Olympic Reflections

The other day, I found myself reading an article online about Gaby Douglas' HAIR. That's the point when I realized that perhaps the Olympic obsession has gone a bit too far.  But it's only once every 4 years, right?! But we are oh so tired from staying up for the late night coverage.

Faster! Higher! Stronger!  Here are some reflections on our Olympic experience as observers:

We let the kids stay up to watch the first half of the opening ceremony.  They loved it, but were in bed long before the parade of nations and torch lighting, which was what we were all looking forward to. Of course, Scott and I still needed to pull out Owen's new globe to find some of those island nations. Tuvalu?

The Olympics coincided with our summer swimming lessons and provided perfect motivation for Owen to work on his front crawl and start figuring out the side breathing.

We've been watching highlights of the events after breakfast or before the kids go to bed. I love watching Josh do his rendition of his favorite events. Tonight, he was doing laps of run-jump-run-jump-run-jump to mimic the hurdles. On the other hand, what's not so awesome is his rendition of the backstroke start that he is doing (repeatedly) off the side of his crib each night.

I found myself taking a much greater interest in the men's events than the women this year. Especially the men's gymnastics. I think it's because now I imagine my own boys dreaming about being Olympians instead of  imagining what it would be like to be an Olympian myself.  Man, those P&G "Thank You Mom" commercials really get ya. (Though I gotta say, I do have wicked respect for those women who have stepped away from their sport to start a family and then return to the Olympics with toddlers in toe... wowza!)

Thankfully, my boys took a great interest in the women's gymnastics, so we had plenty of excuses to rewatch the videos of those golden ladies.  They especially liked pronouncing their own judgements on each dismount.  When I showed the kids the highlights of the team final, Josh watched the vaulting and declared, "She sticked it! She sticked it! She sticked it!"

We are feeling the full effect of living in Oregon, and so close to "Track Town USA" in Eugene.  So many track athletes have ties to Oregon - many of them training in either Eugene or Portland, so each day's newspaper has a great recap of how "our" athletes (representing countries across the world) are performing. It was particularly remarkable to watch Mo Farah (Great Brittan) and Galen Rupp (USA) run as a team and go 1-2 in the 10,000 meters. And now, Ashton Eaton from BEND is in the middle of his Decathlon and we'll get another chance to watch Rupp in the 5,000. Go Oregon!

The boys loved Oscar Pestorius' "Robot Legs" - we think they're pretty cool, too.

After watching the 100M Final, Owen decided that his name should be "Owen Bolt Bolt" because he's sure that he can run faster than Usain Bolt. I'd like to see that.

Go USA!

A Season of Change

Understatement: We've had an eventful transition to Portland.

We knew the transition would be interesting with the work to do on the house, and I think we've been taking it all in stride, but I realized just how crazy things have been when I found myself texting Sara:

"Sorry we didn't call you back last night. The new furnace broke, Scott was puking, and the kids were asking to hug the repair man goodnight." Just another run of the mill evening in the Maxwell House!

I have been feeling overwhelmed by the thought of trying to get up to date on our recent activities, so a string of random updates will have to do.

THE HOUSE

The good news is that we have new carpet, new appliances, and fresh paint on most of our walls.  Also, next year we won't have to buy a new furnace.  Odd happenings with the house have included:

- Pondering why the prior owners stripped the house of various light fixtures, all toilet paper holders, and the oven racks (?!?!) and yet left all 12 attachments for the central vac system.

- The HVAC tech inspecting our heat pump system only to proclaim, "I figured out your problem. You have a heat pump thermostat, but you don't have a heat pump." An hour later he also notified me our 25 year old furnace was cracked and had to be shut down.

- Realizing that most of our walls were a near match to the "color" of primer.  Not anymore!

- Wondering why people so opposed to color in 90% of the house would paint the TV room two shades of bright pink/orange to match navy/turquoise window coverings.

- Spending our first month without use of the oven or microwave.  Certainly a first world problem, but it really stymied me when we couldn't even take n' bake pizza.

- Marveling at the loveliness of hexagon shaped sinks.

