life with oz

Painting just like Papa

2007-03-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

It's a challenge to keep Owen out of Brian's studio while he's trying to paint, so we bought him some finger paints of his own. Instead of using his fingers, however, Owen insisted on one of his Papa's paint brushes. Check out more Owen photos here.

Football Fanatic

2007-03-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

Owen loves to throw, here he's playing catch with his Grandpa Marv - throwing the football and then refusing to catch it.

Valentine's Day = Snow

2007-03-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

After last year's no snow winter the Valentine's Day Blizzard was a welcome suprise even if it meant digging out our cars and front door from under a 4 ft wide and 5ft tall wall of snow. On the left you will see that the snow more than covers half the first floor of our house. On the right, Owen looks out our picture window at a wall of snow. Check out more snow photos here.

Owen's New Boots

2006-08-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Owen is starting to like shoes and has also grown out of his existing pairs or worn the tread off of them. So we picked up this pair of boots the other day. Owen loves them - although he would have preferred them in red. He kept grabbing for the red mary janes and a larger pair of red boots when we were at the store. Here he is showing off his new boots before taking off across the parking lot.

Going for a Hike

2006-08-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

Owen's been hiking since month 2 of his life. Mostly with us carrying him in a backpack or a frontpack, but lately he's been interested in walking on his own. Here are a couple of photos of him with his hiking stick - a trick he learned from Grandma Jean and Grandpa Keith.

Bling, Bling!

2006-08-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

First it started with my hair ties... Owen would take them off my wrist or find them in the bathroom and wear them around as bracelets. Then I came home with some costume jewelry from my sewing class - the neckless you see pictured here. First Owen only twirled it around, but eventually he put it on. Not everyday is a bling, bling day (Brian's term for shiny accessories), but some days Owen likes to dress up to go out and play.

Our New House

2006-07-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

One of the upstairs bedrooms...

The view into the living room...

Our cool new kitchen...

The outside...

We started looking again for a house to buy a few weeks ago. This was the second house we looked at. Before leaving that day we put a bid on it and they accepted the next day. We still have a ways to go, but everything is looking good. So hopefully by mid-September we'll be new home owners and no long rent payers! Yahoo!

Two cars are sometimes better than one

2006-07-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

A few days before his birthday in April, two giant boxes arrived containing two very similar push cars as you can see above. They both have buttons that can be pushed to make noise. At first we were a bit overwhelmed, it wasn't yet nice enough to spend every waking moment out doors and our apt is really small etc. But then we realized that these would be the perfect play toys for days when Sargent comes over to play. That day has finally arrived and our lives as babysitters for two one year olds just got a whole lot easier.

Mama's Little Reader

2006-07-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

On our way back from the library last week Owen asked for one of his books (pointing and grunting). So I passed it back. As we came up the hill into the driveway, Brian spotted us and rushed to grab the camera to check out Owen's new reading spot.

Ball? Did you say ball?

2006-07-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

Owen loves, I mean loves balls. Doesn't matter the shape or the size, he's fascinated by them. Here he is at the beach with some other kid's football. Not an uncommon occurance. A few weeks ago he and I were just about ready to leave the beach. Owen was tired and rubbing his eyes. Then along came a family with a huge football - professional size. Owen spotted it from half way across the beach and made a beeline for it. Once near the father he pointed and grunted until the football was tossed his direction. Much to my amazement he spent the next fifteen minutes tossing it to the little boy.

Mr. Muscles

2006-07-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

With all his running, throwing, climbing and general mischief, it's no wonder Owen has muscles. Here he is strutting it up at the local beach.

High Chair Acrobatics

2006-07-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Trying to get Owen to sit and eat in his high chair is nearly impossible these days. Like getting Owen to sit and do much of anything these days. Here he's standing as he stuffs his favorite snack in his mouth - Pirate Booty.

A Rare Moment with Owen

2006-07-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Naps these days are sometimes a trying experience unless we wheel Owen around in his chariot. Here he's passed out peacefully under a large tree in our yard.

Papa & Owen

2006-07-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Since Owen spends most of his time at the table standing in his high chair rather than sitting, he usually ends up in our laps. Here he is with Brian.

