getting along and having fun

lillian and owen: enjoying their friday together.

leaps and bounds!

So much has happened in our little world since I last posted. My parents visited over Easter weekend which this year, was also my birthday. It was a true blessing to have them here, it was fun to have them in our home, in our element, and with our people. We hadn't had much snow in a while, prior to their arrival, but we had a storm while they were here. So we were shut in for a bit of their visit, but we did make to Cannon Falls for a lovely Easter/Birthday meal, then to the flower conservatory for a spring blooms show,
then to the zoo to see the monkeys play.

Owen is beginning to use coherent words to communicate. He understands so so much of what we say, and is now able to respond. "Mmm" means that he is hungry, "ahda" means he's all done doing something, usually eating. He knows Ma and Dada. The earliest word of this new communication was Ball. He says this word ALL THE TIME. Seriously. One night, after a big day of saying "ball", or more like "bah", he had a restless night. He woke up a couple of times, asking for "bah". He also says "Nigh Nigh," for night night, which applies to naptime as well as bedtime. "Wahwah" is water. "Boo" is boots, and "sigh" is for outside; he says either of these things when he wants to play outside (playing outsides involves climbing up and down our front steps, walking on the sidewalk, and trying to climb up other people's front steps).
Anyway, my listing all these new words is to say that he's becoming a good communicator, even though he cannot relate everything to us in adult English as we, or he, would like. There's still plenty of times of frustration for Owen when we can't figure out what he wants. This type of situation usually ends of with him stomping his feet or throwing everything off of his highchair tray.

Owen was given a family rockingchair from Nonny and Taid (Ry's parents). It was Ry's when he was a kid. Owen really loves this chair. He knows how to get in it, thanks to his cousin Lillian for teaching him. Yesterday, we were having a cold-sick day, and we were watching a movie. Owen went to his room, pushed the rocking chair into our room, and sat in it to watch the movie with us. Pretty cute.






Here are some videos of Owen being Owen, and in a couple videos he's displaying his new tricks.

Owen LOVES his trike / 4-wheeler . . . whatever you call it.



Ah, affection.


His love for Oatmeal is SERIOUS.



Buddies in the making.

oh pockets

this is what resulted when Owen discovered his hoodie had pockets (notice the goose-egg on the right side of his forehead).



he started to sit down on the kitchen floor, and since his hand were stuck in his pockets, he fell forehead first. poor guy. then as soon as he was feeling better, he wandered off again and opened a desk drawer and closed his finger in it. again: poor guy. he's down for his nap now. i know i would want to take a break and sleep for a while if those things had just happened to me, not to mention those events were probably indicative of a deeper issue called tiredness.

at nap times and night time (that's 3 times a day total), we put him down after he snuggles with us and drinks a 4oz bottle of milk. he loves this. we're trying to ween him off this. so far: not successful. given the above sad events, i decided i would give him the bottle as it's a great comfort for him, and i'd take the opportunity of guaranteed stillness to put a little cold on his bump. so, we'll keep this great goal of kicking the bottle, but hopefully we'll succeed on another day.

warming

Ry is back in school and working. We loved our January break from routine, but it is good for us to be following a schedule again. As always, we'll have to hash out how to integrate our time so we all have enough time with one another. It's just one of the aspects to living life in the fast-lane.

Owen has been pushing his bedtime a little later, and now he usually seems ready to go down at 8 rather than 7. He still has his rest time twice a day, but sleeps less and less. I think his drive to be awake more is directly connected to his growing imagination and his ability to properly play with his toys. He understands so much more how things operate, and he can be fascinated and busy with something for a long time now. It's really neat to watch. He gets very intense when he plays because he's so intentional about what he's doing. It's almost as though his ability to have fun has increased.

We played outside today. It's my month to make sure the sidewalks are shoveled and clear, so I moved snow around while Owen and Ry wandered around the cleared sidewalks. Owen loves loves it outside! New places to explore and wander. He's going to be hard to contain this summer, I can tell! I'm dreaming of taking daily trips to the park, where he'll walk all over and play (maybe) on some of the play-structures. But until then, when the days aren't soo cold, we'll wander the cleared sidewalks.

