Owen is 1!!!

Owen turned 1 a month and a half ago, so I'm happy to finally get his birthday pictures posted.  I am so glad I was able to stay consistent with the monthly photos over this first year, because I'm not always the best with following-through on this kind of thing.  It's so fun to be able to look back and see how much he has grown in the past year.  The craziest thing is looking at his hair when he was first born compared to now!  I never would have guessed a baby with dark brown hair would come out.  He's looking more like the rest of us blondie's these days, though :).  

Owen's birthday was particularly special to me, because it gave Jack a chance to love on his brother.    Jack wanted to be a part of putting together a family party for Owen.  Jack helped to make homemade cupcakes and frosting, and we decorated them in a firefighter theme.  He also made the sweetest card for Owen.  I drew the train, and Jack painted it.  I was writing "Happy Birthday Owen!" on the card, and Jack added "Because I love you" at the end of it.  At the very bottom of the card you can see where I wrote what Jack said, because it was so sweet.

Once Jonathan got home we had dinner and ate our cupcakes with the big '1' candle.  Every birthday party in our family brings out the birthday hats.

Owen and Jack also got some great gifts from Grammy and Grampy Nichols.  Jack got an alligator kids science project, Owen got the touch and feel books he likes, and they got some amazing space themed blankets and pillows for their rooms to add to the current space theme.  Jack went into a tearing frenzy opening the box full of presents.  He is a lover of presents, and he thinks every box that comes to our house is for him :).

We went to Owen's 1-year wellness visit on December 12, 2013, because he was sick for a few weeks with croup and another really bad cold that gave him some stomach issues.  We had gone to the doctor closer to his birthday for illnesses but waited on the wellness visit until he was healthy again.  His 1-year, 3 week stats are:

Height: 30.25 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 20.0 lbs. (around 15th-20th percentile)

At one of his visits immediately after his birthday for croup, he was 19lbs, 6 oz.  He wasn't eating much at the time so I think he lost a few ounces.

Recent Milestones:

Owen took his first two steps on November 16th.  Every day he had moments where he would take 2-3 steps and then go back to crawling.  He most often does it when I'm not looking, and as soon as I see him he'll fall down into a crawl.  On December 15th we were at the park, and I turned around to reach for a tissue in my diaper bag.  When I turned back around he was walking across the park and took maybe 15 steps.  On January 1st he started walking around the house where he would let go of furniture and walk over to one of us, a toy, down the hall, etc.  So, he's not officially walking consistently yet, but he can definitely do it.  

He eats a lot, and he eats everything!  I am actually a little surprised that he doesn't weigh more, because it's not from a lack of eating.  He definitely eats more than Jack does at every meal.  I'll give him things from my plate thinking he probably won't like it but he can try it, and he usually likes it.  His usual breakfast is fruit, an egg scrambled in butter with cheese, and toast with butter and jam.  He usually eats whatever we eat for lunch and dinner.

He recently became interested in trying to feed himself with spoons and forks.  If I put food on his fork, he can pick it up and feed it to himself.

We have a hard time distinguishing specific words, but we are always saying to each other "I swear I just heard him say _____."  We know he says "car, pretty (when looking at Christmas lights), bath, pear, boo-burr (blueberries), and park."  We joke around and say boo-yah when Jack has done things like shoot a basketball, and we've heard Owen say 'boo-yah'  haha.

He loves to dance to all types of music.  We play the Wee Sing cds in our car, and you can hear him clapping to the music and laughing as soon as it comes on.

He is constantly pointing at things (trees, lights, and ceiling fans are the top objects he points at).

Major Interests:

Owen loves climbing everything!  He climbs onto the couch and over the sides of the couch, onto kitchen table chairs, on top of the kids table, up stairs, to the top of the playground equipment, etc.  If I turn my back for even a second he is on top of something.  We call him the 'danger ranger,' and Jack will run into a room shouting 'danger ranger, danger, ranger' to alert me to Owen climbing something he shouldn't be.

He loves taking baths and playing with bath toys.  We constantly have to tell him to sit down, but he loves the water.

Owen's favorite books are the touch and feel books.  The sticky pads on the frogs fingers in one of the books weirds him out a bit.  He always has a shocked look on his face.

