Owen is 24 months (two years!) old!

        According to the doctor, Owen weighs 27.4 pounds and is 33 inches tall. He's still our little guy and doesn't seem to be putting on much weight. I know he is growing taller though, but the earlier measurements must not have been quite accurate and a little longer than he really was. Now that they measure him standing up (as opposed to lying down), the measurements should be more accurate. Otherwise, the doctor was quite impressed with Owen's intellectual development. To put it in perspective, at age two a pediatrician would expect a toddler to be able to put two words together to communicate. Owen is already speaking in full sentences of as many as eight words. Owen was being pretty quiet while the doctor was talking explaining this and I said," He's doing great." And the doctor then mentioned something about three-year-olds putting three words together and then all of a sudden Owen looks across the room at some books and says, "I want to read that Elmo's Song book." And the doctor was like, "Oh okay. He's fine." We discussed potty training a little bit, but I personally feel that Owen isn't quite ready and I would rather wait and have it be less stressful an experience than try to force it right. I really feel like he will be closer to 2.5 or 3 when he is ready. We'll see. 

 Eating:

• Owen eats three meals a day and an afternoon snack normally. 
• He still eats basically whatever we eat for meals. We eat dinner together as a family and I really think that helps encourage Owen to eat pretty much anything, even vegetables like spinach or peas, etc. He is getting better at using his fork and spoon, but still needs help sometimes. He seems to eat with a spoon better with his left hand. 
• Owen's favorite foods and drinks are peanut butter sandwiches, oatmeal, cheese-flavored crackers, Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets, lemonade, and he's a big fan of birthday cake after his birthday. 
• Owen drinks whole milk with each main meal and water in between. He is obsessed with juice and asks for it often, but we try to stick with water most of the time. Occasionally I will add some orange juice or lemonade to his water.

This is how he smells a flower. 

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 between 7:30 and 8 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 his storybook Bible, and then snuggling and rocking in the chair with either mommy or daddy for a few minutes before putting him in his crib. 

 Things He Knows:

• Owen has a super large vocabulary and it seems to grow by the day. People still frequently comment on how impressed they are with his talking.
• Owen can easily count to 10 and into the teens. 
• Owen has learned some of the words to several songs. I will sometimes catch him singing a song and it will be one from the radio or from toddler time at the library even though he's only heard it once or twice. 
• He has many of his books memorized and will sit "reading" them to himself.
• Owen can still recite his ABCs if he doesn't get distracted partway through.
• He has learned to recognize all the letters of the alphabet. 
• He knows tons of colors and shapes. 

 Other Things I Want to Remember:

• Owen is wearing mainly size 18-24 months and 24 months clothing still. And even some of those are big depending on the brand. He is a little guy! 
• Owen wears size 6.5 and size 7 shoes. 
• Owen is wearing size four diapers.
• Owen has 16 teeth now. We have yet to see any signs of his two-year molars coming in, but we're fine waiting a while for those to make their appearance. 
• Owen loves when we read to him and looking at books by himself. His favorite books are anything with trucks, trains, or animals.
• Owen loves playing with his Fisher Price Wheelies cars, his giant Lego-type blocks, his new stackable animal houses blocks, and his Thomas the Train trains. 
• Owen loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Thomas and Friends. He gets to watch an episode a few times a week. He can now sing the entire theme song to Thomas and Friends. He was super thrilled when we bought him a Thomas the Train birthday cake. 
• Owen loves bathtime. He enjoys playing with his squirty Thomas the Train toys, his foam farm puzzle pieces and his tug boat. 
• Owen still enjoys playing outside and will cry pretty much every time we bring him back inside. Outside, he likes to be pushed around in his Lightning McQueen car, explore the yard, and draw with sidewalk chalk. Or more accurately, demand that I draw with his sidewalk chalk by handing me different pieces of it and saying. "Draw red!" Or "Draw blue!"
• Owen has pretty much gotten over any separation anxiety he used to show at friend's houses and at church. He goes in happily now to play with Miss Daisy and Mr. Don. 
• Owen is a typical 2-year-old and his favorite word at the moment is "No." He says no to everything, even stuff that he actually wants. Like "Do you want a peanut butter sandwich?"... "No."
• He also has gotten a big case of the "I wants...," particularly at stores. We are working on switching it to "I would like" and "please." Sometimes he will also throw in an "I need..." ie. "I need cake!"
• Owen doesn't really understand that I am pregnant and that the baby is growing inside me and that he will have a brother. But if I ask him to kiss my belly or say "Hi Brother" to my stomach, he will do it and it's really cute. 

Getting Owen to both look at the camera and smile is a feat now. Of course the only one I would get is with a background of our neighbors trashy yard and 8 million vehicles.
Oh well. 

Waving hi to our neighbor who was mowing his lawn.