Owen is eighteen months old!

   
     I apologize for not posting a monthly update on Owen last month, but with our recent doctor's appointment, I was reminded that I hadn't been keeping everyone updated with his growth and progress. So I promise I will try and be better about that. 
      Owen is doing great and we are so proud of how smart and cute and fun he is. He is learning new things every day and we are in constant amazement at how much he knows. 

At 18 months old, Owen is:

• 24.9 pounds, 30th percentile
• 32.7 inches long, 60th percentile
• Vaccinated for hepatitis A, rubella, and the flu.
• Doing amazing! Owen knows so many words and is speaking so well that the doctor told me that comparatively, he expects babies at their two-year-old appointments to know 50 words and string together two words to communicate. Owen already knows at least 50 words and can string together as many as four words to communicate. 

Eating:

• Owen eats three meals a day and an afternoon snack normally. 
• He eats basically whatever we eat. 
• He is not a big fan of most vegetables right now unless they are baked into whatever he is eating. 
• Owen loves pizza, grapes, turkey sausage, pears, and peanut butter. 
• Owen drinks whole milk with each main meal and water in between. He basically only drinks juice at his grandparents' house. It's the precursor to ice cream for breakfast, I'm sure.

Sleeping:

• Owen has moved to just one nap a day. He generally goes down just after lunch between 12:30 and 1 p.m and sleeps for between an hour and a half and two hours.
• Owen goes to bed at night at 7:30 p.m. 
• He wakes up at around 8 a.m.
• Owen has been waking up once during the night off and on for the past few weeks because of teething or being sick. 
• Owen's going to bed routine consists of a bath, pajamas and pain medication (when teething), reading a few books, and then snuggling and rocking in the chair with either mommy or daddy for a few minutes before putting him in his crib. We play white noise on his Sleep Sheep and play his Scout puppy dog's lullaby music for 10 minutes and he normally settles himself down and falls asleep rather quickly. He sleeps with a fleece blanket, of which we now have three. One is his favorite, but in the dark he can't tell the difference.

Things He Knows:

• Owen has a pretty large vocabulary. He says Mommy and Daddy. He knows tons of animals and animal noises. Most of his body parts. Tons of names of vehicles. Lots of foods. Toy names. Household items. 
• Owen has begun stringing together words to communicate. His most frequent phrases are: "Daddy at work," "Don't want that," and "Want my mommy."
• Owen frequently says "I sorry." Mommy must mess up a lot. :)
• Owen will say "Bless you" whenever someone sneezes.
• Owen can count to 10. He can even do it when we take turns filling in numbers for him.
• He still occasionally uses sign language, but knows the words for all his signs now and uses those more often. We have never had a problem with him using a sign instead of learning the word for the sign. I highly recommend doing sign language to help babies communicate before they start speaking.
• He can say "Love you" which rocks.
• Tim has taught him an assortment of very important phrases: "Go Dawgs," "Sic em! Woof woof woof" "Fumble," and "Tackle." 
• We have started trying to teach Owen his shapes and colors. So far, he can recognize a circle. 
• Owen is definitely in the parroting stage of learning language and will copy basically  every thing we say, particularly if we say it emphatically.
• Owen still high fives a good amount and now says "Yeah" afterwards.

Other Things I Want to Remember:

