I Heart Faces

I Heart Faces is having a challenge of 'anything but faces.' Who doesn't love them some adorable sandy baby feet?? I do!

There's This Kid...

Who chooses 15 minutes before bath/bed time to empty out all his toys from the cabinet.

Who has more expression in his little face than my husband and I combined. Who, although I thought couldn't get any funnier or cheesier has far surpassed anything he did before.

Who is 17 months old now, and got himself his 3rd, and maybe he's cutest, haircut.

Who would love to play outside 24/7 but because of his one week (and still snotty after 10 days) cootie bug, and now this horrible weather, is forced to play inside all the time! AAAHHH. A toddler in this house, ALL DAY. What is a boy to do?

Well we take off our shoes and socks of course. If we aren't going to play outside why bother? (We had just gotten home from his hair cut, don't worry I don't make him wear his shoes inside). Funny thing is he really only takes off his left shoe and sock, and his right shoe, so he wanders the house with one sock on. Strange? I know.

We play with our new Chuck the Truck race track! By playing I mean rearranging it all over the living room, hucking it across the room, and racing the Chuck and Handy toys across the floor :) What a boy! By the way when this toy entered the house not too long ago I honestly don't know who was more excited, dad, or Quinten :) Adorable? YES

We climb on the chase lounge, over the pillow to get as close to the DVD tower and blinds as we can. Doesn't he have an adorable tush?

We talk to mom for a minute about this amazing discovery we have just made. We then wait to see what mom is going to do. Will she make me get down? Sit and talk about the dvds with me? Or just stand there and keep on clicking pictures?? What do you think?

We get so proud and excited when we actually get ahold of one of these forbidden treasures. I can only imagine what would happen if he had full access to that thing.

So you see, there is this kid. Who eats his fruits and veggies before his proteins and carbs. Loves Chuck the Truck and Fraggle Rock. Who has discovered that nap time means that much less play time and has learned to fight it with all his mite. Who, with the quickest mention of bath time is knocking on the bathroom door within seconds. Who is a total mamas boy but absolutely adores his daddy. Who loves to read, and discover. Who loves giving AND getting raspberries. Who gives the best kisses, and snuggles (second to his daddy I guess ;)) Who has stolen our hearts 100% and just when you think you couldn't love him more, you do! And the best part is he is allll ours :)

Valentines Love

Valentines day... really a silly little holiday. It sucks if you are alone, and it puts pressure on those who have someone to impress :) But for me its super fun! Well it was a little hectic this year since my husband and I pretty much agreed on not buying gifts this year to save money, and then the day prior I went to use his truck (because I have to leave my car with the carseat) and he says "no wait you can't use it!" WHAT you-you-you. So I woke up V-day to a sweet gift from the hubs :)

A killer little tank and the blingin flip flops I've been wanting!

Then he bailed to work and I myself, got to work! Cleaned up the house as usual and took off to do a Costco run, alone. That was part of his gift :) the only shopping he usually has to do because we come home with such a massive and heavy amount. But I did it alone. Then went to the bike shop and got him a cool little tool, and some chocolate from Trader Joes. Came home, had lunch with my little Valentine. Put him down for a nap and finished the house, and made Shannon his card :) Who needs to sit and rest on a day like that? Anyways when Shannon got home he had these...

I poured a glass of wine and him a drink made some dinner (salmon OH yeah). We had a

romantic dinner with our son :)

Finished the night playing with the kid. The best part of the day though was all the little texts and such I got from Shannon. It reminded me of when we were first dating. All the giddiness and googliness, love and smothering! It was great. Nice to remind ourselves how much we love each other, its so easy to get caught up in the day to day, and all the craziness that comes with being parents. But once upon a time we were just us, so crazy in love. Aww what a day :)

Cootie Bugs

So Quinten has come down with a cold, wa wa wa :( Seriously where does all that snot come from? I mean the kid has a big head for a little guy, but still I have no idea where it all comes from. Anyways I'm one of those moms that believes when my child is sick he should stay home, and take it easy. Lets not spread germs to other people, and lets get better QUICK. On the other hand my son is OB-SESSED with Chuck the Truck, and if I have to watch one more episode my head may drive off my body. Oh ya did I mention we (I) have been teaching him sign language and he sits there and points at the remote and signs "more please, chuck, please" we made up our own sign for chuck which is adorable and almost impossible to say no to. Normally though I fight the "awwww" urge and distract him so we only watch 1 or 2 a day. But when he is sick its a whole nother story... oyyyy. So all that to say we've been locked in doors chilaxin, but prior to the booger attack we enjoyed some serious summer weather in the early days of February. So here are some fun photos that I love. Have a great week and hopefully we'll be back to park and fun runs quick!

Gotta love it when he thinks the camera is pointed the other way ;)
Pondering life at the park
Watching the little girls go a little crazy (if we only knew what was going through his head)

Please Mom can we go down to the water??

Sandy baby feet are only the best!

Only in CA can we do this in early February... gotta love it :)

All done in the water and ready for a snack, apple anyone?
Day 2 of cootie bug and we're doing a lot better :) By tomorrow we'll be 100% again. Feewww.

Through The Eyes Of Child...

