Monkey

Owen is getting bigger and taller everyday and today was one of those days that proved it. Terri was at work, and I was in the bathroom while Owen played by himself for a few minutes. He came in the bathroom to hand me a tangerine to peel it for him, I told him I would be right out to do it. He was pleased with my answer and walked away. After a moment or two of not hearing him, I walked out to the kitchen only to find him sitting comfortably on top of the kitchen table sampling every pear and tangerine in the bowl, leaving distinctive bite marks. He had climbed on the chair and up to the table where he was sitting crossed-legged and looking perfectly content with himself. I think it's time to re-evaluate our child proofing. I tossed the fruit with the bites missing, but Terri did find one tangerine I missed at the bottom of the bowl and took a picture for the blog.

Happy Feast-er!

What a beautiful day today! We hosted brunch outside for my Mom, David and Grandma Zena. They came over at 11:00 so Owen would be napping and therefore, we could cook and eat in peace : ) We began the day with mimosas which always makes for a bright start in the morning! My mom brought over my favorite lemon cake (a Barefoot Contessa recipe) and deviled eggs (from dyed Easter eggs). I made California eggs benedict (w/ avocado and tomato instead of ham), a fruit salad, and swiss chard (from mom's garden) with sauteed mushrooms. Oh, and David brought over a ham for himself and Adam (because I don't cook meat, nor do I eat pork). We had a feast to say the least! (that was meant to rhyme : ).

While Owen was napping, we filled colorful plastic eggs with things like raisins, kashi cereal, dried blueberries, goldfish crackers, and puffed corn. Adam placed them in the garden for Owen to find when he woke up. After a record 3 Hour nap, he was finally ready for some Easter egg hunting! Once the "hunt" began, he would immediately open and eat the contents of each egg as he found them. The empty eggs were then placed in his basket. We did have chocolate chips in one egg. However, Adam "hid" it in the sun not knowing what was in it. After that long nap and all......you can figure out how that one turned out.

Once we came inside, we let Owen eat his chocolate bunny. Despite the poor ingredients, I couldn't resist buying the "Too Tall Bunny" who's ears were outside of the box for Owen. He wasn't sure what to make of this creature at first, but once he took a bite, we saw smiles. He even hugged it at one point! He grazed about an inch off the ears before he was over it.

After everyone left and Owen was in bed for the night, I was left standing face to face with the injured bunny. It's Easter, I had to do it....I ate the rest of the ears. I realized that this was pretty crappy chocolate and not worth the calories, nor did I need to fill my healthy boy's body with additives I could not pronounce so the bunny is now laid to rest at the bottom of our trash can.

This is what was left.

Happy Easter!

Owen's Safari Trip!

Adam and I took Owen to the zoo today to burn off some energy. Owen LOVES the zoo. In fact, just the mention of it will make him go through every animal sound he knows over and over again. His favorites are the Elephants, penguins, lepards and flamingos. Today we decided to let him choose where he wanted to go and not use the stroller. Lets just say that we were sprinting through the zoo! Good thing we had our cell phones on us. I had to call two different times to see where they were! Owen cut through the grass at a construction area that was roped off and took the short cut to the gorillas.

When we got to the giraffes he ran right past them and started saying "ride, ride." We had no idea what he was talking about until he walked right up to the Safari car with an open drivers seat and three passengers ready to go! We put .50 cents in and away he went! He did not want to leave this car. He was having so much fun! The monkey looks a little scared by the driving ;)

I got the evil eye from an American Alligator, and the elephants were to cute to not show a picture of.

To top off the day, we dropped Owen off at Nana and Pappy's house for a sleep over! So Adam and I got to see "I Love You, Man" (which by the way, was HILLARIOUS!) . Everybody is happy!

Sneaky

I had such a busy day at work today. When I came home, Owen and I played for a while until I finally had a second to rest on the couch. I heard him run into the kitchen and whine for a minute....then....silence. I enjoyed the soundless state for a moment until I started to wonder what he was up to. I finally mustered the energy to open my eyes and come in to the kitchen only to find him trying to drink a heavy un-opened box of rice milk. This box was located on a high shelf in the cupbard. He is becomng quite the climber while his arms are getting longer and his fingers are getting stickier!

Later that day at a friend's house, he was on top of the picnic table in a blink, and a few minutes later I found him sitting on top of a glass coffee table holding a pen! I had literally turned my back for no more than 2 seconds before he was on the table looking at me so pleased with himself. He is really keeping me on my toes!

Rain, Brush, Baby and Ride.

What do these words all have in common? Owen's new words he picked up today of course! I came home from work and he was sitting on Adam's back yelling "ride, ride!" (though it sounded more like "wide, wide") while he had his toothbrush in his hand. He loves his Elmo toothbrush and learned "brush" as well (though the "r" is missing of course). It was raining today too, so Adam taught him "rain" (or "ween" as Owen says it). And "baby" he says clear as a bell. It's so fun watching him develop. He picks up so much every day. He is much more observant than I think he is. He is ALWAYS listening, even when we think he isn't. He is just too funny.

