owen the intellectual

I made the mistake several months ago of teaching Owen how to take off my glasses. Since then I haven't worn them much because they are such a distraction for the munchkin. But it turns out Owen looks good in them...

Happy Baby Returns

For those of you who talk to us on a regular basis you will have heard that we were all sick most of February with some horrid disease. Then Owen's last front tooth came in causing him intense pain. This was followed last week by some mysterious rash on his head and torso. I personally was on my way to insanity and I'd almost forgotten what a cute little kid we have. And then my happy baby returned...playing chase with us, laughing, babbling, and generally having a good time. Such a good time that he's started taking steps on his own. This morning at the library he was so fascinated by a little girl his own height that he took 4 side steps to get a closer look at her. Above my happy baby is trying out his new teeth on my shoe.

Playing with Food

Most babies like to make a mess of their food in their high chairs, but Owen prefers to go after the food in the refridgerator. His favorites are the condiment bottles and the crisper drawers. The drawers opened above are his doing - big strong baby. He also spends a fair amount of time opening the broiler drawers on the oven and then of course shutting them- a habit he didn't learn from me...

Anything with Buttons

Owen loves to play with anything that has buttons making me wonder what babies did before the advent of the button or better yet the door. Owen spends half his life fascinated by the opening and closing of doors. I suppose it's a control thing - his ability to make the object open or close at will. For awhile he was shutting himself in the bathroom and then talking to us from behind the closed door. It was kind of funny because when we're in the bathroom with him he's always trying to get into things we don't want him to, like the waste basket. (We'd been sick for 2 weeks in mid-February when he got ahold of the wastebasket and started playing with all the gross tissues. Trying to explain cause and effect to a 9 month old is pretty much futile so I settled with no.) But when he's in there by himself he mostly just trys to talk to us. But back to the buttons...we listen to a lot of music and Owen is starting to make the connection between the cd player and the tunes. When it was unplugged the other day I let him go at it.

chasing stella

owen's favorite activity by far is figuring out how to pass through barriers and get at our dog stella. stella has given up running away and allows the little monster to pull her fur. the fur pulling is usually accompanied by bouncing up and down and a grin that spreads from ear to ear. needless to say stella is up for the patience of the year award. owen, well he's learning the art of the airlift - being picked up by the back of his clothes and hoisted back behind the chair barrier. note for other parents: airlifts only work when child is in a one piece outfit.

brian sells his first painting!

take a good look, cause this is the only picture we have of his crows. other paintings have been spoken for as well and brian is still producing them. to view the newest ones visit http://linda.protest.net/gallery. pictured here are owen, sharon, peter and brian.

owen love's papa's art too!

mom's not the only one excited about papa's return to art - those white walls were getting old - owen is also into the art thing. ideally he would like to help brian paint, but watercolors aren't on the safe toys list. until then owen settles with the opportuninty to smack brian's paintings with his open palms while yelling excitedly. here he is caught in the act.

concentration

with movement comes exploration and occassionally moments of intense concentration. "how does this thing work?" "what's in this book and how do i turn these pages?" "how do i get into that cabinet? mom just did it, but she closed it before i could speed crawl over there." these moments are especially precious because they are often accompanied by silence. and sometimes it's nice to just be quiet and figure something out.

oatie o's the game

owen started eating oatie o's -the organic version of cheerios. he often stuffs more than one in his mouth and then lets them melt on his tongue. he also spends a lot of time smashing them, throwing them on the ground, and looking for them as you see here. we had his old carseat in the kitchen for a few days and he crawled up into it almost immediately. so i gave him so oatie o's while i made dinner. here he is looking for the ones he dropped in his lap.

like father like son

guess the old adage has some merit. oz is quite the ham as is his papa. here the two of the them are pictured entertaining mom. in addition to making us laugh, oz also likes to wax poetic or at least we're hoping it's poetry because it sounds like russian and we don't speak it. while he's orating, he often holds his hand in the air, sometimes with finger pointed to make sure we really get his point.