- Having an extra fridge rotating around various rooms of our house. Our garage fridge from Bend was a lifesaver our first month here before we got our appliances. It was slated to slide perfectly into a space in the garage. A space that quickly got consumed by the new, wider, furnace. Plan B?

While it sounds like a never ending project, which will be true for a while, we are loving other aspects of the house - the giant playroom, the big backyard, good storage spaces, and a layout that seems to be fitting nicely with our daily rhythm.  In the end, those are the things that matter. Paint and ugly fixtures can all be changed over time.

THE WEATHER

We were lucky enough to move to Portland just in time to experience the wettest March on record.  As a stormwater engineer, this is wonderful for my career, but pretty brutal on our high dessert psyche.  We spent a good deal of time marveling at the lake that consumed much of our backyard for our first weeks in the house. Thankfully these few dry days have helped us avoid being a headline: "Drainage Engineer Buys Flooding House." We did lose two cedar trees in a late march snow and I've worn my raincoat more in the last month than I did in the last 5 years, but six years in the high desert didn't completely override our Seattle webbed feet.  

Our kids are another story.  Owen hates his raincoat, refuses to wear rain boots, and is really frustrated that he can't spend his days outside.  We keep telling him spring and summer are coming, but I knew we were going a little stir crazy when we got a brief hour of midday sun and my kids whipped out the deck chairs, stripped down, and played in the SNOW STILL MELTING ON OUR DECK.

THE TRANSITION

Needless to say, we have resorted to some unusual tactics to manage the behavior challenges that come with this time of transition and limited opportunities for outside/big muscle play.  After several weeks of what felt like an endless battle trying to keep Owen in line, avoid scenes from WWF/Fight Club, and dealing with meltdowns right and left, we sat down one morning and wrote down some basic "Behavior Rules."  I decided to just pick a few behaviors to focus on, and believe me, for several days, it felt like every other sentence out of my mouth was, "remember our behavior rules."

Owen's list: Give People Space, Use Polite Words, Stay at the Table While Eating, Listen to Mom and Dad, Happy Attitude!

Josh's list: Use your Words, Say Please and Thank You, Listen to Mom and Dad, Stay in your Seat When Eating, Hapy Attitude!

Mom's list - yes, I needed one too: No Yelling, Say Please and Thank You, Do What is On the List, Happy Attitude!

Notice how I sneak in  a rule for me that really focuses on getting the kids in line?  "Do what is on the list" refers to sticking to my to do list or the daily plan, which the kids and I talk about every morning.  By having that be one of my rules, it seems to have helped to combat the constant protests whining I was encountering whenever we needed to run an errand or tackle a project around the house.  

Actually, those lists went up about a month ago, and I'm happy to report that they didn't make the transition to the new fridge when it was installed. Seems like things are looking up!

OTHER NEWS

I'm also pleased to report that the speech progress that Josh was making before we moved seems to have continued through the transition. In fact, they hired a new teacher for their daycare a few weeks ago, and the FIRST comment she made to me when I picked up the kids on her first day was, "Man, that Josh, he certainly has a lot to say, doesn't he?"  Not bad for a kid who was barely saying single words 6 months ago!

Funniest quote of the day from Owen: "A manatee? I know about manatees. They turn into mermaids." ??what??  "Yes, see their life cycle goes from baby manatee to adult manatee to mermaid!  Or merman... or mer-girl... or mer-boy." 

One More Mustache

We had a few temporary tattoos left over from Christmas, so the next morning, while I was in the shower, Scott found person who had missed out on the fun the night before.  He thought I would be mad, but how can you do anything but laugh at this site:

Yes, he spent the whole day that way, including trips to the outlet mall and grocery store.  Thankfully, Josh had no idea why everyone was grinning from ear to ear and whispering as we walked past.  So hard to get upset at a toddler with a tatoo!

Disguised...

During one of my recent (many) passes through Seatac Airport, I found a pack of mustache tatoos at Fireworks and tossed them in the Christmas bag.  You never know when you need a handy disguise...

I have a KID!

