They repeat what you say

You always hear stories of kids how they repeat what you say and it is completely true. I first taught Owen the word "Sh*t"... It was funny, i thought i heard him saying it but wasn't sure because it was about a year ago and his annunciation wasn't the best. Then his teacher at day care pulled me aside and said umm he is saying a bad word. to which i responded "yeah, i taught him that.." So that was our first instance of repeating what we say an d we have had to reprogram him to say Rats instead... to which my Grandfather his namesake would say "Rats is fine, but sure doesn't feel as good!"

So Owen is becoming more independent and now will go downstairs in the morning on his own. Yesterday Andy was upstairs "sleeping" and Eli and I had gone to church, Owen wandered downstairs to get something to eat. All of a sudden Owen comes upstairs crying and Andy asks him what happened. Owen said "I fell off my stool", Andy said "What were you doing", Owen said "Screwing Around". Goes to show you, they truly repeat what you say..

Movin' and Groovin'

Well we have about two weeks left before Eli is a full on crawl. He has the army crawl down and can get around quite proficiently. He loves wires and electrical sockets, luckily the sockets are already child proof from Owen. He also know has figured out how to sit back up after he topples over - or when Owen "lays" him down. The first time he did it was Friday night and I thought, oh man i need to lower the crib. Well I didn't get it down before he went to bed and at 4:30 am he was crying and I walked in and there he was sitting up in his crib. The first thought was "Please don't decide to project yourself out of the crib today", you see Andy and I were headed to Atlanta and I didn't have time to lower the crib at 4:30 in the morning. Well I did lower the crib and realized it isn't low enough, he can pull himself up and it is at his waist, so tonight I am going to lower it again. My baby is growing up too fast!

Owen the leper

Yesterday I had the first little heartbreak for Owen. We went to Chick-fil-a to enjoy the free chicken sandwiches and to let Owen play on the play ground. Owen was so excited to play it was a challenge to get him to finish his sandwich. We he was finally done he ran into the play room and Eli and I followed. Owen was having a blast climbing and coming down the slide. Then these two kids (girl and boy about 6 and 4 respectively) came down the slide and said "Hurry hide he is coming", I was curious who the were running from..oh yeah my son, Owen. I was kinda hurt by that and wondered what he had done. He was seeming to be in a good mood and was just chasing him, so I chalked it up to him being 3 and they were "to cool" for him. Then the little boy left and the girl found a new friend about the same age and they continued to hide from Owen. Soon Owen comes down and comes to me and says "I pooped". First I am shocked because we haven't had a poop accident in a long time and Secondly it crosses my mind, were they running from the stinky three year old? Hmm.. the debate is there and for his sake I hope they were running from the stinky boy and not the 3-year old.

Where is my good sleeper?

So I have been lucky with Eli he has been my good sleeper at night. He for a while was sleeping 8-5 and waking up to eat at 5 and then going back to sleep---well things have changed. Who knows what is causing it, teething, growth spurt or what. I think it all started with his teething and then he got his 6 month shots the other day which led to a cold. Now our darling boy is waking up at 11pm and 4am. He is typically hungry so he can be fed and then goes right back down, but it still makes me a sleepy camper the next day. Hopefully this phase will soon pass and he will be back to sleeping longer. In the meantime I will do my best to snooze while he eats :).

Good Samaritan

Okay so today on the way to work and taking the boys to day care we saw a HUGE turtle in the road. I have seen this guy or another just like him/her hanging out by the creek by our house. Owen didn't see it at first so I did a u-turn and pulled up beside him/her. We were on a busy road so I decide I would try and get the turtle to safety. When i mean HUGE the shell on this guy was about the size of Owen's head, it had to be a good 8-12 inches in diameter. As I am walking up to the guy I see his/her long tail and then the nails on the feet - I start to get nervous. I then lean down to pick him/her up and he/she turned and hissed and snapped at me. That sent me screaming like a school girl to my car and leaving it to the next person to attempt to save the guy.

