Walking and Talking

Well, he started taking steps at 11 months and at 13 months, 11 days (Thursday, April 24, 2008,) he finally decided it was time to walk. Here are a couple of videos I took this afternoon. Sorry they are going the wrong direction. I don't know how to flip them around! Enjoy!

A new use

The little people garage is one of Owen's favorites. First, he stood up and used it as support. Soon after he started pushing it around the living room. Eventually he realized how fun it is to push things (anything - cars, socks, paci, the Noah's ark animals) down the ramp and throw things into the elevator shaft (one day I spent a whole hour looking for his shoe, only to find it in there.) Now, apparently, he has decided it is a jungle gym or chair of some type.

Monkey PJs

Don't you love our matching monkey PJ's?! Mimi and Auntie Liz picked these out for us for Christmas. Please don't mind my bed head :o)

I think Owen really enjoys them!

What a mess

Here, for your enjoyment, are some lovely pictures of Owen eating pasta...

(And corn, and puffs!)

Pleas note his eyebrows...

How nice of you to share :o)

Here is an after picture. Check out that full belly!

Cool Dude

Are you talkin' to me?!

Owen has been wearing his sunglasses a lot lately! I guess it is coming to be that time of the year. Here he is looking very cool with his baseball cap on, too. He was helping Mike organize and pack up the "too small" baby clothes (there are more and more everyday!)

Last Sunday morning, Mike had him in the pack 'n play before Church and he found them and was trying to put them on. Mike put them on him and he left them on from that time until part way through Mass. He even kept them on while he nursed under the hooter hider! It was really pretty funny. This picture was taken in the car after Church.

Weekend fun

On the my last work schedule, I was randomly blessed with 2 Saturdays off in a row!!! I did have to make up those days during the week which was a little challenging, but it is nice to have an occasional change of pace. Mike, Owen, and I had lots of fun! My first weekend off was he first nice weekend in Chicago this spring. We (along with most of the rest of Evanston) decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We had so much fun!

Owen loved watching the animals.

His favorites included the camels, monkeys, and the polar bear.

A couple of silly monkeys in the chimp house!

It was great to be together and outside :o)

Unfortunately, the second weekend was back to normal April weather, 40's and rainy. We (along with the rest of Evanston) decided to visit the Children's Museum.

Mike is teaching Owen the finer points of painting. Hopefully Owen will not pick up any of his Dad's painting "skills."


We just couldn't resist getting a picture of Owen in the little dog kennels.

He loved opening and closing the door. Open and close is still a favorite game.

We had fun, but it was really crowded. Owen was nearly run over several times.
My next weekend days off will be spent in Kansas City and St. Louis for the boys' graduations in mid May. We are looking forward to it!

April Fool's!!!

3 April Fool's Day tricks that Owen played...
1. Went to the daycare at the gym and didn't cry (at all!)
2. Went potty in the potty chair.
3. Walked around his room for a good 5 minutes. Not just steps. He actually walked around the room. He looked like a drunken penguin.

Birthday Cake

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Kansas City, here we come!

After all of the craziness and excitement with Easter and Owen's birthday party, Owen and I rode home to Overland Park with my parents. Owen was almost asleep by the time we pulled out of the Walsh's driveway! We were really surprised he didn't get carsick after all of that cake! Our time in KC was very relaxing.

We went over to visit my Aunt Mary and cousins Jenny and Amy. Jenny has a new little girl, Allison Kate. She was 5 weeks old when we went to visit. Such a cutie!
We also did some shopping and tons of relaxing. Owen had a great time playing with Grammy, Gramps, and wacky Uncle Sam. Of course, it went too fast! We can't wait until our next visit when the boys graduate in May.

1st Birthday Party, Take Two!

It only took me 10 days to get around to finish the blog about our trip last month! Oh, well! Here are some pics from Owen's family birthday party in Omaha.

Owen loved his beautiful and delicious cake. Watch him devour it in the slideshow.

All of this is for me!?!


Owen opening gifts with Mom and Dad!


Our polite little guy taking his time to read the cards!!!

And, here it is... Owen's first CU basketball jersey! He'll be able to wear it for many years to come.

Creighton's star this year is named P'Allen. (Sorry this is a little blurry, it's a picture of a printout of a picture.) Mimi and Grandpa had this made for Owen and even got it signed!

I hope he has the chance to show it off at a Creighton Basketball game next year!

Easter 2008

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Welcome to Omaha!!!

