June 2003

friday, june 27

this is it, the night before we leave for our big california trip. i'm pretty excited. seems that i have so much to do before we leave. lots to pack for three people for eight days, especially since i need both business clothes and vacation clothes. our flight leaves at 615AM, which means we board at 545AM, which means we need to arrive at the airport at the latest by 445AM, which means we need to be at the long term parking facility by 430AM, which means we need to be up and around by 330AM. and it's already 10PM. sheesh.

i had quite an interesting experience tonight. someone in our neighborhood was shooting off fireworks really late tonight, and of course that is illegal. so a policeman was scouring the neighborhood to find the culprit. my doorbell rings as i am in the bathtub shaving my legs. so out of the tub i go, throwing on a new towel-robe that aunt joni sent for my birthday (and thank goodness for it!), with one leg totally lathered up. i answer the door half nude and dripping wet, and slightly lathered, to a policeman who shines a flashlight on me and says, "are you shooting off fireworks?" do i look like i'm shooting off fireworks? for crying out loud. anyway, he got an eyeful.

i put a few pictures up below. now that i take so many with our digital camera, it's hard to know when to stop putting them up. i have so many that are adorable. the first picture is owen with samantha, my friend mary ann's six-year-old daughter. mary ann and samantha watched owen the other night while i went and got a pedicure/manicure. he had such a great time, he slept the entire night (11 hours!) straight through. i need to send him over there more often! the second picture is owen feedig himself a ricecake. i think they are actually made of popcorn, and they stick to his lips, which is what is happening in this picture. i think it's so cute.

i guess that's it for me. i doubt that i will update while we are in california, so it may be next saturday before i post again. for now, i'm signing off.

sunday, june 22

well, it's over for another year. my birthday has come and gone, and i am now officially 24. i had a very nice birthday. when we woke up on saturday morning, i had a gift (actually wrapped!) and a homemade card from keith and owen. it was, as i suspected, a digital camera! and a super nice one, too - a dimage f300, made by minolta. 5 megapixels! it has so many features and settings, it's really a good camera. keith had to work saturday, so owen and i walked around the mall and had some german roasted nuts (a treat on my birthday). keith got home around 530PM, so we went to dinner and a movie. we dropped owen off at his sitter's, who volunteered to watch him for free as a birthday gift to me. we were home around 10PM. i had a nice day. and thank you to family and friends who sent cards and gifts. they are always much appreciated.

today we slept in a bit (thank you, owen!) before keith had to head off to work. here are some shots with the new camera, of us lounging around in the bed. we usually bring owen in with us when he gets up on the weekends, and he crawls all over us and snuggles for a while before breakfast.

the new camera takes pictures that are a gazillion times better than our camcorder. i love it. no more grainy dark shots! click here for more shots of owen "walking" and watching his movie.

i have spent most of today making another batch of baby food. now that he eats more complicated foods, it is more interesting. i get to make different concoctions of vegtables, meats, rice, noodles. it's like chemistry class. but what a mess to clean up.

tomorrow starts a new week, and then we're off to california in only six days!

tuesday, june 18

in case you missed it the first time, click here for owen's 8-month letter. i didn't mean to hide it in the entry below, sorry.

last night i was sitting at the table paying bills and owen crawled into the kitchen, pulled up on my leg, and said "ma-ma-ma" much to my amazement. he has never even attempted to say mama before, so i wasn't sure what i heard, but he did it again later. i'm not convinced that he's calling me mama, but he does seem to use it when he is in deep conversation with me, or looking at me, so maybe he does know that i'm mama. i was very excited.

i bought him a push toy that he can stand behind and "walk" - it rolls in front of him and helps him keep his balance. he is now pseudo-walking all over the house. if he hits a wall or piece of furniture, he can't get turned in a different direction, but as long as he has a straight line, he's off! it is so funny to see his little bow legs walking around. he still walks up on his very tippy-toes, too, so it's quite a sight.

less than a week and a half until we fly out to california for work-slash-vacation. i am excited, and a little bit scared. i have to drive myself around los angeles, and that could be bad. but i'm staying right on the beach, with a beachfront room, so that will be great. we get back on saturday, july 05, and then that next thursday i am off again, back to chicago. this trip will only be for one night, so i'll be back friday afternoon/evening. this should be it on the traveling for a little while.

