Owen 21-month-old update

With Landon's birthday coming up, I thought it was about time to give an update on both our boys. Here are some fun facts about Owen right now:
- Owen's hair has bleached out this summer in the strong Vietnamese sunlight. It still has more of an auburn glint to it vs. Landon's, but it's pretty blonde.
- Asians think Owen is a girl. Without fail, regardless of his hair cut. They say his eyes are too pretty to be a boy. In China, they would just ask me, or point to Landon and use hand signals to ask if they were the same or if Owen was a girl. In Vietnam, they go straight to the diaper and either peek inside or feel for his penis. It would be surprising/shocking/unacceptable in the U.S., but it's just a cultural difference. They mean no harm, they are just curious here!
- Owen is having a vocabulary explosion! He labels everything and has started to put words together to make simple sentences and phrases. He still LOVES animals most of all, but is also interested in vehicles, excitedly pointing out every car, truck, bus, scooter, van or taxi that we see. Just in the last month or so, his words have become much more clear so I can understand most things. He used to call me "Bom" and nursing "Ma!Ma!Ma!" and now he says, "Mom!" for my name and "Mom Bilk" for nursing. Yeah, we're weaning him soon. Whenever we see a gray van, Owen says, "Dada's van!" because that's the color van Austin gets into in the mornings when he goes to work. Although his speech is pretty far behind where Landon's was at his age, it is still SO FUN to hear him talk. He has a pretty deep voice, but a lot of inflection and change in tone- especially when he's excited- so his little voice is so cute!
- This kid knows his colors, and can identify the letter "O". He can count at least to five. These things all came as a huge surprise to us because before he could not speak clearly enough for us to understand what he was saying! It was really creepy in China because randomly, he came up to me at a play place with two cans from the fake kitchen in his hands and said, "two bottles". He was 19 months old.
- Owen is labeling everything "big" and "baby". At our hotel, there is a little river with fish and a garden. We walk through it every morning after breakfast, and Owen labels everything "big" and "baby" (vs. big and little). He will go along saying, "big fish, baby fish! big rock, baby rock!" and on and on. He also refers to himself as a baby most of the time. He is getting so big that sometimes I forget, but Owen never forgets that he's the baby!
- Turtles are his favorite animal. I had no idea, until we went to Cuc Phuong National Park in Ninh Binh a few weeks ago. We went to a turtle and primate conservation center there. The primates were so cute, and there were even babies. Most of them were eating lunch when we visited- I was sure Owen would LOVE them. He was much more excited in the turtle conservation center. We saw some in tanks where we could watch them swim, and others from a land perspective. He was so excited, saying, "BIG TURTLE! BABY TURTLE!" the whole time. After seeing both conservation centers, I asked him which he liked better, monkeys or turtles. Without any hesitation, he said "Turtle!"
- Owen can run really fast. Usually not in the direction I want him to. He's really into extreme motor challenges and like to try to defy gravity by bouncing down steep hills and staying on his feet somehow. I'm sure someday he's going to face plant, but the toughest challenges he tries over and over because I think he thinks they are fun. . He is trying to jump with two feet, but is not quite able to yet. He's dabbling in climbing stairs independently on his feet, though. Where did my baby go!?
- Owen gives the best squeezy hugs. He has wide shoulders and wraps his little arms around my neck and squeezes tight. It's the best. Landon and Owen discovered that it's really fun to hug each other and walk around. They call it, "brotherly love" and they huge each other and walk all over the place. Sometimes they fall over, but they always have fun
- He has proven to Landon that he can be fun to play with, sometimes. When Landon is playing pretend games outside, he is OK with Owen playing along. For example, they like to pretend all the different rocks in the garden are different vehicles, and Landon is always the driver and Owen is the passenger. Owen follows Landon all over the garden sitting on rocks with him. Ah, it is nice when they play nicely together!
- Owen still makes horrible noises come out of his face. He shrieks when Landon takes away toys, does something he doesn't want to do, or hurts him. Poor Landon sometimes gets in trouble for not doing anything, but it is hard to tell when he is hurt physically and when he is just hurt emotionally. He shrieks when we put him in his bed awake, and when I try to put him into the stroller against his will. The funny thing is that he calms down very fast after these shrieking episodes, so if I can keep my ears from falling off for about a minute, we're golden.
