My Book Babes-A Blog Hop

Katie at See K Read is hosting a one time blog hop called "Book Babes". She is a mom who loves to read, and therefore, loves to see photos of babies and their books. And guess what? She wants to see our babies and their books, so dig out your photos and hop on over to participate!

My Little Bookworm

This is the earliest photo that I have of Owen with a book. He was a little over 6 months old here. He loved "reading" this baby faces book. He still loves to read, and it's not uncommon to find him sitting on his bed with a book when we thought that he was playing instead.

Ben has never been a big reader, so I'm pretty sure that this is one of the only photos that I have of him with a book nearby. (He's about 4 months old here). Thankfully, he is finally starting to take an interest in books, but I suspect that it's mainly from watching Owen reading and a desire to do what his big brother does.

Now hop on over to See K Read to check out some more little bookworms!

Nail Biters

Owen has been a nail biter for a while now, and I haven't really thought anything of it. It seems like a normal habit for a young kid to develop, so I wasn't concerned. Until I walked into the living room yesterday and caught him chewing hie toenails! That's right. He was chewing his toenails.  Ew. Yuck. Blech. Nastiness. And he had chewed the darn things as far down as he could (on his big toes). So of course this had me worried.

Source

I did a little research and here are a few facts that I unearthed about nail biters:

• About 30%-60% of children and teens chew their fingernails (with the occasional toenail biters). 

•  As they get older, boys are more likely to be nail biters than girls.

• Nail biting is the most common "nervous" habit.

Please, Do Not Feed the Animals!

And by the animals, I mean my kids.

Image Source: ClipartHeaven.com

I'm probably going to come off as being one of those moms after this post, but I'll take my chances with that one.

I get so annoyed when people feed my kids something that they shouldn't be eating, or that I wouldn't normally feed them. Now don't get me wrong here, I understand that when they are visiting someone else's house, they are probably going to be eating food that I don't regularly stock. Grandma S. is sure to serve Owen five pieces of sausage, two glasses of orange juice for breakfast, and no milk. Grandma B. will always have fruit snacks and chocolate treats on hand. And it's a good possibility that Owen will have dessert instead of dinner while at his "girlfriend's" house. Which is fine. I understand that while they are out of the house, I have no control over what they eat. However, when I am in the same room, or when I have left specific instructions, then that's a different story. 

All About Owen

For my 100th post, I was going to post "100 Things About Us", but then I figured that it would have been too long of a post and no one would have read the entire thing. So instead, I'm going to split it up into separate posts. Today, it's All About Owen!

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1. Owen was born in Alpine, Texas, at 6:50 AM (CDT). On his due date, because he's good like that. He weighed 7 lbs. 7.5 oz. and was 20 inches long.

2. We did not have Owen's name 100% decided upon until after he was born. "Owen" was not a choice on either of our name lists. About a month or so before he was born, I had a dream that his name was Owen, and it just felt right. His middle name is David; Daddio picked it to honor one of his good friends who passed away a few months before Owen was born. (Both of my nephews also share the middle name; it is my step-dad's name-their grandfather).

3. I had a rough labor with Owen. Although it didn't last very long (labor pains started around midnight, we arrived at the hospital around 2 AM, he was born 5 hours later, 2-3 hours past the doctor's prediction because a spinal block slowed down the labor), I was pushing for a while and the spinal block had already worn off; was not prepared for that at all! They eventually had to try forceps and then the vacuum thing. Thankfully that worked! But it also resulted in a huge bruise on the top of Owen's head. Which then lead to jaundice. We were released from the hospital on a Thursday, the day after he was born, only to be resubmitted on Monday so Owen could receive treatment. All of the nurses said that they were not surprised to see him back, and had in fact expected it. Unfortunately, they had failed to tell us that when we were first discharged!

Poor little guy

Wordless Wednesday: Moments Like These

Wordless Wednesday: A Self-Portrait

A Belated Valentine's Day Post

Lately, I have not been a fan of Valentine's Day. In fact, over the past few years, I've started looking at it as just another day, not getting what the huge deal was. Then I read this inspiring post by TB over at Year 31. She basically says that Valentine's Day should be spent celebrating all kinds of love, not just for couples. I am totally on board with this. And when I looked at Valentine's Day from that perspective, I started getting excited.

I was also envious of the awesome Valentine's Day crafts that she created with her son, and was finding myself regretting that I hadn't planned anything like that for Owen and Ben. But then she kindly pointed out to me that Valentine's Day wasn't here yet, so I still had time to do something. And I did. We totally winged it, but here's how Owen and I celebrated Valentine's Day:

Owen attends a playgroup at a local college that meets every Monday and Wednesday (two hours with just one child!) We were lucky enough to be assigned snack duty on Valentine's Day. We wanted to make something Valentine-themed, but unfortunately, the one time that I actually went to the store, I forgot to pick up decorating items for his snack. So, I improvised. His playgroup is in the morning, so I didn't want to do anything super sugary for snack. I settled on making apple muffins and disguised them as cupcakes. (I'm tricky like that sometimes)

We had some white frosting leftover from my birthday (it was still good, I read the label), and through a stroke of genius, I realized that we could use some strawberry Jell-O powder to color the frosting pink. I am brilliant. (And as an added bonus, the frosting became strawberry flavored!). Owen decorated the "cupcakes" with some red sugar leftover from Christmas cookies.

