My Little "O-Man"

Owen, you are one of a kind! The past few weeks have been a bit trying with you until we learned that we fed you poison twice. See, I like to think that you are outgrowing your allergies, and I don't know a better way to see than to experiment. So, I whipped up a delicious batch of thai noodles and let you have a go. You loved it and ate it all up. Well, the next day you cried all morning, really testing my patience. The day after that, you had "shiners" around your poor eyes and were horribly broken out. Dada and I knew it was the soy, and felt instantly bad for being frustrated with you and your feisty self. Well, we got you back and were loving our sweet "loafer D" when you started acting the same way again. Lo and behold, we unknowingly fed you "hydrolyzed soy protein" (who even knows what that is and what it is doing in beef broth!). It was hidden in the soup that Nana made for us last weekend. So, now I owe you another apology. I am sorry that the way I treat you sometimes wavers based on your behavior. Forgive me sweet boy, and please know that while I may fail in my actions of love for you, the place you have in my heart grows bigger everyday. Now here is a bit of what you have been up to and a few reasons why I love you so much:

You have mastered your uppercase letters, and Dada is teaching you some phonics at story time before night night. Last night he said "Owen, 'B' says 'Buh, buh, buh'." You came back with "B says hoo hoo hoo hoo," while imitating a monkey. Dada didn't think it was so funny at first because he was in a serious mood of teaching, but I thought it was hilarious when he was recounting it to me in bed later! I told him "Micah may have loved to learn phonics, but Owen loves to make jokes!" You have a very silly sense of humor. Micah thinks you are hilarious because of the silly things you say and come up with.

You have taken up golf. I really think this is mainly because you love your brother so much that you will play whatever he likes to play just to receive his attention. I will often hear you saying "Micah, do you want to play some golf with me?" It melts my heart.

You are very loving towards me. You love to give me "Eskimo kisses," followed by "butterfly kisses." You love to have me play with you or watch you play. Even better, you love to help me with housework on the days Micah is at school. You will dust, "vacuum," and help wipe toilets.

You still love trucks, and have such a good imagination with them. You say, "Micah, you are a dump truck, and I am a bull-za-da, kay?" Micah responds with "let me see you crank your driver, Owen!" Of course you oblige him with your best pretend crank and even add an "oops, landed in the rough!" to make Micah smile.

You are getting the hang of puzzles. You love to put them together, but still need some help with the bigger ones. In these pictures, you did four little ones "all my byself."

You are a very fast learner. Micah and I are teaching you how to play games, and you love to play Memory and Hi Ho Cherrio. We have to keep an eye on you, or you will somehow end up with all the matches and cherries!

You can be extremely bossy, especially to your family. I know you are a perfectionist like your mama, and you want everyone to do things the right way. You are, however, very sweet to other people, whom you may not be as familiar with. We always seat you by the grandparents at family dinners because you are (usually) so compliant for them. You still love to sleep (except during your allergy spells), and I always appreciate the extra long break in the afternoons.

You have sixteen teeth as of this week. We are still awaiting your four two-year molars and can't believe any baby, or should I say big boy, could be a slower teether than Micah was.

You love to read books, especially before bed. You later imagine scenes from your favorites. Right now, our very hungry caterpillar stuffed animal is wrapped in your "cocoon" blanket.

We love you, Owen, and are excited to see what the next few months has in store.

What Do You Do When

... there is no time and everyone is too sick to visit a pumpkin patch?

Why take your children to your neighborhood Kroger and let them oohh and ahhh over the pumpkins and hay stacks of course!

Later in the week, when you are too sick to get out of bed, let your husband carve one of those bad boys to keep the children out of your hair just a bit longer. Getting up to take pictures because you just can't stand it is, of course, optional!

A little nervous about what to expect

Diving in with spoons

Look at that intensity!

We assured them several times that it was okay to stick their hands in and get dirty and that yes, it would wash off. Micah was the first to take the plunge.

