My favorite quote

"I just wanted to tell you that your kids are the ONLY reason I will have kids when I'm older..."
Helen. 7/24/09

Words to live by

If it is to be, it is up to me.

It may be a dead horse, but I can't stop myself...

In light of my new career ambition, I have been thinking about the fact that you are only as strong as the people you surround yourself with. (You should have thought of that sooner Senator McCain.)I have given this a whole 30 minutes of careful scrutiny and have come up with the people with which I will people my cabinet. Drum roll please...

Shelby M. - Council to the Queen - I mean PRESIDENT...
Meghann H. - Vice President
Joette P. - Secretary of State
Jeff C. - Secretary of Offense/Defense
Scott H. - Archbishop of Calgon
Aunt Johanna - Secretary of the Treasury
Karen V. - Minister to the Department of Constant Transportation
Jolie S. - Chancellor Travel Agent to the Queen - Sorry, I meant PRESIDENT
Gayle S. - Secretary of Mixed Drinks and hors d'oeuvres
Kevin A. - Minister of Christmas Ornamentation
Nancy M. - Minister to Adorable Animals
Annette F. - Postmaster General, Quarter Master, Scout Master,
Color Master, Drill Master and Master Mapquester
Ron M. - Party Chair of Parties
Natalie L. - Majority Whip
Angela C. - Ambassador to Red & Green Zombies
Alex H. - Secretary of Cheeeeeeeese
Manon H. - Attourney General
Dean V. - Ambassador of Wine
Dan H. - Surgeon General
Nate C. - Secretary of Alternate Transportation
And Chairman for P.O.S.T. (Procurement of Scooter Transportation)
Areli G. - Minister of Fashion
Ellen P. - Minority Whip

I said it once, I'll say it again:
My name is Amy M. Abels Owen, and I approve this message!

From the mouths of babes...

Those of you who know me know that I am the stage manager at the Coterie, a theatre for young audiences. Over the years, my nieces have seen a number of our shows. When we did The Big Friendly Giant, my niece Shelby came to see it with my Gran. During the play there was a section of shadow play in which the giants (actors in fat suits standing upstage of a silk curtain and being rear projected with white light) 'ate' children(barbies and baby dolls). Shelby, who was 7 or so at the time, demanded to leave. Gran thought Shelby must have been terrified by the giants' actions. Once outside the theatre, Gran asked Shelby if she was ok. Shelby said she just wanted to leave because "it wasn't nice" of the giants to eat the children. Shelby was already beginning her political lean for protesting at the age of 7.

I remember another day when Shelby was with me at the theatre and it was time to call places. I told her it was time to start the show. She wouldn't budge. I told her she had to come with me because we had to start the show. She dove under my desk. We debated for a minute (this was before I had children of my own)and I finally said "Shelby, you do not understand that in this building, when I say it is time to go, NO ONE tells me no." I picked her up, put her over my shoulder and off we went to the booth.

After that day she told her mother that she wanted to be a stage manager because "NO ONE tells AMY 'NO', Mommy!"

Now, my sister was out today canvasing for Obama. She had to explain 'canvasing' to Shelby (who is 11 now.) Shelby said that her aunt "Amy should be president because she is so organized." (I'm sure she was also thinking about the fact that NO ONE tells me "NO"!) So my sister called me today to tell me about Shelby's new found opinion. Wouldn't you know that when I got off the phone with my sister that it was time for me to start the show. I walked into the dressing room and told the actors "Now before I call the "P" word, I have a little story to share with you." I told them a condensed version of the above stories and then told them that after the show this afternoon I was leaving the Coterie and throwing my hat into the ring for the Presidency of the United States.

My name is Amy M. Abels Owen and I approve this message!

When they are little, they step on your toes


Little Wy loves Jack's trains. Every moment of every waking hour must be spent with a train in at least one of his little hands. OK, that isn't quite true: he will drop all trains for food. He loves these trains and I do not know if it is because he just loves them or if it is because Jack loves them or it if is a little bit of both. Any way you look at it, he just loves trains. Mom sometimes brings home a shopping bag with a "prize" for each of the boys. Jack will pull out something of the Thomas the Tank Engine family. Wy will pull out some little pack of cars or trucks. He will play with them for a moment, but then it is all about the trains.

He is also a lover of books. Hopefully I have a bit of influence there as I read all the time. Wy will grab one of his books, (you already knew it was a Thomas book, right?) and crawl up into someone's lap. He wants a book read to him before you even kiss him good morning. He wants a book read to him before you kiss him good night. He wants a book in bed with him. And all he says is "car!"