keith celebrated his first father's day this past sunday. i got him a vintage caliphone record player and stacks of 1940's and 1950's records, along with a few disco records and instrumentals. i set it up saturday night in his music room, so it was ready for him on sunday morning. i think he was really excited; he seemed to like it a lot. he has been talking about getting a record player for a while now, and this is a super cool looking one. we also had a card for him that owen had personalized himself. owen also made him a gift at the babysitter's. all the kids (even owen!) painted big sheets of paper, and then they wrapped the paper around two toilet paper rolls. the sitter taped the rolls together and put a string on them like a pair of binoculars. when you look into them, there are two pictures of owen! it is so cute. and the paper has owen's little handprints all over it where he "painted."

this saturday is the big day! i will be turning the ripe old age of 24. keith told me that my present will be delivered in the mail today, but i am not to look at it or open it. i think i know what it is, but i'm not sure. if it is what i think, then he did a very good job! not sure if he has to work or not on my birthday; if not, maybe we'll go out to dinner. other than that, no real plans. how about sleep, please?

thursday, june 12

happy 8-months, owen!

this is a super bummer:

our nice, mature tree in our front yard split during a storm yesterday. i'm just about rained out. come on, summer, get a move on.

i took off work today for my annual doctor visits, just check-ups to doctor and dentist. everything appears to be in working order. my teeth need some serious cleaning, and i'm getting my bottom teeth whitened, which is good. three of them have gray spots on them, hardly noticeable down there on the bottom, but it's covered by insurance 100%, so why not?

i have a new favorite thing. bath and body works salt scrub in cucumber melon. laura sent me several great lotions, salt scrub, and body wash for my birthday, and i love love LOVE the salt scrub. thank you, laura!

monday, june 09

what a weekend. or, i should say, what a sunday. i got up early yesterday morning to a very happy baby, as he always is when he gets enough sleep. we cuddled on the couch and i drank coffee, then he played in the floor while i updated his written journal. he decided to play drums on the baby gate, which must have been loud, because keith got up shortly thereafter. and because we were just sitting around, and because it was nice outside, we decided to take the plunge and shave dante'. we have shaved him once before, when we moved to florida, because he has such thick hair, and he sheds horribly. he is a short-haired dog, and not really the shaving type, but because he is always indoors, he never loses his coat, just grows a new one over the old one. his hair is seriously an inch thich, and it is filthing up our house. so we gave him his summer cut, which looks much better this time than last time, for those of you who saw him last time. we didn't shave him completely bald, but he has kind of a buzzcut all over. he acts like he's much cooler now. we gave him a good bath after his haircut, and he is so much cleaner and more fun to play with. so that took most of the morning. owen sat on the deck in his saucer and played away, enjoying the shade and warm weather and watching us torture dante'.

then last night we took owen to his very first carnival. it's really not a fair, too small, and it travels around to different parking lots, you know the type. but we thought he'd get a kick out of the lights and spinning rides, and just general people watching, which he always enjoys. he looked and looked at everything. then he and i rode the carousel, and he sat in front of me on the horse and held onto the pole, like a regular big boy. keith played the quarters game - the one where you aim the little track and roll your quarter in to get the other quarters to push down into the slot, and then you win. he didn't win, but it's addicting to try. we then ventured over to the alley of games, and decided to see if owen could pick up ducks. these bobbing plastic ducks were swirling around and around, moving pretty fast, and he had to pick up three. he stuck his whole arm in, and would stop a duck, then after about three trys, he could pick it up. it was so cute. he won a little puppy dog, not a stupid looking one, but a cute one. he held the puppy dog while keith and i split a cotton candy (yes, owen tried some, and yes, i know it's rottenly unhealthy), and we watched a magic show. then we left about 930PM. what fun, and for only $11, and less than 5 minutes from our house. maybe we'll take him back again tonight!

thursday, june 05

owen has a new favorite activity – playing guitar. he loves to sit with keith and strum the acoustic guitar. keith holds down different chords, and owen plays. he laughs and talks like crazy. he used to just slap the guitar, but keith showed him how to strum up and down the strings, so now he “plays” guitar with daddy. and when the guitar is hanging up on the wall, he sits on the floor and stares at it, and talks to it, i guess imploring it to come down and play. maybe he inherited keith’s musical soul.

i gave owen his first haircut on sunday. i know what you’re thinking, how can you give a bald child a haircut? when he was about three months, he lost his baby hair, as most babies do around that age. however, he only lost it in the front and middle, leaving the back and sides long. he looked like an old man with a receding hairline. so now the bald places have filled in with a very light and very fine covering of hair. but the back and sides, which never fell out, are twice as long and thick as the rest of his hair. so keith held him and i shortened up the back to match the rest of his hair. it looks so much better now. his hair is such an odd color. when it’s wet, it is super dark, like mine and keith’s. but when it is dry, and especially outside, it is almost blonde, with little red highlights. very cool. i still wonder what this child is going to look like when he gets older. hopefully he’ll keep those blue eyes; they’re just so pretty.

