She is not to be trusted

with Christmas present knowledge. She spilled the beans to her Poppa that he was getting a larger tool box from Grandma. I was already suspicious of her trustability, so I have been wrapping Daddy's presents and not telling her what they are. Matt learned of her loose lips and will not take her shopping this year. Owen isn't telling me anything, so he is no help ;)
Good thing she is still cute!!

I talk to myself

I tend to gripe about other drivers and their lack of skills or knowledge when I drive. The following conversation took place between Gwendolyn and myself last week.
Me - gripe,gripe,gripe stupid driver (kinda forgot my child was with me)
Gwendolyn - who are you talking to Mom?
Me - I am talking to myself hunny
Gwendolyn - Do you like talking to yourself?
Me - (feeling stupid) Not really

No hockey jersey is complete without....

a little blood on it. Thank you very much Owen!!
Owen got this cute Buzz Lightyear jersey for his birthday, combining both his loves. I had him in it Saturday. We came home after being gone all day long. Out living quarters are in the upstairs of our house. 27 stairs up to be exact. I try to get him to climb it on his own occasionally, especially when I have 3 boxes and 2 bags to carry. He made two steps and wanted to be carried. I told him no and his 2 year old fit started. He ended up slamming his face into the stair up from himself. I tell him that was an unwise decision and pass him by, telling him to come up when he gets himself together. I go up a couple steps and look back at him and he looks up with blood coming out. Crap!! I drop all my stuff and scoop him up and run the rest of the way up. He cut the inside of his upper lip, likely on his teeth. We (Gwendolyn was psuedo helpful) got the blood stopped and he ran around with a baby freezer teether in his mouth and hockey stick in hand for the rest of the night.
I am sure there will be more of this in my future, but I hope to not repeat it too often.

Gwendolyns Phonics

We were driving home from the hockey game saturday night and were chatting away.
me - Gwendolyn what is your middle name?
G - Fancy
Me - well, that is more of a nick-name, but good try. What do I call you when you are in trouble.
G- Damn you!
me - OMG, what are you talking about???
Matt - HUH????
me - Try again Gwendolyn, what did you say?
G - (slower and more pronounced) Andrew
me - whew, that is Owens middle name, not yours, Gwendolyn Mary
We got a huge laugh out of it!!

2 year Owen stats

25 pounds
31.75 inches tall
19.75 inches around his brain bucket

He was such a trooper for the appointment. Laid there patiently and watched while Dr. Alice listened to his heart and lungs and stomache, no fidgeting. He didn't like his shots, go figure. She wanted a blood test done for his liver function, so off to the lab for a finger prick and squeeze out the desired amount of blood. He squacked when the prick happened, but never griped about the squeezing of the finger. He even offered up his other hand. Come to find out later in the day, they ran out of blood and we have to go back and do it again so they can run the important test. She was concerned due to an "obvious" vein showing on his chest. Meaning the coloring made it noticable, not that it protrudes or anything. It is a sign of liver issues, but his liver felt fine. We are being cautious.

Belated half eaten cake picture

Imagine this dump truck full up to the top of the truck bed...

Makes a decent present for the birthday boy/girl too. Size is hard to determine from the picture, but the truck is probably 16" tall and 24" from bumper to bumper.

2 years and a few days later....Owen

I am tardy in posting my 2 year update, but that is what happens with the second child. Moms are too busy chasing both around and something has to be tabled.
We had a wonderful 2 year birthday party on Saturday with lots of cousins and some friends. There was plenty of running around and too much noise. I am sure everything thought that, but it was especially true for me and my migraine. My blessed $75 pill was so lovely once I got home to it. Owens party was a construction theme and I served some of the appetizers in his larger Tonka Trucks. But the hit was the cake that was in the bed of his dump truck. I had arrange chocolate and spice cake (look most like the ground) and then sprinkled crumbled up oreo on top to add to the dirt effect. It was a huge hit. Unfortunately I suck and failed to get a picture of it. There were hard hats for all the kids to decorate and blow up hammers for them to beat each other with. Owen was adorable in his carhart overalls with work boots.
As for my love of this little boy, it continues to grow every day and I don't know how that is possible. He just has ways of melting your heart, whether it be coming and grabbing your finger to take you where he wants you to be or the pure look of love/joy/excitement/adoration that he has when he sees me or Gwendolyn or Daddy. Normally I am #1, but he passed me over for sissy when I brought her home from school on Tuesday. Suprised me. He is still the pickiest of picky, but he is occasionaly pushing his boundaries and tried the item in your hand. He hasn't liked said item yet, but the tasting of it was his idea and I will take that progress. Last I heard from his morning with Grandma he had pooped on the potty and that is very exciting business. His favorite word is nononononono, at least that many times. It sounds adorable, but I am still working on yesyesyes.
He is a fish in the water like his sister. A couple weeks ago he dove down to pick up a ring on the bottom of the pool. Didn't want to repeat it, but he did it. He is rambling Owenwords a mile a minute and I expect that once he figures all those other words out he won't stop. He has a wide vocabulary, but thinks he knows much more. He is still happiest with a hockey stick in hand, chasing around a ball. Daddy had the brillant idea of letting you bring the stick upstairs and you have only lost it once so far.