Jack is starting to tell long involved stories, stories I don't even try to understand even though I ask questions at every turn. (I might have a chance at understanding if he would ANSWER a question, he just keeps telling stories.) "He's scared. (Who's scared?) He's dancing in a water. (Who's dancing in the water?) He's so happy in a sky. (Is Jack in the sky?) He sees a bird flying, mommy. (I see it too, that is a pretty bird.) He likes a frieght car. (Frieght cars are nice, honey.) Henry he's so pretty and green. (Mommy loves green.) He goes crash and closes his eyes. (I would close my eyes if I went crash, baby.) He loves a peaches and climb a stairs. He's playing in the water and fly away into the sky. The story goes on, but it wanders and I have no idea what it is about. At least he is cultivating a vivid imagination!

OK - serious business here folks: the other day Jack was in the bathroom at Aunt Beth's house. Wyatt decided to join his big brother. Just as Wy came in is when Jack was done with his business and stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door all the way 'locking' Wyatt inside. (I say locking because Wy can't work a doorknob, yo.) Jack immediately ran off. Wy became upset. I asked Jack repeatedly to come back and open the door. Now I'm sort of stuck in a dilema. Do I let Wy wait it out while I track down Jack? Do I let Jack 'go' and get Wyatt out of the bathroom? I picked option B. Then every time I got near Jack, he ran off in the other direction. I gave him a warning that if he didn't come to me to talk he would go into time out. Well, he didn't come to me so I snapped him up and set him on the naughty step. I explained he was in time out because he kept running away from me but also for closing Wy in the bathroom.

As I'm talking to him, this very large tear develops in the corner of his left eye. Whenever he gets upset or starts a meltdown I always talk to him calmly and tell him softly to "take a breath." So I looked at him and said "take a breath" and his chin started to quiver but I saw him buck up. He actually sat up straighter and put his chin up a bit. And this tear just hung suspended at the crest of his eyelid, stubbornly refusing to fall. That is when I just about fell apart. I start chasing my tail in my mind "How horrible: I'm teaching him that it isn't ok to cry. No, I think I'm teaching him how to handle it when he is upset. He's just a little guy and he shouldn't have to buck up, but if I don't help him learn how to handle his emotions then what good am I?" I feel so bad that I wanted to let him out of time out - but that would do no good either. Let me tell you, it didn't stop there. I spent the rest of the day brewing over whether I'm helping him or not.

As I was telling all of this to John I start thinking that if I can't handle this when he is 3, what in God's name am I going to do when he is 10, 15, 2o... And then I think about my mama telling me "When they are little, they step on your toes. When they are bigger, the step on your heart." And if this is how it feels when my toes are being stepped on, I don't want to know how it feels when it happens to my heart.
Stepping on your toes, biting your toes...
God bless and keep you all.
love,
a, j, j & y

Southside Festival

A few days ago we took the boys to the Southside festival in St. Joseph.
Jack was excited to ride the little kids' train. Each train car is made
out of a 30 gallon metal trash can. Each car had a seat with a little seat belt and a 'steering wheel'. Jack was so excited to ride this little train. Though I was excited for him,I was freaked out about letting him ride this train (with only 1 adult in the front car) through a park filled with hundreds of people in the dark. So, like a stalker, I followed the train car all through the park. I wanted Jack to have a sense of independence, so I followed from a distance - namely the end of the train - which only increased my stalker like feelings. My sister tells me other moms followed the train, but I didn't see any of them. Maybe I just followed more closely? Who knows. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see Jack in the green train car at the back of the photo.

When the ride was over, Jack was simply content. "Did you have fun?" "Yes." "Do you want to ride again?" "No." He didn't want to ride the ponies. He didn't want to ride the camels. He didn't even want to ride the kiddie fire truck with its sirens and lights. He did though, watch with delight as Wyatt & Noah rode the little ponies. I was right by Wy's side, holding him upright on a lovley little black pony. I'm sure that pony hated me. Just so you know, t is very difficult to walk alongside a miniature pony while holding an infant/toddler upright without walking into said pony who is trying to not walk into you.



To cap off the evening - we had our picture taken!!! (Wy is reaching for the jug o' tripple X booze.)


Wyatt is working on his vocabulary. He often says "Mama" but only when he is upset. We are sure he says "Daddy" but I think it comes out as an accident, though he knows Daddy is John. He also says car. "Car, car, car, car." "Car, car, car, car, carrrrrr." He loves cars. He has a little knock off of Lightning McQueen and I SWEAR he is tyring to say Lightning "Lilee" or something very similar to that. He knows who Lightning is and which car is Lightning.

