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Okay, I haven't been great at blogging this month (again). A couple of excuses: 1. end of the semester. 2. computer needed a new battery, was therefore a PITA to use. 3. (the real one) I've been spending most of my internet time on Facebook. Owen, to our surprise, is more or less at the same point as he was last time I posted, only bigger. He sits very well on his own, is trying to crawl but so far without success, drools and chews a lot but hasn't gotten any more teeth since the first two came in. The only recent development of note is that last week he started repeated-syllable babbling - i.e. "babababa...". My amateur-linguist side was rather pleased that the next one he tried, after two days of bababababa, was p-p-p-p-p. "That's right, sweetie! If you don't use your vocal cords you get the voice less bilabial stop." Pictures are all a few weeks old now. I will get some more up when I find the camera cord.

I hope everyone had a blessed and blissful Thanksgiving. This was the first time in about seven years that we didn't cook the dinner; instead, we went over to our friends Andrew and Jeanne's place for a large gathering of about 15 people. There were four different cranberry sauces, so you know it was good. Owen was amazingly well-behaved in the challenging environment (loud unfamiliar place + a bunch of strangers + up way past his bedtime). He tried bits of mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and candied sweet potatoes, but the thing he really liked was the Martinelli's sparkling apple juice. Somehow, he managed to dribble far less of it down his chin than he ever does with water. It's a little early, but I just might get the Christmas tree out of its box tonight.

Owen is developing a sense of humor - by which I mean he is now laughing at things we say, not just at tickles. His favorite joke goes like this: "Peas, please!" For some reason, he thinks that is the funniest phrase in the world. He is also quite amused by "Peas boo boo!" and "Barack Obama!" - or, once he gets wound up, practically anything. But "Peas, please" cracks him up almost any time. It's a good thing he enjoys jokes now, because between trying desperately and unsuccessfully to crawl and feeling two more teeth coming in, he hasn't been in such a great mood the last few days.

Owen can sit up on his own now. His front bottom teeth are coming in. And best of all... Barack Obama is his new president. (Our happiness last night was only marred by this morning's news that the heinous Prop 8 had passed. Nothing is perfect in this world of woe.)

Guess who Owen was for Halloween! (More pictures available on Flickr.)

It won't be Owen's half-birthday until Wednesday, but close enough. Here's what he's been up to lately: Eating: We started solids this month! He now eats rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and carrots (the latter two lovingly prepared by chef Eric, who did his part to stimulate the economy by buying a real food processor, the better to make baby food with, my dear). Owen loves to hold the spoon himself and pull it to his mouth. He also likes drinking cold water from a cup, although at least half of it runs down his front. Motor skills: In the last few days he has started to sit up unassisted for two or three seconds at a time. With support, he sits very well. He is adept at rolling over and has figured out that rolling repeatedly in the same direction provides a degree of (gasp) independent mobility. He has gotten as far as three feet from his starting point. Time to start the babyproofing. Socializing: He loves seeing the "big kids" and his caregivers at Sacred Hea...

There were a couple of things I wanted to do this weekend: hit REI for some shopping, watch the Soapbox Derby in Dolores Park, visit our friends Cathy and Russell and their daughter Josie in San Mateo. We didn't do any of those things. Instead, we got to check out Long Hospital's pediatric ward. Thursday evening, Owen came down with a case of croup. I only knew what it was because one of his day care classmates just had it. The only thing I knew about croup before now was that it figured in Anne of Green Gables (although I don't precisely remember how). It is a scary little viral infection that mostly targets kids under six. The soft tissues in the throat get inflamed and swollen, causing a cough that sounds like a seal barking and, sometimes, difficulty breathing as the airway gets narrower and narrower. The basic home treatment is Tylenol for the fever and steam from the bathroom shower for the breathing. Around 8 p.m. Friday night, Owen had a major coughing fit with ver...

