Weekend Fun > Date Night, Oktoberfest, Lamaze BBQ, and the Cowboys!

This is the first weekend in two months that we didn't spend the whole thing packing, moving, or unpacking/cleaning/painting/settling. I can't tell you how nice it was to do some social things!!!

Thursday night our friends Ariel and Damon babysat for Owen while we had a date night. Our first date night since early July - that's right - three months. This is what we get for deciding to live away from family in CA. :) We did the basic dinner and a movie. We saw Dark Knight (the new batman movie) - which was awesome. Long, but really good.

Friday evening, Ariel and Damon invited their friends with German last names to Oktoberfest at a local "pub." We had a great time. Ate out in the courtyard. Tried tons of different foods. And all the babies had loads of fun dancing to the sound of German/European music.

Saturday was our regular Lamaze class get together. This time a BBQ at Jaime and John's house. As always, it was great to see everyone. Such a fun and nice group of people. This is the first time we've been together with all the kids walking and talking a little and more interested in what the others are doing. So it was a bit of a mad house keeping up with all of them. All of these kids are so darn cute. Hopefully all the ladies are getting together Friday night for a movie night while the guys watch the kiddos.

Sunday Michael and Krista came over with Kelsey and Megan to watch the Dallas Cowboys game. We had a great time watching the kids play. Megan is crawling now, so between the three we really had all stages of mobility and talking. :) I can't say that watching the Cowboys lose was great, but it could have been a lot worse if those two touchdowns hadn't been overturned by holding calls.

In between all this we also managed to clean the house (so nice to start the week with a clean house) and to spray roundup all over our backyard weeds. The bank let the grass die completely and then started watering again. This resulted in weeds about as tall as Robbie where our grass should be. After we get those all killed off we'll resod. Ahh the joys of homeownership.

Pics of the lamaze kids below...

The Group (from the left - Dominic, Bryson, Owen, Chase, Alexandra, Gabriel)

Owen (Ours :) )

Alexandra (or Alex) (Ariel & Damon's - sorry it's sideways)

Chase (Karen & Paul's)

Gabriel (Susan and Garrett's)

Dominic (Jaime and John's )

Bryson (Garian and Brett's)

Tantrums, Oh the Tantrums

Owen has just come out of a two week bought of tantrums. Basically between moving and him being so sick, we think it threw our little guy out of wack. For two weeks he would throw non-stop, inconsolable tantrums from the time we picked him up from daycare (around 4:30pm) until he'd go to bed at night (8:30pm or so).

The smallest thing would set him off. For example, if he threw his ball and it rolled a little further than he was willing to go to pick it up - tantrum. The tantrums were quite dramatic - throwing himself on the floor. He wanted to picked up and not held at all - at the same time. Everything was a battle - and boy are tantrums exhausting.

We tried lots of different things. Holding him, walking away, trying to distract him with other things. Nada. We can't discipline him for this type of thing yet, he's still too young to understand. We tried increasing the number of naps he was taking to try to get him more sleep - nope, he just slept less (2 days with only 30min total of naps - that experiment certainly backfired). We finally discovered it was best to let him work through it on his own. We would sit next to him so he knew we were there and would read a book in a fun voice and let him do his thing.

He finally came out of this little phase over the weekend. It is so lovely to have our sweet and happy little boy back. Much more pleasant (and less exhausting) to be around. He moves up a level at day care starting on Monday. So we'll have to see if this new transition throws him back into a tantrum tailspin. Calling all parent friends... any suggestions on dealing with tantrums at 14 months old?

Owen Finally Better (Mostly)

Owen finally returned to day care yesterday. His fever was completely gone and the rash was gone enough to return. They reported that he was still grumpy - bascially same behavior he was having at home - put me down, no don't put me down - general dissatisfaction with everything. But by the time we got home he was mostly a happy camper. Apparently he really enjoyed the park with Robbie and the Tribbles (there's one that's only about a 10 min walk from our house which is awesome). Hopefully he had a better day today and getting back on a routine should help. Thanks for all the well wishing and checking in on our kiddo!

Owen - Sickness Continued

We've determined that Owen has Roseola (thanks "Dr." Fisher). After 4 days of high temps, Monday his temp finally stayed down. But by the time I got home in the evening he'd broken out in a rash all over his torso which kept him out of school another day. Today it spread up to his neck and face, even his scalp, as well as a little bit on the arms and legs. Apparently this rash is accompanied by aches and pains, so he was not in an easy mood - especially for Rob on Monday. Finally it looks like it's starting to clear up tonight. Fingers crossed that it's over - Robbie and I are looking forward to getting back into the swing of work, and I know Owen is sick of the house. Poor little guy!