Being silly and not wanting to get that "goop" on them anymore

Our jack-o-lantern!

Dinner Tonight

So I have been a really bad blogger these days. I am feeling a little worn down-not in a bad way, just in a "I'm so busy I can't think straight sometimes way." I would love to blog about my weekend in Memphis celebrating my high school best friend's wedding-but I took no pictures. I would also love to give you detailed updates on the boys, but maybe later this week. Right now, Micah has the "swine" flu. While he is definitely sick, I have seen him way worse (think croup+ pneumonia twice last year). He has a fever and is weak, but that seems to be about it for now. We did take him straight to the doctor (even though we were out of town) when his fever was 103. I knew we couldn't play around with Micah and his propensity to get these lung infections. Our former and favorite pediatrician confirmed H1N1 flu and started him on Tamiflu, which has seemed to so far be doing its job. This is the 4th day of the illness (which is supposed to last about 3-5 days). He is only running a small fever at random times of the day, and is able to even play a bit. Hopefully the rest of us will dodge a bullet and stay healthy! I am not remaining too optimistic, however. Owen decided to take a big swig of Micah's milkshake on Saturday.

On a completely different note: It made its way down to the freezing mark last night, so I am making a delicious chili for dinner. Here is how I do it:

1 can chile ready tomatoes

1 can regular diced tomatoes

1 can black beans rinsed and drained

1 pound ground chicken

1 diced onion

1 packet Lawry's chili seasoning*

Just saute the onion and brown the chicken in a big pot. Then, dump in all the other ingredients with a half tomato can of water and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Top with shredded cheese and eat with Fritos. Enjoy!

*I like this packet. It tastes good and has only real ingredients (one of which is cocoa powder-delicious in chile). It also makes for a super fast dinner because I don't have to locate all my spices and measure them out.

Accomplishments

While Micah has been at school, I have been taking advantage of having only one child to unbuckle and buckle back into the car and running errands. Yesterday, Owen and I went to the bank, where he got a sucker. This was perfect to keep him entertained while I did some work at Walgreens. I have several friends who coupon, and I read even more blogs of people who do. I have decided, after looking over the budget and seeing that no costs can be cut anywhere, that this may be the only hope of saving a little money each month. I have read, bought papers, clipped, made lists galore, and organized mountains of coupons, and the past few weeks have seen a huge savings. I went to Kroger one day and bought $115 worth of groceries-my final bill was $68. Today I went to Walgreens where I bought a new Venus razor, an oral B toothbrush, and a bottle of Herbal Essence shampoo. I used coupons that I had clipped for all of it and paid $11. But that is not the best part. The register then spit out $9 in register rewards, which I then took and bought some deodorant and tylenol (also using coupons on these items). I spent $11 out of my pocket and bought over $20 worth of products that we needed. It feels really good to accomplish this task because I can't do much to help with the income, but I can sure save us some money-and a penny saved is a penny earned (or something like that).

Next we went to get Owen's haircut. I told the sweet young girl that he was in bad need and that I would like to see the back and sides shorter. Next thing I knew she was using the razor to shave a huge hunk off the back of his head! I gasped, and she said "oh he is going to look so cute with a really short style." I wanted to crawl on the floor, pick up with wad of hair, super-glue it back to his head, and run out of there. I instead, took a deep breath, politely smiled, and told myself it would grow back. When she finished, it looked better than I imagined, but still not my favorite. I am sure his Uncle Drewby would be proud, as Matt claimed he looks "high and tight." Thankfully, Owen's hair grows ridiculously fast, so he should be back to a shaggy do in month or two. When we arrived to pick up Micah, his jaw dropped. I seriously wish I had a picture. I then saw a lip quiver and jumped to the rescue with a laugh, claiming that Owen got a new funny haircut (saving the day and receiving a laugh back)! In my head I was thinking that I wanted to shed a tear or two myself. I think I am getting used to it now though. Here is a picture-what do you think?

