When we were on vacation, she constantly glommed onto whoever was drinking something from a cup and wanted to drink herself. So when we got home, we let her try on her own. And damn if she didn’t do too badly! Sure, she spilled some and dribbled a bit—but she actually got most of it in her mouth!
So I had been DREADING this talk. We all know how much Owen loves his daddy and misses him when he’s just at work for the day…
We ordered the Sesame Street Deployment video (Elmo’s daddy goes away to help people, Elmo’s mommy stays home) and watched it ahead of time—and I couldn’t make it through without crying (but then, the last month is the most emotional for me).
So at breakfast, we finally told Owen about Tom leaving and Owen’s immediate response was “But I don’t want you to go. I will miss you.” Tom assured him that he would miss him, too. We told him it was like when daddy had to go to school before and was gone for a lot of days, but this time he was going farther away and wouldn’t be able to come home on the weekends. Owen told Tom that he would go to school, too. 🙂
Then we showed him the Sesame Street video…and he seems okay so far. It just seemed like any other Sesame Street episode to him. But now out of nowhere he’ll say “Elmo’s mommy stays home.” And I reassure him yes, Elmo’s mommy stays home—just like I will be here with him and Katie. I also repeat “Grown ups come back” (which is from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood when Daniel Tiger doesn’t want his parents to go out for the night—the babysitter tells him that grown ups always come back).
I’m sure there will be worse times…but for now—when I’M still fragile—I’ll take his nonchalance.
As I walk into the living room this morning:
Tom: Look who just got up!
Me: Katie?
Tom: Yes, she slept in!
Me: Oh, you mean after crying for 20 minutes at 6:30?
Tom: I didn’t hear her over the fan.
Me: I did. I’ve been up since 6:30. FAIL.
The baby monitor goes back up today (it was down from vacation). I only have four more weekends of not having to get up with the early-rising kids…and I need every last one of them to be successful.
So, you all know by now that Katie often SCREAMS BLOODY MURDER when we set her down/leave the room because she wants the attention and/or she wants to be carried. Well, when we’re trying to get dinner ready, we can’t really do that. Enter…the baby carrier. I told Tom not to even start it because he’s leaving soon and I won’t be using it (well, at least not while making dinner). But OH MAN did she love it. She was PERFECTLY content.
This is what happens.
Owen has gotten REALLY good at getting himself dressed…but sometimes, it does go wrong. Hilariously wrong in this case, as the way he was standing just cracked us up. You can see a little of it in this picture. 🙂
With all the rain we had while we were gone (we’ve heard 9″), our garden went batshit crazy. The tomatoes overgrew everything and cut off the basil (you can’t even see it). Tom had to cut it back with the weed eater…and it still needs to be thinned out by hand.
The rabbits had a field day with things that hung outside the container (who knew they liked basil?). And the leaf lettuce got so big it’s now completely useless—and I don’t think I’m going to be planting any more.
I’m sad.
This month there were more pictures than normal since we took a two-week trip to Michigan and did lots of fun things.
Most of the time when Owen woke up in the morning or after a nap, he’d just play happily in his crib. For a long time if you let him. And when you finally went in to get him, he was all smiles and giggles.
So of course I expected Katie to do the same.
Ha.
HA HA.
She starts screaming within two minutes of waking up.
Every.
Single.
Time.
😐
And sometimes doesn’t even stop after you pick her up. Or stops, but starts again when you lay her down to change her diaper.
It gets old…fast. It’s a good thing she’s cute.
So, any tips to make sure kids chew their food? And to impress upon them the importance of chewing so they don’t choke and vomit all over the place?
😐
Yes, Tom is cleaning the current multi-spew fest (through the dining room and kitchen—at least nothing on carpet so he got off easy) thanks to Owen apparently trying to swallow a whole cashew.
😐
I told him if he can’t chew his food he’ll get milk and baby food…but seriously, we may implement a new rule about the number of times you need to chew food before swallowing. Because this is ridiculous.
It doesn’t happen all the time, but it should be a rarity. But I guess I’d rather have him vomit than actually choke, right?
They were both cranky before she climbed over to him.
Moments after this picture, Owen says “Katie, I love you.”
Awwww.
Katie seems to be over her teething and eating issues she had a Gramma Jean’s. Last night she ate half an avocado, 1/4 PB&J sandwich, yogurt drops, 1/2 baby yogurt, and puffs. (TMI: Plus had a real poop!)
He was content to be watching ninjas and Charlie was just happy people were around.
Put something new in the room and she’s on it immediately.
The only good thing about driving too far the first day is that the second day is a lot shorter. BUT…the day started too early with Katie screaming good morning about 6:15. 😐 But it meant we were on the road at 7:30 again.
As usual, we stopped at our favorite park near Raleigh and Owen had a blast.
He’s getting SO much older. Now, he just takes off across the park without telling us…so we had a few chats about that. 🙂
And here’s how packed in things are—including Maggie! And it’s missing the last outside row that we had to take out at the park (the stroller, backpack, Maggie’s bag, etc.).
Look at that pathetic face. But don’t let her fool you…she’s perfectly happy. We had to literally DRAG her out when we stopped at the park.
Also, does Katie want her bottle at the park, when it’s convenient to do so? Of course not. She wants it 10 minutes later as soon as we’re back on the highway. Babies are annoying. But at least it put her to sleep so both kids thankfully napped almost the last two hours home…
Owen summed up the day nicely about 10 hours in: I am not happy. No more road trips.
