i do more laundry for owen than anyone else in this house. this kid changes his clothes more than i even notice. there was one point this summer where i was caught up with the laundry for a month, which meant i was doing a couple loads every day. it would be pretty even: two pairs of pants each for ethan, isaiah and xavier. but then owen has five pairs? what? and what's up with the seven pairs of underwear? every time i change owen's clothes, his first question is "are we changing underwear?" no, owen. we are just changing into our pajamas. you don't have to change your underwear every time you take off your pants. aiyiyi.

he is very particular about the clothes he wears. he prefers shirts with stripes because they make him (look) "speed". since the weather has been a little bit colder, he likes to wear his "turtle mack" (turtleneck), but only the red one. not the blue one or the black one or the gray one with sports balls on it. just the red one. he wore the red one and some really light colored khakis to his first day of preschool. eric didn't see the outfit i had carefully chosen and laid out for owen's first ever day of school, so on went the khakis and red "turtle mack". owen started to cry when i suggested that he change out of it and into his real first day of school outfit, so i didn't push it. ("but this is my favorite and i never get to wear this," he said.)

owen's preschool teacher is miss virginia, and he has been doing great. his preschool is just once a week at our church, but it's nice that he gets into a classroom-type setting and takes direction from a teacher. izzy is in his class, so i'm sure that helps.

owen still likes his fuzzy velour blanket. he'll disappear for a little while sometimes, and when i go looking for him he is always on his bed, cuddling with his blanket. "i'm resting, mom," he says. he has put himself down for a nap many times, thanks to that blanket. it's starting to fall apart at the edges. it's a big blanket, so i'm hoping i won't need to come up with an alternative before it falls to pieces.

i can't believe my little owie is going to be four soon.

oh oh oh owieeee!

he is three.

he is fully potty-trained.

i never thought the latter would happen by the prior statement. i also never thought that reward charts worked, but they did and now my 3-year old poops in the toilet. you can count me as a reward chart advocate. they really work!

i did the whole, for every five stickers you earn, you get a small prize. if you fill up the entire chart you get a GRAND prize! a tip: if you are going to award small prizes, stick with the original plan of dollar store gifts. do NOT take owen to target by yourself an expect to come out of there without buying him a $9 yoshi doll for pooping in the toilet 5 times (and have to 5 more of those *smaller* prizes left to purchase as well as the grand prize). that boy can seriously get me to buy anything.

let me back up and talk about owen being three. he's such a tiny little boy, and i can't believe that he is already three years old. at his three year checkup, he weighed in at 27 pounds (6th percentile).

he had a handy manny birthday party, which went well. i mean, it was just us (we babysat sam and izzy that night, so they joined the festivities), but four brothers make a party, right? i made a pinata to look like stretch, the tape measure, and set up the buffet as mr. lopart's candy store with lots of candy that we are still trying to finish. he wore a shirt that said "awesome" because we used to joke about naming him awesome while i was pregnant when we couldn't think of any good boy names. i actually bought the shirt when i was pregnant with owen, and was finally able to put it on him for his third birthday.

owen might be the most grateful little boy on the planet.

"thank you for letting me have a handy manny birthday party, mama, thank you."
"thank you for letting me have this yoshi doll, mama, thank you."
"thank you for taking me to target, mama, thank you."
"thank you for letting me listen to 'i know', mama, thank you."
"thank you for...[pauses to think, his eyes fall on his sippy cup]...letting me have chocolate milk, mama, thank you."
"thank you for cleaning my sleep pants and letting me wear them. thank you."

let's talk a about the sleep pants now. it starts with a millenium three sweatshirt that i bought for eric a gazillion years ago. it's actually pretty awesome and is fully lined in vellux - just like owen's favorite green blanket. that millenium three sweatshirt has been dubbed "daddy's sleep shirt" by owen. sometimes when owie is tired, he'll ask daddy to put on his sleep shirt and he will proceed to cuddle with daddy and the vellux lining of eric's hoodie. now, eric also has velour pants, which feel similar to the sleep shirt...those are "daddy's sleep pants." i recently pulled out a pair of velour pants in owen's size. you wouldn't believe the excitement owie expressed when he saw these pants and put them on. "i have my own sleep pants! guuuyyyys [hands on hips while swirling hips in a circular motion] look at what i have! my own sleep pants!" so funny....