A Busy September

Wow! September started, and I feel like I am just catching my breath-oh and the month is half over! We started our month with a visit to see the Browns in Atlanta. We always have so much fun when we are there, and this time was no different. We even got a date night on Saturday because one of Taylor's friends was so kind to come watch all the kids while we had great food, wine and conversation (oh, and cheesecake!). We came home and quickly had to reset as the boys began their first week of school. Micah is now in the four year old program at Mustard Seed and loving it. He had a crooked grin (his new thing-he is trying his best to hold in his smile but can't) every day last week when I dropped him off and picked him up. Owen and I are doing a little co-op with five other 2-4 year olds at our church. It is one day a week and a good opportunity for Owen to learn to pay attention and have fun with friends. He felt really special to be able to go to school too. Another big event took place with Owen last week: we threw his paci in the garbage can. He waved bye bye to the garbage truck on Tuesday and has been such a trooper about it ever since. We had a few days of less sleep resulting in some crankiness, but one week later and he is back on track!

Owen and Dylan hanging out on the couch. They loved watching a movie together.

Owen learning all about 'S' at school.

Micah saying "I love preschool!" Okay, he is not really saying that, but he was sure compliant when I told him to give me a great smile, and he really does love preschool. He just tells us by answering "I do" when we ask if he loves it (it's not really his style to be overenthusiastic about things.)

Final Beach Post

Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.

Do you not tremble before me?

I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,

a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
Jeremiah 5:22

This will be our final beach post. It makes me miss the beach so much. Many, many thanks to Grammy and Gramps for taking us on a vacation that created lasting memories!

The Beach Part 2 in Pictures

The Beach Part 1

I figured this might take a while, so I thought I would break it down into a few different posts. We split our drive to the beach (8 hrs) into two parts. We had friends in Birmingham kind enough to let us sleep there on Thursday night. This was especially good for two reasons: 1. The boys are fine for a 3-4 hour chunk of time in the car. We can watch movies, talk, listen to music, eat snacks, etc. to keep everyone entertained and 2. We were able to get to the beach by 2:00 on Friday and enjoy an afternoon of beach and a great seafood dinner at the Gulf Shores Steamer (I think I vote this my favorite beach restaurant.) The boys took no naps in the car, and were just so excited to see the beach. I was able to keep the peace the last hour of the drive by offering one new treat every 15 min. Thankfully, I had a stocked bag of goodies! When we arrived, Matt and I thought we could lay the boys down for a rest while we unloaded the car-WRONG! The look on their faces when we told them that was pure devastation. They wanted to go out and explore so badly. We just couldn't disappoint them like that (and we too wanted to head outside,) so we put on our swimsuits and headed out. The weather was perfect the whole time. I was worried about hot, humid temperatures and sun rays so strong that the boys wouldn't be able to stay out long; but the week had lots of great gulf breezes, good cloud cover, and very comfortable temperatures. It was such a treat, and we are so thankful to our parents for taking us on this much needed vacation.

Owen as we were making our way into Perdido Key. He could hardly contain himself. I think he is giving his best "beeeeaaaach!" right here.

Micah was feeling giddy himself-he loved watching out the window.

Coming over the bay. I love this part of going to the beach-windows down and breathing in the salty air!

Dinner at "the steamer." Matt and I shared a plate of steamed shrimp and oysters. The boys shared a steamed hotdog. Micah actually loved the shrimp and requested them every night afterwards. Owen unfortunately can't have shellfish, so he was stuck with mostly french fries. Thankfully he is not anaphylactic because his poor legs had so much eczema from the french fries being cooked in the same grease as the seafood. I am sure I get the worst mom of the year award for letting him continue to eat them, but it was so hard to say no.

Micah thought the shrimp were so funny because they still had the heads on them. Here he is saying "no, that is too gross to eat!" He didn't hesitate once they were all cleaned up.

We stopped at a state park to watch the beautiful sunset after dinner. The boys loved looking out over the bay, and of course Micah got a few "holes"of golf in!

So happy to be at the beach!

My sweet boy.