"Ano'er One?"

Most kids say, "Trick or treat!" when going from person to person, waiting anxiously to collect their goods.  Some older, clever ones even said "trunk or treat" as they walked from trunk to trunk at the Lake Norman Mommies annual Trunk or Treat event tonight.  But Owen just kept saying "ano'er one?" (another one?) over and over again!  But let me start at the beginning...

We arrive and Owen was immediately enamored with all the kids walking around in costumes.  It's like he couldn't move his head fast enough in all directions around the parking lot to see all of them! He was very excited to see his buds Colin and Caroline though!

 He particularly liked a little girl dressed as a dinosaur!

While we were waiting in line for our family picture at the photo station I snapped this - love the little tail :) (and he's not sad, he's just tired, and also eye-balling a little kid dressed like Sully from Monster's Inc.)

After a little while lion needed to recharge with a snack.  Who knew lions like spinach and kale rice puffs?  I always thought they were carnivores.  Guess that goes to show what I know.  :)

   

After snack we did the costume contest, he didn't win, or even get in the top six, but honestly, I'm not sure what the judging criteria was because a couple of the ones that were chosen weren't all that cute in my (completely unbiased) opinion. :)
After that the trick or treating started.  Everyone was parked in the parking lot and a lot of the trunks were decorated with bowls of candy sitting in them.  Everyone just walked around grabbing a piece of candy.  Once Owen figured out that he could take one out of the trunk bowl and put it in his bucket he was so excited!  He kept saying, "more, more?"  "Ano'er one? Ano'er one?" and clapping his hands excitedly every time he got a new one to put in his bucket.  I don't have any idea what he was getting, and he didn't either, but he just loved it!  He would jump up and down and clap his hands and just keep going from trunk to trunk.
Afterward we got all the kids together for a picture in Becky's trunk.  Her and her kids dressed up as Cinderella, Prince Charming and she was the fairy god mother - hence the castle in the trunk.  And it was quite entertaining trying to get the kids to all look in the same general direction - let alone actually at the camera.  Oh well, the cuteness is still enough to make you wanna reach through your screen and squeeze em - is it not? :)

 

I'm so glad we went to this - we aren't doing trick or treating and this was such a great alternative for him.  He loved every minute of it.  The people watching, dancing to the music the DJ was pumpin' out, eating pizza for dinner outside, hanging out with his friends and of course the trunk or treating part.
Huge thanks to our friend April for letting us borrow her lion costume, and to the Huffs for letting us crash their trunk!  :)

My Little Poser

In jr. high and high school I remember it was bad to be called a 'poser'.  I guess that word is kind of 'out' these days, so it's okay if I call my toddler a poser, right?
Lately whenever he sees me get out my DSLR he wants me to take his picture.  The other morning he had on some hand-me-down pj's that were just too cute to not capture, so I asked him, "Can momma take your picture?" and this is what he did - no prompting, no nothing, he just did this all on his own:

 Then he said, "no-er one?" (another one) and did this:

And then he decided he wanted to take his socks off and give them to me.

 

Today when I was getting my camera ready for a photo shoot he saw me and started saying "dah- dah- dah"  We haven't quite figured out what that means yet, but he says it when he is either giving you something or when he wants something, so we think it might mean 'there'.  Anyway, I asked him, "You want me to take your picture?" and he said "mmm HMMM" really high-pitched as usual.  So I said, "Okay, where do you want me to do it?" and he promptly did this:

And then said, "no-er one?" and did this:

That silly boy.  I love him to pieces.

103.7

The first fever little bear ever had (well, minus when he was born) was this past week.  At it's peak it was 103.7!

Fever Face :(      (this was after two 1.5hr naps that day)

Poor guy.  I thought it was only teething at first (he has three molars coming in at once!), because it was lingering around the 100's-101's, but when it hit 103.7 I ran to the store for some baby Advil.  Also another first - his first medicine.  That took his fever down and it never came back over 101, and eventually puttered out the 4th day.  Not sure what it was but other than tired, fussy and lack of appetite, he didn't have any other symptoms.  Glad it's over now though and he's back to his normal self!
Speaking of firsts, there are so many things I need to record, that I've been keeping a running list on a sticky note so I don't forget!
Sounds
I want to remember how, at this age and for the past several months actually, that he uses sounds to mean words about 50% of the time.  For example, if he sees or hears a bird, he doesn't say bird, he says 'TWEET TWEET" in his loudest, highest-pitch voice possible.  Then I usually say, "You're right, birdies!" and he replies, "Muah- Muah" (kissing them), and I say, "Aw, that's nice, you like birdies?" and he says "mmHMM" in a very high-pitched voice.  Also, if he sees a car (or truck) go by he'll say "vroooooommmm" instead of what it is.  Dog's he barks at, cats he meows at.  Vacuums he "vrmmmvrmms" for and guitars he strums his belly saying 'guit-guit-guit' with every strum.

