Happy Halloween!

Hmmm... I wonder if they are brothers?!? Not like they look alike or anything.

Just in case you never would have guessed, there are about a bajillion more pictures in Picasaweb!

Pacifier Woes...(for those who care to listen)

Owen is now 17 months old.  Not really a baby anymore, but certainly not really a kid either.  Throughout these past 17 months, he has become quite attached to his pacifier when it comes to nap time and bed time.  I kept telling myself all along that at 18 months we would get rid of the thing...so I stupidly decided that yesterday might be as good a day as any to have a whack at this battle.  Oh dear me, do I regret that decision.  Our approach was this:  snip the end of the pacifier, present it to Owen when it wasn't time to sleep and say "uh-oh, your pacifier is broken" in an attempt to make it a somewhat exciting/acceptable event...that way, when it came sleeping time we could just say "oh no, the pacifier is broken" and he would be totally fine with it.  Yeah right!  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Owen had turned into the most peaceful child when it came time for bed...we would read for a while, rock while singing songs, and then we would just lay him in his crib and he would proceed to fall right to sleep without a single peep (pacifier in tow).  It really was AWESOME!  Yeah, so back to getting rid of it.  First nap time rolls around, and I try to put Owen down without the pacifier.  After about 10 minutes of major fussing in my lap (which NEVER happens anymore) I decide to just put him in the crib and make him tough it out.  30 minutes and a whole bunch of screaming later, he's asleep.  But I think to myself, "it will get better, that was just the first time."  Bed time last night: I was gone so C.J. had the honors of continuing our efforts.  According to his report it went pretty well: Owen cried for about 20 minutes, C.J. had to go in a few times to calm him down and eventually he fell asleep.  I'm now thinking "awesome, maybe this won't be so bad after all."  And then this morning came around.  So typically Owen will wake up anywhere between 4:00 and 5:00 am.  He's not ready to wake up, we just go into his room and put the pacifier back in because he usually spits it out once he's asleep...with the pacifier back in his mouth, he then sleeps until about 6:00 or 6:30, a perfectly reasonable time to wake up.  Well this morning, he woke up at 5:00 screaming and basically didn't stop.  We brought him into bed with us which usually leads to some awesome cuddling time...but no, more screaming.  It was bad news.  Our morning then leads to chaos because he is overly tired and can't maintain any sort of composure.  Now on a normal day, he peacefully goes down for a nap (he sometimes even ASKS for a nap) anywhere between like 10:00 or 11:00 and sleeps for a good 2 hours.  Not today.  My first attempt was at 10:00 and it only led to a whole bunch of screaming and asking to get "up."  Luckily for Owen, Oliver and Jack came over about this time so I decided to get him up to play since going down for a nap with his cousins over would be pretty much impossible.  So after some good play time and after the cousins left, I tried the nap again at 1:30.  TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISASTER!!!  I really want to stress that Owen had become basically the best sleeper in the world in the past like 6 months.  And now I am beginning to realize that the good sleeper is no longer anywhere in sight...which makes me REALLY start regretting the decision to end the pacifier.  The afternoon continues to be extremely challenging because Owen only slept for 30 minutes total the entire day.  By this point, I am almost in tears (partly from being overly tired myself) and want to just give it up and let the boy have the beloved pacifier back.  But, my husband and sister keep reminding me that he has to get rid of it at some point and we've already come this far...so just keep at it.  And then tonight rolled around.  He basically cried in his crib for a good 30 minutes before falling asleep (although the crying would kind of come and go at times)...not good, but not horrible either.  After only about 45 minutes of sleeping, he wakes up crying and will NOT go back to sleep.  I then go in his room to rub his back because our typical course of action when he wakes up like this is to put the pacifier back in and he quickly goes back to sleep.  As I am sitting there patting his back he is doing the same crying that comes and goes and I realize that the lulls in crying are a result of him SUCKING HIS THUMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The minute I realized what was going on, you better believe I stuck that pacifier right back in his mouth in about .2 seconds!  Seriously, the pacifier is a battle in itself, but the thumb can't ever be taken away.  I'd much rather have my child sucking on a pacifier that can (I guess when he older and doesn't need to suck so bad?) be taken away than on his thumb that is available to him permanently.  So, here we are back at square one.  And I feel like a total failure because I gave in to this whole ordeal and didn't hold strong....but to be honest, I don't think I was really ready for it, especially when I had FINALLY gotten to a place where I was getting some good sleep again. So there you have it:  my 17 month old got his pacifier back and will probably have it for a good 6 more months before we try attempt #2 at getting rid of it.  I mean really, at this point we kind of HAVE to wait a while...at least until he forgets about this whole escapade so that when we finally do go through with it he won't just say "yeah right" to himself!    AHHHH!  I tell you, some people make parenting look SO easy.  Who knew you, as the parent, would have emotional break downs over such trivial issues as how to get rid of a pacifier?  Before I became a mom, I totally would have said "tough luck, you'll be just fine without it.  Crying never hurt a kid."  Oh, how I have changed!  Let me just say that it is WAY different when it is your own child you're dealing with.

