Gil and the diecast airplane

When you brother is asleep and you are not you crawl into the playroom and dig out his favorite diecast plane. Quite proud of yourself and aware that there is no one to snatch it back from you, you zoom it around through the air with the most adorable sounds. You taste it, you carry it and eventually you forget about it. You are every bit the second child and I love you so.

Playtime: This is THREE.

Owen has been having such a great time playing lately. Certain things will hold his attention for almost an hour now. He played playdoh at the Toy Lending Library for over an hour. He got a 'Cootie Bug' game for his birthday from a friend, and it's the first game he's ever had. He likes to put the bugs together and roll the dice, but we're working on the 'wait your turn' concept. He also LOVES puzzles. I pulled a few out for him one day and showed him how to find the corners to put them together. His Papa sent some puzzles made from pictures of our family a while back, and now he is finally able to put them together. It was actually a great way to teach him puzzles, "Now find all of the pieces of Daddy and put those together." He caught on really quickly and we've been trying to find good 24 piece puzzles for him.

In the last picture he had been working on those puzzles on his new train table for over a hour. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was nap time.

Piggy Popper

Owen got a really fun Piggy Popper for his birthday. We have had a blast playing with it, we even have a song we made up about it. Gillen thinks it's hysterical.

This baby seriously is like this all day every day - it's THE BEST.

Owen David: 32 Months

Dearest Owen,

These might just be your two favorite things right now, "cozy jammies" and tools (well, and Curious George). You insist on wearing fleece pants around the house, for nap and for bedtime. It is becoming impossible for me to keep them laundered and in your drawer. You LOVE tools right now. We finally found you a drill that works [one of your many Big Brother presents] and you run out to the playroom first thing in the morning to get to work with your tools. You hammer your crib "fixing it" and screw in these screws endlessly throughout the day.

This has also been our most challenging month to date. You have come into your own as a toddler and terrible twos have entered our house like none other. It's hard to know how much of it is your struggle with Gillen's arrival and how much of it is just being two but it has been so hard for me.  Last week your tantrums, cries, and general disagreement brought me to tears every single night. I wondered if bringing home Gillen had changed our relationship and honestly struggled to remember the happy boy I spoiled to death the week before his birth. People tell me that this too shall pass, and I'm trying not to wish our days away but I want nothing more than for you to wake with happy smiles rather than tears and tantrums. I want you to settle in bed before midnight and eat something other than green beans and peanut butter.

But then you - with your two and a half years of life - amaze me with your insight, your comprehensive vocabulary and understanding of what we say. When we talk you always ask if there is one word you don't understand. The other day you asked your daddy, "What is a customer?"  -- such hard questions from you! "Why?" is your favorite question right now and you are facinated with how things work. The other day you pointed to the wheels of our car as we were getting in and said, "When the car starts these wheels are going to spin around." Yes. Yes they are. You start conversations with strangers and always begin by asking them, "Are YOU a big brother?" (even if you're talking to a lady :)) You tell them your name is Owen, you are three (which you are not, my love) and that you have a baby brother named Gillen. I love this so much about you and it makes me so happy when strangers engage you in conversation.

You are a wonderful big brother.You've all but stopped asking if we can take baby Gil back to the hospital and I think you have forgotten what it was like without him. Whenever you talk about our family, you include your brother. It melts me. When your brother is screaming in the car, as he often does, we ask you to hold his hand. You usually answer with, "I'd be happy to" and he quiets down immediately. It's amazing really. You are a loving and devoted big brother. I am so incredibly proud of you.

Two and a half is hard and wonderful. I guess that describes parenthood for the most part. You are still my baby and my heart aches for you when we are apart. Let's make a deal - I promise to keep those cozy pants clean if you promise to take it easy on my Mama heart and limit yourself to two tantrums a day.

Two I can handle. As long as the rest of the day is filled with your hugs and smiles.

Forever and ever I love you more than all of the stars in the sky. All of them.

Mama

Dinosaurs in the mirror are closer than they appear

I love being a boy-Mama. I absolutely LOVE it.

Doctor Daddy

This is one of Owen's favorite toys right now and he calls it,  
"Doctor Daddy!"

Why moving (again) was worth it for us

When we moved to Pittsburgh last year, I had every intention of going back to work full time but as weeks turned into months and I spent my days soaking in the cutest boy on the planet we decided that in order for me to remain home, we needed to find a cheaper apartment.

