Gramma Jean bought Owen a new water toy for Easter and we finally got it out today!
Owen got a seal!
Tag Archives: Gramma Jean
Our postponed Easter!
Tom hid the eggs outside so they were ready once Owen got up. Here he is, super excited and ready to go!
And off hunting for eggs!
The spoils—chocolate, candy, coins, and Cars cars… (This part doesn’t seem to be quite as exciting to him as finding the eggs—he still needs practice.)
Gramma Jean got Owen his own little baby doll to play with! He doesn’t like it as much as he loves his cars (of course), but he will pick it up and play with it and feed it. 🙂
The Easter Bunny got Owen a few more Cars-themed things, too… Presenting Miles Axelrod (his newest favorite)…
And Crabby (who he also loves, but is only in the movie for a few minutes)…
Go State!
A gift from Gramma jean for daddy Owen!
A first and fun with Gramma Jean!
Gramma Jean taught Owen how to drink from a hose!
Getting tickled by Gramma Jean!
Playing catch with Gramma Jean!
Playing and watching!
Playing cars and blocks with Gramma Jean. The foyer rug is perfect for roads and garages and it got used A LOT during this visit!
Everyone watching The Backyardigans.
Grammas and Presents
Well, a Gramma and a Grauntie. 🙂
Owen gets very excited about presents, and he had a pile from both Gramma Jean and Grauntie Marge! Grauntie Marge helped show Owen how to open presents, and now he’s really good at it!
And the cutest thing is that after he rips off a piece, he hands it to you. 🙂
And of course there were lots of Thank You kisses…
Nomming fruit drawings!
Look what Gramma Jean taught him!
Reversed!
Owen has been doing great in his new room—and hadn’t tried escaping at all—until it was Gramma Jean’s turn to watch him during his nap while Tom and I ran some errands. He decided to keep following her out of his room and refused to stay in his bed and take a nap. The stinker! (And smartypants, since he knew not to try that game with mom or dad!)
So, following the advice of some friends, we reversed his door knob so we can lock it from the outside. And it worked like a charm!! :up:
Tonight, I put him to bed, locked the door, then stood outside his room to listen to what happened. I heard him get out of bed, rattle the knob, announce that it was locked—and then he cried and whined for a few minutes before he got back into bed and settled down.
Going Away Picnic
We wanted to have a picnic like last year…perfect weather, fun for Owen in the pool, a bunch of friends over, some good food, and a new family photo. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate…and neither did Owen. We got a decent photo out of the 25 attempts…
But it doesn’t even come close to the apparently once-in-a-lifetime shot we got last year (one of two attempts).
But he was super cute the morning of the picnic when he discovered he could climb up onto the bay window ledge in the living room. What fun!
And he loved Gramma Jean’s mower…when it was turned off. She turned it on to give him a ride and it was “NOISY!”
Then Tom helped him pick a flower for me—my first flower! Sigh. :heart:
And last but not least…Gramma Jean got Owen a pop-up tube/tent contraption…which he LOVED. I’m not sure where it’s going to fit in either house, but we’ll have to find a place.
Busy, busy day!
We went to the park with Gramma Jean and showed her how much Owen liked the slide!
Playing with ants!
Then we came home and Owen and Gramma were reading a new book—and Owen was telling us a big story!
Then we went out for pizza—and Owen sat in a booster for the first time! And he did great! And ate two pieces of pizza!
Then, Tom and I went to Costco…to pick up the huge bear I saw earlier and had decided not to get…but Tom wanted to get it.
Owen wasn’t too sure about it at first…but now he loves it!
Owen went potty!!
Owen peed on the potty chair tonight! Totally unexpected! We went to change him into his night diaper and he was dry. So my mom (Gramma Jean!) said “Let’s put him on the potty.”
And we did.
And encouraged him.
And waited.
