My big boy!

You will notice that my big boy is not sleeping in his crib. Last night, he decided that he didn't want to do that any more. I put him down at 8ish like usual and by 9:45, he was crying and screaming. I went into his room and he handed me his jammie bottoms, teddy bear and blanket, then reached up for me. I took him out, and started rocking him. He started playing around a little bit so I tried putting him back in his crib. He didn't like that one bit. Next, we went into the living room where I turned on the TV to try to get him to sleep that way. That didn't work so I went into his room with a pillow case to put on the pillow in there and took the mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor. I then brought him into his room and he laid down right on the mattress. He played for a few minutes, but basically went right to sleep. He woke up sometime after 7:00 this morning and was playing happily while I came too. I was a little worried about him going down for his nap in terms of playing, but he again played for only a couple of minutes and went to sleep, as you can see. I guess he's ready for the big boy bed, huh? I don't know if we're going to get the mattress, box spring, and sheet set this weekend or if it will wait a little bit. At the bare minimum, the crib is being taken apart this weekend so we can have the space usable again. We already have the bed itself, it's the one jeffy's brother slept on and jeffy had the same style bed as a little boy. Pretty cool, if you ask me. We're considering painting the bed. I'm guessing that won't happen, though. At least not any time soon.

a sentence?

i think we had our first four-word sentence tonight. owen was putting his bucket hat on his head and i asked him what was on his head. he pointed to it and said, "this is a hat". he is getting to be such a big boy! i'm amazed to tears, and so incredibly proud of him. last night we were reading "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" and when we got to the white dog page, i said, "white" and owen said "white dog". i know he was mimicking the word white, but he still said it!

we went to a car wash today - a local company was doing free car washes to help celebrate their 50th anniversary so we went. it was one of those where you get on a conveyer belt. that made it so i could watch owen the whole time. when the soap started hitting the windshield, his eyes got as big as saucers. i'm not sure he knew exactly what to think of it. at one point, it looked like he was about to cry from fear. (he didn't though!) now my car is nice and shiny clean. it needed it, too. desperately.

update on the zoo thing

i had a message from the p.r. director at the zoo today telling me that we will be getting the top zoo membership as part of our prize package. she also gave me the phone number of the lady in charge of the zoo society. i called her and left a message just to confirm what the first message said. she called me back and we might be getting our card fairly soon and it will be good until february of 2009, one year from when our current membership runs out (i think). i'm excited about it! we can take three guests every time we go to the zoo.

two new words today: hat and another one that i can't remember... that makes three or four new words in the last couple of days. begin vocabulary explosion now! it's so cool to witness.

a reason why and a lesson learned

we now know why my mom won the naming contest at the zoo. today i got a phone call from her cousin beverly trying to get a hold of my mom to let her know that my great-aunt passed away last night. beverly was trying to find my mom's phone number but couldn't since she only uses her cell. beverly lives just one city over and saw the article in the paper last week. since that article had my last name in it, she was able to find me and my phone number and therefore get a hold of my mom. it's amazing how things work out. if mom hadn't won, beverly would never have been able to find me to get my mom's phone number and we wouldn't have known about my great-aunt's passing. we're going to get together with beverly in october when mom's here for owen's birthday.

now for the lesson: NEVER try to use a cookie sheet to make jello jigglers. use a cake pan instead. i ended up with (red -what other color would it be!) jello all over the kitchen. literally. it was all over the counter and the floor, in drawers and cabinets, as well as on the doors to the drawers and cabinets. once i got the mess cleaned up, (and formula 409 works beautifully for getting red off of countertops and floors) i tried again, this time using a cake pan. i still managed a small spill, but it was very small, just one little sploosh as the liquid was moving while i was putting it in the fridge. owen loves jigglers, and i'm having a hard time getting him to understand that he needs to wait until play group today to have more.

owen's doctor

i just found out where she is going: children's hospital in seattle. wonderful hospital, excellent reputation. it's a great move for her. we'll be sad to lose her, but at the same time, we're really happy for her. too bad seattle isn't closer...

ballgame kudos

we went to the mariners game today and it was great fun, as usual. we also took the train up and back, as usual this summer. the m's beat the chi sox 11-5 and swept the series. :-) the train coming back was slightly delayed. here is where the kudos come in. it was standing room only and one passenger in our car collapsed before we left the station. he had a heart attack. luckily, there was a first aid kit, an automatic defibrilator, and sounder (the train) personnel right there. the man had flatlined, but was brought back. the sounder people, seattle fire department, and a couple of passengers did a wonderful job. the man is very lucky to be alive. it was really scary to witness, and i'm glad he came through this part.

moh wa-wa bee!

ok, so the last word wasn't said, it was signed and only after i asked for it. but, that's not the point. the point is that owen walked up to me this morning with his sippy cup asking for more water. i said, "more water please?" and he then signed "please" while asking for more water. then he signed a prompted "thank you" as he was walking away (back to me). what a big boy! i love that he is actually becoming easy to understand. you don't always necessarily have to understand owenese to get what he's saying. language acquisition is an amazing thing. i've never had the chance to see it day in and day out and been able to just marvel at what is being said.

tonight i took out some flash cards and was seeing which words he knew. i'd show him a card, ask him, "owen, what's that?" his reply, "that max!" or "that ball". absolutely amazing. he's picked this weekend to start creating two-word sentences. he's right on schedule for that skill. :-)

new words: max (the cat), how ya doin'? (how do?), hot dog, hi there!, that

ride 'em cowboy!

owen is having a blast on his rocking horse right now. he got it from santa at christmas time and the ears have buttons in them that make the horse clip-clop and whinney, and makes the head and tail move. he knows how to work the ears. every time the sounds stop, he looks at me and says, "did it!" he's also discovered that if he pushes one ear while sounds are going, it will stop the sounds. i didn't even know that would happen. sort of an on-off toggle, i guess. if only i had thought to put him in his cowboy hat....

i had a really long night. i woke up sometime in the 1:00 hour and didn't get back to sleep until sometime in the 5:00 hour. owen woke up at his usual 6:30. when i got him out of bed, he was asking me for something because he said something, pointing, then signed and said, "please?" i didn't understand him, unfortunately. he's playing on his own right now, which is good.

i'm trying to decide whether or not to go into school for a little bit today. it'll be really hot in my room (not warm - HOT) as i get the morning sun beating in off of the blacktop and i have a full bank of windows from the top of my counters to the ceiling and from wall to wall. i also have three skylights. it makes it really nice in the spring and early fall as i don't have to turn on my overhead lights. the biggest trick on the warm days is to open both the top and bottom windows (three of each for a total of six) as soon as i walk in, and then turn on my fans. that generally does a pretty good job of keeping things cool, along with drawing the blinds down to physically block out the sun.

pictures with coco

so here's the story of getting the pictures yesterday.

we finally get down to the exhibit at close to 3:00. owen is starting to get tired but coco is right up against the glass. wendy, who works in marketing at the zoo, takes the first picture of us with coco against the glass.

after this picture was taken, the two keepers from that area of the zoo came and took my camera and went into the enclosure. the man had my camera, the lady had a shovel. anoa are quite aggressive, as we got to see because as soon as the next picture was taken, baby bean (the mama) got up and charged the two keepers. that's what the shovel was for, to head off any ramming by mama.

after this near-ramming, the male keeper went up on a rock bridge that is over the enclosure, while the lady came out on our side of the enclosure with a bamboo branch to entice baby bean to come near the glass. where baby bean went, coco bean was sure to follow. we got a few more pictures of them, some with us, some without.

in the above picture, if you look really closely, you can see that coco bean is starting to sprout her horns.

in these two, she's peeking out from behind her mama.

roller coaster day

what an interesting day this has been in terms of news. first the official announcement about coco, then i get a call from a friend to tell me that our pediatrician is moving in mid-september (WAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!) and then i get a phone call from my s-i-l in ny saying she got a job in seattle and they'll be moving out here next month. oh, and i've been battling a migrane all afternoon, but owen helped by taking a very long nap today so mama could rest on the couch.

jeffy still doesn't know about the zoo thing. i'm going to make him read about it in the paper tomorrow. if it's not there, i'll show him the press release i've printed up from the zoo's website.

her name is coco

the press release is out so now i can share the news. our local zoo has a new lowland anoa (from asia, a species of water buffalo) who was born in early July. she is very cute. we managed to coincidentally be at the zoo the first day she was on exhibit. the zoo did a "name the baby" contest, asking people to write in and suggest names. i did that, using the name that the zoo keepers all liked and were lobbying for, and had my mom, who lives in denver, do the same thing. yesterday, they assigned a number to everyone who suggested either coco or cocoa and then had someone pick a number to determine the winner. they picked my mom's number! she called me and told me that i should be getting something from the zoo because she won. i was totally amazed. the prizes for winning are a family membership, lunch for four at the zoo cafe, and a prize pack from the gift shop.

go to http://www.pdza.org/ to see coco and read the press release. we're going to the zoo with friends on monday so i'll be sure to get pictures (if possible) with me and owen up next to the glass with coco. i'll post those when i get them.

