Christmas fun.

We have had so much fun celebrating the Christmas season with Owen. We've made lots of wonderful memories and started some fun traditions.

"Walk with me Mommy".

Sweet words from my precious little man today...love little moments like this!

Owen's favorites.

Owen is a busy, busy boy meaning that I am one busy, busy momma.
I feel like the months of October, November, and now almost December have flown by with little time for me to share some of my favorite memories and things about our little Owen.

Now 23 months, Owen has definite favorite things...

The color green- He wants to wear only green clothes & has a clear preference for toys/objects that are green. He loves to say "My favorite color is green!"

Music- This boy loves music. About 2 months ago he began to sing. We love listening to his "singing voice" which is really just a deeper version of his talking voice. He has an amazing knack for picking up song lyrics. He & Chris listen to songs & watch music videos in the evening while I clean up dinner. They have quite the playlist...anything from classic rock, Irish folk songs, C is for Cookie, to Rocky Top. Right now Owen's favorite songs are "Holly Jolly Christmas" and "The Unicorn Song".

Reading- We must read for atleast an hour everyday. Our boy loves books! To be such a busy little guy, I'm amazed that he'll sit for 15-20 minutes at a time to listen to stories. Right now some of his favorite books are "Good Night, Good Night Construction Site", "All About Trucks", and "Frosty the Snowman".

Leaf blowers- Yes, leaf blowers. Owen is obsessed with them. He looks for leaf blowers when we're outside or riding in the car. He listens for leaf blowers when we're both inside & outside. He talks about leaf blowers constantly, and he pretends that empty wrapping paper tubes or toilet paper rolls are his leaf blowers.

Construction sites- I'm pretty sure we could spend a day at a construction site & Owen would be happy for a while. He loves to point out "dozers" & "diggers" and also knows about excavators, bucket trucks, cranes, and backhoes. I've definitely broadened my scope of construction equipment knowledge recently!

Hugs & kisses- For such a busy, busy boy, Owen still loves to snuggle and receive and give hugs and kisses. They're also lots of head bumps and fist bumps thrown in there too!

Loving watching our little man grow up!

Meeting Santa.

We took Owen to meet Santa Claus this past Saturday.
Although we don't push the Santa Claus thing, we did talk about Santa being such a nice man who likes to meet boys and girls. Owen talked about sitting in Santa's lap until just before it was his turn when he changed his mind.
I'm pretty sure you can see his lip quivering in the picture...no tears were actually cried, but we were close.

Owen did love the book he got from Santa and keeps talking about seeing Santa and getting a book.
He recovered quickly & agreed to pose for a couple of sweet pictures.

Little Bear.

Meet "Little Bear"...

Little Bear was the very first "baby" thing I bought after finding out we were pregnant with Owen. I traveled with Chris to Stockholm Sweden in June of 2012 for a chemistry conference where he had an opportunity to present some of his research. I was about 7 weeks pregnant. One day while Chris was busy at the conference, I took the bus to the world's first Ikea just outside of Stockholm. I spent much of the day perusing & dining on Swedish meatballs & ligonberry sauce...yum!

Although I spent hours there, I made only 2 purchases-a unique shaped coffee mug & this bear.

Fast forward months later...we found out that our little one was indeed & boy, moved, & began decorating Owen's nursery. I found a sweet little place for this little bear on a wall shelf. I propped him next to some wooden blocks & loved the way he looked there. 

When Owen was nearing a year old, I happened to take the little bear down for him to see & hold. There appeared to be no immediate connection until about six months ago. Chris & I had been calling him "Little Bear" & Owen adopted that name. Then Little Bear became an even better friend when Owen parted ways with his "binky" in September. Prior to that, Little Bear was mostly a friend to cuddle with for naps and at bedtime. Suddenly Little Bear was showing up everywhere. 

Fast forward again to this past Thursday...Owen & I ventured to Kohl's with our 30% off our total purchase coupon in hand in an effort to finish our Christmas shopping. Little Bear usually makes car trips with us but is not routinely allowed in stores. However, Owen was tired, mommy was tired, & he was not thrilled with the prospect of riding in the stroller without his bear friend. I caved & let Little Bear come along for the shopping trip. We had several things in various departments to scope out, so we covered a lot of territory before I realized that Little Bear was no where to be found. After retracing our steps multiple times, I proceeded to the Customer Service counter to report Little Bear missing. 

It is quite possible that the Kohl's Customer Service representative deemed me crazy as I described the missing bear as if he was my own child..."He's about 6 inches, tan color with brown eyes, a little blue & white striped jumper with a heart in the middle. He looks old & loved on." I jotted my name & number on on a piece of paper and nearly begged her to please help me find him. 

We returned to the car-Owen asking for Little Bear &  me feeling defeated & nearly in tears. At a loss, I prayed simply for God to help someone find Little Bear & return him to his sweet little rightful owner. 

I shared the sad news with Chris & knew we had to move on. After asking multiple times, I decided to tell Owen that Little Bear hard more shopping to do at Kohl's & we would hopefully be able to see him soon. Meanwhile, Chris was making plans to get a new bear here ASAP. Getting an "extra" bear had been on our to-do list for a while, but they're not available online at IKEA meaning we would have to make a trip to the store. The closest IKEA is in Atlanta, but there was simply not time at Thanksgiving to go. Chris talked to his sister who happened to be downtown that day. She was so kind to head to IKEA & get us some more bears. My sweet parents arranged to get the bears from my sister-in-law Friday before they made the trip here for an already planned visit. I was somewhat relieved to know that at least a "new" Little Bear was headed our way, but was still sad to know that it would never be that sweet little bear that I brought home from Stockholm.

At 10:15 p.m. Thursday evening, I got a call from a wonderfully excited Kohl's employee who told me that Little Bear had been found!!! To say that I was overjoyed would have been an understatement. It was in fact an answered prayer. 

We returned to Kohl's Friday morning to bring Little Bear back home. His sweet little owner was so elated to see his bear friend & this mommy is so thankful that Little Bear is back home. 

P.S. Little Bear now has another "bear friend" but he'll definitely never be the favorite and the "real" Little Bear will not be allowed to make any more shopping trips again!