The Bowers

Again, I have been so bad about blogging! This post will be FULL of pictures, of some our favorite people! Tim, Mariah and Isaac came to visit us almost a month ago, actually it was a month ago! We had so much fun. We love hanging out with them. We got to see the little boys interact in good ways and bad ways =) It made me miss them and wish that we could live near by and have our boys grow together physically, and not so much through skype-although so grateful for skype! I love how Mariah challenges me. She is such a blessing in my life and her creativity blows my mind. Whether it's knitting, painting, cooking or as you can see taking pictures. She has a gift. I love how when we are all together Joe laughs SO much. He and Tim get along well, they know each other and comfortable with one another. It was super fun having them here and we appreciate them making the trip with a two year old. It was even more fun having them here when we found we were pregnant again!

Isaac and Owen watching Nemo. Isaac was not very happy at times =(

 My beautiful boy!

 LOVE

 just enjoying some ice cream on a very hot sticky day!

 I love this little man

 Me and Mariah

 No more monkies jumping on the bed....

SCHOOL!

I cannot believe it's taken me this long to write about Owen being in "school". It was a last minute decision that Joe and I made. We enrolled him into a Mother's Morning Out program that meets twice a week from 9:00-12:45. I didn't think I would have wanted to put Owen into anyhting like this or preschool until next fall, when he would be 3 1/2. But, after observing him daily and hearing how much he LOVES his friends I decided I would look into my options. I was only wanting something that he would only be away from me one day a week, and I had a very hard time finding something like that due to his age (they tend to have more options for younger kids that way) and I wanted something that had some kind of structure. A couple places I went to observe were basically babysitting, that included the kids just running a muck and having tons of free play. That may be good for some parents, it's just not what Joe and I were looking for. A few friends recommended a Baptist church that is not too far from our home. They knew what I was looking for, and they thought I'd be happy with this program. The only bad thing is it was 2 days a week. The idea of Owen being away from me that much during the week was hard to think about. I checked out the program and loved it! It was a clean place, with a lot of kids in the program ages ranging from babies to 4 year olds. Owen's class was having story time when I came to check it out and it was so cool to see all these little one's sitting in chairs listening to the teachers. His teachers were/are so very kind! THEY HAVE STRUCTURE! They have some free play, the do a craft every day they meet and he brings them home to me! They play outside when the weather is good, they do story time and music time...it's a good fit for us. Owen more than LOVES it. He talks about his friends Jack and Miles all the time. He talks about his sweet teachers Miss Erin and Miss Dolores. He is constantly saying "tomorrow, I go to SCHOOL!" (we made a calendar the other day that helps him remember when he goes to school, when daddy's home on Fridays and when we go to church) I have had an adjustment of not knowing exactly what I do on those days he's away from me. Some days I clean. Some days I do my grocery shopping. Some days I meet friends for coffee or breakfast. Some days I read...It's been good for all of us all the way around. I know Owen needed something like this. He is such a social kid and giving him an opportunity to socialize with other kids and taking instructions from other adults other than me or Joe has been so good!

OTB

Owen. Today was a day that "required" and "emergency" Starbucks run once Joe got home from work, which by the way he worked late on a side project to make some extra cash, so it made day extra long. Owen spent the day in underwear. He did so good!! He stayed dry all day until about 5:00ish when he was in a time out and peed on my stairs! I would consider that pretty great since he was in underwear since 7:30AM. He still refuses to poop in the toilet. I thought he was going to do it earlier in the day, I sat him on the potty and even brought my laptop in the bathroom and let him watch a fun show, hoping he would do his business with a little bit of distraction. But, no luck. He decided to save that for when I went on my Starbucks run, on daddy's watch. Not only is potty training exhausting on any normal day, but I'm pregnant and tired. On top of that I swear the kid was so hyper today, and I had repeat many instructions over and over-resulting into lots of time outs and spanks. We decided to bite the bullet and do the whole PT thing because Saturday morning Owen was watching a show and I was in the kitchen doing dishes and he started yelling "I go potty, mommy! No diaper" and was taking his diaper off. We went more than half of the weekend in underwear and he did great! So, I'm down to like 10 diapers. I have told myself no more. When they are gone, their gone...Unfortunatley I will be buying pull ups as his school desires him to wear those until he is further along in the process.

So is the life of a mom with a toddler!

Baby baby

Yesterday I had another doctors appointment. This appointment was a fun one, I got an ultrasound and got to see our LITTLE one! The appointments purpose was ensure visibility of the baby, confirm a due date, and for me to meet with the OB nurse. It took a second for the ultrasound tech to find the baby, but he or she is there and seems to developing great! She measured the baby and I am measuring at 8 weeks and 4 days. She gave me a due date of April 18, 2011. Same day as Papa's birthday and Papa and Gramma's anniversary! It was just as amazing to see this little one on the screen as it was with Owen. It blows my mind how God knits us all together in the womb. It's mind blowing all the technology we have today that allows us to see babies that are this tiny. The tech said the babies heart had a good healthy heart beat, which I got to hear and see on the screen. She gave me a little fun facts like I must ovulated on the left ovary and I have a healthy pregnancy cyst that puts out progesterone and other good stuff that helps the baby grow. Apparently the cyst will go away on it's own after the first trimester. It was comforting to see and hear the baby's sweet heartbeat. I was so happy to know that the baby is developing just as it should be.

I liked my OB nurse. She was very nice and very helpful. Since, I have been so sick with morning sickness she told me to call if in the future I am just miserable or vomit more than 3 times in a day. She said they could call in a safe anti nausea medication that would help (something I really wish I had done last week when I threw up about 7 times in a 6 hour period) But, thank God for a really great week this week. It was a really good appointment. The only thing that would make it better would be if Joe could have come. He was working a race for extra money for our family vacation coming up, and was sad to miss it. He was very anxious, sending me text messages, wanting to know what the official due was and how the baby was doing. We are looking forward to our next appointment in 4 weeks when we get another ultrasound, and the baby will be bigger and he will be with me.

Fun and exciting stuff. I can't wait to meet this little person and welcome he or she into this family that already loves them so much!