Language: Owen's language explosion continues to take place this month as he adds more and more words to his vocabulary. He can say his name pretty clearly and loves to say "Hi Lillow!" When he wakes up in the morning, his first word is, "Lillow?" (who is
always still asleep!). When we got out of the car today at the store, Chris had gotten Willow out. Owen must not have seen them because as we started walking to the store he said, "Lillow?" He loves his sister! Instead of saying "yes," Owen responds with "uh-huh." His "please" sounds more like "meez" (one of my favs) and he says "beet" instead of "beep" when making car noises. Today while making dinner he wanted to have more shredded cheese. I asked him to wait a second and he said, "K." So grown! =) One of our favorite non-word sounds is when he makes a "blubaluba" noise with his tongue and lips. He's got all of the animal sounds and body parts down. He knows the color blue but we're still working on the rest. He's correctly named the letter "O" in many situations and his version of saying "triangle." He's naming things on his own without being asked. Gramma and Gramps got the kids a travel BINGO game and he was sitting with the game card one day and I heard him saying "Fence...tree...truck...cow..." Owen doesn't sing all the words to songs yet, but he will prompt us to start singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" by starting to make his version of the spider moving with his hands. Lately he's been singing "no-mah-no-mah" to the tune of the ABC song. We think it's his version of "Now I know my..."
Reading: He likes to look through books on his own now and will name things in the pictures. Here's his version of "Little Quack's Hide and Seek:" "duck...Mama...tree....Mama!...duck...quack...Mama!" Since he does love to take books off the shelves to look at them now, it's nice at least that he puts them in a stack all facing the same way =)
Playing: He has a much longer attention span for playing with one toy (trucks, balls, and coloring being his favs) and is more independent - maybe it helps that he's received so many new toys this month for Christmas. He's been really into a couple 50 states puzzles that we have. He's getting better at putting some in the correct place on his own (California, Texas, Alaska, Nevada, North/South Dakota [sometimes interchanged], Florida, and Louisiana [he'll say "shoe" as he puts it down because of it's shape]) then will ask "This?" for the rest to be shown where to put it. Each state has a puzzle on it's piece. It cracks me up when he says "cookies" for Idaho (really potatoes). He's impressed me with recognizing an eagle on Minnesota's piece!
Sleeping: Owen is on a horrible 2 1/2 week trend of getting up between 4:15-5:00am...and unhappy... We might be able to get him asleep for 15 more minutes by going in to make sure he has his paci (to which he is HEAVILY addicted...I already dread the day we decide to take it away), but he doesn't ever get back into a deep sleep. We usually throw in the towel by 5:15 or 5:30. The other morning I went in before 5:00 as he was calling "Mama! Mama! Mama!" He was standing up in his crib. When I walked over to him he said, "All done," followed by, "Books!" It makes for a super-long, often grouchy morning for him (and, consequently, us!). Making it to 1:00 for an afternoon nap is a real stretch. If we're in the car anywhere between 9-11 he's thankful to take advantage of a chance to fall asleep (therefore, ruining a longer afternoon nap). Thankfully he's gone to sleep easier at naptime and bedtime than he did a month ago, and he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night. So...overall we have made some strides regarding sleep.
Eating: His eating these days is "feast or famine." Today at lunch he probably ate half the box of mac & cheese (grabbing the noodles with his fist and putting them on his fork, of course), while at some meals he'll literally have one bite or less. No meal is a real "guarantee" with him these days. His favorite food by far is clementines right now. He'd eat 3 for a snack if we let him!
Around the House: Owen is pretty good about helping to pick up toys. He doesn't always listen to our directions if it's not something he wants to do. We haven't had to do timeout too much, but the last 3 times I've put him in timeout he hasn't stayed there....even upon multiple re-placements...when I tell him firmly to stay on his bottom, he laughs...ugh! It makes me even more thankful that Willow never did that.
Despite the challenges, we love our little buddy and can't imagine life without him!
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| Owen LOVES his cousin Hannah! When I was holding her one day he sat right next to me for the longest time and just smiled at her. If she dropped her paci, he'd say "uh oh" and put it back in her mouth. Thankfully this paci-lover hasn't taken her paci for himself!! |
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| Owen loves looking through books! |
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| Ok...so maybe they're not always left in a stack facing the same way... |