i have a business dinner tomorrow night, and keith has to work, so i think owen is going to stay with my friend’s husband and daughter. it is one of my friends from work, and she will be at dinner with me. i took owen a few saturdays ago to their daughter’s soccer game (she’s six – it was so cute), and her husband was really good with owen. i think it will be fun for owen to play with their daughter. i’m not worried about leaving him there. i would leave him with our regular sitter, who is free in the evenings now that she has quit her second job at subway, but leaving him with her costs money, as opposed to free with friend’s husband. so friend’s husband it is!

i’ll wrap this entry up before i get fired for not working, but finally, if you haven’t visited the yu homepage recently, then click here and check out the picture of my boy and his aunt betsy. what a cutie he is!

monday, june 02

what a difference a year makes. look at this portrait of owen that i picked up on may 30, 2003:

and this one from may 30, 2002:

amazing, isn't it?

finally, an update. it's long overdue. but with the boy being so active and into everything, i don't have a moment to spare. every word i type on the webpage is another bruise on my son while he climbs over and onto and falls off of and onto various household items. he crawls so well now, and stands fabulously, and even does some furniture cruising.

he has also started eating some meat. i held off feeding him meat because i'm not sure how to make meat into baby food. i bought a few cans of meat (apples and ham, broccoli and chicken, beef and garden vegetables) to see if he even liked it before i went to the trouble of cooking a bunch of meat for him. i should have known that he would like it - he likes everything that can be eaten. so i made my first attempt at pureed meat - ground chuck, carrots, and corn conglomerated into a mash of baby delight. it looked terrible, but he seemed to love it. he ate all eight portions i made within a few days. so i have purchased some chicken and ham, and more ground chuck, and this week will be baby food week. we need more vegetables, some meats, and rice. this batch will be more chunky than last time, now that he is starting to chew. he doesn't use his one tooth to chew, only his gums, but he is pretty powerful. he eats avocado chunks and banana pieces on a regular basis, as well as little tears of whole wheat bread, small curd cottage cheese, tiny pieces of unsalted, unflavored rice cakes, and strawberry slices. he also eats a lot of yogurt (unflavored, or sometimes vanilla), and unflavored grits. i think he likes all the variety. he now has quite a repertoire of various foods.

i signed him up for swimming lessons. we start on july 12, and we will go every saturday for six weeks, i think. not sure about the class length. keith and i will both get to go with him, so that will be a fun family activity. the classes start at six months, and he will be nine months by july 12, so i think he will enjoy it.

in other news, we tried a new church yesterday. we left after the worship service. it was definitely different than what i'm used to, different as in something that i'm not comfortable with. i'm not saying it was bad, or good, just kind of wild for me. during the faster songs, there was a group of women that ran onto the stage and started doing this dance, all uniform and together. it looked like tai bo. they were punching and kicking and karate chopping. maybe they were chopping the devil? the piano player stopped playing twice and picked up this big stick and held it over his head, and i just didn't get it. not saying good, not saying bad, just saying it wasn't for me. next week we'll try the church at belmont. this is getting super old.

keith's summer class started today. he is taking accounting this summer, and then will really start a heavy load in the fall at indiana state university. he will be getting his risk management degree, mostly online. it will be hard work for him to watch owen and study during the day, and then work during the evenings. but he can do it - he is good at school. otherwise why would he be going back for his third degree?!

the wonderful state of tennessee has revised their carseat laws again. children now have to be in a booster or carseat until the age of nine. i like an age limit better than a weight limit. weights span too many people. for instance, our babysitter told us that in her home state, iowa, the weight limit of a child in a carseat would include her 15-year old son, and she is just barely over the weight limit by a handful of pounds (she is a small woman, and her son is short, too). age, that makes more sense. now baby clothes, that is an entirely different subject. who in their right mind makes baby clothes that span six months? i'll tell you who - gap. now, before i get letters from kyle and all the other gap fans out there, let me say that their clothes are cute, and are currently a great fit for owen. but he is 7 months old, and all of his six to twelve months from gap will soon be retired. it is just too big of a weight gap (pun intended).

i forgot to mention in my last post that while rachel and kendra were here, we were at the mall, and we saw michael tait and his band, aptly named tait. very cool.

i'm off now, to pick up my new glasses. my prescription was doubled, yet again, so i ordered a new pair of glasses, prescription sunglasses, and contacts. that ought to last me a while. or at least another six months until my eyeballs die just a little bit more.

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