Our New Crazy Life

I wish I had more time/energy/motivation to keep this blog up-to-date.  I mean to post more often, but there never seems to be a good time.  So I'm making time now! 

Owen is 3 years and 2+ months old, and just had his last day of Pre-3s co-op preschool yesterday.  I was thinking back to when we signed him up over a year ago, thinking there was never going to come a day when we'd be able to leave him for 2 hours.  Thankfully, we were way off and he loved school, even without us there.  He loved outside play, the play-dough station, and running laps around the other kids.  He loved circle time and is constantly singing songs from school at home.  The other day, we drove by his school, and he said, "There's my school!  My friends live there!"  He also did a tremendous amount of growing in the past 9 months.  See for yourself!



Owen recently went to the dentist for the first time.  He did pretty well, but was not a super big fan of all of the gadgets.  After some serious coaxing and bribery, he let the tech polish all of his teeth, and in return got to get two prizes from the prize tower.



He's having a lot of fun these days, and especially likes exploring new parks.  We went to Laurelhurst park last week, a park I used to love growing up, and Owen was a fan too.  Josh got to experience grass for the first time, and loved watching the leaves of the trees move in the wind.





Speaking of Josh, since I last posted, we've passed both his fourth and fifth month marks!  He continues to grow quickly, and he's showing a lot of his easy-going, happy personality.





He's expanding his vocabulary (hungry, roll over, Owen, brother, hello, I love you), and is singing along with the exersaucer's "red, yellow, and blue" song.  His giggle is to die for, and I love when Dan gets him going (even though it inevitably leads to hiccups!).  With his neck and core strength improving, we get to play with the exersaucer and jumperoo more, which helps us get some empty-arm time too.







Josh is doing really well with tummy time too.  He's really close to rolling over now, but still isn't quite there.  Soon!





And both boys get to take baths in the big tub now.  They even had a bath together recently!





This past weekend, Dan's kid brother (not really a kid, but you know what I mean) got married.  Dan was a groomsman, and Owen was the ring bearer.  My favorite part of the weekend might be the pictures I got of Dan and Owen in their tuxes.  So cute!  I'll throw in a picture of Josh and me too.







As summer starts this year, I am looking forward to Josh's next milestones, and to Owen's mischievous adventures outside.  I hope to spend time with the boys at the wading pools and splash park, and maybe take a trip or two to Bainbridge Island and Shelton.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate for outside fun!

Bonus: Here's a link to a video of Dan making Josh laugh.  I love the sound of our boys laughing!
http://youtu.be/r6F_DYqht0s

Catching Up

Yet again, I've fallen way behind in my blogging.  Here's a catch up post, which I'm hoping will spark more posts about our boys and what we've been up to.

Josh is now 3 and a half months old, and doing great.  He's a calm and happy kid.  He likes to eat and likes to sleep.  But he LOVES his big brother.  Josh is smiling all the time, and laughing occasionally.  He's babbling like crazy, and says "Hello" back to you when you say it to him.  He's pretty awesome.

Owen turned 3 last month, and is definitely acting his age.  It's perpetually Opposites Day, and his favorite word is "no."  He is active and funny and sweet, though, so it's not all bad.  He's an endless source of energy and activity, which is tough to meet with a new baby on board.  But even with a new baby in our family, it's impossible to remember when Owen was unable to talk or move.  How far he's come in 3 short years!

So here's a photo timeline of what's been going on.

Josh was 1 month old on 2/17/12:




Owen loves to talk to Josh and play near him, and Josh will watch Owen exclusively when he's in the room.  They're great brothers.



Josh's 2 month mark fell on St Patrick's Day - 3/17/12:




And the brother friendship started getting stronger:


Then Owen turned 3 years old on 4/3/12:




3 years old!  Crazy how fast and slow that happened.

And Josh hit the quarter year mark on 4/17/12:


Sweet little guy.

Brothers hanging out:


Owen is finishing up his first year of co-op preschool.  It's been a great year of play time, new friends, and a 2-hour break each week for Dan.  We're looking forward to next fall, and the 4-day schedule!  Here's Owen's (amazing!) preschool photo:


And another photo of Josh and his happy smile:


We've hit another transition period, with me back to work again full time, with two afternoons in the office per week.  Josh isn't loving eating from a bottle, and basically refuses.  That, along with Owen's 3-year old neediness, make for tough afternoons at home.  It took me almost 2 hours to get home on Thursday, so that didn't help.  He ate like a barracuda when I got home, and then passed out hard.  I hope we'll all get used to our new schedules soon, because we don't really have other options.  Sigh.

Ooh, I almost forgot!  Enough of the bummer news, and on to the chickens!  Yep, you read that right: chickens.  We're adopting some Urban Farming habits here at Mudgett Manor, and picked up 3 baby chicks for Owen's birthday.  They should start laying eggs this fall, and in the mean time, we're watching them grow.  And they're growing fast!  We should be moving them to their coop in the next few weeks, so that's exciting.  We're happy to know that we're providing a good life for these hens, and in return, we're going to get some fresh and healthy eggs.  Ginger, Henrietta, and Toby are welcome additions to our little homestead.

