Little is three!!

And we had a marvelous time! Here's some proof:

The birthday boy

The cake

Getting his wish!

Some of the gifts!

The gang!

Twas the day after Thanksgiving... or do I mean Halloween??

It has been a while since I have posted. I have actually had some troubles with my computer selecting pictures- so I have tried-unsuccessfully to post a couple of times. Now I have a NEW computer- yay- and it works! Here is one of those posts I was working on. Owen was in the middle of potty training (that day that he was busy potty training)... he is a potty training expert by the way... and he was showing off his new big boy pants while he was being wearing his shades and trick or treating (around the house gathering various treats). AND I captured it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for our family, our friends, and all of our blessings... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Owen and sharing

Owen still uses a pacifier. Mostly while he is sleeping- but also when he gets hurt- which is way too often- to give you an idea why... I took him to the coffee shop this morning and he pointed to the roof and said "I can jump from there... when I get wings, I can fly!" and, he truly believes that- so sometimes he has his pacifier when he is testing out his wing growth.
One of these days, Owen had his pacifier and asked for a snack. I told him he would have to put his pacifier and his cow up (he has a cow flashlight he likes to feed because the mouth opens up where the light is). I came out with the snack to find this:

If you can't tell in the picture, Owen put his pacifier in the cow's mouth. Such a sweet little man!

A night out with the mario brothers

Halloween this year was SO much fun! The boys were incredibly excited to wear their Mario and Luigi costumes... Don't know if you can tell but Owen's Mustache covered his mouth and adhesived his mouth shut. (he could still breathe out of his nose... but his "trick or treat" call- sounded more like "mm-mm-mmmmmm"). He just absolutely wanted to wear it and ran the other way when we tried to fix it so he could open his mouth.
We went with cousin's S and S, and aunt C and uncle M. Also, Uncle W. was able to join us this year (he was in town for grandma's funeral and so he wasn't able to go trick or treating with his girls in Cali- so he decided to go with the nephews.) I think a fun time was had by all.
It was pretty cold- but it made it easier to get the boys to come in after their fun was had. They are being amazingly controlled about the candy consumption. They don't ask for it that much- a couple of times a day- but we have set a limit to only after they eat something of some substance...and it really hasn't been a hassle. They really aren't candy guys yet. Mommy... however... where's that halloween candy??? It's like stealing candy from a baby... (just kidding- kind of)!

In memory...

Grandma F. passed away last week. Her services were yesterday- many family and friends came to share their memories of her. It was a very nice service. I had a hard time finding pictures that you could see Grandma F very well- but I did find the following with the boys- she loved pulling a ball out and playing catch every time the boys came over. We will miss you grandma!

4am

Early Sunday morning, about 4am- I was awakened by Aidan crying- sobbing. I quickly went to the boys room and found Owen jumping from Aidan's bed. I was still half asleep, but did surmise that Owen must have somehow hurt Aidan, probably by accident- trying to wake his brother to play... I immediately started to comfort Aidan stroking his hair and asked him what happened. He told me he was sad. I asked Owen to say he was sorry. Owen immediately said, "I didn't do it!" Then Aidan explained to me, "you are mean mommy! You hurt my feelings! You were grouchy with me downstairs! Why did you do that?" I tried to in my half asleep way explain to Aidan what dreams are- but I didn't even understand my explanation.


I told Aidan I was sorry for hurting his feelings in his dream and kissed him on the cheek. He said, "mommy, that's not my feelings, kiss my feelings!" I kissed his chest (above his heart.) He was calmed down and closed his eyes.


Before leaving the room, Owen asked me for another pacifier (yes, he still uses a pacifier- let's not go there right now- another day...). We quickly looked for the one he went to bed with and had no luck in finding- so I just went to get another- and went back to bed for my last couple of hours of sleep.


When we woke in the morning, Aidan took his jammies off and we found a pacifier in the foot of his jammies. I asked Aidan why he had Owen's pacifier. He said, "when you were grouchy and I was crying, Owen brought me his pacifier and I put it in my jammies."


