Owen's Monkey Business

The Christmas season was full of traditions new and old, and lots of fun activities. It seems like we didn't take too many pictures on Christmas itself, will try to remedy that next year. But the flipside is we were all present in the room and not stuck behind a camera so we could enjoy it all. The main thing for O. this year was that he learned lots of Christmas words, like Santa "hanta", tree, stockings, and reindeer, and that he enjoyed unwrapping things. He really wanted to enjoy and play with each gift as he opened it, so gifts took about four days to get through. We had saved all the packages mailed from out of town friends and relatives, and next year I think we will open them as they arrive, so he can enjoy them as much as he wants right away. We picked out our tree before daddy left for a week in Chicago. Owen went to a special four session holiday/winter music class with Miss Moira. When daddy went to Chicago, Grandpa came along and pulled him in the "...

This month we started a tradition that we thought of last year. Instead of (or perhaps in addition to) a traditional Advent calendar, we decided that each year we would wrap our collection of holiday board books and picture books and put them in a basket near the tree. Each night Owen gets to choose one to unwrap, and then we read or reread the unwrapped books each night as often as he likes. He got the idea by the second night. All we had to say was, "It's time to choose a book from the basket," and he got this gleeful look in his eye and hightailed it down to his little couch. He has picked all board books so far, and cute ones! He mostly likes the unwrapping part, and takes all his garbage pieces to the trash can as soon as he rips them off. The only trouble is, he is more interested in the unwrapping than in the reading, but with a little encouragement (and putting the basket away in a closet right away), he sits and enjoys the book with us too. We are excited f...

We had fall break all week, so I got to be a stay at home mom and catch up on playdates, fun with O. and household chores plus get a jumpstart on the holiday to-do list! Here is a run-down of our week: Monday: playdate with Tia Alice and cousin Oqwe. The boys had a blast and enjoyed eating lunch together at O's little table. I brought out the second chair and all week since he's left he keeps pointing to the chair and saying "Otwe". It's so cute! After O's nap Tuesday afternoon I took him with me to HomeGoods. I'd been wanting to get there for a month or so just to see and finally I decided to just take him along. He did great! Tuesday: O. and I were up and ready early (by 8:45) to head over and pick up Hannah and Liam so we could all head to Yucaipa, (about 100 miles southeast) to visit Carmen, Jesse, and Camilla Rose. We had such a fun visit. O. ate so much chicken, potatoes and fruit at lunch I could hardly believe it. Wednesday: Up and ready by 9:15 ...

Warning: This is another picture heavy post! I just have to grab the time I have to post so I end up lumping lots of pix together! Owen is now 16 1/2 months old and so much fun! Today is Halloween and we have been enjoying lots of Halloween-y activities! For mommy and daddy's birthday two weeks ago we went to Lombardi Ranch pumpkin patch. During this past week we carved a small jack-o-lantern at home, Owen had a costume photo shoot with two friends because all three dressed as puppies this year, and we made edible playdough into pumpkins for his parent-tot class party. Today we spent the morning cleaning house (as you probably have already figured out, Owen LOVES sweeping up, vaccuuming, emptying garbage, helping to make the bed, put away shoes, and other chores. We shook out all the rugs, with him chanting "shake,shake,shake". We listened to music and played with colorful scarves, and Owen and daddy had a fun trip to the neighborhood park while mommy did some organizi...

Sunday afternoon we drove down to Long Beach to find Naples Island and walk around to view the holiday light displays. The whole area reminds me more of Florida and the canal neighborhood was a lot like Ft. Lauderdale. It wasn't too cold out so we really enjoyed walking around. After an hour and a half or so we found a wonderful Thai restaurant for dinner and finally got home a little after 9.

Owen's first Christmas was a wonderful day shared with my parents. I'll let the pictures tell the story. We were also able to speak with family members far away, though we didn't reach Derek's dad Joe until later.