Party at the beach

Today we went to a friend's 2nd birthday party at Will Rogers State Beach. Here are a few pictures. Both boys had a great time. They spent lots of time in the sand and digging. They had awesome naps today - the power of the beach!

Andrew 42 months

Pumping Gas, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

I picked up Andrew and Owen as usual from Kindercare yesterday afternoon. When we were all buckled into the car, I announced that we needed to go to the gas station before we went home. I've learned that with Andrew is it best not to spring unexpected events on him and ensure he knows why we won't be making our usual left turn out of the parking lot. Its times like these, when I remember that Andrew is three and needs time to process things that I feel like I'm making progress as a mom.

And about a nano second after I tell Andrew that we're going to the gas station I hear:

"I DON"T WANT TO GO TO THE GAS STATION!" WAIL! CRY! TEARS!

and this makes NO SENSE TO ME AT ALL!

Why is going to the gas station so bad? Didn't I give you enough notice?!?! Have you been traumatized some how by a recent visit to a gas station? What!?

Its times like these that I realize Andrew will always keep me on my toes and a little off balance. It keeps things interesting around here.

After I spent a few moments explaining to Andrew that the gas station is mandatory and the car will not go unless we have gas, Andrew chokes back a sob and asks "can I help?" and I say "of course you can help!"  His tantrum ended just unexpectedly as it started.   Andrew helped pump gas yesterday for the first time.    After he was very proud and a happy camper.  Lesson learned here: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  Start enlisting Andrew's help.  

Andrew has been full of tantrums lately.  Eric and I feel that all we did on the weekend was yell and send Andrew to a time out.  The most frustrating thing is that the tantrums are more frequent and are more difficult to predict.    I trust that this is just another phase though and we will emerge to back to equilibrium in a couple of weeks or so.  If we survived last December we can get through this.  

With the bad there is lots of good.  He continues to show much interest in reading and spelling.  He has moments of great big brother behavior.  Lots of sharing (with lots of "don't touch that Owen!".  Lots of invitations to play: "Owen come over here".  This morning in the shower he was very concerned about Owen's whereabouts (he was still asleep in his crib).  

Andrew started gymnastics the week before last.  He was terrified when we arrived and did not want to participate at all.  We were on our way out to try again next week when his good friend Maverick arrived.  Maverick's mom took Andrew's hand and led him to class and Andrew was just fine.  By the end of the class Maverick and Andrew needed to be separated because they were having a little too much fun together.    Lesson learned here: Andrew needed peer support to trust that gymnastics was safe and fun.  We may use this approach to get him back into swimming lessons.

You've read about the boys activity level in my last post on Owen.  Andrew needs to run around a lot these days.  I'm happy to oblige, there are a lot worse places to be on a weekday afternoon than at the park with your two favorite kids.

Owen's First Haircut and Update

I'm really not sure about this..., originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

We finally took Owen to get his first haircut on Saturday. He was a super-trooper. A little unsure, but not one tear shed (from Owen). He sat on dad's lap the whole time and when it was done he got a big yellow balloon.

Owen has officially started to say words!  "Uh-oh" is a word...right?  Owen started saying Uh-oh this weekend and continued to say it about 100 times.  He does say it appropriately - when something drops, spills, if he bonks his head...(things that happen constantly around here).  If I remember correctly, Uh-Oh was one of Andrew's first words and signaled a ramp-up in his verbal skills.  I think we'll start seeing a lot more words in the next couple of months.  Owen says Hi and will say Hi and give a wave to just about anybody.  It sounds more like "eye" - but his meaning is unmistakable.   And the ever popular "No".  He says no, and gives a vigorous head shake to emphasize his point - sometimes he he'll hit and say no.  Which brings me to timeouts!  Owen has had his first time out this weekend!  For hitting his mama (while saying no).  Not allowed.

Owen had a rough time on our road trip to Half moon bay.  He threw up twice on the way up and once on the way down.  We were fortunate that we were close to rest stops when he blew.    The van is just about recovered.  I'm convince that it was a stomach bug on the way up north, but plain old fashioned car-sickness on the way home.  (My mom always said that our family road trips were always a mile too long for me  - so sorry Owen, you get that from me.)

Continuing the list of things Owen doesn't like (and is a bit scared of) is Merry-go-rounds.   We've tried a couple of times to put him on a Merry go round and he doesn't not like it one bit!  He is the only child who is screaming on his horse.  

Since vacation Owen has become a daddy's boy.  He's got some serious separation anxiety if dad leaves.  Eric dropped Owen off at Kindercare on Friday (I stayed home with Andrew because Andrew caught Owen's stomach bug), and he had an awful time and did the whole crying and clinging routine.    When Eric left for the airport this morning he had another major meltdown (which was much harder on Eric).  

Owen has become a Diego fan and loves it just about as much as his brother.  We've had to say that Diego was "broken" and we couldn't watch just to give us a break from Go! Diego Go!

The boys have gotten to a point in their crazy activity level that play time at the park is mandatory before we come home.  If these boys don't get a chance to burn off energy they are constantly wrestling, running into each other (on purpose), and jumping on and off the couch.   Yelling at them or trying to separate them has not been successful.  I've got to get to the root cause and manage this by tiring them out.  If it's come to this at 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 - I'm a little nervous at what I've got coming. 

Facespace? Mybook?

I'm on Facebook! Hurray - poke me! Whatever that means! Should I feel bad that I haven't been hit with a snowball yet? Am I supposed to throw first? Am I now on the Interwebs 2.0?

I found a really hilarious post about what it can feel like (uh, for someone like me) to join this site.