Warning: LONG POST!!! Grab a snack. Grab some coffee. Kick up your feet and stay awhile!
Disclaimer: I realize some of you think I am crazy to go on and on about so many little details in my posts. I often think the same thing. Although none of you asked for or expect an explanation, allow me to share one anyway. I realize my memory is not what it used to be. While I have lots of good memories locked away in my brain, I don't remember some of the bigger things of my past, and for that, I am truly disappointed. I want to remember everything I can from here on out so when I look back, all my ramblings, (I mean, documented thoughts and goings-on) will trigger the memories of these wonderful days...these days that will most likely bleed into all the others as Owen grows and changes. I want to be able to look back when I am 75 and say "Oh, that was so funny when he did that." or "I loved when he went through that phase as a toddler." So, there you have it...
Dear Owen,
Mommy has not been very good about posting lately! AT ALL!! Days are filled with so many things – teaching students, running errands, cleaning house, doing this and that – but the most fun thing of all is chasing you around all day. Your 16-month post was written in March. On April 20, you turned 17 months old, and today, May 20, you turned a WHOPPING 18 months old! You are officially 1½ years old, Sweet Boy! I am going to do my best to backtrack and relive some of the best moments of the past 2 months, but I already know I will fall short (with my memory being what it is and all).
Here is what you have been up to during months 17 and 18.
You wear a size 5 diaper and size 24 month clothing. Some of your pants and shorts are 18-month, which fit just fine. We have found that when it comes to shirts, they have to have shoulder snaps for them to go over your head. Several shirts have had to be “retired” early due to tight fitting necklines that won’t fit over your head.
You weigh 29 pounds, and I only know that because you love to go into our bathroom and stand on the scale. You seem to like the red digital numbers! (I should have other stats to go along with your weight after you go see Dr. Dalton on Monday morning!)
Monday morning update: Weight 29.4 pounds (90th percentile) ~~~ Height 34.75 inches (97th percentile) ~~~ Head circumference 50.25 centimeters -- 19.8 inches (97th percentile)
Your eating habits are as follows.
• You eat 3 meals a day with 1-2 snacks in between. You drink milk in the morning and at night before bed. You have one small cup of V-fusion Light juice mixed with water each day, and the rest of the day, you drink water, water, water…sometimes with ice and sometimes without!
• You are a fruit-aholic! You love every fruit that has ever been offered to you and you get 4-6 servings of fruit a day. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, pears, oranges (Cuties are your FAVORITE), grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, and so on. You get all fresh fruit so we are very happy about that!!
• You are NOT a vegetable-aholic. This continues to be the most frustrating thing as we prepare meals. You will not eat green beans, corn, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, asparagus, avocado…just to name a few. You will eat French fries, but it’s usually only a few and Mommy knows they do not count as a vegetable. You also eat raw carrot if Mommy grates it on the cheese grater. You make a mess of it, but you eat it well this way. If memory serves me correctly, you do like baked sweet potato fries, so we need to make those more so you can get some Vitamin A!! There are a few other things we want to try cooking (squash, zucchini, eggplant) to see how those go over. We are now to a point of reverting back to the days when we hid veggies among other foods. Just last night, Mommy pureed 8-10 green beans and put them in your serving of spaghetti sauce. You had no idea! I wish I knew an easy way to solve this anti-vegetable problem, but I don’t. Maybe we did something wrong when you were itty bitty…letting you have fruits and veggies simultaneously during meals instead of giving you all veggies before fruits were ever introduced. The thing is, you loved all the bland veggies we used to serve you from little plastic containers! What changed?? Perhaps Mommy should have been SuperMom and made all your baby foods from steamed, fresh vegetables so the flavors would have been more accurate to table foods. Maybe it is because we give you your whole plate of food at once and let you choose what you want to eat and in what order. If we just made you sit in your chair and eat veggies before anything else was given, you would no doubt choose the starvation option. Maybe we should try serving your meal in a specific order until you lose some of this pickiness. It’s worth a shot.
• You have gotten to where you eat meat a little better. You will eat chicken, pieces of hamburger patty, meatloaf, lunchmeat, and (as of tonight) pork chops. Of course you like to have your drop or two of “dip”…ranch dressing, ketchup…to dip things in. You are so delicate with your dipping, so as to not get too much dip on one piece of meat. For awhile, you would say “dip, dip, dip” as you would barely touch the meat to the dip with each “dip” said. It was cute. Now, you just dip once and eat. Mommy must also mention that you treat any leftover dip like moisturizing lotion! You rub it all over your hands, in between each finger, and all over your tray. It's sure fun cleaning all that up!
