Rough Visit

This morning Kim and the girls were supposed to come over and we have a nice morning of catching up and watching Owen and Caitlyn play happily. Well we got a different morning than planned. First Owen woke at 5:30 this morning, and just wouldn’t go back to sleep. So once again I had to take him for a ride to get him to nap at 8:45. We headed back to make it in time for the arrival of our friends. Then we received the call from Kim. Caitlyn threw up all over herself and the car seat. Not sure why, she is not sick. She thinks it was because she passed by some very strong odors on the ride and Caitlyn coughed and out came breakfast.

So upon their arrival, Caitlyn was stripped, the car seat removed and stripped, all dirty items washed in laundry, Caitlyn took a quick bath, and the car seat base washed out. Luckily after a 30 minute morning nap Owen was refreshed, for the most part. He was still a little tired and can be a little bratty when he’s tired. So there was a lot of “No Owen don’t do [that]”.

But we all survived and made it through the rough morning and still got to catch up a little and the kids definitely had a good time – coloring, playing in sand, sliding (minus the ants over taking the playground), playing chase, and then we headed downstairs. I have my old mattress that I thought we’d use for Owen’s bed but sadly it is not as sturdy or in as good condition as I had thought. But Owen loves to have it to play with downstairs, so right now that is where it lives. Lots of bouncing and acting like they are sleeping.

Sorry only pictures that were taken were from the bed, just forgot with all the action and cleaning up.

Owen Fallen and Caitlyn Falling

Owen Rolling while Caitlyn Bounced

Break to Watch Fish (Owen showed Caitlyn the two orange fish, the lights are off in fish tank so sorry you can’t seem them.)

More Bed Bouncing Fun

Stroller Walking

Owen always loves to play with baby strollers when he visits his friends. I have wanted to get one for him for awhile and for some reason never have found a none pink one in the store. Come on this is not a girl toy!!! So online I went and found a blue stroller. Yay! It arrived today and Owen was beyond excited. He played with it for a straight 2 hours.

We took the stroller and the pups to go on the neighborhood path walk, where I found that Owen is much quicker pushing a stroller than just walking along with us. Owen loved having a stroller to push and even insisted putting his blankie in it to push along. Too cute! He also didn’t like when his wheels got dirty and would stop and clean them off.

Once we reached the end he wanted to keep going so we walked around the sidewalks. After our loop we finally made it home where Owen pitched a fit because he still wanted to push his stroller on the sidewalks. We left the pups and went for another quick loop, he was so happy. When we finally made it back home and I was making dinner he kept playing with the stroller. He would put things in it and push it to deliver to the other room. Then he started to drive his cars on the couch with stroller sitting with him. Glad he liked his toy so much.

Stroller Walking

Cleaning Wheels

Walking Very Fast

More Walking

Weekend of Chores

This is one of the only completely free weekends we have in October, so we used it to finally get some stuff done off our Honey-Do Lists. It was great. I love when I get a lot of chores accomplished.

Saturday was a little rough, Owen took a later morning car nap for 20 minutes so during his actual nap time he decided to play for an hour and then be done. Eek! I know many kids that can miss a nap and be fine, but Owen is not one of those kids. He is absolutely miserable when he does not get sleep, which makes us all on edge. So after some TV watching, Omer headed out with Owen and he took another car nap. Not ideal, but only way to save the rest of the day. Ugh, all that gas and pollution. But we needed Owen to be at least in a decent mood as we had some friends over later in the afternoon. He did okay but not nearly his normal fun self. We made it through the evening though.

One of the chores that I did this weekend was put up Owen’s new border. He likes it a little too much. After I spent close to an hour tearing the old one down and installing the new one, he decided to tear down the whole section around his bed. ARGH! I was not happy. He did talk about tearing it down all day, so i guess I should have known. He did try to put it back up after tearing it down, obviously with no luck. I think he thought it was a giant sticker.

Also on Saturday, once the rain cleared we headed out to get some yard stuff done. While Omer and I tore down weeds and trimmed plants back, Owen and the pups had a great time playing out front. Sunday was a true day of house stuff. I couldn’t believe how much stuff I got done. I organized three closets and got about 90% done cleaning out the nursery. On top of it, Owen was in a great mood and took a wonderful nap. Always make it a nice day.

James’ Room

Jenn and James had Owen and I over this afternoon for a playdate. Owen talks about James a lot at home and gets very excited when we see him. Now that we are in separate Wed playgroups, we decided we needed to get the boys together, and us, to catch up.