The only way to get him to sit still for even a second in the house is to give him a snack trap with cheddar bunnies.  He'll sit on the couch eating them quietly.  His other top favorite snack is graham crackers, but he eats those on the move.

It's hard to pinpoint a favorite food, because he just loves food in general.  I would have to say his favorite foods are blueberries and pear.

Owen loves to destroy anything that Jack builds.  Owen can stack 3 blocks on his own, but he definitely finds more joy destroying towers.  Jack will be playing something, and Owen just comes over, arms swinging, and will wreak havoc. 

Owen is not a very cuddly baby, but we call him the buddy baby.  He doesn't want to give a lot of hugs or snuggle with you on the couch, but he likes to be held constantly and be a part of things.

He likes wrestling around with Jack.  They are going to be trouble together in the near future, because they love to rough house with each other already.  Jack uses some crazy brazilian ju jitsu looking moves on Owen, and Owen does superman leaps on top of Jack clawing at his face…all while giggling.

I think that covers all the major stuff. For those who don't get to see Owen all of the time, it's just a glimpse into who he is :).

Joint Birthday Party with Grandma and Grandpa Brink

I am getting way behind in blogging, and it is time to catch up a bit!  We've had so much going on with the holiday season and 3 out of 4 family members having birthdays that it is difficult to to keep up and pick which pictures to post.  To start off, my parents came to visit from November 16-20th to celebrate Jack and Owen's birthdays.

The boys love having family around, because they get extra attention and there's always someone to play with.  In looking through these pictures, my mom was left out quite a bit.  She's coming back out while Jonathan's away at military training the end of this month, so I'm definitely going to have to capture some Grandma photos.  

There was a lot of snuggle time, park time, and probably too much birthday cake eaten by a few of us (my mom and I ate cake for breakfast one morning).  

We spent one day of their trip at Irvine Regional Park riding the train, going to the zoo, feeding ducks, and playing on the playground.

Jonathan was jogging across the playground in this picture, and Owen was loving it!

We had a joint birthday party over the weekend between Jack and Owen's birthdays.  My mom made a dirt and worms cake, and Jack got to have his first gummy worm.  

 Both boys got candles, and Jack took it upon himself to help Owen blow his out as well :).

There's something about seeing two grown men in party hats that brings a smile to my face.

Owen didn't create a crazy mess, but he did enjoy his piece of cake.  With Jonathan's birthday in October and Jack's the previous week, we didn't make it to his first birthday before giving him cake for the first time.  Owen is a foodie and gets disgruntled if you don't let him have what everyone else is having.  He's a veteran cake eater in this picture :).

On the last day of my parent's trip we went to the Irvine Spectrum mall where they have a ferris wheel, train, and carousel.  My mom got the pleasure of riding the train with the boys.

We're thankful for Grandma and Grandpa's visit and capturing some pictures that I know I'll love to look at when the boys are older.

Jack's Birthday Survey- 3 years old

I've seen some sites where people do the same survey with their kids each year starting at 3 years old, and I thought it was a cute idea.

These are his verbatim answers (my interpretation is red):

1. What is your favorite color?  Red
2. What is your favorite toy?  Basketball
3. What is your favorite fruit?  Apple & Banana
4. What is your favorite tv show?  Curious George & Max and Ruby
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Apple and Banana again
6. What is your favorite outfit?  A red one
7. What is your favorite game?  Soccer
8. What is your favorite snack?  Graham Cracker
9. What is your favorite animal?  Moo.  Cow.
10. What is your favorite song?  The Do Da Song  (Old McDonald)
11. What is your favorite book?  Olivia
12. Who is your best friend?  My daddy
13. What is your favorite breakfast?  Apple
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Backyard  (He just likes to play on our back porch)
15. What is your favorite drink?  Apple Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Birthday Party
17. What do you like to take to bed with you?  My Blanket  (I'm shocked he didn't say his dog)
18. What are you good at?  Soccer.  Kick!!
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Cado  (Avocado)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Big

Jack is 3!

