Friday, April 11, 2008

Our 2.5-Year Old


Rowan is now 2.5, and we're amazed daily by the things he's doing and saying. It's so much fun to see the person he's becoming. We've reached this wonderful place where he's not just our little boy, but also really cool person to talk to and hang out with. I love him so much!

Here's just a little peek at what he's up to.


Rowan's Favorites

Color: RED!

Food: Who knows...he's a bit of a picky eater. The usual standbys are organic chicken/beef hot dogs, scrambled eggs, homemade French toast, grilled cheese (and whatever other combination of grain/cheese goodness I can come up with). I'm trying, I really am! He also loves fruits like strawberries (especially with cream), apples, grapes and oranges.

Restaurant: Chipotle! He loves spicy chicken and bean burritos or quesadillas.

TV Show: Curious George, followed fairly closely by Word World.

Activity: Painting and going for walks. This kid could walk for miles, I swear. When it's nice outside, we walk to Como Park Zoo, the playground, to the coffee shop and back home again with no problems. He generally dislikes strollers and grocery store carts. "Big boys don't need carts, mama!"

Learning Every Day
Rowan is very much a talker. It usually takes him a bit to warm up to strangers, but once he's talking, you can't stop him. I especially love listening to him play and pretend when he thinks no one is watching. He comes up with such interesting scenarios. "Watch out guys! We've got to be careful when we look for the lion! Ready...MARCH! Oh no!"

He recognizes several letters and numbers, and can sing his ABCs and count to at least twenty. He can even spell his name, which we think he learned to do at day care. His day-care providers also taught him how to count in Spanish and say some words in Spanish.

Rowan knows all of his colors (except, of course, for more obscure colors like turquoise or coral).
AND -- the coolest thing of all -- he can find several countries on our globe. Kyle and Rowan started identifying countries on the globe after Rowan saw the movie Madagascar. "Where's Madagascar, daddy? Where's Antarctica?" He can now find Madagascar, Antarctica, Russia, Kenya and Australia. He can even find the little star in Minnesota identifying St. Paul.

Becoming a Big Boy
Rowan is all about telling us he's a big boy now -- except when he's sad. Then he tells us he's still a "baby big boy," and needs us to cuddle him and hold him. So sweet!

Random Funny Story
(This scene takes place in the car after Kyle picked Rowan up from day care.)
Kyle: Do you want to hear some music.
Rowan: Yeah, I want to hear "wash your car."
Kyle: Oh, that CD isn't in the CD player. Mama must have taken that out.
Rowan: My mama always takes that CD out! What the heck? How can we stop her?
Kyle: I don't know.
Rowan: Maybe we could have a pillow fight.
Kyle: Yeah, maybe a pillow fight.
Rowan: I want to give you a high five daddy!

I'M SO OUTNUMBERED!
-Angie

Monday, March 24, 2008

Interview With a 2.5-Year-Old

Rowan, what's your favorite thing to do?
"Eat. And painting. Write down painting, Mommy."

What's your favorite color?
"Um...red. Can you write red, mommy? I want some cookies! This picture has cookies on it."


What's your favorite food?
"Cookies. They're like fruit, but a good snack."


What's your favorite place to go?
"To Tre and Melissa's [Rowan's day-care provider]. Sometimes I don't feel like going there, though. Are you taking me there now? I want to eat!"


What's your favorite animal?
"Red birds. Because they're my favorite color. And squirrels. We had a squirrel in our basement and my daddy take him to the park. He took him to the park. He doesn't belong in our basement. We don't want him to go in there. He can puke."


What makes people laugh?
"Goofy things. Like sissy tissy dong ding dong."


What's the best thing about daddy?
"He's big."


What's the best thing about mommy?
"You're cute. I'm gonna give you a hug. And a kiss."


What's the best thing about grandmas and grandpas?
"Their cake. They have cake for us. And emmy ems [M&Ms]."


What's your favorite TV show?
"Georgie [Curious George]. Because he's not my favorite color."

"No more questions!"

Sunday, March 02, 2008

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?!?!

Oh boy, our longest bloggie break ever! How to explain? Well, we moved, which of course was a big transition (one that we're still going through). Life has been just so busy!! Anyway, here are some recent pics of our sweetie boy, Rowan.

He's so much fun now and soooo smart! He asks "why" constantly! Kyle asked him why he asks why so much and Rowan said, "Because I don't always know the words, Daddy!"

Rowan likes our new house and enjoys playing in his room. We painted one wall in his room red because he said that's his favorite color (and has been since he turned 2). We bought him a little twin bed with red plaid bedding. We're still setting everything up, but we'll have pictures soon.

Oh, one cute story about our house. One day Rowan asked us what kind of house our house is. We didn't really know what he meant, so Kyle decided to explain to him it was a tudor house (you know, tudor style). Rowan replied with, "That's disgusting! And stinky!" He thought Kyle meant that our house "tooted." The mind of a two-year old!

More stories and pictures to come! Sorry it's been so long!







Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Rowan Sings Jingle Bells



Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Family Tradition

My Grandma and Grandpa Smith always gave us Advent calendars at Christmas time. We loved opening the doors each day and enjoying our chocolate treat! This year, my mom carried on the tradition with Rowan and Maddox. Rowan looks forward to it every day!





THANK YOU GRANDMA!



Crafty Kid

Rowan loves to do art projects! He's actually pretty patient for a two-year-old. He goes to day care with a wonderful family three mornings a week, where he does all kinds of fun projects. Here he is modeling his turkey day crown. He's so proud to show me all of his creations!

Nisswa...City of Lights

After Thanksgiving, we headed up to my parents' cabin and enjoyed the Christmas festival in Nisswa. Rowan got to see Santa Claus. He was super excited! When Santa gave Rowan a candy cane, he said, "Look, Mama, I got a trick-or-treat!"




