Hoppy Spring!

Spring is finally here! We are so happy to be playing outside every day and enjoying the warm weather and sunshine (most days). We have planted our garden - with Owen's help as you can see from the picture at the top of the page - and we even harvested a few carrots.

Owen loves to dig in the dirt (who doesn't?), splash in the water, and in general, just do stuff OUTSIDE! He's able to climb to the first rung on the ladder of his swing set (yikes!) and he likes to sit on the steps to the shed. He tries to blow bubbles and he can kick a ball.

His 18-month stats were 29.4 lbs and 35.5" tall. He's in the 80th or so percentile for weight and off, off, off the charts for height! The doc was happy with his general development and since he had a fever from a little cold/virus the night before the visit we got to skip shots (yay) but that just means I have to work up the courage to bring him some other day...maybe she'll give me a sucker too for being a good mommy... Here are a few pictures since I didn't have any last post. Enjoy!

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.

New pictures

Well I finally had a minute to load a few pictures onto the blog for all of you. I also forgot to list two new things that Owen is doing.
1. if you point to him and ask him, "who's this?" he says, "Owen"
2. he will drink out of a cup with only a little spilling all by himself!

my little handsome fella

the new swing set - yes, that's snow falling!

our SECOND snow fall for this winter! (as if we normally have snow at all...) It snowed for about three or four hours here the other morning and Owen and I watched it after we woke up - he kept saying, "snowman, snowman..." It stuck to the grass but not the street and then quickly melted after it stopped snowing. But it was beautiful while it was falling.
a little cutie after his bath

17 months

Well, Owen is 17 months and of course, he's doing lots of new tricks. He is growing and growing and is finally fitting into 24 month pants (he's in 2T shirts but his legs weren't long enough for 24 mo pants for such a long time). Currently, he's fighting a little sinus bug and so we are not sleeping much at all but hopefully that won't last long and we'll be back to "normal" soon (mommy hopes very very soon...).
New tricks include:

• expressive vocabulary of 50-60 words used to spontaneously inform, request, or identify
• using a few familiar two word phrases and attempting to put two words together himself (he's so cute - he says the words slow and with a little delay between them as if he's really thinking hard about how/what to say)
• following two-step related commands (ex: go pick up your doggy and put it in the stroller)
• anwering yes/no questions about familiar events or objects
• talking on the phone - he actually will respond and really enjoys listening to the person on the phone
• identifies color of object on request with 50-75% accuracy - yellow is his favorite color and he will usually shout out "YEYO!" as soon as he sees a yellow object
• feeds a stuffed animal and makes the smacking sound and will try to feed the cat (the real one...)
• kicks a ball forward
• throws a ball (and most other things)
• completes a 5-piece shape sorter with little or no help
• identifies a stop sign
• gives kisses and then says, "again" sometimes for another kiss (it's so cute!)
• gives hugs and pats while he hugs you
• says, "hold you" with his arms up - this is one of my favorite things

Well, that's all I can think of for now. He amazes us with the things that he understands and says every day.

As for baby #2, I went to the doctor last week and all seems to be going well - the heartrate was 154 beats per minute and I've been feeling him/her moving around just about every day. We'll be doing an ultrasound at my next appointment - March 4 - and will hopefully find out if we'll need pink or blue to take our little bundle home from the hospital.

Hope you are all staying warm as we seem to be having another bit of very cold winter. I'm going to try to post some more pictures soon but need to go do other stuff right now.

Happy Valentines day and, for the southerners, Happy Mardi Gras!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!?!?!?!?!

Owen got a treat today - BeBe brought him his first Saints jersey and so now he's really ready to yell TOUCHDOWN! Hopefully he'll be able to say that alot tomorrow during the game.

The first picture is just a cute one I took this evening - he was sitting in the doorway of the backdoor and he looked so cute. We've been enjoying the warmer weather and playing outside every day. Last week we went to the zoo and had a wonderful time - his favorite animals to find were the monkeys but he loved seeing the tiger (of course) and since he was only a few feet away from us we really got to watch him and Owen just loved it.

relaxing on the porch...

okay, so when does this game start?
GO Saints!

TOUCHDOWN!

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...

New pictures

Here are a couple of cute pictures of Owen and since everyone should have received their Christmas cards with our surprise, there's a sneak peak at baby #2.