Noah, Elliot and Olivia's Blog: 9/7/14

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Big Boy Bed!

Since Elliot wasn't sleeping very good in his crib, we thought it was time to make the move to a big boy bed. We all went to the furniture store, and Elliot picked out the bed that he wanted. About a week before it was to be delivered, we found out about our new little arrival, so we had to delay the delivery and go pick out a different bedroom set since the boys will be sharing a room. We cancelled the queen size bed and got bunk beds instead :) Noah has been asking about bunk beds forever, so he was ecstatic to find out that he was finally going to get his wish. The boys have had several 'test runs' with sharing the room, but haven't quite figured it out yet. There seems to be a lot of talking, etc. so for now each is in their own separate room. We have a little bit of time to figure this out before the baby comes! Elliot was super excited when his new room was set up, and has slept good in his bed for the most part (there were a few nights of 'messing around' and he thought it was fun to empty his entire closet and dresser drawers. In his defense, he didn't leave his room, but the rules were tightened up a bit)

Last night in the crib

New bed

LOVES it!

So comfy

Easter

We typically don't travel back home for Easter since it is such a short weekend, but since we had both school and work off the following Monday, we decided to make the trip this year. The weather was beautiful, and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins, hunting for Easter eggs, and playing outside. We also waited to tell our families that we were expecting until Easter, so it was an exciting weekend for that too :) The Easter Bunny got confused and came a week early to our house. We think that he just knew we were going to be gone so he came early :)

Easter Baskets

Happy Boy

Fire Truck!

Being silly with Bunny Ears

Ready for Church

Playing at the park...look at those dirty faces! As Grandpa Larry says, if
you didn't get dirty, you didn't have fun

Cousins

Family picture

Hunting for Easter eggs

It's tough being little, everyone is faster...Noah gave him a f
ew eggs to make him feel better :)

Big News!

Noah and Elliot are super excited to announce that they are both going to be BIG brothers! We are very excited (and shocked) that we will be adding another little one to our family in early November! And maybe the best part.....it's a GIRL! We found out very early (10 weeks) that it was a girl due to special testing that was performed for other reasons, and we verified and saw for ourselves the gender at the 20 week ultrasound. We couldn't be happier to be adding a little pink to the family, and can't wait for Baby Girl Owens to complete our family :)

Ear Tube Surgery

After more than 2 years of constant ear infections (too many to count), various trips to Urgent Care, and many sleepless nights, we insisted to be referred to an ENT specialist about Elliot's ears. Since he didn't talk very clearly, and wasn't saying as many words as he should be at his age, along with the fact that he seems to constantly be in pain and on antibiotics, we were convinced that ear tubes were the answer. Our pediatrician tried to tell us that he would 'outgrow it' but we insisted anyway. The ENT agreed that he was a good candidate for tubes, so we made an appointment for the surgery at Children's Hospital in February. And we are SO glad we did. Almost instantly (within a few days), Elliot was a happier little boy and started talking like CRAZY. We almost couldn't believe it. He started saying words clearly and would repeat more and more. He hasn't had an ear infection since and we are thankful he is finally out of pain.

Playing in the lobby before surgery

Getting his vitals checked

All dressed up and ready to go

Being such a good boy

Daddy carrying him back to surgery

Waking up from anesthesia (his nose was super itchy)

Having a popsicle

So tired on the way home

Playing doctor with the fun bag of stuff the hospital gave us

Winter 2013/2014

Well, winter proved to be much LONGER than we wanted this year. It felt like it went on forever, and we got more snow than we hope to see in a very long time. Of course, being a kid is fun in the winter, and we tried to play outside as much as we could. Since we live on the end of a cup-de-sac, we had one of the biggest snow hills at the end of our driveway, and it was a lot of fun to climb. We also stayed busy playing hockey and going to skating lessons (Noah). Here are a few pictures from our long winter:

Daddy's Birthday

Mommy's Birthday

All bundled up to go outside

Fun in the snow

Sledding

All dressed up for church

Skating Rink

Our HUGE snow hill

So much fun!

Elliot's 2nd Birthday!

Elliot has turned 2! What a whirlwind the past 2 years have been, but we couldn't imagine our lives without him. Elliot is ALL boy. He loves all things related to transportation (trucks, tractors, cars, etc.) and will sit and play for hours with them. He seems interested in how things work, and will certainly wear the knees out of his pants as he is always on the floor pushing his trucks and cars around. He still isn't talking a whole lot, and we are convinced that his ears are the cause. We are going to look into ear tube surgery to help. He has his own 'lingo' and our whole family is quite good at understanding what he is saying (our favorite is 'mow-me-mack' which means motorcycle. Elliot is still a very smiley little guy, and is pretty laid back. He loves to eat, and will try almost anything that is put in front of him. His favorite is meat (any kind) and can out-eat his brother at most meals. As he is getting older, his skin is improving a lot, se we are all very happy about that. Here are Elliot's stats at 2 years:

Weight: 27 lbs, 8 ounces (44%)
Height: 33.75 inches (42 %)

Little Elliot is a clone of his mommy, and he seems to be taking after her size too....since he is a boy, we are hoping he grows up just a little more :)

Balloons and presents

Cake!

Getting help from Noah

Christmas 2013

We spent Christmas Eve with the Ploeger side of the family this year, and spent time with the Owens family a few days before. It was the first year that both boys were old enough to really understand the holiday, and it was a fun time. Some highlights included Noah figuring out that Papa Randy was Santa, and Elliot falling off the couch and getting his first black eye on the coffee table.