22 Months

When someone asks me how old Owen is I just say he will be 2 in August. I don't respond in months any more and half the time don't remember. Usually people respond back and say that he is really tall for his age and they would have guessed he is almost 3. Some of them hear him talking and say wow he is really talking a lot for his age or talking clearly. And of course they almost always say he is handsome/cute/etc. :) 

It is hard to realize what has changed in just one month because it seems like once he can do something I forget what it was like when he could not do that. It seems like Owen has always walked and talked. He is starting to speak in sentences more.  He has taken us by surprise a few times with what he says. For example,
I hear a bird.
I hear a tractor.
Daddy will be right back.
I love you Mommy.
I can't get it.

He still loves counting and reading books. He also just loves to label things. He often looks around and starts labeling everything he can, and he wants you to acknowledge what he says by repeating it back to him again. He repeats everything we say. He is a little parrot all day. He just started saying what something is NOT as well. If I am feeding him applesauce, he will say "Not cottage cheese, applesauce, yeah."

Speaking of, eating is probably our biggest challenge. I honestly have tried to just not make it an issue at all. I offer him what we are having for dinner and try to give a healthy variety. I didn't insist that he eat it or try it or anything. If he didn't eat anything and asked to get down I would simply let him get down and move on. I tried to not offer something I knew he would eat (banana, yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, toast, oatmeal, triscuts, applesauce, PB & J) as a replacement for not eating lunch or dinner but instead would offer one of those items a couple hours later so I knew he was getting something. But then I decided to tell him he had to have one bite before he could get down and much to my surprise he understood and took one bite. The first time I did that we were having peanut noodles with carrots and green onions and he liked them and kept eating a few more on his own. Since then he has not wanted more than the one bite required to get down. It is a hard balance because this little guy can really lose it if he is hungry. Nothing guarantees a meltdown more than him being hungry and he does not seem to have the ability to tell us he is hungry yet. Luckily he seems to cheer up pretty fast once he gets something to eat.

Sleep! This subject makes me smile again. He is back to sleeping like a champ! He goes down for his nap about 1:00 p.m. and consistently sleeps for 2.5-3 hours. We are back to being able to just lay him in his bed (or he can crawl up in it) and say goodnight Owen and he says goodnight back and goes right to sleep! We did a little "Operation Your Gonna Sleep Child" and I am happy to say it was a big success. Once we moved him to the big boy bed he was getting up and messing around and not taking a nap and taking forever to get to sleep because he wanted me to rock him. Well I wanted to rock him too but it quickly would spiral out of control and we would be battling for 90 minutes and it was just a mess. After talking to several friends with kids Owen's age and seeing what they do I had a plan. I was going to sit in his room and calmly put him back in bed every time he got out and tell him firmly to stay in bed. One day one I spent almost 40 minutes straight doing this and it didn't seem like it was going to work. I was starting to get frustrated and decided to leave his room and shut the door but stay right there and and open the door when he got out of bed and tell him to get back in bed. I did this maybe 3 times and he was asleep within 10 minutes. The next day he stayed in bed and went right to sleep. The 3rd day he tried it maybe 1 more time and since then he has been a dream! It is just what works for this guy. He has a hard time understanding to go to sleep if I am in the room. He needs to be alone and in a bed in order to figure it out. It was so hard for 3 days and then pure bliss! He goes to bed a 8 and wakes about 7.  I need to write a whole post complete with pictures and video if I can mange of his bedtime routine. It is seriously one of the best times of our day. Usually we all 3 do it together and he is just so sweet and happy. I love it.

The first weekend of the month started off with Owen being sick. Eric had taken a Friday off to go to the zoo with us but instead Owen woke up with a fever and was pretty miserable all day. We moved the rocking chair to the living room and literally held and rocked him all day. After his fever hit 103.6 under his arm I called his doctor and we took him in right away. He had hand, foot, and mouth disease. So we just had to let it run it's course. Pain medicine to help with pain and keep the fever down and keeping him hydrated. It was pretty rough for about two days and then he perked up. We had this cardboard castle that my mom had given Owen at Christmas and had yet to set it up. I was saving it for a raining day and this ended up being a great new thing for Owen to do while we were stuck at home for several days.

 

I feel like he just today seems back to 100% (so 12 days later). Since he became sick he had been waking up in a horrible mood! Every morning and after nap would just be awful for at least an hour sometimes longer. He would wake up crying and just be angry and grouchy. Today we was very pleasant and happy all day even after waking up and I am hoping that is here to stay again.

 

 

Hello frog!

 

Owen says, "Owen jumping!"