Its been a while

Its been a couple of months.

A quick recap:

• Owen's potty training is coming along. He still doesn't like to poop in the potty, but otherwise he only wears a diaper at bedtime.
  
• He's started sleeping with his 4 foot stuffed dog Patrick in his little crib, sometimes he curls up next to it, sometimes he just sleeps under it.
• He's been binky free for 3 weeks now, and no complaints.
• 3 Weeks ago: Owen was in bed, calling for one of us to come and change him. When Nora came in her workout clothes, Owen said: "Mommy change my diaper quickly, then go work out, that's the plan."
• He's been getting more and more verbal every day.
• He spent a week with Daddy by himself, then it was off with Aunty Annie on 2 airplanes to Puerto Rico to reunite with mom. He was a trooper, had no complaints. Anne even fell asleep on the plane, as Owen merrily watch "Underdog."

I'm sure there's more, I'll ask Nora to guest post tonight.

Adam

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Nora, Owen, and our Snowy Guest.

The Backyard at 8am.

The snowman -- time for his closeup.

The Great Experiment Continues

So this morning Owen slept from 5:30a to almost 8:00a in his underwear. He seems increasingly concerned when his diaper (after naps or in the middle of the night) is wet -- a good sign that he is really understanding using the potty. Whenever he puts on his underwear (and a diaper) he says, "No go pee-pee in underwear....

This weekend along with the excitement of Grandma Anna and Aunt Vicky's visit was the thrill of using the Urinal -- first at the Diner in Adams Morgan then at the Four Seasons. It was quite the thrill for Daddy too who got to kneel on the bathroom floor while Owen stood on his leg to reach the urinal. Fun times.

Owen modeling his new underwear. Calvin Klien are you watching

The Great Experiment...Day 2

Here's a quote from Owen's pre-school newsletter:

The Dinozaurim were so excited to learn that Owen came to school in underwear (Spider-man underwear to be exact...) He started on Sunday with his mom and dad. All of the other boys, Coltrane, Aaron, William, Henry, Min and Adam said that they want to use the potty....

When I came to pick him up he was standing up in front of his potty pants (and underwear) around his ankles waiting to pee. Final tally 3 trips to the potty, no wet underwear.

The longest journey....

...begins with the fist step.

Today -- inspired by some new Spider-man underwear -- Owen decided he was ready to try using the potty full-time without the safety-net of a diaper.

Overall, the day was a success. In the morning, he wet his pants right before nap time. After his little accident, Owen said he would "try again later."He took a brief nap during which he wore diaper -- which was fortunate, especially since he woke himself up with a big poop.

Well, later turned out to be this afternoon after his nap. He was ready to try again, and with a little more vigilance from mom & dad, and a little lesson learned by the boy, there was a dry diaper at bath time tonight.

Not so bad for the first day. :)

and go.

Watch him go....

Grandma watches on

and go...

Riding with Pops.

Sitting atop the bike with hat.

Opening presents.

Look what Santa brought.

Christmas in Oregon Re-Cap

Wow, there's a lot of ground to cover:

Christmas Morning...
It started Christmas morning with Owen running out in his train pajamas (thank you Auntie Annie) to the sight of the Christmas tree and presents underneath, around, spreading across the living room... you get the picture. The night before, as we talked to him about Santa Claus delivering presents, he seemed most concerned with "Where does Santa Claus live?"

The big present came from Pops & Grandma -- a shiny, new, yellow and blue bicycle that the boy took to immediately (more on that later). Owen spent about 20 minutes unwrapping the rest of his presents with great delight; he got everything from a new Nationals hat (thanks Mom!) to Plaza Sesemo DVDs, a set of animal puppets and a tiger shirt (thanks Auntie Leean!) to Curious George books, a dancing ipod robot (thanks to his cousins!) a train and an animal set. After about 20 minutes, with several presents left unopened, he wanted to do what he does best -- play.

The Bicycle
The big draw the rest of Christmas and the next day was the bicycle. Pops, Grandma, Auntie Leean, Mommy & Daddy took Owen out to the (always handy) nearby cul-de-sac to practice riding his bike. It is a two-wheeler with training wheels. At first, he was much better going down the slight incline than uphill (aren't we all?) Soon, he was feeling more comfortable even on the uphill! It was amazing watching the intense look of concentration and excitement on his face as he practiced coordinating steering and peddling at the same time. All of this while surrounded by grown-ups with their various cameras in hand. And of course, he had to wear his bike helmet because... SAFETY NEVER TAKES A HOLIDAY!

By that night, he was zipping in circles around the island in the kitchen, peddling and steering like a pro. By the next day, Owen was riding it like he was born to to do it. It was pretty amazing, and we all marvelled in his brilliance. (It's nice to be around like-minded folks).

Night Time is the Right Time....
Everyday with Owen brings a new development (or challange as the case may be). Sleeping in our room in the pack 'n' play, we found a new one. Our discovery started out slowly -- objects (the changing table) appearing in the pack 'n' play that weren't there when we put Owen to bed. Did we leave it close to the pack and play where he could reach out and bring it in? How did it get there?

We had our answer by Tuesday night. A very sweet little boy was not going to sleep; we could hear a lot of singing (Jingle Bells maybe) coming from the room. Upon going in, we discovered the truth: Owen sitting in the middle of the fluffy, white comforter on our bed, reading his book. When he saw us watching, he made his way back into his pack 'n' play, a mischievous smile shining across his face.

The next night it was a strange sound that drew Mommy and Daddy's attention. Owen was opening the door to his room, peaking quick looks until he saw Daddy and slam! -- the door shut tight. A few minutes later, peaking in, there was our sweet pea sitting cross legged on the floor reading Curious George.

Pops, Grandma and Auntie Leean were all pretty nuts for our boy. He had no shortage of attention or admirers, who reveled in every cute expression or antic. We watched him work them over so that by the end of the trip, he was commanding everyone in the house except for the dog, Buddy. (He still can't figure out why Buddy wouldn't do whatever he asked him to -- everyone else did!)

Ah, our willful, savvy boy.

It was the day before Christmas....

Owen along with Mommy & Daddy finally made it to Oregon. After long and trying day that started with us leaving for the airport at 6:30a EST and ended with us finally arriving in Eugene at 6:45p PST, our hero promptly fell asleep in the car. He was a great traveler though, helped mom and dad get through a long day, and I think we all managed to have some fun along the way. The Seattle airport (where we had a 6 hour layover including delays) was a highlight -- watching the planes take off, meeting Santa, observing RoRo the Clown, the 9 foot tall Orca stuffed animal (that got a goodbye hug), and the Flamingo statue that got a couple of friendly kisses.

The morning (Christmas Eve) was started with calls for Grandpa/Pops (who was still asleep at 6a), a quick breakfast of a fried egg sandwich with mommy, and some grocery shopping with daddy, grandpa and Auntie Leean.

The highlight of the afternoon was a walk (sprint) through the sand dunes with Grandpa, Buddy (the dog) Mommy & Daddy. The boy was racing up and down, climbing dunes, chasing Buddy, and generally showing his energizer bunny side. He was very pleased with the trip, and only was appeased when we promised to come back tomorrow.

The evening was capped by grandma reading "The night before Christmas," and questions about where Santa lives before he fell asleep with visions of chocolate cake in his head.