Coming soon...

to a blog near you. Some really cool news, which is also slightly humorous when you think about it! Be checking back in the next day or so. It has to be official before I can spill the beans. :-)

cheese!

we went to playgroup today and owen tried a little bit of cheese. he tasted it, then gave it back to me. the big thing, though, is that he tried it. something he's never done before. admittedly, cheese has a bit of a strange taste on its own. eventually, he'll decide he likes it not in or on anything. gotta love the babybel mini wheels!

the big deal at playgroup this morning was the brand new baby that was there. hayden was born early last week. all of us mommies were making huge efforts at showing our little ones the baby. i am one of two moms in the group who is not currently pregnant or who does not already have two children. we're not even going there for another year, but i still want owen to start getting a frame of reference for when i do get pregnant. the silliest thing owen did was call hayden "isabella". guess he thinks that any little baby is called "isabella". funny how his little mind works. he may get really confused when his next cousin comes in december.

the little bugger was up at 3:50 this a.m. jumping and chattering in his crib. that lasted about an hour, and then jeffy's alarm went off at 5 and again at 6 (i hate it when he does that!) so i really didn't start to get back to sleep until after 6. then owen was up shortly after 7. i let him play in his crib until after 8 because i just couldn't bring myself to haul my sorry you-know-what out of my nice comfy bed. exhaustion is a bad thing when you have a child as active as mine is. at least it's daddy's night to put him down. i may hand over the reins as soon as daddy comes in the door tonight, which might just be at bedtime the way things have been going with his work schedule the last couple of weeks (113 hours over the previous two weeks, 12 hours in yesterday.) i'd be napping along with owen right now, but i have a violin lesson coming in about 30 minutes so what's the point? maybe i'll just lay down on the couch and rest until my lesson comes.

not a fluke!!!!!

we had lunch with my m-i-l today. owen had chicken strips! of course, they had to have ketchup and had to be eaten with a fork, but we can live with those stipulations! lol. we can now take owen to just about any restaurant and order off of the menu for him. at thips point, the only kind of food we might not be able to order for him would be asian. we'll test that later on. we have a favorite local vietnamese place.

we came home and i asked him to go into his room for his nap. he went right there, and straight to his crib. what a good boy! he'll nap for about three hours.

my toe is now a very pretty purple, but i'm moving much better today. it's wrapped (taped to the next toe over), which i think is actually helping me move fairly normally. :-)

i said something to owen the other day that i never dreamed i'd say: "owen, no pillow fights with the kitty." jeff just laughed. i've had several pillow fights with owen. guess he thought the kitty was a perfect sparing partner. it really was a funny thing to say to owen.

YEEOUCH!!!!!

that's about what i said this morning when i split my toes on my left foot between the pinky and ring toes. pinky's broken, i suspect. it hurts like heck when i move it. thank goodness for the crutches i have from when i sprained my ankle three years ago.

jeffy didn't get home until 10 last night. before he left today, he said he'd hopefully be getting home earlier than that tonight. it won't take much. he knows that i need some help. i called him to ask him to bring me home tape so i can tape my toes together. i really hope he gets home in time for dinner tonight. owen didn't see his daddy at all yesterday. that makes it from monday night until jeffy got owen up this a.m. that he didn't see his daddy.

lunch today was with a friend and her 3 year old son and 2 week old daughter. we went to red robin and i looked at the kids menu and suddenly realized that we went from one or two options to five options for owen to eat. it's so freeing! he had the corn dogs and fries and actually ate most of his corn dogs! yay! i'm almost hesitant to say anything, but i think we may be over that hill!

new word today - shoe, as he handed my mine :-)

Chicken Nuggets!!!!!

Owen ate chicken nuggets at play group today! my friend katie brought them to go with lunch and i put a couple on owen's plate with some ketchup. he also had the pizza that was for lunch. i wonder if we're getting over the hump here with foods. he ate hot dogs on sunday and now chicken! i'm so excited!!!!!!!

dinner tonight was dillas. but there was a hitch. he wouldn't touch them until i brought out the salsa, and it's not even the mild salsa - it's medium!!!!! glad he has a taste for the spicier things. oh, did i mention the pretzels in salsa last week? glad that was his tummy and not mine.

be looking for a picture of owen with his cousins here in the next week or so.

peer pressure

we went to target today and there was a mom trying to get her two-year-old son into the cart. her son was protesting (as she put it, they were having a difference of opinion) and she was doing her best. oh, and she's also 6 months pregnant. i went over to hold the cart so she had a better chance of wrangling her son into the seat. we started talking and she told me that her son wanted to go to the grocery store and ride in the truck (on the back of the cart) there. she said i must have been quick to get owen in, i said he goes in very easily (which he does.) then, she used owen as an example and said to her son, "look at that big boy sitting in the cart. can you sit in the cart just like him?" her son said he could and flashed a big grin at us as he willingly went into the cart seat. peer pressure can be good (that was actually part of my motive for going over, to see if owen being in the cart could help get the other little boy in.) how nice to have my big boy be the good example! i hope he continues to do that in life!

It worked!!!

when we went to the pediatrician a couple of weeks ago, i asked her about owen's eating - namely how to get him to eat more variety. she suggested going on picnics and bringing new foods along. well, we did just that today. we had a picnic with most of jeffy's family and hot dogs were on the menu. guess what owen ate!? it wasn't pbj because i didn't even pack that. he ate nearly an entire hot dog. no bun. dipped in ketchup. yummy! he also had two kinds of fruit, some chips, and a little bit of cookie. good lunch, little one! the next test will be to see if he'll eat a hot dog at another time. hopefully, he will. maybe even corndogs...gotta get another box of the mini corn dogs next time we're at the store.

busy weekend

and it's just saturday night.

yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary. we left mr. o with the mother of one of my students from school (the student is also one of my private violin students), who told us what a good little boy we have. what a huge compliment! she has her daughter (7th grade this fall) and a son who will be in kindergarten in the fall, so she knows about boys. jeffy and i went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant on the water front. we've had a bit of a history with the building - the restaurant it was prior to this one is where jeffy asked my parents for their blessing before proposing to me in april of '01. he and i had a plan (i'd excuse myself to the restroom after we ordered and he'd ask...funny thing is that my mom almost went with me.) they of course gave their blessing and the rest, as they say, is history. anyway, back to the restaurant. one day, the people came to work and it was closed. for good. just a sign on the door. the property was sold and duke's chowder house came in. we went there as a family shortly after it opened and had some minor service issues (mainly, we never got our food). i wrote a letter to the owner, told him what had happened, also mentioning that our server was doing everything he could to get us our food, as was the manager. in addition, i made mention that there were no changing tables in the women's room. nowhere we could change our little ones aside from the floor in the handicapped stall. i suggested that if they wanted to continue welcoming families (there were several children there, and they have a kid's menu), that it would be a very good thing to have. long story short, i received a very positive reply from the owner, along with a coupon for two free meals. he also thanked me for the recommendation on the changing table. we've been back twice since then. last year, there was no changing table. last night, there was. :-) letter writing works! i feel so cool!!!!!

after we had dinner, we went minigolfing. we haven't done that in about two years. i seem to remember having to bend over in a rather funny way just to pick up my golf ball the last time we went...i won the first round, jeffy won the second round. he also beat me by 6 strokes overall when both games were combined. it was a really fun night. we need to do that more often. :-)

so today, we went to the mariner's game and had a blast. they won 4-3 over the Oakland A's. i got a couple of shots of the first baseman from our seats for a friend of mine. i think she'll like them...possibly his best side.... ;-) we tood the train up and our seats were 15 rows up from the field, a section or two into the outfield from first base. killer seats. won them at a silent auction last november.

tomorrow is a family picnic up toward mt. rainier. should be fun. and loud. our family gatherings always are. heck, when there's 18 in the immediate family (three generations), it's bound to be both of those things!

anyone wanna call this? (I already have)

i took owen's temp just before dinner and it was a little high, but not too bad. 99.5. coupled with his general crankiness, nasal-drainage induced cough, waking up (and going pretty much right back to sleep) in the middle of the night, clinging to mama, and change of appetite, i think i pretty much know what is going on. any guesses from all you there in lookoutworldhereicome land?

