Owen Bradley is Two!

On October 6th our funny, active, sweet baby Owen turned two!!  Time has flown by, sometimes I wish I could go back to the day he was born.  A whole new life started for us on that day.

First birthday photos...

This year with Owen's birthday being so close to my due date we decided that we weren't going to host a big party.  This doesn't mean however that Owen didn't have a great day.  We tried to make it as special as possible.  While Owen was asleep we put balloons in his room so that when he woke up he would see that today was no ordinary day.

He was pretty excited to have his own balloon bouquet for the day.  We headed down for a special birthday breakfast.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found this idea to make birthday cake pancakes...

Owen was a pretty big fan of getting to eat cake for breakfast, who wouldn't be?

Next we let Owen open presents from Mommy and Daddy.

We thoroughly enjoyed our morning at home playing with new toys and spending one of our last Saturdays together as a family of three.  Kristin and Tim had us over for dinner that evening to celebrate my birthday (which is the day after) and Owen's birthday.

 I tested out a second Pinterest idea for Owen's 2nd birthday cake, it was pretty delicious!!

On Monday Brad and I brought doughnuts to Owen's school to celebrate his birthday.  He was VERY excited to see us in his classroom, but not as excited as he was to eat a chocolate doughnut and drink some juice.

Here are some two year old stats for our little man....

Height:  33 inches (15th percentile)

Weight:  26 pounds (24th percentile)

Head:  51 cm.  (94th percentile)

Owen is an active little man, he is still crazy about all things sports.  He is pretty coordinated and loves to climb, jump, run and hit or kick balls of any kind.  Daddy and Owen love to race on our evening walks.  

 Owen is trying to show his independence these days, he wants to put his shoes on himself, put the lids on his cups himself, walk through the grocery store by himself (my least favorite thing), and walk up and down the stairs alone.  Although he still often times wants Mommy to "hold you" and snuggle.  Owen has been a little attached to me lately and has not been wanting anyone else to comfort him or put him to bed.  I think he is catching on that life may be changing pretty soon when baby brother arrives. 

Owen's vocabulary is expanding every minute!  He says things that I didn't even know he could say and is always trying to imitate how Brad and I talk or what we are discussing.  He came up to us the other morning and said "hey guys".  He is forming 5 and 6 word sentences and is using linking verbs in his sentences by adding "is" and also using the correct pronouns most of the time "him or her".  I love when he tells me stories about things.  I am sure that most people don't understand what in the world his is telling me, but I get it.

Owen is still sleeping in his crib, we are hoping to keep him there as long as possible.  He has never climbed out of his bed (knock on wood), but there was a period of time where he got very close but would only attempt while we were in the room with him.  He wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00, he would probably stay in his bed for much longer in the mornings if we didn't go in to get him.  I am sure we will test this out after the baby comes in a few weeks.  I put him down for nap between 1:00-1:15 and he usually goes right to sleep until about 3:30 or 4:00.  Owen went through a period of time about a month ago which lasted about a month where he would play and talk in his crib for hours instead of going to sleep.  Sometimes he would talk for over 2 hours before finally falling asleep.  I am hoping that was just a phase and not the start of operation give up naps.  This mama still needs a good 3 hour break in the afternoon.  Now that is getting dark earlier Owen seems to be ready for bed around 7:30 and is in bed by 8:00 at the latest.  If we keep him up too late he still wakes up just as early in the morning but is a complete grouch in the morning.  

We love spending time with our little man, I am cherishing every moment I have with him!!  

Our Month in Review

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather this month.  I love this time of the year when I can keep the windows open and light my cinnamon pumpkin candles all around the house.
Owen has been going to school for almost a month now.  The first couple of weeks went pretty good and then all of the sudden he started saying "no q" which really means "no school", and crying and clinging to me when I drop him off.  When I pick him up he seems happy and tells me about his day, but I feel a little guilty leaving him when he is crying.  Hopefully he warms up to it in the next few weeks.
We have been continuing to organize and clean the house to prepare for baby.  I am 36 weeks now, but have a picture from last week.  At my 35 week appointment the doctor said I was already dilated to a 2, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it is exciting to know that the day we will get to hold our baby is approaching.

