clarity

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

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

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

trip and counting

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

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

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

Anniversary

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

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

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

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

Spring Break

it's almost over, but it's been great. last weekend my mom was here. we had a good time. i tried on bridesmaid dresses for my sister's wedding in september. when i told jeff that i am going to be my sister's matron of honor, he said, "aren't you a little young to be a matron?" i had to explain that matron vs. maid had nothing to do with age and everything to do with marital status. so cute!

monday was spent getting my Box ready to go out the door for national boards. (check out my other blog here to read about that process.) tuesday was spent relaxing, wednesday held two appointments for me, thursday was another appointment and the zoo with friends. it was a gorgeous day. perfect zoo-going weather. on our way out of the zoo, my friend rob called to tell me that his wife, one of my best friends, had their baby that afternoon. carlie was five days late, but she is beautiful. see pictures at this link. peter, carlie's big brother, is good buddies with owen. he'll probably be coming over on wednesday mornings for a couple of hours this summer while mommy and baby sister go to mommy group at the hospital. owen and i went to see carlie and katie yesterday after his one-year check-up for his ear tubes - left one is no longer functioning, right one still is, but is well on its way out. both are still in, though the left one is really tipped, which is completely normal. we go back in in october for one more follow-up. things are looking good in that arena at this point. owen made his mommy so proud yesterday. one of the receptionists gave him a sticker as i was filling out a card to remind me to call in 6 months. immediately, and without prompting, he said, "thanks!" as he took the sticker from her. yay!!!!! i have a polite little boy! he was so good about using his manners yesterday.

once we got back from the hospital and seeing katie, rob, peter and carlie, our family went to seattle for the day. owen did beautifully, as usual. he fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we took the lo-o-o-ong way home. turned a 25 minute drive into close to 90 minutes. he got a good nap so it was worth it.

today we are having breakfast with a friend of mine from college. i haven't seen her since i was first pregnant with jacob. that makes it close to four years ago. wow. we'll get out the door in a little over an hour. o's still sleeping, which is fine. he had noodles with pasta sauce last night for dinner. first time for plain noodles with sauce at home. :-) slowly but surely we are getting past those food issues. at least we have a standard fare we can get him at restaurants.

yesterday, owen sang through the entire "monkey dance" song - and he did it perfectly! he is also very good at singing his abc's. i tried to get the monkey dance on video, but he was done and distracted by the time i got the video camera plugged in. oh, and his new favorite word is "ok". yesterday afternoon it was, "monkey? ok!" and he'd sing. ("monkey dance" is from the wiggles. gotta love those guys!)

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.

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.

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...

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!

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!!!!!

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.

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 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.