Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Brief update and a video

Ok, it's been ages since I've updated, but really -- keeping up with a toddler is hard!!

Owen is growing up so fast. He knows *so* many words and names these days, and is getting better at using them: One coping mechanism I've been encouraging is when we have to leave (e.g., to go to daycare) I have him say 'bye-bye' to whatever he was playing with (e.g., 'bye-bye 'uzzles' or 'bye-bye book'). It seems to work very well at helping him deal with the transition, and he's even started saying bye-bye to random things out of nowhere when he gets a little upset (car rides are often full of pitiful 'bye-bye, dada's, which is a little sad, but better to listen to than screaming/crying!)

I'll try over the next few weeks to get more videos of him talking. It's darn hard, though; he seems to clam up immediately when the camera is on! But toddle-ease is pretty much the cutest thing ever, and I want to share it with those of you who aren't local :)

Here's a video from the other day (taken with my phone). He was across the table playing with his train when he remembered the picture of pop-pop (my dad) sitting on the other side. He also thinks it's Nik sitting in the picture with my dad, when actually it's Daniel (my cousin). Pretty darn cute, I'd say!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

First haircut

After Owen's first birthday I was willing to admit that his hair was rather shaggy:So it was time for his first haircut! We went to the local 'Cool cuts for kids', where they have a little firetruck-seat to entertain the kiddos.

They also put on Barney, but Owen wasn't very interested. Anyways, the haircut went without a hitch, although at times he got a little irritated that he had to sit still.

Here's a picture of my little guy with his new haircut: What a big boy!

First Birthday! (mmmm cake)

We celebrated Owen's first birthday (which was on Oct. 29) on Halloween this year, with family and friends. Kids were encouraged to come in their Halloween costumes (why not?!) and Owen was a furry blue monster:




He got lots of wonderful presents! But he was definitely more interested in his stacking rings than in opening them:




And he had his first, very own cupcake. He licked at it a bit, but didn't really figure it out until I cut it into quarters:




Yes, that was a quarter of a full-sized cupcake. What can I say, the boy loves his food:



After that piece, though, he was finished. The aftermath (the rest of the cupcake was thrown vigorously to the floor):



Happy Birthday, Owen!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Almost walking!

It's been a while since I posted anything, and that's because we've been pretty busy!

Owen started daycare a few weeks ago. Aside from him already being out sick twice (once with an ear infection and once with croup -- both his first :( ) he's doing pretty well there. I need to snap a picture of him playing with (alongside?) the other kids because it's super cute.

One of his favorite games currently is chase the ball :) He crawls around and hits the ball forward and chases it. It's a fun game for mommy and daddy because he pretty much does it all on his own and they just need to make sure he doesn't get distracted by the pretty outlets or go headfirst down the stairs in the living room (although he actually has done that last one once: they're only 2 and carpeted, so he was ok. now he waits for mommy's help when he gets to the stairs, though!) Here's a video from a few weeks ago playing the game. He generally moves a little faster than this, but you get the idea:



As the title of the post says, Owen is getting pretty close to walking. He's been standing for 5-10 seconds on his own, and he loves to walk around with someone holding his hands, or with a push-walker. Here's a video of him doing the push walker at home; there's an even better one at daycare that looks like a little shopping cart and is easier for him to change direction with. He loves it!



And finally, he's still our little water-baby. Here's a sequence of shots showing our little monster-butt crawling from the office into, his favorite, the bathroom, where daddy was getting the bath ready. We don't even have to tell him which direction to go!






Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Quick update and a sink-bath video

It's been a while since I've updated, and there's lots to share (I definitely have some videos and photos to post at some point), but for now I'll just write about the past few weeks as I can remember it and post a video I took with my phone the other day.

Owen is getting big, fast, and is now full-on crawling, and even trying to cruise a bit. It seems like he's been teething for the past 6 months, and has gotten the two teeth on either side of his two front teeth (and he's had the bottom ones for a while). The top tooth on the upper right is visible beneath the skin, so it'll be through any day now. His poor little mouth hurts him a lot these days, but now when he bites us to relieve the pressure he draws blood!

He is still mostly just jabbering away; I can rarely tell what his words are although I do think there are a few things he says that have meaning to him. He definitely knows the words 'cat' and 'dog', though, which in his version are 'at' and 'dah' -- when I ask him if he can see the cat/dog he looks around (and stops whenever there is a one within eyesight, which is often at my house). I'm also fairly sure he knows the word 'eat', which comes as no surprise to anyone who's had a meal with him.

He is such a happy, easy going little guy. I have no idea what I did to deserve this, but I feel very blessed most days :)

And here's the video. It's sideways and very short; taken on my phone at my mom's house. He loves baths, and once we started running the water for this one he basically couldn't be kept out of the kitchen. He very much enjoys getting water everywhere, and cries when they're over. Very fun :)


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

First word?

Owen's been jabbering lots these days, and we're expecting his first word any day now.

Sunday morning when we woke up, Owen turned to Brad and said 'Dada'! I was excited because I thought it was his first word (and a little bummed that it wasn't 'Mama', but what are you going to do).

Then he turned to the closet and said 'Dada'... So I guess we haven't heard his first word yet :D

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Quick video of him talking

Owen has always been pretty verbal, but he's started putting syllables together. Today he started really saying 'dadadadada'; here's a video. He also likes to make lots of zerbet sounds and roll his tongue -- I'm going to have to teach him Spanish (and learn it myself) so he'll have a place to use the tongue roll :)

Sorry for the lousy and sideways video -- I was using my phone. And Owen would really love to grab/eat it!