We closed on our new house today!

Owen enjoying a blue "tuh-tur" from the bank.

There's lots of hard work ahead, but we are very excited. The house is on 2.3 acres of woods in Vestavia, and I can just picture a 7-year-old Owen spending long days outside waging battles from his tree fort. And we are less than a mile from 3 of our best couple friends. Can anyone say block party?

Jockey O

Thanks for the shirt Aunt Becky & Uncle Joe!

Boy Owen has worn me out today, and it's barely after lunchtime. To give you some indication of his adventures this morning, I had to give him a bath before nap time to remove oatmeal and ice cream from his hair and bird bath water, blue-tinted bug spray, mud and sweat from the rest of him. Now I think it's a shower and a nap for me too.

Turtle

Scott and Owen discovered this little reptilian refugee in our yard early this morning. I guess all the heavy rains flooded him out of his usual home. I was all prepared to "save" him, but then I found an internet article that pointed out that he didn't need saving anymore than the dozens of birds and squirrels that I see in our yard daily. I did pick him up to check for webbed feet (negative) to verify that he's a land turtle, and then I left him to mosey off into the woods.

Everyday Owen: Zoo Carousel

Everyday Owen: Dut

First Day of School

Okay, so it's really not school, just Mother's Day Out. But when I was packing his lunch in his brand new lunch box last night it sure felt like I was sending him off to school. He wanted to walk in on his own and carry his own bag, and he didn't even cry when I left. No comment on whether I can claim the same!

In the clink

When you're a toddler and you've been given a highchair time-out (for let's say biting your father or intentionally urinating on your mother) and you're all strapped in with nowhere to go, how do you show your parents that they haven't gotten the best of you?

Nothing says, "I will not yield!" like a striptease.

22.