March 2003

monday, march 31

*update* let me check - nope, still exhausted. while owen naps, shall i clean for jules, or shall i steal some winks myself? ugh, i need to find a way to do both. never enough hours in the day.

to get to the point of this update, i have just picked up my boy from the sitter's, and the official diagnosis is bilateral (both ears) +3 (super duper bad) ear infection. i've picked up the bubble-gummy antibiotics from the pharmacy and administered the first dose, along with another dropperful of tylenol. and now, he sleeps. **

the sun is burning my retinas. i’ve turned into a creature of the night, where darkness is my only solace. now let me sleep!

it’s so a coffee morning. poor owen, he didn’t go to sleep until almost 2AM, and with me up at 5AM for work, it makes for a very tired mommy this morning. keith just called and told me that sometime during the night, owen scratched up his right ear. so now i’m guessing ear infection. i made him a doctor’s appointment this morning, and keith is going to take him in. when i talked to the nurse about his symptoms, her guess was also an ear infection. so if that’s what it is, hopefully we can get some antibiotics pumping in him and he’ll start feeling better. i hate that he feels bad; i’d take it in a second if i could.

i’ve been at work now for about 2 hours, and i can’t believe how groggy i am. i keep having to stop and think to myself, ‘now what was i doing?’ i’ve accomplished next to nothing. besides being tired, i am thinking about owen, and how i need to be home with him. then right after i think that, i remember how i sat in the rocking chair last night bawling because he was screaming in my face, and had been for the last 7 hours straight, and how i really needed keith to come home and give me a break. so maybe i need to be here today and let keith have him for a while. bad mommy, i should be holding him while he’s sick. but daddy will do just as well, and hopefully we’ll have some medicine for him by this evening. my poor baby.

sunday, march 30

wow, what a night. owen is sick, and it's making all of us feel pretty miserable. he did not nap yesterday at all after 10AM, so i thought he'd go to bed early. and he did - about 8PM. then he was up at 9PM, up at 10PM, and up at 1230AM. then up at 130AM, 230AM, 400AM, 430AM, and up for good at 6AM. today has been a little better. he took a 2-hour nap this morning, a 3-hour nap around noon, and now (430PM) he's napping again. i don't know exactly what's wrong with him. his nose is just pouring, he sneezes 5 or 6 times in a row, and he's coughing. his cough sounds like his chest is full of gunk. i keep checking him for fever, but i don't think he's had one yet. he is pretty lethargic - he opts to just lay in our laps instead of his usual antics. i think he kept waking up last night simply because he couldn't breathe. he was so congested. i went out this morning and picked up some baby dimetapp, and it seems to be loosening up his congestion some, but he acts like he feels bad. i feel so bad for him. i hate that he is sick. his eyes are pouring tears, watering so badly. i can't tell if he has allergies (which keith and i have terribly) or if he has a cold. when i picked him up from the sitter's friday afternoon, she informed me that one of the little girls there had a fever and was sick. in fact, she had the fever when her parents brought her in that morning. she had been sick all night. i was a little aggravated - reason #984 not to want my son in daycare. why would a parent bring a sick child to the sitter's? now i'm wondering if he caught something from her, or if he's just suffering from allergies. he has his 6-month doctor's visit in a week or so, but if he continues to feel bad, i'll have to make an appointment for him in the next few days.

we got the living room finished. it looks so so good! keith is such a good painter. i love how it turned out. i will take a picture of the finished product when we get the light switch covers and pictures hung back up; right now the paint is still drying. i also got the flower beds cleaned out yesterday, pulled up the dead shrub, and hoed up all the dreaded monkey grass. it looks nice now, except for the big hole where i pulled up the dead shrub. we need to get something to plant there. it was a nice day for working outside, cool enough where i could wear a light jacket and not get sweaty. today, though, it's just downright cold.

