were watching disney channel and i told him to say "hi, mickey mouse!" and he tried it! (deep thought: why can't i type that name without thinking of "em-eye-see kay-ee-why em-oh-you-ess-ee"?) he's imitating more and more of what we say and do. my favorite is closing the doors by backing into them (it's how we have to close the front door if we want it closed completely.)

Flying Monkey

that's what owen became this weekend. i was sitting on the couch on saturday morning when he climbed up onto the coffee table. it is about a foot from the coffee table to the couch. i told owen to put his feet on the floor, and he decided to jump toward me on the couch. unfortunately started laughing so he did it again several times. by the time he hit time number 10 or so, i realized that i really shouldn't be laughing because that was only encouraging him. wonder how long he'll go before he breaks a bone...

he slept through the night last night for the first time in several nights. two nights ago he woke up at about 1:30 hacking and coughing (due to nasal drainage...he's got that start-of-school cold right along with the rest of his class at daycare). he finally coughed so much that he threw up. we had to launder every bit of bedding, including the pillow and comforter. everything is clean and dry except for the comforter, which is currently finishing the drying process between two chairs spanning the living room and dining room.

i need sleep. the delete key has been my best friend tonight. off to bed with me.

getting better

owen went potty a total of four times on saturday. none on sunday (but we were at the fair most of the day so we didn't worry about it too much.) and three times today, i think. once first thing this morning (even with a full diaper!) and then twice at day care. he's pretty much transitioned up to the toddler room by now. that's a good thing. it's really where he needs to be for a multitude of reasons. i'm glad he's finally there. the coolest thing in my mind is that one of his teachers is the older sister of two of my favorite students. it's nice to have the family connection. the button on the book is still a favorite thing to push. usually he'll say, "button" when he wants to push it. i've pretty much learned to tune it out by now so it really doesn't bug me at all.

o started crying at 11:10 last night. i got up and went in to see what was up. he was. he was standing next to his bed in a small space. he managed to get himself mildly stuck between the bed, the wall, some sterilite tubs, and a wooden magazine rack we use for his books. once i got him unstuck (which just meant up onto his bed - he couldn't get that done by himself) and laid down with him for a few minutes, he was out for the rest of the night. i was out of bed for a total of about 20 minutes. i'm liking this bit. lately, it's taken no longer than about 30 minutes to get him back to sleep at night, if we even have to do it at all. i think having the big bed helps cause i can just climb in and snuggle with him until he falls asleep.

school is going well. the kids are learning so much already. my kinders can keep a great beat and follow direction all at the same time. it's quite cool. and so fun to watch. i made yet another small child cry today. same class as last time, but different kid. this one didn't want the red sticks either. she wanted blue. ugh. she ended up sitting out in a chair for most of the class time.

tomorrow is my first day off this year. i don't like taking a day off this close to the start of school, but it's a family funeral. jeffy's aunt died on thursday night. Lou Ann had been battling cancer for about a year. when they first found it, it was already everywhere (and i mean everywhere) and they didn't expect her to make the weekend. services are tomorrow morning at 10:30. it's too late in the morning for me to be able to take off just the morning (i'd have to be at school by 11:45 if i took a half day off and i can't make it back in time so i just took the whole day.) jeffy will be going to work, then leaving in time for the funeral, then heading back afterward. i'll just have some me time before and after. maybe i'll do some planning on my national boards. we'll see.

success...

so far. he's gone twice in the potty today. that's the most consistency we've had yet! he just loves pushing that darned button on his potty book. whatever works, right folks? and we're still on our second pair of underwear today! i guess he didn't quite finish this morning first thing so he managed to wet himself pretty quickly. i got him changed and all has been dry since!

all geared up

and ready to "go", i hope! owen is going to be in underwear (and vinyl pants) this weekend to see what happens in terms of potty training. we have 9 pair of training underwear, 3 pair of vinyl pants, a book that has a button with a flushing potty sound (the button is a hit with owen!) and cool foamy soap that comes out of a hippo's mouth (huggies clean team, i think) that he'll get to use when he goes potty. we'll see if we have to up the ante or sweeten the pot but i'm hoping that (1) keeping his underwear dry and (2) using the hippo soap will be incentive enough for him. we may have to resort to my parent's old stand-by: m's. the trick will be keeping those safe from him and daddy. maybe we'll find a cool depenser that only lets a small amount out.

anyway, he's continued to stay dry most of the day at day care and has even gone potty there once or twice. it's still tough with not knowing which room he'll be in, but when i talked with one of the directors, she said that we can send extra underwear and vinyl pants instead of pull-ups and they'll work with that. my aversion to pull-ups is that they don't let the child feel when they're wet. sure we'll be washing underwear like mad (too mad and we'll go back to diapers for the time being) but we won't have to keep buying the pull-ups. i'll keep you all posted on his progress.

the first full week of school is done. it was a good week. kids mostly behaving, classes going well. my prek/k classes can really sing this year! i have a hand full of truely tricky kids, but at least they're not all clumped together in one group! last year was a different story. it's a wonderful bunch of kids this year. cute stories from yesterday (yes, they all happened yesterday) include a little boy who came in, and proceded to start undressing himself, shoes and socks first. then he started in on his shirt, and by that time i had caught him and told him to put everything back on. he eventually ended up being my partner during the beat activity we were doing with rhythm sticks. in another class, one of my little boys totally melted down because he got the wrong color of rhythm sticks. (he got red, he wanted blue.) now usually i can talk with the kids and they'll be ok with it. not this little boy. i eventually told him that if he couldn't accept the red sticks and maybe get a different color another day, that he couldn't do the activity with us. the para that is in that class for another student ended up taking the first student back to the room where he went right to the cool-down area and told his problems to the stuffed penguin that is there. when the para returned, she mentioned that as she was walking under my window (their class is in a portable on the playground, which my room overlooks) on her way back, not only could she hear everyone using the rhythm sticks, but she could hear the beat being kept with them also! yay!!!!

