A Busy Weekend

We had a busy, but very fun weekend.  It started with the Dew Drop Bop at St. Kate's, complete with a bounce house, bubbles and lots of treats! The weather was perfect, and Owen and Maren had a blast.  Maren liked to be where all the action was (music, rides and other activities), while Owen preferred walking around the pond and watching the ducks.  

Maren was pretty fired up over the bubbles!

Owen did a lot of running (and slept in the next morning)!

Maren's favorite treat right now is watermelon.  A few minutes after this picture was taken she tripped and dropped her melon.  It was tragic!

The next morning, we went to an open house at the Bloomington Public Works with our friends, Jack and Annalee.  The open house was fantastic.  There were big trucks and tractors to see and even sit in.  We were also able to ride in a snow plow, which Owen and Maren are still talking about.  

Checking out the trucks!

After the open house, we all went out to lunch, where Owen and Annalee bonded while watching cars out the window.  It was adorable!

Finally, on Sunday, Josh, Owen, Maren and I went to the Gluten-Free Food Fest to get some new ideas for Maren.  It was a great event.  Maren loved all of the samples and one-one-one time with mommy and daddy.  Owen was able to spend the morning playing and baking with Grandma Colleen.  

Miss Maren checking out a new cookie.  She generally doesn't like sweets, but she was impressed by Trader Joe's Snickerdoodles. 

Maren scored a free bag of chips!  

Do NOT ask her to share!

At some point over the weekend, we also tried out our new popsicle mold and walked to a park near our house.

Owen is going through a fun little phase in which he will only eat fruits and veggies in smoothies and, now, popsicles.  Whatever works!  

Both kiddos wanted to hold my hand while walking home from the park. It was pretty sweet!

And, finally, Uncle Eric threw a washcloth at Maren, and it was the funniest thing ever!

Toddlers Are Funny

Owen and Maren make us laugh every day.  Yes, they throw tantrums and whine every day, too, but at least they're funny!

Here are a few of the funny things I've remembered to write down:

Are you a twin?

Maren: “No, I’m a girl.”

Who is the prettiest girl in the world?

Maren: “Maren!”

Who is the smartest girl in the world?

Maren: “Owen!”

Maren screaming for her sunglasses in the car and finding out I can't reach them for her.

Maren: “But, I’m weawwwy bwiind!” (really blind)

Me attempting to make Owen earn his dessert by counting, "1 2 3 4. . . What comes next?"

Owen: Cookie!
Maren: No, 5! (shaking her head)

Me trying to distract two crabby kids, so I can change diapers and put their shoes on.

"Let’s get ready to go see Uncle Eric, or is it Uncle Poop, Uncle Toot (yes, bathroom humor works!)

Maren: (Looking at baby gate) Uncle Gate! (hysterical laughter)

Owen: Uncle Winow (Window) (more laughing - these two totally get each other,)

Owen mashing buttons on the remote control and glaring at the TV.

"Come ON, TV!" (I feel his pain!)

Maren is clearly a bigger talker than Owen.  Owen is generally too busy to sit and chat.  He has work to do!  This little man loves jobs, clearing the table, helping with dishes, cleaning up the yard with daddy, but his favorite is throwing laundry down the laundry chute.  He could do this for hours!

Little Miss Maren's favorite word the last couple of weeks is beautiful, and she has an adorable way of pronouncing it. I've been trying to get it on video for awhile, but every time she sees my phone, she wants to see pictures and videos of herself on my phone.

A Post All About Maren

Way back in March, we found out this cool little chick has some food allergies and sensitivities.  Since she's been about three weeks old, constipation has been a constant issue.  When it led to an emergency room visit complete with x-rays and an enema, we decided to have her tested for food allergies.  We had already reduced the amount of dairy in her diet and made sure she was eating a lot of fruit and fiber.  Clearly, we were missing something, and I was going to lose it if one more doctor mentioned feeding her fruits that start with "P."  Yep, we've tried that!  In the end, we found out Miss Maren is allergic to eggs, peanuts, cow's milk and sesame seeds. It turns out that this sounds a lot worse than it actually is. The peanut allergy is really mild and since she has never had a reaction to peanut butter, she is still able to have this.  She has always refused eggs in all forms, so this wasn't a big loss for her. We have, however, removed dairy from her diet and will obviously avoid introducing sesame seeds.  We were surprised to find that her tests also revealed a high sensitivity to wheat.  She is not allergic to wheat, but our pediatrician recommended we eliminate this from her diet, as well, since we had already significantly reduced the amount of dairy in her diet without any results.  

Maren has been doing really well with her dairy- and wheat-free diet.  She is a good little eater, who thankfully is willing to try new foods.  Her new diet (combined with Miralax) has her pooping daily.  Believe it or not, we tried Miralax before changing her diet, as well, and it didn't really produce results.  Our biggest obstacle now is getting this girl to drink!  She took the complete loss of milk the hardest and hasn't warmed up to any of the milk alternatives.   We are working on making water fun for her (new cups, straws, adding flavor) since that's all she will drink right now.   