we rented "my big, fat greek wedding" last night. neither of us had seen it before. i don't know if it was all the hoopla and build-up over the last year or what, but what a let down. i mean, it was entertaining, but i can't see how it was the number 1 comedy of 2002. the windex thing, now that was funny, but overall i wasn't impressed.

friday, march 28

hoo ha!

keith is at the driving range right now, and then he is going to pick up the paint for our living room. i decided not to plant the flower garden this weekend, because sunday is supposed to be in the 40's, with freezing temperatures at night. yuck. but we'll get the painting done. it is already taped off and ready to go. i will take before and after pictures.

yesterday at work i got the nicest surprise:

aren't they fabulous? the biggest bouquet of spring flowers from laura. my entire cubicle smelled so good. i brought them home today and took pictures of them. beautiful! laura - thank you very much.

and while i had the camera out, i had to snap a few pictures of the blue-eyed baby. he has been in such a good mood this afternoon. i just laid him down for a nap. what an angel.

and finally, i just thought i'd point out that i keep this website pretty much as i'd keep a diary or a journal, documenting my thoughts, my feelings, or even the hum-drum of the day. not everyone likes to journal publicly, but i don't mind it. however, if something i say bothers you, or you don't care for my opinions, well - that's something that can't be helped. i'm putting myself out for the world to read, and i can only be who i am. love me or hate me, i'm still me!

by the way, i love my husband very, very much.

ack, it's all scattered around now. ah well, it's friday.

thursday, march 27

what a rough night we had yesterday. owen was so tired, and each time i laid him down for a nap, the neighbor’s dog would bark and wake him up. i laid him down four times before i gave up and just held him in the living room. but he was so tired, he screamed and screamed. finally about 900PM i put him down, and he stayed asleep. that stupid dog, she makes me so mad. i feel bad for her, because she’s on a chain all the time, and never in the almost-year that we’ve lived here have i seen her owners come out and mess with her, so i know she’s bored and miserable. but she barks 24/7, and she’s right outside owen’s window. we’re going to have to find a solution to the problem – either figure out a way to block his window, or talk to the owners about her incessant barking. i prefer the former; i’m not much into confrontation.

i think keith and i have decided on a paint treatment for the living room. i’m trying to talk him into helping me finish it before juli gets here next weekend, so the house will look nice. he’s off this friday and saturday, so maybe we can work on it this weekend. i also have an empty flower bed around the deck that i’d like to fill with some pretty flowers. it’s so neat having our own house; we can change it and work on it and it just looks better and better. i love our little house.

i got an email yesterday from a certain well-known credit card company. it seems they stumbled upon my resume posted on a career-building website. i posted it a while back when i was having so many problems at work. they offered me a position as a financial advisor, for about 10K more than i make now. i don’t know how interested i am in finance, but i know that i’m interested in making more money. i haven’t contacted them back just yet. i may not contact them at all.

i did find out that jake – married to keith’s cousin kassie, for those of you who don’t know – is in the thick of it overseas. he’s a marine, so we had figured he’d be deployed. kassie’s due with their second child in may, so i know she’s probably a little overwhelmed by it all right now. kassie, we love you and are thinking about you, korbyn, and kinyon – and jake – and we’ll talk to you soon.

tuesday, march 25

well said.

my boy has a new trick. he gets on his hands and knees, just like he is going to crawl, and rocks back and forth. i swear he is just going to take off some day. he seems so small to be up on all fours already. he has pretty much mastered rolling, and he's not bad at standing, either, as long as he's hanging on to a couch or other piece of furniture. i think the next exciting milestone will be sitting up. i keep working with him, but his balance just isn't developed enough yet.