It was a great playdate, Jenn and I talked in the living room while Owen and James played in his room, by choice. They were with us for a little and then off they went. James likes to close the door so we really have no clue what they were doing. We heard lots of squeals, laughs, and happy play noises. Always nice! Occasionally they would come out and show us something and then run back to the room. It is wonderful that at this age they can do this, and want to.

Owen was VERY sad to have to leave, but Mommy has to make dinner. Eventually I just had to pick him up and make him leave while listening to the loud cries. While strapping him in the car, James watched from the window and through Owen’s tears he kept telling him bye. It was sad and cute at the same time.

Dirty Playgroup

My regular Wednesday playgroup met at a park this morning and all the kids walked away with dirt all over, Owen even had some on his face. 🙂 Owen didn’t play much on the actual playground, rather in the bleachers, baseball field and trees. Along with the below activities, Owen threw some balls, ran around and bounced on the bases. Owen also grabbed the small bag holding David’s dirty diaper and carried it over and tried to give it to Luke. Not sure that is the present Luke wanted. (Lauren got a picture of this but sadly I did not…hint, hint Lauren.)

Owen after climbing the bleachers.

Owen, David and Matthew exploring something.

Matthew and Owen taking a break

Christina and Owen gathering dirt. They would get a hand full run all the way to me and dump it in my hand, and then back for more. Fun game!

Christina, Luke, Matthew and Owen

As always, Luke and Owen running in circles.

Luke and Owen were pulling leaves off the tree; Owen even gave them a taste.

Big Boy Bed

We finally took the plunge and changed Owen’s room into his big boy room. I know I said that we were quickly working on this at the end of July, but he started to sleep better and after many hours of sleep missed we were not going to mess with that. Well he started to dangle his leg over the side of the crib a couple weeks ago and falling asleep with his legs dangling through the slats. Okay, Owen we got the message again. So once again we planned to change his room over. As we kept him in the same room this took about a half day to get everything moved out and set-up, so we had to find the right day. Well today was that day. Omer had taken the day off for his and my doctor appointments so the rest of the day we worked on getting the room ready.

Owen came in after I had gotten his new bed all ready and the crib still in there (we had to take it partially apart to get it out of the room). He was so excited about his big boy bed, climbed right in with a huge smile. He even said “Bye Crib!” He was pretty upset when I made him leave so Omer could have room to work. Once it was completely finished, I told him his big boy bed was all ready and he raced up the stairs and climbed right in. While we were outside playing I asked him a couple times where he was going to sleep tonight and he replied “In big boy bed”. While up there he played in his bed and kept going up and down.

The room isn’t completely done, I still have to remove his baby border and put the new one up (hopefully this weekend). And I need to change his artwork, but all the staples are there. We were also shocked when I put the box spring and mattress on the frame, it was HUGE. Mattress’ have become very thick compared to when I grew up. So we made the decision to just put the mattress on there and will put a piece of wood underneath (or search for a smaller mattress set). There is also a huge gap between mattress and bed frame, we have stuffed it with pillows but this concerns me. How come a child’s bed does not fit a mattress snugly?

Well I’m sure all you really want to know is how last night and nap went. We were prepared for a night of Owen tearing his room up, climbing in and out of bed, and possibly having trouble going and staying asleep. We were completely surprised. He didn’t leave, didn’t even attempt. While I read him books, he climbed up and when I left he stayed there. He did walk over to the bottom of the bed to look and bounced on his pillow once and that was it. Barely even played with his toys. Kicked around with the bed rails and just went to sleep. He even dropped his blanket over the edge before he fell asleep and called for us to get it. Cute that he wouldn’t leave. 🙂

In the morning, once again he wouldn’t leave. Woke, talked for 10 minutes and then stood up and called for me to get him. I made him get down by himself so he knew he could. Nap also went really well. Never even showed interest in leaving. Went right to sleep, took a great nap (2.5 hours), when he woke he sat at the end of his bed rail and called for me. Also we love having the video monitor, it’s been so cute and addicting to see what he is doing.

Right now, after climbing right in again, he at least is exploring a little more and playing like he usually does. He still hasn’t attempted to leave the bed again. I’m not naive, I know he will leave at some point and that we will have some sleeping hurdles with the change but pleasantly surprised with the beginning portion and showed us he was really ready for it. He surprisingly doesn’t look that tiny in the big bed; he seems delighted to have some space.

Owen and Chester in the Big Boy Bed – Saying Bye to the Crib

Super Excited Big Boy

“Truck and Dump Truck and Tank and Car and Race Car…..”

