Elsie Update

Baby girl is growing like a weed over here. I feel like each week there's something new going on with her. Here's some recent pics and highlights:

Love those beautiful eyes.

The moment we realized she's too mobile for the swing.

After her 4 month shots. Poor baby. And poor mama! She was cranky for 2 days after this.

About a month ago Elsie had a couple ear infections back to back. This was taken on a Sunday afternoon after she started screaming bloody murder in the middle of church. I took her home early and after a couple more hours of screaming took her to urgent care. I feel so bad for little babies when they can't communicate and don't understand what's going on with their little bodies.

This was taken the next morning after a couple doses of antibiotics. Thank heaven for modern medicine!

She felt that she deserved a nap about an hour after she woke us all up at 5:30 am this past Saturday. Stinker.

As Owen likes to say..."She's maked!" (Yes, with an M.) I love those cute baby chunks!

Elsie is officially a roller. It's quite funny because she hates being on her belly. She try so hard to get from her back onto her belly but once she's there she gets so mad because she doesn't like it!

She makes all sorts of fun noises. Half the time they sounds like cries, even when they aren't. And she's into a new really loud, high-pitched squeal/laugh thing. It's very cute!

No one can make her laugh or smile as much as her brother. No one. She's obsessed.

At her last checkup she was 90th percentile for both head and height and 75th for weight. Where did this big baby come from?!

She is an early bird. Doesn't matter if we put her to bed at 7 or 8:30, she likes to wake up before 6 most of the time. And since it's light out by then there is no convincing her to go back to sleep for at least an hour or two. It helps me get up early and work out before Russ goes to work, though!

She's not much of a cuddler but she does like to smile and laugh a lot. The total opposite of her brother at that age in every way.

She's kind of a show off. I'll have her facing out in the baby bjorn at the store or somewhere and people always stop and say how cute she is because she's smiling huge for them.

Love this girl and excited for more of that personality to come out!

Utah/Idaho

Two and a half weeks ago we took a family trip to Utah and Idaho! It was really a trip to Idaho with a 24 hour stop in Utah along the way to see my sister. Our good friend Shauna invited us to her parents vacation home in Driggs. Her and her parents were there too and were the perfect hosts. Elsie enjoyed her first trip and all the extra attention she got. So much so that she woke up at the butt crack of dawn every day to get things going! Stinker. And Owen always has fun on vacations. He was in heaven with all his extra daddy time and skipping naps and running around outside with no shoes even though it was freezing. I forgot my camera on this trip so phone pictures will have to do. :)

If only this is what she looked like our entire flight.

Owen was more than happy with his free drinks.

Cutie. (Not me, the other one.)

Owen's favorite part of my sister's house was the dog, Roxy. They had tons of fun playing together.



This picture pretty much sums up the 5 hour drive from Utah to Idaho.

Russ trying to do work emails at the house. What a great multitasker. :)

Russ, Owen and I took a little mini trip to Jackson Hole one day. It was only about 30 minutes away.

Owen's favorite part was this squirrel that kept popping up out of this hole!

We drove just a little further so we could get this awesome view of the Tetons. And so we could befriend some random Asians that were in town visiting. No English but they had fun video taping us and smiling at us. :)

From the second we got off the plane in Utah Owen was asking for snow. We finally found some on our drive to Jackson Hole! Owen was super excited and had fun throwing a snowball or two until he realized that his hands were numb. It was kinda funny.

That Saturday we headed to Shauna's grandma's house where she has a little chocolate factory in her basement! She was kind enough to let us try out the little chocolate machine thingy and try some samples and then we of course bought some since they were so ridiculously delicious. It was awesome!

Shauna showing us her skillz.

Owen helping me put some marshmallows and cinnamon bears through. He LOVED this.


Elsie was ticked because she couldn't eat any of the chocolate.

Then we headed up to Bear World! Look how close that Grizzly is to our car. That's pretty dang cool. Don't worry, it was behind some type of electric fence or something.

The rest of the bears were wandering free, though! And they were everywhere. Tons of them.

Then we got to go in and see the cubs and even pet one! The cubs were probably the highlight of the day. So cute.

Owen couldn't have cared less about the cubs because he saw the kiddy rides. He and I went on all of them together and had a blast.

Who says those rides are just for kids?!

Owen didn't seem to mind his sleeping arrangements.

Wish I had more time to write some of the other highlights from the trip but my daughter has decided that she doesn't want to take an afternoon nap today. It really was a great trip and we hope we can go back someday!

Birthday Boy

This past weekend our little buddy turned three! I know he's still little, but he's been seeming so grown up lately. We decided to not plan anything big on his birthday but to just spend the day doing whatever he wanted. It turned out to be a great day!

We started with his favorite breakfast...chocolate pancakes. Little does he know that I hide pureed spinach and blueberries in them. Mwahahah!

Then it was present time! He's back into not wanting to smile for the camera anymore. Sigh.

When he ripped the paper off just enough to see his new Lego set he whispered "Legos!" really loudly like he was in complete shock or something. It was too cute!

Yep, definitely a Lego Lover.

Then all four of us headed off to the zoo. Owen always wants to ride the train (which is more like an oversized golf cart really) but I never want to pay for it so we gave in for his birthday. He unfortunately didn't love it as much as the one at the train park since there wasn't a tunnel to go through. He actually got a little bored. The carousel made up for it though!

Elsie was a fan of the train, though.

He was super excited to go out for a hamburger for lunch! He asked "can we get a hambooger?" like 45 times on the way there.

