To Owen... (27-28 Months Old)
Owen, you are such a mess. We have had a lot of fun in the last couple of months. Not to say they haven't been difficult, because they have been, but they have also been a lot of fun. Hearing you talk and communicate with us is so neat. It sometimes isn't super easy to understand you and sometimes you get very frustrated when we can't figure out what you're saying, but it is getting easier to interpret your language. You are putting a lot of words together and making short phrases and sentences now.
A lot of times you will skip over words that you don't know to make your own sentence or command. You will say "mama, uh-a-a-aaaaa popsicle" when you want a popsicle or "mama, uh-a-a-aaaa choo-choo tracks" when you want me to play trains with you. It is kind of hard to type how that sounds, but it is really funny.
You can also name all of the Wiggles and the Backyardigans and all of the characters on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. And, Handy Manny is "nanny, nanny." Yes, maybe you watch a little too much TV.
You say bye to a lot of things now. When a show is over you say, "bye agains (Backyardigans)," or "bye Tigger and Pooh," or "bye Mickey Mouse (Dickey Mouse)." The other day when we were leaving the house you said, "bye Holly, bye toys." And at your last haircut you started saying, "bye suckers, bye cookies," as we were walking out of the door; you must have said that randomly for a couple of weeks after that haircut.
You are getting really into toys that have lots of pieces. You really enjoy puzzles (and you are getting much better at putting them together), building blocks, Legos and train tracks (or choo-choo tracks). You love for me to build towers and houses. A lot of times, when I am building, you'll say, "door, door" until I make a door. You like to make towers and trains out of food, boxes, shoes, or whatever multiple objects you can find.
For a long time, it was very difficult for me to cook without having you crying and screaming under my feet, trying to get me to play with you. I have sort of solved this problem by having you "help" me in the kitchen while I'm cooking. I bought you a little cookware set that came with a pot and pan and tea kettle and all kinds of cooking untensils. It is so cute. I give you those with a bunch of uncooked oats, or I fill up our colorful plastic nesting bowls with water and set them on a bunch of towels in the kitchen. You can sit and stir and pour and play while I get my stuff done. Of course, there is quite a bit of clean up involved afterwards, but I know you're having fun.
You are also enjoying art a lot (really anything that is messy). You like chalk and paint and drawing. I really like aquadoodle stuff, since I can either give you the aquadoodle pen filled with water or a plastic paint holder with water and a paintbrush and it doesn't make quite as much of a mess as real paint. Of course, when you stayed with Nanny and Grandaddy the other day, they let you fingerpaint which you LOVED!!! They said you just dug in the paint with your hands. When we came to pick you up, the front half of your hair was green. You looked like an emo kid or something. I'd let you paint more, if you didn't have the desire to dump out all containers of anything (paint, water, legos, shampoo, cereal, etc.).
The other day, you disappeared for a few minutes and it was way too quiet. I started looking for you. When I got back to our bathroom, you had emptied the entire bottle of baby shampoo in the bathtub and you were sitting in it, fully clothed. You were rubbing your hands around in it and you looked up at me and said, "Washy hands, washy hands." You had shampoo dripping from the front of your hair down onto your forehead and nose. You have since done this quite a few times. We are going through a bottle of shampoo about once a week at this rate. I must remember to move the shampoo out of your reach, every time I leave the bathroom!
The grocery store has been getting a little bit easier (knock on wood). I have still been having trouble getting you to ride in the cart, but you have also been listening a little better and not running away as often. Some trips are better than others though. The other day was kind of funny when you tried to get into the eggs. I stopped you and said, "okay, we need to leave the eggs. Say bye, bye eggs." You left without any fight, but pretty much yelled, "bye, bye, whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttteeeee eggs." I've noticed that when you say the colors of things you do that a lot - like, "bluuuuuuuuueee crayon" or "reeeeeeeeeeeeedd bicycle." It is very emphatic.
You are also absolutely obsessed with numbers and counting. The grocery store is a good place for this. You'll run up to the apples and start counting them, or say, "mama, count apples," and wait for me to count. You also count stairs when we go up and down them. You are crazy about the Goodnight Moon 1, 2, 3 counting book. You get very excited about counting the telephones and the socks especially, for some reason. You can count to 12 easily and then you start saying, "uh-teen, or-teen, it-teen" and things like that along with me while I count to twenty. When I stop at twenty, you usually say, "ready not, here comes!
I have really been tickled at you lately when you sing along with songs and try to talk along with some of the dialouge and words in your shows and books. And when you sing "row, row, row your boat" you sing it really fast and try to make me sing along really fast.
The other night, we were playing in the basement and you said, "mama, spider." I said (because I was a little nervous), "where's a spider, Owen?" You said, "where'd it go? Where'd it go?" I said, "I don't know. Do you see a spider somewhere?" You said, "there it is." I never did find a spider, but it kind of freaked me out a little.
Sometimes, you come up with some odd names for things. One of the weirdest trains of thought I was able to follow was when you were sharing a milkshake with me one night. You kept saying, "chocolate milk," so I said, "milkshake." You said, "milkshake... milk-shape... milk-triangle... triangle-shape!" So a few days later, we had another milkshake and you took a sip and said, "yum, triangle-shape!" That has to be one of the strangest names for a milkshake that anyone has ever come up with.
One night, we were singing along with the Ramones on Rock Band and you started copying us saying, "hey, ho, let's go." You started thinking we were saying, "A, O, let's go." Then you started singing various other letters in the song. Mostly, you sing, "P, S, let's go," or "P, X, let's go."
You can pedal your tricycle, you know your colors, shapes, numbers, animals, animal noises, and most letters. It is just amazing to me how fast you are growing up! I love you so much.
Love, Mama