He likes to keep things centered.

Wordless Wednesday: A Cuckoo Paparazzi Klutz

10 Lessons I Learned Today.

Today I did something that I rarely ever do. I went outside in the snow. With the boys. And it was fun!

Usually, the only time I ever dare to brave the snow is when I have to walk out to my car, or take the garbage can to the curb. I do not shovel. I do not use the snow blower. That is Daddio's job. However, Daddio is away for work in New York City for the weekend  and dear old Mother Nature decided to drop a foot of snow on us last night. Wet, heavy snow. Thankfully, one of our kind elderly neighbors sent her snow blower man over to us this morning to clear the driveway for us. (One of the many perks of living in Smalltown). So that saved Owen and me the hassle of trying to shovel a foot of snow while Benny was napping. Thank goodness too, because that snow is heavy!

I still had to clear the walkway to the driveway and tidy up the spots that snow blower man missed (not complaining!). So I bundled up the boys, dressed myself up in Daddio's snow gear (to the delight of Owen who could not stop laughing at me. "Probably that don't look good on you, Mom."), and headed outside to shovel some snow!

An hour later, and we're all dressed.

Armed with our shovels and a sled, we bravely set to our task. We lasted about 15 minutes before I decided to take the boys for a ride in the sled instead. 20 minutes later (for what should have been a 5 minute walk under normal conditions), we arrived home and finished the driveway.

I learned 10 valuable lessons today from my 45 minute experience outside:

Wordless Wednesday (Kind of): HAPPI...

My birthday was on January 17th. This was my cake:

You may be thinking, Awww. How nice. Owen decorated a cake for his mommy!

And you would be wrong.

This lovely creation was (primarily) decorated by someone who does not plan ahead to make sure there are sufficient cake decorations in the pantry. In a word, Daddio.

(With some help from Owen).

Festive Flashback II: My, What Big...Eyes? You Have?

Continuing with my "better late than never" theme...

To keep Owen busy (read: out of my hair) one day while I was decorating the house for Christmas, I cut out two gingerbread people for him to decorate. I was hoping that he would do a nice enough job that we could use them as ornaments for the tree. I explained to him that the one with legs was the man and the one with the skirt was the woman. He immediately said, "That can't be a woman. Where are her boobies?" Nice. 

I left him alone for a few minutes, and when I returned, this is what he had made:

You'd be grinning too if your woman had a rack like that.

He then explained to me that the man was him and the woman was his "girlfriend" Lilly. That's one well-developed four-year-old!

Brotherly Love

Owen and Ben are slowly starting to discover that they may actually love each other. I like to credit myself for inspiring this discovery.

Any time the boys have to serve a time out for doing something to one another, I always make them apologize for it with a hug and a kiss. They also (sometimes willingly) do goodnight hugs and kisses each night and before naps. It's bound to happen that when you are hugging and kissing someone this much, you are going to discover that you actually like, maybe even love them!

It is now a frequent occurrence for Owen to actually ask Ben for hugs at bedtime. Ben usually goes along with this and lays down on Owen's chest for hugs, then slobbery, boogie kisses. It's really quite sweet.

It really makes me happy to see this, especially since Owen used to complain any time Ben looked at him (when he was just 3 months old, mind you), and adamantly claimed that he did not love Ben.

I love my boys.

Wordless Wednesday: "Hootin" Hears a Who

...

Ah, the preschool years, when kids are still sweet and innocent and entirely clueless about the phrase "child labor", as they willingly help out Mommy and Daddy with the household chores.

I dread the moment when Owen stops thinking that bringing the laundry downstairs is fun, or a challenge to prove to Mommy that he really does have the muscles strong enough to carry his laundry basket (and Ben's, and the sheets, and blankets....) down the stairs. Or when he discovers that matching everyone's socks really isn't a very exciting game afterall.

And poor Daddio when Owen decides that he should be getting PAID to shovel the sidewalk. Right now, he's perfectly content with shoveling snow, as long as he is able to eat a few handfuls when he is finished. I don't exactly see that as still being the case when he is 12 or 13.

Sure I'll shovel. No problem.

The sidewalk next? Okay!

Can I stop now?

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Dance Party

Wordless Wednesday: Guess Who Dressed Himself?

Wordless Wednesday: A Boy and His Baby

Wordless Wednesday: Where's Mr. Bumblebee?

Tiny Tidbits IV

After explaining to Owen that Ben loves Mommy a little TOO much:

Me: Do you love your mommy?
Owen: Yes, I love you Mom.
Me: Do you love Daddy?
Owen: No.
Me: You don't love Daddy? Why not? You should love Daddy.
Owen: Because I no have the heart for him.
Me: You don't? Who is your heart for?
Owen: You!


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Owen has crawled into bed with me in the morning after he woke up.

Owen: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's at work.
Owen: He needs to come home and make me pancakes.
Me: He does? Why?
Owen: Because me awake!
Me: Oh.
Owen: Suppose YOU make me something special?
Me: Make you something special? What do you want?
Owen: Green waffles!


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Sitting in the kitchen eating our breakfast together, observing the cloudy sky. (Different day than above).

Owen: It's dark outside.
Me: Yes, it is.
Owen: Where is the sun?
Me: It's hiding behind the clouds.
Owen: Why is the sun behind the clouds?
Me: I don't know.
Owen: I know why.
Me: You do? Why?
Owen: Because him going poopies!


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