Happy Holidays

We are late in sending our Christmas cards this year.....as usual, right?

Here is a preview of this year's holiday tree hunt in case we never get the cards in the mail.

Eric rocking out

Eric is VERY fond of music, and breaks into dance whenever he hears music playing. He is particularly fond of rock music, and likes to put his Dad's CDs into the Karaoke machine upstairs and dance while standing on top of a bar height chair. It usually makes me very nervous, but this time we decided to record him dancing instead of making him get down. :) Each dance episode lasts about 5-10 seconds, and then he wants to put in a new CD.

On the flight home from Disney, Eric was tired and insisted on sharing an ear bud with Dad and listening to music for almost an hour straight while he laid his head on Mom's shoulder. Isn't he adorable!?!

DisneyWorld 2010

Last week we took the boys to Walt Disney World for vacation. Both boys had a great time, and Mom and Dad are very exhausted! :)

We were a little worried that Owen would have grown out of hugging and loving meeting the characters, but we shouldn't have. He hugged them so hard he almost knocked several of them over! :) This was Eric's first time to really see the characters since he was only 3 months old for our last Disney trip, and he was in LOVE! He kissed most of the characters on their fuzzy noses, and grinned and high-fived all of them. It was really adorable.
This year we even got to meet Buzz and Woody thanks to the 3rd Toy Story movie!

Next are several picture of the kids playing in the line for the Winnie the Pooh ride. Disney had recently added a big play area in the actual line for the ride to entertain the kids while they wait!
The pic below is one of the many we took of Eric this trip in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area. It was super cold that day, so Eric is wearing his "last minute purchase" Mickey winter hat. Despite the crazy cold, this is pretty much the only time he let us put it on, and even tried to refuse his jacket on several occasions!

Owen's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Owen's 5th birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese's with a pirate theme. Owen wanted an ice cream cake with pirate decorations, so I didn't have to make this cake this year. :)

Halloween

Sorry for the delay in posting! Here are some pics of Owen and Eric at Halloween. At least I got them posted before the year's end! Both boys were skeletons this year. Owen picked and then insisted that Eric wanted to match! :)Owen and Eric's school had a costume parade. This is Eric with some of his classmates after the parade and candy collection.
Here is Owen with his classmates just getting started in the parade.
We went to dinner with Opa and Granna after the city's Halloween party. Here is Eric with his cousin Parker. Eric LOVED wearing his costume and cried every time we took it off! Luckily, he got to wear it 3 days in a row with his school parade, the city's party, and 2 Halloween trick-or-treating activities!
Owen loves bounce houses, and he had a great time sliding through this obstacle course bounce house and into a ball pit!

St. Jude's Trike-a-thon

Owen's school participated in a St. Jude's hospital fundraiser this month -- a trike-a-thon! They spent a week learning about bike safety and brought helmets for show and tell, finishing with a race around their front entry on whatever ride-on vehicle each child wanted to bring. :) Owen's bike is a little too small for him, but he had a great time anyway.

First School Pictures

Here are Owen and Eric's first set of annual school photos:

First Day of School

Owen started kindergarten this week, with school uniforms and all. This is a picture his school took of him on his first day. He is showing a board with his name written on it, but for some reason he didn't write it correctly even though he has been able to write his name for two years. Figures they would record this version for posterity, right?

Owen was originally supposed to be in pre-K, but his classmates from the summer were all moving up, and his teachers recommended that he go ahead and move up to kindergarten with them since he was at the same level socially and academically. We are going to wait until we see how he does in kindergarten and compare his size and age to the other kids entering his elementary school before deciding whether we will have him repeat kindergarten or move up to first grade when he starts public school next year.

Next is Eric on his first day in the Toddler classroom (he moved up from Young Toddler).

Eric had a little trouble adjusting to daycare when I went back to work, but it was just the drop off that bothered him. After a minute or two of crying he would immediately set off playing with the other kids or by himself. Now that he is in the Toddler room, he runs off to play as soon as we drop him off, so he seems to really like being in the bigger room with more toys.

Update on Owen

Here are some pictures of Owen's cut as it heals. The first 2 pics here are in the 2-3 days after the injury:

These next two pics are after about a week. It looks a little worse on his forehead now because the dermabond is drying out and starting to loosen, but if you look closely, you can see that the cut underneath is looking better:

Finally these two were taken today, after about 3/4 of the dermabond has fallen off. The bottom piece of dermabond looks like it is going to hang on for another several days because of the positioning, but the rest if pretty much healed. The skin tissue where the dermabond sat is still a little red and raw looking, but the line of the wound is only a little dip in the skin, so it looks like it healed pretty well.

I will post one more set of pics next week after the rest of the dermabond comes off and the skin has recovered around the wound from the dermabond.

