Seeing the doctor 3 times in a week

this past tuesday, as we were getting ready to pack up the car to go to the washington coast for a few days with friends, owen tipped over in a chair in our living room and cracked open his head. we rushed to the ED where he was the recipient of a staple in his head. the trip continued as planned. today, when we woke up, i though his left ear felt wet. sure enough, there has been fluid draining (flowing may be a better term) from the poor kid's ear so off to the doctor we went (once we got home from the coast, that is - luckily we were planning on coming home today anyway). it's an ear infection. we're on antibiotics for the next 10 days. this coming tuesday we go back to the pediatrician to have her take out the staple. now, i was hoping to have the chance to say good-bye to her before she moves to another office that is too far for us to trek to (the current office is a matter of blocks from school, very convenient). having a staple removed was certainly not what i had in mind.

the trip to the coast was a blast. three moms, three times as many kids ranging in age from 2 - 15. we made s'mores, some of them camped in the yard (owen and i stayed in the warm bed in the house), did some geocaching, went to the goonies house (yes, that one!), and generally had a great time. one of my favorite mom moments was once the kids were all in bed, the three of us climbed into the hot tub and talked for several hours.

i was so proud of owen the other day. we were driving home (on the trip, not home to our house) and he told me he had to go potty. i told him to hang on, we'd be back to the house soon. he was doing the potty dance the best he could in his car seat - and was pretty desperate for the bathroom, too. he was nearly crying. i was almost expecting that he'd not make it. he surprised me and was able to wait until we got back the house! i was so proud of him!!!!!!

Done!!!! And I mean completely done!

my suspicion was correct a month ago. we are totally done with pull-ups. the week before we went to denver for my mom's wedding, owen was dry every night. it was perfect timing, actually, because he ended up with a horribly itchy rash on his bum just in time to get out of pull-ups. he's had one accident in the last month.

we're having a blast this summer. zoo outings, swimming in the back yard, playing with friends, bowling (holy cow does owen love that!), trips to the library, geocaching (we call it treasure hunting so the boys get into it - just like pirates!) my favorite part has been watching his growth in learning. we are reading books together now, not just mommy reading to owen. i'm so amazingly proud of him.

i can't believe that school starts for owen in just over a month. real school. he has a backpack (cars...what else!?) and we still need to finish up his list, though we're waiting until target has the rest of his supplies on sale.

woo hoo!!!!

owen is done with daycare. his last day was yesterday. we bought his teacher a cup from starbucks that you can create your own insert for and he colored the insert. she loved it. he will start at my school in the fall. i can't believe he's that big already!

today we went to our local children's museum with our friends. our library system has free passes to the children's museum that we can check out. it was nice. owen and brendan ran themselves ragged. hopefully o will sleep early and well tonight.

hopefully i'm not jinxing anything by saying this, but owen has been either dry or mostly dry most nights for the last week or so. can it be that we are just about finally done with potty training? yay!!!!

Bowling

owen bowled for the first time today. he had a fun time. he figured it out pretty quickly. i have a couple of pictures and a video, which will be uploaded this weekend. the bumper was his friend. i'd be lying if i said i didn't use the bumpers to my advantage. we used our kids bowl free coupons for the first time today. loved it! best thing i decided to do in a while!

Zoo trip and other bits of excitement

yesterday we met some friends at the zoo. we totally timed it right both for the weather and the crowds. mckinley and kian are students of mine at school and their mom kim and i have become friends over the years. we took the opportunity to say good-bye to beethoven the beluga whale before he moves to texas to have companionship and become part of a breeding program. he's leaving early next month. they're putting california sea lions in that enclosure...joy...after we left the zoo, we took the kids to cold stone. it was a very fun day

this morning, we were sittintg on the couch reading the paper when a very bold squirrel decided to take a tour. max's hunting instincts kicked in, but luckily the squirrel managed to escape through the back door fully intact. the squirrel went through the living room, into the dining room, and into our bedroom. finally, he escaped to the kitchen (as i was on the phone with my mom asking how to get a squirrel out of the house). i herded him onto the back porch where i closed us in and opened the back door. he escaped to the back yard. i bet he's telling his buddies, "dudes, whatever you do, *don't* go in there. there's a monster!"