• You LOVE oatmeal almost as much as Mommy and Daddy. You call it “bo-cah” which we have yet to understand.
You are down to one nap each day. It’s usually around 2 hours, give or take a few minutes. A couple days recently, you have taken a 3+ hour nap, but other than that, you keep your nap around the 2-hour mark. You sleep 11-12 hours at night. Bedtime ranges between 9:00 and 9:30 most days and you wake up anywhere between 8:30 and 10:00 in the morning.
You have 14 teeth now. They have bothered you a lot more these past several weeks so we’ve given you Tylenol when it seems to be worse than normal. We think they may have broken through by now because they not caused you any discomfort in the last several days.
Your vocabulary is AMAZING!! You have learned and practiced so many new sounds and you are so easy to understand…unless someone asks you about oatmeal. Haha! You can repeat anything we say so we quiz you on and off throughout the day and evening. It’s “Can you say…?” or “Say….” all day long! :) There are a couple compound words that you haven’t gotten down yet, but the parts you do know are perfect. For example, “butterflies” are “flies” and “grasshopper” is “hopper.” “ish” has now become “fish,” (YAY!!) but “duck” is still “guck” in your mind. There are several other pronunciations that we continue to work on with repetition and continued exposure. “Zebra” is “zebby,” “marker” is still “barker,” “spoon” is “moose”…and so on. We are so proud of you for being consistent though. At this point, association is so important and you can correctly associate things even if you pronunciation is a little off.
Your love for animals is still apparent every single day! You recognize them quickly and easily in either cartoon/drawn form or real photos/videos. We are hoping to take a day (possibly overnight) trip to Abilene this summer so you can go to the zoo and see lots of real animals! How fun!! We’ve added “what does an owl say?” to our list of things to ask you constantly and you have the cutest “who, who” as your reply! Also, you love elephants. You say “elphant” and you imitate their sound by waving your right arm over your head making a faint siren sound. For puppy/dog, you now have 2 sounds you like to use, depending on the size of the dog you see. Little dogs get a high pitched “arf, arf” while big dogs get a lower pitched “woof, woof.” It’s pretty adorable! You aren’t so sure about bunnies. You see a bunny and say “meee-ow” and then when we tell you a bunny doesn’t say “meow” you attempt “boing” which is what would represent a bunny hopping. You like
to say “hippo”, “monkey”, and “dolphin” a lot.
You recognize several letters of the alphabet. W is your favorite! (You only say “double, double” though.) You also know and recognize O, N, A, B, C, and Y. When we count, 2 is your favorite! For several days, we could start with 1 and you would say 2. We say 3 and you would say 2. We would say 4 and then 5 and you would say 6. We would say 7 and you would say 8. After we said 9, you would say 10 (very excitedly). Since then, you say 2 for every other number after 1. Mommy hasn't tried it in the last several days, so we may start working on that again soon.
You continue to know/recognize several people by name whether it be in picture or flesh form!! Mommy and Daddy, of course, Grammy, Papa, Joe, Cindy, MoMo, Nina, Kyle, Casey, Griffin, Davis, Aaron, and finally…Pa-TAH has now turned into Grandpa!! Gramommy is still very close to “mommy” at this point, but we are still working on it. Your favorite name of all is your own! You see a picture of yourself and you say “Owen!!” We will say O-W-E-N. That spells ____?” and you say “Owen!!” If we say “What’s your name?” You say “Owen!!” For awhile it was O-wee, but now you have it down perfectly! It’s cute when a stranger asks your name and you gladly tell them who you are! Sooo cute!!
You have recently started giving hugs and kisses. Of course when we ask you for a hug or a kiss, you only do it when YOU are in the mood. When you hug, you lay your head on our shoulder and pat our back/shoulders with your hands while saying "Ahhh." For kisses, you put your lips together and lean in toward our mouths. We love that you can now show us some affection!
