Viva Mexico!

We've been back a week now, but can't stop talking about what a fantastic time we had in Mexico last week. Yes, we're incredibly spoiled. So...we were at Pam's house in Tulum (south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen), "Mayan Riviera," and it was truly awesome. The house is fantastic. The beach is perfect.

We ate lots of homemade guacamole and tortillas (pretty much at every meal), ended each day with fresh paletas (popsickles) made from coconut and some random fruits we were unfamiliar with. We read. I actually finished an entire book for pleasure! We spent time lounging in powder white sand.

Here are some shots (in a very random order):

Ms. Rebecca enjoying a little R&R in her swimsuit. (She actually had a cough when we left and came down with a fever while we were there which made for a couple of difficult nights and abnormally sleepy days.)
The house is on the beach, but we spent 2 days hanging out at another beach just a few miles away called "Paraiso" which means paradise. And it was. Can you see the big beach beds? We rented a huge round one--soooo fun!
My and Rebecca's favorite spot at the house.
More R&R.
Owen drinking a little "leche" form a dox equis glass. Perfect. Drinking out of a real cup (sans straw) is still a supervised activity, but he's getting better and better at it.
Owen and Kyle building a sand castle. Owen LOVED playing in the sand, but was pretty cautious when it came to the water--we never could get him to go in the waves.
See that lighter blue/aqua color in a circle out a ways in the water? That's a "cenote" (sinkhole) which is essentially where an under-ground fresh water river empties into the ocean via an underwater cave. Awesome. We got to go snorkling in it and it was very Discovery Chanel. A gazillion fish and other things, super clear water, pretty perfect. We used the traditional hand signs for up, look, swim, okay, but we added one for "creepy" because swimming over the cliff opening was just that.
Paradise. The view from our 2nd story room. You can see the pool, my hammock, and the beach.
The flight from Dallas was about 2.5 hours. I had SOOOO many little diversions, tricks, treats, games, etc. planned to make it smooth traveling. And of course, what's the one thing that really really really does the trick without fail and without effort? Our borrowed DVD player and a Thomas the Train video. (The Dr. Pepper was Kyle's, not Owen's.)
Both kids did really great travelling. The flights were a breeze. The hardest part was waiting in some of the pretty crazy lines getting through customs, immigration and security (yes, they both have passports now, which is crazy).

We also had a few firsts occur on the trip:

1) Owen made Rebecca laugh--like a real, hard, belly-laugh--for the first time. It actually happened in the Dallas airport on the way home. We had deboarded and were about to get in the immigration line. We were encouraging Owen to run around a bit in an open area to burn off some energy and stretch his legs. He started bowing (popping in and out of RSM's line of sight) and she just started cracking up. He continues to be the only one who can make her laugh. What a special thing to see and hear.

2) Owen went #2 in the potty! His idea. And then he made everyone (including a couple of other guests at the house whom we had only just met) come see it. "You want to SEE it???"

3) If you've been following the blog for any period of time you probably know that Owen calls my dad "Stan" because we've never been able to agree on a "grandpa name". I had pretty much given up and just accepted that "Stan" would be his name. However...Owen out of the blue, took matters into his own hands. He started calling him "Dahdo" (official spelling still pending). He just walked up to us one afternoon and said "Stan's name is Dahdo". We were like what? So we asked, Owen, who's that (pointing at Stan). And he's point at my dad and say "Stan is Dahdo". Well, okay! We'll let you know how the story develops....

4) "Dora the Explorer" helped us bridge cultural gaps...I had a really fun conversation (in Spanish) with the nice man who drove us from the Cancun airport to the house (about an hour and a half). We bonded over the fact that Owen loves to watch Dora and pick up random Spanish words and his 4 year old daughter watches it to learn random English words! Owen picked up the following Spanish while we were there: hola, adios, playa, perro, uno, dos, tres (now we're up to 8--he really really likes ocho), gracias, and de nada. We've added te amo, and por favor since being home. Oh, and luna and estrella. Not to get all serious, but with as quickly as a 2-year old can pick up another language, it seems insane that our public schools have taken foreign language out of elementary school education...

Okay, that's it for now. Gracias to Pam & Stan for such a great partial week. They were right..we should have stayed longer!

Hunting: Parental Discression Advised

We took our first "family hunting trip" to the Ranch this past weekend. We were joined by the Fosheas and the Murrays. You won't see any pictures of the guys because all of the photos with them in them are too yucky to post.