Best case scenario it’s a long day but it was made even longer since we decided to push the mileage to get to our favorite hotel…and then it was full so we had to go an hour farther. 🙁
And I tried to make Katie a bottle of formula…with apple juice. Because I just wasn’t thinking and thought I had filled one of Owen’s cups with water. WRONG! So Katie was REALLY not happy the last hour, though I tried to keep the snacks coming her way.
Then I tried to check in to the wrong hotel. I just saw the Q and assumed it was La Quinta. Nope, Quality Inn. It’s a good thing Tom didn’t get anything unloaded…
Then we had horrible take-out Chinese food (Mongolian Beef and General Tso’s Chicken are hard to screw up, but they did) which just added to the day.
Owen perked up once he got to play in the pool.
But since we arrived late, dinner was late and Owen getting to and back from the pool was late…which meant a super tired Katie—who should have gone to bed early at 8—couldn’t go to bed until they were back in the room and ready for bed…about 9:15. At least she only screamed for 10 minutes before falling asleep!
This is Owen’s new response to just about everything…even when he sometimes knows the answer.
Me: Owen, do you know how to unzip Maggie’s crate?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Who gave you those Legos?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Owen, where’s your B?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: What did I just tell you?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: It says pbskids.com.
Grandma Jean: Do you know what that is?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Owen, if you’re a good boy tonight and don’t cry when Katie cries and you’re quiet and stay in bed, we’ll give you a Lego tomorrow. Okay?
Owen: Shakes head in agreement.
Me: What did I say?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: [Playing on the iPad.] I spelled cake!
Me: How do you spell it?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: What do you want for a treat tonight?
Owen: I got no idea.
Of course, after two weeks of bad (to us) movies (Hangover 3 and Fast & Furious 6) at our local theater, now that we’re headed home they are playing two shows we’d want to see (Epic and The Internship). GRRR! It would have been really cool to take Owen to his first real movie at the same theater where I saw my first movie (AND where Tom and I saw our first movie together)!
Doug and Marie added a day to their vacation to be able to stop by before we had to leave. It was great seeing them—and the kids loved each other!—but the visit wasn’t nearly long enough. 🙁
For comparison, July 17, 2009 (with Izzy and Anna, minus Katie of course):
In the past month or two, Owen has taken to whole chicken butt thing (Guess what? Chicken butt!) but also morphs it into chicken
Owen: Dad, guess what?
Tom: What?
Owen: Chicken butt! [Laughter]
Tom: Oh you!
Owen: Dad, guess what?
Tom: What?
Owen: I’m a chicken butter!
Katie still has diarreah…and this morning was a bit worse than normal with three full diapers before her morning nap (it’s been maybe once per day up until now). This, of course, necessitated two outfit changes as well.
Then.
THEN.
I was standing in the kitchen talking to my mom when I look up to see Owen in the hallway just standing there but looking kinda…strange…and quiet. It didn’t register. Then he threw up as only Owen could do—basically just opened his mouth and it comes spewing out. That’s when I noticed the PILES of puke in the living room. Ugh.
Well, I immediately pulled him onto the linoleum, knowing that he likely wasn’t done because when he pukes, it’s not just once or twice—it’s usually at least 3-4 times. And if you try to move him, he’ll puke the entire way and you’ll have a bigger area to clean up. And yep, he puked three more times.
Luckily Katie was down for her nap.
Unluckily Tom was out getting his hair cut.
Luckily my mom was there.
Unluckily she wasn’t feeling well, either.
I stripped Owen and gave him a quick bath then started the cleanup. During which I discovered he also puked on the couch and iPad.
😐
At least we had brought carpet and upholstery cleaner with us (something I’ve learned to do with two kids and a dog). So I was on my hands and knees scrubbing for 20 minutes and of course Tom walked in right as I was finishing. 🙂 Them I had to change clothes because I had puke splatter plus wet knees from cleaning the carpet.
As usual, Owen didn’t appear to be sick (before or after)…so who knows why he puked.
Then when Katie got up from her nap, she was sitting in my lap…and let’s just say I had to change clothes again. 😐
Then at dinner, Owen was eating too fast while simultaneously eating like a horse and not chewing well enough and he started coughing HARD…which—yep, you guessed it—leads to vomiting! At least he puked onto his plate and we had nothing to clean.
It’s rare he pukes at all, so to have him do it twice in one day? We wondered if he really might be sick (both Tom and my mom had a day of the icks) but he had no other symptoms and we knew the second time was from coughing. I think everything was just a big coincidence.
Tom bought some little firework-type stuff to show Owen…and also to hopefully desensitize him to those noises.
The poppers bothered him at first, but then he got right into it and loved it!
Then it was time for the snakes! He thought they were cool, too…and called them fire snakes and poop snakes (since they really quite look like poop when they’re done). And then of course he was being a ham.
And then more poppers with Uncle Rob…
So we knew that Katie was getting some new teeth (see last teething post from a few days ago: Katie’s Teeth) but imagine my complete shock and surprise when I happened to take this picture…
…and looked at it later, blown up:
HOLY CRAP! That’s a molar coming in! That’s ahead of schedule…and no wonder she wasn’t eating and was fussier than normal! Poor kid! So these are the two new teeth breaking through on vacation:
Grandma Marsha bought Owen some Captain America missiles so Uncle Rob and daddy took him out to play before dinner. Grandma and Katie came out to watch.
A one-in-a-million photo: Grandma Marsha looking at the camera with her eyes open and nothing blocking her face! And as a bonus, Katie is ALSO looking at the camera with her eyes open! 🙂
Owen, to Uncle Rob: You see that? It’s a cherry ring pop. [Points to the ring] It’s a jewel!