And after a few minutes we pulled him off since it seemed like nothing was happening…but there was a full potty!! Oh my god—we screamed and clapped and practically threw a party!! He seemed happy, but I’m not sure if he really even knows what he did (other than from us making a fuss over it) because he was watching TV while he was on the chair and he seemed way more concerned with that than with what he was/wasn’t doing on the potty.
Oh, I know it could just be a fluke and nothing else might happen for a long time…but I have to be prepared either way.
What a way to celebrate his 27-month birthday. 🙂
Owen is 2 years 3 months old today!
Guess what? This is the first time I have forgot it was Owen’s “monthly birthday” (even though my phone reminded me this morning) but luckily I snapped two photos after his bathtime haircut from Gramma Jean…and one of them was suitable.
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.
Happy 2nd Birthday, Owen!
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!
Crayons!
So we gave Owen these crayons the other day and he just LOVED them. He didn’t actually color with them—but had A TOTAL BLAST just stacking them and unstacking them and stacking them…over and over and over. He kept himself busy for at least 20 minutes while Tom and I ate dinner!
So we got them out again this morning while Gramma Jean was sewing something for me and I was eating breakfast. Then Gramma Jean started this new game…and then he actually started coloring! (The video is a bit long, but I just didn’t feel like editing it today.)
Three firsts today!
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!
You just never know…
I love that you just never know what will make Owen laugh…. Tonight, it was watching (and listening to) Gramma Jean while she was sewing on her sewing machine. He absolutely LOVED it! This is just a short clip, but he probably laughed for a good 30 minutes!!
Gramma Jean’s Beef Barley Soup
Gramma Jean brought soup for the lunch before Owen’s party…and of course I gave some to Owen so he could try a new food…and he loved everything in it! The beef, the barley, the carrots, the mushrooms, the celery—YAY! So he ate the leftovers for the next few meals and today we finished it! YAY, OWEN!
Owen likes lobster!
Well, his lobster teething toy, that is. (Thanks, Gramma Jean!)
First watermelon and wading pool!
Watermelon (it was hard to grab, but he enjoyed it):
His own wading pool (thank you Gramma Jean!):
Banana!
We’ve been avoiding giving Owen fruit, because he hasn’t been eating his vegetables—and it’s common practice to always give veggies first, because once they taste the sweet fruit, it’s much harder to get them to eat their veggies. But we’ve wanted to give him fruit! (I even wanted to let him taste a dill pickle, but Tom said no!)
So Gramma Jean had some banana in her cereal that she didn’t want, and of course Owen was eyeing it (which he does with most food we eat) so she mashed up two tiny cubes and gave it to him (with my okay, of course!) and…he LOVED it! We ended up giving him maybe two small slices in total. And kept our fingers crossed that it didn’t ruin him for veggies!
Post-bath cuteness!
Owen just had a bath at Gramma Jean’s house…and he was just adorable afterwards!
And then it was time for standing (and leaning) with dad!
Size 3T jammies!
So when Gramma Jean was here earlier this summer, we hit some neighborhood garage sales. One item she bought was this pair of Cars pajamas. She bought them for Robert (another grandson) who LOVES the movie Cars. The PJs were size 3T. However, they had obviously been washed and worn and had probably shrunk somewhat over time. Mom looked at them and thought “You know, they look like they would fit Owen.”
Nah. No way. I mean, he was (only) five months at the time. Fitting into 3T jammies? Get real. I said we could still give them to Robert. And then we forgot to pack them on our Kentucky trip. So when we got home, we put them on Owen for a laugh…except we really weren’t laughing.
They fit. THEY FIT! The size 3T (meaning 3-year-old toddler) fit him! The legs were a bit too long, but not by that much. And the top fit perfectly.
Oh my.
But sooooooo cute.
Kentucky Vacation
We just got back from a week’s vacation in Kentucky. Why Kentucky, you might be asking? Well, that was a fairly central mid-point for all of the Schwalmlettes & Schmitlettes (the nickname for the Schwalm kids and me) to drive and meet for a family reunion!
