Babble

Owen has been just babbling away for the past 10 minutes. Every once in a while I hear Da-Da. He goes from babble to clicking to zerbert-type noises. He's starting to be a very vocal kid!

Meet Doc

OK, it's not the best video... but you can see Owen's facial expressions: I want to touch that cat! Doc is pretty patient with him... even when Owen grabs his hair and pulls. I don't think Owen understands "gentle" yet. But Doc keeps coming back for more... so he must like it!

(I know it looks like I'm pushing Doc towards Owen... and while that may be true, before the camera came out he was going up to Owen on his own!)

O-Ball

Owen is not wanting for toys. He has many... so many that I really need to clean under the stairs to find a home for all of them. I really don't think a kid can have too many toys... OK maybe at some point I think that... but then you just give some away to Goodwill right? Anyhow... he can be surrounded by toys, and what he loves the most at this point, is still the O-Ball.

Sure he's an ear for the piano, and loves the airplane, and tries to open and close other toys, but his most precious of all toys... O-Ball. O-Boy!

Seven Months

For Owen's seven month birthday, he has taken up playing the piano. He was "singing" along, until the camera came out... but you can still hear him play a little bit. The toy is a Christmas gift from Nick and Kasi. He likes it a lot... and while it is noisy, it's not too annoying!

Bath Time

Owen LOVES bath time. The usual "routine" goes something like this: I take Owen into his bedroom to make "naked baby" while Lucas starts running the bath. Lucas usually takes a bath with Owen, so by the time I have a naked baby, Lucas is in the tub. As soon as we enter the bathroom, Owen starts laughing and smiling... SO excited for his bath. It's quite cute.

Here he is tasting his Jewish rubber duckie. After his bath, I take him away to dry him and dress him. I love that his still so infatuated with his feet.

Family Dinner

To celebrate the seventh night of Hanukkah, we had our annual family dinner. Lucas and I are getting so used to entertaining large groups, we didn't feel any stress feeding nine people. In the morning, Lucas made Challah. It turned out beautiful, he used a new recipe from the cookbook Suzi got him for Christmas... yummy good.

Lucas also made chopped liver, and white fish salad for appetizers.

For main course, we had French pot roast, and creamed spinach.

And of course, a big plate full of latkes. I even made home made applesauce for the occasion.

This time, Owen got to be the "big" baby. He didn't cry at all when Porter was crying... he didn't try to poke Porter's eyes out either!

Tony is a baked good aficionado. (aka he loves baked goods) He has decided to start Owen's teaching early:

Do you like it in your ear?

Do you like it way up hear?

Yes, there's doughnuts down in there.

You can have some, just next year.

We ate almost everything at the table. It was a wonderful dinner! Deb even surprised us with her homemade rugalach for dessert... it was divine!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Owen. It started when I got home from work Christmas morning. We first opened presents at our house, then drove down to Salem to my parent's house. Here's Jill and me, showing off our new "jewelery".

Kate is an amazing crawler. She has moves Owen can only dream about at this point. Owen was a little overwhelmed by this. Especially when Kate would try to poke his eyes out. (not maliciously of course).

Owen liked Kate much more when he was sitting. I think a higher viewpoint was good for him. But he still gave us these looks like "What is she doing?"

I think Kate was impressed with Owen's sitting skills, as much as much as Owen was impressed with Kate's crawling.

Mom was really happy to have two of her Grand babies home for Christmas.

She even shared her water with Owen. Luckily he hadn't eaten yet, so no backwash for Grandma.

"Would you PLEASE stop her from grabbing my ear?"

Lucas, Doug, Kate and Owen.

"Can I get any farther away from her?"

I was trying to get a video of Kate poking Owen's eyes, or pulling his ears. She's so curious, and Owen doesn't quite know what to do with her. But they heard dad's voice, that's when they both stare off. And then Kate starts to play again, and Owen cries...he didn't have good coping skills on Christmas.

We had a great time. It's so cute to see two babies so close in age exploring... how they're the same and how they're different. We're back home now, preparing for our Hanukkah dinner. Celebrating both religions keeps us busy, but it sure is fun!

Snow Snow just Look at the Snow!

Here's our neighborhood. Today it is not snowing, tomorrow it's supposed to snow more. I work tonight, and my taxi service (aka LUCAS) will get me there safely. I haven't decided if I should just spend the night at the hospital, or have Lucas pick me up. But I work Christmas eve, so we'll just have to see how the weather plays out. Right now it's just pretty! Our backyard:

There was about 8 inches of snow. Then a .2 inch layer of ice. Then another 3-5 inches of snow. A snow 'stratta' as I call it. Here's Lucas with a chunk of ice.

Here's Lucas karate chopping that ice into a billion pieces. My husband's so strong!

Our bird bath. No birds being bathed today!

Pull out your yarmulke....

It's time to celebrate Hanukkah. Yes, we've had our first two nights of celebration. Owen's mesmerized by the candles. And while he doesn't understand unwrapping presents yet... he did enjoy pulling some of the paper. Probably by the end of the week he'll be a pro. (We do have Christmas to practice too!)

Night two:

He actually really liked this giraffe! Played with it on the floor and everything! 12 months and up huh?! My kid can do it at 7 months. (An FYI Jill: Kate will probably get a similar toy in about two days!)

An evening walk

Last night we decided to take a walk in the snow. After getting all bundled up, we ventured out in our 8 inches of snow!

We made it as far as the mailbox, and learned that we don't have a four-wheeling type of stroller. Granted, it HAS four wheels, but it doesn't much like the snow.
So, we turned back to the house and switched for the sling.

We tried many self-portraits... very tricky to get three people in it... all looking good. We finally found a couple walking their dog and got a quick family photo!

This morning there is a sheet of ice on top of our snow. Pretty sure we aren't going anywhere today. I call that forced house cleaning day.

Arctic Blast Take Two

The weathermen and women were right... it's finally snowing again. And perfect timing too! I made it home in the morning, and woke up three hours later to four inches of snow. It's just snowing and snowing here!

Here's Owen sitting on our back patio.

Looking up towards Lucas.

Lucas introducing him to the taste of snow.

Here's a video of Owen's first taste of snow. He loves to eat so much that he's all too willing to try anything new. Notice how he shovels it into his mouth.

Snow Day

Yesterday Owen and I played on the floor. I have no idea how long we had played, but I ran to the kitchen to pour another cup of coffee, and I came back to sleepy baby. I thought it was cute, then... I realized he was SO tired ...you have to be to sleep with your head face down... I put him in his crib, where he slept for TWO hours!!
When Lucas got home, they played on the floor. I don't know who was teaching "airplane" to who... Owen teaching Lucas.

Lucas teaching Owen.