We loved the location of our place, within walking distance to EVERYTHING and were sick with the thought of giving that up, but were willing to do so if it meant less financial stress each month. Somehow the stars aligned and a place opened up NEXT DOOR to our current building. The apartment was being fully renovated, new kitchen, stainless steel appliances, new carpet, new paint with a $300 per month savings. In addition we were getting a sun room which we turned into a playroom for Owen, a recessed deck (new grill!), and covered parking. Did I mention we were SAVING money and still walking to all of our favorite places? So we hired a few college students and schleped all of our belongings and our precious boy next door.

I hope one day to give you a full house tour, but I am excited to show you Owen's playroom. His bedroom is set up almost identical to how we had it in the old place (I honestly don't even think he noticed we moved) and his room will always be my favorite place. It smells like baby and makes me happy just to be there. But his playroom is a close second because I love to watch him explore and learn in his own space (that and I don't have to clean up the toys multiple times a day anymore, win-win)

The last year has been hard on us financially. Resident salary is less than what Jeremy was making as a teacher so we've had to be creative with our budget. I'm confident we'll continue to make it work and I've been looking for opportunities to bring in extra money while being with O full time. We're lucky to have wonderful family who have gifted us some very special things in the last year, including our Zoo membership and a membership to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.

Read more about how we enjoy our life on one salary HERE on KVELLER. {Mayim Bailik posted my article with compliments on her Facebook page and I was so touched. Its also blowing up with Facebook "likes" and that made up for the snarky comment that one reader left. Such is life on the internet I guess...)

{Owen's Play Space}

This is the view looking into our family room, as you can see Owen's play area is just behind the couch.

My/our desk area shares the sunroom space. I love the window and the carpet I scored at Ikea for $20! Now I'm just looking for fun things to decorate the huge blank wall to the left of my desk, I'm thinking something like THIS inspired by YourWishcake

When I was little all of my play furniture - cradle, table, chairs - was handmade by my grandfather. Woodworking just isn't a skill we posses in this house so Owen's table and chair set is from grandpaIKEA. But I was inspired by THIS and I spiced it up a little.  We had plexiglass cut at Lowe's to put over the top of it (wipes easily!) and I'm really happy with how this little $20 table turned out.

I'll be on the lookout for a wooden play kitchen once Black Friday deals roll around and I've been scouring the internet for a boy babydoll and blue stroller because anytime we play with friends Owen finds a doll and stroller to push around. We've been really lucky in that 99% of these toys were either gifts or handed down from our neighbors. Hand-me-downs have been a god-send on our budget!

A certain little boy loves to spend time in this sunny room stacking cups, zooming cars and reading books. It absolutely melts my heart to watch him play in this colorful space made just for him.

Cruise'n

Over the last few weeks Owen has amazed us. He isn't crawling on all fours (although he has attempted it in the last few days) but can get wherever he wants quite efficiently with his combat crawl. Just before the holidays we were given a box of toys from a friend ( LOVE hand-me-downs). In the box amongst links, two shape sorters and some blocks, was a music table. We set it up for Owen last week and HE LOVES IT! He lifts the flaps to make it say, "peek-a-boo" and knows how to turn on all of the sounds. He will stand there for over a half hour just playing with it. But god forbid we should put anything in that bowl as he insists the bowl remain empty ;)  My friend told me they used to put cheerios in there for her daughter to work on balance and she would stand there forever to eat the cheerios one by one. We'll see if O wants cheerios in his bowl tomorrow.

Owen PULLS UP! on EVERYTHING now. He CRUISES! around the crib, around the couch and can even transition between this table, the coffee table and the furniture in our living room.

He WAVES! bye-bye in the most adorable uncoordinated way I've ever seen. He is starting to get some fine motor control over his arms and hands. He sticks out his pointer finger to touch mine, especially when I sing "Where is pointer? Where is pointer? Here I am! Here I am!"  He has become a pro at getting food in his mouth, even very small pieces. I have been trying to get him to sign "milk" when he wants to nurse (instead of biting me) and the sign for "more" when he's eating. I know he watches me, but I'm still waiting for him to sign back.

He is doing so much so quickly these days. People always tell us that Owen has an "intelligent face" like he is studying things. His giggles are few and far between, he's a thinker our boy. He takes in everything he sees. I know he is understands a lot of what I say to him. When we put him in his booster seat we ask him to raise up his arm (so his fingers don't get pinched) AND HE DOES! He turns pages in books and crawls to me when he is tired or hungry.

I loved the snuggly newborn stage, and I ate up his chubby six month thighs, but what they say is true - every stage is wonderful and amazing. I gush. I'm just so proud.

