Bears Family Day

A few weekends ago, Daddy and Owen headed to Bolingbrook/Chicago for a Big Boys Only weekend. They had a weekend packed with fun that started with a day with the Bears!



Every year the Bears have a Family Day where you can pay about 7 bucks to go to Soldier Field, participate in some fun activities, and watch the Bears play a scrimmage game. We thought this was a good start for Owen since it was so cheap and didn't require him to sit still for a long period of time like a real game would. Uncle Matt, Dominic, Matt's brother, Dave, and his son, Jake joined them and a good time was had by all!

You know me, I have to include a picture of the band!

Look how close their seats were!

Look closely and you can spot Brian Urlacher!

We are looking forward to a time when Cameron is old enough to go so we can experience this as a family. Or maybe Daddy and the boys go and Mommy gets a shopping day all to herself? Stay tuned for more Chicago fun!

Lemonade Stand

One day Owen was watching an episode of "Max & Ruby" where they had a lemonade stand and he decided it looked like fun. So he asked me if we could make our own lemonade stand. This was also one of my favorites as a child so I could hardly refuse him! We made a sign and attached it to his little table and he used his little baseball bank to deposit his earnings. I, of course, had to be the customer.




He waited all day for Daddy to get home so he could sell him some lemonade. As Daddy walked in, he sat in the chair and said, "Hello, sir. Welcome to Owen's Lemonade Stand. Would you like to buy a glass?" It was just the cutest thing. Whenever he was done playing for the day we had to put a "Closed for the day" sign on the table. He played with it for a few days until he saw an episode about a bake sale. Now he keeps asking me when we can play that. That one's not quite as easy as lemonade!

Lazy Summer Days

One evening a few weeks ago, I took one look at the loads of unfinished laundry, the pile of dirty dishes, and the millions toys strewn about the living room and said, "Let's go to the pool!" We have a great community pool here in town and it stays open until 9:30pm a couple of nights a week. So as soon as Daddy got home from work, we suited up and headed out!

I tried a couple of times to get Cameron in a pool last summer but he was never a fan. I was so reluctant this summer that it took me until July to finally give it a try. Like most things with Cam, he was a little slow to warm up but by the end of the night he was screaming when we made him go home!

Judging by the smile on this face, a good time was had by all!

The Circus Clown

We have been so busy with so many fun things this summer that not only was I late on scheduling Cameron's 18-month well-check, I am late on blogging about the current status of our little guy as well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just have "Better late than never..." printed on a t-shirt and never take it off.

Where to start? When I took Cameron for his well-check on July 29th I still had a lot of concerns regarding his development, even though our intervention teacher had been seeing him twice a month throughout the summer. I brought these concerns to the doctor's attention and she was concerned as well. We both felt that Cathryn (the interventionist) was really doing more evaulation than actual therapy. While evaluation is helpful for both his future in school and in tracking his current progress, the doctor and I both felt that he still needed some type of therapy to help with his progress. At the very least, we felt speech therapy was a good place to start since he uses very little words. So we agreed that I would discuss a new course of action with our case worker. Health wise, he still continues to grow well on his own curve and even worked his way up to about the 40th percentile in weight! He's still pretty vertically challenged like his mother but there's really not a whole lot we can do about that!

Last week I called our case worker, Jill, and discussed things with her. I told her that even though we'd been doing the early intervention stuff since the beginning of summer, he still wasn't waving "bye-bye," still wasn't referring to any of us by name, still not pointing at things. She told me that if I wasn't happy with how things were going, then we definitely needed to rework things. She and Cathryn came to the house the very next day armed with a new plan.

Cathryn will now come 3 times a month and work on specific activities with him each time she's here. She will bring some written information for me on each activity that she does so that I can read about it and continue the activity with him at home. We are working on a series of things that will hopefully, eventually lead to Cameron pointing at things when asked. It will be a gradual process that I won't really bore you with now since this is an already lengthy post. The goal is to have Cameron pointing by January 2010.

In addition to Cathryn's visits, we will also have a speech pathologist come once a month and work on word function with Cameron. He actually says a lot of words, but only uses a few. We think that Cameron and the rest of the family would be much happier if he could use more words to relay his needs and wants to us.