Jack gets a bit upset when we talk about this car being Lightning McQueen. "Is NOT Yightning aqueen, mommy." He insists "Yightning" is "number 5, 6." And this poor imitation is numbered 1, 2, 3.

John overheard this conversation the other morning and said "Pal, I think Lightning is 9, 5." Jack said "No, daddy, 5, 6." Off I went in search of a book and sure enough we discovered that Lighting is #9, 5. I showed Jack the cover of the book and he said "OH, I see, daddy! Yightning is number 9, 5!"

John also says he overheard Jack singing last weekend "You take away the sin of the world...Thomas." Speaking of prayers, Jack staunchly refuses to utter a word when we say Grace. He knows the prayer. He will pray it if I sit him at the table by himself. He will say it while he is playing with his trains. He will correct us if we start to say Grace at bedtime. He will correct me if I start to say Angel of God at the dinner table. He will say Grace it if it is just the two of us sitting at the table. But if there are more than two people at the table, he says nothing.

He is also reverse potty trained. This child does not wet the bed. For I don't even know how long now, he wakes up, he goes to the bathroom by himself, he takes care of all his business by himself. During the day, he doesn't even seem to be aware of whether or not he needs to make water. He also doesn't seem to care if he goes in his pants. I have been getting the 'cool alert' pull ups so he would feel a little different when he goes in his pants - he doesn't care.

Little Wy likes to take this thumb or fingernail and trace it along the underside of your thumb or fingernail. I can't tell you how many times this little ritual has headed off a meltdown. That poor boy will be crying his heart out and I will run the undersides of our fingernails together and he quiets down almost immediately. I have even used this weird little trick to lull him to sleep. I have no idea what he likes about it, but he finds great comfort in this.

OK - enough babble for today friends. God bless. Love, a, j, j & y!

Mothers, don't let your babies suck on your cell phones

Last Sunday I turned around to find Wyatt happily sucking on my cell phone. I quickly snatched my phone away from Wy Guy, who promptly threw a fit. I saw that my phone was stuck in a hot synch so I tried to reboot. No luck. I decided to pull out the battery and do a hard boot. When I pulled off the back of the phone I saw the battery swimming in a sea of saliva. Yum. I cleaned everything off and put the phone back together to no avail. My poor phone was still stuck in a hot synch cycle. John and I decided to take it apart again and let it air out overnight.

The next morning my poor phone was dead, dead, dead. So at 9:00 a.m., the boys and I walked into the sprint store. The nice young man behind the counter explained to me that if I ran over my phone, they could replace it in the store, but since the problem was water damage I would have to call an 800 number and have a phone mailed to me, which would take "a few days." I said "I don't mean this snotty, but I am not a soccer mom and I CANNOT be without my phone for 'a few days." He thought I was overreacting but he was going to see what he could do to help me out "in store" anyway. Then he says he can't help me at all because I don't have insurance on my phone. We began to argue over whether or not I had insuracne. I got so upset I was on the verge of tears. I asked him to give me my phone so I could leave as I had to get Wy to his 15 month check up. The nice young man didn't want me to leave upset. He called over a manager who told me to leave my phone, go to my appointment and come back. He would work on the phone, investigate the insurance and if indeed he couldn't find insurance he would get it activated and my phone would be covered for the saliva problem.

The boys and I head off to Wy's appointment where we learned he is still underweight (something I cannot believe as he NEVER STOPS EATING) though he has moved from the bottom 12% to the bottom 15% of children his age. Two shots and a lot of crying later we head back to the sprint store where Mama meets us in case we have any other troubles with the fellas at the sprint store. Unfortunately there was no help for my old phone. He issued me a new phone, but I would have to build my contacts, calendar and everything else from scratch. As awful as this is, it is better than no phone at all. Mom decided to take the boys outside to look at the fountains in the courtyard as I wrapped everything up with the nice youg man and his manager.

30 seconds later (at 12:15) I am heading out the doors to catch up with ma and the boys. Of course I'm hauling the bags, purse, stroller, new phone and wrestling my way through the door. I stepped through the 75 pound door and watched in horror as Wyatt made one step after another toward the fountain at the east end of the courtyard. This enticing fountain was not raised up from the street and after a few feet it turned from a fountain to a waterfall with about a 15 foot drop over large rocks.

Step, step, step, gone. Wy disappeared into a bricked section of water that is about 18" long by 9" wide and all that was visible of him were fingerips and a tiny brown tennis shoe. The next thing I know, I have him by the wrist and he is screeching and clawing at me.

