A Boy and His Blog

Yesterday, while James was home sick and I was at an appointment, Owen did something he has never ever once done.  He fell asleep, on his own, in the middle of the living room floor!

I had called James once because the highway was congested so I needed an alternate route home.  He brought Owen inside, went to his computer and looked up a way for me to get home.  When I called him back later to clarify something about the directions, he said to me, “your never gonna believe this, but guess what happened”.

He then went on to tell me that when he was on the computer looking up directions for me, Owen went into the living room and was quietly reading a book to himself.  James heard less and less of him, until he realized when he got off the phone that he didn’t hear him at all anymore.  He went over to check on him and saw him laying down on his book.  At first he thought he was just looking under something, but then realized he wasn’t moving.  He then wondered if he was okay, but saw him breathing.  James couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Owen has always fought sleep like crazy.  Sometimes it takes me up to an hour to get him to go to sleep.  He has never just fallen to sleep on his own without us actively trying to get him to sleep.  James went and got Owen’s quilt and covered him up right there on the living room floor.  His book was still under his head.  James shut the blinds and stayed quiet.  The cats took advantage of the opportunity and promptly snuggled up with Owen on his quilt.  Owen slept for two hours, on the floor, with his head on a book!

It must be the craniosacral therapy.  Or maybe just a fluke.  Whatever it was, we are totally amazed and we both wonder how it happened, how he allowed himself to relax enough to lay his head down on the book.  Or did he fall asleep sitting up, and then just fall down onto the book?

However it happened, it’s simply amazing and unbelievable!

He’s two!

Owen is a big boy now.  I ask him if he is a big boy or if he is a little boy, and he grunts his answer, “uuhhh”.  That grunt noise he makes means ‘big’, it’s like he is picking up something heavy.  One time he got hurt, and I asked him if he was a big boy or a little boy, and he pinched his thumb and index finger together, which means ‘little’.

Owen had a birthday party on Sunday, and then on Monday, which was his actual birthday, Daddy took the afternoon off work and we went to the amusement park at the Mall.  That day we also took pictures of him again in the mans shirt, and we measured him on the 2×4 that we keep to measure him on as he grows.  I’ll post more about those things later and add pictures too.

Owen is learning many new signs and some new words.  He now says tickle, Deeda (daddy), Mama, kitty, ball, stinky, and some others.  Some of those he said a long time ago, but he dropped them.  He just picked them up again.  ‘Daddy’ and ‘Mama’ he says all the time now.  He says them in a questioning way sometimes, or in a demanding way at other times.  Sometimes he tells us a whole story, or asks a complex question in sounds, signs, and words.  Like the other night I was putting him to sleep.  At night, instead of saying a prayer like we were raised doing, instead we talk about what good things happened that day, and what things we really enjoyed.  It was a Thursday so we talked about going to swimming lessons with Cousin Lyric and how much fun that was.  Then Daddy gave a Owen a kiss and an eskimo kiss, and left the room so I could put him to sleep.  Owen then looked at me and said “deeda” and pointed to himself, and did the sign he made up for ‘in the water’ and then grunted “uuugh”, which means ‘big’.  What he was saying was, “I want Daddy to go into the big pool with me.”  He had to clarify that it was the big pool, because him and Lyric went into the little pool after they ate ice cream cones that day.

The signs he has picked up are; help, open, cheese, banana, fall down, eat, sleep, candy, etc.  He combines ‘help’ and ‘open’ a lot.  He has a video that the speech therapist loaned us about signing and he watches it all the time now!  He is obsessed with it.  He signs ‘cheese’ to ask for the video, because they sign ‘cheese’ on the video a lot.  Oh, and I forgot, he also signs ‘L’ for cousin Lyric.  Lyric is only 13 months and she says “O” for Owen, so I thought I better teach him something to call her.

Owen does a really cute thing now.  When he wants something he comes up to us and asks for it.  He cocks his head to the side and looks into our eyes intensely and giber-gabbers really sweetly about it.  He makes the train noise for wanting me to go with him and play with his train, or he says “eeee” to mean ‘wee’ which means ‘slide’.  He comes up to me and grasps my arms and cocks his head to the side and says “eeee” and then points to himself, and then says “Deeda?”  “Mama?” and then points outside.  It’s so sweet we can’t help but give into him most of the time.

Owen and I are very busy lately, much busier than we used to be.  On Monday Mama has an appointment, so Owen spends two hours with Daddy.  They go to the park or to the community center.  As soon as we get off on the exit by Daddy’s job, Owen sits straight up in his seat and gets a big smile on his face and says “Deeda?”  I say “yes Owen, you are going to see Daddy”.  Then he says “Deeda, eeeee, Deeda, eeeee”, and I say, “yes Owen, you are going to the park with Daddy”.  Then on Tuesday his speech therapist comes.  That has been going really well, and Owen really enjoys it now that he is used to the routine of it.  On Wednesday Owen has school, his ECFE (early childhood and family education) class.  Owen only has three other kids in his class this semester, so it is a really fun and small class.  Then on Thursday we have been taking swimming lessons near Cousin Lyric’s house so that Owen and Cousin Lyric can swim together.  Owen really enjoys swimming in the big pool.  Then on Friday we nothing planned so it is our only day at home with nothing to do.

I can’t believe that we have a two year old.  Owen just keeps getting funner and funner to have around.  We love him so much.