oh, and we have a new skill. attempted last night, perfected today. at olive garden. owen can now successfully (and rather quickly, i might add) remove his shirt. he did it last night after eating dinner, it took him a while, though. today at lunch with grandma, aunt sheena, aunt samara, cousin isabella, aunt michelle, cousin mikey, aunt cissy, and cousins kaitlyn and austin he managed to remove his shirt again. he did it yet again after he had his snack, then nearly immediately not once but twice after i put it back on. he did, however, try to get it back on.

we had a very busy morning. before going to lunch, we went to the waterfront for a walk. we made it nearly a half-mile farther today than we did last time. today it was a two mile walk! yay! we went for a walk around the neighborhood last night (well, owen did some walking and was carried some as well). then we went ot aunt samara's and then to lunch with the girls. we'll go to the zoo on friday with aunt sheena before she goes back to NY on monday. i'm trying to be good about getting exercise several times a week.

bath time. my poor guy just doesn't feel so well right now. :-(

animal sounds

we were reading a favorite book today - "moo baa la la la" by sandra boynton - and something brand new happened. i read the first part, owen did the corresponding animal sound. he didn't do a pig's propper sound, nor did he do the rhinos (snort and snuff), but he got everything else. that includes saying "bow wow wow" in the clearest i've ever heard it. add that to his rapidly expanding list of vocabulary. along with "hello!" very cool indeed.

at playgroup we had spaghetti. once i told asked him if he wanted to try spaghetti, he did the motion from the wiggles song. it took me a minute to realize what he was doing, but as usual he was right on! (he didn't eat the spaghetti by the way...no surprise there...)

i think we have a sitter set up for friday night, which is our fifth wedding anniversary. our friends katie and rob might be sitting for us. maybe even overnight, if they decide they are up for that. katie will call after she talks with rob. keep your fingers crossed!

molars?

i wonder if owen is starting to work on his two-year-old molars. he's been pretty fussy and crabby the last few days, also not to keen on eating a whole bunch of food. pbj is still good and a favorite, though pizza is a close second, and dillas are third. today for lunch, he ate about five bites of dilla, then threw the whole thing on the floor. i gave him some grapes just to get something in his tummy. he's still trying new foods! doesn't like most of them, but he's trying them! yesterday, aunt sheena even got him to eat a carrot stick. the cutest thing yesterday was when he was trying to give baby isabella her bottle, after she had finished it! oh, and he was up for two hours on sunday night as well as friday (i think) crying. i sure hope it's molars and we get them done before school starts in a month. after this, we're done until he's about 6 and then we'll be able to reason with him and explain why it's hurting so much and have him understand. this toddler teething thing is rough.

this morning we got up, owen got breakfast (nana and o's) and we went to the mall so mommy could get a cinnabon and a starbucks. (i know, i was really bad this morning. but, i don't usually get either of them so i don't feel too guilty. ). owen was greeting all of the mall walkers, even extending his hand so they could shake it. a few did. one lady remarked at what a nice young man he is. basically, he charmed the pants off of everyone he greeted. this of course between bites of mommy's cinnabon. after i ate, we went to the play area. we weren't there two minutes when he made his first run for it. this happened four times, after which i posted myself at the opening and ran interference. he told me he was done by bringing me his shoes and then leading me back to the stroller. on our way out, he was using his new word, "bye-bye!", complete with waving. very cute!

i made another attempt at cutting owen's hair last night. the first try since the "uh-oh! that's way too short!" several months ago. this time i used a longer attachment and it looks nice. i like the look in the back, and for summertime, this attachment is good for the top too. i think i'll make it longer for when it gets a bit cooler but this works for right now. the lesson learned last night, though, was this: strap him down when giving a hair cut. he was all over the bathroom while i was trying to cut his hair. trial and error, right?

pictures from our trip are coming. just waiting for permission from a couple of people to post pictures with them.

Pictures from our trip

Owen and Benjamin, the son of some friends of mine from high school, playing behind the manual scoreboard at Coors Field in Denver.

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With Daddy and Benjamin behind the manual scoreboard at Coors Field in Denver.

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A new way to get down the slide... :-)

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Another new way to go down the slide.

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On the swing at Gramma's apartment. O loved this! He even started trying to pump!

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What a cheese-ball! We're with my mom's friend Rallie. She's 90 and absolutely amazing!

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At Casa Bonita. The lighting was really bad. Sorry about that!

We're standing in front of the waterfall.

bunny kisses

i wonder how many times i've said that owen cracks me up in this blog. well, he does. constantly. yesterday there were two things. one was while we were reading one of his current favorite bedtime stories and i asked him to give (me) bunny kisses - which are rubbing noses - he leaned down and gave the bunny in the picture a kiss. quite silly. he's big into kissing people and things right now. his teddy bear, his doggie backpack, the sesame street dvd, mommy, the kitty, etc. the other thing he did that made me laugh yesterday happened just before bedtime. he was making a bee-line for me (i was sitting in the chair in the living room) and saw his sippy cup on the coffee table. he stopped, looked at the cup, signed a quick "please" and then took a drink. i just had to laugh - hard.

new vocabulary:
blue-blue (blueberries)
there
right there
purple
singing ABCs (he tries, it's not even close to intelligible)
hissing like a snake when asked what a snake says

we're going to the zoo today with our friends katie and peter. we went to playgroup together on tuesday and while we were walking (it was in katie's neighborhood), the two boys were totally goofing with eachother. singing songs and just doing silly things. katie and i had loads of fun watching and listening to them. i'm glad the boys get along so well. today at the zoo should be a lot of fun as well. i'm really glad for the membership. so far, it's enabled us to go to the zoo twice in as many weeks.

oh, owen is getting better at trying new foods. now, this doesn't mean he eats the new food, but it at least makes it in his mouth. yesterday he finished up my scrambled eggs and last night i gave him a bite of the ravioli we were eating. he tried the ravioli but spit it right back out. that's just fine. at least he's willing to taste it!

busy boy

and not in the usual sense of the word. we had a very busy day yesterday. luckily, owen got a short nap in before all of the activity started. we went to see the pbr (pro bull riders) at the puyallup fairgrounds and took owen for the first time. he really liked it. he would applaud when a bull rider stayed on for the full 8 seconds. he got pretty disinterested during the breaks in the action, but once we pointed out that another bull was coming out, he sat fairly still and watched. i think only about five riders actually rode their bulls, which means they stayed on for the full 8 seconds.

after the bull riding, we went to jeffy's sister's house for the july birthday party. owen had a great time playing with all of the kids there, most of whom were years older. he was very sweet to isabella, as usual.

one very important change i've seen in owen this past week has been how gentle he's being with the kitty. he'll pat max with what is an acceptable amount of force as determined by the cat. owen has also discovered that of he goes for the tips of the ears with his pincer grasp, max's ears will go flat against his head. owen thinks that's pretty danged funny. occasionally, he'll actually manage to catch one of max's ears. that's even cooler in owen's mind.

we had a more-wet-than-usual bathroom last night following owen's bath. my precious little boy decided to take the rinsing cup, fill it with water, and dump the water over the side of the tub...while he was sitting in the tub. needless to say, he only did that once. ahh, the joys of toddlerhood.

new words:
Roar!!!!
dog
yogurt
he'll copy just about any color word, a favorite for mommy, and the clearest, is purple
he'll copy any of his cousin's names and is working on aunts and uncles also.

Walking with Dinosaurs

It was really cool. all of the dinosaurs were life-sized. a few surprized me as to how huge they really were, like ankylosaurus. the smaller dinosaurs were basically costumes worn by people. the larger ones had little cars underneath with drivers and the feet were on gliding platforms (or something like that). there were also lots of blow-up plants around the arena floor. owen did pretty well. wasn't scared in the least, though he did spend most of the 90 minutes playing on his own and chatting with the man sitting in front of us. the cool thing about tonight is that it was a rehearsal. we got to choose where we sat so we put ourselved in our own row. that was very nice since we were dealing with a toddler who frequently needs wrangling. we were the first american audience to see the presentation, which apparently is from australia.

go here to see what we saw tonight: http://www.dinosaurlive.com/

i'm tired and have a pretty busy day tomorrow. driving up to seattle and back in the morning. then lessons in the afternoon. hopefully owen will sleep through tonight. i'm not counting on it, though, since we were out late and he was up late. he's asleep now, i believe. at least he's quiet...we'll take that.

