Confessions of a slacker Mommy

Yes, it's been since November that I've posted any pictures. I see Owen so much, though, that I don't notice all of the funny little things he does as much as people. Here are some things he's learned in the last few months:

Fake yawning. Ben taught him this.
Fake sneezing. Also a Daddy trick. It's actually kind of helpful because he blows air out his nose so we're hoping it will help him learn to blow it and blow bubbles in the pool.
Walk backwards into things. Don't ask me why, but it's HYSTERICAL to him. We're trying to teach him that walking backwards is moonwalking.
Spinning. Just for fun.
Making a weird croaking noise with his voice. Think Dracula.
To sign "all done, more, milk (his favorite) and eat" Milk is pretty funny. The sign is to make a motion like you're milking a cow, and Owen does it really fast and frantically with both hands.

We're still mystified about why he'll imitate us making weird sounds like sneezing but won't immitate us making sounds like "mama" or "ball." We're working on some strategies that are supposed to help with this. The signing is supposed to go a long ways towards encouraging speech because they get the idea that they can influence actions/the world with communication and get what they want. Nonetheless, Owen is getting increasingly frustrated (as are we!) with life because he's more insistent about what he wants to do and still unable to communicate it for the most part. We're hoping this will actually help, though it's leading to more tantrums in the meantime. Part of the reason he doesn't say much is that he's so content with the world that he doesn't have super strong desires, it seems. A little frustration could motivate him to WANT to communicate more.

Speaking of Tantrums, Owen had his first big public one the other day. He LOVES the fire truck at the Children's Museum. I mean kitty loves. When we're there, we have a hard time getting him to do anything else.

Though he may love the fire truck, he's less thrilled with the fire fighter's clothing. This is a really cute picture, and I wish I could figure out how to rotate it on here.

Here's Owen looking mischievous for X-mas pics. Hmmm... How could I screw up Mommy's shot?

I LOVE this picture. I actually submitted it to the Regis and Kelly Cute Baby Contest (because the winner gets $125k towards college, and who could pass up a shot at that?) Just for the record, the Santa hat was in the water about 2 seconds after this picture.


The light outside was just amazing one night, so I went out and grabbed a few shots of Owen and Daddy playing in the backyard. Owen has become obsessed with going outside. He just likes to walk around crunching snow. He also likes to throw the ball to the dog, though he's going to have to work on distance.

Jeff, Kelly, Ben, Owen and I braved 20 degree temperatures and met downtown to see the Parade of Lights. It was fun. Owen was getting a little cranky by the end but would calm down the second he caught sight of the next float or balloon heading our way.

This is X-mas day at Justinian and Christina's. We were trying to get a picture of all 3 kids on the couch together. I don't know what we were thinking. This is the best I got.

Most of them were more like this:


Tiernan's performance gives me hope that someday this picture will be a lot easier to take. Actually, now that I look at this one, she doesn't look terribly lady like. At least she sat on the couch!

This is by far Owen's LEAST favorite gift. Who knew Tickle me Ernie was so traumatic? He's scared to death of him. Edges away from us when we point to him. Won't touch him. Freaks out if we turn him on. Maybe someday it will be a hit, but for now it's Owen torture.

Owen's new BFF Cesar. They're doing pretty well together.

Owen's preferred position. We're trying to discourage it because Cesar doesn't like being pinned down.

Owen and Grammy at the Children's Museum while they were here for X-mas. I'm a terrible Daughter in Law. This is the best picture I got of them together. At least there's a great one of Ruth Ben and Owen from Thanksgiving.


And last but not least, Owen's visit to Santa. It wasn't too bad. Owen wasn't overly fond of Santa, but he liked feeding Mrs. Clause some of his snacks. (The Santa here is a guy I used to teach with, Don King, who dyes his beard and hair every year to do this. Mrs. Clause is his wife Kim (but that's a wig :) The first time I saw him with the Santa beard, I didn't know he worked as Santa and I thought he was having a weird anti-midlife crisis.)