Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Owen's Birthday 2.0

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Owen's turning 2 has been a lot easier on me than his turning 1 last year was. Maybe it's because Owen's been saying "Happy Birthday Owen" for the past month and so the shock of his turning 2 has worn off. Or it could be I've just gotten used to the idea since I stopped giving his age in months around March (19 months just sounds weird) and started responding to inquiries about his age, "he'll be 2 in August." But probably the reason this birthday hasn't inspired the tears that last year's did is that Owen really hasn't been a baby for a while, and the fact that he's so excited for it to be his birthday makes feeling sad about it seem a bit silly.

Anyway, it's been a big year with a lot of ups and some pretty big downs. Through it all we've learned the following lessons:
  1. "No" sometimes means "maybe”.
  2. Bath time is infinitely more fun with bubbles, crayons and swim moves.
  3. Never tell your child which Sesame Street character is on his diaper. Because while his preference ordering might very well be Ernie Cookie Monster Elmo, this only holds true if you haven't just put an Elmo diaper on him, in which case the ordering is reversed and tears are shed.
  4. Saying "bye-bye" to an object beforehand makes it much easier when that object is gone. Saying "bye-bye" to people? Not so much.
  5. Doggies are good in theory. In practice, the jury is still out.
  6. Do not utter the words "cookie" or "ice cream" unless you are prepared to back them up.
  7. Sitting on the potty is not the same thing as going potty.
  8. It is much easier to put home videos on a loop then to hit "play" every few minutes at your child's bidding.
  9. Pools, regardless of size and location, are humankind's greatest invention.
  10. Babies are cute, but toddlers are fun.

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