So tonight we grilled a marinated flank steak. Of course, we assumed Owen wouldn’t eat it—especially because it was a Bloody Mary marinade with horseradish and spicy Bloody Mary mix—but (unfortunately for us) it wasn’t terribly infused and he loved it! I KNOW!!! Woohoo!
Snow day birthday Lego project
Owen wanted to work on this Super Heroes Lego kit he got for his birthday. He did quite well for the first two hours…then he started to lose his focus and get a little grouchy. So we took a break and finished it when daddy got home. But overall he does really well and doesn’t need much help.
Working on Valentines
These are the valentines we’re doing for Owen’s class:
Except I’m not being quite as cute with the cellophane bags and tie—we’re doing ziplock sandwich bags. 🙂
Here’s Owen writing his name on them. He only has the patience for about 4-5 at a time so we’re working on it all week.
He’s pretty good writing his name, though the W could use some separation and the N is often backwards. And we’re working on keeping the size consistent.
If I didn’t know better, I might think I was in Michigan.
If I didn’t know better, looking out the window I’d think I was in Michigan!
And you can’t even see that it’s snowing big fluffy flakes in the picture…so I took a video.
Owen’s first attempt on a real bike = FAIL
Once again, I had grand visions of Owen’s first bike-riding experience. (Well, minus the balance bike we attempted a long time ago. And the tricycle he never got the hang of.) I mean, riding a bike IS NOT HARD. Right? Especially with training wheels. Right? I mean, you just get on, push a little with your feet, and off you go, right? RIGHT?
Wow.
Either Owen has absolutely ZERO coordination and/or he’s just being stubborn…or I completely underestimated the amount of ability necessary to ride a bike and/or I am not a good teacher. He cannot seem to grasp that you need to push forward with your feet in a continual motion. At the first smidge of resistance he stops and says he can’t do it. I tell him, show him, push the bike with his feet on the pedals…and nothing. Inevitably he slams his feet backwards, which is—of course—the brake.
Am I expecting too much? Is riding a bike really harder than I think it is? For a kid who has never really ridden anything?
All I know is I have officially passed the teaching-Owen-to-ride-a-bike baton to Tom. 🙂
Katie is 19 months old today!
Today was a frustrating day—I took about 175 pictures and never got THE picture. A few were close, but none were perfect. Here’s some of what I experienced!
Ribeye. Who knew?
So tonight Tom grilled us steaks and we made Owen a frozen pizza—a typical dinner routine because Owen rarely eats what we eat.
So after he finishes his pizza, he says he likes steak. Huh? Yeah, he says he loves steak—as if he’s had it before and why don’t we know this…?!? I’m pretty sure they don’t get that at school so I have no idea where he decided he liked it. But I’ll take it!
So he proceeded to eat pieces of both of our ribeyes like it was going out of style.
But lest you think he’s becoming more normal…he refused mashed potatoes until we bargained with him (offering chocolate) and even then he made a face like he was tasting dog poop.
But I’m concentrating on the ribeye. He are ribeye. And loved it.
Two trikes and a bike.
So after testing the Radio Flyer Ride and Stand Stroll ‘N Trike Ride On at Costco yesterday, Tom put ours together and we took it for a spin!
Owen was doing “tricks”—lifting one foot up as he rode along!
When we got back, Owen said he wanted to try his own trike again, so we got it out. Of course, he’s WAY too big for it, but it made for a cute picture. 🙂
So that’s when daddy told him that had a new bike waiting—we just had to put it together. Tom had already taken the packaging apart, and Owen dug right into the pieces! He said he wanted to put it together right away…so in it came.
Katie undressed herself.
Proof that Owen will make a gun out of ANYTHING.
Daddy’s little helper.
Owen putting the last piece (the seat) on.
Our first riding trial will likely be tomorrow… Wish us luck.
January pictures are finally online!
Where’s Owen?
He loves running up to his room ahead of you and hiding. 🙂
Fruit Spoon
I thought Katie was turning into her big brother—dipping her food in yogurt—but she was just using her pear as a yogurt delivery vehicle.
Katie Zerberts
“Sleeping” Katie
She loves to pretend to sleep.
Of course.
Testing a Radio Flyer
We have this at home but it wasn’t put together yet (I got it for free via Amazon Vine). They both loved it!
Owen enjoying riding on the back of the cart:
Let me be honest—I am NOT a fan of strange names.
This is not a new rant—I posted back in 2006 (Are they serious?) about the same thing.
So this new list of names are mostly from the birthday lists at Owen’s daycare/preschool (the entire county-wide system, not just his location or his class) over the past few weeks.
Just. Wow.
Alishea
Alysa
Aniya
Aria
Ayanna
Brazille
Caden
Dereona
DeSean
Enyla
Eriyanna
Ja’Rie
Jaina
Janessa
JaQuan
Jariandelyz (SERIOUSLY?!)
