We're Still Alive

It's been pretty darn close to a year since I updated, and I suppose it's time I stop sitting around being selfish and start sharing Owen's hilarity with all of you again.

Let me tell you, having a nearly two year old is... interesting. He's my best buddy in the whole world, but I also spend a good deal of my day thinking, "Why the hell would you do that? What is going on in your crazy little toddler brain."

At least with his new vocabulary I'm finally getting a little insight into what makes my son tick.

Owen took forever to talk, but within the last month or so he finally got to that 'language explosion' I have heard so much about. Now, he parrots just about everything we say. And everything Dora the Explorer says. And Team UmiZoomi taught him how to count, somehow, so good on them.

He can also tell me what he wants to eat/ drink now, which is helpful until he decides all he wants for supper is 'COOKIE! COOKIE!'

Since I don't plan on telling you every single story from the past year, I guess I'll just give you some recent highlights so we can get this thing back on track. How's that sound? Alright, then.

He loves Rick Grimes, just like Mommy. Well, maybe not JUST like Mommy does. 

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know he continues to torture poor Rupp. Rupp continues to not bite Owen, even though he probably deserves it sometimes.

Someday I will have my revenge.

We recently had a super-fun trip to the ER because Owen couldn't kick a bad ear infection. He hated everyone initially during the visit (including us) until the nice nurses pumped him full of popsicles and Sprite. 

Don't even think about giving me any actual medicine.

Our current favorite Owen-isms:

"Goggles!" (Anything he holds up to his eyes becomes 'goggles.' This includes bath toys, his hands, Daddy's glasses, toy dinosaurs...)

"Mo, man!" (When asked what Swiper says.)

"Dad-ma!" (When he's too lazy to say both Daddy and Momma, he just combines them.)

"Hat!" (Everything he puts on his/your/my head becomes a hat. And don't you dare take off that 'hat' or he will yell.)

"Buppies!" (This means he wants to watch Bubble Guppies. Usually at a time when the Bubble Guppies aren't on. A simple "The Guppies are asleep, Owen," usually gets the job done, though.)

Really, he's just kind of hilarious right now. It's hard to remember everything I should have been posting here over the past months (oops), but at least we're caught up now, right?

Right. 

A year's difference :)

All Aboard the Cheese Bus!

Yes, cheese bus.

We've discussed Owen's obsession with putting things down the trunk of his elephant ball popper, but I neglected to mention that he is pretty much obsessed with putting things in other things in general.

I guess it is also important to mention that we've been having feeding issues lately. Trying to feed a toddler is by far the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced.

Today, I had the bright idea to try and get Owen to eat a 'sandwich.' I put 'sandwich' in quotations because my brilliant idea was to feed it to him in parts so he wouldn't get bored so quickly. (The fact that I'm blogging about this should clue you in to how well it went.)

First, I fed him a piece of turkey. We have a lot more luck feeding him if we let him roam, rather than putting him in the high chair, so I just sat on the couch with a piece of turkey and he would come get bites from me every couple of minutes.

He ate nearly all of the turkey, which was great. Then, it was time for the cheese. I got a slice out of the fridge and after fighting him to take bites for a while, I decided to break it into squares and put it on the coffee table for him to munch on as he pleased (we do this with cheerios all the time, so I figured it would work).

What did Owen do with the cheese? He grabbed a piece to munch on, then walked across the room and came back with his toy school bus. He set the bus on the coffee table next to the cheese, and then this happened:

In case you can't tell from the crappy cell phone picture, those are pieces of cheese in the bus. He put every single piece of cheese in the bus, one by one.

What happened next can only be described as 'The Great Cheese Tragedy of 2012.'

He pushed the bus over the edge of the coffee table. Cheese went everywhere.

What did Owen do while I was cleaning up cheese off of the floor? He filled the bus with Cheerios.

Needless to say, that was the end of lunch time.

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!

Party Time! Excellent!

Today was Owen's birthday party. Going into it, I was ridiculously stressed. I had a million ideas of things I wanted to do, but when this morning rolled around and it came time to execute them I suddenly became apathetic to 90% of them.

We got to the church, threw up some balloons and scattered some confetti and called it a day.


Check out the ridiculously adorable cakes that our friend (and my former teacher) made:

 After we made it through appetizers and whatnot, it was time to see how Owen would react to his smash cake. I went back and forth for a while deciding how to clothe him for the cake. Bib over clothes? Take his shirt off? Diaper only?

We eventually decided on diaper only (Trashy? Possibly. Practical? Absolutely.), and boy were we glad we did. Owen demolished the cake. Demolished might even be an understatement.

Digging in

Owen takes cake smashing seriously.

