#88 - Fun Fall Festival and pictures

Savannah is so beautiful this time of year. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 60s each day. And, yesterday was a perfect day for a fun Fall Festival! We went to the Savannah Bamboo Gardens, which is very close to our house. They have tons of gardens and plants - here's Owen walking through some banana plants.

We got to go on a hayride/tractor ride too! Owen's wearing a cute outfit handed down from Heather that has John Deere tractors on the smocking. It was very appropriate for his first tractor ride!

On the ride with Daddy!

Not only did Owen go on his first hayride/tractor ride, but he also went on his first pony ride! He wasn't scared at all, and seemed to really like riding the pony. He kept leaning forward to pet the pony like it was Cocoa.

An attempt at a posed shot on top of the haystack at the pumpkin patch.

Owen's newest thing? Sitting on Cocoa like she's some kind of chair. Fortunately, Cocoa doesn't mind. She loves the attention.

Owen has a cute smocked Halloween outfit with a bat, a witch and a ghost on it. This was the only way I could get a picture of it - with him hiding out underneath our kitchen chair. Stinker!

Another new thing he's been doing is putting things on top of his truck and pushing them around the house. Here's evidence of him transporting his stuffed turtle.

Yes, Michigan lost yesterday, but Owen was still proudly supporting the Big Blue down here in Savannah.

One final picture of the little guy sleeping. He loves his Bugsy and his blankey and holds tight to both of them when napping and sleeping at night. It's adorable.

Hugs and kisses to you all!

#87 - Happy Birthday, Aunt Debbie and Surprise!

Saturday was Aunt Debbie's birthday - Happy Birthday AD! The whole family got together at Enza's for a birthday dinner, and since Lou had gone to the Gator game with Brian, Owen and I decided to drive down to Jacksonville to surprise Aunt Debbie and the rest of the family. We had so much fun seeing everyone - especially Rusty, Aunt Pat and Mimi. The drive was a piece of cake since we drove during Owen's naptime and bedtime, and it was exciting to surprise the family. Plus, we got to spend a few hours with Mom and Jen after the birthday celebration.

Kaylin and Owen sat at the head of the table. Aunt Debbie was all smiles with her grand niece and nephew! Can you believe she's 51 years young?

Paw Paw and Chris were there too, and Owen gave Paw Paw lots of laughs. Every time someone at the table would laugh, Owen would laugh out loud back at them. Cute!

Kaylin shared her baby doll's bottle with Owen. Of course, Owen started sucking on it. He rarely turns away an opportunity to eat or drink.... :)

After dinner, we stopped by my old church, where they had a little pumpkin patch. It was pretty cold, but the kids had fun running through the rows of pumpkins and seeing who could pick up the heaviest pumpkin.

Aunt Jenifer and Cousin Kaylin. Kaylin looks so much like the way that Jenifer did when she was a little girl.

Owen loves, loves to read. He will bring books to you for hours asking to be read to. Here's a quick video of Nana reading to Owen. If you listen carefully, you will hear Owen mimicking the Vampire's laugh at the end of the book. (Yes, this book is written for much older children, but Owen gets such a kick out of the flashing lights and noise it makes. When we read him the story, we skip over the words like "blood", "death", "fangs", etc....)

#86 - Owen's First Trip to the Zoo

A few days ago, Lou casually mentioned that we should go to the zoo with Owen. What a great idea, I thought. And turns out, it really was! I was a little skeptical about taking a 14-month old to the zoo, but, Owen loved, loved, LOVED it. He was so captivated by all the new things - the animals, the people, the flowers. He sat wide-eyed in the stroller the entire morning, and every few minutes he'd lean forward, point his finger, and say "that!" while pointing out something new.

We started by checking out the elephants, which were impressively big and close.

But, no where near as close as the giraffes! For a mere $2, Owen had the first-hand experience of feeding the giraffe his breakfast of romaine lettuce. Check out the tongue on that giraffe!

See how close the elephants were.....just kidding.

Here's Owen checking out a bird in the bird santuary. We were given some nectar, and the birds would fly up to us and drink the nectar from our cup.

One of the highlights of the day was riding on the carousel with all the lights, music and animals. You can't see it from this picture, but Owen was bouncing up and down on the tiger "dancing" to the music.

Petting the goats. He wasn't scared at all of the animals.

We went inside the Discovery Building, and Owen got to dress up like a leopard. He was, by far, the cutest animal in the entire zoo!