The Garden: Early July

2006-07-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

A little slow on the photo update, but here's a picture of the garden from early July. At this point the peas are past their prime and the tomatoes are above the stakes you see in the background. Owen loved the peas. He and I would sit on the edge of the bed picking pea pods and popping them into our mouth.

Owen's Words

2006-07-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

During the past couple of weeks actual words have been tumbling out of Owen's mouth. Here's a list of some of the one's we've caught:
Stella
Dog
Ball
Book - Sounds more like ook but is only heard during our reading sessions.
Tractor - Owen rode one for the first time today, and we're told he liked it so much that he cried when it was time to stop riding on it.
Good Throw or Good
Wow! - Usually comes after a good series of throwing and catching
Papa - He's said dada forever and about everything, but this week he started referring to Brian as Papa
Ma - That's me1

There is also a lot of pointing and whining or grunting etc. He also intersperses the pointing with the sign language sign for nursing and holds his hand in the direction of what he wants. Yesterday that happened to be a very pregnant friend of ours who is expecting her own little boy any day now.

Morning Entertainment

2006-07-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, our landlords replaced our pothole ridden asphalt driveway with crushed slate stone. (When it gets potholes you just rake it even again...) At 7:30am 2 huge dump trucks arrived along with a mini CAT scoop. Owen was entralled. So we put his high chair in front of the window so he could watch the machine dig up the driveway while eating his breakfast. If only every morning provided such interesting entertainment.

Owen & Linda

2006-07-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

Linda Goes Back to Work

2006-07-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

and Owen wears Brian out. More specifically wears him down to the point where he allows Owen to destroy an entire box of tissue while he lies comatose on the floor. Did I mention we wanted the rain to GO AWAY!

Rain, Rain Go Away

2006-07-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

So May is the new November here in Vermont. Novembers are known for their dreary, cloudy skies, cold weather and rain. And the past two Mays have been the same way. Fortunately, these details have not deterred Owen's efforts to have fun. With rain comes puddles and Owen loves to walk through them, stomp in them etc.

Goofing Around with Grandpa Marvin

2006-07-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here's Owen sitting on his Grandpa's lap probably after a long stretch of dancing which is all Owen wanted to do while his grandparent's were visiting. Apparently Marvin has the moves that Owen likes.

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles

2006-07-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

This needs no explanation, let your imagination run wild.

Sleeping Through the Night

2006-07-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Christina, my longtime friend from high school came up to visit in May. She has dogs one of whom was a tireless fetcher. While visiting Christina spent hours playing fetch with Owen and he slept through the night twice while she was visiting! We're trying to convince her to come back so we can repeat the sleeping feat!

Rubber Boot Love

2006-07-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

I think since the day Owen started distinguishing between objects he has had a fascination with rubber boots. Especially the colorful ones little kids wear. At the library this winter he would crawl over to them and try to chew on them or grab them. For his birthday his Aunt Sherry and Uncle Don sent him his very own pair. And while they are still a bit big Owen has insisted on wearing at least one of them around the house.

The Wind Up

2006-07-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite memories of my friend Mike is playing frisbee golf in the woods in the snow with him, my friend Jess and his friend Rich. Instead of baskets we aimed for trees and then ran through the snow to pick up our frisbees. Fast forward 4 years Mike and Danielle's going away party. It's drizzling cold rain and folks are outside tossing around frisbee. Owen insists on being in Mike's arms as he catches and throws the frisbee to others. This picture last month is a testament to the fact that while Owen did wear Mike's arm out, he did learn something. Check out that wind up!

Rock Picker

2006-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

We live in New England and there are lots of rocks here. Our backyard has a special rock pile consisting of broken pieces of blacktop which had been dug out of our current garden space. Owen enjoys selecting pieces of blacktop from this pile for inspection. His other backyard hobby is removing the rocks our landlord Mike put in for drainage lanes near the house. And then of course there are the random rocks in our yard. Today we watched Owen stumble through the waist high grass (on him), fall and pick himself back up all while still holding his rock of the moment. He may go down, but the rock will stay with him.

Monkey

2006-05-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

Last month Owen stopped eating cut up pieces of bannana and began asking for the whole thing. So we obligingly began peeling it and handing them over. The non-sticky carrying case was a big hit with the O, who could stomp around the house while eating breakfast. Here he's pictured confined to his high chair, but this is a rare bannana eating experience.

