Start of the Christmas Season

Thanksgiving is over so it’s time to cram all of the traditions and gatherings in the next few weeks. Last weekend we decorated inside and outside of the house. Even though it took all weekend (now that I’m thinking about it we still have a few things left), and was very crazy with Owen “helping”, it looks so much cozier. 

Last weekend we went to a local light-up night where Owen scooped up all the candy from the parade, saw Santa and his reindeer, rode a trolley, and had some hot chocolate. He tends to get a little crazy from hot chocolate so I think we are done with that for now. 

Yesterday got a little crazy with a Christmas party and then an Ugly Sweater Party. At the Christmas party, Owen got to spend some time with his cousins and got to sit on Santa’s lap. The party started a little rough after Owen got a paper-cut and started to freak out like he cut his finger off. I’m glad he forgot about it the next day. 

After sitting with Santa Owen picked a shopping cart for his present

Last week Owen brought home some papers from school showing how to make gingerbread cookies and since then he has wanted to make some. So today (after walking over to Whole Foods for more molasses) we made a ton of gingerbread cookies. It was a long process, but Owen really enjoyed mixing and decorating the cookies. And because the weather was so nice (and we had a ton of cookies) Owen delivered some to neighbors in his Mercedes. 

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Ice Skating

We have tried out soccer, swim lessons, and running club. The first season of soccer Owen enjoyed, but the second season he spent most of the time laying on the ground crying. Most weeks there were tears before, during, or after swim lessons. He enjoyed running club so I think we’ll try that out again.

Owen is currently enjoying tumbling class and ice skating lessons. Tumbling seems to be going well and lasts all through the school year. Unfortunately, there isn’t a recital at the end of the year, which would be pretty funny.  Ice skating is his newest adventure and 2 weeks in he seems to be really enjoying it. They started out the lessons on a practice ice (plastic) rink then moved onto the real ice and split them into small groups by age and level. On his second lesson Owen moved up to a more advanced class and seemed to do well with it. We’ll have to wait and see what the last 4 weeks bring, but I have a feeling that he will want to do it again. 

Superheroes

Owen has been a big fan of superheroes for a while now. Last year he dressed up for Halloween as Spiderman, and this year he was Catboy. To my dismay, he loves pretending to fight, and Tony will get in on the action because he knows that mommy won’t participate. Well, I kind of gave in when I bought tickets a few months ago for the Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes show. We went to the show last weekend, and Owen was so excited the whole time. It was absolutely more fun watching him on the edge of his seat than watching the actual show. Since the show, he has taken turns pretending to be each of the characters in the show (both good guys and bad guys). I wanted to thank everyone that told us to take a trip to the Dollar Store beforehand to get some glow sticks. This saved us a lot of money! We did end up getting a mask that came with the $15 cotton candy, but Owen really didn’t ask for much because he was so excited for the show itself.

 

4 1/2

Owen is officially 4 1/2 even though he has been saying that he was 4 1/2 for a while now. He is healthy and always running around doing something. He enjoys watching things on his tablet, and asking for cheese slices for breakfast. Weird right? Tony is still waking him up before he goes to bed so that Owen can go potty, but hopefully, soon, he won’t need to do that anymore.

We started a tumbling class for Owen last month and he seems to like it. The class we started to take was on Mondays, but we soon realized that he was the only one in the class. That seemed really odd to me since Mondays are usually jam-packed with when signing up for kid activities. After a few weeks of getting a private tumbling class, he wanted to have other kids in it with him. So we switched to the Friday class that has one other boy and a few girls – now he’s enjoying it more. The class is only half an hour long and runs through June. There won’t be a recital, but we get to watch his class through a closed circuit TV while it is going on. He seems to be doing pretty well with it. The next adventure that we signed him up for is ice skating lessons, which starts next week.

Big News

This March, or possibly late February, we are going to have a baby boy. We found out the news in June and Owen is so excited that he is going to have a brother. I forgot how long the first trimester seems with keeping the news a secret. Then it was the waiting game to find out the gender. Now we just need to get everything ready for the new baby. It’s kind of funny that with Owen his nursery was pretty much completed by this time.

I have been feeling pretty good for the most part. Recently I’ve started to not be able to sleep well since I’m a stomach sleeper. Hopefully my body will get used to sleeping on my side soon. I’m really looking forward to feeling the baby move and kick. Up to now (20 weeks) I’ve only felt some flutters. I think Owen will enjoy feeling the baby kick too, or he might be freaked out. We’ll just have to see. He did say that he wants to show the baby all of his “tricks”. Not sure what that means, but I think he will be a little disappointed that the baby can’t run around with him for a long time. Oh and we were talking about names the other day, and he suggested the name Owen. I think we still have some work to do in that department.

Since the age difference with Owen and the baby will be almost 5 years I think it is going to be rough at first. I think he will want to help out, but he’ll be upset when we have to spend so much time with the new baby. We did sign him up for a Big Brother class. Not sure how helpful it will be, but it can’t hurt. I’ve also heard that having him buy or make something for the baby will help too. I’m open to any tips people have.

Working from home has many perks especially when you can wear leggings and sweatpants. I thought I kept most of my maternity clothes, but it turns out I was wrong. So a few friends have been gracious enough to loan me some things, and I’ve slowly been buying a few essentials to keep the growing belly covered.

We took a cold trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Special Treat

Last week we finally ran out of pull-ups and we decided not to buy anymore. That meant that Owen needed to figure out how to make it through the night without having an accident. When we went for Owen’s 4 yr well check the doctor told us that this was normal so we didn’t really push the issue, but pull-ups are crazy expensive so we decided to give it a try.

After several failed attempts we came up with a strategy. First of all, no liquids after 7 pm. Then, after putting Owen to bed around 8, Tony would wake him up before he went to sleep usually around 10:30. Finally, after still being wet after several more nights, I told him that he would get a special treat if he could stay dry for 3 nights in a row – bribery for the win! By the 5th night Owen woke up every 30 minutes or so (and came into into our room to let us know for some reason), went to the bathroom, and then got back into bed. That morning he was dry when he woke up. Yay!

The next few nights he didn’t wake up at all so we figured he would be wet but he wasn’t. He earned his special treat, and he couldn’t have been more excited. I took him to Peace Love & Little Donuts before school, and he got to pick whichever one he wanted. I think he enjoyed it and he has been dry since then.

Summer Recap

With the last unofficial weekend of summer coming to an end (even though the temperatures have been super hot) I thought it would be a good time to finally get back to blogging. I’ve recently printed out a ton of pictures to try and catch up on Owen’s albums, and I realized that I haven’t done a post since June :/. So let’s get caught up.

This summer has been full of a few firsts for Owen as well as a few trips away. We started the summer off with a trip to Williamsburg, VA. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Owen on this trip but he actually did really well. As we explored Colonial Williamsburg he even asked a few questions. He was also very well behaved when the adults were sampling some mead and wine.

From there we went to Corolla, NC. I’m pretty sure Owen hates the car more than he used to so the drive consisted of Owen asking “how many more minutes” every couple of minutes. That got old really fast. When snacks and movies didn’t work anymore we just stopped and let him run around. Our days were filled with short walks to the beach where Owen loved playing in the water (which was a big change from last year) and sand.

Later in the summer Owen went bowling for the first time, rode a horse (not just a pony), went to a Pirate game, and enjoyed his first trip to Kennywood. Owen was disappointed to miss the Jackrabbit by a half an inch, but he’s excited to ride it next year.