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Swinging at Grandma & Boppa's

Update on the "Mommy" situation: The day I posted MOMMY!, it was basically a fluke. He did not say it again for a while, but he is really starting to catch on now, though he doesn't say "Mommy" he says "Mama". He still will point to my chest a lot when he says it, but he will say it other times too. One reason I know he is catching on is that when he finds something that is mine, like my phone, he says, "Mama!" He does this with Ryan's stuff (only says "Daddy", of course) and when we are at my parents house and he finds the remote, he says, "Boppa!" and takes it to my dad. So the Mama thing is really coming along!

He's also adding a few more words. In the last week or so he's added "uh-oh", "buh-bye" and "buh-bo" (bubble). Sometimes it's hard to know what he's saying because "bah", "buh-bo", and "buh-bye" (ball, bubble and bye-bye) all sound very similar, especially when he says "bah-bah". Does that mean "ball, ball," or "bye-bye" or "bubble"? Or sometimes it even sounds like he could be saying "Boppa" (my dad). But most of the time you can tell what he means just by what he is doing or what's going on around him. Like in this cute video:



I think it's pretty safe to say he is saying "bubble"!
Right at the end, after he says "buh-bo" a couple of times, he starts to throw a fit because I put the wand back in the bubbles. He LOVES bubbles!

He also started making this "Oh my gosh!" face. I don't really know what else to call it, but his eyes get big and he drops his jaw, like, "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!" Sometimes he does it just at random times, but it's even funnier when he does it at "appropriate" times. He's such a goof ball. I tried to get a picture, but haven't been able to yet.

A couple of facts about Owen:

*His favorite toy is any ball he can get his hands on, but I think bubbles are coming in at a close second.
*His favorite word lately has been "puppy". He says it ALL the time and likes to find pictures of them in his books so he can say it over and over and over again.
*He makes the sign for milk with both hands when he wants it. It's really cute.
*He loves shoes, and really likes his new Crocs because he can put them on by himself. He even managed to get one of his velcro tennis shoes on by himself the other day. On the correct foot and everything!
*He walks around with Ryan or my shoes on, too. It's pretty funny when he picks my high heels!
*His snack of choice on Easter was baby carrot sticks...plain.
*He loves watching videos of himself, especially the one where he is playing Peek a Boo.
*AND, he's the cutest, best little boy ever in the world. :)

Happy Easter!

For Easter this year, we celebrated down in Muscatine with Ryan's family. We went down on Saturday afternoon and had our "Adult Party" in Ryan's uncle's new basement bar that night. All the kids had crashed before we went over there, except Owen and his cousin Lexi, so they got some quality time together.

The weather has been pretty crappy the last week, but thankfully we got a fairly nice day on Sunday for the big Easter egg hunt.

Four of Owen's cousins were there as well (all of them are 5 and under), so the Easter egg hunt was a BIG deal. After grilling out for lunch, all the kids went upstairs to play in Hayden's room while we went out and "hid" over 100 plastic eggs. Most of the eggs we just scattered in the yard (which is huge), but there were a few that were a little more challenging to find.

When we were finished, all the kids had to come down and put on their shoes and jackets, and line up at the door to get their bags. Owen obviously had no idea what was going on, just kept waving and saying "Buh bye", thinking we were leaving. When we got outside, all the kids took off running, and since I hid a lot of the eggs, I knew where to take Owen. Once I pointed out the first egg to him and showed him to put it in the bag I was carrying, he knew what to do from there. It helped that he was calling the eggs 'balls' because he LOVES balls, so he wanted to pick up as many as he could find. Here are a few videos:



It probably would've been easier without the cracker in his hand, but he wouldn't give that up!









Owen had a blast running around outside again finally, and it's nice because most of their backyard is fenced in, so we didn't have to keep running after him all day. He found a couple of balls to occupy his time and the picture on the right is a "cheese" face.






After the egg hunt, the kids were a little tuckered out, so I pulled them around for awhile in the wagon. I told them all to look at me and say, "Cheese!", but this is what I got. Like I said, they were tuckered out.

Just Lexi said, "Cheese!"

 Owen got another ride, too!

By mid-afternoon, Owen was so tired, but he was a REALLY good boy all weekend. I knew we wouldn't get far in the car before Owen was sleeping, but I didn't know Daddy would join him!

Owen made out like a bandit this Easter, too. He got a t-ball set from my parents, a bubble-blowing lawn mower from Ryan's parents, a water ball and bubbles from his "Aunt" Megan and "Uncle" Chris, a stuffed tiger from Ryan's Grandma, a basket of goodies from my Grandma, and a basket of goodies from his daycare lady, Johnna. PLUS all the goodies that were in all the Easter eggs he found, which included $2! Oh yeah, and Ryan and I got him some Easter shoes: a pair of blue Crocs. They are SO cute! (You can kind of see them in the videos.)

HOPPY EASTER!!

MOMMY!

Owen is a smart little boy. He understands a LOT of what we say to him. He can point to noses, eyes, ears, toes, bellies and yes, his "weewee". He will get a diaper from his room when you ask. He will bend his elbow and hold his arm up so his hand is by his face face to ask, "Where?". He strings noises together that sounds like "waz-ziz-ih?" to ask (at least in my mind he is asking), "What is it?". He tries to say "balloon" but its too hard so he just make a "ll" sound. He has been saying "Daddy" (da-daddy), "light" (yigh), "Boppa" (my dad), and "puppy" for a while now, and just added "ball" (bah).

BUT HE JUST CAN'T GET DOWN THE CONCEPT OF "MOMMY"! I don't know what it is, he just doesn't get that I am Mommy. I talk in third person to him (which I don't know if that's good or bad), I say "Mommy" and point to myself to him all the time, but it just won't sink in. Lately, if someone asks, "Where's Mommy?" he will point to my chest at the bottom of my neck because that is where I point to on myself when I say, "Mommy". So we are getting closer.

The weird thing is, he does the same thing with my mom. He knows Boppa, no problem, but Grandma won't sink in. Even if we tell him to "Throw the ball to Grandma", he'll turn and throw it at my dad instead. Weird.


BUT TODAY, AFTER MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS, when I walked into his room today to get him up, he looked at me and said, "Mommy." What an awesome way to start my day!! I just hope it wasn't a fluke! I'm excited to pick him up from daycare to see if he will continue to call me "Mommy". I just loved hearing it.