Mom finally made the video

And there is another one in the works!  

Owen's take on the Florida Trip

I, Owen Christopher, just had to tell you all about my first vacation.   Everyone told me I was such a good boy that if I keep it up, I'll get to go on lots more of these vacation things.  First we got up very very early in the morning (I'm used to this but mom and dad seemed to be dragging), it was freezing cold out and I was happy when we got inside a place called an airport.  We stood in a few lines then we got on this little tube and went up in the air for a few hours.   Mom said my ears might hurt and forced me to have a bottle when we took off (my life is tough - forced eating!) but I didn't feel a think and then I slept against mom most of the trip.  I did take a short break to be held by dad and in that time I peed through my diaper and onto Daddy's jeans so it looked like he peed too - we both laughed about that.  When we got out of the tube it was warm and sunny and Gigi and Aunt Whitney were there.  We had a happy reunion, then

 got a car and headed to a place called Venice.  In Venice we pulled up to this cozy little house with another cute little Dog named PJ who was about the same size as Sapphire but brown and a little gentler.  At this house I also saw Aunt Jen again and met my great gramma and great grampa.  They were very nice to me.   They held me and made silly noises for me.  They took me to the beach and this great restaurant called Sharky's.  And they even bought me a rose in the front of their church and gave me a cool giraffe painting right off their wall.  I rewarded them for all their niceness with lots of smiles and giggles (Mom says she'll finished editing the videos and post it soon but she says she's gonna do all sorts of things so I'll believe it when I see it).  

Most of all I just wanted to report that I really like my great grandparents and these things called vacations (and it was fun to see my Gigi and aunts again too - especially when they fed me in the middle of the night). 

 

Aunt Jen a special thanks for helping me learn how to read - my mom and dad read to me but they don't think I'm old enough to read for myself! 

 

Owen touches the Ocean!

First his toes touched the dry sand "Mmmm nice, can't wait until I can walk in this stuff!"

 

Then his toes touched the wet sand, "Hmmm this stuff is sticky and a little chilly, I'm not sure how I feel about it"  

Then the water lapped his feet (the gulf is about 65 degrees right now) "Brrr, this stuff is not nice.  Waaaaa, I want my little plastic bathtub back." 

New Mode of Transportation

Owen has pretty much mastered travel by front carrier, stroller and car so we decided to add a few more. We took Owen on a plane ride to Florida to meet his great grandparents (and to get us all some needed sleep and sunshine!).  He did great on the plane...sucked down his bottle on takeoff to keep his ears equalized and then pretty much slept in the Bjorn the rest of the time.  We can only hope he'll repeat this behavior on future (longer) flights.   

Who is this Santa guy?

Owen says "Please tell him I've been a good boy and to get that furry thing away from my face".  At least that's what mom interprets his expression to say!

Winter Baby

The first little bits of snow were in the air so Owen was suited up and ready...the toboggan is next!

Look what Rugrat Mom learned to do

Some people might have wondered if I'd hone domestic skills like cooking and cleaning while on maternity leave for 6 months.  The answer is a definitive No!  I do cook a bit more but nothing fancy!  And luckily we can still afford our monthly cleaning help so most of the hard stuff is saved for her!   But I haven't just been sitting around eating bon bons (I do watch Oprah though)!  The "domestic" skills I've honed seem to be focused our baby care (nursing while doing numerous other things, how to give baths without tears, etc etc) and also life skills like video editing and now some advanced photo editing skills.   All for the benefit of the blog readers and someday Owen will be glad too!  Check out my newest trick!  You'll see more of this in the future!

Thanksgiving is over, get ready for Christmas!

Nancy and I were quick to shift gears and start getting in the spirit.  While Matt and Bill installed a ceiling fan in Owens room, Nancy and I kept Owen out of their hair by taking him to the Christmas exhibit at the Conservatory.

Lots to give thanks for!

 

We have so much to be thankful for this holiday.  Most of all our happy, healthy son and our wonderful friends and families.  We happily spent our first holiday ever in our own home.  Matt's parents came out and everyone had lots of quality Owen time.  We got some things done around the house, Bill walked Sapphire a lot (which she badly needed) and we saw the Rockettes Christmas extravaganza and Rugrat mom & dad had their first real date since Owen joined the family.  All in all it was a great Thanksgiving and I now have a killer, EASY recipe for cooking turkey breast in the crock pot (just in case any of you were fooled into thinking I cooked a whole bird!)

Stomach Stretched!

Our friends Anne Marie and Matt host a tradition pre-Thanksgiving "stretch your stomach" party and with delicious prime rib and all the yummy sides it is always a successful event!  We enjoyed all the food this year and introducing Owen to even more new friends.  He's met a lot of babies about his size (or a little bigger) and he's met lots of adults but I don't think he really knew that humans also came in middles sizes...until this party.  2 year old Derek and 5 year old Grace both love babies and were anxious to befriend Owen and therefore he was introduced to middle size humans!  

Rugrat Mom has a birthday

Yep, it was that time of year again and we celebrated a nice quiet birthday at home.  Gigi sent Matt the name candles to put on the cake he baked (ha ha, or the very yummy gourmet desserts that he bought!).  I think at this point letters are better than numbers.  Rugrat dad bought me a warm one piece pajama suit so Owen and I can be twins!  He also came through with tickets to a play (with babysitter arrangements) and a gift certificate for a massage!! Owen made me a card and gave me a nice frame with a picture of us in it...I think he had some help but I love it no matter what!  I've been wearing my birthday jacket a lot so thanks to Gigi, Jen & Whit for that.  You'll probably see it in upcoming blog pictures.  And ditto for the warm sweater from Dad & Mary Ann too!  Thanks to all for the birthday wishes and gifts!  I'm enjoying my little wiggling, giggling gift the most!  

