At long last...

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from Christmas and beyond!  It's been a busy month...
Dave left to do field work in Uganda on New Year's Eve and my parents arrived here for a visit (and to help out!) on Jan 5.  Dave returned here, and Mom and Dad returned to their home yesterday.  And I completed my first week back at work!  Whew!

So, let's start with Christmas.  It was a great Christmas morning...it's so fun having a kid that is so excited for Christmas!  Because, I LOVE Christmas.  So I LOVE having somebody else to share in my complete love of Christmas.  Next year, he will get it even more...and then Elliot will get in on the action too!  It will be awesome!

Owen asked for three things from Santa:

underwear - note the Thomas set in the foreground

street sweeper - O decided Piggy should be the driver

 and a hippopotamus.  Thank goodness for books!

xmas morning selfie

who needs presents when there's paper?

book break!

post present play time!

play time continued

 And a couple pics from before Dave left

post 6am bottle snooze in the big bed

at Midwest Mountaineering trying out the kayaks while Dad shops for new hiking boots

Once Dave left, this was a pretty typical early morning for us.  Books in the big bed before breakfast.  

Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived!  Some of those pics were posted last time, but here are the remainder (in general I was horrible about taking pictures while they were here!  I really have to be better this...). Lots of books were read, and lots of playing was done with the grandparents while I headed back to work.

snuggled up in Grandpa's big shirt awaiting some clothes

E is trying so hard to get his knees under him!

I tried to get a picture of the three of them...Grandma did well looking at the camera and smiling, but O and Grandpa had a bit of trouble.  So you either got O looking like an alien, or Grandpa with his eyes closed...this was the best of the bunch.

 Grandma is a potty trainer extraordinaire!  We got O into pullups while she was here...and he actually stopped screaming about being taken to the potty and has started to hold it for a bit and wait.  Yay for Grandma!!!

Grandma modeling the "potty prize pail"  It's O's reward system for using the potty.  He gets to put a little plastic animal in it each time he uses the potty.  Such a sense of accomplishment!

O has not stopped playing Thomas the Train since xmas morning.  It was definitely a hot seller!

the drooling bandito!

 And, because I didn't include it earlier, here are the 6 month growth stats on Elliot!
Height: 28"  91% !!!!!  This explains why he is fitting in 12-18 month clothes already.
Weight: 17# 2oz  36%  So, still long and skinny...although not nearly as skinny as Owen was, so we think of him as our chunky baby...he has thigh rolls!  I love it!
Head size - without the helmet of course ;) : 47cm  77%  the helmet's not helping make that noggin' look any smaller either

As I said earlier, he is trying so hard to get up on all fours.  He can't quite get his knees all the way under him yet...but I figure he'll be crawling within the month...watch out cats!

And in probably the best news so far of 2015, Elliot is now helmet free!! At least for the daytime.  He was given the green light yesterday to stop wearing the helmet during the day.  He will continue to wear it at night for the next 2 weeks, then we'll reassess and he may be completely helmet free at that point.

no helmet = the return of sock monkey #1

giraffe leg trap

in the fortress of solitude/pillows

Happy Birthday, Owen!

This is a day late, and I have so many other pictures to post from Christmas and after, but I'll save those for the next post.  For now, we will celebrate three years of Owen!

Happy Birthday, Owen!  Here is a little bit of what you are like at three:
You are a very calm and happy kid...most of the time!  You do have your moments of "threenager-ness" mostly in the form of stubbornness (which you come by honestly!).  But mostly you are just happy...and very smiley!

You are a really good player...you can entertain yourself with books and toys and you love to make up stories with all your toys.  Your imagination is incredible!  You have gotten really into Thomas the Train lately and you literally spend hours playing with the train set coming up with all sorts of back stories for the different train characters and then building props for these stories out of your lego to augment the train pieces.  It's pretty awesome to watch...and get involved in, because as much as you are good at playing by yourself, you still love to have someone else to play with!  And I love to play with you...I do really enjoy building train tracks and lego buildings with you!

You also love to read.  You are happy to curl up on the couch and read books with us...I've even caught you at night "reading" in your bedroom...in the dark!  It's so cute!  You continue to love your assortment of Richard Scarry books, Berenstain Bears (argh!  we grow tired of these ones), and Dr. Seuss...plus all the others, we have a lot of books and we read them all!

You have gotten a bit pickier about your eating, I think in part because it is something you are trying to control more, but pizza and pupusas are always favourites! You go through phases of what you want for breakfast...it used to be nothing but pancakes, everyday, but now we are on to yogurt with granola...everyday.

You continue to be a great sleeper, sleeping from 7:30pm to 7am every day, with the occasional wake up...you've started to have bad dreams on occasion.  You won't nap at home anymore, unless of course you are sick.  You will still nap at daycare though...ah peer pressure!

We are still, slowly, working at potty training.  You asked for underwear from Santa, and he brought you some nice Thomas the train ones...but you still don't really want to stop playing to actually go use the potty.  You will pee if we put you on the potty (although this is often accompanied by screaming b/c you are being taken away from your toys), but you won't stop what you are doing on your own if you have to pee while you are playing.   Grandma has been here this week and working on the potty training with you...you scream far less for her and pee far more...it's a good thing!  You still won't poop on the potty though.  But we did start wearing pull ups...so I feel like we are heading in the right direction.

You are a great talker.  I was reading the other day that by the time you are 4 you should be using 4-5 word sentences.  You already talk way better than this, using 7-15 word sentences regularly.  You have an amazing vocabularly...and are a regular parrot.  We have to watch what we say!

That being said, you are a bit slower in some of your gross motor skills...most notably the stairs. I've seen you walk the short 3 steps out the backdoor up and down with no rail, but you continue to crawl up and down the big stairs in the house...or insist we carry you.  Some of this is the Elliot factor (you see him being carried and you want that too), some of it comes from us (you were our first and we were cautious with you and wanted you to be safe and probably haven't let you bump yourself up trying as much as we maybe could have)...and some of it is just you.  I think you are not, and will never be, a daredevil.  You are cautious...and I'm okay with it!

You are an amazing big brother.  You are a very sweet guy and patient with Elliot.  You bring him toys and his paci, and like to give him kisses and hugs.  He, in return, is fascinated with you! I hope you will continue to get along well once he starts moving and wanting to play with your toys.  I think it will go well, you don't have much in the way of aggression in you.

Owen, you are amazing.  I love watching you grow, and giggle (oh my goodness do you ever giggle!), and become this amazing little person who fills the house with love and joy.  Your smile is infectious.  I love you little bee!

nothing but Thomas...all the time!

Grandma's little cleaning helper

reading stories with Grandpa

and not to be left out...the cutie in the helmet!