A Fun Week!

We've had fun squeezing in as much as we can before we leave Chicago for good. Last weekend we went to the Palos forest preserve and met up with some friends. It was a beautiful day, welcomed after the long stretch of cold and rainy days we had had. There was a pond with a bunch of little garter snakes swimming around and Owen thought they were great! And he says "ssss" now when he sees a snake.  

We went to a few more museums on their free days. We checked out Adler Planetarium since Josh hadn't been there before and it had been several years since I had been. They have a great new exhibit/play area for kids that Owen loved, but the highlight of the outing for Owen was riding the bus there and back. He loves loves buses! It's his favorite word to say too. He can finally say "bus" with the S sound. It had just been "bu" forever.  

 

 

Later in the week we went to the Chicago Children's museum at Navy Pier. It was packed with kids, but it's probably my favorite museum for kids in Chicago! They have a lot of great things. It's too bad we didn't get to go more often.

  

 

 

His favorite thing, the bus

 

We also spent lots of time at parks, walked along the lakefront, and went camping! I'll do a separate posting for our camping trip.

 

 

Half Way

20 weeks today! I'm half way done!

It's a Boy!!!

The ultrasound was today, and we're having another BOY!

My 12 week ultrasound was pretty clear and we were highly confident back then that we were having a boy, but it was nice to confirm. :)

Everything else looked great with no abnormal findings. We are pretty happy!!

proof it's a boy

 

Sweet Boy

Owen is a happy, playful boy. And it seems he likes all typical boy things.
He loves to play in the dirt and isn't afraid to get dirty.
He loves to climb on everything, and to jump off of everything.
He loves to wrestle and rough play.
He loves throwing and kicking balls.
He loves all things cars and trucks. He loves his big trucks but has recently become really interested in his little cars. He takes at least one with him everywhere he goes...the car, the highchair to eat, the bath, to bed. And he has two favorites too. If he can't find his favorites he gets quite upset. He loves to line them all up in a row or a long line. It's really cute to see him play so well with them, and it's nice that they entertain him for a long period of time!

Besides liking all boy things, he does have a sensitive side too.
He loves all babies and gets quite excited when he sees one. He'll make sure to say hi and blow them a kiss.
He takes care of his baby doll and stuffed animals...he changes their diaper, gives them milk, feeds them.
He loves pushing strollers around. We don't have a play size stroller so he pushes his full size umbrella stroller all around.
He gives the BEST hugs and kisses!
He's also my little helper in the kitchen. A mom has to teach her boys how to cook at an early age, right?!

We find out on Wednesday if we'll be adding another fun boy or a sweet little girl to our family!!

Waterfall Glen

Graduation is less than a month away! It seems so close, yet still far away at the same time. Josh is essentially done with school since he's already met his credit requirements, so the majority of the time he has nothing to do! It may seem nice, but he's had a lot of free time over the past several months so he's feeling ready to graduate and move on already! Our free time would also be a lot more fun if we had money to spend, but our plans to visit DC will just have to wait.

To pass the time we've planned a few day trips. It's been pretty cold and rainy lately so we haven't been able to do as much as we would like, but last Friday was a nice sunny day so we jumped on the opportunity to go to a forest preserve! One of our favorites in the Chicago area is Waterfall Glen, about 30 minutes from where we live. Owen loved the waterfall and he discovered just how fun it is to throw rocks into the creek.

Some pictures from the day:

There were lots of dandelions

and also lots of millipedes.

The waterfall area.

Throwing rocks

Owen calls dandelions "bubbles" because he blows them and the seeds blow away, just the same as bubbles. Makes sense to me!

His hair matches the dandelion!

Working real hard to blow it...

He wasn't too happy when the seeds stuck to his mouth.

We stopped for lunch by the creek and Owen threw rocks the whole time.

Way more fun than eating lunch!!

Going Private!

I never thought I'd see this day and I've debated over it for a while now, but I've decided to make my blog private. The main purpose of my blog is for journaling purposes, and I figure why would I want the whole world to have access to my journal? Thus, the reason for going private.

I'll go private in mid June, after we move to New Mexico. I'm not sure if I'll make this one private or just make a whole new one that's private. Either way, let me know if you'd like to be invited to read our private blog, that is if you really care about following the Melanie and Josh chronicles! Leave a comment and leave your email address if you're not sure that I have yours already. Don't worry, comment moderation is on and I won't publish your comment if your email address is in it.

Little Monkey

When Owen is healthy and the weather is nice, it seems we spend much of the day at the park. Owen's day isn't as complete without a chance to climb and jump and slide at the playground. It's a great life!

Here are some videos for the grandparents.

This is what Owen does for much of the day. He borrowed this truck from a boy at the park, but he has two trucks of similar size at home and he'll push them all over the place. Everywhere. He loves them.

Our Fit Kid

This video was taken a couple weeks ago. Owen LOVES watching Josh work out and tries to copy everything he does. Josh started doing push-ups so of course Owen got down on the ground and did his own. Now I'll catch him doing push-ups just out of the blue. It's so cute and hilarious!

Hand-Foot-Mouth

It seems Owen has caught the popular childhood illness of hand-foot-mouth disease. He woke up with a fever and no appetite two days ago, and we weren't sure where it was coming from- no cough, no congestion, didn't act like his ears hurt, etc. Josh starting thinking strep throat, but Owen wouldn't let him look in his throat. Pain relievers seemed to be enough, so we planned to let it run its course and see if he got any worse. 

Yesterday we started seeing little red sores around his mouth and lips, then noticed a blister inside his lip. Poor Owen had tried to tell me earlier in the day because he had been pointing to the inside of his mouth, but I just thought he was pointing to his food! No wonder he didn't have an appetite, it probably hurt to eat! Today more spots appeared on his hands and feet, so it confirmed our hand-foot-mouth suspicions.

The good thing is today his fever is gone and he's mostly back to his normal playful self, though still extra senstive to things (crying more often). Now we just have to wait for these sores to go away before he can resume playing with his friends. The hardest part of being sick for Owen is being stuck inside more than usual! We've have gotten out for walks a few times to help all of our sanity. :) At least the weather has been pretty crummy (cold and rainy) so I don't feel as bad staying home inside than if it were beautiful and sunny out!

A great message

I know a lot of people read Stephanie Nielson's blog and know her story (if not, check it out here, she's really inspiring!), but I saw this video and thought it was great and really touching. It's also pretty appropriate for Mother's Day. Enjoy!