Our coop:


The chicks - week 1:


Teenage chicks - week 5:


Yep, we're crazy.  But anything we can do to help keep us healthier and reduce dependence on factory farmings is worth a little extra effort.  And they're so cute... :)

Silly Sons

Every time I take pictures of our boys, especially Owen, Dan asks me why I bother. For every good picture we get, we get 20 more "bad" ones. I never delete the bad ones though, because they're awesome too. I thought it would be fun to share some of the outtakes for a change so you can see what I mean.

Josh:










Owen:

Owen the Comedian

Well, I don't know if he's trying to be funny or if he just accidentally is, but Owen is hilarious these days. A few quotes, just from this morning for your enjoyment:

Owen: Mommy, can I have some chocolate?
Me: Sure, do you want some chocolate cat cookies?
Owen: No, I want BROWNIES!!
(They're in the oven now...can't say no to logic like that!)

Owen: Mommy, can you open this lollipop?
Me: How 'bout we find a different snack?
Owen: How 'bout we find this one?
(He settled for mini marshmallows -- second breakfast of champions.)

Owen has been big into role playing lately. I posted about his kitty cat scenario, but he is even more into being different Thomas train characters. He is Thomas, Dan is Diesel-10, I'm Lady, and Josh is Percy.

Dan: Owen, what train is Josh?
Owen: Percy!
Dan: So you and Josh best friends?
Owen: I don't know about that...

He's got such an imagination and such amazing language skills. Though the recent addition of "whatever" to his arsenal could get old fast.







I don't like the sucker in his mouth, but I wanted to share this picture anyway because of Owen's incredible blue eyes!

Owen Kitty Cat

Owen is changing daily and going through interesting phases, some good and some not as good. Right now, he's starting to play pretend, and his imagination has turned us into a family of cats. Owen Kitty Cat asks Mommy Kitty Cat and Daddy Kitty Cat for favors. Owen Kitty Cat eats Kitty Cat sandwiches, and watches shows on his Kitty Cat iPad. He takes Kitty Cat naps, and plays with his Kitty Cat brother. The other night, he didn't want dinner, but Kitty Cat Owen would take Kitty Cat bites of his Kitty Cat dinner. Awesome.

He has also turned our dining room table into his hide-out. He takes toys, snacks, and the blasted iPad under there and is perfectly happy for hours. Thankfully, he has (kind of) moved past YouTube videos of kids crashing their Thomas trains and is enjoying the power of Netflix for the iPad. Not that everything on Netflix is appropriate, but he doesn't end up watching crying babies or potty humor videos that he gets to somehow through the YouTube suggestions. Technology - can't live without it, can't keep your children away from it!

As for our newest addition, Josh is doing great. At his weekly checkup on Tuesday, he had gained 5 ounces in the 5 days before (right on track!) and his hematocrit level was the same as the week before. Hooray! We can only hope his hematocrit stays consistent over the next few months as his body starts to crank out its own red blood cells. The non-changing hematocrit may be an indicator that my antibodies are almost done doing their damage, but we'll need to keep checking weekly until we know that for sure. I'm not sure what they're waiting for and why they haven't finished attacking, but there are still active antibodies at work in Josh's blood. Poor guy. You'd never know it though -- he's alert and feisty and eating like a champ. He looks like a chubbier version of Owen as a baby but with darker hair. We'll have to wait and see what his final hair and eye colors turn out to be. Just more to look forward to!

I should go help Kitty Cat Owen eat his Kitty Cat lunch now, but look for new pictures soon. We just got a new Kitty Cat camera and will need lots and lots of Kitty Cat practice to figure it out. :)

Life is Good

You hear lots of "wisdom" from friends and family while pregnant. Specifically, I got very tired this most recent pregnancy of hearing that two is way more work than one. I get it - you don't have the luxury of napping at any point in the day or sitting on the couch for 16 hours straight or leaving the room with both kids in it alone, but I have to say that so far, it's really not that hard.

Knock on wood.

We're tired and it takes us hours to get out of the house still, but we're doing really well. Joshua is a great eater and sleeper. Owen is a great helper and genuinely loves his new brother. We have survived the newborn nights before, and I am 99% sure we'll survive them again. We're braver this time than we were with Owen. The four of us went out to breakfast this morning, and it was awesome. I'm not scared to nurse Josh while we're out, though I haven't needed to yet. I'm still not sure how to tackle bedtime alone yet, but I also haven't had to, thanks to my fantastic husband. Josh is a different kid than Owen, obviously, but we're better prepared for him than we were with Owen.

Now, I'm not saying that it's easy or that we have everything figured out - quite the opposite, actually. But I don't really understand the need to share horror stories or scare soon-to-be parents.

So, in closing, here are some adorable photos. :)