Losing Count

of how many words he has, and what words he has. for example, today there have been three new words, but for the live of me, i can only remember two of them...i think. he copied "apple" this morning and then said "yellow" while we were at the zoo with my sister in law and her 3-1/2 week old little girl. yesterday's word was "dilla" as in quesadilla. he's having apples right now for dinner and i showed him the sign. he signed it back to me.

we had our first day of being home on summer vacation today. it was nice. like i mentioned above, we went to the zoo. owen loved it, as usual. again, we went on the carousel and he had a blast. he also started a fit when it was time to get off. he didn't mind the carousel slowing down and stopping. he hated and fought me when i went in to get the strap undone.

not sure what lies in store tomorrow. that's kinda nice, actually. check that. we get to go watch a rehearsal for "walking with the dinosaurs" at the tacoma dome since jeffy works part time for ticketmaster and all employees of the dome or ticketmaster get to go for free! it's a rehearsal so they will likely stop several times during the program. haven't decided if it's going to be a family affair or if it will be a date for mommy and daddy. i guess it will be determined by whether or not grandma can babysit on short notice or not.

he just signed "apple" - well sorta signed it...finger in the ear rather than by his mouth - to ask for another piece of apple. boy, it didn't take long for that sign to get put into use! way too cool.

three (or is it four) new words!

Holy cow! What a vocabulary explosion we've had tonight.

1. hot potato (is that one or two since he was singing the song?)
2. bunny
3. moon

The last two were during story time tonight.

Casa Bonita was a hit! Too bad he didn't eat much for dinner. They don't have quesadillas, he tried a bite of cheese enchilada but didn't want any more after that. Once again, thought, it took putting it on a fork for him to eat it. He did like the sopapillas (so-pah-PEE-uhs) and had two of those. He also liked the divers and did really well going through Black Bart's cave (it's really dark and there are great places for kids to hide and try to scare unsuspecting people.)

Before dinner tonight, we stopped by a long-time family friend's house so they could meet Owen. We might be joining them for dinner on Thursday at the pool were we belonged when I was little. That would be a blast! I haven't been there in the longest time, since I was 18, I think. It will be fun to take Owen there to see him play.

I think we're going to see the Titanic exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on Thursday. Apparently, you get a ticket of someone who was on the Titanic and go through the exhibit as that person. At the end, you get to find out if you lived or died. We've already determined that if we get a ticket from steerage, we're pretty much goners. I'll keep you posted.

Wow, I'm posting a bunch today. Is this the third one? Anyway, there is a lot going on in Owen's life and that's the purpose of this blog - keeping people updated on what he is doing.

mr. manners

owen has decided that food is great, as long as he can eat it with a fork. it worked at dinner last night (pizza...) and then at breakfast this morning (sausage). now that we know about this little vice, we can be prepared. i wonder what else he'll eat with the fork....? veggies maybe? (i'm not holding my breath on that one, though...)

we're going to dinner tonight at a place called casa bonita. google it. the food is not the best, but the atmosphere is awesome! it was even on south park. my godbrother and a buddy went during college and made a 'report' for some of their other friends who had seen it on south park and didn't believe that it actually existed. they made a point of photographing (or videoeing) each bit that they mentioned/showed in the episode. i would have loved to see that! i hope owen likes it. i'm not anticipating that jeffy will be terribly enthused about it, but it's more for the kids than for the adults.

Busy Day

We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha today. It was lots of fun. It's about the coolest zoo I've ever been to...and we only saw part of it! Owen loved it. He got to see loads of animals. He made noises for just about everything, though most of it was barking like a dog (sometimes a higher-pitched yip, other times a low growly bark). He is also extremely good at making monkey noises (we have the full package!) He also hissed like a snake when Aunt Michele or Mommy prompted him to. There weren't any high chairs were we ate for lunch so we just plopped Owen into a regular chair. He stayed there and ate like such a big boy! After that, we went to the Desert Dome, which was featured on either the Travel Channel or Animal Planet within the last couple of years. There's an area of the Desert Dome called "Kingdoms of the Night". We hit that right after lunch. As hoped, Owen fell asleep in the dark. Then Aunt Michele suggested, once we were in the monkey house, to move him from the backpack to the stroller. He woke up - and stayed awake. He's napping now, which is good. Actually, we all napped once we got home. It felt really good. We're going to the baseball game tonight. That will be fun, also.

So, as promised, here's a picture of Owen with Aunt Michele. They were reading bedtime stories a couple of nights ago. Both were having a great time. My sister is such a good aunt. I just wish we lived closer so that we could all spend more time together. As it is, she lives half a country away. I'm insanely proud of her, though. She just completed her third year of medical school and will begin her rotations for fourth year on Monday. As it stands right now, she is looking at going into neonatology. She'll be wonderful at whatever she goes into. Owen adores her. Heck, who can blame him!?

We are so lucky to have such an easy-going kiddo. Owen has slept so beautifully this entire trip, hasn't freaked out at all of the strange (as in new and unfamiliar) places he's slept. He doesn't take any longer than usual to quiet down at night or at nap time, which is so nice. He also adapts quite quickly to the new surroundings we're putting him in. He makes traveling with a little one so easy, relatively speaking. He will say "hi" to just about anyone. Yesterday when we were at the Strategic Air and Space Museum, which is between Omaha and Lincoln, he smiled at a man who came around the corner and it must have been just what the man needed because he told us that seeing Owen at that moment "made his day". There is something very special in store in life for this little boy. I'm excited to see what that might be.

Tomorrow we drive to Denver and will be there until Friday when we fly back home. I can't believe we've been gone over a week already!

Omaha

We made it with no issues larger than a soaked-though diaper and coughing up mucous onto his second pair of pants on the day. He made it to Omaha in a t-shirt and his diaper. It's really hot here. Muggy, too.

My sister called us en route yesterday to tell us she managed to break her toe while she was cleaning up for us. She did a great job, too! It's very colorful. She's loving playing with her nephew. She's even introduced him to M&M's. The first one was kinda forced into his mouth, but once he got that initial taste, he was all over the rest of the M's he was offered. We'll go to the Omaha zoo on Friday, and maybe to a baseball game that night before we drive back to Denver on Saturday. Other than that, it's basically make the decisions as we get to them.

I'll get pix and post them later.

Vacation - at last!

We're in Denver now. It's nice to be in a different place. The plane ride was rather uneventful, which is good. Owen did beautifully and was really excited to see Gramma when we finally got here.

The weather here is H-O-T. Mom, Owen, and I did pictures at a garden yesterday. Owen did pretty well, until he got hot and tired. We had lots of water for him, but he was done. Today we went to the house of a couple of people I went to high school with. They have a little boy about 5 weeks older than Owen. It was very interesting to observe the differences between the two boys. Owen is bigger (but since when is that news?), more aggressive (not a good thing - he pushed Benjamin down a couple of times because he wanted the ball Benjamin was playing with. He got removed from the play time each time he pushed), and is more outgoing. Benjamin, on the other hand, has many more words than Owen and is even starting to use sentences. These things are not really for comparison, more just observations.

We met with my godmother last night for dinner. It was the first time she's met Owen. We went out for pizza, and Owen didn't touch his. We brought it home for him and he had it for lunch today. At least it got eaten. :-P

Tomorrow will be a first for all three of us. It will be the first time any of us have been to Nebraska. This will mark Owen's 8th state, Mom's 32nd, and Dad's 20th. My sister is so excited to see Owen. We're very excited to see her as well. She's been in Omaha for three years now and we've never managed to get out there to see her. She keeps saying she's going to teach Owen how to play in the steet. Yeah, right!

School's Out for Summer!

And it's about danged time, too! Today was the final day teachers had to be there. My room is completely clean, shelves covered up with butcher paper to help minimize the amount of dust that will undoubtedly settle over the summer. Many of my colleagues asked me if my room was moving for next year. I told them, not to my knowledge. They couldn't believe how clean and orderly it was. Made me feel really good! I'm not the tidiest person around....

Today a group of us, the three specialists (music, library, PE), plus teachers from each age level at my school, got a good start on the master schedule for next year. It is looking like I'll have middle school kids twice a week from 8-8:45. I'm really excited about this! (Something I NEVER would have dreamed of five years ago.) I think I'm finally to the point in my career that I'll be more than just an effective middle school teacher. This year I've gotten to spend some time with the middle schoolers and get to know them, not only on a personal level, but I'm also getting to know the beast. I've learned that their senses of humor are pretty well formed, and they can be loads of fun. The other thing that will help is that I've basically raised these kids from babies. Next year's 6th graders were in 1st grade when I started at my current school. That means the 8th graders were in 3rd when I started there. I've known quite a few of them for the entire time I've been at my school. It's been fun to watch them grow and turn into young adults.

