Conversations with Owen

Owen: Mommy, is my tummy angry?

Me: .....? oh, because I said that if you don't eat breakfast you will feel tired and cranky and your tummy might feel upset?

Owen: Yeah, can you look? ::pulls up shirt::


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Things I've said to Owen this week:

"No high fives in time out!"

"Honey, you may not pretend that the moon said "peepee" and then yell at it for using yucky words."

Owen Turns 4!

Phew! I am finally getting Owen birthday pictures up! 

Owen Parker turned 4 on September 19th. He requested a "donut cake" for his birthday breakfast. Uhh, ok? Well, what the birthday boy wants, the birthday boys gets! He was perfectly happy with the donuts piled on top of each other and some candles on top!

Bubs had school that day (he took Angry Birds fruit snacks to celebrate with his class!) so after we picked him up we headed to lunch with Nana & Papa. Owen's favorite lunch food is cheese crisp so Mexican it was!

And he got a birthday ice cream sundae!

After lunch we headed home and Owen opened his cool Hot Wheels toy from Papa & Nana. 

After naps we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. This is Owen's FAVORITE place that he talked about ever since we had his big friend/family birthday party here last year. Since it's his "off" year for a party (we do 1 big party per boy every other year) we had Jeff & Ruth and the kids come celebrate with us!

(thanks to Ruth for taking most of these photos!)

I just love their friendship!

Back to the house for cake, ice cream and presents

Innotab 2 from us

Owen, Owen, Owen. What can I say about Owen? He's affectionate, funny, silly, stubborn, sensitive, impulsive, curious, loyal, handsome, and a host of other things! He keeps us on our toes and we just love him. He's changing and growing so much which is so fun to see!

Owen loves hot wheels, Dr. Suess books, games on the iphone, taking pictures, family movie night, popcorn, cheese, his ASU jersey, lunch at Chick fil A, garage sale-ing, riding his Lightening McQueen bike, sips of my coffee, the beach, fireworks, and helping in the kitchen (especially if I'm making cookies or sweet tea!). He's crazy tall for his age and people constantly think he's older than he is. His speech therapy is coming along great and he's right on course to hit all of his speech goals for this year! I can't hardly get a word in edgewise these days, he has a running commentary on everything (including a random obsession with cacti, haha). No complaints here! He's very social and is constantly asking "who's coming over?" and "where are we going to go next?" Boy likes to be busy! He has a love/hate relationship with school and doesn't always want to go, but I think it's because he feels like he's missing out on whatever Austin and I are doing while he's gone. He does have lots of friends that he talks about from school and often gives hugs to his friends when I drop him off. Sweet boy!

Happy birthday, Owen Parker! I'm so glad you're mine!

First Day of Preschool

Owen had his first day of preschool yesterday!

He was SO ready. We drive past the school every day, wave hi, talk about it. So when the big day came, he was up and at 'em at 6am!

Waiting outside of the preschool was HOT. I couldn't get a good picture of him in the sun. 

When it was time to go to class, he just went right in. Didn't even look over his shoulder. 

I admit I was choking back the tears as I carried Austin away. Preschool is only 3 hours a day Monday through Thursday, no big deal, but I was realizing that this marks the beginning of his "school years." And that someone else was looking after and taking care of my baby. And he's growing up and there's nothing I can do about it. 

Austy took it hard too. He starting bawling once we got into the car. You can't tell here, but he's pointing at the school behind us and crying "Owwweeeennnn". 

I didn't quite know what to do with myself when we got home! I did spend some special time with Austin coloring (his love language). 

When we picked Owen up, he came out smiling. The teacher said he did great. Yay!

After school we met Ruth and Luke at McDonald's and had a fun lunch. No pictures; the boys were too busy playing!

The highlight of my day was when I received an email from Owen's teacher about an hour after I picked him up. She sent this picture with the caption "he made his way back to the music table!" Wasn't that sweet of her to send? I thanked her for giving me a glimpse into his first morning at school!

Independence

Owen picked his outfit today and got himself dressed. Do note the swim shorts, backwards. But hey, at least he matches!

Owen's First Movie!

While Ryan and Austin were out of town, I took Owen to his first movie. It was opening day of Cars 2!

I made a big deal about it in the days leading up to it. We talked about going to the movies, and Owen seemed really excited.

The day of the movie, we stopped into Target and I let Owen pick out his own treat. He picked Skittles. 

Then we headed to Chick fil A to pick up a quick breakfast. Didn't want to do our first movie on empty tummies!

We sat in front of the theatre and ate our breakfast while we waited to our friends (and cousins!).

Because it was opening day, we got there pretty early to get good seats. There was a group of 7 of us, and even though we had hoped to sit together, we had to break up into 2 groups. Wouldn't you know that we ended up sitting at almost the top of the theatre, right smack dab in the middle of the row. That would come back to bite me later.

Here's Owen sitting next to his cousin Rylee!

 The three of us

 Owen did great for the 45 minutes before the movie actually started. He sat still through the previews and the short Toy Story skit. But by the time Cars actually started, Owen was getting bored. He was trying to talk loudly to Rylee and he wanted to get out of his chair and walk around.

10 minutes into the movie, he was just being too loud, so I took him our of the theatre. We just played in the lobby for a good part of the movie.

The we returned during the last 15 minutes or so and he did great. Guess he had gotten all of his wigglies out!

So, I'm thinking he's still a bit young for the full movie experience. But it was still fun!

Brothers: Outtakes

Fun in the Sun

Easter Eggs

This was Owen's first year dyeing Easter Eggs. He LOVED it, and has been really into eggs ever since. I had to tell myself to chill because he was making a mess and plopping eggs in one color after another with no rhyme or reason. I let myself decorate one for Austin *just* how I wanted it, and let Owen dye the others to his heart's content.

I love his face here. I was instructing him on how to get the egg out.