yesterday when i arrived at the sitter’s to pick up owen, she informed me that keith had not packed a bottle for him yesterday. he packed the powdered formula, but not a bottle. she said she almost called me at work, because he started getting seriously hungry. she finally decided to call her next door neighbor, who she has never met before, and ask if she had any kind of bottle she could borrow. her neighbor, unbelievably, had an unopened bottle that she was giving a friend as a baby shower gift, and she let our sitter have it so owen could eat. the sitter sterilized the brand new bottle, and owen took it just fine, even though it is a different sort of bottle from what he’s used to. now she has one for him at her house, in case keith has another little slip of the mind like yesterday.

i found out yesterday that my insurance will cover 100% of cataract surgery. my eyes are getting so bad, i am already far past being able to wear contacts. my current glasses cost me several hundred dollars – the lenses alone were over $200, because i have to order a special kind. they are so thick that they don’t fit in frames, so i have to pay extra for the lightweight lenses. there are special cataract contacts i could order, but they are several hundred dollars per pair, and they only last a few weeks. i figure as long as i have the insurance coverage, i better go ahead and get it taken care of before i am totally blind – which is possible, per my last optometrist visit, if the cataracts continue to grow. i wonder who i would talk to about that, an eye doctor or my GP? i should figure that out soon.

the weather is still amazing. i hope it stays like this for a while. it is warm but not hot, a nice breeze blowing, the trees are all in bloom and the air is actually scented with their blossoms. so pretty! i'd love to take owen out on walks every afternoon, but he pretty much crashes as soon as we get home, around 430PM, and doesn't wake up until dark, around 600 or 630PM. we'll do better when it stays light a little longer. i love spring and summer.

next weekend is a special one - juli is coming to visit! i am going to take some time off work so we can see the city and spend plenty of time together. she is owen's aunt ju, so he will love seeing her, i'm sure. keith's hotel has some sort of huge convention that weekend, so he will be absent most of the time. even better, girl time!

i keep asking keith to call home, but he hasn't yet - so can someone update me on jake? we've been wondering if he's overseas. thanks.

saturday, march 22

finally, i have uploaded the rest of the pictures from when my family was here for a visit. we did a lot of sightseeing, which was interesting for me, because even though we have lived in nashville for almost a year, we haven't done much looking around. there is a lot of history around here. those pictures are here.

so far, this is how i've spent my weekend:

i decided to dedicate this weekend to baby food. i'm making huge batches of different vegetables, and freezing it in ice trays to make individual servings, easy to reheat. so far i have steamed or boiled and pureed carrots, brocolli, turnips, kale, sweet potato, white potato, peas, green beans, zucchini, red bell pepper, and yellow squash. i also baked and pureed pears, mango, and apples, as well as smashing bananas. i also boiled brown rice and mashed it with iron-fortified formula to make rice cereal. i am so proud of myself. hopefully he has enough servings to last him a while! he had carrots and mango tonight, and loved it. the rest of the food (except for the kale - we'll see) smells fresh and looks great. i love how the little ice cube servings turn out. after they are frozen, i just pop them out and put them in labeled baggies. hopefully he will benefit from fresh fruits and vegetables.

we spent today outside - yay! i love this spring weather. we drove into nashville for the monthly swap meet/flea market at the fairgrounds. we usually don't buy anything unless we find books for owen, but i love to go to them. it's a great chance to get out of the house, stretch your legs a bit, get some fresh air. we go to a couple of different swap meets over the course of the month. here are some pictures of the spring weekend here in nashville, tennessee. it's looking beautiful!

and finally, a picture - this shot is on the music city sightseeing page, but i just love how it turned out, so here it is again - for your viewing pleasure, owen and his poppy at the belmont mansion, nashville tn:

thursday, march 20

well - our house is back to normal. my parents and grandparents left early this morning to head back to arkansas. man, it's quiet around here! i haven't updated in a while, and i feel like i have a lot to say today, so hang on to your seats.