Owen's first real injury

Since I started back to working full time about a month ago, Owen has been loving going to "school" every day. Today he fell on the steps of his school's playground equipment and hit his forehead on the step. He actually handled it pretty well, although he was very concerned someone would try to put a band aid on it at some point, which he really hates.

My sister Melissa was a great help and picked Owen up right away at the school since my work is 30-45 minutes away, and by the time I got there he was asking for lunch and talking about the cartoon on the tv....so totally fine except for the giant cut on his head. :(

The ER ended up using Dermabond instead of stitches even though the cut was really deep (and kind of jagged) because the edges came together neatly after it was cleaned.

I am a little nervous whether this was the right decision, but I am trying to remind myself that it will give him character if the scar is noticeable after healing and not be too upset.

My poor baby! I am so glad he wasn't hurt more, but sad that he already had his first real injury at only 4 years old. :(

Owen and soccer...

Owen has been playing soccer for a while, but never quite the way you might picture when you hear the words "playing soccer."

He started at 18 months in a kids' class called Soccer Tots, where they teach kids the basics of soccer skills in a gym/drills style that is more about playing and having fun than anything else.

Last fall he started his first real soccer league, called Small Fry soccer with the local YMCA. Shea was the coach, and Owen had a little friend in the class who had been in Soccer Tots with him, so he had a great time.

It wasn't exactly Owen's finest hour; he tended to stand still or spend time talking to his friend rather than actually trying to kick the ball, but at least he was out there...

So this spring is Owen's 2nd season of Small Fry, and his best soccer friend had to move away over the winter, so he is kind of alone out there. As the relatives who have come to see him could attest, most weeks Owen is NOT the greatest soccer player...

...it isn't a skill problem; it is a not playing problem. ;-P He is actually pretty good at kicking the ball, but he just won't go out there and play.

He does the practice, then refuses to play the game most weeks.

As luck would have it, the week that I finally brought the digital camera with me, Owen actually decided he wanted to play! So, here are the pictures and a video of how great Owen CAN be at soccer, when he wants to. ;-P

Easter House

Owen LOVED decorating a gingerbread house for Christmas, even though he made me do most of the actual decorating...so, I saw an Easter bunny house decorating kit in the store the week before Easter and bought it, with plans to decorate it with Owen some time that week during Eric's nap. :)

We just got around to it today. . . better late than never!

Owen is a stickler for following directions, so the "path" and "flowers" were very important to him because they were in the picture on the box. I was a little worried when he kept talking about them that he would be upset that we didn't have fake grass to put down around them (the professionals on the box cover did, of course!), but he took it pretty well.

Except for candy placement, these are the only parts he was actively involved in! In the picture below he is "walking the path." He wanted to make sure that I included that picture in the blog so everyone could see it. ;-P

funny clothes

Back when Owen was born, Shea made a lot of jokes about the plain white Gerber onesies being "wife-beaters." His explanation of this term was that in movies, men who beat their wives often did it while wearing only their white undershirt, which was usually the sleeveless kind to show off their arm muscles. He says this is a common term, although I had never heard it before Shea...

Apparently neither had one of our friends, who thought it was hilarious! So funny, in fact, that she gave us a sleeveless version of the Gerber onesie (she could only find it in blue) at my baby shower for Eric.

When Eric was a little baby, it was really just cute on him, no hint of the "wife-beater" style, but now that he is a little bigger and I paired it with regular pajama pants last night because of the between weather. . . well, you can see the movie image a little, right???

:)

Easter - part 2

We took a weekend trip to visit Owen and Eric's cousins Bryce and Mia for the Easter holiday. Their cousin Tabitha was able to make the trip, too, so we got all of the cousins on that side together for the holiday! :) Owen and Eric had a great time visiting, playing, and finding eggs filled with candy, of course!

Easter - part 1

We did a small Easter Egg hunt today with Paddy and Parker at our house. Eric was napping for the actual hunt, but we did get him to pose for a picture with everyone after the hunt.

Eric's first haircut

Eric's hair is a little different than Owen's hair. . .

. . . at not quite 14 months, it is already a bit stringy, and has been growing into quite a mullet over the last several months, whereas Owen's hair at 18 months was still pretty manageable and pretty even all around.

We tried to wait until Eric was 18 months old so he could do his first haircut at the same age his brother did, but Eric kept smushing food into his hair, making the stringiness and mullet look more noticeable instead of less. ;-P

So, here are the pictures of his first haircut, done today by a professional to make sure that I didn't accidentally overcut, especially since his hair is pretty fine as well. :)

Post haircut:

I am also posting the pictures of Owen's first haircut at the bottom of this posting so you can compare. I didn't really think Owen and Eric looked that much alike when Eric was first born, but they do seem to be growing closer in looks as Eric ages!

Owen's pre-haircut images (18 months old):

Owen's post-haircut images: