Twinkle Star….Sort Of

This morning at breakfast Owen started to snuggle his blankie and sang Twinkle, Twinkle all the way through. This was the first time he sang the whole song all himself, it was adorable and I was proud.  So during lunch I thought maybe he’d want to sing it again for the camera. No luck! Why can’t they perform when you want them to?

He had fun with me though, and started to sing it and then after the second line he busted out with his own version. It totally made me laugh so I had to share. Watch the video and for those that have a hard time deciphering toddler talk he says “I play cars, in the car, done…down with cars.”

Sticker Morning

After breakfast Owen wanted to play with his stickers, so to the table we went to play. I brought along his new stickers he got from Becko. Well let me say we played with them all morning until we went to Wee Play and then once he got back it was sticker play again. It wasn’t our normal sticker play, peel sticker, put on paper, and then peel them off again.

Instead he took the Bob the Builder stickers around his whole play area. He put them on the dog’s sofa, put them on the floor, and while I made lunch I even saw him playing with them in his farm. They ate lunch with us and even went to bed with him for nap.

I enjoyed watching him figuring out new games for these stickers and happy to see such a simple item can bring such joy. (And his shirt is messy from paint from class.)

Stickers on Floor

Stickers on Sofa

Showing Me the Stickers

Happy Birthday Brice

This afternoon we celebrated Owen’s friend Brice’s birthday. He had a pool party and the weather could not have turned out better. When we got there at the clubhouse, Owen immediately started to play with the two diggers. It took some coaxing to get him to leave them and go to the pool.

As normal, Owen took some time but finally warmed up. Even more than last time. He was running around the pool, playing with the beach ball. laying on his belly in the middle of the pool. We even made it to the big pool where he sat on the steps and “blew” bubbles. We even got him to let me hold him and swim around the pool.

Then it was back to the clubhouse for dinner, which Owen never eats at these things – too busy playing. He did come running to enjoy the cake though (I got him to eat some of his actual dinner after cake). Most of the time Owen played with the two diggers, in the tent, by the door and on the deck.

After I cued him, he even told Brice “Happy Birthday”. Sorry no pictures of Brice, but Omer put the camera down to take some pictures for Ali and never picked it back up….was having too much fun.

Pool Play with Daddy

Dumping Water

Beach Ball Chasing (he also was throwing it)

Party in the Clubhouse – Owen is by the Tent

Mom & Son Saturday

Omer is out of town this weekend, so Owen and I enjoyed a Saturday together. As it can be a little lonely, I made sure to schedule some activities with other adults. We had a great day and a lot of fun. Started out as usual, breakfast and playtime, then we headed to the library to check out some new books and enjoy story-time. For the first time Owen sat at the table and “read’ a book while I searched for books. It was so cute.

Then as usual, during story-time Owen sat with me and listened to the books and watched the dancing. The theme today was trucks, what luck! When we got in the car, Owen started to recite parts of the first book she read. “Police car got stuck, fire truck got stuck, digger got stuck”…and so on. Glad to see he enjoyed himself and was paying attention. Now I need to remember which book it was so we can check it out.

Then Erica came over to hang out, or as Owen calls her “Erka”. We had a good time, got to chat with a friend and Owen loves to play with Erica. They read together, we ate together, he did his loops, played cars, and shared a drink (he wanted “Erka’s drink”). Before his nap he even gave her two kisses good-bye.

He took another wonderful 3 hour nap, while I got some rest and relaxation. Then it was off to meet Babaanna, her friend Gulhan and her 2.5 year old son Alec (we met them at the Afternoon Tea). We met at Reston Town Center at the big water fountain, where the boys sat and watched the water. Then we went to get some ice cream for the boys, and I ended up eating all of Owen’s. He was just not interested in trying the tasty treat. Don’t laugh but my child has only had ice cream probably three times in his life so I guess he is not used to the yummy frozen snack, but it’s one of my favorites.

We then walked down to the ground fountain and open field. Alec is a pro at the fountain and really likes to bat at the water when it shoots up. This was Owen’s first time at a fountain like this, and he was a little reserved at first and just watched Alec. But quickly he started to run through the water and put his shark and crocodile in the water. All was good until he was standing on a hole when it started to blow water, it startled him and he was pretty much done with the fountain. I will have to say, I really wanted to take a dash through it.

