Christmas Program (a little delayed)

Every year our church has a Christmas program for the younger children.  Owen is in the Toddler class (18 mos-3 years) and his teachers had been telling us he was going to be their star!  He practiced with Gramma while he was at her house and we practiced on the weekends.  He had a line to say "The baby Jesus small and new, came to save little me and you" and then they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  He practiced well...although when he sang happy birthday he would always say a different name each time.  The program also happened right around his birthday, so I was thinking that he would end up saying his name during the program:)  The first part of the program was the preschool and kindergarten classes, then the toddler and nursery classes came out at the end.  Needless to say, he was the star:)  His teacher ended up giving him the microphone...and lets just say that he rolled with it:)  The video here is of the second service, but it was definitely the better of the two videos since we were laughing and crying during the first service that the video is a little shaky!  Tony got a better position for the second service and we were a little better prepared for what would happen.

He is definitely our little star:)

NIghttime Troubles

I know that I have mentioned before that Owen was a GREAT sleeper!  After the initial "cry yourself to sleep" period with his naps, he always went right to sleep without much fuss.....until now.....

Unfortunately, over the past couple of months, he has been terrible about not only going to bed, but staying in his bed during the night.  The nighttime bed invasions started first.  It seems that when he wakes up during the night, he immediately heads towards our bedroom and attempts to crawl into bed with us.  We have never allowed him to sleep with us, except for the occasional Saturday morning when we were trying to coax a few more minutes of sleep out of him, so this is definitely a new thing for him to be doing.  Dutifully, at least one time a night and sometimes two, Tony or I wake up him to crawling into our bed and pick him up and carry him back to his.  (although I do admit that one of us has woken up at some point and he is all snuggled in and neither of us remember him getting into bed!!)  Sometimes when we are carrying him back I swear he falls back asleep for the short trip down the hall.  Other times, he wants to talk to us and makes sure that we have covered him appropriately before we head back to our room.  I wondered if he started waking up due to his ears bothering him (he his always itching his ears when he is trying to get comfortable).  When we have asked him about it, he says that he is worried.....He has mentioned things about monsters or bugs in his room or under his bed at times.  We do what every parent does at the stage and reassure him that there is nothing there.....and continue to be surprised when we wake up in the morning without a nighttime invasion.

Now to top off the nighttime invasions of our bed, he is refusing to go to stay in his bed when we lay him down.  It has been so frustrating lately....I can't even tell you!!  He is very sneaky now....crawling on his hands and knees down the hallway, hiding in closets or under our bed....We started with the discipline by putting him in bed and talking, which then escalated to spanking which didn't seem to be helping either.  We tried taking things away when he didn't stay in bed....then I suggested that he was looking for our reaction so we needed to just calmly put him back to bed without saying anything to him.  It seemed to help, but then things got worse (and daddy can only redirect so many times before he has a hard time not reacting-sorry honey! Love you!!).  I have even resorted to sitting in his room while he insistently tries to get me to talk to him.  That still took 45 minutes for him to calm down enough and go to sleep.....but now I think he works up to wanting me to do that, so I stopped that too.  Now we are back to putting him back to bed without a reaction.  I've also offered an incentive of staying in his bed for 3 nights means he gets to earn a playdoh tractor that he has been wanting......I'm not joking when I say that it is usually about an hour every night of putting him back to bed...AHHHH!  We contemplated taking away his afternoon nap, but we had a day over break where he didn't get one and it wasn't pretty....Gramma has been making sure that he is down by 1 and will wake him up by 3 at the latest to try and help at night. 

So....the saga continues for now.....I hope its just a phase.....this momma and daddy are frustrated and tired!

3 Year Stats

We just got home from Owen's 3 year check-up appointment with the pediatrician.  He is growing well and there are no concerns related to his general development..which is good!  I did question the pediatrician again about how he is digging/itching his ears all the time.  He assured me after checking them that they were fine.  Both canals looked good, though there was some ear wax in each of them.  He even checked the pressure and fluid level in his ears with a tympanogram.  He said that the left ear had a little bit of pressure, but that it was nothing to warrant any sort of intervention at this time...so we still have no explanation as to why he is itching his ears all the time.  I'm beginning to wonder if it has become a habit of some sort....who knows though....

Anyways...here are his stats:
Height: 39 inches-90%
Weight: 32 pounds-50%

Definitely no concerns with those:)  He is going to be a tall skinny boy!  We are finally going to move him to 2% milk too.  He is definitely a growing boy:)

3rd Birthday Celebrations

Well...finally the birthday celebrations are over.  When all was said and done, Owen ended up with 4 parties!  It is crazy...with big families and scheduling conflicts, it was the way things ended up this year.  We thought about combining two (Tony's family and friends) but if we had it at our house it would be packed and it was just not quite enough people to justify renting a place....but we may consider it next year...I am pooped!  Every party was a pirate theme, so at least we could reuse some of the decorations:)  He was all about singing happy birthday, blowing out the candles, and licking the cakes!

Party 1:
Was at my mom's house for that side of the family.

My aunt made him an awesome pirate ship cake!  It had Jake, Captain Hook and the Tic Tock Croc:)  He loved it!  Action shot of him blowing out the candles!

Opening presents.

My brother and sister-in-law got him a chainsaw.  He kept walking around saying "I'm a sawing man!"

Party 2:

Was at our house for Tony's family.

I bought the cake for this party...notice the finger:)

Dalton and Owen having a good time....notice the blue lips!

He got a scooter...so he was helping Daddy and Nick put it together.