Yesterday we took Owen to the De Young museum to see the visiting exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass. He liked all the pretty colors! The pictures are not great (phone camera, low light, no flash allowed) but you get the idea. If this show comes to your area, it's well worth it. In other news... it's not easy to find time for blogging lately. Eric and I are both working like mad and mostly collapsing at the end of the day. Owen has had a cold for about a week now, which he gave to both of us, and we think he's teething - lots of fussiness and chewing. On a more positive note, he has mastered rolling back-to-front and can occasionally manage front-to-back. We need to go buy a high chair next so we can start him on solid food.

Some photos from the past month: 1. Chilling in his crib; 2. All the milk that we stored over the course of the summer to donate to the San Jose Mother's Milk Bank (approx. 1 gallon); 3. Owen's uncle Patrick; 4. Owen and his uncle Darren; 5. Owen in the Red Sox onesie Darren and Kate brought him from Boston. News: We have a rolling baby! Sometime in the night last Wednesday (or early Thursday a.m.), he got from his back to his tummy. Since then he has turned into a dedicated side sleeper.

Non-Owen-related post: If you, like myself, were once an avid reader of the comic strip For Better or For Worse , only to become disheartened and finally disgusted by the begging-for-deconstruction train wreck it became, yet unable to look away as Liz's sentencing, oops I mean "wedding," to the Most Boring Man Alive unfolded in excruciatingly slow motion all this summer, run don't walk to this blog .

We made it through the first week of classes. Owen continues to do very well in day care. I am somewhat amused when I drop him off in the morning because all the toddlers are crying and Owen is completely calm. I'm sure our turn will come in a few months, once he gets old enough to have separation anxiety. It's Owen's four-month birthday today. Here are some of the things he's been up to lately: 1. Hand control. He's made amazing progress in the last month with the use of his hands. It's basically no big deal to him anymore to see what he wants, reach out, and grab it. 2. Laughter. He's laughing every day now. The other night he actually cracked up. He was lying in his crib trying to convince me he wasn't tired (cooing, smiling adorably) and I was trying to keep my go-to-sleep "game face" (neutral expression, avoid eye contact). Eventually I just had to laugh, and then he started laughing, got completely carried away, and didn't stop for at...

The man hit the big 6-0 today, and he's on about four different painkillers for a herniated disc, so give him a psychic hug if you are reading this. In other news... I went back to work last week. Owen seems to be adapting to day care very well, and I got out of several boring pre-planning meetings to go over and nurse him, so that was not too bad. Classes start tomorrow. Our back-to-school week was completely tumultuous this year because someone decided to buy the entire faculty new tablet PCs for classroom use. Sounds like a good thing, right? Uh, except that: 1. Tech training sucked up a whole day of pre-planning week, and; 2. Everyone has to transfer all of her files to the new machine, and; 3. The PC users all had to learn Vista, and; 4. The Mac users all had to learn Windows, and; 5. This was all just dumped on us with no sense of buy-in whatsoever. Did I mention that practically my whole department were Mac users? Several of whom have NEVER used Windows?

AAAUGH I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S EVEN MORE F***ING BEACH VOLLEYBALL JUST SHOOT ME NOW....

Near the end of her visit, Mom decided to enter the San Francisco Marathon/Half Marathon that took place on August 2. She did the half marathon and came in 3rd in her age group. Owen and I didn't even get to see her finish, because her time was about 15 minutes faster than she had expected. This week was kind of a blur. Mom left on Monday, Eric came home on Tuesday night, and Owen's uncle Darren and aunt Kate arrived on Wednesday morning. Here they are sitting on the Embarcadero during a baby-feeding break. It's hard to believe that I only have one week left until school starts and Owen will be starting full-time day care. Where did the whole summer go?

