Happy Birthday Tatum!

Today Tatum turned three years old. I know I've said this before, but I can hardly believe how fast the past three years have gone by! I definitely get a little sad looking at pictures of her from just last year. She has changed so much!

Tatum is expressive, animated and spirited. This girl has got a lot of spunk! Not often do you see her in a "ho-hum" sort of mood. She is either really happy or really angry, frustrated, hurt (she is sure to let me know which it is), etc. Tatum is also our social butterfly. She has no problems making friends or starting a conversation no matter where we go...grocery store, park, museum. I love this about her and am fascinated because it is the complete opposite of how I was as a child. Tatum, increasingly wants to try and do everything by herself, which can lead to some serious frustration. This goes hand in hand with her stubborn streak...I think she gets that from her Dad.

We celebrated her birthday on Saturday at the Marysville Skate Inn with some of her friends and family. Tatum had a great time...she loves to roller skate!!

Sunshine...Hooray!

Lately, we try and soak up the sun when we can! In the first picture, Tatum (according to her) is playing leap frog with Owen. Bring on the sun...we are ready for spring!

Buddies

The older Owen gets, the more I see him interacting with his big sister, and I love it! Tonight while upstairs trying to get some dinner ready, I suddenly realized I hadn't heard a peep from the kids in a while. Panicking (because I'm assuming they are up to no good), I head for the stairs. To my pleasant surprise I found them wrapped in a blanket watching a DVD. Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but Tatum is completely capable of putting on a DVD all by herself.

I absolutely love that they are starting to play together now, and for the most part enjoy each other's company. I hope as they grow they continue to be good buddies!

Tiny Tot Roller Skating

Scott and I took the kids to the Marysville Skate Inn today to check out the facility prior to committing to have Tatum's third birthday party there. We had a blast! I'm just sorry we didn't discover the Skate Inn sooner. We will definitely be adding this place to our list of indoor outings. The tiny tot skate session is held weekly for kids 6 and under and you can even roller skate with a stroller if you want. They have the disco balls spinning and the kid's music rockin'! Tatum skated the entire hour only wanting to hold our hands for about the first five minutes. We'll definitely look forward to tiny tot skating in the future!

Teddy Study Appointment

Today the kids and I headed down to Seattle to take Owen to his 12 month Teddy appointment. Teddy is an acronym for "The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young". The study is being conducted to discover the causes of type 1 diabetes (T1D). While still in the hospital with Owen, we agreed to a genetic test (for the Teddy Study) for high risk genes associated with T1D. We were told that only those babies with high risk genes (3.3% of infants) would be asked to continue in the study. Owen tested positive for these genes. Typically T1D affects 1 in 300 children in the US by age 15. Owen's risk is 3 in 100.

We are excited to be participating in this study! Hopefully Owen's participation will someday help to find the causes of juvenile T1D. If you are interested in learning more about this study, you can visit http://www.teddystudy.org/.

After our appointment we don't go home without making a little detour to U-Village to grab a coffee and cocoa, do a little shopping, and play on the toys too of course!

Tea with Tatum

Lately, Tatum and I have been enjoying the almost daily ritual of a before nap "tea party" as Tatum likes to call it. Owen is napping during this time, so it's a great time for us to chat and wind down before her afternoon rest. I think her favorite part about having tea is drinking from her bunny mug and getting to stir in the honey all by herself!

Watch Out! Here comes Owen

I still wouldn't consider him walking, but here he is taking a few steps with one of his favorite toys. Owen loves to bang on things with anything resembling a stick. Right before taking this picture last night, Owen was whacking poor Porter with the wooden spoon and this wasn't the first time either. Recently, Owen has taken a new liking to Porter and often hugs her, climbs on her, pats her head, etc. So, I believe the stick beating was another way of showing his affection toward his new buddy. I also must mention that Porter is an excellent sport about the whole thing. She puts up with Owen's various forms of affection, however, not without a sad look on her face.

Potty Training: 2 Week Update

Today marks our second full week of potty training and I can thankfully say we are making some headway! After almost four days of accident after accident, lots of laundry, and constant reminders to use the potty we (unintentionally) discovered something that worked. If Tatum wore nothing from the waist down she would use the toilet...without us even asking!!! We left her like this for three days and her progress continued. Since then, we've gone back to underpants and she's continued to do fairly well. Yesterday, we went the entire day with no accidents!!. Pooping is a whole different story...she's just not there yet. I guess for Tatum, this is a work in progress. We'll get there!

Happy Birthday Owen!

Owen officially turned one this morning at 8:48 am. He's on the brink of walking. Today, he took the most steps we've seen yet (about 6 or 7). He desperately wants to keep up with Sis; I have a feeling it won't be too long. He always has a lot to say, and likes to speak at a very loud volume. However, we don't understand about 99% of it. If you notice, in several of the pictures I've posted of Owen, his mouth is always open. This is because he is always making noise, especially when he is playing. You can also probably tell from the pictures, that our little guy (not really little) is a healthy eater. He will eat just about anything we put on his high-chair tray and out-eats his sister most every meal.

Owen, for the most part is a very even-tempered (I may change my mind about this one after his first tantrum), laid-back, happy little boy. I love watching his personality emerge. We learn more about him every day. Today we had a quiet day at home because our little Mister came down with a cold yesterday. Here's a picture of Owen pushing around one of his new birthday presents, and enjoying a new book with sis.

Where is Spring?

As soon as I saw the snow start to fall this afternoon, I had to go out and snap a picture. Snow fall at the end of March is just something we don't see too often. I'm never one to complain about the snow, but I do have to admit I am ready for Spring and a little sunshine. My poor flowers aren't too happy about the snow either!