Doh!

Have you ever forgotten your car keys in your crib after you've already been lifted out of it? Then to make matters worse, they're not even completely out of reach; they're just barely out of reach so you spend ten minutes you could have been using getting ready for day care trying in vain to extend your fingertips an extra 3/4 of an inch?


Owen has.

Drying Off

Owen has the pool routine down. Splash, splash splash... sign "all done"... dry off in the sun with a towel... go inside and have a Popsicle. Life is pretty good.

Mischief

Nothing in a house is safe when you have a mobile baby. The cat has been well aware of this fact for a while now. Not sure why but it seems in the past week or so, Owen's mischief levels have risen. We have a broken vase and night light along with graham crackers spread throughout the house to prove our point. Shortly after moving in, we baby proofed the house in the typical baby proof fashion: plugging up light sockets, lock on pool fence, etc. We forgot about baby proofing the plants, cat, toilet paper, magazines, movies, diapers (he loves getting into his diapers and throwing them around his room).... the list could go on and on.


Toilet paper bandit strikes again!


I did not catch the culprit in action for this one...


... though I have my suspicions. The cat can be blamed only so many times.

Baby Physical Therapy

We forgot we had these photos, so we're going to get into our time machine and travel back to simpler times; about six weeks ago. Owen really likes his physical therapist and they do work but it seems like play. In fact, they blend work and play so seamlessly, I drew inspiration from them and thought I would illustrate the work they do by using Beastie Boys lyrics as captions. Are you ready? Lets go!


Ready one, you will do this four times with the left
four with the right then eight times with both, then repeat.


Stand erect, arms down. Swing left arm big, same with the right


Left arm ready and one, and again, stand erect.


You will do eight hops on the left, eight on the right
Four left four right, two left, two right, the one each
Left right, left right. Start and land on the balls of the feet
Left foot, ready it's one two three four five.


Body movin' body movin'
A1 sound' sound so soothing
Body movin' body movin'
We be getting down and you know we're crush groovin'

Swim Lessons

Owen had his first swim lesson tonight. It was more for the parents than for the kids and Owen was the youngest one by quite a bit so he pretty much just splashed.


It was funny because the kid who was teaching the class was probably closer in age to Owen than us. But he was a good kid and was telling us some pretty good pointers about how to teach kids how to swim.


Owen passed a kind of test so Instructor 16 Year Old gave us the green light to dunk him.


He liked it. We have a water baby on our hands.

Staying Cool At 114°

Dawn and her husband Trevor invited us to go to the zoo with them and their daughter Natalie today and we took them up on it. I guess periodically the good people at Fry's (the local Fred Meyer's) arrange for a bunch of shaved ice to be brought to the zoo so all of the animals can play in it when it's really hot outside. Owen was more into the animals this time and it was nice to spend some time with the people who Owen is spending so much time with these days. We really like them both and I think this is going to end up being a friendship.


The gang. Trevor is a horticulturist so he was explaining all about all the plants we were seeing. He would get pretty excited when he would see a plant he didn't recognize (which wasn't often). Tidbit of the day: Per Trevor, the San Diego zoo spends more money annually on the plants within the park than it does on the animals. And now you know.


The giraffes playing in the "snow."


Owen was having a good time. He did really well considering we were there for three and a half hours in 100°+ heat. It helped that we also found some ways to cool down.


Some were similar to how the animals were staying cool.


Some were less so.

Mud and Strawberries

Every summer the City of Scottsdale puts on an event called Mighty Mud Mania. The City turns the park that we walk around into a gigantic mud pit. There is a mud obstacle course, wading pools full of mud and mud slides. Afterwards, the fire department cleans the kids up by hosing them off. Dawn decided to be brave and take the daycare kids to it this year. The park is up the street from my work so I met them there so I could take some photos.


Owen, Dawn and her daughter testing out the mud.


Owen coming to the realization that he is not fond of mud in large quantities.


This is Owen giving the evil eye to a woman who was sitting behind him wearing a large, floppy hat. He is still not a fan of hats. The woman was sweet and when she realized he didn't like her hat, she took it off and put it out of view. The evil eye was soon replaced with a smile.


Instead of playing in the mud, Owen choose to sit in the shade and eat strawberries.


It was hot and messy, with tons of kids, and overall a great time. We will definitely go again next year.

Not Much Happening

Our posts are boring because, well, our life is kind of boring right now. We get up, go to work/daycare, come home and eat, swim, take a shower and go to bed. That is all we do. In our defense it is seriously too hot to do anything else.