I've been having fun with my cookbook, Nourishing Traditions. I made a fermented fruit chutney, in addition to some other delicious meals from this book. I am really inspired to cook and eat "cleaner". By that I mean to cut back on processed items and make most things, especially getting back to more traditional methods of food preparation.

One of Owen's favorite things to do lately is lounge on the couch. He loves sitting on the, well, it's a futon really, with some toys but preferably books, and he'll be occupied and happy there for so long. A couple days ago I turned away from him for a minute, then when I came back to him, he was laying down, with his little ankles crossed and his head on a pillow. It was so funny. He's already a great lounger! But then he frantically squiggles and squirms to move to the other side of the couch. So lounging only happens for a brief moment. This particular "lay-down" was done on his own, and it lasted just long enough for me to catch in on film (can I even say that anymore? catch it on pixels?).


Here are a couple of videos we've taken over the past while.

This is a video of Owen lounging.



Owen and his little housemate, Esme, don't usually interact too much. But this is the most interaction they're ever had together. Usually Owen doesn't really know what to think of her, and hasn't really ever touched her (which I am happy about - I doubt he'd be very gentle!). He has given her some toys before, though.



I love the game Rummikub! Owen enjoyed "playing" the game, too.



This is a video we took today, of our time outside. When outside, Owen has a very hard time listening to directional instructions. In the house, he's great, but put him outside and it's as though he gets over-stimulated and he just wants to do what he wants to do!

we're back!

Well the bug ran it's course and we're all healthy again. It's nice to have our health again, and to eat normally once again. Not to mention fewer diapers to take care of!
Owen had an interesting day today. He was very determined to have his own way, and it usually was something he couldn't have. The phone, for instance. If ever he noticed the phone, he would start reaching for it making his little grunt/whine/longing noise. If he didn't get it, which he never did, he would throw a tantrum. He was a happy little tot.
Owen got some nice new toys for Christmas, which he's enjoying playing with very much. I'm going to put away some of the ones he's grown out to to de-clutter our living room. I like that we don't have very many toys and that it's easy to clean up at the end of the day and that it's never very messy when there are toys all over the place. However, we're getting to the max, as far as I'm concerned. It's time to phase out some of the older toys.
Owen has picked up on the technique of pushing little cars / tractors around. He hasn't figured out how to push the vehicle so the wheels are rolling. He uses his strength to move the car. He enjoys it, though!

recovery

We arrived back from visiting my family in Ontario this past Tuesday. We had a splendid time playing and enjoying one another's company. Owen came down with a cold, I'm sure he caught it due to a lack of sleep during our trip there. He missed a couple naps and his night sleep was significantly reduced. But, even though he was congested and coughing, he was really fun, and had lots to talk about and laugh about. It was a great time. Sad to leave, of course.

Now we're back in Minneapolis, and we're all slowly recovering. I came down with a cold also, but I'm feeling much better now. Owen has had a bought of the runs and we're waiting for that to clear up soon. Poor kid. He's had it rough the past week. But, we're feeling super lucky to have Ry home all the time right now - he has the month of January off. Since his jobs are connected to his university, he isn't working right now nor is he studying! We'd all been waiting eagerly for this. We got home on Tuesday afternoon, and I've been working yesterday and today, all day. So, I'm ready to hang out with my boys now! We have Lilly tomorrow, so we have a fun-filled, busy day tomorrow.

i'm dreaming . . . of a white christmas . . .

christmas has been an excellent time with friends and family thus far, and the fun isn't nearly done yet! we fly to see my family in a couple of days. we're pumped!

owen got a guitar for christmas, and he's pretty much inseparable from it. as you can tell, he has a natural talent for this kind of thing :)


we've attended some fabulous parties and owen has done really well at all of them. last night was the funniest he's been, though. he was wandering around Faye's house, laughing and squinting his eyes at sandy and betsy. it was hilarious and the first time he'd ever done anything like that. maybe it's his new thang.