Thanksgiving Weekend Photos

Thanksgiving Weekend

It's been a long and very busy Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, it's been a very busy 10 days!!! Last weekend started it off by taking a trip over to visit Grandpa and Grandma Bev. It had been since August since they had seen Owen, and they were so surprised to see how big he's gotten, and how chatty and talkative! It was quite a trek to get there, we got stuck in a snow storm, which caused a bunch of accidents. But Owen was such a good boy in the car, having some dinner and watching - you guessed it - Caillou...

Then last Saturday afternoon, we started preparing for Thanksgiving, getting all the food, and starting to get the house ready.Tuesday Owen helped Daddy by doing a massive vacuuming of the entire house. We cleaned from top to bottom to get ready.


Uncle Steve, Aunt Lisa, Taylor & Sienna arrived on Wednesday. It didn't take Owen long to realize that he was going to have a lot of fun with his cousins. He's such a nice sharer, he shared his Play Doh and all the tools, and the kids had a derby on the little cars all over the kitchen/foyer. They had a blast.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a ton of work, Mommy started cooking at 7:30 in the morning. Owen and Daddy played nicely all morning, and Uncle Steve, Aunt Lisa and the girls headed to the other Schantz thanksgiving in Mt. Airy. Grandpa and Grandma Bev arrived around 2pm, and had some good time with Owen. Uncle Steve and the gang got back around 3, and that was about the same time that Aunt Lizzie & Ryan, and Uncle Alex came, followed by Pop and Granny. Owen was overwhelmed with all the people at the house, and had quite a melt down about the time that everything was finished being cooked. He wouldn't go to anyone, which made it very difficult for Mommy and Daddy to get everything ready for dinner. Uncle Steve stepped in and helped carve the Turkey, so Daddy could get everything out of the oven. It was a stressful 25 minutes, but we sat down to a very nice meal. Owen ate and that was probably the problem... he was hungry. In all the hubbub and hoopla, I never thought to give Owen a snack or anything to eat... After he ate some dinner, and had some delicious cupcakes for dessert, he was a happy go lucky running around crazy kid. He was quite funny.

I didn't get a single picture from the actual Thanksgiving day... I'm very sad about that, and wish I would have had a little more time to talk to everyone, but no worries. The highlight of the evening was definitely Daddy cutting the pies and accidentally putting pancake batter (in an aerosol can) on the pie instead of whip cream. He just grabbed the can out of the fridge and didn't look at the label. It was so funny... I took a taste and thought the whip cream had gone bad, then we realized what happened. Only Ryan actually consumed the entire thing... too funny.

Then on Friday it was off to Hershey. Uncle Steve, Aunt Lisa and the girls had headed up there on Thursday night, but we needed to clean up, get a good nights sleep and then headed up on Friday morning. We had a chance to go to Chocolate World, and all the kids had a blast, those Dancing Cows, make everyone smile... Saturday we had Christmas in Hershey, Great Grandma Knerr and Ms. Sue came over and we had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts.

It was nice to see the Taylor and Sienna enjoy their presents. Owen also got some good stuff too! Uncle Steve & Aunt Lisa gave him a really cool wooden train and a wooden tool box - he's been fixing things ever since, so adorable! Grandma also gave Owen a bunch of arts and crafts items, and also a really cool drum and other things. Taylor was so cute, helping Owen eat his dinner. Mommy threatened no cupcake for Owen unless he ate dinner, and Taylor came over and started feeding him. It was adorable, and actually managed to get Owen to eat a few bites... And he scored one of Grandma's cupcakes...

It's been such a busy weekend, it's hard to believe it's over already! Uncle Steve, Aunt Lisa, and the girls head back home tomorrow. I know Owen will keep asking - where SINANNA is - and today he also started calling for Taylor too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Play Doh Time

Owen loves to play with Play Doh... He has such a good temperament with it and has such an incredible attention span when we play. So tonight we did an early bath right after dinner, got into his jammies, and went downstairs to play with play doh (he calls is be doh). Over the past few weeks he's been able to walk up and down the stairs without assistance (no longer crawling up/down), which is nice to not be so paranoid about the stair case. He still loves to slide down on his butt, what a little boy... :-)

We just switched to the fleece winter jammies, so cozy and comfy - I just wanted to snuggle with him! And he loved them, didn't put up a fight that they were different.