Overwhelmed by birthday

2006-05-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Birthdays come with lots of packaging and after a few days, our house was somewhat overwhelmed by all the padding. Here Brian is seen surrendering to the chaos. As Owen continues hurling the packaging around the kitchen.

Owen's Birthday Cake

2006-05-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

We decided we couldn't pass up the birthday cake first birthday mess. So here's Owen's first birthday cake experience.

Hmmm...What is this?

Hmmmm....I can poke it with my fingers and mom won't tell me no.

So Owen's favorite part of the birthday cake was getting licked clean by our friend's dog Fina. Owen had spent most of the evening trying to get Fina to pay attention to him. And it was only when covered in frosting that he finally got his wish.

The Festivities Begin... Owen Learns Birthdays are Fun

2006-04-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Owen turns one on Sunday. And guess what? We can't believe he's already one. In fact the past year is such a blur that we forget what he was like three months ago much less six months ago. Just like little kids around Christmas we couldn't wait to get to the presents and lo and behold what arrives today but three boxes for the munchkin including the above pictured tot mobile. Owen's pretty excited to have his own little push toy. Especially one that has buttons to make it play music. Stay tuned for more birthday fun!

Mopping up Stella

2006-04-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

Mops come in handy when you have kids. And ours is periodically about after cleaning up Owen's latest entropy expedition. The other day he decided he needed to mop Stella up. Our poor dog was only trying to get at the food Owen flung off his high chair and instead she was chased around the kitchen by a mop wielding munchkin.

Charming the pants off the ladies and pretty much anyone who's conscious

2006-04-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Any of you who've had the opportunity to meet Owen know that he's a big flirt. We walked by our bank today - didn't even go in - and all the tellers were at the window smiling and waving as Owen rolls by in his stroller. Unlike other kids Owen doesn't recline while riding in his SUV stroller. He sits straight up gripping the sides and watching the world intently as it rolls by. And he must be doing some other charming thing because everyone who walks by gives me this big grin like he just made their day. But back to those ladies. Pictured above are two of my friends from college, Shannon and Kathryn hanging out with Owen. Shannon is still smiling despite having just snatched Owen away from her shelf of wine glasses that he was intent on destroying while we visited.

Slides & Stairs

2006-04-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Owen loves to go down the slide, any slide will do of course and nothing is going to stop him from getting there as my friend Kellan learned the other day while hanging out with Owen and I at a busy Boston playground. With kids of all sizes running everywhere Owen ever determined to enter the fray wasted no time in locating the nearest set of stairs on the play structure and heading up them. Kellan was brave enough to go along with Owen into the bustle of kids as he made his way towards a slide. Here's Owen & Kellan on the play structure.

Building Beds...

2006-04-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

My friend Kathryn wrote a few weeks ago to tell me she was coming to visit and to get a "project" ready. When she arrived we almost immediately set out to buy the materials needed to build raised beds for this year's garden. After a few hours of digging and raking we leveled off an old garden patch in the backyard. Kathryn is pictured here standing behind our work.

Next came the container construction. After torturing the guy at the lumber yard for 5 12' boards of fir (the fir boards were at the bottom of a very tall stack of spruce which he had to move by hand), we coaxed my landlord into handsawing one of the boards into 3' pieces. Then we drilled them together, putting stakes in each of the corners to hold the box in the ground.

Next came the filling. We started with a solid layer of last year's leaves which were convienently still frozen in the compost pile. We followed them with several inches of compost - all hand shoveled into the beds. Owen was in heaven thinking we had just created two enormous dirt boxes just for him.

Here he is moving the dirt around with his hands. He was so excited that he kept putting his hands near his mouth giving himself a cute little soul patch. Needless to say baths have become a mandatory end of the day activity at our house.

Owen's First Sushi Experience

2006-04-24T17:56:00.000-07:00

Sticky rice really is sticky as Owen discovered during his first sushi experience. We tried to capture him holding the nori roll, but he tore it apart before we could turn the camera on. He loves seaweed and even more he loves to make a mess.

The Grin

2006-04-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Lately Owen has started to smile like this. Whenever he does it we crack up, only further encouraging the scrunching of the eyes and the broadening of the grin. I captured Owen giving the grin while laughing as he was chasing after me and the camera.