His vocabulary is increasing though - by leaps and bounds.  He hears a school bus (there are about 328,719,487,983 that go through our neighborhood every day) and says "buh!"  In fact, he says that for anything with a diesel engine or air brakes..  :)  it's cute.  He just recently connected his little tonka toy bus (that we used to call a truck because it looks like a truck more than a bus) to what he was seeing out the window and went and got it and showed it to me, excitedly proclaiming 'buh!' like he just put two and two together - it was so sweet!  He's finally saying "down" to mean down, whereas he would use up to mean either up or down.  He hears/sees and airplane and says "ah-pan" and says "Up, up up!"
He's getting better every day at repeating things too, he can almost say trampoline, we're working on please and thank you, and he knows how to say a few of our closest friends' names too. He's really good at saying "Ardra" (Andrew, our roommate), Addie (a 3yr old friend he LOVES), "Maimee" (Amy, our close friend), "Nina" (Christina, we call her nina, close friend of ours), "Siah" (which he whispers for some reason, for Josiah, his 2yr old friend), "Cayee" (Callie, a 4yr old friend) and "Matt" (the guy I went to Africa with the first time). I could spend all day listing all his words - he's such a good little communicator when he wants to be - which is most of the time.
We've also been working on counting, he can signal 1 and almost 2 with his fingers while I count aloud for him.
He's also recently started putting his finger to his lips and saying 'shhhh'.  I think one day when we walked in the room and the cat was sleeping I did it being a little silly - he picked up on it right away and whenever he sees someone or something sleeping he does it.
Actions
Compassion - he is such a sweet boy, seriously.  He loves to give hugs and snuggles and not just to momma and papa, but to Oliver, to his friends, to his stuffed animals, and he makes 'muah-muah' sounds toward most animals he sees too.  It's so sweet.

He is very into cooking lately - real or pretend!  He's always been allowed to play with the pots and pans, and usually they ended up as drums, but lately he's been asking for big spoons and he'll 'stir it' and give me a 'taste' and pretends and everything.  I'm thinking there's a play kitchen in his future because he never goes a day without pretending to 'make something' using the pots and pans.  He even gives 'tastes' to the cat and says "mmm yumm" for him after he's pretended to eat it (sniffed the spoon in most cases).  He loves to help in the kitchen for real too, and I try to let him whenever it's safe.  He loves helping me make cookies or granola by dumping the ingredients in the bowl after I've measured them, or stirring it for me.  He loves helping me push the toaster down in the morning for his toast or pancakes and he'll push the buttons on the microwave sometimes too.

If there's a way for him to help - he will do it.  He. Loves. to help.  Such a little servant's heart and I love it.  Whenever we're outside he asks if he can sweep with the broom because he saw me sweeping the grass clippings one day.  And then he saw me sweeping the kitchen and asked to help with that broom.  He has a real thing for brooms lately.  I need to find one his size because he's had a ton of close calls winging that thing around unintentionally - think:  3 Stooges.
He also loves to help with laundry - gets kind of upset if he can't help actually.  He saw the basket in our closet today with a couple dirty towels in it and brought them to me asking me to fold them.  Didn't like it very much when I said it wasn't time for laundry yet, and that they were dirty so leave them be.  He even asks our roommate if he can help with his laundry.

Climbing - he loves climbing.  On the furniture, on the baskets, and on his hand-me-down trampoline (we have the best friends, ever!).

He was excitedly jumping up and down as fast as he could and screeching :)

He's getting very good at feeding himself with a spoon these days too.  He can successfully shovel oatmeal, greek yogurt and applesauce into his mouth, and only get a little bit on his face/chin.  And he's all about being independent about it too! He'll point to where he wants the bowl of food put on his tray and will gently remove my hand if I attempt to hold onto it after setting it down.

He's very into exploring new things and textures, so I've been trying to oblige him as much as possible - pipe cleaners, rice crispies, cotton balls, magnets, bathtub paints/crayons, he has a lot of fun with it! He has also been paying more attention to textures outside - like mulch, sticks, dirt and grass.

 

 Discovering the magnets wouldn't just fall off :)

Whew, I think that catches me up for a bit - time to erase the list and start a new one!  This little boy never ceases to amaze me and I thank God every day for giving him to us and for letting me be a stay at home momma to this sweet, precious boy!

A Boy and His Dog Cat

 OOooo, mom this is cool!

