Halloween 2009

We ran out of candy. That's how many kids we had come to our house last night. We had to flee our house. We had been planning on going to a park nearby that was having our neighborhood's 40th annual Halloween party. (Do not envy the people who live adjacent to that park; at least a thousand kids in costume were at the party.) We had to tell some kids we were out of candy and there were large groups heading our way and we just grabbed the kid and ran. When we came back, we came with more candy.

There is a cul-de-sac behind our house where some of our neighbors had set up a bonfire in the middle of and had a party around. They were lighting off fireworks. I do believe I like our neighborhood.


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A hippie, Speed Racer and the unemployed graduate. Ed's costume was actually the surprise success of the night. Some teenagers asked if they could take a picture of him.


Sitting on the front porch, handing out candy, Owen was bombarded with kisses.


After his 5th lollipop, Owen started to get that wild look to his eyes that signaled the beginning of a sugar rush.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Carrie and I went to the Phoenix farmer's market this morning and Owen was graciously given a sucker by one of the vendors and wouldn't you know it, he liked it. We figure it's the one day a year we can let him eat stuff that's pretty undeniably not healthy for him.

We're going to get him in his costume and stroll him around the neighborhood. A neighbor of ours has a haunted house every year and invited us to swing by. That should be some fun. Whatever you all are doing tonight, I hope you have a good time.


Oh my god, look at the size of this apple!


Carving up the "apple."


Owen in full Speed Racer gear.


I think that look is an open invitation to all comers. The Mach 5 is a sweet machine and it's piloted by the best driver on the planet, so a little confidence is justified.

At Least It Wasn't A Peanut

Me: Hey buddy, whatcha doing?

Owen: Just coloring..on paper.. nothing else is going on.

Me: Hmmm... you look like your hiding something.

Owen: Mom! I'm hurt. What would I be hiding?

Me: Ah ha! You stuck a marker up your nose!

Owen: Dang it! How did you know?

Me: Just a hunch buddy.

Build the Fun

It's that time of year again; time for the Build the Fun Lego Event. I'm not sure if I wrote about this last year, I don't think so, but if I did I'm sorry for the repeat post. You see, every year the City of Scottsdale holds an event called the Build the Fun Lego Event and I'm the event coordinator. The purpose of the event is to teach kids about city planning using Legos.

How it works: As the kids arrive, they are assigned a building you would typically see in a city. They then go and build it using the Legos.

After an hour or so of constructing their assigned buildings, the kids gather around to build the city.


Ed, my wonderful helper, carefully takes each building from the kid and puts it in the appropriate place in the city. (museums = downtown; airport = outside the city)


At the end you have a Lego city. I love seeing how creative kids can be. Notice the skyscraper, hospital and restaurant with patio seating.


Afterward some parents and their kids stuck around to help us break everything down. Owen was smitten with this little girl. He scooted across the room to sit right next to her and then just stared at her. She found him a little odd but let him sit next to her anyway.


Building Legos with 85 kids wears a person out but it's definitely worth it. (Shortly after this photo was taken, we went home and took a 3 hour family nap.) It's something the kids look forward to every year and so do I.

I need to give a shout-out to Susan, the best Lego MC ever; Jeff with his crazy train building skills; my pirate Anabel and Ms. "I'm going to kill that kid" Mary. Thank you, thank you. Until next year!

The Other 18

For those of you keeping track at home, Owen's 18 months old today. Kind of a fun milestone. It makes you wonder what characterizes an 18 month old baby.


He's becoming more helpful around the house. He's practicing on the monkey because we told him it's going to be his job to brush the cat's teeth when he's older.


Speaking of the monkey, it's been a while since we did a comparison test. For those of you who thought the monkey was going to be taller than Owen at 18 months, I'll give you double or nothing odds for 2 years.


He's showing off his one-handed cruising skills. (Initiated by himself, I might add.)


And the number one way you can tell you have an Arizona baby... He's freaked out by sleeves.

Owen's Mom and Dad

We take thousands of photos yet you would be surprised on how few of them include us. Since our last attempt at a photo of both of us failed, we had Georgia take our picture while she was in town.

Notice the purple bush in the background. We have four of those in our front yard. We didn't know the bush even grew flowers until one day we woke up and they were all in bloom. A very nice surprise to wake up to and the flowers smell great too.

These Are The Moments I've Missed

Carrie and I finally decided to get ourselves a new lens. Our other one broke as part of the camera being down and out ordeal so we decided that we do in fact enjoy taking these pictures enough to invest in a nice lens. So, we up and got one that I'm hoping will work for us for a long time to come.