Owen turned 4 this week. F-O-U-R! I'm realizing that I have a KID. When other people see Owen running around, they don't see a toddler, or even a little boy... they see a kid. And rightfully so. He's a little person with wonderful thoughts and ideas. A silly, imaginative, exploring, energetic, passionate boy.
He can accomplish pretty much anything he puts his mind to. It's wonderful that he can now get himself dressed, make choices about his snacks, help in the kitchen, buckle himself into his car seat, gather his gear when we need to leave the house, etc. On the other hand, all those skills can sometimes be deceiving, and I often need to remind myself: "He's only 3 (now 4)" and give him some slack when he's taking forever to get a job done.

Owen is a thinker. He is always considering how things work and asking endless questions about this world of ours. As most kids this age, he is all about the exploration and figuring out how things works.
Owen is still not a big kid. He's continuing to gain (some) height, but probably just 32 pounds. It's not uncommon for his friends to outweigh him by 10 pounds. But Owen makes up for his size and takes advantage of a solid muscle/weight ratio to accomplish big things with that small body. Climbing fences, scaling boulders, leaping from platforms taller than his head, and of course, riding that bike.

Owen still has those funny kid words, like "Bref-kist" for the first meal of the day. And he uses the phrase, "Do I" or "Am I" instead of the negative. As in, "I'm a good jumper, am I?" and "I have Blue eyes, do I?" He recently lost the lisp out of "wif."

Other funnies from 4-year old Owen:

Scott: Owen, you're the strongest kid I know.
Owen: I know! That's because I get it from you. I squeeze the strong out of you and and it goes in me.

We had a long conversation the other day about the difference between "Blond" and "Bald." We were brainstorming everyone we know that is blond: Owen, Piper, Josh (but he used to be bald), Calla, Mom (but a little bit not), etc. "Do we know anybody that's bald?" Owen replies in earnest, "Yes. Kevin."

For all the running and activity, Owen is a media kid. He would watch TV or play with the iPad all day long if we didn't have screen time limits. He's not very picky about the content - the other day, he was intently watching a Rick Steves documentary about hidden restaurants in Europe.
Owen's totally potty trained and recently started staying dry overnight. Owen no longer naps at home (sigh), but still takes a short nap at school.

Owen can recognize and write all his letters and loves to write his name. He's left handed, and until recently, I thought he was always writing his name upside down. Turns out, he's just writing it from right to left, so he can see the letters as he goes. N E W O

Owen retains his sensitive nature (and a 4-year old tendency to swing between happy and frustrated tantrum at the drop of a hat). We need to be pretty careful about what he's watching on TV or the books we read, as he doesn't like to see characters in distress. I hope he keeps that empathy... and starts applying it to real people, like Josh!

Loves at Age 4:
The Color Orange
Tank Tops
Crocs (orange ones)
Television/media
Cars
Pirates
Knights
Sports - particularly baseball and anything Huskies
Imaginative Play
Board Games
Biking
Family and Friends!

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

Wordless Wednesday: Pirate Mama

In my place

Owen has decided that he's going to start using the potty when he is 3. I keep suggesting that maybe he would like to get some practice in before his birthday rolls around, but at this point, he's pretty dead set on his plan. And, with 6 weeks until his birthday, I'm nearly resolved to just wait it out and then dive in full force come June 5th. (Maybe I should pick up that book about the one-day potty training method. Does it work?)

Today's car conversation:
Owen: Last night (which is his term for anything that happened in the past), I had 2 birthdays.
Me: Really?
Owen: Yes, one at our house and one at Miss Stephanie's house.
Me: You know Owen, in six weeks, you're going to have another birthday.
Owen: (Gasp!)
Me: Yes, and when you have your birthday, then you will be 3 years old!
Owen: ... and I will use the potty!
Me: Okay. Sounds good to me.
Owen: ... and you will wipe my bottom.

And so decreed the king. And I really can't argue (though I did get a good laugh). Yup, that's pretty much how it will happen. Sigh. This is not a glamorous job folks.

Stuck in my Head

I have a song stuck in my head and it is driving me crazy. The bigger problem is that the song is on constant repeat around our house, courtesy of a very obsessed 2 year old. Owen has learned the name song and we hear him singing to himself before he falls asleep, singing in the back seat of the car, singing to Josh when he wakes up from a nap, signing in my ear at 6:30 in the morning. His favorite name, of course, is Josh:
Josh Josh bo Bosh
Me mi mo Mosh
Josh-i-wa!

