730 days * 104 weeks * 24 months * 2 YEARS!

Wow. I really cannot believe my little boy is already two years old. The time has flown by so quickly. There are times I feel ok about it because I absolutely adore him and I have so much fun with him. I love each stage of development and watching him learn and grow. I love seeing his little mind absorb everything around him as he makes new discoveries and accomplishments. However, I don't like thinking about the time continuing to go by and to think that suddenly he will be a grown boy man. I hate that my Baby Center emails have now gone from calling him a toddler to a preschooler. Please. Let's not push it. He's still my baby. :)

Here are his most recent stats:

Head: 19 in (35th percentile)
Height: 35.5 in (75th percentile)
Weight: 26 lb 4 oz (30th percentile)

He is sleeping really well these days. He typically goes down for a nap between 1 and 2 and will most often sleep for about two hours. Sometimes he extends his naps to 3 or more hours, but 2 is fairly typical. With summer coming upon us and extended daylight hours, his bedtime is sometimes pushed a little later. If we are out having fun or busy, there are days he doesn't get to bed until 9PM or later. But I would say 8-8:30PM is pretty average. At night he sleeps about 12 hours, but sometimes as long as 14. Although I'm not really sure he's sleeping the whole time. There have been nights that I hear him awake in his crib in the middle of the night sometimes for up to two hours. I think on nights when he does that, he tends to sleep in a little later in the morning. But hey, I'm not complaining when I get to sleep until 10! :)

The other thing Owen has been doing in his sleep lately that just about gives me a heart attack, is sleeping with his head covered by the blankets. The first night I saw his face covered I freaked out, yanked them off of him, and checked to make sure he was still breathing. Now I take pictures first and then move the blankets. ;)

Eating is still a struggle. I seriously never know what he will or will not eat. Some days he eats like a ravenous beast. Most days, he pecks and eats like a bird. His current favorites right now are: Turkey pepperoni (peppa), peanut butter, sharp cheddar cheese, fruit (blueberries, grapes, watermelon, oranges, etc.) dried fruit (fruit leather or raisins by the cup full), German pancakes, yogurt, cereals with milk, sweet n salty granola bars, chips (of any kind), french fries, sweets (of any kind), ice (uh huh...very filling and nutrient-rich) and of course mint (as seen by the multiple tic-tacs he got a hold of before I noticed).

Here he is playing his new "game" he likes of putting food on the table (or floor - ew) and eating it without using his hands. This night it was a dinner consisting mainly of ice.

As you can see, it's hard to get him to eat healthy. Sometimes he chows on black beans and will eat other random things like carrots and celery, but just as often he ends up chucking them off his tray. Oh wait...he throws anything and everything off his tray. Yes. My child is a food thrower and has been ever since he was able to do it. This is one behavior that Drives. Me. Nuts. It usually only happens when he's done eating and playing around, but if I'm not quick enough to notice, food goes flying. That and since he's such a poor eater, I like to give him as much time as possible to eat what on his plate.

Generally, he does like to eat apples, but prefers to eat them whole and carry them around with him.

Once again, his language is exploding. I often wonder where he learned a word or phrase. I think he's starting to be a sponge and just pick up whatever he hears around him. One of my favorite things he's been saying lately is, "I be back, a minute," before he runs off to get something. I obviously tell him "I'll be back in just a minute" very often.

For a while he kept saying, "Yeah. I know," to almost everything we'd say to him. It was funny when he would say it after we would tell him we loved him because it was reminiscent of my childhood when my Mom told me she loved me and I said, "I know, everybody does." :) We couldn't figure out where he got this from and then Miles realized it was probably from when we would comfort him when he was crying or upset and say, "Yeah...I know...."

Speaking of crying...here is a shot of Owen's first fat lip. He got it when he pulled a baby monitor down off a shelf, onto his face. There was a lot of blood and tears, but he was pretty ok once he was able to calm down.

