Florida Trip

We got back a couple of days ago after spending a week in Florida. Pat had a conference down there so we decided to make it a family vacation. Pat's mom came with us which worked great since Pat had to spend a few days in meetings and I probably wouldn't have ventured out much on my own with Owen. Pat's uncle has a condo near Daytona Beach that we stayed in which was great. It's in a fly-in community so Owen got to see lots of airplanes which he loved. We didn't have a pack n play down there so we zoned off part of a closet and figured out Owen prefers tighter boundaries. One of us had to lay down with him every night until he fell asleep otherwise he would freak out. The first night or 2 were extremely difficult for me just because I'm used to laying him in his bed and walking out and that's it. Once I readjusted my expectations I was actually able to enjoy watching him fall asleep. The other fun part was that when he woke up in the morning he would appear at the side of my bed looking so adorable :) We also let Owen forward face in the car seat (I'm planning on keeping him rear facing as long as possible) while we were down there and he still hates being in the car seat so he went back to rear facing as soon as we got home.

We got down there Friday afternoon then had dinner at a nice little restaurant near the condo. They had a nice little play area outside that Owen loved. We spent most of Saturday on Disney property. We didn't get tickets for any of the parks since tickets and expensive and Owen wouldn't remember it anyway. Instead we rode the monorail around and a couple of boats. We saw The Boardwalk on Saturday and Downtown Disney on Sunday. We were glad we didn't get tickets for the parks because our days were full enough without them.
We spent a few hours at the beach on Monday and Owen LOVED it. He made me so nervous though because he would just take off into the water not realizing they could knock him over and pull him out. That was the only day I got sunburn and it was pretty minor which was great. I've had some pretty nasty sunburns in my life so I'm trying to be smarter in my old age and use sunscreen more regularly. I'd kind of forgotten about reapplying it but it wasn't bad.

Tuesday we went to look for manatees and alligators and say neither. Well, we saw 1/3 of a manatee but that was it. We drove down this little gravel road near Cape Canaveral and had fun searching for alligators but unfortunately all we saw were a lot of birds. I guess it was too hot for anything to surface.

Pat's mom flew out early Wednesday morning so we just laid low the rest of the day. It was the only day Owen had a real nap for the whole trip. All of his naps were either in the car or on my lap on the airplane and he'll only sleep for 30-45 minutes in the situations. The poor kid was exhausted but did really well. Fortunately he slept great at night. We went back to the beach that night since Pat hadn't been able to come with the first time and it was so fun. It was cooler and raining a little so there was hardly anybody there and Pat and Owen had a blast. We hadn't brought our suits so we just planned on wading and walking in the sand but there was no way we were able to keep Owen out of the water and he was soaked when we left. He had a blast running into the waves and Daddy loved catching him. I was put in charge of keeping the phones and wallet dry so Daddy did the chasing while Mommy attempted to stay dry.

We flew back to Cedar Rapids late Thursday morning and Owen fell asleep on my lap about 5 minutes after takeoff and slept about 45 minutes. On the way down there we had an extra seat in our row for him to climb around in but not on the way home. It went pretty well though.

We got back to our house around 2:00 and then left for Kansas City around 6:00. Pat was going to a Chief's game Friday night and we figured Owen would sleep better down there since that is what is familiar to him at this point. He also slept the first 3 hours which was great and the last hour and a half he was in a good mood so it made for a relatively easy trip. Pat was pretty tired though!

We had a great time even though it was so hot. (This MN girl does not like heat!)

We stayed at a hotel in Orlando one night so Owen got his boundaries once!

And we have words!

17 Months and then some

It's funny how much harder it is to update a blog with a toddler. I know I'm not the only one that feels this way since I follow several other moms with children Owen's age and their blogs have almost ceased to exist. When Owen was an infant I thought I had no time but I still managed to blog regularly. I guess there are more toys to pick up now.

Owen has transitioned into one nap recently. He started sleeping later - like 9:30 sometimes - so clearly 2 naps were not going to happen on those days. We started putting him to be around 8-8:30 so that he could have some play time with Daddy as well as Grandma and Grandpa. It was also hard putting him down when there was still so much daylight left. He typically gets up around 8:30 then goes down for a nap between 12:30-1:00. His sleep time varies from day to day but I'd say he averages around 2 hours. We'll see how this schedule works when we get home!

Owen has four more teeth coming in which has not been the most pleasant thing. I asked Pat the other day if any of Owens teeth have come in while we were in our own house. It seems like very few. All that's left after these are the 2 year molars so hopefully we'll have a little bit of a break. These teeth brought on a new symptom that we haven't had with others. Let's just say I felt like I was diapering an infant all over again. (I refuse to use the D-word!) Owen and I were at my parents when that all began and the one night I think I changed him 6 times. Poor kid had a nasty rash and screamed every time  I mentioned diaper. He seems to be doing better the last couple of days but I've pretty much only been feeding him bananas, rice, applesauce and toast. He got a few blueberries today so we'll see what happens. He's acting completely normal and not running a fever which is what makes me believe it's teething related and not a sickness.