We rigged a sandbox out in the backyard! It’s a flat plastic tote from the garage that we filled with two bags of play sand. You like to play in it, although we hadn’t played in it in a few weeks (until yesterday). You still like to swing in your Little Tikes swing, but rather than swing, you would prefer that we just twist the swing as tight as it will go and then let go so you can get “dizzy.” You are your father’s son…loving that icky feeling in your stomach from dizziness, roller coasters, etc. Ugg. Makes Mommy want to throw up just thinking about it!! :) You have also discovered the spinning office chair, so as soon as the door to the office opens, you go running in so you can climb on the chair and get "dizzy." You would sit in the chair and have Mommy spin you ALL. DAY. LONG. if there weren't other things to do. You love taking walks and running around outdoors! We take your Step 2 car out almost every day and you just sit and observe all the things around you, cars sitting in driveways, lawn décor, plants, animals, birds, pinecones, etc. It’s such an enjoyable time and we look forward to more outdoor time this summer! We also have a swimming pool to set up for you in the weeks ahead. That should be loads of fun!
May 6, 2011, you pooped in the potty for the first time. You grunted. We ran. We closed the door. We took your clothes off. You played in the bathroom. You grunted again. Mommy threw you (that may be an exaggeration) onto the potty chair. Plop. Plop. Yay Owen!! Repeat the above steps again the evening of May 11. It’s all about baby steps, people! I recently read an article about potty training in 3 days. We are going to give it a go this summer and see what progress we can make! Fingers crossed for more poo poo (and tee tee) success stories!
If you get in trouble and we tell you something is a “no no,” you still like to repeat “no no” and shake your finger or point at whatever we were talking about. It’s hard not to smile/laugh because your voice and face are priceless, but we hold firm and let you know who’s boss. You have gotten to where you like to “sike” Mommy and Daddy out by pretending to throw something at our faces…but needless to say, we are trying to break you of the habit. You still notice “trash” on the floor/ground sometimes, but you have steered away from taking it straight to the trash can. Now you like to whip whatever trash you have picked up over your head (throwing it) to see how it lands. We are working on simple commands, such as “Go pick up the trash.” but sometimes you are a bit stubborn and hard-headed (which you inherited equally from both Mommy and Daddy!!) :)
If Mommy asks you something like “Where is your bus book?” you say in a high pitched voice “Arrrre you?” as if you are saying “Where are you, book?” Oh, it’s precious. All we have to say is the word “where” and you respond with that same thing.
Picture-taking continues to be a huge challenge. The perfect combination of looking at the camera, smile, stillness, tamed hair, clothing free of food particles and crumbs, semi-decent background RARELY happens. We got your Easter pictures taken at a cheap studio (you definitely get what you pay for!!) and it was equally challenging there! Only one pose turned out good, but for that one pose, we are thankful!
You have a remarkable memory! We may tell you something only once and then you have it in your brain forever. We took a walk one evening around a nearby church property and along the walk, there are several park benches to sit on complete with lighting and trees. We talked about the benches, that we sit on them, can touch them, take a break from walking, etc…and now every single time we drive by that property, you point and say “bench, bench.” If you see a bench in someone's yard, outside of a store, etc, you point and say "bench, bench" so we know you know what a bench is!! "What do you do on a bench, Owen?" "Sit." "That's right." Your brain is a sponge and we are filled with awe watching you grow and communicate about your surroundings! You have a wooden alphabet puzzle that we like to quiz you on. We can say “Where is the moon?” and you pick up the M piece. We do this with 15-18 of the pictures, and you get them right 95% of the time! It’s a fun game! You’ll probably be good at the game Memory. Daddy has a preschool game on his phone that you like to play. There are questions about "biggest" fruit, the fruit that starts with a certain letter, certain colors of fruit, and so on. You are VERY good at the game and giggle the whole time you play it. We like watching you interact with technology. You are your father's son. :)
On May 6, you and Mommy went on a little outing to the Science Spectrum with Stephanie and Jacen. You had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again! It will be a fun place to go this summer while Daddy is home from work. Since there are so many of those pictures, Mommy is going to post them separately with captions!