On top of all of this, someone from the Parents As Teachers organization (A great organization I highly recommend to any parent. It is for all kids, delayed or not.) will be coming once a month and working with us as well. She will communicate with AEA (intervention org.) about Cameron so she can plan her activities accordingly.

So, in case you've lost count, that's five visits per month for our little dude. It's a lot, I know, but we are really excited about it and think it is exactly what we need. I had lost my optimism for a while but I've got it back in full-force now! And as you can see, Cameron is pretty darn excited about it, too.

Like he's done his entire 20-months of life, we just keep holding up the hoops and our little circus clown jumps right through them. He rolls with the punches and amazes me everyday with how far he's come. He is a joy to be around and sometimes I wonder if he's teaching me more than I am teaching him.

But since I've already written a book, I'll save all the wonderful new things he's doing for future posts. For now, I'll just leave you with a few shots of my big boy taking a break in a big-boy chair. Because after all that hoop-jumping, sometimes a guy's just gotta sit back and take it easy.

We Welcome with Love...

Logan Jay Youngman

born August 5, 2009

7 lbs., 4 oz.

19.5 in. long

Logan is the firstborn of my cousin Matt and his wife, Jessica, whom we lovingly call Uncle Matt and Aunt Jess in our house. Someday the entire family will tell him how much we all wanted him for his mommy and daddy and how excited we all were when they announced they were pregnant with him. And someday, when he's a teenager and driving his mother crazy, she will remind him of how she suffered through 30 hours of labor and, finally, a c-section in order to bring him into this world. Is she a rock star or what?! But for now, we'll just cuddle him and love on him because he's just so darn cute!


Owen is beyond excited to have another new cousin and is anxiously awaiting to meet him. He asks me everyday when that day will happen. If I weren't so damn anxious myself, I might be annoyed with him.

Congrats to Matt and Jess who, before they were ever even parents, proved what rockin' parents they would be. I never thought I'd live to see the day that my big, manly cousin would call me talking to me about breast pumps, breast shields, and nursing holds. And yes, he knew all the correct terminology. Because he's just that awesome of a Daddy.

Logan, though we've yet to meet you, we love you so much and look forward to the day that we can snuggle and kiss you! And Owen can't wait to read to you!

Creating a Monster

One of Matt and Susie's favorite family activities is Geocaching. What is geocaching, you ask? Well, basically, you log on to geocaching.com, set up a username, search for caches hidden in your area (or any area you please), and you go out and find them using clues and latitude/longitude coordinates given to you by the person who hid the cache. What's the cache, you ask? Sometimes they are just logs, where you sign your name and the date you found it. Others have fun little toys inside that you can take, as well as leave something behind. We asked them if they would show us the ropes and take us on a few cache hunts with them. So, armed with their trusty new hand-held GPS, lots of sunblock, a little water, a few snacks, and a load of kids, we set out to see what this was all about!

Our first cache took us out to a State Park close to Newton, where we had to navigate through some woods to find it. Well, ok, the kids and the Dads did the navigating, while Susie and I hung back and did the Mom thing--took pictures.

You can see Gianna carrying this one, which was an ammo box full of goodies. Some are as small as a large screw and have tiny pieces of paper rolled up inside them to log your name. The smaller ones are usually magnetic.

Once they got out of the woods, Susie and I once again did the Mom thing and made them all pose for a picture. Four kids excited about seeing what's in the box and this is the best you get:

The kids couldn't wait to open it and see what was inside...


And what did Cameron do while all this madness ensued? He stayed close to his phone, just in case he got any important calls.

Owen was the first to actually spot the box in the woods so Matt and Susie said that, being his first find, he should get to choose the goodie to take. He chose a star watch that came out of a Happy Meal.

I'm still holding out for the cache that holds diamonds in it but I'm told not to lose any sleep over it.

We had a great time and discovered a great family activity that's free and easily accessible. Well, if you don't count the cost of a GPS. However, Matt and Susie graciously left us their old one until we can find the funds for a new one with a Geocaching feature.

Cody is now obsessed with this and has spent nights on the computer trying to decide which is the best system to buy. He sometimes finds caches in the morning before he goes into work, on his lunch hour, and he and Owen go out a lot together. Cam is still kind of little for it so he and I don't go as much. Although we all went out last weekend for a bit and I found my first one. Ok, so it was in plain sight and I saw it before I even got out of the car but I'm still counting it.

