She also climbed up into the wagon and back out all by herself.
Yes, she’s going to be my fearless daredevil.
Year: 2013
Emotions Week
This week’s theme at school was Emotions. Owen came home Friday with this.
HAPPY!
SAD!
Watching Katie videos
Katie loves daddy!
Papa & Katie
A walk with Papa
Papa said he wanted to take Katie for a walk. I asked “In the stroller or just walking free?” He said walking free. Ooooh-kay. I warned him he’d likely have to retrieve her from yards and driveways. He said it was fine and off they went.
Fifteen minutes later they were back, with dad saying “She doesn’t listen! And she did t want to follow me!” Heh. Welcome to my world. 🙂
No, Katie. PLEASE not yet.
Grannie Lin told me this morning that she was in Katie’s room putting away clothes while Katie was still in her crib…and she watched Katie kick her leg up onto the side rail.
Uh oh.
The mattress is down as far as it can go…so now we have to watch her like a hawk when we put her down—and especially when she wakes up—to make sure she doesn’t get too antsy and try to escape.
Owen was 25 months old when he got moved to a big boy bed…so I’m really hoping she lasts QUITE a bit longer in her crib. At least until Tom gets home…and hopefully longer.
A nice new shirt (and socks) for Owen
He needed a short-sleeve shirt to match his olive pants, and I found this one at the resale shop. When I told him he had to wear it, he said he didn’t want to. I told him he had to. He said it didn’t match. I said it did. He finally put it on but wasn’t happy about it. Then I told him it really looked like a shirt Braxton (his buddy) would wear…and then he was happy about it! He also loved his new robot socks!
Owen practicing hitting
As soon as we got home from the dentist, Owen wanted to practice some more!
Dentist Day
Owen didn’t want to go to the dentist and he was cranky for the first few minutes in the chair…but then after a promise of a special treat if he behaved…all was well.
And he didn’t have any cavities so he gets his picture on the wall and his name in a drawing for a Toys R Us gift certificate!
Holy crap! Owen is pretty good at hitting!
Papa wanted to surprise Owen with his own baseball bat so he got it the other day and planned to give it to him after school before his dentist appointment when we’d be at the playground.
Then after a few quick attempts and after getting his grip and stance corrected, he was hitting most of my pitches! We were stunned. They weren’t perfect, of course, but I’d guess he was at least making some sort of contact on 80% of them…and probably good contact on 50% of those! He even smacked me with a ball a few times and had me ducking more than once as a ball whizzed by me.
While we were playing, Tom happened to Skype in, so he could watch Owen! It was awesome! Tom loved it!
Father Daughter Bonding
We both wanted to see Gravity, so we went to a 3D matinee today before picking Owen up from school. Neither one of us can remember the last time we did this…though he thought it had to be in Traverse City (and I said that would make it almost 20 years ago)!
And, interestingly, Carmike has their server room viewable by the public.
And I remembered why I hate movies in theaters…30 MINUTES OF PREVIEWS. Seriously—it was 30 minutes. That’s asinine. /getoffmylawn
Katie being Katie
Watching herself, then making faces with (offscreen) Papa.
I was trying to sort some of Owen’s old clothes and of course she had to have her fingers in everything…so I put some PJ bottoms on her head. She didn’t mind.
Maggie and the lizard
You rarely see a lizard turn brown—they’re usually bright green. But he obviously doesn’t understand windows and thought Maggie was a threat.
I’ve never seen a lizard move so slowly.
Owen’s first homework!
An assignment came home in Owen’s folder today. I told him he had homework.
Me: Do you know what homework is?
Owen: No.
Me: It’s work your teacher sends home that you need to do before you go back to school.
Owen: I don’t want to.
I assured him it would be easy and fun. Of course, he was done in about 15 seconds. 🙂 The only assistance I gave was reading the instructions and suggesting he make his circles a bit smaller.
Owen swallowed a pill today!
Since he flat out refuses to take liquid medicine and turns into a screaming crying snotty hot mess, we had to try something else. So we’ve been practicing swallowing mini M&Ms and he’s gotten good at that…so I decided it was time for the real thing. I’m pretty sure he has allergies (I definitely do and Katie was diagnosed yesterday) so he needs to take something.
I was just going to split mine in half (because they’re small to start so would be super small broken in half—plus wouldn’t require me to buy anything) but all the dosing info I could find said even half was probably too much…plus my parent friends said a jagged half-pill would be harder to swallow. So it was off to a Walgreens where I stood like a zombie in front of the allergy section, looking for the tiniest pill he could take. I settled on Claritin, which is actually smaller than a mini M&M.
When Owen got home from school, it was time. I set the pill down along with some of the mini M&Ms and explained he had to swallow the pill and then he could have the M&Ms. I told him it was medicine (I had debated that, but thought I’d better be honest) and as soon as he heard that, the refusals and hot mess started. Nothing I was saying mattered. Papa got to witness it and was amazed. (I’m not sure he fully understood or believed my stories about how Owen reacts to medicine.)
I told him the pill would help his runny nose. Nope.
I told him it would make him feel better. Nope.
Then I told him that daddy takes pills for allergies, mama takes pills for allergies, Grannie takes pills for allergies, and Katie takes medicine for allergies. He says “So everyone takes pills?” Yes, buddy, pretty much.
Then like it was no big deal whatsoever he popped it in his mouth, took a drink, and was done in three seconds.
