My Little Skater

Just had to post a video of Owen on his last skating class day, so you could see that he made some progress in his 7 classes.  There was still a lot of time on the ice, but he is able to get up pretty quickly.  

His report card had him passing all of the basics like marching and gliding, but he has a ways to go before he'd be promoted to the next class. And I'm expecting him to forget pretty much everything over the summer anyway...  The important thing is that he had fun and learned something new!

As for Hadley, she continues to entertain.  Dinner prep is always a stressful time because she thinks mom + kitchen = instant food.  So when she was quiet one evening, I found her lining up all of Owen's shoes (and some of hers).  This is a fairly new behavior for her, but I'm finding her sorting things more and more.  Too funny!

And they still get along pretty well.  One day they were having fun pretending that Owen was giving her horsey rides.  If only she could hold on better, this would be even more fun for mom and dad.  :)

Mr. Golden Sun

We made it out to our old friend, Cress Creek Trail, last weekend.  The sun felt great, even if it was still a little chilly in the shade!  

Owen walked the whole 1.5 miles (probably thanks to a PowerBar he devoured midway), and Hadley had a leisurely walk for about a quarter mile before getting in the backpack. 

There wasn't much foliage yet, but the clear skies allowed us to see 180 degrees back to the snow-capped Sawtooth mountains in the distance.

We've also been making the rounds on the playgrounds now that the snow has subsided and the sun is out.  Cheers for sunshine!

Which beats our indoor entertainment...  It starts to wear thin this time of year!  Where did Hadley go...?  Peek-a-boo!

Found her trying on all of her brother's stuff while he was at school one day.  Too funny!

I told you we were running out of ideas for entertainment!  This dog crate was irresistible to the kids when we were at a friend's house.  They didn't want to come out!

Owen is always curious about what's going on in the kitchen, so I had him help me make scrambled eggs the other day.  He was so excited to help!  Hopefully, this will become a common occurrence, so he can be a handy guy in the kitchen for the rest of his life. (You're welcome, his future wife!)

High Energy

Owen brought home a "report card" from pre-school, which was basically a paragraph on his personality.  I had to chuckle when comments about his "energy" were repeated several times.  The teachers appreciate that he "uses his high energy in a positive way,"  like he's a force for good. :)  They've also told me that he's a bit of ham, and he likes to make the other little boys laugh.  He has been very interested in why things are funny (commercials, comics, jokes) and what types of things make people laugh (actions, faces, noises).  We may have an entertainer on our hands!

We wanted to get out for a family snowshoe adventure on March 1, but a freak snow/wind storm had closed several roads out to the scenic sites.  We continued on a ways, but when you can't tell the difference between the road and field next to it, and the paper has had several stories about people being stranded in similar conditions, we decided to turn around.

3 hours later, we ended up at a local park 15 minutes from our house.  It has a pretty good sledding hill, and all had fun.

Owen's latest fun endeavor is a skating class at the local ice rink.  It's a bit iffy on the actual amount of instruction they get, but he loves it!  His buddy Jacob is in his class, too.  We'll see how he looks at the end of March, but right now there's a lot of this (he's in the red hat):

We've had a lot of sunshine already, and we've been soaking it up on walks, in the park, and in the backyard!  Even when it's still below 50 degrees, it feels amazing to have the sun on your face.

20 months

I haven't been as faithful to documenting Hadley's monthly milestones as I was to my first-born.  I'm sure the mothers out there can relate...  So, I wanted to catch up on her 20th month, since we are getting closer and closer to 2.  (For fun comparison, here's Owen's 20th.)  Here's how she celebrated her 20th month - passed out at 5:30!

Current favorite activities: 

• playing with Owen
• yelling "Mama!" or "Dada!" loudly to get our attention, even in public
• chasing/"petting" the cats
• running to music
• being outside
• drinking milk
• reading books
• bathtime

New words (not comprehensive):  

• "tuh-tul" - turtle
• "dah" - dog
• "9-10" - counting for Owen's turn to be over
• "ze mao" - the cat
• "hoo hoo hoo" - depending on tone, either gorilla or monkey
• "dah-eee" - Dolly, her baby doll
• "Bo" - I think this is what she is calling Owen, though it's hard to say for sure, since she says this word a lot
• "baby" - other little kids
• "bah-by" - butterfly
• "uh-huh" - as close to yes as we get
• "buh" - book
• "joo" - juice

New milestones: 

• does the stairs - kiddie slide loop at the playground all by herself for a few months now
• building 11 block-high towers
• points to body parts and identifies animal pictures when asked
• knows a lot more words than she says
• will go on the potty if I ask her at the right moment
• saying "bye-bye" when we leave anywhere, like a playdate, the store, church...
• mimics everyone. This is most noticeable at my workout class when she does the squats and burpees with us.  She even runs ladders at home.  And she's an excellent study on facial expressions (big-eyed stare when in trouble) and dance moves.
• answers questions posed in Owen's TV shows, generally with the answer "9" (Owen has never felt compelled to answer these questions out loud, but Hadley inherently knows when someone is asking a question that she should answer)