"Hey Connor Guess What.."

Our friend Robyn drives Owen back & forth from daycare to preschool every day. She usually has him, her daughter, and Connor who is one of Owen's "best buddies.". She says the conversations that she overhears are a real hoot. Yesterday she overheard this...

Owen: "Hey Connor my cat is getting spayed this weekend."
Connor: "What is spayed?"
Owen: "I have no idea."

Possible that no one thinks it's funny but me, but it made me laugh out loud when she texted me with the exchange!

I did ask Jason what he has been sharing about spaying a cat.. He said that yesterday morning he mentioned that it's time for him to take "Shadow," a female cat who just showed up at our house one day, to spay her.

Good thing that he didn't elaborate on the topic of "spaying" or I think we'd have a very educated pre-K class on our hands!

Owen's Fashion Sense

No, that's not one of my boys! (but Owen did look cute in that hat for a few minutes while we shopped around TJ Maxx)

That's Kallie, one of Owen's friends who is also his Pre-K classmate. She had birthday in December and both boys went to her "girly" party (and had fun!).

Owen was excited about picking out her birthday present.

It took awhile but after several rounds of swapping this in and that out, he settled on the hat, shirt, and purse shown above. He chose the purse because of the "lip gloss and hair stuff" that it came with. According to him girls just love lip gloss! ha!

Kallie loved the outfit and put it on right there at the party... which totally made Owen's day.

He will make some woman a great husband one day. He's very complimentary - "Mom I love your new necklace." And he's great at noticing new things... a new dress, new shoes, even a new purse. And he has great taste. I'm wearing the penguin necklace that he chose as a Christmas gift right now.

Sweet little guy... rough and tumble, but full of surprises!

Children's Museum on New Year's Eve

Here's a pic of Ben, Cooper & Owen at the Children's Museum.

We hadn't been to the museum in months... with soccer, basketball and tennis it has been hard for us to find time to visit. This was the first trip, besides Ben's class field trip in the Spring, where he hasn't been able to play in the Playscape area. He was a little sad. He and I left Owen with Heather and Cooper and went to the Ruby Bridges/Anne Frank/Ryan White exhibit. He was especially moved by the Ruby Bridges story this time. I actually thought he might cry. He kept asking why the kids were mean to her, then kept repeating that it was because of the color of her skin. I love that he's such a sensitive little guy.

It was a good day!

Angela

It's 1-1-11!

It's a new year and we're making a blogging comeback again.

No excuses, we just haven't had time to blog. I love reading the old posts though, so I'm really going to try to do better!

It's New Year's Day (barely) and both boys stayed up to see the ball drop. We had a late night last night because we stayed up watching Star Wars. Then both boys were up before 8am on New Year's Eve, excited about a trip to the Children's Museum with Heather & Cooper. After a long day at the museum, we had dinner at the Putnam Inn and then the boys worked on Ben's Pinewood Derby car and played Wii (Harry Potter) until just before midnight. I told them I'd need a kiss from them at midnight, and Owen said "I will give you one NOW!" He took off my glasses (he likes them off for some reason) and gave me a nice big smooch!

They didn't really get the "big deal" of New Year's but they kept me company while I watched Dick Clark count it down. At midnight Owen was jumping up and down on my bed yelling "Happy New Year!" By bedtime 15 mins later they were both in meltdown mode. Tomorrow should be interesting!

Happy New Year!

Angela

Owen's "Report Card"

You'll recall that we moved Owen up into the 3-y-old class at preschool in October. He just got his "I Can Do This" assessment from school. Here's the scale and the report...

• * is the "excellent" rating
• + is "satisfactory"
• - is "not yet"

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

• * I can throw a ball
• - I can hop on one foot
• * I can roll a ball
• * I can hold a crayon
• - I can jump with one foot
• * I can paint with a large brush

LANGUAGE

• * I can describe what happened in 2-3 words
• * I can tell you what I want
• * I can repeat parts of songs, rhymes, and finger plays
• * I can listen to simple stories and songs
• * I can identify loud and soft voice
• * I know my first name

FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS

• + I know the concept of "one"
• + I can count to 5
• * I can point to big and little objects
• * I can put together a puzzle with large pieces

COLORS

I can recognize: white, red, yellow, black, blue, green, purple, brown, and orange. (got a "+" on pink... apparently ONLY SATISFACTORY on that one!)

I can recognize these shapes: circle, square, heart, triangle and star were "excellent" and rectangle, diamond, and oval were "not yet."

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

He got all "excellent" ratings in this area... items were:

• I can participate in group activities
• I respond to my teacher well
• I share with my friends
• I recognize my own things and can name them (backpack, folder, coat, etc.)
• I can follow simple game rules
• I can complete a task
• I listen to Mrs. Hanlon

They also had 2 "Just for Fun" questions at the bottom of the assessment... they were "fill in the blanks." Owen's answers are underlined...

• Name something God made: triangle
• My favorite color is: red

We were worried about Owen's poor teacher in this preschool thing... so it's a relief that he is doing so well! Ha! We'll have to decide later if we'll actually send him to kindergarten with this group (he's the youngest) or keep him for the next year. I'm thinking he'll be ready to go with these guys and will be very upset NOT to be going. We'll probably have some real complaining starting NEXT year when Ben goes and he doesn't!!

Ag day and pinecones...

I went into and left work early yesterday so that I could get back to Greencastle in time to take the boys to "Ag day" at the fairgrounds. Back in Knox Co, ag day always involved food at Green Auditorium. While there are a number of activities during the week here, the highlight is ag day on Thursday night...

Basically the kids get hayrides, to ride pedal tractors, sample different foods and pet some animals. When I picked the boys up from daycare they were playing outside and neither wanted to leave to go to ag day. This was even worse when Ben realized there wouldn't be rides there (fairgrounds = county fair, to him).

We went anyway and while Owen really enjoyed the animals (especially the dogs), Ben got to run around with his friends. After a round on the hay ride, I loaded the boys up in the van. Some friends were gathering pine cones to roll in peanut butter and dip in bird seed... making bird feeders for their yard. Ben and Owen each grabbed a pinecone on the way into the van and I buckled them into their seats while chatting with a friend.

While I continued talking from the van, Ben apparently threw his pinecone out the door. Owen, on the other hand, ate his. I didn't know this until we were driving out of the fairgrounds and I looked back at him.

Owen had remnants of pinecone all over his face.

Me: "Owen, where is your pinecone?"

Owen: "MOUTH"

I called Jason and he said it was impossible. I explained that it was a long, skinny pinecone.

Owen was acting fine, so we went to volleyball at the church. Still fine. I called a friend that is an extension agent and asked that he identify the type of tree/pinecone we ate. He looked and told us it was a "Norwegian Spruce." He also recommended that we call Poison Control.

I called a friend that is a physician's assistant first. She concurred on Poison Control and also said to push fluids. Poison Control didn't have an entry for eating pinecones, but by now, Owen was clearly fine and was enjoying his time at the city park...

They also suggested lots of fluids.

So this morning I kept him around a little longer before taking him to daycare, and all seemed fine. Jason still insists that he couldn't have eaten a pinecone... but I've looked everywhere for leftover pinecone in the van and there's no big piece... just a few scattered "chips." I think he really ate it.

Amazing that he says "I don't like that" and refuses to eat perfectly good veggies and other foods... then he goes and eats a pinecone!

I have a feeling that this may be the first of many calls to Poison Control. 1-800-222-1222. I've memorized the number just in case!