Ringing in the New Year

We had a fun New Years Eve with the Kuder/Jaeger family. Owen and Uncle Mike were basketball playing fanatics. Owen learned lots of smooth moves from his uncle. It was so cute the way Owen warmed right up to him. The night before Owen wouldn't even give him a high five, but after an evening of shooting hoops, Uncle Mike was his new best friend.

The kiddies all dressed up, not super thrilled about getting their photo taken. Oh well...they were headed to the bath and bed right after this. They did not make it up until midnight (pregnant mommy didn't either, for that matter!)

Snow Fun

Grandma was so excited to take Owen and Elizabeth outside to build their first snowman. Honestly, Owen was more interested in shoveling the driveway with Grandpa and Daddy and Elizabeth just wanted to stand up (she just started walking). So Grandma and Mommy did most of the snowman building. Where are his arms?

They also tried cruising around on the sled. It was only a minor success since it was kind of hard to pull the sled in the thick, wet snow. I'm sure there will be lots of sled riding adventures in the coming years.

Phone Talker

Owen loved the phones at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They had phones with cords with an immediate dial tone, that he wasn't used to. This resulted in Owen babbling a lot to the operator that would come on. He even called Uncle Mike on the phone and got to talk to a real person!

Visiting Cleveland

Our visit to Cleveland was filled with more gift opening,

play time with Grandpa,

cooking with Grandma,

and hanging out with cousin, Elizabeth.

Owen and Elizabeth were quite the pair. They played nicely together, but there was a bit on competition for toys. What one wanted, the other wanted too. It was fun to watch them share.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

So we decided at the last minute to go to Cleveland for New Years. Staining and smelly stuff was going to happen in the kitchen, so we thought it best to be out of the house. We bought plane tickets the day before we left (never done that before, and surprisingly they were reasonably priced). It was an evening flight, so Owen was dressed for bed, in hopes that he would fall asleep during the ride. Boy were we wrong. If he looks up to mischief in this photo, then we captured his essence that night. It had to be the longest hour and a half flight ever! Brian and I were debating if driving for 10 hours was worse or not. This is probably the last flight that Owen will be young enough to travel without his own seat. I'm actually glad about that!

Christmas Cookies a Day Late!

Since we spent the month of December remodeling our kitchen, Christmas cooking got a little short changed this year.

But we couldn't go without making Grandma Kuder's iced, cutout cookies (they are Daddy's favorite). Owen was really excited to use the cookie cutters...I couldn't get the dough rolled out fast enough!

Then Owen enjoyed eating the cookies (sans icing). Just say the word cookie and he's there. Where did he learn that???!!!

Christmas Day 2009!!!

Christmas Day was absolutely wonderful to celebrate with Owen. Our day was spent in our PJs, opening gifts, playing and just having a fun time together.
Owen really got into ripping open gifts.

The funny thing was that after each gift he opened, Owen immediately wanted to play with his new toy. So Daddy's day was spent trying to get the goodies out of the packaging, while Owen stood by anxiously.
Everything was so exciting for Owen. It really is great to experience Christmas through your children.
Owen got these tiny trucks (he LOVES trucks) in his stocking, and he kept going back to them all day long. It was so cute the way he had to hold ALL four trucks together. Like he didn't want to separate them!
This is why it took all day to open gifts. Everything was played with before moving on to another gift. Including books. We had to read each one several times to check out all the pictures.

The gift opening pretty much came to a stop when Owen uncovered his new tricycle. He immediately tried cruising around the house.

Then we had to take the bike outside and give it a proper go. Owen absolutely loved it. He is pretty good at using his feet on the ground to move around, but enjoyed getting pushed by Daddy even more!

We did finally get dressed at the end of the day. It is pretty hard to get Owen to sit still for a photograph these days. This was the only one where we are all looking at the camera...who knows what I'm doing there...but at least our eyes are open!

Visiting Santa

What does the Kuder Family do during the middle of a Sunday morning snow storm? Why go shopping, of course! Actually, we were terrible parents for not going to the grocery store the day before, so we have to shovel the driveway to go get some food. We figured while we were out we would stop by the mall to see Santa. Owen had his snow suit on over his PJs...but that didn't deter us!Owen didn't want to leave the parking lot because this is what he got to witness. Have I mentioned that he loves all things tractors/trucks? Well, this was heaven for him, even if windy snow was falling on his face at the time!

So we were correct in thinking that no one else would be at the mall. Poor Santa was all alone just talking to one of his elves. It was nice that we didn't have to wait in a line. We should have known that Owen wasn't going to go for sitting on some strange man's lap, so Santa insisted that we all get in the photo together.

While Owen wasn't a big fan of seeing Santa, he sure loved sucking on the candy cane that Santa gave him. Mmmm, yummy!

It was so strange to be at an empty mall the weekend before Christmas. I had to pick up a quick gift, and Owen got spoiled by every sales person there (hence the balloon). Who can resist a toddler in snow pants and boots?!?!

Colors!!!

Owen has really been into coloring with crayons lately. He'll come into the office and point at my craft desk and say "Colors". I put him at my big desk with crayons and paper and he's pretty content to sit there by himself and scribble away. It's nice because mommy can get on the computer to check email, etc.
Well, today he took it one step further and grabbed a container of blue craft paint, unscrewed the top and started painting his face blue. I guess that's a lesson to mommy that everything within reach is game to Owen. I have no idea why he started painting his lips and cheek...maybe he has a future in joining the Blue Man Group!?!

Back to the Children's Museum

We took another trip to the Children's Museum with Owen and his buddy Danila. This has to be the best place for preschool kids, because Owen always seems to be over stimulated when we go. The first stop is the room with the golf balls and contraptions to drop the balls in. Owen just loves this room and he'd spend the whole day there if you let him. It's funny to watch him hoard the balls and run around like he owns the place.

Another big favorite is the Bob-Cat (or Mini-Loader as it's known in our house). Have I mentioned how much Owen is into trucks/tractors?

One of the last rooms we found was this one with a big climbing tree house type thing. Owen and Danila just loved it. In our previous trip to the museum we hadn't gotten to this room, so it was great that we got to explore some new stuff on this visit.

Needless to say, Owen fell asleep the second we got in the car to go home. What a fun day!

21 Months

21 Month Milestones:

• Learning how to drink with a straw. It is funny that he always wants to tip a cup up...a natural instinct, of course. But he is mastering the fun that is drinking from a straw.
• Loves playing with any type of ball. Throwing is great and he's starting to learn the concept of catch.
• All kinds of new words. Some favorites that come to mind are vacuum, chair, sit
• Will he be right or left handed? I see him holding a fork or spoon in either hand, so who knows which one he'll prefer.
  
• Follows multi-step directions
• Loves to name pictures in a book
• Will drink out of a regular glass...but it makes mommy so nervous.
  

First Snow of the Year

So technically we got some freak snow in October, but that doesn't count in my book since it was gone within hours of falling. But we got our first real snow today, so Daddy wrestled with Owen to get all his gear on.
The fact that he's smiling in this picture is telling because he wasn't too thrilled to put on snow pants and boots for the first time. But I guess they didn't hinder his excitement in going outside!

We picked up this little shovel for Owen a while back, and he loves to drag it around the driveway. I think it might have finally hit him what it's actually for now that he's seen Daddy doing some shoveling. I wonder what he'll think when the snow is more than the little dusting that we got!