No, we're not actually thanking anyone for something. We're telling you that "Thank You" is actually Owen's new word. This has been verified by an independent source (thanks, Adraine), so we're not just crazy doting parents.
It's not all the time, but he specifically says it after we say it to him. We've heard it 4-5 times now. All the single words out there he could easily learn and he chooses this. Fine with us!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Swimming
We're trying to turn Owen into a fish. In the last week he's been swimming 5 times! The Arlington Parks Department operates different types of pools all around the city. For $60 you can get a pool pass and go all you want.
Well, there just so happens to be a play pool specifically for young children less than a mile from our house. It's very shallow and there are lots of things spraying and waterfalls. They even have valves scattered around that turn sprayers on and off. You'll be sitting in an area you think is safe and whoosh - some kid turn on a valve and you get soaked. Even on the climb up the stairs there are little areas to stop and play. Owen loves to climb up the stairs, but when he gets to the top, there's a tube slide that he is enraptured with and he heads straight to it. You really have to watch him at the top because he wants to go in the big blue tube! They also have a tunnel that they can crawl through that has water up to their knees - Owen loves to play in there and go back and forth between Mom and Dad. Matt and Donen brought Ethan over Saturday and the boys had a good time playing.
Owen's New Hat
We tried, but we just couldn't let Owen keep going around with these little cutesy, kiddy hats. The boy needed a real hat. And after watching his fascination with Ryan's and Papaw's hats over the last few weeks, we knew the time had finally come. So, Owen got a camo baseball cap last weekend. He loves it. He wore it for almost 2 hours at the zoo the other day. And his Dad even bent it right for him and everything!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Cats, Javier's & Dallas
For her birthday and Mother's day, Tara got tickets to go see the musical "Cats" and dinner at her choice of restaurant in Dallas. After hearing Mary Beth rave about it for years, she chose to go eat at Javier's. Javier's is a swanky Mexican restaurant that serves authentic gourmet Mexican food (not Tex-Mex). The food was great, but we observed two things there that will be commented on in the "Dallas" section of this entry.
Cats was...interesting. We like musicals and have seen quite a few. Most musicals are stories. Unbeknownst to us, Cats isn't - it's a collection of poems by T.S. Eliot. So, we spent the first half of the show trying to figure out what the story was. They were throwing out all these words like "Jellical cat" and explaining how cats get their names, like "Rum Tum Tugger," "Rumpelteazer," and "Jennyanydots." We were so lost. At intermission we looked at each other and Tara said "Please tell me there isn't a story because I'm so lost!" We looked in the flyer and found that it is a collection of poems. Once we stopped trying to determine a story line, we enjoyed the show so much more. It was a lot of fun and we recommend it, but if you go, don't expect a story!
Living in Arlington, we've gotten used to the Tarrant County lifestyle. Those of you who have never spent extended time in DFW can't understand how opposite Dallas and Ft Worth are. The entire culture seems to change at the Tarrant/Dallas County line and Arlington is in Tarrant County. Two examples from our 1 hour at Javier's.
We got to the restaurant at 6:00 so we could have time to get to the show on time. When we pulled in the parking lot was empty. There's free valet, but with the empty parking lot, Ryan signalled to the valet he would just park. But they said we had to be valeted - ok, no problem. But when we came back out our little red Toyota Matrix was not in the parking lot. Instead, it was full of BMWs, Mercedes, Jaguars, Hummers and an Aston Martin. Our car was two blocks away parked on the street. Apparently the Matrix doesn't make the prestige cut!
Most of the couples in Javier's spent their time of their phones, not actually talking to one another. There was a couple about our age at the table next to us. We first noticed them because the guy had his Blackberry and a rolled up wad of cash sitting on the table next to him. It was very strange - when have any of you carried a roll of cash and then set it on the table? Then, when their order came, they both looked at their food for a second, called the waiter over and sent it back. Not because it was wrong, but they just decided it didn't look good. The guy pulled out a credit card, they paid for it and left. What?!?! That was at least $50 of food that they just threw away. That's Dallas.
Cats was...interesting. We like musicals and have seen quite a few. Most musicals are stories. Unbeknownst to us, Cats isn't - it's a collection of poems by T.S. Eliot. So, we spent the first half of the show trying to figure out what the story was. They were throwing out all these words like "Jellical cat" and explaining how cats get their names, like "Rum Tum Tugger," "Rumpelteazer," and "Jennyanydots." We were so lost. At intermission we looked at each other and Tara said "Please tell me there isn't a story because I'm so lost!" We looked in the flyer and found that it is a collection of poems. Once we stopped trying to determine a story line, we enjoyed the show so much more. It was a lot of fun and we recommend it, but if you go, don't expect a story!
Living in Arlington, we've gotten used to the Tarrant County lifestyle. Those of you who have never spent extended time in DFW can't understand how opposite Dallas and Ft Worth are. The entire culture seems to change at the Tarrant/Dallas County line and Arlington is in Tarrant County. Two examples from our 1 hour at Javier's.
We got to the restaurant at 6:00 so we could have time to get to the show on time. When we pulled in the parking lot was empty. There's free valet, but with the empty parking lot, Ryan signalled to the valet he would just park. But they said we had to be valeted - ok, no problem. But when we came back out our little red Toyota Matrix was not in the parking lot. Instead, it was full of BMWs, Mercedes, Jaguars, Hummers and an Aston Martin. Our car was two blocks away parked on the street. Apparently the Matrix doesn't make the prestige cut!
Most of the couples in Javier's spent their time of their phones, not actually talking to one another. There was a couple about our age at the table next to us. We first noticed them because the guy had his Blackberry and a rolled up wad of cash sitting on the table next to him. It was very strange - when have any of you carried a roll of cash and then set it on the table? Then, when their order came, they both looked at their food for a second, called the waiter over and sent it back. Not because it was wrong, but they just decided it didn't look good. The guy pulled out a credit card, they paid for it and left. What?!?! That was at least $50 of food that they just threw away. That's Dallas.
Our little climber
Owen loves climbing. He will climb on or in anything. Today at lunch he figured out how to climb into Ryan's recliner when the chair is only half extended. But once he got it the chair he was climbing the back to get to the cabinet behind the chair. He's even climbing us! His new thing is to push up with his feet and before we know it he's got his feet on our shoulders and hands on our heads reaching for the sky. Both of these pictures were taken on the same day. Of course, with all his climbing, he never knows how to get down or out of where he climbed - so we have to come to the rescue.
You'll also notice in the first picture that the dog dishes are now always on top of the tea cart since Mr Owen can't seem to leave them alone.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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.Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, May 9, 2008
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).
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).
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