Merry Christmas!

...and Happy New Year in case I don't post from Texas!  

Why you shouldn't try to craft and watch a toddler simultaneously

Instead of a sweet keepsake ornament, you end up with an upside down bloody handprint. 

Oh, and also a nervous shop owner who opts to watch your child for you so he doesn't break all of her pottery.

At least I've accurately captured this phase of my life.  It will make me laugh when I unpack it every Christmas!

Everyday Owen: On the net

The event photographer from the Jingle Bell Run has his photos up, and Owen and I made the cut!  (Not that he was selective; there are over 2200 photos posted.)  I think I'm going to order one since I have so few casual photos of Owen and myself together.  I bet it comes printed with the event name on the bottom just like sorority pics from college!  If only I had done a little head tilt...

Go here.  Choose to view all photos, and start with photo #2264.

Love to Aunt Jenny

From:  Owen

Everyday Owen: Wrapping Presents

Owen and I are listening to Christmas music and wrapping gifts for the Texas folk.  Look for a package within the week DD & Coach.  And we won't be far behind!

A confession

See that little green bar graph in the top left corner?  I've been watching you.

Please don't get mad and leave.  It's not as creepy as you think.  It doesn't let me spy on you through your webcam as you sit at your computer in your PJs eating mini chocolate chips straight from the bag.  It doesn't even tell me exactly who you are (or if it does I'm not clever enough to figure it out).  Sometimes it tells me what city you're from, but often it misleads me because it approximates locations from partial IP addresses, which means it can be hundreds of miles off.  Mostly I just like to look at how many people stop by, how long they stay, and how they found us. (If someone follows a link from another site to our page, it shows up as a referral.)  So if someone in Iceland Googles a phrase I just happened to use on our blog and it leads him to our page, Sitemeter tells us we got a referral from Google.  Want to know which of my posts has reeled in the most Googlers?  The one in which I referenced Lady Heather.  Bunch of perverts. 

This past Sunday night I decided to check Sitemeter for the first time in a few weeks, and I discovered multiple hits on our site from Wayne, West Virginia.

"Hey Scott.  Someone in West Virginia has been going to the blog every day, several times a day.  They've even made us one of their Blogger favorites.  I can tell 'cause Blogger shows up as the referring site on their visits.  They just logged on again 5 minutes ago!  We have a new fan!"

I'm sitting at the computer smiling to myself and scrolling through the Sitemeter info when two things jump out at me:

A)  Our new fan happens to also be a Charter customer

B)  The cookie I'd set to tell Sitemeter to ignore my own visits to our blog had been disabled

My new fan?  Was me.

Oh yeah, and here's a post-nap photo of Owen since that's really why you're here :)

Everyday Owen: Dancing

Everyday Owen: Club Love

I'm breaking EO rules, but I just have to point out that he is kissing the club in that second photo and that he took his own golf stance in the third one.  I would declare him a prodigy except that shortly after this photo was taken, he attempted to walk through that doorway while holding the club... 

horizontally.

Weekend Recap

We had a busy weekend!  Owen had his first official babysitter Friday night while we went to our annual ornament exchange party, and I would have been fine had I not let him pull a Meredith-Viera-trying-to-ice-skate-with-Will-Ferrell move (google it if you don't get the reference) less than 30 minutes before I had to leave him.  Only in Owen's version he was in the kitchen naked and slipped and fell in his own pee puddle.  

Note to self:  Remove this post before Owen gets to middle school.

On Saturday we went to Southside to watch the Jingle Bell Run.  We cheered on our more fit friends and enjoyed the spectacle of runners in Santa hats and dogs dressed like reindeer.  Saturday night we celebrated Scott's birthday here with his family, and Sunday afternoon we kept the 1-year-old nursery for 3.5 hours during a church event.  I'm happy to report everyone survived the latter-mentioned activity.  Somewhere in there, we also put up our tree - which we've decided to rock old school as long as there are kids in the house.  Bring on the giant multi-color bulbs, mismatched ornaments and construction paper chain link garland - we can handle it!  

And I'll close with kisses from Owen.  Yes, that's Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home" playing in the background.  How unfortunate.

Everyday Owen: Royal Tannenbaum

Happy Birthday Mr. Stevens!

When I could hear that Owen was awake this morning, I stayed curled up in bed and pretended to be lazy (such a tough sell) so that Owen could be the first to wish his dad Happy Birthday. Yep, that's the same banner from Owen's party.  It's fabric so I plan to be hauling that thing out for years and years to come.  Don't be surprised to find it hanging around on some of your birthdays too!  Here's a reminder of how father and son looked this time last year.  Aren't my guys handsome?

I was hoping Owen would put on a brave face and send his dad off to start his birthday with a smile, but he opted to lay on the usual guilt trip instead.

  

It really is heartbreaking how much he loves his dad.  Maybe I should just get a job and let the two of them pal around together all day...

Nah!  But I've really, really got to get some video of the face Owen makes when he hears Scott's keys in the door in the evenings.  I'm usually feeding him so he's strapped into his highchair, but that doesn't stop him from running in place trying to get to the door, his whole face lit up.  And I may hide it better, but I feel the same way.

Happy Birthday Dear Scott.  We love you!

13.