Trick or Treat

This year we decided to take Owen trick or treating. We figured that even though he's still a little too young to understand what's going on, he would still enjoy seeing all the kids out. Our neighborhood has tons of kids. We probably saw about 200 kids out trick or treating.



It rained all the night before and drizzed some in the morning. But we lucked out and it cleared up somewhat - just in time to go out. We started the evening out with dinner at Ariel and Damon's. Then we took both kids - Owen as a cowboy and Alex as bunny - and walked back to our house, stopping at a few houses for candy on the way.



Both of the kids were soooo cute. Alex has no fear. She would walk right into a house if Damon and Ariel would let her. I see a future in skydiving for that girl. And she had a great time working her way through wrappers to get to the candy.



Owen for the very first time allowed his hand to be held and for us to direct him where to walk. Usually if you try to hold his hand he'll jerk it away. Mr. Independent. He wanted to carry his little candy holder on his own, so that got dragged behind us the entire way. He wouldn't go within 4 feet of the doors to the houses though. He still is very cautious around strangers.



We ended at our house where we munched some of the candy loot. Our street is actually fairly quiet, so not too many groups of trick or treaters - but all big enough groups to eventually wipe out our candy supply.




All in all quite a successful Halloween!

Dell Bat Cave

So every year our department does Halloween contests - cube decorating and custome. Often teams do both together as a theme. In previous years, the team I was on didn't participate. But I love Halloween and thought it would be fun to do together.

With only 1-week notice, we decided on a theme of "Dell Bat Cave" for the cube decorating, and then dressing up as bats for the costume contest. The bat cave idea is particularly appropriate as Austin, TX - where Dell (our account) is located - is famous for it's urban bat colony (largest in the world). Plus bats are very halloween.

We decorate the full aisle we have as the cave (couldn't cover the "tunnel" completely due to fire hazard - but did the best we could with that in mind). We had a cave entrance, some scary bats, stalactites, cave walls, spider webs, and even a cave pond w/ waterfall (that's what all the tin foil is). Then we had the bats flying out of the cave and around the corner to our remaining 1/2-aisle of cubes which we made to look like a city-scape overwhelmed with bats.

The other two aisle decoartions we competed against were a haunted house, and the Addams Family (full front and then inside of the house and they all dressed up like Addams Family characters). Both awesome. Apparently the Addams family group has been planning theirs since June (so a bit of a head start). ;)

We had tons of fun putting up all the decorations and figuring out what we could do with this theme. What an easy way to add some fun teamwork to a work environment. Halloween rocks!

Clayton and Leah and Apple Hill

This past weekend we were thrilled to have Robbie's cousin, Clayton, and his wife, Leah, out to visit us. They were in the area with friends doing a Napa tour and took a few days to come stay with us. They arrived Thursday, went to Tahoe on Friday, and Saturday we all went to Apple Hill.

Apple Hill is a series of tons of orchards in the mountains all grouped together. It's a bit of a family tourist spot. Many of the larger orchards have lots of kids things to do - hay rides, petting zoos, clown shows, fishing ponds, pony rides, BBQ, and of course apple desserts of all kinds. It's especially popular in the fall because it's harvest time for the apples. But it's also even more popular in October, because there's also pumpkin patches, so a good pre-Halloween thing to do.

We had a great time, ate great food, and had so much fun watching Owen. Last year we took him but he was too young (3 months) to really enjoy or even notice what was going on. This year he was fascinated with the goats. With no prompting was baaing at them. And he LOVED the old fashioned tractors. It was quite a 2-person production to pry him off kicking and screaming and give other kids a chance to "ride."

We took some fun pictures of Owen in his Halloween costume - a cowboy this year - with pumpkins and the tractor and then finished the day with some excellent apple crisp from Grandpa's Cellar orchard. Fun time had by all!

That night back home we had sushi with Clayton and Leah - yes I made sure I ate no raw food. And then they flew home early Sunday morning. What a treat to have them out to visit. I hope next time they can stay even longer. :) Maybe in the winter when we can take them skiing.

Halloween Fest @ Day Care

Owen's day care had a great Halloween Fest this Wednesday. We went and met our good friends Michelle and Lord and their daugher Angelica there. What a fun time.

The school administrators and teachers made the general theme 101 Dalmations. All the hallways were in spots and they all dressed up like puppies (and 1 Cruela DeVille). All the kids (and a few of the parents) dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Owen is a cowboy this year. Angelica is a giraffe.

Then each room in the school had different activities. One was a dinner room (corn dogs and stuff). Then other activities included a cake walk, pumpkin decorating, fishing, a treasure hunt, cookie decorating, pin the nose on the dalmation, ghost bowling, lollipop pull, etc. At the end of the evening they did a drawing for "activity" baskets that each of the rooms had put together prior (I should say all the parents contributed to). No, we didn't win a basket.

Owen was a little too young to really participate in most of the activites. And I think was somewhat overwhelmed most of the time. Plus it was way past his bedtime. But in general fun was had by all. I think this will become a fun family tradition while we still have kids at that school.

Owen is a Teddy Now

We have been extremely pleased with the day care we selected for Owen. Brighton Schools in Folsom - for those of you in the area - we highly recommend it. Last week was Owen's first full week in the Teddies Room at day care. This is the first official toddler room. They have the babies split into two rooms - the Bunnies (non-mobile) and the Lambs (mobile). Then they have the toddlers split into two rooms - the Teddies (12-18 months) and the Puppies (18-24 months).



