Drive-by Posting

Another month has passed, and my goal of posting more has not been met. Again.

Our boys are doing great!

Josh is chunking up, rolling over both ways, chatting up a storm, and eating solid foods more and more. His favorite foods right now are vanilla yogurt, sweet potatoes, and Baby Mum Mums rice rusks. Josh rode on park swings for the first time too - big success!

Yogurt


Swings


Meatball


Cutie pie


Owen is really growing up too. He is correcting our grammar ("It's safeLY, Daddy"), telling jokes, and potty training finally! He successfully pooped in his Cars potty chair today, earning him a slingshot and red Angry Birds toy. Owen is still Josh's favorite person in the world, and is an incredibly loving and sweet big brother.

Our chickens are full grown now too, and just started laying eggs this week. We're going to make some for breakfast tomorrow!

Farmer O


First egg


It's bedtime for the boys, so I need to wrap this up, but things are going well. I have accepted a new job at Regence Blue Shield in Seattle, so I'm two work days away from wrapping up my current position. Another chapter closing, and another beginning. Wish us all luck!

Mid-Summer and Half Birthday

It's a warm summer this year in Seattle and we're enjoying the outdoors with Owen and Josh.  The nice weather also means we get to go do things that you can't when it's raining, like visiting Remlinger Farms in Redmond.

Remlinger is a berry and dairy farm, that also happens to have an amusement park.  We went on a Friday and had a fantastic day.  The park wasn't very busy, so we didn't have to wait in line for the rides.  Owen started slowly with the Ferris wheel, moved on to the Flying Pumpkins, and was brave enough for the roller coaster!  He rode the canoes, took a tour on Ike the train, played in the school bus, and ran and ran and ran.







Today is Josh's Half Birthday!  I can't even tell you how fast that went, but not surprisingly I can't imagine what life was like before he was in our family.  He is a very happy, smiley, laughy baby.  He started rolling over this week, and he says "hi" to us now.  Owen is Josh's favorite person, and the two of them together makes my heart happy.

















 Behold!  Super Owen!



We're starting Josh on solid foods now.  We've had a tough start!  Josh hasn't really been too excited about avocado or rice rusks, but we seem to have a winner with yogurt.







And, finally, Josh and Owen and I went walking around Greenlake tonight after work, to enjoy the sun and get some fresh air.  Sadly, this was the first time we've used the stroller with Josh and he only got to sit in it for 5 minutes before Owen wanted to ride in it instead.  I strapped Josh into the Ergo carrier and huffed and puffed around the lake pushing Owen in the stroller.  Both boys fell asleep about half way around, and that alone made the trip worth it!

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... :)