Owen's most favourite pastime these days (unless it's his trains) is singing. He likes to sing and he likes to be sung too. He is regularly increasing his repertoire! We have:

Old Macdonald (Ee-yiiii-yo, Moo, moo, moo.)
Row, Row, Row Your Boat (woah, woah, woah... boat... melon, melon, melon... deem)
Twinkle, Twinkle (Kinko, kinko, how-a, uppa, kinko)
Theme song to Cat in the Hat (Go, go go! 'ventahh)
Frere Jacques (Shocka, shocka, tina, tina, din, dan, dong)
Thank-You song from church this Sunday (ank-you, ank-you)
Baa Baa Black Sheep (Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa)
Tidy Up song from daycare (Tiiiee-up, diiee-up)

He also likes us to sing the Owenized version of "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain, and, if walking in the rain, either "Singin' in the Rain" itself or "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head".

He will say "Mnahmnahmnah" so that John or I will sing "Doo-doo-da-doo-doo."

He can also recite large portions of many of his books (in a sort of very minimal paraphrase, of course) and the plot of Wallace and Gromit in "A Close Shave" (Dog! Sheep! Cha-chine! Truck! Bike! Ladder! Cha-chine! Bang Bang! Oh no! Dog! Sheep!)

In short, I have never met anyone half as adorable.

Oh my beautiful baby.... big boy

Owen continues to be a marvel. And obviously one who keeps us hopping. We're so busy being real parents that the blogbaby stays neglected.

Still, let me take a few minutes to tell you about what we're up to these days.

Owen's language skills continue to impress. I couldn’t even begin to tally them up - he learns new ones every day. He’s started to make two word sentances: “Do it” “Get it” “Have it” are favourites. He likes to say thank you and is working on please. He’s starting to identify who is doing things (“Daddy shower”) and show the faintest glimmerings of understanding the past and cause and effect. He can count reliably to two and often to three (and nine often comes next.) He is absolutely fascinated by names and often remembers what people are called after meeting them only briefly. He’ll ask to play with little friends days after we spend time with them.

He is thinking about colours and shapes. He definitely thinks about how things move (around, roll, run, etc.) He’s not that excited about the stroller - “Walk!” he cries, but still gets strapped in for longer walks (because he’s still pretty slow and definitely distractable). He loves to sing and he loves to dance. He loves to invite (order) people to play with him, dragging them over with a chubby fist wrapped around a big person’s finger. He lives to be outside (ouh-shiiiide!) and to play at the playground.

We encountered a robot in a video the other day, and that’s a frequent topic of conversation these days, except he calls them “blobots” which is adorable. He can also tell you about aliens, octopuses, starfish, butterflies, and submarines. No word is too much challenge.

He eats with a spoon and sometimes a fork (and fingers when it’s faster.) He knows what he wants to eat and when. He’s recently learned to say when he’s hungry (“huggy!”) which I think makes him feel pretty powerful, though he still tends to ask for “supper” instead.

He received a bonus teddy bear from his great aunt on Saturday (it magically arrived in the mailbox while we were out) and he is now very attached to it. It had to come down with us to breakfast today, though he did not ask to take it to daycare. If it turns out this tie-died Beanie Buddy becomes his ‘lovie’ we may be in trouble. What’s the resale on those things, anyway?

He’s starting to transition to the toddler room at daycare, and let me tell you, he’s more than ready. He’ll be making a switch to a new centre in November - it’s halfway between where I work and where John does and will make pickup and drop-off a little more equitable (also stroller-able and even bus-able).

I’m about to start a fall class tomorrow, so life with us will be back to the new routine of work and daycare and nights were Mummy doesn’t come home until after bedtime. It will take a few weeks, but we’ll adjust.

We’re starting to experiment with finally cutting out the last few nursings, but the problem with keeping it up until toddlerhood is that they suddenly have opinions about it. Still, I’m ready to have a body that’s mine again - more than two years is a long time to share.

I am starting to think about Halloween, and our December trip to Winnipeg for a wedding and some grandparental time, and Christmas presents, for heaven’s sake (I think we’re going to need a bigger house). In that vein I’ve updated the wish list in the sidebar and will probably continue to pop things on there as he shows an interest. (In case you’re on the VERY small list of people who should be getting things for him.)

Vocabulary

Owen is a chatterbox - this is indisputable.
I have been periodically charting his words, as you know, but since the last time I updated, his vocabulary has completely exploded. We are talking some 90 words, plus a bunch of sounds he uses to identify animals, trains, fans, etc.
The words below are all ones he says without prompting. I'm not sure I even have them all! He doesn't pronounce perfectly, and it's entirely possible no one but me understands what they are, but WOW man, Wow.