What happened to us? Along the way into adulthood we lost it. Have you ever thought about the life of a child? I have been a lot lately. I am such a lucky girl that for the last almost 17 months I've gotten to be a stay at home mom. So day in and day out I get to watch my son grow and learn. He is amazing. And just looking into his eyes you can see it, you can see what we lost. That everything is exciting. A stick, a rock, a dog rolling on his back. Things we look right past. Ok I know that a rock really isn't that exciting to an adult, we've seen plenty right? But if we started looking at life even smidge like a child I'm sure that we'd all be a lot happier. If we woke up every day eager to learn something new. That everything we came across we took in stride. If we worked as hard as they did to accomplish something? Wow what would that be like? I often find myself waking up feeling a little too much like Bill Murray in Groundhogs day. You know, the same wake up call (child ready and waiting to get up), same routine; milk, Mickey, breakfast, cleanup and off to the park, yada yada yada. But Quinten, although he does a lot of the same things everyday, couldn't be happier about it. Because he is so innocent. He doesn't have the full view of everything he doesn't have, he is so gosh darn happy with what he does. He doesn't look at his toys and focus on the Toy Store full of the ones he doesn't have. He doesn't go out back and think "man I'd be a lot happier if this yard were bigger." He doesn't notice his room is kind of small, or the house is kind of old, that we can't go to all these places because mom and dad can't afford it right now. He is happy in what he has. **sigh** How do we get back there? How do I ignore the world and all the don't haves and love and focus on the haves? We really do have so much! I challenge myself and all you out there, even for one week, look at life through the eyes of a child... if you need some inspiration I've got some photos... People always tell you when your young to not rush growing up, man I wish I would have listened.

Valentines Day

Valentines day is quickly approaching, and in the spirit of the holiday Paper Mama is doing a photo challenge... and I have decided to try and get creative and enter! I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Check it!

*Sorry its GIGANTIC I tried resizing about 30 times so at least you can see it clearly :)

And on to the next one...

The new year has come again. Funny that some thought we wouldn't make it past the strike of midnight 2000 and look guys its 2011 and we're still pluggin away. As I get older the celebration of the New Year has really lost its pizzazz. Don't get me wrong I love to pop open a bottle of champagne and see if this somewhat still new mom can make it until the clock strikes 12, but really January 1st is just a continuation of December 31. Its not like we get to hit the reset button come 1/1. I love to look back on the year and remember all the good times, and think of the things I'd like to change in the upcoming year. But why does it take the calender to switch over for us to suddenly want to make a change? I saw something on TV about the billions of dollars magazines like US and People make on January editions concerning weight loss and the new year. The most popular resolution in America is to lose weight, get in shape and change! Why does it take a "new year" for us to suddenly want to fix who we are into who we want to be? Why can't February 2nd be that day? Or May 14th? We should want to be the best us everyday of the year, not just the new year right? I'm not against resolutions or anything, it just seems silly to wait for January to fix the things we want fixing. This year though I wish that the economy and our nation as a whole could somehow hit the "refresh" button and start a new. But as these last 2 weeks have shown not sure that is going to happen. What we need is a president and such that has a true passion for making this a better place to be. One day maybe. One day.

Here in the Cowan house we have had a somewhat bumpy start to the new year. Quinten came down with a fever Sunday the 9th, what we believed was the 3 eye teeth attempting to pop through. As days went on and the fever, lack of sleep, and crankiness continued we began thinking it had to be more. But he showed no signs of being sick so we kept watch and hoped it would pass. Wednesday(ish) his fever broke (woohoo!) only to leave this poor kid with a full body rash (wa wa wa..) so I called the pediatrician who wasn't concerned at all and said it was a classic case of Roseola (?) the infant rash. 72 hours of fever followed by 24-48 hours of rash and poof its gone. As of diaper change Saturday morning we are clear, and hopefully can get back to our normal selfs around here. Shannon and I can finally have our bed back, and our normal routine will one again, be. Other than that we are battling the all mighty dollar, and figuring out fun things to do that our away from the house, but don't cost a whole lot. Creativity is key around here! Quinten is learning new words, sylabils and signs. He is such a ham these days, I mean serious jokester. I love it. He, though has also really learned the art of the temper and is getting used to a wide range of emotions. That takes some getting used to and is truly teaching me what patience really is. Its a daily task to teach him how to handle anger, frustration and fear. But on the other hand, I get lots of snuggles, hugs, and kisses so that makes it all worth while! The life of a mommy :) We are hanging outside with dogs a lot while the sun is shining, going to the park and riding our bike around. What a life that kid has huh! I am continuing my learning and increasing passion for photography and Shannon is 110% back into the riding (downhill mountain bikes that is) obsession :) its great escape both mentally and physically for him and to tell you the truth I'm a little jealous I wish I had something like that :) I am so excited to see what this year has in store for us. It should be one crazy ride if I know us :) Wishing you all a wonderful 2011!! A few photos to start the year...

After our nearly 2 week rain storm we took a walk to our nearby park, and well this is what we found :( bummer!

Thats not a pool my friends... that is the playground under about 2 feet of water.... Thank God Quinten fell asleep on the way (which by the way never ever happens!!) so he wasn't too upset at not getting to play.

Quinten's cousin wasn't too fond of his Buzz slippers so we gladly took them off his hands. He LOVES them. I mean LOVES them!

Riding our bike at Grandmas house :)

Looking cool in dads glasses :)

Trying to get the glasses back...

And a little photo sesh to round out the day