Immediate guilt and melting all at once. Little Owen, who I assumed was being a stinker and causing his brother to cry last night, was actually giving his brother his pacifier that he has a major addiction to. (To give you an idea- if Owen loses his pacifier in the middle of the night- we have the same sort of sobbing/crying from Owen that Aidan had the other night and he will come to get me). Awwww....




Here they are- pacifier boy loving his big brother!

Four generations...

Sadly, Grandpa D. passed away at the end of last month. As with many sad occasions, it did provide an opportunity to spend time with those that we love so much, but don't routinely see. The night before the funeral, we went through many family photos which made me realize- we don't have a "generation" picture. I was able to get a picture of the four generations of the kids, my husband, his mom and her mom.

September walk

A walk at the state park- with some hugs along the way...


Some rock climbing...

Some balancing acts...

Some posing for family pictures...

And more posing...

Fun times!

Visit by G-ma M

Grandma M. came for a visit. Unfortunately it was under less then ideal circumstances (great gma G (grandma M's mom) experienced congestive heart failure and great gpa D had a stroke... gma G health is doing pretty well since, gpa D still trying to rehabilitate as much as possible).

We were able to have a day visit with Grandma M. when she was here. It was cut a little short due to a quick trip to the urgent care clinic with Owen because it looked as if he had an eye infection- they gave him some eye drops... Aidan and I spent the time goofing around in the car- (bottom picture)-we were taking pictures of eachother's funny faces.

FOUR... really???!!!

Aidan turned 4 on Monday. Wow. The little guy is growing up. I wish I could capture/bottle his excitement at and before his birthday party. He was bouncing from the inside out- so was Owen. They both had such a wonderful time. We were a little concerned because for some reason Aidan woke up at 3am the morning of his party and was up for the day. His party wasn't until 3pm-he didn't nap after his early morning wake up...he said "I really don't need much sleep," in a matter of fact, 'my body is just made that way,' sort of way, when I was trying to talk him into the beauty of sleep. He wasn't buying it. He opted to play quietly until the late hour of 6am, when the rest of us pulled ourselves out of bed. But, the lack of sleep didn't, in anyway, impact his fun. Here are some pictures:

Happy Birthday to you big boy!!

Summer time!

Fun in the sandbox!

Walking at the state park- we do this a lot.

At the "waterfall", aka dam



Tired from the busy day of play!

Cool Tee Pee we got at the art fair!

Daddy's day!

We began father's day by going to the beach... with plans to go onto lunch after. So- here we are starting out our walk. First walk on the beach this year (I mean, our first real beach walk... we have walked to the lighthouse at the city park by means of the beach- but not with intention of walking down the shore like today).
Awww... what a cute daddy and kids!

Aidan is looking so grown up to me... We still get so may people asking us if the boys are twins. It's so funny. I don't think there has been a time that we have gone out of town for the day when we haven't been asked if the boys are twins, including this weekend. Aidan and Owen are looking so different in ages, now especially. Aidan looking like such a little boy and Owen still chubby toddler.

Checking out a drifted log...

Oops!! This is why we didn't end up going out to lunch. Owen was running down the beach, tripped and landed face first in the "river"- he calls it. Owen said, "I don't like that! It's too messy!" It's so funny he says that because it seems to be contradictory to his personality- I would think the messier the better for him!

"My voice hurts!"

I am home today with Aidan who is sick... He told me his voice hurts... and it sounds like it does- Here's a picture before we went to the store to get some tylenol which we were out of unfortunately... Doesn't he look like he doesn't feel good? He did well at the store- then, about an hour after we got home, Aidan started to cry and tell me his head and tummy hurt. Poor little guy. He seems to be going through a better feeling moment at the time. Hopefully he is feeling better soon!

"That was a fun summer day!"

At the end of each day as we get ready for bed- Aidan has given his approval of the fun summer day... We have been so happy to be able to get out of the house and the weekends have been so much fun lately... the weather has been pretty cooperative. We have been starting our weekend days by walking out to the lighthouse or going to watch the "waterfall" (a.k.a. the dam) at the state park... The boys have loved it. We love it. And we have had graduation parties, birthday parties and my neice and nephew's dance recital too... lovely start to the begining of good weather.