first, we had a nice visit with the family. we did a lot of sight-seeing, and learned a lot of nashville history. we also ate at some fantastic restaurants (p.f. chang's, anyone?), and just enjoyed each other's company. owen was, for the most part, a trooper, and let us haul him all around the city each and every day. i have several pictures to put up of our adventures, but i can't seem to find our camera right now. perhaps once i get my house back in order, i'll find it. i'm kind of topsy-turvy from sleeping in the living room and spreading my junk all over the house. actually, keith and i slept on a queen-size air mattress in the living room, and it was wonderful. the weather here has been in the low 70's every day, so we slept with windows open and a nice breeze blowing through. i slept great on the air mattress. and back to my actual point - i will upload those new picture as soon as i find them.

owen has taken up a new habit this week. tuesday he decided that he does, in fact, take a pacifier. keith and i armed ourselves with a variety of pacifiers before he was born, but he would never take them. he would suck my finger, or take a bottle, but that's it. however, he was fussing on tuesday, and in a pinch, i dug his binkie out of the bottom of his diaper bag. he popped it in, and has pretty much kept it in since. he goes down for a nap with it now, instead of a bottle each time, which is great. i so need to invest in those little clippy things that hold the pacifier to his shirt, though, because it falls out pretty regularly, especially when he smiles.

his other new talent is playing peek-a-boo. we were sitting in the backseat with him last night on our way to the restaurant, keith and i, and we were covering his face with his blanket. then i would say, "where's the baby?" i'd pull it down and say, "there he is!" later i noticed him pulling the blanket over his face, and all of a sudden, it hit me - he's playing a game with us! he's playing peek-a-boo! so he pulled it over his face, and i did my line, and then he yanked it down and i said, "there he is!" and he just grinned ear to ear. it blew me away. here is my little baby, engaging me to play peek-a-boo with him. it's amazing to see his little mind working, and to see him making decisions and taking action on his own. i just can't believe it.

on another topic entirely, i want to make it loud and clear right here on this blog that i am a bush supporter. from start to finish, from hanging chad to the second gulf war, i support and stand behind him. so many bloggers spend their energy bashing him, and bashing their fellow americans, on their pages. i understand freedom of speech, i understand opinion. but why, when our troops are already over there, when the decision has been made that we are, in fact, going to war, would you continue to voice anti-war sentiments? why wouldn't you step up and decide to support the men and women who are risking their lives for the cause? i saw al gore on the news the other day, and i think we all know he's not a big bush fan, but i was so impressed with what he had to say. when asked how he felt about the war, he said something to the effect of 'i choose to support our troops. i am 100% behind them, and proud of them.' now doesn't that make more sense than bush-bashing at this point in the game? would you dare to patronize the sacrifice of american troops, as well as internationals, by belittling or opposing the cause they may die for? that would take a lot of nerve. of course i worry about the safety of our country. of course i look at my little boy and worry about his future. i wish every mother had the comfort of knowing her baby was safe. many middle eastern mothers don't have that comfort - neither do so many american mothers, whose babies are overseas fighting, or preparing to do so. america is just beginning to take a walk in the shoes of many smaller, less fortunate, or even just less governed countries, who have worried about things like war for years. but i can't spend every day sick to my stomach with worry about the outcome. i have stopped frequenting some of the blogs i read daily, at least temporarily, because they are so down and depressed. i have a job, a home to take care of, and a family, especially one little baby in particular, that needs me. it's not denial, it's not selfishness - it's a choice. a choice to make owen laugh and sing, instead of being glued to cnn for hours at a time. a choice to say a prayer for fighting soldiers rather than protesting the cause that they are risking, maybe giving, their lives for. a choice to hold my baby boy close, to mourn and be a little uncertain about everything, but then to choose happier thoughts. my life is full of happiness. i choose that. i remember the first gulf war. i was 12, and i had an uncle who was sent over to fight. i remember many nights waking up from nightmares that he was injured or killed, or that the war had moved here, instead of so far away over the ocean. i'm not ignorant of the consequences. but you will only hear me voicing support, and that's the truth.