- Learning to pray- Landon has been praying and participating more in family prayers, and Owen wants to follow suit. He now folds his arms and comes and squats next to us for family prayers, and even tried to say his own one day. I tried whispering some simple phrases in his ear, but he just whispered them back to me. It is adorable to see. Today, Landon tried to help Owen say a prayer during our hotel church nursery lesson. I got teary-eyed watching Landon gently whisper in Owen's ear, and Owen craning his neck and listening intently to the words his brother was trying to tell him. They both had their arms folded and it was the most precious thing ever. Don't worry, Landon also hit him on the head with a rock and a backpack full of toys today, so things aren't perfect all the time around here. (Landon had to release all of his rock collection back into nature, and lost his backpack full of toys for the day because of it).
- Back to Owen. He is still obsessed with everything animals. He has a stuffed hedgehog that Austin named Hedgie. Owen loves to carry around this very soft stuffed animal, which also happens to be a puppet. Owen asks for "edgehog" all the time, and sometimes when we're going out, we will take it away and then get them out the door only to realize that Owen has somehow managed to sneak him back into his arms. Bugs are very exciting for Owen, but he's has not grasped the concept of being gentle with them. He tries to help them, and ends up killing them... And then he's so sad.
- I am so grateful for this kid's ability to play independently, happily and quietly, for extended periods of time. If supplied with some toys- doesn't really matter what, but it has to be of his choosing- he will just play quietly. He will line up trucks, play dinosaurs with the plastic dinosaurs, or even build things with the magnet shapes. Things get sticky when Owen wants toys Landon is playing with, or vice versa. That's when the shrieking comes in. I feel bad sometimes because I feel like I spend a lot of time managing Landon's life and behavior, and Owen is just a happy guy along for the ride. I guess sometimes God blesses us with easier children to go along with our difficult ones.
- At our last pediatrician appointment, Owen failed the "cover, uncover" test. I've noticed something slightly off with his eyes. It is hard to explain, but sometimes, his eyes aren't pointing in exactly the same direction. Usually it is only for an instant, and then they are back to normal. So, he has an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist next month to see if he needs glasses or any other treatment to see correctly. He also tested borderline anemic, so we're trying to get him to eat beef, and supplement with a vitamin for now. Beef is really expensive here, but I've bought it a few times to try to get him to eat it. He usually eats his meat, but beef seems to not be his favorite, and it's hard to get him to eat it. I do not trust the leafy greens here in Vietnam, and I doubt Owen would eat them anyway, but I'm hoping the vitamin will help.
- Owen still loves books. Right now, he likes a book called, "Find My Friends" that has pictures of different animals that are using camouflage. Of course, he likes the turtle and alligator page the best. Austin thinks that a pet turtle may be in our future... He also likes a board book with picture of Jesus and little children. He calls it the "Jesus book." He is fascinated with Landon's See Inside Trains flap book right now, and spends a long time looking at it often.
- This assignment, we go to the pool almost every day. Owen thinks he can swim. He cannot, but he can do arm paddles and leg kicks supported and loves to be in the water. He wants me to hold him almost the whole time, and then pushes off of me with all his might trying to get away from me. It's quite the arm workout!
- This kid's smile just melts me. He's giggly and happy much of the time, and I love that!
- Right now, I have to cook dinner in a communal kitchen. Owen likes to get out all of the other people's spices and spare potatoes and things and scatter them about or dump them out. He is into everything right now! When we had an egg carton, Owen would pull it out while I was showering and inevitably break an egg somewhere in our room. What a fun after-shower surprise!
- Owen is a great sport with all our adventures. He could be terrible, but I think he likes it about as much as we do! We've taken him in pitch dark caves, on long boat rides, and on airplanes across the Pacific too many times, and he's chill with it. Austin throws him in the baby backpack and away we go!

Funny story to end off. Last weekend, we went to a cave near our hotel. There was very little information in English online, so we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I kind of expected it to just be one large room that we check out for a few minutes and then leave. We ended up having to ride on the backs of two scooters up to the cave entrance, and then did a 1.5 hour cave tour. Austin had Owen on his back, and Owen was a great sport although we were in total darkness except for the guide's light and one other flashlight. We made sure that he didn't bump his head, but there was one tight area that Austin tried to squeeze through, but couldn't make it with Owen's legs off to the side of his hips. He was trying to squeeze through, and Owen was yelling, "TUCK! TUCK!" telling Austin that he was stuck. Luckily, there was another way around. Man, this kid gets into everything right now, but he is such a precious boy!