Thanks to Matt and Susie for showing us a great time!

Fun Times with Good Friends

Imagine our surprise when, a few months ago, our good friends, Matt and Susie, called and said they wanted to spend their family vacation in Iowa this summer. We don't exactly have people knocking down our door coming to visit us so we were in complete shock when, not only did they want to come visit, they wanted to use precious summer vacation time to do it. We were so excited about having visitors other than our parents and couldn't wait to have Matt, Susie, and their great kids, Dominic (6), Gianna (4), and Philip (2) at our house for an extra-long weekend. Owen was beside himself with excitement!

For those of you who don't know (or who have mom-nesia like me and can't remember anything), Cody grew up with Susie and her brothers and sister. Although the O'Brien household was already packed to the brim with 5 children, the O'Briens treated Cody like he was one of their own. There was even one year that Mama O'Brien insisted Cody be in their family picture! When all the kids met Matt in high school, Susie started dating him and he become one of Cody's best friends. The best part about this is that now our children have another set of grandparents, and a host of aunts, uncles, and cousins, who are all very special to us. They are the kind of friends who are more like family than friends and those are just the best kind of friends to have!

Matt, Susie, and the kids arrived on a Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. We packed the weekend with lots of activites and both the kids and the adults had a great time! Our first stop was the Science Center of Iowa, located in Des Moines, where the kids had an entire afternoon of hands-on, scientific fun!

Owen tries to operate a crane



Philip tried his hand at it, too.

They even had a train table there and you know my children gravitated to it like they were being pulled by some sort of magnetic force toward it. They can spot a train table from a mile away!

Gianna enjoyed a little lego-building time with her daddy, Matt.

The oldest of the bunch, Dominic, showed us just how big he is really getting!

What a face! And this little guy has a personality to match it! He is so cute and funny!

This was, without a doubt, Cameron's favorite activity of the day. It was a spiral thing with golf balls. You put the golf balls in the top and watch them spin around to the bottom. He could have stayed there all day!

Owen and Gianna behind the curtain getting ready to put on a puppet show. These two are only a few days apart and are just so darn cute together!

Gianna hanging out in a tube. She might be the only girl in the bunch, but she can hold her own with those boys!

Dominic does his best to reel in a big one!

Uncle Matt helping Owen and Gianna measure their fish that they "caught."

Cameron plays with Lego blocks bigger than he is!

A great time was had by all! I have so many good photos of our weekend together that I decided to split them up into a few different posts. Stay tuned for more!

The (Not So) Big One

As you may recall, Cody and Owen have been fishing a few times this summer. I can't remember exactly how many times they've been out, but they have been pretty unsuccessful in their attempts at actually hooking a fish. Leave it to my husband to research something in order to improve his chances. He asked friends with fishing experience and even went online and did some researching. In this week of research, he discovered that he had been using the wrong kind of bait. (And maybe even some other tips as well that went in one ear and out the other when he told me about them. Bait is the only one I can remember right now because, you know, I've got bigger fish to fry. Pun intended.) So, armed with his new bait and other tips as well as a bit of determination and just plain excitement, they set out once again to catch a fish. And lo and behold:



Owen caught one on his first try! It's the only one they've caught all summer and was about the size of my big toe, but they caught one!



I really wish I could have been there to see Cody take it off the hook but someone had to stay home and make good use of the air conditioning we pay so much money for. And I figure, might as well be me!

Before heading out, they went on a little nature hike, another one of their favorite things to do this summer. We've tried it as a family but it's just not really Cameron's thing just yet.



So hopefully next summer there'll be another cutie on the bench next to Owen! But for now, you'll just have to settle for pics of the big guys.



He's a little more hairy than the cutie I was referring to above, but he's still cute nonetheless. ;)

A Cold Day in July

Grandma Lynn came to celebrate the 4th of July with us this year. Newton has a parade every year, with activities following the parade on the Square downtown. It was pretty rainy and gloomy that morning when we woke up so I decided to hang back with Cameron during the parade because I didn't feel like chasing a newly-walking toddler in the rain. So off to the parade went Daddy, Grandma, and Owen. About 10 minutes later Cody returned for blankets. Yes, you read that correctly. They needed blankets. In July. While I had noticed that it was rainy and gloomy, I didn't stick my head out the door to see that it was 63 degrees! And I had sent my baby boy out in shorts and a t-shirt.

