Bubble Boy

Owen's new interest is BUBBLES!! He looooves bubbles and goes absolutely nuts when we play with them outside. Although, he's getting into that independent stage where he wants to do everything himself, so he wants to 'blow' the bubbles....and all I can say about that is that I hope that bubble making liquid is non-toxic because i'm pretty sure he's swallowed/inhaled a decent amount! It's also fun for Mama to blow bubbles and get him all tired out running around to 'catch' the bubbles. I need to get my hands on one of those gigantic ones that make the huge bubbles - I could probably fit Owen inside one of those big bubbles! 

A new milestone we reached last week was moving Owen into a "big boy bed" which I have learned has a lot of perks. Now when he starts to act like a baby, or wants baby-ish things all you have to say is "oh no, we can't do that anymore remember? You're in a big boy bed now, so you have to be a big boy!" Amazingly, this technique has worked quite well. (For the record, the reason his bed is so big is because he had a "Lifetime Crib" which means that the crib converts from crib, to toddler bed, to full bed all for the price of one. You pay once and you have a bed for your child from birth to 18!)The downsides are him having LOTS of room to roam around in the darkness when he is supposed to be going to sleep. It's amazing the things he can do in such stealth-like silence! One time he was reading his little children's Bible when I stormed in and he looked at me so confidently and said "I'm reading God Mama" hahhaah It's almost like he knew this could NEVER get me in trouble - I'm gonna keep this idea in my back pocket as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. I'm pretty sure that it was Emma Castillo who once told me upon finding her out of her bed "God told me to". hahahahahah!! I could see Owen saying something like that. Another "Big Boy" event was the ditching of the pacifier. I had been dreading this day for a long time, but he was quite the champ about it! It helped that he had chewed a hole in it, so I just told him that it was broken and we couldn't use a pacifier anymore. He didn't even question it and only asked to see it for the first two nights, maybe to see if it had miraculously healed itself so he could use it again. However, upon finding that it in fact does NOT have miraculous healing powers, he gave up and hasn't even brought it up since! Phew!!! BIG sigh of relief - its strange that he almost seems to sleep better without it?? He's been sleeping in an HOUR later ever since we took the pacifier away - go figure!

A couple weeks ago I was fairly convinced that someone had switched out my child for a much much naughtier 'evil-twin-like' version of Owen. It was a FULL week of incredible naughtiness like I have never seen from him. I can say truthfully that the little, but firm discipline he received when he was younger has made him a very sweet tempered and obedient little boy 90% of the time. But this naughty week was ..... well - it was 100% off the charts. He was trying to test me and see what he could get away with - and well - as I always say, Mama always wins. I was very discouraged during the middle of it, but it always does me good to be reminded that this difficult time of being consistent with discipline and our standards of obedience will make for a much happier home as the years go by for both Owen and us. There are two really good quotes from Spurgeon that I look at frequently about this very thing, "Soft-hearted mothers rear soft-headed children; they hurt them for life because they are afraid of hurting them when they are young." and  "Those children that are doted upon by their parents are greatly to be pitied, for they are apt to be allowed to have their own way, and a youth's own way is sure to be the wrong one." I am pleased to say that Owen is back to his 90% sweet self (well all still have our rough days right?) and I'm glad that we buckled down and powered through that terrible week, the results are sweet.


If you are a regular visitor to this blog you know how much Owen loves to sing. Just last week he was introduced to Enya and more specifically the "Sail Away" song. He LOVES it and wants to sing it over and over. Here's a video....

Today was a big day for Owen because we went to Knotts Berry Farm for the first time! We went with Grandma, Hannah and Grandma Mecke and we had quite the day! Owen really loved all of the rides in Camp Snoopy and riding on the trains and the stagecoach with the horses. He even went on the log ride with us and loved it!! He got a little gun as a souvenir and was really having fun with it and didn't want to be separated with it for more than a few moments - made me glad that he will make it worth the money I spent on it!! I ended up using the money from the ticket towards a season pass that they have a deal on right now. That way since it's only about 10 minutes away it can be an easy outing for Owen and I if we need to get out of the house for a few hours. Disneyland is just such an ordeal from the parking lot, to the tram, to the park with a stroller, backpack and a 3yr old all by myself..... I don't have the energy! Knotts was so much easier for us, so we will try this out for a few years while Owen can still have fun with the little kid rides. It was a fun but exhausting day!!

We are going to try to survive the next two weeks of craziness with Sam's school finishing up and then summer will begin and our trip to Massachusetts will be here before you know it and Owen will get to go on his 2nd airplane ride! He doesn't know it but he went on a plane when he was about 6 months old. I think this time will be much more exciting for him! I'm not so optimistic about how exciting it will be for Mama and Daddy to be on a 5hr flight with a busy 3 yr old, this will take some creativity...better start brainstorming!

Owen's favorite book of the week: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel