Owen Takes the Wheel

Owen's best friend Jase turned three in August.  Jase's birthday is always great fun, with the added benefit of getting us in the spirit for Owen's birthday.  We get to sing Happy Birthday, watch Jase blow out his candles, and see all the neat birthday presents Jase gets.  Jase demonstrates how it's done, and Owen starts gearing up to follow suit.

Speaking of neat presents: Jase was the proud recipient of a new Ford F150 truck.  Check out birthday boy Jase with his trusty navigator Owen (or, as I like to call them, Maverick and Goose):

Ever since Poppie taught Owen how to drive a car, Owen has started wishfully talking about turning 16 and taking every opportunity that presents itself to steal a few moments in the driver's seat (before we pry him out).  So let's just say that laying eyes upon this car -- a REAL CAR that his friend JASE was driving and that he might even have the chance to also drive -- this, THIS was A Big Deal.

(Below: absorbing the full gravity of the situation.)

(Below: seeing what the ole' gal can do.)

"I feel the need...THE NEED FOR SPEED."

And then.  THEN.  It was Owen's turn.  Sweet Jase got out of the driver's seat and let Owen get in: 

Only two problems: 1) it was time to go inside and eat, and 2) the car battery was dead.  Travis (Jase's Dad) said he would charge the battery while we ate and promised that Owen would be very next to drive when it was ready.  We tried our very best to get Owen to come inside and eat.  But he calmly and determinedly said he was going to stay in the car until it was his turn to drive:

I was rather charmed by his perseverance and let him stay out there (Bill and I took turns keeping him company).  From inside the house, it looked like this:

And then -- after one solid hour of Owen sitting and waiting in the car -- the battery had some juice.  Travis got it all set up, and Owen took the wheel.  Documentation of this scene as follows:

It was a glorious day, indeed:

While it would have been hard to have as much fun as Owen and Jase did, the rest of us managed just fine:

Our many thanks for the mind-expanding fun, Jase.  Happy Three!

Isle of Palms

The second weekend in August, we met up with Poppie, Alex, and my Dad's new lady friend, Gooche, at Isle of Palms.  Here is the house we miraculously found to stay in at the last minute - it was just perfect for us:

We spent a very relaxing (for me at least, probably not very relaxing for Poppie, Alex or Gooche since the wake-up time was 7am or so) weekend playing on the beach, going out to eat, lounging around, telling stories, having tea parties (tea for Madam and tea for Sir), showing Owen the wonders of silly putty, and enjoying the end of summer.

Here are some pics from the weekend:

(That's my brother with his palm beard above.  Don't you wish you had a palm beard on right now?  I do.)

Also, Gooche taught Owen how to do a somersault, which then evolved into the Isle of Palm Olympics:

...And don't think that Owen running out of the room at the end meant he was done.  He was just adding racing down the hall and into the room to the Olympic course, which he proceeded to do about 20 more times.  (After the Olympics, running around on the the beach, and lunch at Poe's Tavern with all of us plus Denise, Mike, and Mia, a 3.5-hour nap ensued...and when I woke him up, he wanted to keep sleeping.)

That's a Hunt for you: play hard, sleep hard.

Bribery

We've been working on "potty training" Owen, which is basically a lie for several reasons.  First, Owen is perfectly capable of wearing underwear and sometimes he decides to do just that (sometimes for several days in a row, and then we get really excited that This Is Really IT, but alas...it isn't).  But, other times, he decides he would prefer a diaper.  One time, I asked him why he preferred to wear a diaper over underwear, and he said, "Well, Mama...it's....safe."  He's got a good point there.

Second, this summer we tried bribing Owen with cookies if he did anything of...ahem...significance on the potty.  But the truth is that I wanted cookies and I was probably going to bake them anyway, but positioning it as a reward for Owen made it less yeah-I'm totally-whipping-up-a-batch-of-chocolate-chip-cookies-from-scratch-because-I-feel-like-eating-some-of-the-raw-batter-followed-by-many-many-baked-cookies and more whoa-we-are-really-in-the-trenches-of-this-potty-training-thing-Official-Parenting-Business.  Dark chocolate and/or cookies (the marriage of the two is a beautiful, beautiful thing) were keeping my morale high, especially when sleep was scarce and things that required great effort and great patience were plentiful.