P.S.  I have to confess that I am secretly SO glad he started sucking his thumb because I REALLY wanted a good excuse to just give the pacifier back to him...and what do you know?  I got one.  And yes, I am FULLY aware that it's not going to get any easier later, but right now I don't care.  I just want some sleep tonight.  There, I said it.

Candy...

Oh people, seriously.  So tonight I got to spend a lovely girls night out with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law (which was super fun, by the way).  But while I was gone, C.J. and Owen got to spend some time together, time which included a trip to town to pick up a new video game that C.J. had put on reserve and just came out today.  Well when I got home this evening, there was this big plastic sack from Rite Aid sitting on our table that was full to the brim...not quite sure what's inside.  To preface this, I need to explain that C.J. and I have been recently talking (half jokingly, or so I thought) about getting some Halloween candy in preparation for Friday's festivities.  The problem is, we live way the heck in the middle of nowhere, so....year #1 in this house, how many tick-or-treaters did we get?  zero.  Year #2 in this house, how many did we get? zero.  Year #3 in this house?  zero.  But, we usually get a bag anyway JUST IN CASE, or actually just so that we can have an excuse to buy a bag of yummy candy.  So we were kinda looking forward to our bag of Butterfingers this year and had just talked about it this weekend.  Now back to tonight:  C.J. goes, in all seriousness, "I picked up some Halloween candy while we were in town."  He then walks over to the bag on the table and I'm thinking, "Oh, he must have a bag of candy in there with the other stuff he bought."  No, not the case at all.  In fact, the entire grocery bag is FULL of candy.  I seriously just about died laughing.  I mean, it's one thing to indulge in a little bit of candy that you didn't need during this time of year, but by no means do the 3 of us in this house need to eat 768 pieces of candy.  I guess the bright side is: we are well stocked just in case we get bus-loads of trick-or-treaters this year.  I love my husband!

Brian & Samantha's Wonderful Wedding Weekend...

Brian and his beautiful bride.

So we just got home from a super fun weekend in Boise to celebrate the marriage of C.J.'s brother Brian and his beautiful bride Samantha. Although having a toddler in tow made things a little bit chaotic at times, we had so much fun at the wedding and thoroughly enjoyed spending a weekend with C.J.'s family. Owen actually did pretty well, particularly during both 7 hour drives, which was a blessing! I managed to get a few pictures of the weekend during the times when my hands were free...they are in Picasaweb if you want to see them. Brian and Sam, we are so excited for you both and can't wait to share the many years to come with you!

Owen pretty much just ran around outside the whole time and loved every minute of it:

Brother and Sister:

Owen and his beautiful Grama Saint:

Fun with Grandpa Howard:

All in a day's work...