Brad and I went to Sean and Lindsay Perdue's wedding last weekend.  It was so nice to have an evening out without Owen.  We enjoyed our adult time and conversations with old friends from college.  I really didn't want to go, I mean who wants to put on a dress and see people you haven't seen in a long time when you are large and uncomfortable, but I am glad I went.  I definitely got some "you look like you are going to have that baby any minute" comments from some wonderful, strangers, but otherwise it was a good night.  

Owen has gone to the pumpkin patch 3 times already in the past week.  We went to Evan's Orchard with the playgroup one day.  Owen had a ball playing in their big play area.  He took off and climbed up two flights of stairs and went down this huge slide all by himself.  I was so proud of my typically cautious boy for just going for it.

 Owen of course loved the swings.

Owen has been learning to ride his new balance bike.  He really doesn't understand the concept of gliding and picking up your feet, but he has fun scooting VERY slowly along.  It literally took us 20 minutes to ride 4 houses down to visit our neighbors.  Brad doesn't have so much patience with this activity, but for now I don't mind it.  It makes it easy on a hugely pregnant mama to keep up with.

Mary and Parker (our neighbors) are pretty amazing on their balance bikes, they can literally do laps around our slow rider.

Max and Luke started their fall season of soccer.  Pop-Pop and MeeMaw came in town to visit and we all went to the game this Saturday.  Owen sat in his own chair and cheered for Max the entire game.  I was impressed with his ability to stay seated for a whole hour.  During their spring season I couldn't keep Owen off the field, I'm glad to see that he has become a better listener.

Baby Grayson

We have chosen a name for baby... Grayson!  We haven't decided on a middle name yet but it will probably be a family name.  I love the name Grayson.  I feel like it is traditional yet not used all that often. Which is exactly what we wanted for both boys.  Although Owen is probably a bit more common.  When we were vacationing in Rosemary this summer we heard the name Grayson a few times and we fell in love with it even more.  Most of the families we heard using the name were from the south so it had a bit of a southern feel to us.

I am 32 weeks pregnant now, but I had Brad take a picture of my belly last week.

I have been in full nesting mode for the last few weeks.  I have been making to do list after to do list.  It makes me feel so accomplished when I can check something off the list.  One of my most recent accomplishments was scrubbing the baseboards, the wainscoting and all the doors in the downstairs of our house.  My next project is to work my way upstairs.  Instead of resting during Owen's naptime I have been working hard on my to do list.
I was a bit grouchy this weekend and Brad told me I should take advantage of Owen's nap time and try to rest.  Which I probably should have, however I told him that the only thing that would put me out of my mood would be to organize the baby's closet.  I am happy to say that I did, and I was no longer grouchy afterwards.  Here it is...

It was so much fun getting out all of Owen's old baby clothes.  Brad even enjoyed looking through all of our clothes.  I do have to say it is nice to have so many clothes and things we need for baby Grayson.  I am sure if I were having a girl I would be a bit more stressed about making sure we have all the necessities.

I am also VERY happy to finally say we have the crib put together.  To a nesting mama, it is a big relief to see the crib up and in its place.  Owen loved helping daddy with this task.  Owen kept saying "Owen help da-da baby Gray white bed".  Owen calls the baby "baby Gray" so I would say that his name is official.

The crib was not an easy task, you see it is a hand-me-down crib from my sister, which would make it about 6 years old.  Somehow we lost the hardware to put the crib together.  For those of you that know Brad and I, we are notorious for losing things so this is not out of the ordinary but was very frustrating for us.  We had to do some serious research online to find the manual for the crib to know what kind of nuts, bolts and screws to get in order to put this thing together.  Finally we figured it all out and it is ready for a baby to sleep here.  Owen loves putting his babies in the crib and talking about baby taking a nap in the crib.