Our lighthouse is a little tilted... I think it sank a little when they were re-doing the concrete around it if I remember correctly. I think this picture makes it a look a little more leany then it actually is.

The end...

Matching/Sweet/Silly

Hugs from Aidan who was VERY concerned about Owen's boo boo! Aidan has an ultra sensitivity to other people's injuries or disappointments. He is often petting Owen when he is upset (even if Owen is upset over getting in trouble for doing something to Aidan). He says- "it's okay Owen, don't cry..."

And silly...

Emergency Room Duty

When the boys are being especially ruckusy, David or I will disclaim "emergency room duty". Like a reverse "I call it!" Today, I didn't even know that there was reason to assign David the duty. Pleased it was Friday, the end of the work day better yet- I walked into daycare and looked around for the little guy (big guy stayed home with daddy to give his leg a rest today- he overused it it looked like and was having a hard time walking). I didn't see Owen as I looked around- and then looked over at our daycare lady. She was holding something with a towel over it. She said- "we just had a boo boo." For some reason, I didn't catch on... I was thinking, "oh, that's too bad... so- where's Owen." (Remember... Friday, the end of the work day...) Turns out, as you probably now have imagined, she was holding Owen, who had a little incident. He was running and bumped into the couch and gashed his head open. At that point, Owen stirred and looked up at me and pointed to his head and said- "I hurt da head!" I asked him if he wanted to go to the doctor and he said, "YES!" (Kind of like, "duh mom, I'm bleeding from the head! What are you thinking?")

His head was only bleeding very slowly- just needed dabbing every now and again, so I swung by home to change his shirt and called grandma Cheri to see if she wanted to accompany us on our adventure. She was up for the challenge (thank goodness!)

I didn't take a "before" picture, which I am sure you are all grateful for. It almost looked like he had a hole in his head- it was very wide open- so even though it wasn't really bleeding- we figured it needed stitches to close it up.

Owen was really an EXCELLENT patient. I was kind of surprised... no- I was quite surprised- truth be told. We went to the ER desk and the lady asked how she can help (not looking up at Owen) and Owen said "I hurt da head!" and pointed to his head. She melted- and got us right in to triage. ER was bustling- so they actually sent us through to fast track (hooray!). The doctor came in and said he wanted to avoid giving Owen a shot (another hooray) and instead was going to put a topical medicine on his head- but that it had to sit on his head for an hour (oh). Owen hadn't eaten, and by now it was a little after 6pm. But, we did have a diaper bag and grandma had her purse that she carries way too much in (thank goodness!) and Owen ended up having a dinner of goldfish, gummy snacks, m & m's, chocolate, and more gummy snacks.

Eating along with playing with the hospital staff who would come in from time to time to visit the very appealing little patient passed the time pretty quickly. The doctor came in to stitch Owen up, and they strapped him down on a papoose board- putting his arms in a pillowcase and then velcroed the rest of his body down. They also had an assistant and a nurse and me holding him down. The funny thing is, Owen just laid there and laughed at the lights in his eyes. Then they covered his face with one of those papers that is open only where they are going to stitch. Under the little paper- Owen said, "Where'd Owen go?" Then the doctor cleaned him. He flinched a little because it was cold. He was talking- kept asking where he went and where mama and grandma went- (and of course we answered)- then he was very quite. The little dude fell asleep while he was getting stitches! He woke up when the doctor cleaned him again- and was proud of his band-aid. He thanked the doctor and the nurses. The doctor also told us what to watch for with a closed head injury (but wasn't his head OPEN? that's why the stitched him!) Anyway, he said, he may throw up once or twice just because of the trauma, but if he throws up more than that- then bring him back because it might be a sign of a concussion. Grandma said, well, he might throw up because of the dinner he ate. Thank goodness no vomiting- for either reason!)
And we went home via a fast food restaurant since it was after 7:30 pm when we were leaving (and of course, to top off the rest of the healthy dinner, Owen got some chicken nuggets and french fries).

Here are some pictures of the brave little guy.