Ok, so now we have this chocolate-covered baby. What do you do with a chocolate-covered baby, you ask?

Hell if I know.

We still have to open presents. We can't just leave him like that. Is there a hose around here or something? 


We decided on the sink.

Very funny, guys.

Once we got him (mostly) clean, we moved on to presents. Between Christmas and his birthday, I'm pretty sure there are no toys left that Owen does not have. Our living room looks like Toys R Us.

My favorite gift he received was a rocking horse. The rocking horse was mine when I was Owen's age. My mom had her friend restore it for Owen and it turned out beautifully. He loves it and has already figured out how it works.

Presents!

After presents, well... There wasn't really anything to do after that, so we cleaned up. My family is the best (no, seriously) and all chipped in and helped us get everything picked up.

He even helped clean up!

All-in-all, a huge success!

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a toddler.

Today is Owen's 1st birthday.

Let that soak in for a minute.

My baby is no longer a baby, but a toddler. I've lost track of how many times I've teared up thinking about this the last few days. I swear, and I know this is ridiculous, that Owen even looked older when he woke up this morning.

We are having his real party on Saturday, but we did a little bit of 'celebrating' today. For lunch, we went to Matt B's (which, if you're not from MKY, is the most glorious pizza place in the state) and Owen happily nommed a breadstick while Ross and I enjoyed some nice, greasy pizza. Then we went to the park.

Owen loved going down the slides and playing in the dirt.

Here's Owen at only a few minutes old:

And these are from our park adventure today:

That was fun! Let's slide some more!

Check out this dirt I found, Mom!

Daddy wanted to slide, too

Just a- swingin'

My favorite men

He wouldn't smile in a pic with Mom...

But he did have fun trying to steal my sunglasses

What a difference a year makes.

Owen has been such a blessing, and every moment of this past year has been priceless. It's been hard at times (the newborn days, for example), but it's all been worth it.

I have never been more proud of anything than I am of him.

Owen James, I love you more than everything. Thank you for making me smile every day. <3

New Year, New Followers Blog Hop!

We're participating in a really freaking awesome blog hop this weekend! Click the button below and go check out some of the best blogs I've come across.

I guarantee laughter and lots of cute babies.

Now, shoo! Go follow these blogs!

And Happy New Year!

Owen's First Christmas

Obviously, I did something super wrong last week and accidentally deleted all of my images. I'll be working on it as I can over the weekend. Until then, enjoy this post (with pictures!).


Owen's first Christmas was awesome. I don't even really know what else to say about it, except that it was my favorite Christmas ever. Seeing him experience it all was so much fun.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's (Ross's parents) house.  Owen wore a sweater vest. (Who put me in charge of dressing a child?)

Thumbs up to Christmas!

Riding his new fire truck from his great-grandma.

Trying to figure out the ball popper from Grandma and Grandpa

New hat from Aunt Rachel. I love it because he can't figure out how to take it off.
High five for this one, Rachel :-)

The future of Racer Band?

Owen talking with Aunt Rachel

The best picture we could get of Owen & Daddy

Owen & Mommy (still holding on to that drum stick)

Laying down some beats with Grandma

Reading with Daddy

On Christmas day, we started by opening presents at home and eating breakfast (I make awesome french toast, just so ya know). 

Rupp decided to crash the Christmas Tree picture

Owen & Daddy opening gifts

He's obsessed with his activity table. He dances along with the music.

He stole the Reese's candy cane out of Ross's stocking

And the candy canes off of the tree.

After that, we ran off to Nanny and Papaw's (my parents) house. 

Reading books with Nanny

He kept looking up my dad's nose. Boys are gross. 

Pouting because I wouldn't let him break all of the ornaments. (Notice he stole Ross's stocking candy at my parents' house, too. )

Petting Big Kitty for the first time. Kitty was not amused.

My new favorite picture.

We ended the night at my aunt's house. I suck and forgot to take pictures there, but we had a ball. Owen loved all of the attention he got, and even put on a nice display of his 'tricks' while we were eating supper. 

My favorite part of that night was when my 8-year-old cousin asked me if she could borrow Owen to star in her silent movie, 'Attack of the million foot baby from OUTER SPAAAAAAACE!' 

Did I let her borrow him? Yes. 

They eventually fired him, though, because he wasn't being monstery enough or something. The best part was, they were so serious when they told him they were replacing him. 'This just isn't working out.'

I love my family.

I hope all of your holidays were as happy as ours! Now we're in the countdown (6 days) to Owen's birthday. Unreal.

Wordless Wednesday: Peek a Boo!

He's so sneaky you can't even tell there's a baby in this picture.




 

11 Months

Today my little stink is 11 months old. That's hard to swallow.

