Owen boy

Owen turned three last Saturday. I can't believe it. We were looking back at pictures on our computer, and it's amazing how much he's grown up just in the past year. Here's a snapshot of what he's like right now....

He's a very sweet kid, and loves to cuddle, sit on my lap, get hugs, and give lots of kisses. He's always telling me that he loves me.

He's a big helper. Anytime I need him to do anything, he jumps up and is so excited about helping me. His favorite job is emptying the silverware from the dishwasher.

He is a very good eater. Not only does he eat a lot of food, but he eats almost anything I put in front of him. He likes Indian food and Thai food (both of which I make at home frequently), and will eat almost any vegetable. The only things I really struggle to get him to eat are peas and blue cheese, both of which I strongly dislike anyway, so I don't serve them. :) I'm really hoping that he'll grow up and not be a picky eater at all. That's my goal, anyway. 

Owen loves to draw and paint, and is very particular about where the colors go. He went through a stage of a few weeks where he would only color with a red crayon, because that's his favorite color. It was cracking his nursery teachers up. :) He's very detail oriented - the other day in nursery, he was coloring a picture that had a bunch of people in it. He very specifically only colored one eye on each person. When I asked him about it, he told me that he had made them all pirates. :)

He LOVES movies, and has amazing recall of the dialogue. He can watch a movie for the very first time in the morning, and later that day, I'll hear him repeating the majority of the dialogue to himself while he plays. He loves to throw movie quotes into conversations. His favorite quotes right now are "Like you love the beach.... or a good book.... or the beach" (Madagascar 2), "Darn it Barbie!" (Toy Story 3), "I love you Gloria! I always have!" (also Madagascar 2), and "I will call him Squishy" (Finding Nemo). 

Owen is learning how to write his letters. He can write the O-W-E in his name, and we're working on N. He can write about 6 other letters as well. He's learning all the sounds of the letters, and hopefully we'll be able to start reading easy words soon. He loves to read, and is as quick about memorizing books as he is about memorizing movies. He can repeat his Toy Story book and almost his whole Nemo book from memory, and says them to himself as he plays.

Owen makes the craziest faces. He inherited this talent from Matt, but still, I don't think I've ever seen a kid make as huge a variety of faces as Owen can do. I can hardly ever get a normal picture of him. He's such a nut. :)

 Owen loves to sing and dance. He likes to learn new songs and we sing a lot before bed every night. He can't help dancing whenever some fun music comes on.

Owen generally speaks pretty clearly, and has a pretty good vocabulary. However, he says some hilarious words - most of them are things he just heard wrong the first time. Here are my favorites:
"It's Mormon time!" (It's morning time)
"grocery sandwich" (grilled cheese sandwich)
"blana" (banana)
He also has a wacky accent sometimes - almost like a southern drawl. It comes out in words like "bat", "hat", and "gas". They sound like "bayat", "hayat", and "gayas". It's really strange, and I have no idea where it came from.

Owen LOVES to play games. He loves Jenga (he calls it "Jango") and tic-tac-toe, and will play any game you ask him to, even if he has no idea how.

Owen is a very creative kid. He loves little figurines and small little toys that he can turn into people. He even carries the magnets from our fridge around and makes them do things. When he doesn't feel like making his toys people, he very happily plays with his hands. In fact, at least once every day (and most days many times) we play "dinosaurs" with our hands... you put your hand on the ground like it's cupping a ball, and then stick your index finger out straight. That's a dinosaur. Our dinosaurs go on all sorts of adventures.

We love this crazy kid so much. I wish I could save every single day in a bottle to get out again sometime in the future, because every day is so great with him. In true little kid fashion, sometimes he drives me nuts, but I find myself missing him if I'm away from him for even an hour, even if he's been driving me crazy all day long. We can't imagine life without him, and are so blessed to be his parents.

Here are some pictures from his birthday. He woke up to breakfast in bed and his room covered in balloons, followed by a day at a fair and then grandma's house for cake and presents. Very low key, but a great day with our little guy.

SUPER confused by what's going on.

He enjoyed it eventually. :)

Owen requested a Mater cake, as a complement to his Lightning McQueen cake last year. This one was WAY less stressful than last year - clean lines and store-bought chocolate frosting. He doesn't know the difference and loved it.

Finger puppets from aunt Karen.

His Buzz halloween costume was our big present to him. He LOVES it, and I'm pretty sure he'll be wearing it every day for a while. 

Toy Story figures from Grandma Auman. These guys are in play all day, every day. In fact, they've become a new discipline tool - if I threaten to take his Toy Story toys away, Owen will do anything.

All his presents - he loves every single thing he got. All of the tiny pieces of everything have been spread around our house ever since. This kid would be happy playing in a cardboard box, but he's very happy about all the new things he got.

He's a boy alright.

Happy birthday O-boy. We love you so much.