New Ride

Someone has graduated to sitting in the actual seat of the stroller as opposed to his car

seat.  I'm sure it's a much better view.  Especially when you have a crazy older brother like

Owen running in front of you picking up every stick he can find so he can play swords.

 

My Little Yogi

Now this is what I call talent.  Not only has Joe found his feet and loves playing with them,

but he's taking it one step further to actually wanting to chew on them.

 

Wait...How did you..?!?

Although I have yet to see it actually occur in front of me, Joe can roll from his back to his

belly.  The first time I noticed it was last night.  I heard him fussing at one of his normal times

to eat, so I turned on the monitor and saw him laying on his belly (he sleeps on his back).  What?!?

He's been moving around a lot in his crib lately, so I figured he had used the side of the crib

to help flip himself over.  I wasn't totally sold that he could do it by himself, but sold

enough to pull out my camera at 3:40 AM to take a quick picture.  ;)

There was no denying his new found skill this afternoon however.   We came back from

running errands and I laid Joe down on his play mat (on his back) so I could get Owen some

lunch.  After Owen was situated, I went back to check on Joe.  I had to do a double

take because as I walked in on him, this is how I found him...

 

 It's official!  This little guy can roll.  Now hopefully he figures out how to roll from his belly

to his back soon, or we might be up a few more times at night flipping him over if he 

gets himself stuck.  And hopefully I catch him in action one of these times. 

Bumbo Buddies

 I decided to get the Bumbo out this morning.  Not only is it another place for Joe to hang

out, but it helps him practice sitting up and strengthens his neck muscles.  He seems

to be loving the new view and doesn't realize I'm making him work. ;)

 And I think his favorite part of the new seat is it makes it easy for his brother to come and

read to him.  Aren't they so cute together?  I love them so much!

Game Changer

Yay!!  Look who is finally loving the bjorn!!

After many failed attempts, I was starting to think I had the only baby who disliked being

carried this way.  But much to my surprise and satisfaction, I tried again today

and he was all smiles.  WOO!!  Life just got a little easier.  ;)  

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.