Merry Christmas!

Owen had a great second Christmas. He spent Christmas Eve with the Thierauf Family, Christmas morning with mommy and daddy, then off to Grandpa Watson's house, then out to the Lee house. It was a busy couple of days for him, but he did well, fever and all. He went to bed on the 23rd with a little fever, but woke up around 1 am with a 104 temp! It scared the crap out of me, but we called the exchange and they said as long as he was acting normal not to worry.

We are going to have to move just to house all of Owen's toys! He got so much for Christmas and we're running out of space to put it all. Here's the pile thus far, and he still has another round of presents to go (plus the train table and kitchen set that are already downstairs):

Owen very excited with the night's events:

The classic telephone toy from mom and dad:

Cheesy smile:

Very impressed with the airplane from Aunt Carrie and Joe:

Tickle Tickle

Owen's new favorite game is "tickle, tickle!" Any time he's in our room, he climbs up on our bed, lies down, and waits for tickles. He completely cracks up, it's so funny! Now, any time I saw tickle tickle, he starts giggling and runs to the bed. It's so cute to watch him wait for tickles.

Longest Week Ever

I don't know if this week is dragging because I'm dealing with a tantrum throwing toddler or because of Christmas anticipation. I'm guessing it's because of the tantrums, because I haven't even really thought much about Christmas. Owen's been throwing fits out of frustration so often lately. I feel so bad because I have no idea what he wants and I know he's trying so hard to communicate with us. Anyway, thankfully it's almost the weekend! I'm hoping that all of the Christmas activities will distract him enough to keep him from the tantrums.

Owen's First Snow

Ok, it's technically not his first snow, but it's the first time he was actually able to go outside and play in it. We ended up getting several inches, so we thought it would be fun to take him out and play. After searching a few places for sleds with no success, we figured Owen would have to do without. We bundled him up (think A Christmas Story) and took him out. At first, he was very uninterested in the snow and wanted to play on the steps instead. We took him around to the backyard and he freaked out because it was too deep for him to walk. Mike flattened out a path for him and he quickly warmed up to the idea of snow. He was lying down in it, playing with Bailey, and sliding down his slide into a pile of snow. Bailey and Owen were having a blast playing outside and we had to drag them both back into the house.

Snow!

They had been predicting 2-4 inches of snow, then 4-6, and finally 6-8 by the end of the night. The last time snow and ice was predicted, we didn't get any, so I figured this would be the same. We were planning on going out to dinner for my birthday (a little late) at Westport. Reservations were at 6:30, nothing was happening weather-wise, so we left as planned. It started getting worse and worse as we were driving. By the time we exited the highway, we had seen several cars spin out and others parked along the side of the road. This was definately not looking good for the drive home. We had a nice dinner at Kobe's even though Owen was slightly terrified of the fire.

The drive home was a little crazy and extremely slow. Mike's car is not exactly the best car for snowy weather, but we finally made it home. A drive that normally takes 30 minutes took us over an hour, but we made it back safely.

Cranky Pants!

What a little crab we have today! I don't what the deal is, but Owen is one cranky little man today. Nothing is making him happy at all. He doesn't know what he wants, one minute he's crying for me to pick him up and as soon as I do, he's wiggling out of my arms. This continues over and over until I can somehow manage to distract him for 5 minutes. I'm guessing that part of the problem is the fact that he woke up at 5:13 am this morning and wouldn't go back to bed. Either that or he's tired of being cooped up in the house with me all day! We spent pretty much all week with the exception of Wednesday in the house and he must be getting bored.

St. John's Party

This morning was the Christmas party at St. John's and our last New Mom's Network meeting that we'll probably attend. I thought that maybe seeing all of his friends visit Santa might get Owen to warm up to the idea of sitting on his lap. I was definately wrong! He was worse this time than when we were at the mall. When they called us up there, he didn't even want to go near the guy! It took a while for him to calm down enough to even sit on my lap next to Santa. The photographer said that he got one or two pics of Owen looking at the camera, but I'm not expecting anything very good. I really didn't take any pictures at the party because I was chasing Owen around too much.

We had lunch at West County with Rylynn, Jace, Kaden, and their moms afterwards. The mall was not nearly as crowded as I thought it would be with Christmas so soon. We were on a mission to find Josie and Kailey a birthday present while there. After circling the mall twice, I decided to just get them Starbucks gift cards and some lip gloss. It took nearly 3 hours of shopping, but we finally got it finished, plus I picked up Carrie's gift also. Owen and Rylynn were getting a little sick of being confined to their strollers, so we let them play for a while.

I can't believe that Owen's second Christmas is quickly approaching! It seems like we were planning for his party yesterday. This past year as flown by way too fast. I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year and seeing how Owen will react. It should be a lot of fun since he can actually participate this year. I'm excited to see his reaction to everything.