Today we've had so much fun. We went to visit Ms. Candace and Tyler this morning, and tried to get a few more pictures of just Owen. It's a really tough age to do a photo shoot, because he's too young to understand that he needs to sit for just a few minutes - like you can't say I'll give you ice cream if you take your picture. But we did manage to get a cute photo.

After we were done with Owen's photos, Sofia and Ms. Robyn came to get some pictures of Sofia. Sofia looked so beautiful in her pretty Christmas dress, so cute! I think we got some good ones of her too... But it's definitely a difficult age to get toddlers to sit down! While Sofia's pictures were being taken Owen and Tyler were playing with his trains. Tyler has the entire set of Thomas the Tank, and Owen was just in awe, he loved it. And he rarely "plays" with kids, but he and Ty get along so well, and play so nicely together. It was great.

Then Sofia and Ms. Robyn came back to our house for some play time/lunch. Ms. Robyn had to do a work conference call, so Sofia, Owen and I headed to the basement to play with play doh, while she took her call. They played and shared very nicely. I was very proud of Owen, because he shared the tools with Sofia and even gave things to her to play with. So very nice, because he doesn't like other people playing with his stuff. Then they shared some snacks, and Owen hand fed them to Sofia. It was adorably cute - she would keep coming back to Owen for more (he was holding the bag) and say to him - "Sofia more please" - so cute!!!

Then we had some pizza for lunch, and the kids then found the piano. They both were up on the bench playing piano so nicely!

Now Owen is napping, and then Daddy will be home from his trip. I know Owen will be very excited to see him...

23 Months and Counting...

Time is flying by, Owen is 23 months today. I guess this is officially the last month that you count months... That's a scary thing! We're having a good week, despite the fact that Daddy is out of town. Yesterday we had school/work as normal, and then went to have dinner with Granny. Owen had a great evening and it's great to see the bond between Owen and Granny developing. The last few times we've gone over there, Granny has given Owen cookies... and his iron clad memory remembers this... So we weren't even out of the car and Owen was asking if she was going to give him a cookie. He opted not to eat much dinner, so we went to play downstairs before Granny finally brought out the cookies. It was very cute, and he politely asked for another one (saying please and thank you). So cute.

Today was a blast, we accidentally overslept, but managed to make it to Gymnastics on time. Then we went on a road trip to Towson to pick up a few things we needed from Babies R Us (we're actually going to grow out of this store soon), and some new art supplies. Owen was so funny at Babys R Us - we were exploring the expanded toy section and Owen went down the DVD aisle. He said Caillou movie? I said they don't sell Caillou here, we've got one at home. Then he handed me a DVD of Caillou... how could I not buy it for him... At least it's 12 new episodes of that character - I've got the other movies memorized...

We came home, and Owen was more than excited to paint, and draw. He loved making the dot paint drawing (kinda like a bingo ink stamper). Then we had lunch, and a nice nap.

After nap, we did our first watercolor picture. Owen hasn't really done much painting other than finger painting, so I bought a set of water color paints and brushes. He did so well! Sometimes forgot to dip in the paint, so some of his is more water than color, but he did well. Very proud of himself.

Then we had dinner. I swear, I can never predict what this child will eat. Some nights he eats like a bird... tonight it was more like a horse. I made mac and cheese, peas and chicken nuggets (one can always be hopeful), and he ate almost the entire box of mac and cheese. Kept asking for more and more and more. He had 4 plate fulls, I had one spoonful afraid he might need more! Not a bite of chicken but how can I complain...

Anyway, it's so hard to think that he's almost 2. We just sent out his 2 year old "kid" party birthday He has changed so much, and is so smart. He can sing the entire ABC song, count to 10, continues to string more and more words together, as well as the beginnings of sentences. This communication and vocabulary breakthrough is so refreshing. He whines as a normal 2 year old does, but if I ask him to use his big boy voice, he understands, and immediately says what he wants more clearly. I have decided NOT to respond to the whining but that's harder than you would expect, but we're all working on it.

