August Snippets (21 months)

• Last week, Owen pooped in the toilet for the first time! Dave and I weren't even considering potty training Owen yet, but perhaps he is more ready than we think. That night, I went to the store and bought a potty chair. Unfortuantely, there hasn't been a second successful attempt -- yet.
• This month we took a vacation to visit Dave's family in North Carolina. Owen loved spending time with his cousins, aunts, uncles and Pappy and Grandma! We spent a day at the ocean -- Owen's first time really spending any time in the water. He loved swimming with Dave and I as well as having the chairs at the shoreline, so he could kick the waves as the came up to his feet. We spent another day at the aquarium. It was a short, but fun trip.

• Owen usually calls Otis by the name, Puppy; Cooper (Coops) by the name, Oops; Gracie by the name, Kitty.
• Owen recognizes my parent's neighborhood, and yells out, "Papa's house" when we turn onto their block.
• We celebrated 22 months by getting Owen's first haircut. He tried so hard to be brave for mama and dada, but a few crocodile tears slipped. So long baby curls, hello toddler!

• The word "no" has finally made its way into Owen's vocabulary. Morning conversations with Owen often go like this:
• “You’re going to go see your friends today.”
• “No.”
• “Don’t you want to see your friends?”
• “No.”
• “Put your paci in your crib.”
• “No.”
• “It’s time to put your shoes on.”
• “No.”
• “Do you want me to get your neck?” (tickle his neck.)
• “No.”
• “Do you want your train?”
• [silence] (hasn’t quite figured out the word for yes yet.)
• Owen's understanding of language keeps growing every day, and it's really remarkable to watch. He follows instructions when he wants to (brushes his teeth, leaves Baba and paci in his room, puts trash into the garbage). He is also starting to put two words together at a time -- some examples: Dada bye-bye, bike loud, Papa house, Dada bike
• He got new shoes for fall, and he loves wearing his socks and shoes.

J.B.

Snippets

I haven't posted in a long time, but Owen is at an age where he's developing and changing so much every day. I need to keep track of all the cute stuff he's doing. Otherwise, I'll forget it. So here's a couple of cute things he does.
He hasn't figured out the difference between nouns and proper nouns. He refers to most men as Dada. He refers to almost all women as Mama. He refers to kids as Manna (after his cousin, Amanda). Little boys are Maa (after his buddy Max at daycare), or else they're babies.
Owen calls himself the baby. He loves looking at the pictures and videos on my phone, so he can see the baby.
Bananas are no longer his favorite food. Now he loves Teddy Grahams, crackers, Chipotle and any kind of berries. And naturally, he wants to eat or drink whatever is in my hands.
Owen loves planes.
Owen recently started singing along with songs. His favorite is "Yeah, yeah, yeah" by GB Leighton. He also likes "Drive By" by Train and was also singing an Usher song that I hadn't heard before he was singing along to it.
That's enough snippets of life with Owen for now. It's crazy how adorable I find him to be. After he goes to bed, I find myself looking at the pictures in my phone. I sit and wish that he was still awake and goofing off with Dave and I. The boy makes my heart swell every day, and I just can't get enough. J.B.

New year and stuff

I've had a couple of blog post ideas swirling in my head. Mostly about the new year. I can just feel that 2012 is going to be a significant year for me. I'm starting a new job. I'm turning 30. We even have fairly realistic hopes to buy a new home.

But nothing gets me more excited for what the possiblities of this new year than this:

Going to Haiti.

I just got off the phone with my friend of a friend, whose uncle started Healing Haiti. He makes it sound so easy to go. I simply pick from one of their already scheduled trip and go. Obviously, I know there will be more than that. But really, what have I been waiting for?

I can't really explain why I would want to give up my vacation time to go to such a poverty stricken place. And visit kids with no parents. And see first-hand how people live without clean water, clean clothes and a decent home. I know it's going to be sad. I know it's going to be so difficult emotionally. But I have a deep, deep desire to do this. I know it will change my life.

Stay tuned...

J.B.

Christmas

I can't believe Owen's already celebrated his second Christmas. And like many kids, he had to do what kids do best.

Get sick.

His stomach bug started two days before Christmas, actually. Just in time for him to miss his first daycare Christmas party and his cousin's birthday dinner. It was our first time dealing with Owen having the flu, so I thought we did pretty well making it to 14 months before ever having to deal with puke.