He has me and I am free

Owen has like five little toys and an exersaucer. I've been beating myself up that we don't have the money to get him EVERYSINGLETOYINTHEWORLD. I worried (my crazy, irrational Mama worry) that he would be dumber, or slower or damaged because we can't afford a baby basketball game or a LIGHT-UP-SOUND-SHAPE-SORTER-EXTRORDINAIRE table. Like he isn't going know his shapes and colors because he doesn't have a toy to teach him. I got really upset about it with Jeremy one night after he told me he didn't think we needed toys to make O happy or smart. Jeremy feels so guilty that he's gone all the time and doesn't bring home much money as a resident. With me not working things are tight, but just before we went to bed he said to me, "Tam whatever you need to buy to make you feel okay about this, we'll buy for him. If you think he needs more for his development, we'll find a way to make it work"

and then it dawned on me. My husband was so right.

All Owen needs is me. My love and my attention. We are making sacrifices because I want to be home with him. Would I rather work and have extra money for toys? Hell no! The next day I grabbed his set of stacking cups and I put them in a big plastic bowl from the kitchen. I pile the cups in the bowl and Owen takes them out. He loves this game. Once the bowl is empty he puts it on his head or bites it. He laughs and waits for me to refill the bowl.

We have one ball. I roll it to him and try to get him to roll it back to me. As soon as I say the word "ball" he smiles and looks around for it. He knows we play ball together.

I really wanted THIS TOY for Owen. One of the kids at playgroup has one and Owen LOVES to play with the shaker and the bells. I just couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for it. A few weeks ago I was at a garage sale. There was a box of infant toys that said $0.25 each or 5 for $1.00. And there they were. I almost cried when I saw those two random toy pieces and I swiped them up like it was Black Friday and there was a line of googly-eyed women with fanny packs behind me just waiting at the chance to plow me over for the deal (there weren't of course, it was just me). I felt like I had won the lottery. The two pieces that Owen loves playing with THE MOST in absolutely perfect condition. I rushed home with my treasures and after dumping half a bottle of disinfectant on them (rinse and repeat) I presented them to a VERY pleased baby Owen. They snap together but most of the time he likes to shake them separately so that I can shake one and he can shake one while I sing, "Shake it like a Polaroid picture! Shake it! Shake it! -- Shake it! Shake it!"

So for $0.50 - I added it to our plastic bowl. The songs come free with being his Mama.

This isn't a post about our budget - its a post about me being stupid enough to spend a single minute dwelling on something that didn't matter. When the only thing that does matter, is us  - our hugs, our songs, me spending every waking minute talking to him. That is how he will learn, that is what makes him happiest, THAT is what's important -- that and whatever other things I can find in the kitchen ;)

Unemployment Rocks

As of 5pm today, I am officially unemployed.

This is my job.





And I gotta say, its the best damn job I've ever had.

Playtime

Owen is finally starting to interact with his toys. He *loves* Peter, and is enjoying his time on the play mat. He even smiles and swats at the safari animals hanging from the bouncer.

My heart melts with all of this adorableness going on in my living room. ABSOLUTELY MELTS.

Baby Brains

People have always told us that all newborns do is eat, sleep and poop - and while these traits hold true for our son, he also finds time to be cute and make faces. This week he's also mastered the art of sucking on a few fingers, taking a bottle, and involuntarily blowing little milky spit bubbles.

We don't have many toys around the house. What gadgets could one possibly need to facilitate eating, sleeping and pooping? But I did a little research while on bed rest and found a few age appropriate things to have on hand early on. Lamaze makes some very well reviewed toys so we registered for Jacques the Peacock (hereby known in our house as "Peter" - thanks Ry and Emma!) Peter's wings make a crinkle sound and his backside is black and white to capitalize on the vision strength of newborns. Owen actually made an uncoordinated swing for him yesterday and then grabbed onto a wing!

And when play time is over, little O hunkers down for some homework. Each day, during awake time, we show him his flashcards - except for the lion. Owen apparently doesn't like lions and expresses his distaste for them by blatantly ignoring the card or screaming.

My mom was here last week and gave me the craziest look when I said, "Alright Owen, now that you've eaten it's time to settle down and do some homework"

I'm sure she went home and immediately had this conversation with my Dad:

"You are never going to believe what they do to that poor baby - they make him study flashcards and they call it his HOMEWORK!"



In our defense, he does seem to like the cards and research suggests that images such as these help calm baby while supporting healthy eye development. And, for now, we only assign one animal per day. Just not the lion.