Owen: 16 months

Here we go again!  This month has been BIG!

Owen has taken off talking and walking!  We just got back from our annual family beach trip and we started a running list of Owen's words so far he has said:

1. Uh-Oh
2. hat
3. bird
4. water (in reference to the ocean)
5. guitar
6. Neanna (my mom)
7. Dee Dee (my aunt)
8. Wee Wee (my cousin)
9. No
10. tree
11. Scraggles (our cat)
12. Banana 
13. Ma Ma
14. Da Da
15. more
16. fan 
17. light
18. woof woof
19. beep beep
20. up
21. sock
22. shoe
23. i do (when HE wants to do something!)
24. eyes
25. ball
26. bath
27. car
28. truck
29. stuck (he pushes his walker and when it hits something will say stuck!)
30. book
31. belly button (sounds like be-bounen)
32. okey docky
33. Grandmommy (Chris' mom)
34. Granddaddy (Chris' dad)
35. I pooped (and really he does have poop!)
36. bye bye
37. hey
38. milk
39. boat
40. bear bear (teddy bear)
41. baby
42. Tine (my aunt)
43. bubbles
44. balloon (ba-oooon)
45. night night
46. flower
47. go go go (and he is walking and saying go go go!)
48. spoon (fork, spoon, knife is all spoooooun)
49. duck
50. ETA: ho ho ho! at Christmas time 

I think a 50+ words we are stopping counting!

I am sure I am missing some!  We are so proud of our smart boy!

This happened tonight and I am amazed by how much Owen really understands.  Owen brought me the red bucket part of this shape sorter.

I, for some reason, decided to ask him to bring me the shapes.  And. He. Did.  He crawled from our dining room into the sunroom behind is play house and got a shape and brought it to me.  I then asked him to bring me another and another and another and each time he would bring the shape and put it in the bucket.  Then I asked him for the lid.  He did get a little distracted by a really cool book on the way, but after a little prompting from daddy (IE: waving the yellow lid in front of him) he brought me the lid too!  He kept trying to stick his hand through the shape hole to get a shape and pull it out.  I showed him that you have to dump the shapes on the floor and put in them through the holes.  Well, I did one shape and he was shoving my hand away because HE had to do it!  We spent a good 15 minutes straight sitting on the floor in our dining room doing the shapes over and over again.  I was amazed by his attention span.  Of course at the end he left all the pieces all over the floor!  Haha!

Beach pictures to come later, but after all the walking on the sand when we got home Owen took off!

He now will stand up and walk without prompting!  We are so proud of our talker and walker!  

Enjoy a little clip of our walker!

this sums it up

I just read this:

"My desire to have a child is greater than the pain I endure."

Wish I could say I came up with those words.  I know many women can agree to this.

Owen: 15 months

Does every mother say this every month?  Wow, where do our days go?

Owen is 15 months and talking up a storm! I am not sure how many words he uses because we are loosing count.  The other day we did flash cards and he was able to say 9 of them, recently he has started calling our cat through the window: sra-ga for Scraggles!  

We are not walking yet.  He can do it if he wanted to, but the more we push him the more he resists.  When a friend of mine Ashley was tempting him with a toy he wanted he took one step!  He can stand if he has toys in his hands and he doesn't think about it.  Owen is a cautious little boy.  In new situations he sits back and watches everything.  Once he warms up he is off and crawling, talking to everything/everyone and clapping his hands!  

He loves a bath and splashes about!  He loves to read books and brings them to me all the time.  Recently, after waking up in the morning or after naps he wants to snuggle.  He needs a little mommy time before he is ready to play.  

His new kitchen set has made for hours of entertainment.  Owen will pull out a fork and spoon and carry them all over the house!  I think we had about 20 to start with and now they are everywhere.  I know there is  probably one in each room, one in my purse, in the diaper bag, in the minivan as you can see these have been so much fun!  He is even learning to use them when he eats!  Several times he has stabbed the food and gotten it into his mouth, but usually he puts it on the fork with the other hand and half the time he just puts it near the fork and then eats it out of his hand because really it is faster that way!

Our picky eater has tried some new foods this week and loved them including strawberries and spaghetti squash!  The only thing is now he wont eat his scrambled eggs or grilled chicken....one new food is 

Photo dump time:

flying with daddy

strawberries his new favorite food

kisses for mommy

antique car show with daddy

crazy hair bath time!

corn on the cobb like daddy

the best we can do trying to get a picture of mommy and Owen haha!

Mothers Day...good or bad?