Over the weekend he was constantly singing through the names in our family and through every friend at school. Lily, Lucy, Jake, Ellie, Diego, Dani, Lily again, Layla, Maya, Lily again:
Lily, Lily bo Bily
Me mi mo Mily
Liiii-ly!

Tonight, the song reached new heights, progressing beyond names. Owen, do you want peas for dinner?
Peas, Peas bo Beas
Me mi mo Meas
Pee-ease!

Time for a bath.
Bath, bath, bo bath
Me mi mo math
Baaaa-ath!

Can I watch a show, show bo Bo...
This is the Newspaper, newspaper, bo bewspaper...
Is Josh eating squash, squash, bo buash...
Where's my doggie, doggie, bo boggie...

Is it driving you crazy yet? As Scott observed, it's amazing how fast something can go from cute to just plain obnoxious...
Obnoxious, obnoxious, bo boxious
Mi mi mo Moxious
Ob-noooo-xious!

What would you call it?

Me: Owen, do you want to come help me take the clothes out of the dryer?
O: Are these wet?
Me: Well, feel them and tell me what you think.
(Digs around in the dryer)
O: They're dry!
Me: That's right, the clothes coming from the dryer are dry.
(Pulls out Josh's bath towel.)
O: Mom, this is a towel. It's not a cloe.

What else would you call a single article of clothing if you're 2 years old.

A Little Young

My dad has subscribed to Sports Illustrated for as long as I can remember. In fact, he gave Scott and I a subscription when we got married and continues to renew it for us every year (thanks Dad!). I don't think I read as faithfully as he does, but I do like to flip through and try and stay on top of the world of sports. I used to read the back page editorial every week, but it's just not the same since Rick Riley stopped writing it. But I digress...

Owen and I were putting together a picture book the other day. He was flipping through old magazines to find pictures of things he liked. I cut them out, and he glued them into the book. Parenting magazine netted us some pictures of a lego helicopter, a truck, and Elmo. From Sunset, he chose a plate of food ("I like cooking!"), and coffee ("I like mom and dad have coffee.") And, from SI, he chose pictures of Chauncy Billups with his basketball, Shaun White on a snowboard, a car from one of the advertisements, and this:

I even tried to quickly flip past that page, but he was insistent... "I like THAT girl!" So be it.

For Now...

There is sooo much to catch up on, but for now, the toddler is cashed out on an early nap and the baby is happy wiggling on the floor, so I had to post this mornings' funny. Owen and I are out running errands (Josh is home with a sitter, so Owen can have some Mom-time). As we head to the post office, I ask Owen:
"Will you be my good helper at the Post Office?"
Response: "No mom. I will be Owen Paul Maxwell."

Pictures and stories of Christmas and Owen's first outing on skis to come soon... I promise.

Training them Early

Living in Oregon, we know we have two challenges in getting Owen and Josh to follow in the Husky tradition that runs deep through both families. First, we need to teach them the beauty of the purple and gold. Second, we need to come up with out-of-state tuition!

For now, we're thrilled to be making good progress on that first challenge. Between the two Husky tailgates in September and all the purple and gold clothing in his closet, Owen is hooked on the Huskies!

(Snacks and Football!)

Some might quibble that this is actually an LSU jersey (Thanks Aunt Tracy), but Owen can't read and he's insistent on wearing this jersey for game days and at least once/week to school.

We've been working with Owen all season to help him understand the football concept. First, he thought every football game on TV was the Huskies. We would put his jersey on game days and he would run down to the TV insisting that "THERE the Huskies" while two SEC teams were playing at 9 AM. (I think he just wanted a reason to watch TV.)

Next, he figured out there are lots of teams and that the Huskies are the ones wearing purple. Which worked great until the Huskies wore white at Notre Dame. And Owen cheered for the Fighting Irish in their Navy. Bugger!

Now, he's really starting to get it. We had the whole family over during Thanksgiving weekend to watch the Apple Cup. My mom taught him about running, throwing, and tackling and how to cheer for one team or the other.