On Saturday, we went to the Fall Fun Festival at the local Farmer's Market where Owen got to pick out his very own pumpkin.

Our pumpkin with his pumpkin....

#85 - Raspberry Jello Stains

Red Jello stains. It stains shirts, fingers, lips and even the highchair tray. But, it's so, so good! On top of trying Jello for the first time, Owen used his own spoon and fed it to himself. He was quite proud of himself (as were Mom and Dad), even though the jello stayed on the spoon only about half the time. And bathtub after Jello is extra long, so Owen enjoyed that too!

Cocoa is so sweet with Owen, and in turn, Owen just loves to give Cocoa hugs and kisses. We are very lucky to have such a sweet, gentle dog in our family.

Playing with his airplane.

And reading a book with Mommy.

Our little "Linus" - Owen has started dragging his blankets behind him like Linus does. So cute!

This weekend, Lou, Owen and I drove up to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. It's a four-mile drive through a beautiful park, full of rivers, creeks, alligators, crabs, birds and other wildlife. It's so nice here in Savannah this time of year, so we rolled down our windows and took in the pretty landscape. A few times we stopped the car to walk around. Below, you can see an alligator in the water just to the right of Owen.

Our sweet little guy in his overalls. He seemed to really enjoy himself at the park!

#84 - Future Athlete

We're hoping Owen has his Daddy's height, not his Mom's. So, we're introducing him to basketball a little early. He thinks it's very funny when Lou and I toss the basketball back and forth to each other over his head. He doesn't quite understand the dribble.

The cutie pie wearing a shirt given to him by Aunt Jenifer. Hi Aunt Jen!!!

He definitely has more of an interest in soccer. We taught him how to kick it (instead of picking it up every time we kick it to him), and he's quite proud of himself. The only tricky part is keeping Cocoa out of the game, because of course, if there's a ball moving at all, Cocoa thinks we're playing fetch with her.

Owen has developed a new habit of walking with his hands clapsed behind his back. We have no idea where he got this from, or why he does it, but it's pretty darn cute.

Not only does he still play with his truck, but he can ride on it now, and push himself both forward and backward.

Tita Susan, do you recognize this shirt? It's the Emory t-shirt that Lou gave to Noah about ten years ago. It barely fits Owen (it's a 12-month size), but we had to get him to wear it at least once and capture on the camera. Love the retro style of it! I would love to get my hands on a picture of Noah wearing this shirt too.... ????? Can anyone help?

#83 - Lost My Camera

We just got back from Jacksonville, where we visited Nana, Aunt Jenifer and Kaylin. Nana watched Owen for us while Lou and I went to the Gator game in Gainesville. We had a great time. In fact, we had so much fun tailgating that I lost my camera. Lost, as in left it on the bumper of Joe's truck while refilling my adult beverage, and forgot to pick it back up. So, unfortunately, I'm unable to share pictures with you today. Fortunately, it was my old, small camera, and not my newer SLR, so Lou is not too mad with me. However, if I had not lost my camera, I could have proudly showed you dozens of pictures of my 38-year old husband dominating a bunch of 20-somethings in beer pong. Yes. That's right. Beer pong. My heart aches with pride.

The Gators beat Tennessee, and Lou and I roasted in the sun having a great time. In the meantime, Owen was enjoying the ducks, visiting Mimi and checking out the local Babies R Us with Nana. Owen and Kaylin spent the entire day together, dressed in matching Gator outfits. It was quite adorable. If only I had not lost the camera....

So, I'll take double the amount of pictures this week, and hope to have a mid-week update for you.

Hugs and kisses from Savannah....

#82 - Owen's First Haircut

The little guy got his first haircut this weekend. After weeks and weeks of talking about it, I was a little disappointed how quickly it happened and was over with. But, I like the haircut, and he looks like such a big boy now!

Here's Owen in the special "airship" salon chair. He sat in there and played with the handles, and had quite a good time. No tears for him!

I actually thought they'd wash his hair and style it. Little do I know. I've never seen a boy get a haircut before! Growing up, my mom used to take us to Fantastic Sam's and if we were afraid of the washing sink, they'd wet our hair with a spray bottle. Apparently, "dry cutting" is the way it's done now.

A family picture while the stylist finishes up the back.

Here's the big boy with his new haircut, sitting on top of Cocoa, who was laying on top of Lou.....

Owen has learned how to climb up on the couch. Now, we must teach him how to get back down!

Giving Cocoa hugs.