It seems like he just got here but, then again, I can't really remember what life was like before him.

My big 11 month old is too busy 'reading' to look at the camera.


 The last few days Owen has been obsessed with books. If you sit down in the floor, he automatically grabs a book and plops down in your lap. This may be my favorite phase so far. I love having him just chill and snuggle with me while we read. It's so rare that he stays still for very long anymore, so these moments are precious.

I had a big losery mom moment today. Driving to work, I was listening to a country station and 'There Goes my Life' by Kenny Chesney came on. I knew I should change the station, but didn't. I made it to the last verse (you know, the part where the kid goes off to college) before I was bawling my eyes out. I can't think about him being a grown up yet.

I can't even handle that he's going to be one in a month.

Christmas Picture Outtakes

We've talked about how much of a fail our little Christmas card photo shoot was the other day. Today, I finally got around to actually uploading the pictures.

Even though none of these will be gracing the inaugural Miller family Christmas card, I thought I'd share them anyway because, let's face it, Owen is adorable.

Yeah, the kid wouldn't even look at me. We're trying this again this week, though, so *finger crossed* maybe we'll get some decent ones.

Color me stunned: Owen behaves (mostly)

You've all read my tales of my stinker of a child and his shenannigans. Well, today he was awesome. A perfect, well-behaved child.

Except for this:

It's a miracle Rupp has not destroyed Owen by now. I have the most patient cat on the planet.

O did too many awesomely adorable things today for me to recap them all, but my favorite was when I was sitting cross-legged in the floor playing with him. He walked across the room, grabbed a book and then sat down in my lap and handed me the book. He wanted me to read to him.

We read a book about a very helpful bunny (the one he picked out) and then cycled through his wildlife board books and Aladdin. He loved every second of it.

I'm so glad I have a child who seems to enjoy books (at least so far).

The rest of the day was easy and fun. We rolled around in the floor, watched some Baby Einstein, chased each other around the living room, read some more books and made silly faces at each other. AND he took three naps. Three LONG naps. Heavenly.

I seriously have the most awesome little boy on the planet, even if he's a stinker 90% of the time.

Well, that didn't go as expected...

I had high hopes for my post today.

This was my to-do list today:
1. Make handprint ornament
2. Take picture of ornament for blog
3. Take Owen's Christmas card picture
4. Post cute pictures on blog

This is how things went down:

The Ornament
I made the salt/flour dough for the handprint ornament and stuck Owen in his high chair with some puffs to entertain/distract him. I rolled it out into a circle and then went in for the print. I honestly didn't think it would be a big deal. I figured I would distract him, grab his hand and smush it into the dough.

I was mistaken.

I grabbed his hand and pushed it into the dough. He closed his hand and ripped a chunk out of the middle (of the dough, not his hand). Well, crap.
Tried again. Same result.
I even tried pinning one of his arms under the high chair tray so I only had to deal with one grabby baby hand.
Yeah, so that's not as effective as it was a few months ago.

Eventually, I did get one alright handprint. Popped that sucker into the oven to harden.

Dammit! I forgot to poke a hole in it to hang on the tree!

I pulled it back out and it was already beginning to harden. I scraped the best hole into it that I could using one of those random little pointing things that came in our knife block (what are those things for, anyway?).

It didn't look awesome when it came out, but hopefully painting will improve it because Lord knows I'm not trying it again.

The Pictures
I wrestled Owen into his Christmas pajamas (seriously, dressing a 10 month old is the most frustrating thing on the planet). Owen, I promise no one is trying to kill you. People wear clothes. You can't just be naked for the rest of your life. It's socially unacceptable. Stop biting me!

I finally got him dressed, and then attempted to put his Santa slippers on. Nope. Not having that.

If Owen could talk, this is how that conversation would have gone:

Owen: "Hey, let me chew on those!"
Me: "No, they go on your feet."
Owen: "I'm going to chew on them, ok?"
Me: "No. Just let me put them on your feet."
Owen: "Fine, but I'm going to bunch up my toes. Good luck."

More wresting ensued.

Ok, so now the kid is dressed. I set him in the play pen and removed the Christmas tree barricade:

The barricade

 I handed him a present with a bow in the hopes that it would distract him from the tree. Then I sat him under the tree and all Hell broke loose.

First, he started tugging on a sparkly green reindeer ornament. I took it away from him. Then, he started using the present as a weapon. His was beating the Christmas tree with it.

I kept snapping pictures, hoping he would eventually turn and look at me (or that I'd at least get a cute candid shot). Nope. Nothing.

Then my camera battery died.

Sigh. I'll try again tomorrow.

I promise adorable Christmassey Owen pictures in the near future. It will happen.

I hope.