No More Nursing

Today was day one of not nursing Owen. It's a little sad, but I'm mostly happy to be finished with it. We lasted 13.5 months, which is much longer than I had originally thought we'd make it. I was sick on Sunday and couldn't sleep because Owen wanted to constantly nurse, so I decided then that I was finished and that it would be his last time. He was down to only once in the morning anyway, so it wasn't very hard to do. This morning was a little rough though. He normally wakes up around 5:00 am or so, nurses, then goes back to sleep until 7:00 am. Not today! He woke up and stayed awake! I offered him a sippy of milk and tried rocking him, but he wasn't having it. We ended up just getting up for the day. Hopefully things will get easier.

When I first decided that I was going to breastfeed, I set a goal of 3 months. Once we hit the 3 month mark, I said 6 months. We made it to 6 months with no problems, so I decided to just keep going until Owen wanted to wean himself. Well, my child was slightly attached to nursing, so I don't think he'd ever completely wean himself. He was down to once a day, so I figured now was as good a time as any. It's such a bittersweet thing for some reason. I really didn't think it would be so emotional, but it is. I'm happy that we lasted this long though. Going this long was a big surprise to me and I honestly never imagined we'd do it for this long.

Christmas Get Together

Today was the day we were planning on celebrating Christmas with Owen's playgroup at our house. We started out unsure if the party would actually take place because of some icy weather, but it turned out being fine. Mike and I cleaned up the house and got it ready for guests while Owen hung out and played. We got everything ready so that Mike could leave before everyone was scheduled to arrive. He was not sticking around to party with us and I was instructed to call him once it was safe for him to return.





Everyone made it to our house safely and the party went well. We had a lot of food, presents, fun, and chaos. Our house isn't exactly large, so cramming 7 adults and 7 babies into our basement was interesting. The kids didn't seem to mind though, they had a great time playing with Owen's toys and all of the wrapping paper. We did a secret santa exchange, so that took place today too. Liam drew Owen's name and got him a set of bath toys and a coloring/sticker book. Some of the other gifts that were exchanged included Little People, a FP vacuum cleaner, blocks, books, etc.





I think the highlight of the day was trying to get 7 kids to cooperate for a picture. You would have thought that we were torturing these kids. In the end, we managed to get a few decent pictures out of it.






After the last of the guests left, I called Mike to let him know he was safe to come home. We did a little cleaning up and had to search a little for our remote which was found at the bottom of the trash can.



Other pictures from the day can be seen here HERE

Haircut

Despite the fact that Owen and I were both sick, we ended up accomplishing a lot today. We braved the cold weather and the crowds and went to Toys R Us to return some stuff. On to the bank and to visit Grandpa W at work. Owen loves going to visit Grandpa at work because all the guys there love him! He walks around there like he owns the place.

Since Owen's hair was getting ridiculously long and shaggy, we finally got it cut. Since he's done so well with his haircuts before, Mike figured this one would be easy. I was thinking it was going to get worse since he's more aware of what's going on around him now. I was definately right on this one! Even a Blue's Clues video playing, animal crackers and sitting in a firetruck did nothing for him. He cried most of the time, but it got cut! He looks so much better now too. Some before and after pics:

After Owen went to bed this evening, Mike and I made santa cookies for Owen's Christmas party tomorrow. For some reason, they didn't turn out as well as they usually do, many santas were decapitated. They taste yummy, but not so attractive.

Happy St. Nick's!

Today's Owen's first St. Nick's Day. Technically, it's his second, but we forgot about it last year, so it's the first to him. We got him a Little People Christmas book and a little Curious George stuffed animal, but he's been playing with them for a few weeks, so they're not really new to him. He found them a while ago in our bedroom and played with them every morning, but now they are officially his and he could care less about them, naturally.

Growing up, I thought everyone celebrated St. Nick and didn't know of anyone that didn't. Apparently, I was wrong :) None of Owen's buddies celebrate it, nor do most people across the country. A little more info on the day if anyone's interested can be found HERE

Little Rams Fan

After a little arguing and convincing, we got Grandpa W to take Owen to his first Rams game. He was planning on taking only Mike, but Owen and I managed to go along. He'd promised that he'd take us several other times, so this time I made him :) Anyway, the weather was unseasonably warm when we left (around 60 degrees) so we had a nice walk to the dome. We met up with all my dad's tailgating friends and had "breakfast" at The Feisty Bulldog." After a little tailgating, we headed up to the game.

Since the Rams have had such a dismal season thus far, I wasn't expecting much. And since Owen doesn't enjoy sitting still for any period of time, I figured we wouldn't be watching much of the game. He did surprisingly well. The first half he watched the game, gave high fives and head butts, ate, played with the cell phone, etc. He ended up passing out during half-time and most of the third quarter which was nice :)

The Rams were leading the whole game, but being their normal crappy selves, they tried to lose it in the 4th quarter. I guess Mike, Owen, and I are good luck though! They finally won a game at home and are now 1-5 at home.

We get ready to leave the game and are met with freezing temps and high winds! Quite the change from the morning. Owen was freezing by the time we made it to the car, but enjoyed himself.