Christal and I shooting hand-guns at targets and soda cans. We'll probably start being recruited by "clandestine services" soon because we're both such good shots. It'll be tough to turn down. "These guns are toooo louuuuuud".
Phil shot his first deer ever. Nathan was very interested. (Owen too--he knew the deer had a booboo, but we're leaving it at that for now.)
The girls with some of the babies (Emmy and Boone not pictured).
Emmy and Owen working it in some work boots.
A good time was had by all. It was a very very cold weekend, but we not only survived but had a great time. On the way home (very late), Owen fell asleep with a hamburger in his hand. When he woke up he asked for it and was somewhat upset that we had taken it from him.

Okay...now I feel sufficiently caught up which is good because we're leaving town early Saturday morning for a somewhat impromptu trip to the beach in Mexico so I'm sure we'll have lots to post when we get back...

Oh, and note to other baby-booker-bloggers out there. I just had our entire blog turned into a book (actually 3 books--one for each year of posts) through "www.blog2print.com". The quality is not quite as good as the photo-books you create yourself using mypublisher.com or something like that but it literally took 20 minutes and now I have hard-bound books preserving all this rambling. The formatting is done automatically so is a little weird at times (and obviously, videos aren't included so references to them seem a little strange), but it's super easy and looks way better than if you tried to do it yourself, so they get my recommendation. Let me know if you have any questions--I'm happy to help if I can. Adios!

All C's are T's

All of Owen's "C's" sound like "T's" and all of Owen's "G's" sound like "D's". This is the key to understanding everything he says. I still have to remind myself of this often...

Here is the lucky little guy playing w/ his two best buds--cousin Bailey, and Emmy. It's amazing how much fun a pack 'n play is when you fill it with plastic balls. Think Chuck E Cheese...Owen playing Kyle's guitar (as well as Kyle? :) and taking a bow afterwards. The bow is by far the best part. He kept telling Kyle to let go so he could hold it by himself. Bossy little booger. :)
One morning Owen told me he wanted to get dressed, so I said okay, let's go get your clothes. But he told me no, "I do it myself". I sort of didn't believe him and stayed in the play room playing with Rebecca. A few minutes later he came back in with his jammies completely unzipped and hanging on by one foot. He's definitely wanting to big a big boy these days!
Bee had "bike bootcamp" at her house-this is the trike that she gave him last Christmas...he's finally big enough to really get the hang of pedaling and steering.
Owen and Bailey w/ Nana leaving Gymboree after a playdate. Too much fun.
In other "big boy news," Owen is potty-training himself. What I mean by that is that we're not really doing anything formal yet (and we're still keeping him in diapers until he's totally totally ready), but he's become very interested in the potty. We got him a little potty a while back because he expressed some interest. Now he's in a little routine where each time we change his diaper (especially a dirty one), he asks to go sit on the potty. He almost always goes pee pee. He gets very excited and gets a sticker. He gets upset when I rinse out the potty because he wants Kyle to see it when he gets home from work. This is definitely a step in the right direction but we're not going to push it.

Okay, and here's the list I've been accumulating recently of Owen's doing/sayings:

-Teaching us what we've taught him...1) He's likes to remind us to greet other people. If you come over to our house, he'll make everyone stop and say hello to every other person in the room. It comes from all the times we've said, "Say hi to ___, Owen". 2) Owen loves to say thank you (what a great habit)! He pretty much screamed "Thank you for the gro-cer-ies!!!" to the man helping us check out at the store the other day. Latter that week as Bee was walking out the front door after a quick visit, Owen ran after her and yelled out the front door, "Thank you for playing trucks!!!". Thank you's--often and loud.

-Owen has an increasingly large arsenal of stall tactics. He likes to hold up one finger and say, "one more minute" or "one second" or "one more______" (of whatever he wants). I guess this is something he has heard before...He also has a growing list of things he asks for when going to bed. Water, one more book, one more song, one more, one more. The newest is "why" and "why not". Oh, boy. We're actually saying things like "because I said so". I usually end up having to ask Owen--what did I just tell you?, so he'll repeat the reason. About 50% of the time he still asks me again. He also likes to play 2 people off of each other if he doesn't like the first answer he gets (hello, human nature)--if I say no to something and Kyle is around, he'll look at Kyle and say, "what did momma say?"--somehow hoping the answer will change in translation. This can go on for several rounds. One recent episode where his Bee actually told him no (a rare thing) has been recounted several times as if the incident was quite shocking and traumatizing to himself.

-Yesterday means sometime in the past. Tomorrow means sometime in the future. Today means right now. And everything is ____ time. Since we have bathtime and dinnertime, Owen insists we also have truck time, milk time, drawing time, on and on and on. Whatever he wants to do...it's (that) time. And it's today. Or if he doesn't want to, he says, "not today".

