oh, dear...

but i mean that in a very good way.   j and i are in trouble, though...

tonight owen and i were doing his alphabet puzzle (upper and lower case letters that fit into slots).  as he was putting the letters in their places, i was asking him what each letter said.  for the most part, he could tell me.  this i knew was in his abilities.  the next thing i tried was giving him a letter sound and having him show me the letter, which quickly progressed to making short words based on phonetics.  he did amazingly well.  i just sat back and watched as he quickly found the correct letter.  there are a few he has trouble hearing the difference between, but for the most part, they are very close in sound (long 0 and r for one)  other words were spelled phonetically (cat/kat).  he really has this pretty solidly.  we did it for 5-10 minutes, at which point he grew tired of it and started playing with his blocks.  oh, and he knows how to spell/recognize two words so far.  owen and open.  

in 6 very short days, my baby will be 3 years old.  i marvel at all of the things he can do now that he couldn't do a year ago.  yesterday as we were going to j's sister's house to watch the football game (ugh...our team didn't even show up.) o saw an "open" sign.  he spelled it out for us.  i asked him what it spelled and he told us.  "uh-oh" i thought.  other skills that my almost-3 year old has include good verbal skills and the ability to tell us what he wants and be understood most of the time, he is sleeping in his big boy bed without rails, going potty all the time (save sleeping times), we can have a conversation with him, he likes playing games, and will talk on the phone with people.  he can count past 30 (and to 10 in spanish), recognizes all of his letters (upper case, lower case, and sign language), and generally blows me away with all of those unexpected things he does.  i can only imagine where he'll be in a year. 

fifteen, ten, and twenty-five

this is a diet post.  

as of this morning, i have lost 15 lbs, with 10 more to go before i reach where i was when i got pregnant with owen.  25 more lbs. to go before i am at my goal.  once i'm there, i will allow myself a 5 lb. window for some wiggle room.  i don't ever want to be above 140 and not be pregnant again.  i was so excited to step on the scale and see it at 160.  i honestly couldn't believe it.  granted last week was that week.  i'm hoping not to gain too much this comign week when i'm in denver/keystone, co for my sister's wedding.  

I'm calling it done!

potty training (at least during the day) and owen is done.  officially.  he has told me several times today that he had to go, once included pooping!  it's unreal that we're done.  and it's only taken us nine and a half months.  he's such a big boy!!!!  i really can't believe we're finished!  "follow the child" really works.  

jeff is working at the fair tonight.  last night this year for that.  owen has emptied an entire sheet of stickers from the Highlights for Children magazine thing we go onto jeff's side of the bed.  won't daddy be surprised?  ;-)

o and i are both sick.  my cold is getting started and i'll need medicine for this week, not to mention for on the airplane tuesday night.  in one week, marcus will be able to yell, "hey, wife!" at my sister.  i could really use someone to take care of me tonight instead of being the care-giver.  alas, i'll take care of myself after owen gets to bed.  

guh-aa-puh

that's what owen did this morning at his fridge phonics word whammer.  sounded out his first word, totally unprompted.  i was amazed.  that's two major things within about 12 hours.  

tonight was the first swimming lesson for the session.  jeffy took owen in today, and owen cried and clung the entire time.  hmmm...sounds like the the first lesson last session.  hopefully thursday will be better.  

i found out today that as of next week, i will no longer be traveling between my two current schools on tuesdays and thursdays.  i found out via an e-mail sent to the entire staff explaining the new classrooms and the trickle-down effect that would be creating at my second school.  i have no official word from the district on anything.  in fact, i was the one who informed my principal at my main school.  i e-mailed her to ask what she knew and her response was, and i quote, "HUH???????"  we'll see when i find out anything at all.  the principal at my second school advised me to stick around at my main school on tuesday if i don't hear anything from the district.  maybe i'm missing something, but i fail to see how switching things up like this after school has started is the best thing for the kids.  i get that smaller classrooms is good, by how can switching whole teachers' schedules (and in this case, there are two of us who are being affected.)  we'll be essentially a month behind with our new assignments, which is detrimental not only to us but to the kids as well.  i'll be starting all over again next week with a new group of kids.  getting expectations established, routines, etc.  at least my main assignment won't be changing, unless it goes from .8 to 1.0 (that would be 4 days a week to 5 days a week).  it's frustrating to say the least.  this is the worst possible week for the switch to be happening, too.  i'm out of town w-f of next week for my sister's wedding.  guess a sub will have to do the new stuff for day 2.

