Owen has outgrown his little slide that we got at the garage sale last summer…so it was time to upgrade. After a few weeks of waiting and searching, I found one on Craigslist and picked it up today! I surprised him with it after his nap!
Year: 2011
Stupid baby product companies.
I swear, some baby companies have it in for parents. For the very popular brand of straw cup we have, you can only buy replacement pieces online, where of course shipping/handing is outrageous for something that could be shipped for 75c in an envelope. Hell, I’d even pay $4.95 for my whole order.
Instead, I just bought four new cups (on sale at Kroger, of all places) for less than the S/H would have been for replacement pieces.
At least the old cups can be recycled, but it still bugs the crap out of me. What a waste.
New Bike Helmet
We decided we wanted to get Owen a balance bike, but since he was still a little young (and the weather isn’t really outside weather on his birthday), we waited…and lucked into an online sale…so it became an Easter present! Tom put it together last weekend, and then we waited for the helmet to arrive. The first one we ordered didn’t fit (although though the measurements were correct, his head is extra round at the temples so it just didn’t work), so we had to reorder a YOUTH helmet, which came today.
We were worried he might not like it at all—as generally speaking he doesn’t like hats and tries to pull them off—but as soon as he saw it, he grabbed it and tried to put it on his head. 🙂
Then was a little impatient when Tom took it to try and adjust it to better fit him.
Then he was trying to snap the pieces together.
Just hanging out, watching Little Einsteins.
Sitting ever-so-patiently while Tom fiddled with the sizing. No squawking. No wiggling. Nothing. Hopefully it goes that well when it comes time to really wear it.
And hopefully he actually LIKES the bike, as so far we’ve not had too good a record with sit-on-type toys.
Tongue & Tail
The latest new words!
Change
Pie
Acorn
Push
Giraffe => Actually just raff right now.
Waterfall
Look
Castle => He called a church a castle as we were driving by. 🙂
Horse
Ernie
Working
Unicorn => Actually just corn right now.
Spooky
Ham
Table
Soap
Button
Clock
Space
Pet
And he tries REALLY hard to say Sphinx (thanks to a Little Einsteins episode).
So, we’re right around 200 words, if you count the letters of the alphabet. :up:
TweetStats!
http://tweetstats.com/graphs/dailyblather
I love colorful graphs. And seeing interesting stats like these.
- I have averaged 3.3 tweets a day and 70 tweets per month.
- Most of my tweets are around 3pm (237) with 10am and 11am coming in a close second and third (217 and 215 respectively).
- Most of my tweets are on Wednesday (432).
- Replies (retweets) account for 13.08% my total tweets.
- The person I’ve retweeted the most is @SelfishMom (10).
- The person I reply to the most is also @SelfishMom (34).
- The top five words I’ve tweeted: Owen (230), www, took, main, mugshot.
- The top 5 hashtags I’ve used: #yelp (83), #cutetoddler (28), #iphone (25), #hmdwl (23), #ugh (20).
- I have had 85 twooshes (a 140-character tweet)!
Little Einsteins Sing-A-Long
He really loves the show Little Einsteins and the main character is a rocket, which is his new favorite thing/toy/character. Whenever it comes on, you can tell he’s trying to sing along to the theme song… This is what it sounds like.
Fun with the hose reel
Once again proving you never know what will be fun. * NOTE—It’s a little long and all the same thing over and over, but it’s still cute. And mostly for the grandparents. :wave:
Thief!
I was sitting here when he came over, grabbed my hand, and said “help”—so I got up—and he promptly took my seat! Stinker!
My morning shocker!
So Tom left for a work trip this morning. He planned to leave at 7:30, which meant he’d be here to get Owen up. In cases where the timing works like this, I get to “sleep in” and then he always wakes me up before he leaves…so when I woke up at 7:30 I assumed he was still home/just getting ready to leave.
So as I walk by Owen’s room I see he’s not there, which fits what should be. The bottom stair gate is closed, which also fits. But as I get to the living room, I see Owen…but no Tom…and the TV isn’t on. I quick checked the garage and yep, Tom was gone.
❗ 88| ❓ 88| ❓ 88| ❗
Yeah, Owen got up on his own, forced his way out of his room (his room was too hot last night so we opened his door and propped a heavy container of change against the screen door thinking he wouldn’t be able to get out OR my mom-hearing would hear it if he was able to move it), made it downstairs, and was sitting on the couch saying “Watch! Watch!”
I had no idea how long he’d been up, so I called Tom who said he left at 6:15 and Owen wasn’t up then… But still, Owen could have been wandering/waiting for an hour!!! But from what I can tell, he didn’t get into anything bad and probably just played and waited for the TV to turn on! (I’m really surprised, too, that he didn’t come down to our room!)
So, that was my shocker. Good morning, indeed!
Sweet ending to a nice day!
We decided to hit Dairy Queen after dinner, and got Owen his own cone in a bowl.
When it’s too quiet…
You know the drill. Suddenly you look up and wonder where Owen is because you haven’t seen or heard him in awhile…so you go on a mad dash. This is where we found him—in the laundry room playing with some balls.
He’s such a good kid.
Playing outside on a nice day!
It was the first nice day in FOREVER so after we came home from the park, he still wanted to play outside. This is just a short video of him playing.
Babies ‘R Us frustrates the hell out of me.
So there’s a toddler slide we want and it’s cheaper there than Amazon, plus I have a gift certificate, plus there’s a current B1G1 sale on toys of that brand.