-The other day he wanted some help with something and I said he'd have to wait a minute because I was feeding Rebecca to which he replied, "help me with one hand".

-He recently put himself in time out for no apparent reason. I told him he didn't have to stay there--that he could come out. He replied, "no, not yet".

-It seems like Owen is constantly singing. His favorites are Old MacDonald (he always has a "tow"/cow) and Twinkle Twinkle "trintle trintle woodul star"...He gets at 75% of the lyrics right and it is one of my favorite things to listen to in the whole world. Sometimes he just goes around the house singing EIEIOooooo (or his other version: Isa, Isa, Iiiiiii). He sings when he wakes up, when he's going to sleep, when he's looking out the window of the car. He also really likes the "clean up" song he learned at school, although he prefers to sing and have others do the cleaning.

-He is very much into names. He has been learning the last names of family members and friends. Metzer. Matarory. If I'm talking to a clerk at a store or something he asks me (as if they cannot hear)--Momma, what is dat friend's name? He also likes to scribble a bunch of circles on his easle and then say, "That is your name--see!!!--Metzer!". "Wook, wook, what I draw for you!".

All about Rebecca

Can't believe Rebecca is almost 5 months old! I know all little girls are sweet, but she REALLY is! :) We are having a lot of fun with her and some of her new developments. I myself am a big fan of her sleeping through the night. That continues to go well, with a few hiccups every now and then. Naps are still hit or miss, but I know from having gone through this with Owen, that that's okay--it'll come with time.

Here she is with big brother. She LOVES him. It's like they have their own little language. Owen likes to come up to her really close and gently put his hands on her cheeks, framing her face. He squeals a little bit and they starts moving his hands around saying "tittle tittle" (tickle). He also HAS to give her "tisses" (kisses) before he goes anywhere or takes a nap or goes to bed. She usually sleeps later in the morning than he does and when I hear her, Owen is so excited to run into her room and yell Good Morning Betta! over and over again. She grins from ear to ear. He also talks to her as if she's going to respond. He likes to ask "Are you hundry Betta?...Betta, are YOU hundry?" and then he answers for her (I think depending on whether he's hungry or not). And if she's upset he gets in her face and says "It's otay Betta, it's otay".

Asleep in the bumbo chair (sorry about the rotation). We have some identical pictures of Owen. It's amazing that she would cry and wake herself up if we put her in her bed, but she's okay sleeping like this. Don't worry--I picked her up. Couldn't stand to leave her like that.
She's really enjoying some new toys--this is cousin Bailey's jumper. She sort of just spins around/pivots on which ever foot is hanging down furthest, but she seems to like it. Since the swing has gone bye-bye, this is the next best thing. That and the exersaucer--I had forgotten how annoying its music is!
Okay, this is a biggie. Rebecca had her first baby "meal" the other night. It was actually the Friday night we started her Ferber weekend. She seemed to like it and most of it went down the hatch. I know its time for us to start incorporating the cereal (and eventually veggies, etc.) into her diet, but I'm not excited about having to work that into our already hectic mealtimes...which means she's only had the one meal.

Sitting up with some bumbo assistance.
Tummy time. She seems to have a higher tolerance for this than Owen did. And she is SOOOOOO close to rolling over. She lays on her side and arches her back to reach stuff...it'll just take a little twist and voila! She actually did it once, but I'm pretty sure it was an accident.
We joined Nana and Owen at a Gymboree free play one afternoon. We mostly watched, but did enjoy a little time in the tunnel.
Can you see the little fuzzy hairs coming in? I can't wait to see what her hair looks like? Right now, it looks exactly like Owen's did at this age, except her baby mullet in the back is a little darker.

What a way to start the New Year!

Both kiddos are taking a nap. As if that isn't miraculous enough, Rebecca is sleeping in her BED and not the (evil/wonderful) SWING! This is huge news.

In typical "parenting a 2nd child form" (i.e. path of least resistance), we have not followed "the rules" for helping Rebecca learn how to sleep well (i.e. long stretches, by herself, in her bed). She's pretty much been napping exclusively in her swing for a couple of months. And though she slept in her bed in her room at night, she woke up a LOT to nurse, and the 3 weeks or so before Christmas I just started bringing her to bed with me. I know, I know...

So New Year's weekend was the weekend of tough love for our little girl (i.e. the Ferber method). It worked wonders for Owen at 3.5 months but I was a little more reluctant to do it with Rebecca. I think its partly because she hasn't been nearly as difficult as Owen and partly because she's my little girl. Plus, what's hard about cuddling up to your baby all night long? Okay, but we knew it was time...