Clean Gums

2006-04-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

I bought Owen a toothbrush about a month ago and he's now an avid tooth brusher. Well, gum brusher. Every morning while I'm brushing my teeth Owen stands next to me rubbing his toothbrush along his gums, sometimes offering it up to me in case my teeth some extra scrubbing. He knows the drill with the toothbrush as well. He shakes his head at me if I don't give him some toothpaste or if I don't rinse it under the tap. Here he is wandering around the house with his toothbrush.

Sarge & The O

2006-04-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Owen and his buddy Sargent (Sarge) are pictured here trying to get outside. We take care of Sargent on Wed. and Owen goes over to his house on Friday's. They play pretty well together. Sarge has taught Owen how to eat and Owen is encouraging Sarge to crawl and walk earlier than he would have otherwise.

The weather until yesterday has been beautiful. We've spent hours at the park going down slides, playing in the sand box, playing with rocks and swinging on the swings. The nice thing about outdoor time is how much it wipes Owen out by the end of the day. At 7:30 he's usually ready for bed. Then again so are we!

Family Portrait

2006-04-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here we are having nearly survived the first year. (Owen's birthday is April 30th). Brian suggested that we throw a party to celebrate making it through the first year of parenthood rather than a birthday bash for Owen who won't remember a thing anyways. But then he changed his mind and decided we really need the picture of Owen's face in the cake. So we'll be sheetcakin' it up at somepoint...

Bald is Beautiful

2006-04-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Owen with his uncle Don at Great Grandpa's 90th Birthday party. Owen spent most of his Florida trip interacting with other people which he loves. Thus the return to Vermont has been quite a shock for both him and us. Where'd all those people go? And what about those great circles in Grandma Jean's house to crawl around and play chase? In desperation today I took him out in the snow - yes it's snowing here. And he was actually taking an interest in the white stuff for the first time. He even walked in it a little bit.

Sharing...

2006-04-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Owen's a social little guy once he gets his bearings. In fact he often enjoys being the life of the party if given the opportunity. And with all the attention he receives, it could make him a bit selfish, but turns out he likes to share. Pictured here he's showing Great-grandma Millie a coaster. And just now he was handing me his wooden car.

At 90 Still Playing in the Sand

2006-04-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Florida was scheduled to celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday. Still in excellent health, he had no trouble playing in the sand with Owen. My grandmother also made it out for a day at the beach and really enjoyed watching Owen play in the sand.

No Fear

2006-04-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Waves tumbling onto shore, foamy white caps in the Gulf of Mexico - this would make some folks a bit timid. Not Owen, he crab walked right into the water, retreating we think only because of the chill hitting his lower half. Given some warmer temperatures we're pretty sure he would have spent the entire day on the water's edge.

Shovels & Sand

2006-04-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Florida was slated to be a shovel, sand and beach extravaganza, but the weather forced a change of plans. We did however venture out to the beach on a couple of occassions - in our sweaters and long sleeve shirts... Owen learned how to weild a shovel for the first time, scooping up sand and flinging it into the wind. He also perfected the art of castle destruction. He's our pale godzilla.

owen the intellectual

2006-03-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-18T13:28:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-03-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-03-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

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.

the happiness of recovery

2006-02-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

We've been sick for what seems like forever, hence the lack of posts. We figured you didn't want to see the red, swollen eyes, runny noses and general glassy eyedness we were displaying the past couple of weeks. But the plague is finally leaving us and the smiles have returned.

over, under and through

2006-02-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

When Owen's on the move, there's nothing that can stop him. He hurls toys out of his way as he races to his destination, usually Stella, the bathroom or the refrigerator. Lately he's taken to crawling over our legs as we sit on the floor as well as crawling into the space between the legs of the high chair as pictured here.

into everything...

2006-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

Owen loves to open and close the cabinet doors...actually any door will suffice. And most of the time he even keeps his fingers out of the way. His favorite doors by far are the cabinet doors which he can open and then crawl into.