Welcome to Omaha!!!

Well, we knew it was a little risky to take a 9:25pm flight with a one year old. What we didn't even consider was what we would do if our flight was delayed... we ended up flying out of Chicago at 11:00!!! Amazingly, Owen was a trooper. He wanted to go to sleep so badly. Mike and I took turns walking him up and down the B terminal at Midway. He kept covering his ears when they had announcements over the loudspeaker. Eventually, he covered up his face and passed out. He slept until the plane landed in Omaha and the flight attendant started singing. By the time we got to Mike's parents, it was almost 2:00.

The next morning we got up and moving early to meet our friends Ang and Ignatius before they flew out of Omaha at noon. Ang is a friend of ours from college. She and her husband live in Ohio where he is doing his surgical residency. Ang and Iggy were back in Omaha to visit family. Iggy is 6 months older than Owen. He is such a cutie! He kept giving Owen hugs!!! Unfortunately we didn't get any on camera. It was so great to see them. Last time we saw Iggy he was about 9 months. He always gives us a little glimpse of what we have to look forward to with Owen. We were so happy our paths crossed (just barely!)

We went to Omaha to visit Mike's family, celebrate Easter and Owen's birthday, and so Mike could go to the opening round of the NCAA tournament with his dad. I don't think any of the games they saw were too exciting, but they had a fun time nonetheless. Father - Son bonding, you know?! I was hoping Mike would be sick of basketball on his day off but, let me assure you, he wasn't.

Friday afternoon, we used our children's museum membership to take Mimi and Auntie Liz to the Omaha Children's museum. As soon as we walked in, Owen spotted the Easter bunny. He was so excited!

Owen and Auntie Liz having fun with the bubble tubes


Owen and Daddy in their fireman hats



It was very cool but there wasn't a whole lot for babies. We still had lots of fun.

Saturday we got together with Mike's grandparents, aunt and cousins. It was great to see everyone. We went out to lunch and someone told our waitress that it was Owen's birthday. He got balloons and ice cream and had so much fun. Thank goodness they didn't sing. He gets kind of shy!

After lunch we got together with our friends the Jorgenson's. Jay lived on Mike's floor freshman year and Lisa was in my nursing class and we were RAs together. They live in Sioux Falls, SD. Their son, Jonah, is 19 months. He is so cute and quite the chatty little guy! Mike and I were so impressed with all of his words. It was so fun to hear his little voice :o) We have so much fun when we hang out with Jay and Lisa. We always wish we all lived in the same town so we could get together more often!

Like Iggy, Jonah is also very into giving hugs! So cute! My parents got into Omaha around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. We were so excited to see them. It was great to get everyone together. Susan and I took Owen over to their hotel for a swim. Owen had so much fun. He loved the water. He's quite the little fishy.

Kohl Children's Museum

Auntie Em was still in town and Owen and I had talked about it and decided we better make sure she had a REALLY good time so she would move back to Chicago ASAP. We thought it would be fun to take her the the Kohl Children's Museum. They have a special "Clifford" exhibit right now. I like Clifford. We had a few Clifford books when we were little. Now he has a TV show and the whole bit. If you aren't familiar with Clifford, he's a giant red dog. Here is a picture of Owen sliding down Clifford's tail...

And hanging out in Clifford's bowl.

Next we went to the music room. Owen loved it! He and I spent a few minutes banging on this xylophone made out of wrenches.

He really got his groove on, as you can see. When he pushed a button, different types of music played in his headphones. You should have seen him shaking his bootie!

Next, we went into a little room with all types of musical instruments. Owen loved the bongo drums and the cymbals.

I think Auntie Em was getting into it, too!

After the music room, we made our way to the water room, which was so cool! That place really makes you wish you were a little kid again! One of the other Moms showed us how to rig one of the smocks up to fit Owen. Didn't he look funny! Overall, it did the trick!

Even though he was too young to really play, he loved watching the water spray in every direction. He also loved reaching his hands in and splashing. Usually I spoil all of his fun at home when he tries to stick his hands in Lola's water bowl to splash!

The museum was so much fun. We were there for about 2 hours and we didn't even make it halfway through, so we decided to buy a membership. It will be a fun indoor activity for the next year. With the membership we purchased, you can go to any children's museum in the country. There is one in Omaha and two in Kansas City, so I'm sure we'll make good use of this privilege. We hope Auntie Em had as much fun as we did!