What's new with Owen

We realize that 87.6% of you come here just to catch up on Owen. So, here are some updates.

Mr. Owen gets around like a crazy man these days. He never sits still. As soon as he reaches his destination, he sees something from his new vantage point and moves towards that. While he is capable of the "normal" on all 4's crawling, he prefers to scoot around like a wounded soldier - on his belly using the left arm and right leg to push himself along. He's get at cruising - pulling himself up on things and walking along them, mostly furniture. We had a few side tables come spilling over during this process. Also, all of Tara's pretty decorative things have all been repositioned so that they're not broken.

Words and sounds are developing quickly. Right now the only consistent word is Dada, but we've recently added some new ones - Ba for ball, Da for dog, Mama for mama. He barks when you ask what a dog says and makes roughly the same sound for a monkey. Of course, he's been making his truck noise for 2-3 months now.

Still has the same two bottom teeth, but we think he's working on some new ones, possibly up top.

He has developed a sense of humor and really gets a kick out of certain actions. He likes to feed Ryan at dinner time. He likes to hold his big ball over his head and drop it. He loves to make funny noises with mom and dad. He enjoys being tickled and has a really big chuckle once he gets going.

He definitely takes after his mother in a lot of ways, particularly with his strong will and affinity for biting (ask Gale about Tara's biting as a kid).

One of Owen's favorite things is for us to actually throw the ball in the air for him. He gets all excited and flaps his arms and makes these funny faces.

First trip to the beach. It was a lake beach, not the ocean, but he had fun playing in the sand.

Talking to the horses with Papaw.

The Day After the Draft

This was the Sunday morning after the football draft. Owen was reading the sports section trying to find out if two guys with the same last name have ever been taken 1 & 2 before.

This post is obviously by Ryan because Tara has no clue what that previous sentence is about.

Why We Haven't Been Blogging

So outside of the normal evil influences that keep us from blogging (long day with Owen/work, end of season television, etc) there have been some extenuating circumstances lately that have kept us from regularly updating everyone on the adventures of their favorite little boy.


The main thing has been our class. We've been taking a seminary class. Ryan took it for graduate credit and Tara took it for a certificate. It's been a lot of work all semester, but here at the end it all piled up. We wrote a 29 page term paper, Ryan took a final and we had to play catch up on our quizzes since we missed a week due to vacation. That has really consumed our last two weeks. But it's over...Hallelujah! It was a great class, but it's always a good feeling when you're done.


We've also been doing some travelling - yes, again. Last weekend was Ryan's sister Tara's high school graduation (yes, another Tara for those of you that didn't know that). She was the valedictorian of Lakeside High School. She did very good on her speech and was even spotted performing several strange dance routines at inopportune times - and yes, they're all on video. We'll try to get some picture of that up soon. Way to go, Ta! We're proud of you...even if you are going to LSU. Also, we're going back to Louisiana again this weekend to hang out on Toledo Bend. But after that we're here - for a whole month until we go to Minneapolis for Ben's wedding.

And in between all of that, Monday nights have become socializing night. We've either gone to someone's house or had people over every Monday for the last month and even threw in one Friday. That's been a lot of fun. If you want to hang out with us, let us know and we'll schedule a Monday night with ya!

And since 76.2% of you only come for the pictures, here's a picture of Owen and Sadie when Sadie came over to play recently. We told him it's improper to show that much leg to the girls, but Sadie didn't seem to mind.

From the Mother of a Curious 10-month-old

So I walked into the bathroom this morning to find Owen with both hands in the toilet having a hayday.

A good mother would have immediately removed him from the toilet, washed his hands and told him that it is yucky and not to do it again.

But I instead ran to get the camera and laughed for several minutes while watching him play. (To my credit, I did wash his hands and tell him no no after the incident was over).