Owen's First High Temp

We've had our first experience with a toddler and high temps. Up to this point we've been very, very luck (knock on wood) that Owen doesn't seem to get sick that often. Maybe 2-3 colds total since he was born and none with very high fevers (only around 100 or so). Hopefully (crossing fingers) he got Robbie's excellent immune system because mine is not so hot.

Yesterday afternoon his day care called and said he had a 101 temp - not super high, but high for Owen. So I picked him up and took him to the pediatrician (we loves ours btw). After the exam he determined that Owen had a virus going around that involves high fevers (up to 105) and a sore throat - it's generally lasting up to 5 days.

Last night, even on the motrin, Owen's fever it 103.3. Poor little guy - I've never seen him so interested in just snuggling. He actually slept 13 hours (with just one wake up in the night needing more motrin). He never sleeps longer than about 10 hours. Luckily this morning his fever was down to 101, and by this afternoon down to 99. Hoping it won't spike in the evening again.

We just had an experience with large amounts of vomiting (another new one for us) - spaghetti all over our new cream colored carpet (hey we didn't pick the carpet - just the house :) ). The vomiting didn't really seem to bother Owen at all. Keep your fingers crossed that this is over faster than 5 days. Our poor baby!

Owen's Growing Vocabulary

Owen is talking more and more these days. While a lot is still baby talk (he likes to say "bidu" over and over which is pretty cute) a lot is actual words. It's amazing to see his powers of observation. Often he'll say "ball" and I'll look around and see no balls and then he'll point one out that was really easy to miss - like a stuffed animal holding a little ball.

He definitely likes "b" words. However, they often sound somewhat similar, so it can be a guessing game to figure out which word he's using. "Ball" is his favorite word. For a while he was using it as punctuation at the end of sentences - "bidu bidu bidu bidu BALL" - and the ball part is very adament sounding. Other "b" words he has... balloon (pronounced boonboon), bottle (baal), bubble (buul), book (boo).

A new one this weekend that he finally mastered is "Daddy" (very clearly pronounced and high pitched on the end) - so cute to hear him address Robbie that way. Mama is still not really clicking yet - looking forward to that. Another word mastered is "doggy" - he loves Connor and his favorite book is "Go Dog, Go" - loves pointing out all the doggies. But while dogs are definitely doggies, he tends to call other animals doggy as well (like cats and birds).

Some other general words in the vocab (though less often used)... door (doe), shoe (doo), and turtle (ttl). He's up to 10-15 words in all so far - which according to a Baby Center poll, for his age he's in the 95% on vocabulary. We're so proud! :) Really though, the best part is being able to communicate with him and see him grow and develop.

Update on the Hearst House

No pics yet (other than the ones of the empty house on the previous post), we're waiting to finish unpacking and then we'll send some on. :)

In all we've finished a LOT in the past week. On Sunday Tom, Mike, and Michael helped Robbie move in all the large furniture. You don't realize how much you collect until you have to move it. It took two full loads of the uhaul and 2 large trucks to move it all. There's a little bit of stuff left over at the Lothisan house - maybe two more car loads. We're picking up a car load each day this week on the way home from picking up Owen (it's sort of on the way).

As for the new house, Robbie finished painting the master bedroom over the weekend, did all the heavy lifting and moving of stuff, rebuilt the office desk, and has set up the computer. I've finished unpacking the kitchen (pantry included!) , master bedroom, Owen's room, family room, laundry room, guest bedroom, and all the bathrooms. We've also had the fridge and washer/dryer delivered, internet turned on, and locks rekeyed. Sounds like everything right? Hah!

Still have to do the doll shelves and bookshelves in the living room, set up the office (more bookshelves and the movies shelf), organize the linen closet, tackle the garage, do a small amount of organizing in the playroom (bonus room) and then hang pictures and put out the "decorative" stuff. Robbie still gets to set up all the electronic stuff in the family room (TV, DVD player, sound, and all that jazz) and get our phone and wireless internet working. Once we've done unpacking we plan to do a major cleaning. I vacuumed all the places furniture was placed and have wiped out cabinets as I've filled them, but we still need to sweep, mop, dust, vacuum, and clean out showers/tubs/etc. And direct TV gets installed/turned on on the 8th and we have to get our mailbox keys this weekend. Phew!

We should definitely be done with the unpacking and settling part by the end of the weekend. Although once it's done I'm sure we'll have trips to Goodwill and to recycling with all the boxes. One very nice thing is the maid service we have coming to do the full clean of the Lothian house - so at least we don't have to "mess" with that. :) At Hearst, we also plan to paint the kitchen, dining room, 1/2 bath, and Owen's bathroom. But we've decided to tackle that one room a weekend and spread it out a bit. Since all of those rooms have very little (to no) furniture in them, they're easier to do after the fact.

What did we do with our time before this? I mean, I thought we were busy people. :)