Shark Petting

Today was absoutely beautiful out! Not a cloud in the sky all day. We met our friends at the Ty Warner Sea Center on the wharf to let the boys run around before nap time. The center is really small, but they had fun pretending like they owned the place! Laith and Owen both got to pet a shark! It's skin was rather rough.

After looking at lots of other fish in tanks, I found a little set for puppet shows with a basket of puppets. I got behind the curtain and grabbed a dolphin and a crab to start the show. Niether child seemed remotely interested. Laith grabbed the crab from my hand and took off with it (I think with the intention of putting it in a tide pool touch tank). Fortunately Will (Laith's Daddy) was able to retrieve it before it got wet! Needless to say, our adventure had just ended. We were in and out of there in about 30 minutes...I told you it was small.

Farmer's Market and an early Easter!

I thought these berries looked cool.

Owen hunting for Easter eggs.

Katie and Matthew my awesome neice and nephew : )

This morning was absolutely beautiful! I packed up Owen and we went downtown to the best farmer's market ever! Everyone around me was happy and smiling, the flowers were bright, the strawberries are finally ready and the air smelled amazing! About 4 or 5 different people stopped and started calling Owen "strawberry face." It is one of his favorite foods and they keep him very happy in the stroller while we walk. Good thing I put him in a red shirt to hide the stains! We got a ton of fantastic looking fruits and veggies! I am very happy!

Later, we went to Mom's to have an early Easter brunch with Katie and Matthew since we won't be seeing them next week. As some of you may have guessed, my mom went all out and dyed eggs, bought Owen a chocolate Easter Bunny, peeps, the whole nine. She wanted to do a "dry run" easter egg hunt so he will know what to do when the real holiday gets here! Pretty funny. He should be a pro by next week! He really enjoyed the chocolate bunny ears today. Nanna even got a chocolate covered kiss for it! ; ) We had a fun day!

One of "those" days!

I am exhausted today after taking care of a child who seems to be suffering from multiple personalities. One minute he's happy and laughing, the next second, he would have had you believing that I cut off his pinky toe. All-day-long. Granted, I did leave for work for three hours today, but work isn't exactly a fun break. Elmo saved me once this morning, and once this evening. I can usually stand my ground and distract him with something else when he is chanting in a high tone "Elma, Elma, Elma, Elma"... you get the picture....but today he won the battle of his whine vs. my ears. It happens. He watches, he's happy, momma's happy.

Katie (almost 17) and Matthew (13), my niece and nephew came over tonight for dinner and we had a great time once Owen settled down to sleep. We decided to pull out a game that was probably created some time in the late 80's early 90's called "Outburst." It was a little boring at first until Matthew took over and turned the game into charades, then it got good! We played for about 2 1/2 hours and laughed our butts off! Matt's charading was not always easy to guess, but sure funny to watch! For example he tried to get the word "cookie" and was showing how to make them from scratch! Of course we were clueless watching him mix something with a spoon and pour it out. But we had a fun time trying to guess : )

So, the tough day in the end was light hearted and fun thanks to my awesome family!

Chalk "art"

Owen likes to draw on our patio with chalk.....he also enjoys sticking his head in the bucket of chalk and eating it. We took him to the art walk on State Street today but he wasn't too thrilled with being stuck in his stroller so we didn't stay for long before we headed to the Fish House for a great happy hour. When Owen was finished w/ dinner we let him run around a bit looking at the two fish in the huge tank at the front of the restaurant. He had fun watching the fish, greeting new customers, and flirting with the hostesses!

I got dropped off for a girls night out w/ some friend's and had a fabulous time! We had great sushi, great beer, big laughs and got to finish the night off with some awesome frozen yogurt from Pinkberry (that place rocks!). A delicious night! Life is good.

Best Buds Playing B-Ball

My friend Daalia and I grabbed our strollers, added Laith and Owen, and left for a nice walk to a great kid's park not far from our house. The boys had a blast playing today. It was beautiful out. The mommy's had a chance to talk and the kids got to play on the slide, the see saw, basketball, and golf before heading back. I have about 15 pictures I want to post, but they take so long to post on this blog, I will put the rest of them on Picassa instead.


Laith was dying to go down the same slide Owen was on, however, Owen was not ready to go yet, so Laith squeezed by for his joy ride and Owen went afterwards. Too funny! Looks like we also have a Tiger Woods in the making here ; )

After a good hour or more it was time to get the babes home, fed, bathed and tucked in for the night. On our walk back Owen started saying "uh oh" over and over again, which usually means something is wrong or has been dropped. I didn't see anything so I just ignored it and he eventually stopped saying it. As we were getting closer to home he kicked off his shoe and I checked his feet at this point. Sure enough, he was shoeless and the "uh oh" was probably about the FIRST shoe that he kicked off and left behind! Little stinker. So, I had to back track about 5 minutes back to

find the lonely shoe in the middle of the sidewalk.

Glad I noticed when I did.