He then started to do laps around the fountain, and of course moved on to running around the field. Alec joined him and they ran around the field and got tuckered out. We got them to hang out a little in the shade and play cars. On the walk back to our cars, Owen decided to hold hands with Alec’s Babaanna. It was really cute and we all had a good laugh about it.  The boys had a great time together, and gave each other high-five goodbye. When we got home, I took his shirt off to help him cool off and he enjoyed a popsicle (sugar free of course…I know!!!) while I made dinner. Then is was business as usual, dinner, playtime, bath and bedtime. Tomorrow I plan on just going on a hike with the pups and then Omer will return.

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Comfortable in the Water

At first, I thought Owen was going to be a water bug but for some reason he flipped and was not. This summer, at the pool he is not scared of the baby pool but does not really play too much in the water. He usually plays at the zero entry area and might go in quickly to waste high. When we go to the big pool, he clings to me like a monkey. Not sure what happened but it does bother me. I LOVE the pool and want my kid to be comfortable at the pool and love the water as well. I do not agree with pushing the matter because that can deter the child even more, so when we go to the pool I usually let him be and talk about him being in the water and kicking and splashing. When we go to the big pool, because I need to get cooled off too, I just dunk under real quick while he clings to me.

Well this afternoon was our first trip where he finally started to be more comfortable. I was so happy. The only thing I had done different was buy him some water shoes which he wore for the first time on Wednesday at the pool. It did help but I also believe just letting him go at his own pace has started to pay off.

We started our trip out as usual, at the baby pool with Owen playing with his toys around the zero entry area. Then I asked if we could go to the big pool and he agreed and walked over himself. I got him to sit with me on the steps and kick, he enjoyed that. He even allowed me to help him jump in, but then wanted out. Baby steps. Back to the steps, where he played happily. And I got to cool off in the pool for close to 30 mins.

Then he just stood up and walked back to the baby pool, where he was totally more comfortable. He actually sat in the pool and played, laid on his belly playing with his toys, and laid on his belly and kicked. I was so proud and started to get hopeful that my boy might become a water bug.

The Beginning – Standing at Zero Entry

Taking a Knee

He Pretended his Crocodiles were in the Cave (HE’S LAYING DOWN!)

Playing with His Dive Sticks

Sitting and Playing

Kick, Kick, Kick

Birthday Preview

Owen received a lot of gifts from Leyla’s friends at the afternoon tea, but we didn’t open them right away. That day we didn’t get back until after his bedtime, so definitely wasn’t going to do it then and of course Omer wanted to be around when they were opened, so finally this evening we got a chance.

We piled the gifts on the green sofa and Owen immediately went over to take the stuffed zebra off of one of the gifts. He was very excited to get new toys and was surprisingly a little reserved when opening them. He would wait for me to start tearing the wrapping paper and then would give it a little tug, and with bags he carefully took the tissue paper out. It was pretty humorous; I truly imagined him ripping the paper. He also got a lot of cute new clothes, so he will be styling.

He loved the pirate bath set, and even took the shark to bed with him. And of course he took all his new cars with him , and the zebra. The funny thing was he named all his gifts “new [airplane]“.

Gift Opening Concentration

Snuggle Zebra

“New Digger”

“New Airplane” – He Loved the Little People

Soccer Ball

He “Dribbled” it Twice to Daddy

Gathering his “New Cars”

Sharing his car with Zebra

Pirates for the Bath – “ARRRRR” (Omer was also excited, both boys have gotten bored with the bath toys)

Tree Hugger

Owen and I took the pups on their hike this morning and he decided he wanted to walk most all of it. He was only in the backpack for about 15 minutes and then kept requesting “down please”. So I let him and was shocked how much he did, probably walked for another hour. Of course there was a lot of stopping to pull grass, play with sticks and hug trees.

That’s right Owen is a tree hugger. Not sure where this action came from, I might be pretty earthy and green but I have never physically hugged a tree. I looked back and Owen had his cheek against the tree and saying “snuggle tree”. He did this 4 more times.

Wolf Trap

We met Kim and Caitlyn at Wolf Trap’s Theatre-in-the-Woods program for kids. It is a great program and free for our little toddlers. It is outside in an amphitheatre and is about a 30 minute program, ranges from music to puppet shows. Our first show of the season was Dinorock’s Junkyard Pirates. Must be honest when I purchased the tickets I thought it was about Dinosaur’s because I didn’t happen to see the Junkyard Pirates part.