• Owen is wearing size 18 month and starting to wear size 18-24 months clothing. Although he is supposedly above the 50th percentile in length, most of his pants are too long and I have to roll them up. 
• Owen wears size 5.5 and size 6 shoes, depending on the brand. 
• I am transitioning Owen to size 4 diapers once we've run out of size 3's. 
• Owen has 12 teeth in now (four in front on top and bottom and two top molars and two bottom molars) with three canine teeth coming in currently. 
• Owen loves when we read to him and looking at books by himself. His favorite books are anything with trucks or animals. He really loves "Trucks Go," "The Going to Bed Book," and "Fox in Socks." He can even finish some of the sentences of certain books when I'm reading to him. 
• Owen's favorite songs are "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Row Row Row Your Boat."
• Owen loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which we allow him to watch about once or twice a week. He knows most of the characters' names and seems to prefer Mickey and Goofy. 
• Owen loves playing with trucks, balls, his shapes sorter, and his music table. And pretty much anything that is not a toy, including plastic kitchenware, Tim's socks, hair bands, the printer, and the tv remote (or to him the me-mote). 
• Owen enjoys playing outside and frequently asks to "Go owside?" While outside, he plays on his slide, picks flowers in the yard, and climbs up and down the stair off our front porch over and over. 
• Owen has started to display some separation anxiety. We are not entirely sure when he will decide to freak out when we leave him and when he will do fine with us leaving him. 
• Owen is a major animal lover, particularly dogs and cats. He talks all the time about all the ones he knows, like my parent's cat Pumpkin and Katie and David's dogs Lexi and Cooper. 
• Owen is still a major music lover and will dance anytime he hears music. His dance moves of choice at the moment are "the grape stomp" and "spin in circles." 
• Owen loves playing with the children's apps on either my Nook or Tim's Nexus. 
• Owen loves to put our shoes on now and stands in them like he's so proud of himself. 

Menu Monday

    We're back home from our wedding weekend and are ready for a full week at home just the three of us with no big plans. We have a majorly busy October so it's nice to have this week to recharge. All we plan to do this week is get some things done around the house like yard work and some cleaning. Also, this week, it is officially fall in Kentucky and it is so cold. So we're going to be eating a lot of meals meant to warm us up. And because I recently got the second Pioneer Woman cookbook, I plan to make a few recipes from it. Yum!

• Monday: Parenting class. Tim and I have our parenting class with some folks from our church on Mondays so we eat dinner with them. This means that my kitchen will stay clean and I don't have to do dishes tonight. Yay! 
• Tuesday: Beefy chorizo chili. This recipe is one I pulled from the October 2012 issue of Rachael Ray Magazine. The article was called "Chili 10 Ways" and featured a classic recipe for beef and bean chili with ways to substitute, add, or remove ingredients to make nine other varieties of chili. This particular recipe stood out to me because I have some leftover chorizo in my freezer that I have had no idea what to do with for a while and this looks like a good way to finally cook with it. And the weather this week is supposed to be really cold so a lot of cold-weather warm recipes are on our menu for the week.

• Wednesday: Tequila lime chicken with black beans and mexican rice. This is a recipe from Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's new cookbook. You can find the recipe on the Tasty Kitchen website. Pioneer Woman describes this as "a scrumptious marinated, grilled chicken breast you can serve with pico de gallo, refried black beans, and flour tortillas. Wonderfully flavorful!" It just looks really yummy and I love Mexican food and could eat it at least once every week.

•  Thursday: Slow cooker split pea soup. Tim has been begging for split pea soup for a couple weeks now so I'm going to try this Betty Crocker recipe from a cookbook that I have. You can also find the recipe online. I will probably make some changes based on my normal split pea soup recipe, but I'm am interested in trying it in the slow cooker to make it easier on me. 

• Friday: Steakhouse pizza. I made this Pioneer Woman recipe a month or so ago and I have been thinking about it ever since. I loved it. Tim wasn't a huge fan, but he doesn't like onions as much as I do. I will make my own pizza dough and while I have this recipe, Tim will be playing around with some other ingredients to make his own pizza.

• Saturday: Beef stew. Pioneer Woman calls this a "scrumptious, simple beef stew recipe that’s perfect for warming your soul." And it is going to be so cold this week, that we will need some soul-warming (and tummy-warming) food. I first made this recipe last fall after my sweet Washington friend Amanda brought me beef stew after Owen was born earlier that year and I had a huge craving for it. I don't have her specific recipe, but this one from Pioneer Woman is really delicious and makes a ton. We had it on Halloween last year too. Yum!