For those unfamiliar w/ Ferber, please note that it has been mischaracterized as the "cry it out" method when that's not really how it works. Yes, the baby cries, but you go in and comfort them every few minutes, in increasing intervals. The goal is to take away their sleep associations (i.e. need to nurse, or swing, or be held in order to fall asleep). They learn to fall asleep on their own and ultimately, everyone is happier.

Night #1: Put her down at 11:21, cried until 1:27, slept for 30 minutes but woke up again. Started over--she cried for less than 30 minutes and then slept from about 3 until 8am. (Rebecca cried a lot less "violently" than Owen did, but the sweet thing also through up 3 times too...every baby is different.)

Night #2: Put her down at 10:50, asleep by 10:59, slept until 9am! The next day was trickier (and that's likely to continue for a while...she wouldn't go to sleep in her bed during the day even though she was soooo tired. After 30 minutes (or sometimes less) we'd pick her up but end up starting over again b/c she'd fall asleep in our arms. The lucky girl got a reprieve because we held her (and she slept) during our Sunday evening Bible Study group.

Night #3 (last night): Put her down around 10:15, cried for less than 5 minutes and slept until 9am! She didn't wake up once, that's incredible! And the surprising part is that she's been asleep for about 45 minutes (in her bed, on her own) today!!! So, she's definitely getting the hang of it...and I can feel some normalcy (or atleast sanity) returning to our lives.

Yea for kids who sleep!

Christmas highlights

"Merry Trismas!!! Merry Trismas!!! Merry Trismas!!!"--Owen, running around in a circle.

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was sooooo nice not to be traveling across the country to be with our family. The furthest we went was WAY down to south Austin. :) We got to spend time with everyone, but somehow it didn't feel rushed which was really great. Even though this is not our first Christmas as a family, it sort of felt like it because we're in a much less transitional stage of life, plus Owen is getting old enough to start to understand things (he knows Christmas is Jesus' birthday--not that he understands what that means).

Here are some photos...

Christmas Eve morning Kyle, Luke and Joel went for a quick hunting expedition, so Bailey came over to play. Here are the kids eating waffles in front of our tree (our only picture of the tree with presents under it...)
We went to church with Bee that night before enjoying our traditional stew and opening the 1 Christmas Eve present allowed (always pajamas). Isn't this a sweet pic of Rebecca "sitting up" at church?
Owen actually did really well during the (short) service. He enjoyed the part where he and I went up to the front of the church for the kids' thing the pastor did (he kept saying: Momma, dad man is talking to us!). There was a (really long) prayer towards the end that I thought we might have to leave in the middle of because Owen wouldn't stop talking. I'm not sure where he got this (and the irony is pretty clear)--we are pretty sure he was mumbling "buy stuff, buy stuff, buy stuff". Great--the other meaning of Christmas. :( He definitely liked the part with the candle. I was a little nervous because he kept wanting to "do cheers" with them.
Here we are back at Bee's. Rebecca got a new hat with a fabulous pink embellishment from uncle Alex and Deidre. (Deer in headlights?)
Rebecca with Jo Jo.
Both Owen and Rebecca got the most adorable pajamas (she looked like a little elf princess) and Owen's had cowboys all over them--he has requested them every night since and would prefer it if I would let him stay in them all day!

Two other really special things from that evening:
1) Bee gave Owen his stocking. She has been working on it since before he was born (it was more complicated than she anticipated, and she had hand surgery that set her back quite a bit). It is adorable and really special. She even stitched a little bee (the bug, not the letter) in the corner as her "signature". I told her she could take a day or two off before starting on Rebecca's! :)

2) Bee serenaded us with a beautiful arrangement of Silent Night on the piano. She has been taking lessons since her quasi-retirement started. It was really beautiful, and of course, very well done. I took a video, but promised her I wouldn't post it.

I actually don't have hardly any photos from Christmas morning because we used our actual video camera...maybe I'll get the footage off and crop out a couple of short videos. Bee & Jo Jo came over first thing in the morning for presents and a breakfast casserole.

