Aunt Rose bought him this cool water toy awhile back, but we left it in the package so it would be a special treat once we moved. Well, he keeps seeing it and getting super excited..so we finally got it out…and it kinda freaked him out. 🙂 He wasn’t too sure what to think of it…and he’s still not sure but he did have some fun with it.
Or poopints as he seemed to be saying. Mom and I couldn’t stop laughing.
Learning how to—OOPSIE!!—use his new fish squirt gun! Thanks, Gramma Marsha!
Splashing in the water table with papa. Grannie Lin taught him “On your mark!” which comes out “Onma! Onma!” 🙂
You gotta love the Little Einsteins for teaching Owen about Saturn! I was reading a magazine while he was running around playing with his water table…and I kept hearing something that sounded like “Saturn” and I couldn’t figure out why he was saying it…until I saw what he was holding (as you will see in the videos). What a smart kid!
And then later that afternoon, he wanted to go inside after playing…and was getting a little whiny (but still dang cute):
And more whining…
Today was the first nice day of the year—55 and sunny—so Owen and I went outside to play! The first time we went out, Owen was excited to see THREE trucks come by—the garbage truck, the mail truck, and the FedEx truck! When the FedEx truck went by, he said “X! F!” 🙂 He also enjoyed splashing in the puddles.
After lunch, when it was about time for Tom to come home, we went out again. This time there was much more splashing!
He did not want to go inside—he apparently now remembers how fun it is to be outside—so we went out to the porch while the grill heated up for dinner. He wanted to play with Maggie’s toy…but she wanted the toy more, so she knocked him down trying to get it. He had a fit until I went downstairs and brought up this toy from last summer. You should have seen his face when he saw it—so happy!
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.
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…
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!
Maybe the fish tank wasn’t such a good idea…he LOVES it. So much so that he pulls the chair out from the table, turns it around, climbs up on it, and reaches into the fish tank. When you’re not looking.
It probably also didn’t help that we taught him how to feed the fish. 😮
Yes, folks, we have a true toddler on our hands.
My mom has a group of friends that meet every Wednesday night for dinner. Tonight’s happened to be at the Ramada Inn where one out-of-town couple was staying, so we were invited to come early and use the pool. Of course, we knew Owen would LOVE it—and since we don’t typically pack swimsuits and swim diapers for a winter trip to Grayling, it was off to Kmart.
Needless to say, Owen LOVED the kiddie pool. He stayed and played for over TWO hours, and I know he would have stayed longer except it was time to eat (which, as an aside, he didn’t care about at all since we were right next to a ping pong table and he was obsessed with watching the ball and trying to catch it).
Owen’s first experience with the ocean…he liked playing in the shallow water of the surf, but did NOT like the water rushing up to him (so look to see him running away from the surf).
Running away from the surf!
One of my favorite pictures of the day:
And then some fun at the community condo pool (where it was a bit chilly, so this is as much playing as we did):
http://www.yelp.com/biz/s…augustine-beach
Owen is very spoiled during this leg of our trip…just across the street from the condo we’re staying at is this awesome splash park (linked above, the Splash Park at the Pier in St. Augustine, Florida) that he LOVES! He played for almost an hour and a half without stopping—and only stopped because he was getting chilled and tired (it was almost nap time).
Owen was looking like a little ragamuffin, so I decided it was time for a haircut. We got yet another new stylist (we’ve had a different one each time we’ve been there) and she was pretty good. She asked if he could have a sucker and I said sure, I guess so. Turns out it was a GREAT idea—he LOVED it! He still doesn’t like the water spritzer and the clippers turn him into a crying snotty mess, but he loved that sucker and by the end, it was all over him and me.
He was so sticky from the sucker and covered in hair that I decided to give him a quick bath outside when we got home. He loved it! This is him playing afterward (watching himself in the sliding door, of course).
And then trying to climb into the water table, and kinda getting stuck. 🙂
This was Owen’s first experience with a lawn sprinkler. He wasn’t too sure about it, but as you can see, he keeps going back to it. 🙂
He looooooves to do this…I think it’s actually his favorite thing to do in his water table!
I love the fact that Owen loves balls so much, but I am not appreciating him picking all our cherry tomatoes because he thinks they’re balls to play with. But I am currently playing fetch with him and the tomato he picked, and it’s way cute. 🙂
1) We took him to the Grayling fish hatchery with Gramma Jean and Grandpa David. He was still a bit too young—maybe next year will be better!
2) Tom took him wading in the AuSable River—we were impressed that he didn’t mind the chilly water…although the current intrigued him.
3) Grauntie Marge brought over a watercolor paint book!
So for probably a month or so, when Owen gets cranky or whiny or hurt, it sounds like he is saying “mama…mamamama…mama” but even though we love hearing it, we know he’s not really truly saying it.
Yesterday, when Tom was playing ball with him (with his new hoop) he swears Owen would call the ball his “ba ba.”
So today we were at the pool and were playing with the ball and hoop there. There were quite a few other kids so we took our turn then left the ball and went to the other pool. But Owen did NOT want to go and kept his eye on the balls. He would try climbing up on us to see them. It was sooo cute. After about 10 minutes of us trying to distract him, I swear I heard “mama…baba” and he pointed.
So, I consider those his kinda sorta first gibberish words…
The one bad thing about both Tom and me getting in the pool with Owen is that we can’t take pictures…and today we would have loved a video!
The community pool has a basketball hoop and two balls in one section. Well, Owen always likes to play with the balls, and today since Tom was there, he lifted Owen up to the net so he could put the ball through himself. Oh my, did he love that! Every time he got the ball in his hands, he’d look up at the net like “Why am I not up there yet?” and then Tom would lift him up and Owen would drop or push it through! It was sooooo cute! (I tried lifting him, but that was a joke!) I think we did that for probably 20-30 minutes total!
Check out Owen’s new favorite game—the wet burpie toss! He will just keep bringing it back to you, over and over, and wait for you to toss it. It’s so much fun!
We all went to the local water park today and had a good time watching Owen having fun in all the pools. He even went down a water slide by himself!
And here he is actually going down!
And then he was enthralled with the sign by the water slide—I just love this pic because it looks like he’s reading it intensely!
Owen was out playing in his pool after we got home from our Costco trip…and I was hot from hauling everything in and putting it away, so I stepped in the pool with him…then invited Grandpa as well.
And then I got out and let Owen and Grandpa continue having fun…
A bunch of our friends had said WONDERFUL things about an outdoor water table, so of course we had to get one. And of course, with as much as Owen now loves splashing in the water, we knew it would be a hit!
He was in it before I even had started putting it together:
Once it was outside, he instantly started splashing in it…and it was right next to his little pool, so he enjoyed splashing in both at the same time:
Tom and I saw a sign for a garage sale (“lots of baby things!”) on the way back from the grocery store, so we stopped. And they had…a slide that was just the perfect size for Owen! And I thought it would be a great addition to his little pool that we brought to Gramma Jean’s house.
And boy, did he love it! At first, Tom sat him on the slide and then held him as he slid down into the pool…but after a handful of times, he knew how to inch himself forward just enough to move himself down the slide—without Tom even holding on! He had an absolute BLAST with it…so we’ll definitely put it to good use at home, too!
And a sample of the crazy splashing that had us all wet—and in stitches!
We all drove up to spend the long holiday weekend in Grayling, and my mom offered to host a picnic for everyone on Saturday! We had a great time watching Owen play in his pool (and later splash around nekkid!) and enjoyed the company and the good food!
