Tractors and Diggers and Police Cars....Oh My!

The Woodbury Chamber of Commerce puts on the Woodbury Expo each year and they do a nice job of displaying all kinds of vehicles that little boys love to "drive."  I took Owen for a few hours and he was in heaven!

A Little of This, A Little of That

I've gotten into a bad habit of not carrying our camera around, thinking that I'll take pictures with my phone.  Unfortunately, I don't take as many and I never think to download them!  So, this post is a mish-mash of lots of different days and fun things we've been up to.

We started taking swimming lessons again and this time Owen was back with his buddies, Sully and Liam.  Here they are at just over a year old and at their first class.

Here they are at 4 years old

 Owen and our friend Nick looking handsome celebrating Nick's sister's 1st Communion

 Proud of his cake that we made for dinner at Nana and Papa's

 Meet Baby M!  We had our 20 week ultrasound this week and everything looked great.  The baby had its hands back behind its head, which is how both Paul and Owen sleep.  It was pretty cute!

 One night this week, Paul had to work late, so after dinner, Owen and I checked out a new playground.  It is right next to a fire station.  A few of the fire fighters pulled out a ladder truck and were doing some training exercises.  We spent a lot of time watching!  Owen was in heaven.

 

 From there, we stopped to get some ice cream.  MMMMM, Superman - his favorite flavor!

 Tonight we went to Chuck E. Cheese with my friend Lisa and her son, Nick.  The boys had a great time!

Sky Zone and an Egg Hunt

Last weekend, we didn't have any plans for Sunday, so we asked Owen what he wanted to do...go to the zoo, the park, etc.  He chose to go to Sky Zone to jump on the trampolines. 

We discovered an area where you can jump into a pit of foam blocks and O had a blast!

Last night we met up with our Friends the Lavines at a park to enjoy pizza and an Easter egg hunt.  We ran into Owen's buddy from daycare, Kaden.

Piper, Lucy and Owen ready to hunt for eggs

 Meeting the Easter Bunny

Playing at the playground while waiting for the hunt to begin

 Best buddies!

 Working as a team to find those eggs!

 Checking their loot

 Having fun on Kayden's 4-wheeler

Owen's 4 Year Well Child Check

Today was Owen's 4 year well child check up.  I was shocked how far out the appointments were when I called to make the appointment!  He is 42" tall (82nd percentile), 39 pounds (80th percentile) and has a BMI of 15.9. 

The doctor asked him about what kinds of foods he likes to eat and he responded with "broccoli."  She asked him to spell his name and count to 10, hop on one foot, walk on his tip toes and walk on his heels with his toes pointing up.  He did all of those things and said, "easy!" 

We talked a lot about his asthma plan and adjusted it down to just using his inhalers when needed instead of twice a day.  His pediatrician was very happy with how he had grown, how smart he is and just his overall personality.  He had to get one shot at the very end and he said, "Ouch!" but didn't shed a tear or make a fuss.  I was very proud of him for a great check up.

In our everyday lives, four has been tough so far.  O tests every limit, and we struggle most with him having responses to every consequence.  For example, if we tell him that how he is acting isn't okay and if he chooses to keep doing it, we'll take away XXX or we won't go to XXX.  He comes back with, "Well I will just go downstairs and get it" or "I'll just walk there by myself if you won't take me."  It's so hard to not get engaged in little arguments with him.  The other thing right now is not listening.  We have to tell him to do everything 12 times and then threaten to take away XXX or not go to XXXX.  It's exhausting some days.

We deal with this many times a day, but we do also have some really great moments too and he can be pretty funny at times.  The other day, he told me that if the baby is a girl, he thinks her name should be Sparkles.  But then he told me that if it is a girl, that we have to either throw her away of give her back to God because her bow tie (hair bow) will get wet in the tub.  Tonight I asked him to do something and he replied, "Easy peasy, lemon squeezy mom!"  I had to chuckle at that one!  Not sure where it came from, but it was cute. 

