#135 - More Gymnastics

A typical class of Gymnastics consists of walking the balance beam......

Jumping from one mat to the other followed by a forward roll down the second mat.....

Swinging on the low bar by balancing himself on his arms......

Climbing across the horizontal ladder without touching the floor......

Jumping up and down on the trampoline, followed by landing on his behind and saying "I fall down, Daddy!".........

And then a log roll down another mat.....

And, another walk across the balance beam, this time, all by himself.....

And, a jump from the tall block into the soft pit......

And, finally, a hug bye-bye to his friend, Peyton!

Fun times in gymnastics!

And, now that football season is here - here's what Owen does on the weekends......

He plays with his football.......

And, sits on Daddy's shoulder while watching the Gator game! (notice the laptop open streaming a live video of one football game while another game on the big TV).
Owen is the biggest sports boy. He definitely takes after his Daddy!

Love you!

#134 - Boston

In honor of our 4th wedding anniversary and Lou's 39th birthday, we made a quick trip to the beautiful city of Boston, Massachusetts. Lou had been there once before, but it was my first time. Our plans were nearly interrupted by Hurricane Earl who threatened the New England coastline late last week. We were pretty close to cancelling the trip. But, the weather ended up being absolutely beautiful - in the mid 70s during the day and sunny, blue skies. It was so nice to spend some time together, especially on our anniversary! The time flew by, but we sure did miss Owen.

While there, we did some of the typical touristy things like walking the Freedom Trail, checking out the Boston Harbor and even doing a tour of Harvard. We also explored some of the beautiful historic neighborhoods of one of our country's oldest cities, walked along the Charles River and meandered through Cambridge. The history and culture there is remarkable.

At night, we had some great food, including a traditional Italian meal in Little Italy and a great seafood dinner at a wonderful place in the North End.

It was a perfect vacation!

Here's a picture of us in front of the Duck Pond in Boston Common.

A beautiful tree in the Gardens at Boston Common.

Paul Revere's gravestone.

One of the buildings on the Harvard Yard.

One of Harvard's famous landmarks - Memorial Hall, which was built to honor Harvard graduates who fought for the Union in the Civil war - now home to the freshmen dining hall.

Another picture of us - this one taken at Neptune Oyster in the North End.

We were so fortunate to have my Dad and Catherine watch Owen for us while we went to Boston. Grandfather and Grandma and Uncle Robbie kept him busy the entire weekend, and he had tons of fun. When he got home Monday night, he screamed and screamed for them.

While we were in Atlanta, we also celebrated Lou's birthday by lighting 40 candles (one for good luck), and the smoke was pretty impressive!

Happy Birthday, Daddy! I love you so much!

And, finally, one last family picture - Grandma, Grandfather, Owen, Lou and Uncle Robbie. We love you guys, and thanks for taking such good care of our little boy. We truly appreciate it!

#133 - Surprise visit from Grandfather

This weekend, we had a surprise visit from my dad. Owen and Grandfather had a blast playing together, and it made me so happy to see the two of them bonding and loving each other. We are very blessed to have such supportive and loving grandparents for Owen on both sides!

Owen just loves baseball, and Nana bought him his own baseball glove and ball for his birthday. It hardly ever leaves his side, as you can see below. Saturday night, before heading to bed, I went in to check on Owen, and found him sleeping soundly, head on the pillow, with his left hand inside of his baseball glove.
Pretty darn cute!

And, finally, a few more pictures of the "cool dude", as he now refers to himself when wearing either a hat or glasses.

Yes, a cool dude, indeed.

#132 - Coffee Table-1, Owen-0

Owen had a little run-in with the coffee table on Friday night. Unfortunately, the coffee table won. It was partly my fault - as I was sitting in Owen's little reading chair (how my behind fits in that thing is beyond imagination, but that's another story)...anyway, I was sitting there playing with Owen and my long legs were sticking straight out (thanks for not laughing at the long leg reference) and next thing I know, Owen had tripped over my legs and he landed directly on the edge of the coffee table. The instant it happened we knew it was a bad one, and sure enough, despite holding ice over it for an hour, it immediately swelled up and turned blue. The next morning, it looked like this:

Which, really doesn't look at the bad in the picture. But, seeing it in person, especially a few days old, you realize what a bad bruise it is. However, you know Owen - things like this don't phase him. He's been running around and having a blast.

He is a talking machine these days. He's saying three- and four-word sentences all the time now: "Mommy, you lie down right here." "This is Owen's fishing pole." (yes, he did say that today - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?) And, my personal favorite: "NO, that's MINE." Welcome to toddlerhood.

Our bedtime ritual is about 30-45 minutes now, significantly longer these days because Owen just loves that time of the day when all three of us are laying around on his bedroom floor, reading books, singing songs, practicing his gymnastics, and enjoying being with each other. It's now the highlight of our days. It's the thing I miss most when I travel for work (which thank goodness, has significantly slowed down).

One last picture for you - here's Owen from this morning, with his black eye, pushing his lawn mower, in my bathroom, sporting his "I'm a doctor" pajamas, and wearing a pair of my black, patent leather shoes.
He's a cool dude!

#131 - Gymnastics

We started gymnastics this past week. We had pretty low expectations - we figured he would learn how to do somersaults, jumping jacks and that sort of thing. But, our expectations were far exceeded! It was pretty advanced for two year olds (at least in my humble opinion). He learned a number of things, including how to walk the balance beam, cart wheels, hanging from the bar (below) and even pulling up his toes and putting his toes on the bar. He's learning how to do hand stands, jump on the trampoline, and even jump off the vault into the soft pit. On top of that, he had a blast! He laughed and giggled and had the best time. We are definitely looking forward to the next 7 weeks of class!