So here we are one afternoon after I surrendered to my chocolate craving Owen earned his reward:

Also: I learned that bribery doesn't work long term.  Owen quickly became immune to my sparkly and tantalizing offer of a cookie in exchange for potty business.  Fortunately, this was around the time that Leo started sleeping though the night, so I could return to a recreational level of cookie use.

Praises and cookies be.

Four

At the Children's Museum sometime in August, I was strolling Leo around and responding to a work-related email on my phone, while Owen played happily at the chalkboard, painting with water.  Owen called my name and asked me to look at what he just wrote.  I looked up and saw this:

I was amazed that he knew how to spell or write Leo's name (only three letters, but still...pretty cool, I thought).  But it was also so touching that he chose to write Leo's name instead of his own, that his brother and his brother's name were in his mind.  We have Owen, and we have Leo, and then it's like an extra-amazing bonus (that I forget sometimes since we're still new at this) that they also have each other.  That Leo is and always will be a part of Owen and vice versa.  This was one of those times, and something about that moment made Leo seem more real.

In the first few months of Leo's existence, it felt so new and so different to have him as part of our lives.  Like it was us, but plus one.  I think I've officially crossed some sort of threshold, though, because now when I look at this picture of when we were three, it looks like something's missing:

It's all of a sudden impossible to imagine that Leo didn't exist yet in the moment above.  Or that neither Leo nor Owen existed yet in the moment below:

Anyways, we're four now.  Not just playing-around-look-at-our-new-baby four.  But for-real-this-is-our-family-and-we're-DOING-it-and-a-little-tired-and-a-lot-caffeinated-but-LOVING-it four.

Baby Einstein

At 3.5 months old, we (Bill) finally lugged the Baby Einstein down from the attic so Leo could take 'er for a spin:

He was a good sport about it and took his time checking things out:

 

He even experimented with lifting his feet up in the air and kind of swinging around in the seat:

This didn't work out so well:

"Uh, mom?  I don't feel so good..."

 But a few days later, he was an old pro -- squealing, flirting, and striking a pose while he Einsteined it up: 

***

A quick look back at Owen in the Baby Einstein:

The Competition

Magnum:

Le Tigre:

Blue Steel:

Watch out, Derek Zoolander:

Crunkletons in Charleston

Megan, Monty, and Hudson came to Charleston in July!  (The last time they came to visit, Owen and Monty were only children, still babies themselves, looking like this.)  With a grand total of FOUR baby boys (we were outnumbered!), much fun (and much chaos) ensued.

We ate: 

We worked (pictured below at the Charleston Fire Museum - Monty and Owen were getting this fire hose ready for action):

We played (pictured below at the James Island County Park):

We ran around:

We made plans (here, Megan works on lining up a special evening out for the two of us at Charleston's new award-winning restaurant, Husk - take notes here, folks: baby on lap, pre-schooler at large, iPhone in hand, smile on face...pretty much just kicking ass as a mom):

We got to catch up on everything (here Hudson and Leo exchange war stories: "...no seriously, man, they basically bind me up with an ace bandage sort of thing...I never remember what happens after that, though."):

Some members of the group (side eye Leo and Hudson) just lounged around all weekend expecting everyone to wait on them hand and foot:

Said persons made up for it by being exceptionally cute:

We marveled at how we ever thought we were busy before having two kids:

And, sometimes, we slept (Hudson could fall asleep with Monty using a wooden hammer mere inches from his head...no problem):

The Spray Play had a big sign that said, "No Lifeguards on Duty."  Got 'cher lifeguards right here, people.  Megan and I have been bringing our lifesaving A-game since our 1996 lifeguard training.  Below, Megan demonstrates an advanced rescue hold on Hudson (I didn't manage to get a good photo of Megan, Monty, and Huddy all together, but Huddy's expression in this one cracks me up...)

Megan was kind enough to snap this photo of Mom, Owen, Leo, and me (it was rather warm outside as evidenced by Leo being close to the color of Mom's shirt...but no worries, he's being held by a lifeguard!):

Love and miss you, Sister.  xoxo