Oh well, both Owen and Caitlyn seemed to enjoy the show and it had a great message. The show was about pirates who try to teach about the 4 R’s (arrrr), recycle, reuse, reduce and repair. For the most part Owen had is deep concentration face on trying to follow the show, but did ask about the dog puppet and participate in a couple of the hand movements. Both toddlers did great and sat through the entire show.

After the show, I promised Owen we could stop by the creek (something I promised on the way to the show), he did not forget. It was cute to see Owen and Caitlyn peering through the bridge looking at the creek, while the masses exited the area.

Then Owen ran over to the creek to get a closer look, Caitlyn followed. They tried to pull up the roots with no luck. But I found some little twigs so they could throw them in the creek. We then tried to get them to make the walk back but after running around and not wanting to actually run in the direction we needed, they took a ride in Kim’s double stroller. I got a workout pushing two toddler’s up a very steep hill. But the two buds seemed to be having fun in there, when we stopped they were tapping each other’s knees with smiles on their faces.

Owen at the Creek

Picking Sticks

Friends Playing

Running

Veering off the Path

On my way home, as you know I like to discuss with Owen what we just did, this was our conversation:
M: Did you have fun?
O: Arrrrr
M: What did you see?
O: R
M: What else?
O: Doggie (he was one of the puppets)
M: What else?
O: More Doggie
M: [giggle] What else?
O: Wolf
M: [giggle] (there was no wolf) What else?
O: Caitlyn
M: That’s right, anything else?
O: Creek
M: That was fun, what else?
O: Truck! (there was a truck during the show)

Glad he remembered some items from the show, but he definitely didn’t understand the whole pirate thing.

Natural History Museum (2nd Time)

Our friends Beth and Christina asked us to take a trip up to the Natural History Museum. Of course, we were in. This morning I told Owen where we were going and how and he kept saying “ride bus, ride train, Christina, museum”. He was very excited and curious about the bus and train ride. It was the only time he really sat still. Even though the morning commuters probably weren’t expectingtwo very excited toddlers talking in their own little language of excited squeals.

Once we got there, the kids viewed all the animals and Beth and Christina got to see just how quick Owen can run and how much. This time Owen seemed to like the monkeys, giraffe and wolves the most. Then we took a quick walk through the dinosaurs, not that exciting at this age. We viewed the hope diamond and then off to the new butterfly exhibit. It was a beautiful exhibit with lots of butterflies that fluttered around a lot. Owen really enjoyed looking for the butterflies and one even fluttered around him.

After that we went to see a special exhibit of ocean life photography, it was gorgeous. Some of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen, and fun for the kids to see big pictures of animals. Then off to walk through the cavemen or as Owen calls them “people”.

We ended our trip at the store where Owen snuggled a panda bear which I made him put back (we have one already) and then he found a jeep that he took off the shelf, carried over to the check out, and put it on the counter. What a little shopper!

The ride home went really well too and the kids were once again excited to ride the train and bus. Both of them on the bus looked very drowsy, it was a long day. On the way home as usual I asked Owen what he saw at the museum and he responded “big elephant, giraffe, monkeys, dinosaurs, fish, butterflies and Christina” (of course with me asking what else in between each). Luckily I made it home without Owen falling asleep and must admit he had a hard time settling himself down to nap,  but eventually got there.

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Afternoon Tea

Omer’s parents hosted an afternoon tea today to introduce Owen to many of their friends. Owen was a little shy at first, but then Babaanna showed him the new trucks they had gotten him and he quickly gathered them up and went outside to play. This is essentially all he did the whole time.

He did great with a big crowd of people he didn’t know and even showed off a couple of his Turkish words. He says “Maraba” (hello), “Babanana” (should be babaanan for grandma), “Buyukbaba” (grandfather), ”ban eyim” (I’m doing well), ”E-aksamlar” (good evening), “goula goula” (goodbye).

One of Leyla’s friends brought her son Alec who is 2.5 years old. After warming up, Owen had a good time playing with him. Alec is very into kicking and catching balls, so Owen watched him and tried to tag along. He kicked the ball a couple times.

After everyone left, Owen and Jorge played with his trucks under the tree. Jorge taught him how to get the forklift to put dirt into the dump truck. Owen was a fan! He kept asking Jorge to play. We made him take a break to try to get a picture  of him and his grandparents and right after we were done it was back to the tree.

Then we went inside and the music was playing, Owen ran right into the living room and started to boogie. Jorge joined him and taught a new dance move – tap/stomping his foot. It was very cute to watch Owen trying to copy his dance moves.

We all had a great time and it was nice to see everyone.

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