They moved Owen up a little late because they like to move them in groups of about four - which is awesome since that keeps someone familiar with him. This is a fairly big transition because in the Lambs room there's really not much structure. The kids are all on their own sleep/eat/play schedule. They have a few activities, but mostly it's free play. In order to move up a level each child has to be on 1 nap at school, sippy cups only, walking, and napping on a matt on the floor (instead of a crib).



In the Teddies room they eat and nap at the same time all together. And the day is very structured with activities (Circle time, outside time, art time, etc.). In this classroom they learn to line up to go outside, they have assigned seats at a table to eat (which they know to go to), they put their cup in the sink when they're done eating, they sit in a circle for reading time. It's amazing how much they're learning.



Owen is doing awesome in his new classroom. His nap at school has actually improved (instead of ~1 hour it's closer to 2.5 hours). A few observations from last week that we think are pretty cute to share...



- They learned where their noses are. So now if you say "Owen where's you nose?" he'll point right to it - so proud. Often he'll point to our noses if we ask where they are too.



- Every day we get a status report on what he was feeling that day - happy, snuggly, upset, etc. Every day it came back that he was happy, social, and verbal. :) We have quite a talker.



- Owen loves to have his shoes put on. And if our shoes are around, he'll try to put them on. Apparently another little boy lost a shoe. And Owen picked it up and took it to the right child. Apparently he even pays attention to other people's shoes.



- Owen also loves hats right now. And just about anything can substitute as a hat. So during outside time there's a sandbox that has a toy sand sifter. Owen not only puts this on his own head.... he insists that they other children also take turns wearing the "hat." Apparently he gets quite a few confused looks from the other kids. :)



- Robbie has taught Owen to jump. So now if we jump and say jump. He'll also jump. But it's more like major effort with the arms, but no air time. But he loves it!

Daddy's Little Helper

Having just moved into our new house 2 months ago, we understandably have tons of little projects to do. A lot of these are babyproofing projects - installing gates and what-not. Robbie does most of these.




Owen is such a Daddy's-boy that he's unhappy if he knows Robbie is around and he can't be with him. So often during these projects I bring Owen to where Robbie is so he can "watch." My job in this scenario is to keep and eye on Owen and keep him out of Robbie's way.





But Owen loves to "help" Daddy. This usually involves climbing all over Daddy. Sitting between Daddy and the project, and/or grabbing Daddy's tools are running away with them. But it's just so darn cute I can't help but let him and snap some pictures while he's at it (I'm sure Rob would rather I coral our child and let him get on with getting stuff done). :)

Owen is 15 Months Old

I can't believe it's been 15 months since our little guy was born. It seems like just yesterday we were at our first ultrasound appointment and watching a little peanut wiggle on the screen. One year ago at this time Owen and I were visiting my friends Jenny and Mark in Denver. He was just 3 months old. At that point he was rolling over, smiling, and starting to sleep longer through the night. At the 3 month well-baby appointment he was 12lbs 6oz.


One year later, the developments are amazing. Walking, talking, interacting, learning. All so fast. He is 23 lbs 9oz and 31in tall (still 50% weight and 75% height). He is now in the toddler room at day care. He loves to throw balls (well throw anything really, but he prefers balls). He loves to learn new words and use them constantly. He loves to play and laugh and (when we're lucky) snuggle. He's a great eater and sleeper. He is ALWAYS on the go. Nothing is going to ever slow Owen down. :) What a blessing in our lives. I don't know how, but we love him more every single day, and that never seems possible - to love him more than we do right now.


Happy 1 1/4 B-day Mr. O!


Pictures to come.

10 Weeks Down, 30 to Go!

So we're 1/4th of the way through now. 10 weeks down, 30 to go. Although since we've pretty much decided on a scheduled c-section this time, it really cuts one week out of the count. So only 29 to go. ;)


According to babycenter.com, the baby is a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce (about the size of a kumkwat). The baby now has completed the most critical portion of his/her development. This is the beginning of the fetal period, when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. If we were able to take a close look we'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

Announcing Baby #2 - Due May 4th, 2009

We are super thrilled to officially announce that we are expecting baby #2!!! The due date is May 4th, 2009.

We found out we were pregnant the day before we closed on the house. What a week! Baby and Owen will be about 22 months apart. We were hoping for about 2 years between them, but also wanted to try to avoid being pregnant during the heat of the summer if possible. I swelled so badly with Owen that anything to avoid that again is well worth it. So May is perfect timing!

I think the family consensus is we're all hoping for a girl - what with Owen for us, Travis and Amber's little boy Ethan, and Tracy and Mike's boys Collin and Carson, there's a lot of boys already. We would be thrilled with either of course! :) We should find out the gender just before Christmas - look for it in our annual Christmas cards.

This pregnancy has been much harder on me than the first one. A lot of nausea (I really didn't have any with Owen). Worse exhaustion as I had with the first pregnancy - I think this time it was brought on early by moving and unpacking and probably made worse by the nausea. I'm definitely looking forward to all of it going away when I hit the 2nd trimester in a few weeks (fingers crossed that it does go away).

We had our first sonogram yesterday. The doctor says everything is exactly as it should be and that Baby #2 looks healthy and right on track. Pictures below. The baby's head is on the left in the pics. We got to see the tiny heart beating. And he/she wiggled for us during the sonogram - although not nearly as much as Owen did in his sonogram at this stage. Maybe that means this one will be less on-the-go once they're born. ;)

The baby at this stage is about the size of a grape (around 1 inch) and is a fraction of an ounce in weight. His/her essential body parts are all accounted for now, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes this week: the baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do the tiny teeth. Amazing how fast they grow and develop. Just 4 weeks ago it was only the size of a poppyseed!

Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and a very healthy baby in May. To all of our friends with 2 children... we are now open to advice.! ;)