We're in trouble!

but it's the good kind. owen counted to 100 with minimal help the other night. all i had to do was give him the terms for the 10s starting with 70. he did the rest. i sat there in amazement watching and listening to him. he can also recognize numbers well into the 50s or 60s.

last week i did two things i've been counting down to: paid my last full-month's tuition to daycare and paid off o's last month of preschool for next year. now the waiting game begins to find out what class he'll be in in the fall. i hope i don't have to wait until fall to find out! i'm also really curious if he's going to be in class with his buddy brendan. time will tell.

i got to daycare this evening to pick him up and he runs to me, stopping at the end of the counter to grab the presents he made for me and said, "mommy! i have presents for you, mommy! here you go!" he was totally unprompted and it was so sweet. i was a little teary-eyed. what a marvelous child.

i think he's going through a growth spurt right now. he's getting up what seems to be every-other night and whining and ending up in bed with us. at least his rotation made it so that i got a full night's sleep on tuesday, which was good seeing as i had a 7:00 a.m. meeting on wednesday and it was imperative that i get up with my alarm on wednesday.

as for food, he's getting so good at trying new things. this week it was stroganoff for dinner one night. he's also eaten (and loved) shrimp scampi as well as pineapple chicken from the local vietnamese restaurant (including the rice). we need to get him some of those kids chopsticks that are attached at the top since he was trying to use mine.

call him georgie

as in georgie porgie...yesterday we were at amanda's house for a gathering to remember bretta, a friend of jeff's from high school who was murdered by her step-father a few weeks ago. owen was running around and playing with the other kids while the adults were talking. he was coming inside and pulling out random women to to push him on the swing. just took thier hand and dragged them out. later in the evening, he fell the foot and a half off of the steps and landed on his rear. i picked him up and held him for a little bit. then, he reached for audrianna (amanda's daughter) and wanted to get a hug from her. when he hugged her, she started bawling. amanda and i just started howling with laughter. where's the video camera when you need one? if only we could rewind time and bring it with us to the door to catch that...

swimming lessons yesterday went so well. he's a total fish. he let the teacher hold him while he floated on his back. he did chicken-airplane-soldier with her, too. it took him most of last session to get to do this. yay! when i picked up his report card from last session, it said he should move up to super pike. we'll do that next time (i registered him for another session of pike).

a breath of fresh air

owen was his normal, helpful, cooperative little boy today. yay! he woke up in a different mood this morning. i missed my little boy the last two days.

as for the bath tablets, i think what happened is that the drain cover got knocked off and the tablets dissolved and the color just went down the drain. owen's hands were the normal color today. that's all i can think of.

owen requested a new food today as we were packing for the zoo: string cheese. yahoo!!!! he gobbled it down.

Is Super Nanny coming?

today i totally feel like i could be one of those moms on the super nanny shows who have kids who are totally out of control. owen has been driving me nuts today. he's spent the entire day basically being the gingerbread boy...you know: run, run, as fast as you can. you can't catch me, i'm OWEN. before i had the chance to put the lid back on his meds for his ear infection, he grabbed the bottle and started drinking right from it...after i gave him his proper does. he's been totally defiant today. i still don't know where the two colored tablets that we put in the bathtub went. instead of helping put his laundry away, which he usually does very willingly, he was playing around in the hamper and in the wicker basket. he was also climbing on his bed, jumping in the clean clothes i was attempting to fold. he refused to sit on the potty so i closed him in the bathroom and took care of the garbage can outside. by the time i came back in, he had pooped and was ready to get in his jammies. now he's in his room for the night.

oh, yesterday was jeff's birthday and he was playing around with the tablecloth on the table before dinner. i asked him multiple times to *not* pull on it. well, silly me, i put my wine glass on the table cloth and went into the kitchen to take care of some things. he pulled the tablecloth off of the table...red wine and all.

this is why i am not a stay-at-home mom. he does so much better when he goes to school during the day.

"It hurts, Mommy!"

that's what owen told me yesterday, while pointing to his right ear. so, we're going to the doctor today. when i ask him if his left ear hurts, he tells me it doesn't. good news is that he can verbalize that now. the other good news is that this is the first ear infection we've had in over a year, and we made it through the winter without tubes. i'm quite relieved. hopefully this will respond to meds. we'll also have to make an appointment with the ent - he said he wanted us to come in if we had another infection. i hope we can do that next week when i'm on spring break. today will likely be spent on the couch, watching movies, etc. lilo and stitch is on right now, until it's time to go to the doctor.

oh, and there's finally movement on getting my car taken care of after the bus hit it at the beginning of february. their adjuster is coming out today to look at my car since they didn't like the total we got from the body shop here (there was a dent that was pre-existing, but it's right where my car got hit and the body shop we went to said they wouldn't guarantee their work unless they fixed it). i'll present them with our estimate anyway.