and onto another subject entirely, can i say that i had my annual review at work today. it went well. i got a minor (very minor) raise, which disappointed me. however, my boss explained that she has to put in for raises in december - while i was out on maternity leave - so she didn't have any sort of idea what to put in for me. she did tell me that if i continued my current work trend, she would meet with me in 4 - 6 months, and my raise at that point would be a $10K raise in the form of a promotion. i'll take that! so i guess i'll stick around a little longer.

something i've learned about myself recently is that i have become a pretty good listener. and i've finally become a little more compassionate. i analyzed my role at work, and it seems to me that i have become the "shoulder" - ie, the one to come to when you need to cry or vent or just talk (i will insert here that there is a lot of crying at my work - not sure why). that's weird to me, because i've always been kind of harsh, and a little bit uncaring. but maybe becoming a mommy is changing me.

i thought i'd end with a special plug for a great little rock-n-roll band, up-and-coming. check out shinelikestars.

monday, march 17

my parents and grandparents arrived saturday evening. we spent sunday afternoon - probably the most gorgeous day since we moved here - at bicentennial park. the park features the open-air farmer's market, flea market, international grocery and eatery, and an enormous lawn with statues, fountains, and a beautiful stone wall. it serves to document the history of the state, and it is really a fascinating place. we spent the better part of the day there, and took loads of pictures. they are here.

friday, march 14

my dad sent me this picture today. it's him holding me when i was a baby:

he says owen is the spitting image of his mommy. you've seen him, what do you think? i have to admit that he does favor me. but he has keith's nose, there's no doubt about that. there is also no doubt that my dad can, in fact, grow a white man's afro.

today at work i found out that i am being sent to chicago for a seminar with a couple of other girls from work. that should be interesting. we will be going may 4-5. i think we'll have a good time. who knew insurance could be fun? but it really isn't that bad. i usually enjoy what i do. i thought it was interesting that i would be in chicago on may 4, since that is keith's and my 'dating' anniversary - you know, the day we started "going out" in high school. and we started going out on a band trip to chicago! that was 1997, a whole 6 years ago! wow, i feel old.

speaking of old, happy birthday, mom! ouch, that was not a nice lead-in. sorry about that.

i have uploaded several pictures of owen here. i just think he is the cutest thing ever. here's a gratuitous owen smile to leave you with:

wednesday, march 12

happy five months, owen!

i can't believe what a little grown up you are getting to be! it seems that practically every day brings a new skill. at five months, you are:

-sleeping in your own crib, in your own room.

-"talking" and laughing, very social for being so young.

-very good at controlling your hands, and can focus on an item and grab it intentionally.

-supporting your entire body weight on your legs, and even standing on your own if you can hold the side of the couch or a chair.

-rolling over both ways, constantly!

-getting up on all fours, if only for a second or two.

-"scootching." it's a new skill that i noticed only two days ago. if i put a toy in front of you that you want, you instantly start moving your entire body as if to crawl to it. instead, you move yourself backwards! you are really moving, too - i found you in our bedroom the other day, from the living room! no small feat for a baby.

-making consonant sounds. your first one was "ba." until now, you've stuck with vowels.

-holding your own bottle, until it gets too empty and i have to tip it up for you.

-grabbing eyeglasses! they totally fascinate you.

-in a size 3 diaper, and have outgrown most of your 3-6 month clothes. you're right at about 20 pounds.

-loving your exersaucer. you've finally figured out how to work all those gadgets.

-eating solids at least once a day. so far squash and carrots are a hit, and green beans are not your favorite.

-trying to eat from our plates, especially when we go out to eat. in fact, the other day you decided you wanted to drink from a cup and straw now - it didn't work for you, but you insisted on trying.

-absolutely loving the dogs, especially gabriel. you always laugh at him, and grab at him. he is just now deciding that he will allow you to touch him.

-hating your carseat. we can't really drive anywhere without you pitching a fit about facing backwards, and about the indignity of having to lean back like a baby! you are trying so hard to sit up, and the carseat hinders you.