We're at an incredible age and having a lot of fun, but time is definitely passing too quickly...where did that baby go??? (Photo: Owen, almost 2 months old - when he didn't pick out his own clothes...)

Aquarium and Fun Weekend

So this Schantz Family is ALWAYS on the go. We are the busiest people I know... Seems we never seem to slow down! It's been such a fun but very exhausting week. Every night after Owen has gone to bed Daddy and I sneak down to the basement to play ping-pong. We've loved having the new table, and it made us even more excited to get more of the basement finished (this was supposed to be a long term project, but has moved to the forefront of our project list.)

Friday afternoon, Grandma came down, and we went to the aquarium for "Friday after five" a reduced admission promo. We got there about 5:30, and stayed until about 8pm. It was so much fun, Owen was a bit timid at first, making Mommy (and only Mommy) carry him. Then he started discovering why we were there, and started having a bit more fun - thank you lollipop. He'd look at the fish tank for just a few seconds and say - "See more fish" - in hopes we'd move to the next exhibit. He catches on quick.

He really enjoyed the bubbles (we stopped there probably 5 times). We got to go through the Australian Outback Exhibit (our first time), and we also saw the end of the dolphin show. He was very excited by that, and loved the frog exhibit. It was neat to see what he liked and what bored him this time. I'd like to take him back again soon...

Saturday morning, Daddy was on a mission. So that meant that Mommy was along for the ride, and Owen got to play all day with Grandma. Grandma watched Owen all day, while Mommy and Daddy went to every Tweeter (going out of business), Best Buy, and Circuit City in the area. We ended up buying quite a few things to add to our basement, and had a nice lunch. Owen definitely had a better day with Grandma. They played with play doh, and Owen loves to go through Grandma's purse... They had a great day, Grandma was quite impressed with how much Owen is talking and stringing words together, and although Mommy understands most of what Owen says, and Grandma thought she'd need an interpreter, they had quite fun all day.

It rained all day, but was still nice to have a day to ourselves, and shop... We were supposed to be Christmas shopping, but anyway...

Since the weather was so lousy, we opted not to take up Grandma's offer of watching Owen while we went out to dinner. We ended up ordering a pizza and staying in. It had been such a long shopping day, it was a fun and relaxing dinner. Grandma had baked Daddy a birthday cake, and since Owen ate such a good dinner, we lit the candles and sang happy birthday to Daddy again. Owen even blew out one of the candles. He LOVED the cake, and kept asking for more and more. This child loves chocolate! He was covered in it! But well worth it!

My favorite purchase of the day was a Wii. I've been wanting one for months now, and we finally have a TV to play it on, so we bought one. In fact, after we hooked it up, we played the game and Grandma beat both Mommy & Daddy in bowling... Guess we need some practice! It's such a cool game, and I know we'll love playing it.

Today was much more relaxed, Grandma went home in the morning, we did some grocery shopping and then hunkered down for a terrible Ravens game, and a nice dinner. Daddy heads off to California tomorrow, so it's going to be a long but fun week. I've got several fun activities planned for Owen, so that always makes our week go faster...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

It was a very busy, but fun weekend. Saturday was pretty laid back, we ran some errands, had lunch out, and then Mommy and Daddy went out to celebrate Daddy's birthday, and Laura babysat Owen. After Friday night's dinner with Owen, it was refreshing to dine out alone.

Sunday morning was very hectic. Owen and I made birthday breakfast, gave Daddy his presents, and then I had to leave to actually get the present. Owen, Grandma and I gave him a ping-pong table for the basement, and Sofia's Daddy gave me a hand delivering it to our house... and carrying it down the basement too. Daddy was very surprised, and excited to put it together...

Before lunch, Owen and I started making a birthday cake. Owen had a lot of fun mixing and stirring and then tasting the batter. He really seemed to have fun. I need to get him a taller stool, so that he can help me at the counter, he loves to be helpful in the kitchen. He had a blast, and was covered in chocolate batter by the time we finished.

Then we had lunch, and while Owen napped, we started putting the ping pong table together and watched the Ravens win! It wasn't that hard to put the table together, just a lot of steps, but playing last night, made it well worth the effort. We played for about 2 hours, and had so much fun! I know we'll really enjoy having that in our house.

