Is that finally you Spring??

Today was absolutely beautiful.  High of 70, sunny...just what I've been waiting for.

After all my complaining about the winter, you can bet that I took full advantage of the warm

weather while it was here.  In fact I think the only time we were inside today was for lunch

and while the two boys were napping at the same time.  

Owen and I started the day out in the backyard while Joe napped.  I tried to rake up the

leaves and clean up the garden, and Owen played and "helped" me pick up the leaves.  As I

watched him parade through my freshly raked pile of leaves over and over again I realized his idea of helping is not quite the same as mine.

Once Joe woke up I decided to use the jogging stroller for it's intended purpose and went

for a three mile run.  I have to admit I am actually pretty proud of myself.  The last time I ran was before I was pregnant with Owen.  Three miles, pushing a double jogging stroller, 

after a three year break...I felt pretty good about that one.

After I finished my running loop back at the house, we kept right on walking and went to the

park to give Owen some time to play.  He went down the slide probably 20 times.  And no

more little slides for him.  He went straight to the bigger kid equipment.

  When we had our fill of the park we went home for a lunch/nap break.  All that fresh air

did the boys good because they took monster naps which meant a nice long break for me.

But once they were up, we were back at it meeting some friends at the zoo.

(In case you're wondering about Owen's silly faces in all of these pictures, he doesn't like

to smile on demand, so I have him saying "cheese" for pictures now.  When you look at

them knowing that, you can actually hear him saying it, can't you?)

I was really excited to take Owen for the first time this year.  He absolutely LOVES animals,

so I knew he would have so much fun seeing everything now.  And he was in for quite

a show.  The very first animal we saw was one of his favorites...the lion.

And this lion was not shy at all.  I don't think I could have asked for a better view.  He

was pacing back and forth past the viewing window with all the little kids watching.

A little unnerving, but very cool nonetheless.

Next Owen got to see another one of his favorites, the tiger.

We finished our zoo visit with a ride on the carousel.  Even Joe came along for the ride.

It was such a great day and I think everyone, myself included, is going to sleep very well

tonight.  We loved the warmer weather, loved being outside, and are hoping there

are many more nice days ahead in the near future.

 

 

Shedd Aquarium

Two of Owen's favorite animals at the moment are whales and sharks.

He has an assortment of small plastic whales and sharks that he carries around by the handful.  They are the one set of toys that I know will get played with without fail 

every single day, and the toys that are always a little harder for Owen 

to share when he has friends over.  

 Almost every night Ryan reads him Good Night Ocean and Owen points

out every single whale and shark in the book, along with turtles, coral, crabs, divers, etc.

So you can imagine his excitement when we decided to take a trip to the 

Shedd Aquarium this morning. 

We started in the Caribbean Reef.  He was completely in awe.

It had almost all of the things he names from his book, including the diver.  ;)  

Then we moved on to see all sorts of fish from different parts of the world.

And finally Owen got to see his favorite animal up close...the beluga whales!

And in case you were wondering where Joe was this entire trip, 

I made sure to give him plenty to look at so he didn't feel left out.

 

 Owen had such an awesome time and left with a special new addition to our family, 

courtesy of a very thoughtful and loving Daddy.  Meet Wally the Whale.

1.5 Miles

Yes, that is how far Owen ran this afternoon....1.5 miles!

Ryan took a few days off from work, so we were lucky enough to have him join us for our

walk today.  What a perfect day!  It was beautiful out.  And with Ryan there, I got to join in

the fun and actually run along with Owen instead of just chasing him with the stroller. 

He practiced his jumping (he actually gets both feet off of the ground now),

 

 We held hands crossing the street, and then we had a little mommy and Owen time.

He ran and ran and ran to the point where I was wondering if he was ever going to tire out.

And then it happened...

 He stopped running and actually sat down on a set of stairs to rest. 

 We thought maybe he had enough running, so we asked if he wanted to get in the stroller

and ride.  He firmly said "no", and got right back up and started running again.

This process happened again....

 

 ...and again...

Until finally he gave in.  Truth be told, I think he just wanted a snack. 

But after 1.5 miles of running, who wouldn't need a little pick me up.

1.5 miles for a 2 year old?  I'm actually really impressed.  Nice work Owen.

Some day, some sports team is going to be very lucky to have a guy like you on their team.  

Who Loves Tummy Time?

Joe does...or at least you could be convinced to believe so by these pictures. :)

He's even found a way to multitask so he can suck his thumb at the same time.  

Now that's what I call talent.

Joe is 5 Months

Wow.  Where does the time go?  Joe is 5 months!

Weight - 15 lbs 12 oz (25-50th Percentile)

Height - 26 inches (50-75th Percentile)

He is such a happy little baby!   I will never grow tired of his smiles, and now that he has

started giggling more it's so much fun to play around with him.  The sides of his rib cage
are super ticklish and he can't hold in his laughs when you tickle him.  He honestly does not
have very many sad moments. He used to get so upset being in the car, but knock on wood,
he's outgrown that for the most part.  It seems the only time we really hear him fuss
is when he's hungry, tired or bored.  As long as we can keep him 
fed, well rested and entertained, we're good to go.

He is getting so strong too.  He does great on his tummy and he's started rolling from side to

side.  He doesn't quite roll all the way over yet, but he's close.  Even though he can't roll, he's found ways to move around.  I'm not exactly sure how it happens, but I'll start him in the crib with his head at one end and when I go to get him in the morning, he has shifted around so his head is at the complete opposite end.  I am actually a little intrigued.  I'll have to watch him one of these times to see the how me manages that feat.

And speaking of his time in the crib, we've had a few sleep hiccups, but now he is back to 
sleeping for a good 8 hour stretch when he first goes down for the night.  He wakes to eat
and then goes down for another 3-4 hour stretch.  Typical bedtime is 6:30PM, which means
he wakes to eat around 3:00AM and then wakes for the day around 6:30AM.  We definitely
still have our nights where he wakes at 1:00AM, 4:00AM and then finally at 6:30AM, but
we're working on making those few and far between.  With the help of his new found thumb,
he can soothe himself back to sleep without me needing to feed him all the time.

He's not on any type of nap schedule yet, but he's finally sleeping past that magic 30-45 min
mark more consistently.  It didn't happen all of the time, but at least one nap per day he
would make it about 30 minutes in and then wake up.  Owen did the same thing around this
age.  It's something to do with them not being able to transition into a deeper sleep.  But
now that Joe is a pro at soothing himself to sleep, he's finding his way past that 30 minute mark to longer, more restful naps.  The best is when one of his naps lines up with Owen's
nap and both kids are sleeping at the same time.  A mother's dream!!

Things are not so bad when they're both awake though.  One of my favorite things to do is
watch him and Owen interact together.  Joe watches Owen so intently and is super happy to
be around him.  If Joe is in his jumper, Owen will come near him to talk to him or hand him
toys to play with.  Joe's face completely lights up and he gives Owen the biggest smiles.  It
makes me so happy and excited to envision how they'll play together in the months to come.

 

Joe is changing little by little every day.  He's learning new things and becoming so much

more social.  We've had so much fun over these past 5 months and I'm excited

to see what this next month has in store for us.