Owen is getting closer to talking which is really exciting. I've refused to teach him how to sing mom so that he would learn to say it instead and it's finally working! He will finally point at me when asked where mama is and if someone asks who I am then he will say "mama mama". He's gotten "dad" and "dadada" down pretty well also. We taught him how to sign Dad and grandma and grandpa but he seems to use the same sign for all three as well as for any person he recognizes. Basically everyone is dad :)
Pat's sister has a little dog named Bailee and Owen likes her most of the time. Probably because he's bigger than she is and he can just push her away when he's had enough. He hasn't seen her in a few weeks though and we asked him where Bailee was and he signed dog and looked around. It's been a lot of fun seeing how much he remembers.

Owen is still obsessed with anything that goes. Cars, trucks, planes, lawn mowers... He loves them all. He frequently hears things before I do and perks up and starts signing something.

We've started a biting stage but he doesn't usually do it out of anger. Most of the time it's out of love or excitement so I can't really get mad at him. He's bitten me twice in the last week and both times he was being really affectionate and giving me a hug and then chomp! The first time was in the back and it hurt so bad! I guess biting is a way of dealing with overwhelming emotions whether good or bad.

We've been in Kansas with Pat's folks since mid-June and will be here until the end of August. Owen has loved being with Grandma and Grandpa and all of their toys. He has a lot more room to run around here so it will be an interesting fall transitioning back into our own house. We've been to the pool several times and a couple of libraries. Tuesday we went to Toddle Time at a community center which was a lot of fun. He got to drive a car around, push a little lawn mower and dunk a basketball. We've been to church a couple of times and Owen loves the nursery. Both times it took much coaxing to get him to come with us.
It's somewhat strange being in a place for this amount of time. In some ways it's been lonely for me since it's usually just Owen and I during the day. It's difficult to get involved in anything since we're only here for 12 weeks and there doesn't seem to be as much happening during the summer. I suppose if I had really wanted to put effort into meeting people I could have but I have a hard time doing that when I'm going to be somewhere for a couple of years. It's a little bit of an awkward position for me that I'm not used to. Overall it's been a good summer so far though!

Owen and I took a trip to the Farmstead down the road. Lots of animals but Owen was more interested in the people and other kids.

Helping with some yard work

Checking out a few of his trucks

Mom and Dad got to go on a date!

We went to a jazz club and it was a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

The next three photos should be captioned "what happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's..."

This is how we deal with diaper rash in the North....an old towel and some duct tape.

This is how we survive trips to the grocery store. Here Owen is focusing on getting the cart in the corral just right.

Mom and Dad's other date to see the Royal's lose

This is Owen's weight lifting face. 

Fun at the playground

Watching the sprinklers with Daddy. Owen would have loved to run through them.

Driving the Mule at Camp-O-Rama 2013

Post swimming fun

My cousin Jen was in KC for a few days so we got to see her for a little bit

Sharing a smoothie at a coffee shop

Nothing makes this kid happier

Snuggles for Daddy

This needs a clever caption.....

Driving the baggage car at the airport

Waiting for our first plane ride together. Owen did fantastic and even made a couple friends.

All the daddies were outside working so what the mommies heard inside was "daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

Owen's dance partner

Last night we went to Pat's cousins wedding in Wichita. Owen loved being on the dance floor so I was able to stay longer than I've been able to since having him which was fun. I think every wedding I've been to since becoming a mother I've left right after the toasts (at the latest) so it was fun to actually get to stay around and see everything. Owen liked chasing the flower girls around trying to touch their dresses. Not sure he ever succeeded at that though. Then this one little girl walked in and he fell in love :) He followed here around a bit then walked right up to her and hugged her. So adorable. I think he followed her around the dance floor a good chunk of the night trying to give her hugs. (I missed out on most of this since grandma let this mama have a break while she chased him around the dance floor.) I did see that when the little girl gave Owen a hug he ran away. Silly boy! 

Here's a photo that daddy caught

Vroom vroom goes...everything

I have a son that is all boy. The kid loves anything with wheels and I'm constantly hearing car sounds throughout the day. Owen loves driving his cars or trucks or tractors all around the house vroom vrooming them wherever he goes. He also loves books with trucks/cars/tractors. I found a book at the library yesterday that was about tractors and had to read it 4 times last night before going to bed. He wanted to look through it more times but I was done. We had this with one other book recently - Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose. Over and over and over. I love how much he enjoys books though so I'd rather have him ask for the same book over and over than not want to read any.

Owen has become an excellent walker and my days are now filled with chasing him around the house or outside. He's suffered a few skinned knees but usually just needs a quick snuggle before he wants to go again. I let him walk around the parking lot after we got home one day and he fell right on his knees and knowing how that feels I picked him up right away and instead of crying he was trying to grab his knees while saying "ooo ooo ooo". That was about 20 seconds and then it was time to run again. He's gotten pretty quick too which I'm still getting used to and does not feel the need to stay close to mom or dad when out of the house.

A few weeks ago Owen got to be a ring bearer in my sisters wedding and he (along with his cousins) was ADORABLE. I had made bow ties for the 3 little boys to wear and it was almost to much cuteness to handle. I failed to take even one picture the whole day which was really unfortunate. I think the photographer got some good ones of just Owen so I'm hoping to somehow get a hold of them.
Amanda's wedding day was beautiful and it was so good to spend some time with family although it was short.

(I wrote this post over several days so if I say yesterday or today it's more likely to be weeks ago)

I'll try not to neglect this blog so much in the future.

Trucks go everywhere with this kid