(sorry for the blurry pictures - don't know what happened)

The goofy little boy putting a diaper on his head....

...and hanging out in the laundry basket.

And, finally, a little video for you. Owen does the cutest thing when he's mimicing a train - he moves his arms back and forth across his bed saying "choo choo".

#130 - First trip to the ER

Last Monday, we took Owen in for his two-year old check up with his pediatrician. He weighed in at 28 pounds (50th percentile) and was 34 inches tall (50th percentile). Everything checked out fine, and we ended the appointment with him getting two standard vaccinations. In his right leg, he received a hepatitis shot, and his right leg, he received a pneumococcal vaccine. No biggie, right?

Well, the next day, his nanny called me to tell me that it looked like he had a bug bite on his right thigh. I remembered that it's normal to get some local swelling and bruising from a vaccination shot, so I didn't make too much of it. It was pretty small at lunch time. Well, that night, when we were getting him undressed for the bath, we saw this:

Uh..... yeah, that's not normal. It has grown from the size of a small bug bite to this. Clearly, he was having a severe reaction to the vaccine he had received the day before. Lou looked at me and said, "get dressed", but I was already running to get my shoes on. We loaded up the little guy and headed straight to the ER. Now, this was about 8 pm on a Tuesday night in Savannah. You'd think it would be a relatively slow time in the ER. It wasn't. We saw all walks of life in there, including some very, very interesting people. Let me just say, the last place in the world you want to take your child is to the ER at the city's only public hospital. But, as with nearly every other experience I've ever had with Memorial, they took really good care of us. We only had to wait about ten minutes before we were triaged by the nurse. When she saw his leg, she immediately admitted us to the pediatric ER (which was a hundred times nicer than the general ER).

Multiple doctors and nurses examed Owen. It was everyone's consensus that he had a severe reaction to the vaccine. In fact, the worst reaction they remember at the ER. They suspected that the vaccine itself was contaminated, or the injection given was contaminated, and Owen developed a serious staph infection from it. Although serious, it was something that would likely respond very well to antibiotics, which they prescribed him. But, during this process, new people kept coming into the exam room "to see the leg" as it was the talk of the ER that night.

The next morning, we followed up with his pediatrician, whom we love. He suspected it was not the vaccine itself, but something in the vial or syringe. Regardless, as an adverse reaction, he was required to report it to the FDA and CDC. He agreed with the ER doc's prescription, and sent us on our way.

On day three, it looked like this...

And now, on day 6, it's very nearly gone. Fortunately, Owen was never bothered by it. It's hard to believe, but he had no pain, no fever, and no obvious symptoms, other than a large hematoma. It was, however, a big scare for us!

#129 - Owen is TWO!

It's hard to believe that our little baby is two years old now. It seems like he was just born, and he was a little bundle of sweetness who fit in the crook of my arm. It seems like he was just that little infant who slept, ate, pooped, slept, ate pooped, over and over. I feel like he just learned to crawl, and then learned to walk. Now, my little man is running all over the place. Jumping on things and climbing up anything that can be climbed. He's starting to say his "ABCs" and count to ten. He can sing the entire Caliou theme song and Amazing Grace. He loves anything that resembles a truck or a car, and anything that makes noise. He's such a big boy now.

And, if you don't believe me, just ask him. He'll say (with all the certainty in the world), "Mommy, I two!!" and hold up two fingers. :)

We had a really, really special birthday party for Owen this year. For the first time ever in his little life, we had both sides of his family together - my side and Lou's side. We were extremely fortunate that Abuela Isa, Tita Susan, Tito Mark, Noah and Grace drove down from Michigan to spend the week with us and help us celebrate Owen's birthday. And my family, including my dad, mom, sister and cousin, were here too. Owen was able to play with all three of his cousins (and a 2nd cousin as well) for the first time.

To say that he had fun would be an extreme understatement!

That little boy had a blast!!! When he woke up from his nap on Saturday, all of his family and friends were here, and he was so excited. For the next 6 hours, he played and played, and laughed, and jumped, and giggled, and became a sweaty, hot mess in the Savannah heat. But, he loved every minute of it. We rented a bouncy house which provided hours of entertainment for the kids. It's hard for me to understand, but it was much cooler (or much less hot) inside the bouncy house.

Noah and Grace were here, which was one of the best birthday presents Owen got. In another post, I'll share all the fun things they did together....

And, Aunt Jen and little Kaylin were here too! They drove up from Jax with Dad and braved the 110 degree heat index to spend the day with the birthday boy. Thanks, Jenifer!

About every fifteen minutes, we had to take a break, and come inside and cool off. Fortunately, Owen received tons of new and fun toys, which were a hit.

Mrs. Rebecca came, with Reese (below) and Peyton. Peyton is just a few months older than Owen, but has the cutest, most outgoing personality. Rebecca and Will better watch out when she gets a little older!

And, these three boys are the cutest ever! On the left is Liam, who is exactly six months older than Owen. He's the son of Becca, Owen's nanny. They are BFF. On the right is Peter, Holly and Andrew's oldest, who turned three in June. He's a doll!

I don't know what the heck they were looking at, but this picture is hilarious!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Owen, Happy Birthday to you!!!!

The dark blue buttercream frosting captivated Owen. He got it all over his face and hands. (Tito Mark made this cute little table for Owen)

Owen getting a hug from Becca. She's a special part of our family!

And, we love Tita Susan and Tito Mark! Owen was totally spoiled this weekend with them in town. Despite living so far away, Owen has a really special relationship with them.

And, finally, my three favorite guys.....my husband, my son, and my father. Owen is so red and hot from playing outside. His hair was a matted mess. But, it was totally worth it!

Now, compare this picture to the first one, and you can see how much fun they had. By the end of the night, they were spent. It was a great party!