Nana and the Zoo

So, we had a great weekend last weekend--Owen's Nana (Kyle's mom) came to visit. Somehow he managed to keep straight the difference between his two Nanas (grandma and banana). We pretty much just hung around the house and played, except for one big outing to the NC Zoo in Ashboro which was a major hit. Here are some pics from the weekend...

Peekaboo from behind our big tree in the backyard.

We're trying not to encourage this, but Owen's ability to climb has started to speed up. Here he is on the picnic table w/ one of his trucks.

Here they are reading "boootz" together. Nana said that Owen's attention span was sometimes longer than hers! Also, he prefers to read rather than be read to--this means he wants to turn the pages and point out all the things he knows, whether it is an animal, letter (out of a repertoire of 6 or 7), or an action like someone going nigh-nigh or draaaaw(ing).

Okay, here we are at the zoo. I think Nana and Owen are both mooing at something in this photo--something that was most definitely not a cow but looked like one from far away.

I think Kyle was trying to get Owen to pay attention to the giraffes ("raffs") in the distance. Owen's favorite were probably the zebras (Naaaays) and flamingos (ming-mos).

One highlight of the weekend was Nana teaching Owen what a flashlight was (from one of his books). So we brought out an old (huge) mag light for them to play with. When you adjust the bulb a certain way there is a little crescent shaped shadow at the center that looks like a tiny moon surrounded by light. Owen went crazy over this and every time he went into (or near) Nana's room he would ask to see the moon.

Here are a few photos from the week before Nana's visit. Owen just rolled over on his back and started to "read". Doesn't look very comfortable to me, but then again, he wasn't there very long.

I was fixing lunch as quickly as humanly possible but he just couldn't make it...(I think his other leg is underneath him.)

Playing outside w/ Dada and the hose.

Owen's verbal skills continue to amaze us. He's starting to put 2 words together a lot, like "miwk peeeese" and "nigh nigh dada" and he's also learned to ask for help "hep" which is, well, helpful and say excuse me (meeuu me) which is just cute!

He's also making good use of "No" to the point where we need to start being careful what we say around him...tonight before bedtime I said, "Owen, do you want to go take a bath?" to which he responded "No". Okay, so I know not to ask a toddler a question you're not prepared to accept the answer to (even if it's no) but quite honeslty I didn't think he really would understand that. He's smarter than I think! Kyle and I were both laughing about it so to test his understanding (mistake #2) Kyle said, "Owen, do you want some ice cream?" to which Owen responded "peese, peese, peese!". Okay, he understands. We (hopefully) won't make that mistake again.

Oooh--this is big--he's telling us when he poops! (If you have/had kids, you understand what a big deal this is.) He says "boop" and pats his bottom after he goes. It's awesome!

FYI: I'm headed to Austin this weekend to find us a (rent) house and Kyle and Owen will be here having some quality father-son time. You can pray for us all! :)