He is dead set on wearing only pants with pockets because then he is "like a police."  He has three shirts that have patches sewed on them and he insists on wearing a "badge" shirt every day for the same reason.  Every day he dresses up in a fireman costume and he chases Paul around the house because Paul is the robber and he is the police.

Love this little man, even on the days that he tried us the most. :)

More March Fun!

Here are some more fun photos of Owen at Heidi's in March.

Owen is wearing this fire fighter costume many days when I pick him up.  Usually with tap shoes and pink gloves with white bows on them!  This particular day, he had a Thomas the Train conductor hat on.  Love this kiddos imagination!

 Silly slipper day

 Super hero day

 Seth, Owen and Kaden

 Green day

 What a handsome bunch!

 Playing outside at Heidi's

Hey Owen, How Would You Like to Have a Baby at Our House?

So we finally feel comfortable making it official!  We are expecting a baby come September!  We shared the news with Owen a week or so ago and he is pretty excited!  We gave him a doll (which he first named Noodle Poodle, then changed it to Oliver) and a Berenstain Bears book about new babies.  We asked him if he'd like to have a baby join our family and he thought we meant the doll.  So I asked him if he had noticed my tummy getting bigger lately and he kindly said, "That's just because you ate too much food Mommy!"  Once we explained that he was going to be a big brother, his eyes lit up and he was excited, but then he was off to feed Oliver. 

Since then, he's had a few questions - how will they get the baby out, when I eat is the food going down to the baby, etc.  He talks to the baby a lot now and shows it how quickly he can put his socks on, how he brushes his teeth, etc.  He asked me if the baby would be able to play Legos with him and another time he said to the baby something about how it "is in a cave or a trap in there in Mommy's tummy."

He is so caring and loving, we just can't wait to see him become a big brother!

This pregnancy has been a lot different than my other two.  With Owen, it was all so new and I was naïve to all that could happen.  With Abby, I was stressed that I'd have an abruption and it didn't cross my mind that I could have a miscarriage.  With this pregnancy, it took awhile for us to talk about anything baby without first saying, "If all goes well" or "If we get to bring a baby home."  As with many women I know that have experienced loss, we have taken each day at a time and tried not to think too far ahead.  My mantra has been, "Today I am pregnant, so it is a good day."  I'd be lying if I said that there weren't days when my mind reminded me that I thought I was pregnant with Abby for much longer than I really was, so really the days we've seen the baby or heard the heartbeat are few of the days that I could really say my mantra with conviction.  I know that must sound terrible to those who haven't experienced loss, but I think it's a defense mechanism to protect your heart.

My first trimester was filled with all-day sickness and migraines, but I am feeling SO, SO much better now, thank goodness!  I have an amazing OB that has walked my journey with me (she was at the hospital when I had my abruption with Owen) and is so understanding of my fears and uncertainties.  I am blessed to have her!

This is the first pregnancy that we've done genetic testing - partially because I am of "advanced maternal age" and partly because we lost Abby to Turner's Syndrome, which is a chromosomal defect.  The testing is amazing and has come so far even since we had Owen.  It used to be that there were so many false positives and people spent their entire pregnancies thinking their baby had chromosomal abnormalities.  Now, if you qualify, they do a test were they take mom's blood and send it to Mayo.  They find chips of baby's DNA and can tell with 99% accuracy if there are chromosomal defects!  We received our results a few weeks back and everything looks great.  We were so relieved!

If you pray, please keep us in your prayers and if not, please send positive energy our way!  We could use a normal, boring pregnancy and birth this time around!!!

February and March Fun

Here are a few cute photos that Heidi captured while he was at her house. :)  Love, love, love that she takes photos of the kids for us!

Washing toys!  Once in awhile she fills tubs and lets the kids help wash the toys.  They love it!

 Working hard!

 Owen's 4th birthday celebration at Heidi's

 Love that grin!