Owen is just one of those kids, who constantly has a smile on his face, is happy go lucky, and overall so pleasant. What a great little boy we have! His smile is contagious and his laugh has a way of making everything OK. I'll do anything to hear that chuckle. Even when he didn't feel well this month, he was rarely unhappy, he is just a wonderful happy little kid, I consider myself blessed every day.
Wow, January seemed to fly by. I can’t believe how busy we are! I thought things would slow down now that the holidays and birthday hoopla have passed, but we seem to be busy as usual. Although a few bad weather days and some colds and stuff actually gave us some relaxing home bound days.
Owen is quite a character! He's very dramatic and will tell a story and be so serious, and two minutes later he's very silly. One day he took off his clothes to help with the dishes, and then ran around the house without any clothes on, helping clean and vacuum, and just did not want to get dressed. One night, we were getting him into his jammies, he decided he wanted his shoes back on and so he ran around with just a t-shirt on, and shoes and socks, with his tools, fixing things. He just cracks me up!
Overall, we had a very successful month though. We accomplished quite a few projects on our house, including stairs to the back yard, making it much easier to take out Sam dog, and also completed our home theatre room again. It’s so nice to have it back and use able, we have missed it so much! Owen even really likes the room. I can’t wait to let him watch his first real movie (we’re going to watch – Disney Cars soon). But he sure has been interested in watching the football games.
Owen also had a terrific month at school. He transitioned to the 2 year old classroom, like it was no big deal. In fact, he’s doing better in this classroom than ever before! His new teachers are awesome, we both LOVE them, and they are always so excited to see Owen come through the door. He loves the increased activity and there is more of an emphasis on academics too. It’s been a great transition, and we’re really thrilled with the way things are going at school.
He loved watching the last few Ravens Games, that ended up being on when he wasn’t napping (most of the regular season, Owen napped through the game). But the playoffs were more conducive to Owen watching the game, and we had fun with it too, having Robyn, Jaime & Sofia over, has been a lot of fun! Owen also started wearing his Jersey again. He had worn it for the first few games in September, but then when he had to start wearing a shirt underneath he didn’t want to wear it. But recently, he wants to do everything just like us, so if Mommy and Daddy were wearing their Jersey, Owen also wants to “wear Ravens”. Very cute! And he looks adorable in the jersey too… He was funny running around arms up in the air yelling touchdown, go RAVENS, and defense! My favorite little Ravens fan!
He’s also been so funny this month. As his communication skills continue to increase, he’s putting together more complex sentences and thoughts. But it also means that he can say things that crack me up! He sings songs, and just has a way of making people laugh. He’s really hysterical!
About 2 weeks ago, Owen also came down with a really nasty cold, that turned into a terrible sinus infection, then a double ear infection, then a very nasty cough, and pink eye… Charming! The funny thing was, that I didn’t even see it coming. We were having a great weekend, Owen was happy as can be, and we were preparing to have the Alvarezes over for the Ravens football game against Pittsburgh. We put Owen down for his nap, and he woke up about 90 minutes later just screaming! Very unlike Owen. 
So I went in, thinking he had a bad dream but to my surprise he had a fever and a runny nose, and was just very unhappy. We had to call the Alvarezes to cancel, and then missed a lot of the game anyway, dealing with Owen who was quite unhappy. I took him to the doctors the next morning, and sure enough, both ears. Got him started on antibiotics, then the pink eye started. Fortunately the doctor didn’t make us come back in, she just prescribed eye drops (not easy to administer to a fighting 2 year old), but that helped. He’s feeling much better, back to his old self. Hopefully we’re over this and not in the same boat as last year with the re-occurring ear infections. And also fortunately this time, he never really lost his appetite, he kept eating fairly well the entire time, which probably helped him get over it faster. But he did manage to pass it on to Daddy, and then to Mommy, so we’ve all suffered from the germ festival this month.One day when he was sick, we spent nearly an entire day playing “puppy”. Owen had a book about a dog that still had ribbon attached to it. We opened the book, and started reading. About half way through the book, he handed me one end of the long ribbon and said – mommy you be the puppy. And he chased me around the house woofing and galloping the whole time. He still will play the game, he seems to not get tired of it!
He also loves to race. When he’s driving or walking he’ll say FREEZE and hold out his arms and stop dead in his tracks. Then he’ll say – Ready Set Go! And take off. It’s really funny.When Owen was sick, we did get our first snowfall. I didn’t let Owen go out and play in the snow. He kept calling it “sugar”. I thought that was adorable, but once I explained it was snow, then he wanted to go outside and play in it. With the ear infections and cough, I just couldn’t let him do it. So we had a snow day inside, played in the moon sand, and did some art projects. He just loves to do art projects and is actually very good, and very patient when it comes to painting and gluing and cutting things. I’m still amazed that he can cut with scissors.
Another skill that he picked up this month was stringing beads. At Grandma’s house over thanksgiving he was able to pick up the beads and hand them to me, and I would string them on a string. So I bought him some of his own beads and some gimp, and thought we could make necklaces or key chains. But to my surprise, he wanted to string the beads himself! And because of the gimp, and his excellent fine motor skills he can string the beads. I’m amazed by this ability, if you watch him do it, you wouldn’t believe he’s only 2 years old. It’s amazing!
Owen is increasing his vocabulary daily, and loves to ask questions and questions like – What’s that Mommy, what’s that for, where are we going? It’s exhausting but adorable at the same time. He also loves to talk on the phone, he will chat up a storm, even on his play phone, talking complete conversations, even pausing for “grandma” to respond to him, or who ever he’s called. He also has a much better memory. Like we took him bowling a few weeks ago for the first time, he had a blast, loved it. And then we didn’t talk about it for a few days, and then he said, Mommy, let’s go duck bowling. Very cute!
The potty success tapered off a little when Owen was sick, but he’s started sitting on it again and he’s trying. We’re not forcing the issue at all, but he does love the rewards! And he loves to flush it from the potty down the big toilet. It’s too funny! He says – Bye Bye PEE PEE, every time he hears the toilet flush.Phew, what a very busy, fun, and productive month.
