Valentines Day 2014

 Good morning!  It is super early here in Lexington, Grayson has had a rough couple of nights and has been waking up every hour or two hours.  So what does a sleep deprived mama do?  Grab a cup of well deserved caffeinated tea...

 Put on my favorite pre-recorded morning show, The View, and sit by the fire to write my blog...

We have been building up to Valentine's Day for a couple of weeks now.  We started the holiday by making Valentines for the grandparents and great-grandparents.  

These are Grayson's tiny little toes...

This Valentine says "I'd be your Valentine in a pinch".

Then we worked on Valentines for Owen's classmates...

Owen was very specific about who should get each dinosaur.  He held this one up and said "Lyla likes green, this dinosaur is for Lyla".  I told Lyla's mommy about this and she confirmed that indeed green is Lyla's favorite color and that is her school color (each child is assigned a color for the year).  I think Owen is very observant.

Next we made Valentines for Owen's teachers.  We went along with the dinosaur theme and made these....

I used a mason jar and one of these little guys...

I super glued them to the lid of the mason  jar, and spray painted the entire thing with high gloss spray paint...

They turned out pretty great!

The card on the lid says "I think you're a "roar"some teacher"...

 After we made our Valentines we were set for the class party, parents did not attend this party so I did not get any pictures.  I did capture some photos of the loot Owen brought home...

 Owen got to pick out one treat to eat - he chose his Tootsie roll pop...

Owen pretty much it (don't tell Uncle Tim)...

Speaking of sugary sweets, we had two sweet breakfast dates this week.  First up was our date with Claire and her mommy.  

Watching the donuts coming down the conveyer belt...

We had a date here about the same time last year with Claire so I had to compare the two photos.   Look how much our little ones have grown.

Our next breakfast date was with Ellie, Caroline and their mommy Laura.  Caroline and Grayson are just 6 weeks apart and Owen and Ellie are about 6 months apart.  Ellie and Laura were our first friends we met when we moved to Kentucky two years ago.  It is so fun to go through our life changes with them.

How cute are these two?

Next up was the big day - Valentine's Day!  Owen and Grayson woke up to some special gifts from Mommy and Daddy...

 Love this book...

Grayson didn't really care so much about his present...

Then we ate some heart shaped pancakes...

After breakfast we headed to a Valentine's themed playdate and I of course didn't get any pictures but we had a good time chatting and playing with friends.  That evening it was dinner time and we celebrated as a family by making a fancy dinner and enjoying one another's company..

I had a great day with my three favorite Valentines...

All About Owen...

Owen is exactly 30 months old today - no I don't use this terminology when people ask how old he is, I usually just say he's two, but today I thought I would be more specific.  Because you know what, there really is a big difference between 24 months old (exactly 2 years) and 30 months old.

Owen is a real person these days, yes he still throws temper tantrums and reminds me that he is not completely in control of his actions, but he can converse like an adult and comprehend everything we tell him.  Now that he can comprehend everything we tell him, it makes "time outs" a more frequent occurrence in our household.

Owen is a sweet, loving little boy who is also stubborn and definitely has a temper.  When he is upset or gets hurt he wants his "mama"....

And when he is ready to play he wants to know where his "my daddy" is...

When Brad gets home from work Owen will not leave him alone saying"tackle me daddy", "play with me daddy", "where is my daddy at".  Brad is very pleased to finally get some attention from his oldest boy.

Owen can also be very serious.  He seems to be uneasy around crowds and shows us this by either clinging on to one of us for dear life, whining or acting out.  This is a picture of Owen at a birthday party where there were a lot of people around, he was SO serious!

Owen still really loves playing with trains, he is starting to become interested in Thomas the Tank Engine and somehow knows who all of the characters are.  He likes pretty much anything with wheels at this point, hot wheels, tractors, trucks, trains, cars, bikes, you name it.  Boys are so easy to please at this age.

He is also really into the characters from Toy Story - Buzz and Woody.

We also think Owen may be a bit of a perfectionist, what can I say he gets this honestly (from both parents I might add).  Owen recently earned stickers and filled an entire sticker chart for taking naps, so he was able to pick out a train at the local book store.  I could hardly hide my laughter when I looked over and saw this, Owen laid out all of the trains in a row and deliberated on which train would be the perfect addition to his train table, this is what it looked like (a total mini Brad)...

At Owen's 2 year check up back in October Owen was 33 inches tall (15th Percentile), and weighed 26 lbs (24th percentile), while his head circumference was still in the 91st percentile.  Owen is wearing some 18-24 month clothes, but mostly 2T, he is wearing a size 7 shoe and is finally able to wear this season's pants without them falling from his waist.
Owen is talking in sentences - and does a pretty good job of using his manners (saying please and thank you) without being prompted.  Our newest goal is to have him look at you in the eye when he is speaking.  This is taking some effort on our part, but in my opinion is VERY important in this day and age when technology is becoming our main way to communicate.  Some of our favorite quotes from Owen are...
"That's amazing"
"Where are my friends? - I love them"
"That's a good spiral" - while throwing the football
"You so funny Grayson"
"Look at Grayson's penis" (this is a new obsession at our house and I am sure this will continue for many years to come)
Every morning Owen wants to know our schedule and his way of asking is "We going ummm"...

When people are having a conversation and he is not included, he can't stand it and will start to say something that he thinks goes right along with the topic he almost always interrupts to say "Buzz and Woody on choo choo", thinking that this somehow goes along with what we are talking about.

I of course miss my sweet chubby faced little baby boy, but I enjoy each age more than the last.  Although Owen is becoming more challenging in some ways and keeping me on my toes, I think he is so much fun to be around and keeps a smile on my face most days.