That's a great question! The past 3 months have flown by and I promised myself I would post before the official three month mark hits on May 1. I was tempted to just stop blogging altogether, but for the few of you left out there that still stalk our blog I decided to keep it going. Plus, I can now see statistics on our blog's activity and we have had over 10,000 site views to date! That is pretty amazing and definitely motivation to keep on blogging.
Owen is officially a 2-year old and a "Toddler" as BabyCenter calls him, and boy is it entertaining. I thought I would give you a list of highlights from the past few months, focusing on his birthday and other fun events. He constantly keeps us entertained these days and talks like crazy, so we have some good stories if I can remember them all.
- His Thomas & Friends obsession is in full gear and you would not believe how much he loves trains. He can tell what kind of train is going by our house without even seeing it. He excitedly screams out, "Metra! Daddy's train!", "Amtrak!", or "Freight train" all day long as the trains go by and he is never wrong. An unforeseen benefit to living where we do (which is literally on the train tracks for those that have not been to our house).
- He knows every sound an animal makes and has recently started asking about the more difficult animals. Last night I actually had to Google, "What does a penguin say?" - which is the wrong thing to Google, my search turned up all kinds of penguin jokes (Why don't penguins like rock music? Because they're full of "sole") none of which were funny. After Googling "What sound does a penguin make?" we found out that there are a variety of sounds and the easiest one is "Huk, huk, huk". And, in case you were curious, a turtle says, "Snap, snap, snap" and a fish says, "Glup, glup, glup". I hope he doesn't ask about a giraffe or a snail.
- He knows every kid and teacher at his school and on the way to school I ask him, "Who are you going to play with at school today Owen?" and he'll start listing out his friends and teachers and in between each name he says, "Who else Mommy?"
- He loves to sing Happy Birthday, probably because we sang it constantly leading up to his birthday and then he had 5 different birthday celebrations. Add Teague's birthday in the mix and we probably had 10 official celebrations. On the actual day of his birthday, March 26th, his teacher said he would stop his friends in the hallway at school and say, "Sing Happy Birthday to me!" I might have prepped him a little too much...
- His mind is like a steel trap, he remembers things I don't even think he's paying attention to, which can be dangerous. Luckily, he uses his memory for good things, like pointing out octagons (stop signs) thanks to Sesame Street and memorizing people's cars. Every single time we're on the road he points out a Prius or two ("Ms. Sveta's car Mommy!"), minivans ("Ellie's car Mommy!"), SUV's (numerous friends at school) and silver sedans ("Papa George & Terry's car Mommy!"). Every time he is equally excited and every time the car is very close to reality. We were recently out to dinner and we sat by the window and every time a car went by he screamed out whose car it was. We were definitely the favorite table to sit by.
- He is now forming basic sentences and I love seeing his mind work when he pauses to put the words together before saying them. Recently, he'll bring up situations from a while back that he is now able to talk about, "I got an ouchie on my chin and Ms. Sveta gave me an orange popsicle." Or he'll relate something to what we're doing that is accurately hilarious, for example, we were recently driving on the highway and going under an overpass and he said, "We're going in the Misty Island Tunnel!" (Thomas reference).
- He is obsessed with my iPhone and more importantly watching videos of himself and looking at photos of himself. He now has them all memorized and sings along with them or quotes them. I hope he doesn't become one of those annoying people that quote movies out loud as they're watching them...
- He loves music, they listen to Raffi a lot at school and we do at home too. Recently we were listening to music and dancing and he started playing his air guitar, left-handed I might add. It was hilarious, we've never taught him that. And tonight we were playing with trains quietly when he said, "I want my music, I want my tunes Mommy."
- Recent words and phrases he has learned (i.e. can say them and understand them and use them in the right context): Mohawk, airport, Misty Island tunnel (see prior bullet), octagon, spicy, ice cream sandwich (big mistake), puffin (a seabird), I like/don't like this/that, quesadilla, I do it myself.
- Finally, we are officially starting "potty-training" or at least getting him acquainted with his new potty chair. He's been great the past few weeks, using it every morning and every night. Of course, we get excited every time he goes and give him positive reinforcement. Yesterday, as I was walking out of the bathroom he said, "Oooooh, good job Mommy!". Hilarious.
Those are the highlights, I know there are so many more fun memories and "firsts" from the past few months but they are unfortunately all a blur now. Here are some photos to further illustrate the above items and talk about other events that occurred over the past 3 months that I completely forgot about; I'll post videos in my next post.
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| I have always loved things that are miniature or giant size (picture the tent and sleeping bag displays at Target!) - apparently Owen does too. He was obsessed with this doll-size rocking chair at the Ash lake house. |
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| Vail you ask? Breckenridge? No, Lake Tippecanoe, IN. |
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| Street-sledding with Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Ben. |
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| Again, the miniature item obsession. |
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| Birthday friends - I love the pictures we have from this day. |
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| Patiently awaiting his Happy Birthday. |
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| He absolutely loved blowing out the candles, and eating the cake, obviously. |
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| Although expected, it was a sad day in our house when Peyton Manning signed with the Broncos. What will we do with all of our #18 jerseys? |
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| We took a much needed vacation to Los Angeles to visit Katie and Adam while my parents watched Owen. We all had a blast. |
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| "Just one more train Mommy?" We went to the train station every day after school for nearly two weeks in the peak of his train obsession, and our amazing summer-like weather. |
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| Being shy during his very first Happy Birthday celebration in Indiana. |
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| Sharing his candle with Henry at La Casa de Isaac, our family celebration on his actual birthday. He LOVED the flan. And the sombrero. And all of the attention. |
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| Britney Spears anyone? |
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| Singing Happy Birthday to Teague on April 4th. |
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| Looking street-smart and tough with his mohawk and cuts. No idea how he got that big gash on his nose. |
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| Enjoying a popsicle on the patio. |
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| Fresh bathtub mohawk |
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| My favorite picture of late and his favorite new hat. |
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| His 2nd favorite hat. We were not going on a bike ride - FYI. |
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| A picture of his birthday gift from us; the table it goes on is on back-order and I was desperate during a recent sick day, so here it is! This has already provided hours and hours of entertainment. |