Big Boy Snuggle

The Big Boy Bed

The Reading Wall

I’ll post room pictures once the room is completely done.

The Box Car

Saturday morning I headed over to a consignment sale and made out. Found so many good clothes, three pairs of shoes and this foam letter puzzle. I was very pleased in my finds even though it took a lot longer than I expected; I stood in line to check out for over 30 minutes.

Owen was excited to receive a new puzzle and played with it a lot. Then I left the boys to play while I walked the pups and come back to find that they built a puzzle box car. Daddy is so much fun! Owen was having a blast. He even pretended to drive a steering wheel letter.

Owen Driving the Box Car

Daddy made a helmet that Owen actually wore but would not wear in front of Mommy, so Daddy wore the helmet.

The Biggest Smile

I Have Been Replaced

So I knew this day would come, just didn’t expect it to come this soon. Owen has always been a fan of Daddy, always loved playing with him, but this week this love has escalated. This all has made me smile so big and of course Omer has a beaming smile.

The other day Owen was so upset when Daddy left for work. While Daddy was at the door, Owen kept calling “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy” over and over. Poor Omer had to leave but was sad doing it. Owen was even sadder, watched him through the window and kept calling for him. Finally he calmed down and then told me “Daddy goes to work, he’ll be home soon.” Then 30 minutes later Owen got sad again and just wouldn’t calm down, so we took a wagon ride and walked the dogs before the playgroup showed up at my house. This worked, he was happy.

Owen gets absolutely excited when Omer sits and eats breakfast with us and plays a little in the morning. He is so cute when Omer gets home, and they play all their games. Games that Mommy is not usually allowed to join in.

Well this evening it was the nail in the head. Owen has always preferred me to read him his bedtime stories. If Omer needs to do it, he will call for me or say “No Mommy reads”. Well I got the other end of that tonight. I was sitting there, waiting to read while Omer got Owen’s PJs on after bath. He picked up his dump truck book looked at me and said “Daddy read book”. I asked if Mommy could and he said no and then told me to leave. I pouted! So I sadly got up and left leaving the door ajar. Well as I was walking down the hallway, Owen got up and closed the door all the way. Ouch!

The catch is that when he is having a bad dream tonight or wakes up super early, who’s name gets called – Mommy. Oh well, it is part of the job.

A Fun Morning

While Owen was playing with Daddy one evening he started to ride on his big dump truck. I finally got some pictures of this cute act this morning. He lifts the dump bed up and sits down and scoots all around, forward and backward.

Driving Dump Truck

Here he Comes

Chasing After Mommy

What a Cutie

Once again fall has started to come and we are loving it. A fellow mom needed some companionship for her daughter (she is gone at her mother’s funeral while mother-in-law is watching toddler). So we met Ellie and her grandmom and Lauren and Luke at a park this morning. Minus the insane amount of gnats, it was really nice. Owen and Luke ran around in a circle chasing each other with some very big smiles. They swung and Ellie helped push Owen’s swing. And they ran around in the playground.

Run, Run, Run

Little Butt View

Ellie said she was sad and sat down, so I sent Owen to give her a hug. No hug but he went to talk to her and then so did Luke and the three started to run around.

“Driving the Wheel”

We had to head out only after an hour because we had Wee Play, which as always was so much fun for Owen. Then after lunch he wanted to head back outside where he was very busy doing something with his sand and trucks away from the sandbox. So I started to pick tomatoes (yes my veggie garden has produced some yummy treats) and to chop down some big roots (little trees trying to grow everywhere). Well Owen loves to help and is always curious so he left his game to help me. 🙂 He really enjoyed playing in the loose dirt once I pulled the really big roots out of the ground. He also wanted to help pull, so I would loosen and he would tug and tug until it came out. Then off to another new game, counting stepping stones. He would run back and forth on the stepping stones counting 1 through 20, skipping 13, 14 and 15. It was a very fun filled morning with lots of smiles. Always nice!!!!

Singing Songs

Owen has gotten pretty good at singing many kid songs and actually knowing all the words. The most common ones he will break out in song are Itsy Bitsy Spider, Rock-a-Bye Baby and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But today after we got home from Wee Play another song joined the mix. Not sure it even has a name, but we do it often in class with props and today we did it at home many times. It goes “hurry, hurry drive the fire truck, hurry, hurry drive the fire truck, ding ding ding ding”. Owen loves the ding part. It also says to climb the ladder and spray the hose in which Owen makes his “squeeee” noise for the water. Owen can be very entertaining sometimes!