•  Sunday: Shepherd's pie. I will be using my leftover beef stew, plus some frozen vegetables and mashed potatoes to make a quick and easy shepherd's pie. I don't mind eating leftovers that much, but if I can change up the leftovers a bit so that it's not exactly the same thing, then that's even better. Pioneer Woman suggested doing this with her beef stew in her cookbook, but there is no recipe or photo available on the Internet that I could find. 

October Julep Maven review (Ft. October American Beauty box)

It's so much fun to see what's inside this box each month.

     I received my October Julep Maven box in the mail recently and have finally gotten around to using my new products. Once again, I had trouble deciding which box to choose this month, but I ultimately decided to switch from my style profile Classic with a Twist (which I've honestly never requested) to American Beauty. I was also tempted by the Bombshell box and the It Girl box, but I decided that I really wanted to try the nail product this month and I loved the blue nail polish color. And even though I knew what was coming because I selected it online, Julep still surprised me with several extras this month.   

The insert and quote of the month were both pretty awesome.

     The theme of this month's boxes was "Simply Bewitching." Many of the colors this month were lovely fall colors matched with a complementing crackle nail polish for a Halloween-themed look. The Halloween theme was further carried out with the products all nestled in orange paper crinkles and the polishes wrapped in black tissue paper and tied with silver ribbon. Tucked in the box along with the nail products was a small bag of candy corn to continue the theme. Such a cute extra! I was once again really impressed with the packaging. 

As usual, the insert explains the contents of the box and features a nail tutorial.

      My card insert this month detailed the items in my box on one side and a tutorial for how to use both polishes for a crackle effect on the opposite side. The directions were easy to follow and the results turned out great.

My nail polishes and product are wrapped in that black bag, but you can also see the extras I received this month: candy corn and two glitter pots.

Once again, Julep went all out with their theme this month.

Here are all the products that came in my box.

The products that came in my box were:

• Eloise nail polish - Smokey indigo blue creme. This color is such a gorgeous blue and great for fall. I did have a little bit of a problem applying it because it was pretty thin and it was hard for me to get a nice thin coat without flooding my nails and cuticles with polish when it inevitably dripped down the brush. Still, with a little bit of patience and a Q-tip or two dipped in polish remover, I was able to clean things up some. 
• Sabrina nail polish - Zesty orange shimmer crackle. Love this color. It is such a beautiful shade of orange and it looks surprisingly really chic over the blue polish. It's such a fresh color combination and very fall. I plan on using it again for Halloween over black to see how that looks. 
• Julep Quick Dry Polish Drops - These lavender-scented quick-dry polish drips will leave your manicure touchably smudge-free much soon. Includes conditioning ingredients such as Vitamin E and Sweet Almond Oil to nourish and hydrate nails. These drops are hardcore amazing. They really work. Whereas I typically wait about thirty minutes to make sure my polish is dry, this time I just waited a few minutes after using the polish drops and then I was ready to go.
• Two bonus glitter pots - These glitters, in orange and black, can be lightly dusted over nail polish and then set with a top coat for a fun glittery look. These were a surprise extra this month. 

I received, from top to bottom: Sabrina and Eloise.

These make the entire box worth it just by themselves.

I am excited to try these glitter pots for Halloween.

    I also added on two additional nail colors this month, which I have yet to receive in the mail. Julep ships their add-ons separately so that they can get the monthly boxes out faster. As soon as I get them, I'm planning to paint my toes with the burgundy color. 

• Keira nail polish -  Deep burgundy creme. This seems like a really beautiful fall color and I don't have any other colors that are similar. 
• Sofia nail polish - Sheer spring green with a flash of aqua iridescent glitter. This sheer glittery polish looks really pretty layered over other colors. And it has the surprise of being glow in the dark too! Perfect for Halloween. 

      

    I tried out my new colors and was really happy with both of them. And the Quick-Dry Drops are amazing too. Here are the swatches:

Eloise is a super pretty sort-of gray navy color. 