Except NO local stores have it in stock so I try to buy online, where—bonus—shipping is free over $100 (up to $20 credit). Okay, fine.
So, they’re not on any rewards sites (like ebates) which is a bummer, but still nothing to kill the deal.
So, even though the B1G1 is limited to “products up to $50” you’d think if I bought something for $90, I could get the $50 (or less) item free, right? No.
Okay, so I think I’ll just buy the two items—totaling $110—to get the free shipping. Except somehow shipping is $42, which I assume is due to the large slide, except the slide page shows NO info regarding “additional shipping costs” that I can see—and in fact even has the “ships free with $100” logo on it. So free shipping really still costs me $20. Um, NO.
Screw it. This is why I buy from Amazon and pay a bit of a premium.
Owen vs. The Meatloaf
Tonight we had meatloaf and Owen REFUSED to try it. I was 95% sure he’d like it (I mean, he likes other beef and has eaten [and enjoyed] meatballs in the past), so we did what we never do and forced a piece in his mouth, with him wiggling and screeching the whole way.
Then watched as, hmmmmmm, he realized it wasn’t disgusting. And that he might actually like it. Then watched as he shoveled in a HUGE piece almost as fast as his little fingers could move.
The little shit.
I really don’t want to force food on him, but maybe we have to? At least things we’re fairly sure he’ll like?
He didn’t touch the asparagus but I didn’t press our luck. 🙂
I joined…have you?
Thousands of patients hope for a bone marrow donor who can make their life-saving transplant possible. They depend on people like you. You have the power to save a life. Take the first step today.
I’ve always wanted to join the National Marrow Donor Program but somehow just never got around to it. Also, unfortunately, I discovered I was technically over their recommended weight limit. But not by much. At all. So today I was reading the local paper and there was a story about a local girl and her journey…and I went and signed up, a few pounds be damned. I’ve been meaning to lose it anyway, and this just helps add to my resolve.
It’s free to sign up and do the preliminary mouth swab test (they send you a kit) though they do take donations.
Do it. You know you want to help save a life.
Stomping & Rocket
Playing on our bed!
Owen sees his bike!
I just hope he’s as excited to TRY it as he is to SEE it in the box.
“Change!”
Owen came into the living room from wandering (a good sign he was off pooping) so I asked if he pooped and he just walked over to the changing table and said “change.”
Hmmm. I didn’t feel poop but put him up anyway…and yep, two teeny rabbit poops. 🙂
I think we’re closer to potty training than I’d imagined.
Oops! Bad mom!
Accidentally elbowing your kid in the face is not fun for anyone involved. It’s a good thing 1) it wasn’t too hard and 2) he got over it pretty quickly.
Props to Lowe’s customer service!
We recently bought five gallons of paint because they were offering a $5/gallon rebate—so Tom went and SPECIFICALLY asked for the “paint with the rebate.”
Fast forward 20 minutes when Tom came back to pick up the paint…and the Paint Guy had mixed a FIVE GALLON BUCKET instead of the five individual gallons we had expected. Tom asked about the rebate, and Paint Guy said it would still work for the rebate.
I looked up the terms and was pretty sure it wouldn’t (it very clearly said per ONE gallon) but we asked customer service anyway. Nope, no good.
So they ended up just crediting our account the $25.
Way to go, Lowe’s. :up:
Owen is 2 years 2 months old today!
No, I’m not sure when I will discontinue this tradition!
I got schooled by Owen.
Grandma Jean and I were singing The Wheels on the Bus to/with Owen (a song that we sang at our community center play days but that he never really got into) and I got to horn and said “honk honk honk” and when I was done, Owen said “beep beep beep!” Who knew he even knew the words? So I just got schooled by my toddler.
More new words!
go => As in The Cat in the Hat song “Go go go go…on an adventure!”
bread
cheese
knife
cloud
time
ride
help
kick
Maggie
house
king
mountain
penguin => pengin 🙂
key
map
giant
jump
March pictures are online!
Fish Watching
We were getting ready for dinner and Owen disappeared…and it was quiet. I know: OH NO! So we went on the hunt, and found him…sitting in front of the fish tank! He had pulled over a chair directly in front of it and climbed up…and he was just watching the fish…and chattering. So cute!
No new car for us…yet!
Over the past week or so, we’ve noticed that my car isn’t riding as smoothly as it usually does. There’s a little shimmy and shake business going on that actually made me a little nervous, like it might be on the verge of falling apart (because we’ve recently been joking about getting a minivan, except that I love love LOVE LOOOOOOOOVE my Highlander and never want to give it up, so we figured the irony would be that we’d now be forced to buy a new car).
So we took it in to our awesome local mechanic, crossed our fingers, and hoped the bill wouldn’t be enough to cause us to actually consider trading it in and buying a new car. We figured even if it cost $2,000, that would still only be about four new car payments.
THE BAD NEWS? The passenger front brake caliper is hung up—he said that’s a really bad thing and it’s what’s causing all the issues (and he can even see some blue spots, which I assume is a very bad thing). Though they’re usually replaced in pairs, he said we could just replace the one side as there’s enough room to machine the other side down, but it would be the bare minimum. To replace the full set—both pads, calipers, bleeding the brakes, and then balancing the tires—the whole shebang is $869.34.
😮
THE GOOD NEWS? That’s really only like 1.5 new car payments, so overall not too bad in the grand scheme of things. And if it makes my baby run for a few more years, I’m all about that.