Javion
Jayda
Jaylen
Jayley
Jazlynn
Jecouri
Jesson
Kialanie
Kionna
Kyari
Lamya
Mai Anh (turns out this is a common Asian name)
McKarley
Micalle
Nijayia
Nitrel
Quashaun
Shauniya
Skyla
Sonyta
Syesha
Taleyah
Talinn
Tamein
Za’Riah
Zi Asia
Zy’nyia
And these are almost (ALMOST) worse to me:
Haleigh
Benjamen
Caiden
Kayden
Dakoda
Heaven
Nevaeh
Auriyanah
Now, while some of those may be perfectly legit ethnic names, others (I’m looking at you, Jariandelyz!) are just people being silly. I know to each their own and I shouldn’t care but I kinda do. I guess I’m just not that kind of person (hence Owen and Katie).
Packaging waste at its finest.
A 3″ bottle with maybe 1/4″ of pills.
Banana Girl
Seventeen years ago today…
Can you believe it was 17 years ago today that Tom and I met? This was the picture from the very next night when we went out again. Man do we look young.
And going out on a dinner date tonight:
Daddy makes a great foot rest.
Owen’s Rainbow
This is the rainbow Owen drew way back here—it finally came home!
Cute lil’ snacker
Katie loves Owen’s birthday balloons
Katie’s words
Awesome
Bath
Bite
Bubbles
Cheese
Chicken butt
Elmo now sounds less like Alno.
Mess
Monkey
Mouth
Nose
Toes
Wipes
Owen’s birthday and dinner
We picked Owen up from school then took the kids to the playground.
Then heading into dinner:
And the wait staff singing their version of happy birthday was a little loud:
Owen’s five-year well-visit
Height: 47-1/4″ — was 45″ at 48m (greater than 100th percentile)
Weight: 66.5# — was 51# at 48m (greater than 100th percentile)
The doc said overall he did well, but his vision is on the low side of normal (so watch that) and according to kids’ BMI charts, he is obese—he’s “off the charts” (over 99%). (Which, looking back and seeing he gained 15# since last year—HOLY WAH.)
I admit he could be thinner (even though he’s big for his age) but I honestly never thought he would be classified as obese. 😐
So, we need to start watching what he eats…but I’m guessing he’ll thin down a bit once summer rolls around and he’s out playing and running around more.
Owen is 5 years old today!
Where has the time gone?
Serious Owen.
The post-party party
We had the gang over after the gymnastics party so we could hang out and visit—with everyone’s busy schedules (and with Trimble’s living back on base instead of in the same neighborhood) we rarely get together anymore. We ordered pizza for dinner and had a few drinks while the kids played. We had Owen open his gifts sporadically throughout the night and then had him blow out candles on his cake (I had forgotten candles for the gymnastics party). He loved opening his presents and pretty much every response to every gift was an excited “WHAT!?!!” It was super cute.
Then he opened his big gift from us—a used iPhone 4—and he looked at it like “Huh?” and immediately said “Daddy, this is yours!” and tried handing it to him. He completely didn’t understand that it was for him, even after I showed him the Lego Indiana Jones wallpaper. He was just too excited about all the other Lego/Ninjago/Star Wars stuff. We should have kept it until after all the excitement of the day was over.
Building one of the smaller Lego sets he got:
Taking his birthday picture…that I didn’t technically need to do because it wasn’t his actual birthday!
Happy 5th birthday, Owen!
We had Owen’s 5th birthday party at one of the local gymnastics places. We invited his entire class (16 kids) as well as our friends. Half of his class RSVPed (of which two asked to bring other siblings, which was fine) and I was annoyed but honestly pretty impressed that we got a 50% response rate. However, of those eight that RSVPed, four didn’t show…two of which were the ones that asked to bring extra kids. 😐 So that cost me extra because I opted to go with the 25+ kids plan (which allowed for another employee to be scheduled) because we were right on the line with RSVPs and I figured we’d likely get some that would show up without having RSVPed. So we ended up with 15 kids total instead of 23. Oh well, it’s only money, right? And Owen had fun so that’s what matters, right? But he did have fun so it’s all good!
Ursula made the awesome Ninjago cake!
When I called Owen over to see it (he was out playing) he said “It’s Jay!” (Of course, he was right, Jay is the blue ninja.)
Owen with two of his classmates, Tanner and Braxton (who I’ve posted pics of before). You see that Owen really isn’t the same size as the rest of his class. 🙂
Katie having fun running around:
Katie was very interested in what was going on in the bounce house—but we put her in with the kids and she screamed. So she was content to just peek in for a bit.
I showed Katie how to hang on the bar and she loved it! She’d hang and swing then drop off—over and over.
And then she got in the bounce house because it was fairly empty:
Back at the bar showing daddy her tricks!
The birthday boy in the middle of the parachute!
And here’s a 6 minute video of the parachute fun (pretty much for the grandparents). 🙂
Each kid got to do their own thing in the middle of the parachute balloon. Owen did a spinning twist.
A few last runs before leaving…
The last pic of our best friends for quite some time—our friend Tom is deploying next week and we’ll be moving this summer…
As Ursula was getting the cake packed up to go, Owen saw that the head was off to the side and was VERY concerned that it wasn’t coming home and kept asking about it. We assured him Jay was coming home. Then he saw Ursula carrying it to her car (to bring to our house) and he was concerned that the cake itself wasn’t coming home at all!
Overall, it was a great party for Owen’s first REAL birthday party (not just something at our house with a few friends or family). 🙂
Picking up Owen’s party balloons
We had him hold them so they didn’t fly around too much.
“Wow! There’s so many I can’t hold them!”
