Happy New Year

My wonderful sister Jenni came up to babysit Owen while Omer and I went to a NYE party. Very sweet of her! Owen of course made her read to him as most of our guests seem to be required to do. He figured out several of the dials and pulls in this book today so we was happy to show off.

Giving Aunt Jenni big smiles.

New Reading Spot

Owen decided that he wanted to sit up in the chair in the living room. As he does not climb, he will say “up, peas”. I came in the room to see my two men reading in the big chair. It was really adorable. He has continued to do this for the past couple days as well. I think Owen has really enjoyed having his Dad around for two long weekends. We are both going to miss him when he has to return to work.

His Own Little Chair

This Christmas Owen got two pint size chairs, the frog bean bag which Grandma gave him is in the living room next to his books. The other one from Uncle Josh and Aunt Natalie is in his playroom. He has shown interest in sitting in both and he also likes to snuggle into both. Today I turned around from the kitchen to find him sitting and reading his book. So very cute!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas this year was so much fun. Having a little kid around makes the whole thing more enjoyable and quite entertaining. We started the morning in the play living room for stockings for Owen and the pups. After I showed him there were things in his stocking, he kept digging in there to pull more goodies out. Even after it was empty and he carried it into the kitchen, he dug in to see if the magical stocking had produced something else. It was really cute. We also got him a table and chairs set, which at first he didn’t show much interest and then he got up there and sat and loved playing up there. He played up there most of the day. At one point I did look over to find Omer and Owen under the table. Owen climbed under there; so the boys had a cave. 🙂

After breakfast we went to the Christmas tree and Owen immediately started opening a gift, luckily it was one of his. After the couple practice days, he fully knew what to do now. It was fun to watch him open his gifts and so excited to play with them. Several of them, he’s open and announce “cars, bus or trucks”. That was the theme this year – vehicles. He has tons now to drive around and make the sounds. Owen alos liked to help us open our gifts and when he saw it was of no interest to him, went to something else. We did have to take a couple breaks and read some of his new books and play with the toys between opening; it seemed a little overwhelming to him if we didn’t. Chloe and Chester also had a wonderful time watching all the chaos and enjoying their Christmas treats.

Later in the afternoon, some of my family came to celebrate Christmas. Owen enjoyed his visitors with lots of smiles and running around. A lot of the family could not stay for presents or dinner, but it was kind of nice having a more low-key, quiet Christmas (even though you all were missed). Owen’s aunt Jenni taught him that plane’s go “zoom”, and at one point Owen was holding one of his planes and flying it around the house saying “zoom”. Totally adorable! He was very good with the second round of gifts and enjoyed tearing into paper and bags again. Then we (Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jenni, Owen, Omer and I) all enjoyed a “quiet” dinner. Owen got a little tired and antsy, but he did make it through most of the dinner with some grapes and popcorn and then quickly went back to running around  and playing.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas and I am glad to have celebrated it with my family (here and afar). We wish you had as joyous time as we did.

Click on the image below to view more. Once you are in the photo album click on slideshow. I also have some video at the bottom so you can see a little of our day.

Owen opening a gift from Uncle Kerem.

Owen digging through his bucket or vehicles.

Owen opening another present from us.

Christmas Eve Party

Every year the Applers have a Christmas Eve party that Omer’s family has been attending for a long time. This year we decided to bring Owen along to meet everyone and to enjoy the festivities for a little. As the party starts right at his bedtime, I was a little worried how he’d act but he slept in quite a bit this morning so we started the day already an hour behind. Only after a couple minutes Owen was running around being his normal cute self. 🙂 I think he had a blast at the party until almost exactly when I had planned to leave he started to get very tired. We had timed it perfectly and the rest of the evening went well.

Nancy Appler found this polar bear and she just had to buy it. Owen loved riding it!

Playing peek-a-boo with Babaanne through the door.

The Applers were very sweet and gave Owen a present. (Nancy is in the blue.)

Owen loved the ribbon. He kept trying to put it on his head.

Reading his new book with Babaanne.

“Lights, Lights!”

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Owen loves the Christmas lights outside. I had heard of this street in Sterling that pretty much the whole street gets into the Holiday spirit by decorating their houses in wonderful tacky lights and themes. On our way to the Christmas Eve party we drove through the street and it was a wonderful spectacle of lights. Owen stared out the window just repeating “lights, lights”. Maybe next year we will walk so we can see them up close. I keep wondering what Owen will do once all the lights are gone. Here are a couple of the houses.

Owen’s First Job

Owen and I are taking care of Erica’s cat Blaze while she is away. Owen likes this job as he has an absolute obsession with cats. We went over today and Blaze came right to us for some love. Owen got very excited and kept walking around Blaze, but he won’t ever touch the cat. Very strange.

Blaze and Owen.

After awhile Blaze went to his hiding place (under Erica’s bed) so we took that as he was done with us. Owen crouched down to say bye-bye to the kitty.

Cooper Family Christmas

Every year we get together with my Dad and Stopmom, and brother and his family at my sister’s house to celebrate Christmas. We don’t get to see these family members that often so it was nice to catch up and Owen enjoyed seeing them again. We had to wake him from his nap to make it there on time, so at first Owen was a happy pleasant child but after awhile he was just too tired and with all the commotion around he started to melt. He did not want to eat his dinner there so we decided to leave before it got worse. He chilled out in the car for a little and then finished eating his dinner on our way home. Once we got home, we was back to his happy little self.

Owen enjoyed playing with his cousin Nicholas and aunt Jenni. He was putting items on Owen’s head.

Sitting on Grandpa’s knee.

Aunt Natalie made him a train with his name. He really liked it.

Playing during the gift opening.

Owen opening another gift. He kept tearing little pieces of paper off at once, it took some time to get the gift open.

Grandpa and Grandma got Owen a foam train. Nicholas showed Owen where the conductor goes.

Owen playing with his new toys.

Birthday Party

We went to one of our friend’s birthday today. Christina turned two and loves the Wee Got the Beat music teacher so her mom set it up to have a music session during her party. All the kids seemed to really enjoy it and Christina was super cute following all the songs. Owen had a good time listening to all the songs and playing with the props.

Owen dancing.

Christina and Owen playing their instruments.

This face just made me giggle.

Afterwards we enjoyed some pizza and cake; Owen REALLY enjoyed the cake. He was by far the messiest child there. It was funny for me to watch Christina daintly take her fork and eat her cake. Happy Birthday Christina! 

The Art of Dipping

Owen has enjoyed the art of dipping for some time and is really good at it. He usually will take the item and just dip and not smear the sauce all over the place. With that said if there is a dipping sauce (ketchup is his favorite) he will dip everything on his plate, including cheese and fruit. He doesn’t seem to mind this or is this the beginning of an obsession of ketchup on everything. As I myself don’t really like ketchup, this truly grosses me out. Well today with lunch he had baked sweet potato fries which he usually gets with ketchup, but for some reason I just didn’t put it on there. Well he went on to try to dip his fries on his plate and in his other food. It was too cute that I went to get the ketchup. He was pleased.