Owen is twenty-one months old!

    We don't have a doctor's appointment this month, but according to our bathroom scale, Owen weighs around 26 pounds. I have no idea how tall he is, but we don't have to roll up his pants any more if that's a sign. Because it has been so cold outside, I haven't been able to go do an "official" photo shoot, but I have included in the post some pictures from the past week. 

Eating:

• Owen eats three meals a day and an afternoon snack normally. 
• He still eats basically whatever we eat unless we are having something super spicy. He has been eating really well for the most part, but we're still struggling a bit since Owen got spoiled with lots of Christmas treats at his respective grandparents' houses. 
• Owen's favorite foods are pizza, Cheddar bunnies, oatmeal, yogurt, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples and pears. 
• Owen loves to "dip" his food, fingers, and pretty much anything else in ketchup or other sauces. He frequently asks to "dip it?"
• Owen drinks whole milk with each main meal and water in between. 
• Owen adds the word dinner to whatever food he wants to eat, regardless of whether it is dinnertime. For instance, when you ask him what he wants to eat, he will sometimes say, "Hotdog dinner?" or "PopTart dinner?"

Sleeping:

• Owen naps in the afternoon and generally goes down just after lunch around 1 p.m and sleeps for between an hour and a half to two hours.
• Owen goes to bed at night at 7:30 p.m.
• He wakes up at around 8 a.m., sometimes earlier, sometimes later.
• Owen's going to bed routine consists of a bath, pajamas, 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 read Owen a Bible story a night out of his Jesus Storybook Bible and he loves to have us read his "Bible stories."
• Owen has become attached to a small tiger stuffed animal that we bought at the Cincinnati Zoo and sleeps with it every night. He calls it Kitty Kitty. 
• Owen loves his new Twilight Turtle nightlight and talks about going to "see the stars" all the time. He is also really proud that he can turn it on himself and wants to show it off to anyone he can. 

Things He Knows:

• Owen has a super large vocabulary and it seems to grow by the day. Sometimes he will say a word and Tim will look at me and say, "Did you teach him that?" and I'll say no and we have no idea where he learned it. 
• Owen can count to 10. He can even do it when we take turns filling in numbers for him.
• Owen has learned some of the words to several songs. He already knew "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me." This past month, he learned "Old MacDonald Had A Farm," "Row Row Row Your Boat," "Hush Little Baby," and "Baa Baa Black Sheep." 
• He has many of his books memorized and will sit "reading" them to himself.
• Owen learned to recite his ABCs this month.

Other Things I Want to Remember:

• Owen is wearing mainly size 18-24 months clothing. 
• Owen wears size 6 and 6.5 wide shoes, depending on the brand. His boots are size 7's and without a couple pairs of socks, they still fall off his feet.
• Owen is wears size four diapers.
• Owen has 16 teeth completely in now.

• 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," Taro Gomi's "My Friends," and his new Littles books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. He also loves his Chugga Chugga Choo Choo book which he lost in the grocery store yesterday.  
• Owen loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Thomas and Friends. He is especially into Thomas and has several toys and DVDs and even pajamas after Christmas. 

• Owen loves bathtime. He enjoys playing with his squirty Thomas the Train toys, his foam puzzle pieces and his tug boat. He generally gets upset when we go to take him out of the tub. But a game of towel Peekaboo generally helps.
• Owen still enjoys playing outside and will cry pretty much every time we bring him back inside. It has been really cold lately so we haven't been outside as much as he would like. 
• Owen still displays some separation anxiety and fear in certain situations. He cries every time as soon as we pull into the church parking lot, but he calms down once he's in nursery and playing. After nursery, the workers always comment on how well he did and how smart he is. 
• Owen loves playing with cars and trucks and trains. He also really likes puzzles. 
• He loves to stand on things and try to climb things. So far he has not seriously injured himself.

Owen on his "reading" chair.