Going outside this morning to find Owen and the girls playing sealed the deal and reminded me how much I really do enjoy doing this. Well, take a look for yourselves.


With a little help from Jackson, it struck us that Owen's not a little baby anymore. That's fine because we have a toddler who is awesome, but we realized we have all the baby pictures of Owen we're ever going to have. That made us a little sad (although you'd think 10,000 would be quite more than enough). I'm now more resolute than ever to capture the moments we're going to look back on for the rest of our lives.


I like taking photos of water because they capture a little bit of motion.


And I really like taking pictures of this guy because they capture a little bit of my heart.

This Kid's A Charmer

Well, Happy Grandpa was right (see below post comments). Owen did realize the power he has and decided to test that power last night. Little stinker woke up at 2:00 in the morning wanting to play. What did his parents do? What any loving parent would do; ignored him. What did the great aunt do? Played with him until 4:30 in the morning until said "stinker" fell asleep in her arms on the couch.


Afternoon snacks on the porch with Auntie Georgia seem to strike a chord with Owen.


Much to Owen's delight, he was able to use his powers of influence to move our usual circuit that goes around the block to an indoor event tonight.

Aunt Georgia Is Here

Look who got into town last night. Let the spoiling begin.

Mustard Mohawk

Two words rarely heard together;

and not nearly often enough.

A Different Kind Of Mobile Baby

You have to hand it to the kid, he's pretty observant and makes connections you might not expect babies to. Here's an example of what I mean.

Problem: I'm having a tough time walking, but I still want to get around.

Solution: Grab the keys and drive to where I want to go.

It may not be the perfect solution, but it makes a certain amount of baby sense. He's also making vroom-vroom noises the whole time he's behind the wheel. I kind of get a kick out of that because he's making a connection between his toy cars and the real ones. T-Minus 3.5 years till karting practice begins.


Hey guys, I'm going to the store. You need anything while I'm there?


Okay, Dad always does this. Oh, I get it, now I can see behind me.


All clear.


And away we go. What the heck? I'm not going anywhere.


Oh, here's my problem (I hope this doesn't make it onto the blog).

Owen's Handy Service

When you need the best baby for the job on your job, be sure to call Owen's Handy Service.

He'll get the job done right and he'll have a smile on his face while he's doing it.

Hey, That's A Good Pict... Oh, Wait

Do you ever take a picture with someone and say, "Hey, that's going to be a pretty good picture of the both of us", only to realize when you look closely there's a kid pooping somewhere in it? Well, that's exactly what happened to Carrie and me when we thought we'd get a picture of us enjoying our front stoop. Let me tell you, if you've never had the experience, it's a bummer.



P.S. It's recycling night and Owen is playing with an empty soda can.

The Good Life

Hey Dad, I got you guys up pretty early this morning. Think we have time for a spin in the driveway?


All right, we have a couple minutes. Grab a flip-flop and let's go.


Sweet. Let me get this on. Okay let's enjoy some fresh air.


Man, I'm telling you, this is the life. Do you ever just take a second and let it all soak in? I mean, I've got my flip-flop, a driveway of my own to scoot around on, this whole house to make all the noise I want in, good people to spend my formative years with. Not a bad card to draw, Dad.


Very much agreed, buddy. But now it's time to get going with our day.

We Just Wish He Showed His Emotions More

Today Carrie and I were working on the guest room. We have a few folks coming down over the next couple of months, so we thought we'd really make a push to get this place presentable. Hard work feels good, and we're really happy with the progress we made today, but we have this baby who loves to... help... us with our tasks. We thought today might be a good day to set him up with a book and a buddy for a bit while we tackled the two person jobs. We suspect it was a success, but we have no clue if Owen enjoyed it or not. The kid should start playing poker, because there's just no reading his face.

Hey Owen, you having a good time?

Brick wall central.

Owen, you like hanging out at your table reading you book?

We actually thought we saw some emotion this time, but we couldn't tell what it was, it was only for a fraction of a second.

Okay, buddy we're going to paint, give us a holler if you're not having a very good time.

Carrie and I are looking into getting him a gig working Buckingham Palace.

Abstract Baby Humor Is Funnier To Babies

Toast, eggs, toast, eggs. Toast, toast, eggs eggs. Hey guys, have you noticed breakfast is getting a little dull around here? Guys? Hmm.


Plate goes on the ground, fork goes in the mouth. Mom, Dad, who's having a boring breakfast now? Not Owen. Owen is shooting lasers from the fork in his mouth. Pew, pew, pew.


Me? A goofball? No forkin' way.