 Look, I got another one out!

 And another one!  

 Hey!!  Buggo took my fuzzy thing.  

Well, I guess I can share, here's some more bug-bug.

SHhhhh! Don't tell Momma... but I stole her 'puter!

To gramma's house we went!  

That's right - Gramma missed us SO much (I say 'us', but we all know that translates to me, not so much momma) that she found a super cheap airline ticket and flew us out to see her!  Papa had to stay home and work on account of using all his vacation time when we went to Africa, so Momma and me went up, up, UP on the airplane to see Gramma and I had SO much fun.
I love being in airports.  It's so much fun watching all the people! I ate breakfast while we waited to get on the plane, because it was super early in the morning.

I had fun once we got on the plane.  I'm kind of a pro now.  I mean, what's four hours to Texas when I've already done 17 hours to Africa?  I just relaxed, flirted with the flight attendants and slept on momma.  When we got to Texas the airport had a really neat play place I got to play in, then we got on another plane to Arizona.  I was pretty tired after such a long day of traveling, but when I saw Gramma standing at the end of the security thingy, I knew it was her.  She looks just like my momma!  AND she had a turtle for me!
When we got to Gramma's house I got to meet her doggie, Baxter.  He scared me at first with all his barking, but once we got to know each other a little bit, we became best buds.  He protected me when momma or gramma tried to tickle me even!

We went for long walks every morning and I got to ride in the stroller next to Baxter.  We walked really fast for 4 whole miles, and in the middle of it we got to stop at a really neat playground and Baxter and I got to play for a little bit.
I had a really hard time adjusting to the different time zones, so I was tired a lot and a little fussy, but I still loved being with gramma and baxter.
One day after I woke up from my nap momma put my swimming stuff on.  I didn't really want to swim but she told me I'd like it and it would be fun, so I thought I would try.  Gramma held me in the pool for a little bit.  That wasn't so bad.

   

When she sat me down on the step, I kind of freaked out.  I mean, that's a lot of water, I was worried I would sink!  But then momma got me and showed me the raft and showed me how to splash, and walked with me over to these really big rocks.  I like rocks.  I thought it was cool I could touch them.  I ended up liking the pool.  I mean, I didn't love it, but it was better than I thought it would be.  Afterward gramma let me sit on her lap to dry off while I ate my raisins. 

    

One night I started opening gramma's cupboards... and you'll never guess what I found!  SO many bowls! And when I asked her if I could play with them she said YES!  My gramma is the best, I don't think you understand.  

Baxter kept giving me a funny look.  I told him he should come play with me, that he didn't know what he was missing out on, but I guess he didn't believe me.  'Cause he just kept sitting there looking at me funny.

One day it was a little rainy, so we went to a mall to walk around and play a little bit.  I got to see lots of really cool fishies at this place called the Rainforest Cafe.  They had lots of tubes full of fishes, and a bunch of really cool pretend animals that moved and made noises when I waved at them. 

 After that we got to go on a merry-go-round!  I sat on a horsey behind the zebra and had so much fun! I was really sad when it was over.  I cried a little bit because I didn't want to get off the ride.  

  

When we weren't out and about doing things I really liked playing with gramma's pillows on her couches.  She had SO many pillows!  When we stacked them all up they were taller than me!!

I loved throwing them around, jumping on them and making towers with them.

 
Oh! And gramma taught me this really fun game too!  You have NO idea, how fun this game is!  She calls it 'the horsey' and I love when she gives me rides!!  It's hard to stay on sometimes, but I laugh so hard when she bounces me!

On this other day we went to the Build-A-Bear Workshop and gramma let me make my very own teddy bear!  It's my first-ever teddy bear and I really liked making it.  I got to pick out a heart to put inside it, but I couldn't decide which one I wanted - the plaid one or the plain one, so the nice lady let me put both of them inside!  Then I stepped on this pedal, and the machine made a loud noise (it scared me a little, but I was tough since gramma was there) and my bear got all fluffy!  Momma didn't have her camera for this because she told me she wanted to enjoy the moment.  I don't know about her, but I enjoyed it a lot!  I gave my bear lots of snuggles and gramma named him Teddy.  After that I was hungry so we stopped for some raisins.  I even shared my raisins with Teddy.  

I like him a lot.  I took him everywhere we went the whole trip, he always rode with me in my car seat.  

On another day we went to this place called the Reparium, where there was lots and lots of birdies, and duckies, and this really neat play area to run around on.

Then after that we went to an outdoor mall and there was more fun stuff to play on!

And guess what?!  I saw this really, really neat train... and Gramma said I could ride on it!  I've never been on a train before!  I was sooooo excited!  I was jumping and smiling and so happy to ride the train!

