Brains and Brawn

So I of course don't want to pigeonhole my children and this post is more done to note two amazing skills by my boys, but I do have to say that Owen has always been more intelligent and not quite as active. He waited until 10 months to crawl and just recently started to jump, but when he was 18 months old he could recite the whole alphabet and by 2 years old he could name all the common shapes and colors. Whereas Aiden (not much to judge on being he's only 6 months old) still has no interest in books and really does not stay and play with something, but he rolled at 7 weeks and army crawled at 5 months.

Well for the past couple weeks Owen has been doing math problems. For a very long time we have always played the game at dinner of "You have 6 strawberries, eat one and you have how many?" This was a way for us to get him to eat because he loves to count. He would always answer and keep going until none. Well we noticed that when he plays he adds items so Omer started to try simple (all under 5) math problems for him to complete. He taught him to count the problem on his fingers. He gets them right about 90% of the time and loves to do them. He can also subtract and likes to talk about how if that one item comes back he'll have the whole amount again.

Listening to the Math Problem

Full Attention

Counting the Problem on his Fingers

The Excited Answer

As for Aiden, he was playing with me in the bathroom while I cleaned out the cabinets and he was sitting next to the bath tub with some toys when I turn around and he was standing. What!!! I couldn't believe but he gladly did it again and was very proud of himself. He never seems to amaze us with his strength and determination. The little boy is very strong and I will not be shocked if he walks before he's one.

Aiden Sitting

Got to His Knees

Pulling Up

Standing!!

Ducky Bath

About a month ago Aiden was moved from the baby tub to the ducky tub. Love this tub and so does he. I likes to sit the whole time and play with his toys or splash the water.

Watching the Tub be Filled

Bathtime Happiness

Adorable Wet Baby

Playing with his Ducky

Aiden also likes to comb the bump on the tub.

Butterflies

One of Owen's birthday presents from us was a butterfly habitat. It included a net cage for them and then the caterpillars come in little cups with food for them. Owen loved watching the caterpillars eat and grow bigger. Then they all moved to the top and built the chrysalis. This was also a hit with Owen. He would check on them every day. Once they all had built their chrysalis we moved them from cup to the net. Where they all slowly hatched into butterflies. Owen really loved this part. He'd go over and count and announce if another one had hatched. We also got to feed them. We cut fresh flowers and put sugar water on them and placed them on the bottom. Feeding them was Owen's job and he really enjoyed squirting the water on the flowers every day. He also loved talking about how the butterflies were opening and closing their wings and learning how to fly. Once all had hatched and were strong enough to fly we let them all out. It was a lot of fun watching Owen chase them, look at them and help them out of the net. He was very gentle. We will definitely do another science project like this.

Hanging Caterpillars

Hanging Chrysalids

Prepping Flowers

Feeding Butterflies

Baby Butterflies

Unzipping the Net to Let them Free

Owen waiting for them to fly

"There goes one!"

Looking Closely at the Butterfly

Painted Lady

Back to Wait For More

Chasing Butterflies

Butterfly Fun

Found Him!

Trying to Help Them Fly
(We were gently tapping the net, some just did not want to leave.)

Happy in the Net

Butterfly on Tree

There was one that just did not want to leave. Owen picked a flower and put it in the bottom of the net in hopes to catch him. Shockingly it worked. The butterfly climbed on the flower and then Daddy and Owen carefully pulled it out of the net. The butterfly happily stayed on the flower for a long time and Owen held the flower so steadily and watched the butterfly. Can't explain how excited he was that he got to hold one.

Boy and his Butterfly

What a Sweet Moment

"Butterfly on my Flower!"

Crushed Spirit

So the pool is so much fun when we have friends with us but when we have gone alone there always seems to be a sad moment. Owen is happy to play with me but when there are a lot of kids his age he'd really rather play with them. However the majority of the time the other kid does not want to play. He will go up to the kid and ask "Hi I'm Owen, would you like to play." And either the kid ignores him, says no, or once spit in his face. WTF? This makes my blood boil and also makes me want to cry for him. His face sags and then I swoop in and tell him I will always play with him. I am not going to ignore all the wonderful kids that do play with him there and they have a wonderful time, just more often they don't. So usually we try to go with a friend so we can guarantee some fun times.

So today we went to the pool on our own. It was crowded but while we were in the big pool Owen did not look for one other kid to play with. Never tried. This is not like him. He always tries to find a kid to play with and is not picky, he will play with anyone who is willing. So we all three played together and had a lot of fun. Then he decided he wanted to go to the kiddie pool. So there was a couple older boys there that were just not that nice, strike one. Then there were three kids that only spoke Spanish so they didn't understand him, strike two. Then there was a 2 year old boy that was just not being that nice either, you know the common stole a toy from kid, strike three. Not to say my kid is an angel but man he was being very sweet and social and really trying. I kept trying to play with him but come on he wants other kids to play with.

So I have figured out that when Owen is being ignored by other kids he acts out. This can include screaming or roaring, getting in there way, squirting them with a water toy, etc. He has told us that he acts bad to get another kids attention before. Well I had to pull him out and take the squirt toy away and talk to him how some kids just don't want to play and others are just not nice. He went back in and another boy his age came in and had a shark. The boy dropped it and Owen found it and showed me. This is when my heart is crushed....So I tell him maybe he should get his barracuda and see if he wants to swim together. Owen looks at me with his sweet face and says "The boy will say no Mommy." OMG! How can a three year olds spirit already be crushed. I was really sad for him. I told him he should try and if the boy does not want to then it was that boys lost. Owen asked and YAY the boy and him played the rest of the time and had a lot of fun. Score!

When becoming a parent there are always things that come up that you never really thought you'd have to teach. And these social disappointments has definitely been one for me. Owen is a pretty social little boy and really seems to be happy to play with most anyone. He is very polite and a pretty good sharer (not to say all the time, he of course like all can be a huge brat). So in these situations I just don't understand why others just don't want to play. But like I said, their lose. But as a mother I will be sad for my little guy every time he gets that disappointed face because a friend or another kid does not want to play.

Picture Perfect

I honestly always kind of laughed at all those portrait pictures but after seeing more and more of them and thinking how great they turn out I sucked it up and went to Portrait Innovations. I know, I take a ton of pictures of the boys but all candid, which are great but I have to admit the posed ones really turn out nice. Not going to go into some of my complaints of the place but overall the visit was okay. The pictures were awesome. Owen was very cooperative and a ham the whole time. Aiden was not into it until the end and gave some amazing smiles. Here is just a taste of some of my favorite shots. If you want any let me know, I have a ton! :) However a lot of these shots we did not have printed, there were a whole bunch to choose from.