In love with Avacados

2006-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago we visited our friends Danielle and Mike. At dinner on Saturday night Danielle cut the top off an avacado and started using a spoon to feed it to Owen. By the middle of the following week Owen had rejected the spoon and started grabbing for the avacado itself, shoving his face into the mushiness and occassionally ingesting some of it. Needless to say feeding Owen has taken on a whole new dimension of messiness. After an avacado feeding we usually have to strip him down and submerge him in the bathtub.

new teeth = little sleep

2006-02-07T10:58:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning on a whim I stuck my finger in Owen's mouth to see if any new teeth were coming in on the top. Mother's instinct was right his left top front tooth was poking through the gum. By Monday the edges of three teeth were working their way through Owen's upper gum line. I was wondering why Owen was up nursing every two hours last week. Rumor has it that these are the worst. We're crossing our fingers and looking forward to some more restful nights in the near future.

winner!

2006-02-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

This is Owen's new high chair. He's pretty excited about the opportunity to get super messy while sitting in it. This morning he spent a good 10 minutes pushing the tiny pieces of egg yolk around the tray with his fingers. He's also eating cheerios as well as avocados (why didn't we move to California? We could have had an avocado tree in our backyard and Owen would have had a free source of his favorite food.) Instead we live in the land of maple syrup, which when you think about it really has much more flexibility than an avocado when it comes to the culinary realm. And guess what? It's almost maple syrup season....yum!

look what i've got!

2006-01-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

By far Owen's favorite destination in our house is the recycling bin. With paper, cardboard, bottles and plastic containers there's no end to the fun and trouble Owen can get into. As a result of his adventures he's developed a taste for beer bottles - the cool glass is nice to put against his gums.

Here he grins for the camera with his find.

streakin'

2006-01-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

Lately at bedtime as Owen changes from his overalls to his pjs he's been taking off across the house with only his socks on. Here are a few shots of his adventures

breakin' the law

2006-01-27T11:30:00.000-08:00

we have hideous wallpaper in our kitchen. those of you who've visited know this and have commented on it. brian and i have a color all picked out to paint the walls, but we're waiting for a 3 day thaw so we can air out the house after we paint. in the interim it has crossed my mind to get a head start by ripping off the wallpaper. last week owen took matters into his own hands and started the process. apparently the teacups were too much for him. we're only hoping he finishes by april.

that same day owen was entertaining himself with the telephone while brian and i took a break from trying to interest him in his toys. in his enthusiasm to make the phone beep and light up he dialed 911 and then moved onto some other activity. a minute or so later the phone made a loud "i'm off the hook" sound and we hung it up. it promptly rang and a very nice woman explained she was from 911 and they were sending an officer out to our house to check things out.

it's been a week, but owen is recovering nicely from his phone addiction.

owen's red-headed cohorts

2006-01-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned to many of you that I've been babysitting for my midwife's son's Finn and Harmon who also happen to be Owen's favorite truck-wielding and castle-building playmates. Finn, proudly defends his truck castle as Owen races over to knock it down. Harmon is blinded by the flash in foreground. Me, I'm impressed with the little amount of time it takes for the three of them to completely destroy the living room.

Look who's a big boy now...

2006-01-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

These days it seems whenever I want to drink some water or tea or eat some food, Owen appears and starts motioning for his share of whatever I have. He's not always sure what to do with the water he gets from my glass, but he certainly loves to try it out. Now that he's started pulling himself up on things, his favorite position to eat is standing and lunging for the spoon. (No we haven't invested in a highchair as of yet. We're hoping one will magically turn up in our lives so we can once again leave the house w/o orange sweet potato stains decorating our clothing. )

the diaper chronicles

2006-01-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Owen hates to have his diaper changed these days. Lying on his back waiting while we attempt to remove the soiled diaper, clean the bottom and reapply a new diaper is just too much wasted play time for our little guy. So when he's not screaming bloody murder (yes, he does make it sound like we are torturing him or at least that's what the neighbors must think), he's rolling over and crawling off to more interesting parts of the room grinning like he's gotten away with another cookie out of the cookie jar.

Coming to Get 'Ya

2006-01-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

Oz is on the move these days, crawling through the house at breakneck speeds. His favorite destinations include: the cd rack, Stella's dogfood dish and the recycling bin.

Welcome to Oz

2006-01-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Rather than bombarding you with 50 photos at once, we thought we'd try a different route to providing photos and info. about Owen's life and our adventures in parenting. Our hope is to update this once a week on Thursday or Friday w/ a little news and some photos. So check back at the end of each week.