After nap time we called up his cousin Shelby and asked if she wanted to meet us in the park for a picnic. So my brother and his little family came and joined us. Owen requested Cafe Rito (Cafe Rio) for dinner, so we picked some up on the way. Shelby brought her bike and Owen LOVED being pushed around really fast by daddy or Uncle Eric. His huge smile while on it was priceless!

No birthday would be complete without a meltdown, would it? Owen was not happy when it was time to leave the park.

Before bedtime I told Owen I had one more surprise for him...some new bath toys! He was in heaven.

After Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Eagar's house we had birthday cake and ice cream. I was pretty darn proud of how cute his cake turned out! Owen helped me make it the night before and the first words out of his mouth Sunday morning was "Where's my cake?". We had to go look at it to make sure it was still there. :)

I think it's safe to say that this kid had a happy birthday!

A few things I don't want to forget about Owen at this age:

He is incredibly stubborn. If he doesn't want to do something you can't convince him to do it. He has gone to bed without any dinner before because he wouldn't take even one bite of what we were having (even though I knew it was something he'd like), he still has not once pooped or peed in the toilet no matter how many times we try to convince him or force him to try it, and sometimes he'd rather sit in time out rather than help clean up his toys. I'm sure he gets this trait from his daddy!

He's a lover. He loves to give hugs and kisses to Elsie all day long (which I'm sure is why she keeps getting sick). And he gives mommy and daddy the best snuggles whenever we ask for them. He's very quick to say sorry whenever he thinks he's hurt someone's feelings.

He loves to be involved in whatever mom and dad are doing, which usually means that I always have a helper in the kitchen and that dad can't even take out the garbage without a little buddy by his side.

He's an amazing talker. Sometimes when I'm putting him to bed I'll lay in bed with him and we'll have long, funny conversations. The night before his birthday he told me all about how Santa was bringing his birthday presents and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday he told me a Grinch. Apparently Christmas had an impact on him!

At his 3 year checkup at the doctor we found out that he is now in the 10th percentile for both height and weight. So he's just a little guy. He still only wears 24 month or 2T clothes. He's also got some thick fluid built up in his one ear that no longer has a tube in it. We're hoping this clears up so we won't have to get another tube put in!

He loves nursery at church and his teachers say that he's taken on the position of leader among the other kids. In other words...he's bossy!

He's obsessed with his daddy. Whenever he and I find something or see something cool during a work day, Owen always says that we're gonna save it for daddy or gonna tell daddy about it. It's pretty darn cute.

He loves being a big brother. When I say that we need to get ready to go somewhere he often says "can Elsie come too?". And every time that he and I are doing something and he hears Elsie starts crying at all, he drops everything and runs over to her and says "it's okay, baby Elsie". Melts my heart every time. Oh, and last night he was in the bathtub and I wanted to hurry and give Elsie a bath too. I asked if she could come in with him (I'd put her baby tub in the big tub). He got so excited and while I was getting her undressed I heard him telling all his toys to move over because baby Elsie was coming! I pulled back the curtain and he was sitting with there smiling with all his toys pushed into one corner waiting for Elsie. It was ridiculously cute!

I seriously couldn't love this kid more if I tried!

Oops

Yes, I know this is a horrible picture of Owen.

Yesterday I was trying to get both kids and myself ready to go to my sister-in-law's house to make strawberry jam. Elsie was screaming her pretty little head off and wouldn't take a nap so I was trying to hurry and get out the door so the car could lull her to sleep. I asked Owen to go get some clothes while I finished getting myself ready so I could get him dressed. He of course wasn't listening and I was losing patience so after the third time I walked over to him (he was laying all sprawled out on the floor doing absolutely nothing except ignoring me...), grabbed him by the arm, and yanked him to standing position. And that's when the crying started. Not just a "you hurt my feelings" cry or a "I don't want to get dressed" cry but a "you hurt me you mean, evil mother!" cry. I could tell that he hurt so I gave him a long hug until he calmed down. Yes, Elsie was still screaming in the next room. I went to put his shirt on and when I tried to move his arm he started screaming. I waited a few more minutes until he calmed down again and then tried once more to bend his arm. The horrible cry he was making made me realize that there really was something wrong with his arm. I hurried and made a doctor appointment, gathered both crying children into the car, dropped Elsie off at my SIL's house and headed to the pediatrician's office (which I've spent way more time than I'd like to lately thanks to fevers and an ear infection). Owen hadn't said a single word to me since the incident, just cried. So when the doctor came in and asked him what happened he of course piped right up and said "mom pulled my arm because I wouldn't get clothes!". I guess those excellent speaking skills do have the capability to backfire, don't they? :) I confessed what I'd and she assured me that I wasn't a bad mother and that things like this happen all the time. She gently moved his shoulder around with no crying, moved his wrist with no crying and then the elbow came. Painful tears all over and I finally broke down and got teary too. The doctor worked with it for about 30 seconds and then told me that it was all fixed! He had what they call "nursemaid" elbow where the radius in his forearm had popped out of place at the elbow. She tried to make me feel better by telling me that this is very common. Whatever. She gave Owen some m&m's, fruit snacks and a sticker and he was instantly the happiest kid in the world. So, lesson learned...when your toddler isn't listening to you yank him by the leg, not the arm. Just kidding! I will hopefully remember to be more patient and gentle in the future. Once again, I am grateful to have such a forgiving little boy who loves me even when I don't deserve it.

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