-teething, drooling, teething, drooling!

-doing the full-body wiggle when something excites you. a whole new dimension of the happy dance!

-starting to try to reach towards mom or dad when you want to be held. i've noticed a few times when i'm holding you, you lean over and lunge towards daddy with your arms out. i'm not sure i like that!

-still not sleeping through the night, but most nights you're only up for one feeding.

i just can't believe that it has been an entire five months since that weekend that daddy and i headed towards the hospital. we've learned so much since then - not just about taking care of a baby, but about you as a person. you have strong opinions, and certain likes and dislikes. it is so fun introducing you to new things, and watching your reaction. for instance, when we were at wal-mart this last weekend, i took you to look at the rainbow of paint chips. your little face was just astounded! i love that about you - so innocent and new to the world!

i know i say this on the webpage every month on your "monthday", and i say it to you every day when i'm holding you, but i love you buddy, so much! you have no idea how happy you make me. when i arrive at your sitter's, and your face lights up like a spotlight, it just melts my heart! or when your eyelashes get all wet in the bathtub, and you peek up at me from under them and grin, it is so amazing. you're my little bumblebee pudding pop pumpkinhead! i love you!

love,

mommy

sunday, march 09

last sunday i turned in an unknown roll of pictures to wal-mart. turns out they were pictures of owen's baby dedication. i put a few up on the dedication page.

next week owen will be five months old. i can't believe it! where has the time gone? we've stopped counting in weeks, and started counting in months. i can't remember exactly how many weeks he is anymore. but he's almost a whole half year old!

i took him with me to the mall on thursday night to pick up his pictures from sears, and we ended up staying for several hours, just walking around and shopping a little. i bought him one of those new scented toys, a little blanket with an elephant head that plays music and smells like berries or something. he played with it (i.e. chewed on it) all through penney's. when i went to check out, the poor saleslady's face was priceless - i handed her a sopping wet blanket full of fresh baby drool. she actually offered to cut the tags off so that he could keep playing with it, which i thought was nice of her, especially after the surprise drool hand-off. owen was past his naptime, and when he gets extra tired, he goes into some sort of super hyper mode. he was chattering at everyone who walked by, and chewing all over his new elephant. it is so hard to get your shopping done with a cute, chattering baby! everyone wants to stop and talk to him. he did great at the mall, never cried once.

we went to the mall again yesterday, this time with keith. we were walking into gap when all of a sudden, owen spit up massively all over the gap entryway carpet. so we stopped and bent down to try to clean it up, which caused a huge bottleneck behind us. now there are twenty or so people standing behind us, trying to get into gap, and we have baby puke all over our hands and clothes, trying to get the carpet cleaned up. and all of a sudden the saleslady says to keith, "um, you have a dryer sheet hanging out of your jeans." so all twenty-something people are staring at us, and at the dryer sheet, and at the puke. at this point i am laughing at keith's dryer sheet, so we give up on cleaning up the puke and just left. our apologies to the gap.

today while keith was at work i thought it would be fun to paint our dining room. the color under the chair rail was horrendous - actually the same paint as the guest bath. i think the former owners just painted it with whatever was in the garage in order to get it ready to sell. so i picked out a red color to match our dinette and away i went. it is drying right now, so i'm still not sure how it will look. i'm not good at the taping, so i may have a big mess under there.

keith and i are tossing around the idea of attending a festival in kentucky in late april. it's a three day music festival, where most people camp there on site (not me - i'm a hotel girl myself), and there's three different stages with bands. the elms are playing the festival, so i'd like to go. in fact, there are several good bands playing. i think it would be a nice little three-day weekend for us. we're still debating.

and finally, we are starting the countdown to my mom's birthday. it is this friday, march 14, and she will be XX years old! to tell, or not to tell...