So first of all, I have decided that maybe I should have just created a Flickr account instead of a blog since it is so obvious that I am full of profound things to say all the time. Secondly, I can't for the life of me get pictures to load in the order I want them on this darned thing...but hey, at least you get to see them. And about the bus pictures: a few days ago, Owen followed our cat under the table and got stuck inside of a chair while doing so. He thought this was pretty cool. Ever since then, he has been crawling under the chairs to play...today he took his bus with him. It's all really cute until he's done and wants to get out, at which time he starts throwing fits and screaming (more evidence of him reaching the early terrible twos.) Anyhow, these pics are a few I snapped from our day today. Does anybody else go through kicks of picture taking? Sometimes weeks will go by where I don't even touch my camera (evidenced by the lull in blogging for long periods) and then I will remember I own a camera and enjoy taking pictures of our little boy...and then I wind up with about 100 pictures every day that I have no idea what to do with. Maybe we just need to get a bigger hard drive.

Oh the joys of fall...

So Owen scribbled the mouth...the rest kind of just happened:

the boy LOVES his tractors...

I just realized that I don't think I have yet blogged about Owen's incredible love of tractors. There really has been nothing in his 17 months of life that has provided as much excitement for him as tractors. The first thing he says when he wakes up is "tractor." He then follows that by "bye bye" because he knows that he can't go out to drive them that early in the morning...but he also knows that he will get to drive them at least a few times later in the day, so he waits. He probably asks a good 20 times a day if he can drive tractors. He usually gets at least 2 or 3 chances throughout the day, but that never seems to be enough. And then, when he HAS made the rounds and gotten to drive every tractor that happens to be in the yard at the time, he proceeds to scream and arch his back when I tell him we're all done (yes, he is DEFINITELY turning in to a 2 year old). The point is...the boy LOVES tractors. He'd drive them all day if he could. I mean seriously...look at the picture at the top and it pretty much says it all. Have you seen a happier face on a kid?

Who doesn't love fall?

Owen and I spent the afternoon outside enjoying fall today, and let me just say that it was SO nice! We raked leaves, ran through leaves, threw leaves in the air, buried ourselves in leaves, and raked some more leaves. But the most exciting part (judging my the volume and extensiveness of Owen's jibber-jabber) was the dead snake he found. He was THRILLED about the thing. Funny how boys will be boys...he just picked that snake up without a stitch of fear or disgust and fisted it all afternoon. It was pretty much crumbled by the time he finally lost it at the bottom of the leaf pile, but it sure provided some great entertainment while it lasted! And let me just say that Owen is at such a fun age right now...it is so fun to watch him grow and learn about life. More fall pics in Picasaweb if you're interested.

Fun with the Howard clan...

Yesterday we made a trek to Tri-Cities to watch C.J.'s little brother play football. It was our first time taking Owen to a live sporting event...and let's just say I was a little nervous to have a 17 month old on bleachers for 2 hours. But, he did surprisingly well thanks to all of the attention he got from the family. It was really fun to see all of them! Keith played a stellar game...his team won by a mile, which apparently is nothing new! It's amazing to see how quickly Keith and Kylene are growing up. We had an awesome time visiting with all of the Howards, and I know Owen thoroughly enjoyed soaking up some good time with all of them...especially Grandpa!

P.S. C.J. was the official photographer of the day, so the credit goes to him for these!

Grandpa Howard

Kylene

Keith

Kyle and Owen

Keith hard at work:

Yesterday was full of treats...

Montreal...

C.J and I just got back from a week together in Montreal. Although we missed Owen more than you could ever imagine, it was REALLY nice to enjoy being husband and wife for a week! We watched a whole bunch of movies, shopped a ton, and just relaxed together. I must say, it was awfully nice being so lazy! And now that we are home and have had about a thousand snuggles from our little guy, I am thoroughly enjoying being home and soaking up the fall goodness. While Ceej was busy taking care of business in Montreal, I explored the city and tried my hand at photographing scenery. I quickly came to the conclusion that I take WAY better photos of kids...but hey, I had fun trying! There are more in Picasaweb...