Owen's daycare provider Dawn had all the parents over for dinner the other night. She is hiring an assistant and wanted us to all meet her. We had a blast. It was nice to meet the other parents and get to know Dawn and her family better. One couple suggested we switch off babysitting for each other. They do not have family around either so dates nights for them are also few and far between. We love the idea.

I'm also pumped because we just found out a farmers market will be starting down the street from us. We are officially within biking distance of two farmers markets. That makes me very happy. Ed bought me a beach cruiser to replace Pumpkin, my last cruiser, that got stolen. Now all I need is a basket and a baby carrier and I'm set.

Anyway, here are some photos of us having dinner together. (Exciting, right?) Owen wanted to be a big boy and eat corn-on-the-cob like the adults. He did a dang good job too.

What is that on his head, you ask?


Mustard of course. Dinner isn't complete without mustard and tonight he decided to put his plate of mustard on his head. Adorable.

More Pool Footage

I was commenting to Carrie that I feel like I have a lot less time in my life. I suspect that it has something to do with my starting a full time job after staying home with Owen for a year. Yes, I believe that's it. It's not even that I don't have time to post, because this usually doesn't take THAT long. Unfortunately, one of the first things to go is the photo-op itself. We're working on getting our life together enough to start having more of them, but for now you'll have to watch us swimming in our pool.

Mustard Lovin' Fool

Right now I would have to say Owen's favorite condiment is mustard. And bbq hotdogs with mustard on them would be up there as a favorite food. The kid gets giddy when he sees mustard on his plate.

If he is in the kitchen when I open the fridge, he immediately starts scooting over to the fridge to stare at the mustard bottle. He's like a dog begging for a bone. He just stares at it, looks up at me and stares at the bottle some more. I'm not sure mustard is considered part of a food group, but Owen seems to think it's all he needs in the world.


Hmm, Dijon, French's or store brand? Decisions, decisions.


Meh, store brand. Mustard's mustard, and I'm going through it like a sailor on shore leave.

Up and Running

We finally have the Internet again so we can start posting. Things have been hectic in the Arizona Wilhelme household. Ed started his job, Owen started daycare and we are officially moved in. We haven't completely unpacked yet but are getting there. With the house being a fixer-upper, it seems like there is a never ending list of things to do so we decided to prioritize. Number one on that list? The pool, of course. It took us going to the local pool store 5 times but we finally figured it out. When we were last at the pool store having our water tested and they declared our pool water "really good", we hooted with happiness, drove home and dove in the pool. Pure heaven in 110 degree heat. Arizona summers are officially bearable.


As you can see, our next purchase is going to be a lawnmower. I had thought grass would not grow in the summer heat and therefore, a lawnmower purchase could be pushed off. I was wrong. Our grass is growing like crazy.

- The Pool -

Before: Green, gross with overgrown palm trees


After: Success! Blue pool and trimmed palm trees. One project down; hundreds more to go.


Here is Owen after I picked him up from daycare one day this week. He is adjusting to daycare very well with the only trouble being nap time. He's used to laying down with dad to take a nap so falling asleep on his own has been a hard adjustment. On this day he decided he wasn't going to take a nap so the second I put him in the car seat, he zonked out.

We feel very fortunate with the daycare we found. It is a home daycare about 5 minutes (if that) from our house. Ed drops Owen off at 8:30 and I pick him up by 5:00. Dawn, his daycare provider, is very sweet. She is down-to-earth, only serves the kids organic food and has a chicken coop and garden in the backyard. The kids play outside in a wading pool, go to the park, read, color and blow bubbles. Owen seems very happy there.

Right now there are 3 other little girls: Dawn's daughter who is 5, a 2 year old and a 9 month old. Owen and the 9 month old have gotten to be friends. He did get pushed over one day by the 2 year old (beat up by a girl!) and when I showed up, Owen was crying and the 2 year old was in the time out chair. They soon kissed and made up so all was forgiven.

So there is a quick run down. Today is my 30th birthday and Staci and Brandon are coming over for dinner, drinks and to swim. I kept my flex schedule so I have today off with Owen. He's taking a nap but as soon as he gets up, we're going swimming. Not a bad way to spend one's birthday.

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Hi guys,

Sorry, this isn't really a blog post. It's an update. We've been moving and right now we don't have the internet at our new place. Cox (our ISP) is coming out on Friday to install it. The moving is going well. We swam in our pool for the first time on the 4th. Ed & Carrie: 1 ; Stupid Green Pool: 0. So, we've been taking some pictures and we'll get 'em up when we can. I'm doing this from work, which is actually frowned upon, so I'm going to get going. But... much more on Friday. Hope all is well with everyone.