We're back...and it's about time!

I know I know. I have to be honest, I've been dreading doing this post. I've sort of fallen off the wagon. Sort of like getting out of the habit of exercising or something--getting started again fills me with dread. I think I've felt like in order to post something again I have to cover the last 6 weeks...well, that's just not possible so I'm not even going to try.

Not to bore you with excuses, but you might actually find these interesting...There are two primary reasons I have been MIA...

1) We've been CRAZY-busy getting our hosue ready to put on the market (and now dealing with it being on the market--keeping it clean all the time for showings, etc.)...AND...

2) We're expecting BABY NUMBER TWO IN AUGUST! So, do you forgive me? We actually found out right before Christmas and told our family then but decided to wait a bit before informing cyber-world. The due date is August 20th and (again) we won't be finding out if its a boy or girl, so your guess is as good as mine...although (and this is the real reason for the lack of communique)...I've been sick as a dog. Even in the 2nd trimester I'm having to take anti-nausea medicine, which definitely helps. I'm just really really tired and still kinda barfy.

But enough about that. I know the real reason you're here is to hear about the little guy...and like I said, I can't possibly cover everything, but here's a taste, and hopefully (not a promise, but a strong desire of mine) posts will happen much closer together from here on out (it's actually much less stressful to not have to deal w/ the non-posting guilt!). (Oh, another part of the not posting has been that with our busyiness and my yuckiness we've totally not been good parents about taking pictures of Owen and blogging just makes me feel worse about that!) We do however, have quite a few videos and in the next few days I'll try to post a few...

Here is Owen trying to help Dada drill a whole in the wall behind our refrigerator (don't ask). I guess he's related to Uncle Luke after all!

Here he is enjoying some yogurt with a SPOON! We're making big strides in trying to feed ourself with fork/spoon. Some things are definitely easier than others. This is all Owen's doing--we weren't pushing it, but he would fuss and fuss when we tried to feed him, grabbing for the utensil. He's good at ravioli b/c it says on. Yogurt is messy. He usually spends about half of the time working w/ the spoon and then the hunger is just too much so he starts sticking his hands in and sucking his fingers. Whatever works little dude!

He seems to be talking up a storm these days. Most of it is still incomprehensible, but there are definitely words that have meaning to him. Here are a few (I may have put some of these in an older post but I can't remember...and if I can't I bet you can't either).

chu: shoe

ju: juice

bee-o: balloon (and maybe book too?)

dada: Dada and Momma

lots of animal sounds, my newest favorite is for owl: ooooh (really soft and sweet and sort of high pitched)

chu-chu: train (oh, he loves to watch youtube videos of trains w/ Kyle, also animal videos...fun until we realized we had basically turned the computer into another tv which he does not like being turned off!)

What we find even more fun and impressive is the amount of words he recognizes/understands. It seems like a good portion of every day is filled with him pointing at things (dat-dat) which we realized was him asking what something is called. It only takes a few times and when we ask where ______ is he can easily point to it. (This makes following simple directions--like go sit in your chair, bring me your jacket, where is your blanket? really fun/easy!)

Words he knows: eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, hair, lips, toes, shoes, chair, juice, blanket, sippy, doggy, ball, David, Lauren, Ann, outside, inside, water (like in the tub), bathtub, diaper, fork/spoon, kiss, book, balloon, all sorts of animals (beyond basic pets and farm ones too!), dance...

That's all I can think of right now. I wanted to sit down w/ Kyle and do this post together so we could talk about all the things he knows/does now, but you might have had to wait another 6 weeks!

So, other news. He's transitioning to one nap, but it's not that smooth. Some days he still takes a morning and afternoon nap. Some days he just takes a really long morning nap. Other days (and this is what we're going for) he says up (happy!) all morning and through lunch and goes down for a nap in the early afternoon. Today, he seemed okay until right about lunchtime where he proceeded to scream intermitently between falling asleep in his booster seat. By the time we had the ravioli cleaned off of him he was asleep in my arms. Surely he'd be sacked out for hours...nope, 20 minutes. What???

We've been a little stir-crazy w/ the seemingly endless winter here. We've made it to the park on a few occations when it's warmed up into the 50s or low 60s but we're really really ready for spring (and yes, we know what the weather in Austin has been lately...sounds great until you think about August)! We've been playing with Ann, David and Lauren A LOT which has been a lifesaver. It used to be just Owen and David and Lauren sort of watching. Now Owen has just as much fun w/ both which is super fun--they just do different things. Their house has been on the market too (but just sold!) so there has been a lot of swapping kids and cleaning/showing and playing in the backyard. What a lifesaver. I can't even stop to think about how much we are all going to miss them when we are no longer neighbors come June. They really are our family here. Okay, enough or I'll cry.

I'll leave you w/ a little square dance party video. I've got some other great ones and I'll get a few others up this weekend--it's going to be cold and rainy so I'm not expecting much house activity (oh, see www.830bellviewstreet.com if you're interested). Hey, and thanks for your patience and for checking back in with us!

Oh, I forgot: Owen got his first haircut today! Still got his curls, just tamed the matted-fro look a bit. He did great--better than we could have imagined. Just sat in Kyle's lap and read his Thomas the Train book like a champ. I did get a picture or two (though didn't save a lock) and I'll get one up asap. :)