10 months

Owen is 10 months old already.  Can you believe it?  He spent his 10 month old birthday by "helping" Grandpa bale hay.  His first experience!  It was 90 with a breeze, and it was great. :)

While he still enjoys having some sort of structure to his day {naps around 9:30 and 1:30, bedtime between 7:30 and 8}, he is, for the most part, SO adaptable to whatever we're doing, and I really appreciate that he never gets overly fussy, until we get home. :)   He crawls like a maniac {speed crawls whenever he sees mommy},  pulls up on things like crazy, recently started cruising the couches, and just yesterday started letting go and balancing for a couple of seconds at a time.  He'll be walking soon. :(  He says, "bbbbbb" for the motor sounds of tractors and four--wheelers, often babbles "dada, mama," and accurately says "moo" whenever he sees a cow.  He enjoys "singing" {a prolonged aaaaahhhh} when we play the piano or sing with him.  He has four teeth.  The front-top right tooth JUST broke through a couple of days ago.  His weight has dropped off a bit {20 lbs, 2 oz, 35% a couple of weeks ago, so he's not REALLY a chub-a-lubs, but we still affectionately refer to him as such!}, but that is expected at this age.  He has really started to fight his brother.  Whenever Isaac tries to do anything he doesn't want to do, or takes one of his toys.  He'll push at him, or just scream.  Today, Owen even slapped Isaac....boy oh boy, I can already tell it's going to get MUCH more fun.  Ha!

Owen, you are the BEST.  We love you to the moon and back.

PS - That bruise on his forehead?  That's because Daddy took him into the bathroom, and Owen clocked his head on the toilet!

Thursday Deals - 6/30/2011

1. Get your FREE $10 Game Play to Dave and Busters here.

2. 30% off at Coach Factory Outlet with this coupon.  Expires July 10, 2011.

3. If you're headed to IKEA  July 1 - July 4, kids under the age of 12 eat FREE.  Limit one combo meal per child, and NO adult purchase is necessary, but the child must be present for the offer to be valid.

4. $10 off $30 or more purchase at Bath and Body Works with this coupon.

5. This Saturday only, get $5 off a $25 or more purchase at Dollar General with this coupon.

6. Get 15% off any one item at Staples with this coupon.

7.  Ten Gifts to Grow points with code WELLCABABYEMAIL.

8. FREE sample of Dove Daily Treatment Conditioner here.

9. FREE sample of Honey Nut Cheerios here.

10.Buy one get one FREE smoothie at McDonald's with this coupon.

Musician :)

I think Isaac will be into music, but Owen is already turning out to be such a musician.  And I'm SO proud.  This video is from before he was crawling -- I've got a lot of old photos/videos I meant to blog about but never actually did, so I'm playing catch up. :)

Owen's Alphabet Book - C

C is for Cuddle {I love this one, because this really captures Owen}.

Thursday Deals - 6/23/2011

1.  Add 10 more Gifts to Grow points to your account with code FXFHMWY4WKHU47JD and 5 more points with code TWITTERCNGCLOTH


2. FREE sample of Jif To Go Peanut Butter from Target!  You'll have to enter a short survey to snag this one. 

3. FREE Summer Crafts for Kids download-able book here.


4. Head on over to Old Navy Friday, June 24, and Saturday, June 25 to stock up on tank tops.  They hit 2 million facebook fans, so they are having a $2 Tankathon.  In Store Only!


5. Now through Friday, get 30% off your order at Gap.com when you use coupon code GPSURPRISE.


6. FREE 12 oz Tropicana OJ at Kum and Go gas/convenience stores with this coupon.  Hurry, expires Sunday, June 26!


7. Download many, many, many FREE kindergarten worksheets here.  I'm all over this for Isaac! :)


8. Request a FREE copy of the book No Longer a Slumdog by K.P. Yohannon, here.


9. Dress up like a cow on Cow Appreciation Day, July 8th, and head over to Chik-Fil-A to score a free entree {partial costume} or a free meal {head to toe costume}.  They're even making it easy by providing a printable cow costume kit here.

10.  Stop into any The Limited stores, and you'll get $10 in Fashion Cash.  Not valid on Sale items, but you could probably still land a pretty good deal!


11.  Get 50 4x6 prints from Snapfish for just $5 shipped with code DADDYPICS.  Code good through 7/27/11.

Owen's Alphabet Book - B

You did such a wonderful job with letter A {It was so close!}, that I'm going to enlist your help with B as well. :)  Vote over there ---->

#1

#2

I actually had three versions, initially, but I have successfully ruled this photo out. 

Mom-ism

I've posted before on funny things my mom says.  It has been awhile, but here's a new one.

We often call Owen, chub-chub, because he's chubby, and oh SO cute.

My mom picked him up today, and said, "Hi chump chump."

:)

Birthdays

Isaac LOVES birthdays {for the obvious reasons - cake, ice cream, candles...wow!}.  June is a busy month in our family for birthdays.  In true Isaac fashion, he's already helping each birthday person celebrate by taking over. 

Birthday person one: Grandpa!

Really?

Buy yourself a half gallon of soda at KFC, and they will donate $1 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

Yep, you read that right!

My favorite part is the "Help Us Find A Cure!" line on the bottom.  Um...duh.  For starters, let's not encourage our patrons to purchase Mega Jugs of soda!