Of course I made a huge spectacle about it, saying “Wait a minute. You did not just take that pill. Let me check your mouth. I think it’s hiding!” And of course I was making sure he really did swallow it. 🙂
So now I’m just hoping each day goes a little smoother…and that we work up to larger sizes (because not everything comes in teeny pills) but I’m actually amazed at how well he did.
Go, Owen!
More football with Papa!
Papa got Owen a football tee so he could practice kicking. The grass was a little too soft so they had to start in the driveway.
Fumble recovery!
Practicing setting it up.
Papa’s turn!
A major project done!
(If you can’t tell, the bushes are trimmed. I should have taken a Before.)
Both of them want the stuffed pig.
I had their attention because I had a new stuffed animal…
But it was for Maggie!
Where’s Katie? Peek!
Katie was feeling better after dinner…so she was copying Papa’s hiding in his shirt.
Peeking!
Happy, laughing girl!
Watching herself:
Reading the Costco booklet with Grannie
Katie still wasn’t herself and just wanted to be held, so it was Grannie’s turn. Katie was interested in the Costco booklet, so that’s what they were reading. Then Owen wanted to be part of the action.
The story of my life…specifically deployment.
I like to think I can handle most things while Tom is gone…big or little. Maybe with some bitching and moaning (and sometimes outside help) but for the most part, I like to be self-sufficient. But things out of my control often hinder me. Like today.
The soccer ball needs inflating. No biggie, we have a portable air compressor…I’ll just haul it out, plug it in, change tips, and voilá!
Except no.
We have every other connector—including the ball injector tip—except we’re missing the connector piece that goes between the handle and the ball tip. Of course it’s not in it’s place where it should be (on the unit itself) and there’s no chance in hell of me finding it in the garage.
So $6 at Amazon later I have another full set (5 pieces I don’t need, one I do) on its way…but I’m still frustrated.
Two Doctors
Katie’s 15m well-visit was today, and she passed with flying colors! He asked if she was eating her fruits, veggies, and meats (yes), if she could throw a ball (yes), if she knew five words (yes), and if she was walking on her own (yes, running!).
Weight: 23lbs. 15oz. (was 21lbs. 11oz.)—66th percentile (was 65th)
Height: 32-1/2″ (was 30-1/4″)—back up to 95th percentile (was 80th)
Head: 18-3/4″ (was 18-1/2″)—88th percentile (was 65th)
And for the sibling comparison, at 15 months, Owen was:
Weight: 28lbs. 12oz (95th percentile)
Height: 34″ (Above 95th percentile)
Head: 48cm (75th percentile)
Katie has allergies and is now on a low dosage of Zyrtec. I’m sure that’s what Owen’s snot and coughing is about, too, but it wasn’t his appointment so the doc couldn’t really do anything official. But, Owen was allowed to get his flu shot…and holy cow was that a drama. Of course he didn’t want a shot and just about pulled the “stiff as a log you can’t move me” crap, but I managed to get him in the room and as I’m literally shoving him to lay down on the table and keep him from flailing about and he’s screeching and snotting all over, the shot was done and over and he was like “That was it?” Yes, you little shit, I told you it was no big deal. (He whined louder and longer than Katie and her four shots!)
Then Owen had his follow-up with the GI specialist next door. He was 60.2# and 46-1/2″ tall. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else to do besides keep on keeping on—it took a year to stretch out his colon so it can take just as long for it to shrink back. And in the meantime, we just have to deal with the messy undies and have him keep trying to poop. I do officially have to do a mini clean out every other week—hoping enough gets done over the weekend so it doesn’t interfere with school.
per·fect
She wasn’t feeling well so she’s not as cute as usual. This onesie is a hand-me-down from Owen. 🙂
This is the only pic I could find of Owen in it (at 14m):
And this is the close-up:
Doctor Katie
We’ve had the temporal thermometer out for the kids over the past 4-5 days and Katie loves to play with it—but she also pretends to actually use it, dragging it across her face.
Wagon Rides
We got the wagon out of the shed a while back and finally got it cleaned out. Katie was a hot mess after her nap (due to all her shots) but she liked being outside and I thought she might like a wagon ride.
Nope.
So Owen played with Papa instead.
Then Katie was happy again—and watching them intently—so we tried putting her in with Owen.
Nope.
Helping Papa make cookies for daddy
He wasn’t terribly interested in helping so I was lucky to get one picture.
The day the pool came down.
I’ve been waiting for a stretch of nice days to take the pool down so it can dry out nicely, but it’s been raining for a week with rain forecast for the next week, too…so I decided to just start since I had help (both for the pool and the kids) and we had a few hours of sun.
I actually started yesterday by draining about half the water (to hopefully lessen the muck around the yard by letting it dry out for 24 hours). So today when I let the water start draining, I told Owen it was his last chance to get in the pool. (Papa had hoped to go swimming with Owen, but it just didn’t stay hot quite long enough.)
Helping me drain the water a little faster.
Then someone else joined the party…
Almost empty…
Hanging it up after a quick scrubbing…and Owen helping rinse it off (he even went inside/underneath to rinse the inside!).
On Grannie’s Lap
A Halloween surprise for daddy!
When I saw this resin pumpkin on Woot, I had to get it for Tom! And today Katie just happened to be dressed in her Sparty outfit…