You love to say “bless you” anytime someone sneezes. Sometimes, you even “bless” a person if they blow their nose, cough, or clear their throat. It is completely unprompted and you will say it in the sweetest little voice. We taught you that when you "toot" or "burp" that we say "excuse me." You know what to say and when to say it (again unprompted) but it comes out as "s'cuses." :)
You have known how to say “Jesus” for some time, but now, you recognize crosses everywhere! Some of your toys have Phillips head screws and you will point at the little plus sign and say “Jesus.” Some of your picture books have very symmetrical lowercase “t”s that resemble a cross, so you always point and say “Jesus.” Toys with intersecting designs, concrete intersections, crosses you see on the side of the road, patterns on fabric, drawn on paper, etc. You see “Jesus” in everything. When we ask you where Jesus lives, you put your hand on your chest and say “heart.” It’s wonderful to see that you already recognize and know about Jesus! We hope your life is filled with many more “Jesus” connections and that you truly find Him in your heart one day! At church last weekend, Daddy was home not feeling well so you and Mommy went on to church alone. Mommy took you into the service for the music portion at the very beginning and you did really well. You seemed to like the music and sat very still in Mommy’s arms for all 5 or 6 songs.
Mommy recently entered you in a contest at parents.com for a chance to win prizes and a photo shoot in New York (a long shot? Yes!!). You were chosen to be in the running for prizes during Week 2, but Mommy was unaware that you were only entered for that one week. Word got out to some people a little late but facebook friends helped take you from #1115 to #562 in just a matter of a few days. Contest winner or no contest winner, you are the sweetest, most handsome, loving, amazing little boy and we couldn’t possibly love you any more than we do right now!!
Oh, Little Owen. You are such a joy. A busy, active, exhausting little joy, but JOY nonetheless. Days are filled with so many things. You have a chance to watch Praise Baby DVDs sometimes, look at books, play on your own, have books read to you, go outside, run errands with Mommy, eat meals/snacks, harass the dogs (haha), talk up a storm, play with Mommy and Daddy, climb on things (you have mastered the couch and kitchen chairs in the last week or so!), and take one little break for a nap. We hope you love your life as our son as much as we love our lives as your parents.
All our love on your 1½ year birthday!
Daddy and Mommy
Gramommy got you this new chair at Toys R Us,
and you love it! This picture was taken as soon as we got
home while you were "trying it out!!"
It has 3 characters from Cars (the movie) and you love to point at all 3 and say them by name.
This is a typical day's mess near your bookshelf.
Your new dump truck complete with plastic rock!
Mommy can't remember what you were looking at in this picture, but if she had to guess,
it was either a bird, a tree, or cars.
Notice the mess in the background? Who in the world did that?
(Notice the mess in THIS background??) With a face like that, who cares about the mess!!??!! :)
"I think I will take a seat amongst my cars."
"You are bothering me with that camera, Mommy."
"I like carrots."
You like when Mommy mixes your milk with yogurt and fresh fruit for a quick, healthy snack. 3 of your favorite things!
What a HANDSOME fellow all dressed up in black tie attire! This is what you wore to Daddy's UIL contest. We didn't go into the auditorium due to Mommy's fear of you making a peep...but we had a fun time listening at the door.
Some new jammies. We had to get out the
24 month pjs in mid-April.
Playing in Grammie Lu's backyard.
As soon as we get to Grammie Lu's house, you start saying "Mitzi, Mitzi." You love Mitzi and she loves you. It seems as though she wants your ball! :)
Fun in the sandbox on a bright spring day!
Switching gears to the ballpark in Midland...
"You brought the camera AGAIN, Mommy?"
Grammy, Owen, and Rocky.
Mommy gave you a picture of this and for a few days, you carried it around saying "Grammy, Owen, Ocky." You really like "Ocky" and recognize him on various cups, hats, and shirts.
"What's this?"
"I'm interested."
"WHOA!!"
"I'm not looking at you, Mommy!!"
"Ok, now I am."
One of my favorite recent pics of you, Sweet Boy! (This was a picture where I held out the camera with Owen in my lap. Who knew that would be the strategy to get a picture of him looking right into the camera!?!?)
You crawled up in the chair and wanted to learn math with Davis and me...
so I taught you how to solve for 'x'...
A blurry but adorable picture from Mommy's new phone.
More crawling up into a dining room chair. We ate dinner tonight with you sitting just as you are in this picture. It may be "so long" high chair, "hello" booster seat in the coming days...
See how big you smile when you have no idea Mommy has the camera pointed at you???
Your new Elmo jammies! Gramommy got these for you and brought them over yesterday!
You love Elmo. He's on a toy guitar you received at your birthday party, a blanket Mommy has had since her senior year of high school, and a recent pack of diapers. You recognize him EVERYWHERE (which is odd to Mommy and Daddy since you really don't have a whole lot of exposure to him). It's nice to see you smile so big when you see the cuddly little red fellow! Maybe we should look into some DVDs or more Elmo toys.
