21 and 22 Months

Poor Owen is getting months lumped together...I cannot imagine how it will look with Kid #3! Six months at a time?!

It's been a fun and somewhat challenging last two months with my beloved 2nd born. His vocabulary is expanding like crazy, and it's hilarious the words he's saying. My favorite being "Wuv woo!" when he's pretending to leave for work. Not so favorite is "Fight. Die!" I can't imagine where he's picked that one up. He's still very affectionate and I love cuddling with him after naps. He's really started exerting his will, and he's proving to be even more opinionated and stubborn than his big brother. We're convinced that once these traits are channeled in the right direction, they'll be strengths...right??! Some funny quirks of his:

- He LOVES carrying around his soon-to-be little sister's dress...he doesn't try to wear it (thankfully), he just wants to "hold it". I keep putting it back in the closet, but he knows where to find it and is not happy till it's in his hands.
- He now has a strong opinion on what shoes he wears. Rather than wear any of the new shoes I bought him, he wants to wear Ethan's old Nike tennis shoes. He calls them "Runnin' shoes".
- He's really become attached to Frosty the Snowman. He is constantly asking for the Frosty song to be played, and tears ensue when when it doesn't come on.
- He loves to dress up - just not as super heroes. Currently being a frog is his favorite.
- He likes to tell people to "COME!". When he's on the phone with my mom or dad, he'll very adamantly say, "Papi/Mimi, COME!". He can't understand why they don't suddenly show up at our door!
- He's constantly spanking his bunny rabbit and telling it to obey. Hmmm...

We're approaching 2 years old, and it's been so fun watching Owen become his own little person! I'm so thankful for my Owen Christopher!

December thus far...

It's been a busy month so far with parties and all the fun festivities that come with December. The boys kicked the month off with making a gingerbread train. It was a good exercise in self restraint for me letting them do all the work...my Type A personality started to show very quickly!
We also went to the annual Downtown Parade with our friends, the Crawfords and Miss Pattie. In spite of the FREEZING weather, the boys enjoyed watching the floats go by and getting candy thrown at them. Owen was pretty much done with the parade and his puffy jacket the minute we got there, but he managed to stay in one piece for the whole thing...
My mom came in town and watched the boys for us while Chris and I went to his Christmas party... I decided the beauty of being pregnant during Christmas parties is that I don't have to worry about "sucking in" while wearing a dress, but all in all, I'd much rather be wearing pajama pants!

This past Monday we had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party, and I have to say I was so very impressed with my amazing momma friends! It started out as a simple kid's Christmas party and it quickly evolved into a serious extravaganza!!! We have four "stations" of activities, a birthday cake for Jesus, food provided by the wonderful Miss Pattie, a Veggie Tale Christmas cartoon, and a gift exchange...
My friend Kari and I manned the cookie decorating table. I'm pretty sure more candy and icing went into mouths than did on the cookies, but the kids didn't seem to care! My favorite was watching Chaucer lick the table clean.
Two other moms worked the ornament making table, and all the kids had adorable ornaments to hang out the tree when they got home.
The third station was music and the story of Jesus' birth... I didn't get to hear much of the singing, but what I did hear was pretty cute. And the fourth station, of which I didn't get pictures, was a gift/box stacking game. I think the knocking down of the gifts was the best part.
After a wonderful lunch, we sang Jesus happy birthday, and the kids enjoyed some more sugar. We then opened gifts from the kids that drew each others names. All the kids seemed to love what they were given, and they were hilarious watching them show their friends their new toys.
I have to say that we are so very blessed to have such good friends. I could not survive momma-hood with the women that put this event on, and I am so glad that the boys are seeing what true friendship looks like at such an early age. We all joked that we're going to have to rent a place out next year because none of us have a place big enough to host the expanding group!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving went a little different that we'd planned this year. It all started the Friday BEFORE when Ethan woke up in middle of the night throwing up... Of course my parents were in town (this is the FOURTH time we've been with them at the start of a stomach bug...) As Ethan started to recover, Owen got it and was throwing up by Monday morning. Chris wrapped it up by getting sick Wednesday morning. It's the total grace of God I didn't get sick b/c I was immersed in bodily fluids for almost a week. (gross, I know) We didn't want to get my family sick, so we decided to enforce a self imposed quarantine till Friday morning. I was really sad knowing my whole family was together for Thanksgiving without us, but we made the best of it. Ethan watched all of the Thanksgiving Day Parade while Chris and Owen put up the Christmas tree. We had a turkey lunch at Mimi's Cafe (quite ironic since we were supposed to eat at the REAL Mimi's house!), and we were all in bed by 8 that night!
I was determined to see my family if even for a little bit, so we were out the door by 7:15 Friday morning heading to Stillwater. We managed to get about 30 minutes with Josh and Caylee before they had to head back to St Louis, and we even got a family picture to document our brief time together!
We managed to get several activities all crammed into Friday and Saturday. Papi helped the boys cut rifles out of wood, he took all the grandkids went out for donuts, and (Owen's favorite) they all went for a lawnmower around the yard.
Mimi of course had tons of great food, loved on us all, managed to get the Christmas tree put up in spite of the "help" from the grandkids, and took Katie and I for coffee and shopping.

Even though things turned out differently than planned, I was still thankful for such a fun, memorable time with the family. We are so incredibly blessed!