16 months

Hi everyone! I should say, "Merry Christmas," "Happy New Year," and if I'd waited longer, "Happy Valentines day..." We had a wonderful Christmas and all received lots of great gifts, ate lots of food, visited with lots of people, and luckily afterward, took a nap! Owen had a great time and it only took one present for him to get the hang of - tear, tear, tear, TOY!!! Today I have "organized" his toys in the living room as that's where they all end up and we are tripping over them too often. So to prevent broken ankles or other body parts, I decided to put them in lots of containers. At least this way, I have a place to put them all at night...

Owen is 16 months old now! Can you believe it!?! Our little baby is turning into quite the talkative toddler. He has so many words that he uses and yesterday and today he is trying out two word sentences !!! Yesterday he said, "walk outside" and today he said "wake-up daddy." I am in awe of him. He knows the names of so many objects that I can't even count them all. Of course, as most of you know, he knows the names of all of the people he sees often and asks about all of you daily. He has been enjoying all of his new toys although I think the cars/trucks continue to be his favorites.

He has had a cold/sinus infection this week and has been pretty yucky and miserable and difficult to get to sleep but each day he looks like he's a little better and hopefully will be back to his usual self soon. (I hope really soon because the crying when putting him to bed is more than I can take - I usually end up with tears in my eyes when he's calling my name.) I ended up with a sinus infection also so my doctor put me on antibiotics and I'm so thankful for that because one of us feeling awful is enough.

Just like most of you, we have not been able to play outside or go for walks because it has been soooooo COLD!!! Owen goes to the window or door and says, "COLD!" We've gone to the bookstore a couple of times so that Owen can play with the trains - he loves them!

As for new 16 month skills, language is his biggest developing skill but here are a few others:

• he hugs a stuffed animal
• he tries to spoon food and feed himself
• he has 12 teeth! - 6 on the top and 6 at the bottom
• he picks up toys and puts them in a bucket when asked
• he eats out of a bowl he can carry himself
• he eats off of a plate without throwing on the floor (unless he's finished...)
• he pulls dental floss out of the little box and makes a big pile on the floor before I catch him...
• he will sometimes bring me a diaper when he needs to be changed - this is a very SOMETIMES occurence and just started so I'm not too excited about it
• he is learning to be soft/gentle instead of furiously patting (aka: slapping) mommy, daddy, the cat...

Well, that's all I can think of even though I know there are lots more things he's learned to do in the last month.

As for baby #2, I went to the doctor this past Thursday and I'm 14 weeks and the baby's heartrate was 159 and he/she was kicking up a storm. We were listening with the doppler and it was difficult to get a complete count of the heartrate for a few minutes because of all of the kicks!

Hope you all stay warm and cozy!

Here are a few pictures of the boy...