Fall Time is Apple Time

A photo montage of our recent trip to an apple farm.... Needless to say, our eyes were bigger than our buckets and we ended up with over 100 lbs of delicious, crisp apples. We are still elbow deep, but as you will see, The Dude couldn't be happier.

First Steps

Sometime in the last couple of days, The Dude figured it out. He's been cruising all around the house with either a push-toy, the wall, or our finger for a while now... and he's also been standing up unassisted in the middle of the room for about a week or so.

The morning of his birthday party (the 12th) we were sitting in the living room, playing on the floor and we held out a ball (his favorite object in the world) for him and he took about three steps towards us. He then did it again DURING the party, and we were so glad to have witnesses, and everyone was cheering him on, which he loved.

But after everyone had gone, he really started to put things together. He was playing with one of his push-toys, and like usual he was pushing it all over the house with one hand. But this time, you could tell that he was really processing how to move his feet. He moved forward, and sideways, and BACKWARD. The drool was pouring down his chest and his breathing was heavy... he was concentrating sooo hard. He never let go of the push-toy, but you could tell that he was preparing for something much bigger.

Then he decided to try the solo thing again, but this time he decided that it would be much more fun to do it while carrying something...



He gains confidence everyday. We'll keep you posted, but we're convinced that by the end of the week he'll be running. Oy vey!

The Party

The Family converged on our house on a Sunday afternoon to celebrate the First Annual Birthday Extravaganza for The Dude. He was in particularly rare form that day - before the guests arrived he took his very first steps towards us in the living room. "Uh oh.", we said. And despite all the commotion of the kids, and the guests, and the presents, and the singing... he took even more independent steps, and this time we had witnesses! But more on that later....

Let's get to the good stuff! The Dude was definitely showered with awesome gifts for his birthday. From a super cool Radio Flyer tricycle to the best top on earth, he made out like a bandit.





So then came The Big Moment. We set him in his chair, put the cupcake in front of him with the HUGE candle, and everyone started to sing. He stared at us all, and stared at the candle... he wasn't too sure what it was...



...and being the curious monkey he is, he reached out to investigate... OUCH! We didn't blow it out in time! The poor little guy stuck his finger right in the flame!! Bad Mama and Papa! We burned our poor child on his first birthday... good grief.

Of course, he forgot about the whole traumatic experience in about 2 seconds and went on playing as usual - but he was done with the cake thing and we weren't able to get the whole photo montage of the messy cake experience. It just goes to show you that you can't "will" things to happen... you just have to show up.

Thanks to all that attended - it was a great party. And for those of you that couldn't make it, you were there in spirit and hopefully this says it all....

Happy Birthday!

Precisely one year ago, The Dude entered the world without a cry. We've replayed the events in our heads and now sit in disbelief that a whole year has gone by.

Owen, you continue to amaze us. You make us laugh, melt, and fall in love with you every day. Your determination and independence worry us at times, but we are so proud of the little person that you are becoming. This next year will bring a lot of changes for all three of us, and we are ready.
We love you, Dude.

Back Log of Photos

Hey Gang,
We have been having some issues with our computer as of late... namely our hard-drive which has ALL of our precious photos stored in one place (no, we do not have a back-up. EEEEK!). So when scrolling thru the photos on the camera, we realized that there are some really awesome pictures that we have yet to share.

Here you go, Dude fans... this will wet your whistle as we count down the days to the Numero Uno Birthday Extravaganza!

Recycle Dude

We all try to do our part in saving the environment, and The Dude is no exception.
He was so proud of himself, examining each item very closely as he removed them from the bin.
Paper...plastic...magazines...junk mail was his favorite.