Since we have most of the educational/developmental toys for her age because of Owen we got to spoil her with totally unnecessary and girly things that she probably won't even play with for quite some time. A dollhouse, a tea-set, a Madam Alexander doll, 2 pearls added to her add-a-pearl necklace my Aunt Joyce started for me when I was born (so special)! Here is Rebecca with a little dolly she got--it crinkles and has rings for her to grab onto. She loves it.
At about noon, we headed over to Nana's for more gifts and lunch. Here is Owen and Bailey each playing with their hammer sets. This was a year of "classic" toys for Owen. He got a sit-n-spin (remember those?), some really great puzzles/games, wooden cars, and tinker toys. He and Bailey enjoyed opening presents together--they were always distracted by the gift they just opened and not quick to move on to the next unwrap job, which was fine by us!
After all the girts were opened and we ate lunch, the kids (and I!) took naps. Here is Rebecca hanging out with Nana.
Aunt Mel and Rebecca.
One tradition we started this year to try to help our kids understand Christmas is celebrating Jesus' birthday with a cake (like we do with all other birthdays). So, Mel came over on Christmas Eve and we made this delicious cake. We wanted it to look "Christmas-y" to reinforce the connection between Christmas and Jesus, but I think it ended up looking more like the Mexican flag. Feliz Cumpleanos a JesuCristo! Anyways...we'll see how the tradition unfolds next year.
Owen and Bailey playing with Kyle.
One of the highlights of the day was hearing Owen and Bailey have what we think was their first real conversation with each other in full/quasi-full sentences. None of us can remember what they were talking about, and it didn't last long before changing into a little yelling match about candles or something, but they were really talking about something--so fun!

Owen wearing Kyle's new lightweight backpack. Bailey got inside it at one point and tried to walk around the room with it over her head--hysterical.
Lucky for us, my dad isn't particular about holidays or schedules so we were able to celebrate with he and Pam on Saturday. We went over to their place for breakfast and stayed all day just hanging out. (I'm realizing that I have very few pictures of Owen from these celebrations--I think because I'm paranoid about not having enough pictures of Rebecca, but also because he's so active, it's hard to catch a good photo of him right now!)

Here is Grandad Stan with Rebecca.
Kyle with Rebecca.
Owen got a remote-control car and a kazoo (or, tazoo, as Owen says) from them...which conveniently got left at their place. :) Owen figured both out very quickly, and remains a better kazoo-player than the rest of us. Call it natural talent.

So, that's the run-down. I can't express enough how great it is to be in Austin and able to celebrate with family with such ease. What a blessing for our kids to be able to spend these special days (but also all the days in between) with their grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins. We're still thinking about and trying to develop a lot of our family traditions (like the birthday cake) but this year was a really good start. Owen really enjoyed his "little people" manger scene and his advent calendar and (thanks to Melissa) I have some great ideas for how to build up on that for next year. We're also thinking about ways we can incorporate more service into our celebration--difficult with little kids--so if you have any ideas, let me know.

Okay, that's it for now. Happy New Year all!

Stats/Updates

Rebecca had her 4 month checkup today. She is growing strong and meeting all the milestones. She weights 15 pounds, 9 ounces and is 25 inches long/tall. That puts her in the 75th-90th percentile in both. Here are some things she loves or is doing right now:

-sucking on her fists, playing with her hands

-she discovered her tongue the other day which means she likes to stick it out and sort of chew on it

-she loves sitting in her bumbo chair, especially now that it has a suction-cup toy on it for her to play with and try to eat

-she loves to sleep in her swing and/or in momma's arms (yes, we're going to have to work on this in the coming weeks...it has been the path of least resistance, but it's time for tough-love)

-we are able to elicit belly-laughs if we tickle her in just the right way--such a sweet sound!

-tummy time (she actually doesn't seem to hate it, like Owen did)

-Owen...it won't be long before he's really able to make her laugh

-"Moosey" and some of Owen's other favorite toys from when he was this age (boy am I glad he doesn't remember that those were his toys so we don't have to hear his "mine, mine, mine"!

And a few Owen items of interest:

-the other day Owen got out his doctor kit (stethoscope, etc.) to "fix" his doggy who was "sick" by listening to his heart (conveniently located in his head and then his tail)...afterwards, the stuffed animal felt "all better"

-Owen says "Iwudu too, momma"...melt my heart

-Owen has been playing a game where he pretends to find things in his crib (when he's in it, say, for naptime). I'll hear him have the following conversation with himself through the door:
"Ummmm, someping greeeeen! Nooooo, just green blankie. (pause) Ummmm, someping blue! Nooooo, just blue blankie." And on and on and on through all the colors of his blankies.

-Owen got a little bit of a shiner (and a nasty cut) over one of his eyes (he tripped over Kyle's foot and into the edge of his bedroom door. My dad taught him to say "you should see the other guy" when asked about his eye...

DRUM ROLL PLEASE...
Owen used the "potty chair" for the first time!!! We're not pushing it yet, but he's showing interest in potty training and he went pee pee in the potty for the first time about a week ago (on Kyle's watch--Dad is very proud). He asked (unprompted) to go. It hasn't happened since, but we were all pretty excited. He got a sticker of a digger.

Well, that's it until after Christmas...Merry Christmas!