HE DID IT!!!!!!!!

And yes, I'm shouting!!!!!!!  Owen FINALLY pooped in the potty - and he initiated the whole process on his own!!!!!!!  I wonder how close to being totally trained during the day we are?  Time will certainly tell. 

swimming lessons - session 2

owen is in advanced kippers.  lessons are t/th 5-5:30.  guess i'll be taking a snack for him after daycare those days.  we'll come home hungry, that's for sure.  speaking of daycare, owen has been dry all day, save for one mini-accident.  i took him potty right before we left daycare today and it worked!  what a great kid!

growing up

the fair was great.  owen loves the rodeo.  and scones.  neither jeff nor i could finish a scone without out being mooched off of.  that's ok, though.  we didn't take any sort of restraint for owen.  we barely even used the straps in the wagon.  owen did a beautiful job of staying nearby and walking with us, holding hands or staying within a foot or two.  i am just in total awe.  he also told me once today that he had to go potty.   he got a sample of fudge for that success.  the lady who was sitting next to me at the rodeo today asked owen how old he is.  he put his finger to his lip, had a pensive look on his face, and then answered, "two." and held up two fingers.  she asked how close to three he is.  i'm amazed that he will be three in one month and five days.  how in the world did that happen?!  when did that happen?!

he's asleep now, fell asleep during lullabies at the end of story time tonight.  I think he fell asleep during the second verse of the second song.  all i know is that all of a sudden, his head turned to the left and that was that.  he woke up very slightly as i moved him more to the middle of his bed, but went right back to sleep.  what a good boy!  i'm not sure i've ever had him fall asleep during stories before.  granted, two days with maybe a total of 20 minutes of napping will make any little boy tired.  

the first week

so glad it was a short one, at least with kids.  i've come home fully exhausted each day this week.  last night i was actually in bed (but not asleep) before owen.  i've seen all but one of my classes (i think...)  my annual favorite is last.  i've already had to call and have one student removed from my room.  this kinder decided that because i wasn't letting him yell (disruptively - not over-enthusiastic singing), roll around on the floor, and was actually trying to make him follow directions, that he would kick me in the leg as he was sitting next to me.  i was monitoring but not verbally acknowledging his undesirable (and attention-seeking) behaviors in the hopes that he would stop when he wasn't getting the kind of attention he wanted.  i called the office and told them that this student had kicked me and therefore needed to be removed.  our principal came up to get him.  that was another ordeal.  as he left, it was kicking and screaming.  

currently, the bug is standing on the arm of the couch, counting down from 3, then jumping onto the couch.  he certainly is all boy, isn't he?  today we're going to the puyallup fair and the rodeo.  jeff  went to the opening day and parade yesterday.  while i was at work.  the bum.  

first day

it was a good first day.  kids were singing beautifully!  they remembered a bunch from over the summer.  3:00 came (our dismissal time until this year) and it felt quite odd to be in the middle of class.  owen had a great day at day care.  stayed dry all day...until we got into the car, that is.  the lesson learned from that is to take him potty as soon as i pick him up.  

my mom had surgery today.  two weeks ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  her lumpectomy was this afternoon and was a success.  i spoke with her not too long ago and she sounded great. 

i'm about to crash here.  being awake for several hours in the middle of the night was not a good thing.  thank goodness jody across the hall had coffee (as usual, actually).

we won a battle of wills with owen tonight.  we made grilled cheese (velveeta) for dinner.  he refused to eat it.  demanding, "pbj!" the whole time.  we told him that he needed to eat the grilled cheese.  he refused until just a few minutes ago when he decided to eat it.  he's finishing the last bite as i type.  score one point for the parents.  

too early

it's 3:50 by my computer clock as i begin writing.  that's 3:50 a.m.  way too early to be awake. between the first day of school today and some stuff going on in my personal life (more details on that at a later date) it's an early morning.  not by choice, though.  i could very easily be asleep right now.  i'm wishing i were asleep right now.  