we went to the homecoming game at jeff's h.s. last night. the district had closed the building a couple of years ago and sent the entire staff and student body to another site in the district while they re-did the inside of the building and added some more space. this is the first year back in the building. we're going for a tour later this morning, maybe with some friends. after that, it's offto grandma's!

owen's aunt sheena and uncle nick are moving this week from up-state new york to our city. yay! it will be really nice to have them nearby. nick is a teacher so i'm going to try to help him with finding something in my district, even if it's for subbing.

when we went to the fair last weekend, owen whinnied his way through the 4-H horse barns. it was hilarious! he even went potty in the big potty at the fair. we're going back tomorrow with katie, rob, and peter i think. we went to the rodeo last weekend, too. owen liked that. he'll do the mutton bustin' in a year or two (kids are set on a sheep and try too hold on for 6 seconds as the sheep bolts across the arena toward other sheep standing in the middle. the kids they had doing it during the rodeo last week were really funny and cute when they were being interviewed.

pictures!

Here are some pictures, just as I promised.

The first couple are of our little man reading, a favorite pasttime for him. He's not wearing any pants to make trying the potty easier for me. Too bad he didn't get that bit...

Can you tell he's not the least bit camera-shy?

Again, he's reading. I sing the words to this book to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle. Before I took these pictures, I could hear him singing away as he was reading. I even heard a few words I didn't know he knew ("see" is one that comes to mind).

I just love the look on his face in this one.




A boy and his bed. It's a beautiful thing. Too bad he doesn't realize that right now and go take a nap. He's been playing for at least the last hour, despite my poking my head in there several times and telling him to go to sleep. I've even physicall put him in his bed at least three times this afternoon. On another note, aren't the sheets and comforter cute?!




A wider view of his bed. It has been moved over to your right by about a foot so as to make it a little harder for him to work the lightswitch. He can still manage to reach it, however. The safety rails have a latch at each end so they can swing down quite easily and automatically catch and lock when they are raised. It makes changing diapers on the bed much easier. Yesterday morning, I found him laying cross-wise in his bed, head to your right, feet toward the left, between the rails

dry spell

in more than one way. i realized it's been two weeks since i've posted last so here is all that has happened in the last two weeks:

owen has his big boy bed in his room. he's pretty good about staying on it when it's time to be sleeping, even if he's not sleeping. he has cool car-and-truck sheets. i'll post pictures a little later.

separation anxiety is hitting for really the first time. owen loves his mama. that's a good thing. the other good thing is that at day care, he knows i'm going to leave, but he also knows that he has to stay. the way i look at things, he doesn't have to like it, but he does have to cope with it. he's coping. it helped yestereday when we got there earlier than normal (i have different hours depending on the day of the week this year) and the wiggles was on. he made a bee-line for that and was good.

owen should start transitioning up to the toddler room at day care starting on monday. this was helped along partly by the fact that he (1) woke up dry yesterday morning, (2) went on the potty yesterday morning, and (3) stayed dry most of the day yesterday but didn't go potty in the potty a second time. we're working on it. (this excitement sure beats the excitement we had on the first friday of school last year - a dead body on the sidewalk in front of the school in the morning.)

school is going well so far. i've seen all but two of my classes so far. these kids are really mine now. i'm finding i'm the most comfortable with my upper el classes that i have ever been. when i started teaching, that age group (4th and 5th grades) was my least comfortable. now, i've had these kids their entire school career so they really don't know any different. my rules haven't changed at all and they know me and my routines. it's really nice. i have even taken on a middle school class this year. i have them at 8:00 on monday and friday mornings. since i start teaching at the beginning of the elementary school teacher's day, i show up at 7:30 instead of 8:00 and get to leave at 3:00 instead of 3:30. i felt like i was playing hooky yesterday when i left as the elementary kids were getting loaded onto buses. i'll get used to it. my middle school class is going to be great, i think. this is the first year i've really felt comfortable having a middle school class. it is also the only situation in which i would take on middle schoolers, seeing as i've raised most of them since 1st grade. they came in so quietly yesterday, found their seats (i let them choose their assigned seat instead of me assigning them like i usually do.) there were some good questions about the course as i was describing it. and a collective moan when i announced the first quiz, which i gave yesterday. once i explained what was on the quiz, they were relieved. one kid even made the comment about how i can't do that on the first day. they have the weekend to finish it up and we'll discuss it on monday. basically, i'm just finding out what they know (or think they know) about music, how and why it changes, the different genres of music, and what composer names they might know.

jeffy is working the fair today. joy. don't have a clue when he'll be home, but it will be after owen goes to bed. we were thinking about going to the zoo, but it's too late to go, get everything in, and be home at a decent time for a nap. i'm a bit overwhelmed currently, and i think that probably has somethign to do with needing to recover from the week and having to run after a very busy almost 2-year-old all day long. anyone want to come over and help? i need it!

all for now. maybe i'll get pictures posted while he's napping. or maybe it will wait until after the fair tomorrow. we have rodeo tickets. i'm excited! i love the fair. owen will even be able to go on the rides this year (the minimum age is two, but he's close enough and definately passes for two.)