 Applying the crackle polish over top was really easy. Just two quick thin coats and it starts to separate and crack immediately. 

       Want to join in the fun of receiving nail polish and other beauty products in the mail each month? Joining the Julep Maven program is the best (and cheapest) way to buy Julep products because you get discounts on everything and access to colors before everyone else! Plus, you can join now for just a penny (see the code below). Here are some others benefits of the Julep Maven program. 

• $40-$60 worth of nail products delivered to your door each month for only $19.99.
• You get to preview the colors you will receive each month.
• You can skip receiving a box if nail polish isn't in your budget for the month or you dislike all the colors. 
• You can switch to one of four other styles if you like them better than those in your style profile.
• You can choose to send your box to a friend.
• Free shipping.
• 20 percent off your purchases on julep.com.
• You can earn a free month by referring two friends to the program using your referral link. (Mine is below and I'd be so happy if you used it!)
• You can cancel at anytime simply by giving Julep a call.

     Sound good? Then fill out a style quiz HERE so Julep can tailor your boxes to your personal style and use the code COLOR2012 or PENNY to receive your introductory box for just a $0.01. 

Florida Trip: Part 2 (Harry Potter overload)

        On our last day of vacation, Tim, Owen, and I went to my favorite theme park: Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. I have been several times, once in high school and a couple times in college. But the reason we really wanted to go to this park was because of the new (relatively) Wizarding World of Harry Potter section. It opened last year, I think. Tim and I are both hardcore Harry Potter fans and we can't wait until Owen is old enough that we can share the books and movies with him. I read the first book about a year after it was published, when I was a freshman in high school. After that I eagerly awaited the publication of all the rest of the series and can remember reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix out loud with my friend Haley on the way to the beach and finishing up the final book in the backyard of my college roomate's house after getting home from my summer internship in Atlanta. I have seen all the movies at least once and made butterbeer cupcakes and have my own Gryffindor scarf. So... needless to say, I wanted to check out this section of the theme park first. And while we have a few pictures from others areas of the park and rode several rides from those sections, I am not going to focus on that here. 
        We went to the Harry Potter section of the park first thing when we got there in the morning to help beat the crowds. It was easily the most crowded section of the park the entire day, but thankfully since we went in late September, the park wasn't too busy. The Harry Potter section is designed to look like the town of Hogsmeade where the students hang out in the books. Other than a million tourists, the town looks so realistic right down to the fake snow. All the park employees dress authentically too and it must be killer to have to wear robes in the Florida heat. 

The entrance to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter features this sign.

     Upon entering Hogsmeade, the Hogwarts Express train and station are on the right. 

The town of Hogsmeade features several stores from the books, both ones you can enter and ones that are just a shop front. The shops that you can enter are Ollivander's Wand Shop, Honeyduke's candy store, Zonko's, Hogshead tavern, the Owl Post, and Dervish and Banges.

    Here's another look at Hogsmeade from the opposite side of town. 

The fake chimneys even smoke. 

Ollivander's wand shop had a long line of people waiting to get inside so we decided to wait the 30-40 minutes it took us to get inside to find out what it was about. It turned out to be a very short show, which was cute, but not worth waiting that long for in my opinion. Plus, you can have access to everything after the show by entering in through the Owl Post Office or Dervish and Banges. 

The first thing we did when we entered that section of the park was ride the Dragon Challenge ride, which used to be the Dueling Dragons roller coaster in The Lost Continent section of the park. Because Tim and I were there with Owen, we had to take turns riding the roller coaster. But it luckily they have a great parent swap program. You can go through the line as a family and then one parent waits with the kid(s) in a special room at the end of the line and then when the first parent finishes the ride, they just switch and the second parent typically gets on the ride immediately. 

Waiting in lines for the rides is actually kind-of fun because you get to see all sorts of little extras, like this car, which is designed to look like the car that Harry and Ron stole and crashed when they were hit by the Whomping Willow. 