owen is growing up so fast.  in just one short year, he'll be getting ready to start at my school.  i've had people ask me already this year if owen is coming to my school this year.  i'm glad for his october b-day.  he's not ready for formal school just yet.  i'll bet that in a year he will be.  last night we played a board game for the first time.  it's based off of two of his favorite eric carle books.  it's a matching game, which he easily mastered.  remember playing "memory" as a child?  it's basically the same thing, but you have to pick the cards up and match them to spots on the game board.  we played three times.  the first time was just to show him how to play.  the second and third times were for real.   he legitimately won both of those times.  then i brought out the pink material (part of the montessori language materials, three letter phonetic words to match to pictures, mounted and laminated on pink paper) to start on.  i got a large set of that material from one of the teachers at school who is replacing it with newer pink material.  she asked me if i wanted it to bring home for owen.  of course i said yes.   i think i'm going to get the book from her and see exactly how i'm supposed to be teaching this work to him.  i have some ideas, but i want to make sure they're appropriate before i get too far in to it.  we're going to start with initial sounds, i think.  put out three pictures cards that start with different sounds (pin, dog, box) and have him figure out the first sound and then find the word card to match.  he showed some interest last night. i'll follow his lead, though.

ok.  i'm yawning again.  i think i'll climb back in bed and try to get a little bit more sleep.  the alarm goes off at 6...i need to be able to get up then.

resolution

my computer fixed itself.  i restarted it last night, just to see and i only had 18 song copies and 4 application icons added to the desktop.  this morning, nothing new was on there.  i wonder what caused the glitch.  

we're going to northwest trek today with faye and her kids.  it will be fun.  i woke up sad this morning because after today, summer vacation is over.  :-(  it went too fast.  the next two weeks will be spent getting ready in varying capacities for school to start again in september.  

Bursting with Pride

i'm amazed at owen.  tonight he actually floated for several minutes holding on to nothing but a pool noodle.  i was absolutely amazed.  he was totally relaxed for the entire swimming lesson.  no clinging at all.  i am amazed at how much more comfortable he is in the water after just two lessons.  i watched him, almost in tears of pride and joy as he was floating around.  jeff was there with the camera and got it on video.  i need to check with a couple of parents at swimming lessons to make sure it's ok that their child is in the shot (only for a very brief time) before posting it.  i'll try to post the one still picture jeff got of the two of us tomorrow.

completely unrelated:  my computer is driving me absolutely crazy.  i subscribed to a new magazine for school, which comes with songs for the kids to play on recorder.  part of the subscription that i got includes rights to download the entire magazine and songs.  i downloaded the songs without a problem.  they showed up on my computer in two zip files.  yesterday i tried to transfer them to itunes.  they wouldn't just click and drag from the zip files to itunes so i copied them to my desktop and then from there to itunes.  that worked beautifully.  they're in itunes and play.  i'm happy.  until my computer decided that it doesn't want to stop copying the songs to my desktop.  i seriously have 90 new icons on my computer each time i boot it up.  i'm about ready to add ventilation to our living room by throwing the computer through the window.  i've talked with my b-i-l in vt and he suggested deleting the files from my computer so that there was (in theory) nothing for the computer to copy from.  yeah, right.  that hasn't worked.  i've asked members of an e-mail list i'm on for suggestions and will read those in the morning.  any suggestions?

disappointed

i was so bummed tonight when we got to the Y for o's swimming lessons and saw the sign that said that the instructional pool was closed until further notice (likely tomorrow sometime.)  that meant that we didn't have swimming lessons tonight.  we'll go again on thursday.  hopefully nothing closes the pool then.  

tomorrow is our last day for play group this summer.  owen starts back at daycare on monday, i start back to work on monday and jeff starts his new job on monday (though he starts his training tomorrow.)  

faye and i went out tonight, just the mommies.  no one under 20 and/or a male was allowed.  we went to get ice cream.  it was super yummy and so nice to get out without the kids.  faye wore a shirt that said, "escaped mom...don't tell anyone you saw me!"  i so want a shirt like that!  it was so true tonight.  we considered going to see a movie after ice cream (she had gift cards for that) but i turn into a pumpkin at about 10 so going to a movie that started at 9:45 just wouldn't work.  even the hour out was nice.  

owen and i finished his 10 books for the summer reading program at the library.  we'll go on thursday to see the petting zoo and turn in books/get his books tallied and get the goodie bag.  friday we're going to nw trek with the kids.  that will be fun.  faye has a big enough car that we can all go in hers (all 5 or 6 of us, depending on where paige is when we go.  

it's working!!!!

