Easter

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend. We had a great time visiting with family this past week and from the pictures, you'll see Owen really enjoyed himself too. He really loved "baby Max" (as he calls him) and he hugged (and squeezed) and kissed him almost each time we saw him. Max is quite a cutey and has big beautiful blue eyes. Owen's affection for him made Keith and I feel good about his response to a little baby so hopefully things will go well when sister arrives.

Owen is officially 19 months old and between skinned knees (I thought that was worth waiting to take pictures - wrong!), a cold that lasted almost two weeks, and now a busted lip, we've still not taken his 18 month pictures... Hopefully the latest boo-boo will heal quickly and we'll be off to take them this week.

His latest accomplishments include:

• using two- and three-word sentences for almost all communication ("go see monkey" or "want more wa-wa")
• lots of pretend play with kitchen play stuff (I'm trying to figure out where we can put a little kitchen in this getting-smaller-by-the-minute-house)
• walking up steps with one hand held
• stepping off bottom step without holding on to anything or anyone
• memorizing the order of animals, objects, or events in familiar books and "reading" along as we turn the pages
• counting from 1-9 with some help but does begin counting at 6 and goes to 9 or ten on his own; he'll also count from 1-5 on his own without prompting but less often as he likes to start with six
• his car seat is now forward-facing (as he was creeping close to the rear-facing weight limit) and he has a seat in his daddy's truck which seems to really thrill him to ride in
• blows bubbles with a wand

As usual, I'm sure I'm missing a few new tricks but that's all I can come up with for now so I'll leave you with a few cute pictures. Also, Owen flew a kite for the first time - all by himself! As for baby girl, she is growing and growing and feels bigger by the day. I'm 27 weeks and have just 3 months to go so time is flying by quickly now. Okay, on to the pictures...

Owen and baby Max

Owen flying a kite - you can see the kite far away in the background and he's really holding on to the handle and would walk forward to keep flying it - it was so cute to watch!
more kite flying

Easter outfit

showing more love to baby Max (of course, Max may be thinking, "somebody help me please!")