Onto the pregnancy fun.  I am beginning to have quite a bit of lower back pain, but who wouldn't when you are carrying around the giant beach ball that I am.  I feel like I could tip over at any point of the day.  Luckily Owen doesn't want to be carried around as much and is into this major independence phase because I would be in a lot worse shape if he did.

Cravings - I am craving sweet things after each meal.  It is actually getting a bit out of hand.  I am trying not to indulge too much, but just enough to satisfy the cravings.  I don't want this baby to be 10 lbs. so I am trying to lay off the ice cream.

Sleep - I am getting up to go to the bathroom between 3 and 5 times a night.  My hips have started hurting at night and have kept me up a few nights so far.

Pain - My hips and lower back are hurting.  My tailbone is actually sore too.  Is that weird?  I am trying to keep up with prenatal yoga because my body feels so much better when I can attend class regularly.  My yoga instructor has posted a couple of yoga videos online so I have been adding these to my weekly workout routine.

Exercise - I was pushing Owen in the stroller several days a week and walking with some of the neighbors, however with so many hills in my neighborhood I feel like it is getting too difficult for me.  So I have been trying to wake up early every other morning and walk a couple of miles by myself.  It makes me feel better and I get some alone time.

Here are some questions from my friend Laura's blog that I thought I would add to mine this week:

Best Moment this week - When Owen hugged me after I picked him up from school and said "Owey fun school".  It was sweet to see how excited he was to see his mama and that he wasn't angry with me for leaving him.

Wardrobe:  Maternity shorts and tanks, t-shirts, my feet are starting to hurt when I am on them for long periods of time so I have been wearing tennis shoes a lot more than normal.  I am lucky if I have clean hair and makeup on.  I am ready to feel back to normal again.  Although I will be much busier once baby is here so I may do these things even less.

Scared about:  Getting everything done in time.  I still need to finish decorating Owen's big boy room and Baby Grayson's room.  I also need to order a new pack n play and figure out what kind of bassinet I'm going to use for the baby.

Missing:  I miss wearing regular clothes, jeans for the fall, cute skirts and non-maternity dresses.  I miss running, exercising and not getting tired.  I am always training for some type of race in the fall, so this is my favorite time of the year to be out running.  I miss that.  I miss sitting comfortably on the floor and playing with Owen.  I am looking forward to someday being able to do these things again.

Owen's first day of preschool

I know what some of you may be thinking, isn't he a little young for preschool?  This preschool is more of Mother's Day Out program which is on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00-12:00.  It is a great way to get Owen to be independent, and socialize with kiddos without Mommy around.  It is also a great way for Mommy to have a few hours on those days to run errands or soon to snuggle with a new little baby.  We went to orientation for preschool last week and Owen did awesome!  He loved the classroom and all of the toys.  We talked about school all week and what he played with, which I think helped with today's transition.
So today was the big day we had been building up to...

In order to get the little man to sit and somewhat smile for the camera, I had to pull out the bribes.  These little guys worked wonders.

                                      
We even got him to stay long enough to get a picture with daddy.

Sadly the bribes had worn off and Owen was done with pictures when it was Mommy's turn.

However you do get to see my giant beach ball hiding under my clothes (more on that later).  Next we were off to the long awaited drop off.

When we got there Owen was so excited he was almost running to his classroom.  He went right in and made himself at home, playing with the train set (smart teachers).

There were some crying kiddos in the room so I was a bit worried about Owen's reaction to this, but apparently he wasn't bothered.  He turned back to show me his train one time but just kept on playing.  I was one proud mama.

When I picked him up he pushed his way out of the classroom to see me.  He gave me a big hug and said "Owey fun school"!  His teacher said he did not have any tears all day, but was a bit quiet at first and really wasn't sure what to think of the crying kids.  I call that one successful day in my book.  I asked if he was excited to go back next week and he said "yes".  Hopefully he keeps that positive attitude next Monday.