Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet baby! Time sure does fly, especially when our time together got a late start. I just cannot believe Owen is 3.

He was super excited about his day, and his cake. He had his eye on that Lightning McQueen cake in Target for a long, long time. In the morning he had a bounce house outing with some friends from preschool that just happened to fall on his birthday. He was fairly well behaved, and by the time that he started to lose control it was time to rush off and pick Natalie up from school anyway, so crisis averted. We had dinner at IHOP, and he picked the Smiley Face Pancakes, but I ordered pancakes and scrambled eggs for myself because I knew he would like the eggs better. Sure enough, he ate all the eggs off my plate. I know my boy.

Then home for cake, candle blowing (he talked about this a lot - the boy was looking forward to blowing those candles), and presents. The new boots were a hit for the little cowboy. He even sang himself Happy Birthday. He had been practicing. His version is slightly different and can go off track a bit, but he definitely belts out "Happy Birthday to OOOOWEN!" or sometimes, like tonight, it was "Happy Birthday to Regular Owen!" I have no idea what "regular" means to him, but he has been using it a lot. As in, "Mommy, there regular playground!" as we pass a familiar playground. Lots of familiar things are "regular." Not sure why he thinks of himself as "regular Owen" but I'm hoping it's a good thing?

I can see the changes in him every day, growing into a boy instead of a baby. He wants to do so many things himself (not in the toileting department, unfortunately). "I do it! I do it!" And has very definite ideas about what he wants to do or how things should be. He can still charm the socks off a good percentage of strangers, although the girls (and boys) at preschool may sometimes be frightened by his exuberant affection. In the past week, Liam has made various comments about what he thinks Owen will be like when he grows up, and they included, "I think it will be easy for him to find a girlfriend" and "I think he will be one of those motorcycle guys who rides on the dirt tracks." I think Liam is probably right.

Owen loves motorcycles, hockey, sports, sports, sports, talking and interacting with people, playing with cars, and having celebrations. He is not so thrilled with potty training, bugs and small critters (though Tigger has begrudgingly been accepted as tolerable), and being told it is time for bed.

My life wouldn't be the same without him - I love you regular Owen!

Giving Thanks

Giving thanks for an unusual holiday that involved NO turkey, no pie, no stuffing. I don't think I would do it every year, but it ended up a nice, small, family outing that included wild (OK, maybe not so wild) birds and putting greens. I think I can safely say that the kids will remember the birds. The one that they held was named Harry, because he likes to go to the highest point...which on a person is, of course, in their hair. Natalie was in love with Harry. Liam thought Harry was hysterical. Owen...at first pulled his coat over his head and said, "No bird on head!" but then decided that he wanted to hold Harry. When Harry started flapping his way to his "favorite spot" on a person, Owen let out a shriek that could break glass. Too bad I don't have the video to go with that picture. The picture makes it look a bit like Owen is being attacked by a crazed bird, but I swear that it ended well. I calmly removed the bird and Owen laughed and pointed at his head and asked for "Bird on head, Mommy." In the interest of bird safety, we passed him on to other kids.

We missed seeing extended family, and yes, I may have even missed the turkey and trimmings a little bit. But I'm giving thanks for the goodness that can come from unusual holidays too.

B is for Boo-Boo, C is for Crazy Cat

OK, I may have to get a cute picture of Owen with a soccer ball or baseball instead of the Boo-Boo shot for the letter B. It's just too sad. And no, I don't think he was really hurt. He accidentally pulled a heavy barstool down almost on top of himself, but I think it scared him more than anything. Still, he was willing to hold "Boo-Boo Kitty" on his head for a photo. If you can pose for a picture you probably aren't too hurt. Stop with the sad eyes - I can't take it! When he cries lately he will get more upset about the tears than whatever he was crying about. He'll say "My eyes leaking! Me leaking!" We were in line at a store the other day and a toddler in line in front of us was melting down big time (ahhhh, for once it was not us and I could just smile sympathetically) and Owen said in a very sad voice "Awwwww...baby's leaking." Cuteness.

