Here you go, Grandma Ruth!

Cutest school picture ever. We have copies for you when you come in November.

Owen's evil genius laugh

We bought Owen "Monsters vs Aliens" last week, and he's been practicing his evil genius laugh since seeing it for the first time. He also keeps taking imaginary trips to Fresno. We don't have the heart to explain to him what Fresno's really like.

Here's a little video of the laugh:

One more...

"I don't have sunscreen on. I'm a boy."

Not sure I understand the logic there. :)

Words of wisdom

Owen has been cracking me up lately with the funny things he says. Kids just see the world so innocently and concretly.

He was flapping his arms like a bird (Ben had been talking about birds), so I asked him if he could fly. He said, "No. I'm a boy. I have two arms." If only everybody took me as seriously as Owen!

He has also decided that the remote control for our digital frame is a cell phone. The frame works fine without it, fortunately, because he seems to find it no matter where I hide it (and store it in the "trunk" of his tricycle.) He had this "conversation" on his "phone" in one breath with zero pauses. "HelloMr.TophamHattWhatchaDoing?UmIDon'tKnowByeBye"

Mr. TophamHatt= Sir Topham Hatt of Thomas the Train fame.

This morning Owen wanted to jump on the bed in the guest room. We've let him do this on occassion (more like Ben throws him on the bed), but Ben was bringing him downstairs for breakfast. When Owen said he wanted to jump on the bed and Ben said no, Owen said, "Grandma said yes." So it begins...

And that is just a taste of Owen's brain of late.

Chit-chat

I haven't talked much about Owen's speech lately, so I thought I'd do an update on where we're at with it.

If you lived with us, you might almost wonder if Owen is even delayed any more. He talks all day long, sometimes to us, sometimes to the dog, sometimes yells at the cats to get off the table. So he's definitely catching up! There are a few things even at home that he has problems with still, though. He still tends to use one word utterences to get what he wants (ie he'll just say "milk" instead of "I want Milk.") If we prompt him or withold his request, he'll bust out the longer sentence, but it's not always spontaneous. We understand him pretty well, but strangers may only get ~50% of what he's saying, if not less, which is still a little low for his age.

Now if you've seen him in public, I'm sure you still wonder what the heck is going on with this kid. Even at daycare, where he spends 3 days a week, when we walk in the door and I ask him to say "hi," he'll just wave instead of talking. He is more comfortable there than he used to and they say he's been talking quite a bit more. He is still unsure (or shy?) of talking much in public, though. For instance, about 2 weeks ago he came home with a HUGE, purple goose egg on his head. They have no idea how he bumped his head. Possibly when they were outside, he fell and they didn't see it? They're not sure. He never came over to show them. Never told them he was hurt. Nothing. We also can't get a straight story out of him about how it happened (though I don't think that is terribly unusual for 3.)

So what does all of this mean? FREE PRESCHOOL! :) (By qualifying for services, we won't have to pay tuition for the district preschool) Seriously, though, while I think he's caught up (or close to it) quantitively in terms of the number of words he strings together, etc, he still needs support to learn to USE his language. A kid can't go through school never talking to a teacher or other students, right? So, we had another assessment done. They basically take us into a room and play with Owen trying to evaluate his motor, social, and language skills while he plays. Owen had a blast. He "fished" for words. He played in their "kitchen." He went down the slide and climbed the stairs. He ran down the hall, etc. True to form, he used mostly single word utterences with them and they had a hell of a time pulling the 4-word phrases I know he can do out of him.

Now Owen has turned into a teenage girl lately. He LOVES to talk on the phone and insists that we call somebody at least once a day. It's pretty cute because he's starting to have real interactive conversations on the phone (especially if the person on the phone is asking him lots of concrete questions like "what are you doing?" "What did you have for breakfast?") This was a little problematic when I was called for a reference check on a friend who is applying for teaching jobs, but I THINK the person was understanding about it.

No picture, but etched in my mind

Owen has really done wonderfully with potty training. We have occassional accidents (mostly during naps), but I can live with that. It has taken him a while to figure out pulling up his pants, though. I get it. There's a lot to think about: pull underwear up; try not to mush penis; pull pants up; again watch out for boy parts. I mentioned the issue of getting the back of his pants up before, which can still be hard. Well, despite mostly getting the hang of it, he still misses a step. Yesterday it was vital step #2. He pulled his underwear and pants up but came out of the bathroom with his penis sticking completely out of the top of his pants. he he he he.... I tried to help him, but he said "No help me! I got it!" I pointed out the problem and he said "OH!"

Been ignoring the blog...

I never seem to get comments on the blog, so I never know who is reading it.  It's pretty time consuming to upload pictures (and even more so for video!), so it's frustrating putting the time in when it seems to be for my own benefit.... 

BUT....

I just figured out (yes, I'm slow) how to change the settings on the blog so that you don't have to have a google account to comment.  So comment away! 

I promise I'll find some time for some new Owen pictures soon!