Okay, so I haven't done such a good job keeping up with the photos the past few weeks. So now you will get a lot of them all at once. First of all, Eric left town for Woods Hole. Here's Owen watching him pack. Then Grandma Toni came to visit for two weeks! We did an overnight road trip to Yosemite National Park and back. Owen was not so impressed with the waterfalls, but he really loved the ceiling fan. (See shot of Owen on bed, gazing happily at ceiling.) That little birdie in the last photo decided to join Mom and me for breakfast on our balcony. More to follow immediately...

Owen's favorite game at the moment is "I've got your nose." It goes like this: 1. Touch Owen's nose and say "I've got Owen's nose!" 2. Take Owen's hand, hold it to the same part of your face and say "You've got my nose!" 3. Move Owen's hand to the same part of his own face and say "Now you've got your nose!" 4. Choose another facial feature and repeat. Here you see Eric and Owen having a great time with this game.

Today the women at the health club day care asked me if Owen was part Asian (and by extension, if I am - I don't think anyone would wonder that about Eric). It's a question I've heard many, many times in my life, so it was funny to hear it applied to him for the first time! Good to see his raven-haired great-grandmother's genes are still going strong enough to prompt the query. To anyone wondering, the answer is no. Owen's ethnic heritage is a mix of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and a bit of German that, as a whole, adds up to Generic Boring White American. Sigh.

Owen and I drove over to Oakland today to have lunch with my Swattie friend Jeremy (also a high school teacher). Jeremy has a new kitten. An adorable photo of the two species of baby together is basically mandatory. A few minutes before this one was taken, kitty was actually up on my lap nuzzling Owen's cheek, but Owen batted him away before we could get the camera.

Happy Fourth of July! We successfully navigated our first trip away from home with Owen last weekend. Seattle was rather warm (and, just like SF, has no air conditioning anywhere), but it was great to see our friends Jordan and Alex, as always. For anyone reading who doesn't know this already, Jordan was my freshman and sophomore year roommate at Swat. We had several "WTF?! We both have babies!?" moments throughout the weekend. Their 9-month old, Angus, was adorable and high-powered - we are completely flummoxed at the thought that Owen will turn into one of those by Christmastime. (Crawling! Grabbing! Furniture-surfing confidently across the room!) We had intended to take lots of pictures but only managed a few "mommies and babies" shots on Monday before we came home. Sadly, Owen was not feeling up for camera smiles at this point.

Owen had his two month checkup yesterday. He was 12 lbs, 11 oz and 23 3/4" (but his legs weren't quite straight - the kid's got muscle tone! - so we're calling it 24). But the really memorable part was...(ominous music)... starting vaccinations. That is to say, shots. Oh dear. The experience made me aware of just how rarely Owen goes all the way to the maximum Purple Face and Screaming Bloody Murder mode. And it was literally a bit bloody - I guess the nurse hit a bit of a blood vessel with one of the shots, so when we picked him up there was blood running down his leg and we had to grab another nurse out of the hallway to come and fix him up. Of course, he didn't exactly like getting the band-aids pulled off, either - just as he was beginning to calm down from the shots themselves. He alternated between sleeping fitfully and crying for most of the afternoon. If the doctor hadn't prepared me beforehand, I would have been absolutely wrecked by dinnertime. Oh wel...

Sorry, no new photos today, just a run-down of recent events in the world of All Things Owen: 1. Poop strikes: The kid has decided he doesn't need to poop. He went six days in a row last week without a single one. Yes, we took him to the doctor to make sure nothing was wrong. No, nothing was wrong. In fact... 2. Weight gain: Owen has passed the 12-lb mark. The pediatrician calculated that he has gained 1 1/3 oz per day since the previous visit. 1 oz per day is considered normal. 3-6 month clothes no longer look baggy on him. 3. Socialization: Yay! Fun stuff! He's made some great strides here in the last two weeks. If he's crying, he calms down when he sees us or hears our voices. He's smiling and gurgling and cooing on a daily basis. When he's very alert and paying attention, he will try to mimic us if we make funny faces (big open mouth or sticking out the tongue). 4. Motor skills: It's still mostly accidental when Owen's hand-waving results in his catchin...