It is recommended that we re-test in about a year.  Hopefully, with the elimination diet, we will see different results next time and be able to re-introduce some foods.  

In the meantime, Maren seems more comfortable and is happy with her new "special" foods, and we're just happy to have some answers and a plan moving forward.  

Easter

Easter this year was a quiet day at home.  The kids enjoyed finding their Easter Baskets and then hiding eggs filled with dog food for Cooper to find.  That was certainly Owen's favorite part of the day.  He would feed Cooper all day every day if we let him.  We had all planned to go play with some bunnies at an event near our home that afternoon, but Owen was a little under the weather and ended up taking a longer nap than expected.  Maren and Daddy were still able to visit the bunnies, though. 

Reading books from the Easter Bunny

This was supposed to be a picture of both kids with their Easter Baskets. 

The Easter Bunny also brought umbrellas. 

Maren and Daddy meeting some bunnies. (Thank you to Laura for the pictures!)

Late last week a cold hit our house, which resulted in a lot of this. . .  

The silver lining is that Owen and Maren tried popsicles for the first time and are big fans!

Painting

A couple weeks ago, we were looking for an afternoon activity.  I found an easy recipe for homemade paint online and away we went.  The paint is made with water, flour and dish soap, so it was easy to make and easy to clean up.  And, our little artists loved it!

This was our first time painting with paint brushes.  

 In the end, Maren decided finger painting was more fun.

Two Year Old Stats

Owen and Maren turned 2 last month!  Someday, I'll get my act together and post pictures of their birthday party.  In the meantime, here are their two year stats from their well visit earlier this week. We have a couple of tall, skinny kiddos!

	Weight	Percentile	Height	Percentile
Owen	27.6 lb	40	37.8 in	99
Maren	26 lb	36	36.4 in	96

Here are a some pictures of our two year olds, who caught a stomach bug last week.  It was a LONG week, and I'm very happy to have my healthy kids back.  

Mr. O was quite a trooper dealing with his fever.

This little lady was hit a little harder than her brother.  

This guy was totally fine but still took advantage of the extra blankets laying around.

What We've Been Up To

Josh was out of town for work for a few days recently.  This was the first time he's been gone when the kids were really verbal and able to ask questions.  I answered a lot of "Where Daddy?" and "Daddy Home?" In the meantime, we're lucky to have family nearby that is willing to come provide some entertainment and help. 

Uncle Eric kept these two busy with just a couple stuffed animals and the ceiling fan. 

When Josh did make it home, he (unknowingly) had a sparkly sticker on his shirt.  There is no escaping Maren and her stickers. 

Other than surviving a few days without Josh, Owen and Maren spend their time repeating and learning new words.  In the last couple of months, language has really taken off in our house, and it is amazing!

Maren is really working on stringing more words together.  She asks a lot of questions, "What happened?" Where (insert name)?" and ""What name?" are her favorites.  When reading a book, Maren will ask "what name?" of every single animal or person in the book.  She will generally repeat the name right away and surprises us all by remembering most of them.  Maren is a bit of perfectionist and works really hard to pronounce words correctly, but some of her most adorable words are the ones she hasn't quite mastered. "Otay" (she answers with ok instead of yes), "smoodie" (smoothie), "nuggle" (snuggle) and Pooper (Cooper) are a few of our favorites.

Maren 'nuggling with daddy.

Maren and her "bubble mitten."

Owen is more of a take-it-all in kind of guy and often lets his sister talk for him.  He's starting to speak up more and more each day.  He tends to say the last part of each word "ooper (Cooper), "Apa (Grandpa) and "Homas" (Thomas the Train). He says the whole word when it's really important.  "Cookie," for example is crystal clear. Another word we hear multiple times a day from Owen is "walking!"  He absolutely loves to take walks outside. He is perfectly content holding a hand and just walking up and down the street.  His other favorite thing right now is the alphabet.  Both he and Maren can identify letters and are working on numbers, but I think Owen would be totally happy sitting on a lap and working on his alphabet flashcards all day long.  

He loves to snuggle after nap.

Mr. O showing off his bedhead.  

Playing Outside

We love to play outside.  The 20 minutes it takes to get these two bundled up is totally worth it.  They have so much fun! They especially loved splashing in puddles on the warm days we had recently.  

Owen loves jobs.  His favorite one this winter is shoveling. 

Maren will help with the shoveling a bit, but she prefers being pulled around in her sled. 

The whole crew outside.  A second later Owen tackled Maren, and she asked to go inside.

Owen loves to play fetch with Cooper.  Cooper prefers tug, so their relationship is complicated. 

A Very Late Christmas Post

Here it is - proof we celebrated Christmas this year!  We actually had a few different celebrations with family and a quiet Christmas morning at home.  I wasn't good about taking pictures at our family gatherings, so here are some pictures from Christmas morning. 

Getting the first glimpse of what Santa brought. 

A kitchen set and tool bench

Santa didn't forget Cooper. 

Christmas books!

A candlelit Christmas lunch of chicken nuggets and green beans.