i had my dress fitting today for my sister's wedding.  i took a small gamble when i bought a smaller dress than i tried on.  when i picked up my dress about a month ago, it was tight between the bottom of my rib cage to my knees.  i was afraid to move too much in it because i didn't want to rip the seams.  well, when i tried it on today at the store, not only was it looser everywhere but my thighs (and it was only slightly tight there), but we're not even going to hem it.  it fits perfectly!!!!!  what a change in my personal attitude from when i tried on dresses for the first time (and none of them fit properly, some because i was trying on dresses several sizes too large) and from today.  everything is looking great!  i know that if i keep up what i've been doing, the dress will fit beautifully at the wedding at the end of september.  oh, and not having to spend the money on alterations is a wonderful thing, too.  i'm really excited to see what results i have on the scale tomorrow.  i have been slightly discouraged by not losing as much weight as i've wanted, but putting this dress on helps me to see that things are toning up regardless of what the scale says.  i'll take toning over weight loss at this point. with toning, though, the weight loss will come.  :-)

fishy!

the difference between tuesday night and tonight is black and white.  owen was a different child in the pool tonight.  he was wanting to be dunked...went under something like 20 times (i honestly lost count!)  he wasn't clingy, and loved swimming lessons.  he clung to me for maybe 1 minute at the very beginning.  he was launching himself off of the wall at me from a sitting position (didn't want to jump today.)  he seemed so comfortable in the water.  loved having water poured over his head from a colander.  amazing.  i'm excited for tuesday to see how he does then.

swimming lessons

owen did great.  there were lots of games and singing.  the teachers (yes, plural) are great.  by then end, owen was kicking up a storm as we moved around the pool, he was even getting into the splashing games.  the one thing he did really well was climb out of the pool.  i set him holding on to the edge and let go.  he climbed right out.   he won't jump in to me yet.  he also didn't like doing the alligator slide (sliding into the pool on his tummy).  in time.  bubbles are blown above the water level...but he has the right idea.  we go back on thursday.  it will be good to have lessons twice a week.  

race cars!

1.  front side 

2.  peek-a-boo!

3.  back side 

4.  embroidered name

that's owen's new thing.  day care lost his blanket last year (grumble....) so i'm making him a new one, one that'll be better for the big boy owen is becoming.  we went to the fabric store yesterday so owen could pick out his own blanket fabric.  the first one i showed him was race cars.  he loved it.  we wandered the stacks a little more and i found other patterns i thought owen might like.  every time i suggested something else, he said, "no!" and clung onto the bolt of race car fabric tighter.  race cars it is.  i found a nice red with a very subtle marbling for the back.  i also got thread and blanket binding.  i just need more binding....guess we're heading back to the store.  i got everything set up last night, including embroidering  owen's name on the red so it doesn't get lost.  i'm hoping to get the sewing done today or tomorrow.  i don't imagine it will take too long. i'll need to set up the pins for quilting (simple squares).  i'm actually quite excited about this blanket.  i'm no expert seamstress, but this is easy enough.  and it's going to be a very cool blanket.  

swimming lessons start tonight.  they run for 4 weeks.  i hope owen doesn't freak out when we get into the water tonight...i'll try to post an update tomorrow.

we're watching little einsteins on playhouse disney right now.  owen just sand part of the theme song.  he cracks me up.

clarity

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

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

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

trip and counting

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

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

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

6

years ago today i married my husband!

and an undisclosed number of years ago my mother was born. (happy birthday, mom!) as a birthday "present", we called this morning and owen said, "hi gamma! happy to you!" until today, he has always called her mah-muh. this was his first time calling his gramma "gamma".

we're in helena this weekend for a family reunion on jeff's side. his mother and grandmother are her eas well (along with his dad and step-grandfather). owen is loving seeing grandma, papa, great-grandma (he can even say it and recognizes her!) and porky (great-grandma's husband) every day. the reunion is over after lunch today. we're going to be spending the afternoon with my aunt and cousin who live here. we also might try to go to the carousel that's right by our hotel.

we went to the rodeo last night. owen, of course, loved the whole thing. they had the craziest thing: teams of 4-5 people trying to do the following:

1. catch a cow which was released from the bucking shoots (the cows had on halters and ropes to make them easier to catch and hold...)
2. milk her (quantity didn't matter, just one successful squeeze worked) into a cup
3. take the milk to the judge.

it was incredible to watch. lots of fun, too.

off to the carousel and then to the reunion site again for lunch.