Owen/Abby - Oct '09

October was a busy month for the Gehbauers. I returned to work. Robbie worked his tail off. Owen is 1/4 of this way through his 3rd year. Abby turned 6 months old. And Halloween was the holiday of the season (addressed in a separate blog).

I returned to work on October 5th after a week in Texas visiting family and friends (previous blog entry). I am still on the Dell account, but have moved to a new role - Rebate Analyst. So far I am really enjoying the role a lot. It's a different customer dynamic from that of Customer Analyst, and a more high-level view of the account. I am working closely with a friend - Megan Donahue - who actually had the chipset desk before I had it. I'm just following her around. :) Megan had the full Dell rebate desk previously, but with the advent of some new processes, they decided to split the desk into two. At the moment I am doing a lot of working creating new tools/spreadsheets to handle these new processes. Eventually I will handle rebates for all desktop and server products that Dell buys from Intel. It's hard being back at work after 6 months at home with Abigail. But I love my job - so that helps a lot.

Robbie's had a bit of a rough month. At work they have "innovations" that are basically independent projects. He is part of an innovation team that is one of 12 teams company-wide up for an award. He goes to Denver next week to demo their innovation and see if they win the award. However, to be ready for Denver, he's been working long hours every night after the kids are down. So from about 8pm until 12/1am. It also didn't help that while Owen was sick (see next paragraph) Robbie had to be the one home with him for a full week (I'm out of any available PTO). So he missed out on a week of innovation time while he spent the nights just keeping up with his daily workload. Owen continues to be a combination of amazingly adorable and aggravating. He's doing the typical 2 year old thing - tantrums here and there, pushing buttons, testing boundaries. But he's also really sweet, displays great manners, can be very snuggly, and is very funny. He's still daddy's boy (will tell me to get up off the couch next to him so that Robbie can sit down instead). We start potty training officially right after Thanksgiving. So fingers crossed on that one. Owen had swine flu this month. It was pretty odd. He woke up from a nap one Saturday with a 102 fever. By the time we hit the urgent care and the pharmacy, it was down to 99 (with no medication). By Monday he'd been on tamaflu and without fever for more than 24 hours so he was in school all week. Fine over that weekend. And then on the next Monday fever fack up to 102 and out of school all week. He was quite a trooper - you'd never know he was sick to watch him. His favorite things lately - Little Ensteins (especially episodes with Melody), the green motorcycle, dinobites (he won't eat anything else), and Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

Abigail is 6 months old - can you believe it?!?! Time flies even faster with the second kid. Just this week she has been up on all fours and rocking back and forth. I'm guessing she'll be crawling by Thanksgiving time. She doesn't like to sit up - would rather practice her crawling. She still growls like a little bear (although probably louder than a bear - at the grocery store the other day I was two aisles from Robbie and could hear her quite clearly. She has gone on formula strike - would rather eat the solid food instead. But she's growing steadily. She got through her 6 month appointment with flying colors. Although she did find a new decible level when they gave her the shots. Her stats are:

Owenisms...

One evening after Abby was down we were playing in the livingroom with Owen. Owen started walking away and said, "I'll be right back." We said, "Where are you going?" and he answered, "I'm going to make dinner." What a little mimic!

One morning we were getting in the car to go drop the kids off at daycare. Robbie had opened the garage door and it was really foggy outside....

Owen: "What's that?"

Robbie: "It's foggy outside."

Owen: "It's froggy outside."

Robbie: "Not froggy, foggy - that's fog, buddy."

Owen: moment to think and then, "We have to be careful!"

Robbie: "Why do we have to be careful?"

Owen: "We can't see!"

Abby-isms...

Abigail has started "talking." She says the sound "bah." But by intonation you can hear exactly what she's telling you. And she looks directly at the person she's talking to. We get an earful when we put her in the car (which she hates).

While practicing her crawling skills, Abigail loves to fly like an airplane. Whether on her tummy or being held, she sticks those arms out straight. If she's on her tummy she arches her back and the legs are up off the floor too.