Of course, when Daddy is heading up the activity, he rolls a little differently than Mom. I would have brought Owen back and put him in warmer clothes, or at the very least taken warmer clothes to change him into when I went back for blankets. Alas, a Dad can't be bothered with such details and could not spare the 5 minutes it would have taken to get the extra clothes for Owen. Thus, the slightly blue tint in his lips.



Shivers and all, they seemed to enjoy the parade and Owen ended up with about the same amount of candy he gets on Halloween. All of which will take him at least a year to eat, and most of it will go in the trash. The good thing was that they took the time to head back when it was over to change into warmer clothes. Cam and I got suited up in our jeans and jackets and headed back out with them.

There wasn't a whole lot to do on the square but the "Smiley Face Train," which is at nearly every Newton event, was there. Owen has asked to ride this train at every local event for the last couple of years. We usually try to distract him from it because the line is SO long. But there was no distracting him this year. So wait in the line, we did.






And he throughly enjoyed it. Meanwhile, Cam stayed warm, happy, and well-fed in his stroller.





The only catch to this is that you have to keep the stroller moving at all times. So while Owen and I waited in line, Dad and Cameron strolled around the Square.

Next it was off to a small games section where you could buy tickets, play some silly games, and win even sillier, useless prizes. Owen did a "Go Fish" game, a game just like Bozo's "Grand Prize" game (where they finally had to just give him the prize because he couldn't hit that bucket to save his life.), and my personal fave, petting a rabbit.



Why is this my fave? Because you get close-up interaction with an animal and you don't have to bring home a useless prize that will eventually end up in the trash.

After all that fun we decided to head over and get some overpriced fair food. Owen and I split some of his new favorite food--nachos.



And while we ate we watched some polka/square dancers (I'm really not sure of their official title) break it down. They were about 12 women to about 4 men so Owen decided he would autioned for them.

Alas, no one stopped to sign him up. I kept trying to get Cody to join their ranks but he balked at the idea of tight, white polyester pants and red checked shirts. I still have no idea why.

Soon after, we headed out and had a relaxing afternoon at home. And wouldn't you know, the next day was nice and warm again! Daddy, Grandma, and Owen got out and enjoyed a little nature, while Cameron and I stayed home and enjoyed the glory that is air conditioning.

Of course, no 4th would be complete without a few fireworks. Our town did them on Sunday night this year (don't ask why) so while Daddy put Cameron to bed, Owen and I threw on our jackets, grabbed a blanket and some snacks and headed out to see some fireworks! We found a great spot to throw our blanket down and we had a rare Mommy/Owen night that we both thoroughly enjoyed.



The fireworks show was great and the company was even better. Maybe next year Daddy and Cameron will get to join us!

Where in the world are the Muhses?!

I know, I know, I've been a little MIA for the last few weeks. Where have I been? Basically just enjoying the summer with my boys! We've had visitors, gone to the pool a few times, visited some parks, done some geocaching (Cody and Owen's new favorite thing to do together), played outside, made over a few rooms in the house (complete with wood-working and painting projects for Cody and I respectively), had a few appointments for Cameron, and Cody and I each even got to have a weekend with our friends! Add on the normal day-to-day upkeep of the house and parenting in general and you have a summer packed to the brim! I have had such good intentions after we get the boys to bed each night to head down and punch out a few good blog posts. I've even written them in my head numerous times. But exhaustion always gets the best of me and I end up in a daze on the couch watching a bit of TV, then heading to bed so I can wake up and do it all over again the next day.

But I'm getting the blog itch again, so I'm going to work hard this week to start documenting all this great fun we've been having. I have discovered that not only is this blog a great way to share our lives with our family and friends (aka The Twelve People Who Still Read This Blog) but it has also turned into sort of a personal/family journal for me. I love looking back at all the old posts and seeing things I almost forgot that we did! I'm even planning to print it all out in a book form to preserve for years to come. But first, I need to make something worth preserving!

So stay tuned for lots of Muhs summer fun! In the meantime, here's a little glimpse of two of the cutest boys ever! (But I'm not biased or anything.)