To the desert...

Owen and Mama went on their first solo adventure, over the mountain and into the sagebrush. For one week we would stay with good friends, relax, sort through baby gear (our mission was to help them prepare for their upcoming stork delivery), play with their 3 dogs, soak up the dry heat and swim. A vacation away from the everyday of our every day.

Pretty brave of our friends to have a 10 month old let loose on their home and their dogs... it was sort of a "research trip" for them, to see what they needed to babyproof and how the older kids (aka Timba, Remy and Pete) would do with a small, less hairy sibling.

The Dude lost his dude-ness temporarily... he had a hard time with the dogs at first. They were a little bit scary. First, they are bigger dogs than his Penny - secondly, there are more of them - and lastly, one of them jumps! High! Remy is known for jumping up to five feet (or more) into the air when she is excited. This was the first site that Owen got of her. We were all walking towards the door and this brown, pitbull of a pogo stick was jumping to see us thru the glass. It totally freaked him out... Mama wasn't expecting that!

After a couple of days, they all started to get used to each other. The dogs learned that the kid drops food under the high chair, and the kid learned that the dogs just wanted to lick him and clean his face. They then became fast friends...


(The third dog, Remy is not in the picture because she was assuming her position directly under the highchair - where she was all week, waiting for a Cheerio to drop)

We helped clean, sort, assemble and organize all the piles and piles of gear, clothes, clothes and more clothes that were piled in their living room. They quickly became aware that having a baby requires a lot of "stuff". Amen.

The Dude broke in the new, white, organic cotton travel crib (much to mama's dismay) after we discovered that he had outgrown our own that we brought. Luckily, he didn't sleep in it too much so there wasn't much threat of messing it up... Yeah, you guessed it - he didn't sleep much at all that week.

Did the lack of sleep keep The Dude down?



On our last full day, we headed down to the park to feed the ducks and sun our bellies. The ducks were very interested in Owen's toes...more so than the bread we brought.



Despite the lack of sleep, the onset of the "Mommy Phase", the constant monitoring of the dog's water bowls, and the testing of her patience, Mama had a good time too.

How could she not?

10 Months Old

Since we didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, the weight and height stats are an unknown at this point. He definitely feels heavier to us - so perhaps the advice we've taken from the doctor is working.

The Dude is more mobile than ever. He pulls himself to his feet whenever, however. And like the photo below, he often times will balance himself to stand on his own...


He crawls with lightening speed (especially towards that doggie door) and can get to something that he wants in nano seconds... which almost always happens to be something he shouldn't have - like power cords and the stereo.

The latest mobility development is doing a sort of bear walk when we put him in the grass...



He's added actual words to his constant ramblings - well, what we consider to be words anyways. He says:

-ball (bah)
-bye
-more (muh)
-Ma Ma (which may also mean "more", he only says it at eating time)
-book (buk)

He LOVES any kind of ball-like object ("Bah!"), being chased by mamma and papa then tickled endlessly, animals (he points at them and says "Oooooooh!"), eating and any thing that is on the floor, the tinier the better, that he can put into his mouth.

Oh, and he also LOVES the vacuum cleaner. We mean L-O-V-E-S. As soon as we pull it out of it's "house" he starts to point at it and say "Oooooh!" very excitedly...

All the toys in the house, and his favorite thing is the Bissel.
Go figure.

Catching Up

Holy Crow! We can't believe that nearly a month has passed since our last post..... the time is whizzing by (Can you believe that it's almost Labor Day?!)

So pardon us while we catch up a bit and batch post, if you will. We'll make it worth your time - we promise.