Hagrid's hut was also along the line to the Dragon Challenge roller coaster.

The Hogwart's was so realistic and huge! It is the location of the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.

It is gigantic!

Before entering the castle, we had to leave Owen's stroller in the pram parking section. Hee hee. British slang humor.

The wait for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride takes you through the classrooms and corridors of Hogwarts. The line moved really quickly which was great, but I also feel like I probably missed a lot of little details because of it. This section was the greenhouse where herbology classes take place. 

Do you see the baby Mandrake?

You are greeted by this guy when you enter the castle. 

The people in the paintings move and talk just like in the books and movies. 

Dumbledore's office features the headmaster himself on screen, though it's hard to see him in this picture.

The sorting hat tells students which house they belong in: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw.

Above the ride are the floating candles from the dining room at Hogwarts. The attraction was a dizzying ride through and above the castle grounds.

The Marauder's Map shows where people are on the school grounds.

Outside of Hogwarts and in several of the stores, you can buy wands belonging to most of the characters in the book. 

Tim tested out Dumbledore's wand.

After the ride we went to the Hogshead Tavern to try butterbeer.

Butterbeer, though hot in the books, is served two ways at the park: slushy form (frozen) and on ice (cold). After trying both, I think I prefer the frozen one, which is a bit sweeter. It is so refreshing in the Florida heat. Also, I am not one of those "Oh, that's too sweet" people. To me, there is no such thing.

Butterbeer mustache.

Butterbeer tastes like a butterscotch soda with a caramel whipped topping almost the consistency of marshmallow fluff.

Owen liked it too! After taking his first sip he said, "Mmmm..."

We visited Honeyduke's to check out some of the authentic candies from the books, including chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Exploding Bon Bons, and Ton-Tongue Toffee. 

So colorful!

We bought a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. In the books, the jelly beans feature regular flavors like candyfloss and cherry and disgusting flavors like earwax, vomit, and earthworm. In real life, they do too. I found out the hard way. Vomit literally tastes like vomit.

We also bought a couple chocolate frogs. These were not as literal as the every flavour beans. Thank goodness.

Each chocolate frog includes a Famous Witches and Wizards collector's card just like in the books. This one features Salazar Slytherin. 

We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks. I highly recommend it if you want to try out some foods from the books and if you're not in the mood for burgers and fries. The lines seem like they will be long, but there are several people taking orders at the end and the place is big enough to seat a large number of people. 

The menu featured typical English fare like shepherd's pie, fish and chips, and cornish pasties.

Tim ordered Fish and Chips while I had the Shepherd's Pie and a salad. Both were delicious. To drink, I had a pumpkin fizz (so yummy). It is a carbonated version of the pumpkin juice the park sells and I've heard it is less sweet than the straight juice. I loved it because it was the perfect amount of pumpkin flavor and sweetness with pumpkin pie spices. I have every intention of trying out several copycat recipes online to try and replicate it. Tim had butterbeer again. We also ordered an apple cider to share with Owen.

Owen loved both of our meals.

The view from our seat inside the restaurant.

The frog choir performed outside Hogwarts.

Owen enjoyed exploring Hogsmeade too.

He made friends with everyone he saw. They were mainly European tourists.

And had a generally great time for a toddler at a theme park for six hours. 

Adorableness.

     
      At the end of the day, we figured we had explored the majority of the Harry Potter section, which was our only goal of the day. We missed out on one ride (Flight of the Hippogriff) because we didn't feel like waiting in the line for it, but in hindsight, I wish we had if only to say we'd done it and to see what little details were placed along the line for it. It is advertised as a more family-friendly coaster. So if you're a Harry Potter fan, I highly recommend visiting the theme park to have an authentic Harry Potter experience. And while you're there, try all the foods. Not one thing was bad. Well, except the vomit jelly bean. But overall, it was a blast!