We had a nice dinner, and then birthday cake. Owen helped me put the icing on (well, I spread the icing, and Owen licked it off...) and then we sang happy birthday. It's one of Owen's favorite songs, and even though he has his fingers in his mouth, you can here him singing. When the cake had the candles on it, Owen was so excited, I think he thought the cake was for him! He sang happy birthday dear Owen... so cute!

Here's a video of him singing, not his best performance, but I finally got it on camera... His fingers are in his mouth, so it's a little jumbled, but he knows the whole song...

Our Crazy Busy Life...

TGIF!!! It's been a very long, busy and exhausting week. Daddy has been gone all week, Ms. Sandy has been on vacation all week - so Mommy has been covering extra time at the office, and Sam Dog hasn't been feeling well. Fortunately, Owen has been an absolute champ all week. He's so funny lately, talking so much and starting to put sentences together. He can also count to 10, recite almost the entire alphabet, and just spontaneously starts singing songs, even ones he made up himself... Lately everything is some body's - Owen's shoes, Owen's juice, Owen's jacket, Owen's movie, Mommy's shoes, Mommy's lunch, Mommy's car, Daddy's this, that and you get the picture. He's also been very creative - he LOVES the TV show Caillou, he can't get enough, it's all he wants to watch on TV, and now that we have a DVD player in the car, it's all he wants to watch. So the other night, I had had enough Caillou, so we turned off the TV and went to play. We played for probably 10 minute, Owen asked for Caillou, I said no more Caillou today. Owen went to the door, grabbed his jacket and said - "Go Bye-Byes. Caillou Car." Smarty pants.

Monday after Daddy left for the airport, we met Granny for dinner at Kenilworth. Owen had a good time coloring and watching the fish, but didn't eat much dinner (he rarely eats when we're not home). We went to see them setting up the train at the mall it opens the end of the month, and saw the small working display at Stebbins. I can hardly wait to take Owen when he can watch the amazing train display. Then we went back to Granny's house and Owen had a ball exploring in their attic - checking out all Uncle Alex's toys and Hess trucks and Aunt Lizzie's stuff...

Tuesday morning we had Gymnastics, he sure loves it there, he's getting so strong! He can almost do a chin up by himself, he loves the trapeze swing, and is such a good listener... We've even booked his birthday party there for his "kid" party in early December. After Gymnastics, one of the boys Riley and his Mom came over to play. Then Owen and I headed to the polls to vote. First we got in the short line and waited about 10 minutes, only to be told we waited in the wrong line. So we got in the long line that wrapped around the entire interior of the elementary school... (the photo on this post is Owen waiting in line to vote) It took about 1 hour 2o min in line before we got the chance to vote, and Owen was a trooper! He sang songs, waved at people, counted, ate a lolly pop (all this during his normal lunch time and terrifyingly close to nap time). I should have bought him a McCain/Palin t-shirt to wear, because he was adorable greeting everyone... It was refreshing that Owen was so cooperative, because so many kids were melting down in the line. I couldn't have been more proud. When we got to the actual voting booth, I explained to Owen this was very important and that he couldn't touch the screen. He sat patiently on my hip watching me. What a good boy... By the time we got finished it was nap time, but Owen wanted french fries, and boy did he earn them, so we went to Wendy's for a treat. I was so proud of him!

The weather has been up and down this week, but every chance we get we've been going outside. Owen loves to ride his 'bike' up and down the sidewalk, he's having so much fun, I wish everyone could spend time with him to get to know this adorable funny little guy. He gets so shy when we go out with my family, he just won't open up! But he's getting better with everyone... I hope.

Wednesday, Owen went off to school, I went to work. After another long day, we decided to get out and have some fun in the evening. We went to Hot Pots to pick up the airplane that Owen painted a few weeks ago. When we got to the store Owen said - "Owen paint airplane"... He wanted to paint another one. He also wanted to fly the painted one around. It turned out really cute, and he loves it. Too bad he can't really play with it. Then we did a little birthday shopping and headed home for dinner and more playtime. He's really been agreeable to so many things, and very patient.

