Eggs, Huh?

They look funny.


They smell funny.


They taste funny.


I like 'em.

The Discovery Of Dirt

The day we put Owen in the swing we also let him play around in the dirt a little. Seeing a baby in dirt is great. There is a confused and excited sense of the unknown. It's funny too because they try to put everything in their mouths so Owen just grabbed a handful of dirt, sand, twigs and whatever else and went straight for the mouth. It was a fun preview of things to come when you have a little boy.


My God, this stuff is everywhere.


And you can pick it up!


I officially love dirt.


Okay, I'm not getting this. Why wouldn't you want to eat dirt?


I just discovered dirt, I have Mom's arms around me and my trusty twig at my side; this could work.

Pinnacle Peak

We made it up north this weekend to a park called Pinnacle Peak. It was fun to get away from our bubble for a little while, even if it was only about 45 minutes away. This was one of the more affluent areas (or at lease a concentration of people who feel the need to publicly display their affluence) and there was a ton of eye candy for me. Eye candy for me, of course, is cars not women with cosmetic enhancements (of which there was a disturbing abundance). I saw at least six Ferraris, a Lamborghini, countless top-of-the-line Lexi, Bimmers and Benzos, but the crown jewel for me was that I saw my first live Nissan GT-R. And it was good. Any-hoo, enough of the car talk, we had a good time and I got some (although not as many as I would have liked/thought) good shots of the scenery.


Owen and Carrie hanging out while I take photos.


These rock formations are kind of cool, but I think you loose scale of them when they're crazy big like this.


This is the top of Pinnacle Peak.


These guys were everywhere. I like them because they give the rocks scale and make them more interesting.


This is probably my favorite shot of the day, ironic because we went up to get some shots of rocks. Isn't that how it is though?

Nine-Month Check-Up

We had Owen's 9 month check up yesterday. It went well. He is about 19 lbs and 32 inches. Tall and skinny, that's how things are shaping up. Also, we're going to start physical therapy because he's a little behind and it will show us ways to work with him to help him out. It will take about a week to get all that set up with referrals and insurance and such, but we're very much looking forward to it. Other than that, pretty normal stuff. His doctor is really happy with how he's growing and developing cognitively and everything looks good.

Mommy's Little Piggy

We made mashed potatoes the other night and decided to give Owen some. I tried to feed him with a spoon but that was going nowhere quick so we let him have a crack at it. He had a good time and I think he even got some of the potatoes into his mouth.


Owen licking the wrong side of the bowl.


In his defense, the outside had the same amount of potatoes as the inside.


Cuteness and messiness causing conflicting feelings.

And for those of you with a keen eye, you'll notice this is Owen's second demonstrated similarity to the little brother from A Christmas Story. Here's the first:

I wonder how that kid turned out.

Well, Would You Look At That

Sorry, I know we don't usually post twice in a day, but we just got these and couldn't wait to throw them on here. We're stoked.







Love you all.

I Was Hoping For Something With Bigger Teeth

Me: Hey Owen, wanna read a book about things that float or a scary book? There's a monster at the end of the scary book.

Owen: This scary one looks like it could be pretty good.

Me: Well, how's it coming along?

Owen: Jeez, they aren't messing around. There's a dude in here fa-reaking out about the monster at the end of this book. He's making a compelling case to stop reading the book entirely, but I'm curious now. I'm almost at the end and I wanna see this monster.

Me: Well, was there a monster at the end of the book, buddy?

Owen: Yeah, yeah there was. It was Grover. You guys knew about this the whole time, didn't you? I peed myself a little, I was so scared about this monster. You guys set me up; lame.

Me: Well, now what are you doing?

Owen: I'm gonna figure out what floats and become an engineer.

Dada!

That's what we hear all day long. Dada. Dada. Dada! I can't really blame the kid. He has a pretty great dada. A dada who spins him around till he giggles. A dada who takes him to the park regularly. A dada with seemingly never ending patience. A dada who even makes him homemade baby food. (This is kind of a sore spot for dada though since after hours of slaving over said homemade baby food, it was rejected. No explanation provided. I'm sure if Owen could, he would have said, "Hey dada, it's the thought that counts.")







So Owen is smitten with his dada and his poor mama is tied in second with the cat to be the object of his affection.

