Owen update!

It's been awhile since I've written about O-man, who is now 3 1/2 years old! He has adjusted well to big brotherhood and *loves* his little Olive silly. Every morning when she wakes up, he crawls into our bed to hold her and as he rubs his cheeks against hers he croons, "Good morning sunshine! Did you have a nice 'nap' Olive? It's ok, sweetheart, I know it's hard to wake up...." So cute! He is a wonderful helper/protector and can often be heard proclaiming, "No Olive! That is dangerous...it has small parts!" He doesn't show one ounce of resentment or jealousy toward her, which I was concerned about...but rather he enjoys spending time with her, loving on her. I know he can't wait until she can play with him for real!

These days Owen is into Transformers (more than meets the eye....) and super heroes. He is brimming with monster/transformer/super hero stories, which usually entail someone "fighting with all their might." Uncle Jason sent him a box of original transformers from when he was a child, which Owen thinks is the coolest thing. He also enjoys drawing & constructing elaborate etch-a-sketch images of all of the above, as well as the Titans (no, not the Tennessee Titans, but the bad guys in the Hercules myth ;). He continues to impress us with his drawing ability and the creative way he sees things. The boy NEEDS to go to school...he wants to so badly! He is just itching to learn, and every day sits down writing the words he knows how to spell on his own (Owen, Nana, etc.), and then he writes a string of letters asking, "What does that spell?" and then he'll ask, "How do you spell Incredible Hulk, Mama?" It's so cute to see him in school mode, and we are anxious to register him in preschool once we move.

Right now his favorite cd is Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants (a band I actually dug back in middle school...gasp!) It comes with an audio CD as well as a DVD with animation to each song, which all pertain to the alphabet. In fact, Roby and I can't get the "Vowels are important letters, there's one in every word..." phrase out of our heads! It's stuck! The other day I went to the grocery store while Roby watched the Os and realized upon my return that I had been listening to Owen's cd all the way there and back...singing along! Ha!

Owen remains a sweet boy who still loves to "snuddle" with his Mama and Dada. He's still a picky eater, but LOVES baking recipes out of the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Each time he tries something new, he gets a star on his chart-which adds up to a prize eventually. We're getting there. He also sleeps all the way through the night, thank goodness (I can remember when he was a baby thinking he NEVER would!), but it's quite a feat getting him down at night. He's at that, "I wanna glass of water" stage. He also keeps us on our disciplinarian toes with his stubborn streak, but overall he's a great kid. Hopefully he'll take this next year full of newness with moving, school, etc. in stride and enjoy every minute of it!