We went to the grocery store tonight and while we were checking out, the cashier gave Owen a sticker and he said thank you.
Or not.
But it sure sounded like it to both of us, because we both looked at each other in the same instant like “Did you just hear what I heard?” Sure, it was more like “tak oo” but we heard it.
Then…he actually waved goodbye—on cue—instead of waiting until we were out the door.
Or two years one month. 🙂
I was sitting here on the couch minding my own business and Owen was watching The Backyardigans…when suddenly I had a burpie blanket tossed over my head and a little boy attacking me and laughing.
That was an “I love being a mom” moment for sure. 🙂
Here’s some new words since the last list…
(bana)na
(butter)fly
bye
chair
circle
corn
(dino)saur
eek
eye
football
gone
hand
horse
kite
machine
mine
moon
octagon
oh no
ouch
owl
(piz)za
plane
rock
scoop
shark
square
stuck
teeth
watch
Some words are getting better. Balloons—or, noons—is now more like b’noons. And circle is VERY clear.
He is also getting better with context—if he empties his plate or sees your empty plate, it’s gone; lots of things are stuck (the lid on a jar, a kite in a tree on a TV show, you sitting on his B, him trying to move something); when he wants to watch TV he says watch; and lots of things are now mine!
And he’s still finding letters and shapes in everything. A wooden fried egg with the round yolk in the middle? I can’t get him to say egg because it’s a circle. 😀
And he knows the tunes of the shows we watch and you can see him trying to sing along—soooooo cute!
At our sushi buffet lunch today with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob, Owen was intrigued by the stuff on my plate so I let him grab a piece of sushi…which he proceeded to (of course) dip in yogurt and try to take a bite of!!!!!!!111!1!!
He didn’t get much of a bite—and then the roll basically fell apart—but it’s the first time EVER he has reached for something on our plates that was new to him! He then proceeded to eat a few small bites of tempura sweet potato and Korean beef!!
Knock me over with a feather.
Everyone at the table (well, mom and dad especially!) was cheering madly. The other patrons surely thought we were insane. 🙂
Well, we’ve added a few new things since his appointment, and it seems to be okay so far.
I learned from friends that there are fruit juices that actually have veggie juices in them, so I bought a few varieties of those—and he drinks that mixed with water and likes it. He now also has one smoothie a day (his post-nap lunch/snack) that is made with fresh fruit, the fruit/veggie juice, protein powder, and…spinach! (I tasted it myself and you can’t even taste the spinach!)
We also now add those fruit squeeze packets (applesauce or squash/apple or strawberry—which he used to eat alone but now basically refuses) or jarred sweet potatoes to his pancakes/waffles…and those were eaten no problem.
It doesn’t feel like a lot, but it’s a start.
You’ll have to listen closely to hear his contributions!
His current stats:
Height: 39″ (greater than the 97th percentile) — was 37.5″ at 21mo
Weight: 38# (greater than the 97th percentile) — was 35# 7oz at 21mo
Head Circumference: 50cm (between 75th and 90th percentile
Well, there’s nothing like a well-visit with the pediatrician to make you feel like a failure as a parent.
:**:
She’s not really worried about his speech (or lack thereof), but she IS worried about a) his weight and b) his lack of eating fruits and vegetables. He is 39″ and 38#—which is apparently off the chart (100+ percentile). She’s fine with his height, but she would like to see him weigh 33-34#. SERIOUSLY? He’s always been a big kid…but you’re telling me he needs to go on a diet? Of course she didn’t call it a diet but said he needs to be on skim milk (vs. 2%), I should limit the quantity he eats (especially the carbs), and he should get more exercise. Good lord. And she was amazed at what he won’t eat, saying that even though this is the age to be picky, if he’s still this picky in 6 months, she will recommend occupational therapy!! 😮
So I’m supposed to try and get more creative in giving him veggies…which sure sounds nice, but it’s kinda hard when his food options are already so limited. He won’t even let a veggie get near his plate and pushes your hand away (or hands it back to you if you sneak it on his plate)—how can I sneak it in? He loves yogurt and dips everything, but he won’t even eat veggies dunked in yogurt. We’ve tried raw, cooked, microwaved, roasted, etc., and nothing makes the cut. The kid doesn’t even really like french fries! So I’m supposed to give him a V8 or one of the fruit blends to see if he’ll drink that…and I’m supposed to make him yogurt/veggie smoothies and hope he’ll drink those. And I should let him help pick out foods and let him help prepare his food—um, yeah, I think he’s still a little young for that.