 I waved at all the people we went past, and I danced to the music coming from the stores we went past too.  I had so much fun!  I was really sad to get off the train, but momma said it was all done and that it was time for lunch.

So we went to this restaurant and the server lady asked mom if I wanted to play with some dough and gave me this gooey stuff.  Momma said I should just play with it, and poke it.  But she put it on a plate, so I figured it was food.  And momma doesn't like when I play with my food.  So I thought I'd make a good choice and eat it.

 But it was not very good.  Not good at all.  So I just gave it back to momma.

Then the next day we went to this place called the Childrens' Museum.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Seriously.  You guys have NO idea.  None.  I can't even come up with the words to describe this place.  My gramma is the awesomest gramma that ever awesomed for taking me here.  Mom didn't have her camera out the whole time, because we were having so much fun, but here are some pictures I found on her computer to show you.

This thingy was neat. It had little velcro patches on it you stuck stuffed animals too.  Then you turn that wheel that I'm holding and it moves it up, up, up to a spinning fan looking thing and flings the animal across the room!  I mean, who comes up with this stuff?  It was SO funny!

 The next area we went into had some cooking stuff and a kitchen, but I liked this part a lot - I got to make music!  Then I found some scoops I could do with some dry beans, kind of like momma lets me play at home with the rice crispies!

 

But then.  Oh, then I found the grocery store! And it was all just my size!  I love helping momma shop at Target, but she doesn't let me touch very much because it's heavy- but this stuff was super easy for me to pick up!

 I could have played in here the whole time, but I think mom and gramma got bored because they took me to another room after a while.  I had SO much fun in here though!

 I thought the grocery area was neat, but man, so were these cars!  I love steering things, so driving these cars was so much fun!

 

Then I got to ride a tricycle through a car wash that had moving parts and an air blower at the end - that was pretty fun too!

Next we went to the 'shoe free zone'.  It was a room we had to be barefoot in, I think because little babies that couldn't walk yet were allowed in there too.  Anyway, they had a lot of these pretty flowers - I tried smelling them, but didn't smell anything.  I think they were fake.

 They had lots of cool stuff for me to climb on, and balls and toys for me to play with, I liked it in here a  lot!

 












After that we went to this place called the Noodle Forest.  Momma didn't get any pictures because we were having so much fun, but I have to tell you about it!  It's thousands of noodle things (momma says they look like pool noodles, but not quite) and they're hanging from the ceiling really close together and momma grabbed me up and ran through them really fast!  I was scared to do it alone, but when she was holding me and we ran through them and they bonked me on the head and made funny noises all crashing together I thought it was so funny!  I was laughing so hard I could barely catch my breath!  Gramma took some turns running through the forest with me to, and when we got to the other side we found this:

 It was a really dark area with lots of cool, dim, colored lights, and these mushroom house thingy's made from different fabric. And there was fabric draped all over the ceiling and there was a lady with a puppet - it was super neat!

Next we went down to the 2nd floor.  (Yea, all that stuff above was just on the 3rd floor!)  I got to paint this really neat looking rocket!

 And I found some more music!  Did I mention I LOVE music?

 Then gramma helped me put a puzzle together.

Then we saw this.

They call it the "Climber".  It's three stories tall and has tons of different dead ends and fun stuff.  I really wanted to try it, but the rules said momma couldn't carry me at all.  I told her I would be okay, as long as she could hold my hand.

 Can you see me up there?  Momma helped me a little, but I climbed all the way up that thing!

I have no idea why there was a flying bathtub, but mom & gramma wanted my picture taken in it.

I wasn't scared at all being high up like that, I thought it was pretty cool!
I was getting tired by the time we were done with the climber.  That thing was hard and took a lot of energy!  I saw this one more thing I wanted to try though - it was called the Whoosh! station.

 So I went over and took a turn putting in a silk scarf.

 And it wooshed all around that tube thing and came flying out the top!!

Then gramma showed me this cool little station where you could create your own whoosh thingy.  And she made this ball float!  I don't know how she did it but it was just floating in the air!  Crazy!!

Welp, that was about everything we did.  I had a blast hanging out with gramma.  She definitely became my favorite.  I wanted her to do everything for me by the time we were getting ready to leave.  Momma just wouldn't cut it.  Gramma also taught me how to eat peanut butter on my toast and how to put ice in my water.  Now I always put peanut butter on my toast and ice in my water. 

 

 

I love my gramma so much and I can't wait to see her again!  Thanks for letting me come see you gramma.  Oh, and thanks momma for letting me steal your computer...  :)  i yub you!