This drum roll has gone on obnoxiously long and we apologize. A while back we promised pictures and the name announcement for our new little guy but we have gotten WAY behind!

We have decided to name our new son Owen Seth Kolb. We chose Owen for a variety of reasons. We both really liked the name to begin with. Seth had a youth leader in junior high and high school who made a big impact on his life. His name was Owen Payne. He passed away from cancer. One of my favorite patients when I worked in Early Childhood Intervention was Owen.  So we both had an affinity for the name. Thus, Owen! And Seth of course because of his amazing daddy!

If you had seen Jackson over the past month or so he would have given away the surprise of the name. He frequently talks about his brother Owen and often checks in to ask if Owen is sleeping or playing in my tummy. When there is a really loud noise he will say “too loud for Owen!”.

Here are the most recent pictures!

19 Weeks

21 Weeks

23 Weeks

The next 4 are of Owen at 19 weeks.

As of yesterday Owen is doing great! He is moving all of the time to let us know he is doing well. He is 27 weeks old tomorrow. Time flies! Pray that he stays cozy in there for a while longer! We have had anxiety with traveling and just want to make it safely to my doctor in DC!

We lose internet in a matter of minutes.  We lose our U.S. phone at the same time.  We fly out from Bogota in a matter of hours.

Almost two years ago, we arrived in Bogota.  Married less than two years.  With a two-month old.  We leave Bogota having been married for almost four years, with a two-year old, and one on the way (around Christmas).

Due to the internet being cut off pronto, we won’t go into too many details and reflect too much.  But we’ve enjoyed our time, made a lot of memories, and met some very special people.  At the same time, we can’t wait to get back to the United States.  Where our home and family are.  Where we feel comfortable and understand the language.  And where the food is fantastic.

So with this post, we let everyone know that we’ve G.T.T. (Gone To Texas) and we’ll be posting more about our soon-to-be-born boy and the rest of our travels.

We went for a well-check on Jackson’s birthday. Here are his current measurements!

Weight: 30 lbs

Height: 37.8 inches

Head circum: 19.29 inches

He’s a big boy! Everyone keeps saying he will slow down on height but we haven’t seen that yet! He is finally in clothes that are equivalent to his age which is nice because for quite awhile he was way ahead of the sizes!

Jackson is enjoying new “big boy” activities  like getting to use markers, playing with stickers and paper, helping with things around the house and most of all he loves playdoh. He loves to run and climb and will often say “I’m fast, mommy” and “ready, set, go”.

He is speaking his mind often and some of his latest lines he uses are “no thank you”, “in 6 mins” (we think he gets this from us saying “in 5 mins we are….”). The other night he found spinach in his pasta and said “yuck, it’s a flower”. We had never even heard him say the word “yuck”. This morning he pretended to call his Nama on the phone. He picked up the phone and said “Nama,  hi, I’m here. Yea, hello. No answer. Not here.” I just sat back and listened. Before his birthday he kept saying “birthday, soon” “clown”, “birthday cake”. He had a mental record of everything from previous parties he had attended. Luckily at his party he didn’t ask where the clown was!

Jackson is starting to talk about the baby and knows he is the “big bruder”. When we ask where his brother he is comes over and looks for the baby in my belly.  It will sure be a shock with the new baby but we think he will be a great big brother!

On Thursday we celebrated Jackson’s actual birthday and then yesterday we had a party with friends.

On Thursday, Seth got to take the day off using some comp time he had built up from the 4th of July  that he has to use before we leave so that was a HUGE treat. Jackson started his day by falling/jumping out of his crib.  I guess it was his first 2 yr milestone! For breakfast he got to open the birthday box and found a chocolate sprinkles doughnut from Dunkin Donuts!!

(the birthday box is a family tradition in our house where we put something special inside and the birthday person gets to open it at breakfast on their birthday)

The rest of the day we spent going to the doctor for Jackson’s well-check, we went to a neighbors pool to swim and Jackson got to open a few gifts from his cousins and from us!  Another highlight was talking to grandparents and cousins! It was so nice to see family. We especially miss our families when we are celebrating special family events from a distance! Skype helps! 

Jackson’s gift from us was a Fisher-Price boom box with a microphone. He jumped right in!

One tired birthday boy!!!

Yesterday we celebrated with friends! We had lots of yummy “American food” and Jackson enjoyed playing with his friends. All day when people would ask Jackson how old he was he kept saying 4! He knows he’s 2 so

I think he thought it was funny!

we filled Jackson’s water table with raw pasta, rice and beans and the kids dug for little farm animals.

for lunch we had sloppy joe’s , bakes beans, veggies and chips with dips and fruit salad. We had mini bagel pizzas for the kiddos! Since we can’t get baked beans here everyone congregated and tooked multiple helpings of baked beans!

Barnyard cake!

getting some help with blowing candle out!

Jackson did a great job saying thank you to his friends but after he opened his last gift I said, “Jackson, say thank you” and he looked at the gift giver and kind of growled and funny exasperated “thank you”

Happy Birthday, Jack! We love you tons!

(PS- we have decided on a name for our new little boy…..stay posted for pictures and for his name!!!)