Verbs nurse poke cuddle touch bite	Adjectives better dirty wet dry more	Prepositions that up down	Food milk yogurt cracker bread banana apple strawberry asparagus water snack noodle tomato	Body Parts nose eye mouth teeth bum knee toes belly bellybutton	Vehicles car truck bus bike boat
Animals cat dog mouse hippo crocodile aligator bird bug rooster animals duck bear whale	Toys block playground ball sandbox bubble bath guitar	Other Mess Mop done box bag chair spoon bowl plate door window cup bottle shoes sock top	Phrases bye-bye hi! let's go here you go night-night all done ta thank you oh-oh no yeah	People Mama Dada/Daddy Baby Granddad (Danda) Mamgu (Mummum or sometimes gee) Grandpa (Danba)

Remiss

What can I say? Life gets in the way. I guess I'm not cut out for Mommy-Blogging, what with work and school and mommying itself.

Owen continues to grow and thrive. Since last I wrote he's had tubes placed in his ears, taken off to see his Granddad, Great Granddad, and a raft of Great Aunts and Great Uncles, not to mention cousins galore, over in the UK.

He likes to play outside in the sun, riding our 'biiii(ke)', playing in the "bah-boh" (sandbox) and abusing Mummy's plants. He runs and dances and plays air guitar. He'll try any word you throw at him, including submarine and helicopter. He likes to point out trees, steps, doors, grass, dogs, cats, buses, and especially bikes and motorbikes, which are both 'biiiiii!', except that motorbikes are followed up with 'a-ruuummmrrruuumrrrum.'

Owen is generally an easygoing, happy, friendly chatterbox. Though there are days, like last weekend, where four molars on the move plus a rotten headcold make it a lot harder to get through the day. He saves all his angst for when he's home alone with Mummy and Daddy so that's something.

I'm finally done my course for this summer - the longest six weeks I've lived in a long time! - and so we'll have so much more time for having fun together.

I'll leave you for now with Owen's recent school picture. If you'd like more photographic Owen from recent months, come visit us at Flickr!

In lieu of a real post - Owen's words at April 20, 2010

Hi!
Ball
Mama
Dada
Look (doo!)
Done / All Done
Down (also means up)
More (mo-mo, with sign)
Nurse (nuh?)
oh-oh
Dat? (what's that?)
Banana (usually nana, but he got the ba in there last night)
ta (thank-you but mostly a sound for giving things to us or asking for them back)
toes (does)
Shoes (doos)
book
No (no-no?, with head shake. Often said while doing something he shouldn't)
Bottle (ba-ba, ba-ble)
Cup (baba, ba, bup)
door
dog
bowl (basket, bucket, etc.)
box/block (baah)
baby
go (doh)
apple (bap-boo)
woof (uff)
food/eat (nam-nam)
spoon (boo)
stuck (duh!)
touch (duh - reaching)
flower (loh-loh)

Onomatopoeia:
meow
wuff
elephant sound
tweet tweet
brrrrrmmmmm
wooohhhhh (vaccum cleaner, big truck)
pock-pock-pock (fish sound)
ahm! (give me a bite!)

Lots of little videos

Word List

A lot of these words are only discernibly different in context. You'd be surprised how quickly you learn to hear the minute differences. These are roughly in the order that we are certain that he is definitely associating a sound with something.

Mama
Dada
hi!
dog (doh!)
cat (tattat!)
meow (wa-ow) (he was meowing at the picture of the cat on the bag of cat treats this afternoon)
woof (uff)
bottle (baba)
sheep (ba-ba)
oh-oh
what's that? (dat?)
door (doh-oh)
ball (boohhh)
book (bah/buh)
banana (nanana)
toes (dohs!)
ta (thank you - or really more like I am handing this to you please hand it back now)
milk (mum)
baby (ba)
cup (bap/bop)
all done (aa duh, duh, aaa)
go (doh!)
eye (possibly this is still just hi)
down (doh)
more (mo) (very seldom says)
apple? (bub-bub)
yogurt? (oh-oo)

Other sounds that mean something:
bleaah! (John taught him this when he was eating stuff off the carpet and now he does it to be funny)
Mem (I do not know what this means, but he says it with great conviction.)
bwow
blom/blum


He is also big on mimicking sounds / words when we say them, though he won't necessarily remember these for the next time.

Other big things of late, walking, running, climbing the stairs, trying to climb into the bath, climbing over people on the floor, holding the phone to his ear and saying "hi! hi!", throwing food out of the high chair, hiding remotes, nearly turning ONE oh my goodness!

A big real post will have to commemorate that - promise!

Philosophizing and Updating and Loving

So yes, hello...

Turns out we're not fabulous parent-bloggers. Good intentions out the window when you have a sleepless, busy child, I guess.

Owen has, however, become a gem. He's such a happy, funny little boy these days.

He's walking, as we showed you in our hasty video post. He can't get up if he's in the middle of a room, but give him a wall or furniture or person to pull up on, and he's off to the races, padding his way down the hallway to see who's in the kitchen, carrying the contents of the kitchen (Tupperware, pot lids, tomato paste, whatever's handy) off to his toy box.