I don't know where the time is going, I only know I want it to slow way down. My baby is growing up too fast. The following are some of my favorites.

Cold, not hot, cold

I think this qualifies as Owens first sentence. A couple days after we got back from Hawaii, we went to the store. I get him out of the car and he chimes up with "cold, not hot, cold" Yep buddy, it is cold, not hot. Great observation and sentence. He cracks me up.

I got elfed

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9551376396

Oahu 07

We had a blast on our family vacation. The kids loved the beach, Gwendolyn more than Owen, the waves were a bit much for him but the sands was perfect.
Gwendolyn and her friend from AK playing in the surf




He wasn't so happy with being burried, unless it was his feet only

I love these next two pictures, though others have commented that her picture is provocative, phewwy on them

Love the cloud and lighting


We pet the dolphins in a dolphin encounter


Gwendolyn in the beautiful pansy dress from Nita

My little flower girl

Who ran, not walked, her flowers and dumped them at my feet

Us ;)


Renting a house was the WAY TO GO!!! We will do that again. We would make breakfast and then spend all morning in our own pool, no sharing. Owen would nap, then we would go to a beach all afternoon. Come home and BBQ then make blended drinks all night while playing cards by the pool. FABULOUS!! The wedding couple ended up renting the cabana out back, their rental was aweful. So our house became the hangout for everyone who came over for the wedding. It was kinda weird, but nice, to hang out will lots of your friends in a different location. Same people, tropical place. I went to the outlet mall with the kids while Matt went golfing, otherwise our routine was pool and beach, just what we intended. Our final full day, we drove up around the northshore and saw bigger waves and this cute little lagoon with fish you could swim or snorkle with. My dad had freaked Gwendolyn out (he tried to be cute) that they would kiss her toes. We went to a luau for the wedding reception

Owen had a little afro of blond curls that were so cute. As we got closer to Hawaii on the plane the curls started forming. Unfortunately, they did the same thing on the return flight. We lucked out and flew on the new Northwest "Bus". Every seat had it's own monitor and remote control. There were dozens of movies to watch, individually at no cost. You could also play games with the remote and monitor. Made the flight soooo much better!!
I am sure there is more, but this is a recap to say we had a wonderful vacation!!

Owen and the Nanook (bear for the nonalaskan)

Funny story from the weekend, apparently he is afraid a characters, men in bear costume kind of characters. We have went to college hockey games since he was a week old. We are season ticket holders, so we always sit with the same people and they know our kids well. The inlaws sit at the other end of our row. This weekend was the first games of the season. We were excited to see how they would react to the opening of the game. They have this huge inflated bear that the players skate under to come onto the ice. The lights are dimmed and there is loud music. We missed it the first night, took too long drinking beer downstairs. But Owen was petrified of the "man" bears and was hiding his face and screaming crying. He finally warmed up by the end of the third period, in time to leave. He always knew where all three of the man bears were, he was keeping a close eye on them.
Saturday night, I made sure to be upstairs in time. He pulled a horse move on me, once he saw the inflated bear he put his gears in reverse and was backing up into the crowd to get away. I bring him down to our front row seat, all the way on the other side of the arena from inflata-bear. His is freaking out. Climbs over my shoulder, into the lap of the ladies behind me. Hides in their shoulder for a minute and decides that is still too close. Climbs over them into the lap of the goalies mom and hides there. By that time I am in the last row ready to catch his freakout self when he bails from her. We went and hid in the bathroom till the opening was done. He finally warmed up to the man bears walking around by halfway through the third period. Warmed up to them in the sense that they could walk around 10 feet below our section, no where near touching range. Never expected this reaction.

My baby is growing up

Owen will be two this month and it is sinking in that he is no longer my little baby. He crib climbing excursions have prompted his grandparents to buy his a toddler bed for his birthday. I am not supposed to know, but they just bought him a Cars bed. It kinda breaks my heart to not have a crib up in that room anymore. I just hope and pray that I get the chance to put it back up in the future. It is all contigent on Matt being willing to have more babies. I hope and pray.

