18 months & baby #2 update

Hi all!

I'm a few days late with Owen's 18 month update. Can you believe he's 1 1/2 years old? It's amazing to me that he's growing and changing so quickly. It's really too fast for us. Sometimes I look at him and I can still see that little baby in him and then most of the time he is just looking like a little boy. He is keeping me on my toes all the time and is learning and doing and growing every minute of every day. Our daily routine consists of meals - during which he is learning to feed himself and not just with his fingers; "art" - coloring with crayons and markers and trying out some glue; reading - he could sit on my lap and read books for most of the day if it's possible; playing - blocks, cars, puzzles, and animals are favorites; outside - he LOVES to be outside (although after this winter of staying inside, who doesn't?) and we try to be outside for some time each day as long as we can (it's also very tiring for him...which is a good thing).

The weather was very nice so we went to the Baton Rouge zoo this past weekend and had a great time (a very nice zoo). The highlight of the trip was seeing two rhinos - a mommy and her baby! Owen's face lit up and he just couldn't get over seeing real rhinos! We also saw giraffes, zebras, and flamingos and he's been talking about all of these animals since we returned.

New skills he's gained or mastered this past month include:

• stabbing food with a fork (little plastic kid fork)
• drinking from a cup by himself (although he prefers for mommy to hold it if I'm available)
• scribbles with crayons, markers, pens, and pencils
• labels all colors (red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, brown, purple) of objects
• labels circle
• completes large shape puzzle (circle, triangle, square, rectangle, oval)
• completes animal puzzle (and names animals and their sounds)
• puts rings on stacker
• puts small circles on pegs
• puts large pegs in pegboard
• makes animals "run"
• plays with his barn and car garage appropriately (putting animals in the barn, opening and closing the doors, putting cars up and down ramps)
• follows two-step related commands (ex: pick up your shoes and put them in your room)
• has a vocabulary of about 80-100 words (I didn't make a list this time)
• puts more two-word phrases together
• knows all body parts and clothing and will either point to them on request or say them spontaneously

That's all I can think of as I sit here now. I just love watching him learn stuff.

On to the Baby #2 update... (some of you are already aware of this news but for the rest of you, here is some exciting stuff)

We went to the doctor last week and we have pictures as well as a gender... drum roll... Owen will be a big brother to a little...............

SISTER!

Yes, we will be bringing something pink to the hospital in July (just four short months away) and we are very excited. It is taking some getting used to saying, "she" and "her" since we're so boy-oriented but we're doing fine. I am working on a blanket for the baby and whenever Owen sees it and he says, "blanket" I ask him, "who is this for?" and he says, "sister." (I think it's so cute.) I've shown the ultrasound DVD to so many people that now Owen looks up at it when it's playing and says, "baby!" Although I am growing and can feel this little baby moving around and I watch Owen change and grow every day, I am still sometimes surprised to know that we will soon have two little guys - it's seems not very long ago that I didn't think we'd have one.

As of last week, baby girl is 1 lb 4 oz and has long legs and long fingers. All of her parts looked great and were accounted for (believe me, I quizzed the ultrasound tech on EVERYTHING I could think of). Well, I've got a few things to do before bed and a short time to do them so I'll be leaving you with a couple of ultrasound pics of the baby girl. One is a regular ultrasound shot and the other is a 4-D shot. It was really neat to see her in 4-D although she moved so much it was hard to get a good look at her for long.