Little Things

I have completed exactly four-and-a-half pages of Owen's baby scrapbook over the last 3 years.  It seems this blog will serve as my main memory preserver, and there are a few endearing things I've noticed lately that I don't want to forget.

• Owen is all about finding new ways to mass-transport his toys.  Most often he's not even taking them anywhere with the purpose of playing with them; they are simply there to fill the space in his bucket, wagon, suitcase, gift bag, etc.  Packing and moving from room to room is the playing.
• Baskets are also a favorite.  He used to say "basset", but now he's got the k sound down... just in the wrong spot.  He says "bastick".

• Many evenings at dinner we have a community plate of apple slices.  Owen only cares for what he calls the "flat part" of the apple.  He eats what he likes and tosses the rest back like shrimp tails.
• The other day he told me that when he "gets borned again" a long time from now, he still wants me to be his mommy.  And he also requested St. Vincent's Hospital as his delivery site.

***If you are squeamish, outclick now.  Hurry!!!

I decided that if you pass out from getting stitches, the only way to lessen the humiliation is to take those stitches out yourself when the time comes.  So Scott and I set up our own little operation in the kitchen tonight and snipped those suckers out (see tiny black dots on center cotton swab).  Easy peasy.  I feel my dignity seeping back in already.

Happy Thanksgiving!

See this bleepity bleep bleepin' cat?

I rescued him from the streets 13 years ago.  For the sake of his health, I rub this nasty paste thyroid medicine in his ears every day.  And of course I feed him every morning.

But today, he thought I needed some extra incentive to get out of bed and take care of him... so he bit me- which freaked me out and made me jerk away- which startled him and made him clamp down harder... ON MY LIP.

Do you know how demoralizing it is to admit yourself to the ER with a cat bite?

Well, I'll tell you.

It turns out it's not nearly as demoralizing as passing out in the ER from a cat bite.

I have three stitches.  One of them is kinda wonky- I'm guessing that's the one the doctor was working on when I decided to exit stage left.  And the gash goes upward from the right corner of my mouth, which leaves me looking like Heath Ledger's Joker.

Except I won't be able to play the part very well because one of my discharge orders was to try not to smile too big.

Noooooo problem.

Yeah, he's that fast

Heads or Tails?

I've got a few weeks of photography class under my belt, can you even tell?  I've been taking all my pictures in manual mode for the past 2 weeks, which means I'm driving the unfortunate subjects of my photos especially crazy now.  You just think it's bad when your nutty aunt goes to take your picture with a camera that's in video mode (or worse, isn't even turned on).  But try having a rookie like me staring down the lens at you- making you reenact whatever it was you just did because I didn't have the right aperture or shutter speed set the first time.  Oh, and can you be really still?  Because I'm going to try that spot metering thing I learned last week, and I've got to aim right at the middle of your forehead like I'm a sniper and you're starring in Deliverance.

For those of you photo pros out there, I should have gone down one f/stop on that 2nd photo, right?

He calls them marshpillows

Planes and Parachutes

Owen got one of those little parachute men in his trick-or-treat bag, and we just got around to playing with it today.  Except it's not a man; it's Frankenstein's monster.  So... it's a Franken-chuter?

Attempt one:  Caught in the tree

Attempt 4:  Immediately after this shot, Scott's followthrough caught Owen's head and knocked him into the deck rail.

Attempt 47:  Right after this shot, Owen got dizzy and fell down the steps.  

There was no 48th attempt.

We currently don't have any furniture on the main floor of our house because we had the hardwoods refinished last week, so we came inside from Franken-chuting and headed to the basement.  Owen likes to prop this box up on the edge of the couch, stand on the cushions and slide down inside.  He usually says he's either water running down the drain or a passenger going down the jetway.  Today he said he was on an actual plane and that he was waiting for DD and Coach to board so they could all fly far away.  When I pressed him for the exact location, he said, "North Bullseye."  

I think that's somewhere in Montana.

P.S.  Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary Drew and Sarah!

Wardrobe autonomy

We got trashed this weekend

Owen and I just had leftover party food for lunch, and we are still in our pajamas.  The decorations are still (pretty much) hanging, and there are new toys everywhere.  But it was so worth it.  I think Owen really enjoyed his party on Saturday, and we are grateful to our generous friends and family who helped us put it all together and helped us celebrate!

Owen's cake was all mashed up and kinda yucky, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  A few sweet grubby fingers may have gotten in there before I could serve it up!

I borrowed several ideas for the party from Pink Peppermint.  The idea for the dumpster was inspired by this smaller version.  I originally planned to have the party outside with the newspaper decorations hanging from the trees, but it was just too cold and we were forced to stage everything in our groovy dungeon instead.  We tried to heat the small patio just off of the basement so the kids could play with the radioactive slime I made from cornstarch and water, but the cold weather left the slime nearly frozen.  I guess I'll have to resurrect that idea next summer.  I also filled a small garbage can with shredded magazine pages and hidden tattoos, stickers and crazy bands.  What a glorious mess!

Basement before and after:

Mug Shot for the Masses (or just Jennifer)

Three.

As my Papa preferred to say, "Happy Birth Anniversary" to my I-do-it-myself, train loving,  Toy Story watching, garbage man stalking, anti-picture taking posing, big hug giving, toilet paper wasting, A-B-C saying, cat pestering, dirt digging, puddle splashing, heavy machinery spotting, question after question after question asking, sensitive, intuitive, loving little boy.  

 Owen took penguin cookies and a penguin story to share with his MDO classmates for his school birthday party yesterday.  Cookie idea from here.

 Even though it was cold and rainy, we had fun kidnapping Scott from work for a few hours and spending part of Owen's birthday at the train museum in Calera this morning.  We followed that up with lunch and playground time at Chick-fil-A.

Birthday Ice Cream

                                                2010                                              2009                                            2008

Rest of Halloween

Neighborhood Halloween Party

Church Fall Festival

 Mid and post trick-or-treat

Classic Batman vs. Superman 

I just want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Owen's Beck Beck and Uncle Joe.  I would have melted like candy corn on hot pavement if you guys hadn't been here to help with all the costuming and tablescaping and general revelry making.  Thank you also to Owen's Mimi who worked her magic on our costumes!

Now I've got to get busy helping Owen turn 3.  I'm officially declaring this a t-shirt, jeans, ponytails, dinners-to-go kind of week.  In other words, I'm going to be a sloppy, bad mom in an attempt to host a birthday party that makes everyone think I'm a fabulous mom.  Ahh, the irony.