(Hey, hey, the gang's all here)

Now, Owen wants to know the names of every team playing and gives his own little play-by-play. For the Apple Cup, we heard lots of this:
"Huskies Running!"
"Huskies Running Again."
"Huskies go fast."
"Those the Cooters."
"Cooters Fall Down."
"Huskies tackle the Cooters!"
Pretty much sums up the game, I think.

(Josh getting a nap with some subliminal messaging from Papa)

On another note, this was an unfortunate year for us living in Oregon - to watch both Oregon teams playing for the Pac-10 Championship? Urgh. At least Owen has that figured out, too. When I walked downstairs to see the boys watching the game, here was the conversation:
"Who's Playing Owen?"
"Those the Duckies and those the Beavers."
"Who are we cheering for?"
"Beavers....and the Huskies!"

Enough said.

Where we are Today

Wowee. I've just reread that last post and realized that my brain is a BIT scattered these days and I don't think this post is going to be any better. Can you blame me? On the plus side, Josh and Owen took simultaneous naps for over an hour in their own beds this afternoon. I managed to box up my maternity clothes and clean one bathroom in that hour. For those keeping score, that totals 2 hours of the day in which I was not holding Josh (the other being while he napped in the carseat), 2 naps in his own crib this week, 3 loads of laundry needing to be done, and one bathroom cleaned. The whole family is coming into town for Thanksgiving next week. Looks like the theme is going to be, "If you want a clean plate, shirt, or bathroom, you'll have to wash it yourself."

But that's how these weeks are supposed to be, right? Josh will never be this small again, never sleep so easily in our arms, and never be so oblivious to the chaos around him as he's crashed out in the Moby wrap. As much as I am appalled by my lack of productivity, I am truly enjoying having those 7 pounds of sweetness around me all day. I have decided that Josh has the most kissable head ever.
A few people have asked how Josh's tummy is faring. Josh started exhibiting some classic reflux signs last week (screaming after eating, arched back, angry on his back, and gurgly/choking sounds at random while resting), so we started him on Baby Zantac this week. Hopefully, taking action early will help us avoid the series of reflux related posts that dominated this blog 2 years ago. Fingers crossed.

Owen continues to be mesmorized by his baby brother. We're working on "giving Josh some space," but the brother love makes the challenging times more worth it. I set Josh down on the floor on Sunday and Owen quickly gathered a whole pile of his toys to entertain him... and THEN proceeded to sit down and read Josh a book. Seriously?

Owen has also asked to feed Josh from his own tummy and likes to drag over a stool to watch me changing the baby's diaper. Unfortunately, he also gets pretty mad when the other kids at daycare want to [GASP!] look at the baby, but that protective big brother roll is pretty cute for a 2 year old.
In this midst of our transition into a family of 4, Owen is taking full advantage of our worn our state, and managing to get a lot of "extras" that wouldn't normally come his way. I found myself stocking up on stickers and other easy craft supplies this week to help keep him occupied and I'm about ready to make a massive donation to PBS - Praise God for Sesame Street! He's also fully embraced the concept of DESSERT and is mysteriously unable to eat any of his dinner unless the cookie ultimatum ("no cookies unless you finish your meat") has been issued. Is bribery the answer? No. Is my toddler that hasn't gained a pound in 6 months finally consuming some calories. Yes. Enough said.

I am endlessly thankful for my amazing mommy friends right now. We have wonderful meals arriving at our house 2-3 times/week and I guess that is scheduled to continue well into December. Many of those meal deliveries also come with a short play date for Owen and adult conversation for me during the dreaded 4 PM witching hour. Glorious!

The latest Owen funny:
Mom: Owen, are you feeling a bit crabby?
Owen: No. Lobster.

Seattle Funnies

Owen pulled Scott up onto this bench outside Grandma's house and declared, "I want sit and watch world go by." And he did, for a good 15 minutes, just watching the activity on the street. Where does he get this stuff.

After most meals, Owen has a strange habit of wanting to physically run from one end of the house to the other. Maybe it's the need to burn the energy built up after sitting for a whole 8 minutes? At my parent's house, he ran laps, but at Jeff & Ethel's he had Tika as a partner for the wind sprints between the kitchen and TV room. "Run Tika! Run Tika! Chase Me! Tika Run!"