And have you ever tried getting a picture of a cat who won't stop following you around, meowing? Much harder to get a cat to pose than it is a kid.

A is for Apple

I am just too darned tired to get my blog thoughts down on screen. So I'll just post the first page of the Alphabet Book I am contemplating making for Owen. Starring a familiar model. Good thing he likes to pose.

Celebrations

The birthday celebration at the gymnastics party, complete with princess cake and rope swinging.

And Liam (with Gatorade beard and mustache) and his tiny (not) trophy for his baseball team's win. Pre-season, regular season, post-season playoff winners! They must have a good coach. What a great season he (and his Coach) had. Very proud of my boys!

Happy 5th Birthday Natalie (OK a few days late...)

Happy Birthday to my Halloween baby!

And a little summary of the lady herself:

LOVES:

Pre-K (the teachers, her friends, the dancing, the playground- everything).

Any toy ever shown on a commercial geared towards children, although if I let her watch Home Shopping Network she'd probably like all that junk too. Especially any toy made to somewhat resemble an animal and make noise, life-like or otherwise. Zhu Zhu pets are heaven.

Drawing and painting.

Pure sugar in any form (except for Kool Aid - go figure). Gummy treats, fruit chews, suckers, Smarties. Sugar, sugar, sugar.

Edamame (soy beans). Hallalujah - a break from sugar.

Her soccer team. Her coach, her team mates, and of course the snack at the end.

Girly, glittery glamour, and getting "fancy".

Her brothers. Almost always.

Seeing her Daddy on the Skype camera when he's away on business. Or perhaps she is looking at the video of herself in the smaller box...in any case, she enjoys it.

DISLIKES:

Talking to strangers. Heaven forbid a Target employee should offer her a free sample of food. Me, I'm all over that. Natalie will make a huge circle so as to not come within five feet of them, and turn her head all the way around to avoid eye contact. Even if they have sugar.

Tags in her clothes. They itch. Especially when she is 1) tired or 2) annoyed by her little brother.

Holes. Lost a t-ball in a water drainage hole last Spring and was traumatized for months. Tonight while trying to use her new birthday scooter she became so upset that Liam was scootering within four feet of a water drainage hole that she refused to scooter and would only lie flat on the grass crying that she was scared and wanted to go home. For the record, Liam is cautious enough to never come close to falling down that hole. He was teasing her by being daring enough to scooter within 4 feet of it. Owen on the other hand...might go flinging down one someday. But she wasn't as concerned about that possibility.

Being rushed in the morning. Or morning itself. Or both.

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I love my girl! Every wise-cracking, dramatic, affectionate, singing, dancing, drawing, laughing piece of her.

Where Does The Time Go

Wow, has it really been so long since the last post? Somehow it seems that I have been living in real life only, and not so much in blogland. It wasn't intentional, but just happened without me noticing. Maybe that's a good thing?

Unfortunately, it's been so long that I don't even know what to write about now. We've been busy, obviously. Lots of sports - soccer, baseball, gymnastics. Grandparent visit. Halloween. Natalie turned 5! I will have to try and pick apart a story or two from all of that sometime soon. Meanwhile, to sum it up: All three kids are enjoying their sports (yay!), all three loved having the visiting Grandparents, and all three had a lovely Halloween. Natalie's birthday was good too, but I'll leave that for a special birthday girl post.

One of my favorite Fall traditions - the pumpkin carving - was a little rushed this year. And as usual, my three helpers were not a lot of help. A little poke with a spoon here, a shriek as a finger touched some gooey pumpkin guts there. Much dramatic face squinching in disgust, and then off to something more interesting while I am left to carve. But I'm not really complaining. Less time with small children around knives the better, if you know what I mean. Thanks to Mimi and Grandpa for helping pick out the very tall pumpkin that was the favorite. Liam decided we should go for a traditional face instead of a fancy design for that one and it turned out to be the one the trick-or-treaters loved. For Owen's pumpkin we did a Potato Head kit, so we just had to poke the face parts into the pumpkin instead of carving (as I said before...less time around knives the better), but I don't think I got a good picture of that one. Happy Halloween! Happy Fall! The year is going too quickly!