When I got into the car, Owen said momma what happened. I said the turtle wasn't nice and he/she hissed and snapped at me. Owen said "Oh, why". To which I responded, he/she is scared because they are out in the road and they can't get home. "Oh" Owen responded and then said "Not Nice Turtle".

As we pulled away I did see another person attempting to help the guy, I hope he had better luck. If not I hope the turtle made it to his home.

Yummy Solids!

Eli has been eating solids now for about 3 weeks and he seems to like pretty much everything. Unfortunately he has dinner around 5:30 and he is one sleepy boy by then. Therefore the biggest challenge with him is that he tends to want to put his fingers in his mouth as we try to feed him or he steals the spoon and he plays with that. I have to be creative in feeding him. His favorite foods seem to be green beans, sweet potatoes and bananas.

Happy 3rd Birthday Owen

My baby turned three last weekend. He is growing up into a little man. I can't believe how fast 3 years have gone by. We had a fun filled weekend planned for the little man. On Friday night we took him to his first baseball game. He loved being at the game and eating all the food - we instituted Papa's philosophy, keep the food coming. Owen had a pretzel, hot dog, cracker jacks and peanuts. Needless to say he needed a bathroom break after all that. Andy took him and was helping him clean up and Owen leans over and starts to look at the guy in the next stall. Andy said "Owen we don't do that." Both Owen and Eli made it to the 7th inning stretch. After we sang take me out to the ball game we sat down, Owen put his head on my shoulder and I asked him are you ready to go and he said "Yes Momma". He was asleep before we left DC.

On Saturday I woke up early to finish frosting his cupcakes. He had requested cupcakes and that they were basketballs and soccer balls. He woke up around 7:30 and came down to see a table full of presents and decorated in a sports theme. He was so excited! We then got ready to leave to go to the National Zoo. We picked up Grandma and Grandpa on the way. On the way over to Grandma and Grandpa's house Mimi and Papa called to wish him a happy birthday. He was so grown up in the backseat talking to them and sitting in his new booster seat - officially out of the car seat. Also to help his day be the best that it could he road the Metro in with Dada and Grandpa, while the rest of us drove to the Zoo. He was so excited he couldn't contain himself! We met them at the Zoo and he loved seeing all the animals. He loved the Panda Bear the best and we were lucky enough to get a picture of Owen "next" to the Panda Bear. His cousins Andy and Rochelle joined us at the Zoo.

We then headed home and Owen opened his gifts when got home. We used the webcam to connect Mimi and Papa. He loved all of his gifts and he was very spoiled. He got puzzles, bridges for his train, books, a desk made by Grandpa, a wooden Soccer ball made by Grandpa, markers and chalk for an easel and a dinosaur. He played with his puzzles for a long time. Then we watched the movie Cars and he enjoyed the movie but was more focused on playing with his train bridges. We had pizza for dinner and then he had his cupcakes for birthday cake. He had a really great day and was so sad when we put him to bed. He didn't want to stop playing with his new toys! All in all he had a great day!

Orange Goggles

When we went to West Virginia to visit Crew's family we went to the pool. One of the little boys there had orange goggles that Owen borrowed. Once he put them on he wouldn't take them off. He even went potty with them on - twice. Well Mimi heard the story and she purchased and sent orange goggles to Owen. We opened this weekend for him. On Saturday Andy took him to the pool. We put them on before he left to go to the pool on Saturday and he wore them until the left the pool. On Sunday I took him to the pool and we put the goggles on when we got there. He didn't them on off until we left. I even tried to get the off of him to fix the foggy goggles. He wouldn't let me fix them, apparently he didn't mind the limited vision.

Skid Marks...

We all get them in our underpants but with newly trained little boys they are around all the time. The other day I brought a pair of underpants home from day care that were quite dirty due to the challenge of learning to wipe. The today was the most interesting incident, Owen was getting ready to go to the pool and we had him go potty before we got him dressed. So he ran upstairs and went. He came down sat on the floor and put on his swim trunks, when he stood up I noticed a little brown stain. I was curious what that might be and then it dawned on me that he might have gone No. 2 upstairs. I asked him "Owen did you go poop?" He said emphatically "Yes". Andy then came down stairs I said look what is on the floor.. he asked "What is that?" I said it is the left over of a poor wipe job. Needless to say there are a few actions on my part 1) steam clean the carpet, 2) buy the wet flushable wipes and 3) figure out how to teach a 3 year boy to wipe. Note: When I steam cleaned the carpet, it took 4 passes for it all to come up.