Growing Up A Bit

So Carrie and I (well, me, really) had a hilarious post all set up and ready to go today, but before I could hit the post button I had second thoughts. It was a bit of a mild joke pertaining to drug use, which I would have found wicked funny in my younger days, but now I have a nagging feeling that it's not appropriate. It was innocent, but would have given the impression that Carrie and I might take drug use, specifically Owen using drugs, lightly. We do not. We were worried that if Owen read this later on, he could get the idea that if we ever caught him using drugs we might not bring holy hell down on him. That is also not the case.

Well, since I already wrote up a disclaimer AND I had already gotten the post ready to shoot out, I might as well let you see what I had been about to post before I changed my mind in favor of better judgment.

Professor Owen


Hey look, Owen is pretending he's a Harvard law school professor. Pip pip cheerio and such.


Wow Owen, you're having a good time pretending you're a professor.


Everything okay professor Owen? You look a little sleepy.


Are you pretending you're Harvard's professor of silly now?


Night-night professor Owen.

See, there's nothing funny about drugs and I am very happy that I am a mature enough person to have recognized this and refrained from publishing this post. I feel better about myself.

Either That Or The Monkey's Getting Smaller

As some of you with calendars might have noticed, Owen is 9 months old today. It's kind of wild how the time goes by. I think the one year mark is where the crazy is really going to rear its head. Carrie and I thought we'd do our thing and show how much Owen's grown in relation to a monkey. Now, you'd think that these photos would represent 0, 3, 6 and 9 months because that makes sense. They don't. I have no idea why, but I think they represent 0, 2, 4.5 and 9. It was clearly time for an update (and perhaps some continuity).


Wrapped like a burrito, chillin' in a doughnut with a monkey. Normal day for Owen (because he's only had one of them).


Hangin' out, getting bigger, head becoming slightly less spherical.


He's really starting to pull away from the monkey here.


And today. Still no hair to speak of, but clearly dominant over the monkey. Actually, I think he's cheating a little by stretching out. He's got work to do on his guilty face.

Shots From Yesterday

I hate to do the same theme two days in a row, but this is pretty much all Owen and I did yesterday that's blogworthy. Carrie and I don't have TV so we got all of our information the 21st century way, we streamed it. Everything was going fine till the actual inauguration, at which point everyone on Earth with a computer logged onto CNN and broke the internet. Oh well, there's always 19th century technology: the radio.

It was cool to have Owen around for this. All growing up the only president I knew was Reagan. I knew other people could be, and in fact had been, president, but I was freakin' 9 before I saw it happen. With any luck, that will be Owen's experience with Obama. I'm very jealous.


Clapping along with the crowd, Owen demonstrates baby-enthusiasm for the democratic process. I wonder who he's going to vote for in 2028.


It really does make decision making easier when you know exactly why you're making your decisions.

A New Era Is Upon Us

The Obama presidency ushers in an era of hope. Hope that America can move in a new direction and once again become a respected citizen of the world community. Hope that America’s troubled times can be resolved in a way which leaves the country healthier than it was when times seemed prosperous. Hope that Obama takes to heart the charge bestowed upon him, not only as the President of the United States of America, but also as a shepherd who leads this country past the mechanisms intended to divide us and towards the goal of unifying Americans as we face the challenges to come.


Artwork by Shepard Fairey

Are You Ready For Some Football?!

The Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. We're pretty pumped. You know who is especially pumped? - Owen. As the native Arizonian of the family, Owen is hoping to mirror the good-luck-charminess his Dad lent to the '79 Sonics (A.K.A. Your Oklahoma City Thunder!) during their championship season.


Rooting for the Cards from Dad's shoulders.


Dishin' out the high-fives.

New Food

Now that Owen is getting a little older, we can start giving him some new foods. We've done little bites of stuff here and there, but we've just come up with a new supplement that I think is going to get tossed in the rotation. Avocados are the perfect food for babies. Each half is about as much as a container of baby food, an avocado costs less than a pack of baby food and it comes in its own no mess container.


We're lovin' it and Owen seems to be pretty on board with the idea himself.


Plus, you can add a little lemon juice for fun.

Swing Life Away

We weren't sure if it was going to work out when we came up with the idea to try out the swings, but Owen may have had the best day of his life after all was said and done. We put him in the baby swing and it didn't really look like he was going to fall out right away so there was only one thing to do: give him a push. As it turns out, babies are swings' number one demographic. I have never seen Owen having such a good time, and this is a kid who likes to have a good time. It's not often we get to see glimpses of unadulterated joy, but here are some shots of pure human happiness.