Quatro

 

Four Years Ago, 

 

On Friday, October 13th,

 

at Wooddale Church,

 

I married my love,

 

and it was,

 

and is,

 

a wonderful thing.

Fall at the Orchard Continued

These are follow up pictures from the first blog post about the apple orchard.  I had too many cute ones!

                                                     Chase and Owen ride in the wagon

 

Chase fell over the pumpkins and was goofing around having a good time.

 

Chase was trying really hard to pick up the pumpkin, it was just a bit too heavy.

 

So, he called Owen over to help and the two of them heave hoed, but still couldn't lift the pumpkin.

 

Daddy and his boys

 

Owen had some fun falling over the pumpkins too, they thought this was so funny.

 

Mommy and stylin' Owen and cute Chase

 

Eating the first of 2 apples

 

Jeff, Chase and Owen ride the flatbed wagon.

 

We picked apples in the orchard, it was so much fun!

 

Owen decided he would pull Chase and he did such a good job!  He was strong.

 

Daddy decided to pull the boys back to the car, Owen was too pooped.

 

Owen takes a big bite of his apple

 

Chase tears off a bite of his apple

 

Owen watches the llama.  Actually I think he was just having fun climbing up and down the fence.

 

This is what Chase was doing as we were all walking to the car to leave, he wasn't quite ready.

Go Cyclones

We went to Ames for an ISU football game this past weekend (ISU is where I attended undergraduate school).  We had a great time tailgating (for 5 hours), seeing friends and family.  Chase and Owen had a lot of fun exploring with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.  They watched the band, high-fived the players and coach, got little footballs and saw Cy (the mascot).  We went into the new alumni building and Chase and Owen loved climbing the stairs and exploring the building.  Grandma caught Owen as he was beginning to pull the fire alarm.  Wouldn't that have been great?  I went back to the alumni building with Owen and he kept flapping his arms.  I couldn't figure out what he was doing until I saw Cy go by (who is a big bird).  He wanted to see Cy!  I picked him up, Cy came by and Owen gave him a big high five and Cy rubbed his head.  Owen had the most priceless expression on his face, it was a mix of excitement, pride, happiness and embarrassment.  Maybe a better word would be awe.  He smiled and smiled.  We spent the night with my best friend, Lindzy, and her family.  They moved back from VA to the Des Moines area.  It was great to catch up with her.

Sunday we were on central campus looking at the beautiful trees, the campanile, and buildings.  We climbed the steps of Beardshear, which is a big building.  As we were climbing Owen looked at me and flapped his arms again.  He was remembering that yesterday when we climbed the stairs he saw Cy.  So cute.    We then went to brunch with my parents and the boys hunted for pumpkins with Grandma.  It was a fun trip.

                                              Jeff and Chase

 

Grandpa and Chase.  Yes, my dad is wearing a chicken hat-actually it's Cy.

 

Owen sits all by himself.

 

Chase is interested in the beer cans-oh no!

 

Grandpa takes Owen to meet his friends.

 

Owen did pretty good at the tailgate, he only had 1 melt down.

 

Chase sat right down and ate some lunch in his cute ISU football outfit.

 

Owen eats some food, too, but mostly just ate the frosting off the cake.

 

Before I knew it Owen was sitting in a laundry basket under the table, Chase joined soon and Ela crawled under to talk to the boys.

                              Mommy with an uncooperative Owen

 

Grandma and Chase

 

Owen decided to dump a bunch of Cheetos on the ground. He then proceded to eat them off the ground with Kate, my friend Raneen's daughter.  Ahhh, what to do?

 

Yum yum, eat up Owen!

Words

Chase and Owen have been picking up more and more words lately-especially Chase.  It's been fun to hear given the fact their language skills are a bit behind. 

Wednesday morning I asked Chase to give Owen a pair of socks.  As he ran over to Owen with the socks in outstretched hand I heard him yelling, "Owie, Owie, Owie".  I stopped in my tracks and just smiled and listened. That was the first time he had called him by his name.  At daycare they call Owen, "Owie O, O".  I call him Owie sometimes at home.

Owen calls Chase "Da" or "Da Da" so we know who he is talking about when he says that.

They've also picked up on Nana and Papapa.  Nana is Grandma Sandy and Papapa is Grandpa Jim.  And it's not just Papa, it's Papapa.  Yesterday I told the boys Nana was coming over and they looked at me, gave me the questioning arm motion and said, "Papapa?"  It was so cute.

For me, a speech-language pathologist, this part of development is really exciting and important. I've been waiting for words and communication and to finally hear them using words is thrilling.  I thank God each night for the new words.

We've been dealing with a lot of frustration and tantrums lately and I think a lot of it is frustration with their lack of communication skills.  I hope with the development of language some of this will decrease.  We'll see.

All spring and summer Chase was the "difficult" child of the two.  He had to be held all the time or whined right by my side.  Now the rolls have switched, as they seem to do about every 6 months.  Chase is easy going and Owen is the "difficult" one.  He throws tantrum after tantrum after tantrum.  It's been quite wearing on us, and him, for that matter.  We are loving him through the struggles and are trying to ease his frustration with not getting his way, but it's really hard.

A Year Makes a Difference

We took our annual trip to the Deerdorf Orchard on September 26th.  It was a beautiful day, of course, and I was so happy to be there.  I love this family tradition.  What a difference a year makes in their skills at the orchard! 

This year the boys stood on the fence with the big kids and looked at the llama.

This is the picture of them at the fence last year!  How hairless and chubby!  Owen is smiling.

                                          Chasey looks up at Daddy after seeing the goats.

Chase pets the goat, which he loved.

This is Chase last year at the Orchard!  So cute!

Owen peeks around Chase to see what the llama is doing.

Chase smiles big for his picture with the pumpkin.

Owen is ready to hop over the pumpkin

This is last years picture in the wagon.  Only Owen was walking at that point.  My what a difference a year makes!

So big!  2009 with the pumpkins.  Look at those chubby arms!

Chase takes a big bite of his apple last year.

Another 2009 picture of the little tots.

More to come.  . . .