Owen Lately

Last week Owen turned 18 months old.  This picture is from his first day of nursery.  Mark and I were joking that it was his second big milestone in the Church.  The baby blessing is first, then going to nursery is second.  Overall all though, he has been our easiest to handle during church which is surprising because he is a busy little guy. 

He is spunky and crazy just like the rest of the family.  Owen is our sunshine.  If one of the boys is upset I have found myself pointing out something silly Owen is doing to change the mood--it works like a charm.  A few things about Owen lately:

1. He gets into everything.  His favorite is using chairs to get up to the table or counter.  Owen is usually finished with dinner first so he is down running around and if anyone gets up out of their seat Owen sprints over to climb up on the chair and try to eat or play with what he finds on the table.  He also moves chairs from the dining area into the kitchen to get things on the counter.  This is pretty dangerous since there are sometimes knives or hot stoves up there so we have to keep on our guard.  He also is now tall enough to reach into the kitchen drawers.  He'll open them up, stand on his tiptoes and reach his hand over blindly fishing for something interesting.  Also dangerous.
2. He can say several words but a lot of them are hard to identify.  He doesn't enunciate very well yet, but we are learning to decipher what he says: "dee" for drink, "mah" for more, etc.  He does have a very cute little head/full body nod.  When I ask him if he wants a certain snack or toy he will nod his whole little self and it makes me smile every time.
3. He has fast little legs and makes the greatest pitter patter sound around our house.
4. He is waking up early again, which is making it difficult for mom to have a little time to herself in the morning.  What to do?
5. He loves to read books.  He'll grab one and walk over to me then turn backwards about a foot from my lap and back up til he reaches me to drop in my lap to read.  Sweet.
6. Dallin and Adam love the little nicknames we've come up with for him.  O's is the most common.  When he's happy, it's Cheery-O's, when he's sad it's Woes.  They think it's funny when he vacillates between the two:  Now he's Cheery-O's!   Now he's Woes!