Elephant Surgery and Other Stories

I would like to offer up this Owen video as penance for my incredible amount of blog slackery lately.

Ok, so now that you've enjoyed a little bit of Owen boogying, we'll move on.

My little toddler (eek!) has grown up so much in the last couple of weeks. The biggest thing I've noticed is that he has begun to play with his toys properly. Blocks are no longer just for banging together. Toy animals aren't just for chewing on. He can make stacks of blocks that are 3-4 blocks high. The animals now 'play' in the barn.

There is still one toy he can't quite master:



My parents got him this Elefun ball popper for Christmas and the kid loves it. Lo-o-oves it. He's figured out how to turn it on by himself, which is neat, but what he can't quite grasp is that you can't just stick anything in the elephant and expect it to shoot out.

I've had to perform elephant surgery several times this week to remove the following: pieces from his shape-sorter, a toy sheep and several goldfish crackers.

Maybe he'll figure it out eventually.

He's also picked up a new trick, and it is my favorite EVER. Owen now gives kisses. Yes, I ask him for kisses and he leans in and closes his eyes and goes 'Mmmmm, mah!' A-freaking-dorable.

I didn't even teach him to do it. He just magically woke up from a nap one day knowing how to give kisses. Maybe it came to him in a dream or something.

He also got his first haircut this week. By 'got,' I mean I strapped him in the high chair with a snack and did it myself. This is how that ended:

TANTRUM!!!

At least he looks cute, even if he hated me for a while afterward.

He also has a slew of new 'bad' things he enjoys doing. The most scary of these is the climbing. He climbs on the end tables, the shelves and into (and on top of) the toy box.

Reading is a lot more fun inside the toy box, apparently.

He has also gone from just trying to tackle Rupp to trying to actually cuddle with him. Owen cuddling is not normal cuddling, however. It generally involves biting and lots of nuzzling. You can imagine how much Rupp enjoys this.

Today, the only way I could get him to stop freaking out (for no reason whatsoever) was to let him sit in my lap. No problem, right? Well, it wouldn't have been if Rupp weren't already in my lap. So I wound up with the cat in my lap and Owen sitting happily on top of the cat. Rupp is the saint of felines.

I also caught him sticking goldfish crackers down the floor vents today, so that was fun.

I should have some wonderful 1-year pictures to show you soon that we had taken last weekend by the extremely talented Dianne of Dianne Lisette Photography, so get excited!