Friday, March 26, 2010

Lions, Tigers and Cows

We went to the Gentry petting zoo/farm/safari last week with our friends the Crawfords and the Erbs. It was hard to tell if the kids were more excited about seeing the animals or just being outside on a beautiful day. (this was the day before the big blizzard hit...crazy Arkansas weather)

There were a ton of animals for the kids to feed, and the whole day went surprisingly smooth considering we have 7 little ones and a ton of wild animals. Addie did have her bow ripped from her hair by a monkey, but that was about the extent of excitement. (lucky for that monkey he was in a cage - Addie was MAD!) Ethan's favorite animal was the baby porcupine, and he enjoyed riding the camel. Owen was very excited to "moo" at the cows, and he also felt the need to tell EVERY animal we saw "bye bye". Poor Owen could hardly stand being in the stroller and watching all the big kids run around - hence the "stink face" in the above picture. Us moms realized that if we ever recover and decide to do this trip again, we need to brush up on our types of animals...the kids would ask us what they were feeding and we'd all look at each other and then pull our phones out to look it up. Yes, we're city folk!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

It got quiet...

...and I got nervous. Only to find my very studious kids doing this...

Okay, so it didn't last long, but I thought it was pretty cute.

The boys had their 3 and 1 year well-check ups yesterday, and thankfully they both were deemed healthy. Ethan was in the 5th percentile of weight and 10th in height. When I asked our doctor if I should be worried about him not putting on more weight, she looked at me and asked if I was expecting to produce a linebacker! Good point. Owen still is earning the title "The Big Top"...he was 5th percentile in weight, 40th in height, and 99.98% in head size. That's right. Ginormous noggin. No wonder he wears Ethan's hats better than Ethan does!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A Spiderman Morning


This morning Ethan was Spiderman. Our super heroes vary from morning to morning, and they're largely dependent upon which super hero t-shirt or costume is readily available. Owen and I get to play whatever supporting roles that are involved...I am currently Mary Jane. Anyway, Ethan was singing the Spiderman theme song for us this morning, and I had to capture it on video. (One of my favorite parts is Owen dancing in the background. He's never lacking entertainment!)

Friday, March 12, 2010

A Trip to OK

Chris was out of town again this past week, so the boys and I headed to Oklahoma to visit my family. We spent on night in OKC at Jon and Katie's house so that I could go to Katie's baby shower. Jon won the Super-Uncle award - he watched, fed, and put to bed all four kids all by himself while Katie, my mom and I went out for a leisurely dinner before the shower. It sounded like all the kids had a blast. Jon even managed to capture some video of Jack and Ethan doing some very entertaining dancing.

We then headed to Stillwater to see Mimi and Papi, and Jack joined us for the trip. Jack and Ethan had a blast together. It was very interesting watching them be boys...every time I turned the corner they seemed to be throwing punches at each other. But, amazingly, it didn't seem to bother either one of them. They'd fight and then be fine. Apparently this is something I need to get used to? They both also seemed to attach to being "bad guys". We had to put some limits on being "bad", but before I put an end to it altogether, I had to get one picture of them both making bad guy faces.

Owen and Claire seemed to bond as second-borns. Claire was very nurturing towards Owen - something that he's really not used to from someone relatively close to his size. They kissed each other a lot and Claire was continually patting him to make sure he was okay. They were very cute together. I think I may some some tea parties in Owen's future....

It was a wonderful trip with lots of good memories made! Thanks to my family for helping me survive being a single parent!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Grandma Debbie

Grandma Debbie came last weekend to spend some time with us. She came in her amazing motorhome, and the boys thought it was the coolest thing ever. I think Ethan would have stayed on it the whole time! She even watched the boys on Saturday night for us while Chris and I went on a date. It made me wish she lived closer!

Friday, March 05, 2010

Owen's 1st Birthday!

My little man is a year old! I know I say this over and over, but it's been a total blur. He's proven to us repeatedly this past year that he is a completely different person than his brother...I'm still trying to figure the little guy out. He's seems to be extremely independent (for example, he doesn't want anyone to feed him...he wants to do it himself), but he's my cuddle bug. He's super laid back, but when when he and I have "battle of the wills" he generally wins (and that's saying A LOT!). He loves engaging people, but he's really content sitting back and watching. He's not overly talkative, but when he talks he's so loud. One similarity to his brother, though, is that he does not sit still. Ever. This year is going to be a lot of fun getting to know Owen even better and watching him experience even more "firsts"!

We had family come celebrate Owen with us, and he seemed to love observing all the chaos. He was put through "Mimi Walking Bootcamp", and while he took several steps on his own, he hasn't decided that he is going to walk quiet yet. He loved being held by his big cousins, Alex and Alyssa, and he loved drinking out of his Pa Pa's cup (as usual).

Owen seemed to be a little freaked out when everyone was staring at him in his highchair! He was slow to warm up to the cupcake, but once he got going, he was fan.