Since music will be an elective, the kids I get will want to be there and hopefully that will help stem some of the potential for behavior issues. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do next year, with major points I want to touch on. I think I should talk with the middle school teachers over the summer and see what the appropriate form and level for questions and assignments should be. I want to know that I'm not setting the bar too high for them.

I want to do a reverse music history/music appreciation class with the middlers. We will start in present day and talk about the music that is out there currently. Then we will go back and see what led into popular music being what it is. Eventually we'll get to the Beatles, then musical theater, vaudville, and jazz before heading into the classical music periods and study composers like Brahms, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach, and Vivaldi. We'll look at why their work was significant and also how their works are indicitive of the style of their time period. This year will definately be one with lots of tweaking and possibly changing canoes mid-stream if things aren't working

We leave for our vacation tomorrow. Two glorious weeks in Denver and Omaha. It will be Owen's first plane trip. Thank goodness for the tubes - they'll help with the pressurization of the cabin bit not affecting his ears and being painful. He and I are pretty well packed and ready to go. Jeff still needs to pack, but he's finishing up some stuff outside while there is still daylight. I put a small load in the washer tonight so everything will be ready to go for tomorrow. We head to Denver tomorrow, then to Omaha on Sunday to spend that week with my sister. We've never been to Omaha so it will be quite the adventure for all of us. We drive back to Denver on the 30th and then are back home on the 6th. We have plans to see friends of mine from high school, several teachers, some from h.s., some from m.s., plus other people in Denver. After the school year I've had, the break is definately needed. When we get back, Jeffy will start as a full-time real (instead of temp) employee at the job he's been at since July of last year.

now he's a parrot!

owen has started trying to copy things that we say. yesterday it was "isabella", who is his newest cousin - born on thursday night, weighing 7 lbs., 8 oz. she's beautiful! i got to hold her for a while yesterday - and even burp her!!!! owen says, "ee-ahh-lalalalala" close enough. his second new word in as many days is "ma-muh" (the 'a' here sounds as in 'apple'), it means "gramma". again, close enough!

when we were at the hospital yesterday, he got in eeahlala's face to say "hi", several times. he also got jealous of hte attention she was getting from me and tried to push his way in. sweet boy! he had more fun running around the room, though. isabella is the first girl in our family in seven years. think she's going to be spoiled?

we had a school night at the rainier's game last night for my school and we went. we left in the 8th inning - it went 12! yikes! owen had a great time playing with a few people around us. when we got home, the dog that was visiting next door was barking at us. owen started barking back. too funny!

oh, great news on the food front: owen ate school lunch every day this week! the lunch i took on monday sat in the fridge at school all week long! i'm not even taking his lunchbox next week. don't think i need to. :-) way to go, little man!

tricky parents!

twice this week we've given owen a quesadilla with meat of some sort in it. on sunday it was a chicken quesadilla at target, tonight, there was diced ham in his quesadilla. he ate it all down, no complaints. not even with the spices on sunday. very cool! he must be going through a growth spurt because he seems to be eating everything in sight. he's also eaten lunch at school three days this week (and his lunch that i brought on monday has been sitting there in the fridge since monday. too bad! NOT!!!!! maybe he's finally willing to start eating normal foods. he even had some of jeffy's chicken at dinner the other night while we were celebrating my getting the school district scholarship for doing my National Boards next year. (see my other blog, http://shemustbecrazy.blogspot.com for all of those juicy details.)

yesterday was my spring program. it was more stressful than most due to circumstances beyond my control, including the teachers whose kids were involved throwing in an extra thing that took nearly 20 minutes to do. add that to a 35 minute program with children who are 3-6 years old and it's not a good thing. what hacks me is that parents were complaining about the length of the afternoon program (close to an hour...) and some didn't bring their kids back at night because of it, not realizing that the evening program wasn't going to have the added part and was going to be significantly shorter. then, one of the teachers didn't show up and put a note on her door for her kids to go to my room before the concert. i was getting another group ready to sing at the same time and that change in what i was expecting to have to do sent me nearly into tears in front of close to 40 kids, that was in lieu of a panic attack, which did start, but i was able to keep things under control due to a couple of wonderful parents who stepped in and kept track of the little ones while i dealt with the bigger kids in my choir. the program itself was amazing. the kids did beautifully, as always. and also as always, there are a few parents who need to be normalized to appropriate school concert etiquette. these one or two parents kept calling out, sometimes in the middle of songs, "you go, ______!" i ignored it, even when they were doing it while their kids weren't even singing. sheesh! i understand being proud of your kid and all, but know the limits, people! these kids have worked hard for this program and calling out like that is disruptive to everyone there.

eight more sleeps until we head out of town to visit family and friends in denver and omaha. seven more sleeps until i'm done with school for the year. good news is that closing down my room is much easier this year than it has been in the past. i have a couple of areas i still need to tackle and go through stuff, but that should be done by tuesday of next week, easily. my goal is to have it done by the end of this week so i can go have lunch with the upper el kids (4th and 5th graders) at one of their teacher's houses on monday.

we may be welcoming a new family member to the extended family tomorrow. jeffy's sister is being induced tomorrow. i'll stop by after my meeting to see how she's progressing and maybe even hold that precious little one. everyone but the baby's dad knows what the baby is. i don't think he reads this blog, but just in case, i'm not going to give anything away.

i sing, you sing...

owen sings! we had a sing-along in the car this morning. i started with abc's, then owen requested twinkle twinkle (up-up-up-up), then after twinkle, he requested old macdonald (e-i-e-i-ooooooo) he even will sing along sometimes, or at least sing his part.

another thing he has started doing in the last couple of days is sticking by me when we're out walking around. he's done that several times recently. it's a nice change from him running away from us all the time.

right now he is carrying around one of daddy's shoes...that's a size 13 if you're interested.

another change in owen's routine is sleeping with a teddy and blanket now. he started the teddy on monday night and added the blanket two nights ago. it was pretty cute! i should have taken a picture of him right after i laid him down last night. one arm wrapped around teddy, and the blanket clutched in the other arm. very cute. he made it through last night. too bad i can't say the same for two nights ago. i was up with him for two hours. that wasn't fun.

i'm in my final countdown at school. i have five more teaching days left: two more fridays, one more each of monday, tuesday, and thursday. wednesday of next week is field day so that doesn't count for me. next friday is my last teaching day of the year. we go through the 19th with kids and then just teachers for an inservice day (making up from all of hte weather we had in december and january) on the 20th. the only bad thing is that i have my least favorite class on thursdays and fridays. that makes three more sessions with them instead of one or two like the rest of my classes. today i showed my upper el classes (that's 4th and 5th graders) a program video from when they were in 1st and 2nd grade. it was a hoot!

next week i also have my program, which was originally supposed to be today. it's now on tuesday. my littles (PreK-Ks) and choir. my favorite concert of the year. just fun songs.

No! More!

that's what owen said to me tonight after two stories and my mention of it being time for him to go to bed. needless to say, it was a battle i didn't feel like fighting (he was lunging after a nightly favorite - kiss goodnight) so he won. i just marvel at his acquisition of language. i think this is the first time he has put two words together verbally (as opposed to signing) to express a want without repeating each word several times (moh moh moh bee bee bee - who wants to translate that? it's not too hard!)

we had our annual school block party tonight. my principal saw owen and was absolutely taken aback at how big and grown up he is. actually, most people who haven't seen him in several months (or longer) have that same reaction. i had that same reaction with a (not so) baby brother of one of my students who is two now (the brother, obviously, not the student). owen had cheetos with his pbj and nana tonight. big mess, but it was a special treat being the block party. he didn't eat the hot dog i got for him, but at least we didn't waste any money on it - the bbq was free. :-) we like that!

good helper

owen is down for the night. he got a bath tonight (it's been in the 80s-low 90s here the last couple of days...he's been a hot and sweaty boy from playing outside at school, etc.) and as i was getting his ear plugs ready, he presented me with one of his ears so i could get the plug in that ear, then he turned his head and presented me with the other ear so i could get the plug in that ear. it wasn't too long ago that it was a fight just to get them in. now, he actually helps me with the task! way cool, owen!

a funny thing tonight was on our way to bed, i picked him up (he would have rather stayed up playing) and as we were walking toward his room, he kept saying "no no no no no!" i told him, "yes. it's past time for bed."

time for mommy to see if she's smarter than a fifth grader (mine were very trying today. told my mom i needed a drink this afternoon. their teacher was gone as was their para. just a sub in the classroom. several owe me time on the wall tomorrow at recess.

dissed!