We are standing in a large courtyard at lunchtime with a dripping wet SCREAMING baby and believe it or not, not one single person came to help us. We head inside to get Wy into dry clothes and no one helped us open doors, no one asked if we were ok. One man even looked me in the eye as he passed us, talking on his cel phone as we struggled to get through a set of double doors with children, bags and stroller. I was shocked.

Fortunately, Wy was/is ok. It seemed to me that once he was in dry clothes, he was over the whole thing. I still reel every time I think about it. The moral of my story? I think I gave it away at the beginning: don't let Wyatt suck on your cell phone.

Sadly, no pics this week. I promise some goods ones next week. We love you all. Until next week, God bless and keep you!
love, a, j, j & little wy guy.

Conversations with my children


Conversation 1:
Mommy: Jack, I will put you in time out if I have to tell you one more time to pick up your trains and put them away.
Jack: I will do it.
Mommy: I want you to do it now, please...and thank you.
(Jack picks up his toys.)
Jack: Mommy, it's perfeck!

Conversation 2:
Mommy: Wyatt Cole! What are you doing in the water bowl? (He is standing in the cat's water dish with his shoes on.)
Wyatt: (Wyatt looks up at mommy. He blinks. He smiles at mommy and proceeds to dance in the water dish.)

Conversation 3:
Jack: (Jack fell down, hit his head on a chair and started to cry.)
Mommy: Jack!? Are you ok?
Jack: No!
Mommy: I'm so sorry you hurt your head!
Jack: Jackson's so sorry.

Conversation 4:
Child: (Choking noises from the dinning room)
Mommy & Daddy: (come running from the kitchen) Jack? Wyatt? Are you ok?!!!
Child: (More gagging noises coming from Wyatt who is sitting at the table sticking his plastic fork as far back in his mouth as possible.)
Mommy: WYATT!!! Don't do that, baby!
Wyatt: (Pulls for out of his mouth and smiles at mommy & daddy.)
Mommy: Thank you.
Wyatt: (Prompty sticks his fork into the back of his throat. Gagging noises ensue.)

Conversation 5:
Mommy: (Calling to Jack who is downstairs.) Jack? Are you hungry?
Jack: No.
Mommy: You don't want any breakfast?
Jack: No, mommy, Jackson's checkin' my e-mail.

Conversation 6:
Mommy: Jack, I want you to eat some noodles.
Jack: No oodles, mommy, no oodles.
Mommy: If you eat TWO noodles you can have some ice cream.
Jack: (Runs to the table, looks at the noodles, looks at mommy and walks off.)
Mommy: If you don't eat any noodles you can't have any ice cream. (Mommy thinks "This sounds like a song I know...")
Jack: (Plays around for a while. When no one is 'looking' he tries a noodle.) Mommy! Jackson say oddles is GOOD!

Conversation 7:
Mommy: WYATT! Put that down!
Wyatt: (Continues to do whatever he is doing.)
Mommy: Wyatt, give that to mommy.
Wyatt: (Ignores mommy.)
Mommy: Wyatt Cole, if you don't put that down, I will put you in time out.
Wyatt: (Did you hear something?)
Mommy: Wyyyy-aaattt, are you hungry?
Wyatt: (Drops everything he is holding and immediately runs to mommy.)

Conversation 8:

Mommy: Wyatt, you need to get off the potty chair so Jack can use it.
Wyatt: Grunts and giggles.
Mommy: Wyatt, Jack needs to use the potty. Please move.
Wyatt: (bounces on the potty chair.)
Jackson: Jackson say "Move, please."
Wyatt: Refuses to budge.
Mommy: (Takes a picture of Wyatt who smiles happily for the camera. Mommy then picks up Wyatt who begins screaming like the world has come to an end.)
Jackson: Jackson say "It's ok, Wyatt. Don cry..."

And the most frequent conversation of the week:

Conversation 9:
Sounds from offstage: Splash, splash, splash.
Mommy: Boys? What are you doing?
More splashing noises from offstage.
Mommy: (Moving toward the splashing sound.) Wyatt, are you playing in the toilet again?
Splashing noises continue from offstage.
Mommy: (Rounding the corner to the bathroom.)Wyatt! Don't put that (train, toy, book, box, diaper, washcloth, pretzel, banana) in the toilet!

Now both of my children are crying and I'm ready to pull out my hair. Send a few prayers for patience my direction. In the meantime, we love you all and wish you many blessings.
a, j, j & wy guy.