And of course, on top of all this, Owen was a screaming hot mess the entire time because he didn’t get his post-nap wake-up period (he took a 3-hour nap and woke up at the last possible minute before I was going to call to reschedule, which meant we had to fly to get out of the house on time). He bawled when we set him on the scale, he screamed when we tried to measure him, he refused to let the nurse or doctor listen to his lungs/heart…in short, it was a nightmare that Word World AND a sucker didn’t help. That’s what I get for forcing the issue and not wanting to reschedule. 😐
I just really hate feeling this way after each well visit, like I’ve failed at major things and now my kid is doomed. I know he’s not, but it sure feels that way after a visit.
🙁
This morning Owen was playing with magnets on the fridge and turning them upside down. Of course I told him he was turning them upside down—and then he was saying his version: “si dow.” 🙂 He also repeated heck when Linda said it. We definitely have to start watching our language.
On another note, Owen is not a heavy sleeper in the car. If you brake suddenly or get off the highway or park the car, he’s up immediately. So we planned our departure for an hour before his nap time because we had 30 minutes of driving and then a quick 15 minute stop. So what happens? He falls asleep about 5 minutes into the drive. We figure we’ll still stop because he’ll wake up. Except he didn’t…when we stopped at a stop sign, parked the car, opened his door, and Tom stuck his face in and touched his nose. The boy was out cold! Amazing! So we just got back in the car and skipped the visit. Stinker!
Grannie Lin had two free day passes so we bought two extra tickets and we all spent a few hours at the park watching Owen have a complete blast! We didn’t take too many pictures (we didn’t want to carry any cameras around) but we did take a handful right before we left.
I was really excited about decorating Owen’s cake as a baseball—I baked part in a round Pyrex bowl and did a flat bottom layer. That part went fine. The frustrating part came when I tried to decorate it—the tiny tube of “cake decorating gel” I bought was basically useless—it was too sticky and didn’t come out of the tube evenly, making the lines and intricate designs of the stitching impossible. So I was bummed.
Owen noticed the gifts on the table and wanted to sit in the chair, so we put him up there and Gramma Marsha gave him a car from one of the bags so then he played with that and the peeked into a bag and found another car. So he was playing with both of them…and making car noises! (He had never done that before!)
Then I decided to give him one of my gifts—a box of 10 Matchbox cars—and this is him seeing them in the box and signing “more!”
Taking a break from playing with his cars.
He loves having Happy Birthday sung to him!
Enjoying the cake!
Everyone who was at the party!
I didn’t catch it quite early enough (I missed a few head bobs while my camera started up) but what I did get was cute enough to share. 🙂
A short video I forgot to include in the original birthday day post…but it’s cute, so I had to post it!
I had kicked some snow off a bush, and he saw what it did…so he started throwing snow in the air!
Happy birthday, Owen! Smile for your first picture of the day!
I was amazingly proud of him at our play group today. He actually sat in the song circle for the first time EVER…for THREE songs even! And was pretty happy and smiley about it! At the end of song three, he announced loudly “DONE!” 🙂 and then, surprise #2…he went to the playdough table! What? Huh? Awesome! AND THEN…he actually participated in the art project!! He put glue on the paper (and maybe in his mouth) and stuck some stickers on! And he kinda liked his birthday crown! And grandma AND dad were there to see it!