Other fun things he says: Wook Mom!; Theeee end! (very emphatically after finishing a book); "Come on, Goose" (said to his toys - something we say to him a lot); "Hi, baby!" or "Hi, Goose!" (after one of us says it to him).

Honestly, he's talking up a storm and saying so much these days. But these are just some of the silly things I've recorded. Although I don't think a day goes by when I'm not laughing at something he's said or done.

He can count pretty reliably up to six. He can count to ten infrequently. He often will start counting and then go back to one. And by count, I mean recite the numbers...he jumps around when trying to actually count objects and will double or triple count them.

Owen found a balloon and Dada was teaching him how to blow it up.

Owen will often get a worried look on his face when he sees something isn't right or is broken and say, "Oh no! It's boi-kin." Then he usually wants us to "fix it." He does this with his food too when he's pulled bread apart and is trying to put it back together.

He loves to climb into empty boxes.

He uses everything as a slide - his chair, the couch, the love sac, our bodies...everything.

Owen loves to play outside. He could swing for hours...

...or just spend time picking up sticks and rocks, or looking at ants on the ground.

He loves to help with the laundry and throw it into the washer.

He's also pretty obsessed with climbing into the dryer and likes me to close the door on him and peek his head out.

Owen knows how to say all the animal names as well as their sounds. He also knows some obscure animals that I am surprised he remembers. My favorite animal sounds he's learned in the last couple months are a goat (meh), an owl (hoo, hoo), a donkey (ee-aw, ee-aw), and a rhinoceros (blowing in and out with his nose - in one of our books, Moo, Ba, La La La, "The rhinoceros snorts and snuffs...." I would make a snorting and sniffling noise so he knew what it was. Now that is apparently what they do).

He found this "leash" I've never used in one of the drawers and wanted to wear it. He thought it was pretty fun, so long as I didn't prohibit him from moving.

He is once again very into reading. Almost every morning, we get up and read books right away. Sometimes he likes me to read to him for up to an hour in the morning. He will also bring me books and ask me to read it to him. I love when I'm sitting on the floor and he just backs his little bum up to sit on my lap. Sometimes he gets obsessed with a particular book and will ask me to read it, "Again! Again! Again!" until I decide I've had enough of it. I also, often find him quietly reading (looking at books) in his room.

As I said in his birthday party post, he loves airplanes, helicopters, trucks and tractors (he often refers to most of these as dump trucks), and cars. Whenever he hears the garbage truck outside or an airplane, he will gasp, acknowledge it by name, and run to the window to see if he can see it.

Here is a picture of him opening up a couple of presents I saved for his actual birthday since we celebrated with family early. You can see how happy he was to get another plane and helicopter.

Owen likes to play games where he hides objects (often his cars) and says, "Where?" while throwing his hands up in the air. Then he says, "Hi-ning" (hiding) and will reveal them by pulling off a blanket or lifting the flap on the arm of the couch or wherever they may be.

He loves to line up his cars, trucks and toys, and stack things.

Another game he likes to play is to crawl between my legs when I'm doing dishes or standing somewhere. He sticks his head through and likes it when I squeeze my legs around him. He also will climb up and over Dada's leg and through the hole in his legs when he is sitting down with his ankle on his knee. Miles said one day Owen did this for about 15-20 min straight.

Here he is in his first mini "fort." He thought it was pretty cool.

Loves to say things with a "k" sound, like truck (kuck), yuck, etc. And often when it has that sound, he will add a few kuh's to the end. "Kuck, kuh, kuh" with a very gutteral sounding k. Time to learn German?

Here is Owen doing his impersonation of the "naked cowboy" as seen in NYC. I think Owen makes a cuter cowboy if you ask me...

Speaking of naked...here he is attempting undress himself to be "nay, nay" by taking his shirt off down over his body.

And finally, a picture of him on his actual birthday as a TWO year old. Sigh...the time really is going by too fast.