By Christmas Eve, he seemed better. And we had seemed to make it through without Dave or I getting sick. But he was having wierd spit up with a puke smell on the way home from church, so Dave took him home while I went to my parents for dinner. I missed Dave and Owen, but it's so nice of Dave to be willing to take care of Owen, so I could have some time with my family.

But that night, Dave came down with the flu. As did my sister, Stevie. So apparently we didn't escape the flu after all. Dave did make it down to the couch, so he could watch Owen open his presents (or me open the presents as Owen wasn't that into it). We skipped going to my mom's house for Swedish pancakes, but Owen and I went later for Christmas Day dinner.

And that night I came down with the flu. And so we had to cancel the family Christmas dinner at my house. My mom ended up having the rest of the family at her house, and Dave and I went over to celebrate while I stayed home in bed.

The stupid flu altered every single one of our Christmas plans. But while our plans didn't go as we wanted, it was hard to not be happy for all the blessings that I have. I have a wonderful son and husband and family. We got to celebrate Christmas without worrying about finances (although I admit that we got Owen's big gift second-hand. He won't ever know and won't ever care). We have health and love and laughter and stability. I couldn't ask for more.

 J.B.

Home.

Today, somewhere in the world (Haiti to be exact), little orphan children are waking up in their brand new beds. It warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes to think of it.

Two years ago was our first Christmas after our miscarriage. It was at that time, that Dave and I decided we wanted to help orphans somewhere in the world. We found ourselves parents without children, so we wanted to give to children without parents. It really helped me give a little bit of reason and hopefulness to our loss.

So we decided to help an organization called Healing Haiti. An uncle of an acquaintance of mine started the organization to help orphans in Haiti. They were building a new orphanage for the kids. As they built, they also provided food, water, education and love to those kids.

We've supported this organization when we could ever since. My parents and I attended a fundraising event, we've donated in honor of Chubby's birthday, gave after the earthquake. Anyway, today I woke up an awesome surprise.

The orphanage is finished! And the kids have moved in!

Here's a blog post by Krista giving her perspective of watching the kids arrive and how happy there were. "The children's screams of pure unbridled joy as they saw it were so loud they were heard in the vehicle that followed the bus. It was indescribable," she wrote. She also said that for the first time in their lives, they will get to use a toilet and end the day with a shower. Can you imagine?

And even better, here are pictures of the kids checking out and enjoying their new home.

Home. Can you imagine a better Christmas present?

J.B.

20 minutes in the life of Owen

At almost 14 months old, Owen is still not walking. He's just not interested in it. As excited as I am for that list big milestone, I'm ok with the fact that he still prefers getting around on his hands and knees. Because I consider a crawler a baby. And a walker, my friends, I consider a toddler. And I'm ok with my baby staying a little baby a while longer.

And let's face it. Owen knows how to get around. Let me show you. And just so that you're clear -- all of these pictures were taken in no less than 20 minutes.

Feeding the dogs his snack

Playing with wrapping papger

Playing with his toy (standing!)

Grabbing the dogs' paws

Opening Amanda's Christmas present (sorry!)

Pulling an ornament off the tree

Eating the ornament

Trying to put the ornament back on the tree

And this is why I'm content with a crawler!

J.B.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

No Thanksgiving post. No 13 month post. No quick updates. I'm not doing such a great job of chronicling the life of the Balow bunch, huh?

Life has been crazy busy -- but in a good way. And we dote on our little man as much as we can.

He's not walking yet, but why would he want to when he can scoot all around on all fours. One of the cutest things he'll do is the hypervenilating-sounding laugh if you pretend your chasing him. Oh the things I need to get on video. He also taught himself to go down the steps (he's already mastered going up.)

I did get this on video last night -- Owen eating his banana. He eats them so fast, but I actually bought the biggest bananas I could find the other days, since he usually cries when he's done eating it. So he couldn't squeeze half the banana in his mouth like he usually does.



Other things Owen is doing: talking. He's got mama, dada, banana (nana), bye, grandma, doggy and all done (complete with the sign for all done). Banana (nana) is his favorite word by far, probably because saying the word results in him getting to eat his favorite food.

Another cute thing he does: simultaneously scrunching his nose and breathing loudly through it

 J.B.