Another one?

We went for ice cream yesterday.  He got down to the bottom of the cone and noticed a fourth color had joined his rainbow sherbet.  Blood red.  His tooth was just dangling there.

On Saturday, he casually mentioned that he planned to learn to tie his shoes in the 20 minutes before dinner.  And he did it.  And he's tied them on his own every day since.

What's up for tomorrow, O?   Growing a mustache?  Are you trying to make me do the embarrassing cry?

Already?

Owen lost his first tooth!  And he went big.  No piddly warm-up baby bottom tooth.  Straight for front and center.

It's been loose for months, so I've had plenty of time to prepare for this event, but it was still a little dagger to my heart to see Owen without a front tooth.

"Please [Owen] leave tooth."  He's going to be a sentimental hoarder.  And he comes by it honestly since I never let the Tooth Fairy take my teeth either.  I read one book as a child about how the Tooth Fairy liked to use the teeth she gathered to pave the roads in Fairy Land and found that to be an unacceptable use of precious dental resources.

He was lit.  Up.  I read to him and put him to bed, and he could barely stop beaming that sweet, new little snaggletoothed smile.  

Blueberry Pickin'

Love Owen's hand-in-the-cookie-jar smile in that last one!

Earache and tomato sauce

Two pretty disparate topics, right?  Let's see if I can link them...

Owen's been doing a lot of this:

which led to this:

And so after a trip to the doctor this morning that revealed "a pretty good case of swimmer's ear," we've been laying low around the house today.  And that gave me time to piddle around, pick stuff up and rediscover Owen's Father's Day card to Scott.  

He made it with his 4K teacher back before school let out for summer, so I cannot be blamed for this particular ploy to get Scott to take us back to Italy.  (So, so, so proud of you though son!)

I hung the card on our magnet wall and promptly started reminiscing about Italy and the afternoon I spent with Marianina in the kitchen learning to make rustic Tuscan tomato sauce:

And I decided this is the perfect kind of day to have some homemade tomato sauce simmering on the stove.  By some miracle, the last of the olive oil we brought back from Rugiagli (the farm where we stayed) was still good, so I upturned the bottle over the stockpot of tomatoes and garlic.  Smells pretty good!

So there you have it:  too much fresh water --> earache --> me with idle time --> Father's day card --> tomato sauce.  

New Gear

This photo of a really far away tree limb made possible by my new zoom lens.  

Thanks boys!

5.5

Here's 5 & Birth-4.5

Now we're off for some dinner and froyo to celebrate!

5YO Pictures

Owen's already almost 5-and-a-half and his two front teeth are very loose, so I figured it was time to stop procrastinating on the 5yo portraits.  In my defense, I did try to book a portrait session with a local photographer a few months ago, but she never got back to me (and I've got no follow-through).  So while we were at the beach I decided to try it myself.  We waited for a storm to clear to get a pretty sunset and I bribed him with Haagen Dazs.

 First I missed his head and then I missed his foot.  It's really hard to pan and shoot!

I told him I was going to make it look like he was doing magic.

So now the big question.  I know I struggled with the orangey-ness of the sunset and I drink too much caffeine so I have camera shake and my focus isn't perfect.  Am I going to regret not getting a pro to take shots of him?  Once those cute baby teeth are gone, I'm toast.  I'm his mom and I know what gargantuan buck teeth I've probably handed down to him.  He's going to be 15 before the rest of his head catches up to the size of them.  Sorry sweetie.  I promise to hook you up with some great orthodontics.

Post edit:  I think that last part comes across like I think he's going to turn into Quasimodo or something.  All I really meant is that I'm pretty sure he's going to have some very grown-up sized teeth soon and this is my last chance to capture him in this phase.  Backpedal, backpedal, extract foot, stop trying to be witty...

Deer Lake State Park

There!  Finally got them to post.

Looking for the rare Choctawhatchee beach mouse.  Unsuccessfully.

I loved how the grass 'painted' in the sand.

Wild sage... I think?

I'd never seen deer moss before.  Looked like something from a fairy forest

Our cottage for the week.

Exploring Hotz Avenue in Grayton Beach.  The Red Bar is on the left.