Snow Day(s)

Mama can't remember the last time that Stumptown has seen so much snow. For days now it has been coming and going, falling then melting, piling up and blowing around. The forecast shows the flakes hanging around for the next few days... white Christmas? Who knows.

We've been trying to take advantage of being without wheels (Papa has been taking the AWD to get to work) by suiting up and venturing out to the store, but it's pretty cold out there, so we usually only make it to the end of the block.

The Dude has been loving it. He loves to wake up in the morning and look out the window to see if it's still there. He loves gearing up with his "Ya-ket" (jacket) and his "Boooots!" and going "OUT!!".



The fluffy flakes we had yesterday were almost as big as his hands, and he liked to look up at them falling down...



Until...





We tromp up and down the street, visiting all the festive decorations that the neighbors have in their yards. He especially loves the big blow-up snow globes (yes, we have more than one on our street). But he's also very fond of these snowmen... they have "HAT(s)!".



The snow continues to fall today and should throughout the afternoon. We will venture out into it at some point, we're quite sure.

Videos Galore!

For all of you that have been pining to hear The Dude speak...
This is his favorite book at the moment (we got it from cousin "Nic Nic"). It has all these little flaps that reveal different animals. He looks at this book at least 4 times a day. It's really cool.



And here he demonstrates our favorite depiction of the beloved sheep....

13 Months

Here are some photos to mark the 13th month. It feels like this has been a pretty monumentous month as far as development, but we'll get to that later.

For now, feast your eyes on our budding boy.

New Shoes

The Dude's shoe collection is growing. Like Papa, he loves shoes. We got these at one of those blow-out, warehouse liquidation sales. Best $15 we've spent in a while.
Just look how happy he is...

No Photos

Well, it seems a little odd that in this house the shutter has not been clicking like mad. We've been taking some time off... we've decided to live in the moment, and not see Owen's life from behind the camera, but instead in real time.

(Actually - that's all a bunch of B.S. We just haven't been lugging the camera all around with us everywhere we go. But we had you going for a second, eh?)

We do have some new video to upload, but we'll get to that later....

In the last couple of weeks we've been up to all kinds of mayhem. We've been to the local community center for indoor play-park (it has been raining cats and dogs here lately) and a music class, been making it to the library for story time, and of course all the boring errands and running around that we tend to do.

But as usual, The Dude takes it all in stride. He flirts with the cashier, he laughs when he hears someone in the room laugh (regardless if they are laughing at or near him), he is patient when kids take his toys from him, and he is calm when the Obnoxious Kid grabs and squeezes his face. The Dude abides.

He brings us his favorite books and we read them over and over and over. He can tell us what the chicken, rooster, cow, sheep and monkey say (proof coming soon!). And his vocabulary is ever expanding. Just this week he's begun to do what we ask... Like "Owen, can you please close that cabinet door?" or "Can you help us feed Penny?" (he'll go into the cabinet where her food is and pull out the bin of food). It's a sure indication that he understands what we are saying. Pretty cool.

Sleep? Well, without jinxing ourselves, let's just say that it's going pretty good. Night sleep is great, but napping is a different story. He's got an internal clock that goes off after exactly 20 minutes of snoozing.... exactly. Every time. It's weird.

Stay tuned for videos!

Play Structure Love

This was this first time that we exposed Owen to a bona fide play structure since he's been upright on two feet. Now that he's becoming more confident in walking around, we're sure that we will be making regular trips to the local school, but this was the first time that he's been plunked into the middle of a big, bright, bustling mess of kids. He LOVED it.

At first he just stood there and stared at all the little people, then a big smile crossed his face and he was off.

We think he's hooked...

Happy Halloween!

We've had The Dude's costume in the closet for months and were very eager to try it on him. We thought it was the perfect thing... so cute.

Wouldn't you know, he HATED it.



It just goes to show you that what the parent thinks is the coolest thing, inevitably is not. This will go down in history as the "stupid chicken costume of 2008".

However, it was much more amusing on Papa...



And downright HILARIOUS on Penny...



But Papa won the "Best Costume" award in our house this year, even though we're not quite sure what he was...



Hope everyone had a good Halloween as well, filled with as many tricks and treats!