Zoo videos

Just in case you want proof of the roaring lion or pacing tiger, right here.  We only caught the ends of both of them, but still. :) :)  So cool!





And, just for fun.  The kids on the carousel. :)

Henry Vilas Zoo

Last Thursday, we took a nice family trip to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, WI.  It was a cool, cloudy day, with the occasional spitty rain.  BUT,  it turned out to be a wonderful day to go.  The animals were SO active.  The monkeys were climbing, the lion walked right in front of us, then hopped up on a rock and started roaring, the tiger also paced RIGHT in front of us, giraffes were moving around galore, the seals were swimming and making funny blowing sounds out of the water, one of the rhinos was pushing a log around, the peacocks were calling, the bears were smiling.  It was just awesome.  And the cherry on top of all of that?  This zoo is FREE!  So, we spent $25 + gas for the whole day.  We packed a picnic lunch, paid for a carousel ride for the boys, and bought each of them a little souvenir.  GREAT day, and melt my heart, Isaac was singing Kindermusik songs the whole time {his current class curricula is Zoo Train!}. Many highlights below. :)

 

PS:  I'm not sure why blogger won't adjust my upright pictures.  I swear I've tried everything!

Big Bud

Isaac has a pretty large obsession with tractors, so we took a trip to see the biggest tractor in the world, Big Bud.  Grandma and Grandpa came along {because when we asked Isaac if he wanted to go see Big Bud, he responded with, "I want ah-gung (Grandpa in Taiwanese) to take me to see Big Bud in his van," and Grandpa's arm is easily twisted}, and it was well worth the trip.  We toured the agricultural museum first.  It was neat to see the old machinery, and to hear my dad point out each item they used to have on the farm.  He's used so many of them, it was crazy!  Isaac was obsessed with "milking" the cow.  It definitely didn't require the right technique, because he would just squeeze, and out would come the "milk." 

Owen's Alphabet book - A

I need help choosing between the two shots.  I love them both, for different reasons.  Vote over there -->

A is for Airplane

#1

 #2

Thursday Deals - 6/9/2011

I've been so spacey lately.  I only realized TODAY that I didn't do deals last week! Bah! :)

1. Dave and Buster's has an instant win spin game right now.  Every spin is a winner - you could win BOGO entree, FREE $10 play card, or 20% off your entire purchase.  You can play with different e-mail addresses.  I spun, and won a 20% off your purchase, but I'm not going to use it.  So, if you want my coupon, I'll e-mail it to you.  First come, first served.  Leave a comment. :)

2. FREE Building Blocks for a Healthy Future Kit.  Toolkit Includes fun, colorful, interactive materials for parents and caregivers to use with their children. Helps children make decisions, gain confidence, and improve self-esteem. FREE standard shipping.

3. Just in time for Father's Day, print this coupon to get $2 off of 2 American Greetings Cards.  Expires 6/19/11.

4. Don't forget about the FREE Tiny prints Father's Day card with code FDFD, and have it shipped to you to save on the cost of a stamp!

5. Print this coupon to get $10 off a $25 purchase at JCP.  Offer good June 10-11 ONLY.

6. FREE sample of Tub O' Towels here.

7. Use this Bath and Body Works Coupon to get a FREE Signature Collection Travel Sized item with any purchase.

8. 30% off at Coach Factory with this coupon.

Fresh off the alphatbet book post

It has been a crazy week!  I was clicking through some pictures tonight, trying to find the pictures to match some of the letter ideas, and I came across this one.  H is for hat.  And this picture is too freaking adorable.  Owen grew up waaaaaayyy to fast!  I'm going to get organized, get these photos edited, and take you guys through the Owen's Alphabet Book with me!

Alphabet Book Ideas

Just throwing these out there for Owen's alphabet book.  The ones with ** are pretty much set, but I'm including all of the ideas I have for every letter.  Others, I'm really struggling with!  I wanted to be different than what I used last time, but some of the ideas from Isaac's book, I just loved so much that I'm re-using them anyway.  I try to keep the book representative of Owen's personality, while also including as many major people/milestones, etc. as possible.  Any of them that you particularly like for a particular letter? Help! :)

A - Airplane**, adjustment, angry
B - Brothers**, bath
C - cow or calf, cuddle
D - Daddy**
E - Eat, eyes**, ear, elephant
F - Family**, feet, four-wheeler
G - Grandparents**
H - Hat**
I - ice cream?
J - jumper?
K - Kindermusik, kiss
L - Love
M - Mommy**
N - Newborn**
O - Owen**
P - Piano**
Q - Quiet, quesadilla
R - Read
S - Snow**
T - Teeth**, Tractor
U - Umbrella, ultrasound, upset
V - Vegetables?
X - Xylophone
Y - Yawn**
Z - Zoo, Zebra, Zipper

**UPDATE: Thank you, Jen, for noticing that I didn't have a W in this alphabet! LOL!

W - Wheelbarrow

Mover and shaker

Owen has been unofficially crawling since last Saturday, May 28, taking a few paces forward, sitting, and adding a few more until he got to where he was going.  Today, he decided to wake up earlier than normal {5 a.m.!}, and officially start crawling.  He's been on the move all day!  It's a happy moment, but also a sad one.....my baby is growing up too fast!

You can see the difference between his starting crawl, and his crawl after only 3 days. Here's one of his first crawls, May 28:


And here's his improved crawl, June 1