overhaulin'

that was the theme in my room this week. the AP at my school approached me mid-week about the clutter and offered to help me get organized. i said, "sure!" and she came in on thursday morning after choir. we started getting shelves unloaded (not all, just some) and organized as we cleaned. that's my cleaning/organizing method of choice - make a bigger, central mess and organize as that huge pile gets cleaned up. then, the principal came in to help also. she started a list on my board of things to get that will help with the organization and make it look more like a montessori music classroom. i like that idea! i'm very grateful for the help i got this week. i really wouldn't have had the first idea where to start. i'll post pictures when it's all done.

owen is very much a two-year old. he's currently whining because daddy left to go mow the lawn at the tree lot. in a couple of hours, o and i will be meeting some friends at the waterfront to go walk. faye and i are being eachother's buddy for losing our baby weight. yes, i am still carrying mine. i'm not happy about it, either.

pt is still going. no major success right now. he's really in charge of this. one of the funny thigns from this past week was at bed time earlier in the week. i told him, "owen, go potty!" he looked at me and said, "no!" . I said, "excuse me?" to which he replied, "time out?" i agreed that that was a good idea so to time out we went. he sat nicely, for the most part, in the chair. when the timer went off, i let him know that he was in time out for backtalking mommy.

right now, the whining has stopped and o has on his captain's hat (wiggles) and has a drumstick and is pretending to be captain feathersword. it's really cute to see him pretending. what a big boy!!!

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!)

Before the show started

(above) Wake up Jeff! (purple)

Sam is in yellow.

(left)
Owen is in the red shirt with white sleeves. The wiggles shown are Murray (red) and Anthony (blue).

Pop Go the Wiggles - Live!

tonight was the night. we went to the wiggles concert. owen loved it! he was transfixed half the time and dancing the other half. we ended up being just six rows from the stage (thank you, uncle scott!) the only thing missing was our friends, katie, rob and peter. peter won't miss out completely, though ;-) pictures are downloading to my computer as i type. i'll get them posted in a minute.

those guys have such fun in their work. anthony (the blue wiggle) must be near 40 and he is really about 6 at heart. he and captain feathersword play off of eachother so much. it's hilarious to watch.

the other funny thing to watch was all of the parents have fun right along with their kids. the wiggles make sure to put things into their programs specifically for the parents. tonight it was a bit from the song "my sharona" and they also made some beatles references. i don't know if enjoying the wiggles is a guilty pleasure or not. i don't even care!

i thought ahead before we left and put the latest wiggles dvd in the diaper bag and a sharpie in my pocket. the plan was to see if i could get one of the wiggles to sign the cover at the end of the concert. mission accomplished. murray (red wiggle, owen's favorite, i think) did. it says, "hi owen! murray w." how very cool.

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.

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!

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.

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.