Heart Hunt

 

Well we were a little late on actually having our heart hunt, but I figure it’s good practice for Easter since he’s old enough to go to the town egg hunt this year!

Awesome!  Squishy lizard!

      

And onto opening all the loot!  I think he liked the hunt and loves the fingerpuppets! 

Spring has Sprung!

Well I guess we should technically call it WinterSpring.  But the leaves are starting to bud and the daffodils have bloomed! 
   
    
Yeah… we were a little late on getting the crepe myrtle trimmed, but I don’t think we’re past the last frost yet!  Dexter was sure enjoying the sunlight!

In true Memphis WinterSpring fashion, the temperature then fell back into the 40’s, and we’ve had to wear coats and hats! 

Week in Review: 2/18- 2/24

Even though Valentine’s Day was a week ago, I forgot to post a few pictures of him opening presents.  The videos are posted on the video page though!

 Here was a present from Nona and Papa


It was a cute little matching game that stores in an egg carton.  The yellow cups are haystacks that you hide animal pieces under.


Then you match up the animal halves.  Very cute!  We played successfully using 2-3 of the animals.

Here are a few pictures from him on the big slide at Pump It Up!

    
Going…                                                   going…


GONE!

Daily Tidbits from the Week:

- Early in the week, while Dad was in Washington DC for work, I decided to let Owen fuss in his room a little at bedtime instead of going in right away.  Well let’s just say he wasn’t having it.  After I did his bedtime routine, he opened the door and came to babygate as usual.    He started yelling (from the babygate),

“MOMMY DOESN’T LOVE OWEN!” 
(Yes, those were his EXACT words) 

So I let him continue for a minute, and he just kept yelling over and over, “Mommy doesn’t love Owen!”  Of course I go to his room, and he looks right at me and says,

“You don’t love Owen.” 

I calmly explained of course I love you.  And then he jumps up and bed and exclaims,

“OK time to snuggle.”

He TOTALLY manipulated me, and I have no clue where he learned to say that (but he knew it would work).  I quickly put an end to it the next day when he used it again because he couldn’t have a snack.  I just said, “That is mean and you shouldn’t say mean things.”  He hasn’t used it since! 

- About two weeks ago we had gone to Lowe’s, and Dad and Owen were looking at the mini carpet samples.  Dad said, “Those must be for a mouse’s house.”  We went back to Lowe’s this Sunday and walked by the carpets.  He pointed and said, “That’s for the mouse house!”  I didn’t remember the conversation, but of course Owen had! 

Zoo Trip with Dad

 

We had a relatively mild Sunday so decided to head to the zoo!

Some of the animals were enjoying the brisk 50 degree weather!  We’ve never seen the lions attempt to go in the water!

This is the closest Owen has ever gotten to climbing in the egg!

Just examining this one…

The hippos were out of the water just basking in the sun!

Here’s the close up of mom and daughter… they are getting a new exhibit soon thank goodness.  This is the same one from like 75 years ago!

 

The pandas were sleeping as usual!

Here’s Owen and I trying to get up to Baby Teva, but this is the closest they would let us get.  I guess she bites!  :)

Pom Pom Fun

 

Had to keep Mr. O busy for a few minutes while I cooked… enter pompoms and bottles!

    

He did a little color sorting…

But it always ends with him just throwing them! 

Week in Review: 2/11- 2/17

Our little Mr. Manners surprised me the other day at lunch when he grabbed a napkin and put it in his lap all by himself!  Such a proud mama, I had to take a picture!


Dad and Owen had some fun building a motorcycle at the work bench!





I get flashes of 10 years down the road when I look at this picture!  :)

Daily Tidbits from the Week:
- Owen is getting better and better about staying in bed and going to sleep.  He still comes to the door about 2-3 times before he finally goes to sleep. 
- He is asserting his power by refusing to nap!  He is really good about having some quiet time in his room.  We go through our normal nap routine, then I leave.  About five minutes later he turns on his light and either reads, plays with bristle blocks or does puzzles.  About every 10 minutes he opens his door to see if he can see me or hear me doing something.
- Owen loves to pick the little weed flowers in our yard and smell them.  I love to ask him what they smell like because without fail  he tells me they smell like oranges.
-  Owen is really forming his own thoughts and showing recall memory.  In the middle of playing, he will just stop and recite a page from a book or retell me a conversation we had earlier. 

- One of his favorite books right now is Green Eggs and Ham.  Out of nowhere he will stop look up at me and yell, “Sam, Let me be!  I do not like Green Eggs and Ham!”
- Sometimes he will retell me a conversation about 20 times a day.  The best example is that he saw his sprinkler in the garage, and I told him we couldn’t use it until summer when it got hot.  Then I made the mistake of telling him I bought him a new giraffe sprinkler that was in the attic.  He must have told me 10 times a day for the next week that: “We use sprinklers when it gets hot.  The is a giraffe sprinkler in the ‘addict’.  Mommy bought it.” 

Toddlers are AMAZING! :)

A Big Boy Bed!

Owen has been in a toddler bed since he was 13 months old, and for the last year, he never realized he could just leave his room!  Well that wonderful period ended a few weeks ago, and we have all been doing some adjusting!  We figured we might as well get all these sleeping changes over with at the same time!  So down came the daybed from the attic! 
We made it a big deal and gave it to Owen as a Valentine’s Day present! 

He was very excited to help me put it together!


It’s a pretty tall bed, so he has to use the trundle to get in and out.

All dressed and ready for bed.

Showing me how he’s going to sleep in it.

And an all too recurrent phrase:  Ready to wake up!

Teepee Fun!

As most of my stories begin:  I found an amazing deal at BargainHunt!  I knew when I saw this teepee for 80% off, I couldn’t pass it up.  We’d been saving it for when we re-do Owen’s room in an cute woodsy/outdoor theme, but decided to break it out on rainy Sunday! 

Owen kept calling himself a Cree because one of his books A House is a House For Me says a teepee is a house for a Cree. 

We piled all of the stuffed animals and some blankets into the teepee and had a pow-wow.

His favorite part was peeking through the window and yelling “SURPRISE!”

H is for Heart!

We had fun doing a few Valentine’s activities this year.  As you might have read in other posts, Owen is VERY into letters right now… naming them, what sounds they make, words that start with them.  So we did a super simple craft project…a pink ‘h’ with heart stickers! 
    

We named some H words like heart, happy, and then Owen came up with hop all on his own!

Then we headed to put it on the fridge!

Our other fun surprise was secretly decorating the house with hearts after Owen went to bed!
  

Owen coming out on Valentine’s Day morning!

He was very excited saying “Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!”

We also planned a Valentine’s Day Heart Hunt with some little trinkets.

Owen loves the stories of The Frog Prince and The Princess and the Pea, so we found some finger puppets we could use to tell the stories!

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Thanks to all the grandparents for the cute Valentine’s Day gifts!  I will be posting videos soon of Owen opening them!