tuesday, march 04

OH. MY. WORD. can i just say that last night's concert left me positively euphoric. maybe it's because i haven't been out without owen in so long, or maybe i am easily seduced into euphoria, or maybe - just maybe - the elms are that good. whatever it was, i had the best time, permanant hearing damage aside. seriously, my ears are still ringing, but it was worth it. i managed to stay in the front row the entire time. i had a ball.

and as far as i can tell, so did owen. his sitter arrived about 15 minutes early, and keith was running late, so she had about half an hour to spend with owen before we left. she played with him while i finished getting ready, and he took right to her. he was smiling and laughing and playing, and would barely give keith or me a glance when we left. we were gone about five hours, and when we got home around 1130PM, he was in bed and hadn't cried a bit. i asked if he had any problems going to bed, and she said, "no, i laid him down and he fussed for about five minutes, then he was out." what?! this, from the child who refuses to go to sleep without 30 minutes of rocking and bottles and singing and patting? who wakes up the moment we lay him in his crib and screams until we repeat the whole rocking-bottles-singing-patting routine? who stays up until midnight with smiles and coos for the sole purpose of torturing his up-at-5AM mommy? no, not this child. but with her beautiful smile, she smiles at me and says, "yes, he was no problem at all." oh happy dagger.

one highlight of the concert was meeting the band. they are quasi-famous, still enough on the quasi side to mingle with the crowd after the show. i met the lead singer, owen, who i just adore, and gave him a picture of our owen, who was named after him. he was so super nice and kept telling me how adorable my son was. well, that's all it takes to get in good with me. after the concert keith and i walked to a 24-hour coffee shop for drinks before heading home.

it is so nice to know that we have a sweet sitter, who owen really likes, if we need her. maybe keith and i can get out every now and then without the boy. not that i don't love taking him places, but you know how it is. every now and then i'd like to go somewhere without 40 pounds of baby gear and white baby chunks on my shoulder.

monday, march 03

huzzah! tonight is the big night! we are going downtown for a concert by the elms, only the most wonderful band ever. they were my inspiration for owen's name, after all. i've only seen them in concert once before, so i am super-duper excited about tonight. on a side note, does anyone say super-duper anymore?

saturday we got tickets to the predators game - hockey, predators are hockey. keith's employer owns a skybox at the rink, and we got to watch the game from the box. we took owen, and he loved watching all the people flying around on the ice. and then it happened - the predators scored. of course, when the home team scores, there are pyrotechnics and sirens and the crowd goes wild. poor little guy, i'm pretty sure he thought the world was ending. he did a giant shake, and then the bottom lip came out, and within seconds, wails followed. i took him to the back of the box where it was a little quieter, and it definitely took him a while to get calmed down. i never thought about that when we considered taking him. i thought he'd enjoy all the people and music and lights. and he did, but the scoring was just too much. well, the next time someone scored, he jumped a little, and the lip came out - but he didn't wail. all in all, there were 9 goals scored in the game, and by the last one, they weren't even fazing him. in fact, he slept through the last period. after the game we swung by the mall to see if his portraits were in at sears yet (not yet), and then home, where we actually got to spend time together, all three of us, home at once! happens so rarely these days. all in all, a good weekend.

i walked to our neighbor's last night to ask them if they had a regular babysitter that they could recommend for evenings. our sitter works nights, so she can't keep owen when we want to go out, like for tonight's concert. they have a 19-year old girl who they really like, so i called her, and she is coming over tonight to watch owen. she has tons and tons of experience. and she is coming a little early to hang out with us for a while, to help owen get used to her. i hope she works out well, because she lives close and it would be nice to be able to go out every now and then.

that's it for us. nothing new. owen is still in his bed, and is sleeping okay. he finished up round 2 of solids last week with green beans. i steamed carrots last night for this week. this is his third vegetable to try. so far he loves solids. we've also been carseat shopping, as he has now outgrown his carseat both in height and weight. he's part giant, you know.

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