Thursday, November 01, 2007

Happy Halloween

Our little monkey had a fabulous time yesterday on his THIRD Halloween! (How crazy is that?) He loved saying "Happy Halloween" to people all day. He was a little shy when trick-or-treating, but he had a great time! We did the trick-or-treat parade in downtown Cannon Falls and then stopped by our relatives' homes in the area. After our first stop, I told Rowan I'd sit in the back and help him eat some of his candy. He looked so excited and said, "That's so nice, mama!" What a sweetie!







Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Rowan Turns 2!

I can't believe my little baby is 2! He seems so grown up now, talking and singing and playing with big boy toys. Where did my little baby go??

We had a great party for Rowan at Grandma "Chelle" and Bumpa Bob's house.
Rowan had a blast playing with Scott until the guests arrived.


We learned our lesson last year -- no white fluffly cake for Rowan (yuck!). This kid wants nothing but chocolate! I made two flourless chocolate tortes, decorated them with powdered sugar and served them with fresh whipped cream and strawberries. My mom also made apple crisp for the non chocolate lovers. Both options were delicious (I should know, I had one of each;-).


Rowan liked to dip his fingers in the powdered sugar.


"That's good, mama!"


When we sang happy birthday, Rowan positively beamed! He was so proud to have everyone he loved around him for his special day.


After he blew out the candles on his big cake, we sang again so he could blow out the candles on his individual slice (we really just wanted another excuse to sing happy birthday and see that smile).


There's that proud little smirk!


Now...time to eat!
All hopped up on chocolate!


The first present Rowan opened was a Thomas book. He was so excited that he sat down to read it right away. When I said he had more presents to open, he jumped up and exclaimed, "MORE BOOKS!?!?" It was so fun to watch him enjoy opening his presents this year!


We bought Rowan a wooden train set. He's been playing with it every day since!


And we just had to get a picture of Rowan with his great grandparents...


...and grandparents!

It was an AWESOME DAY! Thanks to everyone for making it so special!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Friday, September 07, 2007

Minnehaha Falls

What can I say? Long time, no blog! We've been so busy with selling and moving and settling into our apartment that we just needed a bloggie break. But now we're back!

We visited Minnehaha Falls over Labor Day weekend. Rowan had a blast running on the trails and walking down all of the steps to get to the falls. Here's a sample of a conversation between Rowan and mama:

Rowan: "Rowan splash in the waterfall, mama?"
Me: "No, Rowan, we can just look at the waterfall."
Rowan: "Rowan swim in the waterfall, mama?"
Me: "No, Rowan, we just look at the waterfall."
Rowan: "Rowan play toys in the waterfall, mama?"
Me: "No, Rowan, it's just for looking at."
Rowan: "Okay."

He tends to narrate his life in the third person. As we were crusing along the trails, Rowan started to get tired. Here's how he narrated his journey:

"Rowan running mama! Running fast! Catch up to Daddy!
Now Rowan walking. Rowan going slow. Too tired.
Rowan sit down. On the ground. On the dirt.
Rowan hold you, mama?"

He's such a funny little guy!



Friday, June 29, 2007

LOTS OF POSTS

I've been a bad blogger, but there are lots of posts below to make up for lost time. I'll try to be better about it from now on!

Rowan and Caleb

Heidi was babysitting for her coworker Nichole earlier this week. Rowan and I stopped by and Rowan had so much fun playing with Nicole's son, Caleb (2.5 years). It was fun to watch Rowan have so much fun with another little boy his size. Cute!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Celebration Dinner

We sold our house! The inspection is done and everything is signed, so we celebrated with pizza and ice cream at our favorite places in St. Paul.

Rowan loves to sprinkle extra parmesan on his pizza. He's so meticulous about it!

And he love LOVES having his own baby cone with chocolate ice cream. He was a sticky chocolatey mess in no time!

Splashing at the Beach

Rowan likes splashing at the beach even more this year than the last. His favorite thing to do is run into the water from the beach, holding mommy and daddy's hands. He also loves throwing sand, but we're not encouraging that activity!


Nice to Have Family Around!

We've had lots of help from family getting our house ready for the market! It's hard doing projects with a toddler around, so keeping little Ro occupied has been priority number one!

Rowan, Grandma Michelle, Grandpa Rob and Uncle Jason poolside (Rowan threw Grandma's sandals in the pool!).


Grandma Connie with Rowan after his bath.

Grandpa Kevin and Uncle Scott were also a huge help to us, but we were so busy working we didn't snap any more pics! Thankfully, our house is now sold and our work here is done. Oh wait...now we have to pack and move!

Whew! I Needed That!

Rowan was long over due for a haircut this month. He was starting to look a little rough!

So we visited Great Auntie "Nette" for a trim. Rowan sat very nicely in the chair and didn't make a fuss. He actually looked like he was going to fall asleep from all of the combing and primping.
In the end, he had a cute little summer 'do and no more bangs in his eyes!

Slimey Comes to Town

Rowan found an inch worm the other day and became absolutely ecstatic, pointing and shouting, "Slimey! Slimey!" Slimey is the little worm on Sesame Street. Rowan had a blast watching "Slimey" crawl around on his arm. Then we finally convinced him that it was time for Slimey to go back home, so we put the little worm out on the deck. Priceless!

Pool Fun!

Rowan has been enjoying his little pool this summer. He loves to splash and say, "Raining! Raining!"


Any time he's outside and hears a plane, he immediately points to the sky and says "Airplane! Airplane! Up in da sky!"

It's oh so fun to watch little ones play and have a good time! I'll add a video to this post once it finishes uploading. Check back for that soon!