i went to pick up at daycare today and got totally dissed by him! they were coming outside to go play as i got there. i picked him up, (lifted him off the ground) and he wanted nothing to do with me! he wanted to go play. so i let him (i still needed to sign him out and talk with the director about plans for the summer) and went to get him after i did that. he was more willing to go with me at that point, but still wasn't 100% for it.

last night we were singing "twinkle, twinkle" and he started singing along. his words were "up-up-up-up!" he also opens and closes his hands while mommy sings. then, at the end of the song, he claps once or twice as if to say, "yay!" he'll sing along with the abc's a little bit too. :-) very cool for the music teacher mom!

i taught a violin lesson once we got home today (my student came home with us - she's a student at my school so it was convenient for all.) and mr. owen did a wonderful job of keeping himself occupied while i was teaching. he got fussy about five minutes before the lesson ended. he's growing up! yay! it's so fun to watch.

i'm going out of town this weekend and leaving my boys here. i fly out on saturday morning and come back on monday afternoon. i'm so excited to be going, not to be leaving my boys so much (though the break will me nice), but really excited about where and why i'm going.

sinuses

wow, reading over my last post, i sounded sorta defeatest, didn't i? part of that was the fact that i felt horrible. i had this horrendous pain and pressure in my left frontal sinus. medication wasn't working (otc stuff - sudafed and tylenol) so i went online and found a site that had an accupressure diagram. i figured that it couldn't hurt (and it wasn't going to cost me anything) so i tried it. almost immediately i had some relief (enough that i could eat dinner and enjoy it!). i did it a couple of more times before i went to bed and, not only did i sleep clear through the night (thanks in part to owen not waking up and fussing like he tends to do), but when i woke up this morning, 99% of the pressure was gone. that last 1% is still there, but mostly when i'm bending over. it's totally managable, though. i have a dr appt this afternoon that i'm still going to, just in case. but in the grand scheme of things, i feel amazing. i'm a true believer in accupressure as part of helping my body get better from things.

They Work!!!

so i'm just getting a class started today when my cell phone rings. my kids hear it and inform me, i hear it and ignore it and tell them i'll let it go to voicemail. once i get them going on their lesson (color by number activity while listening to "Carnival of the Animals"), i go look at my phone to see who called. it was daycare. i call them back and find out that his ear is oozing and they're afraid that he's ruptured an ear drum. i calmly inform them (maybe slightly excitedly, actually) that he has tubes and they're doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. i told them i'd call the doctor to make sure we didn't need to take him in and then i'd call them back. as long as they aren't getting clogged and he doesn't get a fever or seem to be in pain with his ear, we don't need to go in. i'm so glad we went for the tubes. i couldn't have dealt with yet another thing with him.

i, on the other hand,think i have a sinus infection. it's incredibly painful. i've barely eaten all day today. just at breakfast. that was really tough, unless i took really small bites. wonder what i'll do for dinner tonight as far as eating.

owen is consistently going through the night, and when he wakes up, he may fuss, but he gets himself back to sleep with relative ease. how nice to be back to that! yay!

Sucess with a mascot!

This picture was taken yesterday at the Mariner's Game. Owen wasn't too sure (ok, he was flipping out) about the Mariner Moose to begin with, but once Mommy gave the moose a high five, Owen decided that it was ok for him to do it too. This all happened before this picture was taken. We had trouble getting Owen to look at the camera instead of the moose. He even gave a high five as we were leaving, too!

The game was fun, albeit wet. At least Safeco Field has a retractable roof. It was closed. We took the train again, and just like last week, Owen fell asleep. He tried so hard to stay awake in his seat, looking out the window. It didn't last. He slept for about 45 minutes on me. That was it for the day. Needless to say, he was really tired last night and made it through the night again.

He and I are home today, me with the starts of a cold, him with pink eye. I can call the pediatrician in about 20 minutes. We'll be ready to go as soon as they can get us in. I want to get in soon so he can start on his antibiotics and be ok for school tomorrow. (He needs to be on antibiotics for 24 hours before they'll let him in. I'm hoping to get him going by 10 and that that will be close enough for day care. If not, Jeffy will be staying home tomorrow.)

Owen is in his high chair right now watching Little Einsteins on TV.

Here's a thought to ponder. It came to me while we were on the train yesterday and we were being pushed from behind instead of being pulled: Does a train that goes backward go chugga-chugga-choo-choo or does it go ugguch-ugguch-ooch-ooch? Inquiring minds want to know.

what a silly boy!

owen's favorite thing to do these days is vocalize while moving his tongue around in his mouth. it makes the most wonderful sound, and it makes mommy laugh to boot!

we went to a family fun night at my school yesterday and we stopped by taco bell for dinner since it was quick and close to school. for starters, they only charged us $.35 for owen's dinner (yes, that decimal is in the correct place). he had a small quesadilla - we payed for a side of cheddar cheese and a side of flour tortilla. they didn't have any high chairs, but they did have a booster so owen sat in that, a first at a restaurant for our family. he did beautifully! the manager was extremely appologetic for the lack of a high chair. our service last night was amazing, especially for a fast food place.

here's a picture of owen, taken just now. he said, "cheese!" for the picture! that's a first for him! isn't he just too cute!?

we went to the tacoma rainiers game on thursday night with jeff's brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews. owen had his first encounter with a mascot. he was ok as long as the mascot (a reindeer) didn't try to touch him. the mascot tried to give owen a high five and owen flipped out. after that, though, he was looking at rhubarb (the reindeer - don't ask, i don't know...) with a very studius look on his face, as if he was trying to figure out what in the heck that thing was.

we go to another m's game tomorrow. wonder if the moose will happen by. i know i won't make owen touch the moose. we'll only get as close as owen is comfortable.

M's vs. NYY

just a note, owen is now 19 months old. where has the time gone? he's more of a little boy than a baby now. it's amazing.

i'm waiting on pictures from my friend katie so i'll post those when i get them, but we went to see the seattle mariners beat the yankees in an amazing game. the score was 2-1, and it was one of the funnest professional baseball games i've ever been to. we were sitting in the left field bleachers, which were a lot more comfy that i thought they would be. owen tried two new foods yesterday - garlic fries, and cracker jack. i was eating both and he just helped himself. he was pretty proud of himself, too. at one point, he said, "i did it!" with a mouth full of crackerjack.

katie and rob have a little boy named peter who is just a few weeks older than owen. it was a blast watching peter and owen playing together. katie hasn't seen owen for several months (since december, i think) and was commenting on how much his talking and vocabulary has changed since we had the tubes in.

another first for owen was riding the train to seattle and back for the game. we managed to get up top on the way up, but didn't quite make it back to the train quick enough to get up top for the ride back. owen fell asleep with less than 30 minutes to go on the way up. he slept through the night last night, which was good. fussed twice a little after 5:00 this morning, and then woke up around 6:30 and was playing in his crib. so fun to listen to while i'm getting up and ready.

he's down, for now. let's hope he makes it through the night again. we like it when owen sleeps through.

Starting a second blog

I have a new blog for a different arena in my life: http://shemustbecrazy.blogspot.com

Check it out!

"nana!"

ah, expanding vocabulary! that's one of owen's latest words. he'll go into the kitchen, point to the counter, and say, "Nana!" we don't call him monkey-boy for nothing! lol he's also turning into the little drummer boy. he is also starting to copy what we are saying. i swear he says, "two" when we are counting steps. he also says, "blue, green," and tries "yellow" when we are looking at colors and mommy says one. he is also mimicking things that we do. very cool! right on schedule, too.

we've been going on walks most evenings after dinner. it's very enjoyable. owen chatters up a storm telling us how it is in his world. he also monopolized the dinnertime conversation. what i love most about our walks is that owen often will take my hand (he initiates it!) and will hold my hand and look at me while he is talking. i really wish i understood owenese! i'd love to know what he is thinking and saying.

we're going to the mariners/yankees game on sunday with some friends and their little boy. peter is about 6 weeks older than owen. his mom and i met at mommy group at the hospital last summer.