Jack turned 3 yesterday, and we were so excited about his birthday since he loves birthday parties.  The morning before his birthday I asked him what special thing was the next day and he said, "My birthday party!!!"  We started his birthday off with chocolate chip pancakes, apple juice, and fruit...all his favorite breakfast items.  After Owen woke up from his morning nap we went over to the mall.  I bought him one of his gifts, we had lunch, rode the carousel, and I bought him a chicken balloon.  Jack had a hard time deciding on what animal he wanted, because they had dinosaurs, zebras, giraffes, miniature dachshunds, and a bunch of other funny animals.  He kept changing his mind, so I steered him in the chicken direction, because he loves making chicken sounds.  He ran through the mall with it shouting, "cock-a-do, cock-a-doodle-do!"

We did facetime with my mom, and I just had to share this photo!  She wore a special hat to say Happy Birthday :).  Jack also was excited to open their birthday card that afternoon, because he loves opening mail.  He took the liberty of opening one of Jonathan's birthday cards last month while I was in another room.

That evening we had Jack's birthday party.  I chose a meal that I knew he would eat so that we didn't have to have any dinner time battles over food and could just enjoy ourselves.  We had chicken tacos with guacamole, shredded cheese, and fresh pico de gallo.  Jack jumped right up to the table to start spooning food onto his plate, so I was so happy he was excited about the dinner.  We even got some birthday plates to make it a little special.  

After dinner Jonathan took Jack and Owen on a walk around the block so that I could do a little decorating for cupcake and presents time.  I hung up streamers he could run through into the kitchen, put some balloons on his chair, set up the cupcakes with his '3' candle, and put his presents on the table.  When he got home he was so excited to run through the streamers and sit in his seat for a cupcake.  The Happy Birthday song was an improvement from last year.  Last year he cried really hard the entire song.  This year he just looked down and wouldn't make eye contact with us :).

One of the many things I love about Jack is that he really loves every present he gets.  He doesn't open a gift and throw it to the side quickly to move on to more presents.  He always plays with each gift before opening the next.  He's a fun person to give gifts to.  

He kicked his soccer ball all over the house the whole evening.  He also played his woof, woof guitar.

Jonathan's friend, Chris, got Jack another puzzle similar to the transportation puzzle he is obsessed with.  Jack and Jonathan put together the puzzle, and Jack was excited to show me the finished product.  He is a true puzzle lover.

His actual birthday is over now, but the celebration will continue through the weekend.  Grammy and Grampy Nichols' gift is on it's way, Chris is getting him something else, and my parents come in town tomorrow to have a fun birthday weekend for both Jack and Owen.  Owen's birthday is on Wednesday, so we have a lot more celebrating to do!!

Halloween with our Pirate and Pumpkin

I'm getting to this post late, but I wanted to get it posted before Jack and Owen's birthdays!  We had such a fun week leading up to Halloween with how excited Jack was.  Jack wanted to watch any cartoon with a Halloween theme, particularly the Halloween Curious George 1-hour special.  I heard "Halloween Curious George?" asking to watch it more times than I can count.  We also did some fun Halloween crafts.  I posted the spider hand print craft on the last post, which are still hanging on our window, but we did a few others as well.  Jonathan and Jack painted a mason jar with a pumpkin face on it (can't really see it in the picture) and put a candle inside for our kitchen window.  Jack and I painted the small pumpkins that we got at Tanaka Farms.  

I found the idea for a toddler Halloween wreath on pinterest, and Jack had a great time with this craft Halloween morning.  I wrapped the wreath in this orange tape-like material that Jonathan had in the garage and bought Halloween stickers and ribbon for Jack to put on it.  It was a super easy craft, and Jack loves anything with stickers.  The wreath has since been pulled apart by Jack and the stickers have been stuck on our sliding glass door frame outside on the patio.

The night before Halloween Jack and Jonathan did some pumpkin carving.  Here is Jack with the finished product:

Jack chose his costume this year, and he chose to be a pirate.  It's fun that he is at an age where he has an opinion on it...opinions start young :).  Owen was a pumpkin, and a cute one at that.  It is so hard to get a picture of them where someone isn't moving.

We were a little nervous Jack wouldn't put his costume on for Halloween, because he refused to try it on in the days leading up to Halloween.  It was pretty easy to get him to put it on that night with the promise of chocolate!

Jonathan told me when we got the pumpkin costume in the mail that it swayed more towards girly, but I thought he was crazy and it was 100% unisex.  Well, little Owen was mistaken for a girl at about 6-7 houses.  We were asked "her" name and if "she" wanted candy, so I guess Jonathan was right :).  I stand by my pumpkin costume choice, because he was just too cute!