He's talking, maybe, or at least making sounds that sound a lot more like words. Mama, he says, often when he means me. Dada, likewise, for John. "Dog," he says when he's at his Mamgu's and hanging out with Bella the Jack Russel/Chihuahua, "Dog". Most other animals are "baa," especially the sheep kind. He's said cat, once or twice, when he's mislabelled Pumpkin as a baa or a dog. "Nam nam nam" means he's hungry, or enjoying his meal. There's a "baaaaw" sound for balls, and a "buuuhh" sound for books, but mostly everything is ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, so maybe we read too much into it. Was that a "banana" we just heard?

He started daycare in January, and has had a mild case of the plague ever since, a cold that turned into an ear infection that turned into a croupy sort of thing that turned into "that damn ear infection still hasn't gone away." We're finishing up our third course of antibiotics. We've retired the inhalers. He seems happy enough, but do his ears still itch? Do we have to make a hard decision about tubes? We'll know on Monday, I guess.

There are six pointy, sharp little teeth now, and a brand-new stream of drool that might indicate more are on the way. He sleeps five hours in a row, most nights, sometimes six, though not usually the same ones we like to sleep. He's getting better and we can see the light at the end of that tunnel.

He likes to make jokes, initiate peek-a-boo, feed us bites of whatever he's eating. He's in all the drawers and cupboards, testing, throwing, rearranging. Toys that make noise are the very best, and he shakes his head along with every rattle. He's starting to dance along with music, a little hand wavy bouncing thing. He understands more words than he lets on, I think, especially the kind that are "no."

He's ten and a half months old, already. In six weeks he'll have been around for a whole year. It's hard to imagine life before he was, but all the same, being back at work makes it hard to reconcile now with before. There's no more stopping on Barrington Street for a pint on the way home. No more spur of the moment decisions to see a movie on a Friday evening. Any evenings out take special orchestration. Is it worth it? Yes, oh, yes. Is it still weird? Again, yes.

The best thing of all, though, is the end of the working day, this little face full of love and smiles.

Owen's becoming a little more confident and adventurous when it comes to walking. Check this out (or see here: http://bit.ly/5HJVAw)

An eventful week.

So last Wednesday I was home with Owen, as is my wont, now I'm back at work. My dentist is in the same building I work in, so one of my colleagues watched him.

Thursday, I was involved in my first-ever Ministerial briefing at work - exciting, and good for the career, but nerve-wracking, not least because it started late and ran later. Luckily it was not a daycare day, so Owen just enjoyed more time with my Mum.

Thursday overnight he developed a fever... Seemed OK in the morning so we left him with Mum again, where he grew steadily more miserable through the day. When I got home from work he was pretty inconsolable, so off to the doctor's office for us. Ear infection.

Saturday... we managed to exchange our tickets to see the Metropolitan Opera's Carmen at the movies... and stayed home with a sick babe. Sunday, similar, but without the exchange.

Monday and Tuesday Owen was back to himself. He even napped at daycare!

Overnight he slept four hours, then six, a new world record. And he even put himself back to sleep when it turned out I hadn't quite managed it after his midnight feed.

Today he had a super-long morning nap, and then, shortly after I got him up and nursed him, planning to try some real lunch and head out to Mom's group, the house started to smell like smoke. I investigated the kitchen. Stove off, toaster cool. I looked down the basement stairs but it seemed ok. The smoke detector wasn't going off. Checked upstairs, nothing there either. The smell was getting stronger and the kitchen starting to get hazy. Strapped Owen into the highchair and checked out the basement for real.

Thoughts going through my head... we'd had some furnace trouble around Christmas - had something else gone wrong? And if something was on fire... we were supposed to have already been gone to Mom's group. Thank heavens we still had the chance to call if we needed help.

Hazy as hell down there. Up the stairs, grabbed the snowsuit, calling John, dressing baby. The neighbour appears at the fence. Pass her the baby and go searching for the cat while John calls 911. By the time I have the cat out the firefighters have arrived next door.

They set an oven mitt on fire while running the self-clean cycle on their oven. Everything is quickly under control. Three friendly and cute firefighters set up a giant fan to blow smoke out of my house, though the basement is a lost cause, having no windows. John arrives. The cat is deposited back upstairs. The firefighters leave. John goes back to work. We go to Mom's group.

We get home, and the ween naps another two hours. Take his temperature when he's up and he's warm again. Call telehealth. Suggest we take him in tomorrow. Try to give him dinner. Not interested. Take him upstairs to play for a while, then he nurses. Then he chokes on snot and projectile vomits all over me and him and the nursery.

I give up. Some day off.

In other news, current possible words:

Dada (definitely a word, but usable for any parent)
Mama (a word, but not a frequent one. sometimes used for mama, sometimes just for things he wants, or food)
Baa Baa (said in response to pictures of sheep)
Tiss (possibly kiss?)
Num, Num (yummy!)
Hi (that is Haaaaaaaaaai, like he's from the deep south. Though he's not saying that much now he's got waving down.)

Clapping!

We owe you a Christmas post!

But look!!