So when we got home, we tried for the “official” birthday photo…and lucked out with this one:
Then he had his nap, and we got to experience this when we got up:
Then since it was pretty warm out (32!) we decided to take Owen outside. I know he doesn’t like to play in the snow, so I didn’t even put his snowpants on him. We gave him a few sled rides and you could see he didn’t really care too much. Grandma Jean coerced him up onto the porch…
…where after a few minutes, he suddenly laid down, crawled toward the bushes, and started playing in the snow between the bushes! He was digging and digging and flinging snow around—his mittens were packed with snow. Then when you thought he might be done, he’d do a low-crawl to the next section of the porch and dig some more. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind the cold at all!
After dinner, it was time for CAKE—and he certainly knows cake when he sees it! 🙂
And then for the day’s big finale…a BAF!
Since Tom had the day off, we took Owen to the community center pool. At first he didn’t really want anything to do with it—not even when we gave him a ball. But after about 30 minutes he started loving it, and we ended up staying for almost two hours. Here he is shooting hoops with Tom’s help…
Last night he learned that if he turned the basket over, he could sit on it and still play with his toys on the entertainment center. So it wasn’t long before he figured out he could climb on it… So this is what happened when I looked away for a minute…
This is Owen’s version of octagon. He started saying it last night (of course, after I already posted his new words for the week!) and we couldn’t believe our ears! I tried getting him to say it this morning, and of course he’s super quiet about it today—but if you listen VERY closely you can hear it.
The sound a dog makes—woof!
The sound a cat makes—meow!
Moon—not sure where he picked it up, but he knows it!
Kite—he saw it on WordWorld then recognized it in an Elmo book.
He was doing this for a few minutes even before I grabbed the camera!
First I was recording, then Tom was recording—when you see me move behind Owen and kneel down, I was (of course) trying to stay out of the video, but mostly I had a hand on Owen’s back making sure he didn’t fall off the dresser because he was MOVING!
Today’s baby wipe waste brought to you by Owen and mom who apparently left them too close to the crib.
We had such a great weekend—we didn’t do anything totally awesome, but it was a lot of little stuff that was all good…
Tom had the whole weekend off—amazing in itself.
I got to sleep in, though I didn’t really sleep in but I got to wake up/get up leisurely.
I got to go to Target. Alone. For an hour. And got some good deals.
I got in some kitchen time, making garlic butter, garlic oil, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, and Tom made waffles.
We got to play with Owen in the snow and got some cute pics.
We got to eat a really good lunch with some new friends (met via Yelp!) and Owen was really well-behaved.
We had a blast watching Owen run through Party City finding every single ball display…he was just. so. happy!
I got some great cuddle time with Owen.
There was that semi-traumatic haircut in there, but he’s cuter now with short hair…even if his bangs are a little crooked.
I needed this.
After breakfast, we went out to play in the snow while Tom cleared the driveway. Owen still loved riding in the sled but didn’t want to play in the snow at all—though he didn’t mind walking through it.
After his nap, we went out for lunch and then to Petsmart to get a few more “ishies” for the tank. Owen gets SO excited to see the wall of fish at the store!
Then it was off to try another shot at a haircut. He walked around the kids area and instantly noticed the frog so we put him on it…and was enjoying the sucker that Tom was holding for him.
And then it was time for the actual haircut…and it didn’t go too badly. It wasn’t FUN, but it wasn’t a screaming nightmare like it was the last time. He didn’t want the cape and he hates getting spritzed with water, so she was cutting his hair dry, which meant it was getting all over him and in his mouth so he was constantly sputtering trying to get rid of it. The saddest thing was that he kept saying “Done…done…DONE!!” because he SO wanted to be done. Poor kid. Tom was keeping him mostly in line… Here’s a short clip of what we have to deal with:
At the very end (when we got out the buzzers) there was immediate screeching and tears and boogers…but with both of us holding him down, it was done in like 20 seconds. As soon as it was over, he was fine. Then we walked down to DQ where he got a few bites of our Blizzards.
THEN…it was home for a bath—his favorite thing. Here is the fun he has when Tom changes his diaper/gets him undressed:
And then, are you ready to see Owen at blazing fast mode? When we tell him it’s time for his bath? I can barely keep up with him to catch it on video!