It was really nice, since we never all get to see each other at Christmas like we used to (see what having kids does?). 🙂 However, it wasn’t QUITE like old times—there wasn’t much staying up until 3am playing games and drinking and talking like in the old days…since there are kids to deal with now. (I might hazard a guess that I had the worst of it, since I still have to get up with the boy for night feedings, which meant I was usually in bed by 10 each night.) But we still all had fun visiting and relaxing and playing Wii games (and more to the point, watching the kids play Wii games) and watching the kids’ production of Three Little Pigs and Annie!
Owen was the absolute HIT of the week for the kids. They just about loved him to pieces! They always wanted to be in his face playing with him or kissing him or hugging him or touching him or helping feed him. I am sure he was overwhelmed, but it was very cute! Here’s what it looked like a lot of the time:
We also learned that Owen does NOT like a lot of noise and commotion. We had him in the room with us when the kids were singing or boxing on the Wii (both LOUD and CRAZY) and he was NOT a happy camper. As soon as we took him out of the room, he quieted down and was happy again. A kid after my own heart! :yes:
There was a hot tub (which I had been really excited about), but the weather was so warm that I never went in. It pretty much just got used by the kids (that is, after Kath turned it town to like 80° so it was more pool-like) who really enjoyed it!
We were out of cell service range, but the house did have internet so all us geeks didn’t have to go through withdrawal. I think we had three laptops and four iPhones—sometimes all going at once!
One day we all went to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and managed to get this family photo:
Of course, it was over WAY too soon…and before you know it, we were packing and on the road home. At least we discovered we have a pretty good little traveler—Owen slept most of the way and we only had to feed him once during the 8-hour trip (although we had to feed him the moment we got to our destination, both ways!).
Stay tuned for a link to the entire set of pictures!
Caption time!
Grandma Jean had to caption this photo as soon as she saw it:
“Mom says no cake.”
:>>
Someone is ticklish!
Grandma Jean discovered that someone is ticklish!
Big boy outfit!
Thanks Gramma Jean!
No more swaddling…?!
So, we’ve been swaddling Owen for bed at night. The practice was highly recommended, and we got used to it and enjoyed mixed results—he seemed to sleep well enough but was very Houdini-esqe and managed to escape frequently. Of course, the grandparents assumed this to mean he didn’t like being swaddled and was struggling to escape…and didn’t want us to swaddle him. And we just trusted the professionals and assumed he was a very wiggly baby and continued to swaddle him. (We did try NOT swaddling him a time or two and it didn’t seem to make any difference.)
So fast forward to Gramma Jean taking a night shift and not being too successful applying the swaddle…so I said we could NOT swaddle him if SHE chose because she would have to deal with the repercussions if he didn’t sleep well…and we could always go back to swaddling. So we didn’t swaddle…and we both got a big laugh out of his sleeping position (viewed from the monitor):
This was on Thursday, May 7.
Since then, we have continued…and for the most part I think it’s okay. But we we think it’s harder for him to go down—even if he seems TOTALLY out, as soon as we put him down, his arms shoot up and he flails around. I think when he was wrapped, he couldn’t tell as much that we were letting him go and setting him down. Secondarily, his little unwrapped hands get SO cold at night (the rest of him is warm and the room temp is at the recommended 68°-72° so don’t worry).
So we are still deciding what we’re doing, LOL.
Owen’s first restaurant!
We wanted to go out to eat with mom (Gramma Jean) before she left, so it was going to be Owen’s first meal out! I know, I know…we could have taken him out before this, but I was just always afraid it was going to end badly…yes, I’m a wussy first-time parent!
But it went very well—he slept almost the entire time, and we had a nice meal to boot!
He was still sleeping (or awake but calm!) when we left, so we decided to go grocery shopping as well (to show mom one of the great stores around here—Nino Salvaggios). He did well through that, too…good boy!
I love old pics…
