On the road again
The time to PCS is upon us once again. While this isn’t my first PCS move, it will be my first with a family. Erin and I moved from Monterey, California three years ago and drove from California to North Carolina. We’re looking to do the same thing with our upcoming move, although this time we have quite a few variables to throw into our equation. Owen is obviously the first variable in our big move across the country. Gone are the days when Erin and I could put in a good solid twelve to fourteen hours of driving a day; we’ll be lucky if we get a good six hours of driving. Fortunately, the military gives us eight days of travel time, which we’ll probably need. Our second variable, and arguably the biggest one is Axel the dog. Axel is 100 pounds and is not the best car traveler.
Whose computer is it anyway?
Owen has quite an affinity with the computer. A few months ago, I blogged about Owen watching “Anpanman” on the computer to get him into different kinds of music. Lately, we’ve have been looking for kids shows that we can play for him on YouTube. The two current hits are “Old McDonald had a farm” and “Wheels on the bus.” Old McDonald is a favorite because we can teach Owen the different animal sounds and “wheels on the bus” is always a good time. However, this whole letting Owen use the computer thing may have backfired. There are a couple of reasons why it’s become quite a production to have Owen watch the computer. One, he can’t keep his hands to himself. Now, I don’t know many one year olds that can, but we have told Owen over and over not to touch the keyboard. He goes from touching, to slamming,
Helping out around the house
Owen has always been a big helper. He helps me make his bottles in the morning by holding the different parts of the bottle; sometimes he gives them back, sometimes not. He’ll loves to help me make my coffee in the morning by holding the lid to the milk jug and he’s also big into helping feed Axel, which I wrote about a few blogs past. But lately, Owen has taken a big step and has been helping me clean the house. Owen has become infatuated with the recycle bin as of late. He sees us putting paper, plastic, and cardboard in the bin, so he feels like he needs to help out. Sometimes he puts a piece of paper in the bin, sometimes it’s his favorite book. I even found his snack cup in the recycle bin last week. When I gave it back to him, he looked at
Owen is my co-pilot
I can’t wait until Owen gets old enough to go running with me. Owen has so much energy, it’ll be a relief to have him burn some of it off on a nice three mile run. Until that day comes, Owen rides in his jogging stroller while I do all the work. Before Owen and I go hit the pavement, we have to do some preparation to ensure we don’t have any issues while running. I do some light stretching while Owen holds my running shoes for me. He’s also been known to hide one of my shoes, which is always an interesting game to play. Next, we load up his stroller cup-holders with snacks, usually Cheerios or some other low calorie option; he is quite the health conscious little boy. It’s not mandatory to put the snacks in the cup holder, but it keeps him occupied. Plus, he works
Matching hats
Has anyone ever tried to find a cool toddler baseball hat? I know there are a lot of “hats” out there, but none of them look like actual baseball hats. They just look so…toddlerish. And the ones that say “my first baseball hat”…eesh; we know it’s your first hat, you’re just a baby. So I set out to find Owen an actual baseball hat for his birthday. For those that don’t know, we are a San Francisco Giants household, so getting a Giants hat was a top priority. I went to Lids.com and found a perfect authentic Giants hat…only toddler sized. While I put Owen’s hat in the cart, I ended up buying matching Giants hats for the whole family. As I was paying for the hats, I started thinking about pushing Owen towards sports teams. I remember watching and playing a lot of baseball when I was growing up,
Mimicking daddy
Since Owen has decided that walking is more efficient than crawling, he has been getting into more trouble lately. Not real trouble mind you, but he’s getting into things that have the potential to hurt him. For example, Owen loves playing with the cabinet doors and the items inside the cabinets. I don’t mind him slinging around the Tupperware, but for obvious reasons I don’t want him crashing the glass bowls onto the tile floor. When I first saw him doing something dangerous, I instinctively said, “ah ah aaah Owen.” You know, the “ah ah aaah” where you imagine an old school teacher wagging her finger while she says, “ah ah aaah”? Well, that’s the sound I made. What was even funner was Owen mimicking me right after I said it. At first, I don’t think Owen was purposely mocking me, I think he just heard a new noise and