I want to crawl under a rock

I found out today that yet another tragedy has struck people I know. This time, a girl Jeff went to high school with was attacked by her step-father with an axe and she died later in the hospital. The step-father killed her mother before he attacked Bretta. I am totally in shock. I met her a couple of times at the place were Jeff and I met. They're doing a thing for her on Saturday night so we're going there for dinner before we go to the PBR.

This is just the latest in a long line of cruddy things that have affected either me or people I know and care about starting in August of last year, and the third thing since 2009 started.

move!

that's what i said to owen the other night as i was laying on the couch, nursing a headache. he did. but only his hips and they went from side to side. what a turkey!

updates

it's been a while, i suspect.  owen and i are in our last parent/child swimming lesson ever tomorrow morning!  yay!!!!

it's been a stressful week at my school.  on wednesday, we learned that two of our students were involuntarily involved in a standoff with police (held hostage by their father) the night before.  their father ultimately ended up taking his own life.  it is such a sad situation.  the girls are physically unharmed.

today i get a phone call from the office at 8:10 or so letting me know that one of our paras just came in and said that my car had been hit by the school bus.  luckily, the damage is minimal and the car is totally drivable.  

ugh.

watching wheel

owen and i are watching wheel of fortune right now. he's loving the letter bit and is telling me how many of whichever letter is in the puzzle.

i found out today that kindergarten (and prek at my school) registration begins march 2. i can't wait to get owen registered for prek at my school. it's going to be such a good thing for him. he needs the academics that will be offered instead of just the daycare environment. i love his daycare this year. his teacher is wonderful. she's teaching the kids spanish (she's from mexico) and owen is just gobbling it up. according to her, when it's somethign he already knows (like the alphabet or colors or counting), he's bored. when it's something new or challenging, like words in spanish, he's totally attentive. montessori will be great for him. the more i see, the more logical i find it really is.

i stepped on the scale last week and i'm no longer in my desired range. i'm below my desired range by 5 lbs. i guess that'll be my new range, huh? i'm considering them bonus lbs. i actually match my driver's license!!!!! this meanst that from my heaviest (i sneaked up to 180 at one point), i've lost a total of 50 lbs. i feel great and love it! if i keep it up and am where i am now when i get pregnant again, i'll end my pregnancy between 5 and 15 lbs. above where i was when i got pregnant with owen. that will be so cool! the only thing that i hope to change between now and then is adjusting my curves...though i've earned them so i may let them stay. we'll see.

today was the first of two programs put on my by upper el kids (4th and 5th graders). we've been workign on recorders and they all (all 87 of them) learned how to read music. they were amazing. it was the first time they all played together and have never done better. my principal was totally amazed that all of them were reading the music. they had a blast, especially with the last song, during which i was dancing on my podium (three aerobic steps stacked on eachother).

GOAL!!!!!!

i did it! i made the first part of my weight-loss goal. i stepped on the scale earlier this week and found that i have lost (drum roll please!) 35 lbs. since i started this venture in june. not only is my baby weight gone (from both pregnancies), but so is mos of my newlywed weight. in 5 more pounds, i'll be at the bottom of my desired range. if if can go between what i weigh now and 5 lbs less, i'm one happy mama. i've been getting into clothes lately that i haven't been able to wear in years and years.

i went to the y yesterday morning and was on the bike for an hour. it helps that we meet the fam there at 8:30 and owen has swimming lessons at 10. makes me spend more time on the equipment. :-)

Reconnecting

today was spent with two friends from high school, neither of whom i've seen since basically we graduated.  it was like the last 13 years didn't happen.  we picked up right where we left off.  ani lives in seattle and enyinne currently lives in pittsburgh but is applying to residency programs here.  she could be as close as seattle and as far away as portland (2 hours from me).  in high school, we talked about living next door to each other.  that may be more of a reality than i ever though.  maybe not next door neighbors, but certainly close enough that girl's weekends will be possible.  she will know three people in the area (four including her guy who has already matched at the uw).  by extension, all of our friends could be her friends as well.  we went to lunch on the water, then i took the two of them for a tour around my city.  new inside jokes were made.  they both fell in love with owen immediately.  who can blame them?

as we were starting our tour, ani noticed a few snow flakes.  by the time we got back to my house, it was a little more regular.  now we are getting close to an inch (i'm guessing).  it's all over the roads, sidewalks, streets, parked cars...  i'm hoping for only a 2 hour delay tomorrow, not another day off.  

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!