You would think that now that I have Owen that Mother's Day would be one of my favorite days of the year.  It's not.  Mother's Day makes me remember the years that we wished for a child, the year when my arms were empty after losing the twins, makes me wish for another child and makes me think of all the woman who are hurting because of this greeting card holiday.  I just read this really amazing post by a fellow blogger and I can not even begin to describe the way she describes Mother's Day.  The blog post is written to a pastor of any church, but I think it can relate to everyone throughout the whole day.  It shows how Mother's day can be hurtful to some and how with a few words we could change that.

Here is the post, it is worth the click and the 2 minutes to read it:  http://messymiddle.com/2012/05/10/an-open-letter-to-pastors-a-non-mom-speaks-about-mothers-day/

I would love to hear your thoughts on this post and on Mothers Day in general.

Now, I don't want you to think I didn't truly treasure my son on that day, because I did.  I am so very thankful for this little boy in my life.  He makes every day a special day.

why people ask these questions...

I still don't know how to answer the question: is this your first?

Yes, I only bring just my youngest baby into walmart; the rest I leave in the freezing/smoldering minivan.  Ok, I know that this question is harmless, but really. Do you really want to know my answer? I had still born identical twin boys.  Do you need to know how long I pushed too?

I get this question several times a month.  Each time I answer differently.

Sometimes, they get a lie: "yes".

Sometimes, a half truth: "we had a loss, before our little miracle here" while rubbing Owen's hair like a good dog or maybe a good pinch of his cheek.

Sometimes, if I am in a mood and wanting to teach a lesson to people (that they shouldn't ask questions that they don't really want the answer too...that sometimes the answer isn't rainbows and puppy dog tails):  No, it took us 14 months to get pregnant with twin boys that were stillborn, they would be 2 this May.  Look them in the eye and wait for response.  Yada Yada Yada.  Yes, we know Owen is our little miracle baby and yes it took ALL the pain away.  RIGHT!  Face to palm.

Now the questions have started again.

Awe, he is so cute....when are yall going to have #2?  How many kids do you want?

Do you really want to know the answer?  Or are you just being noisy?

Because I can promise you it isn't rainbows and puppy dog tails.

We impressed daddy tonight!

About once a day (or maybe every other day) Owen and I work on flash cards.  We have these flash cards (http://www.amazon.com/First-Touch-Feel-Picture-Cards/dp/0756615151/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1336612797&sr=8-9); My First Touch and Feel Picture cards.  They are great, they have different textures to touch and feel and they are nice and thick so they don't get bent or torn easily.

Anyway, so the past few days Owen has REALLY been into the flash cards and tonight we showed Daddy what he has learned.  Now, I have to say I thought Owen was doing really good, but have been cautious to brag because I wasn't 100% he was saying everything I thought.....BUT....now I have a witness!

Owen can look at these flash cards and either say the word or make the animal sound (depending upon his mood):

• Fire Truck (truck)
• baby (babee)
• dog (woof woof)
• Teddy Bear (bear bear-this is the Name of Chris' teddy bear that is on a shelf in his room that we look at a lot)
• ball (baaaawwwwl)
• tractor (tak-or)
• shoes (shhhhhooooooos)
• keys (kt, kt)
• cat (meoooow, meow and looks at the door where Scraggles hangs out)

If you haven't heard about Scraggles, she is a calico cat that has recently adopted us!  Owen is IN LOVE with her and they have many conversations through the glass back door!

meet Scraggles

Owen is so smart, works on his laptop everyday!  Haha!

time truly flies

Owen will be 15 months in 4 short days!  But, I have two memories I just can't chance forgetting.

Yesterday evening we had Chris' family over for a birthday dinner.  Owen was allowed to stay up late, his Matt Matt, Hannah, Grandmommy and Grandaddy keep him very busy!   At about 8:30pm, I was sitting on the floor when he crawled into my lap and laid his head on my shoulder.  I turned to our family and said "I guess its bed time!"  Everyone laughed and gave Owen a kiss goodnight and off to bed he went.

Then tonight I put Owen down to bed at his normal 7:30pm.  He played for a while and then was quiet.  At about 9ish he started making a funny "eh....eh...eh!"  I checked the video monitor and he was just sitting in his crib.  After about 10 minutes I decided to check on him (never know when a poop will strike).  Thankfully, the diaper was still clean and as I was holding him he laid his head on my shoulder again.  So, I grabbed his woombie and sat down in the rocker with his belly facing me.  He laid his head on my shoulder and just started whispering and telling me all his secrets.  I kissed his head, tucked his hair behind his ear, thanked the Lord for this precious gift.

I guess he needed a snuggle with Mommy, Mommy always needs these snuggles.  He patted my arm, hugged my neck and gave me the best ending to my day.