this was teacher appreciation week at school. our parents are absolutely AMAZING! we as a staff have been completely spoiled this week, ending today with a dessert bar (four words: "who needs real food?") in the staff room, presents, and massages. however, none of these things even come close to a note i got today at the bottom of a permission slip for something later in the year. in the note, the girl's mother thanked me for all i do and mentioned that her daughter has really grown and she contributes a lot of that growth to music. this might sound conceited, but i agree with the mom. i've noticed the same thing and it's wonderful to know that i have helped her with this growth. this girl has pushed herself beyond her comfort level quite a few times in doing things in my class. she shocked all when she got up in front of the school and did a speaking part a couple of years ago. not only did she do it, she has a wonderful speaking voice. she's in my choir and learns the songs quicker than most of the other kids do, plus she sings her heart out (not always in tune, but that's not the point. my choir is non-auditioned. anyone can join, they don't have to be able to carry a tune.) and she comes in at recess every week for recorders. she is always telling me while she's working on a new song that she can't do it and it's too hard (usually accompanied by tears), and i work through it with her. she always feels so proud when she achieves the next level in recorders. i know that she struggles with confidence and frustrations, but when she wants something bad enough, she works till she gets it. my job, as i see it, is to give her the encouragement, support, and nudges she needs to push through and persevere. it is for her dedication and hard work that she will be named my "outstanding music student of the year" in june. i know that as a teacher i'm not supposed to have favorite students, but she is definitely one of my favorites. she is always quick with a hug and a smile for me.

a sharing family!

but not in the good way. all three of us are on antibiotics for strep. jeffy was diagnosed yesterday and the PA wanted to see me today since i've hada sore throat for about the last week. she's not sure if i have (or recently had) strep, but she's treating me as such since i have a very red throat and the voice of someone with strep (it's a quality to the voice, i /gue?SS"
)[']=[='['].) owen went to his doctor today just for a precaution and he is in the beginning stages so he as well is going onto meds.

pardon the wierd stuff up there, owen was helping mommy type.

the week at school was pretty good. apparently i got one kid suspended. he was refusing to follow very simple directions - please get in line, please sit up - and was actually firmly telling me, "No" with the "i don't have to listen to you" tone/attitude. he also wasn't about to talk with me about it until i had the referral in my hand, this after i gave him several chances to talk with me. finally i told him he could either talk with me or talk with the principal about it and counted to three. he stood absouletly silently. that was his answer as far as i was concerned. as i walked back across the room with the referral, he decided he wanted to talk with me, but i told him it was too late. he had already made his choice. i later heard him on the phone with home blaming me. in another class, which has been a thorn in my side for the majority of the year, has had what friends of mine might call a "coming to God." they've been horrid all over the school. lots of bickering and pestering and teasing and harrassing during class. we've all had enough so the riot act has been read to them, several times in fact, and things are slowly changing. yesterday afternoon several key players were gone and class was wonderful! today they were back and it was a lot better than it has been. i've started marking on a transparency sheet that i magnet to my white board both positive and negative behaviors. for example, i put a + every time a student does something that helps contribute to the class discussion or lesson (if they are verbally adding to class, they must be called on to earn the +). i am also marking negative behaviors which take away from class. they start the day with 10 points and need to keep an average of 8 to be able to do mallet madness when that starts next week. they can only lose points and if there are negative behavior marks, but they were still participating and mostly involved with class, they'll get a 9, but not a 10. it's helping me also discover what kind of contributers there are in class. i'm doing this with a couple of classes and there is one student in each class who i'm discovering doesn't like to contribute verbally, but if asked to perform a task, will gladly do it. it also ensures that i call on people equally and don't focus just on a handfull of kids.

that's all for now. we've had two wonderfully solid nights of sleep around here (well, at least as far as owen is concerned) so i'm hoping that trend continues tonight. it's nice to not have to get up and rock him back to sleep, which then means that i don't get to sleep for at least an hour or more after he is back down. that severely cuts into my sleep quota for the night. i was really crabby at jeffy the other night. he was snoring pretty loudly and constantly and i couldn't get to sleep. at 10:30 i lost it and stormed to the couch. as far as i was concerned, i was going to be facing a 12 hour day the next day on about 3 hours of sleep due to the assumption that owen was going to be getting up in the middle of the night. not a fun prospect. once i got to sleep (and was able to stay asleep thanks to owen), i was in a much better mood in the morning and even wrote jeffy an apology note for the night before.

ok. NOW that's all. i mean it this time. have a wonderful weekend!

A blend!!!!

during dinner tonight, owen made his first blend in a real word! i asked him if he wanted more quesadilla and he said, "plea!" yay little man!

we are a wreck at our house. i was sick in bed on sunday with a slight fever, a sore throat, and a headache. yesterday i had a killer headache all day long and came home and crashed on the couch (sore through still going) after work. i still have my sore throat (it's been around since about friday, but has been changing daily. i think it's getting better so i'm not too worried. i'm still swollen in the neck, but not nearly to the extent as i was yesterday so that's good. jeff stayed home today sick again. sore throat, temp - as high as 103 this afternoon, but it's going down - and general lethargy. glad i'm feeling better so that i can take care of owen. oh, and i missed my sister-in-law's baby shower on sunday when i was laid up in bed.

at school we are smack in the middle of WASL testing. that's our state's standardized test for those of you not in washington. it is two weeks in april (but stretching into may this year, i think because of all of those crazy weather days we had off earlier in the year. the kids are getting tired of it and are getting really restless. they only test in the mornings and only four days a week, but still. it's a long time to test. i've been teaching some classes as normal, others with two classes of first and second graders (since our classes are multi-age...), and some on a changed schedule. i may be crazy but i might be seeing my worst class last thing on friday. i hope they finish testing by 11:15 on friday so i can see them then instead of later in the day.



I had to post this picture, taken about two weeks ago. no, he's not resting, he's sleeping. hands behind his head, looking like he's just chilling. too funny!

Clean Bill

We had both of our check-ups since my last post. The surgeon said that everything looks great with his ear drums and they are healing up nicely. the pediatrician said his eardrum look better than she can ever remember seeing them. sounds like we made the right decision.

owen has a favorite word: "hi!" he says it probably 50+ times a day (or maybe that is just in the morning...) hi to the kitty, to mommy, to daddy, to people at day care, to... two cute things with this in the past week are in the mornings when we are getting out the door, he'll go onto the porch and wait for me while i lock up. he'll open the screen door, poke his head in and say "hi" several times. on thursday, jeffy was sitting at the desk and owen comes over carrying his toy phone by the receiver, but holding the receiver out, and was saying "hi. hi. hi. hi." all the way to daddy. it's so much fun to listen to him grow and change.

a bonus since our 18 month check on monday, he's been getting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. yay! oh, and his stats from monday: 25 lbs, 8 oz, and 34" tall. two more inches and we're a full-on three feet tall! that's tall enough to climb out of the crib, in theory. i'm not sure he knows that's a possibility just yet. let's see what we can do about keeping it that way, shall we?

it's a beautiful day here, but we're stuck as my car is getting work done (mainly an oil change, but also a follow-up on the tranny...) no stroller, can't find my key to the shed to get the wagon out, no car seat so even if someone came to pick us up, we couldn't go anywhere. oh, and jeffy's out doing yard work at the tree lot and at his parent's house. loads of fun here. the good news is that i have a baby shower to go to tomorrow for one of my sisters-in-law. she's due in june! yay! more babies!

bedtime stories

last night, as we were doing bedtime stories, mr. "i can do it myself" decided that that attitude extended to reading as well. he would not let me do the reading. he insisted on doing it. at first i was resistant, but then realized it was a great opportunity for him to read to me, even if i couldn't understand him. he was (and is) able to orient the books correctly, and even help tell the story in some places, either through signing or actions. one thing he knows, is that wind blows and he'll blow when the wind blows in one of the two books we read every night.

as for his language, he's saying "please" more than he's signing it these days. it sounds more like, "bee", but in owenese, that's "please". he also had some grilled cheese for dinner tonight. :-) good boy! he's still up at 4ish in the morning, but what can we do? (seriously, folks! what CAN we do?!?!)

sleepless in tacoma with the terrible twos

i hate teething! poor owen is still miserable at night. he'll wake up and whine at least once in the middle of the night. some of it is hunger, some is the discomfort of those nasty molars trying to cut through. a little food usually works pretty well and he'll usually sleep for the rest of the night.

last night, while i was reading a favorite book he copied me and said, "pigeon". It came out more like "pih", but that's close enough. Yesterday, also, he asked specifically for peaches. he got pears because that's what we had open in the fridge. no real complaints, so that's good. i just wish he'd go back to eating something. now he's not even eating grilled cheese or hamburgers or quesadillas. it's pretty much pbj for lunch and dinner. good thing he still likes his fruit.

we have two doctor's appointments in the next week. on wednesday of this week, we go back to the doctor who did his tubes for our two-week follow-up. on monday of next week, we have our 18-month check-up with the pediatrician. our favorite nurse there is pregnant and i can't wait to see how she's growing. i'll let you all know how things go.

tantrums are becoming the way of life around here. the terrible twos have really set in. mommy's phrase when a CFD D C CXN (<--Owen's work) tantrum is under way is, "it's a sad, sad world." i make sure he doesn't hurt himself, and let him throw the tantrum.

