Dare Devil Multiplied

Ok, so I thought going down the slide head first was dare devilish, but that is nothing compared to Owen's pool experience on Friday night. We were at our friend's house in the pool late Friday night, so it was dark out, but they have lights in the pool. Owen went in the pool with Daddy (Mommy was too lazy to put her bathing suit back on). Owen was splashing around having a great time and Mommy was talking with the other ladies who didn't want to put their suits on either!

Anyway, all of a sudden Owen decides to walk across the very shallow area, about knee deep on him, to the other step, climb out of the pool, and take of running. I quickly got up and went after him, but he is fast! He excitedly ran about 5 feet and simultaneously kicked Gavin's drink into the pool and jumped in! Luckily Daddy was ready to catch him. He still went under, even with his swimmies on and his Daddy catching him. I was freaking out, but we couldn't stop him. He proceeded to jump into the water, swim with Daddy back to the shallow end climb out and do it again. He jumped at least 10 times, giggling every time he came back up! Although a few times I grabbed him and gently handed him to Daddy in the water. My concern was that his lack of coordination would ultimately end in a head injury! So we decided enough was enough!

Owen definitely never ceases to amaze me! I really do wish we had captured this on video, but we didn't!

Big Helper

When Owen turned one we began a new nightly routine of clean up time before bed. Of course, in the beginning, Owen would just watch us clean up the toys. We would make a big deal, sing the clean up song and high five each other for doing a good job! Occasionally, he would pick up one or two toys and hand it to me as I put things in drawers and on shelves. This week, Owen has become quite the little helper. He will pick up toys from across the room and open the drawer and put them in himself! He will even put toys that belong in the closet back in the closet! Yesterday, Owen and I were playing with one of his puzzles. When we were done, he picked it up and handed it to me, telling me to put it away. I told him to put it away, instead, so he went to the shelf and set it on top of the other puzzles. However, he didn't stack it exactly how the other ones were stacked and he got mad. I think we might have a perfectionists on our hands.

Reflection

Owen has a ribbon in his toy drawer that he will sometimes pull out and we will tie it around his head to make a headband. As soon as we do that he takes off running into the kitchen laughing. I never knew why. I always thought he was just running out of excitement. The other day, I put the bucket on his head to make it look like a birthday hat, he went into the kitchen to the dishwasher door, bent down, and leaned in so he could see himself. Then a couple days after that, he brought me the ribbon, I tied it around his neck like a tie and again he took off for the kitchen. He went to the oven door, bent down, and leaned in again so he could see himself. Now I have finally figured out why he is always running to the kitchen; he likes to check out his reflection and see how cool he looks with a ribbon or a bucket on his head!!

Bucket Full of Water

During our vacation we bought Owen a bucket and a shovel, so that he could play in the sand at the playground. When we got home, he was playing with the bucket while we were unpacking. We noticed the sound of water running, we went into the kitchen and found Owen holding the bucket up to the refridgerator, filling it with water! Needless to say, we have gotten into the habit of locking the water and ice dispenser on the fridge!!

"It was Worth the Hike,"

During our vacation, we went to Kolob. This is part of Zion National Park. When we were paying our fee for entering the National Park, I asked the ranger about the two hikes that we could take. He told us about the first hike, which was a mile long. Then I asked how strenuous would the other hike be. This hike was five miles long. The ranger assured me that it was a moderate trail even with a 30 pound child on your back.

I have the best husband in the world, because before I even had to begin my begging to go on the longer hike, he said we could. So we packed up Owen and headed off. We stopped numerous times to rest his shoulders and rehydrate, but he was a trooper. I knew their was going to be a reward at the end. The Double Alcove looked beautiful in the picture. Throughout the hike we were crossing over the river numerous time, back and forth, following the trail. We saw a bunch of little lizards crossing our path. We saw a snake too! Gavin told me to just keep walking. It wasn't until we were safe back in our tent later that night that Gavin told me it was a coral snake!!

We kept hiking and hiking for what seemed longer than 2.5 miles when Gavin turned around to me and said, "I think this is as far as I can go." But I wanted to see this Double Alcove so bad. So, after I helped get Owen off Gavin's shoulders so he could rest them, I continued on a little ways because I knew we had to be close. Sure enough not even 100 feet away was the end of the trail, so I turned back around and helped get Owen back up on Gavin's shoulders and he finished out the hike. Well, the first half of the hike anyway.

When we reached the Double Alcove it was amazing! This picture doesn't even begin to capture the beauty of this natural marvel. As we were beginning our hike back to the car, Gavin said "that was well worth the hike, but the mile hike is out of the question." I certainly didn't argue with that!

Kick, Kick, Kick!!

There was a pool at the campground where we stayed and Owen absolutely loved it. We visited the pool twice each day. It was kinda cold when you first got in and Owen would scream (not cry, just scream)! But as soon as we were in and used to the water it was a lot of fun! We bought Owen some swimmies because we had noticed before we left on vacation when we were swimming at Tobie and Dave's that Owen would rather be in the water than in his raft. He did very well in the water. He would kick and spash. He would lay his head back to float on his back. He would put his face in the water, but still didn't understand that you need to shut your mouth if you are going to put your face in the water! We were even able to let him go and float on his own for a few seconds. He was sorta able to swim from Mommy to Daddy or Daddy to Mommy, but of course we were not that far away! On one trip to the pool Gavin counted 30 seconds that Owen was able to stay afloat without any help.

Sleep time Shinanigans!

Owen's first night sleeping in the tent was interesting. As soon as we said goodnight, he got clingy and didn't want to go into his bed. Hoping he would settle down, we put him in his bed and went outside the tent to play cards. After a little while of Owen screaming in the tent we decided we were just going to have to go to bed too. The "two bedrooms" in the tent are separated by a thin piece of material that can be zipped open in the middle and pulled apart to make one big room. So we opened up the "wall" separating our room from Owen's room and laid down. Owen settled right down, but we don't think he got much sleep that night, although he wasn't fussy.

Nap time the next day, went just about the same as the night before. But instead of laying Owen down to see what he would do, we just decided to have family nap time. This worked out quite well.

The following day, we decided to try laying Owen down for nap time all by himself. This was working out pretty well. He fussed for a little while, but then quieted down and we were enjoying some very competitive games of Speed. When we checked on Owen to see if he was sleeping, we found him with his mattress folded over reading the Owner's Manual for his Pack n' Play. At this point it was obvious Owen wasn't going to take a nap so we took a drive instead. Owen slept on the drive!

The following day, we decided to try the same routine. We laid Owen down for a nap and we sat outside the tent at the picnic table playing cards. We had the tent vented so we could see the top of Owen's from the picnic table if he was standing up. I had my back to the tent, but Gavin could see Owen clearly. Then after a while, Gavin said, "why can I see all of Owen's face?" We looked inside the tent and found Owen had rolled up his mattress with his blankets inside and was standing on it so he could see us better out the window! We took the blankets out, unrolled his mattress and he took a nap.

Each night got easier for Owen to go to bed without a fuss, but he was thoroughly enjoying having a slumber party with Mom and Dad. One night he was talking to us so much that we finally closed the curtain separating the two rooms so that he would finally let us go to sleep! By the last night he went to sleep without us in the tent and we were able to play cards until we couldn't see the cards anymore!