Monkey Boy

I came into the kids room last night when Owen was crying. They have both been battling colds, so I thought nothing of the cry. Knew it was him, so my first look was to the crib. EMPTY!! He is standing there next to it. Faarrreeeaaaakkkk out!! He is not crying because he is hurt like he fell out, but I think he was crying to be back in there. Little stinker had pulled every wipe out of the box.

I think I might have been nagging the kids too much about their being sick and not passing it on to other kids. First words out of Gwendolyns mouth this morning as she sat up in bed, "I'm all better now Mommy, can I touch other kids now?" I had to laugh. I must have harped too much this weekend with her Halloween parties and birthday parties and other kids to be around.

Pay it Forward

I commented on Daphne's post to do the Pay it Forward exchange -- here's the scoop:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
If you want in leave me a comment, and then run along and post on your site.

Sometimes....

my children can be so sweet to each other. We were driving to church this weekend and I loved hearing the conversation from the backseat.
G - Look Owen, Look at the bear over there (painted on a tower)
G - Look Owen, there is Pappa's work
G - Look Owen, that is where Mommy works
Commentating the whole way and making sure he knew where we were going and what they were looking at.

She also explained to me that sometimes she likes to share with Owen, but not always. I have been amazed at what she has been willing to share, toys and snacks and sippy cups for example. I love when she is concerned about him and his wellbeing. She is normally done with dinner before picky-slowboy and gets to choose the movie or show we will watch. Melts my heart when she checks with him on what to watch or delibrately chooses something that is his favorite, namely Cars. I love that they are growing up close, reminds me of me and my brother.

We were a family of M&M's this weekend for a party. I loved how great it turned out. I have had these costumes since before Owen was conceived. Matt and I have been referred to as M&M since dating and they were the candy favor at our wedding reception, so I thought it made fun sense.




We went skating this weekend for my neices 2nd birthday and Owen LOVED skating. He got the hang of walking in the skates and wanted to be on the ice at all times.

Owen and the candy machine

We are at my office and I have a candy machine for the kids I work with and my children to cheat on. He did get one out his way and Gwendolyn can get one out in 5 seconds flat.

Brown eyed babies

I have always yearned for blue eyed babies. I love blue eyes, I think it comes from wanting what you don't have. I have dark brown eyes and have always found them boring. Matt has nice blue eyes and I had hopes that they would dominate my browns. My browns are too strong to be held down and now we have two brown eyed babies.
I think I am coming around. Gwendolyn has my really dark browns and they are nice, but oh my, Owen has these milk chocolate browns that just make you melt!!. I stare into them and realize how beautiful brown eyes can be. Seriously, they are like pools of melted milk chocolate.

Hiiii

I am not sure how, but that has become Owen's word for "up". I correct him time and again, but I always get "hi" in response. He has such a cute way of exclaiming "YEAH" when the answer is affirmative.

My kids burst at the seams with excitement over so much stuff. Gwendolyn's preschool teacher commented on that yesterday. She is exhuberant over so many things and her excitement is contagious. "Yea, we are carving a pumpkin (arms waving wildly), Yea, we are pulling gunk out (less waving thankfully), Yea we are eating seeds (cooked fortunately)." I love their enthusiasm for life.

Action packed weekend

We started out the weekend with a 40th birthday party. I love this picture and the look she is giving me.

Saturday night we went the the CHAM and this is the dress I wore for the night. Matt and I rented a room and that was fabulous. No worries about how much free champagne I drank and how we would get home.

This is the outfit I modeled.

We started getting snow on saturday and there were taken when we ventured out to play on sunday.

Owen weighing in

We went to the Dr for a follow-up appointment on Tuesday. I wanted to see if he was gaining adaquate weight. Plus a thread in the Garden a while back got me worried about his fluid consumption and excessive peeing, with maybe being diabetic.
He is now 23 lb 10 oz and 30 inches tall!! My baby is growing little by little. He caught back up to his 10% bracket and that made the Dr very happy. He had dropped from 10% to less than 5% and she wanted to see him stay where he had always been. She was happy that he is drinking his pediasure and concurred that we need to cut back on the juice.
We taped the pee catching bag on his weewee at the start of the appointment. When we were all done she said to get him dressed and let him play for a while till he peed. I said lets check first. Sure as anything, he FILLED that bag full of pee!! He can pee like a racehorse. It was impressive. There were no sugars in his pee, yea!! We will cut back on his juice and see if that helps his appetite.
It was a very reassuring appointment. Now if we can only convince him to try more foods. That would make my year!!