MORE words!

This little guy's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, it seems daily. He is now saying "fishy", "daddy" (very clearly, actually), "hi, kitty!", and "peaches". "Peaches" is new as of tonight. He is also doing an equally consistent job of saying or signing "please". A couple of days ago, he started mimicing animal sounds. He can mimic a roar and ee-ee-ee (monkey). What an amazing kid. All this in the last week, since ear tubes. Another thing I'm noticing is that he is starting to copy (or at least try to copy) what we are saying more frequently than he was a week ago.

Any suggestions on how to convince a very stubborn toddler that 3:50 a.m. is a bad time to wake up? And more specifically, that 3:50 a.m. is a bad time to wake up Mommy and Daddy? We've had three nights of this mess. It's wearing on at least the two older members of the household. Not fun.

As a side note, Owen turns 18 months old tomorrow. How does Mommy get to help celebrate? I get to go to a meeting for National Boards. Lucky me.

Even MORE words!

Since last evening, Owen has said a new word and a new phrase. The new word is "hi" and the new phrase is "big boy". Both were imitated, but he's never done that before! He said, "hi" twice last night and "big boy" was this morning when I woke him up and asked if he was a big boy. He replied, "big boy!" Yay for tubes! I'm so glad we did this!

Today we're going to the zoo. Wonder what new sounds he'll hear and respond to. Last evening, when we got dinner at our favorite Vietnamese place at Freighthouse Square near the Tacoma Dome, Owen heard a UPS truck start up and he stopped walking, turned, and listened and watched. What a neat thing for him!

Good as new!

Owen came through the surgery this a.m. with flying colors! He is back to normal, and happy as a clam! You really can't tell by looking at him or watching him that he had surgery this morning. He saw me as they were rolling him out, after he came out of the anesthesia, and he wanted nothing to do with the gurney and only wanted Mama. That was fine with me! We went and got breakfast at my old university and Owen ate a ton, as usual. Looks like the zoo is a for-sure thing tomorrow!

Last night we had dinner with some family friends who used to live in Denver. We got home kind of late for Mr. O, so I was only going to read him one story. He didn't want any story last night. He just wanted to go to bed. Took the book from my hand and motioned toward the bookshelf with it (that's where it goes when we're done reading it). I put him in his crib and all was good. He's started doing this a couple of nights ago, except that first time we got up around 2:30, had some peaches, then I took him back to bed with me because that had helped him get to sleep quicker than trying to rock him or just putting him in his crib did. Well, he squirmed his way out of our bed, onto the floor, and walked right over to his bedroom door and waited for me. I put him in his crib, he cried for maybe a minute and then was quiet. After a little bit, I heard him talking to himself, but they were happy and content sounds so I didn't worry about it. I think we might be crossing that hump for the sleep thing. Keep your fingers crossed!

Checking in

We do that tomorrow morning at 7:00. No food after midnight, clear liquids only after midnight (so juice, water, etc.) and NOTHING after 5:00 a.m. Not even a sip of water. Hopefully we will be out by 8:00 or 8:30.

Had lunch with my aunt and uncle today. Owen had melon and fries. He's definately in one of those phases where he doesn't want to eat much. He'll self-regulate so I'm not too worried. It's aggrivating, more than anything - make or order food for him and then he doesn't touch it.)

Uh-oh!

That's our latest word. He's been walking around all morning saying, "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" It's making me laugh.

Owen went close to 12 hours of sleep last night. He woke up briefly at 2:30, but got himself back to sleep, just as I was getting ready to get him (I had taken the covers off of myself and was rolling over to get out of bed when he quieted down.) Sleep is a wonderful thing. Hopefully tonight will be as good or better, especially since he has surgery tomorrow morning and can't eat after midnight.

That's the latest update from our home! I'll post again tomorrow after the surgery and let you all know how things go.

And yet more vocabulary

We went to Portland today (Owen, my dad - who is in town from Denver for the week - and I) to have lunch with my aunt and uncle. While we were there, Owen made yet another sign. This one is "fishy", for the goldfish crackers. He was signing up a storm. Aunt Martha and Uncle Bob really enjoyed spending time with us and watching Owen play. On the way home, Owen was screaming bloody murder as we were changing elevations. I wouldn't be surprised if he has another ear infection come surgery on Thursday. Anyone willing to bet against me?

Last night he was up at something near 2:30 so I got up, gave him some peaches and brought him back to our bed to get him back to sleep. He wanted nothing to do with being in our bed. He wanted to be in his own crib. So, I put him there (he climed out of our bed, and went and stood by his door...), he cried once or twice, then quieted down. I could hear him chattering away for a little while, but as long as the sounds coming from his room were happy sounds, I didn't care. He fussed again about an hour later, but quickly went back to sleep so it was all good. I woke him up a little after 7:00 this morning. He's been down now for about 45 minutes. He's been really whiney lately. Wonder how much of it is his ears.

Tomorrow we find out what time to be at the hospital on Thursday. I was told something around 6:30 or 7:00 was likely. That way he can get there, get in and out before he gets too hungry. We'll make breakfast the first or second thing we do when we get home.

Addendum #3

The "firsts" continue. Tonight we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and ordered Owen a quesadilla, which he normally devours. The quesadilla came with an orange wedge and fries (with ketchup). Owen didn't touch the quesadilla, but ate the fries and orange wedge. Now the orange wedge didn't surprize me at all, he loves fruit. He's always turned up his nose at fries, including yesterday at lunch on our way home from Spokane. Tonight, that's all he ate. He dipped them in ketchup and sometimes ate the fry with the ketchup on it, and other times he licked the ketchup off of the fry and re-dipped. I sat there and watched him, flabergasted. He continually keeps me guessing. Oy!

addendum 2

add yet another sign to his repertoire: "all done" (arms spread out wide) sheesh! i'm having trouble keeping up with all of this vocabulary! lol! not that i'm complaining, mind you. :-)

addendum

add to his signs: "eat" and "water" eat was done just now for the first time. water was done this weekend (i knew there was one more thing that i had for gotten!)

we've had an explosion!

but only in the communication venue. this weekend we were in spokane for my great-aunt's 80th birthday and we were staying with some friends. at dinner on saturday evening, no wait. let's back up to earlier in the day. we went to riverfront park and took owen on the carousel. he fussed and cried until it started moving. then he was having the the time of his life. this picture is from after the ride was over. after that, we went to the not-so-little red wagon (see for yourself!) we're just on top of the thing. there is a slide going down and owen went down that on his own as i was in khaki pants for the party and didn't want to get them dirty. while the two of us were up there, i told owen to say, "hi daddy!" and he did! "hi" was new word number one on the weekend.

after the park, we went to the party and had a wonderful time. i saw my second cousins, and it had been quite a while since i've seen most of them. i think the last time i saw all but one of them, it was at our great-grandmother's funeral in 1993. we've all changed quite a bit since then. here's our group picture, with my great-aunt, their grandmother. that's conor, kelly, kjersten, aunt fran, zach, jay, and me. we really enjoyed talking and they had a blast watching owen play.

anyway, back to the vocabulary explosion, at dinner on saturday night, we were sitting around the table and owen was asking for "more, please".i had no idea he could sign, "please", but there he was, signing please! we gave him some teddy grahams (a favorite snack) and he continued to ask for "more, please!" i asked him if he wanted more bears (i signed those two words) and he, being the smart little bugger he is, signed "more bears please" but instead of using the true sign for "bear", owen did the action from the wiggles song, "rock-a-bye your bear", which is a cradled rocking motion. i was blown away. he took (1) what he saw me do for "bear", and (2) what he already knew had "bear" as a part of it and put them together for his own sign. then, as if he hadn't flabergasted mommy enough, he proceded to sign please bear several times, each time getting another teddy graham or two. do you think he understands that he is communicating? do you think he gets this thing? i sure do. oh, and he also said "bear" right after he signed it the first time. so, if you were counting, that's two new signs and two new spoken words all in one day. geeze, kid! keep it up!

another thing he learned to do this weekend is go down stairs on his bum. the funniest part of the whole thing is that when he was coming down the top flight of stairs, he'd do it on his bum. going down the next flight, he would turn over to his tummy and go down that way. too cute!

i'm on spring break, and owen is napping now. we had a late night last night (at jeffy's sister's house playing poker) and didn't get home until around or after 10. owen was up at 6:30 this morning, which is much better than the 4:30 stuff he's been pulling lately. maybe after he gets his tubes, he'll sleep even longer at night! here's hoping!