Both last year and this year we started at our neighbor's house to get a feel for how to trick-or-treat.  I have a pretty much identical picture (minus the presence of Owen) from last Halloween :).

 

I was the photographer for the night while Jonathan went up to the doors, but I did get one picture of me with the pumpkin:

I've never been big on Halloween, but it is definitely a lot more exciting when you have kids.  It's just fun seeing how excited they are and dressing them up!

11-Month Update and Jonathan's 32!

Owen turned 11-months old this past Sunday.  It's so hard to believe it's almost been a year since he was born, because it seriously feels like yesterday.  He was a good participant this time for his 11-month photo:  

Owen is very busy, and he's trying to keep up with his older brother the best he can.  He's always crawling behind people following them around the house.  On Monday 10/21/13 he stood in the middle of a room all by himself for a good 8-10 seconds.  That same day he also held on to my pinky with one hand and walked next to me, so he's coming close to walking.  Owen's other cute 'trick' is that he loves to give high 5s.  If you say high 5 and hold your hand up, he knows exactly what to do and laughs while doing it.  

It's so fun to see how different Jack and Owen are at the same age...truly different personalities.  Owen is more clingy where Jack was always trying to get away from me at this age.  Jack is also a very visual person who likes colors, etc., and Owen is very tactile.  Owen LOVES the texture books.  In the collage below he was just sitting in the corner quietly feeling the different textures in a book.  

These pictures were just two that I thought were so cute.  I had to wake him up from a nap one morning to go to MOPS, and I found him sleeping with his little blankie in his mouth.  He didn't even wake up when the flash went off.

Jack and Owen have been playing together much more often.  I'll be in the kitchen and hear them out in the play area giggling with each other.  It's nice they have someone to play with when I have stuff to do around the house.  Even when I hear them talking/laughing in their room early in the morning, you can't be too irritate that one woke the other since it's just so cute to listen to.

In this picture Jack asked me to put Owen next to him and take a picture:

Both boys love their dad, and they both try to capitalize on the weekends and evenings with him.  

We've had some great family outings recently.  Both boys love riding in the BOB with drinks and snacks, and you can't beat the scenery in Laguna Beach.

We got a rare family picture on top of Laguna Canyon overlooking the ocean.  

Jonathan and Jack did the same hike a week earlier by themselves, and Jack had a great time with his dad exploring little cave areas and just having one-on-one time.

Jack has been REALLY excited for Halloween this year.  He always tells us how much he loves Halloween, and he likes anything Halloween themed (ie cartoons, decorations at stores, crafts, etc.).  It was a hot day so we had a short, but fun trip to Tanaka Farms to get pumpkins.  We got a bunch of tiny pumpkins and two big pumpkins to do some carving and decorating.

We've been doing some Halloween-themed crafts.  I sewed the seams, but Jack glued on the face for the bat puppet.  Jonathan and Jack made some kleenex ghosts, strung them together, and hung them up.  We also did hand print spiders and glued on some googly eyes.  I'm not the craftiest person, but I have a few more things planned since he loves it so much...thank you pinterest :).

Jonathan's birthday was this past Monday, and Jack LOVES birthdays and birthday parties.  We spent the day while Jonathan was at work decorating our kitchen, making a special birthday card, and shopping for and preparing a big meal with cake at the end.  Jack also insisted on party hats, of course.

This is a random picture, but Jack really likes balloons.  Jonathan bought him a balloon when they were at the grocery store a couple weeks ago, and he said it was his 'friend.'  He tried to bring him to bed with him two different nights, so we had to have Jack 'put the balloon to bed in the pack 'n play before going to his own bed.  Here's Jack watching tv with his 'friend.'

I have had to find ways to keep Jack busy during Owen's morning nap, because if Jack is bored he goes a little bit bonkers in the house and turns mildly destructive.  I know he's bored when he starts throwing toys around, turning couch cushions, or smashing things :).  He loves 'helping' so I've tried to get him involved with baking/cooking and housework.  

We're looking forward to Halloween and the rest of the holiday season since Jack is so excited about everything and loves party prep.  I'm most excited for Jack and Owen's birthdays next month!