An Interview with a Three-Year-Old
Owen is three! Well, he's been three for awhile now, but we're just getting around to writing about it. Such is the fate of a second child. I interviewed him during the week of his birthday and here are his current favorites:
Favorite letter: Q
Owen is much lower key than Landon was at his age. He has his high energy moments, but can also sit and play with toys for hours at a time. One funny thing he does it make up stories and narrate them as he plays. He doesn't even need toys, he went through a phase of playing with different colored poker chips and pretending they were on different ninja teams. He asks to color, and usually does so for a few minutes, but then he ends up playing with the crayons like they are cars or people. He is so imaginative and uses different voices for the characters and it's a hoot to sit there and listen to him. He loves to look at books and is that kid that will sit by the bookshelf, pulling each book off one by one and flipping the pages until he is surrounded by piles of books. He gets along well with other kids unless he's tired, then he is pretty belligerent and can get physical. After getting pounded by his big brother for the past few years, Owen is now instigating the wrestling sessions and fights more often and it takes all of Landon's willpower not to retaliate. One issue is that Owen is very sneaky about his attacks, and so we sometimes don't catch his initial poking or hitting and only see the hit-back from Landon. We'll be keeping an eye on this guy.
Owen is fearless. When we visited the beach, he would sit down in the waves and let them wash over his body and knock him over, and giggle. He wanted to try out the boogie board and actually was more successful at catching waves than Landon! He climbs the big play structures and tries in every way to keep up with his big brother. He loved bouldering with Aunt Riah and Uncle Zach over Thanksgiving. Owen is a jokester and a goof. He learned how to spell his name with a little song. Now, he sings it "O-W-E-N, that spells OTEN!" Then he'll say "That's just a joke!" He laughs and giggles when Landon makes funny noises or tells jokes. He loves physical humor and recently belly laughed through Home Alone.
Owen gives the squishiest, best hugs. He wraps his arms around and really squeezes. He is not afraid to tell me that he loves me, or that I'm his best/favorite mom. When I do a chore, he comes in and tells me "good job!" He also likes to have deep discussions about things. He asks me to swing him on the swing when he wants to talk. Then he asks me questions like, "Mom, what makes you happy?" I asked him what he thought made me happy. He said, "When Landon and I are nice to each other." Accurate. He's comfortable speaking to babies, kids his age, kids Landon's age, teenagers, adults and the elderly. He will initiate conversations with any of these age groups on any topic. When we're planning an activity at home that he knows Landon might enjoy, he goes and asks Landon if he wants to join. He's a fun guy to have around. He's also skilled at remembering things and making connections between things that he's learned and new things.
Owen is an animal lover. He especially loves turtles, sea turtles and tortoises but is magnetically drawn to all animals. We currently don't have any pets, but if we ever get one, it will be Owen's doing. He loved going to a sea turtle rescue in South Padre Island, Texas.
For Halloween, Owen was an astronaut. I let him pick from our extensive dress up collection, and this is what he picked. He was pretty sick on actual Halloween, but took a long nap and perked up long enough to trick or treat around the block. About 3/4 of the way around, he decided that he was done, and did not want to stop at anymore houses. He had refused to ride in the wagon for the whole way around, but demanded to be carried that last 1/4 block to our house. It was his first year to really appreciate the magic of neighbors giving out candy!
Owen requested a sea turtle cake for the second year. This year, he wanted strawberry cake and strawberry frosting, so I covered it with marshmallow fondant to make it more green. We were both happy with the end result.
Everyone, everywhere we go, comments on how cute Owen is. Grocery store, gym, church, school, everywhere. It must be the little cheeks and his friendly personality.
Owen is really excited to be a big brother in a few months. For awhile, he thought he had a baby brother in his tummy, until he realized that only girls have babies in their tummies and boys don't. I think it will be a shock to not be the baby anymore, but I think he will also be a big boy helper and be really sweet and kind with his little sister.
Happy birthday, our sweet Owen! We have two full school years together before you start kindergarten, so you're going to be mommy's little buddy until then. I hope you continue to love learning and books, animals and people, and grow up to be as loving and kind as you are now.