Putting his new cape to good use:)  He got the hang of the scooter pretty quick!

Party 3:

Was at my great aunts house.  She does parties for all the kids and even some adults!  It is a tradition:)

This is the best picture of the cake.  It's a pirate:)  Notice the hand trying to keep his fingers out of the cake!

He got a Jake computer!  He is all about the pirates!

Party 4 (the final one!!):

Was at our house for friends!  Just about everyone has kiddos now...or are about to have them!  Seriously just about every one of our friends is pregnant or just had a baby.  I tried to throw my first "theme" party...and I even made the cake:)

First the kiddos made "treasure maps."  Every pirate has to know where to find the treasure!
Notice the 3 preggos too!

Then they decorated treasure chests.  Every pirate needs a place to put their treasure:)

Next they got to dig for treasure:)  I borrowed a rice bin from one of my occupational therapy friends to "bury" their treasure in.  This is Owen and Leah looking for treasure:)

Owen and Jackson digging:)

My big 3-year-old boy with his cake:)  Daddy helped with the skull and crossbones and mommy did the rest.  We think it turned out cute...and he knew what it was, so that was all that mattered!

 I again can't believe that my baby is 3!  The time seriously does fly....next thing I know I'll be posting about his 4th birthday:(

A Third Letter

Dear Owen,
I cannot believe that you will be 3 tomorrow!  Where has the time gone?  It seems like every year of your life has gone faster than the previous one...and I want them to slow down!  You are definitely a little boy now and not so much a baby anymore.  You are potty trained (although you still have an accident every now and then) and talking up a storm.  It's getting harder for me to remember you as a baby and you remind me almost daily that you are "getting bigger":)  You are definitely a "momma's boy" and I can't tell you how happy that makes me, but sometimes it makes daddy sad when you choose me over him.  I love to hear your little voice call my name because it reminds me that you do still need me.  Your daddy and I talk almost everyday about how happy we are that you are in our lives.  Daddy tells me often that he is so glad I was persistent in our efforts to bring you into our lives because he can't imagine our life without you in it, and I have to agree.  I can't believe how much joy you have brought us in 3 short years and I can't wait to see what is still in store for us.  You are everything (and more) that I could have ever hoped, wished, or dreamed for.  Thank you for completing my life.
I love you so much!
Love,
Mommy

Kidney Update

Well, it was time for Owen to have another follow-up with the Pediatric Urologist yesterday.  Tony had some vacation days to burn, so he got to join in all the festivities this time:)  We started the day with an ultrasound at the hospital.  This time they brought in a DVD player for him to watch while he was having the test done.  They put in a SpongeBob DVD...not my first choice by far, but it worked.  He was very worried about if the test going to hurt.  We kept reassuring him that it wouldn't, but he was having a hard time believing us!  He asked if there was going to be a shot in his arm...which I think meant he was remembering his last renal scan....I swear the kid has the memory of an elephant!  He did well during the test, rolled on both of his sides when asked, but was just a little dramatic at times about if it was going to hurt:)  This was our first ultrasound being fully potty trained, so when the tech took pictures of his bladder and it was pretty full, he immediately said he needed to go potty.  He was able to hold it until she was done and then for her to go and get a cup for him to pee in.  Daddy took him to the bathroom to get it all done.  Then he was back for a few more pictures after emptying the bladder.  He did really well and even got to pick a sticker and a toy, so he thought he was pretty cool:)

Next it was off to the Dr.'s office.  I was under the impression that at this appointment she would decide if he needed surgery or not.  I was fully prepared to hear that he would need it...but I was wrong....His right kidney still looks good, but the left kidney is still "suspect" at this point.  It still has fluid in it, but otherwise it is fine.  It is growing and working well at this point.  She said they they used to rush in to fix them, but now they just like to wait it out.  So, we continue to wait....we go back in 6 months for another ultrasound and check with the doctor.    I really do hope that it decides to fix itself, but only time will tell....

Fall 2012

Well, I am behind in my posting....so I thought I would do one big Fall 2012 post:)

We again did our annual trip to Tanner's Orchard.  We didn't end up going until the weekend before Halloween because our schedules were so busy!  It was kind of nice because when we went there were hardly any people there and the place was having a lot of sales....but it was also freezing cold that weekend.  Owen didn't seem to care, but his friend was not too happy about it.  We ended up cutting our trip a little short this year....but we still had fun!

Annual family photo in front of the sign.

A semi-good one with the pumpkins.

Owen and Jackson.

Feeding the goats...he loved it!

And of course we had to get a pony ride in:)

Since Halloween was right around the corner, next up was carving pumpkins.  He and daddy did this while mommy was the photographer.  He didn't want to touch the insides of the pumpkin at first...He said "EWWW!" over and over.  He did finally decide to dig in a little at the end:)

Not sure about touching....

He liked digging with the spoon:)

Finally decided to give it a try!

Helping Daddy:)

Finished product!

I didn't end up taking many pictures on Halloween for some reason.  He originally told us he wanted to be an alligator, so I searched until I found one on line.  Of course when it arrived it didn't fit!  He was too tall and the place didn't do returns or exchanges.  So Daddy and Owen went looking for costumes one day and he picked out another one!

And he chose Jake, from the Disney Jr. show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. (He looks enthused doesn't he!!)

Posing with his pumpkin before we started our rounds:)

Fall has been busy and now it is almost Thanksgiving!  Which also means his birthday is just around the corner:(  I can't believe how fast he is growing up!