October 14, 2011

No!

Owen has learned the word ‘no’.  Add this to his favorite word ‘mine’ and we’re in deep trouble in the Dana house.  He’s just days away from turning 2 and for the last few months I was worried he wasn’t talking enough.  He said just a few words at almost 20 months old: mom, dad, papa, baby, door, car, truck and ball.  A few weeks ago he began using sentences.

“Shut the door.”

“Turn it on.”

“Go in there.”

“Where’s mine?”

“Bye, baby!”

“My truck!”

“Where’s Dad?”

It was like he was holding all of these words in his mind until he could say them perfectly.  He talks so clearly, just like Dawson did.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  He’s talking.  There are some occasions when I have to listen closely to understand what he’s saying and I realize he’s practicing some of the words he hears.

For so long, when Owen didn’t want something he would just say “uh-uh.”  Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to go get the mail with me and he said, “Nooooo!”  It was the way he said it that had me laughing.  It was in the tone of a snotty teenager.  I had a flash of what I was in for when he gets older, but I knew he learned that tone from his big brother.  When Owen takes one of Dawson’s toys, Dawson says no in the same way.

All of this morning Owen has been running around the house yelling, “No!” and “Mine!”

I think we’ll be hearing these words for quite awhile.

Good times.

June 4, 2011

Summer + Swimming = Sleepy Kids

Well, it’s June already. How the hell did that sneak up on me so quickly? Dawson has three days of school left and then I have to figure out what we’re going to do this summer. Even though he’ll be going to daycare with Owen while I’m working, I realize I need to try to spend more time with the boys when the weather is sunny and warm. My kiddos love to be outside and summer goes by rather quickly. We need to enjoy it.

Tonight I took both kids to the YMCA to swim in the Adventure Pool. After an hour of splashy fun I said it was time to go. Neither child wanted to get out of the water. I endured several minutes of crying and gave in to another 15 minutes. They finally agreed to get out because they were hungry.

When we got home Dawson and Owen ate as thought they’d been starving and they both fell asleep by 8:30. I managed to get all of my homework done online and now I’m wide awake. Swimming may just become our Friday night ritual.

Our summer is definitely beginning on the right foot. What have you all been up to?

May 22, 2011

Two Little Birds

I have the cutest kids ever.  No really, I do.  They are the joy in my life and I have every right to brag about them, yes?

Here’s some recent photo goodness:

They are growing right before my eyes and every day is special.  It’s so difficult to watch them grow up and become their own personalities.  As much as I love them and understand that this is part of life, in these moments I truly understand what it must have been like for my own mother to “let go” of her four children.

Dawson will be 7 years old in just a few months.  SEVEN.  It seems like yesterday that I was holding him in my arms and rocking him to sleep.  His life is no longer an off-shoot of mine.  He has his own life, separate from me.  He has experiences at school that I know nothing about.  When he gets home he tells me about his friends, what he’s learned, the emotions he feels when things happen during his day.  He is making his own memories and some day this little boy will be a man.  How do I get over the immensity of this fact of life that is staring me in the face every day?  Oh how I wish I cold slow down time.

Owen is almost two years old and I’m now realizing that everything I’ve experienced with Dawson is coming down the pipe with my youngest child.  My baby wants to be like his big brother so much, and it seems like he’s growing up twice as fast as Dawson is.  I don’t know how this is possible.  Owen is so full of energy and is always smiling.  When I look at his face I see how much he loves life.  I see how much he loves Dawson.  He is ready to conquer the world.

I can help but shed some tears.  I’m sad these little birds have to leave the nest some day, but I’m so lucky to be their mother and to watch them take flight right before my eyes.

November 1, 2010

Tricks, Treats & Star Wars Cuties

Yesterday I took the boys Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood.  I’ve never had more fun.  Dawson is an old pro at the “getting free candy” thing.  This was Owen’s first time and it was so cute to watch his face whenever candy was placed in his pumpkin pail.

The first house we went to was the next-door neighbor’s.  Dawson rang the doorbell.  He was a Star Wars Shadow Trooper this year.  When our neighbor came to the door she was carrying two large bags of candy.  Little Owen, dressed as Yoda, stood in the middle of the driveway holding his pumpkin pail and didn’t really understand what was happening.  When Dawson put some of the candy into the pail, Owen just stared inside with his mouth wide open.  It was like he couldn’t believe someone gave him candy and Mom didn’t swoop in to take it away.  I don’t usually let the boys have candy so this must have been Heaven to both Dawson and Owen.

I let Owen walk up to a few other houses and then put him in the wagon while Dawson continued around the neighborhood.  Every house we went to gave tons of candy to Dawson and then sent more over for Owen’s bucket.  I think we have enough candy to rot the teeth of an entire village.  We only went around the block and across the subdivision this year.  Then we came home so that Dawson could hand out candy to kids.  He had such a good time answering the door.  Owen was a quite startled with every ring of the doorbell, but I think he liked seeing the costumes just as much as the rest of us.

Check out my cute little goblins:

Halloween 2010

How was your Halloween?