Thursday, Owen went to school again, because I had to work. We missed our music class, but we're going to try to make it up this weekend. I was grateful that his school agreed to let him come on a day that wasn't normally scheduled, because he would have been tough to contain at the office for several hours. I picked him up at noon, and went to Old Navy to get him some new jeans. He's had quite a growth spurt over these last few weeks, that he needed to get the next size up. He ended up napping almost 4 hours, and then we went outside to play. Right before we were about to get in the car to leave, Owen stepped in dog poop... YUCK! We had to go back inside, change shoes and then were out the door. We had a nice dinner at Ms. Robyn and Sofia's house. Owen actually ate dinner! Something he rarely does at other peoples houses... They played well, and Owen loved her kitchen set and microwave. He was so cute. I need to get him a small kitchen set to play with, it's good pretend play.

Daddy came home late last night, after Owen was in bed, I'm so happy to have him home. I felt bad that Owen didn't get to see him last night, but he was quite happy to see him this morning. Then we were off to school again. I know Owen will be happy for the weekend, going to school three days in a row is rough for him, but he's a trooper, and he'll make sure he has some fun this weekend.

Tonight we went out out for a birthday celebration for Uncle Alex, Aunt Jess and Daddy's birthdays. It was a disaster Owen wouldn't sit in the booster, before drinks even arrived he had his shoes and socks off, was asking to leave, and just never warmed up to a table full of people. By the end of the meal Owen was laying on the floor half under the table, and narrowly missed being stepped on multiple times. I am at a complete loss for why Owen is so shy around my family, I don't know why he is so different or why it's so frustrating for us. From the moment we walked into the restaurant to the moment we left, I felt like I was going to burst. I don't know if it's just Owen or me, but it doesn't seem worth the aggravation to go out for a while. But I think what's most frustrating is that no one knows Owen and how funny adorable and chatty he is, and that makes me sad.

Tomorrow night, Mommy and Daddy are going out for Daddy's birthday dinner and Owen will spend the evening with Laura. Then Sunday is Daddy's birthday, I am looking forward to that, as we have some special things planned...

So, when I recount a week like this, I'm always amazed at how busy we always are. But when Daddy is away, it's always good to be busy, keeps Owen on the go, and not dwelling that you're doing everything on your own. I don't know how single parents handle everything... I'm exhausted. TGIF!!!

Game Day

It's been a long and busy (but fun) weekend. Yesterday was pretty laid back during the day, we had a lot of fun playing outside and at the park in the warm weather, and then last night, I put Owen to bed, because Troy had something up his sleeve for the evening. I had no idea what was going on, but knew we were celebrating our anniversary (as he will be in California all week).

He left about 7pm to run errands and pick up dinner. Told me to put Owen to bed and stay upstairs. After I put Owen to bed, I got all dressed up thinking we were having a fancy dinner. He came up to get me, and brought me not to the dining room or even the kitchen, but to the basement, where he surprised me with 2 dozen crabs. It was so cool, and such a surprise (in fact, I actually had to go back upstairs to change before we ate!) We were so stuffed by the end of the night, it actually took us almost 3 hours to eat them all! But such fun...

Today, after the food coma wore off, and the horrible realization that "gaining an hour of sleep" meant that Owen would wake up an hour early - we ran some errands, stopped in at the bay house to say hi to Pop, and then came home to watch the Ravens beat the Browns.

Owen caught the beginning of the game, but really needed his nap (especially since he woke up early and the timing was all off today). He and Daddy were very cute all dressed for the game.

Before he went down for nap, he loved playing with his new motorcycles that he got at Walmart. He's so imaginative now, and just was - vrroooom vrrroooom all around the living room... So cute - here's a short video (he's always a ham when he spots the camera) -

When he woke, I knew immediately he had a fever. His cheeks were flushed and he was definitely warm. It's funny how a Mom just knows that. He was in good spirits, and his fever wasn't too bad, but he was definitely a little sluggish, playing well and then just wanting to watch Caillou (even donned his Fireman hat when Caillou did). He did eat dinner, and drank plenty of fluids, and my home "ear" checker, said that his ears are clear, but tomorrow will be the true test (assuming he makes it through the night). Hopefully it was just a change of weather thing and he'll be fine tomorrow, but only time will tell.