Bloggogriff

So much for blogging on a more frequent basis. The Christmas holidays are drawing to a close, and I am nowhere near done grading my final exams. But I don't want to write about that any more than I want to think about it... Owen hosted a play date this morning for his friends J.J. and Patrick (ages 4 and 2.5, respectively). Patrick goes to day care with Owen, and J.J. graduated from their day care last spring. Owen more or less worships J.J. as an idol, so this was a Very Big Deal. He was in fact so overwhelmed at their presence IN! OUR! HOUSE! that he wouldn't leave my lap for the first half hour, while they played with all his toys. After that he chilled out a little and we made oatmeal cookies (I had measured everything out in bowls, with the dry ingredients already mixed, before they arrived, so it was just pour and stir). Three kids making and eating cookies together with no fights and no tears = successful play date. But that's not all... after the big boys went home ...

So I pretty much abandoned this blog about six months ago in favor of the much shorter-form content of Facebook status updates. I think I was sort of bored with the way this blog had turned into all-Owen, all the time. While Owen continues to do many, many cute things (see below), I do have other things going on - mainly the fact that we're moving to Scotland next summer. So I am going to try to get back into blogging on a more or less regular basis. However, FB is so much better than Blogger for posting pictures that I will probably be doing mostly text-only here. Now for your Owen update: at 18 months, he has just learned to walk backwards, and he is working on walking on his tiptoes and trying to figure out running. He does a very amusing power-walk, bent slightly forward at the waist with his arms straight out behind him like a skier on a ski jump. He just added "uh-oh" to his working vocabulary, bringing the total spoken words up to five (the others are mama, cookie,...

He hasn't started walking or speaking (English, anyway) yet. But today, he did a real head shake for No. Not as a means of avoiding food or anything, but as a purely symbolic gesture. Here we go...

Two major developments in food this week. Number one, we concluded a successful 13+ months of nursing. My boobs are back to decorative purposes only. And number two, Owen discovered the secret to 90% of party foods - that is, the joy of using a rigid, flat piece of food to scoop up a soft, mushy food. He is currently the world's worst-offending double dipper, as he generally just eats the mushy item off the surface and then reuses the intact cracker for another round. Here are some shots of him using his new dipping skills to polish off last night's guacamole. In the picture taken from the side, he is creating a new taste sensation by pairing guacamole with strawberries. Iron Chef America, look out.

Yes indeed, yesterday was the Big Day. There were cupcakes at day care (and a second one at dinner), and he opened all the presents from his extended family in the evening. We are saving the ones from us for his party on Saturday. We will get the official height and weight stats at his checkup on May 7, but for now here's a snapshot of Owen at one year: Language skills: no words yet, but he babbles up a storm. Social development: he is FULL of hugs and kisses and has recently become very mom-attached. Gross motor skills: Pulling up on everything he can find. Around the end of last week he figured out how to sit down, so that's gotten easier on us! Sleep: 2-3 naps a day. Nights are still erratic, though (sigh). Fine motor skills: He can use a spoon to feed himself, and he's working on the fork. Eating: Everything in sight!!!

Owen didn't really hunt Easter eggs this year, but he did enjoy holding them - although not as much as he enjoyed pulling the plastic grass out of the basket. As you see from the "jailbird" shot, he has at last figured out what his feet are for and is now pulling up on everything he can find.

Eric is in the UK again, so Owen and I are on our own for the week. The main challenge in this is the sleep. I now look back on those two months before the UK trip as some kind of baby sleep Eden, lost and perhaps never to be recovered. A seemingly never-ending series of colds (with literally only one or two days off between them), teething, the time change...who knows? We only know that the kid wakes up at least once a night. Sometimes only for ten minutes, sometimes (like last night) for over an hour. In happier news, we've seen some fun developmental steps lately. Owen can clap at appropriate "hooray!" moments, stack blocks on top of one another, and - occasionally, and most recently - use a spoon without assistance. He also sings along ("yayayayaya") to his favorite Sesame Street music video ("Elmo's Song," courtesy of YouTube; it helps that large stretches of the song go "la la la la la la...").

Well, the trip to the UK definitively proved one thing: Owen does not care for travel. He did surprisingly well on the planes, but he was extremely displeased with the unusual sleeping arrangements (a pack n play, or our bed), jet lag, and strange food (aka baby food from jars, or "pots" in the English idiom). Add to that the fact that he and I both had nasty colds the whole week, and we were glad to be home. Alas, it's now a week on, and he has slept through the night exactly once. Since he probably lost a pound on the trip, he's been eating like mad this week. He has gotten to the point of wanting to eat whatever we are eating - normally okay, but sometimes a challenge considering that he still only has two teeth. Whenever he sees us with food, he opens his mouth (letting the paci fall wherever it happens to land, if he had it) and starts smacking his lips. Yesterday, his more outre food experiences included gelato at lunchtime and an asparagus-mushroom risotto, fla...

1. Owen has waved to Eric for the last three mornings as we left for school. Occasionally he will wave in response when I wave to him, too. 2. We will be waving goodbye to everyone as we head off tomorrow for a week in the U.K. Wish us luck with baby's first overseas voyage, please!

This has been the week of everyone having a cold. I stayed home from work on Monday; Owen went to the doctor today because he was pulling on his ears. Happily, the doctors said his ears are totally clear, so apparently it's just the cold or teething or both. Eric hasn't crashed yet, but he also has said he feels a bit off. Owen seems very happy to be crawling around, although he has discovered already that the price of mobility is danger - practically every time I went to get him from day care this week, the first thing I heard was "he fell and bumped his cheek earlier." Add that to the cold and he's been giving them a much harder time than usual. We also have another new development - we think he is trying to clap his hands! Right now it looks more like an I-wash-my-hands-of-you motion, moving his arms up and down, rather than back and forth, and brushing his hands together as they pass. He has been extremely interested in watching us clap for a while now, and se...

This morning around 10 was the moment we have been waiting for since mid-November - Owen started crawling! Naturally, the first thing he went for was the floor lamp's electrical cord.

So close to crawling. So very close.

I'm still on a bit of a patriotic high from Tuesday, so bear with me. Hip hip hooray! Bush is gone! In other news, Owen is getting closer to crawling. He's started going from a sitting position to his hands and knees, and we have found him sitting upright in his crib a few times, so apparently vice versa as well. He's mastering the art of eating - I dip the spoon into his bowl of food, he takes it from me and gets it into his mouth all by himself. Not bad. Tonight he had falafel, and it seemed to be a hit even though it has a lot more flavor than most of his regular foods. I'm going to try to start writing shorter posts in the hope that I'll do them more often. New pictures soon.