I love my brodder... sometimes

Owen loves his brother so much, sometimes a little too much. He wants to be with him all the time. He is always asking where is Eli? What is Eli doing? He loves the fact that he gets to share a room with him. He gets upset when we have to take Eli out of the room when he is still awake at night. When Eli wakes up in the morning and Owen is already awake, Owen will crawl into the crib with him. Needless to say this doesn't make Andy or me very happy and we have to be on the ball on getting Eli out of the crib.

Owen has already figured out how to torment his brother. I am not sure if he knows that he is being mean but he is not being very nice. Recently he has started pushing Eli over. We sit Eli down so that he is sitting up and is usually playing very nicely with a toy and here comes Owen who pushes his brother over and not very gently. Eli then of course starts crying and then Owen does because I have proceeded to put him in time out for not being nice.

This is just the beginning of the tackling, hitting and other typical sibling behavior. I can't wait to see what Eli will do in retaliation when he can.

Negotiations

It seems every day and action needs to be negotiated with a 3 year old. He definitly has a mind of his own and wants to do his thing his way. Last night we wanted him to pick up his train tracks and he instead was wanting to jump on our bed... so Andy said if you pick up all your tracks and trains then you can get a "froot nack". He picked up every single piece. Every morning I am bribing him out the door with either OJ or froot nacks. This morning he wanted OJ, so I said if you pick up all your legos then you can have it. It seems everything needs a reward or a carrot. Will we still be doing this when he is 21..please study and we will give you beer money!

My best friend

Andy always tells Owen that he is his best friend. So Owen is starting to recognize what that may mean. The other day Owen and Andy were playing with trains and Owen just stops playing and announces "Eli is my best friend". Later that evening we were eating dinner and we asked him again and he said it is Eli, then his 2nd best friend was Momma and 3rd best friend was Dada. Needless to say I think Andy was disappointed that I beat him out. As any child of that age his best friend changes from day heck from hour to hour. His best friend at school is Eddie, at home it is definitely Eli - especially when he is not happy with Momma or Dada.

Stealing...not nice

So my almost 3 year old has been getting himself into trouble. We haven't figured out if he is seeking attention, pushing our limits or just being 3. It is probably all of the above. Yesterday we had our first encounter of stealing..granted I don't think he realized that what he was doing was wrong. It all started when I picked him up from school (daycare) and his teacher told me he was not acting very nice. He had been pushing and taking train tracks away from his friends. So I told him no cookie (it was cookie day at school), which he seemed fine with until we were walking past them. As we went past them he had a fit, then the director of the center made a deal with him. If he was good the next day then he would be able to have a cookie that she was saving for him. That seem to calm him down.

We then headed to California Tortilla for dinner. I had debated whether or not to go since it was a treat and he may seem like he was getting a reward, but i figured he was punished enough without a cookie - plus it woudl be more punishment for me..I would have to cook! We walk in and at the counter they had cookies and brownies sitting in baskets so people would add them to their meals. Well I order his dinner and get his free brownie that comes with the kids meal. Owen then goes and sits in the booth and I was thinking what a good boy, boy was I wrong. I go over and he is there eating a stolen cookie! I couldn't get too upset because it would cause a scene, but took the cookie away and then put in his bag. I did make him go apologize and we then paid for the cookie. I was pretty furious with him about that and with him not acting nice at school. I should have marched him out of the resturant but we had already ordered and food was coming. Next time we will just pack everythign up to go and eat at home..

Getting Started

I have decided to blog about my boys my two children and my one adult child :). I haven't been that great on keeping their baby books updated. Since I am always using my computer I figure maybe I can keep the little memories alive that way. I have never been good about keeping a diary so here we go, maybe since this isn't about me and about them I will do better!