Saturday, July 25, 2009

aaAAAaaaaAAAaaaAAAHHHhh!!! (Translation...Here I Come!)

Here's our little guy at a birthday party for Emma's sweet friend Elizabeth at the Sweet Dreams Cookie Company today. He really enjoyed all the action! He's been crawling really well for a while now...absolutely darling to watch and hear the pitter-patter of little hands and knees and his little sounds he makes. Listen to the little Tarzan sound he makes as he rounds the corner--we have a little private joke between us...not sure what it is, but when I make that sound back to Owen, he breaks into a big grin.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Hello, Babes in Bend (Kinda...)


For the last two summers, I've gotten to enjoy the sheer creative bliss of spending a few blessed days out in Bend, Oregon sitting alongside my sista...(well, technically she's Jeff's sister Lisa) but she calls me sis' which is so special to me, because I don't have a sister...anyway, ending the sentence--scrapbooking. Yes, just waking up, grabbing breakfast, and hanging with a bunch of like-minded ladies who've become sweet friends over the past two summers, bound together with a common passion for creatively preserving memories. We head into Bend to a store called Scrap-a-Doodle, owned by Debi, a wonderful lady who trusted us all and let us take over her scrap area and stay as long as our creative juices flowed, keep a running tab of anything we purchased, and just have a blast. These girls have been doing this for over ten years but I just got in on the last 2 years...would have been there this week except Owen needs Mommy more right now, and honestly the thought of living out of a suitcase one more week this summer might put me over the edge. But for this, I'd be scrapping away. Sadly, Scrap-a-Doodle went the way of so many great stores over the last couple of years and closed, but the scrapping continues this week out in Auburn, Washington, so Babes in Pseudo-Bend, I just had to post this, one of my favorite layouts. It's Emma's referral picture...I did it a while ago. Thinking about doing a boyish one for Owen...maybe, "You had me at Ni Hao." :) Have a blast and I'll be eating lots of m & m's here and try to do a little scrapbooking here to at least feel a part of things!

Love,

Ann

Friday, July 10, 2009

Somebody pass me a spoon...



...because I'm about to gobble this little guy up! I absolutely LOVE HIM! I dressed him up to run some errands and plopped this hat on his head...he kept looking up to try to see it and all he could see was the brim. It's the only hat he will leave on his head for longer than 2 seconds. He has the sweetest little grins that just steal my heart, the gentlest but most insistent cries when he's just really fed up, and most content little sighs when he gets what he wants. He's absolutely put me in the most vulnerable place, I told Jeff the other night. But then Jeff reminded me, that's the only way to really live.

Friday, July 3, 2009

One month later...







...Owen has learned to crawl on his hands and knees (belly completely up off of the floor), feed himself finger foods and take bites of things like graham crackers and Nilla wafers, be a little more picky about bedtime because he's realized he can protest and be heard, say "Uh oh" when he drops something, imitate little sounds (like Emma doing an opera sort of singing voice...they played it back and forth for a while one night...), give Daddy "five", hang out with Emma in his Exersaucer or play with toys on the floor in the bonus room with Sophie long enough for me to grab a shower, and just generally has woven his way into the general fabric of our daily lives. The girls adore him. Now and then they resent the amount of time he demands of me, I know, and will even say as much...but more often than not they just love him. One night after his bath they were literally arguing about who got to put lotion on him. I told them they each got a leg and an arm. Sophie hollered, "I call the torso!" I settled that by splitting it up front and back. I also think all little girls could benefit by having a little baby brother or family member to see, um, in his natural state. The mystery's over. So that's all it is??? We let Owen have a little naked time and he was enjoying crawling around on our bed. Emma was pretty well flabbergasted. She finally asked, "Did I have one of those when I was a baby?" Definitely good fodder for healthy, open discussions!

Speaking of Emma, she's been such a wonderful caretaker for Owen. Everytime the van stops, there she is to unbuckle him. She loves the little umbrella stroller because it's a nice size for her to push him. I love these photos of her with him...I didn't get great shots of his face because the sun was pretty intense, but I love how she's hovering over him, shielding his eyes, looking at him adoringly, just caring for him. She didn't want me to put him down for a nap today because she wanted to keep playing with him. Such a sweet relationship.