Almost 3!

It's a miracle that we've made it this far! Three years! I'm stuck in a window between bittersweet thoughts of how to hang on to these precious moments and anxiety about whats coming next. Collin is getting so big, so grown up, and so smart. We'll celebrate soon with this adorable, budding general contractor!

He's all about building things these days, and we can't wait to see what he builds for himself as he makes the journey from 3 to 4.

Collin's Bedtime Stories

There are certain books that Collin has remembered word for word and he "reads" them to us often. Here's one of them: The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton.  Its a book we actually read to Owen every night before bed (and we also read it to Collin every night before bed when he was little). It won't be long and we'll be starting the journey to learning to read!

He walks and talks!

Well, it was bound to happen.
The imminent "I told you so" from Owen's sweet little smile as he walked and talked within a matter of two weeks time. I should just bury my head now and admit defeat.
Turns out, in our house, Owen has planted the seed to be the boss.
Maybe this was his first attempt at putting me in my place?...

To summarize: The amount of Owen's stubborness is ridiculously  enormous. The amount of time he'll hold out until he feels as though he is in control of the situation is equally enormous. The amount of time I can tolerate either of these things is perhaps less than enormous (but I'm working on it).


So, its true. I shouldn't have worried. Owen's starting to walk. He's still stubborn- don't get me wrong, and sometimes prefers to crawl, but, the reality of the situation is that he'll take off on a running pace within a few weeks, I imagine. A few days shy of 16 months we recorded it for the world to see. I'm sure you'll all appreciate the beginning of a fit at the end of the video- classic Owen.

At the same time Owen's had what I would call a mini "word explosion" - granted some of his words are hard to understand to those folks who don't encounter him everyday- but at 16 months he probably has 25 words or so: ball, up, down, please, daddy, no, pop!, nana, papa, ut-oh!; hi, hello, num num (food + sign), bye-bye, yes, momma, more, animal/vehicle sounds: (lion- roar; dog- ruff/woof; cat-meow; owl-hoo; train-choo choo; bear- grrr; sheep-baa; cow-moo; chicken- bock bock; car-beep, beep-- this list goes on. Someday I'll try to write them down. On top of that he has many more signs.

A sign of relief. My kid won't disprove everything I've ever learned about language acquisition and early childhood.

I've mentioned this before, but he is really teaching me to be patient. More patient than I ever thought possible. Even though I get frustrated and irritated with the boys on occasion, it seems as though it takes more to get me to that tipping point these days given my new-ish sense of waiting and relaxing. So,without really even knowing it Owen is doing much of the teaching, all before he's even 2 years old.

I guess he is sort of the boss then.
Oh well.