Some February Photos

The Lee Boys play with the trains together.

Family TV time, with Pocoyo

At West Boynton playground --

Owen goes down and up a slide

monkeying around with Giuseppe

Whee!

Owen is careful not to step on his shadow

Noah is ready for school

Noah at the dentist office -- anticipation.

a 'thumbs-up' xray.

now the cleaning

at last a rinse and all done.

another haul of library books!

The last batch of library books are due back next week so I thought I'd post the boys' favorites here to both document it and as a recommendation for others looking for good toddler books:

Happy Birthday Thomas by Awdry
Clickety Clack by J. London
Have You Seen My Potty by M. Kelly
My Five Senses by Aliki
A Dinosaur Called Tiny by A. Durant
Froggy Gets Dressed by J. London as well (my favorite of the bunch)

So...less then half he really enjoyed. I wish I'd written down past batch favorites so that I could have trip to pick up a batch of just his old favorites but, alas,...

FUNNY Thing about Owen. We've been working with the boys on putting their dishes in the sink after meals (all meals). Well, the training must be going really well because Owen now puts OTHER things in the sink now too. Aside from his dishes, O likes to "throw away" his poopie diapers by tossing it into the sink. The trash is kept off limits to him and once someone mistakenly asked him to throw it out and he took it to the sink and dunked it in...it stuck and he tries to do every time now...like just this morning ;)

Owen

Owen is very interested in the potty now. A friend suggested yesterday that I start potty training him at 18 months...hmm, I'll think about it. He wants to put things in it, wear it as a hat, and sit on it frequently. He also asks to sit on the toilet but he never produces anything. I don't think he gets it or can control it yet. In the meantime, he has been leaving little presents around the house...one time he did it and he still had his pants up! The Mystery Poop. He runs wild to avoid putting a diaper on then will pee. Yay!

He was upstairs with me just now doing "color" of his "horse" picture while I did the laundry. All was well until he decided to "help" put the clothing I was sorting back into the hamper. Not too bad of a deal. I went into the bathroom to make sure nothing was in there to wash, turned around, and my boy was dropping a pair of MY underpants in the toilet. Gee. Thanks buddy.

He has picked up shaking his head and emphatically saying "Uh-uh". He tells his brother "Stop Oah!" and will push him away if he tries to kiss him. He also loves saying "mommy carry" and "mouth/head owiee (hurts)". He's teething 4 molars and 4 eye-teeth simultaneously. Other popular phrases are "uck" (stuck); "help me mommy/nanny/daddy)" ; "more ____ too!"; "more water juice"; "self" (do by myself); "uh-stairs" (up or down stairs). He's actually able to go down the short set of stairs without holding on to anything and can go up and down the long set holding on to the rail by himself. He's doing quite well verbally and physically now. Calls himself both I and "Owen" or "O" or "Oweee" (his nicknames).

He's been in his own bed and room now for over a month. He does well, if he doesn't wake up in pain, just staying in his bed/room all night (unlike big brother at this age). BUT he'll come running into our room (read: we need a gate at his door) at 3am and ask me to lift him into the bed. He then squirms until his head is going east (like when he's in his bed) which is perpendicular to me...AND he has to be at the head of the bed so that means he lays across my neck or face. Smother the mother sort of deal. Definitely getting the gate up a.s.a.p.

Birthday!

Noah and about 26 other children enjoyed a slightly cold and overcast afternoon at the park on Friday 1/30. Noah ran all over the place with his birthday crown (we made), ate, rode the carousel and blew out his large "3" candle. The weather turned a little colder and more overcast, the kids started to trickle home, Noah dropped his cake and skinned his knee. Time to go! ;) Luckily 2 moms (Dominique & Tammy) came early and helped set everything up. Keith's friend Anthony's wife (Vanessa) came for the whole day to help with the party and the boys. Laura (with 2 boys of her own N & O's age) was a real help cleaning up and getting everything into the car. Nana picked up Uncle Randy and our friend 'Chelle so they could participate in the celebration. Aside from the weather, the whole event went off without a hitch and we had a great time. Here are some photos from the party.

Noah at School!

Noah is on the bottom right "working" on a project at his Montessori school. First day was Feb 2 --Uncle Bobby's birthday. The class has 3-5 year olds. Miss Amber (top) works one on one with him a lot during the day. He goes to school without protest and when we watch him on the internet he always is engaged. He really likes school and devours his lunch. The freedom, self-direction and skill-building he gets at school surpasses anything I could do with him at home with lil' O under foot. It's great he gets this "alone" time for a few hours a week ;).

Negative: It's quite tempting to just stay near the computer and watch him all morning. Hard to break the habit of watching over him I guess.

Positive: Noah picked up toys at home without a big fight after his 1st day of school and just now I saw him get out his own snack, sit at the table with a mat, then clean up after himself, put away the mat and...went back to push in his chair...unprompted. Huh!? He doesn't do that at home ;)