Cleveland visitors

Amy and Andrew were in town and came to check out little Owen.  He let them hold him but didn't want them to see his face (maybe he's worried about them picking him out in a lineup later in life - who knows)

Dougie & Grammy visit

  Owen has officially met all his grandparents now!  And one great-grandparent!  Quite a feat for an 11 week old.   And he should add 4 more great grands to the list before he turns 4 months!  Dougie and Grammy (Mary Ann), as they have chosen to be called, came all the way from Boston to see Owen for a long weekend.  We had so much fun - we had waffles the market, we took some hikes in the woods, Dougie held Owen and tested to make sure all his silly voices still worked, Grammy was persuaded by Matt to do his middle of the night feeding a few times for extra bonding with Owen!   We all attended a fund raiser party for one of our friends at the Observatory.  Its was a cool old building and had a huge telescope ([picture below]too bad we couldn't test it out because it was rainy).  We all had fun and the band was good so we took turns dancing with Owen while he's too young to be embarrassed by us.  It was a great weekend and we're so glad Dougie and Grammy made the trip!

    

Look who has hair!

Our Autumn Baby

All the way from Costa Rica

Debbie & Brady were back in town and got a chance to meet Owen before he visits there house in February where it better be warm and sunny!   Debbie just loved holding Owen!  And gave him a very cute "poop on Michigan" onesie (it's an Ohio State thing) that Owen wore to happy hour (I thought I took a picture of that too but can't find it so maybe not!).  Thanks for visiting on your busy visit, Debbie & Brady and we'll see you soon in the tropics!

Fairport "Aunties"

Last weekend, even more people travelled great distances to see Owen.  2 of my girlfriends from high school flew in for a weekend of baby holding and chatting on the couch.  Self-dubbed "aunties" Liz and Betsy both seemed to enjoy meeting Owen and helping me care for him.  Owen was an angel when we took him up the street to try out our new African restaurant (which got thumbs up from all of us, including Betsy who just returned from 5 months in Rwanda).  And he enjoyed his quiet nighttime feedings with Betsy and Liz so Daddy got 2 full nights of sleep in a row (lucky Daddy).  The weather was brisk but sunny so Owen bundled up and took Liz and Betsy on a tour of our local park...I want a fuzzy hat like that (maybe minus the bear ears!).  And a picture of Sapphire, showing off her good balance - we do still love her even in the world of Owen!  

Pringles Can Revisited

At 2 months, Owen dwarfs the Pringles can that rivaled his size at birth!  Keep eating buddy...get on those charts!  He weighed in at 8#3oz and 21inches this past Wednesday that puts him in the 3 percentile range!

Trick-or-Treat

Owen had a busy Halloween and seemed to enjoy it all.  Party #1 was at my work (its ok to go back for the fun stuff!).  The big plan was for Owen to be the busy buzzing bee and I was going to be the flower for him to rest on.   Owen was a successful bee but my costume never materialized (guess this is just a preview of things to come!).  Everyone enjoyed seeing Owen and he was even temporarily adopted by Sarah Palin and her body guard to try to help salvage their campaign (even his cute little face wasn't enough help!).   After party #1 we came home, met Dad and headed to party #2 - the neighborhood bash.  Owen was actually awake for most of this party and Dad got to make lots of buzzing sounds since Owen hasn't quite mastered that syllable yet.   Then Owen went trick-or-treating.  He only made it to one house but he dive bombed into the candy bowl as if it was a big juicy daisy.   Then the little bee crashed, he slept soundly on mom's shoulder while we gave out candy to about 240 trick-or-treaters!   It was a fun day and he slept well...no sugar high for Owen this year but next year will certainly be a different story! 

Great Gigi (that's Gigi's mom)

Great Gigi knit a special blue blanket for Owen long before he was born.   Here he is showing it off.  Owen will get to meet Great Gigi and Great Grandpa in Florida next month and maybe he will even put his foot in the chilly ocean and he'll definitely eat at Sharky's on the Pier! 

Hip,hip, hurray...Gigi's back!

Gigi just couldn't wait until Christmas to see Owen again so she jumped on an airplane and stayed for another week.  Owen enjoyed seeing her so much that he decided to write the rest of this post!  I'm so lucky that my Gigi came again to see me.  She does all the things that my parents do (like feed me and rock me), but she talks to me the whole time and boy does she say nice things (I love that)!  She says it's because she gets more sleep than my parents, and because she likes to talk almost as much as she likes peanut M&Ms (I don't know what those are yet but I can't wait to find out).  My parents made Gigi work hard when she was here but she didn't complain. She had to babysit me at the soccer field, give me a bottle, rock me and watch Sapphire (at the same time!).  Even when Daddy gave her a break and held me, Gigi sat close to him to make sure he didn't drop me.  What a Gigi! 

 The highlight of Gigi's visit, according to my mom, was the day that we "shopped till we dropped".  I slept through all of it so I have to pay more attention next time to understand what shopping is and if I like it.   All I know is now mommy's closet is more full and she is happier when trying to find things to wear (everyone is still jealous of my extensive wardrobe especially all my warm fuzzy sleepers!).  My only memory of this shopping experience was being fed in a small room that mommy called a fitting room, where all the clothes were black and white (which I loved because I can see them best)...I remember eating right along and then everything went black.  Mommy told me later that I fell fast asleep right in her lap in the fitting room and then they took pictures of me.  They are so silly but I do love them, especially Gigi!