Owen quickly developed a great affinity for Amy's son, Sam - probably because he's such a big kid (6 months older). Sam loved showing off his favorite park, but also had some classic toddler reactions when playing with this new kid and found himself sitting in time out a couple times early in the morning. Amy was wonderfully consistent in her reactions, and we moved on with our morning - Owen following Sam's lead at every step of the way. And since that morning, Owen has told me at least once/day, "I want have a time out." Hmm...

Toddler Quote of the day

On our way to daycare on Monday:
O: Want Owen music mama.
A: You want to listen to your music Owen.
O: Yea. Mama listen man talking. No want man talking. Want Owen music.

We always say that Bend radio leaves much to be desired, but perhaps I'm listening to a bit too much NPR...

Getting Ready for #2

Things we are doing to prepare for baby #2:

Reading - we decided to get Owen used to the idea of a new baby by first reading books. My favorite so far has been "Cornelius P Mud, Are you Ready for Baby?" The others at the library haven't impressed me - mostly because they have full pages of words, and don't quite work with a 2 year old with a short attention span. I've gotten good recommendations for "We have a Baby" and "I'm a Big Brother" so maybe those will be in my next Amazon shipment.

Talking - Owen now says that mommy has a baby in her tummy. Good start.

Big Boy Bed - we bought a great little bed for Owen at Ikea and figured we'd build it for him in the fall, but he was really protesting going to sleep in the crib last week. Always wanted to sleep on the floor or in our bed. We thought we'd try setting up the bed and give him the choice of where to sleep for a month or two. Well, after helping us build the bed, he was so stoked that he took a nap in it that afternoon and hasn't looked back.


For the first few days, I don't think he knew he could climb out of the bed, but now Scott has deemed him the "Sleeping Ninga." When he decides to climb out of bed, he is SILENT. Our only warning in the morning is the clanging of his door handle, and last night he showed up in the kitchen (15 minutes after I put him to bed), grinning, and declared, "I have GOOD nap!" Scott and I were both fighting hard to keep the laughter at bay on that one. It looks like we have some bedtime battles ahead of us, but we've seen SuperNanny.


Baby Doll - Owen got to pick out his own baby doll last weekend. He was pretty excited, and knew just how to give the baby a bottle and put her down on the couch to rest. It made me realize that he's been around a TON of babies at daycare, so maybe we're in better shape than I thought.

Other Stuff - We're thinking about putting both kids in the same room. The more I read about the idea, the better it sounds, but we'll just have to see how it goes. I had high hopes of getting rid of the binky and tackling potty training before the baby arrives, but those things may not make the timeline.

What's missing from this list:
Anything relating to preparing ourselves for the baby. Oops. All those things that were all consuming in a first pregnancy have gone out the window this time around. I guess a 2-year old demands a bit more attention than a baby in the belly, though this baby is doing his best to make himself known though some wicked acid reflux for mom. (Ironic note of the day: I just got prescribed the same medication that Owen was on for 6 months as a baby.) We've talked a teensy bit about names and I made my list of "stuff" we need for this baby - 4 items - but I think it's a really good sign that my energy is focused on things other than stressing about having a newborn. We've done this before... and survived. There's something so comforting in that simple statement.

Tonight's Conversation

Owen has figured out that his mom and dad have names other than mom, mommy, mama, dad, or daddy, but he still has a bit of learning to do. Tonight's conversation:

O: I Owen Macsou.
A: That's right. What's my name?
O: Um.... Lissa!
A: What's daddy's name?
O: Sott!
A: That's right. Daddy's name is Scott Maxwell.
O: Nooo.
A: Yes, and mommy's name is Alissa Maxwell.
O: Nooo (very insistent). Daddy, mommy NOT Macsou. I Owen Macsou. Daddy only Sott.

We went around and around for quite a while on that, but Owen is insistent that he is the only Maxwell in the family. He's going to have a rude awakening when he figures out that there's a whole extended family (and a few zillion other people) claiming our common last name.