Favorite color: Green (He usually says black, or black and pink, but on this particular day, it was green)
Favorite food: vegetables and food and lunch and snacks
Favorite show: LEGO Ninjago
Favorite toy: Poli and Heli and Amber and Roy
Favorite movie: Batman (cartoon version)
Favorite thing to do with family: play and watch shows (he especially likes to play on the trampoline with dad and Landon after Austin gets home from work)
Favorite book: LEGO Ninjago
Favorite letter: Q
Favorite Number: A
Favorite shape: triangle
Favorite animal: alligator (guys... he's obsessed with sea turtles. Everything has to be sea turtles. Again, must have been in a weird mood on this particular day)
Favorite dinosaur: T-rex
Favorite place: Park
Favorite restaurant: McDonald's
Favorite thing to do: play
Our assessment of Owen's personality boils down to one statement, "Owen has such an easy-going personality, unless he doesn't." He has a quirky sense of humor and is a master negotiator. Owen does not like to show off or perform what he knows and incorrectly identified his colors for months just because he thought it was funny. He is obsessed with sea turtles, so much in fact that we pretend he has sea turtles in his mouth and that we brush his teeth to get out the sharks, megalodons, spinosaurus, walruses, or other predators that might eat the sea turtles. He has a giant sea turtle stuffed animal and about died when I found an animated Finding Nemo-esque movie that was about sea turtles. He asks for it all the time. He also asked for a sea turtle cake for his birthday for the 2nd year in a row and last year, he asked for a sea turtle cake from Santa, until I explained to him that Santa didn't bring cakes.
Owen is much lower key than Landon was at his age. He has his high energy moments, but can also sit and play with toys for hours at a time. One funny thing he does it make up stories and narrate them as he plays. He doesn't even need toys, he went through a phase of playing with different colored poker chips and pretending they were on different ninja teams. He asks to color, and usually does so for a few minutes, but then he ends up playing with the crayons like they are cars or people. He is so imaginative and uses different voices for the characters and it's a hoot to sit there and listen to him. He loves to look at books and is that kid that will sit by the bookshelf, pulling each book off one by one and flipping the pages until he is surrounded by piles of books. He gets along well with other kids unless he's tired, then he is pretty belligerent and can get physical. After getting pounded by his big brother for the past few years, Owen is now instigating the wrestling sessions and fights more often and it takes all of Landon's willpower not to retaliate. One issue is that Owen is very sneaky about his attacks, and so we sometimes don't catch his initial poking or hitting and only see the hit-back from Landon. We'll be keeping an eye on this guy.
Owen is fearless. When we visited the beach, he would sit down in the waves and let them wash over his body and knock him over, and giggle. He wanted to try out the boogie board and actually was more successful at catching waves than Landon! He climbs the big play structures and tries in every way to keep up with his big brother. He loved bouldering with Aunt Riah and Uncle Zach over Thanksgiving. Owen is a jokester and a goof. He learned how to spell his name with a little song. Now, he sings it "O-W-E-N, that spells OTEN!" Then he'll say "That's just a joke!" He laughs and giggles when Landon makes funny noises or tells jokes. He loves physical humor and recently belly laughed through Home Alone. 
Owen gives the squishiest, best hugs. He wraps his arms around and really squeezes. He is not afraid to tell me that he loves me, or that I'm his best/favorite mom. When I do a chore, he comes in and tells me "good job!" He also likes to have deep discussions about things. He asks me to swing him on the swing when he wants to talk. Then he asks me questions like, "Mom, what makes you happy?" I asked him what he thought made me happy. He said, "When Landon and I are nice to each other." Accurate. He's comfortable speaking to babies, kids his age, kids Landon's age, teenagers, adults and the elderly. He will initiate conversations with any of these age groups on any topic. When we're planning an activity at home that he knows Landon might enjoy, he goes and asks Landon if he wants to join. He's a fun guy to have around. He's also skilled at remembering things and making connections between things that he's learned and new things. 
Owen is an animal lover. He especially loves turtles, sea turtles and tortoises but is magnetically drawn to all animals. We currently don't have any pets, but if we ever get one, it will be Owen's doing. He loved going to a sea turtle rescue in South Padre Island, Texas.  |
| Feeding Iguanas at the San Antonio Aquarium |
Everyone, everywhere we go, comments on how cute Owen is. Grocery store, gym, church, school, everywhere. It must be the little cheeks and his friendly personality.
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| Little cheeser |
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| Happy Birthday, Owie! |
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| At the bouldering gym with Uncle Zach |
Happy birthday, our sweet Owen! We have two full school years together before you start kindergarten, so you're going to be mommy's little buddy until then. I hope you continue to love learning and books, animals and people, and grow up to be as loving and kind as you are now.
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